Birthday Weekend in Review

I had a febulous birthday weekend! I tell everyone that asks my life has only gotten BETTER the older I get, it's great!

Mom came into town on Saturday evening and the crew minus Paco went to eat at Pappas Burgers, if you haven't tried it yet, run and have one of their yummy burgers and sinful shakes. Mom also brought a chocolate fudge cake from McKay's bakery in Abilene, I enjoyed every bite I ate, it was divine.

Sunday morning we all met at Ol'South for breakfast. Then Mimi and Laine went to Dallas to see High School Musical on Ice. Jonathan and I took Bowen to see Horton Hears a Who and then they took a nap while I shopped. I found a cute, summery tote and some new earrings. It was a nice afternoon.

As always, here are some pictures:

Time flies when you're having fun!

15 days ago we were just beginning the beast that is called "recovery". I didn't think we were going to survive those first 48 hours, but we did. Then I thought we wouldn't survive past 9 days (that's how long the doctor said recovery would be, he was perfectly correct), but we did. Today Bowen received his all clear from the ENT, the only lasting effect of the surgery is a voice that constantly sounds like Bowen has been sucking on a helium-filled balloon. It's pretty funny but I hope it gets better!

Bowen, meet your friends for life!

Tess Tickle

and

Ima Ball

Being the mother of a boy is quite the adventure. Last week I was changing Bowen's diaper and he was playing with himself just like he always does when a questioning look washed over his little face. And the conversation went a little like this:

Mommy, what's that? (poking at his scrotum)

Me: ----? (Ok brain, how do I answer this question? Do I go with the anatomically correct term? Hmmm.... DO I say balls? No, not balls that would be really confusing to a ball-loving two year old. Do I say nads, huevos, jewels, sac, scrot, WHAT?)

Bowen: Mommy, what's that? (still poking) Is it poop?

Me: No, it's not poop.

Bowen: Mommy, what's that?

Me: It's your testicles.

Bowen: Tecticle?

Me: Yes. Or you can call them balls.

So, what would you, or do you, call them in your family?

Easter

Look at the Ware family and how cute and put-together they look. Look at the Williams and see how dorky they look.
We're looking better here just really squinty, it was cloudy but still sunny.
What a cute Easter bunny!
I bought 2 dozen cascarones (confetti eggs) at the local Fiesta. The grimace on my face is there because Bowen couldn't make the eggs crack so he just pushed on my head REALLY hard to try to break it.

Laine was off having a grand Easter in East Texas, we missed her madly. This will always be remembered as the Easter (and Spring Break) of disbursement.

The big 3-5

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONATHAN~

Yes, today Jonathan turns thirty-five. The kids and I had a surprise party for him on Wednesday since Laine was going to be at Pop and Gran's house on the actual day. We got balloons, streamers, horns, made a cake and got him his present. He was so excited, he had never had a surprise party before.

Bowen managed to give Jonathan an early present yesterday. I was happily shopping for shoes in Nordstrom's yesterday and I called to check in and all Jonathan could say was: OH. MY. GOSH. You see, Bowen snuck into the kitchen while Jonathan was outside working and got the peanut butter jar. He opened it, stuck his hands in it, put it on his hair, his face, his clothes. Jonathan said it was EVERYWHERE. My sweet husband spent 35 minutes cleaning up peanut butter off the kitchen and off Bowen. All I could do was laugh really hard. Too bad he didn't get pictures.

As for Birthday festivities we are going to enjoy the great weather and go eat at Ocean Rock this evening. YUM!

Grease Monkey

Last night it seemed like Bowen's pain medicine had something special in it, something that caused him to not sleep. We started putting him to bed about 8:30 and he just kept getting up. Finally he was quiet and we all know that means trouble. Actually not totally quiet every once in a while I could hear him humming happily. About 10 minutes later he shyly walked into the living room and he was covered in something that looked like snot. It was in his hair, on his shirt and all over his hands and arms. Of course we just had to laugh and THEN figure out what it was because it wasn't snot. Do you guys know what Aquaphor is? Well, if you don't it's basically a really good emollient like vaseline. It seems like he got into the jar and had a hay day with it, then tried to clean it up with wipes. It was EVERYWHERE, I would have taken pictures but it was all over me too, the camera would have died. I washed his hair this morning and this is what it looks like now, BTW it is totally dry:

In health news, Bowen is still needing meds every three hours, but from what I understand after today he will only go uphill. Let's hope so.

A ray of sunshine...

in more ways than one!

