Our friend Sarah!!!!!

She's HILARIOUS!!! She's Lillie's friend, just turned 3 in February, and just started taking tumbling class in a non-air conditioned facility (we are in Cincinnati, the most humid place I know, according to my hair!) I guess the instructor sweats quite a bit, so last week Sara told her that she was leaking! LOL! Her mom explained to her what sweating was and left it at that. So, after tonite's lesson she went up to her instructor and said, "You sure sweat a lot...you should really talk to someone about that!" as sweet and innocent as you please!! I about wet myself when I heard that story!!!!!

Plain cute!

As you all know, Lillie has some speech issues. She has, as of late, worked a lot of them out! Thinking back to last year at this time and to now, she's really come a long way. And since she was accepted into preschool on an IEP for speech for next year, I think she's going to be up to speed before she turns 5. That said, there are still a few things that she says that are not correct, but are sooooo incredibly cute! Her new fave thing...Strawberry Shortcake! We keep getting videos from the library of her, and we sing about her all the time. How does Lillie say it though, you ask? Straw-buh-berry Shortcake! I think that's just how she hears it, maybe, or maybe it's just too hard to say correctly at the age of 3, who knows. I'm not correcting her...she's been corrected her whole life on her speech and pronunciation and this is too cute to correct.

Added for your reading pleasure....

I have FINALLY (kind of) figured out the "blogrolling" thing...and have added links to each blog that I read daily. I don't know how to make them look all fancy, but they are there...to the right. Read away...go find some funny stories, some personal journeys and get carried away in the lives of others! Enjoy!

Screeching Howler Monkey

Ever seen a screeching howler monkey? I bet you have....seriously! Those of you that read this and have met my daughter have certainly seen one. Lillie has transformed from a cute 3 year old blond girl into a screeching howler monkey, overnight. It started yesterday....her first real tantrum. She's had tantrums, but this one was like one I have NEVER seen before in real life. She actually catapulted herself onto the floor and screamed at the top of her lungs while trying to talk and cry at the same time. I was on the phone at the time with our home owner insurance carrier and tried to lock myself in the bathroom to get away from the fight that had erupted (like clockwork...the minute I was taken off hold to talk to a real live person) when Lillie pulled this stunt. The screaming cry made it sound like Zac had just chewed off one of her limbs...it was awful! Then this morning as I was getting out of the shower I heard it again. It's the kind of screaming cry that makes a parent stop WHATEVER they are doing and rush to their child...something must REALLY be wrong...you know the one. Anyway, this time she was screaming because Zac went to the garage to find his Gameboy which has been in my car for weeks now, and she went too. When Zac wouldn't let her in the car first to look around (we have been teaching Zac about the ladies first rule and Lillie has picked up on it) she started scream crying. I rush down there to see what's wrong and she tells me, quit pointedly, that Zac didn't let HER go first...and it's LADIES FIRST and she's a LADY!!!!!! So she bit him and he kicked her and now they're both mad. My head is still realing that my 3 (almost 4) year old is picking up biting NOW, but even more so that she's pissed about a ladies first rule. While it's a serious problem with the biting, I can't help but laugh about Lillie's newfound attraction to the ladies first rule.

Part two--If it doesn't involve fishing.....

Ok, now's the time for me to find out if my theory is true or not (if it doesn't involve fishing, it doesn't get done). Terry went fishing last weekend and came home and cleaned the little guys that he caught and threw the waste in the garbage can that sits in the garage. The next day the smell, fostered with the heat of summer, was HORRENDOUS....there's not a word to describe what my garage smelled like. So we moved the cans outside (hopefully the neighbors didn't mind!) and they stayed there until this morning when the lovely Rumpke truck came to pick them up. I go out just now to get the cans to bring them back into the garage and what's left inside? MAGGOTS!!!!! GROSS!!!!!!! They are crawling all over the can...getting every piece of nasty, rotten, left-over fish junk that they can. So my request is that Terry get his arse out there tonite when he arrives home from his 15+ hour day and clean out the can....it does have SOMETHING to do with fishing, right? I'll let you know what happens....either the can gets tossed and I buy a new one, or Terry cleans up his mess like a good man!

If it doesn't involve fishing, it doesn't get done.

I think this is my new motto for Terry. Seriously, he gets these "hobbies" and then they control his every thought. He will be working let's say on a Wednesday and "ah-ha", let's call Julie to see if we have plans this Saturday. Are you for real? You, of the male species is thinking ahead 3 days and making plans for yourself? This is how I know it's love (for the hobby, not me). The issue I have with this new love of Terry's life is that if things/people/plans don't involve fishing, they either don't get done or don't get made! For instance (and I'm stretching here people...it's 1:50am and I'm wired on caffiene!) tonite I get home from work, tired but wired, and what do I find when I walk into my bathroom? A sopping wet floor with even soggier cat litter that had flown out of the box. There's a PUDDLE under the litter box and all around it. Know what it is? Shower water, from Zac. Know who was "in charge" while he was taking that shower? Terry. Wanna bet I know what Terry was doing? Either watching a stupid fishing show or reading a stupid fishing magazine that he got in the mail yesterday. Wanna know what his response was when I woke him up to tell him I was aggravated about the puddles on my bathroom floor at 1:45am while his alarm is going off at 3:15am (yes, I'm a bitch!)--he was gonna clean it up in the morning. What, was it going to DRY? NO!!!!!! And although it may not sound like a connection, I KNOW that fishing has SOMETHING to do with this puddle I just cleaned up....and there you have it!

