Orlando, here we come!

We leave for Orlando Saturday morning. Woo-hoo! I've been looking forward to this for a while.
As I mentioned before, all of this wasn't really well-planned, so hopefully it will go somewhat smoothly. I am repeating this mantra to myself . . 'I will stick to my vacation budget this year. It won't be like the past 10 years. I won't tell myself 'hey, this is our summer vacation, splurge, splurge, splurge . . ' So, I won't go overbudget, right? Say 'yes', even if you don't believe it.

So, here's to fun in the hot Florida sun, screaming on rides at Universal Studios, visiting family (Keithy and Em), and lots of good times!

Hope everyone has a great 4th! I'll be missing y'all . .

(I'll leave you with a few summer pics my mom took last week.)

1 a.m. Saturday

John M. woke up at about 12:30 a.m. Friday crying. Only, the crying soon turned into screaming. Lots of it. Nothing would calm him down. I walked him around, I popped the noopie in the screaming mouth multiple times, offered him juice, a bottle, food . . shoot, I would have offered him Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket if I had one.

30 minutes later, continuous screaming. Mark had taken his temperature, and we had checked every inch of his little bottle for the culprit. The sprinkling of the holy water hadn't worked (okay, not really). We had no clue what was wrong. He had never done this before.

30 minutes later, we just sat him on the bed and watched him scream. His little body was actually trembling, he was crying so hard. I thought about taking him to the emergency room, but I wasn't sure what to say. Um, 'my baby is screaming for no apparent reason and won't stop. Can you check him for something, anything? Maybe he needs his oil changed, or a new battery?'.

I finally scooped him up and told Mark I was going to take him for a ride in the car to maybe put him to sleep. I didn't care if that ride was a long one, even to northern Maine, as long as he stopped screaming. Mark gave him some ibuprofen for good measure and I brought him outside to put him in the van. In about 2.1 seconds, the screaming (which had gone on for over an hour) stopped. Just like that. We could hear the crickets chirping outside. John M. just looked at me with his little tiny mouth finally closed, and I asked him 'hear the crickets?' and he says 'ya' and grins. Followed by 'dada'. I hand him to Mark, he pats him on the back for a few minutes, carried him inside, put him in bed and that was the end of that.

I have no idea what happened. All I know is I've never seen a child like being outside like my boy does. I think I'm going to pitch a little John-tent in my backyard and let him live out there. He'd love it.

Bad ears but good days . .

John M. started with a cold last weekend, which turned into a slight fever, which got me worried, because my children don't get fevers at all unless there's something amiss.

Went to the doctor today (look how long he looks over there on the left; about 6 foot 2? How did this child get so huge??)and turns out he has two ear infections. First good thing of the day, the pediatrician gave me free samples of the antibiotic that he prescribed! Woo f'in hoo to that one! That made my day, bright and early at about 8:30 a.m.

I decided to take the rest of the day off to spoil my bad-eared-boy. I thought he may be calm due to being sick. Wrong on that one. He was a little hurricane most of the day, especially after a teeny-tiny cup-ette of Coca-Cola. Anyway, I lived the life of SAHM today, which I don't get to do often. And I must say I enjoyed it. The kids and I ran some errands, including a stop at Home Depot for some flowers. They all helped pick out some Vinca and we so cute doing it, I had to snap a few pictures. (I know Home Depot shoppers were thinking, 'this poor woman does NOT get out much'). We stopped for some Wendy's and then headed home for a day of swimming for the girls and some baby-pool action for John. We tried not to get the ears wet, but I'm not sure if we succeeded once John got a hold of the hose.

It was a nice day. And just what I needed. Makes me sad in a way, to realize what I miss every day while I'm at work.
But I try to snap out of it and just soak in the good feelings of having my 3 sweet 'babies'. They sure made me happy today.

Okay, so I changed the Date/Time stamp . .

so it wouldn't look like I had posted this 'Happy Father's Day' post the day AFTER the actual event.

I know I don't say it nearly often enough, but thanks for being a great father to our children, Mark.

Thanks for being Anna's softball coach and taking every spare minute when you're not at work to practice
with 14 nine and ten-year-olds. And enjoying it more than they do a lot of the time. Thanks for showing that
you're so proud of them, even when you don't mean to.

Thanks for sharing your farm-life love with Emma. I never would have guessed that she would be the
country girl of the family. Thanks for taking her to do the cow-chores and not having any reason for her to say
"Daddy, you left me out" with a big pouty lip, like she used to. Remember that? ;^)

Thanks for joining me in just enjoying 'the boy' and laughing at his every move. I know that he'll be a great
father one day, from your example.

Let's not forget also to thank you...
-for killing and removing large insects from our house (oh, and the couple
of snakes too)
- for removing splinters from every appendage of each of our kids on a regular basis mostly because,
like their mom, they forget what it means to wear shoes
-for making pancakes in the shape of our initials (a skill I'll never acquire).

As John would say, 'Da-dee, YOU!
(translation . . I love you, Daddy).

Well, me too.

