Closing up May 2009

It's hard to believe May is already over. It was definitely a full weekend of fun.
Friday night was the boys' baseball team party at the local summer league park, then a gang of us went out for dinner. Saturday night, the same gang of us went for dinner....and then bowling. Yes bowling. If you haven't been bowling in a while, trust me; it is NOTHING like Wii bowling. Between all of us, we have 7 boys -- no daughters. And after seeing the parade of hoochies filing into the bowling alley as we were leaving, we decided we are all glad we do NOT have daughters!
Check out the picture in the top right corner--IV is the only person I know that can get a gutter ball WITH the bumpers up!


Sunday night, we had the little league year end party at the Batting Center. The kids had a GREAT time and Spencer decided that this is where he wants his birthday party this year. We had pizza, snacks, cake, ice cream, cookies, sodas and unlimited tokens to the pitching machines. Mid way through the party some of the parents gave it a whirl, too. I hadn't held a bat in who knows how many years, but after the first four pitches it was addictive. We spent the rest of the evening standing in line with the kids! Between the bowling and the approximately 120 swings in the cage--I have a blister on my thumb- but had a fantastic weekend with my kiddo.


Check out the trophies the kids received. They got the normal generic trophies from the YMCA plus the coaches got each kid a big trophy, engraved with name, team record, etc. The trophy holds a baseball--which the coaches had each teammate autograph the balls. The head coach and his wife also gave color prints of a team picture and action shots they had taken throughout the season. This was by far the best group of coaches and parents we have met!

Mom's ACTUAL Birthday

Mom, Dee, Brenda M. and I went out for dinner and a movie tonight to celebrate her birthday. Dinner and drinks at Phoenix Asian (Plum Wine...MMM!) and then we saw Angels and Demons. Notice, one of her gifts from me says, "To Mom and Cass From Cass." I gave her 2 season tickets to the local theater. But she has to take me :-)

A&D was one of my favorite books. In the book, it would take 20 pages to break down a cryptic clue, but in the movie, Tom Hanks would say, "The Angel is pointing thatta way!" and Tada!....oh well. It was still pretty good.
One thing is for sure. The pontiffs have nothing on the baddest of the pimp daddies. Seriously, who else gets buried in kicking, red boots?

Happy Birthday Nana

We went out to eat with Nana tonight to celebrate her birthday a day early since the guys are going camping tomorrow. Nana looks good for 79 doesn't she? :giggle:

Cherry Pickers

The cherry tree is ripe. It's us against the birds--and with the help of some Guantánamo Bay strength netting, the birds lost this year. Spencer and I had our fill this afternoon of ripe cherries....bring on the tummy aches...it was TOTALLY worth it!

Muck Night

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Tonight was the Children's Spring performance at church. Spencer and IV had a great time performing their "Imagine God" songs/skits. I have worked as the craft teacher with the kids over the past few months so their butterflies, rocks animals and stoles were on display tonight, too. Very cute!

After the performance, the youth group hosted a "muck night" cast party for the children. Raw egg tosses, chocolate balloon throws, jell-o shoe races, bobbing for gummy worms in whipped cream, wading through muck and picking up grapes with their toes....it was quite an evening. They LITERALLY hosed the kids down at the end of the evening. Spencer and IV both said this was their favorite night EVER at church!

Slugger

Big props to Little IV-- he hit his first home run today! (Last game of the season and the last scoring run to end with a win!) Way to go!

Rock & Roll

Girls Night Out tonight-- MAC counter for makeup, SOMA for a panty raid, then Mexican for Margaritas before a few hours of laughs at Jennifer's house. Laura brought chocolate covered strawberries, Jennifer brought the Bud Light Lime and Jennie brought back the phrase "Rock and Roll"--once hip for parties in the 80's and can now be dropped in the presence of dignitaries...and quite possibly worked into her upcoming wedding vows.
We laughed until our sides hurt...and Jennie snorted. Perfect hoochie evening!

C.A.R.E.

