Boys Night Out

The boys' 5 Star accommodations

Enjoying every minute of the tent

Inside the tent - complete with DVD player!

Tonight we girls have the house all to ourselves while the boys have packed up and headed to the great outdoors. The great outdoors that I speak of are conveniently located in the safe confines of our very own backyard! Hey, whatever gets them out of my hair! Hunter is fascinated with camping - last fall the events committee put on a family camp out at the sports complex here in the neighborhood - being as though I was about 31 weeks pregnant I opted not to attend. Scott and Hunter went and had a blast and ever since then Hunter likes for he and daddy to pitch the tent and camp in the yard. I personally am not a camper - there is just something to be said for having the little things in life at your disposal - you know things like running water, toilets, and electricity - I'm a big fan of all of those things! With the way my luck goes I would squat in poison ivy - can you imagine heading in and explaining that one to the crotch doctor? It's not like they are exactly roughing it out there - they do have all the modern conveniences they could possibly desire - Hunter's portable DVD player so they can watch a movie, a stack of Dr. Seuss books for Scott to read, and I have received several emails from within the tent so obviously there is also a Blackberry involved in this camp out! And while they do have toilets only steps away from the entrance to their tent, I guarantee you that I won't be seeing them - there is just something about getting to pee out in the yard that makes the experience all the more authentic! Peeing in the yard, it's another one of those boy things that I just don't get. So Maisie is in bed, the dogs are sacked out (imagine that), and I have nothing but the sounds of silence to keep me company - oh how I love the sounds of silence! I think now I will go watch my Netflix movie that has been sitting here for at least 2 weeks - The Astronaut Farmer.

For Those Who Don't Read

I hate people who don't read! Why you ask? Let me explain - there is a lovely circle drive where Hunter's camps are - and since there is this lovely circle drive there is also drive-thru pick up and drop off service. Now in theory this should be a smooth process - but we all know that morons always throw a wrench into a smooth operation and completely snarl it up! The pool where swim team practice is held is also located at this circle drive - so you have morons conjugating in the same location for 2 different reasons. The camp staff has placed signs up that say "NO PARKING during camp drop off (8:45-9:00) and pick up (3:30-3:45) times". Apparently the swim team parent's don't believe these signs pertain to them as there are always about 3 cars PARKED in the circle! GRRRRRR!!!!! These people being parked in the circle completely throws off the other set of morons who are trying to drive-thru and drop their kid off for camp. So now you have a long line backed up behind the morons who are parked there (going out of the parking lot and into the street) and no way to get out. Stupid people! This is how the morning drop off seems to go everyday. Now in the afternoon you get a new twist on the situation. Since swim practice is over you are no longer contending with those idiots instead you are contending with the idiots whose kid is in camp. There is a big sign that says "Parents for a smooth & seamless pick up please pull to the END of the circle drive". Do you think the people who are at the front actually do this? Hell no they don't - instead they pull even with the doors which are located half way through the circle! You have a sign that you leave on your dashboard that has your last name on it and as you pull through the circle somebody reads your name and then uses a walkie talkie to call inside where your kid is waiting. I guess the idiots who don't pull to the end of the sidewalk figure that if they move from where their name was read they are going to forget which car belongs to which kid. So you know as kids are loaded into the cars and people pull out of the circle everyone should move around accordingly - never happens - everyone just sits there until their kid is loaded into the car - on the off chance that the people do pull around they only go as far as the middle of the circle! There should be a rule too that your kid must be able to put their seat belt on themselves in order to use the pick up line. There is this one lady who everyday pulls into the circle and puts it in park so that she can hop out and wait for them to bring out her kid - doesn't matter if the cars in front of her have pulled out, her car remains where she initially pulled up - waiting on her kid to come out so she can put her in and buckle her up. Honestly lady - you are already parking and getting out of your car - why don't you not be such a moron and go put it in PARK in one of the lovely PARKING SPACES located just a few steps away and go in to retrieve your kid! The line going out of the parking lot and into the street is even worse in the afternoon because not only do you have people trying to get in to pick up from camp but the pool is also open so there are a ton of people trying to get into the parking lot for that. Aaahhh, if only I ran the world things would go much smoother! I have a very low tolerance for stupid - who am I kidding I have ZERO tolerance for stupid!

