Suprise...guests in two hours!

I think I need a two hour notice for a surprise inspection once a week! Meemaw called today and said she was bringing my aunt June and my sister Sherri over to see the house. They were in Charlotte when they called which meant I had two hours to get the house cleaned up and myself showered and dressed. After I recovered from my panic attack I started barking orders at The Boy and The Dad to start cleaning. I have to say they did an excellent job! Both of them helped me the entire time and did whatever I asked without complaint. We managed to have the house in pretty good shape by the time they got here which is amazing after what Jayke did to it yesterday. I hate rainy days.
They arrived literally as I was pulling on my pants. Jaykeb was so excited! He was disappointed P'pa wasn't with them though. We showed them the house, the yard, the landscaping and then 15 minutes later they loaded The Boy in the car with them and took off. At least my house is clean now. Mike and I will be joining them all in a little while at my cousin's house. I can't believe how quiet the house is without Jaykeb here. This doesn't happen very often. I miss him.

Some of these you may have seen before, some of them are new like the really craptastic ones of me.

My Stuff

Today Kristinewanted us to show her our "stuff". Not that kind of stuff, what's the matter with you? Our stuff that makes us who we are or at least tells you who we are. Okay, this could take all day for me. I have a lot of stuff! Next week I'm going to request an assignment that requires us putting stuff away instead of dragging more out. Here is some of my stuff...



Now for an explanation of my stuff. First of all there is Diet Coke, the only thing I drink. My calendar(the little blue book). My cell phone and my house phone because I can't live without them. My ipod all dressed up in it's pink ensemble. My favorite lotion, Burt's Bees. My Bare Minerals make up and my Philosophy Mimosa bath gel which is my new favorite and cheers me up every time I use it. There is a pile of scrapbook supplies on the right and of course a pair of BLACK flip flops. I only wear black ones anymore. The red purse in the back is my brand new Liz purse I just got last weekend and am currently loving. It's not Coach like Kami's but I still love it! My Hello Kitty coin purse. I have tons of them...I love the Kitty! The black thing in the back ground is my new wall grill I got at Pier 1 last weekend. It was on sale and marked way down so I was super excited about that. My mom got one too. This is there to represent two things, my passion for decorating and my love of shopping. Something else not pictured you are looking at right now, my blog. Tells you exactly who I am, almost.
Now, the things I forgot to put in the picture. My magazines and catalogs. I get tons and read them all. My bare minerals lip balm and my lip smackers lip gloss, gotta have them. One of my lists because like my dad, I make lists of everything all the time. I didn't have any gummy bears to put in the picture which are my favorite candy along with Reese cups. I could go on and on but I won't.
One more thing though before I go. A little more "stuff" that tells who I am and the most important thing of all...



I am this boy's mom.

Didya play?

Crazy and Clutzy!

It just keeps getting better people. Not only did I have my mental breakdown in bed this morning...mystery pop tarts and all, but this afternoon I managed to coat my kitchen in Ragu! Do you know what happens when you drop one of those huge family size jars and the lid pops off? Yep, it looked like someone had come in with a firehose and sprayed down the kitchen. Two things made this even worse than what it sounds. First of all was the location I dropped the jar of red goo. Right in front of the fridge and next to the pantry. So I not only had sauce up the wall but under the fridge, up the pantry door and all over everything that was in the bottom of the pantry. Jaykeb then came in and tried to walk through it causing my head to spin around a couple of times. The dog started to lick it up but I think she prefers her spagetti sauce with meat in it becaue she didn't get very far. Good thing, that is all I needed was the dog barfing red all over the place. The other thing that made this really bad was the smell! Now I love Italian anything but the smell of this spattering of sauce all over was too much. So, since I don't have pictures of this you will have to use your imagination. Just picture sauce covering everything within 5 feet of where I dropped it, the dog licking it up here and there, the kid trying to walk through it and all the while asking me why I dumped it there, and me down on my hands and knees gagging as I mop up this mess. (I know huge run on sentence, but I write how I talk-deal) I don't think I will be making spagetti for a while and just to make my day extra special I went out to get a coke out of the garage after my job was done and dropped that sucker on the top of my bare foot. Did you hear me yelling? I don't know how you couldn't have. Lets hope I can sleep tonight, I think I need it.

Crazier Yet!

