I married Superman!!!

Did you get that? I did I promise! And I have proof...for the last few months Sterling has been training (A LOT) to do a triathlon with his buddy Kurt. So much training in fact that Kurt's wife Linda and I had to create the WoTA support group, (the Wives of Triathletes Anonymous) to help each other survive. We pulled through it all no worse for the wear and the guys were AweSomE!!!

Linda, her three boys, Lil Man, Max, and I all parked our booties next to the route with our posters and snacks to cheer on our stud muffins. It was a little tricky to pick out our two guys in the sea of sweat and spandex, but we did spot them at each transition and attempted to get some pics/video as they breezed past.

First off was the swim: Sterling and Kurt were in the Novice wave of athletes so they started 20 minutes after the super-mega-live-only-for-races-Olympic-racers. They got a little nervous watching as 2 of those racers were coming into the docks before their heat began (that means swimming a full mile in under 20 minutes...are you kidding me!?!) but they were chugging down the Goo and ready and rarin' when they heard the airhorn signaling their start. Unfortunately Sterling has a habit of trash-talking and it got him into a HUGE brawl with another swimmer in his group and he ended up with a bloody nose...ok really in the swimming portion of the race it is a mass of bodies kicking and paddling for their lives and Sterling got kicked in the face about 300 meters in (3-4 minutes in, nice start eh?). But did that stop him? No way! Superman would never let a bloody nose and massive headache stop him so neither did Sterling...onward and upward to the next leg!

Biking!! This is My man's favorite. No injuries were sustained in this part of the race, but I do have to brag about what a great guy he is. The biking leg of the race is 25 miles, at around 15 miles Sterling saw a guy who had blown a tire and was WALKING, carrying his bike the last 10 miles back to the transition area. My Uber Man of a hubby not only stopped to help him, but gave him his pump and his own spare tube! A regular modern day Samaritan huh? Enough bragging by me, he's gonna get all embarrassed :)

Last was the running leg of the race. This consisted of a 10k going along country roads (watchin out for cow patties) with many, many hills. Not my idea of a good time but he loved it. Luckily they ran past us at the halfway point so we got to hold up our signs again to cheer him on and grab a high five. And then the finish line...YEah DaddY!! (see I told you I had proof! And I defy any of you to try to get a better video while holding a puppies leash that is trying to run away, ans also holding onto a 5 yr old that is trying to get away in the opposite direction)

We has so much fun with our great friends the Olssons, thanks for putting up with us guys!! The boonies just wouldn't have been the same without you...

We'll share more pics and such of other events of the trip, but for now it's all about our FanTabUlous Daddy and his dedication and perseverance! We are sooooooooooo proud of you daddy!

WE LOVE YOU!!! :)

Heeeeeeere fishy, fishy, fishy!

Last summer Lil man was a bit...let's just say nervous, about swimming. It typically involved a life jacket, a kickboard, my arm, goggles, and the top step covered in only a foot of water. I just kept hoping the fear would go away with extended and repeated exposure but no such luck. Then this summer hit. First attempt at the beach (as previously mentioned) he suprised me by not only getting in himself with only a life jacket, he also juMpeD in from the side!!! Granted he jumped because I promised him a dollar and he'll do just about anything for a dollar, but he still did it.
Then lately we have been going to the neighborhood pool and he has really come out of his swimming shell...it's fantabulous! He suddenly wanted to be wandering around the pool without any flotaion devices, he stayed pretty close to the edge and only in the shallow end but still...then he stared venturing away from the wall...and suddenly one day I got this:

Then last week he grew uber brave and did this (about 100 times):

He was doing cannonballs, pencils, can openers, and "super hero twist flops" C'mon, admit it, THAT is pretty awesome that Lil man is jumping off the board into 12 FEET of water, and not only that but he is pausing mid jump to pose for photos. I lub him!!!!!

So, did any of you get the Sesame Street reference there in the title? If not go here and pay special attention to around 1:06 of the clip, yes I know I am random.

