A Whole Bunch of Stuff...

It has been a while so I have a lot to catch up on. First is a day in the leaves with P'pa. We pulled in the driveway and the entire yard was covered with pretty yellow leaves that had just come down over night. The Boy was ready to rake leaves as soon as he saw them. He made P'pa go out with him and blow them into a huge pile.



It didn't matter that P'pa uses a tractor to pick up his leaves, he went out with his leaf blower and made a huge pile just for the kiddo to jump in. He had to go back later and spread them all out so the tractor could pick them up. Anything for the boy! I got in the pile with him and Meemaw video taped it.



Amazing how much fun a pile of leaves can be. The first picture was so cute I had it made into porcelain Christmas ornaments.




We are halfway through soccer now. Jaykeb loves it. He had one bad day there and ever since then has been bugging me all week about going back to soccer. I can't wait to put him in the spring league. He looks so cute out there in his soccer clothes. He is getting the basics down but when it is time to scrimmage he just runs back and forth grinning at me the whole time. Last Saturday he actually kicked the ball during one of their games. His team won too! He has a favorite coach who they call Captain Norway because that is where he is from. There are two little girls from his preschool class who play too so he has familiar faces there.



There hasn't been another Twila yet but he has two friends who are boys who he talks about alot now. He really likes his teachers too. He got his picture taken for soccer and for school. We got the school pictures back and they were pretty cute. He looked like he didn't really want to smile in them though. I am anxious to get the soccer pictures back now.

We play outside a lot. There is a lot to do here for little guys. Where we live now is where I grew up so I have been having fun taking Jaykeb to do all the things I did as a kid. Walks in the woods, picking up buckeyes, blowing milkweed seeds, and climbing on Grandpa's equipment.




As you can imagine, The Boy LOVES all the construction equipment that is available for him to get rides on. He doesn't look thrilled in the picture but that was because I was making him pose all over the place for pictures. He is getting tired of that. He has started giving me goofy faces when I tell him to smile for pictures. I guess this will be a stage for a while. I did manage to get a cute picture of the two of us for our Christmas card this year. We had it taken in the woods one evening before it got too cold out.



We got our Christmas tree put up after he got back from his weekend with his father. Oma and Opa came over for dinner and decorating the tree. I will put pictures of the finished tree later when I get some good ones. I have been decorating like crazy for my party I am having on the 14th. I've never had a Christmas party so I will probably go overboard like I tend to do, but it is giving me something to look forward to right now.




Along with tree decorating, we also baked Christmas cookies. This was quite a production. I let Jayke cut the cookies out himself and I even gave up control of the decorating and let him do it all.



We had all kinds of fun stuff to put on them. Jaykeb liked the sprinkles and icing pens the best though. When we were finished we were both covered from head to toe with flour. That is the only way to bake though! At one point I looked at him and he had this funny look on his face. I just turned my back to him and told him to brush it off. He wanted to know how I knew what he had done. I told him it was because I was the mom. I had a big white handprint in the middle of my black shirt. I think he was in shock that I wasn't mad. I had already decided that we would just have fun with the cookies and I would clean up the mess later. Much easier that way, I don't spend the whole time worried or upset about the mess and just have fun with him.





Before we left SC we had sent out a Flat Jaykeb to visit my cousin, Kelly, in Colorado. We got Flat Jaykeb back today and boy did he get around. Kelly took him to work with her and had tons of great pictures of what all they did there. She also took him to see the butterflies and to the aquarium. After hanging out with Kelly Flat Jaykeb got to go on a cruise where he visited Turkey, Croatia, Greece, and italy. Man do I wish I were Flat Jaykeb! My other cousin, Ryan and his wife Serenity, took him to see all of these places and had wonderful pictures all with Flat Jaykeb in them. I wish I could put the whole book Kelly did for us on here. It was fantastic! I bought the book, Flat Stanley for Jaykeb so he could read it then see where all his Flat traveler went. She also sent lots of post cards and little toys from where she works so he was in heaven when his package arrived today.



