Let There Be Light

This time it's for real! We ACTUALLY have electricity being delivered to our lovely little abode via the power lines! WOO HOO! Apparently Centerpoint was busy getting our neighborhood lit up last night as the entire thing seems to have it now! Being that the whole joint now has power that means the MUD pump stations do too ~ no more poo bubbling out of the ground ~ YIPPEE! You couldn't even imagine how excited I am to get to be heading home! Scott is already on his way to get us and should be here about lunch time, and then we will load up, turn around, and head back. I know Cindy was relieved to hear that the lights were on ~ now her life can get back to normal too! Of course the kids had their well child exams scheduled for today which I had to cancel ~ they are now rescheduled for Nov. 3 ~ goodness! Oh well, they weren't supposed to be getting any shots except for the flu shot which I will haul them in for on Monday ~ I know they will be thrilled.

Dad called last night just to check on my whereabouts ~ I told him that I would be returning today since the lights had come back on. I offered them a room at our house which they declined. He said they weren't exactly roughing it since they do have A/C compliments of the generator and window units and color TV; he figures they will survive until their power is restored. The Port has power which means they should too, but they found out the reason they don't is a blown transformer. Hopefully they will have that fixed soon and then hey can move back into the big house. They had 2 crews out yesterday clearing trees ~ mom said that when they are done there won't be a tree standing in the yard ~ what a shame. All of those trees were HUGE and provided so much shade ~ mom is going to have to re-do her flower beds for sun loving plants now instead of shade lovers. It's going to take some time, but eventually life will get back to normal ~ as normal as it ever is around there at least! I guess once power is restored and mom and dad can move back into the big house Bryan and Pam will take up roost in the garage apartment ~ if you know my dad and Bryan you know this scenario will make for MANY hysterical blog entries!

The Aftermath Part IV

Yesterday Scott sends me a text that read "And then he said let there be light" I was so excited I almost peed in my pants thinking he meant the power had come back on ~ I immediately texted him back (cell service is still very shotty, but text go through without a problem) and said "so you are going to get up early and come retrieve us right?". Not too terribly long after sending that my phone rang and he informed me not to get too excited as he was referring to generator power, not power coming from the pole ~ damn it man! I was sooooo excited thinking I was actually going to get to head home and start tackling the mountain of things waiting for me. Don't get me wrong, I am so very grateful that Cindy has taken this heard in and even given up her bedroom so the kids and I can stay in there, but I am just ready to go. Things to do! Although Cindy says we are welcome to stay until the lights are back on, I know she is secretly wishing that we would hurry up and leave so her life can get back to normal. She lives by herself with her dog normally, and now she comes home from work to another grown up, 2 kids, and 3 additional dogs! She does rather enjoy having "her bitch" here with dinner waiting upon her arrival though! Scott's friend Charlie came over yesterday and they wired the generator into the breaker box so there are truly some overhead lights working now ~ not everything in the house, certain rooms ~ he said it was every other breaker that is live, one of which is Hunter's room so that is where he has moved camp to so he can open the window AND have a fan ~ what a novel idea! So, still no electricity, and according to the map we SHOULD have it back by Monday night, but maybe "beyond Monday" ~ ugh! I am contemplating having him come retrieve us on Sunday in hopes that the lights will be back on by Monday night, but I know my luck and just as soon as I arrange that we will be without power indefinitely. I don't know what to do! The only thing I do know is that I left some baby shower invitations sitting on the desk that needed to go on the mail today ~ unfortunately I am not finished with them so it's not like Scott can take care of that for me ~ I thought about bringing them with me to finish while I was up here, but since we were so short on room I left them behind figuring I would be home by Monday at the latest ~ boy was I wrong! I was supposed to be hosting another baby shower this weekend ~ obviously that one has to be rescheduled ~ hope those babies stay within until after their soiree! Hunter's rescheduled birthday party also has to once again be rescheduled because the pools are now closed for the season ~ moving on to Plan C. There are also 10 bows waiting to be made for a lady in the neighborhood, and the list just goes on and on! I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed actually getting to just "sit" since I've been here ~ not that I don't do anything, but there is not nearly as much to do here as at my house. I'm not sure when the last time I just sat was? I would venture to say it was before Hunter was born! After Cindy gets back from work today I get to go to the grocery store ~ I'm so excited! An actual outing that doesn't involve little people! She had thought that she would just go on her way home, but then decided that I might like to go and get out of here ~ I jumped on the opportunity ~ it's my only chance for solitude at home too! My dad called yesterday just to make sure I hadn't slipped back into town ~ he calls every other day just to check my whereabouts. He informed me that I needed to keep his grandchildren away from this ~ that if Cindy got tired of me I needed to go to a hotel and if I couldn't afford one he would pay for it. Scott asked if he was going to pay for the dog's hotel too? Scott said the sewage is still bubbling up around the corner, but hasn't come into our yard yet ~ there have been pump trucks out there for 2 days and yet it still keeps on coming! Gross! He went to get the mail yesterday ~ which is close to where the sewage is bubbling up ~ and said as soon as you round the corner it slaps you in the face! How would you like to be living in that house with no electricity and needing to open the windows? I guess all of the hair would eventually burn out of your nose and you would no longer be able to smell it! Yuck!