Future Public Speaker (unlike mommy)

Lil Man was assigned to give a talk in church and he took it VERY seriously. He has given talks before but has never wanted to be so completely independant when doing it (as in "Mom this is my talk not yours so I need you to give me some space to type" and "Why are you telling me what to write? I know what my brain wants to say"). He wrote the whole thing himself, looked up statistics on the computer, found pictures he wanted to use, and when there wasn't a picture he was looking for he just drew one. He did ask me if I would hold his pictures for him during the actual talk since he thought it would be hard to find his place if he had to keep track of the pictures too, however he was VERY specific about how to hold them and which words in the talk were my cue to change pictures. Lil man insisted we practise at least 10 times before church on sunday morning to make sure I wouldn't mess up (I think I did pretty well considering the pressure he was putting on me). He did a fantabulous job giving his talk complete with dramatic pauses and gestures toward the pictures being referenced, and he only swallowed the mic one time. I was the proud mommy up there with him yesterday although I probably made fool of myself getting all teary eyed over a talk that lasted a minute and a half. I am so grateful that his confidence in himself is growing. This summer has really been great in that department, he has been trying new things and not getting as frustrated when they are hard or he can't do them the first time. I love it!!
Since we can't exactly videotape in church we had Lil Man re-create his talk when we got home to share with all our friends and fam that are too far to see it in person (sorry if that is weird of me :) ). By the time we taped this he was pretty much over it, ready to change out of sunday clothes, and really hungry so it isn't quite as enthusiastic as the original, but you can get the gist of it. Please excuse the screeching birds, Davis calling us, and the ring tone going on in the background I only had one take. Oh yeah, and he insisted on holding the mic, it's just not a real talk with out it. (Just pause the music on the sidebar to hear it...sorry)

A Pig Just Flew Past my Window...

Say what you want...the devil just hit me with a snowball, a monkey just crawled out of my nose, etc., etc., but anyway you say it, it happened. After 8 years many, many promises, and lots of guilt trips my husband finally.........(wait for it)........TOOK ME SAILING!!!!!! Yes you read that right he finally bit the bullet and took me out on a boat with sails that is wind powered!! And it all happened on our 7 year anniversary too. How Romantic eh?

Now, I wasn't completely convinced it would happen (especially since what should have taken 5 minutes to get the boat in the water took 30 due to issue after issue, and and almost broken boat piece) so I wasn't fully prepared with a camera and a notary to document the occasion but I imagine we looked somewhat like the happy people on this boat, if you added a cute 5 year old and a very attractive 18 yr old girl (yup my sis Janelle) as extra passengers. We had a blast!!!

Lil Man especially loved it. We dropped him off the back of the boat with a rope and let him body ski. We were actually going pretty fast but Lil Man rocked it out and only let go once when it got too "splashy". So instead of having him hold the ropes we rigged up a system to an extra life jacket that was on the boat (don't worry moms out there he had his regular one on so he was safe and sound the whole time!) and let him hold onto that. He was born to be in the water that is for sure!

Yeah for us! Yeah for Daddy! Here's to the next eight years before our next adventurous voyage!! Just kidding Daddy!!! (kind of..........)

The Beachy Beacherton...very looooong

Guess I am on a roll...look at me posting 2 two days in a row! I am giving my self a pat on the back.

Anyway, let's bounce back again and meet some of the grooviest people around Uncle Austin, Aunt Katherine, and our hero's cousins Jayde, Simone, and Haven..they rocked our summer! This fantabulous five-som invited us to go on an adventure with them to The Outer Banks for an entire week...an entire week in a a fancy house right on the beach with a million bedrooms, 3 huge jacuzzi tubs, pool, heck this place even had an elevator! (never mind that the mom's had a tricky time figuring it out) We felt extremely spoiled!!!

