Strolling Through the Goose Poop and my Addictions

I am totally sick of eating fast food and frozen dinners so we ventured over to Oma's and Opa's tonight right around dinner time. Right on cue Jayke started whining about how hungry he was and we got an invite to dinner. Opa's homemade steak sandwiches. (The Boy who only eats 3 foods got chicken nuggets) After dinner we stopped at the club house and took the long walk along the lake back to the woods. I took pictures, of course.



Jayke almost ended up in this creek...
(I would not have been happy!)




Walking along this little guy scared the bejeezus out of Jayke. Made him scream like a girl. LOL...



I don't think I've ever seen such a small frog. I used to only see the huge full grown bull frogs my Gramma's dog, Cisco, would pull out of the pond. He loved to hunt them. Jayke wanted to catch him and take him home to live with our turtle but I convinced him that he was better off here with his family.

On the way back I realized this was a bad idea...taking this walk. I started wheezing and coughing non-stop. Jayke kept asking me questions and I couldn't even answer him. I just kept thinking that I was going to end up laying spread eagle in the goose poop while Jayke made a frantic phone call to Oma to come save me. I can just picture Opa walking slowly up to me and standing over me(clutching a Coors Light) as I lay gasping on the ground. If I was lucky he might back his truck up and throw me in the back end to haul me back to the house. Thankfully, this did not happen and I made it, huffing and puffing, back to the car. My kid was in the backseat scolding me for not carrying my inhaler. I just wanted him to be quiet so I could concentrate on getting back to the safety of my sofa. This bronchitis is no joke!! It needs to go away. It is affecting my social life. It is causing my house to go to hell and it has greatly enhanced my addiction to twitter...after all, I have to do something when I can't sleep due to the coughing fits. When I am recovered I may have to go to social networking rehab. Facebook, twitter, blogger, Intagram...oh my!!

Note: As to not confuse my poor mother...I didn't back date my earlier post therefore, you get two today. You lucky things.

A Little Late Summer Swimming

Still plenty warm out so Jayke got to go swimming with Mason yesterday. This was the highlight of our weekend since I am still trying to recover from bronchitis. I don't think it is ever going to go away. I've been sick for four weeks and counting...

Gearing Up

Attempting to be organized...I am packing two sports bags. One for soccer and one for football. Now if I can just get Jayke to leave the stuff in the bags!!

Are You Ready For Some FOOTBALL??

I realize this isn't the best picture. Our field is in the shade and I was having to zoom on my iPhone...not the best option for photographing. Needed something to blog the first night of football though.

Jayke is playing flag football for the first time this fall. We are still doing Soccer too. Soccer is Monday and Wednesdays and football practice is Fridays with games on Saturdays and Sundays. I put him in to hopefully toughen him up a little bit. I figured he would hate it but I was wrong. He LOVES it...so far. They haven't had any contact yet so we will see what happens after that. I think I learned more about football this evening than I ever knew! It is definately a different atmosphere than soccer. These coaches are SERIOUS!! They yell at them and are pretty gruff. At first I was thinking this was a bad idea. I'm going to end up getting in a fight out here if these guys keep yelling at my kid like that, but after watching for a while I saw that it wasn't mean...it was constructive just in a different way than what we are used to. This is where the toughening up begins..I guess for both of us. Should be interesting.

Porch Movies

Jayke, Hunter, and Captain America (Nolin) taking a break from the heat...enjoying a showing of Eclipse on the fron porch. It usually takes Jayke about 15 minutes to set everything up and I'm not sure they have ever made it through the opening credits of any movie they have attempted to watch.

And I Didn't Even Try!

