I Don't Know What to Title This...

Well, The Boy is happy. He has his Oma here waiting on him hand and foot. I can only imagine how spoiled he would be if we still lived near them!



Mike turned our builder into the BBB about the condition they left our empty lot in. They did a terrible job grating and planting it and it never grew plus they filled in a ravine that shouldn't have been filled in and now there are drainage issues. We got a response that they are going to come out and redo it all so we had to go out and discuss it with the expert (Jim).



While we were out there Opa found an arrow head for Jayke. You know how boys get excited about these things. He immediately stuffed it in his pocket so he wouldn't lose it. In the middle of the night he started yelling in his sleep about the arrow head. Scared me to death. I couldn't figure out what he was screaming about. The Boy has as many conversations in his sleep as he does when he is awake and that is A LOT!



I have to post this next picture because it is something few people have been lucky enough to see in there lifetime...



That would be two men in the kitchen, cleaning! One with a broom and the other with the vacuum. When Opa went to get a glass to drink that berry whine/shine stuff it flew out of the cabinet and shattered all over. Every time he is here something falls at his head. He thinks I plan it. I don't. No really, I don't!

Today I took Oma and Opa around to look for houses. Eventually they are buying one down here. Jayke got tired of that real quick. The Boy has to learn as I did when I was little. Looking at houses is what we do. Opa is a developer/builder, my mom is an interior designer, my grandfather was a builder, my grandmother was in real estate and I worked in interior design with my mom for 10 years. It is in our blood. I hated it as a child too but grew to love it. Jayke will too, whether he likes it or not. At least today we only drove through neighborhoods. Wait until we start dragging him to models!

Mom and I took him swimming this evening. He really wasn't into to it though. My mom actually thought she would be able to get in the pool with me and not get her hair wet. Ha! She should have known better. Opa and Mike stood on the deck above us and just watched and shook their heads as we tried to drown each other. She tried to talk me out of it by telling me she thought I was an adult now. Bwahahahahah!(evil laughter) That just makes it easier for me to dunk her!

Tomorrow Opa is going to unhook all my audio visual equipment and hook it all up correctly. Mike can operate multi million dollar robots but he apparently can't hook up av equipment correctly. Don't tell him I said that! Last night he told me he only checks my blog about once a week just to see what embarrassing s**t I've put on here of him. I told him I'm sure I can do better than what I have so far. I will have to work on that. Right now, I'm going to work on going to sleep before 4 a.m.

P.S. I have been reading how everyone is reading their Harry Potter books so when I got this in an email I decided to post it for all you HP fans out there...This is my cousin and her family at the book party at Borders in New Jersey. They made the paper. Cracked me up.



Note: Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and check out the really interesting clock down there.

"Shine"y Happy People

"I was talking to you, berry man!"

"I'm not berry man, I'm two berries and a Dickle!"

Yep, Oma and Opa arrived safely this evening. Opa and Mike decided to bust out the "special" jar in the fridge that came down out of the mountains with a guy Mike works with. Also a bottle of "sippin' whiskey" Mike picked up at a distillery in Tennessee. George Dickle whiskey or something like that. Hence the conversation I had with Jim after two glasses of the "special" stuff and one of the whiskey. Mom and I were not amused. Jayke just went to sleep. I should have joined him.

It's Utter Chaos!

I can't talk now! Mom and Jim will be here in a couple of hours. I need to run to the store to get something to feed them tonight. I was up all night again last night. I assembled a table at 3 a.m. It is for the patio. It has been sitting in the garage waiting on Mike for a couple of months now. He will never get around to it so I went ahead and did it. I don't like to do too much of this though because then he will catch on that I really can do stuff and when I ask him to do things he won't anymore.

My house is clean, my table is assembled, my deck and patio are nice and neat, the kid is clean, Oma's room is ready for them, and the beer is cold. I think I'm ready if I just get something planned for dinner.

