Tag I'm it!!

So a newer commenter on this here blog, Shari meme tagged me. (That's a lot of me.) So here I goooooooo.....

7 random things about me:

1. I can and do pick up many different types of objects off the floor with my toes. It saves a lot of tiresome bending over doncha know.
2. I played the violin from 3rd to 9th grade. I quit playing because I had a mean teacher in the 9th grade and he ruined my desire to play.
3. I have an extra bone in my foot that looks like an extra ankle bone. I used to have one in each foot, however the one in my left foot broke off and tore up the tendons in that foot resulting in surgery when I was in 7th grade and MANY weeks in a cast at the end of summer.
4.Both of my babies were breech presentation. I had natural childbirth with the first one and had NO pain medication the entire 15 hours of labor and delivery.
5. I am ridiculously nearsighted. The last time my eye doctor told me my uncorrected vision was in high school. At that time it was 20/450. I instructed him to never again tell me my uncorrected vision status.
6. To go along with the above, when I was a kid and got glasses I became afraid of going blind and would do things around the house with my eyes closed so that I would be ready in the event that I ever went blind.
7. I used to have a crush on Ricky Martin.

That was much harder than I thought. Apparently I am not very random.

So now I am supposed to tag 7 people. I am not sure that 7 peopl e read this blog, so I will just think of as many as I can.

Ali
Woman with a Hatchet
filthedesign
Dan (I know this is a waste of time but I need some people)
BH
I'm not your mommy
Val

Here are the rules:

Post 7 random things about yourself
Tag 7 people.

Now GO!



Here are the rules:

Happy very belated blogiversay to me

My blogiversary was actually on October 18, but better late than never I suppose. So it seems that I have been at this bloggy thing for three years now. Amazing. I never thought I would still be at it this long.

Things have been ridiculously busy here at Chez Babble, thus the huge epic pauses between posts. I could be wrong, but I don't think things will improve much between now and oh.......Christmas.

So what is keeping me from my blogging?

Well..we are in fall musical crunch time. I was in no way prepared how much extra time would be involved having not only my hubby, but both girls involved in this show. We barely have enough time to get the children fed, bathed, homeworked, instrument practiced and in to bed on time. It is crazy. It leaves me with little energy and/or creative thoughts for my precious blog.

Because we are apparently crazy 3 of the 4 of us decided it would be a good idea to agree to do ANOTHER show, which started rehearsals last week.

AND this week, because we needed more to do we are having a Halloween party on Friday.

Yup. Wouldn't want any spare minutes catching up with me.

So I will do my best to post as often as I am able. So don't give up. I am determined to Babble On.

Is it odd that I have recurring dreams about Zach Braff being my boyfriend?

I guess it is not so much a recurring dream as it is a recurring theme in a dream.

Whatever it is, every few months I seem to have a dream that involves me being the girlfriend of Zach Braff. In fact that theme was present just the other night.

Now if you have read this blog for any length of time, or if you know me well you know that I do love my Zach Braff. He is on my forgivable celebrity sin list. Or one of my "Boys" as BH refers to all of my celebrity crushes.

That being said, I do not go around fantasizing about ZB with any regularity.

So this recurring theme is a bit odd in my opinion.

Odd, but rather enjoyable. I don't find myself terribly eager to wake up from these dreams as they tend to be quite pleasant. (OK full disclosure, the only dreams I am ever eager to wake from are nightmares. In general I find waking up unpleasant and my demeanor tends to match.)

Anyone else have recurring dreams/themes they are willing to share?

Cool Mom Points

I don't get cool mom points very often. I can be kinda boring I guess. Rigid perhaps.

At any rate, a big rule at our house is no TV during dinner time. This is not too hard to enforce seeing as the TV is located in the attic.

Every once in a great while I will elect to bend those rules. Usually occurs on a night when we have brought home bagged or boxed food from a local fast food establishment.

Tuesday night was one of those nights. (We seem to have a lot of "those nights" right now.)

BH was out making one of the 10 million trips to Lowe's that he has to do during what I refer to as "Crazy set building season." So it was just me and the girls.

