4-4-4

I must say I really kinda liked this tag- probably because it's different from the rest. Rules are simple- you post the 4th photo out of the 4th folder in your picture files, then tag 4 friends. My 4th folder happened to be Disneyland pics from a couple of years ago, and the 4th pic is of my father-in-law Jay sporting some groovy shades in the Bug's Life theatre. I have to tell you, I absolutely love my father-in-law. You rarely meet someone who would give up just about anything to help someone else out, and that's him. He's taken care of others his whole life, and if anyone has earned an awesome mansion in the next life, he most certainly has. Jay has the most interesting sense of humor, and if you ask anyone in the family they could undoubtedly quote a few choice jokes that he's dropped during Sunday dinner. I remember most vividly a certain Winnie the Pooh joke that he told for my benefit the first time I had Sunday dinner with Zane's family when we were dating. Thanks, Jay- I still laugh when I remember that one! Anyways, that was a fun trip down memory lane, so now for the tagging part. Kim, Lyndsey, Selina, and Shantelle M.- hope you guys have a good time with this one- I did!

Funny Business

It's been awhile since I've posted some of the random things my kids do that crack me up. So before I forget or get too far behind, I'll try to mention one or two about each of the little stinkers (in no particular order of favorites). I'll start with Jack because I haven't posted anything on him lately. He's the cutest little clown ever! He learned this dumb country song from his honky-tonk lovin' Dad and he sings it over and over. Sometimes he even graces us with his dance moves and an awesome guitar hero impersonation, and it can be quite entertaining to watch him. Even Maycie will dance along (which constitutes spinning in a circle) when Jack really gets into the groove. I can't adequately explain it, so I thought I'd better video it for a more accurate depiction. (Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause the music player before you play the video!)


Next, to document something about my awesome older son, Wyatt. He's a bit of a sports nut lately, and his favorite sport changes with the season. He got a skim board surfer for his birthday, and for awhile he wanted to be a superstar surfer. Did I just say he's awesome? This just in... he's a little turd!! As I'm typing this, Zane's looking out the window watching Wyatt throw our new little puppy Lucy across the grass like a football. Just a minute while I go do some disciplining (aka kicking HIS butt across the grass!!). Anyways, where was I? Oh, yeah. Surfing. It was pretty funny watching Wyatt and the kids try out the skim board surfer. Pretty soon we had half the neighborhood kids here wanting to play on it, too. I'm sure they all thought it'd be easy; that they'd be able to ride it for more than a foot or two. Oh, no. After watching tumble after tumble, I finally got out the camera. Some of those wipe outs were pretty funny, and I wish I'd thought to video as well. Here's a few pics, though I'm bummed because most of the wipe out shots were blurry.





Now I'll talk about Alivia for a minute or two. She's growing up so fast, and I'm not sure I'd be able to make it some days without her help. She's like a second mother to Jack and Maycie, and an expert dog-walker, dish-doer, homework-helper, etc. But with the growing up comes learning more about how things REALLY work in life, like holidays and certain mythical characters, how babies are really born (they don't come out of belly buttons, if you catch my drift), and maturation. I'm not really sure I should be documenting this as it could be a bit embarrassing for Alivia, but as a mother, and taking in account the fact that this is MY journal of sorts, I'm gonna do it anyway so I can always look back and remember and smile. I took Alivia shopping the other day for new underwear. She was down to only a handful of pairs left (the washer and dryer must be eating them lately) so off to Target we went. I grabbed a couple of packages of the usual kind that I buy her, but she complained. Apparently girls her age don't wear the brief style anymore, and she wanted bikinis. Now Alivia is only ten and a half and I just couldn't deal with the thought of bikinis right now, even if they do have cutsie pictures on them. We settled on hipsters, which are lower cut than briefs but still bum-covering. Next we found a bra-like thing that she could wear and I had a hard time keeping the tears at bay. It's only like a thin sports bra with lingerie straps, but still- I could tell that she felt so grown up. It makes me excited for shopping trips in the future- how fun it will be when she's a teenager and we can do all sorts of fun girly stuff together. Thanks Alivia, for being such a great daughter and helper!