Jayke keps walking around the house randomly saying, "It's utter chaos." I don't know what he is referring to. Maybe my new sleeping habits, maybe my whirlwind cleaning, I don't know but it is kind of funny.

I will try to get around to blogs later. For now I have to run!
Oh yeah, Dona, I cleaned my ceiling fans!

It's Time to Up My Dosage!

I think I have reached a new degree of psycho. I have screwed up my sleeping pattern so bad I don't know how to get it right again. I have done this in the past. I know what causes it and how to prevent it but I can't help myself. I am a night owl. I love being up late at night all by myself. I get a lot done with no one to interupt me. Tonight I spent 3 hours cleaning and organizing Jayke's room. Normally I would have made him help me but I didn't want any arguments so I did it without him. The trick now will be keeping it that way until after Wednesday when Oma and Opa get here.

The first time I had a run in with insomnia was when I was living at home after leaving Ball State and not having a car or a job. I was bored out of my mind and would just stay up all night since I didn't have anything to get up for. I'm sure I was depressed too but that is a whole other conversation.

I have gotten my sleep screwed up a couple of times since living here but not like this. I'm writing this at 6:20 a.m. and I have not been to bed yet. I think it started with that stupid Big Brother 8 being shown on Showtime from midnight to 3 a.m. I started staying up to watch that but I could go to bed at 3 and still get up around 9a.m. and everything was fine. Then I got sick and couldn't go to sleep at 3 anymore so I am staying up all night. Last night I thought I would get a handle on it by taking some Tylenol pms but I waited too long. I took them too late and was feeling the effects all day. I couldn't wake up. I did manage to go to bed around 4a.m. but because I took the pills too late I couldn't wake up all day.

Right now I feel like I could easily go do a few loads of laundry, dust the entire house, and unload the dishwasher. Nuts. Jayke is up now too. He got up at 5 a.m. when Mike left for work. I have to fix this fast or I will have him all screwed up too. Tonight I am taking the Tylenol at 10 p.m. so I can be in bed and asleep by midnight...I hope. Wish me luck. At first I didn't mind it cause I love being up at night but now it just sucks and I want to be normal again.

If you are wondering what Jayke is doing while I am sleeping don't worry. I get up feed him stay up with him for a while but then take a nap while he is watching a movie or something or he takes one with me. He likes to bring his cars in and drive them on me while I'm sleeping. I am his road, he says. Sometimes he does other things though and I discover them at a much later date. Like I discovered that while I was sick he was doing this...








That is me sleeping on the couch under that orange blanket while The Boy is photographing random objects throughout the house. There were over 50 pictures that he took. There was a lovely one of my backside that I chose not to post.

He also did this...



That is Moon Sand if you are wondering and this was NOT the only place I found it. I think there was a little in everyroom. Made it easy for me to see what all he had been up to at least, I just followed the trail.


We had a Christmas Story moment yesterday. Jayke came in with a cup of ice and had an ice cube stuck to his lip. I tried to get to him but he ripped it off in panic before I could. Blood all over the place. He had just bit his tongue earlier in the day too. Poor kid, he has to have a very sore mouth today. He asked for his ice pack thing after I got the bleeding stopped. He hasn't complained since.

I got my print I ordered using my Coke rewards yesterday. I love it and can't wait to get it framed. I am on my way to earning enough to get another one and will be getting there even sooner thanks to Katie who has been sending me her coke codes. Thank you, Katie!

I think I will go do that dusting now. Maybe put the kid to work so he will nap with me in a few hours. Someone please send the Sandman to my house tonight!

Random Thoughts Spewing All Over

I have been one giant ball of snot all weekend. Lovely visual, huh? I think I am on the mend now though. I slept in until 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. Yeah, you heard me right. I didn't get to bed until 6 a.m. the night/morning before. Insomnia decided to join the snot-inducing critters who invaded my body and they were up late partying. The hubs kept The Boy out of the room and quite after the horrible day I had on Friday.

