BoBo - 12/27/2007

Everyone, say hello to Bobo.

Isn't he adorable? Click on him to make him bigger. Last Friday, while Jake was celebrating his birthday at his gradfather's, and David was working, Isabel & I had a girl's night out - which means shopping. While in Old Navy, Isabel discovered a bin full of stuffed animals and found the softest ever green monkey. Isabel and the monkey danced and danced, to the pleasure of store personnel. I asked one clerk "If you can find another green monkey and have him hidden by the register for me, I would really appreciate it." The Old Navy employee did this for me. I purchased some clothes, which they placed atop the green monkey in the shopping bag. Isabel was none the wiser. Kids are SO easy at this age.

Come Christmas morning and in the hubub, I forget green monkey, who was hiding out in my closet. I later find him and hand him to Isabel. She is so excited she hugs and kisses him. "Bobo" and she have been inseparable. He didn't have a name. I asked her what his name was, but she seemed confused by "naming him," so I asked, "Is his name 'Willy?'" "Nooooooo," she replied. "Is his name 'Greeny?'" "Nooooooo," she replied. "Is his name 'Bobo?'" "YES! BOBO!" and she hugged him.

Happy Birthday Jacob - 12/24/2007

Yes, I know I am a little late posting this. His birthday is on 12/21. It was on a Friday, his last day of school before break.

From David, Isabel and I, he got Sony Acid Music Studio 7. It allows him to create music on our computer. He never smiles, but he kept thanking me all day for buying him this. We also got him a Domokun sweatshirt.

It's a random Japanese cartoon character.

Happy 14th Jacob! You Rock! Now go clean your room. :)

Pupil Pianist - 12/20/2007

This is Jake's school piano recital. They had a show called "Cool Yule" with most of the kids taking piano lessons performing a small holiday piece.



And here he is at home playing a piano rendition of a song from In The Groove 2 (like Dance Dance Revolution) called Hard Core of the North.



Here's the video game with some random people dancing to the song he just played.

Hurray! - 12/19/2007

SHE DID IT!!



I think she was just as surprised as I was. She was begging for a diaper (we keep her in panties & try and try and try). Instead, I said let's got sit on the potty (again) and read books (again). She then ordered me out of the bathroom because she can read the books herself! She whines when she really has to go, but she just won't do it. There are tears, and cries and pain. Tonight, she whined a little, but I just think she forgot, because all of a sudden, I hear it. Her face was shocked and then we both clapped! It's a start!

Sanjaya! - 12/17/2007

Yes, this is his school picture. A Co-worker said "Hey, it’s Sanjaya!" Oh, it’s ok! It’s not like I am posting naked baby pictu…..










Huh. How'd that get there?

Gonna Find out Who's Naughty or Nice !- 12/13/2007

"Mom," Jake says. "Today, David asked me if I wanted to see if I could figure out what's in our stockings. I told him no way, it's cheating.......then we did it anyway."

This, dear friends, is my husband's wise influence yesterday. He & my son proceeded to touch, shake and manhandle all the gifts in their stockings!

Today, the phone rings at work.

Me: Thank you for calling blah blah blah, can I help you?

David: I can't believe you used industrial packing tape on the presents.

Me: Why are you touching the presents?

David: You taped them all over the place with this stuff!

Me: CAUSE YOU'RE A CHEATER WHO OPENS PRESENTS AND THEN PUTS THEM BACK!

He does. He peels them open and looks at them. WHY? Why do this? Why ruin the surprise? It made me SO mad!

I get home this evening.

Jake: Mom, David was shaking his present all around trying to figure out what it is.

I don't get this. Someone please explain this to me.

Ghosts of Halloweens Past - 10/24/2007

Back before I had Isabel, and when Jake was younger, I was very much a hands-on Halloween person. We were involved in Cub Scouts and I was a Den Leader for over 5 years. We went to a lot of parties and camp-outs and I went all-out on Jake (and my) costumes.

2002 - I am pretty sure I shocked many a Cub Scout parents when I showed up in this get-up. BUT!!! I bought a super-ling cape & pretty much kept my lower half covered the entire time. Jake went as Harry Potter, but I have no pictures on computer. I need to scan some.

