The Pottsie Four

Enormity.

2011-12-30T16:09:00.000-06:00

I will not be overwhelmed by the enormity of life. I will not be overwhelmed by the enormity of life. I will not be overwhelmed by the enormity of life. My mantra. I think I am going to tattoo it on the insides of my eyelids so I'll never forget it.

Well, maybe not. I just momentarily passed out from the thought of that.

Jaden just walked through the kitchen and announced that, "Yeck! It smells like cat saliva in here!" Grant is wandering around the house like a lost kitten because even in the midst of 346.3 new toys, games, and other Christmas related paraphernalia, he just can't find anything to do. This is why I need a mantra. This is why I'm considering opening a bottle of Merlot at 2:49 in the afternoon.

I am, however, comforted in the knowledge that I'm not alone in this world. >>>insert flashback harp sound effects and shimmery visual fade here<<<

It's 1:00, December 22nd, and we've FINALLY begun our Christmas holiday

(Yes, we seriously had to teach until noon on the 22nd. I'm not bitter though)

We're driving along in my MIL's car (thank you Sherry!!) because the van is in the shop undergoing various repairs to the tune of $500. 3 days before Christmas. Sigh.

Sleigh bells are jingling up and down the streets, Christmas cheer is sparkling in the breeze, and the boys are happily conversing in the back seat:

J: We're finally done with school!

G: I can't wait for Santa to come. We better bake some cookies tonight.

J: We leave Oreos for Santa every year. We just need to go to the store.

G: Whatever. I call that Camaro!

J: I call that Mustang! It is HOT!

G: Oh! I call that Ferrari!!

J: That's not a Ferrari, Grant. It's a Ford.

Simultaneously: I call that corvette!!

G: Jinx!

J: OW! Don't pinch me! *smack*

*slap* *punch* *other general ruckus sounds, screeching and hollering*

Then there's me, driving forward while turned around somewhat backward flailing a hand about swatting whatever little boy leg I can reach while hollering about kindness, good will toward men, and something to the effect of, "....and Santa is WATCHING and he is probably going to leave ALL your presents at the North Pole and just put COAL in your stockings and you better not cry about it because you have EARNED it!!"

Once they're both sobbing sufficiently, I turned back to the road only to notice that the woman driving in the Explorer next to us is turned around backward, hand flailing about in the back seat, yelling animatedly...probably about Santa and coal.

I am not alone in this world. I am not alone in this world. The mom in the Explorer and I probably swerved into oncoming traffic 3 times each but at least I am not alone in this world!

Drinking and driving has long been frowned upon, however, I'm thinking we should revise our stance on this issue....at least with regard to mothers (especially at Christmastime). I guarantee the road would have been a much safer place that day if we had both been 2 margaritas in with a third in hand (click HERE to read my post on how tequila makes you a better parent).

But then the moment passes, two little boys smile for the camera at the same time, and I'm reminded that the enormity of life phases in and out and most often it is just a state of mind.

I was both astonished and thrilled to be able to snap multiple pics of the boys on this Thanksgiving day. They are rarely (that should probably read *never*) cooperative enough to pose for pictures. I actually have a BUNCH of great pics from this moment in time but thought it best not to bore you with ALL of them. You're welcome.

Photo op with Grandma Sherry...

Turkey day football with Papa Pat and Daddy...

16 years with a genuinely amazing man...

Photo op with Boboosh...

And then....Oreo Truffles. It turns out that I don't actually like them. Weird, I know. The boys gobbled them up though.

Cream cheese and crushed double stuffed Oreos...

Roll 'em up and freeze...

Dip and sprinkle...

Pure genius....as long as you like Oreos.

Ketchup

2011-11-25T14:35:00.001-06:00

So it's the end of November and I just ran across a folder of pics from this summer that I guess I meant to blog about. But never did. So goes the story of my life. I thought life and parenthood would get easier as the boys got older. No more sippee cups, diapers, naps, tantrums in the middle of the floor. But it seems we just replaced the craziness of babyhood with the insanity of childhood. School, baseball, football, jiu-jitsu, chores, work, cats (whose bright idea was that anyway??). Thanksgiving was yesterday and my Halloween decorations are still out. The other day I came across a pile of Christmas cards, addressed and stamped, ready to be mailed. From last year. And currently the boys are outside playing in the cold November rain (insert Guns'n'Roses audio here) and slurping popsicles while I just took a 15 minute break from blogging to splatter a spider the size of a volleyball all over my kitchen. Here's the timeline on that one: 30 seconds of shrieking like a child when it skittered by, 30 seconds more to realize that if I didn't apprehend it, it would still be lurking in my house when I went to sleep tonight, 30 more seconds of shrieking, 1.5 minutes of deep breathing and pep-talking, 1 nanosecond to smack it with my shoe followed by 12 minutes (less 1 nanosecond) of hugging the toilet and convincing myself not to puke.

And now, after proofreading the last part of that paragraph, it has occurred to me that the insanity of my life may not be entirely due to the children. Hmmm.

Nevermind my irrational phobias. Here's some cute kids to looks at...

Beyooooutiful day at Alan Henry riding the jet skis with Grandma and Papa. I see wake boarding in our future...

Swimming at the club with Grandpa...

Go Tech!

Hanging out with the Mullins kids...

Most of the pics I managed to take this summer involved water. Can you tell the weather was scorching this year?

9th birthday party at the skatepark...

Texas Tech baseball camp...

Kidspeak.

2011-11-24T21:03:00.001-06:00

Grant: Mom look!! It's where the birds go to church!!

That Kind of Day

2011-09-08T22:50:00.000-05:00

The copy machine made me cry today. A red-nosed, black-mascara-streaked, gullywasher. And what's better is that my tear ducts waited to betray me until I walked into the meeting room stuffed with 30 colleagues, late (copier, remember?), looking somewhat akin to a pack mule lugging in my teacher bags exploding with binders of teacher stuff and of course a 47 pound laptop. I had to step around the guy presenting, through the blinding stream of projected data, and over 12 of my peers and their teacher debris to reach the one available seat. ***insert Niagara Falls here***

Pretty pitiful, right? But it gets better. One of my precious colleagues leans over and asks, "Are you okay?" at which point the tear flow rate jumps by 87%. By this time we've switched presenters, and the sweet woman keeps eyeing me concernedly while she speaks. I'm sniffling continually at this point to keep from dripping on my papers when she stops mid-sentence to ask me, "Are you okay?" Now imagine the sound created when your 30 colleagues turn in unison to see who she's talking to.

Damn copier.

But our tech guy installed a new school computer while I was meeting/sobbing today so by 4:00 I was in a considerably better mood. Just before we left school this evening, I zipped down to the workroom for one final battle with the copier. Apparently it decided that it did not have a death-wish after all and proceeded to copy, double sided, with staples, and a smile. Thank you Jesus! So while I'm happy dancing around workroom, a custodian is cleaning the bathroom, door wide open. Now, maybe I'm not familiar with proper janitorial protocol, but would YOU use the toilet brush to also clean the seat, lid, and flusher handle? I tried, oh I tried, to UNsee that moment. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Right? I am probably going to die now from whatever kills you when you hold it too long because I will NEVER be able to pee at school again. Ever.

Today...

2011-08-13T18:58:00.001-05:00

Today I took a test. I haven't taken a test in 10 years. To say that I was a little nervous would be a gross understatement. I swear, I totally forgot how to study. Now, I teach study skills to my students but actually practicing what I preach was a little more difficult than expected. Perhaps I should reflect on that... The purpose of the test was to add an ESL certification. We were given 5 hours to complete it....70 questions, most of which were roughly the length of a Twilight novel (Insert my Dad here, "I've told you a million times not to exaggerate!!"), and I finished in roughly an hour and 15 minutes. Aced it? Failed it miserably because I was too dumb to know that I didn't know anything? Only time will tell.

Today I went to Cake for a celebratory "I aced or possibly failed my test" cupcake. Cake is my version of Heaven. Rows upon rows of cupcakes piled with 4 pounds of buttercream, trifle bowls, and cake push-ups (whatever the heck that is). After selecting my Banana Pudding cupcake, the little girl behind the counter asks, "Would you like to try one of our free mini-cupcakes?" Um, DUH! Let me just say, Chocolate-Peanut Butter kicks the wang-doodle out of Banana Pudding.

Today I bought 5 items from Banana Republic for well under $200.

Today I watched an entire Phineas and Ferb movie with my 6 year-old. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is possibly the most hysterical cartoon character of all time.

Today I discovered a plethora of photos that I didn't manage to get blogged last time. It's lucky for you that I'm going to post them now!

This kitty thinks he is hot stuff. He loves to venture into the backyard...but after 2 months, he has yet to figure out how to scale the fence.

I'm quite sure the Slip-n-Slide has violated the city's water code at least 37 times during this drought. But what else is a kid supposed to do when it's 107 degrees everyday of summer?? Seriously! Our grass is only green because I Photoshopped these pics.

In June I got to spend a few days in VEGAS BABY! with my super amazing bestie. This is us at the Bellagio...

Kyndra wanted to take this pic for Matt. Of course I had to tip the guys just to get the pic and when I asked them where they were from, all they could say was, "Oh, somewhere far far away."

I have a sneaking suspicion that they might not have been REAL Stormtroopers.

Our daily view from the pool lounge chairs...

Caesars and Serendipity! Yum...

And then my nephew came to visit!

The coolest Patrick evah...

Mr. I'll Eat Five Kit-Kats in a Row if You Don't Catch Me in Time...

Upside-down goggles are cool when you're 6...

I have no words for this one...

And to answer your question, yes. Yes I could possibly post more pictures. But the potatoes are ready to be mashed, so I guess you'll just have to wait until next time.

Bargain Basement

2011-07-06T21:17:00.002-05:00

I'm a sucker for a good bargain. I could *almost* be one of those psycho coupon people. You know, the ones that use their mad couponing skillz to get 412 packs of diapers for next to nothing. Even though they don't have any children. Maybe I'm not the bargain shopper I like to think I am, but I have to draw the line at decorating every inch of available space in my house with canned beans and tomatoes. And diapers.

But I'm still pretty adept at squeezing blood from a turnip (who decided that was a good saying?). I'm the bad consumer who gets the $10 "gift" coupon from Kohl's and will dig through the entire store until I find something fabulous on clearance for $10.99. Check out my super cute bargain chair...

Now take a closer look at the left leg...

And, this is not the best part. The only chair they had left was the one on the floor....SO, of course I asked if they would mark it down to account for the wear and tear of being the display piece. The manager dropped the price to $35 AND I had a $15 coupon from Kirkland's for my birthday AND a $10 coupon from their weekly flyer. YEAH baby! A $10 dollar chair is what I'm TALKING about!

That's nearly as good as free diapers.

As it turns out, the circus is NOT such a bargain. They bill it as a great deal by selling $10 tickets to the opening show. But then, after they've got you seated and thoroughly trapped, the cotton candy guy comes hiking up the stairs with his 14 foot pole of cotton candy goodness thus causing every 6-year old within a 15 ft. radius to go crazy. And one little bag only costs....wait for it....

TEN DOLLARS! Yes! Ten dollars for 4 cents of spun sugar. What a racket.

At least I got a cute picture and a happy 6-year old out of it.

Additional summer exploits include...

Swimming. Please note that the cotton candy at the Seahorse only costs $2. Still a racket but it feels like a humdinger of a bargain after the circus.

(Check out the date on the picture above. Gotta love iPhone photo apps. Think this retro-ish picture from "June 1981" is gonna cause me a little consternation when I'm 88 someday?)

Bowling.

Say hello to Zippy...the fastest, wildest, rootin' tootin'ist bowling ball launcher in the West. It's truly a wonder he didn't leave any dents in the lane.

Science Spectrum. Thank you Groupon for your $25 6-month membership! The boys and I only have to go 1.19 times for the Groupon to pay for itself. Score!!

Jiu Jitsu.

Highlights puzzle time! Can you spot the differences?

and Skate parks...

We found the illusive McAllister skate park a few weeks ago and Jaden was delighted to discover it was a designated graffiti area.

Jaden: MOM! Let's run to Wal-Mart and buy some spray paint!!!!!

Me: Um, I'm gonna go with, NO. ***kicking myself repeatedly for having taken them to Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo a few years back and letting them spray paint the cars***

Most of the graffiti was innocuous enough. But of course, some dunderhead had to go and paint a number of inappropriate things all over the 130 degree concrete. So, it's doubtful we'll be going back to this park anytime soon. Moron teenagers.

Note the skating apparatus flying through the air in this pic. This thing is a Sole-skate...a three-wheeled-squirrely-little-sonuvagun-from-Hell-type-thingy. He was trying some trick here, thus sending it airborne. But this boy is jaw-droppingly fluid on this thing.

I don't know if I'm amazed or horrified that he will probably be a professional skater someday.

Amazed.

Horrified.

Amazed.

Horrified.

Amazed.

I need a drink.

Baby you're a firework! Except not this year because there's a drought and fireworks are banned.

2011-07-04T20:38:00.000-05:00

LOVE the 4th of July! The cute little Chinese pedicurist even painted American flags on my big toes for the occasion. I didn't take a picture to show you because frankly, it doesn't matter how cute your feet are, toes are creepy and thusly don't belong on the internet. But nonetheless, my feet are festive and even though we are enduring a wretched drought and fireworks are banned all over the area, I still love this holiday!

Behold! The most patriotic jeep in all of LRC!

Dressing up Papa Pat's jeep to ride in the LRC parade has been our tradition for the last several years. This year, however, a certain big kid is finally big enough to ride in the parade all on his own.

Papa and Grant....the Jeep Brigade.

Grandma Sherry and I are always on spectator duty. We get to sit in the shade and wave at everyone parading by while the boys get to sweat in the sun for the entire parade route.

Notice the Boba Fett shirt. When questioned about his attire, Matt insisted that there's nothing more American than Star Wars. Touche.

One year...

2011-06-30T20:46:00.000-05:00

Oh the difference 12 simple months can make.

June 30, 2010

June 30, 2011

Where does the time go?

Supah Dupah Ramblings

2011-05-30T22:50:00.001-05:00

***ALERT*** This is a ridiculously lengthy post full of seemingly unrelated photos representing the randomness that is the World 'o Potts. So, if you opt to click the back button on your browser right now, I will only be a little bit offended.

Let me start by saying that my blood pressure would be so much lower if United Supermarkets would STOP doing their summer "Collect and WIN!!" game. For years I have been collecting and collecting and collecting but we have yet to actually "WIN!!" anything. Unless you count that can of beans from an instant winner ticket a couple years back. Which I don't. Yet here I am...immersed in another summer of licking and sticking those wretched little stamps because I know that the only guarantee is that if I don't play, then I definitely won't win. Sigh. That being said, I would greatly appreciate it if all of you would kindly refrain from playing the United game so there will be more tickets for me. It is SO irksome to get every prize section on the game board filled up to the point that you only need ONE more ticket to win then BAM! They run out of game pieces on July 28th and you're left standing there trying your darndest to not cuss out the teenager at the register for giving away all the tickets before you got there! ahem. Moving on...

Here begins the aforementioned stream of random pictures...

This kitty looks sweet, but he is BAD. He really likes eating whatever he finds on the floor and then yaking it back up for you later. And he is obsessed with liquids. Of all sorts. He meticulously licks all the water off the shower door when someone gets out, and if you're not fast enough, he'll lick it from your legs too. If you leave your drink unattended, or even turn your head away from it for a moment, he'll dunk a paw in and have a taste...this includes alcoholic beverages. The varmint has no shame. If he finds a glass left sitting on an elevated surface, but no one has been considerate enough to leave a drink for him, he will simply swipe it off onto the floor.

And don't get me started on his furry brother's penchant for shredding rolls of toilet paper. I threatened to kill the rascals today and Grant said, "If you do I'll just never forgive you and then you'll be sad!"

Dang.

Miscellaneous day at the park meets new photo app...

Spring sprang so we took a trip to the cookie store after school one day. Just because. Everybody should eat overpriced balloon and cake shaped cookies for no good reason every once in a while.

Then it was Easter. Oh the joy of trying to convince two little boys to dress nicely for just this one special day.

