One word...

ORGANIZED!

That is what I have to be. I am not sure that I can accomplish this task especially with my track record. For 31 years now I have not been organized. I like to be organized but I have never quite attained that status. For 31 years I have:

Been late to most functions.

Had a case of the "dropsies"

Made lists to never finish them.

Failed at time management.

Put my priorities in the wrong order.

Failed to accomplish many a project.

Forgotten many a thing.

Lost many a things!

Procrastinated!

The list goes on but I think I have hit the wall of "un-organization & company" and I am now faced with a decision. Do I crawl back to the hole I was in or do I put on my rock climbing shoes and start scaling the wall.

Well...

if I had a choice I would choose the hole...

You know it is going to be a bad day when...

You check a diaper for poop and your finger comes out with...poop! So gross I know!

Your 2.5 year old refuses to nap...cranky here we come!!

You burn dinner to a crisp...yes we had charcoal with a side of spaghetti sauce.

Okay those are really the only "bad" things that happened to me today! But it was just enough to throw my morning, afternoon, and evening off!

Halloween...

I don't really like the holiday. Well I guess I have a love/hate relationship with this holiday. I love the candy and the decorations but I hate the costume junk! I think it stems from my childhood years. I don't think my mother was inspired in the costume department. I don't think I have one picture of me as a kid dressed up for Halloween. Maybe I do? Mom-let me know huh?!

This year there is one thing about Halloween I just love. It has to do with my third child...Ty. He has an incredible monster roar. And what I love is that he roars at anything and everything. We can be outside and he is giving roars to bugs, plants, birds, etc. Or we can be walking the aisles at Target and he gives a ferocious roar to the people as they pass us! Every time I laugh and I think of what a great blessing this funny little 2 year old is!

I hate to re-post this picture but as you can see Ty is right in the middle of his monster ROARRRRRR!

Pumpkin Patch 2008

I love going to the pumpkin patch! It is fun to see the kids run around and enjoy seeing all the sights of fall and harvest. So here are a few pictures from our experience. Maybe some of you might recall that my picture taking was so rudely interrupted by a faulty memory card but I think I got some good shots!

Andrew surveying the sea of pumpkins.

I think that is the Pumpkin Princess!

Ty found his!


The hay maze is a favorite of all the kids! It is very small but so much fun! Ty had fun chasing the big kids around.

Home.

Bobby is back! No not Bobby Brown. Bobby Rushing! More tomorrow!

Light at the end of the tunnel

This weekend Bobby has been away enjoying his roots with his brother. They went to (and are currently at) a University of Tennessee football game. If you are not aware at this time of year the love of my life has 2 loves of his lives College Football (more specifically UT football) and me!! (he loves his kids too. I am just saying this for blogging purposes!) So he is enjoying the first! In fact he is basking in a sea of orange and white as I speak/write. Go Big Orange!

And now with bedtime looming I can see the light and soon the house will be quiet and I will enjoy every last Jane Austen film I can think of! Too bad I have to fold laundry while I watch! Oh well at least I can see the light!

Therapy

I think the best therapy is to go shopping! Today I hit the mall and I had fun!!! Armed with a little dough I scored for being a great person, I went to the mall to blow every last penny! Although I did not. (I am saving some to take the kids to see HSM3!!) Then for dinner I took the kids out to the Old Spaghetti Factory! Then I was able to attend a fun party with friends! Today was fun!

I can't decide...

if I am indecisive or not. I have been trying to figure that out for the last oh...31 years of my life! Although I think I was very decisive when I entered this world. According to my mother I came quickly. There was no waiting around in the birth canal deciding if I should come out or not!! But from then on I think maybe I have had a hard time deciding things. Although I am not sure I have a problem. Maybe I just value the ideas and opinions of others. Or maybe I just don't like to being a trail blazer. I don't know. I just don't know. Hmmm...does anyone out there have any ideas or opinions they would like to share about my questionable indecisiveness??? I would love to hear because as you can tell I am undecided on this topic!

One more thing

Well it is the end of the evening and every inch of my body is screaming for sleep! But I must do one more thing...post! So I do what I have to do to survive!

Until tomorrow...

Sleepy Time...

So every night I enter my kids rooms full of love for them and wishes that I will be a better mother to them tomorrow! Usually I find them snuggled in and I give them a kiss on the head/foot/or whatever I have access to but every once in awhile I find strange things when I enter! Look at the pictures and judge for yourselves...

Andrew with a bowl on his head...