Tuesday was a busy evening, reherasal til 5:30 for BH and the girls, piano for #2 from 6-6:30. Add one massive headache for the mom and it was off to Chez Arches.

The girls had not a moment of down time since school let out, so I declared that dinner was to be eaten by the TV while they watched the WhoBob Whatpants that had been recorded the day before.

Oh the celebrating! Oh the love and kind remarks I got!

Here are a few of my favorites:

You are the best mommy in the world.
I like you better than any other mom. If you weren't my mom I would be so sad.

So easy to please children sometimes.

Retro

I have been listening to the very faint (thank G0d) strains of the Wiggles since #2 went to bed.

That is some music that has been set aside for a few years now, seeing as #2 has been past the preschool years for awhile now.

Maybe this is considered going retro for the 7 year old set.

Speaking of retro...

I have spent some time looking back at old blog posts. I know that my "Blogiversary" is coming up soon and I had to go back to the first post to figure out the exact date. That of course led to reading more old posts, because I needed something to distract me from that damn basket of laundry.

My blog has changed a lot. I used to post little pictures to go with the topic I posted about, I even had a weekly post-thingy of my own creation. Hottie of the Week. I would be so crazy as to choose a different font color for each post. I also used to post much more frequently.

Maybe it is time for me to go Retro on this blog!

I do not find it cute. I do not find it funny. I find it disturbing.

Recently my children and their friends got their school pictures back. With that of course has been the flurry of picture exchanges with friends. Perfectly normal and expected.

#2 has come home with several pictures, and many of them have been pictures of boys from her class.

Never one to pass up an opportunity to tease, I made some kind of teasing comment about all the pictures of boys that were coming home and added in something about not letting her dad know.

#1 says that #2 is getting so many pictures of boys because they have crushes on her. To this #2 replies, "Yeah, some of the boys think I am hot. (Cue the record scratch here) But I am not hot."

Damn right she is not hot.

She. Is. Seven.

I kept my cool, and agreed that she is not hot and went on to say that boys can say she is cute, they can say they like her and think she is fun,smart, and things like that, but saying she is hot is NOT OK. Seven is too young to be saying someone is hot.

Good LORD.

Maybe I am over reacting, but this is completely apalling to me. It sure brings home the fact that children are being hypersexualized at a very young age.

We work pretty hard to make sure that our kids are not exposed to age inappropriate media and the the like. It is tough though, when many other parents do not share the same concern.

I really did not think I would have to be concerned about such things when my kid was seven. Seventeen...sure. But sweet Jesus..this REALLY makes me fear the teenage years.

Just keep swimming.....

Food Rut

I think I am in a food rut.

For the past week nothing sounds good, and I am having loads of trouble figuring out what I want to eat. This is especially problematic at breakfast and lunch.

Anyone else have this trouble? If you do what do you do to get out of it?

Subtle changes

A friend was recently talking about a shift she had noticed with her children recently, and how subtlely (is that spelled right? I can't tell. I am really too lazy to spell check or grab the dictionary. So I am imposing poor spelling on you helpless reader.) the changes came about.

Kids seem to do that once they are past those rapidly changing infant/toddler years. Once the preschool and ESPECIALLY elementary school years hit, things just seem to go along and then BAM, or perhaps rather whisper..there is a barely perceptible change that creeps up on you.

I think some of that is happening at Chez Babble. A just noticeable change. I think it is around responsibility and "taking care of business" as we refer to it around here. I don't have to nag or remind as much for things like chores to happen. They seem to finally get the idea that the sooner we take care of business the more time there is for leisure. I think it is change in development. Interesting to observe. Exciting to experience. A slight twinge of sad is in the mix for it means less dependence and more independence which is not always as welcome as one might expect.

On to other topics.

I am getting all kinds of worked up about this election. I don't think I am getting worked up in a healthy or productive way either.