2003 - I went all-out this year. We went camping for Halloween with the scouts. Here's what I did.

Click on it to make it bigger. Jake was a dresser! His head is the lamp! There are clothes and underwear hanging from his drawers! Me? I am a bag of groceries! I totally rocked this costume.

2003 - I was pregnant with Isabel. I made the most awesome costume ever....and I can't find the picture!!!! I made an oven out of a box covered in white contact paper. I put knobs on it, I made burners and put a toy pan on the burner. I made a clock. I made a door, with clear door...that opened! And when you opened the door, I was wearing a T-shirt that said "Bun." Get it?? BUN in the OVEN?? I loved that costume. I have searched high & low for those pictures and cannot find them. Waahhhh.

Jake? He was....




A head.....on a platter.....on a table! He won prizes!

I wish I had a better copy. Maybe I can scan the one I have so you can see the dead rats and animals on the gold plate.

2004 - I had Isabel and was TIRED, so I did not dress up, but I did work on Jake's costume.

He has small cereal boxes glued to his shirt. They have knives stuck in them and red paint around the knives. He was....A CEREAL KILLER!




This next picture is not from Halloween, but I thought was cute. It was for our Cub Scout Blue & Gold Ceremony. The theme was the Circus, and being the Den Leader extraordinaire, I went all out.

2005 & Jake was kind-of over costumes. He got a store-bought costume and *I* discovered E-Bay, where I got Isabel's Fairy Costume.

2006 - Jake did not want to go out but I made him. LOL He HAD to take his little sister around. He was Napoleon Dynamite and Isabel was Red Riding Hood.

Raise You Hand if EW! - 10/20/2007

My poor, poor boy has had an ingrown toenail for a while. Months. We thought nothing of it, even when he would YELL if anyone accidentally stepped on his toe, or he hit his toe on something. Even then, I thought "Overreact much?" Then, Isabel stepped on it, and pus came out. That caught my attention. I scheduled an appointment with my doctor (Jake & Iz's doc moved to Apopka, way too far away for us).

The first visit was pretty much just to say, yea he needs to have that cut off by our doctors, please pay your $25 co-pay. We scheduled "surgery" for 3 days later (please pay another $25 co-pay. Losers.)

On Friday, the 4 of us went to the doc (David brought him from school because I was not driving from work in Seminole county, to get him in Volusia county, to take him back to Seminole county for the appointment).

Let me preface this by saying, Jake's dad is an $%^&+*. (I don't care who reads this; you know who you are!) WHY the heck would anyone tell their child about to have surgery "You make sure they knock you out. I had that surgery and it was the worst pain in my life. The needle they stick in your toe to numb you hurt like hell. The worst pain I ever felt!" Who does that?!?!? He is not your "buddy," he is your son. Your job is to protect him, not scare the crap out of him. SERIOUSLY.

That's what I was dealing with as I went into the room with him; terror. He started to freak a little, and I told him: "The thing about pain is, you have to breathe through it. You cannot freak out. You have to breathe and stay calm. Freaking out is only going to make it last longer. Just get through it and it will be done." He asked me when did I become a Zen Master.

The doctor came in (she was 12, Indian, pretty and sweet). She explained the procedure while Jake tried not to hyperventilate. When it came time to numb the toe, they placed a rubberband tight around it, and then stuck a 20 gauge needle into his toe, to slowly push in the medicine. I turned my back to them, looked at Jake, held his hand and told him to relax and breathe. I could tell he was in pain. They numbed one side, then it was time for the other. The return of some feeling to my hand led me to believe that the first shot was working. Jake was afraid that he would feel them cutting into his toe and voiced that fear aloud. That's when I told him that they were injecting him a third time. He had no idea.

Last time he had to have an injection to numb something was in Kindergarten. He sliced his finger open & needed stitches. As the doc was putting the injection in his finger and Jacob screamed bloody murder, the room looked a little too white and bright. A nurse said "Mom, are you o.k.?," sat me down on a chair and shoved my head between my knees.

So, yea, the room is getting a little whiter and man, it's hot in here. MY doctor walks in to help out 12-year old doctor. He sees me and says "Are you o.k. mom?" I laugh and sit down.