With Jayke and I both sick and home alone together ALL day (Mike worked late)we ended up having a terrible day. I was told that I was a Big Poopy, he didn't like me and he also poked me in the eye. He also told me that, "His Bwain tells him to be mean to Mommy!" I'm thinking we need to get out of the house for a while. Good thing Oma and Opa will be here on Wednesday!

Opa called today and had me look into making reservations at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta for while they are here. I am stoked about that! I have been wanting to go there since we moved here. I think we are going to meet up with his sister and parents, who live in Atlanta, have lunch then hit the aquarium in the afternoon after the crowd starts to thin out. Anyone been there and have some good tips for me? I think we are going to see the 3D Deepo show while we are there too. I heard it is good. I've been watching all the videos on the website and I can't wait to go!

I have a tentative schedule made out for while the grandparents are here. So far I have 5 days filled. I'm trying to leave a few open for spontaneous activities such as the excitement filled game of croquet we had last time they visited. I'm thinking of getting a Hillbilly Ball game, aka ladder ball. Ang's son, Matthew, dubbed it that and I think it is a very appropriate name for the game so I'm going with it. So what are the things I have planned you ask? Well, we are taking Jayke to Monkey Joe's on Thursday and then I want to take them to Falls Park to show them the waterfall. They have been to Greenville but when we were there with them we didn't know about the falls so I'm taking them back. On Saturday I want to go to Abbeville. Cute little historical town about 20 minutes south of us. Mom wants to go there too so that is on the list. The next week, is our boat day on Monday and the aquarium on Wednesday. I'm sure I will get something else penciled in somewhere, there are tons of things I want to do. Maybe a trip up to The Biltmore or something like that.

I just heard on the news that people were stuck in the arch in Missouri for over two hours today. I remember going up in that thing when I was pregnant. I am not the type of person to be claustrophobic but riding up and back down in that tiny capsule thing was too much for me. It was all I could do to not freak out. It probably would have been better if they hadn't crammed another couple in with us. The entire time I was thinking what if we got stuck, what if we got stuck? Well, some unlucky person did and I feel bad for them. I don't know why I felt I needed to talk about that...I guess that is what happens when you have been sick and on too much cold medication. Random crap just spews out of my head onto the keyboard. I need to make a list. Things You Don't Want to do While Pregnant:

Go to Las Vegas (while 6 months pregnant with feet the size of melons)
Go to the St Louis Zoo(in the rain in October while 6 months preggers)
Go up in the arch in St. Louis
Run down the street chasing 7 dogs who have escaped. (I'm sure Angi agrees with me here!)
All dumb things I did while pregnant and regretted immediately. I'm sure there were plenty of others but that is all that comes to mind right now.

Speaking of random...Here is how The Boy finally conked out this afternoon.



He is asleep on the foot rest part of the recliner in between his dad's legs. He is also holding a back scratcher. I'm going to make a montage of all the pictures I have of him sleeping in random places and positions around the house. It amazes me sometimes. Especially when I can't fall asleep for anything laying in my comfy bed with my two down pillows and my old quilt that has been washed just the right amount of times to make it perfect. My blanky. My sister actually offered me $180 for my blanky and I turned her down. That is how much I LOVE it. I don't know which one of us is crazier...her for offering that much for an old quilt or me for turning that much down. Anyway...more random tidbits from my over medicated, sleep deprived brain. I will stop now.

Little Monster

I've never really been around little boys much. I have 3 step sisters but no brothers. The closest thing to a brother I had was my nephew who is a year younger than I am. I would see him on weekends every other week when I went to my Dad's. We would fight like brother and sister and play together but eventually he moved to Florida and I didn't see him as often.

My point is I wasn't aware of how little boys act. I keep asking my mom if Jayke's behavior is normal but how would she know, she only had me. He is such a boy at times. He wants to rough house with me almost every night before bed. He also does it when I'm on the phone. He just picks at me and won't leave me alone. He wants to "play karate" or he says, "Let's fight!" I am assuming this is normal behavior for little boys but how would I know? He doesn't really do it to Mike so much, just me. On the other hand, he is a Momma's Boy. He comes to me for everything and unless Mike is taking him outside to play, Jayke is glued to my side.