Bowen's night last night and day today was really bad, I even called the doctor to see about increasing his pain medicine.

When Laine and I got home today we sent Jonathan out of the house and I put Bowen down for a nap. He slept about an hour, the most he'd slept all day. When he woke up he was like a whole new man! It was so nice to see him happy. He wanted a popsicle so we went outside and ate popsicles in the warm sun and played with the water hose. Here are some pictures:

And one of Blake because she's so cute!

Whew.

We are finally home. The surgery itself went really well, no complications. Jonathan took Bowen back where they give him "giggle juice" before taking him back to the OR. He got a few videos of him being all spaced out on the meds, I'll see if I can post them later. About 30 minutes after he went back, Dr. Burkett came out to talk to us. He told us situations in which we should call him or head to the ER. The most disturbing one was "if he has a fever of 106..." I'm standing there thinking, if he has a fever of 106, won't he just burst into flames? Wow, I'm pretty sure I'd call at 105, right when he's turning into molten lava.
Being in recovery was really hard mostly because all Bowen did was cry. He cried because of the tubes and wires that were taped to him, he cried to turn a movie on, he cried when I brought him the wrong book, he cried when I tried to get him to drink or lick his Popsicle, and finally he was crying when he told me to stop looking at him.
We were really glad to get him home so he could sleep. That is what he is doing right now, we are all relieved and happy to be home.

On your mark, get set, GO!

Bowen's surgery is tomorrow at 10:15, as you can see we have lots of drugs for him post surgery. We have Hydrocodone, an ear drop, an antibiotic and most importantly a anti-nausea suppository. Eeek. Will give a report after we get home.

What I've been doing while my family is gone:

Presenting Seniors of 1993 and 1998:

Hit me baby one more time

That was not what the lady was saying when I ran into her car with my big-ass truck.


If you know Jonathan's truck, you know I was the winner over the Honda Accord. I'm OK, the truck is OK, it just seems I knocked off her side mirror and marked the side of her car with my tire. Jeez. The police officer was nice and didn't give me a ticket even though it was totally my fault.

Snow!

My week in Review

After a wonderful trip to Abilene where we ate great food, bought an expensive new camera (a Canon Rebel xti if you're interested), and went to see two Academy Award nominated movies (Juno, No Country for Old Men), there was Monday: I went out to start the car and to my great surprise, Bowen's side of Myrtle had been open all night in the rain. Yes. Holy. Shit. When I say wet I mean when I took his seat out of the car, water POURED out of it. My seat was even wet, I had to sit on trash bags on the way to school. I quickly got some towels and newspaper, got his seat out of the truck, switched Laine's seat to the very back and I was only three minutes late to school. This was not before I called my husband a bad name and gave him the bird because he was being less than helpful. We apologized later. I cried my make-up off on the way to school. The rest of the day was a fiasco, especially the part where we had to load the crib, changing table and crib mattress up in the truck in the rain/sleet. I had a large glass of wine with some wine on the side when we got home.

Tuesday: Shopped Just Between Friends sale, got some cute stuff for the kids.

Wednesday: Worked JBF sale with Meredith, it was fun although Mere was a better cashier on her first time than I was on my third sale. It was fairly humorous.

Thursday: I was SUPPOSED to go get my hair did today but because of the weather had to cancel, that caused me to say bad words. Thankfully she rescheduled for Saturday. Gymnastics was cancelled and now we're just waiting to see if we'll have school tomorrow. The snow is pretty cool even though it's totally time for Spring.

Stupid Blogger won't let me upload pics, maybe later.

New Camera!

I LOVE today!

Because I get to vote, not only vote but vote for someone I'm really excited to vote for.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghSJsEVf0pU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY



LOVE!

Purse Analysis

Purse contents all in one picture.

OK in the picture above we have to the left a pile of crap. What that says is I carry crap in my purse.

Bottom left corner, cash, which will help me pay for my cut and color next week. That says, I don't trust leaving that cash in the house in case it gets used for somwthing besides my hair.

Bottom right all our new debit cards because our bank is being taken over by another bank. That says, procrastination like I can activate those cards if they are in my purse.

Top right, two necklaces and a bracelet. I have great taste in jewels.

My make up bag. This shows how I love hand lotion and Burt's bees.

Syringe, who knows when you might need to dispense some meds.

Top right, wipes, I think that says I'm a mom. So do the cars.

My medicine cabinet is on the right. Let's see, got some, Advil, Aleve, Nosonex, inhaler, and Mucinex-D. I think this shows my dependence on drugs.