My only problem now is that I have no idea where to send Flat Jaykeb next. I had planned to send him to Indiana to go to work with Opa and hang out with Oma, Meemaw,and P'pa but now Jaykeb can do that in person. Also, I told my mom that Kelly did such and outstanding job that she may have raised the bar too high. I guess I will have to think about this for a while and figure out where Flat Traveler can go next.

Thank you Kelly! We were more than pleased with your hosting duties! I knew you would do it up like that though.

We have a Christmas party to go to this weekend with a bunch of friends and their kids. We picked names and are doing stockings for our exchange gift. Jaykeb got Avery, who is five and a new little friend of his, so it should be super cute to see him give her her stocking. I finally got to buy for a little girl too...you know I had fun with that right? Can you say Pink and Hello Kitty?!?

We are supposed to get snow in the near future so I'm hoping we get enough to go out and use the really nice snowman building kit Aunt Dona made for Jaykeb. We will make a snowman and a snow dinosaur and all kinds of cute animals. P'pa saved a bunch of sleds for us too and I want to go to the Me Zoo in the snow. Just plugging along trying to feel normal. Still no luck in the job department though. I turned in an application today that I have high hopes for. The job is exactly what my degree is in so hopefully I will hear something soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Hustle and Bustle

Somehow I got convinced going shopping at 5a.m. the day after Thanksgiving was a good idea this year. I've managed to avoid shopping on this day my whole life but Angi is convincing when she wants you to join her in some madness. Yes, I will admit it turned out to be a fun day but it was touch and go in the beginning.

There may or may not have been some cheating the lines and pushing of security guards to get in the door ahead of the crowd at one Target store in the central Indiana area. There may or may not have been running like a mad woman down the aisles to the electronics section once you were in the door ahead of the crowd. There may or may not have been a lot of sweating and frantic phone calls from cell phone to cell phone. In the end though, there WERE coveted items scored from behind the electronics counter. That is all I will say about our first stop on what I now like to call Scary Soccer Moms on the Loose. If you see a burgandy Honda Odessey loaded with packages and 5 crazed women in your area, be afraid, be very afraid!

We hit a total of 4 stores. We could have kept going but we couldn't fit anything else in the mini van. We saw people yelling, cussing, running, and sweating every where we went. Yes, some times it was us. I decided to behave myself after the Target entrance. Somehow that story got embellished all day long. I would like to go on record right now as saying I DID NOT throw a security guard to the ground. I was merely pushed into one causing him to conveniently move out of my way. This will probably end up being one of the stories Angi and I like to tell over and over again like the one about the throwing of a trash can and a bottle of Vodka.

As I'm sure you can figure out on your own, we had a good time. We got a lot of shopping done. We got a ton of great deals and we had a lot of laughs. I was up by 4 a.m. and didn't come home until 6:30p.m. When I was done shopping with my friends I headed to Anderson where I knew my dad would be at some electronics store buying extremely large and expensive televisions. I was correct. We went hunting for something I wanted then headed to his house to haul everything inside.

I managed to not only get Christmas done but I got Jayke's birthday shopping done as well. Now I'm onto party planning. We planned one gift exchange for the kids with my friends and I am planning an ornament exchange with all my girlfriends at my house. Sunday I am having a trim the tree get together. I have all my decorating done except the tree which I promised Jayke I would hold off on until he got back from his weekend with Mike. I am so ready for that little turkey to come home. I miss him like crazy but I'm happy that he is spending time with his cousins and having fun.

Jen and Angi call today "The Hustle and Bustle", I now know why. I certainly hustled my bustle all day long!

By the way, I am officially back in the world of blogging now. I am all hooked up with highspeed internet at my own house! Yeah!

Would You Like to Buy a Pizza for My School?

I took this evil looking child to the park yesterday. Oma and Grammy went with us but Grammy doesn't walk well and Oma had thrown her back out so it was just the kiddo and the Mommy playing. We took a walk down by the river so Jayke could throw rocks in the water and Mommy could try to teach him how to skip them. I don't think he is ready for that quite yet. It was supposed to be our last nice day for a while so we wanted to get a day at the park in.

