Long weekend

I hope you enjoyed your long Memorial Day weekend as much as we did :-) Here's our re-cap: Friday evening-Gary's end of the year piano "thing" (Don't freak out. You didn't miss a recital, it was just for her students...See Cross Music Studio blog for a cute pic of Gary showing his stuff for a group of middle schoolers). Friday Night- boys spent the night with great grandparents and Randy and I went to Texas Street Tavern (Yummm!!! We rarely EVER get a night without them, so it was much enjoyed!) Saturday-Randy and I "stole" a room of carpet and took it to the carpet-binder to be cut and bound into a rug (Randy wasn't as excited about this as I was/am!), spent the afternoon at M&P's and I still think we missed a birthday party Saturday evening but I couldn't find an invitation...(Sorry if it was yours!) Sunday a.m.-church, p.m.-church, in between services, Randy napped in his red chair for 4 hours and the kids put the sprinkler under the trampoline (kept them entertained for hours and watered my "grass"). Monday-mom and I took the boys to the Gator Park in Natchitoches. We got home about 4:30 to find Randy cleaning out the garage. Landon jumped out of the car, threw his arms out, and screamed, "Who did all dis mess?!" Kids wound up back on the trampoline (Good thing Randy & Gary put a new drain in our backyard b/c the sprinkler flooded it this time!) Gary started screaming, I ran to check and found Landon naked, bouncing..up down up down up down..."Landon, why did you take you shorts off?" "Because I wanted to!". Redress him, back to Randy's garage catastrophe. An hour later, same thing with Landon, redress, back to the garage. I went to Gammy's for a few minutes and came home to Gary in the street with a six-foot water moccasin! They had found it in the street and Randy chopped his head but he was still doing that twitching thing. Makes my skin crawl to even think about it!! Landon was as excited as Gary and Colton. He took off running up the driveway and returned with his rubber snake, squealing to make sure we were all scared. (This would be the same rubber snake that greeted me under my feet on my way to work this morning! Donna, you would have wrecked and taken out 10 cars on the interstate in process!)...enough with the snakes! We visited with the neighbors a bit more and laughed about Landon climbing on Gary new 4-wheeler and putting Gary's old helmet on. That is, we laughed until Landon cranked the bike! Dropped conversation with neighbor like a bad habit, took the key from Landon and went inside to fix supper. Came back outside and found Landon, naked AGAIN, this time in the front yard standing on top of his 4-wheeler screaming "pecker pecker pecker pecker...." re-dress for the umpteenth time today. Back to dinner...finally ate at 8:45, bathed the kids and they and I laid down about 9:30...Randy and Shawn were still cleaning OUT the garage and had no sight on moving things back IN. I don't know how much of my very important stuff that I haven't seen in a year that they took to the dump, but this morning my car was in the garage and everything was in a designated spot with LOTS of extra room. Good job guys! Today, it's hard to get much work done as my brain is resting from all the "stimulation" it received this weekend!

No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks!

Well, almost. Their "official" last day is Wednesday, but awards and end of the year parties were today. " Can you PLEASE hurry and take this LAME picture?!"

For the record, Gary received awards for: A/B honor roll, Accelerated Reader, and BUG (bring up grades)

At least somebody was excited about Gary's awards.
Noah quickly claimed his spot when he got up for something or other...



"...and go get yourself some cheap sunglasses"

Part of their party included a water fight ("guns" aren't allowed at school, so they used heavy ammunition squirt bottles!)

From left: Riley, Gary, Maddie, and Abby in front.

Midnight Gardener

Randy and I bought this house that seems to have been landscaped beautifully 5+ years ago, but has been 'let go' since. I keep reading "prune and fertilize azaleas in the spring right after they bloom and they'll be beautiful next year" so my plan was just that. Several weeks ago, I gave them all a "trim". It was so liberating once I got started that they ended up with the "first time you cut Barbie's hair when no one was looking" shaved head cut. But, they're supposed to be hearty enough to survive transplanting in full bloom so they ought to make it. I haven't had time to "fertilize and thoroughly water" yet..until now. Last night about 3 a.m. a sonic boom lightning bolt transitioned me from dead sleep to W-I-D-E awake in .00324 seconds! Amazingly, I had the best idea. "It's fixin' to rain. I should fertilize my azaleas NOW!" No way could I sleep after such a grand plan entered the picture, so Boomer (our Noble Protector who's scared of the rain) and I set out on our journey. By 3:30, we had fed every azalea and camellia bush in the front, back, and side yards. We settled back in to bed by about 4 a.m. with dreams of our own little Norton's Art Gallery right here in Haughton. I'll let you know if any brides stop to take photographs next year :-)

What's the last thing you expect to hear at a restaurant?