Don't get me wrong, I love having a boy. I wanted a boy...I have just been shocked by how much he likes to wrestle and stuff. It is almost non stop! So, someone tell me...is this normal? Are all boys like this?



I am sick. It always amazes me when I get sick from Jayke how bad I feel is how bad he had to feel and I had no idea. He doesn't act like it affects him that much. There is no way I could not be sick after The Boy decided it would be funny to give me, "Puppy licks" all over. Disgusting on a normal basis, even worse when he is all snotty and doing it. I should have gone and hosed myself off but I didn't and I'm paying for it now. I have been trying to explain how germs work to him but he isn't getting it.

Mom and Jim will be here on Wednesday. I hope we are all better by then. We got a day nailed down that we have rented a boat to go out on Lake Keowee. I am excited to go out on that lake instead of Hartwell because I know it has some falls on it. I'm sure I will get tons of pictures of everything while they are here. Jayke is claiming he is going to start sleeping in his own bed when they are here so we will see. He has tried all on his own a couple of times recently but never makes it the whole night. After a couple of failed attempts he gets mad and doesn't want to anymore. Maybe Oma and Opa in the next room for a week will be the key!

I have to go drag my butt back to the couch now before my head explodes. I'm hoping I won't have a little munchkin crawling all over me as soon as I lay down yelling, "Lets play karate, Mom!"

Yucky Snotty Cold

Well, just as I thought. I woke up with Jayke's cold this morning. I knew I would but I was doing everything I could to prevent it. The worst part is the sore throat. I can deal with a runny nose but I hate to have a sore throat. So I am resting today. Jayke, on the other hand, is on the mend so he is full of energy and wanting me to play and do this and do that. Not fair. We should be sick at the same time so he will lay around with me. I mean, how dare he expect to be fed and stuff when I'm sick! Right?

Love Free Stuff!

I have a sick kid. I suppose this means I will be sick next. It isn't anything too bad, just a yucky summer cold. Keeps him up at night though. Keeps him up, his dad up, and keeps me up.

Since Jayke is not feeling well we haven't done anything so I don't have anything to talk about. I've been busy cleaning out closets and cabinets. Trying to get more organized. Seems like that just makes a mess somewhere else though.

I am looking forward to receiving my next reward from Coke. I do the Coke Rewards and have gotten a couple of great rewards. AT least I am excited about them! My first one was a memory book. Normally this is $40 from the Kodak website, however, you can get it for free along with many of the other items from Kodak through the rewards program. My second reward I just ordered is a 20x30 poster of one of my pictures. I used the one of Jayke with his helmet on when he was learning to ride his scooter. I ordered it in black and white and I'm going to do an entire wall of black and white poster size pictures going down the basement stairs. I can't wait for it to get here!

I added Adsense to my blog. I have heard that some people make a lot of money from it so I decided to try it out. I earn money everytime someone clicks an ad on my blog so if you feel like it click one of my ads in my sidebar. I will do the same for you if you have Adsense on your blog. I don't want to beg or anything, but PLEASE click my ad...I need money for Cabo! Okay, enough of that. I hear the dryer calling me.

Just a Question

Does anyone else watch Big Brother or am I the only loser in bloggerland? Just wondering.

Oma is Coming and Opa too!

Can you say excited? We finally found out today that Oma and Opa, (my mom and step-dad) are coming on the 25th and staying until the 4th! That is like 91/2 days. They have never stayed that long before. Hope I don't end up kicking them out before the 9 1/2 days is up. Joking...sort of!!

I'm glad they are staying longer because we always feel rushed and never get to do everything we have planned. This time we will be able to do more without Opa complaining about having to drive too much. We are renting a boat for next week some day. We are going to take Jayke to Monkey Joe's and Splash Zone. I think I may have run through all of this already...so I will stop now. I'm sure I will have a post about everything we do anyway.