Grant: Mom! Can't I wear my t-ball jersey to church? Pleeeeeeeeeeease??!

Me: No.

Grant: But WHY did you pick out THIS shirt for me? This has GOT to be the STUPIDest color EVER!

Me: ...making a beeline for the paddle...

Jaden, on the other hand, was unusually cooperative. Of course, this was after a shopping trip that I made him go on so HE could pick out his Easter shirt since I knew he'd veto anything I chose for him myself. 6 stores and 2.5 hours later, we finally agreed on a shirt that had a collar (my requirement) and was not totally lame (his requirement). So we finally made it out the door to snap a quick Easter pic.

Attempt #1 -- Two smiles...yay! Eyes closed....boo!

Attempt #2...

Attempt #3....yeah right.

After Easter came my yearly trip to sunny SoCal. LOVE me some San Diego....especially when I fly through Austin to get there. If you've never been to Austin, you should go, simply so you can experience Amy's Ice Cream. There's one in the airport so you don't even have to rent a car. I pig out every time I go through there. Oh my sweet Lord. As if their Mexican Vanilla topped with hot fudge and praline wasn't delight enough, they had a Star Wars thing going on too. Check out this chalkboard!

And the sign on their tip jar...

Now I absolutely despise tip jars. Why in creation do I need to pay you another dollar or two when all you did was pull a donut out of the case/scoop my ice cream into a cup/do the job you were hired to do? And so, for all of you in cyberspace that I just totally offended, consider this. What would your first reaction be if you walked into your kid's classroom and saw a tip jar on the teachers desk? The bank tellers counter? On the checkers register at United? Okay...sorry. My soapbox slipped out. (bad soapbox! bad! get back in your closet!) But that's the joy of having your own platform for spewing nonsense now isn't it?! Which brings me back to my point, the tip jar sign. Who knew that a clever sign was all it took to knock me off my box and get me to drop some bills into not ONE, but BOTH tip jars?! (have to keep the force balanced you know)

After San Diego, the end of school came rushing in. Grant lost some teeth...

The planets aligned and I managed to snap a decent pic of two boys at the same time...

A few students left me lots of love on my board...

And then there were awards assemblies. Yay for the Potts boys! Grant received 3 awards: top kid in math, music, and citizenship. Now, I know you're thinking, "Citizenship? Really?" Yes. Really. He had an amazing kindergarten teacher and we will SO miss her next year!

Super proud of Jaden too for making the UIL Spelling team this year and for earning the 2nd most AR points in the entire third grade. He should've been in first place but AR was new to him this year (they didn't do it at his previous school) and for the entire first semester, I couldn't convince him that he was allowed to take AR tests on the books he read at home as well as the ones from school. Oh well. We're pleased as punch anyway.

Then there's the bad news...tornado season.

In Huntsville, my best friend and her family spent a day in hiding as a ridiculous number of tornados swept across the upper half of the state. Fortunately, they only had to endure several days without power. My cousin Randi and her husband Shawn were also ducking for cover in Tuscaloosa on this day. The tornado that tore through the town passed just a couple of blocks from their home. Thankfully they survived, uninjured, but lost a lot as a massive tree crashed into their house.

Then, the Sunday after school let out, we received a call that a tornado had ripped through Joplin, MO, and that Matts grandparents had been in its path. The F5 destroyed most everything, and 10 inches of rain the following day took a lot of the rest. But they too survived, uninjured. Matt, his brother, mom, and step-dad immediately hopped in the car and drove up to help out.

But these stories deserve blog entries of their own...maybe I can talk Matt and Randi into being guest writers so they can tell you firsthand what they experienced.

Please pray for the people of Joplin and Tuscaloosa as well as those in OK, KS, and MN.

Adventures in Spring

2011-04-21T23:12:00.003-05:00

I really despise standardized testing. It brings out the worst in me and that's just not good for anyone within a 10 ft. radius. Here's a snapshot of life in my classroom today...

-- "I know TAKS review is not fun and that you don't like it because you've told me so 14 times since you walked through the door. Now ZIP it up and put your BUTT in a plastic chair!"

-- "Turn to page 23. No....I said 23. 23!!!!! Would you like me to say it in another language?!"

-- "Sure, I can help you. What is the first step? That's right, you add 2 + 3. DID YOU JUST USE YOUR CALCULATOR TO ADD 2 + 3??"

-- Bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk (banging my head against the whiteboard)

Truly, my students are really bright and I promise they ARE capable of adding 2 + 3 without the aid of technology or even phalanges. There's just something about TAKS that seems to scramble brains and put everyone in a sour mood. That being said, let me tell you that I've never, in all my years, shown a movie in class (there's just too much algebra in the world to waste a precious minute doing nothing in class **geek alert**). I said this to one of my classes today, in response to their desperate pleas to just watch a movie instead of reviewing, and they all simultaneously *gasped*. Apparently this is cruel and unusual. But little do they know that this year I think am planning to break this tradition....after we all survive TAKS week that is. A few months back I wrote a similar figures problem about the Millennium Falcon.....that only 3 out of 100 students could work.....because they didn't know what a Millennium Falcon was!!

photo courtesy of Wookiepedia

Really people? How is it okay for today's youth to know every last detail about Snooki, yet have no earthly idea who Luke Skywalker is? Yeesh. So, after test week, when their brains are smooshy and they've lost their will to fight, I will pop in Episode IV and bless them all with the movie they've been begging for. And then I will make them write a 10 page paper outlining the plot and defending the required thesis statement "Star Wars is totally awesome and Jersey Shore is a pile of poo."

Yep, that's me....a dedicated teacher in hot pursuit of the "Educator of the Year" award.

In other news, I had to help the 8-year old set up his own You Tube channel today. Um, what?! After we got it all set up and watched his first posted video he says, "Sweet! I'm gonna be famous! Let's log back on tomorrow and see how many hits I've gotten!" HOW does he even know about this stuff? I estimate that in the next year he will officially know more about technology than his Mama. Amazing.

But honestly, it's so fun to watch these boys grow and change and come into their own personalities. Jaden is currently enamored with all things skate related, Harry Potter, and aliens. Okay, technically he was enamored with aliens a few months ago, but as I'm running a little behind in Blogland, humor me. On our last couple of trips to snowboard in Ruidoso, he begged to stop in Roswell at the alien museum, but there was never time. So for Spring Break, we loaded up one morning and drove to NM. Whee!

The museum was mostly comprised of newspaper clippings of the Roswell incident some years back, various cartoons/comic strips about aliens, and a lot of amateur alien art. It held the boys' attention for about 13 seconds. Fortunately, the town has capitalized on the alien theme so the main street is full of little shops advertising, literally, "Alien Stuff!"

Grant was not too sure about the foam alien model. This was as close as he would get to it for the picture.

This was the highlight of the day for Matt....for obvious reasons.

We stopped at the park on the way out to expend some energy before the 3 hour ride home.

And this just made me laugh.

After Spring Break, Jaden enrolled at a martial arts academy and is now learning jiu jitsu. Apparently life is all about knowing 425 ways to take your little brother to the ground and submit him. Whatever. As long as everyone stays active... He's really into learning it though and is picking it up alarmingly fast. Pictures soon...

Grant is playing one last year of t-ball. We decided to get brave and go for Little League this year. It's crazy intense but he is SO darn cute! Turns out the boy can play AND he's pretty stinking fast. He plays pitcher, caught a pop fly the other night, and hit a Grand Slam about a week ago.

Measuring up like Daddy taught him...

Playing pitcher...

Most kids would be mortified that Mom not only snapped this next pic but then posted it on the web for all her friends and family to see. But Grant is not most kids. He will think this is hysterical.

Jesus save me.

Pi Day Ramblings

2011-03-14T22:43:00.000-05:00

**If** I had any functional hacker/cracker skillzzz, I would judiciously employ them to crash all the foodie blogs in Blogland. CRASH! BOOM! BAH! Bring 'em to their knees. No more stumbling on to them by accident (HOW does one search 'professional development' and end up on a Wisconsin mother-of-three's food blog? Sometimes I think Google might be on crack). No more getting sucked in by the delightfully Photoshopped images of cheesy bubbling enchiladas, sinful little cake pops, or the dreaded 'Bestsnickerdoodleever'. Dang snickerdoodles.

The first blog sucked me right in and had me whipping up a batch of THE best snickerdoodles ever! Or so the blog claimed. Turns out they were flat, crunchy, and less than stellar. So of course I ~~ate all 2 dozen in less than 24 hours~~ threw them in the trash and went in search of the rightful heir to the Best Snickerdoodle throne. And, SHAZAM! I think I've got a winner! Of course I won't really know until I've tested another few (dozen) recipes. ahem. Anyway. Just look at these beauties!

And you know the pictures never really tell the whole story. Oh my. Can't you just FEEL how scrumdiddlyumptious they are?! I'm quite sure this is how Heaven will taste. I'd offer to share mine but.... Well, no I wouldn't offer. Bake yer own.

And speaking of snickerdoodles, look at this sweet thing...

We took a quick weekend trip back to Ruidoso to snowboard one more time before the season ended and I'm SO glad we did. Papa Pat and Aunt Kyndra went with us and although the snow conditions were pitiful, it was nice to get a little more experience on the boards. Jaden and I took a private lesson which was totally worth the money and I'm proud to say I came home with only one bruise this time! Okay, that's a lie. I actually acquired two bruises. The first is totally expected when you fall on your posterior, but the second is more of an enigma. Kyndra convinced me to get off the beginner slope and go down a really easy green with her. The first part was crazy steep and scary until I figured out I could manage it and made it to the easy green part without incident. The green slope was really flat and slow but I figured that was okay...I could just practice my switching from heel edge to toe edge. Heel edge. Toe edge. Heel edge. Toe edge KAWHACK!!! Thank goodness I was wearing a helmet because I swear I would've knocked myself out otherwise. The enigma part of the story is how I crashed backwards but managed to bruise my nose. It turned blue and swelled up. Lovely. And so, the moral of the story is: When you are snowboarding, commit to everything fully, because if you chicken out in the middle of a turn, you will eat it. Hard.

Jaden did not have any nose related crashes, probably because he is a toe edge master. Our lesson instructor worked with Jaden a lot on control and stopping and later on turning. He is picking it up so crazy fast....it's amazing to watch. I'm ready to buy our own gear and go back!

A few frenzied weeks after our mountain trip and Spring Break has arrived! So naturally my children want to play.... School!! Um, what??

Here's Jaden in archaeology class digging for dinosaur fossils in the super cool GeoSafari kit he got from Uncle Bubby and Aunt Kathy for Christmas.

And here's Grant constructing a Happy Ticket board and discipline chart (just like they use in his Kindergarten class).

Pax and Picasso are the cats. Grant's an equal opportunity educator.

Grant used clothes pins with everybody's name written on them to chart behavior throughout the day. Everyone mostly stays on green and blue except for the big brother. Every time Jaden ticks Grant off, J's clip gets demoted to red.

I'm gonna go with a thumbs-up here for good coping skills.

Happy Spring and more importantly, Happy Pi Day!

Snowboarding = Ouch

2010-12-30T21:08:00.000-06:00

I just love ridiculously useless gifts.

Who wouldn't love a straw like this??!! Santa is so cool.

As usual, I am awed by how quickly this year has come and gone. Did Christmas really just happen? Such a blur. Literally...look at this pic. Guess our camera was sleepy too this Xmas morn...

The festivities began at 3:30 am. No, this pic was not taken at 3:30. We made them go back to bed (and by 'we' I mean Matt after I kicked him to let him know his precious offspring we up at 3:30).

We spent the afternoon with my parents where Santa was good to everybody again and then ate a lunch that was to die for. I should've taken a pic of the food. It would've made you drool.

The next day we ventured to Ruidoso for a Christmas snowboarding vacation with Matt's family. And, as it turns out, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. It just takes 5x as long. We arrived before noon, jumped in our snow bunny suits, and headed up the mountain. My "somewhat more agile than me" 8 year old promptly eyed his snowboard appraisingly, strapped it on, and started zipping down the slope. On his feet. Twerp.

I, however, spent the better part of the first 2 days flat on my ***Bleeeeeeep. Edited for content***. The instructor made it look SO effortless but holy gee-whiz those suckers are slippery!

Here you'll notice the instructor in his green vest, little sister and niece on the lower left, and yours truly as indicated by the red arrow. Stupid snowboard.

Grandma, Papa, and Grant hanging out while we all took a snowboarding lesson...

The top of the mountain...

Here are a few of us as we headed up the mountain on Day 2. It looks like I've got my arms wrapped around my family in a loving embrace. It's probably closer to the truth to say I was using the girls for support because I could hardly stand from all the falls on Day 1.

Day 2 did NOT start out with a bang. After determining that the bunny slope was an evil ***Bleeeeeeep. Edited for content*** I moved over to the beginner slope on the recommendation of the little sister (who consequently picked up the snowboarding thing in about 3 seconds also. Twerp.). I came off the lift successfully and then proceeded to fall half way down the slope at which point I ripped off the stupid board, crawled over to a nearby tree, and cried for 15 minutes. I seriously considered hiking the rest of the way down and trading in my board for skis. I already KNEW how to ski, why in tarnation was I torturing myself like this??!!

In the end, I decided I probably wouldn't be setting a very good example for the youngling by giving up on only the 2nd day. So, I strapped the sucker back on, stood up, and lo and behold I snowboarded the rest of the way down the slope! Halleluja! For the record, this was exactly how I learned to ski. It turns out the bunny slope is entirely too flat....it's a wonder anyone learns anything over there. The beginner run has just enough slope to give you some momentum, which in my case was the key. I guess it's just like learning to ride a bike. You're not going to learn to balance by just sitting there. You need to be going to figure it out.

The rest of Day 2 and Day 3 were total insane fun. I may never ski again. And I know Jaden is hooked too.

Schweddy Balls

2010-12-21T23:42:00.001-06:00

I dare you to try and keep a straight face. Go on, try.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, do yourself a grand favor and Google it. It's a cultural piece of television history to which everyone should be exposed before they die.

My day began this morning with a phenomenal plan to make Bakerella's Reindeer cake pops (I can't post her picture so check them out at bakerella.com) to give as gifts to the math department. This is why...

That's me and the math department prancing through the halls during passing period pulling Santa in his sleigh and singing Jingle Bells. Did you know that it is very difficult to prance around the entire school while singing? I sucked it up though and made it the whole way....danged if I was going to be the wimpy reindeer that had to stop and catch her breath. Turns out I may be a *wee* bit out of shape.

So, to answer your questions, 1) I'm wearing the bow and arrows because I was Cupid. You'll notice Vixen in her red feather boa too. 2) Yes, Cupid is a reindeer. Sing the song people. 3) Yes, we really are professional educators with post-graduate degrees. 4) No, we were not drinking.

But you can understand now why Reindeer Cake Pops would be SO perfect! Fast forward to Michael's where I'm trying to contain two bored-out-of-their-mind little boys while trying to obtain the 234 items necessary to construct said cake pops. Long story short, after narrowly averting a spray icing war (yep, there is such a thing as icing in spray cans) I came to the conclusion that Reindeer Cake Pops were waaaay over-rated and plain ol' cake balls would be just as fabulous. I drug the rascal icing warriors out of the store (turns out they go quite willingly in any direction you want when you've got a tight grip on a handful of their shaggy hair) and we headed home to bake.

Mmmm....Red Velvet

Now, this is where my convoluted brain digs up the Schweddy Balls segment and I almost can't finish rolling the stupid things out due to a ridiculous fit of the giggles.

Maybe I'll get overly ambitious tomorrow and dress them up as reindeer anyway. Then I'll package them up all sweet and cute with a note that says, "Enjoy your reindeer balls!"

Well, at least the math department would think it was funny.

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells

2010-12-14T22:14:00.003-06:00

Junior Mints smashed into the basement carpet. A birthday party invitation turned paper airplane now lost in the Bermuda Triangle that is my house. A pack of Big Red gum smeared all over the inside of the washing machine because someone forgot to take it out of their hunting pants pocket. A note written to Papa Pat. On a shirt. In marker.

The joys of motherhood, right? Bah.