We arrived at the beach late at night, and immediately got stuck on the one road leading to the house. We were beginning to get annoyed until we saw a helicopter lift off from the road and med-evac (what we learned later to be) 2 people. Scary start huh? Don't worry it was all happy happy joy joy once we got to the house. In order to preserve memories but not bore the crap out of you I will attempt to summarize each day in Limerick format...Ready???

Day 1:

There once were some kids at the beachy

Not burned yet their skin still looked peachy

In the pool most they played

O'er the sand the wind stayed

So the Ocean they didn't quite reachy.

(it was REALLY windy which made us not want to deal with sand in eyes and complaints of the cold...we walked on the sand but didn't dive in! Lego's and Bakugan kept them entertained as well!)

Day 2:

Next the kids jumped into the Atlantic

It was warm, and alive and "GIGANTIC"

Catching crabs great fun (the crawl on the beach kind)

From the waves they did RUN

When caught crabs disappeared they were frantic!!

(Jayde caught a little crab and made it a home but unfortunately in the night some hungry animal came onto the deck and ate the meat of the crab leaving the bottom of the shell with all the legs still attached!! Not a happy camper. We also attempted to teach the kids how to play badmitten...epic fail)

Day 3:

On this day kids and dads went to town

To see just who could win a race crown

Round the track we all drove

Played putt-putt on the cove

This they did while the sun beat them down!

(Ok it was defintiely 1 million degrees this day and we felt it on the slick track and the golf course...after burning our hands on the seat belts from the cars and playing 9 holes on a course completely devoid of ANY shade or relief from the sun the kids were more than happy to bow ut early and hit the pool again. Seriously who builds a mini golf course in the Outer Banks that has no shade?!?!?! Shameful, but I digress...)

Day 4:

On Thursday was more fun in the sand

We built "farms" (or as I call them, remand)

Buckets full of the sludge

Mussels needed a nudge

And some beetles that would burrow in our hands

(these little guys were weird and hard to catch, but Coulter and Jayde spent like 5 hours total this day digging in the sand looking for them. They were really sweet (and I say that subjectively) and made Simone a farm since she had been traumatized by the water on an earlier date. We also had a funtime baby-sitting the cousins while Aunt and Uncle Awesome went on a date. It was spaghetti night and Haven found it especially enjoyable)

Day 5:

Nature Centers are really hip scenes

With bamboo we all fished for marine (life)

Kids got bored on the dock

Picked at poop from the flock

Then watched UP on the really big screen

(these are getting gooberier and gooberier...sorry. Anyway this day we went to a clinic about fishing, dodged about 2,000 piles of goose poo, and then went to see UP at the theatre. It was perfect timing! As the movie started, outside it poured rain and continued throughout the whole thing...but miraculously as the movie ended so did the rain!! So, we were able to spend our last night at the beach. Don't you love it when that happens??)

Other Highlights from the trip that didn't fit into the limericks:

Playing Rock Band 2 with the kids was a trip!!!

Apples to Apples and Pass the Pigs won the kids hearts

Lil Man Learned how to body surf...after multiple face plants and near drownings he got really good at it.

Simone found spikey weed balls on the deck and christened them puffer fish :)

The fudgery was AMAZING!!!!

Lil Man braved the pool with just floaties...no life jacket!

Lil Man jumped into the pool by himself for the first time!! (technically I had to bribe him with a dollar but that is beside the point)

The souvenirs that the kids picked were not neccessarily beach related...Coulter chose a jet and a submarine that runs on bakg soda. Ironically he chose rings with a beach scene in them for his frinds souvenirs??? Odd...

All three kids could have had their own room in that massive house, but they chose to sleep all in one room with bunkbeds...really cute that they wanted to be all together.

All in all the kids were FABULOUS with each other...we had maybe one or two minor scuffles after 5 days of sleep deprivation, but they were nice and friendly and happy 9/10ths of the time and what more can a mommy ask for on vacation???

OK I know this hasn't been my brightest moment in blogging, but I did it anyway! I gotta be me right? :) Thanks SOOOOOOOOO much Fabulous Five-som for making our summer start out with a huge bang! Hopefully next time we get to spoil you rotten the way you did for us. You are the best!!