No news on my parent's today ~ so they either killed each other ( my money is on mom commiting the murder) or there is nothing new to report. Mom said there was a crew coming in today to start removing all of the trees that fell in the yard.

Official "Mouse Property" Owners

We have officially joined the ranks of Disney Vacation Club Members. This is kind of like Disney's version of a timeshare, but it is more like pre-paid vacations. Unlike a timeshare where you buy a week in a specific unit, with the Disney thing you buy however many points you want and as long as you have points you can go. So you could use all of your points in 1 trip or you could use them over 2 or 3 trips or however many. We have looked into it several times and have always thought it was something we should do since we do go on a yearly basis, but just never did anything about it. Then we met some people who are also members and they kind of gave us the ins and outs of doing it and gave us a place where you can buy resales. Given the current state of the economy there have been a lot of points going up for sale at pretty cheap prices so we started watching them. One listed that was for 200 yearly points with 243 available to use before Dec. 1, and then on Dec. 1, there will be the 200 available for 2008 as well as another 102 that are left from last year ~ I would have to say these people selling it were hurting for money because they were dumping the thing ~ so we decided that this was a pretty good one to buy with all of the extra points that we would be getting for free. Since we were already going in November we figured we would just immediately rent out the 243 points that have to be used before Dec. 1, and pocket the money. Well as luck would have it turns out that the people who were selling it had already made a reservation with those points and had then cancelled it ~ another reason I say they were hurting for money ~ so now these points can only be used for last minute travel ~ you trip has to be within 60 days of making the reservation. Now this posed a problem for being able to rent the points out as the Food and Wine Festival starts Sept. 26, and goes through Nov. 9, and lodging during this time is scarce. We managed to get a reservation for Oct. 1 - 8, and tried to rent the reservation instead ~ didn't happen ~ Scott figures because it is for an entire week and a Wednesday - Wednesday deal ~ kind of strange vacation dates. Fortunately for us Scott has 5 weeks of vacation a year that he has currently only used 1 of so we decided that we would just go if we could find a cheap enough air fare rather than lose the points (not that we paid for them). We found an air fare and so it's off to Disney for an entire week on Oct.1. This will make 3 trips this year ~ good god! Hunter was pretty convinced that he had died and gone to heaven when we were just going 2 times this year ~ now he is positive that he has died and gone to heaven! We are actually pretty excited about this trip ~ we have never been in October so we will get to do the Epcot Food & Wine Fest as well as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party ~ something new. This will also actually be a relaxing Disney vacation ~ if you have ever been you are already well aware that the words "relaxing" and Disney World" do not go together. It is typically blowing and going the entire time you are there, but since we have already been once and will be going back again we can actually just have a lovely leisurely vacation. We are going to buy annual passes too so it's not like we even have to go to the parks everyday ~ you can spend a day hanging out at the hotel and not feel remotely guilty about it! Our "home" resort is Saratoga Springs, but you can make reservations at any of the vacation club properties ~ we will be staying at Saratoga Springs this time which we have been told has a FABULOUS spa ~ I think I am most excited about that part as I will definitely find my way there for a massage! Okay, so maybe I might be a little more excited about the Halloween party ~ it is after all my favorite holiday! Hunter is very excited about getting to trick or treat at Disney World ~ we have already gotten his costume and everything. Should be loads of fun, but I honestly have no intentions of going 3 times in a year again!

