Thursday, November 29, 2012

Oh boy, the boys are gonna get it . . .



So, I just finished cleaning and organizing the boys' playroom.  It takes me about an hour and a half to get it completely clean just the way I like it.  Unfortunately for me, the boys don't necessarily see why their toys need to be organize.  One day they'll learn that it's easier to find a specific, tiny, little tip of their beyblade or the head to their Lego man if they just keep their toys organized.

I started this solely for The Great Toy Clean Out that I participate in every year.  The boys have no clue that I do this and I can't remember a time when they've come to me and ask where so-and-so was after I have gotten rid of it.  I donate a lot to Goodwill.  If my boys aren't playing with it then off it goes.  My mindset is that another child would love it so why hoard it.  Don't get me wrong, somehow they still have a lot of toys but they're just things I know they play with:  Legos, Transformers, Bionicles, cars, games/puzzles, superheroes, costumes, etc.  

Back to my morning, as I was cleaning up I eyed the couch.  For some reason, the boys love to take the cushions off the couch, shove toys underneath it, and dump other small toys on top of the bare seat portion.  (FYI - the boys are getting a tent from Santa and I hope that means they'll leave the couch cushions alone)  I crawl over to the couch to start cleaning up that area and I notice that there is some trash behind it.  I moved the couch over and I find . . .

three wads of chewed-up bubblegum!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, they are too old to do something like that!   I couldn't believe it.  My precious boys spitting their gum behind the couch and thinking it's okay to leave it there.  Do I just have slobs as children?  What have I missed teaching them?  They know what a trashcan is.  They know how to use it or,  apparently,  they don't know how to one.

Lucky for them, it came up from the carpet with no problem.  But now I have to figure out how I'm going to handle the situation.  

Do I - 
a) ask them What the hell were you thinking?
b) ban gum for life?
c) try to have a rational talk on why we don't throw gum on the ground?
d) tell them Santa is not coming?

I vote for a, b, or d.  C just seems to reasonable.

And, one last thing.

Dear Boys,
    When you are in your 30s and have your own houses and are barely able to keep your house presentable, Dad and I are going to come over and spit chewed-up gum behind your couches.
                                                                                                      Love,
                                                                                                      Mom

As they say, payback is a bitch.




Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012


Thanksgiving is over.  I accomplished my goal of having barbeque, cheap mexican, 420 (beer), and oysters.   

The boys and I went to St. Matthews on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Unbeknownst to my mom, I was traveling with a sweet, little fluff ball as a companion plus three children.  The boys did terrific down, as well as, the dog.  Bill & fam, Kent & fam,  plus us all gave Mom a shishon (half bichon frise, half shitszu) for Christmas.  I'm thinking she half loved us for doing it and half hated us for doing it.  Mom has wanted a small dog for a long time and couple of years ago I made a push for it to Dad.  He vehemently shot me down and told me in no certain terms that if I showed up on the doorstep Christmas morning with a puppy then he was going to disown me.  I decided that I liked belong to my family so I decided against the dog.  I warned Mom multiple times that she was not getting a dog but she thought I was trying to fake her out.  You see, this is how Mom and I worked.  She tells me what she wants and then I come to Dad with the great idea.  This system started when I learned to use the credit card.


Anyway, back to reality.  Mom finally got her little dog and I think they're going to be a great pair.  So, to wrap it up, I have technically given mom two dogs within the last 11 months - Charlie and, now, Suzie.

While in St. Matthews, my friend, Suzie, not the dog the human, came to visit with Conley and Chandler.  The boys and I had a great time playing with our friends and we were sad to see them go.  
Bill and I built a fence on the side of Mom's house to contain Charlie seeing as he was visiting neighbors that aren't a big fan of his.  And, the boys played and played with their cousins.  

On Wednesday, we headed to York to meet David.  Very luckily for us, our neighbors and friends in Virginia come to Charlotte every year for Thanksgiving so David was able to catch a ride down and Andrew picked him up for me.  We gorged ourselves for three days on fabulous food cooked by Mrs. Pat and Aunt Nancy.  We had a great time hanging out with family and on Friday we steamed oysters at the lake.


 Collins sporting his first Christmas outfit of the season.




David and Hughes were exploring the point for a little while . . .

 
until Collins decided to join, too.


Love Him!


 and, Him, too!


Not to leave you thinking Banks was left out - he was in the leaf pile having a blast.


This is the only picture I have to prove that we have a new baby on the Holman side.  Deyna had a sweet, little boy in October and I don't have one picture of him from Thanksgiving.  Probably because I was trying to hold him the entire time to soak in all that "baby-ness" and trying not to think about how big my baby was!


Bellied up to the bar - would rather have hot dogs and macaroni and cheese instead of oysters - go figure?