This vine is taking over my front flower bed. It sprung up from a left over something from last fall. I don't have any idea what it actually is. Below is a picture of what is growing on it...it kinda looks like a butternut squash somewhat but the vine looks more like a zuchini. I think it's a mutant. Whatever it is I will have lots of them for decorating this fall. I tried to find the post where my mom and Jayke tried to grow some pumpkins, but couldn't. The picture was of dry cracked earth and a pathetic little shriveled up vine. I thought it might be nice to compare that attempt with my ubervine that I didn't even TRY to grow! :)

Knocked Out

Quite comfortable in his new home. Nemo snoozing away on the couch. He is used to the dogs and Luna now. I love that he is cuddly too. I think that is something I've been missing...a kitty to love on. Luna won't let me. It has been since before I moved to South Carolina that I had a kitty that was cuddly. Luna is great, don't get me wrong. She is friendly from afar. You might get to rub her a couple of times then she is done. What she lacks in friendliness she more than makes up for in comedy though. Funniest cat I've ever owned. None of them even come close. They make the perfect pair...and they LOVE to play with each other. I think Luna thinks she got a new toy!!

The Fairy was a Bust

I should have posted the question of Facebook before I tried to play Tooth Fairy because apparently I was a little low with my offering. I gave The Boy two dollars. That was AFTER I forgot all together. He woke up in the middle of the night and I heard him which jogged my memory. I ran in and grabbed the money and was going one way out of the kitchen when he was going in the other side looking for me. We met near the hall and both screamed. LOL... While he was looking for his funds under the pillows on one side I shoved it under the pillow on the other side. He found it and just sat there with a dollar bill in each hand. I kept questioning him trying to figure out what was wrong with him but he wouldn't answer. Finally I got him to lay back down. I figured he just wasn't completely awake.

The next day I asked him after school what was wrong and he finally said he thought he would get more. I don't know what he was expecting although, he did say he was hoping to get enough to pay Oma to clean his room. Since I am pretty sure he has no clue how much it would take to pay her this still doesn't give me any idea as to what he was expecting. My cohorts on Facebook have informed me that the first tooth is usually around $5.00. I contemplated going in and sticking a couple more dollars in his bed and just telling him he missed them but, in the end, I decided $2.00 was plenty. Things are out of hand these days...$5.00 for a tooth??? That is ridiculous...the Tooth Fairy is unemployed!! He hasn't mentioned it since and he managed to clean his own room...much to his dismay.

Will The Fairy Go Inside Me???!!??

The World's Loosest Tooth finally fell out today!! Fell out and down his throat apparently because we can't find it. He was sooo excited but then all of a sudden he got really serious and asked me if the Tooth Fairy would go inside him to get the tooth. After he was reassured she wouldn't he was happy again and called Oma, Meemaw, and Ppa to tell them he lost his first tooth! When Meemaw answered the phone Jayke said," Hello! This is the guy who just lost his first tooth!" LOL!! I wonder how much you get for a tooth these days...hope that fairy doesn't forget!!

It's Not Even Halloween

Captain America stopped by tonight. It's always nice to have a Super Hero in the neighborhood!!

I Should Not Have Gotten Up Today...

Not a happy boy at the dentist today. Not a happy mom either. I'm not going to blame this totally on him because I should have been on him to brush his teeth more often and better. 5 cavities today!! FIVE!! That is how many I've had in my entire life. that is $600 AFTER insurance pays!! All in baby teeth...so now what? Do I waste the money to have them filled or try to wait it out and hope he loses them before they start to hurt?? The dentist said one definitely has to be done now so I guess both of the ones on that side are going to get filled. The other side...probably won't. First of all, if they aren't going to hurt then I'm not going to waste the money. Second of all, I probably won't ever be able to get him back in the dentist's office again after this. He is not the best patient to begin with and this will more than likely finish him off with the dentist.

