Phrase of the Day

Carsen: "Oh, For Goodness Snakes!!"

Happy Birthday Griffen!!!

Wow~~ my kiddo is 9 years old today!!! I am so shocked that I have a 9 year old. It only seems like yesterday..... etc...etc...
He actually had a great one. We are in Maine. And so far all the bats have stayed in the night sky so we are safe so far. Anyhow, we are here and a bunch of the cousins are here so there are plenty of things to get into like the dirt pile, fireworks, driving the tractor (alone! no rangers here to give us tickets just in case you know the jet ski story.. if not ask and I will be glad to share it with ya!) anyway it is a boys paradise. We asked Griffen what he wanted to do for his big day and he requested that we take him to the go cart track. So off we went to race go carts and to play a little miniature golf. Well the golf went well. Then it was time to race some go carts and it turned out that Griffen is a little bit too short to be able to drive them alone HOWEVER much to his dismay his younger girl cousin was tall enough to go herself. This caused much heartache to my big 9 year old guy. He ended up having to ride with his uncle which turned out fine but as I am sure you can imagine he was still a bit disappointed about not being able to drive alone. Ah...if only I had been wearing my platform shoes today I could have given them to him for a bit of a lift!

Manners

Today Carsen and I met some friends at the part and he ran over to me and chugged down his lemonade then he sat there and burped multiple times. I asked him what he was doing and his response was "I am not burping that was just a grumble."

Weary or Wicked?

No rest for the weary isn't that what they say? Or is it wicked? Either way we are not getting any! We have seriously been going non stop. This week we had soccer on monday, baseball game on tuesday, cub scouts on wednesday, baseball pictures and a game on thursday, and we are 7 minutes into friday and here I sit writing due to my guilt for not posting much lately.

After a day of going since 8:00 a.m. Carsen fell into bed practically asleep before his head hit the pillow...oh yeah....he forgot his pillow downstairs so he didn't even get to 'hit the pillow' It was an exciting day for him. It was my birthday and all 3 boys could not wait until today for presents so they gave them to me last night. Well excited and unable to keep a secret. Like when I woke Carsen up this morning and the first words out of his mouth were. "Did Daddy get that cake for you so I can have a piece now?" I did not say anything to Wes but during lunch Carsen brought it up again and Wes did the 'it's a secret' thing and I told him that the cat was out of the bag with Carsen's first words of the day! I have to give him credit I mean after all he made it through the evening before without spilling the bea...err I mean frosting!

Question.

Since when did Sugar Smacks become HONEY Smacks??
THEY.
ARE.
STILL.
THE.
SAME.
CEREAL!!!

The meaning of Easter

I am proud to say that at least Carsen fully understands the meaning of Easter... each night since his prayer has been.... "God bless Jesus for getting whooped because we are naughty, and for being on the cross and waking up in the cave." Pretty good 4 year old understanding!

This past month life has been full of ups and downs and I guess I have been busy livin' it hence the reason that I have failed to do much on the computer. So, if anyone is still checking this to read bear with me....

We ended up going to Colorado for spring break. The boys enjoyed it and I actually enjoyed the 2 day road trip out there and back. It is a time that my family has to be in one spot..
together...unable to go do you own thing.... this is a pretty hard thing for us to do. Take today for instance. Griffen is at school. Wes is off but working on the airplane. Carsen and I are going grocery shopping and doing laundry. Then this evening I will take Carsen to his first soccer practice and Wes will be with Griffen at his baseball practice. We have reached the point in raising kids in this day and age that we are heading in different directions most of the time. So, I was perfectly happy to be in the car with them reading Bridge to Terabithia out loud. Even though by the time we got to the end I had to pause at some points because if I continued reading I would burst out into tears. And during that pause Griffen would yell, "We're listening keep reading!"

Speaking of Griffen he is old enough that he does not say many things language wise that are funny anymore. In other words he is a very well spoken 8 year old. BUT..on Saturday as we were driving to church rehearsals for the Easter program he asks us...."Have I been bathtized?" Then without skipping a beat he says "Hey, there's Ice Cube." referring to a guy who lives in our neighborhood who does indeed resemble Ice Cube but is in fact not. I was still laughing from the first question then thrown into another fit of laughter at the second statement. It was just so...... nonchalant. Like we see celebrities in our neighborhood all the time.

