Scary... in many ways.

Of course it's a scary situation, but oh my heckarooni. Hide your husbands! LMBO!!!!

Ah, Alabama...

I should blog.

Thanks a lot, NPR.

So the hubs listens to NPR, religiously. It's the only thing that plays in his car... unless I'm driving. :P

This week, on Marketplace, they did an interview with William Powers, author of Hamlet's Blackberry (which sounds like an interesting read), who said that he and his family have introduced an "Internet Sabbath". They unplug the modem on the weekends, Saturday am to Monday am. I've heard of people taking time off from getting online, like a whole week at a time, but this appealed to me (more or less) because it felt like something we could (and should) at least try, and something we could do on a regular basis.

So here's what we did instead:

1. We listened to Big D whine about checking his Farmville. Seriously, dude? I came this ... close to deleting the silly thing. (We aren't big gamers so this is new and exciting to him. LIMITS, Man.) *sigh*

2. I had my first Sonic Campfire Blast. Oh My Gee.


Graham cracker ice cream with chocolate covered marshmallows... I was dubious about the flavor of the ice cream, but it is SO good! And the chocolate covered marshamallows... that's what sold me.

Bliss.

I've had another since then... my hips thank me.

3. Ike tried feeding his sister, but she decided to feed herself. Sweet potatoes. Yum!

4. We went to the Mall on Saturday after our ever so patriotic TACO breakfast at church. Tacos? Really? Ok. Anyhow, it was the first time I'd been to a mall in... um... two years, at least? Once we got there, I remembered why. I have four reasons. Cute, loud reasons. But, we went in Build A Bear and got Mags her own bear. D was older when he got his cat, but Ike was about 6 months when he got his "Monkey Toes". She loves her bear! She picked it out, and who was I to complain when she grabbed at the the cheapest one!? Sammit ran screaming from the store... *sigh* He still doesn't have one. Whatever.

5. We put Mags to bed early Sunday and burnt through the fireworks we bought, mostly the little tank-style ones. And sparklers, of course.

Daddy lighting sparklers on the grill. :)

This child should not be allowed near long, whip like sparklers. Almost burnt my tush more than once.

Choosing which we should do next!

Daddy and his Ike
SamBam freaked out when the big ones started!
Attempting a small sparkler...
Once it sparked his finger, though, he wanted nothing to do with it.
Playing with a neighbor friend.


It was hot and smoky. :P





Daddy found this guy in our "backyard". YIKES!!!!! Then he tried to catch it (Say What??!) and let it go elsewhere. Elsewhere being just behind the fence. Seriously? I was thinking about a mile away...

So that was our weekend. Aren't you glad I shared? :)

The Heads

Oh... and the maintenance guy "fixed" the hole on my neighbors garage. The dogs busted it out again. It's flippin' hot in there!!!

So wrong.

Trippin' in STL.

I'm goin down down baby, yo' street in a Range Rover
Street sweeper baby, cocked ready to let it go
Shimmy shimmy cocoa what? Listen to it pound
Light it up and take a puff, pass it to me now ...

Hung out with Nelly last week in the Lou... Mound City... Gateway to the West... Yo.

You dig?

*snort*

Okay. Anyhow...

After a 16 hour drive, me and the littles made it to el casa de mon pere. Like that? That's what I call Franish.

Oh, I love this guy:



Don't leave your kids in the car, you dig?

Ok, back to what I was saying. What was I saying?

Oh yeah, St. Louis.

It was nice. The drive, not so much. Particularly the drive home. We debated having N fly up and help me drive back cause it was CrAzYyy but he was all, "You can do it!" SO I did. And got a flat tire in the middle of Oklahoma. Blurgh. Oklahoma. Glad they let me pay them $8.25 for the privilege of driving on their roads. :/

But. I'm a big girl. ANd I handled it. (Not that I didn't curse him out and hang up on him.)

SO, yeah, St. Louis. We swam, we ate well, kids played with cousins. It was good!

I forgot the camera.

Oh well.

One of the best moments was when we were in Joplin, Missouri in a Chik Fil A. The boys had to potty SO bad so they ran in the bathroom while I ordered. Ike came out while I was trying to place the order and yells "Mommy, I peed my pants a little!"

"Okay, it's alright."

"THEY"RE ALL WET!"

"It's okay, shhh."

"But, they're WET in the FRONT! SEE!!?"

"Okay. Ike, where's your brother?"

"He's in the bathroom going STINKY!"


:)

I made a word.

So I'll leave the Irish Spring background up for another day or two...

I'm what I like to call a "self-better". I'm like Colbert, see. I can make up words too. But, yeah, I'm a self better. Not that I'm better, but I like to place bets with myself ... in my head. In fact, if it was real, I'd be pretty wealthy right now. I'll give you a for instance. This morning, N and I were having a "discussion" and I said to myself, "I bet ten dollars, he's gonna tell me to write in my journal." (It's always ten dollars, not sure why. Not like I'm actually gonna have to pay up.) Anyways...