Now I have something to use against the kid for the next week. "Jayke you better pick all your toys up or Oma won't want to come." I'm so mean, but it works. Whoever coined the phrase, "Terrible Twos" obviously did it before their child was three! He was an angel at two! I would have 10 two year olds but one three year old is almost more than enough some days. I said some days people, back off! I know I am lucky and he really is very good. I wouldn't trade him for anything, just lock him in the basement occasionally.

Right now he is outside with his father who is up on a 20 foot extension ladder cleaning the gutters. He is almost finished which I am happy about because I'm afraid he is going to fall off that thing and kill himself.



I have to go write a letter for the Home Owners Association now. We are preparing to sue our developer and every homeowner has to write a letter. One of my specialties. I swore when I got off the HOA board at my old house I would never be involved with another one. Too much fighting and stress. So what happens when we move here? Mike volunteers to serve on an advisory committee for the HOA. Yeah I said Mike, but that means that I get to do things like write letters, etc. I have yet to have to go to a meeting though and I intend to keep it that way. Six years of listening to people complain about their neighbors was enough for me. I still can't get away from it though since Mike is involved. He sends all the correspondence to me to read. Several of them are feuding right now too and when I read or hear about it it just gets me all fired up. THAT is what I'm trying to avoid. At least Mike is not involved in the argument so I don't have to get that worked up about it. I'll just write my little letter and be done with it...let the others fight it out.

Bad Hair, but Fat Free!

Say goodbye to these way too long bangs! I can stand you any longer, stupid bangs. I'm cutting you as soon as I finish this post. I think this may be the longest I've ever gone without a haircut. 7 months is way too long...and so are my bangs.



Jayke is not trying to bite me, by the way. He was going to give me a kiss but started laughing. I thought it was kind of cute. He was into making silly faces for the camera again. Somewhere along the line he has picked this one up...



I think they all do eventually. He got a really bad haircut this time. The girl really chopped it up on top and both Mike and I hate it. Poor kid. He kind of has weird hair. Next time I told Mike to try to get the same girl who did it the time before this one. He can't remember what she looked like though. I may have to go with them. I try to avoid that like the plague though. I had enough of taking him back when he through a fit everytime and turned the task over to Mike.

Speaking of Mike, he and I have both gone "fat free" as in our diets. He has had to do it for his cholesterol and I need to do it to lose weight so I figured we might as well go all the way. We went shopping this evening for our new "healthy lifestyle". We will see how this goes. He has been able to stick to it without any problem but he is a man. I don't think they get cravings like women do. I have been shocked to find how much the fat free stuff has changed though. It isn't bad and some of it is pretty good. My down fall could be Jaykeb though. I HAVE to stop eating his left overs...have to...have to...have to! Wish me luck!

Stupid Question, Mom!

I have a terrible habit of never turning off my ceiling fans. Since I never turn them off I never see how dirty they get. Yesterday I was in my little computer room reading blogs and email when I heard a banging noise. I hear banging noises quite often since I have a boy but this one wasn't familiar so I asked what was going on. My answer was not a good one.

"I'm cleaning your fan, Mom!"

I stopped to think what fan I had plugged in in there then I realized the only fan he could be cleaning was the ceiling fan, but how?

"How are you cleaning it Jayke?"

Stupid questions usually get great answers...

"With my weed whacker!"

WHAT??!!?

I ran into the bedroom and there he is standing on my extra tall bed with his toy weed eater hitting the ceiling fan with it and the dust was just a flyin'. What on earth would posess him to clean the ceiling fan? I mean, it isn't like he ever sees me doing it... obviously... so why would he all of a sudden attept this...and with a weed whacker of all things? Well another stupid question answered so plainly as if I were the dumbest thing on the planet...

"Because I wanted to" with a shrug

Of course! Why didn't I think of that?

I'm just happy to report that the fan wasn't damaged, the kid wasn't fried, and the dust was very easy to sweep up off the floor.

