Culture...no, not the bacteria...

So, I was driving around today and there was nothing... NOTHING... on the radio here. There are just a half a handful of actually decent radio stations in this area and finding a time when one of them is actually playing music is rare. Which usually means that I am burning my own cds off iTunes ($$ ka-ching) and listening to them over and over and over. So I did something I rarely do... I turned on NPR. Now, my sweet hubby ONLY listens to NPR and that's fine for him. All the better man he is because of it. But anyhow, they made an announcement for "upcoming free concert in the park series". Now, this radio station probably broadcasts out of Troy which is like 45 minutes to an hour away, depending on traffic and lights. So anyways...for a moment, it sparked an "awww" in my brain and made me realize how much I miss culture. You know... CULTURE. Arts and entertainment, etc. I was a Theatre Major and a Humanities Minor for a reason, people. I thrive on that stuff... and I miss it DESPERATELY! It made me, for one *very* brief moment miss Houston. Now, I hated Houston traffic, the overcrowding, and would have shied away from sending my kids to school at any of the public schools around where we lived. HOWEVER... Houston rocked in terms of shopping, the arts, and culture! I am in need of an art museum in a BAD way. I may have to leave the kids with Nathan for a day and drive somewhere...ANYWHERE (!) ... though I don't know where there are any...so that I could get a dose of what I need! I have already spent way too much money on art.com lately, and I have pictures sitting in their hard envelopes just waiting for a frame and a spot on the wall. So in a way I do miss Houston. I mean, missing the people there are a given. Some of the best friends I have ever had live in Houston (or have lived there and since moved). People who were there for me at some really tough times... BUT I digress...
I am just tired of having to drive 30 minutes to get to a freaking Target! I love living on post and they do provide some nice things for the families but, well, I have come to realize that I really truly am a city girl. ::shrugs:: Oh well...

Now, this has been building for a bit... when I was in St. Louis and going through some old boxes I came across a bunch of my old books. A handful of my favorites from when I was a teenager; The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Brothers Karamazov, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Some Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, and a handful of Shakespeares. Now, I have books on my disposal here and I usually find a new one to read at least once a month (though I often find myself reverting back to Harry Potter out of habit... Nathan says it doesn't matter how many times I read it, the story isn't going to change! LOL) but there was something moving about bringing those books here and just holding them. I got out my old copy of Hamlet and cracked it open to the "Alas, poor Yorrick" scene and I had this rush of, I don't know, nostalgia maybe. I thought, "Dang, how long has it been since I read any Shakespeare? 6, 7 years? That's insane!! And so I sat down and started reading my beloved Hamlet (yes yes I played Ophelia... I must pimp myself a bit). I decided that I must make myself read one Shakespeare at least once a month for the rest of the year. Of course, all that will do is get the theater bug back in my butt and then I'll be in *real* trouble!

Anyways... thanks for letting me ramble. Someday I'll be back in a city and wishing I was in the boonies. Not the loonies, just the boonies.

FHE

So we had family night tonight and I did a scavenger hunt based on "The Creation". Each card had a "Day" of the creation on it and a clue related to it (ie God created animals ... the clue was in the dog food, etc). Anyhow, for the 2nd day I drew a bunch of waves on the card and asked them, "Ok what did God do on the second day?" Isaac replied, "He went swimming."

LOL

Bad timing...

So the Schwan's man came today... always busts my grocery budget! Oh well. It's good stuff. So, I went out to give him my debit card and was waiting while he pulled stuff off the truck for me. I started carrying stuff up to the house and I heard Isaac screaming. Apparently, I had locked the gate when I went outside and he was locked in the kitchen...and was yanking on the gate...and had peed his pants. Mommy locked him in the kitchen and he couldn't get to the potty! Poor guy!!!

Get Filch by *Sempraseverus on deviantART

The Scavenger

Yep, Nathan actually cleaned out the carport while we were gone, all the little stools and tables and things that he had scavenged on bulk trash day. In his quest to take things to the thrift shop, he found this. It was left on the thrift shop steps. Nathan justified taking it by the fact that he was dropping off two loads of stuff himself. Works for me! Of course the boys were thrilled but it's sitting in my living room. :P

shenanigans

Oh yeah...*funny* story....