The Aftermath Part III

I have been able to keep up with what is going on in my neighborhood because of a Yahoo Women's Group I belong to. There had been emails coming out of the neighborhood up until about 2:30 AM Saturday and then all was quiet out of the neighborhood ~ the only things being posted after that were from people who had fled ~ obviously everyone who had stayed either no longer had a laptop or cell phone battery. Once electricity started coming back on though there have been some more post coming from the hood ~ one that came out last night was warning of a sewage backup issue. Since there is no power to the MUD districts there is no power to pump ~ oooohhhhh, gross! So they sent out a notice asking that you not flush toilets ~ if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down (courtesy of Meet the Fockers) ~ only take very quick showers when absolutely necessary, use a bowl to wash dishes, and if you have electricity NOT to do laundry. Someone had sent an email out earlier in the day offering to do people's laundry who still didn't have electricity ~ nice gesture until the ramifications of raw sewage backing up into your house because of it set in! They asked that you unscrew the sewage outlet cap that is located in the front yard so that at least it would bubble out into your yard instead of into your house ~ can you even imagine a house full of raw sewage? At that point I would have to tell Scott just to close all the windows, let the sewer gas build up, and then throw a match in an run like hell! I just can't imagine that is a smell you could possibly ever get rid of! So I forwarded the email on to Scott ~ all I can say is thank god for the Blackberry ~ so that he could pass that on to all of the neighbors since they are all still sitting in the dark. He informed me that he was already well aware of the sewage back up since it has been bubbling up around the corner from us since he got back Monday ~ he had already unscrewed our sewage outlet cap. Guess it's good he went when he did ~ otherwise we could very have very well come home to a house of poo ~ YUCK! A couple of emails have come out this morning reporting that they have seen pump trucks coming into the neighborhood so hopefully they will get this sewage thing under control. Scott FINALLY got a generator yesterday at 5:40 from the Humanitarian Assistance Group at work ~ it took him 1 hour and 10 minutes and 1/4 tank of gas to get 25 miles to the office to pick it up ~ since half of the traffic lights are not working the traffic was terrible. When he got back home he couldn't get the stupid thing to start so he spent the night in complete silence and darkness once again. He did get it going this morning though so he will be able to have some light or a fan tonight ~ he went and got 10 gallons of gas as well at about 6:00 this morning and ONLY had to wait 25 minutes to get that ~ record time since my neighbor waited 45 minutes yesterday.

I talked to my mom last night and they are also still without power so still shacked up in the garage apartment. The good news though is that Bryan and his family have moved out to a neighbors house down the street with a whole house generator. Great set-up except for the minor little detail that the wife doesn't like kids! I fear that this could very well be the end of this friendship! This house where they are is brand new and pristine ~ obviously no children ~ and I would be an absolute nervous wreck to have my kids shacked up there ~ I would undoubtedly be exploring what my other options were in this case. School is closed indefinitely in La Porte ~ I'm sure that Bryce's school probably went under water.

