"Oh Blake!"

Blake, my eldest. He's 2 and a half... what can I say!

I really strive to NOT be one of those parents who complains about their kids when they have to stay home from school on a snow day. Even though, neither of my boys are in school yet, something about that really bothers me. "Oh NO! No school today? What ever shall I do, my kids are going to drive me nuts!" If it were me, I would try to cherish that time. Who knows what the future brings? Maybe they could be taken to heaven the next day. Do you not think that you would want that time back? "Leave me alone for 5 minutes!" Do you not think that you would regret complaining about your kids being home from school? And, wouldn't you do almost anything to get that time back? I work very hard to make sure my boys are happy, and that I am happy with them.

Now, while there are times that my boys get on my nerves too, never has the thought passed my brain that I might sell them off to the passing circus. But... Blake has done some rather cute things, Al-be-it things that have gotten him in trouble or even earned him a spanking, but cute non the less. A few of them were harmless, and still equally as cute. Here are two of those stories

1) Last night, we decided that it was an eat out kind of night, and we went to Pizza Ranch. I was taking a bite of my salad and had managed to get some dressing on my chin. I was trying to hand signal Justin into giving me a napkin, but would have succeeded more in landing a 747! Blake seeing my struggle, picked up his napkin and said, "It's okay mommy, I get it." He placed one hand on the back of my head, and wiped my chin with the other... All I could do was stare at him. Justin, on the other hand, I thought he might pee his pants!

2) Two days ago I was in the kitchen working on some dishes, when I heard Blake go upstairs. He knows he isn't supposed to be up there without either Justin or myself, yet up he went. I gave him about 2 minutes to correct himself and when I didn't hear him come back down, I went after him. I snuck to the bottom of the stairs and in a stern voice said, "BLAKE!" Thump, thump, thump... he came running from the bathroom, saw me at the end of the stairs, muttered, "oh no." (yup, he knew he was caught!) and proceeded to FLY down the stairs... Seriously, I have never seen him come down the stairs so fast! He got to the bottom and bent over with his butt towards me and said, "spankin?" Yup, he got a spanking. He knew he did wrong, and now he had to pay for it... The willful disobedience of a Two year old!
The second half of this story is, I couldn't figure out what it was he did up there. Until last night, I went to give Logan a bath before bed and I turned on the water, left it running to go get Logan undressed. When I came back, I figured out what he had done. The half full bottle of bubble bath had been unloaded into the tub... SO, now there were bubbles 4 foot in the air in the shape of a bathtub... Folks, you have never seen my turn off the water so fast!

Sometimes, he just plays too hard!

Sunshine

Yehaw! The sun is shining and its a bright beautiful day! Too bad I am confined to the house today! As I sit here and look out the office window I am reminded that there is SO much to do! The yard needs mowed, I spotted a few weeds that need pulled, the birds need more food. There is the ever present mountain of laundry that needs doing, dishes from last nights supper... on and on.

Why is it, when faced with a huge list of "To-Do's" none of them seem to get done? Oh, yeah, 'cause the sun is shining! When the sun comes out after three days of cold, wet and dreary, its an automatic forfeiture of "the list". Everything will get done... someday...

Here is another thought for you. (This came to me in the truck when we were talking about the clothes that we need to pack for our vacation in 3 weeks) Why is it called a "pair" of underwear when a pair implies TWO? I am not going to wear 2 underwear! I can understand a "pair of pants", coverings for each leg. It falls into the category of "Why is abbreviation such a long word?" When an abbr. is meant to shorten a word, and the word itself is quite long. Oh, well, another of life's oddities!

Sunday - Already?

Wow, okay. So here it is, Sunday again. Where exactly did last week go? The last thing I knew it was like Tuesday!

