I can finally die in peace because I've seen The New Kids on the Block in concert. I never got to see my beloved Joey and his friends when they made my heart throb as a youngster. But alas, dreams do come true.
Last Friday Jennifer, Angel and I headed down to San Antonio to scream our heads off like teenage girls again. (We found some cheap tickets) Part of me worried it would be cheesy and not so much fun. But it was SO FUN. They did all of the old big hits and some of their new ones-who knew they had new songs out?? It's amazing how songs come back to you when you haven't heard them in 15+ years.
Previously I wrote with excitement about our garden. Apparently, the cabbage looper worm was also very excited about our squash and pumpkins. Valuable lessons from this little critter was learned for future gardening reference: When you see evidence of a worm, diagnose and treat it immediately. The Texas A&M site describes them as, "voracious feeders." These boogers ate our entire garden in three days! We were able to get one delicious acorn squash before they did. We all enjoyed it-even Tobin!
We actually almost got two squash out of it...all along we planned on giving our pastor the "first fruit" of our garden. We thought it would be a fun tradition to teach the kids about tithing and giving to God first. However, I really wasn't sure if the squash was ripe, so we decided to pick it and eat it to see. If it was okay I'd pick the next one in the morning to give away. At that point the worms had only seemed interested in the leaves. However they ate the squash overnight. Just goes to show why God wants our first, not our second fruit cause we may not have anything leftover!
Now we have some tomatoes growing, hopefully we will get to enjoy more than one. We will definitely try and keep up with gardening. I think it will be a great tool to use to teach the kids biblical principles because there are so many parables to gardening & harvesting.
Joshua keeps talking about the tomatoes growing. One day he set his chair next to them and proclaimed he was going to "watch them grow."
Once again we managed to plan our vacation during the middle of Texas' Tax-free shopping weekend. Thankfully we were able to hit one day of it in which we ventured to the brand new sports store in our area. It had opened during the previous week so everything was shiny-new. I headed to try on a few shorts but couldn't find Kurt when I finished. Eventually the bathroom came to mind and sure enough there all the boys were taking care of business. Joshua had reportedly indicated he need to poo poo, but upon arriving to the potty didn't produce any. Kurt then went to try a few things on while I took over maning the boys. While we meandered around the men's section I got this horrible whiff of poo. "Tobin," I exclaimed, "You stink!" After I finished saying it I heard Joshua whimpering. I turned the corner to find him standing with his legs spread and a big ol' pile of mess under him. The runny kind.
The poor kid had a look of panic on his face; Thankfully Kurt emerged at that moment. At this point fits of giggles had taken over and I managed to communicate to Kurt we had a major issue. I ran to the dressing rooms to get some paper towels, they didn't have any. The girl did offer me a trash bag though. Back at the scene of the crime, we put Joshua in our shopping cart inside the trash bag. The bathrooms were about half-a-mile away so they weren't really an option at that point. So I grabbed the nearest employee and informed him my son had had a "little" accident. Yes, that was a lie, but he probably knew it since I was still having fits of giggles.
He asked me to show him where it was. So I did. He said, "oh."
He went to look for paper towels so we decided we needed to get out of the area, fast. Kurt volunteered to man the boys and I was in charge of checking out our stuff. This was a big mistake. I now realize that standing in line for a gazillion minutes while I could hear all the employees hystarically laughing and arguing about who had to clean up my son's poop, meanwhile hoping that know one would realize that I was his mom, was probably not worth the 8.25% I saved buying them that day. It then occured to me that maybe I should have offered to clean up the poop myself (I am a pro at it now), but it seemed a little late at that point. The reality is, if I had it to do all over again, I'm not sure I would have stayed to clean it up. Take the Poo Poll below, I'd love to see what the rest of you would do.
And that my friends the the completion of our memorable moments of the summer. Hope you enjoyed them! There might be an honorable mention entry soon for all the things we remembered once we started this.