So, that was the beginning of a post I started some weeks back, Thanksgivingish. Guess it was a rough day since that was as far as I got. As it turns out, I was coming down with some ridiculously obnoxious bug that knocked me flat and stole my voice (in case you were wondering, it is quite tiresome teaching Algebra using only hand gestures). But now I feel much better (thank you Dr. Dave and your wonder drugs) so I am going to attempt to play catch up before I wake up one day to find a ten YEAR gap between posts rather than a 10 week gap.

Halloween was a blur. Jaden has discovered the world of Harry Potter and is devouring the books (he's currently in the middle of The Goblet of Fire. My baby is reading a 700+ page novel....whaaaaat?). This of course means Grant also thinks HP is the coolest thing around, and so I give you, Harry and Professor Lupin...

Um, yes, I am aware that Harry is wearing a Star Wars tee. And yes, I am aware how incredibly geeky we are. And in case you can't tell from the picture, Harry has subdued Lupin by sticking his wand up his nose. It's as good as a silver bullet I'm told.

Thanksgiving was lovely, I'm sure. I don't really know since I spent most of it in bed sick. boo. But in spite of it all, the family came in to visit and eat, the boys played endless football, and I managed to consume an entire pecan pie, so I guess we can call it a success.

I love that Grant is "teaching" his great-grandparents all about the latest technology...

Now it is Christmas and my head is spinning from the craziness of the season. Or maybe it's from all the holiday sugar that has started to sneak into my house. Either way, I find myself simultaneously enchanted and exhausted. Whee!

Christmas always gives me a primo reason to have the kids' pictures taken. I love love love photo Christmas cards. I love to send them, I love to get them, I love to look at everybody else's when we're at their house. But alas, I simply did not have time to accomplish my beloved photo card this year. Sigh. I was able to bribe a few cute pics out of the boys though. It's amazing what a ginormous lollipop will get you...

Gonerrhea

2010-10-02T21:45:00.001-05:00

As a child I believed in all things spritely and mythical including Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. But as an adult I've come to realize the sinister truth....that somewhere in this realm of being there exists an invisible creature that silently steals away your hip and unfathomably cool youth leaving plain ol' grown-up thoughts and ideas in its place. Sneaky little SOB. And what's worse is that this creature isn't even courteous enough to leave a shiny quarter under your pillow so you know it's been there. No, it leaves you be-bopping along, blasting Metallica in your iPod, thinking you're hip-ness couldn't get any hipper. Then one day it slaps you upside the head when you realize your hip-ness actually got hippier (as in your favorite jeans will no longer zip up). And on this same day you also realize that your Metallica playlist contains "classic" tunes because "Gonerrhea" by Lil' Wayne is ranking on the top 10 downloads list on iTunes and your music no longer even makes the top 200. This. Is. It. This is the moment you realize that you are 100%-without-a-doubt the grown-up and clueless 35 year-old you dreaded becoming when you were 15. And you're okay with that realization because what human being possessing a fully developed brain would think Gonerrhea was a good song title?? (The guy didn't even spell it right for crying-out-loud)

So. In answer to your question, yes. Of course I clicked on it. Stop judging me. You know you're curious too. And it actually is as raunchy as it sounds. Worse probably. I was fumbling for the pause button about 8 seconds into the preview just in case a munchkin had snuck out of bed and was quietly listening around the corner. Seriously!!! When did it become okay, no, not okay, but COOL to say these words and sing about such explicit things in music??! Is this what my parents thought about Metallica? Is this what their parents thought about the Beatles? It's times like these when I just want to pack my family up, move to Tahiti, and spend our days worshiping jellyfish and learning to surf.

Life in America is tricky. It's clearly the best place on the planet to live, yet it comes with a price. Freedom and prosperity are amazing gifts, but oh how easily they could fold over on themselves and bring everything crashing down.

Life is good when...

2010-09-23T21:20:00.000-05:00

...you train your boys to take out the trash and empty the dishwasher so you don't have to...

...90% of your students actually remember enough stuff to PASS the stupid geometry test...

...your big kid gets invited to try out for the UIL spelling team at school because he's been recognized as one of the best spellers in 3rd grade (please-Jesus-let-him-make-the-team)...

...your little kid, who is a whirling dervish of naughtiness at home, manages to go 5 weeks in kindergarten without getting in trouble...

...after 8 weeks of employment you FINALLY get paid...

...you wake up one morning only to discover your pants are too big (yee haw!)...

...you can buy an iPod from a vending machine in the middle of the men's department of Macy's...

...no really, you actually can...

...and when fall finally arrives and you can spend the day with your family at the football game...

Just Breathe

2010-09-04T23:36:00.001-05:00

So. Freaking. Tired. But I'm not complaining. Not that much anyway. This was easily the busiest 5 months evvvvver. And that includes that one time I took 3 graduate-level classes in a single summer semester....one of which required reading 4 novels each WEEK. Yeesh. But I can honestly say that I haven't felt quite this alive in a long time. I hadn't realized what a deep rut I'd fallen into until the massive changes of the last few months yanked me right out of it. You know how when you're scooping out the cat box you hold your breath because you don't want to breathe in cat litter dust and it's taking a bit longer than you'd like because cats poop a lot apparently, and you finally run out of the room and suck in a chestful of fresh air before you pass out? Um, maybe that's just me. But THAT'S what I feel like! The fresh air part that is....and it is so nice to breathe.

The busiest part of the busy-ness has been the house. As it turns out, selling and buying a new house (mostly by yourself because your sweet husband is working insane 18 hour days and w/ 2 little boys underfoot) is no easy task. That's the sugar coated version of course. But suffice it to say, I intend to live here for at least 65 more years because I am never doing THAT again. Whew. And for the record, I can whine all I want about such things. It's my blog darnit. Kyndra, my bestest bud ever, who has sold, packed, bought, and unpacked houses all over the world following an army captain husband would roll her eyes in a major way if she read this post. But she won't read this. Because she's doing all of the aforementioned things in a move from VA to AL. By herself. With 2 little boys underfoot.

Anyway, settling into our new house has been the BEST part of the craziness! It's kinda slow going, but who cares?! I've got another 65 years to get settled! My first settling project was this:

If you're wondering, that's the tile. Um, ick? And there's a fair amount of tile in the house. But aside from filthy grout, we are LOVING this place....the space, the location, even the beautiful dark wood floors that show every blooming white cat hair. There may have been a *slight* lack of forethought when adopting those little boogers. Oh well.

But, when we weren't moving, working in town, working out of town, getting a new job, or sweeping up cat fur, we were out and about doing regular ol' summery kinds of things. Grant's a pretty good little ball player...

Nate, Grant, and the cutest trophies ever...

Jaden turned 8 with a beach party at Seahorse.

Invitations...

Lemonade cupcakes...

Grant took his first ride on an airplane...

My nephew came to visit...

Jaden practiced doing his "butterknife" off the diving board...

We couldn't talk Dad into getting wet...

Grant learned to do a front-flip...

The boys met Tommy Tuberville...

iPhones!!! ...

Oh! And I LOVE my new job! But more on that later because it's way past my bedtime...zzzzzzz

Why yes! I WOULD like a refill!

2010-07-22T23:10:00.002-05:00

Have you ever noticed how your tolerance level for little kid shenanigans is greatly increased after the waiter delivers your schooner sized margarita? No? Liar. Well let me enlighten you. My patience tank ~~always~~ occasionally reads -492 by the time we reach dinner in the evenings. This generally means I become a total Nazi when we finally sit down to eat..."STOP kicking the table! Don't thump crumbs at your brother! You are NOT a dog, you are a little BOY. Now use your FORK!" So, here's the scene at dinner the other night:

Me: STOP kicking the table! Don't thump crumbs at your brother!

Matt: (staring off in the distance, lost in his own little happy place)

Me: You are NOT a dog, you are a little BOY. Now use your FORK!

Waiter: And here's your margarita!

Me: *glug glug glug* Oh Jaden! What are you building over there? Is that food art?

Jaden: No, Mom. It's a catapult! (visualize a french fry base, tortilla chip launcher, and edamame projectile) I'm trying to fling this bean into that cup of ranch over there. Watch!!

Me: *glug glug* Sweet!! Scoot the chip a little this way and it'll go farther...try it!

And the moral of the story is??

--Sometimes you just need a little splash of tequila to help you appreciate the sweet things in life.

Here's another sweet thing: Swim lessons at the Seahorse...

He graduated!! I love these diving board/diploma pics. I've got the same pic of J when he graduated about 4 years ago, and my mom has the same pic of ME when I graduated thirty, er, a few years back.

Quick family vacays are also pretty sweet things...

Here are the chickens, acting like flamingos, at the Ft. Worth Zoo

Check out my bookworm...

I was having one of those Gestapo kind of days from about the moment I woke up that morning...

Me: NO! You do NOT need to bring that book into the zoo! We're here to have FUN, not study!

I'm sure you're not having any trouble identifying which part of that rant was my lightbulb moment for the day. Jeez. It's hard to tell from the pic, but the book is just full of quick facts and info about animals, most of which we actually saw at the zoo. I think I may have some control issues. But that's babble for another post & another day.

All G really wanted to do was "smile at a crocodile." Here he's waiting patiently. We did finally find one. Only it was an alligator. Apparently when you're 5 though, the distinction is irrelevant. He was pleased as punch for the rest of the day that he managed to "smile at a crocodile" without getting eaten.

Somewhere in the last few months, something has happened to my big kid. On this day he was simultaneously too young to resist riding the carousel and too old/cool to climb onto one of the horses and let anyone know he was having fun. Seriously? He's only eight.

You can see here that J is back to himself...climbing on the fake termite mounds, sucking on jelly beans. But really, it's the bag of jelly beans that are important in this story. Shortly after snapping this picture, a fat, fuzzy bumble bee flew into the candy bag for a little snack of his own. Now, Jaden is terrified of stinging insects after an incident involving an aggressive wasp a few years back. So he freezes statue still, tells me what's happened, and, being the excellent mom I sometimes am (who, incidentally is also terrified of said insects), calmly took the bag from his statue hand and headed for the trash can. WHAT possessed me to want to peek into the bag and see the bee trying to eat jelly beans is beyond me, but of course I did. As you can imagine, the bee seized this opportunity to escape and came zinging out at full throttle. Straight at my FACE. Thus causing me to shriek like a banshee whilst wildly flapping my arms and hopping about, because this is clearly the most intelligent way to rid oneself of a pesky bee. I must've looked like the idiot I clearly was on this day as the nearby mothers herded their children away from the crazy shrieking lady. I regained my composure, the children stopped cackling with laughter, Matt rolled his eyes, and we moved on the the giraffes.

Just another day in the life of the Potts fam.

Call him George...

2010-07-02T17:02:00.004-05:00

My boys have long complained that they are the ONLY kids on the WHOLE planet that didn't have any pets. Whatever. Well, we finally bit the bullet and adopted two 4 month old kitties last week. I have SO missed the feel of a purring little furball curled up in my lap. It also turns out that I have NOT missed the fragrance a litter box adds to my home.

Meet Pax....

and Picasso...

The boys are thrilled beyond reason to finally have pets, even if they are as mundane as cats...on our way to Petsmart the other day:

J: Mom, let's get our pets from Walter's World of Pets!

Me: What kind of pets would we get there?

J: Scorpions!

Me: No.

J: Tarantulas!

Me: No!

G: Capuchin monkeys!!

Me: Oh Lord...

It turns out that Jaden is a natural with small animals. He's kind and sweet and lets them run and hide when they've had enough.

Grant? Well, watch the first minute of this video and you'll get a sense of how Grant interacts with the kitties...

He was holding Picasso in the kitchen yesterday. Now, by "holding" I mostly mean "clutching the cat in a death grip while vigorously hopping up and down". But of course he's not paying any attention to the poor cat while he hops and is therefore bonking Picasso's head on the bar stool with every bounce.

G: hop bonk hop bonk hop bonk

Me: Grant! Stop! You're hurting him!

G: No I'm not. See, look at him. He's fine!

Picasso: **bushed out tail and eyes wide with terror**

Me: Grant, if you break the kitty's body, he could die.

G: Well, what if I just broke his leg?

I have required more than one bottle of wine to survive this week.

But nonetheless, we are enjoying them and our summer AND the rain.

Here's one of our home-run sluggers...

Go Astros!

I'll post pics of the other home-run slugger as soon as it quits raining and he gets to play another game :(

Here's a random pic of some pretty flowers growing in the flower beds at our new house. The beds are ridiculously overgrown but with some creative cropping, you don't even notice the chaos going on underneath. I am trying to tame the chaos, really. Well, actually, I'm trying to pay someone else to come tame the chaos, but you wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get the landscaper/yard people of this city to call you back! If you are one of these people, call me! I want to pay you money! Sheesh.

I can only imagine what the beds are going to look like after all this rain. Oh my. At least the rain is, for once, not accompanied by thunder, lightning, and gale force winds. That makes for some good playing in the backyard...

Happy Independence Day!

Soopa-doopa Summa-time

2010-06-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

I really didn't think summer was EVER going to get here this year. It seems like every time we sneezed around here it would start snowing again. But the 100 degree weather has arrived and we are in full out summer mode at last! We started the season with...

Notice the gap in that sweet smile? I can't believe my baby is losing teeth!! Sniff sniff.

Memorial day and birthday (mine) fun at Grandma and Grandpa's...

My birthday present from my fam, parents, and in-laws was a new spectacularly freakin' awesome lens for my camera. LOVE this pic my dad shot...

And this year it's swim lessons for the small child. He is NOT impressed that his "really really mean" mommy is *forcing* him to do this. Someday he'll understand that his really really mean mommy simply doesn't want him to drown when he falls in the lake. Right?

The big kid is happy as a clam that the little brother has to take swim lessons because this means he just gets to swim and play while G is being tortured.

Hopefully an endless supply of cotton candy will be enough to bribe this boy to finish the lessons without any major resistance.

Yeah, well, I can dream can't I?

Stress? What stress?

2010-06-01T22:16:00.001-05:00

Ah, the winds of change. They sound all breezy and poetic, which, I suppose they are for some. But alas, I live on the TX plains where mostly the winds of change resemble tornadic activity. They come roaring through, plucking you right out of your comfortable little place in life, then spit you out in some foreign technicolor dreamland. So, here's where our little breeze turned mesocyclone....

We put our house on the market in early April and SHAZAM! It sold 2 weeks later. Excellent! But then came the search for a new house. Apparently we are just a *wee* bit picky. We drug our realtor through every house in the city that was in our price range, but to no avail. We were nearing the closing date on our house and were going to be homeless if something didn't pop up soon. We were actually getting ready to sign a lease on an apartment when I sat down one night to look through aaaaalllllll the listings in the city again, this time through more compromising eyes. I even upped the pricing parameters hoping we could maybe find a suitable house and then work the sellers down into our price range. Sure enough, a listing we hadn't seen before popped up and it looked really promising house-wise. Not so promising price-wise....it was almost $20k above the absolute maximum on our budget. We decided to go see it anyway, and guess what?? Matt and I actually agreed on a house!! This was the one...and it was vacant so we wouldn't have to move into a rental until the sellers could move out! Trying not to get our hopes up, we made an offer a few thousand below our budget ceiling, leaving us at least a few dollars-worth of wiggle room knowing we'd have to negotiate up. Not an hour later, they accepted our first offer. Whaaaat? Really? Apparently they'd listed it last year, taken it off the market after 5 months, re-listed it this spring at a reduced price, and then moved out (empty nesters as best I can tell). The offer we made happened to be their bottom dollar and they were so ready to be done with it, they just accepted!

Now, as if the house saga wasn't enough, I managed to get a job in the middle of everything. I didn't actually mean to. Seriously. I didn't. I knew I wanted to go back to work in the fall when G went off to kindergarten because frankly, I've been getting a little bonkers at home recently. Bonk. Ers. So an old colleague of mine in LISD advised that I get my file updated in the system so when a part-time job opened up in the fall, all my paperwork would be in order. So I did as she suggested. However, being a secondary math teacher, I started getting hammered with calls almost immediately. I took the interviews, but they were all for full-time positions, and I turned down the jobs when they were offered. During all this, I had decided to get paperwork in place for LCISD also, thinking something out there might become available in the fall. Less than 20 minutes after I'd hit the submit button on the application site I got a call from the HS principal requesting an interview. Weird. But I went. The interview was great...I was pretty hooked right from the start, even though the position available was full time. About half-way through, the principal asked if I'd been through Human Resources yet. Um, nope. Apparently all apps go straight to HR where they're screened, then they'll call you for a general interview, then recommend you to interview with the principals if you make it through all of that. Hmmmm. My app must have had a mind of it's own because it didn't go where it was supposed to go.