After my panic attack early this morning it just got nuttier. I woke up with a pop tart in my hand. Crumbs all over the bed. I have been trying to remember all morning how that thing got there. Jaykeb keeps telling me I fell asleep with it. Could be, but I sure don't remember it. See, like I mentioned in my previouse post, when I went back to bed The Boy was hungry. I told him he could go get a pop tart and he came back with the whole box. I gave him one and put the box on my nightstand. Next thing I know I am waking up with a crumbled pop tart in my hand and all over the bed. Cherry in case you wondering and I know some of you are. I asked Jayke how it got there and he keeps telling me I fell asleep with it. He said he ate the one I gave him and he doesn't know how the other one got in my hand. I know what he says is true, he ate his because the one that was still in the box is gone now. So what was I doing in my sleep, with a pop tart in hand?!? I will probably never know so I just ate it and got out of bed. I haven't had breakfast in bed in ages.

The Crazies are Back!

So I got the last of my pack of dogs groomed yesterday. Charlie was last because he is the hardest to catch. You would think he would be mad at me for this but he doesn't look mad...



I saw this picture at Bits and Pieces and had to post it because I have a pom who needs groomed badly. I'm sure he will look somewhat like this poor little thing who doesn't look like he minds the horrible cut at all. I will try to leave a little more hair on him than this guy has I think.
I woke at six this morning in the grip of an anxiety attack (first I've had in months) because my contacs were stuck to my eyeballs. At least that is what my mind jumped to as soon as I was awake enough to realize what was going on. I ripped the contacs out and headed for the computer to distract me until it passes. I'm not crazy by the way. I just suffer from anxiety which developed during my pregnancy and yep, I'm off my meds again...I don't know why I keep thinking I can stop taking it but I do. I guess I keep hoping I will be miraculously cured. So this is the kind of post you get when I'm in the middle of a panic attack and off my meds. I'm going back to bed now, probably just in time for The Boy to wake up and want something to eat. Mom don't call me tomorrow and tell me you knew I was off the medicine because I've been a grouch. I will be sleeping, hopefully.

Google has a sense of humor. I saw this on Random and Odd and thought it was funny. I still want to know how people find this stuff though.

–Go to Google.com

–Click on Maps.

–Click on get Directions.

–From New York,New York

–To Paris,France.

–And read line # 23.

Wacky Easter Theme

I don't really have a "W" theme today so this will be a stretch.

For Easter Jaykeb got one of those blow up punching bag-type things that bounce back up when you knock them down. His is new and improved from the ones when I was little though, as are most things these days. His came with these boxing glove things so you can really Whack Mr. Bop Buddy hard. He loves this thing! Way more than I thought he would. After we finally got it blown up and the water put in the base to make it pop back up, he went to town on that thing. He was punching it saying, "And this, and that!" Mostly he just wanted to run and tackle it though. The crazy thing talks and makes noise effects like it it really taking a beating.



It didn't take very long for Mike and I to put on the blow up gloves and take a turn beating the crap out of Mr. Bop Buddy either. And I know you know what is coming next. Yes, we then turned to each other and started using them on each other. Jaykeb and the dog had to get in on the action so it was a big free-for-all in the middle of the living room with my mom saying over and over that she was in a crazy house. Turns out whacking that thing is a pretty good work-out...punching Mike is a better one though. He fights back! We need to turn it into a nightly routine. Excercise all the way around and a way to blow off some steam. He also got the game Wack-a-Mole from the Easter bunny. We seemed to have a theme going on this year. A violent one too! I didn't even realize. We all had to take our turns whacking moles or smashing gophers as Opa kept calling it. Mike had the high score until my Mom cheated to beat it but didn't tell him she cheated.



Now that I look back over my post I don't think I had to reach as much as I thought I would to get the "w" in there, sitting at desk patting self on back. Didya play? Let me and TKW know if you did!