I doubt that it is good/healthy/prudent of me to want to walk up to a stranger in the store wearing a McCain/Palin t-shirt and pummel that person while screaming, "WHY???WHY???? FOR THE LOVE OF BABY JESUS WHY WOULD YOU WASTE YOUR ONE PRECIOUS VOTE THAT YOU ONLY GET TO USE ONCE EVERY FOUR YEARS ON THIS COUPLE???????HAVE YOU SEEN THEM IN ACTION???I POOP MYSELF NEARLY EVERY TIME ONE OF THEM OPENS THEIR MOUTH!!!!!!!!!I DON'T WANT YOU TO HELP ME UNDERSTAND I JUST WANT YOU TO STOOOOOOPPPPPPP!!!!"

Nope....not healthy at all.

November can't come too soon. God help me if things don't go my way, as I am afraid I will do something ridiculous.

It's Time For the Latest Installment of....Conversations in the Car!!

In today's episode we find the Mother driving her two children to school....


Mother: Hey you guys are pretty quiet back there! What are you doing.

#2: Ohhhh I am just thinking.

Mother: What are you thinking about?

#2: Lot's of different things. Like Mittens.

Mother: What are you up to #1?

#1: Just staring out the window.

Mother: What do you see?

#1: The same things I always see on the way to school. I wish something interesting would
happen while I am at school today.

Mother: Like what?

#1: Like...finding an alien dog.

Mother: Uhhh...I see...........

Stayed tuned to see if #1 indeed finds an alien dog!

Adult Conversation

My life pretty much revolves around kids. I work with children all day, and then come home to take care of two children. I have trouble thinking of activities in which I engage that do not in some way involve at least one child.


It stands to reason I guess that the vast majority of the conversations I participate in tend to have children as the central topic most of the time.


I love kids I really do. However I am beginning to find myself wishing more and more often for a few activities and conversations that have nothing to do with children. In a word I guess I am interested in more moderation and less saturation.

That is tough to do in my current situation.

Today I did have some success and I was ridiculously giddy about it afterwards.

I had lunch with a good friend and we were able to discuss things like religion, politics, important issues and other stuff.

It was very refreshing. I was so glad that I felt that I actually had something to offer to the conversation, as I feel horribly out of practice discussing such adult matters.

I was so excited that I could hardly wait for my husband to get home so I could tell him all about it!

I came away with a few things today:

1. I need to get out more
2. I need to stop just saying I need to get out more
3. I might want to pick up a magazine/newspaper/blog that deals with grownup stuff every now and again.

There may be hope for me yet!

Don't read if you don't want to hear complaining

My week has sucked and I don't want any more of it.

Monday: Extremely busy at work. Got home late. Had dinner late. After late dinner #2 smashes her hand in a door. Much screaming and bleeding. Difficult to determine if it needs stitches. Notice that Minor Med is closed for the evening. Reluctantly decide that she is probably ok.

Tuesday: Extremely busy at work. Get home late. Run around like a crazed person to get children picked up and #2 to piano on time. Sit at piano lesson and look forward to coming home to husband and dinner. Get home to find no husband and dinner still in the crock-pot. Dinner is even later than the night before. Check out #2's wound, see that it is still bleeding. Decide that is probably not right and take her to Minor Med. Soothe child while she receives 2 stitches. Reluctantly agree to bring child back the next day for an x-ray. Off to Walgreens for antibiotic and get home to put #2 to bed late.

Wednesday: Very busy at work. Behind on paperwork. Fret all day about whether or not x-ray is REALLY necessary since child seems to be ok. Decide to follow doctor's advice. Take child to x-ray appointment. Wait a long time. Find out finger is broken. Feel like a crappy parent because I was thisclose to skipping the x-ray. Obviously my injury judgement is not to be trusted. Go back to work. Rush home with 5 minutes to change clothes and get child to dance class. Come home shower children and get them in to bed. Do other chores. Fart around on the computer. Notice that I am really hungry. Notice it is 9:22 and I have not eaten since lunch.

Guess I better go eat.

A Long Overdue Milestone

We have been working on a big project with #2 all summer long. It is a project that we avoided for a very long time, hoping against hope that the project would take care of itself. Alas it did not take care of itself...so we were left to deal with it.