The appointment is set for the 30th. I may need to self medicate before dragging him in there. We have been working on "The world's loosest tooth" for weeks now. That is what the dentist called it. Jayke stood in front of the mirror and wiggled it for about 30 minutes tonight. As soon as he saw the first hint of blood he was fa-reaking out! I've never seen a kid react to blood the way he does. Every time he gets a scratch it's as if he is panicking that it is all going to leak out before he can slap a SpongeBob band aid on it to stop it. Unfortunately we cannot put band aids on teeth. The tooth is still hanging on and after witnessing today's appointment and the freak out over the bloody tooth, I can only imagine what the next appointment will be like.

This was the beginning of my day...at 2:00 p.m. Why does my day start so late? Because I have bronchitis that is causing me to wheeze and keeping me up all night. The coughing or the feeling of the wheezing doesn't keep me up, just the sound. I thought I had a solution and turned the tv up so that I couldn't hear the wheezing but then I started watching the movie that was on and ended up staying up till it was over. That was around 4 a.m. This is the third night in a row for this ridiculousness. I may need to drink an adult beverage...or 3 tonight to make myself go to sleep.

After the disaster at the dentist, I took The Boy to Meijer to get dental floss and a bottle of mouthwash with fluoride. We are instilling a new oral hygiene regimen. This will not happen again. My wonderful day continued once I got in the store. While checking out I had a big bag of dog food rip open and spill all over the floor. I could have gone and gotten a broom and dust pan from the cleaning supply aisle myself and taken care of it faster than the fine employees of Meijer did. Frustrated. I'm ready to get the heck out of there. On the way to the car my bronchitis kicks back in and I start hacking like a barking seal. I'm pretty sure the lady walking into the store thought I had tuberculosis or some other air borne pathogen because she immediately crossed to the far side of the aisle. I was trying to get into the car as quickly as possible to hopefully get the coughing under control and in my haste I snatched up a grocery sack which ripped in half. The only fortuitous moment of the day was when I managed to catch the bottom of the ripped bag before I was doused in Ortega taco sauce. I needed to get back to the safety of my sofa ASAP!!

I made it home without incident and decided it was probably a good idea to not go back out or do much of anything else today. It is not looking good for me today. I hope this bone rattling cough goes away soon so I can get back on track!

Back To School!

Second grade began today but not without a huge argument the night before regarding The Boy's attire and bedtime. The argument was short-lived but not without a bit of door slamming and some serious pouting. I will give myself a pat on the back for my level of preparedness this year though. I had every single detail covered which is not really like me of late. Being organized is not my strong suit these days. I did manage to get it together for the first day though and I'm sure he appreciated it.

Jayke has been saying all summer he didn't want to go back to school but then last night he began to get excited. This morning he woke me up at five something saying he couldn't sleep. I told him that I COULD sleep and it was too early to get up!! He left the room and I went back to sleep. When I got up he had fed and watered the kitten, let the dogs out, and gotten dressed for school. He was ready to go. I took him this morning instead of sending him on the bus since he had a bunch of extra stuff to carry. He was happy to learn that Parker would be in his class again. Parker has been in his class every year and also went to Cub Scouts with him. I left him sitting at his desk looking a bit timid.



When he arrived home after school I tried to ask him some questions about his classmates and the teacher but he wasn't having it. He was out the door and down the road to play with his friends. Maybe later tonight I can get some info out of him. I guess he had a good day.

Trying to Develop a New Hobby...Again...

I've been busy downloading a bunch of apps for my iPhone for taking and editing pictures. Now I am obsessed with it. I mess with it all day long. I've gotten a few that are pretty good that I really like. I have to get back in the habit of taking pictures again...and like everything there is improvement with practice. Some of the different filters make the pictures look old, which I like a lot right now. Hoping I get better, but here are a few that I like so far...

Oma, This is Not Your Business!

This is what the school supplies for second grade look like. Included are all his new clothes and the new Nike Air Jordans his dad bought him. Please also note the new hair cut...finally!

My mom took us school clothes shopping today. Jayke doesn't need a lot of things but there were a few items we needed to get to get him started this year. For some reason it seems they don't have much to choose from in his size but we managed to find some cute things. Right now Jayke is into wearing track pants and basketball shorts with t-shirts. This is fine but he likes to have Nike and Adidas brands now. A little rougher on the pocketbook.

