You know you're from Texas when.....

You get in your car from freezin your buns off outside and turn on the HEATER FULL BLAST! I didn't know I should've packed sweaters for me and the kids. I've heard "brrrrr" and I'm cold more in June in Ohio than I did in January in Texas....I guess it is safe to say we are official warm blooded Texans....

To backtrack a little, yes, we got here! We arrived at 5 on Friday night. We were all soooooooo glad to come around the corner to Grandma's house. HONK HONK HONK!!! The kids jumped out of the car and we all ran into the arms of our loved ones! Later Amy went outside to get something out of her car and came in and said, "Why is your license plate ducked taped to your car??????" They all looked at me and laughed. The real person they should be laughing at was not there to take the blow. The story is..Seth could not get our Ohio license off b/c is was rusted on there or something, so he just got some ducked tape out and went to town. Yes, I thought it was crazy but I just wanted to leave for my trip so GET IR DONE! My very handy dad's ears perked up and he just couldn't stand it. He had to go out and have a look. He took a look and said," you know you hear some people call Texan's 'BuBBA', well that's BUBBA!" HA HA HA

With that he marched into his garage came back with some tools and went to work. Let's just say that night I was driving duck-tape free.

We visited for a while and then I took off again this time for a short 20 min. ride to my BFF's house for a little R& R and a lot of girl talk and my second dinner of the night. She had made yummy fresh form her garden Carrabba's herb and garlic dip with fresh bread and then a fat free pie. It was Y-U-M-M-Y! I don't know she accomplished all this with her cute 2 week old babe!

Saturday we drove to our Grammy and Papa's house for a visit. Ryan took Papa straight away to play some computer games and Ethan re-acquainted himself with all their toys.

Saturday night it was time for more action-my favorite kind...a girl's night out!!! So me, Amy, Rachel and her sis Steph met at Cheesecake for some more yummy food...for me a 2000 calorie slice of Godiva Cheesecake....more Y-U-M-M-Y.

Today we went to Tar-jay, then to Panera for some soup because yes I am cold, have I mentioned that? And then we headed to see the new Disney Pixar movie Wall-E, isn't my mom cute. This is Ethan's FIRST movie! He did awesome! I wish I would have taken him sooner! He sat there the whole time, ate popcorn, apples and sucked his thumb! Yah it was fun...well that catches us up, to sum things up....O-H-I-O gotta loove it!

Day Terrible Two

Hump Day....It was our shortest scheduled drive. 6 hours. Only problem, we went to bed too late and then Ryan woke us up at 6:45 a.m.!!!!!!! Awww I was tired the WHOLE day and we are at the hotel, but I don't feel like working out or swimming or anything fun, I just can't bring myself to do anything................uhhhhh.

Ethan was pretty fussy today. More like squealing. Ryan peed in a cup. That's about all the excitement... mostly I'm just to tired to say more than that.....................

I tried to give Ryan a twizzler today and he said No! Then I made him try it and he did. He handed it back to me and said he didn't like it??? What??? Ethan on the other hand enjoyed more than one, two, or three!

My view today: the heartland of America....

I'm going to try to cat nap now so the kids can go to the pool :) Common!!!

Gone Truckin....Day One

The first day...duh duh duh....it was..................................Awesome! Ok well, compared to going to Disney World maybe not....but compared to how I remember road trips with yours truly, my sistas...this trip was amazing (no offense Mammy and Shelly).

I have to split off here and talk about our yearly family road trips to Zion(Utah). Today reminded me....ok I was always so excited to go. We got all new crayons and books and music and walk-man, well not the Sony brand..Then we would go and Michele would be yelling, "I'm in the sun again, WHY AM I ALWAYS IN THE SUN!" Amy would be going, " When can we stop for cheese fries..." and I would be sitting there keeping to myself, being a perfect step-ford child! What? I heard that, I totally heard that! Did the bottom of my shoe leave a print on your face??? Oops Evidence. I don't honestly remember that many particulars about these trips. What I DO remember is how unhappy we made my mom, so we must have been driving her crazy. I remember her getting so mad one time that she pulled off the road into some farm-town and we pulled into a K-Mart. We went in and she bought us our own K-Mart brand walk-mans and music to go. She was desperate and at her wits end! With headphones in, I think that limited the amount of yelling, kicking, clawing we could do to each other and we went on. Then mom stopped at a gas station and came out with a COKE. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH We were SHOCKED! See we grew up in a family were if you drank Coke and said, "Crap" you were bad. So we were all,"MOM you're drinking a Coke????????????," and she went on the explain that she was having a hard time staying awake...NO really is that why you were flapping your arms up and down like a wild chicken and yelping????? (Yes, she really did do that!) It left a lasting impression!!! So the Coke was medicine. There was no red bull in those days...I wonder what we would have thought about that??? I've never said it but, "Sorry for being whatever I was being on those trips out west!"