I was tired. My throat had been hurting all week. We had spent most of the week indoors at home. Joshua had needed a last minute “emergency” trip to the dentist to check out his tooth again. I knew I needed to see the doctor, but Joshua needed to be seen and taken care of first. As we finished at the dentist I thought maybe my doctor could squeeze me in before closing that Friday evening.We got loaded up and as Joshua got buckled in he threw his recently acquired rubber lizard into the floor.And of course, he started howling for it the second he did it. And kept howling. I explained several times that since he threw it, he would have to wait to get it back.He was asked several times to be quiet and eventually settled down. However, as soon as I picked up the phone to call the doctor he upped the ante.As I was put on hold he continued until I hit my wits end, “STOP IT!” I screamed at him in the loudest, most frustrated voice, can’t take anymore of this voice.Of course, at the same moment the receptionist took me off hold. I stuttered, apologized, and did what every grown mature person would do; I hung up. I found out a few days later that the doctor’s office has Caller ID.
(By the way, this is the only occasion I have ever raised my loving, patient, kind, sweet, motherly voice to my child).
We bought a plastic swimming pool off someone at the beginning of the summer. It was the best $8 we spent all summer (well except maybe the $8 I spent at Starbucks getting a grande soy toffee frappachino that was oh-so-good.) (Wow I just wrote more on that tangent that I did on the actually story). Anyway, he is so fun/funny to watch playing in it. He definitely likes to be adventurous and is always looking for new tricks in the pool. On this particular evening, we set Tobin up in the pool with him. I promise he was laughing before I got the camera. They were a hoot to watch.
One evening we were out eating dinner at the local cantina.We asked the waiter if he would put some water in Joshua’s sippy cup. As he walked away Joshua raised his finger and said, “NO ICE.”We have no idea where he got this from, so it cracked us up.
Other funny things Joshua has said this summer:
"Hey! Whatcha doing in there?"
To me while I was feeding Tobin in his room.
"Nice time!"
(as in have a nice time) to Kurt when he skipped work to spend a day on the lake
JZ: "What's That?" pointing to cow udders
ME: "You know what those are...they are udders"
JZ: "Women have udders."
ME: thinking of what to say... "Are you ready for a new book?"
Just a little sampling. It's been really fun to watch him learn and grow in language development. At this age they average one new word every day. To hear him start stringing things together is amazing.
And some funny things Tobin has said:
"hey!"
"heeeeyyyy!"
"heyyyyy!"
(He has a certain cry that really sounds like he is saying "HEY!")
Ooops-missed one yesterday, so today is a double feature of our Countdown of the summer's most memorable moments.
Do as I say, not as I do.
Traveling with wee ones can be a stressful adventure for sure. Fortunately on both our plane trips this summer our boys were great travelers. It's nice to have Joshua appear as a mild-mannered, obedient angel of a child to the hundreds of people you encounter along the way. In order to accomplish this you have to give a steady does of Benadryl (just kidding!) and keep him on a tight leash. As we were boarding a plane on our return trip from Delaware Joshua was lolly gagging a bit down the Jetway. I turned around and snapped at him to "pay attention." Of course while I was turned around yapping at him I ran the stroller into the heals of the lady in front of me. oops.
Well it's not really a memorable moment per say, but something to be remembered about this summer: It’s been hot here in Texas. I vowed a long time ago not to complain about the heat. It’s silly to live in Texas and complain about it being hot. But seriously, it was hot this summer. We had 40+ days of over 100 degree heat and it's been the third hottest summer in history. I actually had a dream in the middle of the summer that we had gone to visit on the East Coast and the weather was nice and cool and I told him I was not going to live in Texas anymore.Here’s a picture of an Austin squirrel my friend Ann saw (yes, he is still alive).
Thankfully it has cooled off this week-hopefully it will stay that way.
Mystery shopping. Getting paid to shop. Making money with kids in tow. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? Excitement could only begin to explain the feeling when I finally found out how to get connected with legitimate mystery shopping companies. I registered with a handful but, sadly, found that it takes a lot of time to find good jobs and to do the paperwork after them. Some have been great, like Mr. Gatti’s pizza delivery (with only 5 minutes of paperwork) and others not so great like HEB (hit all the areas of the store and remember the 50 employees you interacted with by name for 10 bucks).I got to eat out at Chuy’s twice, which was lots of fun, but the paperwork took about an hour and a half.So, while it could be great in the right situation, it’s bye-bye to the dream for now.