Having him have an opinion on his clothes now makes it interesting when we hit the stores. He is not really difficult but he definately has an opinion. He also still values my opinion apparently because he asked me what I thought about everything he saw. My mom would try to give her input and he would say, "Oma, this is not your business...Mommy, what do YOU think of this shirt?" He didn't even want her to touch his clothes for some reason. He also now thinks he needs to go into the fitting room and try everything on. I vetoed that action. I hate going into a fitting room for myself let alone a seven year old. I told him he could try everything on when we got home.

Two stores and we were done. I think I am lucky to have a boy for this reason. When we got home I was treated to the most peculiar fashion show I've ever seen. He promptly took all his items into his room and began to try them on. He decided to try only one item on at a time. This meant if he was trying on a shirt he didn't have on any pants and vice versa. A little hard to get a good impression of what his outfits look like when I only get to see half of one at a time. Very funny to see him parading around in his briefs with his skinny little legs sticking out too! I pleaded with him to try on an entire outfit but he was determined to drag this out as long as possible. When he was finished he laid everything out on display in the living room. THIS I understood...as a kid I always liked to lay everything out so I could admire it for a while. He is just like his momma!

Tonight I got all his supplies opened and put together. I wrote his name on everything and packed his back pack. We are ready to go Monday morning. Second grade here we come!!

Getting Along

The kids are getting to know each other. So far, so good. Only had one minor incident with Simon going after Nemo. I don't think he would hurt him but it sure did scare Nemo. I think he has had a bad experience with dogs...he is more afraid of them than any of my other kittens have been. He seems to love Luna though. Every time he sees her he runs right up to her. She just looks at him. They will be tearing the place up in a day or so I'm sure.

Tonight as we were sitting here watching the animals get acquainted, Jayke asked me to make him some cinnamon toast. Half way through his second piece he announced that they should have my cinnamon toast on Rachel Ray's show!! It is THAT good! Funny. I didn't bother telling him that cinnamon toast is maybe the easiest thing in the world to make. I also thought that we are watching entirely too much day time tv...good thing school starts Monday!

Snips and Snails

Jayke likes to keep up with the Blog.

Found Nemo

....and here he is! Driving to my dad's house yesterday I glanced over and saw a little kitty on the side of the road. I immediately went back and got him. I figured he would run from me when I tried to pick him up but he came to me willingly. When I got him to Dad's house we discovered that his back leg was injured and his nose was scraped up. We figured that someone probably threw him out of their car to get rid of him. Jayke LOVES cats so he automatically wanted to keep him. I told Jayke that if he wanted to keep him that he would have to pay for the vet bill with the money in his piggy bank. He replied, "That's ok...I don't really use money anyway."

Nemo came home and today we took him to the vet and had his leg looked at. They think it is just a sprain. He got dewormed, checked for feline leukemia, and was sent home with some flea medicine and pain medicine. He got to come out into the living room with the rest of us tonight. He immediately saw Luna and walked right up to her. She wasn't so excited to see him. The are gradually getting used to each other. He is really scared of the dogs though so that may take a little longer than it did with Luna.

Jayke's Bathroom Tree

Another wall decal...I'm obsessed with them. I love the way they look and love that it is something different than using framed artwork every where. I had to take this picture looking into the mirror...the tree is on the opposite wall and there is really no way to photograph it and get the whole thing in the picture. The bathroom is too small and the tree is too big. I wish I had more walls because there are so many of these that I LOVE!!

And MORE Swimming!

