Houston, We Have A Name

Yes, we do! But let's back up for a moment.

A few days ago, Mike told me that he was going to let my keep my kitty. Sil had originally named him Oliver- but I don't care for Oliver. I tried Ollie (yeah- not working), Monty (cute, but not really 'him'), Bonzai (too close to Bonsai Kitten- that site that had kitties in glass jars). This morning, I was reading a thread at Veggieville on kitty names, and came across...

Pumpkin! It's perfect! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Today, we are headed out to my parents' house for a cookout and bonfire. I've been looking forward to this for the last week, just a nice relaxing day at my parents' place. I'm bringing Rosie- this should be interesting! My parents are putting their dogs in a pen for the day, so it should be ok, but the last time that I took Rosie out there, Wilson terrorized her.

It could be a long day- my kids are already acting up.

Delightfully Sinful

I made a healthy supper last night- chicken cilantro and cucumber wraps. With fresh cucumber (I love fresh cucumber). Very good, and- amazingly- very filling. Then I went and ruined my nice healthy supper with these.

S'mores Dessert Squares from the Kraft website. Holy cow are they good! My dad will love this recipe. He believes that the only way to eat pudding is with Nilla Wafers. I agree (my mom thinks that we're both nuts). The toasted marshmallows, imho, are the best part of this dessert. I'm going to be making this for the Memorial Day cook out at my parents' place- two batches of it, because it didn't last long in our house.

Yesterday was a long, busy day for me. We went grocery shopping, and stocked up. It feels good to actually have food in this house again! Then- Mike took Cody and Dylan to the fish store to buy new fish for his fish tank. Now we have the 'I'm obnoxious' fish from Finding Nemo and a Snowflake Eel to go with the clownfish and gromma and starfish that we already have. Finally- Dylan and I took Rosie out to my parents' place to meet the dogs and see how they get along, as well as to do some laundry.

Yeah, it didn't go over too well. Poor Rosie- she's terrified of Wilson. They weren't hurting her, just barking at her and it scared her. Not sure if I'll bring her out on Sunday or not. Dad's building a pen for Asia and Pepper, and Wilson will be in the house, so I might just bring her out, anyway. Rosie will have to be tied up (I don't want her catching a scent and taking off).

We bought Dylan new shoes yesterday. We are now on our third pair of the exact same Thomas the Train shoes. He's so cute- he wore his shoes to bed, then slept with them beside him. As soon as he woke up this morning, he put them on.

There was something else that I was going to say, but I've only had one cup of coffee this morning and am still a little fuzzy. Oh, yeah- tomorrow is Cody's last day of school! Today is the End of Year party for the kindergarten classes, and Cody's looking forward to it. He's looking forward to summer, too. I'm looking forward to summer. I'm weird like that, I guess.

Cows, Train Whistles, And Birthday Party Strip Teases

Today started with a first.

My kids were dressed and ready to go before anyone arrived at our house. Because of this, we arrived at the restaurant a half hour early. But hey- that's ok. While we waited, we saw a cow in front of a nearby grocery store. Yes- a cow. Or rather, a woman dressed as a cow. Now- my mom loves cows. She collects them, moos at them, just all around loves cows. If it's cow print or has a cow on it somewhere, she has it. So you can imagine what we thought when we saw the woman dressed as a cow- we need to get Mom's picture taken with her.

She was raising money for the VFW (ya know, those poppy flowers), but the point is- she's dressed like a cow. Mom doesn't want her picture taken with the cow, but she wanted the kids to get their pictures taken with said cow. Except... the kids didn't want to do it unless Mom and Aunt Jess did as well.

So- we now have this picture of everyone with a cow (except me and my dad).

When it's time for his party, we go inside and the kids are in awe. There's a train set! There's a train going around the top of the room! Let's chase the train and see where it goes! Look! Video games! Let's play! Give me money, Grandpa! Look that the food! Look! There's a train on the counter! It has food on it! Look! They're getting their food on a train! Cool!

We get settled into the party room- and the kids don't want to stay in there. They want to play games, look at the trains, and eat. We order, sit down, and wait. The kids each got a free cup and a wooden train whistle. Imagine that- five train whistles. FIVE. All blowing at once. Luckily, every kid gets a free train whistle (regular customers get plastic- apparently, when you're spending so much on a birthday party, you get the wooden ones), so my kids really weren't bothering anyone. But still- five train whistles, going at the same time.

So- the kids ate. And they got a kick out of the train delivering their food. We decided to go and open presents next, and wait on the ice cream. Just easier that way. We get everyone inside the tiny little room (which was really the only bad part about this), and we start opening gifts. He gets pull back cars from the movie Cars, a glider that is longer than he is tall, a Thomas the Train bean bag chair (which, of course, he had to sit in while he opened the rest of his presents), Spongebob underwear (he was EXCITED about this), die cast cars from the movie Cars, a tackle box for his die cast cars, a Cars playset, a Spiderman inflatable tent, a bike, and a cool outfit with matching hat.

Dylan opens the bag with the outfit in it, and gets excited (I know that this is the last year that he'll be excited about getting clothes for his birthday). He then starts unbuttoning his shirt and tells me that he wants to wear his new shirt. Yep- my four year old son did a strip tease in the middle of his birthday party. Luckily, it was only the shirt and hat that he wanted to wear.

I got some cute pictures- but I think that my camera is on it's last leg. Even with the flash, the autofocus doesn't want to work all that well on it. So- I'm saving my pennies to get a new camera, all by myself.

I really like this one of Dylan with my dad, taken right before we opened presents. He's so happy to be wearing his conductor's hat and having his party at a train themed place.

