Offline

Some part of our house or yard was struck by lightning Saturday night. It knocked out our cable, security, phones, irrigation, coffee pot, etc. As of Sunday night we still didn't have internet access. (I'm typing this on Kevin's Blackberry.) So if you don't see any new posts this week, now you'll know why. Hopefully, we will be back online soon so I can share our pics and stories from our beach vacation last week.

Music

Ok so in the 80's (here we go again) it seemed like there were probably 25 or so popular musicians and bands from all different genres. Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, The Police, U2, George Strait, AC/DC, The GoGos, Prince, Stryper and a few more. It was easy to keep up.

Now? Not so much. With the invention of the internet (thanks, Al Gore), Napster, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and iTunes, there are new bands and musicians popping up all the time. Some of the really cool and hip blogs that I visit also have music. I should look into that for this blog. I hear the songs and think, "Hmmmm....I wonder who is singing that?" Then when I look on their nifty little song thingy, I see a name I don't even recognize. People like Amos Lee or Brooks Fraser or Patty Griffin or Priscilla Ahn or Uncle Kracker. I can't keep up. It makes me feel out of the loop. But I love the fact that all these people are getting to live their dreams of being a rock star. But there are so many rock stars, I'm not sure anyone will be as famous as Michael Jackson.

Is there a point to this post? Because if there is I hope I hurry up and make it. I think this summer sun is doing something to my brain.

Allow me to take you back to my Louisiana roots. Hold your questions until the end of the video.

No, it isn't a Cajun Milli Vanilli. Yes, that really is the white boy singing.
Luke loves this song. I think the beat draws him in.

Don't Mess With Me

Even though I have boys, I thought I would have one of those peaceful, gun-free homes.

Well, now that we own a cap gun, an AirSoft gun, a bow and arrow, and a slingshot, I've given up on that idea. I'm embracing life with boys.

This is what Kevin came home with last week.

So back off. I have a pretty good aim!

If You Give a Mom A Muffin

If You Give a Mom a Muffin

If you give a mom a muffin,
She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
So she'll pour herself some.
The coffee will get spilled by her three year old.
She'll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she will find some dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do some laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She'll trip over some snow boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper for tonight.

She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With a Pound of
Hamburger.)
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill which is due tomorrow.
She will look for the checkbook.

The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two year old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the two year old.
While she is changing the two year old the phone will ring. (Of course!)
Her five year old will answer it and hang up.

She remembers that she wants to phone a friend to come over for coffee on
Friday.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
She will pour herself some.
And chances are,
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

Written by Kathy Fictorie

Based on If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

Luke's Favorite DVD

One day Fletcher is going to ask Luke, "What was that dumb video you always wanted to watch in the car?" Luke won't remember the name. So here are the details for both of you.

We have a DVD player in our new van. We had one in the Pilot too. We only use it on longer trips to watch movies. Luke has one video he loves. Just one. And he asks to watch it every single time we go on a trip. But one viewing is not enough. He asks to watch it over and over again. It's called "I Love Big Machines." Does it have a plot? No. Does it have characters? Not really. Is it funny? Not exactly. So what is it?


Yep. That's it. Just a bunch of big machines doing some work with a few cheesy songs thrown in including the theme song, My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean and Boom Boom Ain't It Great to Be Crazy. But that was only one minute. This thing lasts for an entire hour.

Fletcher seriously cannot stand it when Luke asks to watch it. Now you know why. He pleads, "Not again. Please, Mom. Not again. We've already watched this one a hundred times." Then he moves into Jedi mind trick mode, "Luke, don't you want to watch Toy Story. It is so funny." But in Luke's world, a long trip in the car = at least one viewing of this video.

I'm sure by the time the boys are older we will have worn out the DVD. Hopefully, Luke will be able to find a copy of it on ebay to give to Fletcher's kids for Christmas.

Books of the Bible

Be sure to catch the 1:08 mark where Luke tries to make a joke. He's saying "Matthew, Mark, Checher(Fletcher) and John".

You Are For Me

Some days I just need to be reminded of this over and over again.
(Song starts at the :49 mark.)

Throwback Thursday

I haven't done a Throwback Thursday in awhile. Recently, one of Kevin's colleagues from back at his St. Joe days was in our area and stopped by for dinner. He is a professional photographer and he brought us a disk of some pictures he took of us several years ago.

The company Kevin worked for would ask employees and their families to be in the photo shoots for their annual reports and marketing brochures. We did this several times and I could probably fill a week's worth of blog post of stories from the shoots. Everything from drama queen makeup artists to wardrobe malfunctions. Sometimes they used the photos. Sometimes they didn't. We still got paid a small stipend for doing it. It was usually fun and was a crazy way to spend an afternoon or morning or evening depending on when they needed to do the photos.