The project has been to help #2 stop sucking her thumb.

Yes my 7 year old daughter sucked her thumb up until a few weeks ago.

When she was a baby the thumb sucking was a blessed thing. She would not take a pacifier, and at first often used my pinkie to soothe her self and satisfy her needs. Since I could not always be there to offer a pinkie, she eventually found solace in her own thumb. We vowed at that time that we would let her give it up on her own, and not do foolish things like paint her thumb with foul tasting stuff to deter her. We naively assumed that she would give it up by the time she entered school, much as her sister gave up her beloved blankie.

Ohhh how wrong we were.

We did put some limits on thumb sucking. Once preschool started we instituted the no thumb sucking at school rule. Not too hard for her, as she relied on it mainly for when she was very upset, sleepy, or at times when she was inactive. We then moved from there that there was no thumb sucking outside the home. That was tougher, but still not too bad. Still we assumed she would give it up herself.

A few years in to school and she was still at it. Now our avoidance had everything to do with total dread of the hell we knew was going to come from trying to make her quit. So we put it off.

Then last spring she was invited to a slumber party at her best friend's house. This activity was NOT met with the enthusiasm I expected. Of course being the mom that I am I starting asking, "whassa goin' on???" Finally #2 confesses that she does not want to go because she does not want the other kids to see her sucking her thumb at night when she is going to sleep.

Now at this point my therapist red flags start going up. We are now broaching the "behavior interfering with participating in life activities" range. I had a conference with BH immediately and it was decided that we could put off addressing the issue no longer. (OK we decided to wait until summer break, but you get the idea!)

So it was decided that we would take things slowly. We began by giving up thumb sucking during times that she was really not engaging in the behavior that much. We took things in increments of a few hours. Rewarded her for each successful day with a dime, and every three weeks the no thumb sucking time was increased. The end reward for giving up the thumb altogether was a slumber party with her friends.

I have to say this all went MUCH MUCH MUCH better than I ever anticipated. She was very edgy about the idea, but really motivated by the rewards. In the end she took the initiative to make the increases sooner than we had stated and moved things along at a good clip. There were some tough moments, particularly as she was figuring out new coping skills, but all in all I was shocked at how easily this went and kicked myself for not trying it sooner.

The last time to go was night time. Boy did we dread that. The time to move on to that one came just as we were going on vacation, so we put it off. Then when we got home it was time to start school...so we put it off again. Also we had no f'ing idea how to go about this one. This was the mother of all.....

Then.......

Two weeks ago at bedtime #2 asks when it is time to give up the thumb at night. We told her we could start in a few weeks once she was good and settled in to school. #2 says I think I would like to start tonight. BIG PAUSE. "Okkkaaaayyy" we said cautiously, "if you are sure...." She was definitely sure. So on we went. I fully expected her to come out in about 5 minutes completely distraught and saying she had changed her mind and couldn't do it. No such thing. We checked on her and she went to sleep with very little trouble NO THUMB.

WOW.

She had one night where she was wavering, but it was an up too late overtired moment that a solid bout of snuggling helped her through. She has come up with some good ways to help cope when she wants to suck her thumb and we have now gone almost three weeks thumb free at night and recently we were able for the first time to put nailpolish on all 10 fingers!

HOOORRAAAYYY!!! Mission accomplished!!!

Tomorrow....Slumber Party! Complete with two good friends, pizza, popsicles, popcorn, much giggling, games and likely little sleeping. She is so excited that she is having trouble sleeping tonight and has reminded me no less than 50 times since I got home from work at 5 that,

"TOMORROW IS THE DAY!!!"

Indeed it is.

Living Like the Quimby's

Here at Chez Babble we all gather on the Big Bed to read together right before the children go to Dreamland.

In the past couple of months we have read a few of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. Can I say how much I am enjoying the girls being old enough to appreciate some of my favorites from when I was their age. Little House, Ramona, The Boxcar Children. It is F-U-N.

For those of you for have never had the pleasure of reading one of the Ramona books, or if it has been so long that you can't remember let me refresh your memory.