Last but not least, and maybe the funniest, Maycie has been a constant source of humor lately. She has never really been much for playing with regular kid toys, instead preferring to find things that are far more interesting. Her favorites have included car keys, phones- but only the real ones that work, and toilets. She moved on from playing with the caps (they cover the screws that bolt the toilets to the floor) to opening the lids and playing in the water. Now she likes to put things in the water, which as you can guess, isn't fun for Mom and Dad. Her latest favorite thing to do is to open all the cupboards and drawers she can get to and empty them. I'm constantly picking everything up and putting it away, just to turn around and she's done it again. Her favorite drawer happens to be in my bathroom, and is stocked with- IF YOU ARE A GUY, STOP READING NOW IF YOU WANT TO PROTECT YOUR MANHOOD-feminine products. If you are making a guess, then you're probably right- the things she likes to play with the most are tampons. Every day Zane comes home from work, walks into the bathroom and says, "Looks like she found your smokes again." Smokes is what he calls them because they look like white wrapped cigars, and it's against the rules in the manhood rule book for a guy to say the word tampon. Though moving them might be the easiest thing to do, I can't because they're within arms reach in case of an emergency. Lets just hope that this phase doesn't last too long, and maybe Maycie will move onto something new- and less embarrassing- soon.




Anyways, I love all my kids and am so grateful for all the funny things they do that make life so interesting. Every day is different, and they never cease to put a smile on my face or a giggle in my heart. If anyone ever thinks life is boring, have a kid or two and it never will be again. Or if having a kid isn't the best course of action for you, maybe I'll lend you a couple of mine for awhile!

The T Word Again

Alrighty then, so I need to do some more tags (thanks Selina and Candace) so prepare yourself for further insights into the wondrous workings of my psyche. Since I've done these ones in the past, I'll abbreviate and make them quick. First, for Candace: Tag of Eights. I did this one a few weeks ago, so scroll down aways to see my answers. But to expound upon that genius insight, I'm gonna copy Melissa and add another category.

Stuff That Drives Me Crazy (in other words, things that bug me):

1. Organized people that are so with it they have time to update their blogs daily, their scrapbooks are always caught up, and they can find their kids' homework because there's no clutter all over their counters (okay, yeah- if I better managed my time, then I could probably do all that too).
2. When I'm late for things, the Man upstairs decides that it's a good time to learn me patience and I hit all the stinking traffic lights red. When I'm not late for things (which is rare) the lights are miraculously all green. Weird, huh?
3. The fact that my husband can cook better than me 90% of the time.
4. When my husband knows more about something than I do (even if I know nothing about a particular subject, I'll try to fake it so he doesn't start believing that he's smarter than me), or in other words, when he's right and I'm wrong!
5. When I've just finished doing all the dishes and started the dishwasher only to walk in another room and find dishes that SOMEONE left for me to clean up. OR when I'm putting away the LAST load of freshly folded laundry in my kids' rooms only to sniff out a few smelly pairs of briefs that they've stuffed under their beds.
6. When my kids (and husband) junk their shoes, dirty clothes, etc. anywhere they want expecting that Maid- I mean Mom- will just clean it up as usual.
7. When my kids (and husband) leave empty food packages in the pantry or fridge instead of throwing them away. There's nothing that can grate the ole nerves more than when you're tired after a long afternoon of washing other peoples' dirty underwear, and you just want to sit down a relax with a few oreos, so you reach for that blue package that's supposed to be full of deliciously fattening goodness, only to find that it's empty. Where's my sledge hammer? I need to smash some stuff.
8. When you walk into the bathroom that you'd just finished cleaning into antibacterial perfection not an hour ago only to find that someone- probably one of your sons- (hopefully not your husband) missed. A sledge hammer's not gonna do it.

Anyways, there's probably many more choice annoyances that I could include, but these eight were fresh on the mind, so they'll have to do. The next tag is for Selina. Since I'm running low on time, see the April 7th tag post in my Archives. That's the same one, except for 5 favorite snacks, so I'll add that here:

1. Sour patch kids, bright crawlers, mini rainbow frogs, Swedish fish aqua life, etc.
2. Milk duds, sugar babies, bit-o-honeys, etc.- you see where I'm going with this.
3. Double stuff oreos, snicker doodles, and soft molasses cookies with milk.
4. Homemade caramel popcorn, or warm caramel covered apple slices from the fair.
5. Smores, doughnuts, hot chocolate, and hot spiced cider- all the cold weather, out-doorsy kinds of treats.

There's so many other treats that I love that it's hard to narrow it down to just a few favorites. Anyways, now I have to have covered just about every tag in the book, so I should be good for a while, or until someone thinks up a new one!