MIA...oh and graduation

So for all of you bugging me to post here more often, I will refer you back to my initial post about how I make no promises on quality and quantity...and leave it at that. :) You know who you are...
Anyway because it has been forever since I have posted I figured I would take you back in time to where I left off and fill you in on life up until now (my goal is one a day for the next few days, but I know myself and am not sure it will happen). So strap in because we are goin' for it!

We left our hero (Lil Man of course) in preschool with just a few short weeks left until his time there was finished. Imagine if you will a week full of celebrating teachers and showing them appreciation, so Lil Man and I decided to do just that. We never shy away from a craft opportunity! On Monday we gave them a frame with a cute teacher quote inside:
On top was a note from Lil Man "Dear MS (fill in Ellen or Lori :) ) Thank u for being my teecher. I had fun plaing at scool. My favorit is wen u reed books to us and then giv us snacs. Thanks for being nis all the tim. Luv COULTER" Sweet huh? But then he drew a picture of an alien abduction on Ms Ellen's letter and told her to watch our for aliens this summer and then Ms Lori got a picture of a flower field, a tree, and him walking with her saying that the best kind of flowers are blue. Can you guess which teacher he worked better with?

OK next.....Well I must admit it has been too long and I didn't take a pic of the second gift so, if I told one of you what we did please let me know and I will add it in here. Yes I know I am lame.

On the last day Lil Man made super cute flowers with scrapbook paper and pipcleaners and we wrapped them around chocolate dippend pretzels we made. It was so cute! We put them in a tin bucket that I punched holes in around the top and strung a ribbon through...please just imagine it with me because again no pics (again, yes I know I'm lame). The best part of the flowers were the leafs that Lil Man cut out and I wrote quotes on. Throughout the year I had written down little things he had said about school and such and those are what I put on the leaves. Here are my favorites:

"Sometimes I think my teachers are smarter than Yoda"
"How do my teachers always know how to teach lessons? Is there a class for that or something?" "School makes me wanna dance...but not at school because there we are supposed to sit nicely"
"Snack time is the best part of school because it is yumalicious, even the fruit parts"
"Art things are fun to color and glue and put things on other things, but the best part is to just wash your hands at the end because man they get slimy" (Man is he a Thomas!!!)
But my favorite of all favorites is "My teachers like to teach kids how to do things except for how to fight ninjas, but I think that is because there are no ninjas at my school." Hmmmmmm...

All in all it was fun to try and spoil the teachers for one week, because heaven knows our teachers don't get enough love from their paychecks!

Fast forward a couple of weeks to graduation day!! I tell ya, nuthin tugs at the heart like a bunch of lil ones pushing and shoving each other to be seen by their parents cameras. The kids sang a few songs (Tingalaya will be forever burned into my brain),
then they called their names to walk across the stage and receive their diploma. I would have been crying huge tears like a baby, and I was close. But just as I was about to squirt some my son turned quickly to say something to his friend behind him and whipped himself in the eye with his tassles so he spent the next song trying to blink out the pain. Oh yeah, and he also said (rather loudly) to that same friend that their diplomas were "more than completely awesome because we can make them into lightsabers later to battle", man do school gyms echo.....
The gym was decorated like an art museum with each child getting a space with a poster showcasing some of their art from the year and I thought it was really cute! The night ended with a HUGE and very random potluck dinner, lots of pictures with teachers and friends and he got to keep his tassle which was the source of great happiness! There was also a lightsaber battle as promised because the rolled up papers they were handed really were just scatch paper and we got a "real" diploma later. Weird.

All in all it was a fun night and Lil Man was so proud that he did it. Lastly, he asked a few moms for their phone numbers, he said it was so he could call his friends to play over the summer, but you never know! We are a little sad that most of his friends will be going to a different elementary school when the start the big K-word, but I guess that is what we get for going to a preschool where the fancy kids go! :)
So we will just look at is as a new opportunity to make new friends right!!!??? Man is this kid's mom nervous.

