Meet Chewy

How could I forget to introduce Chewy??? Jimmy and Melissa gave IV a chinchilla for Christmas. IV named him Chewy-- and the little booger is ALWAYS hungry. I accidentally gave him too many raisins-- I had no idea he could only have one a day. He was hanging on the cage and BEGGING, doing little flips for me, ..... so I kept feeding him. Oops.
He is really soft but isn't all that cuddly. And it is really unfortunate that his turds look EXACTLY like his food pellets, but he seems to know the difference--ha ha. Spencer and IV want to "play" with him but Chewy is still a little shy-- and fast as lightening. I think he needs to get used to all the noise and his new home!

Happy Christmas!

Spencer put out cookies and milk, left food and apples for the reindeer, put on his new Christmas jammies, said his prayers and went to sleep like a good boy Christmas Eve. I, on the other hand, stayed up half the night working on "things." It was worth every second-- he was so happy Christmas morning! He was excited and couldn't "land" on any one gift for more than 2 seconds!
My favorite part of the morning was when he stopped unwrapping his gifts midway through his big 'ol stack of presents. He ran upstairs to his room and brought down a bag of gifts my dad and brother helped him buy. The first one I unwrapped was a beautiful scarf and Spencer was almost giddy to watch me open my presents-- there aren't many 7 year olds that would stop unwrapping presents and get excited to see his mom unwrap a scarf.
The rest of the day was filled with lots of family fun and traditions. I, of course, got tons of pictures! Mom and Dad got me a new computer--this one is dying a slow and painful death. I need to get all my photos off of this one ASAP and then perform an exorcism. My new PC rocks, but I HATE HATE HATE Vista. Speaking of photos, check out Spencer in his cute Christmas Jammies, Mom and Dad, and me and my buddy: Drunk Julie.

Dashing through the...city

We are pretty lucky that most of our family live within a 30 minute drive--so today was Holiday on the Highway day. We dropped presents off for neighbors, friends, family/cousins, godparents, and Nana Becky. I love this picture with his cousins! Christmas Day may be State RED but looking at this picture Christmas Eve is all CAROLINA BLUE baby!

The most wonderful time of the year...

Who would have imagined.... Christmas Spirit came in a green Volvo today. I got a call from my Organizational Manager asking to drop off some donations for my Mobile Meals route recipients. She (and her family) drove all the way from Charlotte (at least 90 minutes each way) and brought me 14 bags of wonderful items that my Mobile Meals folks will truly appreciate. My route has several recipients who, after paying for their utilities and medicine, have no disposable income and are in poor health. Senior Resources helps with food and driving them to doctor appointments, etc. but some things you don't think about are actually luxuries to them: lotion, warm socks, slippers, lip balm, cookies, scarves, hats, robes, toothbrushes, etc. She organized an entire team drive to support these folks and I am just so impressed! Nothing fills your heart like being part of something wonderful.

Ho-Ho-Hold the phone!

Guess who called Spencer tonight??? Santa! I was really busy wrapping presents so Spencer answered the phone for me and it was Mr. Claus himself! He knew ALL about Spencer. He talked with him about his teachers, his class, his cousins, Nana and Boppa, which presents he wants, he even knew that Mommy has told Santa that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES is Santa to bring Spencer a puppy. Santa had a few special requests himself: he wants chocolate milk with his sugar cookies this year--and Rudolph wants an apple.

At first, Spencer was embarrassed and shy; but a couple minutes into the conversation he was delighted! Santa was awesome and he sure made my little guy happy!

So... we made a gingerbread house, had dinner, got a bubble bath, and was having hot chocolate and watching Frosty the Snowman when Santa calls up-- was this a great evening or what?

Gingerbread Mess

Spencer and I built a Gingerbread house this evening. I bought a kit for us, cause they had to be idiot proof, right? Well I showed them!