Jake was listening to his music on his MP3 player so he did not hear the CRACK of the nail coming off, or the doctors laughing about how loud it was. I'm trying to refrain from sticking my head between my knees.

They bandaged the toe before we could see it, showed me the HUGE piece of nail embedded in his toe, and gave us instructions for the next few days.

He slides into home...and he's SAFE! - 10/15/2007

We're in the kitchen and Jake's complaining about one of his teachers, who is apparently tone-sensitive ("she's always telling us to stop yelling, but we're not yelling"), cranky and 100 years old. "She's like....50, mom!" (Fifty is like....12 years away for me, dude.) He proceeds to explain how she has these wicked big arms that flap when she waves her arms, while yelling at kids to stop yelling. I flippantly say "Yea, big like mine," and proceed to jiggle my own arm fat. He says "No, her arm fat is WAY bigger than your arm...." He stops, mid-sentence. "You have no arm fat mom. None." Pause. ................ "Nice save, huh mom?"

"Toootally," I say.

Angel - 10/03/2007

Sitting on the floor in Isabel's room, at 9 p.m.-ish yesterday, I was exhausted. Dear God in Heaven above if you love me, PLEASE make this girl be tired already! I can't take it anymore! I must SLEEEEEEEPPPPP! (If only you'd actually go to bed earlier that midnight....shut up, voice of reason!)

I set my elbows on my legs and placed my forehead in my arms, listening to Isabel spinning and making herself dizzy. She stops and notices my posture. "Mommy, are you sad?" she asks in her soft lispy voice. Without thinking, I started to say "Yea, a little." She didn't let me finish. She THREW herself on me at full-force and yelled "Hug!" Flippin' Awesome.

Faith, Hope & Trick - 10/03/2007

Last Friday evening, I set a completely-full load of dishes to wash in the dishwasher. About 5 minutes later, Jacob comes down and says "What's burning?"

The dishwasher wasn't washing. Water was barely trickling out of it and the washer thingy that spins wasn't spinning. Great. The smell was the burners inside that make the water super hot heating up. A dishwasher full of crusty, grimey dishes. FULL. It was late Friday night and I was NOT cleaning dishes at 10 p.m. on Friday night.

Saturday morning, after breakfast which David missed because he was still sleeping, I called Jacob over. I filled the sink with hot soapy water and proceeded to wash and wash and wash and wash, while Jake dried and put away. Our dish drainer was way too small to hold an entire dishwasher full o' grossness. *sigh* He's a good kid, that Jake. It took us a good half hour to 45 minutes to get them washed, dried and put away.

We've been washing dishes by hand since Saturday, which is not a bad thing. I'm used to it. Up until "Blue House" I always washed dishes by hand. Why bother putting dishes in a dishwasher for just me & Jake, right? David hates hand-washing dishes and so does a horrid job of it. Horrid!

Tonight, I'm washing yet another cup and I'm thinking, I hate Volusia County's Tax Assessor. Remember when you were a kid or a teen and you'd hear the "old folks" (i.e. your parents who were only like in their 30's and were totally NOT old) talk about property taxes and boy-howdy I am voting Joe Candidate because he said he'd lower taxes? Yea, me neither. I was too busy teasing my bangs to new heights and bumming rides to the BK Lounge to care. Now I know what they were all talking about. These stupid property taxes make your mortgage go up if you have an escrow account. These taxes that just made our mortgage go up another $300 a month, AND depleted our savings by another $800 with a one-time bill to get us caught up on the deficit in our mortgage.Yea, hate property taxes and Volusia county, methinks, as I wash another cup, because there is no way in HADES we can afford to fix the dishwasher, which by the way, is out of warranty as of June.

I sigh. I decide to give it (the dishwasher) another try because I am a glutton for punishment and enjoy mentally beating tax assessors with frying pans that I just happen to be washing. I flip the switch and wait for the nothingness that is a whining motor. WHOOOSH! Water is spraying, the spinning thingy is spinning. What? I open it up quickly. Water is everywhere inside. I give a cheer, close it back up to run the load empty to clean out the gunk that was there from last week, thank God aloud and make a mental note to make sure I vote for the other guy.