Stranger Danger

Let me set the scene.

It was a beautiful day. Blue sky, sun shining, some snow still on the ground but warm enough out to go without a jacket. We have a couple of things to do before having to be home as we are having some guys that were in from out of town over for dinner....

The grocery store is the first stop. Fortunately, it is during school hours so I don't have to run the gauntlet of Girl Scouts hawking their deliciously, evil little cookies. We make it inside and manage to pass through the area where all the 'deals' are without being hit by another shopper in the Achilles with their cart. (First time I have passed unscathed) Now we are at the bulk item section when Carsen sees the Jelly Belly's to which he starts begging for jelly beans. I tell him no. Now my biggest reason for this is just because I don't feel like backtracking at this point but when he asks "why?" I reply, --"because I said so" (now even I agree that this is a lame reason. In fact it is not even a reason at all) but this is what I say. Now the whining and crying begin....and last for the WHOLE time we are at the grocery. Then I have to go to a second grocery store because it is practically impossible to just go to one store in this town and get everything that you need. The crying continues through out Albertson's also. I am REALLY happy by this point in case you are wondering. But I think OK this is the last stop then we are home free. Well, that would have been the case if technology was not as advanced as it is, or if I had chosen to ignore the call on my cell phone from home. But I answer and it is the lovely husband who is fixing the toilet..you know the one that broke while he was soaking up the sun in FL... and he needs a part. Next stop Home Depot. Which a lot of women say they love HD. I am not one of them. Not even remotely. But here I go trouping into the depot with Carsen in tow who is still crying from 2 hours earlier and no jelly beans. I manage to weave my way around and find the plumbing department the whole time insisting that Carsen hold my hand because anytime I do let go he bolts. His pulling away has now forced me to just hold his wrist therefore he cannot get away. He does have plenty of wiggle room between my hand and his wrist but that does not stop him from yelling "OW, Ow you are a crazy stranger, you are not part of my family!" Of course, people look at the two of us and I don't know whether to laugh or clamp my hand over his mouth. Fortunately, when he repeated it he started the same sentence with "Mom, you are a crazy...blah, blah, blah.." I somehow manage to get the needed part between the screaming kid, 3 lost calls home due to different sizes of the item needed and people looking at me... some with pity,.... some with disgust, ....and even some with the look of compassion that said...i've been there.

The Skinny

Aren't skinny jeans supposed to make you feel....oh, I don't know SKINNY!!! I have a pair that I bought last fall and every single time I put them on I feel like Aunt Fanny. Needless to say they do not get much wear.

Dinner Conversation

So, this evening a friends daughter was having dinner with us and I had the 3 kids set up at the counter eating while I was at the table next to them. I was just reading and sort of listening to them talk about general things when Griffen started telling them about scorpions and what they do etc., etc., etc., which I basically tuned out until I caught the word "mating" I perked up right away and proceeded to hear Griffen tell them about how the "male grabs the female and flips her over and drags her into the shade and DEPOSITS SPERM which the female collects....." oh no, oh no, oh no, this is not happening Mary then says "whats that?" oh no, oh no, oh no.....how do I stop this without turning it into a full up train wreck oh no, oh no, oh no.....so I revert to my usual tactic...I change the subject and quickly jumped in with "How bout them cubbies?" Which led to "We don't have cubbies at my school.", "Oh, I we have them at our school.", "I have cubbies in my school too." Whew! That was a close one. Damn that library, I thought Tipper got them to ban all books about sex!!

Definition of happy kids....

SNOW DAY NUMBER 2!!!!

Still Snowing

Here's our snowman. If you can't tell I forced these two to have a picture taken. The only way Griffen would agree to it was if the dog was in it. Carsen just preferred to give his 'James Dean' pose.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

IT'S A SNOW DAY!!! IT'S A SNOW DAY!!! IT'S A SNOW DAY!!!

No school, no work, no appointments, no schedule. So far, we have watched Narnia and have plans to bake cookies, build a snowman and have a snowball fight today.

IT'S A SNOW DAY!!!

(I never got a snow day growing up can you tell??)