Alli with a bunch of stuffed animals up her PJ shirt...

Or Ty with a bunch of toys strewn about his bed...

If we are judging from these pictures I would say that Ty is the most normal sleeper but because I am his mother I know differently!

Hair today... gone tomorrow!

So many of you know that we finally cut Ty's hair! What you may not know is how this came to be. Well...here's a story...of a little clippy...

Ty was really cute with long locks however, the longer his hair got the more just crazy head hair it got. And after a nap there was no taming it. Well the night before he was set to get it cut someone in our family decided that they would take matters in their own hands. And in their opinion "Ty looks like a girl mom, you need to cut his hair." So at dinner I was standing over Ty and I looked at his hair and thought "Gee his hair looks a bit short right here...did I do that?...Oh..." The light went on and I asked

"Did Ty cut his hair earlier with the scissors you guys were playing with?"

A&A: No Ty didn't cut his hair!

Me: Well who did then?

(All fingers point to...Andrew!)

Andrew: I cut his hair!! (he was very thrilled with himself like he was doing me a service!) I even cleaned up the mess. I put the hair in the garbage!

You can see that Andrew only got one side!

The evidence!

Well, so instead of a trim up Ty was going to receive a big hair cut and basically cut all his hair off! So here are some before and afters!

Before the cut...

Straggly but so cute! And it seemed to match his personality so well!

After the cut...

Still so cute! And he didn't loose his fun personality! If anything I think he has more of it!

Toothless

There are 2 people in our family that have been losing teeth like they are going out of style! A few weeks ago the front teeth came out for Andrew and just about awhile ago Alli lost one of her front teeth. They were already missing a bunch of their bottom front teeth! So here are some pictures that were retrieved from my corrupted memory card. (thanks again to my neighbor John)...

Andrew getting his 1st front tooth pulled by Dad.

1 tooth gone!

Well, the first tooth came out at night. It was so loose I wanted to get it out before bedtime. (I didn't want any early morning choking sessions!) So he was so excited and he was sure that his other tooth was not far behind. We told him to go to bed and not to play with his other tooth. Well in the morning when I saw him his other tooth was poking out and all crooked. (He obviously had been playing with it.) Well, Andrew went downstairs for breakfast and the next time I saw him he was missing both of his teeth! His Dad pulled the other one out! Can you imagine Andrew's excitement about being visited by the Tooth Fairy 2 days in a row! So now we had a toothless face! (Just in time for school pictures!!)

Toothless Drew

Next up was Alli. She lost her 1st front tooth just about 2 weeks ago. She was very excited but she didn't want us to pull it out. Alli has had some trauma to her front teeth and they have been loose and shifting for quite sometime. (her trauma involved planting her 3 front teeth in Andrew's head in a running collision. She had to see Dr. D so she didn't loose them prematurely.) Well one of them finally came out! Shane and I helped just a bit (that is why I don't have many pictures of her. It took 2 of us to handle the situation!) Her other is really loose too but it is just content hanging around moving about in the big hole left by the other tooth!

Of course Ty couldn't miss out on the fun! Here is Dad pulling Ty's tooth! (don't worry it was all pretend!) He is just a big copy cat!

Pictures? What pictures?

I have been pretty picture-less lately on my blog. Reasons are simple...yet complicated. I recently upgraded my camera situation and in the last month I have taken lots and lots of photos. Many photos have already been designated to different posts. I just have not sat down and transferred pictures to my computer. I know it is not a hard thing to do! I just haven't done it. Well today we went to the Pumpkin Patch and I was in photography bliss. The first chance I have had at a great location, great reason, just great everything to take pictures. Well while I was snapping away my camera displayed an error message about my memory card. I wasn't even able to see my past pictures. I started to panic. And of course I didn't have another card so the picture taking fun was done! Well, on our way home I was hopeful that I would still be able to transfer my pictures to my computer. (I should have done this forever ago...I know, I know) However, after setting things up the response I received was "no images found". WHAT???? I have tons and tons of pictures documenting haircuts, losing teeth, pumpkin patch, etc. all of which the thought of not having them just makes me so saddy. Then a thought...I think a friend might know what to do. Yes sure enough she gives me the name of a place that has helped her before and then there is hope again. I called and... they are closed. I just didn't want the stress of waiting over the weekend to know if my pictures were gone or saved. Well after chatting with another friend I found a solution. Her husband was going to be able to help. (Thanks John!!) So the last update I received was that he was able to pull about 200+ photos and his magic handy work was still in the process of getting more! (I told you I took a lot!) So I have learned my lesson and will be transferring my pictures sooner. I will also be cursing technology for taking away my photo memories, while at the same time praising it for retrieving them!

