background

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Roadtrips

Andrew used this neck pillow the entire trip. He called it his sleeping pillow. He was an absolute saint for the whole drive.


Judah was a bit feistier. But that sounds about right, don't you agree?


When we got to Grandma's house they immediately went to their room and played with their toys. This is a firehouse with a ton of pieces to play with, and I laughed out loud (any Friends fans?) when I saw that they had paired their puppy with this house.


My little cuties.





I suffered through another road trip to get to see my other cutie, Jonah, for his birthday party! 


Just like my kids, he wants to take his own pictures too. Here are his photos of himself, and then a remarkably straight one of me.



We went to a splash park, and he was right at home.


Holy goodness, this lady is pregnant! Come on, my sweet Naomi Lane, we're ready to meet you!!


Love my seester.


Cuteness.





Pinterest lied...




But nobody really minded.






Happy Birthday to my dear three year old nephew, Jonah Bear!


Friday, July 27, 2012

Tounget Tales

My mom jokes about how whenever she Skypes with us it's like watching "The Tounget Show".  Well, a few days ago we had an episode that would have made for some pretty great reality tv. *Be warned: This story takes place in a bathroom and involves talk of poop*

The boys and I packed ALL day Friday; we spent the morning and early afternoon Saturday doing car maintenance (or watched my helpful neighbors do it for me), then we left Wake Forest at 1 in the afternoon with the CRV packed to the gills. We had 24 hours of drive time ahead of us, and I was pumped.

Day one went really really well! We made it to the far side of Atlanta and stopped for the night. The only eventful thing was that the bathroom in the hotel had some creepy flashing light that made my poor little over-tired Judah have a straight-up panic attack the moment we walked into the room at 10:30pm. Oh! And my drivers' side door wouldn't lock in my VERY full car... but we didn't get robbed so that's easy enough to forget about. We all fell asleep quickly and woke up bright and shining at 7:30 to get back on the road.

Day two was a much more eventful day. But one particular moment stands out in my mind as significant enough to share. We were just outside of Mobile Alabama when we stopped at a rest stop to run around, eat some lunch, and let's face it... potty. By some work of fate we pulled in to the rest stop approximately 1 minute after a caravan of families AND a tour bus full of sad travelers. Also, defying the statistical odds of the male to female ratio, at least 99% of the people there were women... and they all needed to pee... and they all got in line before me and my TWO, count 'em again, TWO toddlers who needed to go. Oh man. This is not good. I considered pulling rest-stop-rank on all those fools and demanding to be escorted to the front of the line AND the big handicap stall, but I decided to rely on the Lord for patience and bladder control. This was a bad move. Judah was antsy and was running up and down the line of women, Andrew was speaking at an above average volume about how he's never going to see his daddy again (Andrew's interpretation of the events, not the truth). And I was regretting having had that second cup of coffee.

After 15 minutes (no joke) of waiting in line, we finally have our turn at an overused TINY stall in this fine government maintained paradise. Me and the boys cram into this itty bitty metal cage and proceed to determine who has the most need. Andrew won, and straddled the stainless steel bowl first and successfully. Next, I turned (generous term for the maneuver I managed) to Judah and started to free him from his drawers. I was in such a hurry that I didn't pay much attention and in a moment i see, between my dearests finger and thumb, a turd. I say, loudly, "Judah!!! Who's poop is that?" He said, "Mommy! We don't talk about poop! That's not polite!" I ignore his suggestion and again insist on knowing where he found the poop. Around this time I start noticing the snickers coming from the surrounding stalls, the waiting females, and surely everyone in the lobby outside. No strangers offered their services, if you can believe it ;). Very quickly I realize, with just the slightest bit of relief, that at least the poo is his. The problem with that is that I have no wipes, no change of clothes, and am still, let me remind you, in a 4X2 metal stall with a dirty toilet and two kids. So I get in business mode: strip Judah down, get him on the toilet, run out to the paper towels, get them wet, get back, clean him up. I'm already about as humiliated as is possible, so I throw Judah's undies and shorts in the trash on my way out and I let Judah walk bare-arsed and wang to the world back to the car. All the while Andrew is seriously concerned, saying "Mommy! What about his pants? We can't leave his pants!" Oh yes we can, my darling, yes we can.

Be assured, both boys wore pull-ups for the rest of the drive.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Days of Our Lives

Hey! Do you ever feel like your life could be on television, due to the crazy amount of drama that can come up all at once? Well, I've been feeling that way for a while now. Sometimes I feel like I'm a visitor in my own home, or like I'm on the set of a soap opera. I'm participating in the scene... but it doesn't feel real, or personal, in any way. That is no way to live, my dearies, I can tell you that.

Due to this floating-through-life-like-it's-not-even-you kind of state I've been in for the past howevermanyyears, I have made some changes. Major changes. I moved back to San Antonio! This is the most exciting of the changes. However, it means that I'm a 27 year old woman living in my parents' house again. This is not exactly how I pictured myself at this point. But I'm getting on board. Sometimes you get to choke down that piece of humble pie, and do what's best for you and your family. That's what I'm doing now. Besides, the boys get to sleep in bunk beds, and they couldn't be more thrilled.

I am looking into finishing my bachelors degree at the University of Texas at San Antonio. I am hoping to get an English degree with a focus in creative or professional writing! I know, I'm a nerd. This process however, requires that I live here for a FULL YEAR before they'll call me a Texan again, and give me the affordable tuition. Shoot. Back to waitressing/bar-tending for me, for the next year. Money, baby.

The boys are doing really well with the sudden uprooting changes, but Andrew, shockingly enough, keeps making really dramatic statements about our current swirly whirly lifestyle. For example, "Mommy, we're NEVER going back to Carolina. I'm NEVER going to see my friend Elijah again. I'll NEVER stop being sad." Ugh. My heart. But then, a few minutes later, he'll say, "I LOVE Texas, we're going to live here FOREVER. I get to sleep on the TOP bed and I'm SO HAPPY!" Phew. Where did this boy get his mood swings? (rhetorical, you all keep those lips zipped)

This is the basic update for now. I have some cutie pie pictures of our three day road trip from Raleigh to NC that I'll upload as soon as I get the desktop unpacked and set up. In the meantime though, picture my road trip as being a lot like this...


Saturday, July 7, 2012

In the Hood

Judah and Andrew have made some friends that I just love. Judah has befriended Simon, who is below teaching him all kinds of athletic goodness. My favorite was the jumping jacks instruction time. Oh man, was that funny! I only have a still shot, and I'm kicking myself for not getting video, but trust me that it was hilarious.



This is Andrew and Elijah. If you've spent any time with Andrew at all in the last couple months, you've heard all about Elijah. They walk around and discuss the details of the world, like what bugs are called, and if they are in fact "best friends". Elijah is very diplomatic to Andrew's professions of deep friendship and love. Andrew will say, "I love you, Elijah." And he will say, "Thank you." Or Andrew will say, "We are best friends." and Elijah will say, "Yes, we are all best friends with each other." It's great.


This is another neighbor's pepper plant. It's the forbidden fruit. My Judah wants to pick that pepper SO BAD. It's torturous for him, but so far, only one pepper has been victimized by my wicked little cutie.


Yeah... this one.