First of all, you have to have hands of steel to successfully squeeze that thick, gloopy, white cement they call "icing." They might as well call it candy glue.
One of our little gingerbread men was already broken when I opened the box, so Spencer decided to eat him. One bite in, he spit it out and thought I had tricked him into eating a dog biscuit. I could NOT convince him otherwise. If you see my son, please let him know gingerbread IS NOT dog food and Mommy was telling the truth.

We managed to build the house and Spencer decorated it with lots of candy-- it was fun! but... just after I snapped this picture, the roof slid off and collapsed. SO just in case you are wondering, the tensile strength of gingerbread icing is 15 gumballs and 4 spree.

On the naughty list!

Santa needs to put tech support on the Naughty list! I have been trying to recover files for work (on my FAVORITE project no less!) for hours and hours now! It's like beating your head against a brick wall.... You know I can't get my Fa-La-La on until I get this fixed!!!

Free Rice Addict

Have you see the Free Rice Site?
You can help battle world hunger by testing your vocabulary. It is a fun game that as you "win" you earn grains of rice for the United Nations. (The advertisers on the site donate the rice.) It's kind of addictive...
Go to the site: http://www.freerice.com

Celebration Station

We met Gena, Destiny and Steven tonight at Celebration Station for a mini-holiday party for the kids. They burned through game tokens much faster than Celebration Station can cook a pizza! The kids had a blast-- Spencer could barely eat a slice of pizza with the distractions of games, presents, rides and prizes! Gena and I decided that this was an easy play date for the kids and we are going to plan another one again soon!

Cherubs

Spencer and IV had their Christmas program at Church tonight. All the kids were fantastic! Kelley does an amazing job with them! Spencer cracked us up tapping his hands to the beat while they were still in his pockets! My pictures were horrible...between being too far away and the lighting-UGH!
Besides the bad pictures, everything else was great. The entire family was there-- we all had supper together at the church and then watched the Christmas program. At the end of the play, Spencer and IV RAN off the stage for big hugs-- they were SO proud of themselves!

Uh oh!

Spencer and IV both received letters from the North Pole today and ironically they said the same thing--- Santa has checked the "GOOD" list and their names weren't on there! Santa said he will check it again next week (because he always checks it twice!) to see if they have been good!

IV made sincere promises to Jimmy that he was definitely going to be good so he would get presents. My poor, sensitive Spencer cried. I am positive Santa did NOT mean for the letter to upset him-- just to motivate him to behave-- but he was so disappointed that Santa thought he had been bad that he was just heartbroken. I felt so sorry for him!

After a short phone call to IV, Spencer felt much better about it and will make sure he ends up on the Good List.

Croppin' instead of Shoppin'

I have a mound of should haves (should have worked, should have cleaned, should have done laundry, really should have Christmas shopped, should have wrapped gifts, should have baked, etc.) but instead I cropped this weekend. I had SO MUCH ELSE I should have been doing, why didn't I feel guilty?

This is one of my favorite layouts from this weekend. I got a package of the Basic Grey holiday undressed chipboard and "Peace" looked almost sarcastic on a page with Spencer and IV.... since we all know just how loud the two of them are together!

Kitty Kitty

Spencer used both of his Build a Bear birthday gift certificates tonight to make an orange cat (Baxter, of course) and dressed him as Puss in Boots from Shrek. SO yes, he made a cat and then proceeded to dress him as a cat, cause that's how he rolls.

We don't normally go out on a school night, but he was really down last night and I made him a promise that we could spend his birthday certificates tonight as long as we didn't stay out late. I'm not sure if he had a post-birthday and vacation let down or if losing his grandfather and our family pet in the same week caught up with him or if he just needed extra hugs. I'm not complaining though, I'm just glad he is still small enough to hold!

He also got new Heelys tonight. I will probably regret that purchase.

On the way to the mall tonight, I put the radio on the "all Christmas" station and the 80's fundraiser song for Africa "Do they know it's Christmas" came on. Man! that is a depressing holiday song when you have to try to explain it to a little kid! I just had to change the subject with him--he's too young for that burden. You know, they would never get that many artists in a room now days. No one can go anywhere without their entourage, plus all the feuds, etc. Sad, huh?

