as seen on TMC

(and if you don't know what TMC is- you are missing out, sista)

"I'm sick of taking the high road. It's covered in bear shit."

Hahahahahahahahaha!

the countdown

Over to your right.
Okay, yes. I have a while to go. But not as long as you may think!

Dual language kindergarten= stressful

ALREADY!
We applied. He's been tested.
School starts in 2 weeks, and we haven't heard ANYthing.

I chatted with another mom about the program, and she told me something that kind of made my stomach churn.
Firstly- there is a LOT of homework.
More troubling, though is that it seems that they cut out most of the arts and crafts, so that the DLK kids can "keep up" with regular kindergarten.

Arts and crafts are EXTREMELY important to me. They were the only thing I actually loved about school.
Arts, and creative writing.
Jacob is a VERY artistic child. He will THRIVE in creative classes, just like I did as a kiddo.

So, honestly- I am scared.
I am also kind of pissed.

IF my kid gets into the DLK, will I even want him in it?
I feel like I am flying blind here.
They have given us ZERO information on the program.
School starts in 2 WEEKS. 14 days from tomorrow. And I know diddly squat about where my baby will go and what he will learn. Much less do I feel like I am making choices that are best for him... I don't even know if I CAN make the choice. We did apply for the program. Does that mean if he gets in, he's just IN!?

And speaking of my irritation with the school- I got a letter on Thursday- Aug 9. The mail came at 1pm.
As follows:

To the parents of Jacob C.
We will be having a new student orientation at the school on Aug 9, from 11am-12pm.

WTF!?
Thanks for the warning, jack asses!
Obviously, we didn't make it. I was seriously steamed.

I think I hate this school already.

If for some reason he doesn't get into DLK- I can tell you, it will be a RELIEF! A small disappointment, and a huge weight off of my shoulders.
My child needs art. I want him to draw and paint, and make macaroni necklaces!
I don't want to start "nose to the grindstone" at the tender age of 5!
Yes- of course his education is of the utmost importance. But if he hates school- how well will he really do?
I also place a HIGH value on creativity, independent thinking, self expression, artistic release, pride in something you created...
I want these for my children. MORE than I want them to be bilingual, without question.

Jacob says

"Momma, I know jelly's not healfy, but it tastes SO GOOD!"

This was his commentary today as he made sandwiches for himself and his sister for lunch.
What a big boy!

Boohoo... poor little me!

As if nausea, high BP, and exhaustion wasn't enough to make me feel bad.
Next came the insomnia. I haven't had a collective 8 hrs of sleep in 3 days!
And then, yesterday, on comes the summer cold.
I'm just a sleepy, headachey, snotty, exhausted, feverish, queasy, shaky MESS!

Damn right I'm gonna whine about it! Wouldn't you?

I've got 8 thousand cute pictures from our day yesterday.
Once I start feeling half way back to normal- I'll go to the trouble to upload them.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone! :-P

Well that was fast!

Mere hours after the discovery of his first loose tooth, Jacob is now sporting the big kid smile!

Oddly enough, he never noticed it was gone.
I was in my room, making the bed, and he came bounding in. He was chattering a mile a minute, and I noticed that there was no tooth sticking out at a weird angle.

We searched high and low for that thing. In the recliner, in the couch, under the couch, in all the bedrooms and the kitchen.
Of course, after not vacuuming for like 2 weeks (Cotton has done it- give me a break), I decided to break down and do a quick run thru tonight. Possibly after the tooth was lost, but long before we noticed.

Oh well. I told him the fairy will know that he lost his tooth. His financial gain is secure. And MAN- I never got $10 for a stinkin tooth!
Daddy is all a twitter over the milestone, and had to be talked down from a $20! Lmao!
We decided to give him the big bucks for this first one, because it is special. And because he is quite distraught over the wierdness of it all. He was barely warming up to a loose tooth, and now he's missing one!

And now the big reveal!

Don't be shy, baby!


Is this not the most adorable thing? I keep asking him to show me his smile over and over! :-D


Extreme close up. Lol!


None of his others feel remotely loose, so he may be sportin' this look for a while. That is FINE BY ME! OMG he is too damned cute! Do I make gorgeous babies or what?

Froggy fun

The kids caught this little bitty frog in the backyard last night.



I love Jacob's face here


so cute how tiny the frog is, on the cute tiny finger! :-D



Never mind the baby boobie. I didn't notice until it was too late. The cute pics were taken, and the frog was long gone...


Cupped in her sweet little hands!




I told her "Maybe you should give him a kiss, and see if he truns into a prince!"
Her reply? "Ummm... Maybe not." Lol.