Thank You Oma and Opa

Jayke is a sad boy today. His Oma and Opa left to go back home to Indiana. For a minute he said he was going to go with them until he realized I wasn't going too. Now he is in the bedroom watching cartoons. Something he didn't do the entire time they were here.
I haven't taken any more pictures of the finished landscaping project yet because it isn't totally finished. Mike and I still have to get the mulch and put it down ourselves. Probably this weekend. It looks great though and will look even better when the mulch is down. Mike and Opa finished that up yesterday while my mom, Jayke, and I went shopping. You know we have to get a day of shopping in no matter what! It was a VERY successful trip too!
After shopping we decided to find a new restaurant. That isn't too hard to do since we have only been here a year and there are TONS of restaurants down here that we have never heard of. We decided on one in the little historical town of Pendleton. Opa was craving some fresh seafood and this place had a great menu loaded with seafood, steaks, and other goodies. The restaurant was in this really old old building. Not big on atmosphere but the food was great! Mike even said he'd go back and anyone who knows his eating habits knows that is really saying something. We took a spin around the town square after dinner to see all the old historical buildings and read about the history. Interesting stuff. I've been meaning to go explore up there a little bit so I was glad we went.
We had a busy tiring visit with my parents but it was a good visit. I will be glad when they move down here in a few years and we will be able to do more of this stuff. Jayke will be glad too!
Mike is off today but we aren't doing anything. Just cleaning up from our company and long weekend. Jayke and I did have a little art project this morning though. He got Floam from the Easter bunny so we made these this morning...



A bee and a mosquito in case you couldn't tell. I think I like the Floam better than the Clay Babies we did a few weeks ago. It was easier to work with and you don't have to bake it. Jayke loved it for about 20 minutes and then he was on to something else while I finished making his bugs. Typical.

Our Big Working Weekend!

It has been a little boy's dreamland around here this weekend. Not only has he had his Oma waiting on him hand and foot, but he has had two dump trucks come and dump piles of dirt and stone on his cul de sac for us to use in our landscaping project and we have a Bobcat rented that he has been getting to ride on.



I don't know what is so fascinating about this stone but apparently something is...



It only took about 1 minute for him to go right up to the top of the pile. That is what 20 tons of stone looks like by the way. I thought it would be more. He ate his lunch which he called a "picnic" on top of the rock pile both days it was still out there.



Oma had to climb up with him for his picnics. That was entertaining all by itself, watching her climb up and better still, get back down!



He had to try out the dirt pile too. He was in heaven! At the end of the first day of our project he was exhausted!



He didn't only play on the piles, he actually helped with the work. Here you can see the beginning of what we were doing in the yard.



....and another shot with the beginnings of the steps put in.



Jayke got to ride on the Bobcat (On Opa's lap, not in the bucket. They weren't moving in this picture)many times and loved it! I remember riding on equipment with my grandpa all the time when I was little and loving it.




Daddy got to ride on the Bobcat too!



Here is a picture of the landscaping with some stuff actually planted. This is where we are with it right now. We have to get mulch tomorrow and then it will be done. Just have to wait for everything to grow!



I know Grandma is waiting to see all these pictures that is why I'm putting so many on here. Tomorrow I will be able to put the finished project on here but you can get an idea of what we have been doing all weekend from these. I think everyone is sitting around in the living room trying not to move right now and waiting on their Easter dinner. Jaykeb is asleep in the middle of the floor. He fell asleep with his face buried in my shoe he was so tired. I think tomorrow we are going to do something fun and not work other than spreading the mulch which Mike and I can do by ourselves if mom and Jim are too tired.
Here are a couple of shots of the boy with his Oma...


Next weekend his Meemaw will be here so he is going to be in grandma bliss next weekend too!



And the Easter egg hunt pictures I promised...


It was pretty cold here this morning so we had to wait until it warmed up a little but we were still able to have the hunt outside which is always better!



We are all exhausted but we got a lot of work done! Besides putting in the steps we built up and leveled an area where the pool is going to go and we got The Boy's sandbox set up with new rubber playground mulch put down so he won't get so dirty when playing on the swingset. He also go a new glider added to his swingset which he LOVES! I think we will all be heading to bed early again tonight and hopefully we will be able to walk tomorrow!

Thank You Easter Bunny!

Happy Easter! Feels more like Christmas though. Cold! Jayke got up plenty early this morning but didn't remember that it was Easter. I think he was so worn out from all the work we did yesterday that he just forgot about the bunny coming when he went to bed last night. I think every one of us was in bed by 10:15p.m. That has to be a record for me! I have lots of pictures of the work we have been doing but I will save them for later. Today is about Easter!