Poor Mike!

We had a little storm come through the neighborhood this evening. I was trying to nap on the couch when I started to hear the thunder rumble off in the distance. I figured it would be a quick thunderstorm like we ususally get. I was just about asleep when Mike came in and told me about this...



We have 3 big trees down out by the garden. This one barely missed our barn, but as you can see, Mike's truck wasn't so lucky. There are three more ready to go that would land on our kennel fence so we need to get them down asap.



Poor Mike. He loved that old truck. The whole back end is bent up. It isn't worth fixing. We just had a new transmission put in that thing too. Figures.

While I was out taking pictures of the truck disaster I decided to get one of the flower bed that Mom and Jim helped us put in last time they were here. I wanted Mom to be able to see how much everything has grown. Next year I hope to get some more stuff in this thing but for now I think It is looking pretty good.

Nominated!! Woohoo!

I've been nominated by Katie! Thanks, Katie, you rock too! I am supposed to nominate 5 people so here goes...

Patti--Because she always has encouraging comments for me and an adorable little girl.

Tommiea--Because she keeps her husband in touch with his family when he is so far away.

FlipFlopGoddess--because she has great taste in music!

An Island Life--Because I love her stories about her passengers on her flights and she knows where all the good contests are!

KimmyK--Because she is a brand new mommy and isn't afraid to admit it is hard and scary at times.

and...

I'm going to go ahead and nominateAJ too, just because she rocks and she is my niece even though she doesn't blog very often.

So there ya have it. Sorry if you have already been nominated. I guess that just means you really rock!

Not In My House!

I don't really know what I would title this post anyway. Yesterday I read an email from my next door neighbor about finding a snake in her flower bed while pulling weeds. Normally this would not bother me but after finding the scorpion in the bathroom and then reading how this snake was actually striking at her, I am now afraid to go outside. I'm dreaming about spiders, snakes, and scorpions. I think last year we didn't have any of these problems because our house was brand new and the yard and landscaping was brand new so nothing had moved in yet. I'm going to be calling exterminators this afternoon. I want the house treated for bugs INCLUDING scorpions (apparently that is something different). I don't know what I can do about snakes, but if there is something I will find out and do it. I even saw a bunch of bats flying around off my deck the other night. I feel like I've moved to the Amazon!

It doesn't help ease my mind any that when I email Mike at work to tell him about the scorpion in the bathroom, his response back was did I take a picture and how big was it? Who cares how big it was it was a friggin scorpion! IN MY BATHROOM! Then he asked me if I ate it. WTH? This is not the response I want from him. I want him to tell me he is going to take care of it. That I shouldn't spend another second worrying about bugs and scorpions. I should just go back to my blogging, my XBox games, and my soaps, but noooooooo! He doesn't think having scorpions in the bathroom are any big deal apparently. I'm going to go buy a rubber one and put it on his pillow and see if he thinks it is a big deal then. What good is it to have a husband if he isn't going to take care of "bug issues"? Geesh!

I am now going to try to move on from the scorpion in my bathroom and talk about something else. I can't promise I won't mention the little bugger again though.

My mom and Jim are coming to visit in a few weeks. Jayke can't wait. He calls her everyday to ask her when she is coming. I'm excited because they are actually going to stay a whole week and we are goign to rent a boat. We are also going to go up to the mountains and mess around up there for a day. We are goign to take Jayke to Monkey Joe's and I want to take them to Greenville to show them the park and the falls I talk about all the time. We are going to go to Abbeville to look aroound and tour the plantation home there. All of these are things I've been wanting to do so I'm excited! I need something to look forward to and keep me going. Now that I have my FREE Greenville phonebook I can look up some new places to go eat too.

I will be busy cleaning out closets and redoing some of my decorating before they come. I feel like I need to do it everytime anyone comes. It is my own form of OCD. The scorpion got me on a closet cleaning kick so I'm just gonna roll with it.
I may even paint another room.