The books begin when Ramona is about 5 years old. She is a rather precocious, funny, and some times annoying child. She lives at home with her parents and older sister Beezus, whom she annoys greatly.

As we have read these books, I have been surprised at the amount of conversation that has been generated among the four of us as we compare the "life" of the Quimby's to our own. There are some pretty major differences. A major theme in the books is the fact that the Quimby's are not a family that has a lot of money. They are not living in poverty by any means, but the words scrimping and saving are present with some frequency and there is often mention made of the fact that the family can not afford many things. For the Quimby's a bag of chips or Gummy Bears from the store is a treat that only happens on payday. A trip out to eat at a restaurant is almost unheard of. At one point in the series Mr. Quimby loses his job and is out of work for several months and treats of any kind are stopped altogether.

The life of Ramona and her sister is pretty different from the life my girls lead where what are considered treats for the Quimby's happen on nearly a daily basis. We think nothing of throwing a bag of chips in the grocery cart, my kids get candy FAR more than they should. Trips to get ice cream are commonplace and don't get me started on how often we go out to eat in a single week. It is disgraceful really. My children take piano, violin, tennis, and dance lessons (that is two activities per kid, not all four for each child!) They get to spend at least three weeks at a fun day camp in the summer.

We had a good discussion one evening (walking home from DQ funnily enough) about the differences between our family and the fictional Quimby's. I have to say that what my kids likely consider to be a treat, would be considered out of the question were they a Quimby.

This month as the bills rolled in for vacation, we had a tough decision to make, pay them all off now, or later. Knowing the right and smart thing to do was to pay them off now, we bit the bullet and did it. That means a skintight budget for the rest of the month. No eating out, no trips for ice cream, all those extras are G-O-N-E. I am also giving up my yoga class for this month. So we sat the kiddoes down and explained that this month we were going to live like the Quimby's. We expected wails, whining, and gnashing of teeth.

Surprise!

We got none of that. They were totally cool with the idea, and we have heard nary a complaint. #2 was worried that we would have to postpone her slumber party that was already in the works BEFORE we paid the bills and saw that we needed to be frugal because the plan had been to order her favorite pizza for it. We were smart enough to make sure that was covered to reassure her worried little head.

So here we are three days in to it and so far so good. I hope that this will maybe....MAYBE be the start of something new and better for us.

Living a little less large will benefit us all I think.

Muh-muh-muh My PIANO

Back at the end of the school year a colleague of BH's asked if he would be interested in a piano. A FREE PIANO.

Never being one to pass up a good bargain BH said, "Yes!"

BH and I are champeen procrastinators so we just got around to getting that piano today.
Boy is #2 excited. Her first words upon waking up this morning were, "Hoooray!! Today is piano day!!"

We had to purge the playroom and make toy sacrifices to make room for the new addition.
#2 was not at all happy with my procrastinating ways on Saturday when it came to making the playroom piano ready. At one point when I had told her for the 12 millionth time that I was not quite ready to start the purge she stomped off to her room in a huff. She found me a short time later in the laundry dungeon and said, "While I was being mad in my room I figured out that if I want to do what I want then I am going to have to help get other stuff done, so what can I do to help?" That very loud chorus of angels you heard singing about 2:00 CST last Saturday? That was coming from my house. That is what happens when your child has such an epiphany.
So she helped. We purged and now we have this:

It is older obviously and has some character, but it works. It needs to be tuned, but for now it is not painfully out of tune. It also goes well with our woodwork. Which is important you know!

Now #1 can tune her violin (praise Jesus!) and soon #2 will be plunking out tunes. As soon as we get her started on lessons.

A task which I hope won't fall victim to my procrastination disease.

Not likely. Persistent 7 year olds are a good antidote to that problem.

Hello, My Name is Missy and I Suffer From Low Blog-Esteem

I seem to once again been in the throes of to blog or not to blog angst.
This is an affliction I suffer from on a fairly regular basis.