We won't be hunting eggs until later. Let it warm up a little. We didn't color many but we got a few done. I haven't done this in years. Here is Jaykeb and his Dad coloring the eggs yesterday.



He has a few eggs in there.


I know it looks like a lot for Easter but there is stuff from 3 people in this pile.



Mike had an interesting Easter basket. He called it his, "Wife Beating Kit" I'm not sure I like that.



He got a new George Foreman grill too since ours pooped out a couple of weeks ago.
The Easter Bunny even remembered to bring Oma and Opa a basket!



I'm sure I will have pictures of the big egg hunt later...much later when it warms up. I have to go see about preparing my Easter feast now.

Look Again!

Today's SPF assignment is "Holy". At first I thought I wouldn't play because I was gone all day and didn't even find out what it was until 11p.m. tonight, but then I was looking through the pictures I took today and I found one I could use. When you see the picture you may say something like, "Holy crap, how is that thing still alive?" or "Holy crap, that doesn't even look real!". Believe me folks it is and it is living. I know because that is my shorty standing in front of it.



The exposed roots of an enormous tree in Falls Park along the Reedy River. Here is another shot where you can see the tree coming out of the ground above.



So, I was very excited when I realized I could use these pictures for today's SPF! It's not often I find something really fascinating to take a picture of...other than my child of course. Didya play? Didya, didya? Let me and Kristine know if you did!

Reedy River and The Zoo

A photographer, I am not. Don't expect any great pictures of animals from our day at the zoo. Sorry folks it wasn't happening, but I got a few good ones of The Boy and a couple of some animals too.

We started out the day on the playground outside the zoo. It was a little chilly but once we got inside where the wind wasn't able to hit us it was fine. The zoo was a really nice little zoo. It was just the right size for a little guy like mine. We didn't get to tired, there was enough to keep us both entertained, but not too much to overwhelm us.



The first thing we saw were the elephants. Two of them eating hay and doing whatever it is elephants do. Jaykeb LOVED the elephants.



I think my favorite part of the trip was when this little guy started entertaining us...


He would hang upside down from the top of his cage swinging and all the monkeys were going nuts making monkey noises. I was told they do that every morning. They had lots of monkeys in this zoo. Here is a rare breed of Monkey I've never seen before...



I didn't really get many pictures of the animals because they were either in areas where I couldn't photograph them or their were too many kids in the way. It was chaotic in there and I was just trying to make sure I didn't lose my child and help the other moms keep track of their kids too. We spent a lot of time up in the back on one of the playgrounds too. The kids seemed to like that as much as they liked seeing the animals. I took this one on the way out.




After the zoo we headed up the road to Falls Park. I had read about it on the computer and some of the moms at Mom's Club were telling me how nice it was so we decided to check it out. The weather was perfect and we got several great pictures. This was by far the neatest park I've ever been to. They didn't have any playground equipment (at least not in the part we were in) and Jaykeb still told me when we left that he loved it! How could you not LOVE this park?



There were rock paths that wound in and out, up and down all over the place. There was the water fall, there were fountains all over, you could wade in the river above the falls, there were bridges all over, pretty flowers blooming everywhere, and if you got hungry just climb one of the rock stairs and you were on Main Street in downtown which is lined with great little restaurants and lots of cute little stores. We didn't make it as far as the kid portion of the park but we will be going back and we will check that end out when we do.



Jayke was all for posing for pictures all over the place. Every time we would come up to a fountain he would say, "Take my picture, Mommy!" I was more than happy to oblige.



To my friends, Kim and Angi, this is where the hotel is that you guys were talking about staying in if you came down for spring break. Maybe next time. I think your kids would have a blast!


We left the park and went to Skins for a couple of hot dogs then home to wait for Oma and Opa to get here. I am going to try to take them to the park while they are here.



I took this picture of The Boy in the flowers for my grandma. I know she will like it! You can see more pictures and read more about the park by clicking here. The main attraction of the park is the Liberty Bridge. A suspension bridge that spans the falls below. It is really interesting because of the way it curves and appears to be floating. It is, "unique in it's geometry and there is nothing like it anywhere else in the US" Here is a picture of the bridge at night featured on the website. You can't tell from this picture the degree of the curve. It is a lot more severe than it appears in the picture. Jaykeb thought it was "cool". I would like to see it at night.