I'm here AJ! I have just had a busy weekend. Okay, really only Saturday was busy, but I was busy sleeping all day yesterday. Saturday we went to a party with all the management level guys from Mike's work. This was a first for me. I actually only know two people from Mike's work and he never talks about it so it was interesting. Very informative party. Found out, by accident, that Mike got a speeding ticket while driving to Indiana with his boss and another co-worker about a month ago. I guess he felt that since I tried to hide mine from him, he could hide his from me. Turns out neither one of us are very good at hiding things 'cause we both got caught.

Everyone seems nice but it was a little uncomfortable for me because all those people knew each other and were talking about things they had all done together. I also noticed that no one really went out of their way to talk to me. I tried talking to a couple of the wives but they would just answer me and go back to their own conversations. Jaykeb had fun though. The guy who brought Mike to SC has a son a year younger than Jayke and he had a ball playing with him and the bigger kids who were there. It was stinking hot, humid, and sprinkling though and it was at a house on the lake so I was sticky and miserable for a while.

After the party we went out to eat. They only had Korean food at the party and none of us really ate so we were starved. Maybe now we could start doing more with some of the guys Mike works with. There were a couple of the wives who I felt like I could become friends with.

Sunday, like I said, I slept all day. Slept and watched movies with my boys. Mike cooked ribs and they were VERY good. Whatever he did this time he needs to remember it for next time. Then when I was getting ready to go to bed last night I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me in the bathroom. A SCORPION was on the wall above the toilet! At first I didn't even know what to do. I was afraid to wake Mike so I just grabbed a huge handful of toilet paper, grabbed the scorpion, and through it in the toilet. I'm surprised Mike didn't wake up because I was shuddering and yelling and slamming things around. I dreamed about scorpions all night then. I'm heading to Lowe's to get bug spray this afternoon. Can't be having scorpions hanging out in the john. I have to go google them now and read up on them so I can give myself further nightmares.

Thank You Bell South!

The 4th of July celebration in Greenville was great! This was our first 4th down here, we were in Indiana visiting last year on the fourth, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did they have fantastic fireworks but they had all kinds of food and drink tents, rides for the kids, live music, and lots of freebies.

Usually that free crap they give away at these things does not interest me in any way but this time they were giving away something that I was very excited about. We got bottles of water, candy, a tote bag with grocery coupons in it, and Jaykeb got several balls. None of this was the exciting part though. What I got that almost made my whole night was a free Greenville phone book! A phone book you ask? Yes! Do you know how much they are to buy them? $50! Okay, $50 is not all that much but it is to buy something that should be free. I've been wanting one for over a year but didn't want to pay $50 for it. I even considered staying in a hotel one night just to be able to steal their phone book. Do I sound cheap? I don't care. I have my FREE phone book now and I've already spent a considerable amount of time reading it. Now I just need to get a map so I can look up the streets things are on. Don't worry, I will just go buy one of those.

Back to the 4th. I was temporarily distracted by my excitement over my FREE phonebook. Sorry 'bout that. We got downtown really early because we had no idea where anything was going to be, where we would be able to park or anything. This worked out really well because we were able to go eat then be first in line to buy our tickets for the food/drink tents and kiddie rides. Jayke went on all the rides and loved them. This year he just ran up to us after getting off one ride, snatched the tickets out of our hands, and took off for the next one. He is going to have so much fun at the fair this year. Getting there that early also allowed us to get the best seat in the house for the show.







We put our chairs in the amphitheatre and had a great view looking out at the treetops on the hilltop across the park. That is where they set the fireworks off from and we had a fantastic view. It felt like they were coming right down on top of us. Jayke loved them. Last year he was afraid but not at all this year.

Before the fireworks Jaykeb found another little boy to play with. They played for a couple of hours, running, playing tag, and coloring.



