Are you gonna put water in it?

Logan cracked me up today when I was making him and Lucas chocolate milk. He was watching my every move and when I was about to put the top on his cup he asked "Are you gonna put water in it?" and pointed to the water spout on the refrigerator. I guess he figured out that I dilute his juice half/half with water that I should do that to milk too. I thought I was being sneaky. I told him we only add water to juice.

Then later I realized Lucas was pushing buttons on an unused telephone/answering system. It turns out that he had turned it on who knows when and it had two messages on it. I was sitting on the floor trying to figure it out and Logan asked "What are you doing in the corner?" I am sure it looks to him like he would look when he is in trouble so I told him "I am having a timeout" He looked at me as if I have time outs all of the time and said "What did you do?" I told him "Daddy said I was in trouble" and he said "Oh". I guess it made sense to him why I was sitting in the corner. I don't know why I was making it up, just wanted to see what his reaction was going to be.

We spent the evening at the library. I did not bother bringing my stroller inside and Lucas was running around like a banshee screaming and at full stride. Logan and I were running around after him trying to catch him. Logan is a huge Dora the explorer fan and we have a box set at our house and even the new Dora saves the Snow Princess. We have read almost every single Dora book 100times each but we found two at the library that we have not read. It made Logan's day. He is so excited to have a couple new Dora books to read over, and over, and over again.

Pushing any kind of button is like giving candy to my boys. I finally got smart and realized it today. Leaving the library is usually like a wrestling match but today I said "Who wants to push the button on the elevator?" They both went running out of the library yelling "I do, I do" I smiled to myself thinking "that was easy, I am finally figuring this whole parenting thing out"

More Halloween activities

Just a few pictures from our Mom's group Trunk or Treat get together. We lined our cars up, paraded the children down to one end and they trick or treated to every one's trunk. I was a little worried since Lucas did not have a nap this day but my whole family really enjoyed the evening. It was so much fun to see all of my friend's children all dressed up together. The kids got great non-candy treats and we had a nice spread for the pot luck dinner.

Eric was stuck grilling hot dogs, but he seemed to really enjoy it. This was the first time the grills were used at our new park.
Prince Logan with his princesses and friends. Logan wanted to be a princess but I talked him into being a prince. The little Elmo in the picture cracks me up!

Lucas was a lion...a very skinny one.

Logan's favorite things in his basket was the kazoo, necklace and glow stick!

First NBA game

Not for me, but for the boys. Eric and I have been to the Maverick's games a few times before. Basketball is actually one of the few sports I enjoy watching. Part of it has to do with the fact that our high school football team never won a game and my college did not have a football team. So, I could care less about football.

Logan really enjoyed going to the game. He was fascinated by the lights, people, music and players.

Lucas did not seem to have the same fascination. This was one of his only moments that he was sitting down.

Box seats through E's work at the Maverick's game. We had a fun night! Logan tried to climb over this glass in front of him. Not sure why he thought that would be a fun idea. It would have been a long fall.

Food always helps keeps my boys happy. No $5 pretzels for us, we brought our own pop-tarts!

Our only family shot, not so good.

Thursday, E called from work asking if we wanted to go to the Mavericks game. I asked if we could take the kids. I thought it was short notice to get a babysitter. There was three tickets available and Lucas did not need a ticket. It worked out perfectly because both boys got really great, long naps that day. Logan (who normally doesn't nap) slept 2 1/2 hours and Lucas slept 3 1/2 hours. We only stayed through the 3rd quarter and got home before 10. I think it was a neat experience for them. I can't wait until Lucas is Logan's age and both kids will be able to enjoy things like this.

Neighborhood Fall Festival

After attempts at naps today, we got the boys dressed in their Halloween costumes. We went to the annual fall festival that is in our community. I thought they did a really great job this year. It was lots of fun for everyone. Logan made out great in the candy department. He came home with candy, pens, pencils, coupons for free food, foam airplanes, pumpkin, cupcakes from the cake walk and kettle corn. There were bounce houses, face painters, lots of different games scattered through out, pony rides, petting zoo, train rides and food for sale. It has been such a beautiful day. I have really enjoyed being outdoors all day today. Poor Logan has a cold and none of us want to catch it. He fell asleep in the car at 6:30 on the way home without any dinner. Eric has a migraine and could not even eat dinner he felt so miserable. I, on the other hand, am feeling great. Maybe this double dose of prilosec will be my miracle drug.

It was just Lucas and I hanging out until bedtime. He is so stinking cute with his constant singing and counting. He is such a happy child as long as Logan isn't messing with him. He likes to do things and then tell you "silly!" I have noticed lately he is speaking even better than before. He really does speak in complete, descriptive sentences using pronoun, adjective, verb...everything. It took my mom and dad a day or two but by the time they left they could understand almost everything he says. I love this age (17 months)...it sure beats the 3 year old phase. That is about to kill me!