So, besides being slammed at work, I have a holiday party this week, indoor soccer registration, need to exchange Spencer's indoor soccer shoes for a different size and I HAVE GOT TO FIND TIME to buy Spencer new pants. We ran out of time at the mall tonight. We are down to two pair of jeans and he has NOTHING to wear to church! All of a sudden, none of his pants fit!

Happy Birthday Spencer!!

Happy Birthday Spencer! I can't believe my "baby" is 7 years old today! We had a great costume party today and we had a big inflatable jumpy with a slide - all the kids had a blast! For dinner tonight, Spencer chose HOOTERS...because he likes owls. Seriously, that's what he said.

Goodbye Norm

I had to say goodbye to my Norm today. He was the best little fur buddy you could ever want. I had 15 wonderful years with my little guy- but his poor little body gave out. I will miss him so much but I am sure there is a warm spot in kitty heaven for him.

Disney Vacation!

We're back from vacation! Spencer and IV had a WONDERFUL time at Disney- we all did! I have to admit, I am whipped. I need a vacation from my vacation. We spent Saturday at Magic Kingdom, Sunday at MGM, Monday at Universal, Tuesday at Island of Adventure, Wednesday at Animal Kingdom, Thursday at Epcot and Friday at SeaWorld. Everyday was non-stop fun and I have about a thousand pictures to prove it!

Spencer and IV are over 48 inches now and could ride most of the big rides-- little dare devils rode EVERYTHING they were tall enough to get on! They love the roller coasters but their favorites were the water rides where they could get wet (my least favorite!) We had beautiful weather everyday -- we lucked up!

I am working on my scrapbook from this trip, so be warned, I am going to make you look at it if you come over !!!

Girls Weekend Away

We had another girls weekend away at the beach. A long weekend of Christmas shopping, lounging, and fun! My friend, Dee and I had our picture taken with Surfin' Santa--we were at the beach and the money went to a local charity so we decided it was ok to look goofy!

On a sad note, keep Spencer's Grampa Clarence in your thoughts and prayers. He is very sick right now.

As he shouted out with glee

To celebrate his great report card, I took Spencer to Build-A-Bear tonight to get the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer he has wanted since the catalog came out last month. Spencer had picked out the outfit, sound, collar, etc. so this was our FASTEST trip to Build-A-Bear ever! The sound module plays the Rudolph song and of course the nose lights up! This kid LOVES Christmas!

Finally!

Spencer finally tied his own shoes today!!! For the past year or so we have been trying to get him to learn how; but he gets frustrated so easily. Dad spent the past couple of days working with him and then last night we practiced over and over-- He finally got the perfect bow! He spent most of the evening tying IV's shoes for him...it was so sweet!

I did WHAT??!!! on November 4????

I put up my Christmas tree. That's right. You heard me. Don't judge me Earl! Spencer has begged for a week to put up the tree-- it is very important to him this year. I pick and choose my battles and this one I decided not to push back-- if it was this important to him, then I could put the tree up a few weeks earlier than normal. He was SO EXCITED. He orchestrated the entire evening-- he picked out new ornaments, he chose dinner (Papa Johns Pizza), he invited the family over--- my little guy had already made up his mind and there was no stopping him!
I have always LOVED Christmas, so I am thrilled that he has inherited this appreciation for the season. Getting ready for bed tonight, he reminded me that we need to get book presents for him to win playing "hide the pickle ornament" and he wants to make Christmas cookies with me for my Mobile Meals route folks... he is really in the Spirit! I love this little guy so much-- he can make you totally decorate the house a month early--while you are still snacking on Halloween candy-- and actually feel good about it!

I was tagged...

Robyn (aka Where's Jelly?) tagged me to post a question and tag 3 people. Robyn's question was where I would like to travel. Her question was great since that is something I have really been thinking about lately!
My question...Which magazines do you subscribe to?