I was surprised at how easily The Boy climbed up the rock wall. He has never done it before that I know of but he went right up the thing like it was nothing. This park has great walking trails and they have installed exercise stations along the path since I was there last. Angi and I have plans to start using it. Notice I said we have plans...not that we have done it or anything. All we manage to do is walk around department stores so far. Still exercise in my book!



He climbed right to the top of this thing too...




I have a modem now so I can get hooked up to high speed internet. It has been sitting in the bedroom all week. As you can see, I jumped right on that. Maybe I will get around to that tonight. I have been doing my scrapbooks instead of blogging. I'm officially addicted! I did remeber to charge my camera battery though so now I can start taking pictures with it again instead of my phone. I'm getting tired of texting the pictures to my email account and waiting to check it when I'm at my mom's. You can see why I don't blog as often...PITA.

I had my first parent/teacher conference. Jayke has only been going to that school for 2 weeks so I didn't know what we could have to confer about but I went any way. Just as I suspected she wanted to talk about his sereration anxiety. He has it really bad when I drop him off but he also is having it when any of the teachers leave the classroom. That was on Monday. He had school on Tuesday and again today. By today he had already gotten over it. He didn't cry at all today. He was so proud of himself too. I think we are over the hump with that now.

Another first for Jayke is he is selling things for his school fundraiser. I probably wouldn't have even bothered but they are offering money off tuition for the top 3 sellers. Yeah, they just had to go and make it a competition so you know I'm all over that. I have a list of people to hit up. We have made it to a few houses so far and everyone has been generous with their orders. Tomorrow I'm taking him to my dad's to sell him some pizzas and over Thanksgiving he can hit his dad up too. I taught him to go up to the doors and give his sales pitch. It is the cutest thing ever watching my kid hock over priced frozen goods to our unsuspecting friends and family. Brings a tear to my eye. I reminded Angi of all the pies, mums, and candles I have bought from her kids over the years before ringing her doorbell. Must have worked she bought a couple of things. We are so gonna win this thing!

He Must Have Thought we Were in The Outback

Jayke and I took a couple of walks today. On the first walk we went back behind my grandmother's house in the tall tall grass that is along the long pond. We started out to check out the buckeye tree, a favorite activity of Jayke's. We had the dogs with us so we were soon off into the tall grass to retrieve the mutts who had wondered off. Jayke thought it was great tramping around in that grass. He kept telling me he was hunting with Simon and Laynie, the dogs. I think The Boy and the dogs need to get out more often. All of a sudden I hear Jayke yelling, "A KANGAROO! A KANGAROO!" I turn just in time to see a rabbit running off through the field. Apparently he almost stepped on it in it's hiding spot down in the tall tall grass. So, not only does my child think a rabbit is a kangaroo, but my big hunting dogs (one is an actual beagle) didn't even have a clue there was a rabbit in the vicinity. Not even after it took off across the field.

We ventured over to the woods after that and found an abundance of milk weed to blow the seeds around. I was never allowed to do that as a kid. My grandpa would yell at me and tell me the farmer doesn't like them in the fields. Come on! How can a kid resist a milk weed pod just bursting with white fluffiness? Anyway, Grammy doesn't care so we blew all the seeds out of every pod we could find. We also discovered a tree stand on my dad's property with a salt lick just a few feet away. Talk about unfair advantage, not to mention illegal. Poor deer wouldn't even have a chance. I called Jim and he came and took the tree stand down and took the salt lick over to the field with the tall tall grass and the kangarabbit for the deer to be able to enjoy it safely. Jayke and I felt good after our hike and playing conservation officers. Grammy decided to take us out to dinner. Jayke got to pick...Red Lobster, his favorite. Today was a pretty good day.

Grammy and Jayke...

....just hanging out. Jayke likes to go down and sit with Grammy in the mornings.


We found out that one little girl in Jayke's class at school plays soccer with him too so we are excited about that. Also, there is a little girl in his class that lives in Oma's neighborhood! Yeah, a friend to play with at home! She's no Twila though. No one will ever take Twila's place in his heart. He is loyal. A good quality for a man to have. Too bad they don't all have it.