Another Pilgrimage to see The Mouse

If you happened to catch the new ticker listed above you have already figured out that we are once again planning a trip to see "the mouse". Now normally we would not be packing up and heading to sunny Florida 2 times in one year, but this trip will involve the entire "Griswold" family - if only we were going in the "Family Truckster" instead of on a plane! There is a shuttle launch scheduled for November 9, that my dad wants to go see so he figured as long as we were already in Florida it would be a real shame not to go to Disney. Hunter is pretty convinced that he has dies and gone to heaven! And you know who am I to argue about a free vacation? I love vacations, I love them even more when I am not paying for them! We are going to attend the "Very Mickey Christmas Party" while we are there - something new for us. I have been assigned the task of getting this trip together since I am the Disney expert in the group - I have scored us fabulous accommodations at one of the vacation club resorts. This is quite exciting since we never stay anywhere except the Pop Century Resort - but with the mass amount of people going it actually worked out to be the same price as getting 4 separate rooms at the Pop. I hear the spa is fabulous - although I'm sure I will never actually make it that far - I can always hope! So we are very excited about our next trip - the shuttle launch should be awesome - hopefully the thing will actually go up!

Success......Finally!

I have finally had success today in getting Maisie to eat - something other than booby juice that is! We have been trying for a couple of weeks now - pretty much to no avail - so you can just imagine my excitement! We started out with the plain old boring bland rice cereal mixed with the juice of my loins - that was a no go - so then I thought I might be sneaky and mix it with bananas - she didn't fall for that one either! Then I tried just plain old bananas - not real thrilled with that option. Next we moved on to sweet potatoes - they were Hunter's absolute favorite so I thought maybe she would have the same admiration of them - wrong! So today we moved on to good old applesauce - SUCCESS! After the first bite she actually opened her mouth when she saw the spoon coming, and once the spoon came back out she closed her mouth and the applesauce remained within rather than spit out all over her cute "girl power" bib! I tell you she and Hunter are just total polar opposites - food was never an issue with Hunter. He wasn't a real big fan of the rice cereal, but he ate it - he far preferred the oatmeal. The fruits and vegetables though he couldn't get enough of - that kid would nurse and then sit down and annihilate an entire container of fruit AND and entire container of veggies - he was a serious eater! Could explain why he is the size he is - not at all fat, just BIG! He is undoubtedly going to be my brother's size, 6'4", which means he will have outgrown my short ass by the time he is 7! Better work at getting the fear of god into him now!

What a Little Man

I swear there is undoubtedly a connection between the Y chromosome and just being gross; they just go hand in hand! This afternoon as Scott was walking through the door Hunter was walking out of the bathroom - he ran up to him and did his usual greeting ritual and then I hear come from his mouth "daddy come and smell the bathroom". He was soooooo proud of himself and the fact that he had just stunk up the joint he felt the need to share it with someone - you will notice that he picked the other Y chromosome in the house to share it with! I have noticed in probably the last 9 months that the smell of our bathrooms seem to rival those of public bathrooms - gross! I guess Hunter must be the main culprit of this stench as I haven't ever smelled it before - therefor I can't blame Scott for it. Hunter has been potty trained for 2 years now, but it hasn't ever smelled until just recently - a friend of mine with a 7 year old said that it gets worse as they get older - oh goody! After investigating the bathrooms I have found pee in the strangest places - how do they manage to get it where they do? Are they standing there peeing with their eyes closed? Do the sneeze mid-stream and splatter the walls and surrounding areas? Anybody with a potty trained son knows exactly what I speak of - hell anyone who has ever shared quarters with the male species knows what I speak of! I just don't get it - then again since I sit down to pee I guess I wouldn't understand! I mop the floors with bleach already, but in order to get the smell emanating from my bathrooms to disappear I now go in and spray the floor all around the toilet with bleach and let it sit for a little while and then I go in and mop - seems to do the trick, either that or I have just become immune to the grossness!