On another note, our indoor cat of 7 years is gone. She escaped sometime on Friday morning (I think) On one hand I am sad thinking about what could have happened to her, where she could be or worse yet...run over by a car. But on the other hand, I am pissed that she would run away from such a good situation. She got fed twice a day, loved on some of the time, soft bed to sleep on and her litter box scooped for her. I sort of feel like, go if you want to go. She has done this twice before and somehow found her way back. We will see if she makes it back this time. If she does come back, she is in for it. I will be de-worming her and micro chipping her ass!

Round up on the Range

We spent the morning at Round up on the Range put on by the city of McKinney. It was at a park near by and we thought it was really fun. It made us feel like we were back in North Carolina with the leaves turning, 70 degree weather, breeze in the air, and hills all over the park. There was definitely a Texas theme with an indoor show with a dog that was friends with the famous Skidboot. There was covered wagons cooking lots of goodies that you could eat if you purchased a ticket for 15 dollars. I still smell like some kind of smoked meat. There was a section that had Indian folk music and dancing. Pat Lobb Toyota was setting a Guinness world record with 254 people in the largest hayride ever. It had 7 trailers the truck was towing.

We had some kettle corn and ate our picnic lunch that we threw together this morning. Logan enjoyed the bounce house and the live music. Lucas and Logan both danced a little to the country music. There was face painting, pony rides, petting zoo, tepee to climb in and a few games to participate in. Most of all, the weather was beautiful. I am sure the fall is my favorite time of year.

Hola, Mexico was fabulous

The hotel lobby in my new dress from Black House White Market

Me after a margarita and 3 martinis

E at the swim up pool, we are more beach people so did not spend much time here.
Nicose salad at the French restaurant
A nice evening on the beach
Our last night at the Mexican restaurant, La Hacienda

Five days away from reality was wonderful. E got us upgraded on the flight so we flew business class both ways. It was fabulous. We got a quick shuttle in a van to our resort and were the first ones to be dropped off. We were given a cold towel, greeted with a welcome drink, told "welcome home" and were promptly shown around the sprawling resort. We quickly changed into our bathing suits and spent some time on the 1/2 mile long stretch of beach they had and then checked out the huge swimming pool. We could not even see from one end to the other.

Eric and I had delicious, several course, gourmet dinners every night. We ate at the Mexican, Japanese and French restaurants for dinner. We enjoyed everything they served. Some of our meals were shrimp with mushroom risotto, tequila shrimp, jicama salad, beef and chicken satay, shrimp chuba soup, beef teriyaki, shrimp with soba noodles, quiche Lorraine, french onion soup, nicose salad, sea bass, scallops, chocolate mousse with grand marnier, chicken with mole sauce and grouper. Those were just the dinners. All of the portions were small but we liked it that way so that we were able to try so many different things. For breakfast and most lunches we had the buffet. It was more than any standard buffet I have been to. There were so many choices for people from Europe, to the US to the Latin dishes.

In addition to eating we had lots of fabulous drinks. My favorite was the chocolate martini and the white chocolate mint martini. We actually left a tip for those. I drank 12 drinks while I was there and Eric had 26. We also watched their nightly entertainment in an open air theater with bar included. Everywhere we turned there was a bar. The shows that we saw were Grease, Latin dancing, Vegas night and a fire show outdoors. We went dancing in their discotheque two of the nights. We took naps every day so that we were able to make it up past 9 pm. E and I took a stretching on the beach class twice, water aerobics class. We played against each other in a 6 on 6 volleyball game. Eric played boccie ball on the beach, we took a bike tour around the huge resorts complex, play each other in several games of pool and ping pong. We made guacamole and learned Spanish in a cooking/Spanish class. We walked up and down the beach for exercise, to look for beautiful shells and to search for sea creatures in the resorts tide pools.

The weather was in the 80s the whole time during the day. It would drop in the 70s at night. We had some beautiful sunny days and some rainy ones. There were lots of mosquitoes but somehow we only ended up with a few bites.

I enjoyed our trip very much. It was much fancier than our honeymoon was. We missed the kids but knew they were having a great time with G-ma and G-pa at home. E and I sort of pretended that we did not have kids most of the time. We actually found lots of other things to talk about. If anyone is wondering, the name of the resort is Valentin Imperial Maya. It is about 30 minutes south of Cancun. It is adult only, all inclusive (even tips) and you get the feeling that they will do anything to make you happy. It is a new resort and will probably raise their prices in the future. I am so happy that we took this trip and spent some time on our marriage. It was great to feel like newlyweds again!

cockroaches and bird poop

I had a very busy but strange day today. We ran around from the time we got up at 7:20 until we went to bed tonight. Drop off at school, stay to talk to the school administrator, get blood work drawn across town, fill front tires with air, home to do vacuuming, dishes, and filing papers, out to lunch with friends, to the mall. Now this is where it starts to get strange. I went to the ladies bathroom upstairs in our local mall. I saw and killed 3 cockroaches of varying sizes while I was in the restroom. I don't know if they just sprayed the food court and they were all retreating to the bathroom area or maybe they normally have cockroaches all over the place but I was thoroughly disgusted.

