Totally psyched!

Really I am! About work of all things! I got presented with two really cool opportunities today.
#1. My boss has been talking to Mr. Coon himself about decorations for our office. Long story short (to use one of my daddy's phrases), He owns a historic building downtown (the Kyles building). We are consolidating all of our Beaumont offices - yes we have more than one! - into the one building. He wants to decorate with pictures of the Kyles building for different eras. I've known for a while that I would be in charge of finding pictures of the building before we bought it. Today, my boss tells me that the scope of the project has expanded. Brent wants modern pictures.....and guess who gets to be the "photographer"? **drum roll** ME! How'd you guess. So if I get some good pictures, my photos will be on display around the building..... Kinda cool if you ask me!

#2. This one really doesn't have to do with work except it's my boss whose giving me the hook-up. Apparently, LIT fire academy graduates do a night fire as part of their graduation tradition.
Friends and family are invited to go and watch them set a building on fire at night and put it out. So her cousin who is graduating mentioned that he wanted them to make sure they got some good pictures so she asked me if I wanted to go with her! She's also a photo nut so she'll be snapping away too. I'm just excited about the opportunity. How often do you get to do that and not worry about what is burning down?!?! If I took pictures of a "real" fire where someone's property was in danger, I'd feel like I was taking advantage of the situation. However I have no shame taking advantage of a planned fire!

Long story short :) Be looking for some good Wordless Wednesdays coming up!!! (Hopefully at least)

Wordless Wednesdays

From Wordless Wednesdays

Back in the swing of things...

Getting back in the swing of things sucks! My second day back at work and I'm pooped! That could be due to the fact that I had to run a day payroll early, with holiday pay, with extra holiday bonus pay, and during the middle of a move. I seriously had to re-stack boxes in my tiny office about 5 times today. Not a small task because they are heavy boxes!! And my goal in moving them? Usually to find one very critical piece of paper, or a stapler, or a pen. It's hard to live out of boxes but have you ever tried to work out of them?

I also came to the realization that Jace turns four one week from today!! How much of his party do you think I have planned? Until tonight, nothing. Now we have an invite list and date picked out (I cheated, I'm thinking the end of January!) I also have a list of games to play and have started a list of things that I need to pick up at the store. Next is his present... we were going to get him a bed but let's just say that that's not gonna happen!

Now I'm going to go do one more of my homework days from my Daniel study. I'm determined to go back and finish all of those before I start a new Bible study in January. It also gives me a chance to use my new Bible. Make sure to check out the Wordless Wednesday tomorrow. It will probably surprise you!

New Christmas Pictures

Yea I finally uploaded some more Christmas pictures. That's an accomplishment. I put them on the computer AND found good ones to upload for you to look at... Enjoy!





PS Do you like the sideshow version or having to click to a new site to look at the pictures? Just wondering...

Almost over...

So Christmas is officially over and almost completely over. Including my week-long vacation from work!! Only 12 more hours until I have to be back in the office... NOOO! I don't want to go back! I've had a blast hanging out here with the kiddos (and Tyler of course). I DON'T WANNA GO BACK! However, in my famous words to the kids "Pitching a fit won't do any good." So it's off to work I go first thing in the morning. Jace is excited to be back in the swing of things and back at Nana's. I think he's missed it!

So to all of you who are still off for Christmas, enjoy! It won't last long. Also did you notice my first (and only so far) Christmas decorations to come down? That's right, my blog decoratioins! They are the most fun becuase you get to redecorate! Whatcha think??

Jace is wanting me to play ball with "Jace puppy" and Tyler wants the Internet and is sucking up by feeding me nachos, so I'm out for tonight!! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! The New Year is coming up. Anyone thinking about resolutions?

Christmas Eve Wordless Wednesday

From Wordless Wednesdays

Snapshots

Here's our week in snapshots....
Thursday: Polar Express Day.

Mallori got to wear her pajamas to school all day. Jace and I decided to participate too. We wore ours to Nana's. Then I changed into real clothes, went to work, changed back into pajamas, took a few quick shots in front of the tree with some co-worker (who also brought pajamas). Presto! Mallori thinks I had Polar Express Day too!

Friday: Mallori's and My Work/School Christmas Parties.

Sorry no pictures to post on these! I had to skip her school party because mine started at the same time. Looking back... I should have went to hers! Mine was interesting to say the least!

Saturday: Christmas @ Gramma's

We all went out to eat at Ryan's and then back to Gramma's to open presents. We all had a good time. Mallori and Jace loved their presents (so did Tyler and I). They wake up every morning singing karaoke and playing the guitar!

Jace also loves his computer. He has to bring it everywhere with him!! Anytime we go to leave, the computer is in tow!! You can see he wasn't even paying attention to "Kurvy" when she was playing with him at Gramma's.

Sunday: Christmas Program @ Church

We didn't know until Sunday morning that the pre-school choir was going to be singing at church. Mally and Jace did good though. They both got up and sang with no drama... except that Jace fell going up onto stage AND coming down. Clumsy kid! Mallori also had a coughing fit during two of the songs. Leave it to my two!

Monday: A day at home

I finally finished Christmas shopping!! The kiddos and I went and picked up Daddy's presents. I couldn't get him guitar lessons like I wanted because they were out of our price range!! I thought maybe I could by him a couple of lessons to get him started, but they all want a sign-up fee and monthly fees after that. Sorry folks, not right now! We had to change plans, but I think he's really going to like what all we got him! If not, I kept the receipts!! haha We also made cookies for Santa!! Yummy!

Also, if you click on any of the pictures (except the first one), it will take you to my Christmas album. There's not many other pictures there yet... but hopefully I'll get around to it!!!

Dear Santa...

Here's our Christmas list for the year...