She said, she said game

When is a girl too old to play in the "she said, she said" game? I feel, at 30, I should be too old for the game, but feel myself being plummeted back into it time and time again. I can only take it so long once I start hearing things that are being said about me before I go straight to the source. For that, I need help I guess....it just makes the game a continuous cycle that I can't get out of. I am soooo good and then SPLAT, I cruise back in for another round.

I look around me at different events...church, baseball games, playgroup outings and look at the women I am around....are they like this? Or am I immature? Am I MEAN? Am I being punished? Does anyone else I know play in a stupid game like this? I just want out!!!!! I think I will go read a book...fiction, so that for a few moments in time, I can be someplace else. And then maybe I can concentrate on how to be a better friend and make better choices. (Man, do I sound like Tara or what?!)

Where's MY day?

Here's how I pictured my day:
Kids leaving around lunchtime with Aunt Laura, leaving me HOME ALONE! Me, lounging around, reading a book, drinking yummy iced tea (Long Island, anyone?), catching a nap, not looking at the clock wondering what minute my kids would be back.

Here's my day:
Kids leave around lunchtime with Aunt Laura, leaving me HOME ALONE! Me, I make about 35 phone calls for sponsorships for a local fetival, throw in a load of laundry, catch up on gossip by calling my Grandma, watched 2 hours of totally useless TV, told the kid next door that Zac wasn't home....really, he's not home...no, I don't know when he will be back....yes, I will have him come get you when he is back....yes, he will come to your back door to get you.....yes, really, he will come over!!!!!!!!! And then I looked at the clock about 50 times in one hour wondering what minute my kids would be back.

Well, as I told my Grandma, I used to be so consumed with what all I would do if I had a day to MYSELF....ahh, what a day that would be. Instead, it ended up being a day like all the others...only without nagging from me and whining from the kids. Not much of a contrast!

911, anyone?

Got a Zac story! Sunday I get home from church and Terry meets me at the door and looks super SUPER mad! So I ask what's wrong and he tells me that 911 just called because there were two hangups from our location and they wanted to make sure everything was ok. OMG!!!!! Zac called, TWICE, and hung up once the operator came on the line. (Yes, Zac, it's a real number with a real person answering it....we aren't making it up!) The police showed up and everything! It was too late to stop them in route and I guess that they needed to make sure everything was ok anyway. Zac was soooooo upset....he thought he was going to jail when we told him the police were on their way. He was sobbing so hard. We of course made him apologize and the policeman told him that he wasn't mad at him, but next time to only really use it if there's an emergency because other people might really need him and if he comes to our house when there's not a true emergency, then the people who need him won't get him. We explained it all day long as well and Zac seems to get the picture now. What an experience though, eh?

He's been super curious about the phone lately, so I think we might start letting him answer it if we are standing there, just to get the curiousity out of his system.

Mind racing....really....

A weird email comes today that Terry's brothers' girlfriend has commited suicide and Alan (Terry's bro) is being looked at for foul play. They live in Newport KY and they are drug addicts. We helped them out once last summer and once they didn't pay us back they didn't call again. Terry wants nothing to do with Alan, and I can't say I blame him. Anyway, last we heard they had broken up, Joan (girlfriend) was getting clean and living with her Mom and Alan was living off of Terry's Mom and stepdad. Well, guess they got back together, as she killed herself at his new apartment, which he has been kicked out of now and has no place to live. Terry's Mom and SD emailed us to let us know, and to tell us to keep a look out on the news for Alan. HA! My mind tells me he's next to go, and I pray for everyone involved that God is intervening.

And now onto the kids. Can I just say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE my adorable kids? They have been so cute lately...doing little things that just melt my heart. Of course I have had lots of fights to break up and whining in between, but nonetheless, they are kids and that's the ups and downs of kids, right? As I type they are outside playing nicely and leaving me alone in this house to type away whatever I want. HEAVEN! Oh, but one thing that they are doing that I can't stand....competition! Everything is a race, a game, a win-lose situation. Today, Lillie was racing bikes with the little girl across the street. She's an only child, one week younger than Lillie and ALL GIRL! So as they ride their little girlie girl bikes, hair blowing behind them, giggling down the street, Lillie hauls off and yells, "Ha ha, I beat you...you're bike is sloooowwwwww!!!!!"--imagine that being sung to the "na-na-na-boo-boo music"....that, from my 3 year old. Lovely!

ETA: Terry just left with the kids for a solid hour and a half baseball practice!!! I'M HOME ALONE!!!!!!!! Of course, I'm making fried chicken, homemade mashed potatoes and sauteed veggies while I'm here, but I'm doing it all alone...watching news and everything! BLISS!

Buzzzzzzzzzzz

Today for the first time EVER, I allowed Zac an all over buzz cut. What an adorable child I have!!!!! He has always had the back buzzed, but the top has always been scissor cut. Today we broke down and got it done, and if my Gateway camera got along with my Gateway computer (it's an old crotchety senior citizen and hates younger people or things!), you'd be viewing pics right now, instead of imagining Zac in all his cuteness with little hair on his head. He's sitting on our bed with the kid next door playing XBox, praying that I will forget about baseball pics tonite and let him play video games alllll night longgggg. No can do...I'm off to find dinner so we can go get this adorable child photographed!

Oh, and side note...Mommy went to the dentist today and has NO CAVITIES!!!! Guess where she headed straight after that? The nearest espresso stand for a non fat Carmel Macchiato....something had to wash the "clean" off her teeth! LOL!