Midnight

I'm contemplating a quiet house. I can hear the fish tank bubbling behind me, the hum of my computer, the buzzer on the dryer as it stops, Mike's occassional cough as he browses websites. The boys are sleeping, and I'm sitting here contemplating.

Four years ago, on this very night, I was packing my bag for the hospital. We had to get up early- I was being induced at 7 that morning. Dylan Thomas entered the world at 504pm, weighing 6lbs, 4oz. Today- he's a thriving four year old.

So- I've collected and interesting bunch of Dylan stories that I'm going to share.

First up- The Infamous Printer Story And How Dylan Got Locked In The Car Three Years Later. Yeah, that's an old blog of mine. And yes, I still deal with printer jokes on a regular basis.

Dylan has a slight speech delay. I'm the one that has to translate for him, because unless you've spent a lot of time around him, you can't understand a word that he's saying. Last Christmas, Mike made buckeyes- these really good peanut butter and chocolate candies that will add ten pounds just by looking at them. While Mike was making them, Dylan asked me if he was making 'buh heads'. I thought that it was funny- Dylan wanted to know if Daddy was making butt heads. So I sent him in there to ask Mike. He asked Mike. Mike told him that he was. So now- we have butt heads at Christmas and not buckeyes.

This is a new one- on Saturday, I was out at my parents', washing clothes. Mom and I are sitting at the table, talking. Dylan comes over to get some cookies from me. Dad walks into the room, leans down and says 'Tell Grandma that you're a boy and you pee standing up.' Dylan giggles, looks at me, looks at Grandpa, looks at Grandma. I tell him to go ahead and say it. He giggles some more and gets this evil look in his eye. I should have known what was coming, but I didn't.
Dylan looks at Grandma and says 'Grandpa says I a boy and he's a duh ass.' Translation: 'Grandpa says that I'm a boy and that he's a dumb ass.' I about fall out of my chair laughing, my mom- who didn't understand what he says 'you are? That's great!' I continue to laugh hysterically. Dad puffs out his chest and says 'Yes, you're a big boy and you pee standing up!' I'm still laughing. My parents are looking at me funny. It took me a few minutes, but finally, I was able to spit out, between giggles, that he did not say that. They ask what he said- and I told them that he called Dad a dumb ass. (in my best Conan voice: I'm gonna go to hell when I die). Yeah, great mommy moment there, especially when I had a hard time keeping from laughing when I tried to explain to him that we don't call our grandparents dumb asses.

Shortly after Dylan finally potty trained, my parents installed a new toilet in our bathroom. Dylan now swears up and down that this is HIS POTTY and he got is because he's a big boy. I hadn't heard much about it being his potty for a few weeks, until the other night. Mike's friend Ed had stopped by, and Dylan decided that he just had to show Ed his new potty. I'm watching TV in the living room, and hear from the bathroom: 'See! My potty!' 'Cool!' 'Wanna see me pee in it?' 'Uh, no, dude, you can pee by yourself.' Poor Ed.

Life with Dylan is pretty interesting. It can be trying at times (his favorite phrase lately is 'I no like you, Mommy' and usually comes when I tell him that he can't have a sucker, or he has to go to bed), but it's worth it when he decides that he needs a hug and a kiss. I take them while I can get them.

Check Out TDC Today!

Stop by TDC today for a sale, chats, crops, games, a Treasure Hunt, and Prizes!


Hope to see you there!

Announcing....

The newest members of my creative team!

*Drumroll*

Carla G.

Dorothy M.


Johanna B.


Justine H.


Marie D.


Traci B.

The decision wasn't easy- and I ended up taking six instead of the intended five. Thank you to all who applied- and congrats to the six that made it!

Seven Stitches And One Helluva Black Eye

Kindergarten brawl over the water fountain? Nope. What happens when you tackle a porcupine? Guess again. What happens when you smart mouth your mother? Ok, now that one was a little harsh, and NO it did not happen.

This is what happens when you add slip on wet floors at a fish store. You get seven stitches and one helluva black eye.

I knew- KNEW- that Cody was accident prone. The kid is just like me, in that aspect. I'm starting to understand why my mother didn't want to take me places when I was his age- she was afraid that someone would call DCFS on her.

I spent yesterday evening in a panic- I wanted to be there, but knew that it was ridiculous for me to even drive to the hospital (forty minutes away), when I knew that all that I would do is make him nervous. He did great- told them that it didn't hurt, even when they were putting the stitches in. He's just like his father- things like this don't bother him. Although I'm still trying to figure out the child that screams 'it's broken!' when he scrapes his knee, yet wasn't bothered by them putting stitches on his face (near his eye, no less).

But- he's fine. I'm keeping him home from school today, just because he had a hard day yesterday. Tomorrow, he'll go to school and then to Wal*mart with Aunt Sam. What is bothering him is two things- first, he wants to know why Daddy couldn't take Dylan with him to the pet store and second, he's upset that he might not get to play in his first soccer game on Saturday (we're still going). I told him that he's lucky. When I was his age, I stepped on a piece of glass and ended up with something like six stitches in the bottom of my foot. I couldn't walk, couldn't go to school, had to crawl to the bathroom. I spent a week on the couch, watching TV. I didn't bother to tell him that scars add character and it's quite possible that some girl is going to swoon over his scar (hey, I still think that Mike's scar on his eyebrow is sexy).

Other than that- things are ok. The Ultimate Digi Scrapper contest started last night. I have one layout done, but am working on another. I know that I can only submit one, but I'm going to go with the best out of the two. I couldn't choose between two pictures- so I'm doing them both. 370 some odd people signed up for this. Over 170 will be eliminated after the first round, leaving an even 200. I'm hoping that I'm one of those two hundred. Screw the challenge aspect- I want to win!