Kevin walked down this path several or eight times to get these shots. They are probably my favorites from the day.

My eyes are super sensitive to the sun (I've worn contacts since the 6th grade). When I am outside without my sunglasses, I squint. The photographer took 100s of pictures and in almost all of the pool ones I am squinting. Once again, we're not professionals. I remember the tea was unsweetened. Blech!

These were done in the summertime and that was a wool sweater they gave me to wear. I'm not sure what kind of look the hair/makeup person was going for with my hair and Fletcher's hair, but she was way off. Fletcher was not interested in smiling or doing anything they wanted him to do. Kevin and I were trying to think of anything to get him to smile or laugh.
The horse pictures were a little stressful. I haven't spent much time around horses and I think this horse could sense that. Sure I'm smiling in the first picture, but you can see by my expression in the second picture that I was not having any fun.

Some of the images were taking forever to upload so I went with the smaller versions.

Mr. GQ in the barn.

Can you stand the cheesiness? It was like prom all over again.

Plan B

Today my boys learned the meaning of Plan B.

Twice.

Our theaters here have free kids movies during the summers on Tues, Wed, and Thurs. We invited one of Fletcher's friends and decided to go see Monsters vs. Aliens (a movie they haven't seen yet even though it has been out awhile). We get to the theater and I notice a few moms and kids are walking out instead of walking in. "That's odd," I thought. Then when we went inside the ticket taker told us that the free movies were sold out. Oh the irony. Free and sold out. What a disappointment. I think lots of daycares and daycamps in the area have clued in on these free movies and bring their kids by the busloads. I was very proud of my boys and their friend because they were ok with it once I explained what was going on. We ended up going back to the friend's house and they watched Toy Story 2 and ate popcorn together.

Later after naptime we decided to meet our friends at the pool. We packed the car and drove to the pool. We are about to let the kids jump into the water when we hear thunder in the distance. Wait. Don't get in yet. More thunder. So we let the kids play on the playground which is right next to the pool hoping that the storm would go away. Next up lightning. Ok. Scratch the pool plan. Scratch the playground plan. Anyone up for Chick-Fil-A for dinner? Once again they took things in stride, gulped down some chocolate milk and all was ok.

In the car we were able to talk a little bit about how we make plans, but things don't always happen the way we want them to. But God is always in control and His plans can never be thwarted. Job 42:2.

On that same note, I know we replaced Plan A with a few fun alternatives (watching a movie at a friend's house and going to Chick-Fil-A) because it happened to work out that way. However, I don't always think there has to be a replacement. Sometimes it's ok for kids to just live with the disappointment.

Splash!

Fletcher just finished swimming lessons. He took 8 lessons over the course of about 3 weeks with an instructor at a nearby neighborhood pool. He knows how to get around just fine in the water by mostly swimming underwater. I really wanted him to learn the correct way to breath and move his arms and legs because he ends up flopping around and expending alot of energy and not getting very far. He did a great job learning and she was a wonderful teacher. They worked on his freestyle, backstroke, treading water, floating, water safety and diving. She even taught him some breast stroke too. I wanted to get more video of him, but he knew I was filming and he wasn't concentrating so I had to put the camera away.



Now he just needs to practice what he's learned.

If she has room in her schedule, we are going to do two or three lessons for Luke too just to see how he does with her. He loves the pool and has no problem going under the water. She said those are the kids that can learn the most since she doesn't have to spend tons of time getting them comfortable with getting their faces wet.

Costumes

Our boys have a big orange costume bin. All the Halloween costumes go in there plus other costumes I've picked up along the way at consignment sales. We have everything from super heroes to Star Wars to pirates to Japanese warriors.

Luke is just now getting into the costume stage. Before church, this is what he put on:

In case you can't tell, it included a Peter Pan hat, a super hero cape, Kevin's tie*, Fletcher's Japanese warrior kimono made out of a tshirt, Mom's wrist guard** from my rollerblading days, and a pocket Bible. *I don't want anyone making any false assumptions. Kevin no longer wears ties. This is the one they use when they are pretending to be like Daddy which is ironic since Kevin doesn't wear ties to work or to church or to mow the yard. But I don't correct them. **I've gotten alot of mileage out of those wrist guards. Both boys love wearing them. They fit their little wrists and they like to pretend the plastic part shoots lasers or spider webs depending on who they are dressed up as.

I'm not sure who he was trying to be, but he was very proud of himself. (I'm also not sure where his shorts were.)

Even though he pitched a fifteen minute all out screaming, crying, wailing fit tonight because he didn't want to leave the pool, I still love this age. And I love him too.