Mallori
1. Leapster 2 Games
2. Toy Snail
3. Computer
4. Barbie

Jace
I've been good. For Christams I want...
1. Dinosaur
2. Guitar
3. Bible
4. Jeep that opens at the back and you can put stuff in there
5. Track to drive my cars on
6. Diago board games
7. Car books
I'll make you some chocolate cookies.
Love,
Jace

Amy
1. Remote for my camera
2. New clothes
3. Nikon CoolPix S60 (new touch screen camera... awesome!)
4. Set of mixing bowls.
5. Books
6. Black belt
7. Perfume from Victoria Secret

Tyler
1. Money
2. .22 pistol
3. Clothes


Now let's see how good we've been this year!!!

Wordless Wednesday

From Wordless Wednesdays

Just a Quick Note

Jace cried twice today. Actually cried. Real tears. Not a fake, whiny, I want my way cry (he did do that but I'm pretending like my child is perfect and doesn't act that way). Both stemmed from his balloon buddy. He blew up a balloon on Saturday night. He very seriously told Tyler and me that we were not allowed to pop said balloon. We had to hold it when he went to do stuff so he wouldnt' loose it. Sunday after church (the balloon had to make the trip to chruch with us but stayed in the car), we drew a face on the balloon and it became his balloon buddy. Since then, it has traveled to Nana and Pawpaw's, had to be tucked into a sleeping bag at night (only because I wouldn't allow Jace to actaully sleep with it), and was always tucked saftely onto a shelf when Jace was through playing with it.

The first time he cried was because he was chasing after his balloon buddy and slipped and fell. He hit the floor with a cracking sound. It sounded like something fell off the counter, not my son's head hit the floor! Socks and wood floors don't mix well! So we calmed Jace down, he'd put up his ice pack and was watching Mickey's Christmas on TV all by himself with Balloon Buddy.

Then we hear a loud pop and a wailing cry come up from Jace. According to Jace, (through real crocodile tears) Balloon Buddy popped when Jace was loving on him. Ooppss, we sqeezed too tight! I think it took him longer to calm down after that one than the floor! He finally calmed down when Nana told him she had balloons at her house and he could make another one tomorrow. He even meantioned it an hour later. He said he was sad because he popped his balloon.

What are we going to do with the little booger??

Let it snow.. let it snow.. let it snow!!

It's been a long time since I've seen snow! As a matter of fact, I think I was around Jace's age and don't really remember anything about it except that we got in trouble for trying to lick it off the slide!!

It was a pleasant surprise, but I could have done without the 3am phone call! I woke Jace up this morning about 6:30 and told him I had a surprise for him. When I finally drug him out of bed, I brought him to the door. He asked what it was and I asked him what he thought it was and he said "SNOW! IT'S SNOW!" Needless to say we were out of our jammies and into the snow pretty quick! We walked around for a little while and then built our snowman, Howard.

From Snow Day

We also threw snowballs at daddy and just looked around amazed! Jace didn't like it when he saw that his Jeep's gear shift was covered in the snow. He had to fix that before he could move on. Then he refused to make a snow angel. This is a kid who makes "carpet" angels all of the time!! He loves to lay on the floor and pretend to make a snow angel but when it comes down to it, not for him!

The entire way to Nana's, he kept looking out the window and saying "It's still there... it's still there... Mommy, it's still there!" He was not very happy once we got there because she didn't have as much as we did.

When I got to work, the girls had made a cowboy snowman. I had to make my contribution by throwing snowballs at them!

From Snow Day

We all had a good day playing in the snow! I'm glad that it snowed but didn't like it when it started melting and making a big mess! Maybe we'll get to enjoy it again in the next 20 years!!

If you click on either of the pictures above, it will take you to my album with all of the pictures from today! Jace is trying to help me type so I'm going to get off for now!! Peace out!

Wordless Wednesdays

Why?

Jace is really getting good at this question! This morning it was "Why do we have mommies and daddies?" My response "To take care of you." Then he says "But I always go to Nana's." WOW. so I made up something about how he has to go because we have to go to work and make money to take care of him. But really? He thinks he doesn't need us because he's always over there!?!? Then the conversation led to the fact that he didn't have to go today becuase it's Sunday. And how he didn't want to go anywhere today. So that is why at 8:23 on a Sunday morning I'm still in my jammies. We didn't go to the Buna Christmas party thingy at the firehall last night or the Silsbee Christmas parade becuase he didn't want to go anywhere either. I had to make him go to Jacob's party. I see a little bit of me and my dad in him! haha.

Also, he got to bring his new 4-wheeler home yesterday. It's been at Nana's and Pawpaw's. Of course we flew off of it after about 30 minutes of ridding. Jace decided we would race and turned a little too quickly. I think I got the worst end of it... you know the saying the bigger they are the harder the fall? It's true!! It wasn't a bad wreck though. It felt like you were running really fast and fell. I hit my hip and have a bruise. Jace cried for a few minutes and said his head hurt, but we made him get back on and he never complained about anything again - even when I asked him if his head still hurt. He was being more cautious after the fall. I think it's a good thing he fell now and realizes that you do have to be careful!

My Friday Nights

Look up... So that is what I did on my Friday night, designed a new header for my blog. Considering it's the first one I've done, I don't think it looks too bad! I also caught up on one episode of Grey's Anatomy. Only 5 more to go and I'm caught up! I started watching the newest one and was completely confused as to what was going on! However, I have to say I LOVE not watching TV. I know that sounds weird but Grey's Anatomy is the one show that I watch and you can see how often I watch it! I sometimes catch some guy show with Tyler. Some of which I will admit are pretty good (MythBusters and Time Lapse). Other than that, it's on but I'm not watching it.

On a separate note, for those of you purchasing Christmas gifts for my kiddos, keep this conversation in mind.... (I was tucking Jace in his bed for the night)

Jace: Mommy, why do we have all of this stuff?
Me: What stuff, Baby?
Jace: All of my toys and stuff (he makes a motion around his room which is littered with, well, stuff)
Me: For you to play with...
Jace: But why.... we're never here?