I was worried we wouldn't have much fun this year. The 4th is always something I look forward to back in Indiana. We are usually with friends and family and this year we wouldn't be. We wouldn't be entertained by the guys trying to blow up the neighbors when their fireworks misfire or trying to blow us up in similar fashion. We had no sparklers or fireworks of our own to light. No home cooked food. No flaming panda bear fireworks to crack us up. What we did have were the best fireworks I've ever seen, great weather, kiddie rides, and a FREE phone book! What more could you ask for?

Bye Bye Bink!

The binky fairy was a success! He was a little upset about not having it when he first went to bed but we started talking about what she might bring him in exchange for his binks and he got so excited about it that he put his head on his pillow and went right to sleep so she could come.

This morning when he got up he ran in to see if she had been here. There was a monster truck waiting for him and the binks were gone. He was very proud of himself, telling both of us how he didn't need his binky at all last night. I'm glad because I was getting darn sick and tired of hunting for that binky all the time. I also couldn't understand him when he would talk with it in his mouth. Good bye binky! I'm glad to see you go. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away though. I hid them really well in a coffe mug on the very top shelf in my kitchen. I am too sentimental about junk like that. I keep everything of his. Probably becaue my mom throws everything away and always has.

We are off to Greenville now for our 4th festivities with our big potty trained and binky-free boy!

New Look

Sorry for the lapse in entries the past couple of days. I've been busy. I've been trying to catch up on yardwork and housework from when I was gone for three weeks. I know I'm a slaker, as AJ pointed out. Sorry! I'm staying up tonight to post just for AJ and Angi.

I have been over messing around on my Myspace page, adding some pictures and stuff. I also got brave and added a new blog skin to this blog. I get tired of looking at the same background all the time but I've been afraid to change to something outside of blogger's available layouts. Tonight I finally did it! I still have to redo my blogroll though. It needed weeded out anyway.

We are taking another crak at tossing the binky tonight. It was his decision. He had me call the "binky fairy" on the phone and tell her that his binkies were under his pillow and she could come and get them tonight. I bought him a new Monster Truck to leave from the fairy. Hopefully we will make it through the night without any incidents. I guess when he decides to grow up he goes all out! First the potty training, now the binky. Next will be moving to his own bed...if his mom will let him.

We finished up VBS on Friday. Friday night was Family Night. The kids all sang the songs they had been working on all week. Jaykeb won a soccer ball. We aren't really sure how he won it, but the neighbor brought it over before we left for the program. The neighbors are the youth pastors at the church. He just told us he won the ball and handed it to Jayke.



Jaykeb told us he didn't know he was supposed to bring it home but couldn't tell us how he won it. We are guessing it was a drawing of some kind. He was thrilled about it though.

When we got there Jaykeb immediately saw his friend, Luke. Luke was in Mom's Morning Out with Jayke and has been in his VBS class too. Jaykeb would talk about Luke everynight when he got home. He is the boy he was fighting with. Turns out Luke was talking about Jayke when he got home too. We went over and sat with his parents. The kids all sat on the floor until it was their turn to go up on stage.



Jaykeb always told us Luke started fighting with him but after watching them together all evening I'm not so sure it wasn't the other way around. You could tell they were big buddies though. I am hoping he will go to MMO again in the fall and then maybe we can invite him over for a playdate or something.

Jaykeb was willing to go up on the stage with the other kids when it was their turn but he didn't sing or dance. Mostly he stood there and looked at us then tried to hide behind another kid. It was funny to see him up there. He was very serious about it.



After the singing and dancing was over everyone ate. We left as soon as we were finished because Jayke was tired and starting to get grouchy. He is still asking when he gets to go back to bible school though. I guess I will start him in the other programs the church has too.

Tomorrow (actually today) we are going to Greenville for the 4th. They all kinds of food vendors and stuff going on plus fireworks. I hope the kid can make it to see the fireworks.

Happy 4th of July...I'm going to bed now.

On a brief Blogger break. Will be back this evening. I've been messing around on Myspace and Facebook and cleaning my house. Wish it was a more exciting reason why I haven't been on here but it isn't. New post tonight. Promise, Ang!