Still looking for a job. Not doing much else. I have started scrapbooking again though. Still no highspeed internet at Grammy's so I am not getting around to blogs regularly yet. I will soon. I'm thinking of ordering my modem tomorrow. Enough waiting. Who needs a job before they start running up bills, right?

They Almost Won

Boooo!!!! The colts lost last night. Bummer. Actually, the women at the party we went to had no idea who lost or what the score was at that point. We spent the evening in the kitchen within arms reach of the blender. My dad makes these drinks that we named "Cabana Boy Specials" because my sister sits by the pool in the summer and orders drinks from her "Cabana Boy", my dad. They are lemonade and rasberry Absolute Vodka frozen drinks and they are yummy. Anyway, Angi introduced them to her entire neighborhood and now they all make them. Last nights batch was even colored blue for the Colts big game. We weren't around for part of the game because we were making one of our trips to fetch ice from another house down the block or to cut hydrangea's...don't ask. We got the bad news when Angie's husband, Bob, came in the house in a very bad mood. (Different Angi, different house, different husband)All the kids were moping around. Not the moms though we were all happy as clams.

Here are a few of the kids from the party in the Colts gear.



Jayke ended up going home early from the party. I think he was having some effects from his flu vaccination and wasn't feeling well. I ran him to my mom's and went back. Before he left we took this picture of our Colt's babies though...



Jayke was holding the baby girl at one point but told me it made him nervous. Too cute. The other little boy is Mason. I think Jayke will end up being friends with him. He is a year yonger but has older brothers so is used to playing with older boys. I think more of the parents had on Colts jerseys than the kids. Jayke has a Manning jersey and I have Harrison. He was excited that we totally matched. I'm excited that we get to do fun stuff like this again with friends. Now if the husband was just doing it with us too everything would be perfect.

Last One, I Promise!

I know you are all probably getting sick of seeing and hearing about Halloween but I'm still trying to catch up on my blogging so this is the last Halloween related post I promise.

Some pictures of the kids we went trick or treating with...



These are Angi's kids, Maci and Matthew. Matthew was a Zombie and I don't think I managed to get a picture of him without his mask.



Brannon, Kim's son, as a Sumo Wrestler. Probably my favorite costume of the night next to Jayke's of course!



Here is Jayke and his women. The two in the middle are Haley and Lindsey, Kim's girls and the one on the end is Maci. At one point Maci and Haley were literally fighting over who was going to hold Jayke's hand. Scared him and he didn't want either of them holding his hand after that. Funny. I will have to remind him of this when he is 15 or so.
f
He had a great night. Got tons of loot and totally worn out. The only bad part of the evening came when we took off his little cowboy boots and discovered there was a spot where the boot had rubbed his leg raw despite me putting knee high socks on him. We discovered the spot when he acidentally missed the toilet and peed down his leg hitting the raw spot causing him to scream bloody murder. I will be so happy when he gets his aim in the bathroom under control.

She's Crafty...

I've got a few pumpkin carving pictures to show. We carved two this year. Opa helped with the top of the first one and I did the rest after Jayke cleaned them out.







Jayke was a big help. He scooped and scooped and scooped. Seeds went flying every where. I'm glad Grammy wasn't in there to see what we were doing to her dining room.




Our first pumpkin was just a regular ol pumpkin. Mommy had to get fancy with the second one though. I had forgotten how long it takes to carve on this way and that I swore I would never do it again. Maybe I will remember next year.



That is Scooby Doo in case you can't tell. Remember, my boy is a Scooby nut?



Basically The Boy just wanted to play with the seeds and the slime while I did all the work. I seem to recall doing the same thing when I was a kid. My dad used to grow 200lb pumpkins for me when I was little. Took forever to clean those babies out. Glad I only had small ones to do.

Yee Haw!

I have more pictures of Halloween but I still don't have my computer hooked up so I am relying on my phone and my mom's computer right now to blog with. This is Cowboy Jayke. My mom made the vest and chaps from looking at a picture I found on ebay. He looked adorable and had the best time trick or treating. Scratch that...he had a good time until about half way through the neighborhood then he wanted to quit. I don't blame him, that was a big neighborhood for a little guy to walk. It was a big neighborhood for his mom to walk too.




