Inside, Outside, Upside down.

Inside a box
In the garage
Upside down.

Looking outside
Upside down
In a box.

Coming out of the box
Outside
In the garage
Upside down.

Mama! Mama!
I climbed out of the box.
Inside,
Outside,
Upside down.

Life Lessons to my kids.

Keep GOD as your foundation.

Trust your instincts.
Stay true to what works and learn from your mistakes.

Don't lose your sense of wonder.




Expect...

THE...


Unexpected!


When you stumble. Don't give up. Try, try again.
Love,
Mom

Paddle for the Cure

*We didn't exactly race, but we did paddle our way through the course in the rain.
*Rain Guard for the stroller--check, umbrellas--check, rain boots--check.
Did we use them? Not so much.
*The Wild Thing rebelled against his socks and shoes by tossing them into the street so I feel certain we messed up the times for ALL the people behind us. While we were collecting a sock over here and a shoe over there his friend, JP, was proudly singing in the rain.
*I finally let him go "barefooting" as the Preschooler would say. Yes, it was cold. And wet. We finished at 45:35 and I'm convinced we would still be there gathering socks and shoes from the middle of the road had they not been confiscated.
I can hear my mom now "he's going to catch a cold."
*We got some funny looks. :)
*Refusing to stay dry.

*Preschooler's aren't fond of stopping for pictures, however, moms get excited over such things. :)

* We may or may not have filed in instead of making our way to the starting line. (That might be considered cheating under certain rules), but it was fun all the same...even in the rain.

Out of the Mouth of babes Moms

You've heard of Not me Monday! Right?
Well, Mckmama is coming up with a whole new batch of weekly funnies and they are laugh out loud funny.
Go here to see what she has said this week.
If you are crafty in making logos then you can submit that too.

Thursday Morning Funnies.

1) We will be participating in the fun walk portion of the Race for the Cure this weekend. I asked the Preschooler if he wanted to walk or ride in the stroller. He said he wanted to be in the lead so he would walk, but if his feet got out of breath then he would ride in the stroller.
Then he told me to quit laughing at him.

2) My parents have not had good success with growing their own tomatoes over the past few years so my dad planted over 20 plants this year. My mom (Dodo) thinks they will have to set up a food stand on the side of the road. My dad (Grandaddy) hopes to have just enough to put on a salad. HA! Needless to say, I only planted two plants because I think the tomatoes will be abundant this year.
They might find themselves consuming enough tomato soup, tomato relish, tomato juice, tomato paste, and tomato sauce to last them all year.

Touchin' Trucks.

Just when I thought I was out of the running for Mother of the Year, the Preschooler randomly kisses me on the cheek and says Momma, I like you. You're nice.
Yes, it was bedtime and he was trying to stay up, but I'll take it. Brown nosing or not, I loved it!
You might be wondering why I questioned the plight of my nomination.
Well, we had an EXCELLENT boutique show in town. Did I mention how excellent this show was and how awesome the booths were? YES.THEY.WERE. My eyes glazed over in awe of the talent in this area. It was mostly handmade kid items. It definitely was NOT your grandmother's craft show. I had both kids with me and told them if they were good then we would go to the Touch a Truck event taking place close by. This is where kids can touch, climb on, drool, and get up close and personal with every type of public vehicle you can imagine. The Preschooler was PUMPED. The Wild Thing was indifferent.
Good friend, TW, went with us and even manned the stroller so I could admire everything in site. There was a politicians conference going on next door so they were swarming campaigning in every nook and cranny. Their signs cluttered up the grass around the parking lot and magnets, fliers, and pamphlets were being dispersed to the crowds. We never had to open a door so their presence was appreciated from that aspect. After shopping we went to eat lunch. As we finished eating, I mentioned heading up to the big event. It was about 2:45 and TW informed me that it was over at 2:00.
This caused the Preschooler's eyes to well with tears so this is when I knew my nomination was out the window. He held up his end of the deal and I didn't even bother looking at what time the event ended. UGH! I made a quick judgement call and seemingly recovered. I told him we were going to the fire station so he would still get to climb on and see the trucks. There are two things to be thankful for in this situation. 1)That child is easy to please and 2) There was a fire station right across the street ready and willing to give us a tour.
I'm thinking the whole mix up turned out great. There were no lines, we touched and climbed on all kinds of fire trucks, the Preschooler enjoyed every second, and it was free. Nice save and everyone was happy. (*Now picture me patting myself on the back). Maybe I'm back in the running. (At least for today anyway). :)

Changing Channels.

I'm trying to watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, but this keeps happening.

The Wild Thing has a remote control radar and it's almost impossible to keep it away from those little hands. We try to keep it in a vase on the end table where he can't get it, but guess what he taught himself how to do tonight.
THIS.

