Aqua Park Outing

Jayke and I have been really busy...hence the lack of posts. Tonight I finally took some time to sit down and do some editing and uploading. I have many more pictures to put on here but for tonight I'm just going to post our pics from our Aqua Park walk.

There is a park in Anderson, on the way to my Dad's house that I have driven by for years and years but never stopped. Today we stopped. I can't believe I've never explored this park before now! It has the best walking trail around the lake through wooded areas and some open area too. There are several bridges you cross as you are walking along the lake with the river to the other side. On the pond there were lots of geese and ducks and one big beautiful swan. We weren't supposed to feed them but we snuck a package of crackers in for them. The swan came right up to us to eat.

On one side of the park there was a huge sculpture and a playground area. We stopped briefly for Jayke to play on the slides and to climb on the sculpture a bit.

After we left the park, Jayke kept telling me how much he liked taking that walk and how shocked he was that I did that. He forgets how I used to do these things with him every day in South Carolina and even when we first came back. It has been a while since we have gone exploring though. I guess because I have always lived here it doesn't seem like there is anything to discover but we did today. I promised to take him to Mounds State Park one day soon. Hopefully the weather will stay nice and we can have another day of exploration soon!

The Fam

My sister, Kim. My other mom, me, and AJ celebrating AJ's birthday last month.

Green Again

I don't understand how we keep ending up being on the green soccer team!! I think we have been green at least 4 or 5 times. Can't we get a teal or light blue shirt...just once??? All my soccer pics look the same. Well, here are a couple more green team soccer pics...

Above he is waiting next to Olivia to get his individual picture taken and below is the team. This may be our last season with the rec league. He needs to move up to travel. Will depend on time and money though. We want to try baseball in the spring so that may prevent us from doing it right away.

Jayke is having a good week. Undefeated in soccer, leading scorer on the team, undefeated in football, (almost scored a touchdown last game. Got pushed out of bounds right at the cone) straight As on the mid term report, AND lost another tooth! This time he didn't swallow it either. Lost it in the lunch line at school. Now he is missing both front bottom teeth. Think the top will be the next to go. Hope the bottom come in first though!!

1-0...Good Way to Start!!

We won our first football game...4 to 2. We only count by ones since there are no field goals or extra points. Jayke had fun but has a long way to go to figure out what he is doing and feel comfortable with it. Before the game he told me he has no idea what he is doing. That was evident when I was watching him take his turn at running back. Before the play began I could see him talking to himself and trying to figure out which way to hold his arms to receive the ball. Then he was supposed to run left and he ran right. No big deal though...he will get it after a few more practices I'm sure.

The picture above was taken by a photographer for the newspaper. Her daughter is in Jayke's class and plays on his team. She made sure she had me add her on Facebook so she could share the pictures with me. He was in the huddle getting instructions when she took this. He looks slightly terrified to me.

Team pictures were before the game. As you can see, we are the Bucs and Jayke is number 4. He has never had a number assigned to him before so this is his first number. We may try to keep it as his permanent number throughout all his future sports.

After the game Alec was helping Jayke and Mason practice a few things. He worked with Jayke for a long time trying to help him learn to catch the ball. They have to get used to it cause it hurts when you catch it sometimes. Alec is the quarterback on the 7th grade team so he has lots of practice throwing and did a great job helping Jayke. He was catching really long passes with ease by the time they quit. Alec was impressed with him and took him to the concession stand and bought him a treat as a reward. Between Matthew and Alec, Jayke has two surrogate big brothers. They both are great with him and he adores them both!

Busy busy weekend! Friday night practice then High School Homecoming game, where Jayke hung with his buds the whole time. Football pics at 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning with a game at 8:30. Extra practice with Alec after the game. Home to change and head to a play date and lunch at Parker's house. Picked him up at 3 from Parker's and as we pulled in Bea and Hunter were sitting on the front porch waiting for him to invite him down for a cookout at Bea's. After the cookout I loaded him in the car for a card party at Angi's! Whew! His social life is a full time job!!

He was so worn out Monday that after school when I took him to get his haircut he fell asleep in the chair and actually fell half way out of it. We caught him before he fell completely. The girl had to hold his head up while she finished cutting his hair. After that he had a snack and was revived for the rest of the evening until we both fell asleep on the couch at around 7p.m. I'm so glad soccer was cancelled for rain so we could rest up. We have to get used to this double sports thing. We are a lot busier than usual. Jayke told me after the hair cut that soccer didn't get cancelled HE got cancelled! LOL

He's a Big Shot Now!

3 yahoos at the High School Football game. Jayke now thinks going to these games is the best thing in the world! He got to hang out with a bunch of his friends from school and was able to run around the entire football arena by himself (with a friend). You could tell by looking at him as he would go by that he thought he was something else. Bob took this picture of Jayke, Levi, and Mason. Levi and Mason are only first graders and weren't permitted to run like Jayke and his SECOND GRADE friends were. I'm shocked he paused long enough to get a picture with these underclassmen! Jayke and his buddy, Ian, were even sent off to the concession stand by themselves to fetch SkinnyJeans (aka: Angi) a drink. He was pretty proud of himself and Ang and I were just as impressed that the drink made it back and was even the right thing...Dr. Pepper.