I have no groceries, mounds of laundry, stack of bills that need paid, and two childrens rooms that look like a tornado hit. All of these daily things that need doing, and no desire to do ANY of it! To add to the pile, we have a little over 3 weeks to prepare for our vacation, of which, I may just need a vacation from when we get back home. There are routes to be planned, people to be called to arrange suppers with, lists and more lists that need checked and rechecked to make sure that will have everything we need for this whole trip. Seriously, I have a mile long trail of sticky notes telling me everything that need to do. However, all of these things require motivation. I have none.

It's Sunday, the day of rest right? Ha! Life waits for no man! I got up, after a joyous nights sleep in my own soft cushie bed, fed "the big one" (ie: Blake) breakfast. Showered, got "the little one" (ie: Logan) up and out of bed. Dressed myself, then Blake, then Logan. Let the dogs out to potty, and fed them. Fed myself. Facebooked for like 3 seconds just so I wouldnt have like 500+ most recents, and then got everyone in the truck. Went to church, which I'll pause here and say that its really hard to carry Logan, my bible, my purse, the diaperbag, and hang on to Blake to keep him from getting run over, while being BLASTED in the face with the ever lovely Iowa wind! Anyway, went to church, got insipred to get out of debt, came home, ate lunch... now, here I sit.

So, since I have no desire to do anything else today, maybe I'll just do some laundry, work on my website a little, toss the "too small" clothes of the kids' into a box once I get some laundry finished. I might pay a few bills, put away the rest of the camping food that came out of the camper from the weekend. Wash some dishes that are laying around. Maybe sweep a floor or two, cook supper, bathe a couple kids, and then go to bed with the notion that I didnt do anything all day!

Hopefully, someone will be more productive then I today!

Here are a few pictures from our weekend. Enjoy!

A Night of Thunder - and it's NOT Chick Hicks!

Peace. Blissful, restful sleep. So warm, so cozy. Nothing can wake you. Its the kind of sleep that one wants after a long day. Its the kind of sleep that you never want to wake up from, and when you do, you will do almost anything to get back to it.

Sleep. Peace.

Flash... "What was that? Must have been just a car driving by." Sleep. Peace.

Flash... "Huh? Again? What time is it? People shouldn't be driving around at this hour." By best estimation it must have been about 30 minutes since the last Flash, when in reality its only been about 3.

*Grumble.*

Roll over, try to get comfortable again, since for some reason, this spot, this glorious sleeping spot, that had been so cozy, warm and inviting is not any longer, with just the assumption that "something" woke you up.

Flash... "Okay, now really, WHAT was that!" Not quite awake enough to see anything, not quite asleep enough to not care. In the far distance, you can hear a slight rumble. Similar to that of an alpha dog telling a pack member not to come any closer.

You ask God, "Really? Tonight? You know what time my alarm is set for right?" A fruitless prayer in vain. Flash... "One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand... (all the way to twelve one thousand)" Ruuuummmmble. *sigh* You raise your head, and peek at your sleeping babes. "At least someone is sleeping."

Flash. Crack! Ruuuummmmble. "Okay God, I guess we are going to do this." You roll over again and replay the 'Tornado watch effective until twelve midnight...' in your head. "Great, just stinkin' peachy."

Tick, tick, tick. The rain drops on the roof of the camper sound like little marbles falling from heaven. In a fleeting moment of humor you think to yourself, "That's it, God's lost his marbles!" You chuckle to yourself just in time to catch the next flash. Flash BA BA BOOOOOM! All in one single split second. It was a boom loud enough to wake the fish at the bottom of the lake it seems. You brace yourself for the sounds of your children crying and prepare your body to fly across your snoring husband and out of bed to come to their rescue... silence. "What?! How on earth did they sleep through THAT!"

Kassssssshhhhhh, the rain drops are making such a loud static type noise that you cant even get your brain to focus. You send up another prayer, "God, please send an angel to protect us, and keep us from harm. Send another angel to cover the ears of my children that they may stay sleeping. And God, if its your will to make me poop my pants from fear, please give my legs swift speed to make it across the park to the shelter in this rain." Flash Boom! Lightening and Thunder are still on top of another meaning you are smack in the middle of the storm.

