Walt Disney Who?! (vacation, part 3)

So, I had mentioned before the great, cheap deal that I got from Universal Orlando. I got 5-day tickets for my whole family for $200 bucks total. I thought that was unbelievable, especially because a single day at Disney would cost more than that. I figured there was a catch or I would find out that I misunderstood something. Or the worst, that we wouldn't enjoy Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.

I was wrong. There was no catch and the parks were great! I found that one of the best things about these parks is that they cater towards 'beating the heat'. Almost every line for a ride is shaded and there are misters everywhere. There is also a good amount of shade from trees in the parks, in general, especially Islands of Adventure. It's beautifully landscaped and the structures there are pretty too.

John M. was entertained by the Barney show and also liked the Dr. Seuss part of IOA. There are a few really little-kid-friendly areas in both parks which was great. The girls loved the E.T. ride, and Shrek 4-D, as well as the water rides at IOA. We didn't get to ride everything we wanted because we were only there 2 days. The rest of our time was spent doing other things. I'd like to go back and do everything we were interested in.

Here are a few pictures from Universal/IOA:

We interrupt the vacation posts for this short announcement..

About 5 years ago, we had bought some seashells from one of those cheesy souvenir shops in Biloxi. We also bought a little dried starfish; it's kind of delicate and sweet looking. I have it next to the girls bathroom sink. And so .... the point of this post.

Emma yelling(in the tub last night): Mommmmm?!

Me yelling (from the next room): Yeah?

Emma: Can I please put that starfish on the counter in the tub with me?

Me: Sure, I guess.

Emma (after a few seconds of silent contemplation): Mom?

Me: Uh-uh?

Emma: It won't come back alive or anything, huh?

Me: (chuckle) No, you're good.

just when you think they're too grown up for you, they lay something like this on you and you're so happy that a little piece of them is still so innocent-

Shuttle-less and wet

We spent our first night in Tallahassee, to break up the drive (it's about 12 hours total). Sunday, we headed to Orlando, which is only about 4 hours from Tallahassee. Mark decided he wanted us to see the space shuttle launch, because Cape Canaveral is only another hour or so out of Orlando, and Cocoa Beach is out that way too.

We were professionals at throwing change into the toll booth collector thingys by the time we got to Cape Canaveral. Geez, what IS the deal with all of the tolls out that way?! We get there just in time to hear that the shuttle has been delayed because of bad weather. And before we knew it, the bad weather was all around us. So, no beach, no shuttle, just surf shops. Where John M. got to enjoy the 'whee' (as he calls it). A 'whee' can be a variety of things, so far, hills, escalators, slides, and those little straight escalator people-mover deals. Anything that causes his mom to say 'Wheeeee' while he's experiencing it. The surf shop had 'whees' and we 'wheed' about 20 times on them. Up and down, up and down, wheeeee.

We bought some surf shop goods that we didn't need, and took off back to Orlando in the rain. About .01211111 miles out of Cape Canaverel, the rain stopped. Go figure. We headed to Uncle Keithy's house to visit. He and Auntie Em took us out to 'American Pie', which was the coolest pizza place where you can play video games the entire time you dine! The girls couldn't have imagined anything better. As you can see from the pictures, we had to pry the little controllers out of their hands to leave. They loved it and the pizza was good too. More tomorrow . .

Did I mention how good this child was in the car?

I'll put it this way, he was as well-behaved as he is cute in the picture!

Yep, that good.

Sometimes, his sisters could take lessons from him.

We're finally home!

Yep, we're back from Orlando. We had a great time and I'm going to share slowly.
We left Saturday and ran into traffic, on the interstate, in a number of places. Going into Mobile, Alabama, and Lake City, Florida and one other spot I don't even recall. It took us about 12 hours to get to Tallahassee, when it should have taken 8. It was one long day.

We drove through Biloxi and Gulfport to see the damage from Katrina. I haven't been through there since the hurricane. It was unreal to see the destruction. We used to vacation there every year when the girls were babies and I had great memories of times there together. It was hard to see it the way it is now, but hopefully hurricanes will stay away for a while and it will be rebuilt.

We took the kids for a short walk on the beach. John didn't remember the beach in Galveston last year, so this was all new to him. It took him a little while to enjoy the tide coming in and covering his little chunky toes, but he came around.

More tomorrow . .

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....

Out of pocket

We're off to Tennessee for the Memorial Day weekend. A 'cow' picnic with Mark's online buddies. And we're going to Graceland, baby! To see, as Anna puts it, 'Dead Elvis'.

