Spending Christmas Eve day at Burger King playing in hopes that the kids will pass out asleep and not wake for atleast another day....hey it was a good thought and a girl can dream cant she.

Too much of a good thing

When your sons ensemble looks something like batman after eating goodies then their is entirely too much sugar being consumed.

Not only have I been baking all week making peanut butter fudge and cookies but our neighbors have brought over goodies as well.

Preston has learned to push a chair over to the counter and help himself to the tins and tins of goodies, he then dresses up in batman attire and runs around the house. I'm not real sure what batman and sugar have to do with one another but I don't want to test the theory of what would happen if I put a dress on the floor in front of him after he consumes sugar.

Countdown continues

Only 13 days till Christmas. Here are pics of the 3 trees in our house.

Living room Christmas tree













Foyer Christmas tree (Dale Earnhardt tree)












Kitchen Christmas tree















Santa Claus and lights that sit in passthrough window from kitchen to living room

Conclusion

Ive come to the conclusion that if it wasn't for women that we wouldn't have Christmas.

Point #1- I put up the tree, decorations, stockings, and lights.
-My husband plugs everything in.
(don't strain yourself hubby)

Point #2-I buy all of the gifts for both sides of the family, including several of my own.
-My hubby asks how much did you spend?

Point #3-I wrap all presents, including my own.
-My husband asks Christmas Eve if he needs to wrap my presents or not?
(already done sweetie, already done)

Point #4-I bake lots of goodies during the holiday season.
- My husband eats and then asks when I plan on making more.

I think that Santa had a sex change many, many years ago because only a woman could get everything done in time for Christmas. Her name was Santa Clara but changed it to Santa Claus after the sex change. And thats my theory!

Countdown....

17 more days till Christmas.

When its cold outside my favorite thing to do is bake. I could bake everyday. Today we made hot sausage balls and two different types of cookies. The kids colored (painted) the top of the cookies prior to baking and thought it was a blast. Santa gets lots of baked goods at our house Christmas night.

More snow

I spent a lot of time shoveling off our driveway and our sidewalk yesterday. Our neighbor has a snow blower and we usually wake up to find that he has already cleared our driveway for us...gotta love neighbors like that who think its fun to get out and clear all of the surrounding homes driveways. Yesterday however I decided to do it myself and have some fun playing with Preston.

This is what the sidewalk looked like after I cleared it...

This is what it looks like this morning after another 2 inches of snow....why did I even bother.

Pics of Preston playing in snow yesterday.

First of the year

We have had a few snow flurries over the past week but this is what we woke up to this morning. 4 inches of snow and still coming down. Every year around this time Im reminded by the snow of just how much TN and OH are different.

New love

Next month as I enter into my 4th year of a certain decade (for those that dont know me feel free to guess that I am still in my 20's) . Im well aware that Im aging more and more each day. The laugh lines dont go away as quickly as they used to, the eye sight isnt as great as it used to be so the squinting gets worse therefore leaving behind crows feet. The lack of sleep, being sick, taking care of sick kids, getting hit across the head from my son with his plastic bat, the apple juice that my son spilled that splattered all over me, the sticky-icky what the heck have you been eating kisses from my son and we cant forget all of the times that I peeled back Prestons diaper when he was an infant only to get a face full of pee-pee has taken its toll on my skin. My time in front of the mirror is filled with pulling my skin tighter to remember the good times when it actually looked that way, its filled with wondering why that wrinkle didnt go away even when I stopped having an expression on my face. I should of listened to the magazines when they said start taking care of your skin in your teens. However I must share this with my fellow readers that I have found something that I love and is cheap....yes cheap.

My face didnt feel smooth and my skin has lost some of its elasticity and nothing I tried really seemed to help me with both of those problems until now. I picked up Night time firming cream made by Equate (yep, thats Walmart brand) and I have been using it for almost a month now and I gotta tell you I love this stuff. Its the equivalent to Olay. My skin feels as smooth as my sons butt and he has a very soft smooth baby butt still. I can also tell that because it feels smoother that it is also slightly tighter. We arent talking dramatic here but enough that I can tell a difference. It isnt greasy so I use it every night. It doesnt make my hair or the pillow greasy when I lay down at night. The other good news is that because its so cheap I pick up 2 jars and I put it on my face, neck and also on the top of my hands. This stuff is great. I would bathe in it if it wasnt for the fact that it would stop up the drain and Id have to listen to my husband with a plunger in his hand ask what in the world I was thinking.
This is my new favorite find for a gal in her......, lets just say a gal who is too busy raising a fine boy who will never point out that his mother or his future wife looks a day over their 20's. Your welcome future daughter in law!!!!


