88 It is EASY to be green!

At least when you are talking about pool water. With the rain we have been getting from what was left of Gustav we had not been out to the pool in a few days. Katie wanted to get in, so I headed out to pop some chlorine tabs in and that is when I encountered our new pond. What a lovely addition to our immaculate home, a slime filled pool. Sure Katie, jump right in! The water is FINE!

Since we discovered our own eco-system in the backyard we have drained the pool, and scrubbed the pool, and dried the pool, and now it is filling back up. Of course Katie cannot be expected to wait until it is deep enough to swim in!! Silly idea!



Connor was introduced to two new types of food in the last week ... chocolate donuts and beef jerky. Sure, not the best food for a 10 month old, but you should have seen the look on his face when I was eating in front of him!! Too pitiful, I had to share. He seems to have pulled through just fine.



Katie has decided to become an absolute brat in the last few days. She has always been spoiled, but other than that she has been fairly well behaved ... we have reached the end of that road. The moment she does not get her way, it is ON! She was invited to High School Musical the Ice Tour with her friend Jaclyn ( I would put some of Toya's pics up but my cd drives have decided to die on me). She came home with a little diary (she is all about the diary lately- I think her count is up to 6). She had already managed to "lose" the keys (turns out she was just too lazy to look in the bag) but since all of those locks are the same she went upstairs to get some of her other keys. The ones she found were on a keychain with 2 or 3 LED flashlights and a cat thing. She wanted me to take the keys off, you know the ones that are the perfect size to go in a baby's mouth and never come out. I told her not just no, but hell no! She can't keep anything off the floor and I cannot take the chance. She threw A FIT!!!! She was humphing and snorting and "mean mommy"ing. So I sent her upstairs until she could be nice. She actually pouted herself to sleep later.
That would be before she told me to "Shut Up!" Her little attitude has just gone completely downhill. She got home from school today and Mia came over. Connor was down for a nap. They were told this several times, and they were reminded at least three times to be quiet. They STILL woke him up. I have had enough!! I sent Mia home and grounded Katie for the rest of the day. Oh what a MEAN MEAN MOMMY I am!! I could probably count the times they have not woken Connor up on one hand. I am done! They get one more chance and then they will be required to either stop playing or to play at Mia's house when it is nap time. Anyways, she cried and pouted and buried her head behind the couch. She of course got over that, the pictures in the wade pool were taken after that.
And on a completely different note, Katie's school has started a new curriculum this year called Shurley English. My FIRST GRADER is being taught nouns, verbs, and adverbs. They have to code words for pronunciation. THEY ARE TEACHING THE CURRENT FOURTH GRADERS THE SAME THING!!! We were told that if they could not read by the end of the year then they will be held back. Katie is doing well. Lucky for us, her horrible attitude is not presented to her teachers. Or, lucky for them I should say!! Did you know that first graders are given homework even on Friday nights?!?! They can't even take the weekend off!! Where did childhood go???
Katie's hand and arm are still on the mend. She was coloring and I noticed that she was voluntarily using her right hand again!! It has been 2 and a half weeks since her last visit with the orthapedic and we have still not heard about her nerve conduction test. At this point I am going to refuse to do it without further evaluation. She has made HUGE improvements in that time. Even with her improvements I did pull her out of cheerleading. It will be a while before she can do all the things the other girls are doing, and I know my girl! If she gets frustrated or feels left out then that will color her view on not just cheerleading but all team sports FOREVER! I can't let that happen. If she wants to go back when she is all healed up then we will go right back, the class is for 6-10 year olds so we have time :)
And, on another note ... I take way too many pictures! But this one is adorable!! Love the drool!! Love the little chin!! Love everything about that little man!
As if that is not enough news ... my nephew turned 10 today!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!!

I did try to call, but could not get you. If I was not falling down tired I would scan some of Austin's baby pics I found the other day, but it is halfway to 3 AM and I have got to find my pillow! Maybe next time. You will be amazed at how much Connor looks like his big cousin.
Where in the world did the time go? It just reminds me how much I miss my family in Atlanta. As much as I don't want to live there, I would be willing to live there just for my family. I am tired of missing out on all the little celebrations. I am tired of them missing out on my babies lives. I am tired of not being able to annoy my brothers. Although they might not miss it. Mostly, I miss my Mommy!! Love you guys!!

87 A Giveaway!!!

A few weeks ago we took Katie to Build-A-Bear Workshop to get her High School Musical bear, and I blogged about it when we got home. Well, someone from BABW read that post and was nice enough to send Katie a HANNAH MONTANA bear!! AND she included a $25 Gift Card for me to give away on my blog. How awesome is that!?!?!? So, if you would like to be entered into a drawing for this giftcard then please leave a comment. Maybe you should have to tell me something fun, like the name of your favorite stuffed animal when you were a child (or now if you still like to snuggle). I will print out the names and let Katie choose the winner from her bear carrier.
I did not tell Katie that the bear was on its way because I wanted her to be surprised when she opened the box. She had to wait a little longer than I thought because she had physical therapy yesterday after school (she did great, and her hand and arm seems to be making progress). I did tell her that a package had arrived for her to open. She was so excited to get home and open that package that I could not even tempt her with a trip to WalMart. Now THAT is excitement! I did cheat a bit and open the package when it arrived, but I taped it back up for Katie. I wanted to take the gift card out and see Hannah. She was so excited when she saw the BABW carrier in the box, and then when she opened it and saw the white bear! Oh, she was over the moon!! She had me take the bear's necklace off to put on her, and she of course had to sleep with her!