IT'S A SNOW DAY!!!IT'S A SNOW DAY!!!IT'S A SNOW DAY!!!IT'S A SNOW DAY!!!

TDY.....

Living the life of an Air Force wife I am very proud of my husband as are my children and all of their friends who think that every jet that flys through the sky is Pappy and wave to him daily.

But, living the life of an Air Force wife also brings trips or TDY's as we call them or deployments for some. They are the times when he is away from home doing his job. And in case any military wife ever has any doubt that he is gone TDY/deployed these things always help to remind:

The most used toilet in the house breaks.
The light bulbs that need the extension ladder to change blow out.
The microwave blows up.
I get sick as do my children.
It snows...alot.
The T.V. breaks (it takes 2 people to carry it to the vehicle to take to the repair shop.)
The animals get sick and require veterinary assistance.
It is time to move households.
Unexpected visits to the Dr. or worse the E.R.

This is the short list.......

Why Oh Why

I know I typically write about general family stuff but I just can't let this one go. Maybe, it's due to the fact that I have an unpleasant image burned into my retinas!

So anyway... I am at the gym this morning (yeah me!) and I have showered and am busy getting ready. You know minding my own business when here comes this woman with the towel but she is only holding it over the front of her body. (I should have been thankful for that only I did not realize it at the time.) She then hangs it up starts gathering her items for showering by BENDING OVER IN FRONT OF ME!!!!!!!!! not once, not twice, but THREE freaking times. This is also the woman who chooses to shower in the big no curtain shower that NOBODY ever showers in especially when there are open single stall showers. Now, just so you can get the full picture this is not a tall, beautiful, totally in shape woman who I would see and say if I looked like that I would strut around naked also. This was the woman who could redefine the song "my humps" -- not in a good way. Trust me, I saw them all. I suppose I should be thankful that I had to dry my hair therefore she could not strike up a conversation during her 6 minutes of naked bliss that I had to endure. What I need to know is WHY, WHY am I always the one who gets caught in situations like this?

Girl Toys

OK, so I don't know too much about girl toys being that I am only surrounded by boy toys so when one of my boys are invited to a girls birthday party it is solely up to me to pick out the gift. Now, since I am a girl you would think that this would be easy. Well, you would be wrong! See, we don't typically go down the girl toy isle I mean it's just "gross" all those dolls, and pink stuff YUCK! So I tried giving things like the little girl makeup kits to which the young girl loved but the parent of the child quickly began seeking revenge for. Then about a year ago I found out that "Groovy Girls" were a hot ticket for the 7 and under girl population. And after wading through 'Bratz, Barbies, and Polly's' I finally found these little rag doll things. Well, they are a hit so basically every girls birthday since we have given a "Groovy Girl" The inset picture is the latest one that we are giving. When I pulled it out of the bag to show the boys what 'they' were giving to their friend. Upon seeing it Carsen rolls his eyes and says with a large amount of exasperation "booby girl" again. This confirms it he is definitely Pappy's kid!

Snake Eyes

Not a gambling term around our house...it is what Griffen is requesting the eye surgeon put in his one eye when it gets operated on this summer. Now, no matter what I tell him he is determined that the Dr. is IN FACT able to do this if only we ask him...we continue to argue the point!

On another front I took some pictures of the boys today to send out with our New Years letter...yes we are sending out a New Years letter instead of a Christmas letter. Don't ask! Here are a couple that did not make the cut..

Your Next American Idol

I seriously think that he is just as good as some of the people that we have seen this past 2 weeks during the Idol auditions. AND....he is much cuter!!

Blogging

OK, I think that maaaybe I am a little addicted to this whole blog scene. Aside, from keeping up with friends and family that are far away I have spent way too much time peeking into other peoples lives. There are a couple that I have come across just by hitting 'next blog' on my screen. One is this girl from Brooklyn who is HI-LARIOUS! I actually almost peed my pants reading her blog one night. Then Wes came in the room and he was laughing just as hard. It is the closest I will ever be to single, 26, and living in New York city. It's one of my new favorite passtimes!

And the hits just keep on coming

So everyone knows the song 'Whole world in his hands' right? Well, here at our house when Carsen sings it we get a liiittle different version then I am sure you have heard in the past. It goes a little something like this:

"He's got the whole world in his hands, he's got the itchy, bitchy kids in his hands....."

