Fears......

So, I have a son who loves horses and most anything to do with horses. He has a rustic cowboy/horse themed bedroom. He has had horse themed birthday parties. He has horse calendars and coloring books. You get the picture. He is however scared to death of the real thing. Like almost pee in his pants scared. I don't know if it's because they are so big or what. But he's scared.

So, today the local FFA at the High School sponsored a petting zoo and his preschool class got to go. Gabe was sooo excited about it. Until we got there and he saw they had a horse. So, we bypassed the horse and went on to the sheep, chickens, goats and pigs. He also really didn't want to get to close to the calf that was there. We went around twice petting and checking out the animals never getting with in spitting distance of the horse. Finally I said we weren't going around until he went up to the fence by the horse,who by the way looked to be one hundred years old, he said "Mom, you sure are encouraging me" and finally walked up to the fence. WooHoo! He did it!

So, I just asked him what his favorite part of the petting zoo was and he said he didn't know because the horse scared him too much. Finally he said he really liked the goats and his absolute favorite part was getting to ride on a real school bus. So much for animals.

Boys............

Why do boys wrestle? I don't think girls do this on a regular basis. Boys, however, seem to live for it. Anytime I tell the boys to go find something to do nine times out of ten I hear Parker say, "hey Gabe, you wanna wrestle?" To which Gabe responds,"Sure". And it's on and someone gets hurt and then they just keep wrestling. One of their favorite things to do is wrestle with Daddy. It's just a huge question mark for me.

Gabe..........

I wanted to make sure I wrote down some of the things Gabe has been saying lately.

When his Aunt Nee stuck a wet finger in his ear he exclaimed, "Hey, no wet Willis!" instead of no wet willies

He has been using the words: indeed and shall, he also likes the phrases: For Pete's sake and from the movie Madagascar, "here have a nibble"

Also, he recently has been suffering from bad dreams. Almost nitely he is waking up shaken and upset. And then of course he can't go back to sleep. Last night I was up with him for an hour. Chris was up before me for I don't know how long. Not quite sure what is causing them. Seems like Parker went through this around this age.

He loves singing and cooking.

Bra Shopping


I hate it. I was just looking online trying to convince myself I could just order one and that would be fine. Of course, they don't seem to carry the bra I've been wearing. So, now I have to go out and try on new styles and find one that works. That means a trip to St. Louis or Champaign for me because I live in hickville. There is only JCPenney's, Super Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Fashion Bug. So, now to figure out when I can plan a bra shopping trip. Maybe I can get away with the one I'm wearing for another month?

Vacation.....

The plane ride



Gabe is a little nervous.

Parker is ready!

First stop--Legoland!

We are here!

What a sense of humor!

This is one happy boy!

Next stop Monterey Bay.....


Brrrrr!

The Aquarium

Beautiful Jellies!


Gumped!

San Francisco

The boys wanted their picture taken by the "lighthouse" light.

This sign cracked me up, it says "hill". In SF that seems somewhat redundant to me.

Happy New Year!

Waiting for the ball to drop!

Celebration

So, it's pretty obvious I suck at blogging on a regular basis. I love to read everyone else's blogs and I never get to mine. Soooo, since I only blogged once in December here it is in nutshell. December was filled with Christmas parties, Christmas programs, Christmas carolling, Christmas gift buying, Christmas dinners. Overall it was very Christmasy!

A boy and his dog, it's a beautiful thing. She looks so innocent until you realize she's chewing on his scarf.

A lego genius, perhaps. Although I'm still wondering why he looked at all those bricks and saw a nurse.

Chris is trying to find a pair of RX safety glasses for work. I thought the blue ones made him look like a superhero. The boys couldn't resist trying them on to see if they had special powers.

Alien dog, werepup, you decide......





I took this picture a few nights ago in our garage. I'm still a little freaked by how it turned out.

My Girl.....


Isn't she lovely. She's supposed to be the boys dog and she is. But she's also mine. I'm the one who does the bulk of the caregiving. If I'm outside she's right there longing to lean up against me and get some scratching. I don't know what I'm going to do when she gets bigger. She's going to knock me over. It's kind of funny because I have never really liked large dogs. They always scared me. But I'm smitten with her.

Exercise.....

Oh, exercise, sweet exercise how I despise you. And yet you lift me up and help to make me whole again. Thirty minutes in the AM and it's like the winds of changed rushed in and blew the blues away. I had already decided to get on the elliptical and my dear Hubby asked, cautiously, are you going to go for a walk or anything today? He knows that exercise helps lift my mood. He knows that it's hard for me to fit it into my day. But he was brave and asked, some other time I might not have responded as well as I did today. It helped seal the deal so to speak. I knew I should and I did. Yay for me!

The Blues.....