Half Way There

Today Maisie is officially 6 months old - phew, we've managed to keep her alive for half a year! Now if we can just keep that up for another 6 months we can have a party to celebrate our accomplishment (since that's what a 1st birthday party really is)! I don't think keeping her alive will be a real issue though - keeping me alive on the other hand is a different story! I am convinced that she is trying to kill me! She has really been the perfect little specimen since the day she crawled out from within - has always been a FANTASTIC sleeper - until recently that is. She woke up Sunday morning with a tooth obviously just below the surface which made for a crabby little mouse for 98% of the day on Sunday - not only was she crabby but she wouldn't let anybody except me touch her, not even Scott (she wouldn't let me put her down either). Needless to say by the time we got home that night and put her to bed I had seen, and heard, more of her than I really wanted to. But my night wasn't over with seeing her - I'm not sure how many times I actually got up that night - more than I wanted to! The trend has continued on too - I have been up with her every night since then - she is eating in the middle of the night - something she hasn't done in months! UGH! This tooth needs to hurry up and get on through there - although I am putting money on that she is going to cut the 4 bottom teeth all at the same time (that out of order thing would be a "scruffy stock" gene from her daddy's side)! She has also recently come to the conclusion that she doesn't like to be left alone - if I disappear from her sight she likes to start crying to make me aware of her displeasure with the new situation. Hunter never did that - he could have really cared less as long as it wasn't his bed you were walking away from. Her other latest trick is wanting things - last night in the bathtub I took her washrag to start bathing her and she started to cry - until I gave it back that is. Later on I had a magazine on the table next to the chair that she wanted, so she threw herself that direction and got it - then she proceeded to tear off the cover and a few pages. She is so nosey, and a total little busy body! I remember encouraging Hunter to start crawling - there will be none of that going on with her (mama didn't raise no fool)! Although with as nosey as she is I fear that she is going to figure it out sooner rather than later all on her own! God help us!

Another One Bites the Dust

On Friday I was doing a load of laundry and the washer just died! Grrrrr! I hadn't done any laundry at all yet for the week so there was a mountain of it - as Murphy's Law would dictate the washer dies during the first load rather than the last. I really hate Murphy! I hauled our dirty laundry over to my parents' house yesterday to do a couple of loads because there was a real underwear shortage going on around here - didn't want Scott to get any ideas and try to wear mine! So anyway, I had a service plan on the thing so I called Best Buy to schedule them to come out and fix it; the repairman was here first thing this morning, walked into my laundry room, I told him what had happened and he said he had seen it before and that there was no way they were going to pay to fix it, it would cost way too much so it would probably just be replaced. Funny, I had just told Scott that my next machine was going to be a front loader - just wasn't expecting that new machine to be coming quite so soon! So the guy goes back out to his truck, does what he has to do, and then comes back in and says "well, you get to go get a new one". Yippee! My washer wasn't that old, it was about 6 1/2 years old, and it wasn't a cheap one either it was a Calypso - I really didn't expect that it would check out at such a young age on me. The guy said there had been a lot of problems with that particular machine - so many that they no longer make it. After Maisie got up from her sleepy we loaded up and headed to Best Buy - if you will recall the manager at the one store really pissed me off about the whole DVR issue, so I was not going to go back to that store (fortunately for me we live right in the middle of 2 stores). I knew I wasn't going to just replace the washer, I knew I would end up getting the matching dryer too - just can't live with a mismatched set! Not that there is a thing wrong with my current dryer, but that is really just beside the point! And since that jackass angered the beast I wasn't about to give his store the sale. Since we paid $1100 for the washer I had that much to spend on a new one, and fortunately for me the LG steam ones just happened to be on sale this week so it was almost an even exchange on the washer - the dryer though I was on my own for. I picked them in "wild cherry red" and got the pedestals to go with them (it was too short even for me without them)- they are coming tomorrow to deliver them. I'm so excited! How sad is that? Never thought I'd see the day when I got excited over a new washer and dryer! You know it always comes in 3's - I wonder what is in store for me next? First the Tivo, now the washer, the refrigerator is probably the next to go - but that's okay, I have a service plan on it too!