Seems like all we have done this summer is swim. This time we were at Angi's mother-in-law's house. Jayke loved the basketball goal! He could jump off the side and dunk the ball which he did over and over and over. I even managed to sit outside in the SUN for about 2 hours. It was a shocking situation. Anyone who knows me knows I HATE the sun...with a passion. The only thing I hate more than the sun is SWEATING in the SUN...both of which were going on at the pool. I think I sat out in the sun so long I must have given myself heat stroke or something because I came home from the pool and MOWED THE LAWN! Not only was I now in the sun and sweating but I also had grass and dirt stuck to my sweat covered skin. YUCK!!! Needless to say, it was a traumatic day for me. The Boy had fun though!!

The picture above I took with a new app on my iPhone that allows you to only color the parts of the picture you choose to. I've been addicted to tall these apps. I wish I had had them when Jayke was younger and a more willing subject. Now when I try to take his picture he is always moving at just the wrong moment and I have to keep telling him to come back and do it again. There is a lot of eye rolling and sighing involved. Sometimes some yelling and threatening. Not a good time. I'm sure he is thrilled that I now have all these apps making want to take even MORE pics!



I'm happy to report that The Boy finally LOVES to swim!! I was worried bout him for a minute. He now has no problem jumping and diving off the diving board and can go under water without coming up screaming, "TOWEL!!!"" and flailing around like he is having a seizure. A much appreciated improvement.

Latest Fad...

The big thing this summer has been duct tape bracelets. Don't ask my why...I don't get it...kinda like the silly bands from last summer. They make duct tape in all different colors and even decorative patterns now. We have had duct tape with a leopard pattern, zebra pattern, camo pattern, flames pattern, and more. At one time Jayke was wearing 7 different duct tape bracelets on both his wrists and ankles. Between the bracelets and all the bandaids he barely had any skin showing at all!

Retro Photo App

Just wanted to see what a photo with the Hipstamatic camera looks like. Makes Laynie look even older than she already is!!

Survived...

....day two of the hottest soccer camp ever!! Predicted heat index of 115 degrees today. Luckily we started earlier today and were out of there and safely back home to the air conditioning. It is particularily chilly in here this afternoon since The Boy is not currently speaking to me. He is angry because I won't let him go outside to play in this scorching heat. Imagine the look I got when I handed him a new book and told him he could spend the afternoon reading indoors.

Tomorrow is the last day of camp but not the last day of the heat. He doesn't want to go back. It's too bad because the heat ruins anything outdoors this time of the year.

Why Does It Have to be so Hot???

The thermometer in my car read 90 degrees when I went to pick him up from soccer camp today. Its hard to tell from this picture but he is pretty red in the face and sweaty. He was more than ready to leave when I picked him up. Two more days...each supposed to be as warm if not warmer. Please note his sweet new kicks!! Apparently in soccer, the brighter and more obnoxious the shoes the better. Both of us had issues with them not matching his clothes (Jayke kept saying he looks like a clown) but when we got out there and saw all the high-school kids in their wild footwear we knew Jayke was properly attired.

This camp is being held at Ball State. The womens soccer team is putting it on and they have brought other coaches in from all over to help out. We have a couple from England, one from Africa, and one from South America. Included in that mix is a former olympic goalie. Sounds like it should be a good camp...as long as they all survive the heat!

Finally Got an Invite...

....to swim with Mason at his house. We went over early evening and they swam until 11 o'clock at night. I stayed to supervise because Jayke doesn't swim that well and there were a bunch of big kids there. It was getting kinda rough so I stayed until he was out of the water and the cover was on the pool then I went home and Jayke got to spend the night with Mason.

Having the big kids there was actually kind of good for Jayke. They got him swimming and jumping into the deep end. Getting him a little more used to having water on his face...which he hates. He still won't jump off the diving board though. Maybe by the end of summer that will be one of his accomplishments. He leaves for his dad's on Sunday for a week. Maybe he will learn to like the water better while there.

Does This Cat Look Guilty???