So if you are still reading this that is it for this time travel adventure, and hopefully I will see you tomorrow with another installment...let's just say it involves water, balls, shovels, and rashes in places that there should not be rashes!!

ps, for some reason I am having issues with the formatting, but it is too late and I am too tired to care. :) Hope you all can survive the visual eye scraping.

Spring Cleaning

So, one of the benefits of having this fancy schmancy new car is that my husbands inner guy-pride has been reignited and he wants it to always be shiny. It's great because while he is making that one shiny he feels guilty and wants mine to be shiny too! Even though the Toyota had been washed a total of never in the past, oh I'd say 3 years, it has been bathed 3 times in the last month thanks to the Volvo! Inside and out...*sigh*...I am beginning to understand the meaning of true love when I am not the only one who has to dig all the cheerios/goldfish/apple cores/legos/matchbox cars/french fries/straws/stickers/checkers/crayons...etc. out of the car seats, I now have 2 fabulously handsome strapping young men to do it for me! I know you are all jealous...I love how Lil Man looks so dang hapy cleaning the car, why can't he be that excited to clean up the toy room? Is it a testosterone thing?

A day or two later I asked Lil man to clean up the toys in the back yard, this is what I saw ten minutes later. Apparently I was not quite specific enough. He'd gathered up all his toys (including his old tricycle from underneath the deck), put them into his mini wading pool and hosed them off. Admittedly they all probably needed a good scrubbing, especially the soccer net ???, how great that he decided to help me out like that! Too bad he got 100% drenched in the process and created a mud puddle that could drown a brontasaurus or whatever it is that dinosaur is called these days :)

*Sigh*

Me "Lil Man can I have my good night loves?"
Lil Man "Just a minute I need to find Suggy"
Me "But I really need some love!"
Lil Man "You'll be fine until I find Suggy"
Me "Man, do you love Suggy more than me?!?"
Lil Man "Welllll (finger to lips, eyes looking up to the ceiling).....I think it's about the same love for both of you...maybe a little bit more Suggy because he would let me have ice cream everyday for breakfast if I asked him"

Ask and you shall receive the truth, and man does it hurt. I have been surpassed by a smelly, ratty, ugly, probably carrying every germ known to man and some yet to be discovered, stuffed dog. He even makes Suggy snacks. What goes better with water than propane? Nothing.

Reuse and Recycle

My son cares about the environment...to some degree. Ok maybe not, he may have just inherited the Loosli keep-it-all gene. He always wants to keep every box, container, wrapping, etc to "do a craft later", But somehow it all seems to just pile up until I throw it away. Here is the result of his latest plee for a corn flake box (apparently they have feelings too):
This my friends is a Super Halo-Optic 100 plus 8 blaster. Cool name huh?
This too can be yours, all you need to do it get a cereal box...Cut it up (making sure to cut what you don't really need into about 1 million pieces), then attach it to your arm by wrapping scotch tape 37 times all the way around until your circulation is almost cut off but not quite. For the record my son is not high or drunk, he just has the Thomas knack for making weird eyes/blinking in EVERY picture.

This last pic shows the afermath of his escapades. To me it looks like a whole lotta mess for a 3x8 inch piece of cardbaord to strap on your arm...but to him it was the coolest invention EvEr and that definitely counts for something. Please link me to pictures that you take of your own Super Halo-Optic 100 plus 8 blaster...I know you will all be making them . The patent is pending...

Caterpillars...friend or foe?