From the mouth of babes right? So I'm not feeling guilty at all about buying them only 3 presents each for Christmas! I'm also hoping to sit down with both of them and write letters to Santa, which I will post because I'm sure they will be interesting to say the least!

I'm off to bed! We have a big exciting day tomorrow; it's Jacob's birthday party! Other than that, I plan on doing a whole lot of nothing (besides making Jace play with his toys!!!)

Night!

Wordless Wednesdays

Not Me! Monday

Ok so once again I'm stealing an idea from someone else's blog... actually the same person. However, this idea today is one she WANTS you to steal. Since I've stolen these ideas from her, I'll give you a link to her site. (which if you must know I stumbled upon from someone else's blog).

So here is my own Not Me! Monday. It basically stems from the concept of the not me kid that lives in our houses. You know when you ask who colored on the walls and all of the kids yell "Not Me!"

This Morning: I most definitely did not snooze the alarm for 30 minutes before getting up to set the oven timer for another 20 minutes. If I had done that (which thankfully I did not), I would have been almost 30 minutes late to work. I did not put more butter on Jace's waffle simply because the other butter had melted in and he likes to see his butter. I would never accelerate clogging his arteries. I did not straighten my hair until it looked as good as it ever does and then complete my outfit with a tee-shirt and tennis shoes. That would be silly to waste a good hair day looking sloppy. If I had put on said tee-shirt, it would never be because my other clothes were all dirty and my laundry room looks like it exploded. I did not tell Jace to wake up Daddy by jumping on him. That would end in a very grumpy (yet awake) Daddy. I did not sit on the couch with Jace and wish for just one more day to spend with him without going to work. For crying out loud, I just had 5! Once I got to my mom (remember I was definitely not running late because I did not oversleep at all), I did not waste another few minutes talking to/looking at baby Jessie. I did not head out the door once my mother said she had to change his diaper.

At Work: I did not chicken out and have the runner change my light bulb because of I was afraid of the ladder. I did not make my boss worry about her upcoming trip. I also did not have a hot chocolate break in the kitchen. If I had taken a hot chocolate break in the kitchen, it would not have taken 6 women to figure out the exact science to making a cup of hot chocolate. (3 taps and two heaping spoonful of mix to a cup full of water). I did not burn my mouth trying to test the hot chocolate before it cooled off. I most definitely did not change my blog background while at work, or look for the perfect Christmas card!

After work: I did not spend all day complaining about going to Wal-Mart and then go to Wal-Mart after all. I did not spend over $100 at the quick trip to Wal-Mart that I did not have. On the way home from this trip (that of course never happened) I didn't swindle my mother into inviting us over for supper because I was not starving and didn't mind waiting for food. I DEFINITELY did not laugh at my mother's misfortune that she ran over her one eyed dog (even though SHE made the joke).

When I got home: I didn't let Jace talk me into letting him stay up a little late to do a "program" (project) with Mommy. I did not kick my husband off the computer to do this and even if I had I made sure the house was spotless first. As I type this, I am not going to scamper off to bed without doing anymore house work than is already done!

One more. I definitely did not misspell definitely 5 time during this post! Well there you go... that's a Not Me! Monday for you!

Wordless Wednesdays

A glimpse

**I wrote this last night. However, Tyler didn't come home from the concert until after I'd went to bed so I'm posting it today. The joys of having the Internet through his cell phone!

This morning started at about 4:30am when Jace started screaming “MOMMY! MOMMY!” He had a bad dream. I drug his bed into my room. (Thankfully he still sleeps on a baby mattress in his toddler bed!) I told him about my dream… we were at an ice cream store picking out ice cream. After that I went back to sleep.

Getting ready for work was pretty uneventful (thank goodness). Then we had to run to Kaine’s to pick up some Cheetos for Mallori’s Thanksgiving Feast. We got ½ way down our road and I told Mallori to put her jacket on. Ooppss bad Mommy didn’t make sure we all had jackets before we left. So Mallori had to wear my jacket into the store. Jace made me carry him because it was freezing cold. Who knew it would be 40 degrees outside! While there, Jace sneezed and we had to do a mad search for some Kleenex. Finally got out of Kaine’s and headed to Nana’s.

Jessie was awake when we got there so I had to hold him for a little while Nana fixed breakfast for the rugrats. He’s just a little doll!

The trip to work was mostly uneventful. I had some time to myself *sigh* sometimes I’m glad I have to drive 40 minutes to work! I get there, check a few emails. My next project: finishing off the last of the 1700 Christmas invitations to the Los Lonely Boys concert. We had to stuff them, seal them (with glue sticks) stick a return address label and address label on, and run them through the postage meter. This took us about 2 days over 3 days (we had two ½ days).

During this time, I made a run across the street to Shipley’s to get donuts and kolaches. The joys of being the one who makes the run, I got a Bavarian cream filled one and chocolate milk! Then back to stuffing envelopes.

Once that was over, I went back to doing typical HR stuff: processing terminations, entering COBRA information, checking emails, etc. Lunch was a SlimFast bar (maybe that balanced out the donut!) in my office while surfing the net.

After lunch I went into my boss’s office and got into a conversation about the book I’m currently reading (she just finished). This lead to a discussion about Roman history, art, and a google search for famous sculptures.

Other things that happened at work: I looked at one of our client’s really nice 2 seater convertible car. I got in a discussion about December 25th not being Jesus’s birthday and the celebration of Christmas/birthdays especially about how it pertains to Jehovah Witness. Had an HR Thanksgiving celebration at Baskin Robins. Searched for 15 minutes for an email one of us wrote in May. Then it was time to go home!

On the way home I solved the world’s problems and thought about what I would write to you people J Seriously. I did! I picked up the kids at my grandmother’s, had to spank Jace to get him in the car and listened to Mallori and Jace argue most of the way home.