We were trick or treating with all my friends and their kids. Jayke had two little girls fighting over him. Scared him to death. They were literally screaming at each other over who was going to hold his hand. I told him this is every boy's dream to have two women fighting over him but he just wanted me to hold his hand and those crazy girls to leave him alone. He was tired at that point too. We had already been to my mom's and out to Angi's mother-in-law's where he got a treat bag that had Disney cars in it. He was so excited about those cars he slept with them that night. We had perfect weather and I actually had a good time and didn't think about my own life for a few hours.

The next day we went over to my dad's and trick or treated there. Everyone should trick or treat at my dad's house, he passes out bags of candy instead of pieces. He passed Jayke a whole box of donuts along with his candy. Jayke gets his sweet tooth from my father.

The morning after Halloween The Boy didn't want to go back to his new school. He cried and screamed and the teacher had to peel him off of me. I felt so bad. He hasn't cried like that since we first moved to SC and he started Mom's Morning out. The teacher told me when I picked him up that he was laying on his cot at nap time and he said, "I can't take much more of this! My mom better hurry up and come get me!" He seemed fine when I picked him up. Very happy to see me.

Jayke is loving living with Grammy. This morning I had to drag them both back in the house. Jayke was down at the pond on the beach area with a huge stick getting himself covered with mud and Grammy was hanging over the side of the pier feeding her fish. I was not feeling like making any water rescues in the 50 degree weather so I told them both to get in the house. They are becoming thick as thieves. Jayke is always going to look for Grammy's cane when she misplaces it and Grammy hands out donuts and Chocolate milk when I'm not available. Its a match made in heaven.

Jayke is in the other room right now telling Oma and Opa about his traumatic expereince at the doctor's office today when he got his physical. The doctor removed his pants to check his lower region and he was not a happy camper. When he finally got his pants back on he grabbed up his jacket, shoes, and my purse and said, "Come on Mommy, we are leaving!" He was not having any of that action. I don't blame him. At least he didn't have to get a shot, he got his flu vaccination through a mist up his nose. Thank Gawd!

We Are Back!

We are all settled in at Grammy's house now. Jayke is happy, he has his toy room all set up and his Oma next door almost. He started his new school yesterday. There wasn't any talk of girls yet though. I think he still misses Twila. He does like his school though, they have a way better play ground and a guinea pig in the classroom. It's the important things that count, ya know. He starts soccer on Saturday and tonight we have plans to go trick or treating with my friend's kids. Angi, Ryan, and their kids have been great to us, making us part of their plans when possible. Jayke loves Maci and Matthew and I think they are pretty fond of him too.

I started applying for jobs yesterday. Ugggghhh! I don't mind working but I HATE looking for a job. I am hoping to work at the banking center where Angi and Kim work. Angi and I will be able to take turns driving if I end up out there. My mom has gotten a new decorating job for a lady who loves florals so I could get some floral work again and with Christmas coming up I could even get some Christmas tree jobs. I miss doing that almost everyday. Grammy's house is going to look like the North Pole threw up all over it. Hope she is ready for that! I held back with my Halloween decorating so it wouldn't overwhelm her but there will be no stopping me with the Christmas decorations.

I'm feeling a lot better about things but still no where near normal yet. Today I feel good, tomorrow may be another story. Mike is in Germany now so I am not talking to him much. He will be seeing Jayke over Thanksgiving. We are still very friendly. I haven't gotten mad yet...kind of scary. I don't think I will. Doesn't do any of us any good. I'm just very sad and disappointed. Thank you to everyone for checking in on me and leaving messages. I am going to try to get back to blogging on a regular basis now. I think today is my blogger anniversary. 1 year. I'm not sure about that. It is my wedding anniversary. This will confuse those who know me and were at my wedding in May. Just a little secret I've had for the past 8 years that probably doesn't matter anymore. Go ahead, AJ, ask your questions.

The picture above was taken at Grammy's. We did two pumpkins this year. The one in the picture and one that is Scooby Doo. I will try to get a picture of it on here along with pictures of Jayke in his costume.

