For the stylish baby girl

Oh my goodness, check THIS out! How funny and adorable!

Cucumbers, get your cucumbers!!!

If you are lucky enough to live on Fawn Ct./Whitetail Circle, these little entrepreneurs might have made a visit to your house. Last year Parker and Nash sold cucumbers door-to-door and they have been waiting all summer for the cucumbers to be ready to sell again. This year, they expanded their inventory to include green beans and pumpkin blossoms. My dad took them around the block and they made a total of $21.00. Pretty good, if you ask me! They split it 3 ways. Nash plans on buying a beach house, Jack wants a new Little People boat (he has a little tugboat, he wants a yacht) and Parker is undecided but leaning towards Legos (he has his eye on a set that is $120.00) Clearly, they need to sell a whole lot more cucumbers! The tomatoes are almost ready and they think those will be big sellers.


This is the kind of thing that happens around here all the time that just keeps me cracking up. Jack is a hoot lately. He puts the rubber gloves on and says he's a monkey. So true, so true. And yes, he is wearing a pull-up (actually it's a Dollar General nighttime pull-up which looks very much like an adult diaper) because I cannot keep him dry overnight. Even when I don't let him have a drink after 7:00. Even when I make him go potty right before he goes to bed. I just end up washing sheets, comforters and pillows. Sooooo, a pull-up is just plain logical. Speaking of Jack, he has just been so good lately. This is a very good thing because Parker has been pretty bad. I think he's bored which is manifesting itself in ridiculous, horrible behavior and a very sassy mouth.

Yesterday we took a little trip to Springfield to visit the party store for Parker's birthday party. They have a great costume section and I wanted to get him an Indiana Jones hat. Unfortunately, I couldn't look at the costume section because both Parker and Jack got completely freaked out at the scary masks. I don't get it. It's broad daylight and I'm right there with them. Parker had such a tight grip on my arm that it actually hurt. This brought back memories of a trip to the Ozarks that we made when I was about 10 and we went to Meramac Caverns. It is this big cave where they do tours. Tracy and I both HATED it and cried and clung to our parents during the whole tour. I remember my parents talking about how hard we were squeezing their hand/arm. In our defense, that was a cave which might as well be the gateway to hell as far as I'm concerned and Parker and Jack were in a well-lit mini-mall store. Very different. Anyway, we also went to a brand-spanking new Walmart. (This was not the plan, but we needed to go to Walmart and it might as well be a new fancy one, right?) It is so pretty from the outside. They even have these 2 large sets of columns standing in a slight curve with quotes from Abraham Lincoln. Both of which are favorites of mine, "Most people are about as happy as they want to be." And, "I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." When we were walking in, I overheard this woman telling her husband, "It doesn't matter what they do, all Walmarts are still the same." At the time, I thought she was being really catty. I mean, it's Walmart after all, what exactly were you expecting? Well, when we left, I think I knew exactly what she meant. They must have had 40 lanes, and only 3 of them were open and 2 of those were self-service (which is a whole other blog entry). It doesn't matter how lovely your store is from the outside or even the inside if you have to wait 20 minutes to pay for your purchases. I hate that.

On a happy note, it was weigh in Wednesday and I lost another 1.6 which brings me to a total of 31.6 lbs. 10 more to go to my goal. Well, as I've said before my goal is negotiable. At least 5 more to go though. Whoo-hoo!!

Reunion Countdown......5 days

I took this picture of myself with the boys to e-mail to a friend who will not be able to make it to the reunion this weekend. I have very, very few photos of myself with my kids. I suppose most photo-taking mothers have the problem!

This picture just cracks me up because this is pretty much what is it is like when we visit Tracy. All the kids vying for Mamaw's attention. I think she wouldn't have it any other way!


I am so excited about the reunion this weekend!!! I'm just really looking forward to seeing people that I haven't seen in a long time. I know not everyone gets into reunions but I LOVED high school and one evening of reliving those simple, shiny moments sounds great to me. I always get a laugh out of the fact that while you are in high school, everything seems so important and dramatic. However, after high school (and college) you realize just how simple school really is compared to real life.

lazy blogger alert

Pictures from the 4th of July. Jack was so determined to include that silly snake!




-We just got back from St.Louis after a 4 day stay. Love it there but it's good to be home. We accomplished our mission--school shoes for both boys and a backpack for Parker. As well as highlights for me (my hair stylist is on bed rest so I went to Tracy's)
- Stella is very entertaining. Jacob is as sweet as can be unless you put him in a stroller at the mall.
- Jack manages to find trouble no matter where he is.
- I finally managed to officially get to my 30 pound weight loss. I have 6 more pounds to my reunion goal and 11 more to my "real" goal. I'm not going to make the reunion goal but I'm o.k. with that because I'm pretty close.
- I should go do some laundry.