"Mommy, my poopoo's comin' out!" My sincere apologies to the table next to us and every table in between us and the bathroom!!!!! But when he's gotta go, he's gotta go and he likes to share the experience! THAT'S why Landon's not allowed at nice restaurants!

More tidbits..
Randy brought home the new 4-wheeler for Gary without my permission and I didn't blow my lid, then came the dog (again without my permission) and I'm still working hard to keep my cool. But, I draw the line with reptiles and rodents. So yesterday when Gary asked, "Who bought us the new hamster?" I nearly lost it!!! When fire shot out of my nose and I broke a silent sweat he said, "Mom, who gets the new clothes hamster!" Thankfully, he meant hamper because he almost earned his daddy a one-way ticket to bachelorhood!

Gary's end of the year Bible Drill Party was last night at the bowling alley. Landon shared a lane with Joshua Sewell. They did a good job waiting their turn but I heard "Mommy, can I do it uuggghhh-gaaaay-yiiinnnn?" at least 100 times!

Curbside...at your service

Yesterday, Gary and I went to Six Flags as his reward for getting to the 100 point club (Accelerated Reader-read, test, and pass 200 books at school). I was running around at 7 in the morning making sure I didn't forget anything and told him to wait in the car. I finally gathered everything, headed out the front door (since Gary had already opened the garage door). THere was the car, backed up to the front door, running, with the GPS mounted on the front dash and set on Six Flags. I ran to thank Randy for backing out the car for me. He was in the bed and could only muster a faint "I didn't do it." Okay, so we must have acquired a ghost who was a valet parker in his former life b/c it was backed up perfectly! I went on to the car where I found Gary in the back seat grinning like a cheshire cat!
"Gary, who backed the car out?"
"I did :-) "
"Who gave you permission?"
"Noone."
"How did you know what to do?"
"Duh...I've been driving four wheelers for years AND I know how to drive the Prowler. It has Forward, Reverse, Park and Neutral just like your car AND a brake and gas pedal, AND the same steering wheel! I knew EXACTLY how to do it!"
"So how did you back out of the garage without hitting the truck?"
"Uugghhhh, Mom, I used the rear view mirror!"
"Well how did you get it turned around?"
(He's pretty disgusted with my questions by now) "MOM! I backed straight out of the garage, then turned and drove down to the bridge then put it in reverse and backed up to the door from there. Don't you know how to back your own car out?"
"Well how did you not hit the wagon or the steps?"
"I used the side mirrors, I'm not stupid!!" "
You did a good job, but you're NEVER allowed to drive my car again!!!!!"
"Okay. Can we go to Six Flags now?"

My plans were for him to at least get out of daycare before this "driving thing" started!! I guess that's what I get for trying to plan!

Happy Mother's Day

As a mother of two boys, I had another one of those glimpses into the future when I watched this. Please accept this as my gift to you for Mother's Day. To my fellow "Mom's of Boys," I hope you laugh as hard as I did. Randy questioned whether it was appropriate to post, but if you're the lone female in a male dominated household, you learn to look past the crude humor...

Tag

I entered a new tagline at the bottom of my blog for which I wish I could take credit, but it came as a fw: from that "someone somewhere in cyberspace". It was too good not to pick up and share though!

Makes a momma proud!

Last night, Landon spoke (more like yelled) that famous redneck phrase that usually precedes the Grand Finale which lands the speaker a one-way ticket to the E.R......"Hey yall, watch this!" he proclaimed after busting open Gary's bedroom door. I held my breath...thankfully, his "trick" wasn't all that mentionable, but it did provide some credible foreshadowing of a not so far off event.