Flying Pastries? 09/13/2007

Isabel cracks me up. She loves getting "High Fives," only she never remembers it's called "High Five!" When she feels she has done something cool, she comes up to you, put up her hand and says "High Pie!!" We all now "high pie" all the time. We tried correcting her a few times, but we kind-of like "high pie-ing," so we think we'll keep it.

Why We Fight - 08/29/2007

Ever feel rut-like, In a rut, rut-a-licious? (I was going to say rutted, but that's really not polite in some circles).

Monday through Friday, work work work. It's all so exhausting. Then to have to come home and start dinner, pick up after the kids (and sometimes the husband) gets to be a monotony I don't enjoy. It's a fight with monotony every day.

Last night, sitting on the overstuffed arm chair with the ottoman, reading a book, Isabel sits in my lap and leans back on my chest to watch tv. With my right hand holding my book, I place my left arm loosely around her front. She grabs my arm with both of hers and hugs it tightly against her body, leaning her head on my arm. Holding on to it for dear life, she then plants two perfect kisses on my arm. I am mush. This is why we fight.

Intervention - 08/09/2007

My daughter Isabel......has a Gummy Bear Vitamin Addiction.



She loves Gummy Bears, so we bought her vitamins in Gummy Bear shapes. She can get 2-4 a day. She usually plays us; she'll ask David for some, and then later she'll ask me for some. We have to coordinate our Gummy Bear dole-age.

Today David calls me at work laughing. This morning he let Isabel pick the gummy bears herself from the jar. She reached in and grabbed about 5-6 of them. David tells her "No, no, baby, you only get two." In that moment, her little bear-addicted brain made a split-second decision....



She shoved her entire fist with all 5-6 gummys in her mouth and ran.

Objects in Space - 08/09/2007

I have a MySpace page; yes I do. It started as a means to look at 3 of my sister's pages. They'd say "look at the blady-blah I posted," and when I would go look, it would tell me I needed to be my sister's "friend" to see their page. But...I am their sister!!! I signed up. My page is completely Buffied, as I am a geek.

Jake also has a page, mainly full of anime stuff. I monitor his page all the time. He won't post anything I would find objectionable, because he knows me.

I am his parent. I am not here to be his best friend. I am a parent. My job is to love him, nurture him, feed his body, mind & soul, house him, lead him by example and hope he takes to my instruction and grows to be a good man who will be honest, a hard worker and will treat his future girlfriends and wife with dignity & respect. I am not here to be his best friend. I won't be like a male parent I know, who told me that he would rather his teen boys drink alcohol in his home where he can monitor them. What? Uh, NO! I am a PARENT. I am not Lindsey Lohan's mom. He respects me, he loves me, he thinks I am old and a dork. He's not wrong.

I was reading and looking at his friends' pages. He leaves his page logged on and up on the screen on our computer. He has nothing to hide and I am proud of him. Some of the things I see, though, lead me to believe that some parents have no idea what is going with their kids' MySpace pages. Junior High girls posting pictures of themselves in their underwear? I doubt their mom knows about that. 13 & 14 year old girls who set their smiley icon mood to "Horny." Bet mom doesn't know about that one either.

I spoke frankly to Jake about all of it. (He rolled his eyes.) "It's just MySpace, it doesn't mean anything." I told him I hoped he made choices that would not make him be a follower or a victim of peer pressure. Am I old fashioned? In this day & age, maybe so. Do I care that I am old-fashioned? Not one iota. As a parent, do you?

Isabel's Map - 04/25/2007

Our little girl loves puzzles. My husband loves maps. What better gift for Isabel than the US Map Puzzle her grandparents got her.

The first video is grainy. It was too big for YouTube so I had to compress it. Then....the batteries died. I ran upstairs for new batteries and came back down to catch her finishing up the puzzle. The second video is clearer. She's blowing raspberries, by the way. Enjoy!

Power Play - 04/09/2007

My son brought home a progress report with some bad grades back in mid-January. We were upset, and he was no longer allowed to play video games until he brought those grades up. He was good about it, too. That and I hid the game he loved the most.
I kept in touch with the one teacher with the bad grade. (The other was P.E. P.E.??? Seriously??) We e-mailed, she would tell me about extra credit, etc., etc. and I would make him do it.