Love this!

Watch this video all the way through. If you don't end up with a huge grin on your face, you are made of stone. :-) A perfect of example of the fact that people are just people no matter where they are in the world. Love it!
COOL VIDEO

Random Thoughts

- We went to a very fun wedding yesterday. I wore my "reunion" dress and LOVED it and got lots of compliments. My shoes killed my feet by the end of the evening (1:00 a.m.) but I felt good about how I looked. Why am I telling you this? Because I wasn't feeling at all good about how I looked 4 months ago.
- I didn't drink last night because I will not drink my WW points. And I still managed to have tons of fun. No surprise to me!
- I made a mental note last night to always wear age-appropriate attire and don't wear a short, flowy dress if you don't want everyone to see your undies. If you don't mind everyone seeing your undies, definitely wear a short, flowy dress.
- We seem to know quite a few extremely wealthy people and I have noticed that they are always less "showy" than the moderately wealthy people I know. Why is that? Maybe the truly rich just don't have anything to prove so they aren't trying to make sure everyone knows they have money? Maybe they are so nice to us because they feel sorry for us? Hmmmmmmmmm...........???????????????
- If we have any more of these huge torential downpours of 3 inches of rain in an hour, I am just going to buy a houseboat. This is nuts. Even in a light rain, my garage get's wet. You can just imagine what happens when it pours.
- Connor Company (Travis' work) is moving it's office/warehouse out of the ghetto to a brand new building. Thank goodness. It scared me that he was working in that neck of the woods.
- What is your opinion about year-round school? Of course, it isn't called "year-round", it's called a "balanced" school year. Basically the school year starts at the beginning of August, there is a 2 week "intercession" in October, a 3 week break at Christmas and then another 2 week spring "intercession" and the school year ends at the end of May or the first week of June. I'm not sure where I stand on this yet.
- I did not make my 30 pound goal at WW last week. In fact, I gained .4 lbs. This has me concerned because I followed my usual routine and did not overindulge. However, I did eat dinner after 7:00 p.m. every night for four straight days. That is not good for weight loss. I have had to kick it up a notch this week so I can get back where I should be. I know that that tiny gain doesn't sound like much, but I am in the home stretch and I cannnot afford any gain at all. The reunion is just a few weeks away!
- I put myself through hell today and went to Walmart on a weekend. Under normal conditions, this is something I would never do, but that's just how it worked out. It was waaaaay to crowded for my taste and it took me twice as long as it normally would have to get done. Fortunately, the boys stayed home with Travis, so that was a small blessing at least.

Just saying...

- Where is the summer going!? I can't believe it is July already. I feel like we really wasted our June. We didn't do anything really summery and fun. However, today I suggested going to the Aquatic Center in Shelbyville and got shot down by Parker. What kind of kid doesn't want to go to the pool?????
- I started working on Parker's birthday party today and I am sooo excited about it. I love planning parties for my kids. ESPECIALLY how to get the most bang for my buck!
- I have a sparkly new shirt and both the boys call me Hannah Montana when I wear it. Poor Miley Cyrus. She would be crushed to know that there are 2 little boys out there that think that their 38 year old mom looks like her. And yes, I'm more than a little concerned that I have a shirt that a 15 year old tv star would wear.
- My friends and I were planning a 40th birthday celebration "girl getaway" but we decided that 38 is a pretty good reason to celebrate too so we will be getting away this fall. I love you guys and I can't wait to see you in ONE month at our reunion.
-REUNION IN ONE MONTH!!! I do not believe that it is possible to meet my weight goal, but I am pretty close which is good. It's a heckuva lot better than where I was 14 weeks ago!
-I have a fabulous dress and an appointment to get my hair highlighted but I still need some shoes. Gotta sell some more crafties though before I can buy them.
-I wish I had some before and after photos of my weight loss journey, but I avoided the camera like crazy before so I haven't been able to find any. Darn.
-I know I talk about weight a lot these days but that's because it has become a big deal for me. I didn't know how bad I felt until I started feeling so good. I mean physically and mentally.
- Now that I have taken some control over my weight, my house is next on my list. I'm sick of the clutter and disorganization. I'm sure Travis is too.
- I got on the scale this morning and then I did the happy dance. I have unofficially lost 30 pounds. I hope to make that official next week at WW. Between 5 and 11 to go!!! I think I can, I think I can........
-I should mention that Parker's golf lesson was canceled this morning so we went to Cracker Barrel instead. I didn't do too bad, but I'm sure I'm going to have to work out extra later!
-HAVE A HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!