Happy Halloween!

An Update...

Just a quick update in case anyone still checks this thing. On Sunday Jayke and I, along with the help from my friends, will be moving back to Indiana. We have spent the past week packing with my step-mom's and Mike's parent's help. We are almost finished and on Friday Angi, Kim, and Kim's husband will get here to help me load a truck and drive it home to Indiana.

We are going to live in my grandmother's upstairs for now. This will work out well for all of us. She needs help from time to time so we will be there to give it to her. Jayke is enrolled in a new school and will start right away when we get back. He will go two days a week all day and his grandparents will take him the rest of the week. I will start looking for a job right away. I have no idea where, but I will find one I'm sure.

Mike will be leaving for Germany the same day we leave for Indiana. Maybe that will be a good thing, I don't know. We are still friends and will keep it that way, I hope. I'm still very sad, but I am ready to try to move on now. Hopefully we will all be happy again soon.

As soon as I get settled, I will be back to the blog. Thanks for all the nice comments and emails. They have helped a lot. Be back soon!

No Title

I wish I had pictures of beautiful beaches and crazy family members to show you but our trip to Mexico didn't happen. Jaykeb's life and my life is going in a different direction now and we will be taking a trip of our own. We will be moving back to Indiana in a few weeks. I don't really know what else to say except that we are all very sad.

I will continue to post pictures and stories about Jayke when I have some. I don't think it will be as often, at least for a while. I hope I can come back to this blog later when we are both a little happier.

Here's a Hint...

I told Jayke to put his new Cowboy boots on with his shorts so I could take his picture the other day. Mike asked me why I always try to make him look like a dork then take his picture. I told Mike that if he wore Cowboy boots with shorts he would look like a dork, but on Jaykeb it would just be cute. I don't know now that I'm looking at this picture. It kind of looks like he has on gauchos with boots, like women wear. That is his serious model pose by the way.

You can kind of see what I've been working on in his room. I haven't painted anything yet because I can't decide what colors to use. Instead, I slapped some cork board with a painted chair rail on the wall in between his new bookcases and then threw some wallies up above that. I don't have any before shots of this half of his room to show you but let me tell you that this is 100x better than what it was before. He had no shelving or any thing, so stuff was just piled up over there. It was a big mess! I put shelving units the entire length of the wall and have been putting the red, green, and blue wooden storage bins with the chalkboard fronts in them to hold all his misc. junk.

The bins make it easier for him to get stuff out and pick up on his own now. He knows that when he is done with something to put it all back in the storage bin and put it back on the shelf.

I made an art area for him with his little table and chairs. He has a white board and more bulletin boards there to display his art. I even found little tin buckets to hold his supplies. He can sit at his table and draw, play with his laptop, and watch Scooby Doo movies on his tv. His room really kind of resembles a classroom but has a transportation theme. I'm not done, of course. I am making a flag banner with his name, I have to paint the one wall a color still and I have a shelf to hang but you can get some sort of idea where it is going. It is still way too full but until we have a play room it has to be this way.



Now, I have given you a big clue as to what Jayke is going to be for Halloween. I haven't tried the entire costume on him yet because I knew if I did I would have to post it on the blog and I'm trying to hold out until closer to Halloween. I'm really excited to see him in his costume, I think it is going to be super cute. What are your kids going to be this year? Have they decided? Have you decided for them? Jayke and I had to compromise this year because we were in disagreement about what he was going to be. I'm sure this was the first of many disagreements on what he wears though.

Too Bad Mute Wasn't One of the Afflictions Too...

I am very busy today trying to get ready for our trip to Mexico and Oma arriving with her white gloves so I don't have much time to blog. I do have one funny thing The Boy said this morning though. I woke up to this drama this morning.

"MOM! I can't see or here 'cause I'm bwind from sweeping!"

He was blind from sleeping for those of you who don't speak kid. He had just woke up and you know how sometimes it is hard to focus first thing after you wake up. A few minutes later he said, "I'm okay. I can see now." Thank Gawd! I would hate to have to run off to Mexico and leave my blind and deaf child.