Up here in Big D I think my friend Cindy might like to slit her wrists ~ she is in Noggin hell! She has 2 TVs but the satellite receiver in the bedroom suddenly died Friday night ~ they are coming today to fix it ~ woo hoo! Anyway, the TV that is in the bedroom is ancient and so we couldn't hook a DVD player up to it to let Hunter go in there to watch his stuff ~ TV is his major source of entertainment at this point as we have no car or stroller for Maisie to go anywhere, and I can only stand so many games of Go Fish a day. Cindy has been wanting for about a year now to get a new big TV for her living room and being in Noggin hell was the perfect excuse to finally go buy one! Yesterday she came back from work with a shiny new 46" TV for the living room. We set it up and moved the one from the living room into the bedroom and hooked the DVD player up to it ~ because there was TV in the bedroom Hunter was actually in bed ON TIME last night ~ the first time that has happened since we got here. What a lovely little treat that was! Today he is happier than a pig in you know what because he has the TV box to play in ~ he has been in it since he got up this morning ~ hey whatever makes him happy! I almost bought him a bike when I was at Wal-Mart the other day so he would have something to do, but we don't have room to get it back home ~ between the 3 dogs, 2 kids, and 2 grown ups we are using all 3 rows in my car and just have a little space between the 3rd row and back door the put the bags we brought (which isn't much) and there is no way a bike would fit in that space.

I am so beyond ready to go home, but I know until we have power it is no place I want to be with these kids. Maisie either has a terrible cold or allergies ~ her nose and eyes are running like a faucet which make me think allergies ~ Hunter's nose is also running and he looks like he has been punched in both eyes they are so purple. They said on the news yesterday that the Ragweed is higher than it has ever been ~ could definitely explain the snotty noses! I also believe she is cutting her first 2 teeth which made for a VERY sleepless night last night ~ she would be right on track for them to come in ~ Hunter got his first 2 the day before he was 9 months old ~ she will be 9 months tomorrow. Can you imagine teething unhappy baby and no electricity to just make her even crabbier? Ugly thought! Hopefully we will be able to go home soon!

The Aftermath Part II

So today Scott packed up and headed out to go assess the damage for himself. Everyone we have talked to who has been there through this has assured us that we did not want to bring the kids back into it. My family rode out Hurricane Alicia in 1983 and it was MISERABLE in the following days! So, the kids, dogs, and I loaded him into the car and waved goodbye as he drove away and then came back into the lovely air conditioned comfort of Cindy's apartment. He is going to come back and pick us up once power is restored ~ poor Cindy! He rented a U-Haul trailer and stocked up on the things he knew he would need when he got back down there ~ new fence boards to rebuild our fence, gas cans and gas, and some shiny new coolers complete with 200 pounds of ice! I guess if he gets too hot he can always sleep in a cooler! He got home about 7:30 and immediately took all of the boards off the windows so he could open the them and also to have a little more light. Apparently parts of the neighborhood are getting power back, but they are pretty sure a tornado went through and did a lot of damage to the power infrastructure so Scott is still sitting in the dark at our house. He reports that the refrigerator in the house reeks ~ guess it would especially since there is still a gallon on milk sitting in it! GROSS! Had we not been packing up and leaving so quickly and totally last minute I would have at least cleaned the fridge out. I did have the foresight to empty out the ice maker and turn it off ~ that saved us some water on the floor at least. He said the inside of the house is alright, no water damage that he can see so we will assume that the roof suffered no damage ~ whew! He said he thinks he will pull the mattress from Hunter's bottom bunk off and put it out on the back porch to sleep tonight because the house is so hot inside ~ hope there aren't any new found snakes in the yard! I just talked to him and he was headed off to Home Depot to hopefully get some 2x4's that he will also be needing in the fence repair ~ apparently we didn't just lose boards the 2x4's snapped at the ground ~ lovely. I guess tomorrow will be a whole new day for him, but let me just say that he has just gotten there and is already less than impressed with the conditions! Imagine if we had never left ~ on that note thanks for the guilt trip mom!
And now on to the latest saga coming out of my parent's house. They have managed to hook a generator up to the garage apartment (probably about a 600 square foot apartment) and took the window unit air conditioners out of the garage and are running them up there so they are at least cool ~ all 500 of them currently residing in there are cool! Shacked up in this tiny little abode are my mom and dad and their 6 dogs, my brother and his family (wife, 7 year old daughter, and 2.5 year old daughter), and their 2 dogs! Talk about some cramped quarters! My dad said he slept out on the porch last night ~ can't say I blame him! Apparently the heat has just really done the 2 little girls in and they are quite unbearable ~ Bryce got a spanking last night before bed at the hands of my brother ~ my mom said it was only by him because he beat her to it! You know it has got to be bad when the grandmother starts threatening spanking ~ YIKES!
Over at my brother's house they went in and got all of the plywood off the windows so that they would have some light and be able to open the windows to start airing / drying the place out and mucking it out. Upon entry they discovered that the dog food bins had been floating around the house and left wet dog food everywhere ~ YUCK! My mom said that was just the icing on the cake to have wet nasty VERY STINKY dog food all over. They undoubtedly have a long remodel in their future ~ I guess they will be shacking up with my parent's during this process ~ I think we all know that this scenario will make for many entertaining blog entries!
On a more serious note we are all very thankful that we escaped with the minor damages that we did ~ it most certainly could have been far worse. We are all so very thankful and grateful that we all made it out and returned (most of us at least) safely. There is somebody up there looking after us!