This Part Is A Little Tricky

I asked Luke to go potty before we left for an errand. He did great on the "pull down the pants" and "potty" parts. However, that is his Cookie Monster underwear up around his waist. I'm not sure where his shorts were right at that moment. He was happily washing his hands like nothing was wrong. Kevin went in to help him and Luke was so proud of himself for doing everything all by himself.

I realize I posted three almost identical pictures. I figure someday he is going to die when he sees these anyway whether it's one or three so why not have triple the fun. Yes?

Here We Go

I am not good at home decorating. At all.

I try not to compare, but I see catalog photos or pictures of other people's houses and start to feel inadequate.

We moved into our current house the day we brought Luke home from Florida.

Literally.

I had a newborn in one arm and rooms full of boxes everywhere.

It was a little overwhelming to say the least. Unpack, feed, change, sleep, repeat.

I tried to put together a few "decorative" things here and there, but nothing major since I'm not sure what goes well together. I also acknowledge the fact that I have two boys. Two boys who like to have light saber fights in the living room. And wrestle. And jump on the furniture when mom is not looking. Those reasons alone are why we have nothing on the coffee table, nothing on the end tables and no lamps. Luke shattered one of them when he first started learning to walk. I learned my lesson quickly. I need functional, fun, durable, not fussy, but cute and stylish. That's overwhelming too! I enjoy the searching and shopping part when I know what to shop for. Therein lies the problem.

Well, help is on the way. I hope.

A former college student from our college ministry days got her degree in interior design and she is starting her own virtual design consulting business. I love her as a person. Really like her sense of style too. So I'm going to try her services. I'll send her room dimensions, photos, likes and dislikes, what has to stay, what can go and she'll send me an assessment, suggestions for furniture placement, accessories, etc.

I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully, with before and after pictures.

Goats On The Roof

I think the name says it all.

We made a quick trip to GA to visit Grandma and Papa Charlie. While we were there, we took the boys to this great place.

The goats hang out on the roof and you can buy goat feed and send it up to the roof and feed them.

Exhibit A.

Lots of fun stuff inside the store too like this saddle.

And this silly bear hat and walking stick.

There were even some baby goats who are not allowed on the roof yet.

Pedal the bike; send the bucket up to the roof.

Feeling the horns on the baby goat's head.

Fletcher sending food up to the goats.

Hello Mr. Bear.

Choo! Choo! Or I guess a goat would say Chew! Chew!

The boys also "panned for gold" where "gold" is defined as various gems. They really had fun with this. Luke especially enjoyed playing in the muddy water. But it took him a minute to realize that he was not supposed to throw the gems into the water. Silly boy.

Back To The Future

Ok so I fell for it.

Someone posted on their Facebook status that yesterday (July 5, 2010) was an important day. This was supposedly the day Doc programmed into the time machine in the Delorean on Back To The Future. I loved those movies!

I thought that was very cool until I realized that wasn't right. It caused quite a twitterstorm and quickly became one of the most popular Google searches of the day. Apparently, Doc was preparing to set his time machine 25 years into the future which would have been October 26, 2010 but never got the chance since the Libyans caught him first.

In part 2 they go to October 15, 2015.

Some think the confusion came from the fact that the movie was released on July 3, 1985 so Saturday was its 25th anniversary. Who knows.

The actress who played Marty's girlfriend did turn 44 on July 5, 2010.

Ok, I think that's enough trivia for today. Or yesterday.

We still have five years for someone to come up with a hoverboard.

Happy 4th

There's nothing like a small town parade to start the festivities.

The Shriners.

The floats.

The red, white and blue clothing.

The one day a year where we encourage our children to play with fire.

Popscicles.

American flags.

White Men Can Dance

No one ever told me how loud little boys can be.

They like to watch a youtube video of scenes from the Top Gun movie set to Kenny Loggin's Danger Zone song. Feel free to draw your own conclusions as to where they might have learned their dance moves.

Thank you, Tom Cruise.

Sah-weet

It's official. I have now joined the ranks of the mini-van driving soccer moms. However, I would like to point out that my kids aren't really into soccer and I'm fine with that.

We loved our Honda Pilot, but we realized collectively we are just too tall for it. When Kevin pushes the driver's seat all the way back so he can drive, Luke has 1.2 inches of leg room. This of course causes him to kick the back of the seat. Constantly. Also, since we carpool during the school year, access to the third row seats in the Pilot is incredibly difficult with two car seats strapped in place.

So we shopped around and waited until the very end of the month.
We found this 2007 Honda Odyssey EX-L with 41,000 miles, leather interior and DVD player for a great deal. It seats 8 if needed and the middle seat in the 2nd row comes out for easy access to the third row.

And even though this is for the Toyota Sienna, I thought it was very appropriate.