Thanks Bow hmmm Boo Ah now I remember… Bou

Just wanted to say Thanks to Bou for posting for me while I was gone. And I am very happy she didn’t tell you some of the college stories. {phew}.

I have some stories to tell, but it will take me a day or two to get it all out here. After an 11 hour trip yesterday, my children getting up at 5:30am today and 2 appointments to attend to today… I’m not going to have much time for blogging.

Though my in-laws made it nice to come home. They had made ham, mac & cheese and beans for dinner and had it waiting for us. Ahhhh. Now that is the life.

Thank you everyone!

We survived and made it back.

We made it back. Just a quick picture to show my #2 Son, who is a year old, with my niece's son who is 6 months old. Yep, you read that correctly. My son is no short kid...I can't wait to see how tall my niece's son gets!

More later... tired and have tons to do before putting the kids to bed in 20 minutes.

Side note: That is my sister's, Tink, grandson. Big GRIN. She is a grandmother for the 3rd time with that one.

A Baby Cinderella????

Geezoweez, don't they have child labor laws against this stuff?! Next thing you know, VW will be throwing him the keys to the riding lawn mower saying, "Have at it kiddo!" *Grin*

Look at those little stubby legs. He's so daggum cute.

A Moment of Zen

How can you not look at that picture and not feel your heart laugh? You don't even have to know how sweet their voices are or how yummy they smell. You just look at these two wonderful boys, doing what boys do best... playing in the dirt, and it covers you in a blanket of warmth. I want to reach into the picture and smooch their cheeks and rub their blonde hair.

You have the intense concentration of the 2 year old... and the impish grin of a 1 year old... "Life is Good! I'm sitting in dirt and I have a stick!"

Children can bring so much happiness to your heart. VW's boys are beautiful children...

Made it Safely

VW just called to let me know she arrived safely with her family. She said it was interesting when they arrived at the hotel last night. Son#1 was clomping all over the floor and one single little person sounded like an entire herd of elephants.

Kids have this thing about hotel rooms. They can be fast asleep, beat from the day, they arrive at a hotel and BLING! They're Awake! There is so much to see... to us it is a place to sleep, to them it is beds they can climb on, a remote they can reach, different TV programming, different smells, different sounds... Argh!

She says her Dad looks well... but that's as far as we got before Son#1 started to cry for her. I am sure it's the whole 'this isn't my bed, this isn't my house, this isn't my room' adjustment.

I'll keep you posted.

HMMMM....

(drumming my fingers on my desk) I am sitting here wondering, do I tell stories from college and our work years??? Do I spill the dirt? To tell or not to tell...

Pay back is hell. I will not tell. *grin*

Ha! Who did you expect...

VW? NO! 'Tis I, Boudicca, sitting in for my buddy VW. Muwahahahahaha!

VW is on her way to her folk's home in Pensacola to see her Dad and lend a hand for her Mom. We all know the situation, so many prayers to VW and her family.

On a lighter note... she is currently in her mini-van with her two young boys. This time they left their horse dog at home. Please, allow me to tell you that traveling with two babies for 9 hours is hellish. Hellish I tell you! I don't know how she continually does that trip with horse dog. Let me just say, she is a better woman than I. *grin*

I think right about now, she's in Stuart, feeding the kids in the car, looking at her watch thinking, "Dear God, I have 4 more hours until we stop!"

I'll keep you posted as I hear from her.

One Happy Dog Speaks

Trip to P’cola

It’s time to take a trip. My family and I will be heading up to P’cola tonight to visit with Mamaw, Papa and my sisters. We’ll all be back on Monday night. During that time, I may have a guest Blogger to keep you up to speed on my insanity… strike that… wonderful life and how my dad is doing.

See Ya Monday night!

First day of Day School

What a boy. I was finally able to get into the Day School for my #1 Son. He will now go twice a week from 9am to noon. Tuesday was the first day. We went in and met the teachers, the other students and saw all the new toys. It came time for me to leave. I walk over and give him a kiss on the forehead and say bye. He looked up briefly and said bye. I looked at him as I left and he never looked at me again, did not shed a tear and didn’t care I was leaving. PITA. I do love that boy.

More Wednesday Humor

I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me and we all could use more calm in our lives. By following the simple advice I heard on a Dr. Phil show, I have finally found inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed

"The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you've started."

So I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's, a bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of both Prozac and Valium prescriptions, the rest of the cheesecake, some saltines and a box of chocolates.

You have no idea how freaking good I feel. Please pass this on to those you feel are in need of inner peace.

Dreaded Wednesday is here - time for some humor

Oldie but goodie:

A LESSON FOR ALL

RULE 1: Life is not fair; get used to it.

RULE 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3: You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4: If you think your professor is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

RULE 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity... Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

RULE 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try "delousing" the closet in your own room.

RULE 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

RULE 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Chocolate Butter Icing

This week, David Schuler of The Glittering Eye is hosting the Carnival of Recipes. This icing recipe came from Joy of Cooking. It has my adjustments to what I like. I use this on the cakes I make from a box as well as from scratch.

Ingredients:

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
3 tablespoons butter (I use unsalted butter because that is what I have in my house)
¼ cup hot water (or cream or coffee – I use water most often)
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups (or up to 4 cups) of sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Melt over a very low heat (or use a double broiler):

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate

Melt in it:

3 tablespoons butter

Remove these ingredients from the heat and add:

¼ cup hot water (or cream or coffee – I use water most often)
1/8 teaspoon salt

Add gradually:

2 cups (or up to 4 cups) of sifted confectioners’ sugar (I do this to taste, depends on if I want more of a chocolate taste or a sweeter taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Hi Papa

My #1 Son likes to talk to Papa on the phone. The other night my Husband called me in to the room to hear #1 Son. Yep, he was saying “Hi Papa”, “blah blah blah”, “Bye Papa”. Did I mention he was holding his puppy by the tail and talking into the butt? GRIN.