*Caution....RAndom Post!*

So we have had a couple caterpillar run -in's this month, one good and one a little creepy. First run-in was the day before Easter. Lil Man found this cute little furry guy at grandma's house. He was excited to show his cousins his new little friend, so we made him a little home with the understanding that after the cousins came the next day we would let Mr Wiggles go find his family. The next day when the whole family got together for lunch Lil Man pulled all the cousins aside to introduce them, but lo and behold Mr Wiggles had already spun himself into a comfy cocoon (chrysalis? I always get them mixed up). So, unable to "let him go", and due to Lil Man's belief that Grandma could definitely not take care of him (he said "Are you kidding mom! She will just throw him away or feed him to the neighbors cat!" ???? not really sure where that came from) Mr Wiggles was packed up into the car for the 2 hour drive back to our house. Time went on and Mr Wiggles was not changing into Mr Flutters so now it was 4 weeks later and I decided to quietly dispose of the carcass in the habitat while Lil Man was at a friends house. I opened the top to dump it out and a brown furry thing flapped into my

face!! Scared the begee-bees outta me, but luckily he landed back into the container so I could show Lil Man and now you! :)

Since we let him go there have been many, many tears...as in sobbing about him not being on our kitchen counter anymore. You would think we had a dog and it got run over, twice. He finally decided it was ok tonight and said, "I can probably find another caterpillar to hatch, but it sure won't be the same as Mr Wiggles. " Really? Because I'm pretty sure it would be.

Our second run in was a little more disturbing. You know when you come upon one caterpillar it's cute and fun to look at and hold...have you ever seen a whole nest of them crawling all over each other and half eaten caterpillars??? Well, now you can say you have! I am no National Geographic camera-man, and I was half climbing a tree while filming this so I'm not really giving you the full effect of this thing, but still.... You are ALL Welcome!!!!! :)

(ps you can pause the music on the right so that it doesn't clash with the audio! )

I did it!

Lil Man got a deck of Aof F cards for Christmas. He has been wanting/trying to learn them all by heart, especially after learning his cousins have already done just that and each got a MASSIVE chocolate bar as a result (thanks for setting the standard guys). Last Sunday he got the deck out while I was getting ready for church and then he suddenly burst into the bathroom, grabbed my hand and dragged me downstairs.
He was soooo proud, he'd put them each together in order and arranged them from 1 to 13!!! :) He even left them out all day long for us to enjoy, and kept lying next to them to gaze at his masterpiece. It was a little tricky to maneuver around since it took up most of the living room, but totally worth it!

American Idol Dr edition....

So I'll admit it...I love me some American Idol. In the beginning the disaster auditions are AmaZing for my self esteem and then I love watching the contestants pick completely random songs and either mutilate them or knock them out of the park. Add to that the totally medicated Paula Abdul and you've got some really great TV! Sterling however is not so much a fan. He gets bored with it almost instantly and ends up with his earphones in while surfing the internet or grading papers. He does try to support my addiction by staying updated on the who's and what's of it all. This week was no exception.

Sterling was up in Northern VA from early Wednesday morning until about 7:30 last night so he didn't have to suffer through the pain of actually watching AI with me, but he did make a point of looking up who was eliminated so he could talk with me about it. Sweet of him right? But there was a slight mix-up. This was our exchange:

Sterling--"So are you glad that Sanjay got sent home?"

"What?"

"Are you glad that Sanjay was eliminated, I know you don't like him"

"Sanjay?"

"Yeah, I saw online that Sanjay Gupta was eliminated from AI this week"

I about died laughing!! I had no idea that the CNN Medical Expert and previous candidate for Surgeon General with the new administration was not only a good singer but he was good enough to be in the top 7 of AI!! :)

In reality this week Anoop was eliminated, but he got Anoop and Sanjaya from LAST year confused. Apparently when you mix the two you get Sanjay Gupta! I'm sure none of you will find this as amusing as I did but I had to document it for posterity (really myself) so that next time I am feeling like a kindergartner next to my bio-informatics whiz of a hubby I can feel a little bit better. :)

seCret cOdes in oUr schooL sysTEms...Right?