Today was Spencer's C.A.R.E graduation. CARE is a program the local police department (through United Way) does for all second graders-- I'm not sure how long the program lasts, maybe a few weeks?-- but it is Child Abuse Reduction Effort. It teaches children when to report abuse, inappropriate activity, identify trusted adults in their life and how to get help if needed.
This is the kind of thing that I thought really wasn't that "big" of a deal, but Spencer talked NON-STOP about this special day, sprang out of bed this morning, practiced his special songs all morning and after the program I know he asked me at least 15 times if I was proud of him.
Being that he REALLY felt this graduation was an accomplishment, I played it up and promised a Pokemon celebration and he gets to choose dinner out!
The program is awesome, the police department goes over and beyond to work with the kids and establish trust and I have nothing but kudos for the learning solution ....but that damn mascot is just lame. I guess budget cuts had to hit somewhere??

Happy Mother's Day 2009

Happy Mother's Day! Spencer woke me up with presents and a rose. He was so cute-all excited about the gifts he had made for me! After he got ready, I loaded up a grocery bag with his presents and he ran over to Nana's house with gifts for her, Aunt Ann and JJ!
Later this evening, we had a big family cookout. The rest of the day was spent lounging around and trying to get rid of this nasty cold I woke up with!

And the crowd goes wild.....

This weekend was Spencer and IV's first ever Hip Hop recital.
Oh. My. Goodness!
They were beyond adorable. The crowd went crazy when the all boys hip hop group took the stage! In a recital of girls in pink tutu's, a stage of tough little boys in street clothes breaking it down to old school *NSYNC was a surprise to the audience-- and they cheered loudly!!


They put the boys in all three shows. We had a Friday night show, a Saturday matinee and then a Saturday night show. By Saturday night, the boys were free-styling like pros and definitely put on a show.



Typical IV...during his free-style, he lost his shoe. The crowd roared in laughter. I almost missed Spencer's free-style because I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face. Poor IV stopped mid spin--the look on his face was priceless--then he plops down and puts his shoe back on!! The entire auditorium was cracking up!


I think we laughed the entire day. The little kids are a hoot. There is always the one little ballerina that cries the entire time--I have no idea why that cracks me up but it does. And if they are holding a tissue on stage to mop their tears, I will bust a gut. I swear. During a little hula routine tonight, one little girl had total stage fright and was just standing there staring off. The little girl next to her danced over and stuck her finger in the other girl's belly button and then laughed like a hyena, then went back to dancing. I about peed my pants. Oh and don't even talk about when one of the grown ups falls down on stage-- I get in big trouble for laughing. (mom) I have to text my smartass comments to my brother/friends during the show because I am laughing/crying too hard.

Okay, back to the serious stuff. Spencer and IV received trophies- which they thought was AWESOME. It seems like half the school was up there. Everyone was giving me and Laura a hard time about not being in the recital...uhmmm, yeah, remember all the laughing and texting??? that was us! And that's why we didn't want to be in the recital!
Spencer and IV adore their teacher Ms. Bethany. They love that she was on So You Think You Can Dance--that makes her cool. I think putting up with the all boys hip hop class while pregnant makes her cool. Oh and she also teaches the class that Laura and I take-- but we are perfect angels!
Originally, we signed the boys up for this hip hop class because we thought it would be fun, good exercise and something different for them. We had no idea they would actually be good at it! Well, assuming their shoes stay on....

Very Punny

I get it now.
All the Star Wars emails and "specials" and hoopla today....I didn't "get it" until just now. (Thanks to Tina Fey)
May the 4th be with you.

Totally Boss!

Yep-- camera phone concert pics suck...but these are all I have from tonight's Bruce Springsteen concert.
First of all, The Boss is fine as hell. I'd like to see him nekkid. Yeah, I know he is old enough to be my dad....but still... that man has it going on.
Second, his voice is still amazing. Other concerts I have been to lately (like Motley Crue) sounded like crap because they have aged hard, but not Bruce.
Third, his set is simple. No pyrotechnics. No stage design. No background screens-- nothing but the band. The most elaborate thing on the stage is the fancy chair for Clarence to sit in. That dude was standing up on sheer will, vicodin and maybe some weed. He could barely shake the tambourine. He had a surrogate sax player for 90% of the time. But the crowd still loves him!
Lastly, this was probably one of the better concerts I have ever attended. And not *just* because the tickets were free, we were in the luxury box, and the parking was free.... But because the crowd was fun, no one was rude or gross, the crowds were laughing and not shoving--everyone was having a blast. It was probably the most civil event I have ever attended at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Oh and that is me and Dee in the picture collage. I guess we should have asked someone else to take our picture, or tried earlier in the evening or whatever-- but we decided this was the BEST picture EVER of us-- so we kept it.