Happy Father's Day

Scott got to sleep in this morning - what a novelty! Actually Scott, the hounds, and the boy all slept in this morning - Maisie and I rather enjoyed our morning of peace and quiet! Hunter got up before Scott did and on a normal day would have gone racing into our bedroom to "pounce" on Scott, and on a normal day I would have said "go right ahead", but since it was Father's Day I decided to have mercy on his soul! So there was no pouncing this morning, instead we let Scott sleep until he surfaced all on his own, and then the 2 little people who call him daddy had him to do with as they pleased. We packed up and headed to my parent's house this afternoon for a man's feast - steaks, baked sweet potatoes, salad, bread, and the best part of all homemade ice cream! Yummy! Needless to say everyone at the table was fat and happy! It was great to get to spend another Father's Day with my daddy - I know he won't be around forever so I am grateful for everyday I have to share with him. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be the person I am today. So Happy Father's Day to my daddy, to the guy I married and made a daddy, and for all of the veterans, first timers, and soon to be dad's out there hope your day was all you wanted it to be.

Hello Mother, Hello Father

On Sunday we packed up the boy and sent him off for his first ever summer camp - okay we haven't really sent him "away away", just across town to my parent's. I gave him the option this summer of going to school or going to camp - he opted for the summer of camps; this week he is doing one called "Pond Pals" at a nature center. I talked to mom after his first day to see how the drop off went - Hunter does not like to have his world rocked, so I was a little concerned that he wasn't going to let my mom leave him. She said that he was literally standing underneath her while she signed them in (my niece is attending another camp at the same place) and was very leery of the whole thing. The counselors told them that the other kids were all out catching spiders and to go out and join them - spider catching, no day is complete without a little of that thrown in! My niece, who couldn't be anymore of a tomboy if she tried, was all over that invitation and talked Hunter into going out with her giving mom the opportunity to make her escape. After she picked them up that afternoon Hunter reported that he had a fabulous day and couldn't wait to go back and do it again the next day - he had made new friends and had a lot of fun. Thank god! Dad is going to take them on a field trip Saturday morning and then deliver him back home after they are done. It is certainly VERY quiet around here without the boy, amazing it has only been 6 months since Maisie turned our family of 3 into one of 4 but I have already forgotten what it was like with just one of them. Next week he starts his camps here in the neighborhood and should know some kids in there with him which will certainly make it an easier transition.

Summer Swimming

Hunter enjoying a great day in the pool!

Maisie was exhausted and required

a sleepy after all of her swimming!

Hunter and all of his toys- it's

amazing he didn't sink with all

of the things he was holding!

This afternoon the kids and I went over to some friends house for an afternoon of swimming - swimming for the kids that is, cocktails for the grown ups. The kids were in the pool for about 3.5 hours straight - the only reason they ever left the pool for for a quick potty break. They were all wrinkled little prunes by the time we packed up and headed home. I got in the pool for a little while with Maisie, probably about 30 minutes - she has been to the pool before and seems to quite enjoy it, although I'm not surprised since she loves to take a bath. I picked her up this nifty little crab float that has a sunshade figuring she would enjoy floating around in that -wrong! She did not enjoy the crab float one little bit, actually it made her quite crabby - ha! I think her problem with the crab is that she doesn't fully sit up on her own yet so she was kind of leaning forward in the thing - as soon as I took her out of it and held her she was perfectly content. The pool has a salt water system instead of a chlorine - my first encounter with one of these. After I got out of the pool it was just like I had been to the beach - you know how your hair is "crunchy" after a day of swimming in the ocean - same thing when you have been swimming in a salt water pool the only difference is you know there aren't any little sea creatures that are going to attack! I accidentally got some of the water in my mouth which was just like drinking salt water - blah, Maisie took a couple of swigs too and had thoroughly cleaned herself out not long after we got home - lovely. We had a great afternoon hanging out with friends and just having a good time - I love beautiful summer days like these!

