Adventures in Motherhood

On the way home from picking up Jack and Morgan from school today:  Jaden said that he was going to watch t.v. in the den.  I told him that he could not because it was a distraction for Morgan and Jack trying to do their homework.  He then proceeded to tell me that he was NOT going to watch t.v. in the piano room because it was boring.  I did not like his tone or his attitude and I told him that he would go upstairs and play in the playroom or his room.  He proceeded to tell me that he was going to "Punch me in the face."  You could have heard a pin drop in the car. At this time Morgan was the only one it the car and was eagerly waiting my reply. I explained to him that he was NOT going to speak to me that way and that he would promptly get his leg spanked when we got home.  Boy did his countenance change.  He was so sad and remorseful that he did not laugh at any of Jack's antics in the car.  He said that he was sorry and that I was sweet and pretty and on and on and "Mommy, what are you going to do when we get home?"  I told him that I loved him and that I WAS going to spank his leg.  We got home and without any drama/show I took him in the bathroom and spanked him hard.  He hugged me and sobbed until he almost threw up.  He said "You are not mean Mommy!"  Nobody told me it was going to be this hard.... I have one child that does everything you ask and most of the time does it with a good attitude, I have another that does little that I tell him to the first time , Then one who is a little bit of both but gives me lip.

Mommy Dearest....

Have you seen the movie???  NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!  Well that is how I am with shoes.  Shoes MUST go on the stairs when you remove them.  Unless you are an adult that I am not resposible for getting anywhere on time with.  It never fails (this morning) I hit the snooze and had to rush around to get everyone up and ready.  Your kids feed off of your anxiety... Jaden cried about everything that he needed to do to get ready for school.  So we are all ready to leave except Jaden does not have on shoes. " Jaden go put on your shoes." Jaden "I don't know where they are!"(insert whiney voice) Me "They better be on the stairs."  Morgan and Jack are out in the garage/driveway getting soaking wet. I am yelling at them to get in the car and shut the door. And then tearing the house apart looking for Jaden's shoes.  Which were found ten min later on the stairs, right where they belonged.

Tribute to my Aunt Mary Ann

Mary Ann was a beautiful, wonderful, gracious, giving, faithful, loving, daughter, sister, mother, friend, aunt, co-worker etc. As seen at her funeral. So many came out to show their love it was a blessing to know that she had touched so many lives. She will be missed but not forgotten.

I would like to tell you a fond memory I have of Aunt Mary Ann and her family. First I have to explain to you that the people in my family have many pronunciations of their names. Such as my cousin Darryl pronounced Durl. And yes I did call him Durl to his face once. To which he replied "Missy(my aka), hun you do know that my name is Darryl?" Me, "Of course I do, what do you think I am stupid?" Ummm OK.... How was I to know? I had never heard him called anything else..

So one New Years week several years ago my Grandmother (aka MawMaw, Thelma, Thelmer, Thelmoo) and her sister Dot were going to visit their sister Mary Ann (aka May-ree Ann, May-ran) and ask my cousin Jennifer and myself to come along. After we checked out schedules (we were very popular high school girls, OK maybe she was but I was not) we decided to go. The ride there was not very memorable. The ride home was a whole other story. I will save that for another day.

Disclaimer: If any of this sounds like it might be about your OBGYN you are sadly mistaken. Your OBGYN is a (and always has been) a very serious mature person.

OK so we get to May-ran's where you are always made to feel welcome and invited. When I grew up I wanted my family to be like theirs. They would all pile up in the bed together. May-ran and her kids and their spouses. Who ever was there would watch a movie together or whatever "the" show was at the time. When we got settled the whole clan decided to go out for Chinese. I believe there were at least 10 of us and we each ordered a dish and passed it around. So we could each have a taste. Well when we got home Chinese did not settle well with someone. And the un-named person visited the bathroom outside "our" bedroom several times. I am not sure how it all came about but half of a can on Lysol was sprayed under the bathroom door. I am also not sure how the person in the bathroom did not slip and fall coming out. We laughed until we cried. How we did not get in trouble is beyond me???