The child has some serious determination.
Mom: 0, Wild Thing: 2
He likes the preaching channel.
He doesn't just turn the channel. He runs (waddles fast) and hides the remote!
When he's not taking over the television. He.is.climbing.

It's a constant chase around here. Thank goodness for Tivo and bedtime. :)
In the mean time, we're either watching Noggin or home church! Preach it Mr. Preacher.

Mr Mcgroovy=groovy.

Check out Mr. Mcgroovy's awesome site for building castles, ships, and other fun things out of boxes. He built his son a castle for his knights and princesses party and received such a great response that he started a side business of selling reusable box rivets and plans for building your castle or ship.
He answers just about any question you might have on his website. He even called me at home when I wasn't receiving the PDF file for the ship we ordered.
Since he works from his garage he's the President, Vice-President, CFO, Board Chairman, Customer Service, High Man on the Totem Pole, Low Man on the Totem Pole or Janitor, you only have to write to one person.
How funny is that? We've started collecting our boxes. There's a pirate ship sailing our way.

Spokeo.com===SCARY!

Update: You can read more information about this website at snopes.com
There is some speculation that Snopes is actually trying to collect email addresses. Again, in my opinion, this should be illegal!

Did you know your information is on the web for anyone to view? Of course you did, but maybe you didn't know that www.spokeo.com has collected it from multiple websites and for a bargain price of $2.95 anyone can see pictures of your family and other nice details of your life.

Thankfully, one of my friends posted spokeo.com awareness information as her facebook status.

Are you ready to be shocked?
Go To www.spokeo.com and find yourself.
Be sure to scroll down the little box to read all the free information about your life. Got kids? That's on there too. I thought everything was true if it came from the internet and lo and behold www.spokeo.com had to go and say my house was worth
$1M. They also indicate that I live in a below average neighborhood so which is it spokeo? These must be some real classy folks. I guess when you are collecting information on millions of Americans it's hard to get all the details correct so just be sure to find yourself and when you're done reading the facts about your life, that someone was kind enough to collect from various websites and online phonebooks, be sure to remove yourself and your family members by going to www.spokeo.com/privacy. Follow the directions provided and STOP SPOKEO!
These types of websites should be illegal. If individuals want their information available then they should be able to enroll with the websites, but an automatic enrollment seems wrong. I guess that's the freedom of information working in favor of the stalkers out there. Yikes.

Do it herself---oh yes, I'm smiling.

Did you know there is a home improver club with do it herself workshops sponsored by The Home Depot. I'm more of a Lowe's kind of girl, but you might start finding me in the Home Depot now.
The topic scheduled for next week is interior painting. I'm sure you already know all the tricks to painting, but after painting the bathroom (pics to come soon) I could stand to learn a few things. The classes are free and last anywhere from 60-90 minutes. I'll admit there are a few topics that need to stay in a man's world like adding circuits and splicing wires, but there's planting in containers, gardening tips, and mantle decorating. (We don't even have a mantle in our house, but for some unknown reason it appealed to me.) Yes, I'm realizing as I type that I could use a life. :)
*Don't take offense for those of you gals who are circuit adding experts. That's just a foreign topic for me so I hereby revise my statement to say it should stay out of MY world for the safety of everyone involved.
Home Depot doesn't leave out the mini's either. They've even created workshops for them. Who could resist one of these for mother's day?

Dear Dodo,

I'm so glad the Preschooler loves sugar filled treats like jelly beans, smarties, and generic chocolate because it makes me feel better about eating his chocolate bunny. You know.. the one you gave him. The one that's covered in premium milk chocolate and filled with pecans and honey caramel. OH.MY.WORD.
The Commander may or may not have walked in on me eating it with a fork.
Well, I think I told you that we didn't need to take two of these bunnies home, but as it turns out I accidently left the other one at your house. If you don't mind, please bring it to us. We really NEED it.

Love,
Toolwoman.

Ore Ida got it right!

There's a coffee shop in town that serves up the very best breakfast you can imagine.
Whatever you order it's going to be great. Well, last week I was wanting their breakfast sandwich, but the Wild Thing was fresh out of surgery so I decided to make one at home. We had these potatoes in the freezer and all I can say is Thank You Ore Ida.
My breakfast sandwich needed Texas Toast, but these potatoes were better than those served with the best breakfast in town!
I can't wait to have them up with a BLT this summer.

There aren't many things I can recommend from a freezer section over making it fresh at home, but these are GOOD.

Did I forget to mention the Wild Thing is tubed?


His tubes have opened him to the world of hearing and this kid has lots to say now. He tells stories with his hands that are complete with expressions and participates in conversations. Dodo and I were discussing and pointing at some of the plants in her yard and he just chimed in with his jibber jabber and pointed right along with us. No more grunting folks, we've got ourselves a jibbering, jabbering, giggling, hearing, lil Wild Thing.