When I was getting the recycling together yesterday, I realized I have a slight magazine addiction: Reader's Digest, Taste of Home, Simple and Delicious, Parents, Working Mother, Entertainment Weekly, Family Circle, The Week, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, Creating Keepsakes, Scrapbooks Etc, Ranger Rick,...Okay- that last one is Spencer's so it shouldn't count against me!

..and I tag...Lesle, Kim and Leslie F!

Halloween 2007!

We had perfect Halloween weather this year! Warm enough to just wear a costume without jackets but a cool evening to feel like fall. Fall Festival at the church was fantastic-- Games, Hot Dog Supper, Cake Walk, Costume Contest, Hay Ride and Trunk or Treat. Spencer and IV rode the Hay ride three times this year!

Spencer and IV also had a Halloween party at their after school care. Spencer dressed as Dale Jr and IV as Jeff Gordon. For Fall Festival, Spencer switched into his Optimus Prime Costume--but he hated the mask. I tried to warn him....

Spencer received LOTS of goodies, of course!

Up for the Big Stinking Challenge!

Well the Jax girls came through... Check out their perfect Spam-o-lantern! I dared them, and they braved the slime and the smell. Do they know how to party or what?
Three big redneck cheers for Val, Jen and Christine! haha!

End of Fall Soccer

Tonight was our last game for fall soccer league. It wasn't the boys' best game, but we were still very proud of them. We finally had both of them well at the same time, and they just couldn't get a break. IV is a scrappy little player and spends as much time rolling around the field as he does running-- he is fun to watch. Spencer is all business-- he is serious and gets flustered when he makes a mistake. He accidently punted the ball into the face of his own teammate tonight and it really embarrassed him--poor kid!
The cutest thing happened on the sideline after the game. The guy from the YMCA wasn't there to give the team awards and I told the kids that they will have to get their awards later. One little boy piped up and pointed to his leg (clearly misunderstanding me) and volunteered, "I already got my warts taken off at the doctor's office last week!!" I was going to explain AWARDS not WARTS, but I was laughing too hard!
We took the boys for pizza after the game to celebrate their fine season and to congratulate them for being great team players. They want to play indoor soccer over the winter and then regular soccer will pick back up this Spring.

Spooky Decor!

Spencer made a Halloween wall hanging-- check out his stormy night and skeleton. I know it is supposed to be ULTRA SPOOKY-- but it cracked me up! He is so funny!

Pumpkin Carving 2007

Tonight was our annual Pumpkin Craving party! This is the first year Spencer wanted to CARVE a pumpkin-- he is usually content with stickers, paint, etc. This year--he was set on a cat...gee big surprise! I helped him top his pumpkin and Jimmy helped him gut it. Spencer pricked the template into the pumpkin skin all on his own and we carved it together. I was impressed with how well he did!
Jimmy made chicken fajitas and Melissa made her Witches brew and we all had a wonderful dinner together! Our pumpkins looked great lit up on the porch!

Another First

Spencer and IV played their first board game alone together. It was so cute. They set up the SpongeBob Life board. Spencer helped IV with reading the cards, counting the money and they were being so sweet taking turns and enjoying the game. About 5 minutes after I took this picture...all hell broke loose. They started accusing each other of cheating and whining to me. They got about 3/4 through the game--I guess that is a record!

Psst-- hey Jax girls....

I triple dog dare you to try this!

Walking WIth Dinosaurs

We went to see Walking with Dinosaurs...and it was awesome! It was very "discovery channel"-ish and taught you all about the dinos with H-U-G-E animal-tronic dinos that acted out everything as they taught you. It was so cool! The dinos hatched, ate, walked, fought, even pooped on stage! We bought tickets mainly for Spencer and IV, but ALL OF US enjoyed the entire show!!! Nana and Boppa bought Spencer and IV T-shirts-- Spencer's shirt has a big Dinosaur eye on the front staring right at you. He loves it! Spencer also got a show program and a stuffed torosaurus. The program had color copies of the story and some of the dialogue/history. Spencer used his seat light and looked at the program all the way home!