So, I've been fighting them for weeks now. The blues are lurking in my peripheral vision, threatening to come over for a visit. It happens three, maybe four times a year. Sometimes worse than others, always swept out of the door with me just getting up and doing stuff that has to be done. But when you are depressed you don't want to get up and do that stuff. It takes everything for me to get up and do a load of laundry. People who don't suffer from it don't/can't understand. It consumes you entirely. I always manage to function for the boys but that's all I'm doing. I'm not myself, I can't wait for alone time, I want to sleep or just sit in front of the T.V. Of course, I can only do those things when the boys are at school or napping or in bed for the night. I guess I don't have it as bad as some do. That's something to be thankful for. And, so far, this time I'm managing to not fall into the Abyss.

Halloween 2005

Halloweens past....


This was Halloween 2004. Parker was determined to be a video game character. We wanted Gabe to be a mushroom but he refused. He was a Cowboy Butterfly.

Kids Sports.........

What makes parents at sporting events scream and holler like they are the coaches? Or like crazed lunatics. Last night at the soccer game, some "Dad" is screaming at these kids. It's like sidelines "road rage". I'm thinking, this is not a school game it's through the Lion's Club for goodness sake. These kids are supposed to be playing for fun. And yet he's relentless. Fortunately there was no cursing. But it seemed like one or two more bad plays by his team and I would have had to get up and mention to him that there were preschoolers there. Let them be kids, let them have fun. Why put so much pressure on them to WIN, why not just let them play the game and do there best and play for the joy of playing. Can you tell I don't like competion?

Boys.....

So, we decided to do an all boy sleepover this weekend. Just 24 hours. It seemed so simple. All in all it was not horrible. But I did learn things about my oldest son that I knew nothing about. 1, He seems to be the leader of the crew. 2, He is a pretty good mediator. 3, Boys like to talk about gross stuff... like flatulence, vomit, cutting off body parts. What's up with that? And all of this done at the dinner table. Hmmmm? I also learned that even numbers does not necessarily make the party go more smoothly. Someone will inevitably not want to do what everyone else is doing.

Rough Mornings.....

First post in almost a month. I had a rough morning. Mondays and Wednesdays are rough since moving to the country. I have 3, count them 3 trips into town. First, I take the big boys to school at 8AM and then come back home. Second, I take little boy in for speech and preschool and then I come back home. Third, I come in to town to pick up all four of them from school. It sucks, I feel like Mom Taxi, at your service.

This AM, I say, sure go outside and play before school. It hasn't rained all week surely the mud is more like dirt today. WRONG!!! I rush outside to take them to school only to discover that the two oldest boys have mud caked shoes. So bad that I have to make mine change his shoes. And I am pissed! Did you not notice the mud P.....? Sorry, Mom:-( And I find myself throwing a temper tantrum. And feeling horrible after. Now I'm obsessing that because of the "rough morning" the boys are going to have a bad day at school. But deep down I know that they have already shaken it off and are merrily going about there day.

My internal check is going, hmmm? PMS. I haven't been taking my vitamins religiously. Perhaps I should make more of an effort before crazy, raging woman shows her ugly face. I hate PMS. Men think we use it as an excuse. Unless of course they are on the receiving end of crazy, raging woman. Then if they are smart they very carefully ask, Have you been taking your vitamins? NO! GRRR! I need to I know. I will.

Moving Day is upon us

It’s here, well almost. Tomorrow is the official beginning of moving day. But I’ve been here all week packing the boxes. Moving sucks! No, the actual physical act of moving sucks. I’m looking forward to the new house. It’s the getting into it that I’m not so looking forward too. I’m actually less stressed today than I have been all week. I still have a lot to do. So, you won’t be hearing from me for 4-7 days. And then, I shudder to say it, we will have ‘sob’ dial-up. No more fast Internet, no more instant access. Wish us luck with the move.

Do they sell dead worms at Wal-mart?

The things kids say.  Today we are in Wal-mart getting ready to checkout.  I’m busy putting stuff up on the belt trying to hurry, it’s lunchtime, I have a headache, etc.  and  #2 son says: “Mom do people eat dead worms?”  What did he just say?  
Me: “ What G…?”  
He revises, “Does Wal-mart sell dead worms?”  And I’m thinking what did he see, something to fish with?  
Me: “ What are you talking about G…?”  
He says: “you know dead worms, does Wal-mart sell them for people to eat?”  
Me: “Where did you see the worms G…?”  I’m checking everywhere trying to figure out what this kid is talking about.  
G says: “Right here in this lady’s cart.”  I turn to see a white Styrofoam container with, you guessed it, Ground Chuck in it.  
Me: “Oh, that’s not worms, that’s hamburger.”  
G…:  “Why does it look like worms?”  
Me:  “Well, when they grind it up it comes out in a little squiggly noodle type shape.”
G…: “But why do they make it look like worms?”
Me:  “ Well, they aren’t trying to make it look like worms, it just kind of does.”
G… : “That’s gross!”
Yip, that pretty much sums up hamburger.