So many directions

I am not sure what to say on the blog for the past week-ish. :) It's been a very loooooong one for a myriad of reasons, most of which are not something for this blog.

A few things that may be put in the blogging category are Kevin's doc appointment, his official enrollment for Kindergarten, movie night at school (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), pajama day for Juliana at school, and me feeling crappy for two days. There ya go, just in case you've been missing us.

I have pictures, but nothing downloaded, uploaded or whatever direction it needs to be loaded. As you can tell, we've been in a lot of directions this week.

One last thing, a while ago, I put something on here about things not being blog worthy, and a family member jumped to conclusions that Jason and I were in trouble. Haaaaa no, that couldn't be further from the truth. There we go, that's that, for any wandering minds out there.

Some peace

All in one day

My munchkins are totally growing up in every way possible. They are getting bigger, more vocal (if that is possible), smarter, more curious, fun, more interactive with the world, and it is making me wonder if I can handle all of it.

In one day, little man began writing like a 4 year old champ. I swear on friday he couldn't write a letter, and monday he comes to me with "MOM" written on the magna doodle toy. Later last night, he wrote "mommy" and "me me me me" over and over. Today he was writing most letters with very good accuracy too. This is all a fantastic thing because today, he is officially enrolled to be a member of the class of 2023.

Then after school, Juliana runs up to me to tell me she is in 3rd grade. She tends to have a shouting scream when he is excited, so I couldn't understand her. Apparently she had her reading assessment today and she qualified for a 3rd grade reading level. She said she was three words shy of being in 4th grade reading level, but she only read 107 words in a minute, not the required 110.
It seems that ALL IN ONE DAY these two have grown up. I love it, and I struggle with it all in the same breath.

A BLAST!

Today has been a FABULOUS day... well, for the most part!

It started with "my tummy huts, ouch" (Kevin) over and over. Not too much different than what I hear at least six times a day. Didn't think anything of it. Soooo, I took Juliana to church since she was singing in the children's choir. We came home only to hear that Kevin threw up most of the morning, but seemed to be fine after getting it all out. Yuck! We get in the car to head to my brother's house for a cousins outing. I'll get to those details in a minute.

About 90 minutes into the drive, we stop at Subway to eat, get in line, and then the dreadful vomit noise starts. I ran Kevin into the bathroom where he let loose 4 times. Ewwwww! At that point, do we go home?!?!?! Nope, we just kept going on our merry way. Excuse the mental picture that I may provide, but vomiting is not a foreign thing for Kevin, so who knows what is going on with that poor kiddo. To spare you of any more disgust, he was FINE the rest of the day, until the drive home, but we won't get into that.

Here is Kevin playing with his BIG WOODY. Yup, he looooooves to tell people that playing with his BIG WOODY is his favorite thing to do. It raises a lot of eyebrows unless the damn doll is in his hands.

Soooo, here is why we went to my brother's house. My cousins Tim and Greg are in town from Birmingham, Alabama. We had a cousins afternoon/evening and had a blast! Here are some photos of our great time together.

The picture above is Juliana doing homework with Greg. She had social studies homework to do. The assignment was to interview one of her ancestors (family members), and she chose Greg. It was hilarious! My cousin Krina is also in the picture.

COUSINS: Top, Tim and me. Middle, Greg and Krina. Bottom, Peggy, and Patrick.

Patrick, Krina, Greg, Peggy, me, and Tim-- missing cousins, Katie, Erin, and Ryan.

Each one of my cousins are so different from one another, yet so alike. Now that we are all in our 30's and 40's, family seems to be more important than ever. We all live so far apart, literally around the world and back. We've all made different choices, yet in the end, no matter what, each of us are great people and will back each other up in a heartbeat. My three cousins who were not there today are very much included. We talked about all of them, miss them, and hope that someday we can all get together and laugh like we did for hours and hours today.

As a matter of fact, as I write this, they are all eating sushi (including Jason), while I am home 2 hours away. Jason is spending the night at my mom's house while I am home with the kids. A little twisted, but he's having fun with them, and getting to know them. I LOOOOVE IT! A side note, he is working near my mom's house tomorrow, which is why he's still there, not just to be with them, but I have to say, it was strange saying goodbye to him tonight while I drove away. I am glad they are having a blast. I hope to see MANY more pictures too.

Sh-sugar slinging

This was on a few of my friends facebook statuses this morning.

Saw on the internet that Haiti is without a government. To help out, I am donating one Obama, one Pelosi, one Reid, one Frank, one Coakley and two Clintons! They may keep them permanently! I'd give them a constitution; but I can't find mine right now!