Spencer Checked up on Nana

Mom has been hacking ever since we got home from Seabrook-- the humidity was killer. Well she finally called the doctor today and said, enough is enough--and sure enough-- it is pneumonia. Respiratory infections are rampant around here-- if you follow my blog, both Spencer and IV have been sick lately. IV is finally better and now Nana is sick. When Spencer came home from school today, I told him Nana has pneumonia but they are not keeping her at the hospital, she will have yucky medicines and will come home and rest for a few days-- it was NOTHING I could do to stop him from going to her. Since she wasn't feverish/not contagious, I let him go to her house. He HAD to see her. We had dinner with her and poor Nana could barely eat because Spencer was loving all over her the entire time. But she never complained, of course :-)

The Office

I am still laughing over last week's episode. I LOVE this show! I was talking about it with some friends tonight and we knew more quotes from the past two episodes.... It's going to be a fun season!

Spencer rocks!

Spencer had the most awesome soccer game of his life tonight! Of course, none of Mommy's pictures turned out (it was really hazy here tonight and I was doing more cheering than photography!) but let me tell you- Little man was on fire. He played two quarters at goalie-- total shut-out. He had diving saves, fast stops, deep punts and quick reflexes that made his coach (Auntie) scream with joy! At one point,(Spencer's big diving double roll stop) Melissa even did a goofy little on field dance! She was SO proud of him! Spencer ended up with a scraped up knee, but it didn't bother him once the other kids started saying-- "Wow! Cool save! You're even Bleeding!"
He sat out 3rd quarter to rest up, then played sweeper 4th quarter. His offense was as aggressive and sharp as his defense. He was fast, tonight!
After the game he was congratulated by many parents, teammates, even some of the parents from the opposing team and the team official. Auntie was so proud, that she is going to buy him special goalie gloves for the next game. I took him for his favorite pizza and we talked about the game for the next hour or so! He was proud of himself and it was so cute to hear his half-embarrassed/half-proud retelling of his game!

The only bad part about the evening was missing little IV. He is home in bed with walking pneumonia. Poor little guy is really sick!

Ending the Summer

We had our last pool party today and celebrated October birthdays for Jimmy, Brenda M, Laura and Will. The pool water was 85 degrees and we had a beautiful day! Everyone came over around 2 and we munched on the appetizers (we had enough for a small army!) all afternoon and hung out by the pool. We fired up the grill later on this evening and had burgers, dogs and brats.

The birthday folks all got nice gifts. Laura was loaded down in Bratz dolls; Will got trains, trucks and toys; Jimmy received lots of iTunes gift cards and Brenda M got mostly craft supplies! The birthday cake had INTENSE blue icing and the rest of the evening was devoted to stupid smurf jokes since everyone's lips, tongues, teeth and fingers were stained blue!

We always have a huge crowd over and today was no different. But don't worry, just because we are closing the pool for the season, doesn't mean we are ending the parties! The kids have too much fun, and all of us really enjoy the relaxation of just sitting around and chatting. Besides, the holidays are right around the corner....

Starring Spencer and IV

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!
Check out the little Hula-gans!

Dixie Classic Fair 2007

My brother has the camera so it might be a bit before I can get pictures from tonight on the blog, but we all went to the FAIR tonight! We had a blast! We got there early enough so the boys got the "all you can ride" arm bands and they sure got their $$ worth! They were tall enough this year to ride many of the "big boy" rides and they smiled from ear to ear as the slid, soared, twirled, spun, zoomed, raced, bumped, dropped etc. through the park! Once they got a taste of the big rides, there was no going back to the "kiddie" side of the fair! Their favorite ride this year was the Drop Zone--where they are launched straight up and then dropped down quickly. They couldn't wait to race back to get in line and ride it again! I was a little worried it would be too scary but I guess not....