Cattle Annie and her cohort Cattle Emmie

My girls at horse camp last week:

Is it time for vacation yet?

It's been almost a week since I posted. Already. The time has been flying by for me. I can't believe the kids are already almost 3 weeks into summer vacation. I'll be shopping for uniforms and school supplies before you know it. I actually bought the first of their school supplies today; I'm trying to break up the expense by getting a few things here and there. Aren't I the planner?

Anna's softball team won the championship for their league and she's now on the All-Star team. Mark's the coach for that team too so he and Anna will be busy for a little while longer. Emma started playing ball last week and her team participated in a tournament and won first place! We're on a roll here. (I took first place in baking in the hot Louisiana sun and sweating like a sow.
You should see my medal.)

I have lots of pictures to post (and even a video of John grooving!) but I can't get my damn camera to upload the photos. I'll work on it more tonight, if I get the chance.

And Father's Day so snuck up on me. Shouldn't that be pushed back 'til July? Who do we talk to about that?

Oh, one last thing. I have a new best friend. Her name is Chick FilA. She satisfies me so.

Thankful Thursday

Things I Am Thankful for This Thursday Thune Theighth, Two Thousand and Thix:

1.) The girls being finished with horse camp, as of yesterday. Yes, they had a great time, but it was an hour and a half trip one way! I've seen way too much of the inside of my van this week.

2.) Our Orlando vacation only being 3 weeks away!

3.) John hugging me so tight around my neck that I can barely breathe.

4.) Greasy Pizza from the Pastime Lounge with good friends.

5.) My good pal, Jolie, being in from N.Y. for the whole summer. Gosh, I miss that girl when she's gone.

6.) Watching my girls play ball.

7.) 'Paw-Paw' pictured above being a part of Anna, Emma, and John's lives and showing them what country life is all about. It reminds me a lot of my grandfather, on my mom's side, showing my sister and I the same thing.

I am truly blessed in so many ways, and very thankful.

Catching you up a little . .

I've about given up on ever getting Blogger to allow me to import the rest of my Tennessee pictures. It just keeps spitting them back at me. Little F'er.

So, I thought I'd do a picture-less post. Which is not the norm for me. I've been a busy one lately. School's out, summer activities have started and I'm running around like a total nut. The girls have horse camp this week, way out in Chiquapin Parish (okay, that's not the real name of the parish, but I think that was the made-up parish name in Steel Magnolias, so I thought I'd steal it). Anyway, this camp is about an hour and a half away from my house, which makes for a looong driving day. And today was just the first day. Shit. The girls did love the camp though. Emma's on a horse named Dusty Rose and Anna's on a dude named Reno. They learned to saddle up the horses, brush them, put the bridle on, and do a little trotting and cantering too. They know more now, at the ages of 10 and 8, than I've ever known about horses in all of my 36 years. I'm still not over the 'ring on the calf's penis' thing. Yikes!

Anna's wrapping up her softball season and Emma's just getting started with coache's pitch. Her team is named the Tigers and they're purple and gold, so I know my dad will be sending good vibes her way. He was the biggest LSU Tiger fan I've ever known. Combine that with his Emma and I know he'll be smiling down on every game.

John M. has been hanging with his sisters and now calls the ballpark his home. He's started saying actual small sentences and sometimes he talks so much, I pop his 'noopie' in his tiny piehole just to get some peace and quiet. Bad Mother Award number 103,677 for me.

I'm starting to gear up for vacation in less than 4 weeks. Did I mention I have no idea how we're going to fund this trip? I guess Mr. Master Card will be paying for it. Don't you love him? Right up until he mails you his bill.

I bought a flat iron on Ebay today. I was a flat-iron virgin until my trip to the hair salon last weekend. I loved the flat iron look! Who'd have thunk it? My hair is pretty stick straight anyway, but this made it straighter and silkier. Do any of you ladies use one of these? If so, do you have any tips for me?

Okay, now that I've jumped topics about 10 times, I'm going to bed. And prepare to hightail it to Guam (Chiquapin Parish horse camp) tomorrow morning at 7:00 am. Jealous, aren't you?

Tenneesee 2006

We had a fun Memorial weekend trip. The drive there was long (we didn't get to our hotel until almost 2:00 Saturday morning), but the fun we had later made it all worth it.

A few pictures for you:

The reason for the trip was a 'Cattle Bulletin Board' picnic. Mark has become friends with other 'cattle' people from around the country and one from a little place called Gallatin, TN hosted the picnic. They lived on a true farm, complete with cows, horses, chickens, peacocks, goats, and a pig!

Mark had some crawfish shipped there from home and everyone had a great time eating mudbugs.

The next day, we went to see 'Dead Elvis' and he was indeed dead. Sorry to disappoint. I hadn't been to Graceland in about 25 years and it sure has grown! The whole tour is automated, with headsets for everyone. I took a picture of the back of Graceland because that just doesn't get much publicity, does it?

I can't get this damn blogger thing to import anymore pictures . . so my vacation post will continue tomorrow....