Okay, so I vowed that I would get out of the house today, in an effort to get out of my slump I am in right now (read my last post to find out why....just don't laugh too much!). I called up Gina, and asked her to hang out with me. I forgot she is carless right now. That's okay, though, b/c I just hauled our butts over to her house! TJ proceeded to eat every snack she had in the house, and she whipped up some kick-ass iced coffee mix. All-in-all, it was a nice afternoon. It let us know just how truly important and loved we were, as it was totally impossible to get the children to just go play somewhere else and leave us alone to talk! One day I'll look back on these moments and laugh...Oh, what am I talking about? I'm laughing already! They are sweeties! TJ loves his cousins, and so do I. Taryn really loved Julia's voice...she smiled everytime she talked to her! Oh, and we watched her taped episodes of Trailer Fabulous, which is, well, pretty trashy. It's not a show I'll watch regularly, but it is fun to watch for just plain entertainment....kinda like watching a train wreck kinda entertainment....

Afterwards, we met up with Echo and cheerin'. I am determined to make her be my friend, whether she wants to be or not. Why, you ask? Well, one, b/c she's cool, and two, b/c her kids are two of my favorite little people. I want them to rub off on TJ and Taryn, so he can be cool like them. We went to Cici's Pizza, and spent next to nothing for tons of pizza. It was a MADHOUSE in there! I think there were about four thousand people in there, and only seating for ten, or at least that's what it felt like! Of course, that helped when TJ and Jaiden decided to get up at opposite ends of the table and jump around and the like. No one really noticed. They also didn't notice when TJ spilled his drink everywhere...twice! Ummm, oops! I also ran into a former student from DJJ, with his six month old son. The baby was so cute, although it scared me just a little bit that he had a kid! It was nice to see him doing well, though. I was also flattered that he remembered me and came up to talk to me! Sadly, his mean ol' brother is in prison now (they were both in my classes, and in opposing gangs...tell me that's not scary!). Oh well...

When we left there, we went to Baskin Robbins and had ice cream. It was fun. The tiny ones scarfed down their cotton candy ice cream (it tasted like cotton candy, but was so nasty looking...all purple and pink!), and then proceeded to run back and forth around the shop while screaming and pulling on each other! It was great! They even got some other tiny people in the shop all riled up, and their parents had to calm them down! I was really trying to have a decent conversation with Echo, which is hard when you're trying to keep your kids from killing each other and themselves!, and I suggested that perhaps we would be less of a nuisance outside. While out there, TJ and Jaiden were running around on the retaining walls, and at one point, held hands to jump down the foot and a halfish distance together. Echo jumped up to get them, while I said, "No, no, no, no, no!" Unfortunately, TJ went ahead and took the plunge. Jaiden did not. However, they failed to let go of their hands first. Jaiden went head-first into the concrete, and I had a major heart attack. Thank God she only scratched her upper lip and the little part above it under her nose. It looked much, much worse. Echo seemed to handle it better than I did. She will do well with three....I probably just wouldn't ever leave the house again! I figured at that moment it was over...she was never going to hang out again, b/c my child is too wild. Fortunately, she was gracious to us, and again, I'm SO SO sorry about that, Echo! I hope, if nothing else good comes of it, TJ at least learned a lesson about being careful today!

Anyway, shortly after that, we headed toward home. I didn't want to leave, b/c her kids really are fun to play with, and I could tell that TJ was having fun. The whole ride home, he was like, "Mommy, I can't see them." "Who," I'd say. "Them." "Oh, do you mean Jaiden and Jaylen and their mommy?" "Yeah. Where are they?" "They went home, and we're going to our house." "Oh, I want to go to their house and play with them." I had this conversation about a hundred times on the ride home, I swear it! So, we decided that we will go and play with them "later", quote TJ. Well, that is, if Echo can handle my wild and hyper child. In his (and my) defense, he did not have an adequate nap today, and thus was pretty wound up when we got to them. I say next time we try to find a place for them all to run around sufficiently...then we can have a decent conversation, too!

Okay, well, I suppose I've gone on long enough. I don't know what to do now, now that my book is over. You'd think that I wasn't in this same position just less than a week ago! I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you later!