I don't know about you, but I am really tired of political sh--sugar being slung around. Nobody is happy with anyone in government anymore. One party complains about the next, points fingers and say "told ya so" like teenagers, looking for failure, looking for some reason to be brats to one another. I'm simply tired of it!

I am at the point of not just blaming our politicians anymore, but blaming the non-elected too. So many people buy in to MSNBC, Fox News, political blogging, religious bloggers, etc. Everyone, YES everyone, has an agenda. People are following their agenda and not necessarily the truth. There is a lot of money to be made in political sugar slinging these days. It royally pisses me off!

A few months ago, someone told me to sign a petition to have the pledge of allegiance reinstated in public schools. Her children are home schooled. I simply told her that there is NO reason why it needs to be reinstated in public schools because, in this state, it is very much alive. She actually semi-argued with me about it, until I took a picture the next morning of Juliana's school pledging, and they even sang "God Bless America" that day too. She was shocked and said that it is a new thing because the blog she reads (a popular Christian blog) said that it isn't being said in schools. That is exactly what drives me out of my mind. Until that picture was taken, she and others, truly thought that schools are unpatriotic, and in my opinion, pathetic and horrible these days.

I wish we could all have the agenda of getting along in this country, and in this world. Respect our leaders, neighbors, family, and trust that things are going in the right direction. Respectfully disagreeing is one thing, having different opinions/beliefs is a fabulous thing, but mocking and looking for failure is another. I'm really tired of it.

Brain is fried

I am sure this is what Juliana was doing today after school. Jumping up and down because she had an unplanned play date. It was unplanned because I totally forgot that today was a half day. I was in another city dropping off paperwork at the pediatricians office, and then out to lunch with Kevin. I got a phone call from my friend Tracey thinking something was wrong. Nope, just a brain fried mother. Sooo, Jason gave the office permission for Tracey to take Juliana home, and I frantically made it back to pick her up. It ended up to be a 3 hour girl chat time, which was a blast. I just feel reeeeeeeally stupid!

Moments

A few moments I wish I could be reliving right now.

Notice that all of these pictures come from home. It is not necessarily the vacations or the random beach trips that make life so darn good, it's putting barefeet in the air, splashing water in the bathtub, and sleeping like an angel that makes my world a great place to live.

I love the last picture. It is Juliana sucking on her pants with her thumb in the mouth. Apparently she didn't have a blanket handy to calm her down, so she curled up and began sucking on her pants. She did that a lot, and if you wanna know a secret, she STILL does that in the car.

Employment Opportunity

WANTED: A person skilled in building arks. Preferably with the first name Noah. Salary: Rewards in Heaven.

Things

I wish I knew how to post pics from my new phone. I am not that computer savvy. OH well!

The last week or so really has not been a sitting-on-the couch-do-nothing type of week. It has just been choir practices, girl scouts, gym, homework, preschool, 2nd grade, and a few play dates too. Wednesday after school, we went "until super dark time" with my friend Tracey and her two kids, just for a play date. Haaaa, it was a blast and I love girl chat with her.

Yesterday, I got my car fixed, which was a really stupid adventure. It had been making GOD awful noises and I totally thought I was going to walk out with a new car. Nope, it turns out that the muffler somehow was lodged under my bumper and it was melting my bumper. It isn't that bad, believe it or not, and the noise is now gone. It only took 4 hours to figure that out.

After the car thing, I met my friends Katherine and Nikki, and their son Kaden. We loooooved on that boy and I got my baby fix. Let me tell you, those two mommies are the happiest and most hands-on parents a child can have. Kaden let me hold him for a couple hours, feed him, and all of the stuff that I (kind of) miss from having an infant. Juliana read "Chicka-Chika-Boom-Boom", a book about Abraham Lincoln, and even told him a butt crack joke. Ohhhh boy! He'll appreciate it when he's 12, but probably not at 6 months old. :)

Soooo, that's really what we've been up to, just in case you care. Pretty much just THINGS goin' on.

Off to see my 92 (almost 93) year old Granny. My mom and I are going alone to see her. It'll be a nice mom/me afternoon. I can still enjoy those in my 30's, right?!

I like it!

GUESS WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON IN OUR HOUSE?????? Absolutely nothing. That's the way I like it, uh huh, uh huh. That's the way I like it......