The Aftermath

So today is a whole new day. We are still camped out in Dallas ~ thought we would try and head back South today, but we are under a sunset - sunrise curfew so we are not going to try and tempt it for fear that with the traffic (even though we will be headed back via back roads which adds time since it is not a direct route) that we will not get back before the curfew goes into effect. So we are more than likely going to head out under the cover of darkness around 5:00 AM and start making our way back. We are going to pick up a U-Haul trailer before we head back and load it with all of the stuff we are going to need ~ coolers full of ice, fence material (apparently we no longer have one), gas for the generators that we hope BP is going to come through with through their Humanitarian Aid program, etc.~ we have gotten reports that our house itself appears to be okay ~ we lost several trees, but fortunately none of them fell onto the house ~ lots of people have lost shingles and are taking on water in their house because of it, but my neighbor said that it looks like our shingle situation is okay ~ we are hoping that is the case at least! Guess we will see when get there. There is no electricity in the neighborhood and who knows when we will be getting it back ~ that is miserable, but at least a cold front has made its way down so that should help to make it not so miserably sweltering!
As for my parent's and brother's house they are trying to head back and survey the damage for themselves. Apparently in my parent's yard several trees have fallen and landed on the garage apartment ~ my dad probably helped that situation by starting to cut them at the base so they would fall and take the garage apartment out so none of us could possibly ever move back in there! For those who don't know all 3 kids have passed back through there after having moved out at 18. My brother was the first back, then I moved back after college ~ no sense in paying rent somewhere when I was gone 6 months of the year, that and I am so cheap, and then when my sister got divorced a couple of years ago she moved back in. Every time one of us has come back upon our departure my dad has threatened to pour gas on the joint to burn it to the ground! Their house appears to be alright from the outside ~ they don't think the surge actually made it all the way up the hill so unless it is flooded from rain because of a roof problem it sound like they may be alright.
My brother's house on the other hand is apparenty under 4 feet of water. They have 2 cars ~ a Trail Blazer with a million miles on it that they parked at my parent's house hoping it would perish with the surge and then a little Mazda 3 that is their reliable car and the newer one which they left parked in their own garage ~ they vacated the area in my parent's H2 since it is reliable and higher off the ground. As Murphy's Law would have it NOTHING happened to the Trail Blazer that needed to float away, but the Mazda is flooded! La Porte is continuing to flood today so the level of water is more than likely continuing to rise in my brother's house. That sucks!

Happy Birthday Monkey Boy!