Kickin it!

Tonight was our final soccer game for the Spring--we won 3-0. Spencer and IV both scored goals!
After the game, we had snacks (including my ugly yet yummy butter cupcakes) and Melissa gave out their little trophies. What a great bunch of kids!
Afterwards, we went for dinner and then stopped by Wal-mart for Pokemon cards and then Gamestop -- the boys had gift cards burning holes in their pockets!
Spencer declared that this was the most awesome day ever....but he says that often. That kid is doing alright I guess.

Trumped!

My mom had a big note on her wall calender that said, "GET COOLERS!!!"
Thinking I was *so* funny, I changed the "l" to a "t" to make it read "GET COOTERS!!!"
It took her a couple days to even notice it--but when she finally did, did she change it? Oh no. She just added "for Cassandra" at the bottom of the note. Damn that woman!

Another First for Spencer...

First broken bone!

Spencer had quite a soccer game this morning. He came crashing down chasing down the ball. He immediately started shaking out his hand but jumped up and kept running. Between quarters, it looked like he may have jammed his finger, but he kept on playing--and scored two goals to tie the game. By the end of the game, he was hurting, nauseous, swollen, and the finger was starting to turn purple. Off to the pediatrician....who sent us to the ER for X-rays...who said, "Yep. It's broken."
SO...he missed his baseball game this afternoon--and we spent all afternoon at the hospital. Fun. Fun.
Luckily, it is a clean break at the bottom of the finger and should heal in about four weeks. He will have a little splint until the swelling goes down and then will have it buddy-taped for a month. The splint has a nice, little gel cold pack insert to help with the swelling.
The problem is his hand will be immobile for a while-- no baseball, no freestyle at hip hop class, no goalie at soccer, limited PE at school...and get this: even though he is right handed, he WIPES with his left hand. WHAT??? Seriously. Who does that? Poor kid is going to have to learn some new ambidextrous talents!

Loo Loo Crew

Some of my scrapbooking friends came in for the weekend. We cropped, made cards, worked on jewelry, etc. We went to IV & Spencer's soccer game on Saturday morning. They were playing against my friend Laura's oldest daughter's team so I got to see several friends all weekend! Although the weather was absolutely beautiful, by Saturday afternoon, all of us were snotting, sniffing, coughing, etc. from the surge of spring allergies. I didn't include the picture of me sneezing in the collage to emphasize the allergies, but to show the bruises on my arm from last Sunday's full-contact egg hunt--haha!
Tonight, we closed out the weekend with dinner at LongHorn. Spencer and I shared the Surf and Turf. And by "shared" I mean I was lucky to get two bites of the lobster tail. Why can't he order Chicken Fingers off the kids menu like a normal 8 year old? I tell ya, when when go on the Alaskan cruise this summer, that kid is going to get his $$ worth at dinner....

Warped

IV spent the night with Spencer on Sunday night. Even though I had told them fifteen times to go to sleep, they were still lying in my bed giggling loudly. I stomped back to the bedroom fully expecting to find them farting and holding each others' heads under the blankets and to my surprise...they were laughing hysterically at The Far Side cartoons! It was even more amusing when they would explain to each other why the jokes were so funny... "Get it IV? The deer has a birthmark that looks like a bullseye. BWAAAHAHAHAHA"
It was a proud moment.

Team Alderin: Eggs-tremely fun

Happy Easter friends!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. Spencer and I spent Friday night goofing off in Chapel Hill, shopping and having fun. Saturday, we dyed eggs and had dinner and movies with the family.

Sunday, the Easter Bunny accidentally left a lame Easter Basket. Spencer was mildly disappointed that the Easter Bunny did not realize that he already had the Thomas the Tank Engine cars and the dinosaur toys that were left. The gift card to GameStop and the new bird house were hits at least. The Easter Bunny needs to pay attention....

After church, we went to Mom and Dad's for our traditional Easter Egg hunt. We are the only family who has a full contact egg hunt. The smack talk, the bashing, the tripping, the shoving, the tackling, the egg tossing, the full hip checking into the bushes....it's not for the weak or the meek. An it's not about the $$$--it's all about the bragging rights.