....because she IS!! A few minutes before I took this she was IN that aquarium trying to get Jayke's turtle. I moved it to the second shelf to keep him safe. Luna spent hours last night trying to figure out how to get to him and managed to keep Jayke up half the night pounding on the side of the tank. Hopefully tonight she won't be as fascinated by Jayke's turtle and he will be able to get some sleep...and so will I!

Change, Change, and More Change!

Well, the tan and the shaggy hair go well with the ukulele but the skull t-shirt doesn't really scream surfer boy which is what I think he looks like with his hair grown out. Cracks me up. We've been working on re-doing his room for the past two days...that will be another post though. Haven't got it all done just yet. It looks so much better though. Changing it from a little boys room to a "Bigger" boys room. My mom thinks it looks like a teenager's room. That works for me...means it will be a long time before we have to change it again!

The ukulele playing reminded me of this...



He sure has changed!! lol

Inspired by Peacocks and Zebras

This is the new paint color I'm going to be putting in the front bedroom of my house. The bedroom I'm turning into a game room for The Boy. He will be getting a flat screen to go in there and we will hook his Wii and xbox up because I can't have his game play interfering with my reality tv viewing.



This Zebra rug is currently making it's way to my house to go in the game room along with...



The perfect gaming chairs. Two bean bag sherpa chairs. No...I am NOT crazy for putting white chairs in my son's game room!! Why would you even think that? Remember that white comforter I put on my bed??? It is still as perfect as the day I brought it home and these chairs will be just fine. Jayke is careful when I make sure I point out what he needs to watch out for and pay attention to.

This room will also have all my black and white framed pictures of Jaykeb in it and I may string some white paper lanterns together to hang ceiling to floor in the corner as my light source. It's been a while since I've been able to be creative...who knows what I will come up with!

I'll Have a Rockin Red Shirley T with THREE Cherries!!

....and if it doesn't come with THREE cherries The Boy will send it back!! Luckily our servers have all been great and brought him all the cherries he has wanted. The Red Lobster is his fav so I took him there for dinner yesterday. He ordered his usual...crab legs...which basically means a lot of work for me. After dinner, a trip to Target then the Redbox for movies. It was a lazy day which after the past week was welcome.

Everyone Take Cover!!!

This looks like a serious situtaion. It was certainly LOUD!! That is Ryan wiring all those firecrackers together with one long fuse so that they would all go off at the same time. It started off slowly and gained momentum until you couldn't tell that more than one was popping at a time. Very cool. Very big mess in the street. Glad I didn't have to clean it up. The Pickerings bought a lot of really good fireworks and put on a great show enjoyed by most. Some neighbors left because they felt it was too dangerous and we heard second hand that another neighbor complained. Really? You are going to complain that we are lighting fireworks on the 4th of July?? We were well within the designated time frame for lighting them as well. Wonder if they complained to all the other families who were lighting them too.



Jayke and Mason only were on this blanket long enough for me to take the picture. The rest of the time they were up running around having all of us yelling for them to GET BACK!





Jayke and mason did some sparklers and we lit a Chinese lantern. Apparently the Chinese lanterns were very popular this year. You could see them floating all over the sky almost every where you looked. I'm just glad none of them landed on my roof.

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All of this was on the 3rd. On the 4th we went downtown to watch the professionals light up the sky. Jayke wasn't very interested in the ones downtown. It wasn't as exciting to him... probably because there wasn't much threat of danger.

One of the Gang

Here is The Boy hanging with the "Big Kids"! (front to back) Olivia, Maci, Ryley, and Jayke. Ryley just moved in across the street so Jayke is excited about that. His younger brother was Jayke's reading buddy in kindergarten. Brady is in 5th grade next year, Ryley is going into the 8th grade along with Maci and Liv. It is kinda funny to me how these big kids will just let him tag along with them. He thinks he is something!

We have been busy busy!!! Had two garage sales in the past three weeks. Had a Thirty One party at my house, and started redoing the landscaping in the front of the house. My garage is the cleanest it has ever been! Got a lot done, now if I could just find a job!