There was much begging and pleading, and even some attempted sneaking- to have the frog live in the house with us.
So we had a lesson about "wild animals," and how they need to live in the wild. How little froggy would die if we kept him inside, away from the bugs and his froggy friends.

After some playing and petting, it started to get dark, and they reluctantly let their friend go home.

In other news

we were driving down the road today, and Jacob says "there is something wrong with my mouth." Well... he's 5 and 1/2, and he had his fingers on his front tooth. Is there really any question what is going on?
He's all WIGGLY! My baby is about to lose his first tooth! I can't even believe it. He seems so little. But, he'll be one of many snaggle toothed kindergarteners, I'm sure.

As you can guess- this is a big source of anxiety for the poor kid. He is constantly wiggling it, looking in the mirror, asking questions: will I talk funny with no teeth? where does the tooth fairy live? how much money will she leave me? when will I get new teeth? when will Papa get new teeth? (heehee)
He's really self conscious about it. I need to get him around some other school aged kiddos, so that he can see that he's not a freak. ;-)

And as for me, I am not doing so hot.
I am in no condition for handling milestones right now.
After a confirmation wiggle, I had to call Cotton and share the news. I burst into tears as I said "Jacob is losing his first tooth!" My baby can't possibly be THAT big, can he?
And I love those little gapped teeth. I remember when they came in- the sweet little angel never did the "teething" thing, the fussing and drooling. Not my golden child. He just smiled his beautiful smile at you, and you would go "Wow- he's got a new tooth!"

I told Christine that I'll save all the baby teeth, and by the time I go through 3 kids- I can make a bracelet or something. Lol. She said I'd probably have enough to fringe my curtains!

Okay- I'm off to shop online for one of those adorable "baby teeth" boxes.
If anyone has seen them locally- give me a shout!

Good baby!

Saw the doctor today.
Basically, all they did was weigh me and take my blood pressure 3 times.
For some reason my blood pressure was high... go figure.
My weight was lower, but not really a concern, I guess, since I'm obviously not emaciated- and I am on Zofran now.

Then we stole the ultrasound room so the doc could sneak a peek at the bean.
She did a "belly" one, so we couldn't see much at all. Other than a blob that is much bigger than the blob 2 weeks ago, and after plenty of digging- that beautiful little firefly flickering heart. :sigh:
Oh, and I have plenty of fluid. lol.

Sooo... I'm 9 weeks today. I go back in 4 weeks- at the END OF THE FIRST TRIMESTER!!!
I think I'll throw a party on that day! ;-) A day I wasn't sure I'd see with this little one...
and of course, if we make it 13 weeks, chances are very good that we'll make it all the way!

Keep hanging on little bean. Mommy is getting a little bit attached to you!

He's a keeper

I may or may not have mentioned it (lol), but I've had pretty much constant morning sickness for weeks now.
As a result- I have an aversion to, well... FOOD. All food. If you know me, you know this is just not right.
I have to make a concerted effort to eat, to keep myself and the little bean alive.

Well, last night- hunger struck!
It was amazing!

I had 2 bowls of chocolate chip ice cream (shut up, it was good), and thought I was all right.
Then I saw a Wendy's commercial. Now, they didn't even show the spicy chicken sandwich combo- but that is my favorite chicken item on earth. Yummm....



I started drooling.
I told Cotton "I need a spicy chicken sandwich."
"Yea," he replies "it does sound good."
"Go get us one!" I say, playfully.
He laughs and says "Don't be crazy. You'll be over it in 5 minutes."
5 minutes passes. I'm not over it.

I have to have one. I cannot go to bed without eating one.
I tell Cotton "I'm going to Wendy's."
Now, mind you, Wendy's is about 20 minutes away. It's 10 o'clock at night.
He is seriously overprotective.

He jumps up and says "No you're not. If you really want it, I'm going."
And off he goes.
A little under an hour later- I am in spicy chicken heaven. Laughing at headlines on jay leno and scarfing that thing down like I hadn't eaten in weeks! (Oh wait, I haven't!)

So- I just want to show a little love to my darling hubby. Thanks for taking care of me!

for Nicole...

I was talking to Cotton about something or someone last night... gosh, I don't remember the exact topic.
(have I mentioned I have MAJOR preggo brain this time around? It's AWFUL!)
Anyway... I said "blah blah blah on DAM blah blah."
He gave me the "you're stupid" head shake and said "It's not DAM, it's DFW-am, or D-fwam, or da fam... or however you want to say it..."

I told him that I would HAVE to tell the girls, and that Nicole would be so proud of him. Lmbo!

"What!?!"