You look out the window of the camper to see if you can see anything. Knowing full well that the time on the clock means you cant see a thing! You can hear the neighbors flag just flapping its ends into a frayed mess, when the lightening flashes you can see the trees bending under the pressure of the wind. Another prayer, "Father God! Please protect us!" Flash, BABOOM. Rain so loud you couldn't yell to wake up anyone if you tried and yet somehow, both your children are still sleeping.

You turn on your weather radio, but hear nothing. "What does this mean? Is there nothing to be afraid of? or is there a big storm and they didn't get the warning out in time?" You turn off the radio, its no comfort. You contemplate getting your clothes on and being ready to make a dash for it. Then, Flash..."One one-thousand, two, one..." Boooom. "Its getting farther away. Thank you Jesus!" Flash..."One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thou..." Ruuummmble.

"Okay, it seems to be passing." You lay back in bed and attempt to relax. The long muscles in your back and screaming with burning pain. A sure sign that you have been tense for WAY too long. The rain is letting up now. You only catch just a hint of the low alpha dog type rumble, every now and then.

Thinking back. Your prayers were answered. An angel came and covered the ears of your children, they never woke up. Another angel came and protected your camper. While you heard the wind and you saw the wind in the flashes on the trees... the canvas sides on the beds NEVER MOVED! Its like the wind went right up and over. Again, you find sleep.

Sleep. Peace.

There is a lesson to be learned in all this. Even in the worst of times, when you feel like you will be sucked alive from this earth, God's got your back, all you have to is ask.

A weekend of Firsts

This weekend marks a lot of first for us. Logan's first camping trip, my first blog entry, and Blake's first time dunking his head in a bucket of water. More on that later... ;)

I decided to start a blog after reading a friends blog, which she started as a way to "Keep Up" with her West Coast family. I pondered this and decided that it might not be such a bad idea since I seem to have family scattered all over the Western half the United States. It gets a little old and tiresome trying to tell tales of Blake's latest mishap or of Logan's latest first. So, I thought I could just type it all in one spot then anyone or everyone can just come here and read or not!

So, this weekend is the first camping trip of the season and Logan's first trip EVER. Let me just say that for a 6 month old baby, he did AWESOME! The first night was a little rough, he took off on a coughing trip around 4 AM and ended up throwing up on himself, which in turn made him cold and wet. After getting him settled and warmed up again. I decided to cave in and let him snuggle up with me for the rest of the night. The next night was great! No coughing and he went to bed like a pro! woke up early for a bottle then fell right back asleep and didn't wake up again until 7:30 when Blake decided he needed to do the dishes.

And! Speaking of Blake, this is his first camping trip where he is sleeping in his OWN bed with his OWN Lightening McQueen sleeping bag. Both nights he did stellar! Except for last night about midnight were Lightening bucked him out of bed. Of which I am pretty sure that I was up and out of bed halfway through the loud "Thud".

We were also able to provide the entertainment of the campground this weekend too. We bought Blake a "Pat the Hammer" bubble maker and bubbles. You dip the head of the hammer into the little dish of bubbles and then push the button making bubbles come out of Pat's "nose". To a 2 year old, this is quite the form of entertainment. We went through a whole bottle of bubbles and when they ran out Blake took to dipping (or dunking) Pat in the dogs' water buckets. In doing so, he would fling it out of the bucket sending a spray of water reminiscent to the water show at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. This made for one excited Jesse dog, who would jump and catch the drops of water as they flung about. Seeing the fun this was for Jesse, soon made Blake forget that the bubbles ever happened. It wasn't too long after this that Blake had succeeded in draining Jesse's water bucket down to the last 1/2 inch of water. He then walked over to Rocky's bucket and DUNKED his WHOLE head into the water!

We still haven't really figured out what made Blake stick his head in the water bucket but one thing is for sure... its a great lesson in patience for Mom!