He got his report card last week.....and made honor roll.

See? He wasn't really exerting himself until I took something away. How sad it that? I can't be there at school when he is not dressing out to P.E. or when he does his homework and then forgets to turn it it. *sigh* Parenting stinks.

Good job Jacob on your honor role. You did me proud.

Him - 04/04/2007

Sorry I have not posted in a bit. I have something to blog about, but I sort-of kind-of want to wait until I do. I want to see if anything changes before I post the blog. My husband is sad (at something else, not me) and I am mad that he is sad. Me mad is not fun, so I want to behave and see if I am overreacting. The protective rabid dog in me wants to act all mean, but I must breathe and take his lead. He is one calm, passive dude. Maybe that's why we are so good together. We balance. I am super-hyper-emotional-loud and he is calm-cool-almost-too-calm quiet man. We make each other even.

AND CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME POTTY TRAIN THIS GIRL!! SHE JUST PEED ON THE FLOOR! Gah! Not even a "Pee pee" or "potty" just peed on the floor and continued playing. She's 3. Dude! GAHHHHH.

Spring Break 07 - 03/25/07

Let's recap our Fabulous Spring Break Oh Seven, in pictures.


Friday: Jacob gets braces. Bank account severely reduced.


Saturday: We purchase a washing machine at Sears. Bank account severely reduced.


Sunday: We went to the library a half hour early, so we drove around Cassadega, a "Spiritualist City." Back to the library so I could renew "Walden" and check out "The Memory Keeper's Daughter."

This is exciting stuff people!

Monday: Errand day. We drove to see Jake's doctor (we MUST find a new one close to home. Our pediatrician also moved, to Apopka. Even further away.) Then we went to get a prescription filled, mail a package and then to the bank.

Tuesday: Sears delivers the washer. I am spastically excited, hug my new washer (I did) and do 7 loads that day. Seriously.



Meanwhile, Jacob helps the neighbor mulch his yard.

Wednesday: Home warranty plumber shows up and fixes leaky faucet in tub. Tub no longer creates bubbles with bubble bath. WHAT is that about? Really? We can't make bubbles with the bubble bath we have been using for 3 years

Thursday: Picture day for Isabel & Jacob. Isabel complains about her pretty itchy dress, won't sit still for pictures, I forget the coupon, bank account reduced

Friday: Wow, I can't even remember Friday. It was that exciting. Ummmmmmmmmmm. Nope, can't remember.

Saturday: Dine at Joe's Crab Shack. Yum. Sister Brenda & hubby drive up to spend the night, as they have an early a.m. appointment in Putnam county to view some property. Brenda gives me her old pink Razor phone, which I love love love. Brenda delivers presents to us from our other sister Vicky. Our Christmas presents. Isabel got a baby doll, a stroller for the baby and some baby clothes.

Jacob gets a combined birthday/Christmas Present: Guitar Hero 2 for the PS2.

David got a strategy guide for a video game, and I got a Bed Bath & Beyond gift card and coupons.

Sunday: My sister & her hubby left before we even awoke. We went to Bed Bath & Beyond to spend my gift card - hee hee. Got a large mirror for the wall when you first enter the house. Ate Mickey D's for lunch and then home for dinner & 2 movies. Oddly enough, both movies were about magicians;

The Prestige and The Illusionist. The Prestige was creepy. It had you loopy the entire time. I can't even begin to explain the double, triple & quadruple dealings going on. The Illusionist - I figured out what happened seconds before Paul Giamati's character did. Both were good.


FUN FUN FUN! Back to the grind tomorrow. Good Night.

Supersymmetry

I'm getting her picture made next week, so what I do? I cut her bangs...crookedly. Crookedly cut bangs. She moved! She flinched, I say! She whined and kicked and flailed!!!

LIES! Lies to deflect!! She was perfectly still and not scared at all. I stink. I was able to do a little fix up though and now you can only tell if you stare. I promise!

"Supersymmetry," Angel Season 4, Episode 5