You know that scene in Shrek, where Prince Charming climbs to the highest room in the tallest tower, pulls back the gossamer curtains, only to find

*

*

*

The wolf lying in the princess' bed, reading a playboy?

Well, last night Lucy fell asleep in my arms, in the recliner.
She is a bit more weight than I am supposed to be lifting, so I asked Cotton to come carry her to bed.
Hours later, everyone else has gone to bed. I do my usual piddling around, have a snack, and get ready to turn in.
I hear Lucy's TV on softly, and her door is cracked. I thought "I'd better go move her to our room, so that we don't have middle-of-the-night panic mode."
I slowly and quietly creep into MY princess' room, only to find

*

*

*




I could just hear him saying "WHAT?!?!" Heeheehee.

I won't let him on the couches anymore, so I guess he thought he'd found an alternative.

If you laughed about the pool(s) fiasco

Here is the reason I did all of that. FUN!


(umm.. I think we know where she got that large mouth. :snort:)

We had a brainstorm, to put a pool in the middle of the circular sprinkler. Then the kids ran and jumped through the shower and got a big SPLASH!!!




Pretty baby girl


How much do you LOVE this face? Heehee!


Mid-leap, but I cut off his feet. Oopsy.


She's saying "Hey Daddeeeeee....." (my prompt for a faux smile)


And because he was out there, our furry child


Summer is almost over!
It's definitely been the shortest summer EVER. Rain for 2 1/2 months, then a wee bit of heat and sun- and in three weeks SCHOOL STARTS!
Time to really live it up before little man starts his long career as a student!

Cool.

Jacob took this very cool picture of his own eye!


It actually exactly depicts all of the colors in there. (except that they aren't coming across well on blogger. If you're THAT interested- try clicking the pic)
Please don't ever ask me what color my son's eyes are. I really don't know. Grayish greenish bluish? Depending on the shirt he wears. He was topless here- so there was no influence.

I do know they are breathtaking, stunning, and that the girls will swoon when he looks at them. I already do.
And that they are the same color as his daddy's, except maybe a smidge darker. ;-)

I'm not sure if I took this one, or if he did. We were playing around, passing the camera... But here are both of the eyes in question. lol.
(again, click the pic if you want more clarity)

The Greatest Show on Earth

So we decided that this year, Lucy is actually old enough (mature enough) to go to things like the circus.
It was time for the family to go visit old Barnum and Bailey!

I didn't take any pictures of the actual circus... I was more interested in capturing the people watching it. :-)

At the preshow- clown noses are FUN!


Here we go... getting into our seats


Just try to look at these clowns without smiling!




Mmmm... Cotton Candy

(after licking that piece for about 5 minutes- she decided I should eat it. Yummm...)

And Cotton candy fingers are pretty tasty, too!


Here's a new alternative to nail biting, clown nose biting!


I really wish I had gotten more pictures- but between two little ones that hadn't napped, someone having to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes, and actually trying to watch the circus myself...
This is all I got.

And my review:
Either I've gotten bigger, or the circus has gotten smaller.
While I really enjoyed it, it seemed very SHORT and SMALL. And very "Disney-ish," in Cotton's words.
Videos of talking elephants, a storyline of a little boy, and a female hostess singing through most of it. Definitely not the 3 ring circus I expected, or remember watching as a kid.
But there were lots of cool acts. I oohed and aahhed for 2 hours, minus the intermission. Lucy loved the music, and danced and clapped through most of the show. Jacob loved the motorcycles.
We all loved the pizza, haha.

Definitely worth doing. We probably won't go every year, though- unless they expand it back out a bit. The mini-circus didn't exactly blow us away. It was actually PERFECT for the preschool bunch- short, sweet, to the point. But for ME, I wanted MORE!

My Sunday

I woke up, felt sick.
Lucy was pulling the covers off, saying "Wet's wake up, Momma. Wet's wake up."
Ugh... I tell her to turn on the TV and cuddle with me- she happily obliges.

I get out of bed after 3 episodes of Caillou, and start scrounging for something to eat.
The dog is whining- but I don't want to deal with him yet.

I finally settle on cheese crackers, and let the kids fend for themselves. They wanted cereal. Cool.

After my crackers calm my tummy, I decide to let the kids swim.
Get them into bathing suits, sunblocked, and out in the backyard.
I also finally let the dog out, but I don't feed him yet. Dog food smells yucky.

I start looking for their new wading pool. It's not in the shed- I SWEAR I left it in the shed. Not in the pantry, not in the garage. I call Cotton, a little pissy, and ask him WTF he was thinking, throwing away a brand new in package wading pool. He says he didn't.
Whatever. We'll go buy a new one.

