Tell her I love her.

So those are the bloomers that match her dress she wore to church today. She spit up all over the dress, but she looked so damn cute in just the bloomers when I took the dress off, I couldn't bare take them off, too!

Did I mention Taryn's walking now? Okay, well, walking-ish. She takes a few steps here and there throughout the day. Yesterday she took six steps in a row! I think the only thing holding her back from just busting out and walking all the time is that she hasn't found anything overwhelming enough to go to. Oh, and the fact that her little legs can't hold up her fat little belly for very long! Oh, just look at that little belly! Don't you just want to smoosh your face in it and blow raspberries all day long? And look at those adorable little boobies! I swear, I could have ten more just so I could have these moments where I could look at my precious babies all day long!

Speaking of precious babies, my first one was SO worn out today. On Sundays, Trey comes and helps me w/my paper route, so we have to take the kids w/us. Usually, they sleep pretty well in the car. At first they wake up and get excited, but quickly give in to the need for sleep. Not last night. Taryn was up for a while, but she finally passed out when I started actually driving. TJ didn't go to sleep until the last 15 to 20 minutes before I got home! He talked the WHOLE time! He asked me about three billion questions, which consisted mainly of, "Mommy, are you gonna throw the paper in the toooob?" and "Why are you going here, Mommy?" Man, I know now why I love my job so much! I get so much peace and quiet six nights a week! Needless to say, he took a nice, LONG nap today, and I honestly thought he might sleep all through the night (to no avail, of course, but...).


Oh, and one more thing. Please be scared for me. I think both of my children are about to hit another growth spurt. Both of them have been eating like they might never eat again lately. Taryn has especially taken a liking to her newfound foods of all textures and tastes. Whereas, if it were up to him, TJ would eat candy for every meal and snack, he has begun to actually eat the food put on his plate now. He even told me what a great job I did on his turkey sandwich he had for dinner tonight! I'm so glad my gourmet cuisine can satisfy and astound my yungins!

Okay, I'm out. If you have a minute, and you didn't chime in before, go to the next post and tell me your answer to my question. You have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

Okay, so last night (this morning) I was listening to my new favorite station as I did my paper route. It's a classic country station (with less commercials, and more of your favorite country music from the 70's, 80's, and 90's!), and it takes me down memory lane. It reminds me of my childhood, mostly of hanging out in bars with my dad, and eating pistachios from the machines and drinking 'real' cherry cokes. I, alarmingly, know many of those songs wayyyyy too well.

So anyway, back to the subject at hand...

So this song was playing...something about "If Heaven ain't a lot like Dixie, then I'd just rather stay home..." something like that. Something about if they don't have a Grand Ole' Opry, then he'd rather go to hell or New York, which are pretty much the same thing (yeah, I should know the words, right!). There are many, many, MANY songs praising the wonder, pride, greatness of living in the South, etc. Gotta love Dixie.

I totally agree. I love Dixie. I love living in the South. I've thought at times, when I was younger of course, that I would like to live up north sometime. That was mainly b/c I find the accents to be fascinating...but that's about it. I really have no desire to live above the Mason-Dixon Line for any other reason, and really, I'd probably come home pretty soon after being up there a short time. SC is not exactly my favorite state in the Union, and the overbearing conservatism is not a highlight for me, either. Nonetheless, I'd rather live in the South than anywhere else on earth.

Which leads me to my uninformed naiveness. Okay, I've never heard a song, that I can think of right off hand, that praises a state up north. Like, okay, well, there are a few, I guess. Let's see...New York, New York, blah, blah...and something about Chicago. Then there's "We Love LA". I'm sure there are a few more, but really, overall, I don't feel like there's quite as much overwhelming spirit and pride in being northern as there seems to be in being Southern. I mean, there's Southern rock, but I don't think I've ever heard of northern rock. So yeah, I've heard of people being proud to be from a certain city, like Chicago or something (mainly from the Drew Carey show), and Detroit City, or whatever, but not so much just to be northern.