Spencer had on his "lucky" boxers and made a special T-shirt with Team Alderin on the front and Team Wright as the losers on the back.

For as long as the tradition has been around, Team Alderin has NEVER lost....until this year. It's Obama's fault. All this "Change" has trickled down to our egg hunt.

Mom and Dad hid 77 eggs in their front yard.

I found 20 eggs ($21.00 and 2 lotto tickets)
Spencer found 16 eggs ($23.00 and 1 lotto ticket)
Jimmy found 17 eggs ($23.00 and 5 lotto tickets)
Melissa found 15 eggs ($31.00--good thing she found that $20.00 bonus, huh?-- and 7 lotto tickets)
IV found 9 eggs ($21.00)

Team Alderin found a combined 36 eggs and Team Wright found 41 eggs-- not too bad for two vs. three, right?
Well, not really. We found less money. Even though I found more eggs, I found less money!Not counting Lotto tickets, Alderin got $44 and Wright got $75. But notice in the pictures, Mom still hides the giant "special" eggs for Melissa since she is "egg challenged." Since the heifer actually won this year, she doesn't get special treatment any more! Even playing field from now on!

The lotto tickets are for Wednesday, April 15. The only solace I could get from losing to my brother would be to hit the lotto on Wednesday. And oh yeah, I would do the "suck it" dance all the way to the lotto office with my Easter egg basket on my head and my Team Alderin shirt updated to read, "Don't call it a comeback....."

But yeah, the likelihood of hitting the lotto is pretty slim. We should just gear up for Team Alderin in 2010!

Champions!!!

What a game! I can barely sit still long enough to update my blog!!
Thanks to all my friends from all over the country texting me during the game and sending my team good "mojo".
Thanks to Kristin for wearing her lucky Nebraska sweatshirt for me.
Thanks to all the cool CONGRATS emails after the game.
Seth Davis can suck it. (normally I like the guy....)
Spencer and I are making plans for a run to Franklin Street for championship T-shirts!
On a side note-- I love that kid. I let him stay up late and watch the first half of the game. He put on his lucky T-shirt. Got out his lucky mascot. Sat beside me on the chair and cheered, high fived, argued calls and was into the game like any other true blue fan. I'm raising that boy right!

Sweet Ride to the Final Four

Friday night was Girls Night Out with the "hoochies"--- we had a blast. Laura was Chief Hoochie since she had "connections" and got us reserved seating. And she was the designated driver this time. Win-Win.

Speaking of my friend Laura, despite being a Duke alum, she made us Carolina Tar Heel white chocolates. Evidently it brought us good luck as we are now headed for the final four! Woot!

While we watched the game tonight over at my brother's house, Spencer and IV played outside with chalk. As we were leaving, they showed me their hopscoth--and I thought, "well, that's kind of retro-cool"....until...they showed me how they drew bombs in the squares and how it would blow off appendages forcing them to hop around on one leg, flailing an arm, faking death.....
Never underestimate the graphic creativity of little boys!

Coonfest 2009

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What can I say about my coonfest weekend without having an "overshare" moment? How about a few observations:
~ I don't care how excited you are about going on vacation, 6 am flights suck. ~ Coonass = Redneck ~ I can't play Guitar Hero ~ I talk too much when I drink ~ I talk too much when I'm sober ~ I don't care if it *is* March Madness, if you are at a bar called Wayne & Layne's--they are NOT going to have on basketball or even ESPN. I bet if there were a frickin Bill Dance fishing special on, every TV in the joint would be tuned in.... ~ When out of shot glasses, coonasses use measuring cups ~ I ate real Cajun food (gumbo and crawfish etouffee) and enjoyed it ~ The Rabbit Festival didn't sell anything rabbit related other than what was on the menu ~ Kristin does NOT need her passport to get to Cancun from Lake Charles ~ Lori was our designated driver and ironically was the only one who ended up with a tattoo ~ It was fun watching the UNC/LSU game while in Louisiana ~ You can judge the quality of a casino by how the cocktail waitresses look ~ and last but not least.......
~Tinkerbell shirts appear to be manufactured in select sizing: Little girls up to about a size 8/10 and then no other Tinkerbell shirts are made again until a Women's 3X. Maybe a 4X. Seriously--if you don't believe me, walk around Wal-Mart, a Golden Corral buffet or a flea market and you will see.....

and then....

okay..so I am a little behind in my blogging. Thanks for the calls and emails asking why I am getting lazy.....