So I finished the interview and the principal sent me over to HR so the process would be complete, albeit backwards. Before I left, I stopped to say hello to my high school English teacher who has been working out there for some time now. While I waited to see her, the HR guy comes walking though and stops to chat, and says, "You need to probably be thinking about whether or not you're going to come back full time or not. Like, you need to probably decide today." Gack!! Today?? Sure enough, the call came later that day offering me the job. I knew I wanted it, but I asked for another day to think it over before I decided. I can't say what made this offer different from the others, but I really felt at peace with it, whereas with the others, I really did not. So I accepted and now I am a Pirate. Aaargh!

This decision also means the boys can come with me and be Pirates too! So, in addition to scouring the city for a house, I have also been scouring the schools trying to make a decision on where to send the boys.

I think we've got it all figured out. And almost all worked out. New house, new job, new school. Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Zing!

2010-05-17T10:23:00.000-05:00

WHO keeps messing with my space-time continuum? Seriously. I have no idea how mid-May got here so impossibly fast. Easter was a blur. But the boys actually sat still long enough to dye all the eggs this year. Three cheers for 30-minute attention spans!

Spring sprang and the boys now spend all their free time outside with the boys across the alley or playing baseball with Dad.

We put our house on the market on April 9th and sold it 2 weeks later. Those were the longest 2 weeks of my life. While I thoroughly enjoyed having a sparkly clean house, I did not much care for being the Fingerprint Nazi I was forced to become...."Don't touch that! You'll get fingerprints on it! Don't sit on the bed! I just made it up! No you can't use the potty I just scrubbed it! Go pee on the tree!"

The boys were actually pretty helpful during those 2 weeks. It could've been because they were afraid of Nazi Mom, but I'm choosing to believe it was because they are just sweet and compliant children. Have I been breathing too many household cleaner fumes? Probably.

Here's Grant during a moment of helpfulness cleaning out the flower bed with Daddy. This lasted 5 whole minutes until he discovered the worms he could dig up in the mud. Apparently worms are more fun than manual labor.

Another soccer season has come and gone. Life can't get any better than shaved ice after a game.

We made it to Ranch Day this year too. What a FUN way to spend a day with the family! And it's freeeeeee!

Here Matt and Jaden are patiently waiting on hot buttered biscuits baked over the campfire in a cast iron dutch oven. Lots of other people started to gather and wait too. It cracked me up to see a bunch of people living in the richest country in the world elbowing small children out of the way to make sure they got a biscuit before they were all gone. Sorry there are no pictures of the stampede to post. I was busy wrestling an elderly woman to the ground over the last biscuit.

The weather was strangely cooperative too, which was nice.

Photo by Grant...

The boys both got to ride horses....they thought it was a lot more fun than this picture shows.

The kids received a work card when they arrived and after working as a ranch hand at 5-6 locations, they could turn the card in to get paid then spend their earnings at the general store. My favorite was the laundry work station. My grandma had one of these old washboards!

Diagnosis

2010-04-09T17:01:00.001-05:00

Littleboyitis -- a condition commonly known to afflict mothers of ornery little boys. Symptoms include, but are not limited to, headache, nausea, back pain, extreme fatigue, sudden and acute loss of sanity, and heart palpitations. Currently there is no known cure for Littleboyitis. Symptoms can be controlled through the administration of fermented grape juices, tropical vacations, and in extreme cases, tranquilizer darts.

These are two known organisims that cause Littleboyitis...

Case #1 -- Yesterday morning Grant was playing in the backyard when after some time I realize he was being TOO quiet. So I went to check on him and found him in the alley. Gack!! Bear in mind that the gate to the alley is padlocked, so not only can he locate the keys, but he can also operate the lock. Dear Lord...

Me: Grant!! WHAT are you doing out here??

G: Mom, look! I found an alley cat!!

Me: Whaaaaat? Get back in here! The alley is dangerous!

G: But Mom, I'm trying to catch it so we can have a pet! I almost had it 'til you scared it away!

Me: (string of muttered profanities and lots of head shaking)

Case #2 -- The boys' Papa is an avid outdoorsman and hunter. I have the deer jerky and wild pig sausage in my freezer to prove it. Each year Papa, Matt, and the boys take their annual Boys Only camping trip as well as other assorted hunting/hiking excursions to the lease to stomp in the dirt, pee on the cacti, and engage in other manly adventures. On one such occasion, some years back, Papa discovered an aoudad (pronounced OW-dad) skull. A real-life, sun-bleached, dead-critter SKULL. Okay, except an aoudad isn't really a critter. It's a full sized sheep-like animal imported from Africa. And it's dead skeleton head has been hanging on my fence in the backyard ever since. I came to terms with this sometime ago and truly, I don't even notice it anymore.

So, back to Grant. After the cat incident, I re-padlocked the back gate, put the keys on a really high shelf, and went back to what I was doing. Sometime later, the backdoor slams and...

G: Hey, Mom! I have some good news and I have some bad news. The good news is I found this pretty leaf and it's for YOU!

Me: Oh, thanks buddy! And the bad news?

G: Well, you better just come look.

He took me out into the back yard to show me this...

Me: Um, what happened exactly?

G: I was trying to get a tooth out.

Me: With that baseball bat over there?

G (dejected): Yeah. But it didn't work.

Me: Why did you want to get a tooth out?

G (mischievous grin): I was gonna see if the Tooth Fairy would notice that it wasn't mine.

Case #3 -- Littleboyitis often flares without warning. Observe the two adorable specimens below, decked out in their Easter duds, happily hunting eggs.

Suffice it to say, this Kodak moment ended in a fist fight over a golden egg.

Fortunately for most, Littleboyitis is a bi-polar type condition. It certainly is for me anyway. I'll often find myself 'muttering profanities' only to be laughing out loud at any number of little-boy-shenanigans moments later.

I've always said that God made 'em cute in order to ensure their survival.

Adventures. Or not.

2010-03-18T12:34:00.000-05:00

I am an amazing parent, filled to the brim with exciting ideas to keep 2 little boys engaged and busy and of course, learning! Every day is packed with arts & crafts, blowing bubbles, and bike rides to the park! Cue the rainbow and unicorns! Cue the fairy tale music! Cue the flying pigs!!

Yeesh. A girl can dream, right? Typically holidays, minor ones included, provide oodles of prime activity fodder. Even the most uninspired mom can Google "St. Patrick's Day fun", or at least serve up green milk for breakfast. Yesterday actually WAS St. Paddy's Day but my children didn't get any green milk. I wonder if they even got any breakfast. hmmmm. Anyway, I did manage to get us all dressed and out the door somewhere close to noonish with the grand idea that we should journey out to the local archaeological and natural history preserve. Whoa! Did I just see a unicorn?! Oh yeah.

This was our first trip out there. In years past I'd just never been brave enough to try it. I figured active excavation sites + ancient artifacts + 2 little boys = bad idea. But, the boys are growing up and tend toward pleasantness more than heathenism these days, so off we went. The visitor/education center has a quaint little museum then outside there are about 3 miles of nature trails to explore. Score!

Here's Jaden observing a spider he spotted. You might note that this momma was not observing with him nor helping him identify said spider. She was several feet back using the max amount of zoom on the camera to snap a pic, ready to stomp anything that skittered by. I don't do spiders. Just call me nature girl.

The spider was just about the only critter we saw. There was apparently a stink bug, but Jaden squashed it. Oh, and we saw one bird. And an airplane.

It's still wintery enough that there wasn't even a sprig of green poking through the dirt. Nothing but dead/dormant scrub as far as the eye could see. But there WERE rocks! Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Thanks to the good Lord for miles of never-ending caliche.

Here Grant's got a dead gourd and Jaden's carrying a monster sized rock which he's intent on taking home.

Insert minor meltdown here when I tell him this is a preserve protected by the state and he can't take it. What was that I was saying about pleasantness?

Oh well. At least we got some fresh air and sunshine. There was nary a cloud in sight, and after the raining slush on Monday, that big blue sky was worth the day's efforts.

Friends 4 Evr

2010-03-16T21:55:00.001-05:00

I wish I had been smart enough to document the many adventures of these 4 munchkins through the years. They've been partners in crime (last night they froze a pair of Matt's underwear just for kicks) since day one. When they're not huddled together plotting pranks, you'll find them pillaging the lands as a marauding band of pirates, inventing new games involving the trampoline, rope, and a bed sheet, or practicing an elaborate theatrical production that they will later con you into watching. All 45 minutes of it.

Tell me these bedheads aren't the cutest things you've seen all week...

It takes a lot of patience to get a pic of the 4 of them. They're all so compliant, lining up, draping their arms around one another, smiling, the picture of sweetness. Until one of them gets goosed by a mystery hand and they all dissolve into a fit of giggles.

And then there's Grant...

Grant: Mom....I just love Chloe and Collette. It's like they're our sisters!

HusbandSpeak

2010-02-21T15:17:00.003-06:00

Matt: If I were a wizard, THIS would be my wand.

And Yoda would be my Patronus!

Luuurve

2010-02-18T11:59:00.004-06:00

I really love...

that these boys are all mine

and that between the three of them, they possess a galaxy-sized measure of obscure Star Wars knowledge.

I love...

that I married a man who makes the most ridiculously scrumptious chocolate creme brulee...

and that there are no pictures of it to post because I ate the last of it for breakfast the other day.

I love...

going to wake the boys in the morning and finding them snuggled together

the perfect peace that is the face of a sleeping child

their coconut flavored hair after bathtime

big brown eyes

and Valentine parties

I love...

that my big kid is still innocent enough to be puzzled at our laughter when he brought this home from the school library...

I love...

photographs that stir my heart

girlfriends girlfriends girlfriends

parents and in-laws to share in the story of our lives

merlot

I love...

that J will proudly storm the grocery store in this get-up

that G tries to swing high enough to loop himself over the bar

and funny faces

and noogies

because there's just no better way to show someone you love 'em. Unless it's your grandma. You should probably just hug her.

Laugh it up Fuzzball

2010-01-21T16:09:00.001-06:00

The last 8 days have been filled with all kinds of exciting fuzzball goodness. Jack and Simon came to live with us while the Price fam vacationed. Let me just say, this is absolutely the BEST way to have pets. You get 2 fluffy, fully trained puppies delivered to your door. They stay and play a while. And just about the time you start thinking, "If those poop machines doodle in my yard one more time...", *POOF* they go home! Brilliant! I'm thinking I could market this somehow.

The boys had a fabulous time with the pups. I am not a dog person myself, but I have to say I quite enjoyed them, too. I even learned a few things while they were here:

1. Dogs are not very fragrant when they are wet.

2. Apparently little boys require extensive training to learn to properly walk a dog.

3. Boys can move at the speed of light when a dog throws up.

4. When male pups reach sexual maturity, they do not care if the other dog is female, male, or even another dog at all.

In other news, the boys have been doing chores to earn a little money of their own. We've got them using Dave Ramsey's envelope system: Spend, Save, Give. It takes a little while to build up enough money to "Spend" when you have to divide your earnings 3 ways, but Grant finally managed to accumulate enough for a spending spree...though there's not much spree to it when you've only got $15 in this economy. But regardless, Grant is only 5. And you'll be pleased to know that when you're only 5, the amount of money in your pocket is not the important thing. Neither is the item purchased. No, what truly matters are the receipts. Who knew?

Jaden went shopping with his money as well, but at age 7, he is no longer enamored with receipts. He is all about the new series of Legos and, better yet, the freedom to purchase his very own bag of beef jerky. To each his own I always say. J even had a little extra money to spend because of this...

Honestly, that Tooth Fairy pays pretty well these days, especially when she forgets to drop by to pick up that last tooth and then has to pay double in restitution the next night.

There's no good story for this next pic. I had to post it because when I saw it the first time I was blown away by how grown up he looked.

Would somebody please be so kind as to press this kid's Pause button?

Jump!

2010-01-02T23:03:00.001-06:00

Bear Grylls is psychotic (Hulu yourself some Man vs. Wild if you don't know this guy). Except for when he jumped out of a helicopter over a remote tropical island. THAT I understand. Not because I've been there done that, but because sometimes I'm tempted to go there do that. I'm sure all it would take is a quick Google: "pilot who will fly over remote tropical island and look the other way whilst I leap out and plummet towards silence and solitude thus escaping the frenzy that comes with living with 3 testosterone fueled males". Oh yes. There are a few of you out there that know EXACTLY what I mean. Here's a snapshot of a moment in the Potts house today ...

Early morning Nerf dart gun war resulting in 498 darts strewn about the house including 7 in the Christmas tree, 3 in the kitchen sink, and 1 under my pillow. Don't ask. I have no idea.
BB gun target practice in the back yard resulting in neon orange target shrapnel strewn, well, everywhere
An archery contest with new bows and suction cup arrows that fire waaaay better than the dollar store variety. Bear in mind that said archers have had little to no education in the way of archery etiquette.

Snowball fight on the trampoline
Basketball practice in the driveway which morphed into...
Nerf basketball game in the house which included the use of a random mattress

which morphed into...
Tackle basketball in the living room.

And none of this is out of the ordinary. I should've asked Santa for a parachute.

Diciembre

2009-12-28T22:44:00.002-06:00

December is a sneaky little sonuvagun. It creeps up behind you and taps your shoulder and by the time you've whirled around to face it, it's gone. I suppose that after ~~34.5~~, 26 years I should be a little more prepared to meet this lovely winter month, yet year after year it catches me unawares. Stupid December.

Here's how mine turned out...

My baby turned 5 the other day. And by the other day I mean about 4 weeks ago. I am unable to enlighten/bore you with countless pictures and tales of the birthday party because while I am overjoyed to have a healthy, happy, and somewhat ornery 5-year old, I am also somewhat stunned. You know, stunned like someone just slapped you across the face for no apparent reason and all you can do is make sounds that vaguely resemble Porky the Pig. And as if that's not bad enough, I also feel like I'm taking on Porky's physique thanks to the richness of the holiday season and possibly that ginormous plate of my dad's fudge that I've been consuming for breakfast for the past 3 days. Dang-o-mighty that stuff is good.
We officially attended our LAST Christmas program for PDO though I'm not sure why we bothered. Don't get me wrong...the program was adorable as always. It's just that our child spent his farewell performance imitating a statue. A pouting statue.
December 18th marked the start date for a frenzy of holiday activity: 9 Christmas celebrations (8 of which we attended), 2 more birthdays, our 14th anniversary (Cheers to one remarkable man for putting up with me for that long), and...
SNOW! We haven't had a decent snow in several years so this one was loooooong overdue. We woke up on Christmas Eve to 5-6 inches, most of which was plastered to the side of my house since it only snows sideways on the TX plains. The boys very nearly died from anticipation as they waited for the temperature to get up into at least the 20's and for the wind to settle down enough to quit making snownados in the backyard. Once these meteorological conditions were achieved, the boys dove into the 4 foot drifts and commenced digging tunnels and pelting eachother with snowballs.

This last pic is post-snowball fight snuggling. And notice the snaggletooth big kid? Matt yanked that left tooth out later that night. This year we left cookies and milk out for Santa AND the Tooth Fairy!

Crazy Train

2009-11-25T23:47:00.001-06:00

It's no wonder the world thinks Americans are certifiably crazy. It's because we are. Don't believe me? The next time you're out and about, stop for 7 or 8 minutes and just watch the people around you. This is a good time of year for this exercise too because there's just something about the holiday season that ups our crazy factor by about 1000.

Crazy Example #1 ... "It's not MY job!"

