Road Trip!

Well, yesterday I drove to Gaffney, SC to go shopping with my Mom. We met at the outlets off 85 in the morning. She was looking for a Coach pocketbook for my sisters oldest daughter that turns 16 on Friday. Coach, yes that wonderful bag I used to buy so many of before I had children that would require college tuition. The last bag I bought was when Jack was 2 and a 1/2 so six years ago. Wow! That long. Mom and I were again shopping at the outlets with Jack. Mom was watching him in the stroller while I shopped for the perfect bag for Jack to give me for Christmas. I found 2 that I liked so I let him choose which one he liked the best. He said, "Mommy please stop you're scaring me." Both my Mom and I busted out laughing. I believe he said this because he knew I was having lots of fun shopping and I usually say that to him when he is having lots of fun playing wildly. You really have to watch what you say around my kids because you never know when it will come back to bite you on the behind.

Mark knew we were going shopping and he left me a voice mail on my cell phone which I rarely have on or answer. He wanted to know if the Governor of SC had come to shake my hand for personally boosting the economy in SC. He has such a sense of humor. OK so back to our shopping trip. This trip was so Mom could get her gift and so I could get shoes for my kids. The each needed dress shoes and tennis shoes. Mark also through in the fact he could use some dress shoes too. Osh Kosh was having a big sale and so was the Nike outlet.

It's not a good idea to go shopping with your kids to an outlet mall that has a playground. That is all I heard the entire time I was shopping. Can we go to the playground yet? Can we go to the playground now? Mommy the playground is that way. I am sure you have heard it too.

My sister and her girls came to meet us for lunch and do a little shopping. So I told the boys if they could behave during lunch that they could go to the playground. They sat like little angels while they ate their pizza and we caught up on all the latest gossip from home. After lunch Mom sat while the kids finally played at the playground. My sister and the girls went and did some more shopping. We hit a few more stores and made our way back to the playground. Thomas had hurt his hand on the pavement. He was fussing and holding his wrist. My sister said I should get some ice because it looked like it was swelling. Thomas immediately went into meltdown mode and was screaming oh,oh, what is swelling? We all laughed. He did not know what it meant but he knew it was not good. I looked at his other wrist to compare to see if it was truly swelling and they did not look that different and my sister said oh know they're both swollen. Well, that started the meltdown again. I asked him if he could wiggle his wrist and he said yes and proceeded to wiggle the one that was not hurt.

Well, he survived and is not in pain today. I am however. I have not been shopping like that in quite some time. I am really out of shopping shape.

Is it Monday? . . .

Actually this all happened on Tuesday. It might as well have been a Monday for me. I had to get up and get Jack to school and look good. Ok, now when I say look good I mean look presentable enough to be seen in public. You know you have those days where it does not really matter that you did not get a bath or comb your hair because you are only going through the drop off line. Well, not today. I had to take Jack in because his class had done weather projects and they were on display for the parents to see that morning. Not only did I have to look presentable but so did Thomas. He was going to school after I dropped Jack off and saw his project.

Now that you have the back story; I jumped up and got my bath fixed my hair and then had to get the kids ready. Yes, I do have a husband but for some reason he believes that during the week his only responsibility is to get himself ready and go to work. So I get everybody their breakfast and fix lunch for Thomas. Out the door we go in record time. Naturally I run into everyone I know at Jacks' school. This is why I had to look presentable. I walked and looked at all the kids projects and oohed and ahhhhed at everything.

Now I am off to take Thomas to school. We got there really early compared to most days. Everyone seemed rather surprised to see us. I guess I really am that bad about getting out the door in the mornings.

And now on to the grocery store because I did not get everything I needed the last time I was there. I forgot my list. So here I go through the store talking to myself racking my brain to remember what I needed. I had to order cupcakes for the Easter party, sugar, sweet and Low, and a few other little items. I finally found my sugar and put a bag in my buggy. I went on to the cereal isle and looked for Thomas' cereal. I finally found it and started to the next item and I stepped in a pile of sugar on the floor. Where did that come from? Oh my gosh! It was pouring out of my buggy. I picked up my bag of sugar and proceeded to the check out ladies to inform them there was a clean up on isle 8. I did not realize but I had a little trail of sugar going through the store where I had been shopping. I was rather embarrassed. I apologized and finished my shopping. If Thomas had been with me I do believe I would have blamed him for it. HA HA!! As I approach the register the nice lady that I had informed of my misfortune was bagging for the other counter. She announced, "There is the crazy sugar lady" and said she would help me on the next register. Well I made it home without incident, thank goodness. All I wanted to do was go to bed!

First Kiss. . .

OK, I have a situation. Thomas came home yesterday and told me he and another little girl in his preschool had kissed. When I asked him where he said," in my school." I actually meant where; like face, cheek, or nose maybe. Instead I got lips. Yes, he has had his first official kiss. Beth please tell Sarah I am sorry. Jack has not even been kissed yet. (thank goodness) When Mark came home I told Thomas to tell his Daddy what had happened at school. Mark asked him if he liked it and his eyes got real big and he nodded yes. Am I in for a long, long, long adolescence? He is only 5. HELP? Should I be worried? Mark told him he would get cooties. Of course that started a whole other issue.
The little girl is very cute and very nice. He has good taste.
If this is any indication as to what I am in for, I am not ready. For some reason I thought having 2 boys would be easy when it came to dating. Their Daddy was not interested in girls until he went to college. I could sure deal with that. Mark was to in to sports and being a boy. I am going to be raising two ladies men. What did I do to deserve this?