My angst involves many questions:

• Why exactly am I blogging?
• Is anybody reading this damn thing?
• Should I be more focused in what I blog about?
• Are my posts too negative too frequently?
• Am I as boring as I think I am?
• Would having a regular feature be a good thing?
• What would my regular feature be about?
• Are my kids going to hate me some day because I put embarassing stories out there for the whole world to see?
• Man I wish I could write about stuff that happens at work. THAT would be some good reading.
• Why exactly am I blogging?
• See above

There are more thoughts and questions, but I don't feel like writing them down.

I have had this blog up and running for almost three years now, and it seems a shame to abandon the ship. I probably won't. If nothing else this blog is the only documentation I have of many things that have happened with me and the family, and having it does encourage me to keep that up which is probably a good thing I suppose.

I go through periods where I think that I want to do something to increase readership, but I hold back. To get more readers means reading more blogs, commenting on them and all that stuff. I am not sure that I have nor want to invest that kind of time. Also I am quite shy about all that. There are many blogs that I lurk about with nary a peep, and my site meter tells me that I have lurkers on this blog too.

However just as often I feel no need to increase readership and stand firm that this blog is for friends and family...(well maybe not so much family, I don't believe any of my family know this thing exists which may not be such a bad thing....then again if I am in my increase readership frame of mind what better way than to inform all 8 million of my family members....oops rambling!) and that those who are interested visit here on a regular basis, which is enough.

Sooo.....that is what I have been thinking about recently. Among other things. Like songs that would be good for Rockband, my level of disappointment that Sebelius did not get the VP nod (minimal as it turns out), what has my dad seen at the Democratic National Convention (his bus company was hired to drive people there and around there), will he tell him that he is a Republican?

Apparently there is a lot of thoughts rolling around my pointed little head.

Playing Catch Up

I am still behind with blog posting. School started for my young ones last Tuesday and I am just now getting around to talking about it here. I know that all three of you have been waiting with bated breath to hear about our first day of school.

I am just now feeling sort of caught up from being on vacation. We got back late on a Saturday afternoon and Monday BH and I both had to return to work, I had a big training presentation to make at work the following week and we had to get the kids ready for school. So I been busy!

I don't know what posessed me to agree to present a training at work, since I really hate doing that kind of thing. Well....I hate writing up the powerpoint and all that crap. Getting up and talking about it is ok. I really just want someone to give me the script, I don't wanna write it. The presentation went over well. I got my evaluations back and they were all really good and complimentary. It was like getting an academy award. I wanted to run down the halls with that stack of positive evaluations and get all Sally Field on everyone...shouting, "You like me!!! You really like me!!!!" I controlled myself. For a building full of people who deal with crazy children all day there is a noticeable lack of humor at my place of employment.

So the first day of school. Since we did not have the starting a new school challenge this year, the children were in quite a positive frame of mind about going back. I now live with a 5th grader and a 2nd grader. Apparently once you hit this age it is no longer acceptable for your mother to walk you in to the school building. I was not allowed. This was very difficult for me. So I just sat there in my car, waving like a crazed woman until they could no longer see me. The first day went well, and positive school attitudes continue. Less than a week in to the new school year BOTH children came down with colds. I hope this is not a sign of things to come. I can not bear a repeat of last year's repeated illness.

So on to the pictures!!

#1's annual show us how you really feel about pictures pose

#2 giving us her "picture face" We cut her hair off at the beginning of summer and she decided to grow her bangs out, thus the interesting headband look. We are about halfway there with the bangs. Now....she has decided to grow her hair out and cut her bangs.
*bangs head against a strong concrete surface*

Happy together!

What I did on my Summer Vacation

It has only been about a month since our not so little vay-cay, so I thought y'all might wanna hear about it now. If you don't too damn bad. This blog is for me too ya know. I am getting old. I will forget about this soon if I don't put it in writing.

The first leg of the trip involved a short stop in Delaware, Ohio so that we could attend a celebration for BH's grandparents who were celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary. 60 years is no joke people. I would post a few pictures, but I am hesitant to put pictures out here on the WWW without the person's permission. (Husband and children are excluded obviously.) Gaining permission is going to involve telling extended family about this blog, which I am not too keen on and it would also mean explaining the term blog to the elderly and I am even less excited about that.