Friday, Dee's sister comp'd us tickets to see the Johnny Winter Band. She is the talent agent for the opening band (and the drummer's girlfriend) so we had great seats. This is a cell phone pic from the concert:

That's not a great picture, right? wait...
*this* is a picture from their website:

yeah--our concert pic is looking better about right now, huh? Despite their "factory haunting" looks and Johnny's decrepit age, they can still jam. We had a pretty good time!

Spencer watched the space shuttle launch via teleconference with Boppa. I watched the previous shuttle launch off the coast of Florida from the cruise ship. This one was a bit less fun sitting in my living room without a fruity drink; however, it was nice to see Spencer get excited.

Snip Snip

This week was a big week for Bowser. He had the little snip-snip done! The vet told me that he was one of the more "energetic" dogs she has seen and he acted like he never even had surgery. I think she meant he was a total spazz and nothing--even losing his boys--phases him.

Happy 7th Birthday IV

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My nephew, IV turned seven today! He celebrated with a special breakfast, a skating party, soccer practice, then a pizza party with the family. We all had a great time--and little IV was diggin' being the center of attention!

Shutter to Shudder......ugh!

For those of you whom I annoy by constantly taking pictures....it's about to get worse. I am in a photo challenge and I need (1) lots of pictures and (2) lots of practice. I will be taking oodles of photos...so go ahead and get the eye rolls and pissy looks out of the way now...
As part of the photo challenge, I was outside this morning (trying for morning light...fail!) and I noticed my little angel statue. This little thing has always sat at the bottom step--a good luck gift to myself years ago. Somehow I remember it to look sweet, angelic and calming....but dude--what the hell happened? Has it always looked that way? That's just a special kind of creepy right there. If a sweet statue decides to "change" into a meth head looking troll, of course it would be mine. ughhh!
Now I can't decide what to do with it! I have been writing Craigslist ads in my head all day for it...haha!

Gimme 5!

Normally people don't get excited about 5 inches....but when you are talking about snow in NC, then yeah, that's kind of a big deal. I'm not sure who enjoyed it the most-- the boys, the puppy or my idiot brother.
I freeze in the warm house so I was NOT interested in playing in the snow. But I did have a warm bubble bath and hot cocoa ready for Spencer when he came in from his brief playtime. (Brief because he is just getting over strep!) I thought he was going to complain about me making him come in from his snowball fights with IV, but he went straight to the warm bath and afterwards slipped into a nice little nap. That kid has it made.

2009 version of a latch key kid

I work from home. Spencer is usually at school, daycare or Nana's while I'm at work--but today we have 5 inches of snow (which is a LOT for NC) plus he is getting over a weekend of bed rest from strep--so he has to be quiet and keep himself occupied while I'm working. Between meetings today, I went to the kitchen to get water and check on him, and there he was: sprawled out in my chair. Eating toaster muffins. Drinking milk out of a wine glass. Thankfully my camera was on the table--I would hate to miss this photo opportunity!

Feeling a little Ashy

Last night was the Ash Wednesday service at church. It was the first Ash Wednesday service Spencer has ever attended. It seems like he is sick every year this time and normally misses it.
Anyway...we were given a small piece of paper to write down one of our sins. Then we could surrender the paper at the foot of the cross, receive the ash cross on our forehead--all symbolic of acknowledgement and forgiveness of sin. I'm not deeply religious--more spiritual, but I thought this would be a good learning experience for Spencer. And besides, who am I kidding? My soul could use a spiritual enema about right now, don't ya think?
I thought the "sin" part might be too deep or troubling for Spencer. But instead of writing one sin on the paper, my poor kid filled up the entire sheet and was flipping it over and starting on the back! Sin #1 was that he kicked Bowser! What??? My kid isn't cruel to animals!!! I was itching for the service to end so that I could talk to him about his list!
At the end of the service, Spencer told me that he felt much better and he liked Ash Wednesday. He said that he is going to be a better kid now that he is forgiven and gets a new start. (okay--so he "gets" it much better than most adults I know, including myself!) I asked him about kicking Bowser and he said that one day Bowser had gotten into the trash and he was trying to hold him back while he tied the bag and accidentally kicked him. Whew! It was an accident--and he KNEW it was wrong--so I feel better now.
Then, the little smart-aleck asked me which sin I wrote down. Before I could even answer him he said, "I bet it was cussing. Especially when you are driving. You probably should work on that."
Ooops.