The next day one of the doctors that worked with Mary-Ann had given her tickets to the Charlotte Hornets game. I believe it was New Years Eve. So being such a gracious and giving person she gave the tickets to my cousins and I. Back then there was a place called Hayden's, it was a bar, and they provided a bus ride to and from the games. The bus was called Hayden's Hornets it was for people who got too drunk at the game to drive back (or teenage girls who's moms did not trust them to drive in Charlotte traffic on New Years Eve). We loved the game and we had really great seats(floor seats maybe?). A guy asked us if we wanted to buy a program for $15. And we said no we can't afford that. And the guy said how did you get these seats if you can't afford a program. We said we paid for the seats and that's why we could not afford it. The people behind us agreed. It was after mid-night before we got home. The next morning was New Years Day, so the sisters {had} to fix the traditional meal, greens, black eyed peas the usual. We had planned to sleep in. No such luck the pressure cooker exploded at about 9:15. We shot up in the bed. It sounded like a bomb had gone off and the sisters were in the kitchen screaming and running around with dishcloths cleaning up the mess. It wasn't til later that we noticed that there were collard greens on the ceiling. We always had fun at Aunt Mary Ann's and I always felt like one of her kids. She would love on me but she would also fuss at me if I needed it.

If you live over on Lake Norman and you can't figure out what the green stuff is on the ceiling don't worry it's not- mold it's just collard greens.

Goldfish....Circles?????

I saw this recipe for homemade goldfish crackers on The Pioneer Woman's facebook page.


She showed the cute little goldfish/pac-man cookie cutters made out of a soda can. Amazing right?

Nice neat little rows. BEAUTIFUL... if I say so myself.

Perfect little goldfish/pac-men.

OK so none of those were my photos. I wish! I stole/borrowed them from PW's facebook page. These are mine.

Future circle crackers.

Cheesy goodness. Notice the laptop in the background, so that I can read directions while I work.

Rolled out to desired thickness. After I washed my rolling pin. Jaden decided to roll Buzz while I was blending. Speaking of blending the blender does NOT work. I don't have a food processor so I tried to use the blender and it only blended stuff at the bottom. I am sure my friend Anna's girls would never try to roll out the dog!

Ta-da ready for our cookie cutter/ mini-medicine cup.

Tiny circles. If this turns out well and the boys like them, I might go to Michaels or Hobby Lobby and get fondant cutters to make different shapes.

Look at that perfectly rolled dog. Man, does that boy love his dog!

I think the feeling is mutual.

Finished product. To me they taste like cheese straws. The big question is "What did the boys think?

Jaden "Yucky, I not like dem."

Jack "Those are good, but why aren't they crunchy?"

Morgan "I don't want to hurt your feelings Mom but, Not Good."

If they had liked them I intended to make some parmesan or pepper jack. So the moral of the story is if you like them because they are crunchy you will not like these. Well I guess this saves me a trip to Micheals/Hobby Lobby were I would probably end up buying tons of other stuff that I really don't need.

Confessions!!

I must confess I am a terrible mother....

First off. My middle son lost a tooth last night before dinner then my oldest son proceeded to lose two teeth. What is a tooth fairy to do. Well Mrs. Tooth Fairy did not have a dime to her name. Mr. Tooth Fairy had a twenty in his wallet, and said over his dead body! And there was the fact that there are two boys with missing teeth. SO what else is the tooth fairy to do, but raid the piggy bank. I mean really are they going to notice???? NO WAY.... SO Mrs. Fairy tucks two dollars under One pillow and one dollar under the other. All this is going down while Mr. Fairy is telling me how terrible I am (I mean Mrs. Fairy is). In the am the Oldest says "Wow, I got two bucks!" "Ummm why does one of them have Santa's picture on it?" CRUDDDDD!!!! That would be the dollar bill the tooth fairy's aunt gave the boys two years ago for Christmas!!! Ohh well to my advantage the oldest is like his mother and said "That's what I'm gonna do to my kids."

Second.... Today was my baby's first day of preschool. And did I take one picture??? NO, I did not. While trying to side step the Santa's pic on the dollar bill get three kids fed and dressed and teeth brushed I did not grab the camera. Then when we thought we were ready to walk out the door I realized the preschooler did not have shoes on. I asked him to go get said shoes and he did but he was saying something. I figured he was talking to himself or singing. I sent the older boys out to the car and told Jaden to hurry up we were going to be late. He said "I can't look for it." Look for what? I said. My nother shoe! Ohhh You have to be kidding me!!! So we look in the playroom(landfill), we look in the piano room (the room with a PIANO! duh), we look in the bathroom no such luck. Thank God for MiMi. I went to the shoe drawer in his room. MiMi has a little bit of an obsession with buying the kids shoes (I am NOT complaining). It has saved my tail on many an occasion. He wore dressy shoes with his orange shorts and Orange striped T-shirt. I really needed a picture of that. And we ran from the house like we were on fire. Got Jack to school on time and Morgan by the skin of his teeth. Crazy....morning. When I came home from dropping him off I found the shoe in Morgan's clean clothes pile.

