How Hot Will It Get?

Last night Jack had a ball game and I cannot believe how hot it was at 6:00pm. We were outside for about an hour and my shirt was soaking wet. The poor kids were pouring water over their heads to cool off. You would think at 6pm that it would be cooling off. We were even playing down in a hole where it is usually cooler. My husband kept saying the sun will be going down soon. It did not go down before we were through playing. Thomas was not even in the game and he was soaking wet too. His hair looked like he just stepped out of the tub. I love watching my kids play ball but my goodness it was hot last night. This season is almost done and then we start All Stars. My only hope is that those games will be later in the day so the kids don't get so hot. Jack is excited about All Stars this will be his first year.

I guess when I am not at the pool trying to keep cool this summer I will be at the ball field watching my "little" All Star.

Treating yourself !!

I bought a gift certificate for myself to go to the spa. I figured I deserved it. I have a long hot summer with two grouchy boys to look forward to, I should pamper myself while I can. I bought this online you could get a $50 gift certificate for $25 so I did. I decided to go for the full body massage. Now normally I am not a massage kinda girl but, this was wonderful. I opted for the Swedish which is supposed to be less painful than the one to relieve stress. It was still somewhat painful. The lady that did mine said I had a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders. Hummmm, wonder why that is? Could this be the reason I chose to pamper myself. I have decided to follow the philosophy that; I am the only me I have and I need to take care of me. I have put others first for so long and I need to take care of me or those others will not have anyone to take care of them. HAHA!! Seriously, what good are we as mothers if we do not take care of ourselves. I know we all neglect ourselves to provide for everyone else. Stop, take stock in you, and today do a little pampering for yourself.

The great thing about all of this is that my husband is so nice he takes the kids to the movies or bowling so that I can have some time to myself. He does understand as a stay at home mother it is hard work and we do everything but stay at home. Thomas asked where I was going that day and I told him the spa. He said Mommy are your going to the Auto spa? I told him no I was going to a people spa. The place we take the car to get it washed is the Auto Spa and Thomas loves it because it sprays all of those pretty colors of soap.

So today I recommend you all take some Me time and pamper yourself. Even if you only take some extra time in the tub our shower do it for you.

Remembering Canie. . .

We just recently had to put our beautiful Chocolate Lab to sleep. Her name was Canie she was almost 15 yrs. old. This was a very hard decision that my husband and I had to make. We loved her so much. She was our first animal after we got married. My husband always wanted a big dog he only had little dogs growing up. (Poor baby). All I had was big dogs growing up so I knew how much trouble they would be. He was in for a treat. This was one of those I told you so moments. I have only had a few of those with him. We moved in to a new house right after we were married and he immediately started looking for a big lab. We had a nice big back yard that could handle a large dog. It was our garage that was not ready for those big puppy teeth. She chewed everything. If it was wood she had her mouth on it. We tried everything to keep her off of it including putting hot sauce on it. She liked hot sauce. We fenced in our back yard so she would have plenty of room to run. My husband planted Cypress trees in the back yard about 20 of them. Everyday Canie would meet him at the gate with one in her mouth so happy to see her Daddy. She dug up every one of them. Needless to say that was an I told you so moment. We decided at two we would breed her and let her have a litter of puppies. She had 11 puppies right after Christmas. They all lived. We sold all but one of them. We kept a yellow male. His name is Jake. My boys grew up with Canie and Jake. Jack would chase Canie and grab her tail she never minded it either. She was very easy going. My husband always wanted a dog that would fetch. Canie did fetch but only when she wanted to. Not when he wanted to. She was funny that way. She was very loving though. The year we had the big ice storm and the power was out for several days he got the bright idea that she would keep us warm. We had moved our mattress into the living room in front of the fireplace. He let her in and she ran upstairs we got her under the covers with us and she rolled over and all four legs just running and through all the covers off. Ah, again and I told you so moment. We left her in the garage one day and somehow the door to the house did not close and she got in. She was probably in the house alone for several hours. We found teeth marks on the remote, she licked the stove, she had moved things from one room to the other, and she had taken ornaments off of the tree and chewed on them. We found things miss placed for weeks. Another I told you so moment. The dogs never really barked unless they needed too. When I say that I mean, Canie only barked at strange cars, snakes, and smoke. So we always new when someone was cooking out or when someone drove up in our driveway. She did save us one night. She began barking about midnight on a Saturday night and I made Mark go out and check. He went downstairs and he was going to shock the dogs in to not barking. So he threw open the door and yelled really loud, "Stop that". Much to his surprise two heads popped up from between our cars. Our neighbors kids were trying to break into our cars. Now how is that for a surprise. I think he scared those boys as much as the dogs and himself. The dogs got the Royal treatment from that point on.