So that was a our day. Lots of fresh air, lots of exercise, and lots of fun. Who could ask for more?

We are off to the zoo this morning. I'm sure I will have some pictures when we return!

Waskilly Wabbit!

It was 10 degrees hotter than Hades here today so I decided to torture my child this afternoon. I took him to see the Easter Bunny. Normally this would seem like a kid-friendly thing to do but apparently not! Not when your child is first in line after waiting for the freakin bunny to come back from "eating some carrots in the garden" (aka lunch)for a half an hour. First in line means no warm up. No getting to see that the giant rabbit doesn't really eat the kids whose parents lovingly drag them to his lap for their opportunity to get a picture for the scrapbook/blog. Nothing. Just, "Your turn kid, hurry up their are people in line behind you who need to terrorize their children". Jayke was all for seeing the bunny until he actually saw him. Then my otherwise well behaved friendly child turned into a screaming panicked thing permanently attached to my side. Really, I could not pull him off of me for anything. After trying to persuade him with everything I could think of we stepped aside and let the next victim take her turn screaming at the bunny. We sat on the floor and watched as each child cautiously walked up then turned and tried to retreat as fast as they could. Finally some "big" boys took their turn and Jaykeb saw that the bunny did not mistake their limbs for carrots and decided he would go next but he wasn't sitting on his lap. NO WAY! So this is what I got...



The one I paid for that the keeper of the bunny took was a little better. It isn't what I was hoping for but better than nothing. And what a dope I am for not dressing my child in some cute Easter type outfit like all the other parents remembered to do. We were coming from the Easter egg hunt at Mom's Club though and I knew he would be all over that playground so I wasn't going to put him in anything too good and honestly I just didn't think about it. Just like I didn't think about taking a basket or bucket or anything for the poor kid to collect his eggs in. What is the matter with me? Luckily we borrowed a bucket from another mom and even though it was pink it worked just fine. He collected his eggs then asked if we could hide them again for him. I told him not until this weekend and he went off to play on the playground.



We were lucky to make it to the egg hunt today since I'm convinced there is some cosmic force trying to keep me from attending Mom's Club events. When I woke up this morning and headed for the shower the power went off as I walked into the bathroom. It was off for an hour but I managed to take the fastest shower ever and make it to church on what I thought was the correct time. Turns out I was a half an hour early after all of that. Crap!



Because he was so good at both the Easter egg hunt and finally with the Eater Bunny I told him I'd get him some ice cream...



Who knew Jack-in-the-Box had such huge milkshakes? He didn't mind that it was so big. He managed to get most of it on his shirt anyway.

When we got home we decided to do some more "Spring Cleaning" so we got Sophie out of the backyard and started giving her her summer do. That dog can't sit still for anything which made it quite hard and covered me with dog hair. After the cut she was heading for the bath where things got interesting. While trying to coral her in the tub we somehow managed to tear the shower curtain down rod and all. The rod of course, landed on my head and as I was trying to remove it Sophie thought it was the perfect time to make a break for it. She jumped out of the tub soaking wet and I caught her right before she made it to the carpet. Needless to say, at this point the entire bathroom was drenched and so was I. When Mike finally walked in he saw the shower curtain laying in the hallway, the rod stretched clear across the bathroom blocking the door, and me sitting on the floor soaking wet scrubbing the filthy dog. He just shook his head and tried to walk away but I insisted that he come in and help me finish her up. Thank God I don't have any pictures of this to show you or you would be convinced I'm nuts for sure. Okay, I know, half of you reading this already know I am but I don't have to give you visual proof.

After dinner we finally dug into the eggs The Boy collected at the hunt. He was very happy with his loot and especially happy that a couple of the eggs had chocolates in them.



Just look at that chocolate ring around the mouth! No, I didn't make him wear the bunny ears, he did it willingly.




The rest of the night, I would like to tell you was uneventful, but it wasn't. There were several time-outs and some arguing about parenting tactics but in the end everyone went to bed (or to the computer) happy. Now, I leave you with one more picture from today's outing. It's Jayke in the mall waiting for the giant bunny to come back.



Someone thought they were something else until that big bunny showed up! And that is all for today. I have to go hang the shower curtain back up now.

So, I really only used the "W" in my title...whatever works! If you played let me and TKW know.