OK so back to my trip....Thanks Darleen, sometime after lunch I was feeling the drag and the RED BULL did the trick. That stuff also suppresses appetite...BONUS! I get the major munchies when I am driving so that was good. I ate a bowl of cereal at 8 a.m., but by 10:30 I had already had chez mix, beef jerky, and cookies. OH YA, get in my belly!!!! Around lunch time I drank the red bull and then I didn't get hungry again the whole time!

The kids were sooooo soo good! Ethan only cried ONE time and that was when he was tired and overdue for a nap and then he fell asleep. Ryan did not complain once. He was an angel helping me with Ethan and talking very sweet to him and being quiet while he slept...love this kid...don't now how I got so lucky! For 2, Ethan was really really good too. Blessed. Because driving with two kids, turning around a million times and thanks goodness for those loud lines on the side of the road!!!

Ok you should be impressed my fellow bloggers b/c I even have pixs and videos...

We went swimming, got in our jammies and snuggled to watch, "SO you think we can dance!"

See you tomorrow! Goodnight and Good Luck!

Road Trip!!!!

Tomorrow morning I leave for my three day road trip to Ohio. Period. 1261 miles. Here is the deal....

I'M REALLY EXCITED!!!!

Now before you throw me in the loony bin, let me explain. I am a family girl. I LUV me familia! I miss mi familia and Amiga's!!! There is not a lot that I WOULDN'T DO for them or to get to see them!

I have made this drive once before. I did it by myself...it took me about 22 hours over two days.It was not fun by myself! I have amazing parents and they offered to book my hotels and have me do the trip over three days. So that is a huge blessing-thanks daddy!

So this is my game plan

-eating,eating,eating

-movies

- legos

-suckers, lots and lots of suckers

-Ethan's blankie in emergencies

******************Do yall have any impute/ideas/suggestions????

My DH spent all morning getting our cars registered in Texas. As Seth says, we have been riding "dirty" Translation: we never registered our cars in Connecticut!!! SO our Ohio tags expired last YEAR in October!!!! So driving back to Ohio...with expired tags....not good! But we are LEGAL now, don't worry dad! And we've had our oil change and air in the tires dad!

I will be taking my laptop and will be blogging so no worries! I can't wait!

Movie Time Mondays

I was cleaning out my picture folder and was going through all my videos and naming them and organizing them. While doing so I realized that there are so many that are so cute that I just haven't blogged about.

I have a couple friends that do themes-day blogs, so this gives me the idea that every Monday I will do a couple of movies from either the past or present!

This is first one is a phenomenon known as "THE PEE PEE DANCE" Most male species have been found to have one. It starts in early childhood and usually stops around the age of late adolescents. Scientist have not yet identified the gene for this phenomenon as of yet. There are some questions as to if this was once a survival instinct, for it would scare away all the other animals on the block so one could do their "business" in private. Here is is Ryan...and "THE PEE PEE DANCE, take it away..."

This next one was a silly day, when instead of unpacking, going to the gym, painting, or anything else I should have been doing... I simply sat in front of the computer and before I knew it the blogging time thief had stole my whole afternoon. Ryan and I were making up Rhythm's and here is the brilliant one I came up with...

Here is one of my 2 sweet boys eating home-made waffles...YUM!

Ryan must have liked his new house because he did this about 10 times, this is a speedy tour of the house....as Ryan see it :)

Home Improvement Aint Pretty!!

Scrubbing off all the grim
Painting the trim, before I get the roller out
No more oak....this is the primer

So as many of you know, the last thing on our immediate list to do for our home improvement was re-face or paint the cabinets...I had a painter come give me a quote. To sand, prime, and paint them is was going to be $2000.(That's wasn't to faux glaze them) At the time(4 months ago) we had the money in the budget. Then I met Tiffany. She is my neighbor that is practically perfect in every way. She is kind, she gives people the benefit of the doubt and she makes amazing chocolate chip cookies. I walked into her kitchen and saw that she had painted her cabinets off-white, the same I wanted to do (before I glazed them). I explained that we were paying someone to do it to which she said, "OH, it's not that bad, I wouldn't pay someone to do it..." Well, if she could do it, I can do it right???

OK you know how AFTER your pregnant for about a couple years...memory fades and you THINK you could even do that again. Well, this is my conclusion too. That she just didn't Remember how much work it was!