I was thinking about it (I have a LOT of time to think on my route!), and I realized that the north is a bit different than the South. Like, it's much more of a melting pot than down here, even in today's times. I mean, sure, we have foreign Americans (is that pc?), but not in the mixtures and stuff that you see up north (I think, of course, not having spent an enormous amount of time up there). I'll be honest, until we moved to Lancaster and spent a lot of time in Charlotte, I hadn't seen too many hispanics in my life. I can't remember any in any of my classes while I was growing up, and I'm quite sure I wasn't friends with any (not b/c I chose not to be, but I just didn't know any). I had a few friends that were part Japanese and part black (it was one family), but they were about as unique as it got for me. My friends were either white, or black. That was it. To be honest, in the town I lived in, there were even very few blacks, and I didn't know a whole lot of them, either.

That's not really an uncommon thing down here in the South. Sure, some cities have more of one ethnicity than others, but overall, it's those three with a few scattered Chinese, Japanese, Americanese, Look at these! in between. I remember when we went to Washington, DC for a field trip in high school with the band. We ate at a cafeteria on the trip, and I didn't understand a single word that came out of the mouth of a single person I saw there. I was convinced that everyone there was speaking an entirely different language than the person next to him, and I may not have been wrong. I saw a lot of people on that trip that did not speak English, and it blew my mind. I mean, I took German in high school b/c I didn't see a point in taking Spanish (which could really come in handy now). I didn't know any Hispanic people, and I just figured everyone in the world spoke English, and especially in our country. What a HUGE eye opener to find out sometime later that so many languages are spoken in our country! Shoot, even in the English language itself there are so many dialects that you could be speaking English to someone and have no clue what they're saying back in English!

I have so dragged on with this, but it really is interesting to me. I understand if I've lost you already.

Anyway, I see a lot of Southern pride. It's like a lot of Southerners identify themselves with their Southern heritage (for instance, how I capitalize it at all times, and not northern). I would never deny being from the South, even if I do disagree with a lot of the stuff that goes on here, and actually would probably fit in (at least politically) more out west or something. I don't fly a Rebel flag (anymore), but I have owned many, and didn't hang them outside of my house just b/c I didn't feel like people judging me and jumping to conclusions that just aren't true. I won't lie, I've often imagined what it might be like if the South had won the war. Sometimes I wish we had. Now that my life has become so hectic, I sometimes wish I could go back to a slower and more laid back life, such as is the Southern way. Going to church on Sundays ain't such a bad thing. Loving your wife and your dog equally, well....but still...

So, the question I pose to you that do not (or do) live in the South is this: Do you have that same pride for where you are from? Is it common where you are from to be proud of your area? If you've moved from where you are from, do you proudly tell people where you are from, or are you just glad to be gone? I feel like perhaps I'm only seeing the world from my point of view, and I'd love to hear yours.

Okay, this has gone on long enough. I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

Yesterday is over. Thank goodness. Don't get me wrong, it was so much fun, but man, I am POOPED!

We had TJ's 3rd birthday party yesterday (yes, his bday is Jan. 7th, but I like to take my time...). It was a success, or so I'd like to think. The theme was pirates, and I did my best to follow it well. I ran out of time to do half the stuff I wanted to do, but in retrospect, I think I had planned way too much stuff to do anyway. Of course, the weather decided that the ONE day in the WHOLE week it would be REALLY COLD AND RAINY would be yesterday, and only yesterday. Oh well, no playing outside. Never fear, though, b/c we have a large new playroom that got plenty of use out of it yesterday!

So we got the cake just in time, and when Trey got it, the top wouldn't stay down. We settled with it, and he put it on the table. It was out maybe an hour or so, and within that time it started to fall apart. I am none too pleased at this, especially after I paid so much for it, and plan to take pictures with me to Publix tomorrow to complain. Perhaps this was supposed to be a shipwrecked pirate ship!I have to say, though, the cake was delicious and moist, and I made myself sick on it today!