We were only in Ohio for a couple of days, but much fun was had by children playing in the creek ,(which apparently my husband and his brother were never allowed to do as children, so great-grandchildren get away with more than grandchildren did much in the same way grandchildren get away with more than children. At least that is how things roll in our families.)
swimming at the hotel pool, taking walks across town and other activities.

We left for the next leg of the trip which was Tennessee. We spent four lovely days in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. My in-laws put us up in one of their fancy condo-time share thingys. I was so excited to be in a King size bed again. I found it very difficult to go from my oh so comfy king size tempurpedic bed, to full size uncomfortable hotel mattresses that have springs! Springs are bad now, and at one point a full size AIR MATTRESS...but more on that later. The condo was lovely...large bed, jacuzzi tub big enough for two, huge shower, full kitchen, washer and dryer in the unit, FOUR pools. We swam every day we were there.

The first day in Tennessee was spent in a leisurely manner, outlet mall shopping in the morning, where I found lovely Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Children's Place bargains for me and the girls. My MIL had a coupon for a lovely store called the Fudgery. If there is a coupon then you must buy. ridiculous. amounts. of. fudge. Like almost three pounds. Because that is what it said to buy on the coupon. And because you have a coupon that says buy three get one free, it means that you don't have to check the price of the fudge per half pound. Let's just say that when the total came up MIL and I both had to go to the Hanes Outlet to buy new underwear. Of course when I got home new pants were in order because I consumed ridiculous amounts of fudge. By God every last crumb of that gold laden fudge was going to be eaten. The rest of our day was spent swimming and reading. Lovely lovely day.

Day two we headed to Smoky Mountain National Park. BH did a great job finding interesting spots o see. The first day did a 1.5 mile hike to Laurel Falls. I adore waterfalls. This one was gorgeous. It was amazing how it felt about 20 degrees cooler right by the fall. Honestly I would have been perfectly content to have set up a lawn chair and spent the rest of my day listening to that water, and occassionally dipping my feet in it. After the hike we found a great little picnic spot right next to a creek that was perfect for wading in. The girls loved it and I had to join in on some of the fun too. The rest of the day was spent on an auto-tour that was quite nice too. Some lovely turn offs, and we spotted some wildlife along the way!

Day three we went back to the National Park and hiked to the top of Old Smoky. Everyone was really disappointed that it was not covered with cheese. This is supposedly the highest point in the park. The hike to the top of the mountain was only .5 miles, but it was pretty much a straight-up vertical hike, at about an elevation of 6500 feet. It wasn't too bad really. Maybe I am in better shape than I think. Once at the top of the mountain, if you choose you can walk an additional distance to the observation deck that takes you above the treeline. I sucked it up and did it but only stayed a few minutes because I thought that people would not be very receptive to my screaming at them to step away from the rail before they fell to their death. (I don't do heights so well.) We went on to a lovely picnic lunch and a hike along a Quiet Walk trail. It was a beautiful hike along a creek. It was very woodsy and there was a lot to see. The coolest thing was this HUGE clutch of butterflies just sitting at the trailhead. I have never seen so many butterflies just sitting on the ground before. #1 the butterfly enthsiast was in sheer heaven! We then went on to do another hiking trail that apparently used to lead to an old ranger training station or something of that sort. It was a looong hike, and not as interesting as the others we had done. Me, MIL, and the girls decided to call it quits at the halfway point. We were tired, it was getting hot, and I myself was pretty much over hiking for the day. We drove down the road to a wading creek and spent a good hour and a half soaking our feet while the girls splashed around. I had a nice cat nap on a rock while the water ran over my feet. It was like a spa! BH and his dad finished the hike....they think.