Is is so bad if we have a do-over tomorrow? He is not supposed to go to school tomorrow but I might take him and take pics in front of his school with his bookbag.

My little artist!

I read on a blog the other day about a mom making homemade sidewalk chalk paint. I thought to my self, "Self, that looks fun and easy!" All you have to do is mix equal parts cornstarch and water and then add food coloring.


Jack getting started on his project.

Morgan working on his masterpiece.

Jaden in earnest concentration.

I just figured out that this may not be the best canvas. The slant was not helping keep the paint where they wanted it to be.

Jack and Jaden more content with the flatter surface.

This is good as it gets, when it comes to my artistic ability. Splatter paint.

As we painted Buzz entertained himself chasing bees.

Jack's foot after he helped me splatter paint. He loved it the messier the better.

My feet after splatter paint. Kinda wish I had taken off my shoes.

This boy loves his dog. And the dog likewise.

Morgan wanted to tell the neighbors HEY!

I would strongly suggest this. The boys had a blast. It was cheap and easy and kept them entertained for an hour. I think it would have gone on longer if the neighbors were able to come over and I had made more paint.

Musical Beds

Let me give you a little history. When Morgan was born we lived in a 3 bedroom house. It was really 2 with one bedroom being John's office. Then Jack came along and bless his heart he never really had a nursery. His crib was in the corner of John's office. When Jack moved to a big boy bed we broke out John's old bunk beds and Morgan was on top and Jack on the bottom. Morgan complained that Jack was too noisy and he could not sleep.

When we started planning for Jaden we put our house on the market and looked for something where they could each have their own room. They were so excited to have their own rooms. Morgan got a full size bed that Grandmother and Granddaddy gave us. Jack got the full size bed that uncle Homer gave us. Sometimes on weekends Morgan would allow Jack to sleep in his bed.

Jaden got big enough for a big boy bed, that's when the fun started. They would fight on the weekend as to who Jaden got to sleep with. Well about two months ago I asked Morgan what he thought about putting the bunk beds back up, since they were already sleeping in the same room. He and Jack were very excited. I asked John to help me get the bunk beds down, and put one of the full size beds back up. I put the bunk beds in Morgans room because it is the bigger room and left the full size bed for Jaden in Jack's old room. Well the first night, Jaden was not sleeping in that room. It was not his room!!! He wanted to sleep with the other boys. So from that point on no one slept in Jack's old room It briefly became the guest bedroom.

So everyone was in Morgan's old room. Morgan on the top bunk, Jack on bottom, and Jaden (with help) made fort under the top and between the dresser. They did that for a couple of months before Morgan could not sleep. Jack and Jaden were to noisy and fighting. Morgan moved to the guest room.

And guess what, starting last week all three boys are now sleeping in the guest room. I wonder how long this will last.

Bathroom Etiquette 101

I think only the mother of boys would "feel" my pain on this one. I go into the bathroom this morning and the seat is wet and in the floor is a huge puddle. I am thinking "WHO, has this bad of aim?" Morgan comes down first. Morgan- Did you make this mess? M- No, that was Jack!! (usual suspect) He has a history! Jack comes down Jack is this your doing? J- No, that was Jaden! Jaden must have some talent, because he still pees sitting down. I know, I know, but since we spend sooo much time together he has to go to public restrooms with me. And I pee sitting down. OK so back to the lesson at hand. I have been finding the bathroom like this more, and more over the past couple of months. So I checked the bathroom after each boy went in and all was clean. Then as I was starting the washing machine I heard a racket coming from the bathroom. I found my culprit... BUZZ! Caught red handed drinking out of the potty, leaving a tidal wave in his wake. The punishment for bad aim is cleaning the bathrooms. Now how do I get Buzz to clean the bathroom...

****disclaimer***** I did not take pictures for the post because I really don't think anyone wants to see my bathroom. That and I have already cleaned up the evidence. So it would just be an unnecessary potty photo.