Walkin' in a winter wonderland

(our front yard... circa 2005)

Babies babies everywhere

It seems that every day I find out of another baby that will be born in 2010. Every day is a total exaggeration, but let me tell ya, the stork is working overtime. Just saw that mckmama is pregnant, which means Stellan aka "MckMuffin" and his other siblings, "Big Mac", "MckNugget", and "Small Fry" will have a new little sibling soon. Exciting!

Also, not to forget lil' man Cooper will be a big brother to baby Carlynn in June. MANY of my high school friends too are expecting babies. Then there is my step-sister expecting her third baby girl in May, and my brother and sis-in-law expecting a baby boy in early July. Whooo hooo!

This is a perfect time to welcome home my friend Ginny and her new baby boy, Sean Michael. Sean was born 1-10-10. He joins his big brother Will and it seems he will probably be the newest Philly Flyers fan too. :) WELCOME TO THE WORLD SEAN MICHAEL!

Day in Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is always one of your favorite destinations for the year. Yesterday, Shadow had a dermatology appointment 2 hours away, so we decided since we were going 2 hours in that direction, we might as well go to Lake Tahoe which is about 4 hours from us. Soooo we did. Here is our fun...

Jason has his hand out in the photo because it started to rain pretty hard. That was the end of our day. A fun day was had by ALLLLL!

Wandom Saywings

This week, Kevin has made me laugh with learning about the world around him, and apparently, about language too. Enjoy these few statements from him. No judging me or my family please! And if you do, I don't give a flying (not nice words)....

"Mommy, how come you wanted to eat me?"

"Huh?"

"Well, I was in your tummy, wight? (pause) "When you go in my bewy someday, I won't eat you. I think that's a bettew choice."

"Hey Kev, wanna play PacMan?"

"Nahhh, that game pisses me off!"

"Where's the paste for my hair?"

"Paste for what?"

"I need to bwush my hair."

"Then brush it."

"But I need paste for it wike I do when I brush my teeth."

"I forgot my sharing mommy!"

"Ahh, sorry buddy. We'll remember next week."

"I wanted to bring the Terminator that Santa brought me and scare Matt*. I don't wike him at all so I think I wanna scare him a whole wot." *name changed to protect identity. Haaaa!

I really need to write a book, I really do. These are just things that I can remember from the last couple days. He says random funny stuff all the time. For full disclosure, I do not laugh when he does or says things that aren't appropriate, but let me tell you, sometimes it pains me not to have him repeat it! :)

Friends Forever

I tried for this to be wordless to go with the silly wordless wednesday thing... NOPE. I wanted to give a belated birthday shout out to Juliana's best friend ALISSA! She turned 8 years old on monday. The picture above is during a sleepover at our house a few days before Alissa moved. She left the United States to go live in paradise, although may be back this summer. Wishful thinking, what can I say!?! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART! We miss you!

BABY NEWS!

Niiiiiiice try... no babies here!

I am just too darn excited right now. I just found out that my brother and sister-in-law are having a BABY BOY! She is not due until July, but they found out the sex early because she is a high risk pregnancy. Great news is that the baby is healthy toooooooo!

I am also going to be an "auntie" to my new niece due in May. My step-sister Tegan is expecting her third baby girl, Hunter Harlyn who will be joining her sisters Chandler and Karsyn.

Babies babies everywhere, I looooove it! I am glad the stork has permanently passed over our home, but I am very glad to know the stork is busy in other homes. :)

Flying Higher

Both kids are back at school today. Kevin has been out since early December, so normalcy is kinda nice again. The fall was really nutty this year with Kevin in preschool every morning, Juliana's homework getting more intense, drama classes, girl scouts, choir practices, PTA obligations, birthdays, holidays, and just day-to-day family life. It was great to be busy, but I'm ready for a little change.

I dropped Juliana off this morning for school, and Kevin too. I came home, put on a random itunes radio station in Austin, Texas, and began cleaning the house. Cleaning usually begins with one of three things, (1) laundry or (2) kitchen or (3) bathrooms. Today, it was laundry... 4 loads and I am almost done.

As I've been listening to the Austin radio station, I heard a DJ say something profound. Okay, so it was profound to me. Here it is...

"Attitude is altitude. Fly higher."

Y'all so smart down there in Texas. LOVE THAT QUOTE! Off to another few minutes of cleaning before I have to pick Kevin up from preschool. HAPPY MONDAY!

Lines in the sand

Our first outing of 2010 was to a remote beach off of highway one. We brought Shadow too, and he turned into a real dog. He chased a stick for a few minutes and even put his feet in the water. GO DOGGIE GO! :) The kids just drew lines in the sand and ran around too.

The picture at the top of the blog was taken yesterday too.