The Games Rednecks Play

Scott and my boneheaded brother have taken off for another weekend of playing out in the woods - okay so they aren't actually playing (at least that's what they claim, Scott did have his fishing pole). They have a pretty sweet deal worked out at the ranch where they hunt - they don't pay like you would typically for a lease, but they do go out when it isn't hunting season and work to earn their keep - building ducks blinds, deer stands, clearing trees, etc. The guy who owns the ranch is one of my parent's neighbors which is how they managed to score this deal - works out quite well especially since it is on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Management Program so the season starts earlier and ends later! Extends my time as a hunting widow - now if he would just take the boy! Scott did actually have enough sense to pack long sleeve shirts this time and some poison ivy wash to shower with while he is there - I guess his last scorching case of poison ivy (which he has just recently rid himself of) was unpleasant enough that he is going to be proactive about not getting it this time. This work weekend also gives him chance to play with his 4 wheeler and see if that camouflage pattern really fools the deer! They may not see him coming, but he had better pray that they are deaf deer so they don't hear him!

RIP Tivo

We have suffered a great tragedy in this house - the Tivo died a sudden death last night! I had quite a few things recorded on there that I haven't seen yet either - things like 3 0r 4 weeks worth of Brothers and Sisters (including the finale) and the Grey's Anatomy finale! UGH!!!! Fortunately I had managed to catch up on Lost and had seen that finale. Now I am going to have to watch all of them on the computer - stupid Tivo! I don't have a clue what happened to the thing, it just kicked off. I had watched Good Morning America yesterday morning while I drank my coffee and then turned the TV off as usual, and when I went to turn it back in the afternoon to watch the world news there was nothing! After Scott and I both tried to fix it and decided that there was no reviving it, Scott pulled the plug - literally! We bought the system (DirecTV) at Best Buy (almost 4 years ago) and have a service plan on it so I was just going to take it in today and leave it to be repaired. I should have known that it wasn't going to go well when the Geek Squad guy immediately called someone from the electronics department over to ask what to do about this particular unit. Apparently DirecTV and Tivo have gotten a divorce so the DVR like we had is no longer available - to be repaired or replaced. The guy said I have no problem replacing the thing with one of the new DVRs, but it just doesn't have Tivo. Fine, we didn't really use the Tivo features anyway, just recorded what we wanted. So the guy passes on to the girl at the return desk what the problem is and tells her just to ring it as a service plan replacement. So she goes to do this - now mind you we bought the system almost 4 years ago and their service plans have changed since then - not my problem, but it showed up in the register that I now owed almost $200 for a new DVR that only cost $99 if I were to buy it outright. When we went to get the Tivo we were already DirecTV customers under Scott's name - well apparently in order to use the Tivo with the dual tuner we needed a new dish as well. They just happened to be running a rebate for a free 3 room system for new customers when we were in there so I signed up in my name which made us new customers so we got the thing for free after the mail in rebates. So the way the computer saw it when the girl put it in was that I was returning an item I had gotten for free and was charging me for it. I told the girl I was not paying a penny much less $200 for this new DVR that only cost $99 - she agreed that I shouldn't be so she called the manager over. He looked at how it was rung up, said it was correct (never looking at me and speaking very low to her) and then walked off. The poor girl looks at me and tells me what he had said and that I owed $200. I again repeated that I would not be paying a penny since I did have a service plan on the item and it is their duty to honor the plan and either repair my current unit or replace it. I told her she could get the manager back over there to deal with me or to push whatever buttons he needed to push on the computer to make it an even exchange. I was not ugly to her - you know it's not her fault, I used to work retail so I am never ugly to the cashiers - but I was about to be with that manager. He obviously had absolutely no idea who was dealing with - I am the cheapest person on the face of the earth - okay actually my dad holds that title, but I do come by it honestly! She tried several things but couldn't figure out how to make it work so she had to get the manager back over there at which point he did actually speak to me to see what the problem was - I told him and he was obviously pissed, but he overrode the $200 it was trying to charge me and told me what he had done (like he had just done me some huge favor) but that there was still $21 I owed because when I bought the Tivo 4 years ago it was $80 and this new receiver is $99 so I owed the difference + tax. Again, WRONG! I once again stated that I would not be paying a penny for this. He could either figure out how to fix my unit or exchange it for what is now available at no cost, I paid for a service plan that is still current and they will take care of this. At this point I was really considering pinching Maisie so she would start screaming just to make sure he was in hell - I also considered releasing Hunter on him! I guess the guy FINALLY figured out that I was not going to pay for it and just overrode the entire charge and stormed off. I hope I gave him a raging case of heart burn that no amount of Tums will cure! I am not looking to screw anybody or get something that I am not entitled to - I am looking to get what I paid for and am therefor entitled to and will not back down until that happens. As I was putting my new DVR in the cart the man in line behind me said "good for you". I never raised my voice or jumped and and down or anything like that, but I was really considering reaching across the counter and slapping that manager - it sure would have felt good! Scott called not long after we left Best Buy and I told him I thought he was possibly going to have to come and bail me out of jail for assaulting the store manager - all he could do was laugh (because he could picture it happening)! But it is now all good - I have my new DVR so we can once again watch TV in the living room - if I can figure out how to hook the thing back up that is!