Jack was very sad the day Canie died. He cried and he wanted her back. He did not understand how much pain she was in due to the pancreatitis. She was very sick. Mark and I both cried and I still cry some days when I think of all the things she has done and all she meant to us as a family. I have a lot of pictures of her and we will always tell stories of her just as I have told you. These are only a few of the stories of Canie. She was a great dog, friend, mother, and protector. My sister said it best when she said, "We are here to take care of and protect our animals in life and in death." She was trying to ease my pain in the decision we had to make.

Canie you will be missed! We love you! Craters' Cajun Hurricane September 9, 1994- May 29, 2008

Kindergarten Assessment. . .

It is that time of year when all the little boys and girls that will begin Kindergarten have to take a test to assess where they fall in school. I guess this is to see how much work the teachers are going to have ahead of them in the fall. Thomas went for his test earlier this week and did great for a five year old. He had to spell his name and of course he did throw a capital A in there. I thought it was great he spelled his name correctly. "Thomas" is not an easy name to spell for a 5 yr. old. He did not get any points for spelling his name because of the capital A. Then the teacher asked him to draw a picture of himself. He loves to draw and of course he is at the stage where his head is tiny and everything else is huge. Well, she showed me what he drew and it was only a circle. He told the teacher he did not know how to draw hands and feet. All she was looking for was a face. I think he may have misunderstood. So he did not get any points for that either. He could count though and he could count objects and he knew his ABCs'. Oh, he also knew the name of his Preschool. I think that is wonderful. Not all kids know the name of their preschool or where they go to daycare. They were not giving points on that. I am not bitter that he did not get a good score but it strikes me funny where they placed their emphasis. So far of all the parents I have talked to they all said that their kids also threw in a capital letter in their name too. Jack did the same thing when he was tested. Notice I have picked somewhat simple names for my children. I feel sorry for some of these kids that have these insane names that they have to learn to spell. We did put some thought in to that when we named the kids. Of course Mark wanted something that sounded good over the PA system. He has great aspirations for our children's sports careers. HA HA!!
The other way we picked our names was to go outside and scream it off the deck. I know that sounds a little strange but if you really think about it, you spend a lot of time yelling that name and it should sound good. Back to our subject. They had the kids cut a rectangle out of a piece of paper. Thomas is left handed in most things although he can color and write with both hands. The teacher said he had trouble holding the scissors. I didn't tell her this but I don't let him use scissors. He does use them in preschool though. She showed me the rectangle and he did really good down the side and when he started going across the top he got a little jagged. Then he gave it to the teacher and said here you finish it. So there is another area he did not get points. Oh well, I guess they will have plenty to teach him in Kindergarten. For everyone getting ready to take their Kindergarten assessment, don't sweat it. If they knew everything before they started there would be no reason for Kindergarten.

"Life is an adventure, especially with young children. Enjoy it all because in a flash their grown and gone."

Works for Me Wednesday

Ok, I know it is only Tuesday but who knows what will be going on in my life on Wednesday. So here it is:

Today the boys were playing in the playroom and knocked over a lamp and broke the bulb. Thomas is sick. He has pink eye and an ear infection. He is very cranky! So, they come down to me and say Mommy we broke your lamp.
Me: You did what? Them: We accidentally knocked over your lamp and the bulb broke. I shook it out of my hair. Me: You what?

Ok, so after I count to 100. I go upstairs to see what actually had happened. Sure enough they had broken a lamp and the bulb. Here is a little trick I use to pick up tiny pieces of glass out of carpet or anywhere else for that matter. I use a lent roller. You know the little roller thing to get hair and fuzzes off of your clothes. It does wonders for tiny pieces of glass too. If you do not have a lent roller you can always wrap tape around your hand and use that too.