I was at Old Navy today along with approximately 42% of the city. No, I was not getting a jump on my Christmas shopping. I do not have my act quite that together. I only have (had) 2 long sleeved shirts in my wardrobe and when you wore them both on Monday and Tuesday respectively, it makes Wednesday quite chilly. Anyway, after procuring 2 t-shirts and 2 hoodies I found myself at the ONE open register in the store. Did I mention I was at the end of the line which happened to be 37 people deep? Did I also mention that there was a manager chatting with person #32 in the line who appeared to be a long lost friend? The manager finally wraps up her conversation with, "Well, I guess I better go find someone to work another register." Um, wow.

Crazy Example #2 ... "Good will towards men my foot!"

The Mall parking lot from mid-Nov through Dec 27th. Enough said.

Crazy Example #3 ... "HURRY!"

Ever been in the car taking your kids to Grandma's and you tell them you're going to slow down to about 30 when you get there and that they should jump out as you drive by. Tuck and roll when you land, boys! No? Uh, right. Me either. Anyway, when we pulled into the driveway this afternoon a UPS truck came barreling down the street and did exactly what I just described to you. No lie! The driver swerved over towards the curb and sort of slowed down while the partner leapt from the top stair of the truck and sprinted, yes, sprinted my neighbor's package to the door. The delivery guy must've thrown it at the front door because no more than a half second went by and he was sprinting back to the truck which, by the way, was still in motion. He leapt over the stairs once again and into the truck, the driver gunned the engine and they sped off into the sunset. Now, I know it must sound like I've embellished this story somewhat (Okay, I admit, there was no sunset. It was only 2:30 in the afternoon) but scout's honor, that's really how it happened.

Crazy Example #4 ... "Photoshop"

Who thought this thing up anyway? How am I ever going to learn it all?? I really need to take a class because between you and me, Photoshop for Dummies just isn't cutting it. Here's a good before and after that shows you just exactly WHY I need this program.

Pretty big difference, huh? Now could someone explain to me just what I did so I can do it again tomorrow? Crazy.

Geek Alert

2009-10-29T19:02:00.008-05:00

So who knew we were a family of sci-fi convention going nerds? If you were about to answer, "I did!" well, you can kindly shut it. But the fact remains, we are. We packed up last week and headed to the big city to attend Star Wars Fan Days III. Yee haw! What an experience....I really wish we could've taken video of the entire con because there really are no words to explain it. Firstly, we were greeted at the door by what appeared to be a die hard Trekkie, complete with her Star Fleet uniform and plastic Vulcan ears. Now, for those of you that don't know your Star Wars, let me clue you in. It's not the same as Star Trek and the two generally don't mix. I kept waiting for someone to shank her.

So when we finally get through the registration line and into the place, we find that we really are in a galaxy far far away. Everyone in sight is either wearing a Star Wars t-shirt, carrying a play light saber or blaster, or dressed in full costume. I may have even heard two guys having a conversation in Shyriiwook (the language of the Wookies), but as I'm not personally fluent, I can't be sure.

Speaking of costumed convention goers, here's a pic of me in my Slave Leia costume.

Just kidding. Not that I needed to tell you that. And just for the record, Matt was the one who saw it necessary to snap this pic whilst I was desperately trying to divert the younglings' attention to a more appropriately dressed Storm Trooper. I'm not sure if cute little Leia was wearing anything under the skirt-like thingamabob but most of her posterior was visible every time she took a step. Yeesh.

Now we really did find a Storm Trooper. LOTS of troopers actually.

AND a real live R2D2...This little fella was not a prop. He really moved, spun, and talked.

Here's a random shot of the big kid exhibiting his fascination with the dark side (he requested we take this pic).

Don't ask me why there was a Freddy Kruger mannequin at the Star Wars con. He must've snuck in with the Trekkie.

Here he's posing with another strange character. We're not sure who this guy was supposed to be. Mandalorian Jedi? It's a mystery. He let J hold his uber-cool light saber though so he couldn't be all bad.

One of the activities available was a costume contest.

I don't know who this little guy was but isn't that an amazing costume?!! The homemade ones are by far the best in my opinion. I talked with this droid's parents and they told me he didn't win. Seriously? He was clearly 1st prize material. The parents told me, however, that the winner of the adult contest gave his prize (a several hundred dollar SW toy) to the boy because he also thought the kid was robbed.

Whew! This is getting long. Cut to the short story (too late). This next pic is for my mom because describing an Elvis Storm Trooper is just darn near impossible.

Here's a random pic of me because I deserve to show up in pics too darnit.

Here's a shot of some geeks, er, fans, getting a light saber lesson.

Future geeks honing their battle skills...

Matt taking in a live Podcast and talking with one of the ForceCast guys, respectively.

And finally, the cast (voice talent) of the animated series The Clone Wars was there! This was a big deal. The Clone Wars is the most current Star Wars production and the boys are ALL about watching the new episodes every Friday night. We got to meet them all and get their autographs and even snap pics with a few.

Here's Matt with the girl that voices Asajj Ventress...

Matt and the boys with Tom Kane who voices the narration beginning each episode, Yoda, and Admiral Yularen.

This is the guy who voices Anakin Skywalker....cute yes?

At the end of the second day the cast did a reading of an impromptu script. SO cool. This was easily my most favorite part of the con.

Not a great pic, but you get the idea.

After the reading we were getting ready to head out when Matt spotted the Clone Wars director Dave Filoni who was kind enough to let me snap a quick pic.

Matt was so excited I though he was going to try and kiss the guy. I think the matching beards and lanyards are cute. I'm gonna get Matt a hat like Dave's for Christmas. That way his costume for next year will be complete.

Now to outfit the rest of us...

Gourd Day To You

2009-10-20T07:27:00.002-05:00

Okay. So is it really a pumpkin patch when it's just a truckload of pumpkins offloaded into the Presbyterian church yard? I suppose not. But the boys didn't seem to notice the lack of authenticity. They were thrilled to get to pull the wagon through the yard and hunt down every species of gourd available. They were especially enthralled with the pumpkins that had bumpy growths. Boys.

They also spent almost as much time begging to use the camera as they did hunting pumpkins. Grant took this one...

Not bad for a 4 year old! And no, Jaden is NOT throwing some evil Hook 'em Horns hand signs. He's the Aggie child, remember? See the post below this one if you have no idea what I'm talking about. This is what he calls his 'rock on' hand sign.

I LOVE the itty bitty pumpkins. They are just so darn cute!

So, have you noticed anything about J in these pics so far? He's not only sitting still for pics, looking at the camera, and being generally cooperative, he's actually SMILING in most! This is a BIG deal!! For the last 3 years this child has spent an inordinate amount of time running from the camera and perfecting his blank expression that covers the pages in my most recent scrapbooks.

And now, I'll leave you with a giggle...

Happy Fall!

Divorce

2009-10-16T21:38:00.005-05:00

So, for Halloween this year my children have decided to dress up as traitors.

Matt's probably drawing up the divorce papers as I type after what he deems my "grievous lapse in judgement" in purchasing such offending costumes.

But aren't they just adorable?!

Fairaphobia

2009-10-08T21:24:00.006-05:00

Once upon a time, the fair was a magical place....a wonderland of riotous color and light, scented with the pinks of cotton candy and the browns of all things fried. The rides were flashy, filthy, and terrifying. Even my mom and dad would occasionally get sucked in and climb into some ridiculous ride with me. My mom once rode the Super Loop with me...remember that one? Around and around and around. Then backwards. Then they'd stop you at the top so you dangled upside-down for a while. To this day she swears the carnie let the ride go an extra 5 minutes because he thought it was funny that a 'mom' was brave enough to ride! We did get a curiously long turn... My dad once got on a roller-coaster with me in California...but that's a story best left for another time.

Anyway, my point is that the fair was once a fun and much anticipated event. WAS, that is, up until the Great Puking Incident of 1988 anyway. And no, it wasn't ME who puked. Remember the Zipper? At least that was what it was called in the '80s...the ride that works on the same orbital principle as your mix-master where it revolves (vertically) like a ferris-wheel but your individual cage spins also. So, imagine you're a young teenager, your parents have trusted you to go to the fair without them, you're feeling giddy and free and you've just hopped onto the first ride of the night. The Zipper. They load and off-load much like the ferris-wheel, one car at a time, so all the people above you may or may not have just spent the last 3 minutes spinning madly about and churning up all the fantastic fair food so recently consumed. You get the idea, right? BLAT! It splattered all down my left side, in my hair, the works.

Magical fair mystique...GONE. Kaputz. Finito.

So thank goodness for offspring...those enchanting little creatures that force us to see the world anew, through unbiased eyes, free from the knowledge that those rides get torn down and reassembled approximately every 10 days. The boys were so ridiculously ecstatic about going to the fair this year that I couldn't help but catch a little of their mania. We were very nearly thwarted by the dreaded H1N1 but managed to get there on Friday before they packed up and set off for another eager town.

We started our evening viewing the natural world. Grant loved holding the baby ducks and chicks. He didn't want to leave to do anything else.

Um, pardon the tacky bra strap. I could Photoshop that out but frankly, I'm tired and I don't think I care that much.

The rides were next on the agenda. Only 3 rides for each boy, however, because it is STUPID expensive! $3 per ride is worth it though when it gets a smile out of your big kid (especially when the big kid has a no-smiling policy).

The boys LOVED the Super Slide. I still can't believe they both agreed to do it. Grant's so small that he went a little airborne coming over that second hump!

We didn't actually ride the ferris-wheel. That would've cost our little family another $16. Extortion. Yeesh.

Next the boys wanted to play all the games and win all the fabulous prizes.

The 4-year old throwing darts...watch out!

And this year we got so much more than just 3 darts for $5. Yes! Our children were blessed to be schooled in the ways of the mannerly by the toothless and tattooed carnies of the midway. After the boys would play, they would be asked, "What do you say to your parents for buying you that game?" One carnie lady even made sure to check that it was okay that she give Jaden the toy gun prize he chose because, "Some parents are uncomfortable with guns you know." Well, who knew the fair was so dog-gone classy?!

On the way out, we stopped to make one final purchase of cotton candy, churros, and light sabers (because the 27 sabers we already have at home are just plain insufficient).

So maybe I'm a fan of the fair once again. Everybody walked on their own, nobody whined, there were no meltdowns when it was time to leave, and best of all, I didn't get puked on.

Life is Good

2009-10-06T20:35:00.002-05:00

I don't care who you are...that's just cute.

Mad Science

2009-09-20T14:40:00.006-05:00

So I seem to be a sucker for any activity that keeps one or both boys happily occupied for more than 5 minutes. And if this fun involves mass quantities of goo or minor explosions, well, what the hay. At least I had 25 minutes to dust the house and scrub the dishes. Or plunk around on Facebook. It's all kinda the same thing you know. Anyway, Grant comes be-bopping in the other day proclaiming that he's a science guy and he wants to do 'that sciencey' thing. Of course I ask, "Uh, what sciencey thing?" to which he replies, "You know, the one with the colors and the spoon!"

Well of COURSE! Silly me. The one with the colors and the spoon! Um, yeah. When in doubt, improvise.

So as you can see, the 47.3 minutes of Facebook, er, dish scrubbing time was provided on this day by several cups of water, food coloring, and a variety of spoons for stirring and dipping and general sloshing.

I left him with the primary colors and green, 'cause that's what came in the box of food colors, and a scad of empty cups. Then I told him to see how many NEW colors he could make. No, this is not exactly new and innovative science, in fact it may not qualify as science at all, BUT it involved colors and spoons and provided me with a moment of peace and quiet therefore satisfying all the requirements of those present.

I'm sure you're all perched on the edges of your seats anticipating what brilliant NEW colors my little scientist so painstakingly created. Well, brace yourselves, because the little smarty pants developed a lovely new shade of blackish-brownish. Please, people, please, hold your applause until the end of the posting.

I'd had those cups stashed in the pantry from J's 1st birthday in 2003. I KNEW they'd come in handy some day!

Big Brother didn't want to get left out of the action.

Did you notice what color he discovered?

Distractinator

2009-09-19T00:24:00.004-05:00

So yesterday in the trusty ol' mini-van, my little chatterbox is chattering away and solving the mysteries of the universe:

Grant: Mommy, why did the Longhorns beat the Red Raiders?

Me: They didn't beat us last year, remember? We beat them!

Grant: Oh yeah! Well, have they ever beat us?

Me: Yes. Sometimes the Longhorns win, and sometimes Tech wins.

Grant: Oh Mommy, that's so nice! It's a compromise!

I wish I could be a fly on the wall of my children's brains and witness their thought processes. Everyday they simultaneously baffle and amaze me. One minute I'm SUPERmom....at one with the universe, my chi perfectly balanced, and both boys playing congenially in the backyard whilst discussing the proper method for skip counting. The next minute all hell breaks loose and I find myself refereeing a wrestling match straight out of the WWF. And all because "He KICKED my BALL over the FENCE and now I'll NEVER get it back. EVER!" Followed by "Nuh-uh!! I did NOT kick it over the fence!! I THREW it over the fence!"

Thank you Jesus for Francis Coppola Claret (take a trip to Pinkie's and buy a bottle. You'll thank me).

How exactly DO parents survive the whole child-rearing process?

Wine? Yes.

Denial? Definitely.

Distraction?

Oooooh, look at this cool picture of a tarantula made entirely out of Legos!

This was taken on Matt's phone while we were in Chicago. I've looked at this pic several times but only just NOW noticed the man in the background lying on his back on the mall floor. Um, yikes?

Distraction indeed.

Chi-Town the Musical

2009-08-12T23:55:00.003-05:00

Matt and I have amazing weather karma when it comes to travel. I mean amazing. Las Vegas last year: highs in the 80's everyday. Baseball game in St. Louis in mid- July: 72°. Sea World San Antonio: overcast and in the 80's. Chicago, the windy city, in the dead of August: mid-80's all week and only ONE day of wind! It was perfect weather that allowed us to traipse all over downtown. I think we walked at least 452 miles and I've got the sore muscles to prove it. Even my toes are sore. Of course it didn't help that we stayed at two different hotels, both on extreme opposite sides of Michigan Avenue. We started out on the far south side at the Chicago Hilton where I was working. It is a beautiful and historic hotel. Every American President who's been in office since the place was built has stayed there. And they filmed the last hour of The Fugitive there. AND our room had a view of the city AND Grant Park AND the lake. I even got to see the ridiculously huge fireworks show over Navy Pier from the window. But, it was quite a hike to get anywhere and I was sore and exhausted after only the first day. At the end of the week we had to move to a new hotel since the lovely and historic Hilton would not extend to me the special cheap rate they had given my company/employer. Where did we go, you ask? Well, the Ritz-Carlton of course!

And now you're all puzzled because that's just financially senseless…right? Haha!! Wrong! Thank you Jesus for Expedia.com and the "Buy 2 nights, get the 3^rd Free" sale they were running for the Ritz. When I averaged it out, it was just a few dollars more per night than La Quinta! So then it was decision time……Free waffles and juice at La Quinta every morning, or the freakin' Ritz!!! Yeah. No contest. So we found ourselves this time on the far northern end of Michigan Ave. and still hiking everywhere we wanted to go. But it was soooo worth it. We had a nice big room with a great view of Navy Pier and the lake and the city. And then there were the fuzzy robes and slippers and turn-down service in the evenings. I could go on. And on. It sure as heck beat free waffles! Of course, there is a downside. Now that I've been spoiled rotten by the fancy-pants Ritz I'm sure my stay at the Quality Inn next week will result in copious amounts of pouting. Oh well.

Here's part of the city view from our room

But let's get back to my toes. The sore ones, remember? There is an extensive public transit system in Chicago, however, to access most of it, you have to get yourself to the mid-downtown portion of the city. And so we walked. First we walked to Millennium Park where we discovered that later that night there would be a free Jazz concert. So we walked until we found a blanket and a bottle of wine, then back to the park to enjoy the show. Now, I'm not a big fan of jazz music, but for a little girl from West TX, there's just something magical and perfectly peaceful about sitting in the shadows of the city's high-rises under the open sky and with grass between your toes. And it might possibly have helped that a couple of un-named little boys were 1000 miles away torturing all the grandparents instead of me. Possibly.