Do any of you do this?

Or am I crazy?

Don't answer that last one.

I'm digging these new templates. For a while now, I've felt like my blog was stale. I may mix it up everyday now! I liked this one today. Made me think of Irish Spring soap. I love that soap. *sigh*

Reminds me of my grandma's bathroom....

Did I mention I got 4 hours of sleep last night? Actually more like 3 and a half, cause there was a baby feeding somewhere in there. I don't know what I was thinking.

I really need to blog more, and I've been thinking about it everyday, but seriously. Everytime I sit down to do it, Mags starts screaming. She is doing it right now actually...

I need a shower. Too bad I don't have any Irish Spring.

It's one in the morning. So let's blog!

I guess I'll start with an update on the not so neighborly neighbor situation. N went over and talked to the girl at the office the other day. She basically said that if he were her kid, she'd give him a good whooping. Her qualms had nothing to do with the "destruction of property" otherwise, she'd fix her HOLE. She just doesn't like S. And she doesn't like that S is 3, and in her opinion we don;t discipline him. Okay. Lady. You wanna try a day? I'm sure that I could beat his little bum and it wouldn't stop him from wanting to see the doggies. Ugh. People like that who think a good beating will solve the problem make me sick.

So N talked to the owner/manager today and he agreed that the only problem he's heard of was the chalk on the door from her. He also agreed that he should have taken out the "harsh" wording about being evicted, cause we've been good tenants and always paid our rent on time and just renewed a lease with them. He said he understood where we were coming form and N and I both felt better after talking to him. He agreed that the HOLE needed to be fixed... :P

Tomorrow is Big D's Baptism. I am excited for him and also kind of sad. He's just getting so grown up. He's so funny and clever and SMART. Today was his last day of second grade. He finished with honor roll. :)

Grandma and Grandpa are coming in from Utah... in fact, I think they are pulling up right now, so I should probably finish this later.

Friday... so far.

This morning we went to WallyWorld. Fun times. Needed new air filters for the house... some bread, Goldfish... the important things. My kids were good. S rode in the cart while Ike stayed with me and walked along side. Mags slept in her seat. No problems.

The we went to the post office to mail a package to our new nephew. I sat in the car for a good 2 minutes staring at the building trying to decide if I really wanted to attempt it. See, post offices and I/or my children don't mix. I don't know what it is about walking in a post office that sets them off. Ike, usually my sweetest child, immediately grows six inches, turns green and rips off his shirt. *sigh*

And I can't seem to walk in one without the PO workers getting after my kids. We'd been in the door maybe... MAYBE five seconds when they immediately began swinging on the chain. I was trying to tell them to stop and come over to me, "Look! See! Mommy has M&Ms. Come." And the postal (teehee) lady starts in on them. I turned to her and said, "I got this!".

Gheez, lady. Back off.

I got this.

And I did... have it, that is. Yes, someone was still in tears when we left, a normal occurence, but at least I finally got that package mailed...

And what's up with people driving the wrong way down the Walmart parking lanes?! Ugh HEllooooo...

*in a snotty mood*

*need a cookie*

A Rant... for venting purposes...

SO. We've lived in this neighborhood for over a year, it was a year in March. They've NEVER had any issues with us. Ever. ever. The girl that works in the office just moved in next door. With her family. They have the two boxers that live in the garage. (see photo below)

Enter SamBam. Since the dogs have been poking their heads out everyday, S has taken to sneaking out to see the "funny doogies." Yes, I spelled that phonetically according to S. Anyhow, I can't keep this kid in. Our front door is not viewable from the living room, it's down a hall, and he can open the locks. Just Saturday afternoon I placed N's bike, the double stroller, a chair, and giant heavy blanket, AND the baby gate in front of the door just so we could watch a movie and not have to worry about him sneaking out...

The neighbor has been complaining to us about S. He "needs to leave the dogs alone or they'll bite him." First of all, if they were going to, they would have already. Second, boxers can actually be quite gentle (my mom had a few), and third, fix your dang HOLE!

So S sneaks out Sunday morning and draws on their front door with chalk. Okay, my bad. First time he's done that. Sorry. We go over with soapy water and clean their door. Monday, N puts a chain on the door. The end of S sneaking out. Hasn't been able to all week, except the one day when we were potty training but I was right behind him and I caught him on the drive way in the nude trying to escape. He wasn't near their house. Anyways...

Today we get a letter on our door saying that if our child continues to go unrestrained (!) and continues to cause damage to others' property, we'll be fined or evicted.

E-FREAKING-VICTED!

And we can't do anything about it, cause she works in the freaking office. UGH.