I put some clothes on. By this pint the MS is back, and hitting hard.
I skip the food step and go straight to Zofran (the miracle drug).

Zofran kicks in, the kids and I have lunch. I finally feed Emmitt.
I get the kids dressed to go to the dollar store, lock up the dog, and out the front door we go.
Dig in my purse for 20 minutes, looking for keys, before remembering that Cotton had them last. Herd the kids back inside, and go on a key hunt.
15 minutes later, I call Cotton- a little pissier. "Where the hell is the truck key!?" He says to look in his shorts pocket. Oh, right- the shorts I just put in the washer? Niiiice.
Luckily, the washe is done.
I unload the dryer, then load the dryer with the wet clothes.
Lo and behold, lying on the bottom of the washer- the truck key!

I re-hustle the children out the door, into the car, and we head to the store.
I need a pool, razors, and something to kill flies.

We emerge 45 minutes later with 3 pools, 2 beach towels, oreos, strawberry newtons, a bag of doritos, 4 squirt guns, fun size kit-kats for ME, a jar of arnica... and some other stuff. My bank account $40some-odd lighter.
No razors. Nothing for the flies.

We get home, I get the kids undressed, blow up the pool, throw it in the backyard...
Now where is the dang WATER HOSE!?!?!?
I go look right outside the gate 3 times, and it is NOT there. GAWD!
I check the other side of the house, the garage twice... aaargh... Cotton is seconds away from a third pissy phone call.
Go back out to the gate, and *poof* There it is, but on the neighbor's side. Pregnancy brain strikes again.

Fill up the pool, turn on the sprinkler- the kids are in hog heaven. I break out some frozen go-gurt to top it off. Woohoo...
I got some really cute pictures of them splashing down, cool.

Go back inside and get ready to tackle the hurricane zone that used to be my house.
I pull the 2 remaining new pools from the bags (hey, they were marked down- and we go through them quick!) and try to think of a suitable place to store them. Ummm... I guess the hall closet will work.
Go open it, and out falls something on my feet. I say this with my head ducked in shame- it was the "old" new pool. Oops.
I call Cotton and half-ass apologize, blaming hormone induced ditziness. He laughs at me, and laughs harder when I tell him about the water hose fiasco.

I finish cleaning the house, and collapse on the couch, and watch a lifetime movie. Cotton comes home, takes Jacob fishing, and here we are. Lucy and I are vegging out and have plans to do a little more swimmin' in a minute.

Pictures to follow at some point tonight. I don't feel like loading them, and I have a whole weekend full to edit and share. So that gives you something to look forward to tomorrow. Lol.

tonight we asked Jacob

what he wants to name the baby.

He looked at me, then looked at Cotton. In a dead serious voice, he said "Harry Potter."

I love my boy!

the highest compliment

I've received in a while:

Lucy stroking my face as she says "Momma, you're my best cousin."

Awwwwwwwww......

I cried a little tonight

but don't worry...
They were very happy tears!

Like everyone, I went through a phase of not loving old Michael Irvin. I mean, come on man. Get your shit together!
BUT- I think he has. And even if he hadn't- there is NO denying that the man was an AMAZING football player. And a Cowboy from start to finish, which makes him even better.



Besides, you just can NOT call yourself a true Cowboys fan, and not love the triplets.



It's just the way it is.

And tonight- he was inducted into the Hall of Fame!
I watched Jerry Jones talking about him, and watched clips, and saw his stats- and every ounce of respect I'd lost over the years came pouring back.
I watched the play, the injury, that ended his career- and the floodgates opened.

I cried, and cried, and cried a little more.

Congratulations, Playmaker. You deserve it, and I am so glad that it finally happened!

Ive been saving these pictures...

for a special occasion. (okay, okay- my computer was messed up. whatever)
Anyway- Brooksy's big 3-1 seems like the day to share the madness!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BFF!!!!! Mucho love to you, girly!

A tribute to friendship:

Here is my girl, nearly peeing herself. Michelle and I are peeing ourselves in the background.


How big IS my mouth?


Hawtness...


More than a handful is a waste, right? (see her face? she likes it!)


"let's make a sexy face!" yea, that went well


See what I put up with?


My mistress, making her "bedroom eyes"


That dirty mistress again, yours truly, and my "new best friend" Melissa. Oh, and baby Beth- isn't she adorable?


Awww... buddies


And looking at these pictures, from about a month ago... MY GOODNESS. Cotton keeps saying I am losing weight, and I know it's true. But GAWD. I won't know for sure until Wednesday- but I'd be willing to wager that this baby has pulled 15lbs off of me in the past 7 weeks!
Amazing what not eating or drinking will do for your figure. :-P