Banks preferred to park it right in front of the tv.


David and one of his hometown bestfriends, Ron, with Banks and Ron's son, Furman.  The dads were in charge of the smores and nobody got hurt.

And, why does this picture make me think that Collins is going to have a great nickname in college?


This time last year I was nursing a Disney hangover.  Life changes and moves on and it doesn't make it any easier but it does make you appreciate the time that you did have together.  Last Thanksgiving I somehow convinced my parents to join me and boys for a trip to Disney World.  We left David studying for finals.  They were going to leave mid-week and go to the Iron Bowl but decided to forego the game and spend the whole week with me.  We had turkey subs from Publix for our Thanksgiving day meal and I will always remember that week as being one of my happiest.











I had the greatest Dad.  Who other would forego the Iron Bowl to enjoy Disney with his grandsons?  I miss him so much and today is just one of those days.



Um, can you see my wrinkles?



Or better yet, my pores?  

Sorry for the extra large photo of the fam at the top of the screen.  I finally upgraded storage and then I had to change the layout of my blog to meet certain specifications and now my top photo is abnormally large.  

For a while, David kept getting cut off of the picture and I didn't want y'all to think that we had had a big fight and I was seeking revenge on my blog so I did try to fix it.  It only took me 10 minutes.  But, I guess it was 10 minutes for the greater good of our marriage.  I'm not sure how I would feel if he cut me out of a family photo.  I guess it would depend on how I looked :)

So, without further adieu, back to blogging about the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Help!


My blog account won't let me up load any pictures.  I was trying to change the top picture on my page. It is telling me my Picassa Web Album is full and wants me to pay or upgrade my account.  I just learned that blogger uses Picassa to upload pictures.  So my questions are:

1.  Those who use blogger, do you pay for your Picassa storage?

2.  If not, how do you get around it?

3.  Can I delete pictures off my Picassa Web Album to create more space?

4.  Any other advice would be great regarding my life, my children, my haircut, etc.  :)

aw

Monday, November 5, 2012

Tid Bits



Why is it that my boys always want to talk about anatomy with me?  

This morning Banks barged into the bathroom as I was stepping out of the shower and remarked "Mom, you don't have a penis!"  As if this was a surprise to me.  Thankfully, the conversation never turned to what girls have but only to what boys have.  According to Banks, "boys have penises and hineys and that's the way God made him".



Hughes has a girlfriend at school.  I asked him one night at dinner if he had a girlfriend and his response was "yes, Samantha, we're going to marry each other".   Banks then chimes in "oh really, well I have a boyfriend".  WHAT?  Can't wait for him to read this when he's older!



Collins is happy.  His new toy interest as of late has been matchbox cars.  He lines them up in a row (like Hughes use to do) and moves them around the playroom.  He always loves Hughes' Lego creations.  More often than not, he ends up breaking them which then sends Hughes into  a head-spinning, demonic scream but we're trying to learn how to control our reactions.  Good luck on that!



And, this Saturday we raked our front yard.  Holy Moly.  After 10 bags, we gave up doing the backyard.  No one can really see our backyard anyway.  











Thursday, November 1, 2012

Happy Halloween 2012


Last night was filled with laughter, crying, candy getting, candy giving, shoe tying, threatening to go home, sneakily eating candy, and, finally, falling asleep.

Isn't everybody's Halloween like that?


Collins wore his costume most of the day because, well, he was the cutest lion in the world.



After I drew his nose and whiskers on, he kept looking at himself in the mirror and smiling. 


Before we got started.  Storm Shadow was having a hard time as you can tell by the "mean" stare I'm getting through his mask.  Snake Eyes was happy and ready to pose.  




After the mandatory pictures on the front steps, we headed down to the neighborhood pool center for pizza and a costume parade.  Everybody did great and then we hit a few houses on our street on the way back to the house to wait for David to get home.





 This is what I saw most of the night.  A blur whizzing by me.  Collins was following and at the first few houses I had to go inside the people's houses to retrieve Collins.  They would open the door and Collins would just walk in.  He finally got it towards the end of the night to just stand on the doorstep and look cute.


One house was handing out sippy cups - that was my favorite house.  Of course, when I asked the boys this morning where their sippy cups were they couldn't tell me.  I'm sure they ditched them somewhere along the walk. 



 Taking a candy break about half way through.  Banks had finally gotten it together by this point.  He
 was having a hard time.  First it was his costume being itchy then it was who-knows-what but he finally recovered and enjoyed the night.  Collins fell asleep on David's shoulder and we all finally made it back home around 8pm.  It wasn't long before we had teeth brushed, pj's on, and lights out.  

Another Halloween conquered and we all survived!





 
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