We had football practice before the football game for Jayke's first flag football game tomorrow. We have to be out there at 7:30 a.m. for pictures before the game. Don't these people realize it's the weekend??? We have to get up earlier tomorrow than we do on a school day!! That is just wrong! Jayke was not thrilled about it...I was even less thrilled. He is big on staying up late and sleeping in some now...wonder where he gets that from.

I'm happy to report that our first week of playing two different sports at the same time has been just fine. Not too worn out and I think we both kinda like it. Gives us something to do. The only think Jayke didn't get to do this week was go to TEPPANYAKI!! For some reason he really likes to have Oma take him to this Chinese buffet. Yesterday he came in, grabbed the phone, and said he was calling Oma to take him to Teppanyaki cause he knows how she loves it! (She hates it) He called and she told him no. He persisted but the answer was still no. Mean Grandma. She then showed up at our house about 30 minutes later to drop off some cream for this hideous sore on my lip (another story). When she left Jayke looked at me and said, "She's nuts...she came over here for YOU and not Me!! Why did she barge out of our house like that? Somethings wrong with her. I hope she isn't on some kind of medication!" I wish you could hear the tone he was using when he said this. HA- LARIOUS!! I had to call her right away to tell her what he said and she laughed so hard she had an asthma attack...while driving...thought I was going to have to go peel her off a telephone pole. The Boy is a funny guy.

Next Year's Project???

Hoping to have this built on the back of the house next summer. The back of my house faces west and in the afternoon it gets so hot in my living room the air conditioner can't keep up. It it always 1o degrees warmer than what the thermostat is set on. I think this pergola would help keep the temp down and save me from hanging quilts on all the back windows in the afternoon. I'm tired of sitting around in the dark sweating!!

From a Dragon to a Smurf!

We went to Kings Island with a group of friends Saturday. This was Jayke's first time. He has been asking to go all summer though so when the opportunity came up to go during a private event and at a reduced price we jumped on it. The park was closed to the public for Honda days. Angi's hubs works for Honda so we were able to go as their guests. Above is the group that was in our car. Matt, Jayke, Kaylee, Maci, and Alec. Ryan, Ang, and I were also in there. The other group that went with us was Melanie, Andy, Katie, and Noah. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the entire group together.

We got there and split up...the big kids went with Ryan to ride the scary roller coasters and Ang and I took Jayke to the kiddie part. We convinced him to get his face painted. I've always wanted him to get his face painted at the zoo or where ever we were that they did it. This may have been my last opportunity so I begged and bribed him to do it. He got a blue dragon mask.

Katie joined us later after she got tired of riding the big rides. We went to the game area and Ang won a hat... The kids were not impressed...I thought she looked Gangsta!!

The Boy saw a game that had Hello Kitty prizes and was sure he could win one for me. He was correct! He shot and made 2 baskets and won me this...

You know how I LOVE the Kitty!! Jayke rode his first roller coaster and although he said he liked it, he did NOT want to ride it again today. He rode a different one though and liked it. We rode several things and he conquered his fears pretty well. Cried on one the first time but got right back on it afterwards for a second ride. I was pretty proud of him. He did great the whole day!!

Ang and I, on the other hand...not so much. First there was an ongoing incident with my shirt. I chose the wrong ensemble for the day's outing. Every ride I went on Ang was shouting at me that my boobs were out!!! And they were!!! I looked down and my shirt was blowing around so much that it was no longer covering what it was supposed to be covering!! This became the ongoing joke of the day. Then it was Ang's turn. On the first hill of the biggest coaster I rode that day she dropped her phone!! Are you kidding me? I was her riding partner of course and lucky for her I was, cause I caught that sucker with my foot!! Yes, I caught her cell phone while being hurtled sideways down a hill at a very high rate of speed and slammed sideways back and forth. I'm just awesome like that!! She couldn't believe I caught it. Her daughter was in the seat behind us screaming at us cause it was her phone. When the ride stopped the guy in front of us asked if it was a black phone. We said yea, and it turned out that he had half of it in his lap. We slapped that sucker back together and got the hell off that ride!

We went up in the Eiffel Tower and I took this shot. I also was reminded of my great fear of heights. I could barely take this picture. Getting close to the edge (which is completely enclosed) was even terrifying to me. I think it gets worse as I get older.

Katie rode a lot of rides with Jayke in the kid section. We were glad she was there. She also played games with him while we waited on the others.