Short article in regards to this great stuff if you wanna read it.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/44545/equate_brand_nighttime_firming_cream.html

Sneaky

Preston this morning snuck into our bedroom while I was in the laundry room and decided to have a little fun of his own. Did I mention the tissue box was brand new and completely full !!!!

Scattered thoughts

The Christmas tree is up at our house, yes its a bit early, but it gave my son and I something to do while he has been sick this week and we are stuck in the house. We have three trees, one large family tree in the living room , one medium Dale Earnhardt tree with Dale ornaments that my hubby has collected in the foyer and a very small one in the kitchen that has kitchen utensil's on it . We have not decorated the outside yet, dont want to scare the neighbors.

Oprah's favorite things Christmas list is Tuesday November 20th-I dont watch Oprah but thats one show of the year I dont miss.

Christmas present shopping is done in our house-yeah.

Just read that in Australia that Santa Clause isnt allowed to say ho ho ho anymore because it can be offensive to women...gimme a break, stop messing with tradition. There are a lot more things to worry about and Santa Clause should be last on that list. Get a life people.

If I hear one more person not support our troops Im going to yell. My husband served his time in the Navy before we were married. I get so tired of people putting down our military for doing their jobs. Its one thing to believe that we shouldnt be in Iraq (Im not one of those) but we are, get over it, and support our troops. They are away from their families and are risking their lives for your freedom of speech. In my opinion, and I know its just an opinion of a stay at home, but in my opinion you should support the troops regardless of how you feel about whether or not we are supposed to be fighting this war, not supporting them is UN-American to me. If you dont like the decisions that have been made for our country then vote for someone else, you have no right to complain if you dont vote. Wouldnt you love to be able to see if all of those people that protest, complain and put down our military actually voted in the last election. That sure would shut them up quickly.

The leaves are gone, the weather is cold, and Im dreading Ohio winter, brrrr.

(mom) Im craving country ham and biscuits, (mom) something you cant get in Ohio, (mom) so Im hoping that when my family reads this blog entry that they will feel sorry for me and cook me some while we are home for the holidays (mom). While we are on the subject of food I could also use some titty cookies from my stepmom, hint hint, (did I just write the word titty, oh well Im sure that no one under the age is 12 is reading this anyways so I can make it R rating if I want to. The cookies are actually peanut butter cookies with hershey kiss on top but they look like a titty therefore thats the name of them in our family)

Preston screamed bloody murder last year when he saw Santa Clause at the mall it will be interesting to see how he reacts this year. My money is on screaming.

When I leave for the gym in the evenings my son is very calm as he says bye mommy, love you , see you soon. However upon my return he is bouncing off the walls and hanging from the ceiling fan. Im pretty sure that my husband is pouring pixy sticks down his throat, followed by coke, and shaking him to see how fast he can run around the house. Im on to you hubby, I know what your doing.

Gym Struggles

Lately Ive been going to the gym in the evenings once husband gets home from work. Ive been trying to lose weight...but it keeps finding me. While at the gym I run on the treadmill for 30 minutes, OK sometimes I walk but mostly I run. It never fails that this one girl, I call her skinny girl, gets in front of me at the treadmills and I'm forced to watch her skinny body with no fat run. What is she running for, she has no fat, she has no love handles, she has no baby pooch, get off the treadmill skinny girl. If I get on the back row of the treadmills she gets right in front of me, if I get on the front row she gets beside me. Stop following me skinny girl, go eat a doughnut. You are torturing me.
If that wasn't bad enough when I went into the locker rooms last night to gather my things I walked in while 20, 12 year old girls had just got out of a swim class and lets just say the noise was deafening. The cackle was so loud that my ears were ringing. I just kept telling myself get to your locker, gather your items and run to a safe place. Oh my gosh was I like that at 12?
While leaving the gym, trying to get the ringing out of my ears, I pulled out of the parking lot and tried not to go to the ice cream shop across the road (who does that, who puts an ice cream shop across from a gym), on the way home without ice cream I plotted on how tomorrow I'm going to sit on skinny girl and force a cake down her mouth. I shouldn't have to be subjected to skinny people at the gym, once your skinny you should stop going. Skinny girl, go away, stop getting in front of me and go get yourself an ice cream across the street, my treat if you will just move your skinny ass away from me.