Berry Good

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Spencer and I made chocolate covered strawberries for everyone for Valentine's Day. As we headed to the door Spencer said, "Mom. Can I keep the money?"
It took me a second but I then realized that the poor kid thought we were going to sell the chocolate covered strawberries. I explained to him that they were GIFTS, but still--- he cracks me up.

I finally treated myself to the ice wine Patti sent. It's so good. Too good. But as you see in the picture, there is less than 1/2 a glass in the ENTIRE bottle. That makes it expensive as hell-- but oh.my.goodness........If I hit the lotto, I am buying it by the case.

Spencer and I made up a new game this weekend. It's called "What will Bowser NOT eat?" The dog is a spazz and eats everything-- shoes, pillows, food, buttons, cat turds, bread wrappers, chewing gum....anything. So we thought-- well, geez, let's see if there is anything (actually considered food) that the dog will not eat. We started off with things we thought for sure he would pass on-- lettuce, tomato, onion, etc. Nope-- he ate them. He exhausted the entire kitchen. The list of things he would NOT eat: dried apricots and black walnuts. So think about it-- this dog will eat ANYTHING except those two things. It makes you kind of wonder if we should eat them!

You know it!

There are just so many captions I want to write for this picture. I actually paused the TV and hit rewind *just* to get this photo. Coach K is screaming his head off, his goons are ignoring him.....you can almost hear me giggle.
Go Tar Heels!

Can you dig it?

The weather was beautiful today! Warm, sunny--no wind. So we did what Spencer and Bowser love to do-- we walked to the turnip patch and let Bowser dig up turnips. Yeah, we know how to party.

Girls Night Out

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For Laura's birthday, we did a girls night out party. We started the evening at the movies- seeing "He's Just Not That Into You." It was pretty good-- but a little heavier on story and lighter on comedy than we expected. But that's ok, we made our own comedy tonight.
Following the movie, we went for dinner and drinks at La Hacienda. We laughed throughout the entire dinner--sometimes a little louder than probably appropriate. Somehow we all flashed back to 21 and the drinks were awesome and the conversation all revolved around good times, hot guys, fun friends and "polishing cones." The restaurant closed at 11:00 (what the hell?) and at 10:59 the waiters were clearing their throats loudly and making "cock-a-doodle-doo" noises. Seriously. Pretending to be a cock seems like a good idea?
We decided that the next girls night out needs to involve live music....and a place that stays open later than 11:00! Laura had just gotten tipsy enough to break out her "back in Italy" stories.....

Super Bowl Sunday

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Following our usual tradition, we celebrated Super Bowl Sunday and Melissa's birthday together. Believe it or not, Spencer and IV were quiet and played in Boppa's room the entire game. I know. We were shocked, too. The rest of us enjoyed fun snacks, a few drinks and since no one had a vested interest in the outcome of the Super Bowl, we enjoyed the game as well.

Guessing Games

Has a kid ever shoved something in your face and gleamed, "I made this for you! Guess what it is!"
Hint! If you get it wrong, it hurts their feelings.
If you have absolutely no idea, go for the funny angle: Uhmmm....monkey vomit? your lower intestines? glittered dog turd? dork detector...beep beep beep!!!
Yeah, Spencer wasn't buying any of that tonight. He actually asked if I needed glasses because I didn't know what his little projects were.
Dude, my eyes are fine. Did he just call me old??
Let's see how well you do: (ignore the world map place mat--that's NOT part of his crafts)

Well??? Did you get them? Need some help?

Left to right:
The blue one is Ramses (The UNC Mascot)
The yellow one is a caterpillar
The feathered one is a flamingo
and the one on the right with the hearts is a love bug......duh!