Okay, that is it for me today. I will try to get around to blogs throughout the day.

Love It!

Do ya'll have one of these yet? (Yes, I said ya'll...get over it) It is The Redbox, and I love it! It is a kiosk where you can rent movies for $1. New Release movies even. Now I know my friends in Muncie are all looking at this saying, "We've had those for months." Yes, I know you have, but we have not. We do now though! My favorite grocery store just put one in. I would like to think this was in direct response to the email I sent the good folks over at the Redbox hub, but since they didn't put it at the McDonalds I requested, I kind of doubt it.

Anyhoo, this little puppy is going to put movie rental stores out of business. Not only is it located in very easily accessible locations such as McDonalds restaurants and grocery stores butit is in only $1 for any movie including new releases! There are no membership cards, no paperwork to fill out, nothing. You do have to have them back the next day though. No problem for me. I only rent a movie if I plan to watch it that night. You can go to their website and give them their email address and get a free rental too. I got my freebie tonight.

If you don't have one of these in your local grocery store or Mickey D's parking lot send them an email. I did! 3 weeks later their was a Redbox in my grocery store only 3 miles from the location I requested...and yes, I am totally taking credit for it being there. I should get a commission because I have been there twice and business is boomin'! I have some other suggestions of where there needs to be a Redbox, maybe I should write some more emails. Target stores would be a great spot. A Redbox movie kiosk to match the red bullseye! What could be better? Hey Redbox people, you listening?

Okay, I have to go cancel my Netflix membership now. If you have seen any good movies lately let me know so I can go get them from the Redbox.

Welcome Ranch...and other stuff...

Howdy partners! We had a trip to the Welcome Ranch Friday night. A Mom's Club activity that the dads were invited to too. There were a bunch of people there so we started out with some instructions before heading up to ride the horses.



The kids all lined up to take their turns. When it was their turn they got to choose which horse they wanted to ride. Most of the kids wanted to ride the miniature horse, Chocolate, so I told Jayke to pick which ever horse was available and he would get to ride more instead of waiting in line for the one horse. That was fine with him because he wanted to ride the BIG horses anyway!



He had the best time! He would go on his ride, get down and jump back in line to patiently wait his turn. He was so patient I coule hardly believe it. He just stood there in line all by himself watching and waiting. When The Boy in into something nothing else exists in his world.



The parents could have ridden too but I wasn't about to try to haul by big butt up on one of those horses and I think Mike must have decided the same thing because he didn't ride either. Some parents did though and it looked like fun. I was more into talking to the other moms. You know, that adult conversation I lack in my life.



After the riding was finished we headed back to the picnic area and had pizza. The kids all sat at two big tables together. You could tell we were on a ranch, these people were good at herding us to where they wanted us and they were very efficient.


They had cupcakes for all the kids too. After the food the kids hung out and played for a while. Jayke was exhausted so when we got home he went to bed. I think he must have been dreaming about horses though. He does a lot of talking in his sleep. Not surprising considering how much he talks when he is awake.



Besides going to the ranch, not much else is going on. Mike has been working crazy long hours again. He worked like 26 straight a couple of days ago. Right now he is still at work and has been there for 19 hours. We thought his Germany trip was a done deal but now we aren't sure again.

I have lost track of how many people are currently living in my house. There are new people moving in and out every day. Last I checked we had Jayke, Mike, me, Mr. Nobody, Jayke's sister, and Jayke's new brother. Coincidentally, his sister's name is Twila and his brother's name is Will. Both kids in his class at school. I even had to make extra little smokies for Twila this afternoon. Mr. Nobody has been up to no good lately. Things keep happening around the house that Jaykeb informs me are the work of Mr. Nobody. When I catch that little turd, he is out of here! I will be kicking Mr. Nobody to the curb. I haven't seen Icky since we went to the lake though. i guess we left him there. Poor Icky. He is probably lonely and scared. Oh well, one less imaginary mouth for me to feed.