The next day we left for Jackson, Missouri to visit BH's aunt and so the kids could play with their cousins. I didn't do jack shit except for take advantage of Missouri's tax free day and read. By now I was tired (because our bed here was a full size air mattress thus sleep was not quality. I promise you the first thing I did when we got home was lay down on my bed and tell it how much I loved and missed it,) and ready to go home. The kids were well occupied with their cousins, so little was required of me and BH much to our happiness.

That is the story. Now the pictures. I took a lot more, but blogger just takes too long to upload so here are some of my favorites from the Smokies.

This sign made me laugh and I also had a strong urge to stage a protest..

Laurel Falls.. so worth the hike

A snail near the falls

Splashing in the creek!

I would love to wake up to the view outside the window of this cabin every morning

A deer right outside my car window on the auto tour

A BEAR!! Don't you see it? It's right there see? There?

(actually there was a bear in there, but all we saw were ears and a paw)

Cute bunny on the trailhead on the way to the top of old smoky

The fam on top of Old Smoky. All covered in fog.

On the way up to the observation deck

The view from the deck. Photo courtesy of BH.

Clutch of Butterflies at the trailhead for the Quiet Walk

They even crawled up on your hand!

More creek splashing after a long day of hiking

Drying off a wet butt

Last view before we left the park

I know I know...I said no more pets BUT....

Last night the tiny kitty was going crazy in the office meowing and really wanting our attention. Of course we go in to see what she is all worked up about.

Turns out she wanted to introduce us to her new friend:

Seems that a bat has taken up residence between the screen and window in our office.

If you think I wasn't freaking out then you don't know me a'tall.

Mittens the Wonder Kitten is on the JOB!

Of course my children are ready to name it, adopt it, make a bat cave, you name it... and check often to see that it is still there. I have heard "OOOOOHHHHH!! It is so tiny and cuuuuuuuttteee!" numerous times.

I have had several people tell me how fortunate we are because bats eat mosquitoes and other annoying bugs. Pardon me...but this lil' fella/gal is going to have to provide me with a nightly tally of his/her spoils before I will be convinced that we are "lucky."

Now I must be off to make some garlic garlands and check necks for puncture wounds.

Home again home again jiggety-jig

Hi y'all! I am BACK y'all!

(full disclosure: We got back home late in the afternoon on Saturday)

Why so long in posting?

Because I had big ideas that my first post once we returned was going to be a photo-laden expose on our trip to the south.

Well that takes a long time, and once we got back home we had one day to recover before being thrust full throttle back in to real life. BH and I BOTH had to return to work on Monday. So between playing catch up, adjusting to phase one of Real-life with the Babble Crew, and of course my chronic case of laziness have all been playing a part in the little drama that has been my lack of blogging.

And maybe....maybeeeee...my ever increasing fixation with Faceboook. That MIGHT be a factor too.

Soooo. Soon..a long post about our trip complete with a display of my not so mad photography skillz.

TENNESSEE Y'ALL

We are now arrived for the second, third, forty-fifth??? leg of Boyer Vay-Cay 2008.

I have seen lovely woodsy mountains and the Best Water Tower Ever. (no that isn't a typo)

Shortly after we crossed the Tennesse (or maybe it was Kentuckey, long car rides affect my memory) at any rate we saw this huuuuge water tower that was apparently in at town called Florence. Painted in very large bold letters on the water tower was: FLORENCE Y'ALL!!

Unfortunately I could not grab my camera fast enough to get a picture.

So naturally after that we had to address everything with y'all tacked on. I think we threw in a few Flo kiss my grits jokes in for good measure too.

This is how BH and I entertain ourselves on a long car ride.

Trip stats so far:

Driving time: 20 hours
Fast food meals consumed: Blearrrghhhh!
States driven through: 7
States with references to Lincoln on their welcome sign: 3
Nights children have gone to bed ridiculously late: how many have we been gone?
Children who are overtired and grumpy today: 2
Arguments between children in the back seat: 0!!! (there are things to be said about portable DVD players and travelling with grandma and grandpa)
Time spent shopping: 1 hour, but watch out tomorrow...Tanger Outlet here I come! I am looking for some bargains and then I am headed out to one of...
Number of pools at resort: 4!!!

Ciao babies!