Can't wait to see if enough people read my blog to make this an actual drawing :)`
Remember, you just have until Wednesday night, the 10th. THANKS!!

86 Birthday Splashdown

Our second (and third) birthday of the week was for Katie's friend Jaclyn and her little brother Chase. We met this family through Katie's Kindergarten class last year (have I ever mentioned how lucky we were with our class!!??) and not only are Katie and Jaclyn friends but I found a friend in her mother. Anyways, Katie was super excited because they had a waterslide set up. You would think that she would be a little leery of waterslides after breaking her arm ... but no! She went right to it. In fact, she did not even go into the house. She went right around the side while I went inside. I barely got through the door before Charity claimed Connor for her own. We sat in the kitchen watching out the window for a while. The slide was not too high, and it was a straight shot, and the walls were thicker. It was probably the best slide imaginable for Katie :) We did have to bring the Mamarazzi outside when we saw the girls sitting at the top of the slide holding hands to slide. TOO CUTE! And of course the boys had to get in on the act, with a little less handholding.







Amazingly there were not any arguments until the party was almost over, and that was just a little one - easily resolved. Chase was in heaven with his Monster Truck themed cake, and he would have been perfectly content with the trucks off the top and no more presents.


Jaclyn had a Hannah Montana cupcake tower.


Yes, that is Katie in the background with a scowl on her face. She probably thought I was taking pictures of her.
All of it was adorable! After cake and ice cream they opened presents. It was a free for all!! Jaclyn dove in while Toya took pictures of her, and Charity and I took charge of Chase's pile and the pictures. He was in HEAVEN, trucks and cars and trains and planes and boats!!

Chase was nice enough to let Connor play with him. Connor thought he was such a BIG boy playing with Chase!

I could see Jaclyn in the background grinning from ear to ear, completely happy with her birthday haul.

Then the kids jumped right back on the slide.

They cooked out burgers and dogs that were delicious, but the best part was the package of onions they threw on the grill. YUM! Definitely going to have to steal that idea the next time we cook out. Great time and a great party!!

85 Bouncing Birthday

We had a busy birthday party schedule last week. Wednesday was Katie's best friend Mia's birthday party. They were SO excited that they were going to Bouncz!! They planned their route all week. The big draw was the "maze" that they were going to do first. Then they wanted to "slide down the boat" (the boat is the Titanic, stern in the air). After that it was a free for all. Katie had a blast chasing Mr. Chris around in the bouncey room. Connor wanted so badly to join in the fun, and if we would not let him do that, then he wanted to play with the blower/fans. He was disappointed on all points! Katie was not used to having to share Mia with anyone else, but she got over it fairly quickly. It helped that her friend Seyerra was at the party, too. They finally bounced themselves out and we headed in to do pizza, cake, and presents. Of course it was Hannah Montana themed, what else??!! You forget so quickly how squealy a roomful of girls will get!! Those girls were as excited as if the presents were for them. They even shrieked with excitement over the mouthwash that came with Mia's new gumball machine.

84: When Mama Comes to Town

Okay, that title makes it sound like anything was done differently ... but it was not. I wanted to do something, and we talked about how we should DO something, but nothing ever got done.

Mom got here just in time on Thursday for us to hop in the car to go pick up Katie from school. She was SO excited that her Grammy was coming. When I dropped her off at school the first words out of her mouth to the teacher that opened her door were "MY GRAMMY'S COMING TODAY!!!" And really, every moment since we told her that Grammy was coming, the phrase "GRAMMY IS COMING" was on repeat. She gave Grammy the BIGGEST TIGHTEST hug ever! And then we went home and Katie wanted to get in the pool. Most of the long (and VERY HOT) weekend was spent in that pool, of course.
And of course Katie had to show off her newly acquired swimming skills And a little "look how much I love my brother" showing off as well.

Grammy did convince Katie to arm wrestle her for a little physical therapy ... Shhhh, I think Grammy let her win!

Friday we did have Mother's Breakfast with Katie and Grammy got to come, too.

Poor pitiful experience that it was, the breakfast - not the time with Katie. The school had "cutbacks" and the offerings were slim, not that we expected a gourmet meal, but it really was a sad little food line. And they even ran out of juice, so we made use of the water fountain. Oh well, we were able to spend time with Katie and that is ALL that matters. Then she tried to beg me to take her home ... nice try little girl, a little bit early for a checkout! And Grammy was able to go to cheerleader practice, but with Katie's arm still recovering it is a bit dismal. There is just so much that she can't do yet.

That pretty much concludes any actual "doing" that was done. The rest of the time was spent sipping coffee or watching Katie swim (did I mention it was really really hot). It was just nice to have my Mommy here. I don't mind sitting around with a cup of coffee, but I just feel bad that we did not DO something when she drove all the way out here. Heck, we did not even hit a junk store .... although we did hit an Old Time Pottery, that kind of qualifies :)