Ladies any advice?

Valentines' Day . . . Ahhhh. . .

I know I am a little late for this but I have to get this off my chest. My husband does not believe in Valentines Day. Like if he does not believe it does not happen. HA HA!! When we first met he told me this line of bull. In truth it is his way of getting out of having to buy flowers when they are the most expensive. I have always told you he was cheap. He does buy me flowers on occassion but he hates it on Valentines day. He says it is a made up holiday that the card and flower shops conjured to make money. Anyway, he really does have a heart. I thought about this when I read Beths' blog about all the other women getting flowers on V Day and how Dan didn't do that. Well the first V day after we were married I was working in an office of a bunch of spiteful women. Mark new I did not like where I worked nor the bunch of women I worked with. So in order to make me feel better about me and to make them suck air. He sent me a singing quartet to my office. Yes, a singing Barber Shop Quartet. They sang, "I love you truly". Needless to say there were a lot of men that night getting an ear full! I was a little emabaressed but I loved every minute of it. I do sort of miss not working anywhere now. But only for that reason. I just had to tell you about that one. He really can be sweet when he wants to.

This year I did get two long stemed red roses. He snuck them in the house and let the boys give them to me. To bad I don't have more kids huh. Goober didn't get me any chocolate though. I had to buy that myself. Oh well, ture love is never perfect.

My Baby is growing up. . .

My baby is now 5. Yes, I said it 5. Is this possible? Is it possible that the little bundle of joy that I fretted over for 9 months is now 5 and will start school in August? It seems that only yesterday he was siting in his bouncy seat cooing and giggling at everylittle thing. How is it that they grow up so fast? I am not ready to be a mother with two boys in school. I like being the mother of a preschooler. It makes me feel young. OK, I know I'm selfish, what can I say. What ever will I do with myself for those "Fabulous" (oops did I say that?) 61/2 hours with no kids.

What your Husband lets your kids get away with. . .

I had the pleasure of entertaining some of Beth and Jennifers' friends at their house for a Pampered Chef party. It was so much fun. We made all chocolate recipes, of course. While I was "working" HA HA, my husband was taking care of our children. I love my job! I get to entertain all the time and we have so much fun. How cool is that? OK, OK, so back to the story.

I got home after the show and there sat my beautiful boys watching "Gremlins", yes the 80's scary movie that I was not allowed to see because it was PG. I did see it later and I was scared to death of those little creatures. Now my kids are 8 and 4. I was so upset I could not believe he let them watch that movie. His response was, "they wanted to watch it." I asked, "and if they wanted to watch 'Nightmare on Elm Street' you would let them watch that too." He said no he would not let them watch that. Thank goodness. I told him if they had nightmares he was going to deal with them not me. He said oh, they will be fine they are not scared. It came time to go to bed and Thomas the 4yr. old started crying and did not want to go to bed. He said the "Gremlins" were going to get him. I told Thomas it would be ok because Daddy was going to get a sleeping bag and go sleep in his room with him. Needless to say my husband was not to happy with me at that point.

They did sleep through the night with no problems. I did have issues the next day with Thomas not wanting to take his nap because of the "Gremlins". Now that was this past Sunday and yesterday as his teacher was puting him in the car from preschool he asked if he could watch it again. I told him no and proceeded to tell the teacher the sorted story. She laughed and asked Thomas if he was afraid of the "Gremlins". He told her he was a little scared of the ugly slimy ones. She laughed again and said you know they are not real don't you. He looked at her real puzzled and said, "Have you seen the movie?" Well we both busted out laughing.

So I guess the moral of this story is: If you leave your husband alone with the kids be sure to hide the scary movies.

Birthday Blues. . . .

Just celebrated the big 39. Hated it! My Mother and Father called the morning of at 7:30 to sing to me and wish me a Happy Birthday. That was very sweet. Mark and the kids took me out to eat at Kampi. My oldest has learned the joy of Hibachi Shrimp. He enjoyed his so much that he ate mine too. I did get one or two before he finished. Now as for the youngest. He is at that stage where he does not want to eat anything unfamiliar. That is anything that is not pizza, hot dog, peanut butter sandwich (except at school), yogurt and cereal. He has had the chicken at Kampi before and liked it. But, for some reason every time the chef put anything on his plate he would say NO! Thank goodness the folks that sat on that end of the table had raised two boys and nothing my kids did seemed to bother them. As for the two that sat on the opposite end they were to involved with themselves to notice anything else. Oh, I guess that would be for another day. Tune in for my rant on public displays of affection. HA HA!!

Anyway, we made it through the entire meal without incident. Mark still trying to convince Thomas he really liked chicken. Mark offered Thomas some of his Fillet Mignon. Well, Thomas has decided he really likes that. So Mark did not get much of his meal either. The waiter comes brings our check and Jack announces, "It's my Mommy's' Birthday today!" Of course the waiter scampered off and returned with everyone else and a piece of chocolate cake. The whole table sang while I stood with my cake and candle. Of course the kids loved the cake. We ended the delightful evening by going to the "Cookout" for milk shakes. Sh!! don't tell anyone. I am supposed to be eating better and losing weight.

Next year will be my one year anniversary of my 39th Birthday. I refuse to go any higher on that chart!