I don't have the luxury of a laptop so I won't be able to post until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. So, y'all have a great holiday weekend!

Peace out.

John Morris Jacques - 20 months pics

20 months

My boy is 20 months old today. On the dot. I've done so much posting about his lack of verbal skills, that I thought it only fair to post now about how that boy has made a complete turnaround and talks like the dickens.

Some of John M.'s favorite words:

Juice (dooce) -Maybe a future Armstrong fan?
Outside (ah-sid)- He requests this about 100 times daily
Swing (wing) (Ah wing) - His favorite pasttime lately.
Bike (bike) - he says this one right!
Bye-Bye - said with a heavy southern accent, as if he grew up in East Tennessee
Cow (dow) - I think it's a mix between dog and cow.
Dog (dawwg) - same accent as bye-bye
Mine (mine!!) - everything is his, all of it, according to him.
I want to ride (ah wan wide) - as in the Kawasaki mule, the four wheeler, the horse . .
I want to eat (ah wan eat) - mostly mac and cheese and blackberries. I've NEVER seen a child eat blackberries as fast
as this boy can.

What gets me is he can say just about everything now, or something close to it. He went from 5 words to 500 in the blink of an eye.

My favorite is Mama though. And it always will be.
Have I mentioned he has me wrapped all the way around every one of his fingers?

Bet I was the only one doing this on a Tuesday evening

Holding a squeeze chute open for a cow, so her calf could be taught how to suck from her.
Can you believe it?

I just have to draw the line at getting fresh cow poop on my shirt, like Mark did.

I'm not that dedicated.

I'm becoming such the farm girl, eh?

Not really.

RENEE'S FARM FACT OF THE DAY (Okay, I didn't know this, maybe most do, but it was news to ME):
Anyway, here goes.
When males cows (is there such a thing? or is it just a bull? anyway . .) are young, you can put this little
ring dealie on their private part and it cuts off the circulation to said part and slowly, it shrivels up and falls off.
Why, do you ask? (I bet the cow is asking the same damn thing). So that they're just a 'steer', and not a 'bull '(used for reproducing). Mark taught me this today, while pointing out a male calf ding-a-ling. I felt bad for that little calf, but Mark swears it doesn't bother them. But really, how does he KNOW that? They may need some serious counseling in the future.

Twins, approximately 52 years apart

Emma is evolving into my mom. I have people tell me all the time how much Emma looks like her. It started with the exact same eyes and now each piece of Emma is morphing into Adele.

But just look how great Emma will look in 50 years!

I love them both so much, I can't tell ya.

Some kids . . .

John M. loves corn. He also has taken a liking, lately, to babies. Baby dolls, that is. He decided that he was going to feed his 'baby' some of his corn last week. But finally gave up, in frustration, after the baby refused to eat it.

I'm simply trying to prepare him for having kids one day. The kids being uncooperative is just part of that lesson. ;^)

Friday Feast Day with Emma

Friday was Feast Day for Emma at school.

I just loved this little pouty-about-to-dig-in face she has, so I thought I'd share.

Vacation on the fly ...

Our summer vacation this year has been up in the air, undecided, not set in stone, you get the picture. We're still trying to pay for our summer vacation of 2005! Yikes, not good.

But I HAVE to go somewhere on vacation; I need something to look forward to, count down to. We were planning on maybe doing a short, close, cheap vacation to a nearby location. Only Biloxi (where we used to go every year when the girls were little) has been done in, in large part by Katrina, as has our other preferable close vacation spot, New Orleans. Houston is close, but we did a Texas vacation last year. We were thinking about Arkansas, but it's still a long drive through all of North Louisiana.

So, after seeing a Universal Studios TV commercial about kids staying and playing for free, I decided to check it out via the internet. Sure enough, for every adult ticket purchased at Universal Studios Orlando, you get a child's ticket free. AND not only that, with the purchase of a 2-day ticket, you get 3 more days free! Woo-hoo. 5 days at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure for 200 bucks total. For the whole family! That got me looking into hotels. . . I went to my favorite, Priceline (name your own price) and found a hotel room at a Radisson right near Univ. Studios for get this, $45 a night! The thing with Priceline name your own price, is once it finds your hotel, it books it, charges your card, it's done. No turning back.

So, here I sit with an Orlando vacation booked. Only I hadn't checked with Mark at all. Whoops. My bad.