Pavilion at Millennium Park

Our reflection in the Cloud Gate sculpture at Mil Park

The next day we took the subway to Grant Park for Lollapalooza. And then we walked. The park is about a mile long (and I'm not even exaggerating this time!) and you have to criss-cross the park every hour or so because the bands you want to see are never on the same side of said park. And then there's the hike to the bathrooms, aka port-a-potties. Ick. Did I mention that it was raining which makes walking to and fro from stage to stage a real pain in the bahookey? You wouldn't have believed all the mud. It was quite a sight to behold….at least 100,000 people in various stages of dress and undress, a quarter of them in ponchos of every color, another quarter sporting umbrellas, the other half happily soaking up the rain, ALL of us spattered in mud, squelching around the place. Matt and I chose to be poncho people, and boy howdy were we cute!

Ben Folds on stage at Lollapalooza

Okay, so I make it sound like a nightmare, but really it was the most fun we've had in ages. Seriously! I know it sounds like our good weather karma ran out on this crazy day, but it was actually right on. We weren't sweating our eyeballs out in the humidity or getting sunburned and dehydrated and the rain sure as heck made the whole experience unforgettable. It finally let up around 6:30 and we started making our way toward one of the main stages to watch Depeche Mode. We were totally exhausted at this point and not feeling up to braving the massive crowd so we perched ourselves on a hill off to the side of the gathering throng where we could watch from the comfort of our ponchos turned picnic blankets. Turns out all the other old people had the same great idea; so we all sat/lounged/napped and watched the drunken young people be-bop by toward the front of the crowd. Wasn't I once one of those people? Young I mean. Not drunken. Well, maybe drunken, but that's beside the point. It just never ceases to amaze me that I've reached the point in life that I've started referring to college age humans as 'kids.' GASP! How did this happen to me?? So, I figured that with all this age comes wisdom. Therefore my wizened old self reasoned it would be logical to drown that particular depressing moment in one of the bottles of wine the vendors were selling at the very sensible price of $24. And what's even better is that there was no glass allowed in the park so they poured our wine into a plastic sports bottle. Talk about classy!

Lounging on the old people hill during Depeche Mode

We'd managed to mostly dry up off by the end of the night and were able to make it back to the subway with minimal squelching. Now here's where the nightmare began. When the already packed train stops and the doors open, NO ONE gets off and the crowd behind us starts surging forward, pushing Matt and I into the 3 cubic inches of space that were available. And several more people came in behind us! Ouch. I was holding onto Matt for dear life until we got pushed apart, twisted and contorted and had to let go so his arm didn't break. Now I understand the saying about being packed like sardines. I literally couldn't move and was so squished I couldn't even take a full breath. My right arm was pinned out to the side of me between some girl's boobs and some guy's back. Meanwhile, Matt was similarly paralyzed. Apparently some girl that got pinned against his backside was quite angry with him and probably would've been audibly cussing him had her face not been smushed into his backpack by the people behind her. Miraculously we both made it off the train at the same stop which was fortunate for me as he was carrying everything with him….phones, credit cards, cash, ID's, room keys, sports/wine bottle. I didn't even have my poncho! Lesson learned, thankfully not the hard way.

We did finally make it back to the hotel. I can only imagine what we must've looked like waltzing into the Ritz Carlton crusted in mud and God knows what else. Rednecks in the big city….watch out!!

The Great Show-Me State Adventure

2009-07-19T22:19:00.011-05:00

Did you ever wonder why Missouri is called the Show-Me State? I wondered it myself just a few moments ago. So I googled it. How did we ever know anything before Google? Anyway, what I discovered was some terribly boring sentence (yes, it only took one measly sentence to tell the tale) about a congressman and a speech he made and blah blah blah now MO is the Show-Me State. Yawn. I'm a little sad for MO now because I'm sure that somewhere somewhen something exciting must've happened that could've yielded a better story and nickname. Oh well. I did, however, learn that Missouri's state insect is the honeybee. Yes! You read that right! They have a state insect! "What a funny little state," I thought. Then it occurred to me that maybe every state has an official insect. So I looked up TX. Yep. Ours is the Monarch butterfly. And our state gemstone is the blue topaz! Who knew?! And WHO decided these things? The Governor? The Committee for Official State Nonsense? My tax dollars probably paid for that committee meeting.

SO, the fam and I have just returned from a week spent in the Honeybee State where we experienced as much as we could pack in to 6 days!

First we visited the boys' great-grandmother in OK.

The next day my in-laws took us down to float the Elk River in Noel, MO. Who knew you could have SO much fun in 7.5 inches of water?? Okay, so maybe it was a little deeper in some (most) places, but it was definitely low and we found our rears dragging the bottom as often as not! The boys were in heaven though. My MIL found some cheapie swim goggles for them and they both spent every moment they could face down in the water trying to catch minnows and searching for the perfect river rock to take home. I also made two important discoveries on this journey: One, when the river is low, don't choose the raft. The canoe is MUCH easier to handle when the water is dead calm. Second, Matt takes his river rafting veeeerrrry seriously. The first 5 minutes went something like this...

"Hey Ang, this'll go better if we work together."

"Uh, Ang, let's try to establish some sort of rhythm here."

"That's not a rhythm."

"Could you maybe do the same number of strokes on each side?"

"You're making us go in circles!"

**grumbling, a big sigh, and possibly a growl**

"Okay, just PUT the oar down. Put it DOWN!"

Note to Self: Ride in the in-laws boat next year.

During the few moments we were not out experiencing the wonders of MO, the boys were in the yard playing the sport of the moment. Baseball. Yes, G is hitting a miniature soccer ball. Little boys don't seem to care what you throw at them as long as they're allowed to swing at it w/ a bat.

And yes, behind the gate, that's a cow...AKA Dinner Next Year.

Now, as if cramming 6 of us + luggage into one vehicle and driving 10 hours to the southwestern corner of MO wasn't insane enough, we promptly crammed BACK into the vehicle, the boys' great-grandparents we were visiting crammed into another vehicle, and we all drove on up to St. Louis.

First stop, The Magic House! Think Science Spectrum but with working exhibits. And on steroids. Times 10!! It was phenomenal! And really crowded. I mean really crowded. But the boys didn't care. If you're ever in St. Louis, you MUST take your kids to see this place. And if you don't have kids, grab one on your way out of the restaurant and take HIM to see this place.

This one just speaks for itself:

Grandma and the boys (notice J's reflection in the glass) talking to the fish:

J tumbling down a slide that stretched from the top of the house to the bottom...3 stories tall!!

There was also a huge beanstalk that stretched up 3 stories that the kids could climb and about a bazillion other cool things to see and do. The boys are still asking to go back!

The next day was packed with a trip to Grant's Farm, a fabulous dinner on The Hill (if God were Italian, The Hill would be Heaven), and a Cardinals game.

Here's G brushing the baby goat at Grant's Farm. Notice the baby goat munching his shirt for lunch.

J on the carousel after convincing him that riding a dragon is NOT a baby thing to do...

Busch Stadium is most excellent...notice the arch mown into the field.

Here is Pujols...the boys' new idol. He hit 2 homeruns that night and G hasn't stopped jabbering about them since.

On our last day in St. Louis, Saturday, we went to the zoo. Well, we tried to go to the zoo. Apparently everybody else in the city thought that visiting a free zoo on a Saturday morning was a good idea too. So we ditched that idea and headed for the Gateway Arch. Great googly-moogly. Have you ever actually SEEN that thing in person? I had not prior to yesterday. And I am still stunned. I had no idea it was so enormous and quite frankly, so breathtaking. It's 630 feet tall! That's more than twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty! Taller even than the Washington Monument!!

So I'm sure you're now wondering if we went to the top! Well, we tried. We stood in a line that was about as long as the arch was tall. An hour later we finally get into the museum (under the arch) only to discover that we'll have to wait another few hours to get a ride to the top. Apparently the 148,792 people that ditched the zoo idea like we did also thought the arch would be a feasible alternative. Oh well. It was impressive enough just to see it up close!

Ghetto Chicken

2009-07-10T00:51:00.008-05:00

I think it's official. My happy little neighborhood is now my happy little ghetto. Now, maybe you're thinking I shouldn't be so taken aback by this. Maybe you're thinking, "Hey Angie! Remember that one time some drunken fool ran his car into your mailbox sending obliterated bits of black metal and a little red flag flying across your yard? And the neighbor's yard? And part of the street? And remember that time the hoodlums used the paint on Matt's truck for target practice until they got up enough skill to take out it's back window? Or what about that time someone broke into your next-door neighbor's house and stole all his stuff? Or that time there was a suspected homicide at the house around the corner?"

Yes. I obviously should've put two and two together sometime ago. But I didn't. Until now. And here's what put it all into perspective for me. Chicken. I don't often shop at the happy grocery store around the corner from my house. It's possible I might be a bit persnickity about some food items, so I spend a lot of time at the big store on the south side of town where they sell Stacy's Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips.

Anyway, I was not buying pita chips on Ghetto Revelation Day, so I ran into the aforementioned store right by my house to pick up one of those rotisserie chickens for dinner. Not as good as pita chips, but tasty nonetheless. Now, after I've paid and am reaching for my chicken, the checker guy grabs it up and says, "Hold on Ma'am. Don't want you to set off the alarm." And he starts rubbing my chicken (it's in a container) around in frantic circles on the checkout counter. What?? Seriously! My chicken had a security device stuck on the bottom...you know, like when you buy a piece of high-dollar electronic equipment and they have to deactivate the security tag before you leave so you don't get tackled by an employee on the way out the door. My chicken! My CHICKEN! I'm living in the midst of chicken thieves! THAT, my friends, is ghetto. But on a much less stressful note, the fam and I were able to escape the Chicken Ghetto for a short while last week and spend the 4th with our families. I LOVE the 4th! It just doesn't get any better than sticky-sweet little boys, parades, slip-n-slides, hot dogs and cold beer!!

Here's G singing Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless the USA'. I think he was trying to ensure the people across the canyon could hear him as well.

Me snuggling my budding vocalist

The boys, Daddy, Papa, the neighbor, and Papa's festive Jeep in the LRC Parade

Cutie pie

Tough guys at Grandma and Grandpa's

I have a several shot series of each of the boys slipping and sliding (Action mode on the camera ROCKS!) but I thought it best not to bore you with allllll the pics since you've already suffered through the chicken story

Playing football w/ the boys...tradition at Grandma and Papa's

Exponential Acceleration

2009-06-29T15:47:00.001-05:00

In case you've been living with your head in the clouds as I have, I'll bring you up to speed...the summer's 1/3 over. So long! Farewell! Auf wiedersehen! Adieu! I swear time goes faster as the years go by. So this evening, in typical math nerd fashion, I'm trying to decide on an equation that accurately models this strange relationship between life and time. Exponential f(x)=b^x? No. Acceleration a=∆v/∆t? Nope. Exponential acceleration? Yes! Hmmm. Wonder what that looks like. As I'm poking around in cyberspace in search of said mathematical model, I come across this...

Now if that doesn't make you giggle I don't know what will.

So, back to:

First Day of Summer...

Jaden complained for 9 months about how much he hated school, how boring 1st grade was, and how he was probably going to die if he had to learn any more phonics. So can you imagine what he chooses to spend the first day of summer doing? Playing school with Grant.

And not 3 days after that we're driving to my mom's house one afternoon which takes us right past his school. In his most dreamy and nostalgic voice he says, "Oh look! It's my school. I just LOVE that place." Oy.

A few days later, my birthday...

Matt has the boys make their own cards for my birthday. My heart swells up when I see Grant's. My baby has written his name on the front! How is he old enough to do this? And then I open it up. And he is so proud. He's drawn a picture of me and written yet another note that says, drum roll please, "more wine".

What does this say about me??

Don't answer that.

And a few more days after that...

Baseball begins! Grant's old enough to play this year so we spend the first 2 weeks of June with both boys practicing at the exact same times on the exact same days in DIFFERENT locations. Yeesh. Now that we're into the season, the boys have 2 games/week and J has one practice. But all on different days. That's baseball 5 times a week. I'm pretty sure there's a b in that equation for exponential acceleration. And it stands for baseball.

Aren't they adorable?!

Video Killed the Radio Star

2009-05-27T16:50:00.010-05:00

Remember the mid '80s when those first commercially distributed home video cameras hit the shelves? Hot diggity those were cool...14 pounds of camera and battery precariously balanced on your right shoulder and a 3-pack of VHS tapes each the size of the family bible in the bag on your left shoulder. Those were the days. Cameras are sooooooo much more convenient in the new millennium. Thank you Jesus. Just a month or so ago Matt came home toting a cute little Flip.

It's the size of a smart phone...think Samsung Blackjack. It's all kinds of digital, point and shoot, flip-out-the-USB arm-and-plug-it-in goodness. And so, we have officially become home video nightmare parents once again. In Jaden's early life we shot gadzoodles of hours of extraordinarily exciting and fast paced video. There were movies of him laying on his tummy kicking his feet, and on his back kicking his feet, and best of all, in the SWING kicking his feet!! I'm pretty sure we once captured a priceless shot of him spitting up. And kicking his feet.

But we have evolved people! We now shoot gadzoodles of hours of the kids running up and down the field chasing the soccer ball! And kicking their feet! Get it? Nevermind. The point of all this is to share a couple of videos with you because my boys are super cute and I think you should see them. But don't worry. New camera technology also means new video editing software thus sparing you, the innocent viewer, many hours of utter boredom. Roll tape!

First we have 2 vids of cute boys tearing up the soccer field and scoring goals...

And then we have a short vid of Matt's little bro Justin and the boys on the trampoline. Justin jumps for a living. Literally. He performs in a Cirque du Soleil show and Jaden thinks this is seriously cool so he asked Uncle Justin to come hang out while he was in town. He obliged and spent some time today coaching the boys and showing them a few things. The boys were in heaven and would've kept Uncle Justin here indefinitely if they could've!

Now, our backyard trampoline significantly limited Justin in what he could show the boys, so, if you have a few minutes, click here on Justin's Cool Job and see what he does for real! It's a clip from La Nouba, the show he's in, and is amazing to watch. This specific clip shows at least a couple of the roles he's had...check it out. It's worth it!

Trekking the RHC

2009-05-16T18:50:00.010-05:00

I love the Ranching Heritage Center. Yes. I really do. And not so much for it's cultural and educational potential, which is vast and no doubt amazing, but rather for it's wide open outdoorsiness and relative emptiness at 10 a.m. on any given Wednesday. Can you think of better conditions for letting little boys be little boys?? My big kid doesn't need this so much anymore *sniff sniff* but the little one is still very much in that stage. Every once in a while it's so nice to just let him run free and not have to get on to him for every last thing he touches/stomps/kicks/climbs on/licks. Okay. So you'll still find me offering some correction. He is, after all, a 4-year old male..."No you can't go over the gate and touch all the stuff in there. Get down. Now!" and "Don't climb on the hills. The man at the front desk said the snakes will bite your toes." And yes, the man at the front desk really did say that....something about bulls snakes mistaking little feet for ground squirrels and such. It's so nice that the RHC employees put my family's safety first. Or perhaps he was just on to me.

Yep. That's one cute kid. The other one's pretty cute too, but he becomes quite elusive when the camera comes out. I may drag him off to the RHC sometime soon to see if I can catch him unawares...

In other news this week, the boys spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa and so, Matt and I were able to take in a movie! We don't do that very often anymore as it is very nearly financially devastating to buy 2 tickets on a Friday night. Jeez! And don't even THINK about buying popcorn and Cokes. You have to sign over your firstborn child for that luxury. But I digress. My point in bringing this up at all is simply to say that Star Trek ROCKS and you should go see it. And then you should mortgage your house for more tickets, sign over kid #2 for more popcorn, and go see it again!!

Live long and prosper my friends. Live long and prosper.

Handy Angie, Smilin' Boys, and Santoneyo (in no particular order)

2009-05-10T20:09:00.011-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there...especially my own amazing momma and momma-in-law. Love you both! I had a most lovely Mother's Day myself if you don't count the 22 minute Grant meltdown on the way to church this morning. I should've just let him wear his stupid boots with his cute little polo and plaid shorts but no. It was MY day and I wanted him to wear the cute little boat shoes. He was in such a tizzy by the time we reached church that it took 3 of us to get him into his Sunday school room. Just call me mom of the year. On a much happier note, however, part of my Mom's Day gift was a VERY rare framed photo of BOTH my boys. Smiling. I know! I can't believe it either.