Supper was grilled cheese and Cheetos. Then we walked the dog in the dark to get him used to his new wireless fence and fed him leftovers. Mallori spotted a mouse in the garage and then drew pictures of him to chase me around the house with. Now here I am ignoring 2 million questions from a little girl on what I’m doing and discussing what we are thankful for! She’s making a list… she’s getting entirely too big! Ok well I’m sure my “glimpse” is getting boring by now.

On a different note, I think I am going to start Wordless Wednesdays tomorrow. It is an idea that I stole from someone else’s blog. You post a picture every Wednesday and no words. At least you will get one post from me a week!

Sneak Peak

I thought you might like to take a sneak peak at how our photo shoot went today. We took some that looked like this....

And then I narrowed it down to 3 to use for my cards.
ONE:
TWO:
THREE:


Maybe I'll get around to posting some of the "runner-ups." But for tonight, the uploading process is being slow and I'm tired. Night!!




P.S. I wasn't purposely excluding Tyler. We didn't take any good ones with just the two of us. Jace didn't take any good ones by himself. And even though Mallori took a cute on with her daddy (one of the runner ups) the one posted above was too cute to pass up! I made sure Tyler would be ok with it. He said the less pictures of him the better!! I'm not hatin' on the hubby! haha

What's been going on???

To be honest, a whole lot of nothing. Just life! We went the farm last weekend. Had a blast! Jace's dirt pile was still there so I ended up with 4 dirty, filthy kids. Yes I know my kids just multiplied! Nanny was babysitting one of Tyler's cousin's two kids. I'll post pictures eventually. Right now they are still living in my camera like the kid on the commercials frozen in midair off the diving board!
But here's a preview!

Mallori got her WebKinz from Jo Lynn so between her and Tyler, I have to fight for the Internet! haha It's really cute though and she LOVES it. She even added it to her collection of sleeping animals. Jace wants one too now. I've been looking to see if maybe we can get him one for Christmas. He's a little young to do it by himself but I think he could with help.

Jace has been rockin and rollin along. He's doing pretty good with my mom taking care of Jessie. He wants a little more attention in the afternoons but nothing like the first day she kept him. Here's a picture of the little cutie so you can see who I'm talking about.

After that first day, I had to go to the store and get something for supper. Jace (of course) wanted a chocolate cookie. He'd been whining because he had to leave Nana's so I told him IF he was good and IF he quit whining he could have one. He found something else he wanted and carried it though the entire store. Then we get to the checkout line and he spots a chocolate cookie. He asks if he can have it. My response "You already have the Christmas trees..." at which point he throws himself down on the floor, throws the Little Debbie box across aisle and begins kicking his feet and hitting the floor!!!!! I was so in shock I didn't know what to do so he missed out on a spanking. But I did make him get up and stop. Then we had a LONG talk in the car about how that was unacceptable behavior and if he EVER even thought about doing it again, I would bust his little hinney right there! He also didn't get to watch TV when we got home and the cookies (both kinds) stayed at the store. I was a little disappointed at the last part. I love Christmas Tree cookies!

Well, I'd better sign off of here. I need to go take a shower. We are taking family pictures for our Christmas cards today and I need a shower first!! Wish me luck!

Mallori

I'm finally sitting down to do it! My post that allows you a glimpse into Mallori's personality. I want to start this post off with a disclaimer.
Disclaimer #1: No matter how this ends up sounding, I love Mallori with all of my heart and treat her like she is 100% mine. I cannot tell you the nights I have laid awake wishing she was mine and crying because she never will be fully mine.
Disclaimer #2: Mallori's personality is extremely complex, and liable to change at any moment. She's not predictable like Jace is.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get started.

Mallori is my little girl whose 100% little girl 75% little boy. She loves to go shopping, talk on the phone, (ok just talk in general! The girl talks in her sleep!), and would rather wear a dress and heels than shorts and tennis shoes any day. However, she would rather be in the yard playing baseball than sitting getting her nails done. She HATES to have her hair done, loves to get dirty (I mean absolutely filthy), and likes to go fishing with her daddy.

She's MOODY! My new nickname for her is Melodramatic, Moody, Mallori. This replaces my nicknames of Eeyore, little rain cloud and night owl. She likes to pretend to be unhappy. She will sulk just because she thinks she might get attention and trust me, she's not attention starved! We are slowly learning to deal with her range of emotions though. We try to tell her it is ok to be mad, upset, whatever, but it's also ok to be happy and she is the one who chooses how she reacts. At the same time, sulking and making everyone else miserable is not ok. If she must sulk, she has to go to her room.

She's HILEROUS! I cannot count the number of pictures I have where she is sitting as serious as can be and everyone around her is laughing their heads off. She says the funniest things! For example, on her birthday Ashley was calling her boyfriend to see where he was. Mallori and Ashley's conversation went something like this....
Ashley: I wonder where that boy is?
Mallori: Who?
Ashley: My boyfriend.
Mallori: Chris? (for those of you who don't know, Chris is Ashley's previous boyfriend)
Ashley: No, his name is Jeremy.
Mallori: What happened to Chris?
Ashley: Blank look...
Me: She traded him in.
Ashley: Nods in confirmation.
Mallori: Oh? Well then give him to me BABY!

We were laughing so hard the guys outside could hear us!!! That brings me to another thing about Mallori. She is obsessed with what I call life events: getting married, having kids, death, you name it. We bought the movie Mulan when she was 3. I had to quit letting her watch it because we had to have long discussions about war and why they were going to war and what happened to Mulan's father.... you get the point.

She's very insightful and picks up on emotions right off the bat. Perhaps because her emotions are always bubbling at the surface. There is no hiding when something is wrong. She will find you out every time!

Unlike Jace, she is very stranger leary. She usually won't talk to a stranger first. (I see this as a good thing.) I've always said I didn't have to worry about someone grabbing her because she would let everyone in hearing distance know she wasn't with them! She is calming down some though. She will talk to people that she can tell we know. For the longest time, she wouldn't talk to some family members!