But there is a good ending to the story. I talked to him, he's up for it. We're in. We even get to visit with Uncle Keithy and Aunt Emily (Mark's brother and sister-in-law) who live with Mickey Mouse in Orlando. Bonus!

So, I went from no vacation to total vacation in an hour's time.

Now, I'm counting down the days. 40, as of tomorrow!

My favorite Stingray

Anna is in full swing with softball season (she's on the right in the picture). She pitched two innings at the last game and did a great job! I was so proud, I almost did a cartwheel.

We have such a great time watching her play. I was NEVER into sports until my girls started playing. Mark is coaching this year for the first time ever and Anna loves it.

Here's one of her biggest fans at the game:

Brought To You By the Letter 'L'

I came across this over at Nothing Important (Chesney's site).

I asked to play and she gave me the letter 'L'.

Here's how it works: If you wanna play too, let me know in the comments or send me an email and I'll assign you a letter. Then you write about 10 words that start with that letter that are important to you and explain why.

Hmm . . L.....

1. This is the first thing that came to mind - Love. That doesn't need an explanation, does it?

2. Lemonade! I love it, especially freshly squeezed. I love watching my girls set up lemonade stands to sell it also.

3. Lists! Few things make me happy like a good list. I like to make budget lists, shopping lists, gift lists, whatever. I also like reading lists made by others.

4. Lazy - this is something I love to be, whenever I get the chance which isn't too often these days. I love to lay around in bed and watch reality tv, and look at catalogs or magazines for hours on end.

5. Lunch - the favorite part of my workday. A few of my favorite lunch spots: Chili's, Moe's Southwestern Grill, Chick-Fil-A, Harrington's (a good little seafood place here)!

6. Livin' in Fast Forward - one of my favorite Kenny Chesney songs!

7. Louisiana - I can't believe it took me this long to think of this one! As I've written before, I love this state. I know we get lots of bad press, and we're at the bottom of every nationwide list, but it'll always be home to me.

8. The word 'little'. I use this word all the time (usually accompanied by 'cute), in describing things, as in 'Look at those cute little shoes', 'Isn't that a cute little purse?', etc.

9. Little House on the Prairie - one of my all-time favorite shows.

10. Laptop - as in 'computer'. I want one of these so badly, but will probably never have the extra funds to get one.

Hey, that was surprisingly easy! Those 'L' things just came to me.

Does anyone want to play? I'll give you a letter.

Total opposites

(hard pressed to find a recent pic of me and Anna)
Anna participated in 4-H Achievement Day today at her school. Her favorite award was a small silver medal for placing first in a demonstration she did with a friend of hers. They presented how to make Mississippi Mud Cake. She didn't think twice about it. She even looked forward to doing it.


Renee's biggest fear: Any type of public speaking. Anything. I've had this fear for as long as I can remember. Anna totally does not understand it.
That's her daddy in her. She's Mark inside and out.

I love it that we're so different in so many ways. She does things that I would never dream of doing. She has no fear when it comes to the things I fear the most. She also makes me prouder than I ever thought possible. She's my girl, my polar opposite, but mine all the way.

Thankful Tuesday

I'm thankful for the following:

1.) The girls playing together NICELY in Anna's room for over an hour Saturday. This is a rare event in my household. I almost had to pinch myself.

2.) Mark making a real effort in spending more time with the kids, and coaching Anna's softball team.

3.) The above team winning their first game yesterday and all the girls playing so well together.

4.) The yummy grilled chicken sandwich I ate from Blimpie's today.

5.) My mom helping Anna with all of her 4-H projects for Achievement Day tomorrow, since her youngest daughter is craft-disabled.

6.) Online shopping!

7.) Remembering to be thankful.

Peace out.

Very cheesy

John M. started saying 'Cheese!' for the camera a couple of months ago when his little friend at the babysitter's brought her toy camera and started taking pretend pictures of everyone. He learned 'Cheese' that day, and has used it in the correct context ever since. The 'cheese' opportunity hadn't come up in a little while until this week when John and Jenna were sitting on the stoop at my mom's house and she figured it was a perfect Kodak moment.

She got her camera and pointed it at them and John started 'cheesing' it up. He must have said 'tees' (that's cheese to him) about 30 times in a row when she was taking the pictures. 'Tees! tees! tees! tees!'. I couldn't stop laughing. Look at him with his little cheesy smile and pointy chin. And apple-shaped head. Lord knows the boy doesn't look like me, but those 2 qualities are mine! He does have a genetic link to me, even if all I have are a pointy chin and apple cheeks to show for it.

Cheese!