Check book. Ummm, I do the shopping?

Finally, here's the dreck left in the bottom after I took all the other stuff out. I think that shows that I don't clean out my purse nearly enough.

D.I.T.D.

Down in the dumps.

I want to give a disclaimer that I do realize how blessed I am, sometimes a girl just needs to get it all out.

Here are the reasons I'm feeling down, probably all lame.

I was really wanting to get my hair done and my girl couldn't me in until next Thursday.

I'm tired of work, you know all the responsibility stuff and the getting up early.

When I took over out finances, I cut out almost all extra spending (except for hair coloring). I'm tired of that. But I'm not tired of accidentally over drafting our account. I want to go buy my kids an Easter outfit, I want an Easter outfit. Blah.

Gas, no, not that kind, the kind you put in your car. I'm trying for a budget, how can you budget gas these days?! I can't NOT drive to work a couple of days a week, we can't NOT go visit our families. I can't believe that we're a family (and not even CLOSE to the only one) who's budget is getting broken by the price of gas, it grosses me out.

I had a horrible crick in my neck yesterday, it still hurts today but at least I can turn my neck.

I'm feeling really good about going to A town this weekend, there's nothing that makes you feel better than to get taken care of by your family.

Thanks!

Thanks for all the suggestions for Laine and her "friend". We are asking her to play with lots of friends during the day. I am going to invite other girls from her class to stay after with us and try to form new allegiances.

We're off to Jasper tomorrow to spend the weekend, a pre-surgery trip. I' sure we'll have a relaxing time.

I've been feeling off for the past few weeks, grouchy, tired, constipated, you know all the things that make you feel really great and fun to be around. I got some blood work done and my Thyroid levels were low, so she upped my medicine. Hopefully, I'll be good as new in two or three weeks.

Have a great weekend!

Operation Laine Just Say No

Not to drugs but to getting bossed. Get ready, this is a long story and I need your help.

There is a girl in Laine's class, we'll call her Layla. Layla is a teacher's kid, her mother is someone that thinks she is the greatest thing ever and has taught her daughter to think the same way. Layla has a reputation that precedes her and is a parent appointed princess with an attitude. One day, we invited Layla to stay after school with us and go get ice cream. I let them play in the gym and stayed out of thier business. Well, what I discovered is that Layla has a very sly way of manipulating. She makes everything that she wants to do seem like it's the greatest idea ever made, she's just like her mother. We have also found out through Laine that she tells HUGE stories, I finally called them lies to Laine the other day because that is what they are. All her stories are told to make herself seem cooler, like she went backstage at the Hannah MOntana concert or that another girl in class has red eyes when she goes to home center.

That's the background.

Laine thinks Layla hung the moon. She is the only one in her class that will play with Layla because everyone has caught on to her. She talks about Layla all the time.

We have had several conversations with Laine about how she needs to play with lots of friends instead of just Layla. I've told her to tell Layla no when she wants to do something Laine doesn't want to do. We've told Laine not to believe everything Layla says. I held out hope that Laine would get tired of Layla and move on to someone else. She hasn't.

So, we are at the precipice of doing something I really never thought I would say to my child and that is: You cannot be around Layla, you cannot play with her.

That really goes against my morals. As Christians aren't we to be kind to everyone, I know you can be kind to someone and not be thier friend, I just don't think a 5 year old can discern that yet. I want Laine to be a kid that is kind to everyone. But more than that I don't want her to be a doormat, I know Layla wants to play with Laine because Laine will go along with whatever she wants to do and that is wrong. Laine needs to learn that a real friend will do what YOU want to do sometimes and not always want her own way. I want her to know that she is better than getting bossed aroud. Dangit, I want her to stand up for herself and not get bossed around.

I do have Laine's teacher on my side. Even she has a hard time liking Layla. She will tell Laine she can't play with Layla if she sees they are spending too much time together. I found out today that another kid in Laine's class has been told she can't play with Layla (from her own mother).

Any thought? Suggestions?

Open letter to Jodi Picoult:

Dear Ms. Picoult:

Will you please stop writing such horribly wonderful books so I can pay attention to my family again? I mean, I can't tear my eyes away from the pages but at the same time I don't want to keep reading because your characters lives just seem so sad. But then, then your write such terribly exciting pages that I can't look away, it's like a train wreck you just can't help but look at what's going to happen. In other words, I love your books. Keep up the good work.

Heather