She loves to be the center of attention and will do just about anything to be in it. She has no shame making a full of herself and is completely goofy. It's almost impossible to take a good picture of her because she always wants to goof off. I blame this on her Aunt Lala.

Mallori is a little genius. We have always thought so but everyone else confirms this. She could recognize all of her letters and tell you what sounds they made by the time she was 3. She's known her colors and shapes as long as I can remember. She has a photgentic memory and can remember anything. When she was about 3, she remembered a building she went in when she was 18 months old! She even told me what she had to go there for!

She's accident prone! She's been to the ER 7 times that I can remember off the top of my head!
She's fearless. She'll try anything. She has no problem jumping out of the boat and into the lake with her daddy.
She's trustworthy. Once Tyler held her ankles about chest high so her stomach was even with his head and told her to fall backwards. She did it several times before he made her stop!

Well there you have it, that's our Mallori in a nut shell! I could go on and on but I need to go to bed sometime tonight! :) Sorry it has taken so long for this post. Things are just more hetic when we actually have Mallori! It's crazy that adding one extra person to a family creates so much more work! Also she's in activities and has homework (yes, in kindergarten!) and I'm exhausted by the time I get everyone bathed and fed! haha!

My Weekend Surprises

My plan for the weekend were to sit at home and rest/catch up on some much needed cleaning after Mallori's party. I do what I can during the week but when you have that many people over at once and in and out it just gets ridiculous and I couldn't get to it all during the week. Especially when one night I sat up until 10:30 (very late for me) sewing (yes I said sewing) rafia onto the bottom of a pair of overalls for my scarecrow!!

**For those of you who didn't get to make Mallori's party and are wondering how it went, it went great, or so I hear!! I was so busy I didn't get to really see how everything went. If that makes sense! For those of you who did get a chance to come, thanks for coming! And if you would like to add anything in the comments section about how wonderful (or disasterious) it was, feel free!

Back to my reason for this post. Tyler reminds me that it is opening season of deer hunting and we MUST go to the farm!!! No if, ands, or buts about it people WE must go. Ok I can live... I'll just be resting and relaxing up there instead of cleaning at my house, right? By now you know if I ask that then the answer is definitly WRONG!!

Tyler's uncles found a new trailer to move in at the farm. Yea! We don't have to worry about falling through the floors anymore! So change of plans, we go up Saturday morning instead of Friday night (no sleeping in late!!) and have to do some work when we get there (hook up water, electricity, ect.)

We finally get here this morning. Trailer is wonderful, much bigger than the one we have and I definitly like the layout better. It is just in need of a VERY bad cleaning (worse than my house!). So there goes the resting and relaxing. I've been trying to pick up between going to the hardware store and up to Nanny and Pawpaw's to go to the bathroom. We do have electricity hooked up. This is good because Tyler, Uncle Jeffery and I have all tried to turn on the same light. We also have running water but no sewage.

It looks like the people just left one day five years ago and decided not to come back. I found DOG POOP on the kitchen floor. I mean come on reallly people?!?!?

Right now though, I am taking a few minutes to myself to relax. All of the guys are out hunting so it's just me and Jace. I've given up on trying to tell Jace to stay out of the big mud puddle!

**Interruption** I had to go get Tyler from his deer stand... now where was I? Oh yea! My FILTHY little boy. Covered from the knee down in mud. Not dirt, mud, completely covered. This should be fun.... remember the no sewage? That means no baths!! Yucky! Ok I've been interrupted again. Tyler wants to watch the YouTube video of his cousin sky diving. We'll see what kind of surprises the rest of the weekend holds. Until then, check out the photos from Mallori's party. I have some from Halloween but haven't had a chance to upload them yet. Also, just as an FYI, as of 6:14, we have not moved anything from one trailer to the other. No beds, nothing :( I don't wanna "rough" it!!

Mallori's 6th Birthday Party

Amy vs. Mallori's Party

A quick quiz for all of you who are obsessed with my blog (ha!) How well do you really know me? Come on, it's just one question... you can play along!

When I got home from my Bible study today at 8:15 which of the following did I do before sitting down to write this for your entertainment?

A.) Sat down for a quick supper with my family.
B.) Picked up a few things around the house and did basic housework (sweep, dust, etc) to get ready for Mallori's party on Saturday
C.) Unpacked our suitcase from our Hurrication (Gustav)
D.) Sat down confident that everything would be done by 4pm on Saturday and watched Gray's Anatomy.
E.) None of the above

Come on.. guess before you look down!!!


The answer is... C. Yes, honestly! Isn't that sad?!?! That's how it is though. It hasn't been at the top of my priority list. And to tell the truth, I didn't think we had enough clothes to last nearly this long and though we'd be digging through it just to have something to wear a week after we went home!

Here's a list of other things I have to do before Mallori's Carnival Party on Saturday...

1. Get organized! I have no idea what I'm going to do where/when!
2. Pick up my house! It's not in too bad of shape (now that the suitcase is put up and out of the way...)
3. Vacuum the kids rooms.
4. Dust.
5. Sweep and mop the rest of the floors.
6. Pull the weeds out of the walkway.
7. Make and ice cupcakes to look like balloons.
8. Pick up another pack of hot dog buns from the store.
9. Put up dishes.
10. Finish washing/drying/putting up clothes. I did make GREAT progress on this tonight.
11. Make a quick clean up of the bathrooms: toilets, sinks, mirrors... not in that order!
    
12. Find something for the kids to wear!
13. Figure out what I am going to wear...
14. Clean out my fridge.
15. Go to work all day tomorrow.
    
16. Go to a soccer game first thing Saturday.
17. Set up about 9 different carnival games.
18. Make goody bags for the kids.
19. Get my mom's picture printer.
20. Possibly go to homecoming tomorrow night (don't hold your breath on that one!)
21. Make Kool-Aid & Pink Lemonade.
22. Make Kool-Aid ice cubes so we can make snow cones.
    