So we did it. There was kicking and screaming and tears, but after about 15 minutes I calmed down and was ok with it. After all it was only Kindergarten registration, C'mon mom's you know you feel my pain...*sigh* Yup, my Lil Man is officially joining the ranks of mini people in the cogs of the public school system. He is SOOOOO dang excited so I hope that lasts for another 13 years or so. :)

So, here in Chesterfield they do an intake assessment on each child. You know "point to the square" and "Where is your hips?" and "Stand on one foot with your eyes closed" (no really, he had to do that), all the things that deem a child "Kindergarten Ready" (which I don't really get, isn't Kindergarten supposed to help MAKE you ready???). At the end of his assessment Lil Man was bouncy and even more excited, except for one small thing. The conversation was as follows:

"So Lil Man how was it?"

"Fine, but I had to tell her she didn't make any sense" (Uh-Oh, talking back before even the first day of class

"What do you mean?"

"I had to tell her that her test didn't make any sense because I couldn't figure out her secret code" (WhAT?!?!?)

"What code? What didn't make sense?"

"She had a bunch of letters mom, but none of it made words...so it had to be a secret code. But I couldn't figure it out in time, so she told me to just tell her which letters they were"

Now don't worry all of you conspiracy theorists, our government is not teaching our youth secret codes on the sly in order to recruit. Turns out they have a section on ABC recognition where there's a few lines of random letters that they are asked to identify. Lil Man was asked to "read" the letters to her and was trying to make words that weren't there. Phew...that was a tough intro to school!

Child of the 80's

So I think my Lil Man missed his decade...by about 20 years. First of all check out these slammin' (his word) shades that he sports these days, only a playah from 1985 would rock them:

Next his love of music. Sterling and I went on iTunes with him so that he could make a mix of his very own. His first choice? Eye of the Tiger...followed by The Final Countdown. Really?? Wow.

Then we come to our choices of movies/TV shows...Star Wars (not just a movie but a way of life), He-Man (as we all remeber from our first post), the Smurfs, the Snorks, the list goes on and on. In this area I have no complaints. I'd much rather he like the little blue freaky things, than Sponge Bob (HATE him), or Pokemon (Ugh) and such. Schoolhouse Rock is another recent find, "Lolly,Lolly, Lolly, get your adverbs here"...thank goodness for Library Rentals.

SO, I guess I'm just waiting for him to come home asking for neon yellow high-tops, while rapping the Fresh Prince theme song, doing the moon walk, and secretly having a crush on Molly Ringwald.

Until then I will just enjoy watching this over and over:

Doodles and drooling...

Wow!! I really stink at this blog thing...keeping up with it that is. So...sorry (to both of you) :)

Anyway, well I'll give you five bucks if you can tell me what this is (and don't be all literal, try and think by way of Lil Man's brain if you dare!):




.
.
.
.
.
.

Yup, you got it....it's a page in reverse Braille! HA! Lil Man brought this to me and said that he made me a note in reverse braille because he doesn't know how to make the bumps. It says "My mom is the best mom in the whole wide universe" You can say alot with just a few holes I guess... :)


Next he made this for my lil sis that came to visit this past weekend (just as a clue, the note actually starts on the second line, the top is his signature line since he ran out of space at the bottom):




It reads "Der Gnel doo you want too cum too see monstrs vs alens (go to top of page) frum coul (go to letters in front of frum)ter." I love him! It was a note inviting Janelle (now forever to be known as Gnel) to go on a date with him to see the movie Monsters Vs Aliens. He left it on her pillow before going to bed. I had to steal a pic before she took it!


Lastly...I have been putting together a b-day present for my MIL (a little late I know) so I am feeling VERY nostalgic about Lil Man. He is soooo dang big it's hard to remember that he used to be small and fragile and depend on me for everything. Now I am lucky if he lets me make him breakfast. I miss holding him without popping something inside, hearing his baby belly laugh, him gumming my chin, poopy diapers that smell/look like you need a hazmat suit to approach, bouncing for hours on the bed to help him sleep and then sleeping upright all night just to keep him asleep on my shoulder, and I even miss waking up in the night to feed/change him instead of just waking up in the night. Do I sound desperate or what?!?!? But, despite me missing him being small, and in absence of a time machine, I am AmaZed at everything about him. I am so lucky to have such a great kid. So, despite wallowing in my own self pity here and there and complaining about little things he does that make me nuts, I know how great I have it! :) Here's mini-Lil-man for ya, see he really did used to be small! *click the pic to see it a little bigger*

Battleship and Odd requests...