We had a great day. Got there at 11:00 a.m. and I finally took Jayke to the car at 9:30 p.m. He walked the whole day without complaing once. He didn't mind waiting on the others occasionally where most kids would have a fit that they weren't getting to ride something or play a game at all times. The only rough moment we had was at the very end of the night when everyone decided to ride the big water ride. Jayke, of course, wanted to go with Matt. They headed off and when I got him back he was absolutely soaked from head to toe and BLUE all over! He looked like a drowned Smurf. He then had his meltdown. He was cold and miserable and I didn't blame him. Lucky for him he has a mother who anticipated this and planned ahead. I had dry undies, socks, shirt, shorts, pajama bottoms, and a sweatshirt in the car for him so I took him out ahead of everyone else so he could get changed into dry clothes while he had privacy. He wouldn't have changed if the others were there.

No one else brought extra clothes so it was a miserable ride home for them. I could not wait to get home. I was so sore and worn out. Today I can barely move. Every part of me hurts. Not sure if that is from the rides, from being completely out of shape, or from my advanced age. Maybe it is all of the above...all I know is I definitely needed today to recover. If we go back next year I may need to start a workout regimen a month in advance to prepare!!

Running Back??

Our second football practice went well. They actually had them playing some different positions this time. Jayke played a defensive position a few times then they moved him to offense. He played guard and running back. After practice he was all fired up. He now thinks he is going to be a running back...and he will be a good one he said. He ran one play and already has visions of the Super Bowl! I guess thats good. He is positive...lets hope he stays that way! Oh...and there was contact in this practice and he still likes it! Soccer starts Monday. We will be playing football and futball!!

Trending...#sidewalkchalk

Sidewalk chalk had been popular around here lately. For the past couple of days the kiddos have been working on their masterpiece out in our driveway. Jayke is working hard on a semi here...only one of many drawings as you will see...


My offering to the creation was a couple of stick figures. I can't stand the way the chalk feels to be able to do it very long. I'm weird like that I guess.

Jayke made this drawing of me and below is the entire thing. I know its kinda hard to see but i thought getting the artists in the picture was more important.

After the creative geniuses were finished they decided to take a little ride... (They are on a skateboard)

I wish you could tell from the picture how much chalk was on their clothes and skin. Jayke came in and went straight to the shower. He has just started taking showers instead of baths. It is really funny to see him go in the bathroom, take his shower, get dressed, take care of all his oral hygiene steps, and fix his hair. I become needed less and less everyday.

A Brief Outing

Nemo went back to the vet today to get his shots. He was very well behaved. Most laid back cat I've ever had. He has gained 2 pounds in the past 2 weeks. Doesn't surprise me...I haven't found a food he won't eat. Including sourkraut with Thousand Island dressing from my reuben and fajita rolls. We took him to Arby's after as a special treat for being such a good boy. Really, the Arby's was for The Boy who was "STARVING TO DEATH!" as always. He was nice enough to share some of his roast beef with kitty who rode in the passenger seat like it was his job!

His little outing must have really worn him out. Not a care in the world...he should be worried that the couch is about to swallow him!

Gassed

We survived the dentist! I think I may have been more worried about this than he was. I considered asking for my own shot of nitrous when we got in there but I knew I couldn't afford it! The Boy did amazingly well. I was completely shocked.

When I picked him up from school he immediately started bombarding me with questions about what was going to happen. I didn't want to give him too much detail...I wasn't too sure what he already knew either. I hadn't told him anything. For instance, getting a shot hadn't been mentioned at all. Apparently he had been discussing it with his pals though because he had all kinds of info. He knew there was going to be a shot and HE told me that when they put him on the gas it would just make him relaxed and feel a little funny then the shot would only feel like a little pinch. I'm guessing his friends don't have very good oral hygiene either considering they seem to be experts on the subject. Hunter is the one who provided him with the most info. I actually should thank him because what he told Jayke made it go way better than it would had I been the one to explain it to him. I don't think he trusts me to give him the facts or something.

All was good until he saw the mask and she explained how it would go over his nose. She leaned him back and put it over his face and the tears started to roll out of the sides of his eyes. He reached for me to hold his hand (all though he denies this now) and lay there with his chin quivering. All of a sudden he started to smile and laugh a little. Then, "I LIKE THIS STUFF!! IT MAKES ME FEEL FUNNY!" I don't know if having the mask covering his nose made him not be able to hear, because he was shouting everything. The girl then told me that it was time for me to go out. Jayke said okay and as I left the room he was waving frantically with a goofy smile on his face, yelling, "BYE MOMMY!!" I was cracking up.



The dentist came out after the shot and told me he was doing great. When they were all done he marched in holding a new squirt gun and a bouncy balloon with his cheek swollen and red. This was the worst part. He hated his face being swollen and his lip numb. He turned into a real grouch and fell asleep in the car. About two hours later all was normal again. All that worry on my part was for nothing. I'm still very glad it is over with though. He told me he likes going to the dentist now. If that is true then he takes after me and AJ...we are both weirdos who like going to the dentist and nap through root canals. I'm waiting for the other 3 teeth...hopefully he can lose them before they get bad enough to need filling!

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!