23. A million other little things that I will think of between now and then!

Why can't I just do cake and ice cream and be done with it?!?!?!?! I know it will all be worth it though! It's going to make Mallori so happy! She's super excited and that's what it's all about! By the way, a post about her similar to the one about Jace below will be coming soon. I just couldn't get all of this stuff off of my mind right now! Now it's off to bed to rest up for what is sure to be a LONG day tomorrow!!! Night everyone!

Jace

Last Thursday, I had a rare opportunity to stay home with Jace during the week. We were playing in his room (yes, I put off cleaning and about 500 other things I needed to do just to sit and play with him). I kept thinking about different aspects of his personality and how much they show even though he is only 3 (almost 4.. AAHH!) So here's a little peak into Jace's personality.....

First, he's so considerate... especially for a 3 year old. They are only supposed to think about themselves. Right? We were playing a song. He was banging on his drum and tambourine (which doubles as a drum and symbols at the same time!) He stops playing and makes me get out his Thomas the Train tent. Why you ask? "because some people don't like our hanging and banging." That translates to in case someone doesn't want to hear me play my drums... He continued to play the rest of the time in his Thomas tent. Then one of Tyler's friends, Travis, came over. Jace wanted to show him his new gun but made Travis come into this room because Daddy didn't like his gun. It's too loud. If he even thinks you may have hurt yourself, he is the first to run over and make sure you are OK. I'm pretty clumsy so I hear "Mommy, are you ok?!?!?" A LOT! You can hear the true concern in his little voice. He also periodically asks if he can give his toys away to the kids who don't have them and prays for those same kids at night. WOW! He truly has a heart for others already!

Second, he's so creative! When we were playing songs in his room, he was making them up. Here's a sample of his songs... "Tooth Fairy please do the thing I tell youuuu; Please like take my teeth out right now." "Sit down Jace; Sit down Mommy; Sit up everyone else there; everyone else there; therrrrreeeeee, therreeeee, therreeee, please" He was about 18 months old when he composed his first song. He would sing(/scream while jumping up and down) "SPIDERS WON'T COME INNNNNNN... SPIDERS WON'T COME INNNN" over and over in the same tune. He did this for a couple of weeks before he forgot about it!

Third, he's particular!! About everything! If you have ever played cars with him, you know this! He won't let you pick what car you want. He pretends to let you but then finds something wrong with every car you pick until you have the one he wants you to have. If he has them lined up, you have to start picking from the end and you end up with the car at the front... EVERY time! It's fun to mess with him though. For example during our little jam session, I got to play the maracas. I thought I'd change things up a bit and held them in the same hand. He stopped playing to show me how to hold them (one in each hand, right side up). So being the wonderful mommy that I am, I put one in each hand, upside down and started playing. He stops again takes them from me and says "No, like this." Then hands them back. We did this a few more times before I got it :) He's patient with you though. He seldom gets aggravated or mad, he just shows you over and over.

He has also bought into the rock star mentality. I asked if I could play the drums for a little while (trying to seize the opportunity to reinforce sharing which he only has a problem with when it comes to his drum). His reply "Singers and players don't have to share." Well, I tried...

There are so many other small aspects I could spend all night talking about it... He has the "it" factor. Girls (of all ages) flock to him. He never meets a stranger. He's easy going and seldom gets upset by anything. He's up for trying new experiences. He hates loud noises. He knows almost all the words to the "Woohoowoohooo song" (All I Want To Do by Sugerland) and sings them without shame.... even the ones about putting make up on. He loves to help, anyone, anytime. I could go on, but thankfully for you, it's bedtime! Until next time....

My Genius Idea

One Saturday the kids were supposed to be cleaning their room. They started at 8 am. By 11, there was minimal progress made to their rooms and both Tyler and I had completely ran out of patience. It seems like this is a constant battle with these two. They NEVER want to clean up! I know it's normal for kids.. what can you do? Jace is especially frustrating because his excuse is "I can't do it." Those words are not allowed in our house. You can say that you need help to do it but not that you CAN'T. I just don't want the kids to have that type of attitude so we don't even let them say it. Mallori is just stubborn and even when she has the best intentions, she is a girl so she gets distracted. Look at the pictures I drew.. and I need to draw another one.. These clothes are on the floor, let's rearrange my drawer... you all know how it is!

So on this day I had HAD it! I couldn't take it anymore! I should also mention that my children are spoiled rotten and have WAY to many toys which makes it hard to keep them picked up. I tried the tactic my mom tried when we were little a long time ago. She would go through and throw away toys. What we didn't realize was that she was throwing away the cheap, junky toys from McDonald's, etc. When I tried this with Mallori and Jace, they caught on. Jace would say "I don't care.. you can get rid of that.. I don't play with it!" I didn't want to throw away the good ones because that is a LOT of wasted money!!

Ready for the genius plan?? I got two big black trash bags. One for Jace, one for Mallori. I set the kiddos on the couch while I held the bags and explained what would happen in the next few minutes... 1. Any toy, book, car, color, (you get the point) that was left laying on the floor would be put into the bag. 2. The bags would be put up. 3. The only way to get the toys back, would be to keep their rooms clean. For every day their rooms are clean, they could pick out one toy from the bag.

Mallori had one entire bag full, Jace had TWO and a lot of big toys that wouldn't fit so they are just stacked on the floor of our closet in Tyler's bathroom. It has worked great though! Not so much for Mallori, we still have to ask her but it has made the world of difference in Jace! Today I was going to sweep and mop the floors so I asked him what he was going to do. He answer.. "Go clean my room." And he did! He was finished before I was. So he picked out his blocks and played with them while I finished. An added bonus that I didn't think about: Not only are their rooms clean, but they are appreciating toys that they have had for every and just took for granted!

I don't know what I'm going to do when they get all of their toys back and we don't have any more rewards for cleaning... Guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there!