One week until my mom comes and Mike and I leave for Cabo San Lucas! I can feel the separation anxiety forming in the back of my throat already. I will be fine once we get there, it is just the leaving part that gets to me. Jayke is going back and forth with being okay with us leaving to not wanting us to go. I have a feeling once his Oma gets here he won't care what we do. She already shipped a box of surprises down ahead that we can't open until she gets here. She told Jayke herself not to open the box and he told her, "I probably will, Oma." Just matter of factly. He hasn't bugged me about it too much. I opened it and went through it though. Couldn't help it! It had his Halloween costume in it and I was dieing to see it. It is very cute and surprisingly well made. Don't worry, my mom expects that kind of comment from me about her craftsmanship. She will be more shocked that I said she did a good job than she would if I said it was horrible and if anyone thinks I am being mean I have two ottomans the woman recovered that you can come take a look at to see what I'm talkin' 'bout. She calls them my converstaion pieces...'nough said.

A Fungus Among Us

I don't know why...just thought it was kind of neat. I saw all this stuff on a tree in my yard and took these two pictures. Later I looked up toward the top of the tree and these things went all the way up to the top. Weird.



I will be posting about our trip to the Welcome Ranch later this evening. A Mom's Club activity which the dads were invited to! First one we have been to.

A Boy and His Dog

I hit the mother load on Ebay the other day. I found someone who was selling their entire Scooby Doo collection! You know The Boy is obsessed with Scooby Doo. All he wants to do is watch Scooby Doo. He even talks to Scooby in his sleep. The other night he told me he was dreaming he was watching Scooby Doo. He is nuts! Anyhoo...I won the auction and the stuff got here yesterday. A huge box full of Scooby! Scooby Doo is hard to find these days since there aren't any new Scooby movies out. You can find books and movies, but not toys so you can imagine how excited I was to get this box full of toys and other fun Scooby stuff.

I pulled out the 4 movies and one action Scooby figure to give to him last night. The rest is for Christmas and birthday. He was so excited about those movies and that Scooby dog I thought he'd pee himself. Mike and I both smiled at each other as we watched him carry that little plastic dog around and talk to him. He came in at one point and told me Scooby missed the rest of his gang. He wanted the rest of the action figures to go with him and the Mystery Machine van. He is just going to have to wait for those though.

I did tell him if he slept in his own bed he could have another Scooby surprise. He was gung ho about that until it was bedtime. He ended up back out standing in front of me in no time. He said he didn't want to sleep in there. I asked him when he was going to sleep in his own bed and he told me when he is 15 or 17. The sad thing is, he was probably telling the truth because if Scooby can't get him out of my bed nothing will!

Karate Action

Per Katie's request, I have more Karate pictures for you today. I finally remembered to take the camera in with me. They are getting the kids used to wearing their pads now so at the end of class everyone gets their gear on and they get to fight the instructor.



Here is Jayke getting his gloves on. For some reason, today there were a couple more kids in the class and others observing. Gavin, Isaiah, and Jaykeb are the three older boys so they did most of the fighting. They were calling themselves the Fantastic Four in this picture below.



Chase is the other little boy in the picture. He just came back from having a broken foot so he is a little afraid to jump in there with them and really go at it. Isaiah is in the blue helmet, Gavin in the full Karate uniform, Jayke in the white helmet, and Chase in the red. There was another little boy in there but he didn't want to wear the gear. I thought it was really cute when the three older boys were fighting how they had on red, white, and blue helmets. Hakim has to have a lot of patience to work with this crew. He gets down on the mat and lets them all beat the crap out of him. The kids really love him because he is fabulous with them.



As you can see, it was very hard to get pictures of Jayke where you could see his face. It wasn't like they were going to pose for me, but you can get the idea of what is like in there sometimes. They go through their blocks and kicks before they do all this fighting. They told me the other day that Jayke and Isaiah are going to move up soon. They have fitted him for his uniform and it has been ordered, size triple zero. He is going to look so cute, I can't wait!

Arrr!

Arr! It's talk like a Pirate Day, me mateys! Thanks to Cheeky for pointing it out to us land lubbers! You can learn how to talk like a pirate here or you can just talk to Jayke for a while and he will teach you. He learned from watching The Backyardigans. In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, I think I will go pop in the pirate Scooby Doo movie for The Boy!