I AM GOING CRAZY and I am not even 1/2 done! This is what it looks like NOW:

The far right cabinets(4) have had one coat of antique white, you have to have eagle eyes to see it! The island you can see is painted walnut brown. Like the mess!

I have made progress and that's saying something I guess. But our kitchen is torn apart and we hate living in chaos, so patience and understanding is appreciated! So what have I accomplished? They are primed...and the island has been primed and has it's two coats of dark chocolate brown paint. Now all I have to do is put on the varnish. But just so I can vent about how overwhelmed I am, here is a list of what is still left to do after about 30 hours of work time already invested.

-Paint all cabinets antique white (15-18 hours)

-Re-paint cabinets antique white (15-18 hours)

-Glaze and rub, rub, and rub till your fingers fall off (15 hours)

-varnish everything (8 hours)

I literally would rather be in labor right now than the thought of finishing these bad boys!!!

********************I NEED AN EPIDURAL!!!***********************

Water Safety!!!

I am struck to write this to remind myself what more I can do to keep my own children safer while we are at the pool this summer....

Why am I doing this? Because a 4 year old boy from my neighborhood drowned at a Club Pool on Saturday. There were 7 lifeguards on duty at the time AND his mom was there. He was pulled from the pool unconscious and they rushed his to the emergency room where he died the next day. I am just sick over this! So it lead me to do some pool safety research mostly for myself, but a good reminder for all!

This is from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

A swimming pool can be very dangerous for children. If possible, do not put a swimming pool in your yard until your children are older than 5 years. Help protect your children from drowning by doing the following:

- Never leave your children alone in or near the pool, even for a moment. An adult who knows CPR should actively supervise children at all times.

- Practice touch supervision with children younger than 5 years. This means that the adult is within an arm's length of the child at all times.

- You must put up a fence to separate your house from the pool. Most young children who drown in pools wander out of the house and fall into the pool. Install a fence at least 4 feet high around all 4 sides of the pool. This fence will completely separate the pool from the house and play area of the yard. Use gates that self-close and self-latch, with latches higher than your children's reach.
- Keep rescue equipment (such as a shepherd's hook or life preserver) and a telephone by the pool.

- Do not use air-filled "swimming aids" as a substitute for approved life vests.

- Remove all toys from the pool after use so children aren't tempted to reach for them.
- After the children are done swimming, secure the pool so they can't get back into it.

**********Remember, teaching your child how to swim DOES NOT mean your child is safe in water. ******

Have a great, SAFE summer Yall!!!

A HOT concert!

Isn't it spooky how you can see my camera hand shadow on his shirt????
MMMmmm mmm nuggets n' dip dip
It's sunny!!!
"Doggy, Doggy!!!!"

Every Thursday there is a free concert at our local outdoor mall. We decided it would be fun to go picnic.....I even curled my hair!

At high sun, at 100 degrees we gathered our food loot. Seth got a stir-fry bowl, I got a fish dinner, and the boys got ...any guesses? Ya, McDonald's!!!!

There is a wealth of great live music in Austin...being the LIVE music capital and all! Tonight we had the pleasure of listening to the music of Josh Grider. He was really good for a one man band. Just him and his guitar... he said he had just got back from San Fransisco. He joked had went to a party and grilled out with friends....and shivered b/c it was so cold. He said it made him grateful to live in Texas because you never SHIVER at a Texas BBQ....sweat yes, but never shiver. This is my new slogan....

I would rather sweat than shiver any day!!!

Really, almost everyday these past two weeks it has hit 100 degrees! But it has not bothered me one bit! I don't know if my body has already adjusted, but every time I'm out there I think of last winter in Connecticut and count my blessing! (No offense to my CT friends)

What do yall think of these floods and tornadoes...God Bless those families of those scouts....

And a huge shout out to my BFF who just had a DARLING baby girl named Elsie Valentine.....Congratulations!

A WHAT????

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

What?! You gotta be kiddin me! Common! I have known one too many car fanatic in my day that called corvette's "plastic fantastic" or cheap or trashy or rich whitey......so now I take this quiz and from this short questionnaire it compares me to a Corvette...Rachel ask Mark is he thinks I'm a Corvette??????

With the price of gas these days, I'm wishing I were a GOLF CART!!!!!!

Honesty about LOVE and ACCEPTANCE

I think that part of this life is learning to love those that are different. There is a reason for everything. There is reason why there is a little boy in my primary class that builds a chair wall around himself every Sunday.