Also, I finally posted pictures from Mallori's soccer games!! If you click on the picture below, it will take you to the album. They didn't have their jersey's for the first game so those are the ones with the yellow shirt thingys.

Mallori Soccer

I HATE hospitals!

I repeat... I HATE HOSPITALS! Needles, blood, the smell of disinfectant, people sounding like they are dying, thinking about germs every time you turn the corner, worrying, doctors in no hurry, trying not to think about what they are doing to who ever you are there for... I hate everything about them!

We have been three times in the past two weeks! Let me explain a little further. I had NEVER... NEVER been to the ER (for me or anyone else) before I met Tyler. Call me lucky, call me fortunate, call me stupid, whatever... we just didn't go, you waited until the doctor was open. Also we weren't crazy kids who did things like set up two trampolines and jump over a fence!

Whatever the cause, I survived 18 years of my life without stepping foot in an ER or having any hospital stays. Now that I've met Tyler, I've been 4 times for him, 7 times for Mallori, 2 times for myself, and 1 for Jace. A little ridiculous don't you think? I do!

To make a long story short... Here are our trips listed out..

1. A couple of days after the hurricane, Tyler stands up under a carport at Sean's and finds the flag pole bracket. After a consult with about 3 EMTS, we go to ER. Result: 2 stitches
2. Jace runs after a ball in his room (why were we throwing balls AND running in the house?) Lands on the first two fingers on his right hand with them bent. We think nothing is wrong, just hurts, but he keeps crying... very unlike Jace. The next morning, both fingers are bruised across his middle knuckle. We take him to the doctor who sends us for X-rays. Jace's favorite part of the day was getting to see his bones! Result: Nothing broken. Just give him Motrin. Which we didn't have to do for the tough little booger.
3. Tyler calls me at work and completely freaks me out. (Just ask the girls in the office!) He is having his headaches again, a sharp pain right above/behind his right eye. However, the room starts spinning, his ears are ringing and popping, he falls if standing up and vomits and his face goes numb. Result: About 6 hours in the ER with a cat scan, lap results, and the threat of a spinal tap, they tell us to go see his doctor tomorrow at 1:30.... in case you missed it.. they didn't do ANYTHING! No medicine for the nausea, nothing they can do for the ringing in the ears, no pain meds for the headaches, not even something to knock him out until tomorrow. GGRRR not only did we waste who knows how much $$$$ but we wasted an entire day and no answers! In case you can't tell, I'm FRUSTRATED! Apparently, they can't even do an MRI in ER without admitting you....

On a happier note, Mallori had her first soccer game and practice and enjoys it. She was upset about her daddy being sick because "he can't been my coach.. he's sick." I'm hoping he's OK by then baby!

Lessons Learned from Ike

• Tree frogs (the little green slimy ones) will stick around and cry for water even during a torrential downpour and 100+ mile winds.
• Little boys are hard to entertain without electricity.
• Mommies can substitute for electricity.
• Big boys are impossible to entertain without electricity!
• If disparate enough, you can shave your legs in a mud puddle. Just listen for cars passing by!
• 5 adults, 1 kid, and 2 dogs can live in two rooms of one house for a week off of a generator.
• 3 year old little boys can teach their 70+ year old great-grandmother how to use a flashlight with great patience.
• My family needs to work on our vocabulary. Throughout two games of scrabble the longest word was "Tattoo."
• Love bugs love the smell of gasoline!!!
• You can cook gumbo, rice, pancakes, eggs, and bacon on a fish fryer.
• Air mattresses are made for two people.
• Little boys think air mattresses make good trampolines.
• Fans work wonders!! Especially if there are two old women snoring in the room with the AC.
• Emergency room waits are shorter when 70% of the town is evacuated.
• Cops do not really enforce the curfew, as long as you don't look suspicious.
• Little kids and grandmothers do not understand the concept of electricity. They will ask you a million times if they can do something just to hear you say "That works on electricity..."
• You're best bet for a hot shower is to befriend someone with a gas powered hot water heater.
• If you aren't friendly enough, you can take a hot bath by boiling a pot of water on a fish fryer and combining with cold water.
• Dogs can chew off the wires of a generator.
• I can get spoiled to working from home easily... very easily!

On a side note, I posted some of my pictures from the hurricane here. Let me know what you think. We didn't have any damage to speak of. Jace's pirate ship docked in the front yard, loosing pieces along the way and his sandbox lid ended up in the road in front of the neighbors house. Our outside AC unit was almost knocked off of the cement block but it slid back into place without a problem and seems to be working! We were very lucky! God was definitely looking out for us!

Ike

We have decided to ride this one out. More of a lack of decision that forced us into the decision! I'm not waiting forever in traffic. We'll take our chances here! Thank goodness we don't have any trees close to the house! I'll update as things go on... so hang on... Here comes Ike!!

Kids Say the Darnest Things...

Let me set the scene for you. We (4 adults) and 10 pre-schoolers are walking over to The Helping Place. Tammy is explaining what The Helping Place does and how the kids can help. She says something along the lines of...

Tammy: You can bring your old clothes, clothes that don't fit anymore and share them with other children who may not have any. We want clothes that are in good shape though. Ones without stains, and no holes. Things you are too big for....

Jace: Mrs. Tammy! My daddy has holes in his under-roos.....

Logan: That's OK Jace!! You can fix them with duct tape......

At this point the four adults are laughing hysterically and cannot see through the tears much less hear who says what but SEVERAL of the other kids chime in that their daddies also have holes in their under-roos. At least Tyler isn't alone!

Tammy pulled it off nicely though. She asked the kids why they think their daddies might have holes in their clothes and suggested that it was because mommies and daddies spend the money buying the kids new clothes and toys and yes... under-roos and sometimes don't have enough money to buy some for themselves.

On another note... Tyler has resolved to buy new under-roos.......

