Ventures through space... for the geeks.

I don't know if you can see the fine detail in this picture or not, but that is Jango Fett attempting to assassinate Anakin Skywalker:

Collin was playing with the boys whilst I was napping, and this is the result: The Millenium Falcon Photo Shoot. They took tons of pictures, but I will spare you, for the most part. And I get a big fat F for not taking pictures of my kiddos as of late. And probably for letting Jacob sit on the floor with a dry erase marker while I do this. He is probably coloring his pants.

Jacob controls the sounds. It's the only thing the older boys will allow.

As you can see, Luke is sunbathing, while flying through space. It's amazing.

Point being this: Did my 7 and 3 year old think to do this all alone? Doubtful. I think Collin had just as much fun as they did. Santa sure is good at picking gifts the whole family will love!
(That nap shouldn't even count toward my tally.)

By the way! The Star Wars Imagination exhibit is coming to Huntsville in June!

Thankyou Mr. Weatherman!

I know that many of my dear friends are so deep in snow and freezing temperatures that they could only dream of being in our part of Alabama, where it simply will not snow. To be certain it is cold here, but pleasantly so.
I have a 7 year old who is desperate for snow. All week we talked listened about the possibility of snow on the news. Samuel trusts these weathermen more than me, apparently, for he would not believe that it simply wasn't going to snow! And now, we have had no snow, and he is crushed! Okay, he got over it rather quickly, but he has inherited one of his parent's dramatic instinct. I will let you guess from whom he got it.
For the record, the weather folks did say it was only chance, but some of us only hear what we wish to hear!

Idealism: Out. Optimism Tinged with Realism: In.

What an idealist I was at the age of 13. I remember telling Tara Taylor that I was going to have 10 kids (and all kinds of other VERY ambitious things that I am sure I will not accomplish). She replied by stating that I would be pregnant for 8 years. I was sure that I wold love the pregnant state of being and therefore, no problem! I was going to be a baby factory! How naive I was. On so many levels. Don't mistake me, I think my 3 are great, and I look forward to the girl child coming to our family in April, as well as any others that may like to come after an extended period of time. I just don't see 1) me mothering 10, or having 10 c-sections, and 2) me being sane and kind and domestic about it all. I truly admire such women! That being said, I have had the pleasure and misfortune of having 3 soon to be 4 children without a labor pain. I didn't opt for it to be this way, but finding the perks in an undesirable situation is good, right? C-sections work for me (and I will thank a very distant ancestor of an ancestor, Ephraim McDowell, for performing the first successful abdominal surgery in 1809).

Back to being an idealist! I am sure many can relate to making a to do list with 600 things for the morning alone. For a while, I was really good at making REASONABLE lists. Unfortunately, I got doused with that super human feeling that I could accomplish it all and made myself some pretty ambitious goals for the week. Lucky for me, I caught whatever my kid brought home from the nursery on Sunday, and had a great excuse for not getting it all done. Which I am sure I totally would have otherwise (wink wink).

In my attempt to ditch this former line of thinking, I present the aforementioned Optimism Tinged with Reality. Clever? I know. I stole that from the dictionary. I have tried to set reasonable goals for the year (do more family history, have the guts to take Jacob's pacifier away, be an 8 cow wife, etc), and feel that I can accomplish them with great effort along with great help (having 10 children, NOT being one of them).

Merry Christmas!!!

Not my child...

Samuel went on a field trip today, and I have no pictures of him skating, or climbing rock walls, etc, because I am a bad mom and didn't go. Something about being pregnant and roller skating. I always want to, and I am sure that many others may be adept enough to do so, but I am extremely coordinated and wouldn't want to make the 1st graders feel bad.

I gave Samuel $16 to spend. A very generous amount, but I thought, "He is going to be there all day, and it was all allocated for certain things. This is where I doubt that he is mine. He brought back $6.25. I was really shocked, and impressed. When my lovely momacita gave me money, I used it all. When she gave me a twenty, and asked for change, I literally brought her change. (At least 75 cents, three quarters is a lot, right?) Collin is telling me as I type that he always brought back change. So, I guess there is hope that Sam will be less impulsive than I. Thanks for contributing your more level headed, sensible genes, Honey!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

I am sure I remember it snowing one Christmas in my youth, however, my sister just informed that I am crazy. Well, she doesn't remember anyway. According to Wikipedia, it never snowed on Christmas in my county. I still think it did. Probably the year that my dear brothers threw my doll carriage into the tree tops, and was never recovered. I obviously never recovered from that particular trauma. I remember looking for it even after we moved. Sigh...

So while I am dreaming of a White Christmas, I will also dream of clean toilets and self-cleaning clothing. It is a proven fact, at least in my house, that if a clean, fresh bath mat gets put down one of the following will occur, in record time:

1) Some little boy, will be too distracted to aim properly,
2) Some other little boy will put "some little boy's" shirt, socks, or toothbrush in said toilet, making a large splash in the process of retrieving treasured item, OR
3) Some other bigger boy will use so much toilet paper, it must overflow. The attraction to the floor mat is too great!

Well, I guess I may still get the "White Christmas", just not the way I want.

(Almost) Finished Project...

I have been planning to redo this china cabinet since I was pregnant with Cooper. Procrastinate much? Four years and 2.5 children later, it's almost complete. Thanks to my lovely momacita, we finally started the dreaded project!



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For anyone who wants to know...

We are having a girl! (April 15th ish)

Responses from our dear children:

Cooper: In the car, way after the fact, "Mom, I don't want a girl."
Me: "Do you mean you don't want a sister?"
Cooper: "Yeah, Elizabeth is mean to me." About two months ago, his friend took his paintbrush. He isn't a grudge holder or anything.