We had about 30 people total at the party, about ten of them kids. That worked out PERFECTLY, since I had exactly ten treat bags for them. I got the little colored lunch sacks from Wal-Mart and TJ and I stuck pirate stickers on them to decorate them. I put a patch, an earring, a necklace, ugly teeth, chocolate gold coins, ring pops, a pirate tattoo, and a looky-loo (I have no idea what they're called) in each one. That way, no one could get away with not being a pirate! I also had plenty of extra pirate stuff, like bandanas, hooks, patches, hats, etc. around for the adults. Some played along,








some didn't,



which is to be expected...Taryn did, though, and she was SOOOOO cute!

TJ would not play along, and I actually had to have someone hold him down and threatened to not let him come to his own party just to put the belt on him! You probably can't even see it in this picture, but catching him, as you'll see later, was not an easy thing to do yesterday!

We had a treasure hunt, which was fun and surprised me, b/c a lot of the kids really stuck it out and found all their pieces. When they filled up their card (there were little puzzle-type pieces they had to find), they got to go in the treasure box (which I proudly made!) and pick out candy and a prize. I had fifteen prizes in the box, and not even ten kids playing, so I'm still trying to figure out how so many disappeared?









Later, we did a pinata, and that was pretty cool. Those kids can really hit!











I think we may have done the cake somewhere in there, but I don't really remember. After the pinata we had TJ open presents. He opened one, then ran off. We all thought he was coming right back. He had gone into the playroom to find more candy from the pinata, and could have cared less about opening presents! He had to be physically carried back to the living room, kicking and screaming, to finish opening his gifts! Tell me that's not messed up! That kid has a serious problem with candy addiction, and it makes me sad to think he might need to go to rehab by the time he's four! That kid ate enough candy to fill ten kids' Halloween bags! When I went to put him to bed last night, I held him down for a few minutes before, and you could feel the sugar racing through his veins. I don't even think there was room for blood...he couldn't have stopped moving if he'd tried (of course, once in bed, he was asleep in minutes!)!








I think everyone had a pretty good time. I made authentic pirate foods, coconut balls, sweet potato bread, and honey cakes. They were all edible, but not very good. I'm guessing that's why pirates were so mean--they were fed horribly!A veggie tray was put in later. Note the cantaloupe ship.

Since I didn't offer up a whole tasty smorgasboard (sp?) of food, we were all quite hungry afterwards, and a bunch of us went out for Mexican, still dressed in our pirate garb. That was fun. It felt a little weird getting strange looks from people, but it definitely made for a fun evening! When we went home, Julia and kids and Mike slept over and the adults watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Not only do I not care for Angelina or Brad now, after what they did to Jennifer, but the movie sucked! Please, save your money if you were thinking of renting it and rent Willy Wonka (the old version) instead. Now that's a great movie! I'm telling you, all the imagination in the world couldn't have helped make that movie any better.

Needless to say, I'm tired now. That's why not a stinking one of us did ANYTHING but lay around and take turns taking naps all day. It was GREAT! Tomorrow we clean. Igh! I hope you had a great weekend, and I'll see you soon!

(set to the tune of "Whistle while you work") It seems it might be the only time I get for a while to finally get around to doing this.

Okay, so tell me this: What is up with our dog trying to eat TJ's butt!? He is obsessed with it. Everytime he sees him, he tries to bite his ass. What's worse is that today he bit his 'toodlewhop' as well. Perhaps the dog is gay. Of course, he has no problem humping Taryn's butt, so perhaps he's bisexual. I just don't know. I hope this doesn't lead to us having to take him to therapy. I just don't think I'm ready to go there. At this rate, though, I might have to take TJ. Can you just picture it:

TJ: I have recurring nightmares of my puppy biting my butt when I was a little boy.

Psychotherapist (PT): How do you feel this affected you in your grown-up life?

TJ: Well, I have a problem now with biting. I can't help myself when I see a butt,
I just want to bite it...hard.

PT: I see. I believe your problem goes much, much deeper than this. I think you
are a closet homosexual, and now is the time to accept your fate and come out to
the world.