Now in case it has been a while since you have heard the song the verse he was trying to sing actually goes like this:

"he's got the itty, bitty babies in his hands."

I just can't make this stuff up!

Quote Of The Week

"I'm just a dreamer wasting everybody's time."
Carsen

SHARP TOOTH!!!??

So yesterday, I let the boys have one of those miniature soda's and Carsen was enjoying his in the kitchen while I was in the front room. All of the sudden he is crying fairly hard and running to me saying that he cut his finger. Upon inspection I noticed that it was a little more then your average scratch. It is on the end of his finger and a pretty good little cut, with a decent amount of blood....(there was blood hence the crying! **see previous post**) I then had to ask how did you get this cut and through his tears he pointed to a place on the wall that has a little paint chip out of it that I have yet to touch up. So I go to it and feel it for myself and it is as smooth as can be so being of some intelligence I know that he did not cut it on this spot. The conversation then proceeds as follows:

ME: "Carsen, you did not cut your finger on the wall. Now tell me how you cut yourself."
CARSEN: (through his sobs) "I was not playing with knives!!!"

I then go into the kitchen to check the crime scene for a knife......No knife.....

ME: "Carsen, How Did You Cut Your Finger...????"

CARSEN: "It was my sharp tooth. I bit me with my SHARP TOOTH!!" "Really, I did!!"

After some serious sleuthing I figured out that it was not in fact his sharp tooth it was the lip on the soda can but he did not want to tell me that just in case I was going to take the soda away. When I asked him about it he stuck to his story... "It was my sharp tooth" He finally confessed to his dad later that evening. Note to self....teach the kid how to make up better lies to cover his tracks!!!

Overheard Conversations

This conversation took place in our garage between Griffen and two of his neighborhood friends. I will set the scene for you:

Griffen is getting his bike out of the garage to go riding with his 2 friends they have entered through the garage door and are just surveying the area. They end up seeing the 2 large girlie/car/airplane calendars that Pappy has hanging in the garage...you know the type. It's a calendar from the auto parts store but just to make sure that they have the full attention of the target audience they add a scantily clad chick working on the car or sitting on the hood.. you know because that is what is going on in all auto shops across the nation! I mean I can't tell you the number of times that I have went to pick up my car from being worked on and the place is CRAWLING with models in swimsuits..even in January!! How they stay warm I will never know! So there's the scene...

8 year old Boy #1: Look at those girls!

8 year old Boy #2: (looks sheepishly at the pictures.)

8 year old Griffen: Yeah, I told my Dad to get rid of them but he just likes the cars and airplanes. He doesn't even like girls...

Boy #1: Oh, so he doesn't like the girls?

Griffen: No, he just likes cars and stuff like that.

Unfortunately, they were walking out the end of the garage by this time and my bionic ear was not working properly so I did not get to hear the rest of this exchange. I am however patiently waiting for Pappy to come home from work so I can have a good laugh when I tell him that his son is telling his friends that his dad "doesn't even like girls!"

Oh life with kids in a small town...I don't even need TV for entertainment.....Wait..I didn't just say that did I?????

blog test

if you are reading this then I finally got this to work. It was not showing anything since Dec. So this is a test. This is only a test. I thougth I would include a picture in this test just to make sure that works too. This was a squadron sledding trip over christmas break. Beautiful weather, fun day!

Technical Difficulties!

For those of you who have said that you tried and it won't let you comment I have changed the settings and you should be able to now.

Signed;

Anxiously awaiting you comments

How we measure pain

Having 2 well...3 boys in the house has taught me how to measure pain. This past Sunday Wes had his first hockey injury of the season. When he came home my comment was, "What the hell happened to you face?" when I first saw him. His comment back was "I ran into another guy, it's not that bad, it didn't bleed too much." Afterwards, he looked in the bathroom mirror with decent lighting and realized that it was a fairly deep gash across the bridge of his nose. Not stitch worthy but still I probably would have been crying! Carsen also seems to be following this rule of measurement this morning he was upstairs and I heard him hit something then a brief cry out. I from downstairs asked what happened. He immediately stopped crying and replied, "Oh I am fine there is no blood." So apparently, if there is little or no blood...it's all good!