So we went furniture shopping on Saturday, just for fun, just to look. And went to Farmers Furniture. We were primarily looking for bedroom sets since we still have our DI dresser that cost $2 and is missing a drawer and a couple of hand me down night-stands and no headboard, etc. Well, as we were looking around we heard a large crash. Turned around and Isaac had pushed over a "large ornamental panel". Yep, broke one of the panels right off. We almost came out of there with an ornamental panel. The girl sounded put out but said for us not to worry about it. If they had insisted I would have had to be all like, "Yo! Whatcha doin' having da large ornamental panels next to da bunkbeds, yo!?" Ike Ike was on a short leash after that (literally if I could have gotten away with it...)

Oh, BTW we didn't find anything we liked.

New stuff...

ABC Tag
Sara's ABCs
A-attached or single: Attached.
B-best friend: Nathan
C-cake or pie: Cake, duh!
D-day of choice: Thursdays...quiet thursdays...
E-essential items: internet, dvd players in cars, chocolate, I-tunes
F-favorite color: Red
G-gummy bears or worms: Worms
H-hometown: I call Nashville home.
I-indulgences: chocolate, harry potter fan fiction (I know I know)
J-January or July: Neither. Ick. Too hot or too cold...Well ok, I guess July.
K-kids: Big D (almost 6) Ike Ike (3) SammyBammy (1)
L-life would be incomplete without: Music
M-Marriage date: July 16 1999
N-number of siblings: 2 bros (1 Sil and 1 Sil to be)
O-oranges or apples: Depends on my mood!
P-phobia or fears: Heights, driving over bridges, giant roaches!
Q-quotes: "There's some evil cake in the fridge of darkness. Eat It! Eat It Before It Goes Good!!"
R- reason to smile: My boys...and potty training being done!
S-season: Currently it's spring, I love Fall!!!!
T-tag 6: Um, Tasha, Leah, Doug, Lois, Jennifer, and anyone else who wants to!
U-unknown fact about me: There's not much that people don't know...Let's see...I took Karate in High School? Ok sure whatever.
V-vegetarian or oppressor of animals: P(eople) E(ating) T(asty) A(nimals)
W-white or wheat: Cinnamon Raisin!!
X-x-ray vision, invisiblity or flying as a super power: Invisibility... Then no one would be able to find me!
Y-Your favorite food: BBQ
Z-zodiac sign: Taurus...ugh...30!? Who's almost 30!? Surely not me!

Blah dee blah catching up...

Why, hello there!

It's been a while, no?

How've you been?

Oh, fine, thanks. There's been so much going on! Where should I begin? You see, I went to St. Louis two weeks ago. Oh, yes, I drove 12 hours in the car with 3 boys by myself! Which was great fun except for the times we had to stop every 45 minutes because Ike Ike was potty training. Yes, It was quite humorous, I am sure, for the other travellers to see me carting a baby, a toddler, a 5 year old, and a potty seat (in case he needed to poop) into the restrooms of the gas stations and welcome centers we stopped at. Let me ask you, have you ever tried to use the bathroom holding a 13 month old, because you didn't want to put him down on the nasty floor, all the while yelling from the stall at your other children not to touch anything? Oh, yes, you should try it sometime! Ha.Ha. And then there was the fact that public toilets aren't exactly designed for toddlers so he was too short to easily stand and pee in the toilets and he wouldn't sit to pee and wouldn't let me lift him up so the germaphobe in me is squicking every time his little stuff brushes along the too tall toilet. ICK. Wipe wipe wipe with a wipe! Ick Ick Ick.