5 years ago at this very moment Hunter made his great escape and changed our world forever! Now just given his timing for this great escape should have been my first clue as to just how stubborn he was going to be! My actual due date was September 24 ~ my OB assured me that first babies are RARELY EVER EARLY! Ha! At the time Scott was still working offshore and due to be home on this day ~ however since first babies are RARELY EVER EARLY we managed to swap his schedule around so that he would in fact be home on my due date ~ undoubtedly a move that worked against us instead of for us! You are also probably keenly aware that September is football season ~ my OB is a Coon ass and traveled back home for all of the home games ~ bet you already figured that this particular weekend was a home game ~ again great timing on Hunter's part! When I finally decided that I was indeed in labor, and that my water had broken, it was already dark so there was no getting Scott off the rig until the next morning ~ so here we have daddy MIA and OB also MIA ~ the two men who were supposed to be there for this event! Hunter was already defiant before he took his first breath! All of the guys on the rig kept telling Scott it was okay ~ the bright side of the situation was that by the time he got home Hunter would be all pink and clean ~ they had a point there! At 8:56 AM Hunter FINALLY made his debut ~ my water had broken at 2:30 the afternoon before so this was an all night affair ~ he weighed in at 7 lbs. 10.5 oz. and was 21 inches long ~ certainly not a scrawny little thing being that he was 11 days early! Could explain why he is such a mammoth today!

Fast forward 5 years and here we sit today ~ where have the last 5 years gone? I find that I ask myself this an awful lot ~ the time really does fly by and they are little for such a short period of it ~ it's almost like you've been robbed of time! I can't believe he is already 5 ~ at this pace he will be driving before I know it! I hope his driving skills improve as he ages ~ I have seen him drive on those video games with a steering wheel ~ YIKES! In all fairness he does drive his jeep quite well ~ it's just those virtual worlds that he is so frightening! At least I still have a little less than a year before he packs up and heads off to "real" school ~ although by the time he gets there he will be mistaken for a 2nd grader due to his size! The last 5 years have brought about many good times and many challenges, but the good times undoubtedly outweigh the bad ~ having little people definitely involves a very steep learning curve for the grown-ups in their world ~ just when you think you have them all figured out they throw you for a curve. Live and learn!

So my little monkey I wish you a Happy 5th Birthday ~ it is sure to be one you will never forget! The party was cancelled due to Ike and we are now celebrating the "official" day in Dallas with my surrogate family and making the best of it that we can! There will be cake, presents, and a fun filled trip to Chuck E Cheese, and then in a couple of weeks we will celebrate in the way we originally intended!

Hurricane Ike

So we have all fled for higher ground ~ Scott and I had no intentions of vacating the premises until my dad called at 11:30 Wednesday night and guilt tripped me and then my mom called at 5:00 AM Thursday to really pour the guilt on! At the time Ike, the "little bastard" that we have come to know him as, was supposed to hit Freeport ~ a mere 40 miles from our lovely little abode. We weren't concerned with the surge, just the wind and all of the flying debris was all of the construction sites ~ one of the joys of living in a under construction master planned community. My parent's and brother went to Livingston and we fled further north to Dallas where there was more room ~ it took us a mere 8 hours to make the normal 4.5 hour drive. Everyone made it to their location safely where we will remain until we are able to return ~ will probably be a much sooner return for Scott and I than the rest of my family. Currently on CNN they are reporting from my parent's neighborhood ~ 3 houses down from them to be precise. They have shown their neighbors boat house and the roof is almost under water and Ike is still 165 miles out ~ high tide has yet to occur, that happens in another hour. During Hurricane Alicia the storm surge came half way up the hill and it was ONLY 8 feet ~ they are expecting a surge of 17 feet at my parent's ~ they may very well come home to a slab upon their return. God help us.

Party Pooper

My little boy officially turns 5 on Saturday ~ I'm still looking for where exactly the last 5 years have gone? So this is the first year, since the day he crawled out from within that is, that his birthday actually falls on a Saturday and he WAS going to get to have his party that very day ~ you notice I say WAS! There seems to be a party pooper lurking out in the Gulf of Mexico that goes by the name Ike ~ what a little bastard he is! We have decided to go ahead and cancel and reschedule Hunter's soiree since it is a pool party and we figure there is no possible way that we are going to escape the rain. Now having said that, the damn thing is probably going to completely miss Texas and head straight for our friends south of the border! But, we all know about Murphy and his law and had I chosen to do nothing about rescheduling the party it would blow straight into our backyard! I guess better safe than sorry! We have been very lucky with the weather on all of Hunter's parties ~ good thing since everyone of them have taken place in the great outdoors! We thought we were going to get rained out when he turned 3 ~ a pirate themed bash on the beach at my parent's house ~ but we were spared and it was just very cloudy ~ made for a lovely temperature though. Guess you can't win them all!