Halloween

Preston dressed up as Diego last night to trick-or-treat. He drove around the neighborhood in the gator and we hit up about 8 homes the rest of the time he enjoyed just driving around looking at the other kids. As you can see he is the hit of our retired neighbors who gave him 2 fists full of candy at each house. He was bouncing off the walls last night.

Weekend of Pumpkins

We started the weekend with pizza shaped pumpkin and then went to a local farm and picked out some more pumpkins to carve and fed the animals at the farm. Bring on the Candy!!!!

I love the color of leaves in the fall, however, I could do without all of the raking. These trees are from our yard.

True Story

Preston and I were on our way this morning to the local mall to play at the indoor kids area when I saw 3 teenage boys jumping a fence out of the corner of my eye. I thought there was no way that they will run across the street because they should know better. Its a busy street with cars going 50 miles per hour and its raining. Apparently they did not know better. I came within inches of hitting them screeching to a halt. I also noticed that they were carrying a lot of electronic equipment in their hands. As soon as they got out from in front of me, I turned around to make sure Preston was OK and that I wasn't about to be hit from behind when a woman from the fence was yelling "stop them they broke into my neighbors house". I called the police to report what I saw and they asked me to stay there to give them directions of where I saw the boys running.
I left afterwards without knowing if they were caught. I feel sorry for the homeowners and I feel sorry that I was able to stop in time, a little nudge from the SUV would of done them some good.

Pictures from the pumpkinfest farm this weekend.

Great buys

Favorite buy this weekend...
Bitten jeans by Sarah Jessica Parker $14.99 at Steve & Barry's. Cant beat that deal and they are very comfortable.

Today is my grandmothers birthday, we call her Mammy. She is 94 years old, still drives, still volunteers every week at the hospital, her church, and is in better health than me. Moral of this blog entry is dont mess with mammy she may be small but she can still kick ass.

Good things...

Its almost the weekend and we are taking the kids to a local pumpkinfest farm on Saturday which has a corn maze, spider swing and animals.
www.pigeonroostfarm.com

I finally got DeSolvIt stain remover back in the house after it was taken off the grocery shelves for a while, (thank you dad and Carol). This stuff rocks and gets out all the stains on my kids clothing...which is a lot and some of it even unrecognizable as to what it is exactly.... YIKES!

My husband bought me Nicholas Sparks new book "The Choice" last night as a surprise so I cant wait to start reading it.

Weather has taken a turn and even though its cooled off ,which is nice, its a bit chilly for Preston and I to play outside with highs in the 50's so hopefully it will warm back up just a bit.

We have 2 people interested in making an offer on the house so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Its been a year

One of my oldest and dearest friends from childhood was killed a year ago this month on the 13th. Her name was Jennifer McCaleb Unland. Jennifer was driving with her 2 little girls when a car struck and killed her and one of her children in Gallatin TN. Her infant daughter only a few months old at the time survived. I have known her forever, we went to church together, we played together, spent the night at each others house, and stayed in touch as we got older and went our seperate ways.

Getting the news from her mother was the most horrible thing I have ever heard in my entire life and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I fell to the ground and couldnt move. I thought it was a bad dream, it couldnt be true, we had just emailed each other the day before. I have never felt so much pain in my heart before.


Even a year later after saying my goodbyes at the gravesite, after hugging her parents, even after hugging her husband and surviving daughter, Im still not ok. I cry when I think about her and I cant seem to delete Jennifers email address from my yahoo account. It seems to permanent.

I really dont want to hear that "its time to let it go, its time to put it in the past, its time to stop crying over it, she is in a better place". All of that being true but I dont want to hear it, I dont want to think that even though she is in heaven that its a better place than raising her 2 daughters and being with her family and friends. I am grateful for the fact that her daughter Hannah, who also was killed, is not alone in heaven and has her mommy there. I want her back God, I want to get an email from her telling me about her week. I understand about Gods will, I understand she is in a better place, I understand that its part of life but I dont want to accept it sometimes.