Fair food is as much a tradition as going to the fair itself. Roasted corn, Funnel cakes, fried snickers bar, candy apples, fresh squeezed lemonades, etc. At any given time *one* of us was standing in line at a food vendor (usually my Dad)...

One of the highlights from tonight was watching Spencer on the Bungee Jumper. It is $7 for 3 minutes and he has always enjoyed doing it every year at the Fair. This year, he was AMAZING. He was getting EXTREME air and cutting flips like a pro. When we walked up, no one was in line. The timer went off on Spencer's jump and the guy let Spencer jump for free for another round because he had drawn such a crowd to watch his antics. Watching a small six year old springing so high in the air and cutting flips frontwards and backwards in succession was pretty cool! After Spencer finished--a pretty good sized crowd had gathered to watch-clapped for him and there was a line about 20 people long to jump! He was great for business! One lady asked me if he was enrolled in gymnastics--hahah! Nope--just a goofball with $7 at a Fair!

My favorite part of the evening was at the petting zoo. Of course all the animals are tagged. Spencer surveys the lot of pygmy goats and asks, "Mommy, Are they for sale?" I tell him no. Then he innocently asks, "Well then why do they all have price tags on their ears?"

As their bed time approached, we left the fair. We knew the boys would fall asleep on the drive home so we were prepared to let them ride home in pajamas and fall on to sleep. What we weren't prepared for was IV's exiting swansong.. a three minute vomit in the middle of the fair walkway. He always vomits when he is tired. As soon as we crawled in the van, IV fell asleep. Spencer defiantly refused to fall asleep until we stopped and got him a happy meal. He was STARVED. (Did I mention I am still pumping him full of steroids???) He ate his little burger and fell on to sleep.. and I know he is dreaming about all the rides because he was just giggling in his sleep!

Update on Norm

My Norm was very sick this past April, then he got better. Then he got sick again in July and now he is finally putting some weight back on and seems better. I just thought I would post a picture and give a BIG THANKS to my vet friend Brenda in Montana for all the FREE advice for my fur baby! At least I know the right things to discuss with my vet and what is normal and what isn't for a psychotic 15.5 year old kitty! He is still old and frail, but at least I feel like I am doing the right things!

What a difference another day makes!

Spencer is on the mend! Being a mean Mommy this past week and keeping him on bed rest has paid off. He was able to play a little soccer today (goal keeper--no running!) and a little baseball today! He was moved up to the 7-8 year old baseball league and did very well- I was so proud of him!

Soccer was a planned activity but the baseball game was unexpected-- we were talking with the YMCA about possibly moving IV and Spencer to the next league and the next thing I know, they hand us a Braves hat and shirt and put him out on the field! He was sick all week and I was afraid he would be weak, but he played like a champ!

I was really feeling good about my decision to play him up until I saw how much bigger the other kids are, and then I saw how rough they were horse playing in the dugout, and then...gasp... one of the almost nine year olds had the mouth of a sailor with tourettes!! Am I ready for my little guy to be exposed to these ball-playing hoodlums? hahah! I guess I will plant my foldy chair near the dugout, wield a cattle prod and run interference for the rest of the season :-)

Being sick has ups and downs...

Spencer is still battling the infections. He is sick enough to have very limited activity but well enough to enjoy the extra treats and attention. Boppa surprised him with flowers and a stuffed doggy. Mommy bought him a Transformer and a little cell phone toy that makes the most annoying sound ever (what was Mommy thinking????)

Then I turned into BAD MOMMY because I wouldn't let him play baseball tonight. It was worse because I made him dress-out and show up for the team picture and then when his team took the field, he had to take his little asthmatic self to the bleachers. I wouldn't even let him sit in the dugout with the dust. I am officially the meanest Mom ever.

When we got home, I put together his new Richard Petty Radio Controlled Car (another Get Well perk....) and when you turn the car on it automatically goes in reverse. You have to press and steer to drive forward. Because it started going in reverse, my super logical son boomed, "Mommy! You put the batteries in backwards!" Nice, huh?