And now for a random shift in topic....I fixed the garbage disposer all by myself yesterday ! Thank you. Thank you. A week or so ago I stuffed a couple of lemon peels down it but they never would grind up and go away. I assumed one of them was just stuck and that it would eventually dislodge and my life could go back to normal. But alas, the bumpity bumpity clunk clunk clunk continued and I was forced, FORCED, to stick my hand down there and remedy the situation. Ick uck yeck. But it worked. I managed to remove the offending object...and it was not a lemon peel. It was something akin to this.

How boring would my life be without little boys?!

A couple weeks ago we all loaded up and headed to Santoneyo (that's Grant-speak for San Antonio) to visit my cousin Amy and her family. They were gracious enough to let our circus crash at their house and we had a great time! We spent Saturday at Sea World....holy cow. It would take about 2 weeks to walk from one side of that place to the other. But the boys had a fabulous time.

Here's Jaden and Hunter at the waterpark...I really think they would've played in there all day if we'd have let them.

We took in all the shows. Jaden and Hunter sat as front row as they could get trying to get splashed. Grant was happy to sit well OUT of the splash zone.

Here's all of us...Hunter, Buck, Amy, Matt, Angie, Grant and Jaden

On Sunday, at Jaden's request, we headed downtown to the Alamo. And that afternoon my other cousin Stacy and her boys drove up to hang out and swim for a while. Her boys are the same ages as mine by a matter of days! I don't know how Stacy, Amy, and I managed to acquire all these little boys but they are adorable and they all got along famously.

Here's Simon and Stacy...

and Joel...

and Mr. Throw a Fit Over a Pair of Boots...

Come One, Come All!

2009-04-10T16:54:00.003-05:00

In case you can't quite make out that delightful scrawl, the sign says:

The clone and anikin vidio!

Plus it has tooting!

and it is not apopreit for ladeys

Obsession

2009-03-28T21:43:00.007-05:00

I am turning over a new leaf. As of today, I will no longer neglect my sweet husband and boys over my dual obsessions of scrapbooking and reading. As of today, I am going to start neglecting them for my NEW obsession!! Photoshop! Woo!

I have been frustrated with my pictures in general for the last couple of years. In 2007 we acquired a smokin' hot new camera that upped the quality of my pics considerably, however, something was still missing. Photoshop! Duh! Most of the photos that I admire by other people have been tweaked to some degree or another. So why not mine? And so...a new obsession is born. This program is a whopper. I can forsee many late nights and sore backs from studying and playing with this baby. But my pictures are gonna look fantastic so it'll all be worth it!! Just look at the difference...

This first pic is of my cutie pie nephew, straight up and unedited.

Now here it is after applying the first action...

And here is an action on top of another action...

After messing around for a bit with these pics and a few others, I realized that my originals were all very blue. So, I warmed them up a little and WOW! What a change...this one is my favorite.

This is so great! Just think how excellent my scrapbook pages are gonna look now!!

Uh, about that whole scrapping thing...I never said I was giving it up all together. Just that I wasn't going to neglect my family for it any longer.

But that was probably a lie.

Woo!

Who is this Child?

2009-03-26T16:44:00.001-05:00

This afternoon the boys were sitting at the table snacking on their after-school fare and so, not wanting to be left out, I started rummaging through the fridge. Since I'm in the middle of my bi-annual attempt to be healthy, I broke out the broccoli and ranch dressing and started crunching…yay me! The very next moment Jaden is standing next to me asking if he can have some too. Now, this was not actually the astounding part. The astounding part was the fact he'd left his half-eaten chocolate crème Oreo cookie behind to come eat the broccoli!

Wonders never cease.

Wild Ride Days 7-8

2009-03-20T14:15:00.010-05:00

The final hours of our epic adventure had arrived. Kyndra and her little one were both sick and feverish by this point so Jaden and I made the trek to Colonial Williamsburg alone. It was a perfect day for exploring Virginia! The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and children were frolicking in the lane. Actually, Jaden was the only frolicking child. Apparently children are supposed to attend school on Wednesdays in February and are not supposed to be gallivanting across the countryside with their mothers. In my defense though, we were in Williamsburg and Jaden's class had been studying Colonial America prior to our gallivanting. Anyway, Williamsburg is a fascinating place full of people in period dress doing period things like making shoes and wigs and such. The main street is even littered with piles of horse manure. How authentic. It turns out, however, that Williamsburg is not a particularly hands-on kind of place. It's more of a look-and-listen kind of place. Did you know that 6-year old boys are not look-and-listen kinds of creatures? Of all the very cool look-and-listen things to see, Jaden's favorite was the open grassy field (where he could play Star Wars) that sat between two historically significant buildings. Oh well. Live and learn. He did perk up a bit after I bought him a wooden pistol from the gift shop. He spent the rest of the outing hopping over horse poop and shooting everyone that walked by.

Oh yeah! I am SO getting me one of these!

The plan after Williamsburg was to drive the 5 miles down the road to Jamestown. I sat in the car for a good 15 minutes considering the sanity of this choice. In the end, I figured we couldn't get this close and NOT go and at least set foot in the birthplace of our country, so off we went. This was a well-rewarded choice and I am to this day kicking myself for not researching this stuff better. Had I done so, I would've known that Jamestown was much more suited to the 6-year old version of 'cool' and we would've spent the majority of our time there instead. The first part of your Jamestown experience is to explore the museum that tells the story of Virginia from pre-history through the time of settlement. That is one excellent museum. There are life size replicas of everything, they pipe 'ambience' through the speakers and there are lots of artifacts from the site. Jaden was able to see an actual hornbook used by schoolchildren of the period (something he learned about in his Colonial America study) and absolutely went into orbit…in a good way. He was so excited to have made this discovery that you'd have thought I told him he could eat ice cream for dinner for the rest of his life! So far so good, and we hadn't even made it outside to the cool stuff yet…

After the museum, you head outside to find more people in period dress doing period things, but THIS time, they all encourage you to pick things up and explore and touch and feel and ask questions and WOW! I almost lost the kid at this point…a spirited little boy is a difficult being to keep up with. At the Powhatan village, all the dwellings were open to explore and full of tools and pottery and more animal pelts than I was comfortable being close to. Jaden touched everything, laid on the beds (ick), ground some corn…I thought he might stop to do a rain dance but he saw the masts of the ships in the harbor first and zing! Off he went again. Only one of the ships was open to tour on that day (Wednesday in February when all the children are supposed to be in school learning, remember?), but J was in heaven…more tools and beds (ick again), cannons and guns, but not quite as many pelts so I felt a little more at ease. And guess what you can see from the top deck of the ship? Yes, the fort, up the hill, in the distance. Zing! The child was off the ship and half way up the path before I could shimmy out of the galley and find the gangplank (colonial age ships were not built to accommodate Amazonian women such as myself). Now, what would a little boy find in a fort that would be of interest? Beds! Of course. Thankfully he was easily distracted from the sleeping arrangements by the sound of gunfire. At the far end of the fort, some little guy in costume was demonstrating the firing of a matchlock musket that was easily twice as long as Jaden himself. Now on to the guardhouse…the glorious building where all the armor, muskets, ammunition, and medieval sticks with pointy ends are held. Yes, I know that 'sticks with pointy ends' is not the proper name but who has time for specifics with so much weaponry to behold?? Then! The woman manning the guardhouse (and yes that's funny…Affirmative Action I suppose) says to us, "Has he tried on the armor yet?" Cue the angelic harmonies and heavenly shaft of light illuminating the plate armor across the courtyard. Zing!!

We were thoroughly exhausted by the time we got back to Kyndras. J konked out without any trouble and Kyndra and I finally sat down to watch Mamma Mia. We were thrilled to get to finally watch it with each other since the husbands had not been too keen on having to endure it with us. You can daaaaaaance, you can ji-ive, having the time of your li-i-ife....oooooooo

The next day was loooooong again as we flew home…this time by way of Orlando and Austin. But it was uneventful and well worth it. I can't wait to go back!

Wild Ride Day 6

2009-03-06T12:20:00.007-06:00

Day 6 brought us a trip to NASA! Almost. We actually went to the Virginia Air and Space Center, which is the visitor center for NASA/Langley; but Jaden didn't know the difference and he was just as happy as a clam. This was another hands-on and interactive little boy paradise. The place had full size planes hanging from the ceiling, flight simulators galore, programmable Mars rover robots, and a full size DC-9!

Suh-weet!!

Here you see J "piloting" the DC-9. In 20 years, if you board a plane and the pilot stops you to say, "Hi there! Don't you remember me? I'm Jaden Potts!" you should turn and exit the aircraft immediately then ask for a refund. As the passenger a few rows back, first class of course, I think I died at least 247 times. Check out the windows though….LCDs that give you lovely CG images of the ground rushing toward you in the seconds before you crash. How thoughtful.

More thrilling than crashing the passenger jet, however, was exploring its cockpit. Jaden spent at least ½ an hour flipping switches, twisting dials, and imagining countless successful flights. This was a great surprise as he was quite dejected when he learned he couldn't go in the cockpits of the planes we flew in on the way to VA (how was that for preposition abuse). I finally had to threaten him to get him out so we could see the rest of the place. I'm thinking if we ever get rid of the trampoline in the backyard, we should replace it with the front end of a small plane. I wonder if you can buy those at the surplus store…

Now, I wasn't able to do this next shot any justice whatsoever, so let me give you some stats to put it in perspective…30 feet up, hanging from the ceiling, are these planetary models. Jupiter weighs more than 750 pounds and has a diameter of 10 feet. Saturn is 8.5 feet in diameter, weighs 450 pounds, and is encircled by an additional 495 pounds of rings. And it's all made from Styrofoam!! That's impressive.

After exhausting the wonders of the Air and Space Center, we headed south to Virginia Beach to explore the culinary delights known as P.F. Chang's and The Cheesecake Factory. Uh, I mean, we headed south to Virginia Beach to expose Jaden to the marvelous Atlantic coastline, the varied wildlife and their habitats.

Jaden and Neptune. I did not enjoy taking this picture. I seem to have an overactive imagination and could not stop worrying about the structural integrity of the hand/turtle.

We tried collecting some shells but the pickings were slim and it was freakin' cold on the water, so we headed back towards the boardwalk. When we reached dry sand, I stopped to scoop a sample into a trusty Ziploc (I'm totally stealing this idea from my sis-in-law in Richmond….whilst standing at their kitchen sink late one night scavenging a cup of water, I noticed on the window sill a collection of little apothecary type vials filled with different sands and gravelly rocks, each with a cute little tag denoting the origin of the sample/special place they'd visited…love it!). When I stood up I noticed a flock of seagulls flapping straight for us. My first thought, as they're circling overhead was, "Gee. This would make a cool picture!" So as I'm fumbling with numb fingers to make the camera work, my imagination started up, or maybe my brain just kicked back on, and I realized we were standing UNDER a flock of SEAGULLS. Ruuuuunnnn!!! Now let me tell you, seagulls are persistent creatures. Just because we decided to part company with them didn't mean they agreed. The flock chased us down the beach…some flapping overhead, others hopping along beside us squawking/laughing at our escape attempt. When I realized outrunning them was not an option, I tried the "idiot tactic" which, loosely translated, means flail your arms wildly about to shoo the birds away while kicking in their general direction when they peck at your new ½ price Sketchers. This new approach worked like a charm…although I think a few of the gulls actually fell over laughing. Apparently while I was performing the idiot dance for my seagull audience, Jaden had boogied on down the sand a short way and was happily playing on some recently installed playground equipment…his Alfred Hitchcock moment completely forgotten.

Wild Ride Day 5

2009-03-01T19:01:00.002-06:00

Enterprise Rent-A-Car was our first stop once we arrived back in Newport News…not an experience that would normally be blog worthy BUT ... I'd initially scored a weekend rate and the car was decent enough even though the last renter was clearly a smoker. It wasn't suffocating enough to merit waiting another ½ hour for a better car, plus I really really didn't relish the idea of getting stuck in Richmond traffic, so off we went. This was last Friday of course….so fast forward to Monday, where this rambling of mine began, and I'm in the rental agency returning the car. The chickadee behind the counter was working up all the relevant paperwork and asked if everything was okay with the rental. I said that yes, it was, except it was a little smoky when we picked it up. So she apologized and asked if there was anything I'd like them to do about that, to which I jokingly replied, "Sure! You could just give me the whole thing free!" Chickadee laughed and said she couldn't do that of course, but she could take one of the days off for me. Yeah baby! I love customer service. You just can't beat a 3 day, standard size car rental for $50!

The plan for the next 3 days was to hang out with my super amazing friend, Kyndra. She's a science teacher/guru and knows lots of great places to visit; so first on the Monday agenda was a trip to the Virginia Living Museum. What a superbly cool place! The picture below is from the bubonic plague/French catacombs portion of the Microbe exhibit. I'm not sure if he meant to pick the dead guy's nose or not. I'd rather not know.

Jaden's pretty into the science thing too, but you've gotta wonder how much kids are actually absorbing in a place like that. Apparently J absorbed everything Kyndra told him because he's still talking about it all almost a week later! Yesterday he tells Grant, "And there was this bad flu that stopped a whole war (Spanish Influenza, WWI) 'cause it killed so many people there weren't enough left to fight. Then it mysteriously disappeared and Mom thinks that's kind of scary, but I don't know why." So why doesn't he absorb that whole 'say excuse me when you burp' thing?? Maybe it would help if Kyndra said it!!

The exhibits were all very hands-on, which translates to 6-year old paradise. Below is a pic of J and Kyndra exploring everything they could get their hands on without the museum employees yelling at them.

Wild Ride Days 2-4

2009-02-23T16:11:00.012-06:00

We spent the weekend in Richmond with my brother, Bubby, and his family, as well as 2 cats, 3 lizards, one bunny, and a snake. I’m feeling pretty proud right now having spent our nights in the same room as the 3 lizards and all the unwitting crickets chirping and singing as they awaited their imminent doom (I'm a critter weenie if you didn't know). Jaden was in heaven. Bubby has a good size slot car track set up that is super cool. They have a Wii (enough said). The backyard is a little kid wonderland with a trampoline, rope swing, sticks galore, and a Bubby-built treehouse with which Jaden fell madly in love. Now, of course, he wants one, so I told him sure! We’d build one. In about 30 years when the tree gets big enough to support one. His reply, “But in 30 years I’m gonna be OLD!”

Having fallen hard for the slot car track, Bubby took us to Chick’s Hobbies where they race slot cars some Friday nights. Real slot cars!! Or bigger slot cars anyway. I didn’t even know such a hobby existed but it was SO cool! The tracks are huge and those cars are wicked fast. My brother says a fast lap with one of the regular cars is about 4-4.5 seconds, but there actually exist different cars that can make it around in 2. Wowza. I really felt we should’ve all been wearing protective head gear with those cars zinging around the track. I could just see taking an emergency trip to the dentist after losing a mouthful of teeth when one of those cars hit a curve at the wrong speed. Fortunately, we left Chick’s unscathed and with Jaden begging for a slot car of his own. According to Chick himself, it would only cost about $120 for a starter package AND he just happened to have 4 in stock! Lucky me! Sadly, Chick and Jaden were disappointed this very fine day.

And then we were off to Maymont…a very cool place indeed. It’s basically a very large and old estate that surely has a great story or history behind it, but 6 year olds can’t be bothered with such trivial information when there’s a nature center down the hill, a petting zoo up the hill, a koi pond/lake, ginormous trees everywhere and a bamboo forest! There were other untold wonders on the property, but after making our way down the hills, we had to freakin’ come back up. Holy gee whiz! I obviously live on flat land for a reason.

On Sunday we slept late then had Bubby's Brilliant Breakfast pizza (I have to say that's a really great name I just came up with there, but it's copyrighted Bubster. If you use it and get rich someday, my manager will send you a bill :) ). I wish I'd been smart enough to take a picture of that before we ate it. You would've been impressed and quite jealous. And lastly, we got to watch my youngest nephew play volleyball! Jaden was wearing out towards the end so we decided to head on back to Newport News. Not 3 minutes down the road I get a text from Bubby...my nephew served 9 points in a row!! Can't believe I missed that!! Sigh. Another 10 minutes down the road we ran head on into a snow storm...it was so beautiful! I'd forgotten what real snow looked like. Thankfully it wasn't sticking so driving wasn't dangerous and we made it back without incident. Well, there was a popcorn spill in the backseat, but since the rental smelled like smoke the whole weekend, I didn't feel too bad.