I am the primary chorister in my ward. The primary president called to explain some of the children in our ward that have special needs. I had noticed this before. Some it was all too obvious and I felt the automatic love and sympathy for them. But then she started talking about this other child whom has this disorder that causes him to go in the corner of the primary room and put chairs all around himself and hide.

The first Sunday I saw this I thought, "WHY doesn't his teacher come a get him? How is he aloud to sit on the floor under a chair?" So know as the president is telling me a LABEL, I all the suddenly felt the love and understanding for this little boy, I should have felt automatically! I was feeling very bad and the thought popped in my head, why did I wait for her to tell me a LABEL. There is a reason for everything and I need to assume this much quicker and find love and patience quicker!!

It seems like we love labels-we love them because it explains our differences. I asked my self , what does this have to do with me knowing what was wrong with him? Why didn't I automatically feel "sorry" and love towards him. I guess I can blame it on our society that we judge until we KNOW what is wrong.

It does feel better to KNOW what is wrong with us....a diagnosis of cancer, or thyroid, or obsessive compulsive, or ADHD. But maybe in the meantime...I little more love and compassion!

But I know I need to work on feeling more compassion and love for all people before we know....because all of us are struggling through this life...some more than others....

This is in part response to a friend's post on homosexuality. I agree with her on the point that I do not believe in PRACTICING homosexuality. I think we need to be careful how we teach our children this point. My parents would always say, "Just feel sorry for them" This was good advice. But I honestly have to admit that when I was in my teens...I would look at smokers, drinkers, homosexuals, and think that they were bad, it went beyond their behavior.

The point is...we (I) need to learn to love my neighbor as my brother. As Jesus taught so long ago in the be-attitudes. This means loving them even if they are strange or sick or mean or different. In my adult life I have learned a lot more empathy,but I still have a long ways to go....

Ouch! Those are NOT bees

Today Ethan went and got his shoes and wanted to go outside. I was glad because it showed that he wasn't "scared for life" of our backyard after yesterday's bad experience!

So we velcro'd up and out he went. I watched him walk to the edge of our deck. He looked at something to the left on the deck steps. LIGHT BULB...he's was standing at the very spot I found him screaming yesterday! He continued down and I walked over to the that spot......OH MY GASH, I'm NOT an expert, but these are look like a.........WASP!!!! Wasp Wasp Wasp, that's four!
No wonder there looked like there were two bites and he was in so much pain, poor thing!

Stings and Stuff

POOOORRRRRR Ethan! He loves to be outside, but that bite him today....literally. I was in the kitchen and he was on the back deck. All the sudden I hear shrilling, LOUD crying/screaming! As all the horrors run through my head of what I might find. I go out to find him standing there frozen clenching his hands and SCREAMING. Automatically I KNOW. I gather him up and run in the house, but now what? What do you do for bee stings???????????

GOOGLE! I type with one hand while kissing him on the cheek and trying to calm him. I got so many ideas....mustard???vinegar, honey???? OK all those things were so random and weird, so what does any newish parent do when in doubt? That's right, call your mom who somehow knows everything.

What was even better than that, my mom just had happened to have her visiting "nurse" friend over!! So they told me exactly what to do. Thank goodness there was no stinger to pull out. I just dipped his hand under cold water and then let it soak in vinegar. You can't really tell which finger it is, thanks to fat toddler hands, but it's his ring finger :)

Ethan was a very very good patient! He just sat on my kitchen counter quietly looking so pitiful with BIG alligator tears still there to remind of the incident.....his little hand in the soaking bowl. He didn't move. It must have felt good. Then I gave him some benedryl and we snuggled on the couch and watched the Ellen show. SHE IS SOOO FUNNY!

He is now sound asleep in his bed, poor thing! He is the first in our family to experience the bad side of summer and the great outdoors.....

Bikers and Babes

Ethan loves anything with wheels....especially bikes. He was outside for hours in the 100 degree weather getting on and off Ryan's bike.....here's the proof

This weekend was another fun one, thanks to some very charitable ward members taking pity on the newcomers.

We were invited to a go out with about three other "cool" couples. It kinda felt like a friend audition. :) We went to this yummy Italian restaurant and sat under these mister fans (man's best friend in Texas) It was funny to listen to them talk about the "old days" but they were all 7-15 years older than us, so the old days were early 80's ........we are still not sure what the "flock of seagulls" hairstyle meant. I sat there and did my "pretend to know what you are talking about" laugh though. Lemme google it...

OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH, that's what they were talking about....the boys must have been jealous about the amount of hairspray my resident 80's cheerleader big hair friend,Kelly you-know-who-you-are ,was using...hehehe

We finally talked Ryan into eating a Texas staple- BBQ Beef folks, as known as brisket! He ate 4 bites and he got a sticker on his chart, I was soooo proud! He is such a picker eater, but he has tried many new things this week thanks to out rewards system! All he wants is a speed racer car. We just keep letting him think they are really really expensive! He has tried a chicken and cheese burrito, BBQ, tortellini, a hamburger, and a turkey sandwich!

We have also spent a lot of time playing our newest Wii game....LEGO Indiana Jones! So fun! I'd like to think I am a "cool mom" because I play video games with my boys and I can MORE THAN hold my own! Oh yah!

This coming week I plan on painting my cabinets, working out, and go to the pool A LOT! Funny to think about my dismal life and then my BFF about any minute to go into labor with her third little darling! Good Luck my dear!

Time to DISH!

I have been fighting it out with DISH NETWORK for the past 3 months. Mine is not the first horror story I've heard about these cable/dish providers. You sign up over the phone for one thing, and get billed for something totally different. Something totally more!!! When I signed up it was 29.99 plus $5 for local channels plus 5.98 for our DVR service fee. Ok no bigee...thats a little over $40.00 plus tax. Maybe I'm just cheap, but I hate paying this much!!

Soooo why is our bill been $53.98! We get 100 channels and a DVR and local programs.

Maybe I'm just cheap, but I hate paying this much!!


DOES THAT SOUND RIGHT????? What is you cable bill? And what do you get for it?

Kiddie Candids

To all those who have little hands and a camera.... do you go to upload your pixs and there is ALWAYS a picture or two of the wall, the ground, or some other random kiddie candid.

Well this time I had a surprise video. I did NOT take this video. From the voice, you can figure out who it was, all the same it was funny to see Ethan's expressions.

Yesterday, he pooped his pants and went upstairs to "clean himself" I found a bottle of concentrated Tide detergent, a cleaning bucket, and a pile of rags sprinkled all over the carpet infront of my bedroom door.

I now have smurf blue carpet. Oh well, just adds to the other oppsie's. We will no doubt be replacing this carpet in a couple years.......

I'm gonna PUMP you up!

Hehehehehe I have a couple funny hubby stories and I just had to share.....




So another thing that happened while we were in San Antonio was........ as we were walking to the River Walk....we passed a HOOTERS. I personally have never eaten there, but I have been a server. SO the thought of serving in daisy dukes, really tight tank top, and dance tights...is somewhat disturbing. Anyway, there was an outdoor seating area so we could see them. There was a server talking to a table of 4 twenty something dudes (giving her a hard time). The next thing I know Seth IS RAMMING THE STROLLER INTO A GLASS DOOR! (His head was looking the other direction) Then he yells at Ryan to move out of the way like it was his fault. I cocked my head to one side and said, "YOU ARE SO BUSTED!" (with a half smile) He shyly and nervously laughs and says, "WHAT?hehe."



We talked about it later in the night and he gave me some story about how the guys were giving her a hard time and he was listening to that.....hmmm mmmm WHATEVER !!! :)

Have you ever heard of BODY PUMP? It's a class I take at the gym where you lift weights the entire time and lot of them. You are exhausted when you leave. The first time I did the class, I literally could NOT walk the next day. It took 4 days to feel normal again. Seth was not that sympathetic. (it's in the DNA) So anyway about 3 weeks ago SETH JOINED THE GYM. He has been "taken it easy" easing into his workouts as he says. I decided he needed to see how the real hard bodies work out! :) I talked him into this class, telling him there will be other guys there...which is true.

SO we drop of the boys and off we go. FIRST IS SQUATS. I tell Seth to go easy...we do A LOT of reps! He doesn't listen and puts 40 POUNDS ON HIS BAR! Then we go down to the ground to work on our chest, he keeps the same weight. I'm like...this is crazy there is no way he can keep up with this! Sure enough he come over to me and says, "This lady is crazy!!! I've never done that many reps in my life!" I smiled and supportable say, "I told you to go easy" The rest of the workout, he put 5 POUNDS on his bar for triceps, biceps, and lunges. This by the way was less weight than I had!!!!! When we start the lunges, he goes, "lunges after the million squats we just did?" YUP!! Us ladies gotta have a great bootie!

That night he was soo tired he was walking around with "rickets" (this is a family term described as sticking your butt out and scooting your feet around) and the next morning he was walking down the stairs backwards, b/c it hurt too bad to bend his thighs going down forward. I tried really hard to get a video of this, but he figured out what I was doing and pulled his pants down while I was filming and mooned the camera thus making it impossible to post!

A couple laughs at my hubbies expense! Thank you for working hard for our family though, we luv ya!