Thomas-isms'

Thomas is so funny. He is my spunky, wild, and sassy 5 year old. He is constantly amazing me with the things he says. Everyone should take a day and look at the world through your pre-schoolers' eyes. You would be amazed how different things look. You would also be amazed how they interpret the things you say.



Some of these things I have talked about in previous parts of my blog so please pardon the repetition. I was visiting with my parents this weekend and Mark kept the kids. I was only gone overnight but when I got home I thought Thomas had grown. I told him I thought he had grown a foot while I was gone. He said, "Oh yeah? Where?" (stuck out his foot and was looking for another one.) He is so funny sometimes.

Of course there is the frantic jumping up and down shouting "What does it mean? What does it mean? What does swelling mean?" All of this happened because he fell and hurt his wrist and my sister said it looked like it was swelling.

One day Thomas was going around the house hold his breath. He would just be walking down the hall and all of a sudden take a big deep breath and hold it. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I am trying to get a baby in my tummy." OK, yeah I did not get that one either until I talked to his Daddy. Thomas had told his Daddy he wanted a baby brother or sister. Mark told him to hold his breath. Needless to say you really have to watch what you say to the little ones you never know how they will interpret it.

Oh, and I don't think I had mentioned this one before. Mark and Jack were watching basketball on TV in the living room and Thomas and I were watching TV in my room when a commercial for a pretty diamond ring came on. It was talking about the "Canary" Diamond. Thomas asks me, " Mommy do you have a ring like that?" I told him no that that was a really expensive ring and Mommy did not have one like that. I then, as a joke, told him to go and tell his Daddy that Mommy wanted a "Canary" Diamond ring. He said ok. He repeated it twice to make sure he was saying right. I muted the TV so I could hear the talk between Mark and Thomas. Thomas told him exactly what I had said and Mark told him to tell me to "hold my breath." Thomas immediately began screaming and saying over and over, " I don't want another baby! I don't want another baby!"

There is never a dull moment in my house. This is why I am writing everything down. They are so cute.

Shots??????

I had to take poor Thomas for his physical last Friday. He was due his shots before school. I did not tell him he was going to have shots. I kinda wormed my way out of it. I said, "I'm not sure, they might." I tried not to tell him he was going to get shots because I knew what would happen. When the nurse calls us back and began the weigh in and height check, Thomas asks, "Do I have to have shots?" Before I could but in the nurse says, "yes you are getting shots today." I could have screamed. All this time I kept saying I don't know, maybe and here she just blerts it out. Thomas immediately began his routine of hopping down the hall like a bunny and repeating, " I don't want shots." Over and over, "I don't want shots." Those of you that know him you can see this happening. Once we are in the room he starts in on; "will it hurt? Is the needle big? do they do it hard?" You can imagine these questions right? When the Doctor came in to do her exam she talked to him and tried to explain that he had to have shots to protect him. Again, those of you that know him know there is no way to reason with him.

He was so pitiful. I felt really bad about having to bring him to have this done. The nurses come in and start the prep for the shots. He had 5. Yes, 5 shots at one time. I thought there would only be 2 or 3 but 5 I was even in shock. He got up on the table himself without being told. He laid down and he pulled my face to his and said, "Mommy I want you right here." I told him I was not going anywhere. I pulled down his pants so they could get to his legs and Thomas did not want them to look at his underwear. He is a little modest. He put his fingers in his ears. I asked why he had his fingers in his ears and he replied, "I don't want to hear myself scream." That is so sad. He cried big tears. So much that he had wet the paper on the table. I lay across him and held his hands and the nurses said they would not do anything until he was ready. He took a deep breath and said, "NOW, NOW, NOW!!!!!!!" The nurses were surprised and said ok. He cried quite a bit and then calmed down and limped out of the room. He was pitiful. I felt so sorry for him. That really is a lot for a poor kid to take. He got some gummies from the checkout lady and was ok after that.

I am glad we don't have to do that again until he is 13. That was quite a workout.