Great! Now the dog has turned TJ gay! Okay, so perhaps that's not how it will go, but you just never know. Any tips on how to curb the ass-biting?

Saturday's the big day. It's officially TJ's birthday party. We went shopping for over four hours to get stuff for it today, and I do believe I'm the stupidest mother ever to walk the earth! Who the hell takes two small children out shopping for an entire day!? Yeah, that was stressful and adventurous to say the least. I'm excited b/c the cake is going to be SO COOL, but it comes at a price...namely $40! It better taste good! Got a pinata, too. I wanted a treasure chest, but they didn't have one, so I got stuck with this, which is pretty cool I suppose. I wanted to decorate the house all nautical looking, and I searched and searched for a cheap string casting net to put on the table. No such luck. I even went to the sporting goods store and Boater's World. Like, where on earth do they sell those damn things!? Anyway, the part that sucks the most is that I'm not done yet! Oh, and that I can't seem to find candy coins anywhere! I remember Trey bought them at Wal-Mart once, but I guess some fatass that really likes candy coins bought them all and ate them before I could get to them! Any idea where to look?

Okay, talk to you later. Have a great day!

HAHA! TJ was allowed to eat his dinner on the couch tonight to watch his new favorite movie, Monsters, Inc.. He didn't eat it right away, and Taryn came over and pulled it down while he wasn't looking. She and Blue went to eating it immediately. Kinda funny, I think! Poor TJ, I hope he learned he better eat his food when he gets it. The little buzzards will get it if he doesn't!

Check it out, I won an award!!!!!

http://blogexcellenceawards.blogspot.com/

All in a day's work! I even got them to nap at the same time today. It was heavenly. Well, as much as it could be with TJ still awake!

You know what I wish I had time for? Thoughts. I would love to be able to think again. Lately, I've been trying to think while I'm on my paper route, but it's not quite the thinking I'd like to do. I have to have the radio on to stay awake, and I still have to concentrate on not missing any houses (b/c those people really do bitch when they miss their newspapers!). Some of my favorite blogs are such b/c you can tell the person really had time to think before they wrote it. I, for instance, have been writing b/c I am hoping that someone cares what's going on with my life, but really, I can't put down any deep thoughts I've been having lately. I believe the key to writing down those deep thoughts would be to have them first. I've thought about just making up some deep thoughts about stuff, but here's the problem with that: I'd have to have time to think them up!

Sometimes I get jealous of Trey b/c he knows about and cares about politics. I want to care about stuff like that. I really do. However, I'd have to find time to find out about them first, then time to figure out a stance on the issue. If I'm going to believe something, I want to have an educated reason for it. So, I just go on not caring about stuff. I remember a time when I did care about things, and I felt so....oh, I dunno....I just can't think of the word! Sometimes I wonder if maybe my brain hasn't turned off altogether, and that perhaps it may never work again for lack of use!

So, my vow to you is to try to be more deep thinking, and put some meat in these here words I write from now on. Now I'm wondering if that means I just may never post again!

Oh, and I have to tell you this. While I'm not thinking, I'm trying my best to at least keep up on something, usually television based. My new favorite comedian of all-time, and the man I have a crush on now is Steve Carell> If you haven't seen him, either on The Office (the FUNNIEST show, ever!), or The 40 Year Old Virgin (saw it last night, HILARIOUS!), you are totally missing out. He is by no means someone I would consider hot normally, but there's something about him that just makes me want to jump him. Do check him out if you haven't already discovered his unyielding talent.

Alright, that's it for now. Talk to you later, and I hope you have a great day!

We are now a family of five. Yes, you read correctly. No, I am not pregnant.