Now as long as I am on the subject of my little boy turning 5 I guess I might as well go into what I have learned in the last year about being 4. I have mentioned this before and suggested that anyone who has not lived thorough 4 pack their bags and leave the country now! I have to say that 4 has been the toughest year we have had with Hunter ~ for the bulk of it is has been just downright ugly! I've said MANY times the kid is going to be lucky if he lives to see 5! If he can mange to hold out a few more days he will actually reach that goal! Actually he has been pretty good since May ~ it's like we FINALLY turned the corner of unpleasantry and made it back to a nicer, happier place. I said before that 4 is like 2 with a mouth ~ you get not only the defiance of a 2 year old, but then you add in a sassy mouth as a bonus feature! I am already learning about what you get with a 5 year old ~ the defiance seems to have fallen off the spectrum and has been replaced with all out sass! I can definitely deal with just the sass ~ it's when you couple multiple items together that their lives are in jeopardy! I'm hoping, and I use the term loosely, that this is temporary and we aren't going to endure it for the entire year ~ never fear, I'm not holding my breath! One of his little lady friends who turned 5 in May had an almost overnight change to the Queen of Sass. At the time I thought, okay so this is what you get with little girls ~ I had mentioned to Scott the major change that had taken place in the previous compliant body of Emily and he didn't believe me ~ actually I think he told me I was exaggerating. Then he got to deal with her one day and quickly came to the same conclusion. Well then just overnight the same thing happened to Hunter (so it's not reserved just for little girls) ~ it's crazy, almost like some alien being sneaks in their room in the night and removes your child and replaces them with an impostor. I guess this is the joy of being 5 ~ just when you think you have them all figured out they go and throw you for a loop!

Your Three Words

I love this segment on Good Morning America every Saturday - I find myself sitting there drinking my coffee with my eyes welling up half the time. Since I would hate to be the only one blubbering while I have my coffee, I have decided that I am going to start posting it every week so you can blubber right along with me! If you are unfamiliar with the segment the idea is that you describe your week in 3 words; they run a week behind, so this is the one from last week. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