Hitting the wall

It has been a long week.

Too many paint fumes and not enough sleep...

I will be back tomorrow!

(maybe)

Project a go-go

For the last few days I have been working on a project. What project you might ask? Well it involves my whole bonus room/toy room!! When my father was here a few weeks ago he helped me build or complete shelves in my bonus room. He was able to complete them and they look fabulous. Thanks Dad! You Rock! So on Monday I started sanding, caulking, painting, patching, etc. in the room to finish it off and finally (after 6 years going on 7) this room will be complete and all the "toy room" nicks will be erased (or at least painted over) to create a great fabulous room that we all can enjoy!

On a side note...it is really hard for me to do this 30 in 30 because my computer is on the floor covered in a sheet. Okay so it is not that bad but I have to complain about something! I have no complainin' to do about this room...It rocks! Hey I rock! Go me! (next week I will be ready to go back to being mediocre!)

30 posts in 30 days...

Well I have decided to put my foot down and post all of my back logged post ideas! So I am teaming up with my sister-in-law and we are each posting on our blogs for the next 30 days!

Now with that said...I must move on to the meat of this post.

I think my Crock-Pot is on Steroids. Sure it has 3 settings (low, high & warm) but I think it can only process...Consistent INTENSE heat! I have looked and I can't find that setting anywhere so it must be an internal heating sensor that is only operated by my steroidal Rival. I am sorry to say that there is no "slow cookin'" involved in its cookin' process. So I think there is a lesson in this for all of us...Just Say NO!!

Spiders & Ghosts & ????

Those are the things going bump in the night at our house. Ty recently has been having nightmares about...you guessed it! Spiders and Ghosts!

A few weeks ago I awoke to terrible cries and screaming coming from the boys room. I stumble in to hear Ty screaming "spiders get cho, spiders get Ty...on and on..." Well, he usually he sleeps with many a things and at this point he was sleeping with a whole box of little animals, dinosaurs, bugs with the occasional spider. Well being the great mom I am at 2am I thought he was screaming because he wanted the spiders. So I managed to find them by feeling around in the box handling all the critters til "ah ha" I found the spider. So I am already patting myself on the back because I found the spider in a box full of critters in the dark!!! (Way to go me!!) Then I hand it to him and he FREAKS OUT! Yelling about spiders getting him and crawling into the corner shaking! Now I am thinking... "not so good momma". I sat with him for I am sure hours (time goes by slowly when you are half asleep in the middle of the night!) trying to calm him down and tell him that the spider is a toy and that it is in fact "Ty's toy". So I listened to him repeat over and over...here is a tidbit of our conversation.

T: Ty's toy?

M: Yes it is Ty's toy. Spider is just a toy.

T: Ty's toy pider?

M: Yes it is your toy spider. Go to sleep now.

T: Mom, Ty's toy pider? (repeated oh 1000 times)

So I finally slip away and get back to my bed. I lay there and realize that he must have had a nightmare because while we were outside that day we saw a spider in a toy truck. Okay I think, crisis has been resolved...drifting off to sleep...then SCREAMING!!! And we repeat all that was mentioned before. This went on for umm...ALL night! The next morning the other 2 were warned not to mention spiders!!! I think this lasted for awhile. We didn't repeat a horrible night again until....LAST NIGHT!

Last night I awoke to screaming about Ghosts! This time I knew what to do and I was able to calm him quicker! Our conversation last night? Well it went a little like this:

T: Ghost get me?

M: No ghosts. They aren't real.

T: No more ghosts?

M: No more ghosts.

T: Whale get ghost?

M: Whale gets the ghost.

T: Whale bites ghost?

M: (trying not to laugh) Yes whale bites the ghost.

T: (he is smiling now) Shark bites ghost?

M: I repeat.

So he continues to name off many-a ocean critter that would bite the ghost. So I sufficiently calm and he gives kisses and says "goo-ni momma" and I retreat back to my bed to sleep for the rest of the...well I might have just gotten 20 mins and the the cycle began all over again. We did this 3 times and then I just decided that it wasn't so bad to have him come and sleep with us...at least we will all sleep right? All was quiet. The great thing about this is that Andrew wants to be a ghost for Halloween! So maybe our sleepless night caused by nightmares about ghosts is in a "to be continued" status!