Next, yesterday I hear him saying “Hi Papa”, “Bye Papa” while holding his hand up to his ear. So cute! Then I realized there was more to this than just his hand… specifically he was putting his finger in his ear. Hmm. I get suspicious. I go over and look at his ear. Oh geeze. There is a cheerio in it. I take it out.

About 15 minutes later, I need to take his temperature. He has the sniffles and I want to make sure he isn’t running a fever. I use an ear thermometer on #1 Son. For some reason it isn’t registering a temperature. I look into my son’s ear. Ta Da. There is another cheerio shoved even further into the ear. Sigh. This time I very carefully check both ears. All Clear. Also, no fever. It is still just his molar coming in the upper left that is causing the sniffles.

Amazing what kids will do. Wonder what I will find next (and where)?

Foot Size

Ready for this? I think my 2 year old (#1 Son) will be wearing my shoes by the time he is … 3? And #2 Son is not far behind. #2 Son was only a ½ size smaller for is first shoe than #1 Son. I have high hopes that #2 Son can wear #1 Son’s shoes in the future… at least until they get old enough to complain about it.

Here are 2 pictures of my #2 Son’s shoe, #1 Son’s shoe and my shoe lined up. Unbelievable. For those out there who don't know what size I wear, it's a size 6 wide.

Time Change

The time change happened over the weekend. My #2 Son expresses my feelings exactly on this issue in this picture:

Acrobatics

Do you remember a Sit & Spin? Well my in-laws bought my #1 Son a Sit & Spin last year for Christmas.



Notice the top? You press it and the most horrendous music comes out of it. Loud and horrible is the best way to describe it. And my sons love it. Particularly making music with it. #2 Son decided to show his acrobatic abilities by standing on it. You heard me right, standing on it. Not holding on. I was expecting a broken neck, big bruise on the head, something major to happen. I couldn’t even get the camera going because I was in shock. He did just fine. Leaned forward, played that terrible music and sat down.

Not to be out done. #1 Son decided to do a special balancing act as well. He decided to stand up, hands free on this toy. I have since moved it away from the couch.



I am totally amazed I didn’t end up in the emergency room over either one of these balancing acts. Gotta love those kids.

My 3 Sons?

One of my 3 sons happens to be a 140 pound dog. He is nevertheless considered one of the family! Luckily, he is the least mobile. He will lay and not move unless something really interesting comes by… like the FedEx or UPS trucks. Still, I do have to keep an eye on him as well as the other 2 boys. As this pictures shows… #1DogSon is lying in the road, #1 Son is headed somewhat towards me and #2 Son is headed away from me. Life is getting very interesting. This time I had my Husband with me to help run after the boys. I have decided without him around, we stay in the fenced yard. It at least gives me an extra 25 seconds before #1 Son can get over the fence.



Talking about my sons being able to do some unbelievable feats (like climbing OVER the fence) - I do wish I was able to do as many squats as my sons can do. Just take a look at #2 Son. If I sat like that for more than 30 seconds, I would not be able to walk for a week. He did this squat at least 10 times in less than 30 minutes and stayed in it for at least 2 minutes each time trying to find and eat rocks. UGH.



Ahh. I do love these boys. I can’t wait to see how life progresses as they are both moving at faster rates of speed.

Side Note: There was a finger smudge on the lens that I did not catch until I saw these pictures. This is why they are a little odd looking.

Something lite

A man took his wife to the rodeo and one of the exhibits was that of breeding bulls.

They went up to the first pen and there was a sign that said, "This bull mated 50 times last year."

The wife poked her husband in the ribs and said, "He mated 50 times last year."

They walked a little further and saw another pen with a sign that said, "This bull mated 120 times last year."

The wife hit her husband and said, "That's more than twice a week! You could learn a lot from him."

They walked further and a third pen had a bull with a sign saying, "This bull mated 365 times last year."

The wife got really excited and said, "That's once a
day. You could REALLY learn something from this one."

The husband looked at her and said, "Go up and ask him if it was with the same cow."


FOOTNOTE: The husband's condition has been upgraded from
critical to stable and he should eventually make a full recovery.

At Best - 9 months

Papa is headed home. Hospice will be coming by about 3 times a week to help out. They are providing a lot of the stuff Mamaw needs in the house to help Papa.

He has improved from using a wheelchair all the time to being able to use a walker occassionally. He still has a great attitude and is so much fun to joke with on the phone.

Hopefully we will be headed home in a week or so to see him. I'll forwarn everyone when we leave for the visit.

Carnival of the Recipes

Stolen word by word from Boudica at Boudica's Voice:

The Carnival of the Recipes is being hosted this week by the lovely Sarahk of Mountaineer Musings!

If you have a recipe you would like to share, you need not have a blog. Just e-mail it to her at recipes.carnival (at) gmail (dot) com. If you have a blog, you have an instant easy post! Post your recipe and then throw her the permalink via the same gmail address.

So, cook, type, send. Piece of Pie... I mean Cake. And yes... you can submit any type of recipe. Dessert, main course, side dish, you name it. I think they even have a special category for 'mixed drinks'.

Deadline... Thursday at Midnight, EST. Don't be late