We're counting down the summer's most memorable moments. Click here to start at the beginning.
1-800-222-1222
That's number for Poison Control, just in case you need it. We needed it twice this summer. Once when Joshua got a hold of my flavored calcium supplements. Fortunately they only cause constipation (which they didn’t). The second time was when Tobin decided to flounder around during a diaper change involving butt paste and managed to lick some straying Boudreaux’s off his hand. It clearly states on the tube to call poison control immediately if ingested. So, Kurt made the call to see what we need to do. Again, only causes constipation if a lot in ingested. (why they make it sound so imminently dangerous on the tube I don’t know …) The best part about this call was that flustered Kurt told the operator he had been changing his son’s six month old diaper. Now that would be toxic! Ah, good ol' Mr. Yuk. Sadly I ordered these stickers two years ago and never got them. We'll have the number memorized soon enough.
Every parent dreams of watching their child win an Olympic gold medal; therefore the chance to expose them to their first taste of the Olympic dream is very exciting. Joshua had an early bed time routine one evening so he could catch the vision. During the first five minutes he was exposed to one pair of Olympic divers, along with a really long (like 10 minute) beer commercial and a sitcom with scantily-clad women having an inappropriate conversation. Not exactly the vision I was hoping for...
Tobin is stretching for the 2024 Olympics; I'm campaigning for Estonia to host.
Look at that incredible form; it's got Olympian written all over it.
There never seems to be enough time to blog about our adventures, so we've complied a list of the summer's top ten memorable moments. For the next 10 days we'll count them down. Enjoy!
Love in the Air
*note* I'm having formatting problems getting this font to not be so big, but I"m going to let it go now... Joshua solidified his relationships with buddies Ava and Hannah. They've said some pretty cute things about each other. One day Hannah told her Mom that, "Ava is my best friend," and then said, "Joshua is my boy." !! After hanging out with Ava one evening, Joshua said, "I love Ava," after we said our prayers. It was so sweet, especially considering he's never said I love anything without being prompted.
While we're on the topic of love, it's been so sweet to watch Joshua and Tobin becoming buddies. Tobin smiles and laughs at Joshua all the time and the big brother is always giving Tobin a hug, a kiss, or a toy. Of course, they have their moments, but I have a feeling they will be ganging up on me to get into some mischief pretty soon.
Did you know that Delaware was the first state to ratify the constitution? A little trivia for you. We had a great time catching up with family and friends in Delaware (and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, camping in Maryland and the coast of Virginia.) It was great to see Joshua playing with his cousins and we packed a lot in. I felt like we were gone for a long time, in a good way. Kurt took great care of the boys and I felt like I actually got a vacation too! Here are a few favorite pics-you can catch the rest on our Picasa photo site.
Bring on the crabs! Joshua loved the fresh crabmeat, dipped in butter of course.His first s'mores, but not really-Kurt didn't give him any chocolate-it was already way past his bedtime.
A little hike with cousins. (This is just before the mosquitoes carried everyone away.)
Hanging at Mom Mom's with more cousins.
Sweet boys, Sean was able to make Tobin laugh a lot.
Oh, wait, I was actually on vacation wasn't I? I think this is the only picture to prove it since I'm usually the photographer.
We really enjoyed the week-thanks guys! We can't wait until next year.
I've been wanting to do a vegetable garden for years but in looking into getting started it was always too overwhelming. A few weeks ago however we went on a rampage pulling out bushes and weeds out front and then Kurt dug up a plot for me! The following weekend we bought a little bit of better dirt and then added our compost to it. Then we planted carving pumpkins and acorn squash.7/5-The initial digging.
7/11-We planted the seeds. Joshua's buddy Ava was over to help. She has more experience gardening than the rest of us so we were lucky she was there to help.
7/23- The Acorn squash has sprouted! We have six plants growing and they look great!
7/26 Working in the dirt. The hardest part so far has been keeping Joshua from digging up the seeds/plants.
Last week I noticed one of the pumpkins sprouted. We planted the seeds a little late so I was beginning to lose hope. Hopefully at least the one will make it. We still have space to plant some more things. I was planning tomatoes, but it's just so hot right now it seems like it would be a losing battle.