A Dining We Will Go

So last night we loaded up the fam and headed out to one of those exotic places we don't get to go to very often - a restaurant WITHOUT a drive thru! You already know that if I am taking the time to blog about this experience that it must be good! I had a hankering for Smoked Sirloin so Texas Land and Cattle it was - not Ruth's Chris, but no drive thru either - somewhere perfectly acceptable to take in small children. Maisie had her first experience of sitting in a germy, nasty, public high chair (yuck) - I do own one of those things you put in the shopping cart and high chairs, but had failed to load it into the car. Actually I really hadn't planned on releasing her from her bucket seat until I recalled that the last time I fed her in the bucket seat she proceeded to pull an exorcist like moment and barf all over the place. So, the germy, nasty, public high chair it was (yuck). I had already given her some delectable treat from a jar and she was happily just sitting there playing with various things - a couple of toys I had brought, my sunglasses, the packets of Equal - hey whatever keeps her happy and allows me the opportunity to eat. I had a baked sweet potato with my dinner, which Maisie was eye balling (she LOVES sweet potatoes) so I figured I would let her have some of it too. She did alright on the first little bite, but I guess being that when a sweet potato comes straight from the skin it is not nearly as runny as those that come out of the jars. On her second bite she got choked up and I'll be damned if we didn't relive that whole exorcist moment! Barf went everywhere! And I was quick too, I saw it coming and put my napkin up to catch it, but it still went all over her and the floor below - I'm sure the poor man dining at the table directly behind us could have gone all year without that visual! Regardless, we got her and the floor cleaned up and continued on with our dinner. Now by this point Hunter was through with his dinner and had moved himself over to be closer to Maisie - she loves Hunter and likes to "talk" to him - you know how babies talk, it's not like they have a volume control. Scott informed Maisie she needed to shush or we were leaving - yeah, I'm sure that registered with her! I reminded him that she is 8 months old. Well, she continued to defy daddy's order and kept on talking - now it's not like the kid is screaming, she was squealing with delight, and again we were in a family restaurant. This just did Scott it - he jumps up and removes Maisie from the high chair to go and set her in his lap so she would be quiet. I told him he was being ridiculous and he informed me that people were looking. I said I don't care - she is 8 months old and she is talking, not screaming. I would NEVER in a million years allow my kids to sit in any kind of a restaurant, McDonald's included, and scream or run around like little apes, I would get up and take them outside or just have my dinner boxed up and leave (which I will add that we have done before with Hunter). A baby squealing with delight however I don't think constitutes offensive (which did not stop just because he removed her from the high chair). We were just about finished at this point so Scott inhaled what was left on his plate (now he knows how I feel) and decided that he would take the kids outside while I paid. As he was reaching across the table to get Hunter's glass of milk he sends it flying off the edge where it landed on the floor and exploded - did I mention that a family had just sat down at the table it exploded next to? Amazingly the cup was in an upright position, the lid had just popped off, so the mess wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. After Scott apologized to this family, and to the busboy who came out to clean up the mess, he decided that it was REALLY time to get moving towards the outside. As soon as he got up and started walking away from me Maisie started to scream (did I also mention she is a MAJOR mama's girl and appears to have some separation anxiety going on?). No that kind of noise is annoying and disruptive, that I will give him. By the time I paid and made it outside, Maisie was still screaming and Hunter had poked himself with a cactus and was moaning about that. He informed me that he needed me to buckle his seat belt because the hand he had poked with the cactus is the one he uses to buckle up with. When we got home I told him to let me look at it and it looked odd - a purple / red ring was around his finger. I squeezed his finger and he kind of grunted and then I touched somewhere and he jerked his finger away and started to cry. It was at that point I realized that the cactus was still stuck in his finger - no wonder it hurt! After a minor surgical procedure he was good as new and in the tub he went. All in all it was an exhausting dinner out - no wonder we don't do that real often - the beauty of the drive thru is becoming oh so clear!

R-Rated Candy Land (for strong language)

This afternoon Hunter and Scott sat down for a friendly little game of Candy Land while I was busy clearing out toys that Hunter no longer plays with. Now, if given the opportunity Hunter will cheat like you wouldn't believe! We don't let him get away with it, and we don't always let him win either - although in all honesty he usually smokes us at any of these games (especially memory - turns out mine is not so sharp anymore)! Anyway, back to the story at hand, Hunter had cheated when he turned over a card and didn't like what was on it so he tossed that one to the side and turned over the next one which moved him well ahead of Scott on the candy trail. Scott told him that he was cheating by doing that and if he was going to play that way then he wasn't going to play with him. Hunter agreed that he would play by the rules and so the game carried on. Hunter was getting pretty close to winning - Scott was definitely left behind in Hunter's dust when karma came a knockin'! It was Hunter's turn and he flipped over the card with the Gingerbread Man on it (for those of you not in "the know" the gingerbread man is at the VERY beginning of the board)! As soon as Hunter caught a glimpse of what was on the card all you heard was "ahhhhh SHIT!" and then like nothing had happened he moved his little green man back to the gingerbread space. I had to bail out of the room because I was laughing so hard! When I was finally able to regain my composure and head back into his room Scott was sitting there shaking from laughing so hard and the tears were just rolling down his face. At this point Hunter was mad because he thought we were laughing at him for having to go back to the beginning of the board. I informed him that what just happened was called karma - he looked at me with that "what you talkin' bout Willis" look so I explained that when he had cheated earlier in the game he opened up the door for karma to come in which is why he drew the gingerbread man card - had he not cheated that wouldn't have happened. Okay, so once again I will not be winning mother of the year for giving him that explanation, but I bet he will think twice before he cheats again!