About 11 hours later:

Me: "Cooper do you want to tell Sam what kind of baby we are getting?"
Cooper: "Yeah! Sam, we are getting a brother!"
Me: "No, actually it is a girl."
Sam: With the cutest little about-to-be tears in his eyes, "A sister? Really? A girl?" Followed by hugs and much happiness, as he has been begging me to produce a sister for him for the past 2 years.

Cooper is now happy about it, and Sam's reaction was priceless. Collin seems to think that we are nearing the finish line now that our collection is near completion. Hmmm. Ask me in about 3 years for an accurate, non-hormone influenced answer.

No, Sam, You Can't Have Sideburns.

Samuel occasionally wants a certain hairstyle. "I wanna spike it in the front", or "This part is too pokey looking." Usually he wants whatever will get him off the dreaded chair the fastest. "I want my hair long on top", "I want it long in the back", or as he professed on Saturday,
"I want sideburns."



You may not be able to glimpse his chops all that great, but there they are. He turned 7, by the way. Which is weird! Happy Birthday to him! He received some great gifts, his favorite being this bow and arrow. Thanks Ryan and Neisha!


He thinks he is Robin Hood now. It's really fun, and he is very generous with his turns. He was looking for a bear to shoot on Saturday. I assured him that his best bet would be a squirrel, and that he should just stick with the paper target, since I am not ready for him to hunt, and am not really confident that he could choose appropriate living targets.

Quick Photo Update...

This is Jacob looking innocent. He is the most mischievous child I have. He is the one who touched the hot oven every time its on, and never learns. He is constantly getting into everything. He loves appliances with cords. Curling irons and hand mixers are his favorite right now. The chairs are all in the garage so he can't climb, and I am just waiting for him to learn to open the fridge. I am amazed daily that he hasn't tried to climb out of his bed, or hasn't has success anyway.


I took Cooper and Madeline fishing last week. We only caught a little lake grass, however. They loved it though!



Sam has a wicked set of teeth right now. One of his front teeth will not let go, and is hanging crooked. Its disturbing to look at, even his teacher begged me to pull it out! But with his other loose tooth, and his new tooth coming in, it makes a pretty picture worthy!




Halloween kiddos: Jango Fett, Harry Potter, and Charlie Brown (who did not get rocks)

You are FIRED!

"Honey, the freezer got left open and is completely defrosted." Well, this is what every woman wants to hear at 5:58 am. Awesome. Followed by: "And Cooper wet his bed." Then I hear for the vast majority of the day, different rendetions, mind you: "Whaaaaaaaaa!"

So Sam indeed left the freezer open yesterday morning, after obtaining a gogurt. My mistake, I should have put his snacks in the inside freezer, or at least checked the freezer to make sure it wasn't standing wide open before I went off to enjoy a blissful night of sleep.

And Cooper indeed, did wet his bed this morning. Not in the middle of the night, for which I am very glad, but wet pee pee sheets are wet pee pee sheets.

Jacob is a different story. He is 17 months today. (One more month until nursery! ) I am reminded of a time when I worked as a temp. I apparently worked too fast. They told me to slow down and pace myself. Sure in a hotdog eating contest, I thought. But time and time again, I ran out of work. I was just too efficient! And I didn't have anything to worry about like real work. I was frustrating the project leader, probably because my amazing work and fantastic hair was making him look bad. Well, Jacob is making me look bad. He is most efficient at his work. And he has fantastic hair. I have tried the same stategy! Slow down! Pace yourself! One box of Legos is enough to dump out at one time! Climbing on the counter is not permitted! Especially when you dump out my purse, or throw my cup of water on the floor! His ground tactics are bad enough. He likes to put things in the toilet. Most recently: Sam's underwear. He likes to hang out in my fridge too, so I find bottles of salad dressing all over the house. He is a master of devastation and destruction. he is just too good at his job. Can't I fire him for this?

Good news for all of you! He is for hire. His current skills include: ironing, destroying phones, spraying the junky clorox ready mop all over the house, bringing in toys covered with dirt, and cleaning the bathroom floors with bath water.

We Heart the Zoo

Today we went to the zoo in Montgomery. It was a splendid, hot day full of trying to 1) keep up with Sam as he ran ahead to each exhibit, and 2) keep Cooper moving fast enough so that we could actually look like we were part of the same family. The monkeys were mostly in hiding, but we brought our own, so that worked out okay. And all of the cool animals were sleeping, but what else should I have expected going at lunch time? We decided to go to Sonic afterwards, opting to get a cheaper lunch, and of course the kids want to eat at the tables. This is something I usually would deny them with a false promise of future payout. However, why not? At least Collin was with me. It was REALLY annoying that Jacob kept pushing the call button and examining car tires (at least he wasn't eating them - sorry Christy, I couldn't resist). So we get our food and get everyone settled and finish our slushies before eating our food, and suddenly it turns into this:





Next thing we know, is the wind is blowing like a hurricane. I can see children watching us anxiously, if not amusedly, as our napkins and bags fly everywhere. I got my hands holding all of the paper down when Coopers french fries start flying past me. Then goes Sam's slushie. "Ma'am? Can I have a new cup? Thanks!" So Collin picks up the trash and puts the rioting kids in the car. I was contemplating how to get the remains of their food in the car, for we had used their bags as plates, and each had a nice glob of ketchup right on top. But the wind had it in for me, and thwarting me all the while, blew them right onto my pants. Sweet! "Ma'am? Could I get another bag? Thanks!" And thanks for watching all of this happen with your mouth hanging open. So leftovers in a bag, trash picked up, me covered in ketchup, we settled into the car and headed home before the torrential downpour. At least we had that going for us.
We had a great time and I have never had a more exciting time at Sonic.