N went over and talked to the hubby, who seemed to not know anything about it, and said, basically, look, we cleaned your door after you said he did that. If you have a problem, we'd really rather you came and talked to us about it... etc etc.

Like I said, the dude acted like he didn't know anything about it.

SHE's A BEAST. I'd use a stronger word, but there may be young ones reading... The day I called her at the office and told her that her dogs had chewed through the vent and I was worried they might cut themselves, her response to me was, "Oh, those jacka$$ s***heads!" Okay. Classy.

I was SO upset about this letter though. He's three for crying out loud and I try TRY to watch him, but what if I have to PEE!!!! I have a baby, who I occasionally have to put down for a nap!!! And we did just get a chain on the door and he hasn't been out there all week!!!!!

Everytime we go out there and she's out there she gives him the evil eye. SORRY. My kids LIKE to play outside!!!

I need to move. I need a house. I need people who are charitable...

Oh yeah, and the pediatrician is having him tested by a developmental behavioral - ist... doctor... person... (mildly autistic? Maybe... but I don't think so, but it'll be good to have him tested anyhow... I know he has speech language issues and I need to call the school about that tomorrow.......) *sigh*

Pictures!

My wild man helping momma sweep while potty training... and with the "funny" dogs!


End of year pack meeting and a cute baby.



And a few of Mags and her silly brother!






Weirdo. ;-)

The day after my Birthday and Mother's Day. Nice.

Pics from David's bday party!

Of Betas, Bare Bums, and Baseball...

Okay, once a month, not too bad. Could be worse... Let's see. D had Field Day this month. Daddy went and played with him. A good time was had by all. No pictures. Naughty daddy.

We celebrated D's bday earlier this month. We rented a bounce house from the MWR on post. It was pretty cheap and we've never gotten one before. We had to put it in the field across the street cause, obviously, we have no yard. We had about 20 kids come and play. It was a Doctor Who themed party, complete with homemade TARDIS pinata and TARDIS cake. We are geeks. No question. Pictures below! He used his bday moola to buy a fish, a beta he named Rowley. *eyeroll* :D

Mother's Day was the next day and I was spoiled with cinnamon rolls brought to me in bed, flowers, some fun kitchen tools, and brats for dinner. YUM! For my birthday I just hung out and then went to get a pedi with a friend and bought some KFC for dinner and a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. YUM! That was nice! :)

We've been working on potty training Sammy. I kept putting it off. I knew he'd do it when he was ready. And he's ready! He would scream everytime we went near the potty until a few days ago when he was getting in the tub. He saw his brothers going and decided to give it a try. He's been doing it at bath time everyday until yesterday when we decided it was time to go hardcore. He spent yesterday naked and today has only had one accident. He's doing really well!

Our next door neighbors have two boxers. They keep them locked up in the garage ... all day. The dogs have chewed through the dryer vents in the garage and they poke their heads out all day. At first I was worried they were gonna cut themselves, but the owners don't seem to care. Hmm. So everytime we go outside these two heads poke out of the wall. It's quite hilarious actually... Maybe I'll go take a picture...

Anyhow, Sammy loves the heads. "Funny Doggies!" he says. He's tried to water them with the hose. They've told me to make him leave them alone several times. Thanks to those silly dogs, Sammy has lately taken to escaping out the front door, just to see them, and we had to put a chain on the door. He even escaped yesterday when the chain was off, in the nude, cause we were potty training.


Baseball... where do I begin?! I am really glad we signed D up for BBall this year. It was a good learning experience, he made some good friends, and it was fun. Our team finished at 10 wins-6 losses. We played our first tournament game on friday night. We lost. The other team creamed us. But they were one of the better teams. We were probably second or third to them. We got done at 9:00 friday night and had our next tourny game on saturday morning at 8:30! We got there on time, all of our players were there, but the other team was missing people. The coaches from that team stalled, because their team was short and they'd have to forfeit. The sprinklers had come on and so the fields were a bit wet. They stalled stating the fields were unplayable for AN HOUR while the ref tried to figure out what to do. He had us switch to a different field and they put sand down on the wet spots. They still had to move the bases up 10 feet to get them out of the mud. We just wanted to play some ball! At this point, the other team was still short a player. They should have been a forfeit. The game should have not been played, but the coach dressed up a team sibling in someone's spare jersey and the ump wasn't listening to our coach and their first baseman was taunting our batters (not allowed in rookie division!!!... or anywhere!!!) and the beat us by one. Our coach felt bad about the whole thing and felt that if we protested it'd just be because we lost, but his wife went ahead and contested the game and some of the other teams parents admitted that it should have been a forfeit and their coach lied. UGH! If she had taken it up within 24 hours, we'd still be playing in the tourny but as it is we're out because of that game. Double elimination. TOTAL BUMMER. ARGH. I hate cheaters...

Anyhow, the Mags is screaming and I need to make dinner. I'll update more later, with pictures!