Our Second Ski Trip

On March, 7 2011 we took the boys skiing again. They had so much fun the first time we decided to go back.
Here we are in front of the ski lodge. All geared up and ready to go.

Hear is Morgan on top of the Appal Strudel. We are so proud of him he skied down this one and then went on to Orchard Run. He and John eventually tried one black diamond called Big Appal. He is so brave.

Here he is making his way down the Appal Strudel.

Here is Jack on the Appaltizer. When we first started he wanted to hold my hand the whole time. But then he saw some of his buddies and wanted to race them. Then he was gone and even moved over to the Strudel. He got on and off the chair lift better than me. Which is not saying much. I had some serious difficulty getting on.

Saturday Morning at Lowes

Occasionally on Saturday mornings we like to take the boys to Lowe's to build. These little projects are free and the boys love it.

Here are John and the older boys walking into Lowe's.

Jack ran into a buddy from his soccer team while we waited.

Jaden wanted to put the wheels on first. He did not want to put it together he just wanted to play with it.

Jack carefully hammering his car together.

Morgan getting all his tools and pieces together and patiently waiting for John to tell him the first step in the directions.

I helped Jaden a little with the hammer. I thought it would be safer that way.

Jack putting the bottom plate on his car.

Finished product. You may notice that I had a car too; This is because in my haste to put Jaden's car together fast I did not pay attention to the directions. When I nailed/tacked the bottom plate on I put it on upside-down. In doing that I covered up the mechanism that allows the car to move forward on its own. So on the second one I made sure to put the plate on correctly. I lined up the holes and hammered away only to find out that it put pressure on the back tire and it would not roll. I am hoping Daddy can sand it down so Jaden can play with his car. So the lesson in this story is READ the directions.

Our First Family Ski trip

On February 9th we went with a couple of friends to go skiing. We decided to try out snow boarding.
This was the extent of my snowboarding career. It is a lot tougher than it looks. I spent more time down than up.

This is our snowboard instructor using the much needed "hands on" approach with Jack. To no avail.

Here is Morgan hitting the slopes during a practice run.

This is everyone pouting that they hate snowboarding and that this is the worst day of their lives.

Oh look what happend after lunch. The snow boards magically turned into skis. Then the worst day of our lives quickly turned into the best time we have ever had.

Morgan even got brave enough to try some slopes that required riding the chair lift.

Morgan going down the Strudel which is a blue square slope. That means difficult. Green square-aka bunny slope =easy. Blue Square= difficult Black diamond= very difficult. Very proud of both boys for trying new stuff and they had fun doing it.

The Power Team

The Power Team came to Morgan's school and talked to them about abstaining from drugs and alcohol. Morgan begged and begged us to go. He told Jack how cool it was going to be.

This is a Big Country blowing up a hot water bottle. He blew it up until it popped.

I can't remember this guys name but he was bending a lead pipe over his head. These guys were very strong.

This is Big Country he broke a wooden bat over his thigh, his shin and his knee. The boys were very impressed.

Here are the boys with a member of the Power Team. The boys loved the show and had lots of fun. At the end they had an altar call and implied that all the people were saved by walking forward. We worried about going for that reason but it gave us an opportunity to talk about true salvation with Morgan and Jack. All in all it was a good night.

Snow Jan 2011

In January 2011, we had a heavy snow storm. School was canceled for a week. Here is how we passed our time.

Morgan threw snow balls!

Jack was his target.

Buzz enjoyed playing in the snow.

I got my exercise by pulling Jaden around the neighborhood on a sled.

Then Jack decided that his legs were tired and jumped on the sled too. As you can tell he did not hold on to Jaden very well.

As we made our way around the 'hood' we noticed that the Stewart's had an awesome sledding hill. I think the boys sledded for about 2hrs. Jack and Jaden were cold and tired and wanted to go home. The Stewart's were nice enough to let Morgan stay for a while longer. That was the first time that we allowed him to walk that far in our neighborhood by himself.

This is our lovely home in the snow. I love our house and our neighbors.

Jaden loved being pulled in the sled. He wanted nothing to do with going down the hill in it though.

Morgan made some snow people on the deck. Then he had fun throwing snowballs at them and knocking them off the rail. We had fun in the snow but that was enough fun. We just about went stir crazy being stuck in the house all week.