Anyhow...enough talk about the loo...we finally made it to the Lou. We spent the next day looking through my mom's storage unit and figuring out how we were gonna move her into a smaller one and move the rest of her stuff to a (very good) friend's house for a yard sale. Then, friday, we picked up the truck and met my bro and future sis in law at the storage unit and began the massive moving process! We are talking about an entire household of goods! Thankfully the new, smaller unit was only about 30 feet away so we could easily run stuff down there. So, we looked through boxes, loaded the truck, moved other boxes, furniture, etc, while Ike and Big dude played with old toys. Oh, did I mention it was 40 degrees outside!??! Yes, it was.
Then we took the truck loaded with yard sale-ables over to my mom's wonderful friend's house (she had offered her house as the yard sale location...great location!) and parked it there overnight. Saturday morning dawned cloudy, cold, and snowy. Well, sleet really, but we were determined to have a yard sale and make some moola from the stuff we had packed up! We had to! The new unit was too small for putting it back! So, we put up several large signs and we actually made a fair amount and managed to get rid of everything! We would have been able to ask more for the stuff but we were so anxious to get rid of it, and the weather was so bad that we took what we could get. And then a woman came at the end and said her church was having a sale in a few weeks and could she take the stuff we would be taking to good will anyways? HEck, yes! So that saved us a trip to good will! All in all, it was succesful, all things considered...

We spent the rest of the weekend playing with family, shopping for wedding dresses with my future SIL, checking out their wedding site, and just playing. Then we drove home and stopped at my other Bro and SILs house in Nashville for a quick over night (Thanks, guys!) and drove home the next morning. Which was much nicer, breaking it up like that. Easier on the kids too. Thank goodness we invested in dvd player for the car though, seriously!!! Oh, and we stopped for the boys to pee in the grass at one point and Ike was complaining about his nose hurting and said he needed a band-aid for it. Well, I told big dude to give him a tissue and he blew but then he said it still hurt. So I stopped and looked and sure-nuff he had shoved a spit wad (his straw paper from lunch) up his nose. I had tweezers in the suitcase, thank goodness, so I managed to get it all out in 2 pieces, holding Ike Ike's head to his car seat with one hand and picking at it with the other while he was strapped in and while Big D sat with his eyes covered, squicking as I was performing minor surgery on his brother! Great fun! It's what memories are made of!

So, we are home now, and it's so nice! We spent last weekend cleaning house and doing a few house-y things we needed to do. Nathan even took me on a date friday night to a Mexican restaurant and then a movie. 10,000 BC. Wouldn't be my first pick for a movie, but it was the only thing at the post theater! Saturday we went bowling for a friend of D's birthday and then D and I went and picked strawberries. I had taken Ike Ike a few weeks ago so D wanted to go. Very fun.

Ummm, I think that's about it. Yep. Ike Ike is potty trained now. Still has a few moments of brain loss but for the most part he is there! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will post more if I think of it!

Proving myself!

Ha HA! Lookie what I did!


For a Marriage Conference sponsored by the Spiritual Life Center here on post!

Just another weekend...

So, I was inspired by my friend, Terri's, music player to upload some more songs onto mine. I think I put like 50 on there but I could have kept going! If it's playin something you don't wanna hear, you can click on something else. :) Sorry about all the Depeche Mode...I was limiting myself but still managed to get quite a few on there. Remember who you're dealing with!

Anyways, we've had a pretty relaxing weekend. Nathan made me an appointment for a massage yesterday which was SOOO nice! I have never had a professional massage before and I loved it! Then we had a birthday party for a neighbor boy (cake picture included). We have just been laying around other than that, listening to conference and being lazy. It's been nice!



Sammy loves to play in the shoe closet and loves to put ANYTHING on his head!

Yes, we live on post which means lots of army themed parties! Go figure!

Daddy surprised the boys with a giant blocks set! They had fun! ( I think he bought it more for himself!)

Kodak

Do you ever have those moments you wish you could just bottle up? The boys are watching Stewart Little 2...(again) and Sammy is out there cracking up at "Snowball". He has never just belly laughed at a movie or show before! So cute! He has been walking tons lately. He tries to walk everywhere. Nathan calls it his "goose-step" cause he kinda marches. So he was standing in front of the tv laughing at the movie and he fell onto his bottom and then lost his balance and tumbled onto his back and just laid there in front of the tv, not bothering to get up and laughing at the movie. He was roflhbo. :) heehee

Eeeeeeeeee....

Can you imagine...

http://www.snapefest.org/

Seriously, I would love to go to Portus...the Harry Potter Conference held in Dallas in July...but I would reallllly love to go to Snapefest, which will be held as a companion to Portus. How much fun would that be?! A fangirl's paradise. They're even gonna have a candle light vigile for the greasy git. HA HA!!

oh well....

David sings Mi gueppo (SP?!)