Winnie Trade Days

We headed out to the Winnie Trade days today. My mom and Tyler love to go and since they won't go alone, together, Jace and I tagged along. Don't get me wrong. It's OK. I like to look at all of the stuff as long as it's not too hot and I can stop when I want to. However, my mom likes to look at dishes, flowers, jewelry, and house decorations; Tyler likes to look at tools, furniture, guns, knives, and guy stuff. This means that we stop at EVERY booth and look at EVERYTHING! That gets to be a little much.

Today Jace and I had a mission though. We were going to find a police car Hot Wheels. It is just about the only one that he doesn't have! We were playing cars this morning and had a crash. When we called the cops, a cowboy Patrick (from Spongebob) was the one who showed up. Thank goodness we were all OK. I don't know if Patrick could have handled a real emergency!

After digging though a couple of boxes of Hot Wheels, we found a police car sitting on a table. Jace swiped it up about the time the lady came over and told us (with a look of please don't break it!!) that those were collector edition Hot Wheels and cost $2. In case you haven't priced Hot Wheels recently, they are $0.97 at Wal-Mart for brand new ones. I told Jace to put it back that we would keep looking and if we didn't find another one, we would go back. At one of the last stands, we found one for $4. By this time, Jace was not walking, he was being carried by (you guessed it) me. I decided $2 dollars more was worth not having to carry 40lbs all the way back to the beginning!

On another note, Jace is a talker... and he NEVER meets a stranger. We stopped at almost all of the booths to talk to the people who were running them. He even got a free poster from one guy. Which resulted in his other two Hot Wheels because we felt like we had to buy something from the guy after that! Another man told me he would trade some ceder furniture for Jace. Jace said no... and I liked the rocker too! Two women were laughing at him and telling me how cute he was... All he did was walk by. Another man and woman got him to talking and got the whole story about how he gets to move up a Sunday School class and won't be in Nana's anymore. I had to literally DRAG him away from several people. You want to just tell people not to encourage because he would stand there and talk to them all day! This is the same little boy who befriended a homeless lady at the Buna "park" and had her pushing him on a swing! He has not fear when it comes to people which scares me to death! We keep a very close eye on him anytime we are in public!

Just thought I'd share. I hope all of the people that I imagine are reading this are having a great weekend also!

Evacuation Vacation (Part 2)

We're home!!! Ok so we decided to head back early. It looks like Gustav isn't to be so big and bad after all so we headed home to beat the traffic. Here's a summary of our vacation....

12:00 noon Monday: Finally finish packing up and hit the road. Me, Tyler, 2 kids, my mom, grandmother, my grandmother's friend and two dogs (I mean puppies.. we're not allowed to say the "d" word).

8ish Monday night: We arrive in Benbrook!! I'll spare you the details about that journey but let's just said the kids ended up colorful but were actuallly VERY VERY good! Much better than our last evacuation when Jace SCREAMED the entire way to Arkansas! Here's a picture of Jace when we arrived at the hotel. We finally got into bed after we all took showers. Jace and I slept in one bed and Tyler Mallori took the other. They threw a fit to sleep with us (ok with me) and we weren't in the mood to fight by that time!

7:30 Sunday morning: "Mommy's the sun is up" We go downstairs for breakfast. They had a waffle maker that made waffels in the shape of Texas! I was impressed! Then it was off to the zoo!! The whole crew went and the kids had a pretty good time. Towards the end, they got tired of walking and they were just hot! But at least we got to go do something fun!

2:00pm Sunday: We get back to the hotel and eat our ice cream from Braum's.. YUMMY! Then it's time for a much needed nap!

4:30pm Sunday: Wakey wakey! We change into our bathing suits. (I had prevsiously won the battle with Mallori over wearing it to bed) and it's off to the pool. This was a complete workout for Mommy! My kids are little fish and LOVE the water but that comes with it's disadvantages. The shallowest point of the water (other than the steps) was 4 foot. Neither one of them could touch bottom. This meant that I had to stay in arms reach of both of them and frequently let them hang on and rest. Not as easy as it sounds.. remember I said they were fish? They can both swim just far enough to get into trouble!

5:30pm Daddy gets back from site seeing with Gramma. He brings back cowboy hats!! The kids absolutely love them. Jace takes to saying "Howdy partner" and tipping his hat to any one who came up!

6:oopm We all split up and went out to eat. We went to the Macaroni Grill. First time I've ever been there. A must if you've never done it before! Then we went to see Ms. Kathy and give Lauren her soaking wet wallet... ooppss!

This morning it was on the road again at 10 and home by 5. Unpack and try to relax!!! I really don't like all of this hurricane mess!

Evacuation Vacation

Just in case anyone is wondering. We went ahead and ran away to Benbrook. It's close to Fort Worth. The kids are enjoying their vacation. We are probably headed back on Tuesday. We will see!! I'll post pics and more details on our vacation later!!

We survived!!

Well we did it! All of us survived one week of kindergarten... well almost! I want to bust out in a chorus of "I will survivie.." However, we had a little hiccup! The nurse called me today to tell me that Mallori was in her office "sucking her thumb and wailing around it." WOW!

She claimed to have an earache but I was suspecious. Mallori tries to hide what is really wrong behind "symptoms". Tommy ache, headache, ear ache... you get the picture. But I could hear her in the background so for the sake of the nurse (and Mrs. West) I sent Nana to go get her. Tyler actually ended up getting there first so he picked her up.

Turns out one of the little boys was picking on her. He was bossing her around. Apparently she can dish it out but can't take it! They discussed what she needs to do next time and hopefully, I won't get another phone call!

Other than that one little snafu, it seems like this week went well. She got smiley faces for every day this week!

Jace also got a little Mommy time. We went to the football game and since neither of us knew what was going on, we played little games to keep each other amused. We spent an entire quarter playing with a piece of tape... it's called improvising people!!

Now I'm going to kick two kids out of my bed so I can go to sleep. Trying to get a system in place to notify 200+ people of what we are doing when/if Gustav hits is extremely stressful and tiresome!!!