Girls Gone Mild

This past weekend was another all weekend crop at Mom's house. We cropped from Friday evening until Sunday with plenty of breaks for laughs, dinner and drinks. Oh and crazy pole dancing demos from Jen. (Everyone has at least one hoochie friend, right?) Yes, we all have matching T-shirts for each crop--cause we're goobers that way.
We broke away from the crop Saturday night long enough for the senoritas to have Margaritas at La Hacienda--and then we were back yapping, giggling and scrapbooking until the wee hours....
It was fantastic!

Addicted to the white stuff

We got snow today! North Carolina rarely gets snow so Spencer and IV were in a little bit of winter wonderland.

Yikes!

Check out my little man. I guess I now know why he hasn't felt well all week. He broke out in this horrible rash this morning and within hours it had spread all over his entire body. I took him to the pediatrician and she said it was Fifth Disease(Parvovirus) and just has to run its course with the aid of Advil and Benedryl. He has slept most of the day and in between naps has put together Legos.

Most of you already know, but I am going to post an update for the ones that don't-- Dad is doing fine, but is still in a terrible amount of pain. He fell off the tractor last week (the large International, not the small yard tractor) trying to tuck the muffler so he could get up under the garage or carport or something. It could have been much worse, so he is lucky to only walk away with a broken arm/hand/wrist--he has several breaks and lots of little bone fragments. He has bad swelling right now so they have a soft support brace on it until they can see what will "shift" back into place when the swelling goes down and what will require surgery/pins. The day he fell, he was using the tractor to spread ground asphalt (gravel) along the drive. Once Mom got to him and they were heading to urgent care, my Dad (grimacing in pain) calls my brother and stammers out... "Son, I have fallen....from the tractor....I've broken my arm and hand and maybe a rib..... I ... need...you....to..." (and at this point Jimmy is already out the door and heading to the car because he knows he will be meeting them at the hospital.) But Dad doesn't ask him to meet at the hospital as expected. Dad continues with "....I need...you...to...go... spread that gravel for me." Geez...

But don't worry about Dad, we're taking good care of him, his bandaged arm and his swollen, fat little sausage fingers. Being the loving family we are, Mom is about to amputate the arm for him. If he doesn't stop complaining she might start with his good arm. My brother, the logical one, has offered to bring the pressure washer in the bathroom to create a "redneck bidet." He's helpful like that.

Putting the Eh! in amazing!

Having friends all around the world has many advantages, but when it is a dreary day in NC and a surprise package shows up filled with regional goodness from a friend in another country...wow..that rocks. Patti, you made our day!

I like icewine like a fat man likes a velour sweatsuit.....and Patti sent me a bottle! It is in the fridge chilling right now. I have to decide when I should treat myself....

Patti also sent Spencer a Webkinz, some candy...and oh my goodness, some Ketchup flavored chips that he went ape over. She also sent REAL Canadian Maple syrup, many many many gourmet Canadian candies, a beautiful pin for my collection and lots and lots of craft supplies. Patti-- I just can't say thank you enough! (and I can't wait to see you in the Spring!)

Sweet Tooth

Don't ever tease a puppy with a big, bright lollipop. The puppy will win. And the little boy will lose his lollipop.

Monster Jam (aka the fumes are killing me)

click on collage to enlarge

So... Saturday night was my first time with the boys at a Monster Jam show. We waited in line (while the boys played video games) then we tromped through red clay mud (while the boys ran around getting autographs and pictures with their favorite drivers), then we found our way to our seats (while the boys took us on a detour past the vendors where they got flags and T-shirts) before finally settling down with nachos, roasted nuts, sodas, and Dippin Dots. Have you ever tried Dippin Dots? Being that I'm not a big fan of ice cream (yeah, I know--that's unreal) I had never tried them until last night. Pretty decent!
On the way home, Spencer asked me what my favorite part of Monster Jam was.... now, on the inside I was thinking, probably the Nachos or Dippin Dots since the rest of the evening was devoted to holding my ears, gagging at the fumes or trying REALLY hard not to make judgments about the "whoohooing" batch of rednecks around us....But, I told him when the big truck did a donut and fell over and the wrecker thing had to roll him back over. Spencer grinned and agreed that that was a good part.
Oh,and GraveDigger won if anyone cares.