I LOVE my kid! He is always full of random comments some funny, some odd, and some extremely sweet. I would give anything to hear/see what is going on inside his head to make him say those things. Today there were a few examples of this phenomenon....

Exhibit A---Lil Man and Daddy were playing a game of battleship while I was making dinner.

Daddy: "J 4"

Lil MAn: "Hit, I know why you keep getting those hits, it's because I have all my ships in a line!"

Mommy: "Lil Man you aren't supposed to tell Daddy where they are, it makes it a little easier for him to guess."

Lil Man:"Oh...Daddy, can you just forget I said that?"

Needless to say, Daddy won that round.

Ehibit B--During his prayers this morning he was going through his typical list of "thankfuls" and "please bless that" and then suddenly my ears perked up, "Please bless us tonight that we won't be attacked by tigers in our beds while we are asleep" HUH!!?? Is this something that happens regularly?

Exhibit C--We walked down the street to play with some friends out side (I love Sunny Days!!!) and one of them walked out with a bowl full of change. She started telling us how she was charging her family coins for their entrance into their living room (this chick had alot of change in that bowl). All Lil Man had to say was "GREAT! Now all you have to do is pay your tithing then you can get whatever you want!" This girl isn't a member of the church so she asked what he was talking about so he proceeded to tell her what tithing is and why she needs to pay them. When she said she didn't want to give her money to the church because she didn't go to church Lil Man said "That's ok you can come with me...or you can just pay your money so I can keep going to church." Ha, how could you argue with that!!!

How could you not LOVE this kid!! :)

Our New Arrival...

So , today we welcomed a new family member into our lives. She is cute and quiet and we are so glad she is here!!!! Coulter loves her, Sterling AdoRes her and just can't get enough of her. We haven't decided on a name yet but as soon as we do we'll let you know. We have waited a long time for this and she is perfect. She never makes a peep, she's pretty fiesty, she is smooth and soft, and extremely ShINy!!!!

Did I mention our new arrival is a car???? :) So our green honda finally kicked the bucket (after 12 years and almost 200,000 miles) so we caved and decided to get a new car. After 4 years of no car payment we are back to wearing the leash again....ugh!!! Gerta will be sorely missed..but our new lil girl is MUCH more fun to drive. :)

Here she is...can't you just smell the "new car" smell?:

Ready or Not...

So here we are FinAllY joining the wonderful world of blogging. And I know you will all (and by "you all" I mean you Linda, because you are the only one that knows I have this!) be surprised at this but I have nothing interesting to say! :) So let's not have any high expectations of excitement and/or grandeur ok? Hopefully once in a while we'll have something to say...but no promises!!! :)

So today Lil man would not respond to his name. All day long he was Bobba Fett, Spiderman and finally He-Man (by the Power of Gray Skull!!). I was fighting off lasers, spiderwebs and magical swords all day, and that can be tiring.
"Lil man can you put your dishes in the sink?"...silence...
"Lil Man?"...silence...
"LIL MAN???"...
"Lil Man is not going to answer he isn't here, I am He-Man and I do NOT put away dishes, my muscles would just break them or throw them through the sink so I think you better do it".

What would it be like, to be able to do that?

"Charisse did you get the Census done?"...silence...
"Charisse?"...silence...
"CHARISSE???"...
"Charisse is not going to answer she isn't here, I am She-ra and I do NOT do reports because my sword would rip them or my lazer vision would burn a hole in them so I think you better go ahead and do them. Just tell the Federal Government to keep their money this year..."

How do you think that would play out?