Lucas and I walked around the mall for a while after that. I don't know if this is just our mall but I am getting so fed up of being hassled by the people working at the kiosks in the center of the mall. They are getting to be too forceful and rude. It really brings down my shopping experience. I just told they lady I am not interested in her lavender scented hot pad, go into a store for three minutes, then get hassled by her again as I am leaving the store. LOOK LADY, I DON'T NEED YOUR CRAP!

Then Lucas and I are leaving and walking through a parking garage. I feel something hard hit me. I scream and quickly brush off my nose and realize that a large bird that must have been up in the rafters pooped all over my face. I am really disgusted now. I am seriously about to gag with bird poop on my hand and my nose. I had a large box of wipes in the car and I take a quick wipes bath and use hand sanitizer on my hands. Seriously, what the hell are the chances of a random bird timing it perfectly to get me right in the face. A girlfriend of mine told me it is good luck if a bird poops on you. Maybe I should start playing the lottery.

accidents happen

The boys and I headed over to the library after naps today. We had books that were overdue that needed to be returned. And if I have to read one of our own books again I will go insane. We were having a great time. Lucas had his 4th poopy diaper of the day and I was worried the diaper might not hold it in (if you know what I mean). We headed over to the restrooms. I don't know if some other people kids have this problem but my children had always hated the changing thing that hangs from the wall. They must feel like they are going to fall because it wiggles. I forgot to bring wipes so I had to wet some paper towels before I started. I asked Logan if he needed to go to the potty and then started changing Lucas. I was in mid-wipe and Logan announces he really needed to go to the potty. I can't see him because the pottys are around the corner but I hear him jumping and doing some crazy pee pee dance. He starts screaming and screeching at the top of his lungs. While I am still elbow deep in poop with Lucas screaming and crying I calmly tell him to go ahead and pee pee in the potty. I swear if anyone came in at that moment they probably would have thought they needed to call CPS on me due to all of the wild noises coming from my children. At one point I actually started to giggle because I truthfully did not know what else to do.

Logan still has a hard time getting his pants down when he needs to go to the potty quickly so I usually do it for him and put him on the potty. Logan is still screeching at the top of his lungs then it turns to sobs. I finally finish wrestling Lucas on the changing table and walk around the corner to find Logan with a large pile of pee on the tile floor. I console him and clean up the floor. We quickly check out books and I tell Logan that we have to go home because he has pee pee on his pants. I drive home with Logan naked from the waist down and Lucas in his diaper. I guess I should still keep an extra change of clothes in the car but Logan hasn't had an accident for months now. Lesson learned....accidents happen. We didn't get to go to the mall afterward like I had hoped.

feeling a little nostalgic

E is gone to Singapore. I am home with the kids for five days but I am in a remarkably happy mood. I can cope with anything because I am going on a vacation with my husband in less than a week. It will be like we are newlyweds again. We can pretend that we don't have any responsibilities. We can listen to each other without interruptions, rekindle our marriage and enjoy each other's company. I am so excited!

This makes me feel a little nostalgic. I will tell a little bit about our meeting and how our relationship began.

I was living with two roommates who happened to be male and brothers. One of my roommates was E's roommate in college. He grew up with E, went to high school with him and was a neighbor down the street. My roommate, Todd, got back in touch with E and they decided to rekindle their friendship. E came to visit Todd and stayed at our apartment. At the time I was working at Duke University's hospital laboratory on 3rd shift. I had worked the night before, slept and was baking anything I could think of. I loved to cook and my roommates liked to eat. I think I made cinnamon rolls from scratch, dessert pizza and rice krispie treats.

I was kind of excited to have a visitor stay with us and watched him on our TV as he pulled up to our front entry of our apartment complex. You had to buzz your guests through the gate and you could see them on our TV. As soon as I saw him on the TV I thought "I think I am in trouble!" He walked into our apartment and I was already interested. I was introduced to him and then he saw all of the desserts that I had made. He has always loved desserts and I think that is when I caught his attention. Thankfully, my roommates wanted to include me in the days festivities. We went to the North Carolina state fair then out to some bars afterwards. I think the guys stayed up watching some movie and I excused myself to my room. The next morning Eric left and I did not get to say goodbye. I called my Mom later in the day and told her that I would move to Hickory, NC for that guy. She knew that I must really like him if I was telling her my possible plans to move. After a few more visits we had gotten pretty serious. E traveled frequently and I worked 3rd shift for 10 days straight in a row. So we would go for long stretches without seeing one another. I would cry most of my 3.5 hour drive home from a visit with E. Eventually, I rented a one bedroom apartment in Hickory and found a new job so I could be closer to E. Around one year later he proposed to me on a beach as the sun was rising. I was on a cloud and couldn't be happier. We were married one year later and the rest is history.

It was such a romantic and exciting start to our love affair. It will be so nice to go away by ourselves and get to pretend we are newly married again.