Hunting Season has Opened

June bug hunting season that is! The dogs really love this time of year - nothing like a beetle with sticky little legs for hours of entertainment. Scott and I were watching a movie the other night and I noticed Pumbaa out on the back porch playing with something - I got up to make sure that he wasn't holding one of my frogs hostage (a favorite pastime of his) but he was just playing with the millions of june bugs that were out there. Scooter always loved to play with june bugs too - he didn't eat them though, he would pick them up and as soon as their sticky legs stuck to his fat lips he would knock them off. So I just assumed Pumbaa was doing to same thing - and maybe he was, I'm not 100% certain; Timon on the other hand, I am certain about his actions. He had gone out to join in the fun and then came back in and his lips kind of looked like there might be something stashed in his mouth. No sooner than I thought that he opened his mouth and out flew a june bug! Timon was a little miffed that he had just lost his dessert and went off chasing it to no avail, so back out the dog door he went to hunt down another poor unsuspecting bug. He was back inside in record time and is apparently a quick study as this time he didn't open his mouth until after he had started chewing - all you heard from the other side of the room was crunch, crunch, crunch! Apparently that one hit the spot because he was done hunting for the night - I found the carcass of "the one that got away" yesterday, I'm not sure if he decided that they weren't all that good after all or if I just found it before he did- either way that one went into the trash can.

Man Eyes

Tonight after dinner and putting the kids to bed I went out to work in the backyard flower beds; Scott stayed in and was watching the baseball game and cleaning up the kitchen. I ran the dishwasher this afternoon but hadn't had a chance to unload it yet; it wasn't quite full, but I knew there was not going to be room to put tonight's dishes in it too. While I was out working in the yard I noticed Scott had been standing at the sink for quite some time, but I had never seen him moving around the kitchen like he was putting the clean dishes away - so, I opened the back door and here the dishwasher is sitting wide open with the bottom basket pulled out and stuffed full. I said those dishes in there are clean and he looked at me, and then at the dishwasher and said "not any more they're not"! The dishwasher has this handy little light that glows lime green when the dishes residing inside of it are clean, and does nothing when they are not. Had somebody not been wearing their man eyes tonight they probably would have noticed that. Needless to say the clean dishes, as well as their new found dirty dish friends, are all currently undergoing a wash cycle and will be waiting for me when I get up in the morning - I bet that little green light will be glowing too!