I want to be ok with the decisions that life made to take her away but Im not ok with it and not sure that I ever will be. I once heard that God doesn't take someone away that life does. I understand that statement but I wish I didn't because then I would have someone to blame, then I could be mad at someone.

Jennifer you are missed.

Diapers, diapers and more diapers

Preston is refusing to use the potty again for some reason, maybe he just isnt ready yet. He was doing good for a while and then suddenly stopped. Even bribery with M&M's isnt working. While changing his diaper this morning I told him he was a big boy and that he should be using the potty. His response to that was "no mommy, Im a baby " he then grabbed the clean diaper out of my hand and tried putting it on himself.
Ive got my work cut out for me.

Our neighbor made this for Preston out of wood.

Superman doesnt feel so super

My superman isn't feeling so super at the moment. My superman gets tired, needs to rest and has difficulty sometimes just getting through the day. He doesnt want a fuss over him so I hope he knows that even superman needed to rest and allowed others to take care of him. No matter what dad you will always be my superman and the strongest man I know.

Good things

• Dinner with the in laws on Saturday and political talk didn't take over the evening.
• We have an open house on Sunday and hopefully we will sell the house.
• My dad and step mom are coming to visit Friday
• Prestons tantrums seem to be calming down and he is really interested in learning his ABC's.
• Nicholas Sparks new book "The Choice" comes out today.
• Weather in the evening has cooled off and we are back to taking walks after dinner.

Little Stinker

Im ready for my diaper change...and its going to be a stinky one.

Toddler lyrics

Preston's favorite song..

Preston loves to jump on the trampoline and sing his favorite song Ring around the Rosie
His rendition of the song goes something like this "ring rosie ass's ass's fall down".
I think I like his version better.

One of those days

It has started off to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Preston woke up early this morning and climbed into bed with us which meant that no one got a full nights sleep...again. The AEP meter reader got an earful this morning from some crazy lady wearing her pajamas ...ok the crazy lady was me, but he deserved it. I will tell you in a bit. And to top it off Preston is refusing breakfast and instead has asked me for a popsicle every 2 minutes. You'd think he would get tired of hearing the same answer "no you cant have a popsicle for breakfast". Nope, apparently he doesn't get tired of it. We settled on crackers and cheese...hey atleast he is eating something and it does contain calcium.

Ok back to the American Electric Power company (AEP). The meter reader that reads the meter in the back of our yard continues to jump our chain link fence coming in and leaving. Never mind that we have a gate, never mind that I have called to complain for the past 7 months, never mind that Ive spoken to managers, supervisors, and numerous customer service associates. Apparently the word isn't getting to the meter reader who still jumps the fence. I don't even jump my own fence so I don't want a stranger jumping my fence. If the meter reader was to break our fence guess who is responsible for that....yep we are. This fence is our only way of keeping the wild ones in (kids), this fence is the only thing between Preston and the busy street that he is amazed by and doesn't pass up the opportunity to toggle it with one foot on the driveway, one foot on the street. This fence is the only thing that keeps Preston from chasing dogs, firetrucks and who knows what else down the street. Its one thing for us to break it but its entirely another thing for someone else to break it. After seeing him jump it once again this morning I marched outside in my pajamas with my crazy morning hair and told him to stop jumping my ____(insert bad word) fence. I let him know that Ive complained numerous times and pretty sure he has been told not to do it so why do you continue. Ok are you ready for this, this is his answer. "Ummm ok". Thats the answer I got. The crazy lady wearing her pajamas must of scared him so much that the only answer he could give me was Ummm ok.

After going off on the meter reader, coming in to realize that my pajamas had cheese on them, seeing my hair for the first time this morning in the mirror...yikes, calling AEP once again to complain and getting the same answer "it wont happen again" and me giving them the same answer "Ive heard that before and I dont come to your house and jump your fence so dont jump mine"......I gave into the popsicle so for breakfast this morning my son is eating cheese, crackers and a popsicle.

Id move to Australia, but Im pretty sure they have days just like this as well.

(Best book in the world for adults and kids...Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, very bad day. by Judith Viorst)

Labor Day

This Labor day we did some yard work, ran errands and took Preston to a local church festival. They had rides, live music, games, food and fireworks. It was a lot of fun.