Let me just make this absolutely clear before I go on. I am NOT a dog person. I repeat, NOT a dog person. That said, I do love Trey, although he makes me work sometimes at it, and want to do anything to make him happy. He is in a slump lately, and has been sad since our dog, Buddy (a black lab), ran away a few years back. I did like Buddy, although he made me work at liking him as well on most days. Anyway, the opportunity arose the other day to get a free full-blooded black lab puppy, with shots even, and I agreed. Like I said, even though he doesn't seem to think so, I love him enough to put up with a dog. I said something really funny on the way home from getting him, "Now, Trey, you know, this is your dog, and you will be responsible for him." Yeah, once it was out of my mouth, it was all I could do to stifle the uncontrollable laughter that was rising in my throat! He is a cutie, though. TJ wasn't too fond of him at first, but now he loves him dearly (although he's still a cat person like his mommy), and wants to go outside all the time to play with him (which consists of him running around while the dog chases him and tries to bite his butt. Taryn liked him at first, but once he'd humped her a few times and licked her face repeatedly, she decided that he's really not for her, and cries now everytime he comes near her. She is, however, extremely fond of his food, and at this very moment trying desperately to have a snack of it. TJ named him Blue, after Blues Clues (yes, I know Blue is a girl). Believe me, though, I much prefer Blue to TJ's other choices, which were Taryn, TJ, and Dora. His other name is Bear, which is after Julia's dog Bear that she had growing up, and whom is the only I've ever really liked.


Oh, and check this out. I am now watching a little boy that's two days older than Taryn, which I think I may have mentioned before. He is SOOOO much smaller than her! He's not a whole lot shorter, but oh man, just look how skinny he is!Just look at those tiny little arms and hands! Those socks he's wearing are Taryn's. I put them on her earlier, and they went about half way up her leg. They went past his knee! (yes, I see that mine is missing a sock, which is good, b/c usually she's gotten both of them off w/in seconds!) Oh, and if you look closely, you can see Taryn's two new teeth, which the dentist gave her a toothbrush for yesterday (at TJ's appt.).

Oh, one more thing. TJ put on his pants all by himself today. YAAAA! We've been working hard on getting him to GROW UP! He just did it w/out even being asked! So, accordingly, I took a proud Momma pic!Like, what's up with the face?

I am sorry that I haven't been around more lately. I will try harder. I must go now. Do have a great day, and I'll see you soon (hopefully!).

Yesterday I started babysitting another little baby. This one is a little boy that's two days older than Taryn. He feels like a newborn, though, he's so little! He has just learned to sit up on his own, but falls over a lot. However, I have a good feeling that he will start progressing in leaps and bounds the more he comes here (on Tues. and Thurs.). He won't be able to stand just lying there while all the other babies are on the move. As of now, and hopefully to stay this way, I am watching three extra kids on Tues. and Thurs.. However, they are kinda staggered, so it's really not that bad. I still have the one from Tues. to Fri.. She's proving to be a handful lately, b/c she's started testing her limits all of a sudden, and I swear I just want to scream sometimes when she does something over and over again that I've told her not to do (and physically removed her from, etc.). Her mom asked me about it today, and I told her I thought that maybe it was just me thinking negatively b/c I've been feeling bad lately, but she reassured me it's her in her new phase. Not liking this one for sure!

Speaking of babies, Taryn is so close to walking it hurts. She now stands by herself for longer and longer periods each day. She can't do it that well yet, but that doesn't stop her from trying to take steps whenever she is standing anyway. It's only a short matter of time now....please pray for me! Oh, and she also takes much enjoyment in crawling up steps now, particularly the concrete ones out to the playroom! Oy vey!

So I've planned most everything I need to now, and set dates for it all. Now I have deadlines, and I have to get on the ball to get them done. I have a Bunco night planned for the mom's night out for the mom's group Gina runs that I go to. I have a pirate birthday party for TJ planned. I also have to help out with a bridal shower, which I need to call about, and one other thing. This is fun. I just wish I had more time to devote to everything so I could make them all perfect. I've told Trey a few times I wish we could start a party planning business. I don't know how well I do at these things, but it sure is fun getting ready for them nonetheless. I'm still pretty proud of our wedding that I did, even though it didn't turn out quite like I had planned. I learned that night a LOT about delegating, and not assuming that everyone else is reading your mind!

Anyway, must get back to work, then off to bed. I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!