Jaden and Angie's Wild Ride

2009-02-21T18:33:00.005-06:00

Four states in one day. Whew! Jaden thinks this is seriously cool. I think it’s ridiculous to have to fly in every direction except the one you intend before you can get where you’re going. At least there weren’t any delays or travel mishaps during our 4 state journey. And really, how often does one have the opportunity to visit Alba-cookie, NM? Ahhh…the inner workings of a child’s mind. Next, we toured the greater mid-west up to Chicago. Jaden was disappointed we couldn’t get out and play in the snow. Frankly, I was too. It would’ve been nice for Lubbock to at least try to be wintry once this year. Oh well. So now we are currently en route to Norfolk, VA...our final destination. Sort of. We’ll actually drive to Newport News tonight, then on to Richmond tomorrow.

Jaden in the Alba-cookie airport

But regardless of the crazy flight pattern, I have now experienced the coolest of all things cool. Have you ever been sitting outside on a simmering summer day when a butterfly lands right next to you and it’s so sweet and rare that you don’t even breathe for fear of scaring the little creature off? Well. My little creature (code name Jaden) actually pulled out the Junie B. Jones book I bought for him and has been reading quietly beside me for 20 minutes now! I’m actually about to pass out from the lack of oxygen. Don't scare it away. Don't scare it away!! For those of you unfamiliar with Junie B. Jones, they’re small chapter books averaging maybe 3 pictures from cover to cover. This is definitely a big moment when you consider the most frequently read books (by J) at our house consist mainly of onomatopoeia. This is a good day.

Jaden at Chicago Midway Airport

More than anything today though, I’ve really relished the time I’ve had to just watch his wide-eyed wonder at the world without the blinders (mine) of everyday responsibility. What a blessing to be trapped in 4 airports and 3 planes where there are no dishes to be washed and no laundry to be sorted and to have these hours to really see.

Gettin' With the Program

2009-02-03T20:40:00.004-06:00

I was over on L's Cimarron blog earlier today and noticed Quilty razzing her about the word verification thing on the comments...and I got to thinking, "Hey, I have that, too. What IS it for and how DO you get rid of it?" So after some investigation, I discovered it's to help cut down on blog spam, whatever the heck that is, and I turned it off. So just for the record, if I get attacked with spam tomorrow, it's all on you Quilty! I also noticed that only fellow Bloggers were allowed to comment...sorry 'bout that. So if you're a reader, but a non-blogger, try leaving a comment now so I'll know you were here! After getting hip with the comment section of my blog, I started digging around and found I'd never filled out my profile info. So, for all you profile peepers, I'm mostly up to date there, too.

And, on the non- blog front, I managed to endure an entire hour of Pilates this evening. I don't know who decided that that was a good way to exercise, but I'm positive he/she was quite drunk when that conclusion was reached. Ouch. I'm going to go back though (when I'm able to walk again that is). I'm determined to make the most out of my $8/mo gym membership because at that price, it would just be stupid not to. The boys were thrilled to get to go up there too because they got to stay in the playroom. Somehow, a room full of toys and games (the same ones they have at home no doubt) is fun and exciting for no other reason than because none of it belongs to you. Whatever. When we left, Jaden gets all strapped into the carseat and THEN, of course, reveals how badly he has to "go".

Jaden: Can't we just run over to Grandma's real quick? I've had to go since we got there and they just wouldn't let me go!!!"

Me: Hmmm...did you ask them if you could go?

Jaden: Well, no.

Me: Sigh.

Jedi Noodles

2009-01-30T13:53:00.005-06:00

Naptime disappeared around here many many months ago. Inevitably, however, someone tops out my whine meter and is sent stomping to his room in tears for a sleep adjustment. As luck would have it, this is the story today. And I must say, my stress level has decreased exponentially since Mr. Grumpy Pants (aka Grant) slipped off into dreamland. Ever notice how angelic children become when they're asleep? I think it has something to do with ones inability to mouth off when in a comatose state.

Anyway, we had to forgo lunch with my mom today so Mr. Grumpy Pants could sleep off all that whine he apparently drank this morning, which left me rummaging through our pantry in search of something, anything, other than a sandwich to eat. Much to my surprise, I discovered a long forgotten package of Ramen Noodles hiding under what might have once been a package of cinnamon-raisin bagels. Jackpot! Yes, I was one of those weirdo college kids who bought Ramen Noodles because I liked them and not just because they allowed you to feed yourself for a whole month on whatever coinage you could dig out from between the couch cushions. And you gotta admit, it's pretty cool to watch that block of noodle boil itself into one loooooong noodle (that's what it looks like anyway). So then my brain clicks on, "How do you EAT these things? Fork? Spoon? Chopsticks like the Chinese? Except I don't think these are actually Chinese at all....the package says they're made in Hoboken. Oh well. Fork AND spoon then." And while I'm reading how they're Made in the U.S.A., I happen to glance over the Nutrition Facts. 780 mg of sodium PER SERVING AND THERE'S 2 FREAKIN' SERVINGS IN THE PACKAGE! So like the good healthy girl I am, I promptly poured the whole bowl down the drain and ate a salad instead. Actually that's a total lie. I ate the entire bowl and then drank 14 glasses of water. But I don't think I'll boil up any more Ramen I find lurking in the pantry.

On a completely unrelated note, a war between the Jedi and Sith has been raging in our house since Jaden was old enough to hold his lightsaber. In a particularly fierce battle yesterday evening, Jedi Master Grumpy Pants suffered a terrible setback when he broke his lightsaber while dueling with the evil Sith lord Darth Daddy. And while this mommy is sitting on the couch horrified they were saber-fighting hard enough to actually break the stupid toy, all 3 boys are cheering and dancing around the living room, er, battle field, at this manly accomplishment. Lord save me.

And in case you were wondering how Master Jedi Grumpy Pants managed to become such a fearsome warrior, here's a shot of his training regimen...getting buff with Wii Fit.

Recompense

2009-01-25T19:04:00.004-06:00

I'm pretty sure that all the parents of the US could and probably should bring a class action law suit against the Energizer Corporation. Every time that pink bunny rolls across the screen, Energizer should be paying royalties to the deserving and thoroughly exhausted parents of America. They clearly designed their little advertising moneymaker after OUR offspring. Jaden gets up this morning running a piping hot 102.5 degrees and the first 2 sentences out of his mouth are, "I'm dizzy. Can I play the Wii?" Of course I turn into the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Mommy when my babies are sick so I said yes. So I get him all set up and retreat to fix Grant some breakfast. When I make it back to check on Jaden, he's stretched prone on the couch, eyes bloodshot and watering so badly he looks like he's crying, sneezing almost continuously, and there's a steady drift of steam rising from his fevered little head. But that doesn't slow him down in his never-ending quest to kick bad-guy butt on LEGO Batman.

BOOM! POW! CRASH!

And in the saddest little voice he croaks, "Mom. I got **sneeze** Mr. Freeze. **Sniffle snurffle cough** Now I'm gonna go get **hack wheeze** the Riddler. Watch me throw my Batarang."

Shoulda just gotten him a pink bunny suit and a new drum for Christmas instead of the gumball machine. And I shoulda received a big fat check from Energizer. I think I'm going to write a letter.

BompBompBompBomp

Skullcandy Angie Rambly

2009-01-12T20:04:00.005-06:00

I am SO very pleased to be able to inform the world that I am now super juiced up thanks to the new Skullcandy purchase at Target this windy afternoon. No, I'm not referring to an illegal substance. I am talking about a brand spankin' new pair of watermelon Bubbalicious pink ear buds. Yes!! I am so excited! And yes, I know that's seriously dorky. But just so you understand, sometime last summer, my earphones mysteriously disappeared. The person who happened to be the last to know my earphone's whereabouts shall remain anonymous. So, lets just call him, oh, I dunno, "Matteo" perhaps. Matteo denies the accusation of misplacing them and even denies having borrowed them to mow the grass on that fateful day (but I think that's more just because he thinks its funny when I get angry). So now I can dust off the ol' iPod and jam once more. And the best part of all this is the man-proof color! Ha ha!

Now, we've established that Matteo might be a little bit of a turkey. But can you guess which of the very cute boys below is a whole lot of turkey?

Oh yes. It's the short one. As I was getting dressed yesterday morning I hear this in the next room...

Matt: No, Grant. Not right now.

Matt: Grant! Come back here right now!

Grant: Blah blah blah! Not listening! Blah blah blaaaaahhhhh! Noooo! Not the paddle!!

Hoo boy. It's going to be an interesting 18 years.

Misgivings Resolved, Chaos Ensues

2009-01-06T21:40:00.004-06:00

The holiday season with the Pottsies. Insanity. Each year we manage to squeeze in 5 Christmases, 2 birthdays, 2-3 work related Christmas parties, our anniversary, the annual UFC holiday fight with our buds, and a New Year's gig at the Prices all in the span of 8 days (and this year a family picture involving 14 people....talk about an endeavour. My mother-in-law is popping another aspirin as she reads this just for having to remember!). I wouldn't change a minute of it either. I love Christmas!! I love getting to visit with our families and friends. This year we got a special treat...Matt's globe trotting little brother, Justin, (he's a performer for Cirque du Soleil) made it home for Christmas AND his big brother Brad and family made it to town (hence the family picture!).

Here's Exhibit #1 in The Case of the Naughty List

As for the boys, they were in hog heaven...presents and stockings and candy at every stop. Does it get any better than that? By the last of the Christmases, Jaden was more than assured that some kindly elf erased him and Grant from the naughty list. In fact, "spoiled rotten" is the only reasonable way to describe the Potts household this year (no...I'm not referring to the forgotten Thanksgiving leftovers in my fridge thank you very much). Between Grant's birthday and Christmas, we managed to make it home with no less than TEN games for the Wii. Yes. I said ten. Of course, I'm sure that any good mother would have promptly raced back to the store with eight Wii games in hand to return. I am so not a good mother. In fact, when we made it home, I helped the boys rip open every last one and we spent the next 10 days playing games! They are so much fun!! I even love one of Grant's pre-schooler games he got from Grandma and Grandpa..."Diego's Dinosaur Rescue" or somesuch. It's great! You have to jump to make Diego jump, push with your arms to make him knock stuff down, and bend and stand to make him lift rocks. Genius!

And so now here's the part where I have to admit that two of those ten games were actually gifts to yours truly. The Legend of Zelda, a long time fave of mine, has been keeping me up way past my bedtime for days now. And the Wii Fit package is crazy! You use the balance board to do all kinds of exercises and the program weighs you, calculates your BMI, and charts your workout time and progress. I thought this was all a fantastic idea until I tried it the first time. The stupid program told me I was unbalanced and that yoga wasn't my forte! Jeez. And it gets worse. The boys think it's great fun to watch me be unbalanced and looking generally ridiculous. So yesterday I was trying a new yoga pose that involved bending straight forward and touching my toes, which, to my dismay, I can no longer accomplish. So while I'm stretching with all my will (and cursing under my breath), Grant, being the super helpful little turkey he is, scooted up beside me and laid his hands on my toes and said, "Don't worry Mommy. I'll just touch them for you since you can't reach!" Do you laugh or cry? Both in my case.

Clone trooper Matt...protecting our galaxy from all things Sith.

Jaden and his beloved new toy, aptly named Killer. I find it humorous that Jaden wraps Killer up in blankets on cold days, carries him around like a baby, and puts him to bed each night with a teddy bear.

Christmas Misgivings

2008-12-25T19:50:00.002-06:00

Before bed on Christmas Eve...

Me: Jaden! Can you believe Santa is coming tonight? I wonder what he's going to bring you guys!

Jaden (dead serious): I dunno, Mom. I think Santa might have put me and Grant on the naughty list this year.

Me: Oh?

Jaden: Yeah. I sure hope he writes that list in pencil so if he changes his mind he could just erase us off there!

Sometimes it's so hard to keep a straight face.

Revelation

2008-12-22T21:14:00.006-06:00

It dawned on me the other day that it was doing me no good to sit around on my duff wating for life to happen. Occasionally life does actually happen to us all I suppose, but generally it just kicks up a lot of dust as it races by leaving you with grit between your teeth. Yes, it took 33.5 years for me to figure this out. Hey, some of us are late bloomers. It all started when Jaden came home with an assignment from school. He had to pick a family tradition and tell the class about it, why he liked it, etc. Easy enough. Until I tried to come up with a few from which he could choose. I could only come up with one! Panic.

And so began my quest to chase life down and pounce on it. I'm tired of the grit in my teeth. It gets stuck in my chapstick, too. I hate that.

So, last Friday I decided it would be a neat family tradition to go to Starbucks and have hot chocolate then drive out to Ransom Canyon and see the lights. We had borrowed Grandpa Jerry's cherry red convertible VW bug earlier in the day so Matt says we should bundle up and put the top down to see the lights, too. Brilliant! This definitely has the makings of a first-rate family tradition! To top it all off, Jaden's in his PJ's (from PJ day at school) so we'll just throw that in...kinda like the cherry on top. Perfect. Now if you're a parent, you know exactly how things go when you've planned the perfect family outing. The whining started when the kids discovered we were actually going into Starbucks. "I don't wanna go in! I don't even like hot chocolate. It smells stinky in here! Yeah, what's that stinky smell? Can we just go to the drive-thru?" Growl. Determined to not let grumpy children ruin my perfect family tradition, we bought them hot chocolate anyway and I convinced them (read: threatened them) to take a few drinks so I could snap a few pics for the scrapbook. For the record, my hot chocolate was superb. Have you tried the salted carmel hot chocolate? Yum.

Jaden and Angie enjoying Starbucks hot chocolate. Doesn't he look like he's having the time of his life??

Matt wasn't grumpy. He drank his hot chocolate without any threats at all.

The kids did finally perk up when we left the 'stinky' Starbucks and headed to the canyon. One of the radio stations was playing all holiday tunes and and everybody was in a pleasant mood until we put the top down..."I don't want the roof off...it's cold! Why does HE get a hat and I don't? Can we just go to Grandma and Papa's? Why did you throw my hot chocolate in the trash?" Sigh. The lights were beautiful this year in spite of the whining (which did mostly cease once we got going). It was so fun to hear them naming off everything they saw..."Look! There's Rudolph! I see snowmen! Eeeewwww! I see Mr. and Mrs. Santa kissing!" So maybe my new little tradition wasn't quite perfect. That's okay. It's the going and doing and memory making that matters.

On the way home, the boys literally fell over and konked out. Aaahhh. Perfect at last.

The End

2008-12-12T22:25:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet. It was also my parents 40th anniversary. A few days later Grant turned 4. My amazing in-laws took us all on the Polar Express and then we had his party a couple days later at the Ice Cream Shoppe on 26th and Boston. It was so fun!! Each kid got a made-to-order sundae, I served ice cream cone cupcakes, and we played 'Pin the Cherry on the Sundae.'

Part 3

2008-12-12T22:04:00.000-06:00

After the trauma (mine) of starting 1st grade, Pumpkin Days arrived. Each year we trek off to the thriving metropolis of Floydada, TX, with our pumpkin buds, the Price Fam and other assorted pumpkin goers. We fill up on artery clogging fried everything and take lots of pics in the pumpkin patch. Then it's Halloween! This year our goblins dressed up as 'The Dread Pirate Roberts' (see The Princess Bride), and a 'Blade Ninja' (don't ask..that's what the package said it was).

Review Part 2

2008-12-12T17:04:00.000-06:00

The summer months also bring lots of sweat and sunblock and this year, several cases of Off. It's all SO worth it though to watch the cutest little T-ball team in the state!

Jaden turned 6 this year and headed off to 1st grade. It was actually harder than sending him to kindergarten. I seriously can't believe how fast time slips by! He's a good student even though the only parts he says he likes are PE, break, and lunch.