Misadventures of Crazy Coconut and Fun Weekend Stuff

Yesterday we went to the waterpark. It was a lot of fun. The perfect day. It got up to 100. Even big daddy took a half day to join us so the big kids could go on rides. We were there for 7 hours! Jo Jo discovered how fun it was to hang on the railing by the kiddie pool until he bit the dust and cracked his head on the cement. There wasn't any blood, but you would've thought so by how hard his head bounced. I was with the older boys on rides when it happened so it's totally dad's fault. Not really-I was letting him do it earlier in the day, I was just fortunate enough to not have it happen on my watch. They actually had the nerve to ask me if we could go to the pool today. Thank heavens for my wonderful sister who recently lost her job and so has nothing better to do than save me by taking my brats, I mean kids to the pool.

This is a fun new kid slide in the kiddie pool. When he finally got the courage up, he kept going on it.

Can you see why I married this gorgeous man? He had Jo Jo in his lap and baby had a spoon and was feeding himself daddy's ice cream cone.

Having yummy swirl cones:)

Before...

After...

I seriously need to go get those drawer latches. I'm going to scream if I have to pick up all of the contents of my bathroom drawer or the pencil drawer downstairs again. Sunday he got into the pencil drawer, which also contains stamps and other office type supplies. Well, in the stamp/mail tray I also have a stamp with our address and a black ink pad. Not such a good idea. We were watching tv as a family and wondering why it suddenly got so quiet. Um yeah, he had black ink all over his hands and church clothes. He was a little concerned about the ink on his hands, which of course was nearly impossible to get off. Last week he got in the garage. JP left the door open a crack and he got out without anyone knowing. My sister was here and I had just come downstairs when we heard him crying. I ran upstairs searching and she said it sounded like he was in the garage. When she opened the door I heard her yell, "Oh my gosh!" So I ran downstairs and discovered he was in the garage with the ladder on top of him! Luckily, the open part fell over his head, but it scraped down his back, which I didn't even know until I put his jammies on that night. B commented that we got insurance just in time. It's also really great that he can get up to the computer table and click the mouse and turn the computer off. As a matter of fact, while I was at enrichment tonight, he got up to the computer and quit the edit of this post and lost the pictures I had finally downloaded. It had only taken me like 6 tries to get them to download. They were playing Wii and he was playing in the room with them, when they suddenly realized he was gone and it was quiet. When B turned around he was on the computer typing and clicking away. So helpful. Here's a picture of him climbing on the ledge in the tub. I told you he was a daredevil. You can also see the scrape from the ladder. Please don't call CPS on us; I swear he's just crazy and accident prone.


On Saturday we went shooting in the morning. Yes, don't be shocked, but I like to shoot stuff. Actually, I like to do lots of "boy" stuff. Although, camping isn't necessarily my cup of tea. I wish I had gotten pictures. JP and Bubba had the two BB guns out shooting cans. Peanut got to shoot the little bow at our target. B brought his shotgun and hand gun. He had Bubba pulling the trap shooting thingy and shot at some clay pigeons, which didn't go well at first because he was so out of practice, but eventually he actually hit several of them. Then it was my turn to shoot at cans with the hand gun. And finally I got to shoot the shotgun at clay pigeons. I tried one in the air and then realized that was hopeless so I shot at them while they were leaning on bushes. I actually did awesome if I do say so myself. It was great fun, although the next day I noticed a small bruise on my shoulder/armpit area from where I had been holding the shotgun. After that, we went home to get a few things and then we went to a small mining town about 45 minutes from here. They were having a quick draw gunfighting competition that was supposed to last until 5pm, but they finished early so we missed it:( But they also had a rodeo (which we didn't go to) and a flea market. We walked thru the flea market where Bubba discovered a coin collector. He recently decided to collect money after he saw my huge collection. He found an old one dollar bill, an Australian bill, Australian coin, 2 Philippines coins, and a Russia coin. We also had lunch at our favorite place there called Calamity Jaynes. It's super small and quaint. What you might call a whole in the wall, but they have great burgers. Then we went next door to the ice cream shop. Nothing beats small ice cream shop ice cream. Peanut got a nose bleed twice at the flea market. Both times, someone else told us. Apparently he didn't know he had one. He told me he didn't feel it. It was really hot and dry and unfortunately he and JP both got my affinity to nose bleeds. Overall, a very fun day.

A few cute photos of Peanut's OCD. He was playing this bug game(more like learning cards) the other day and had to do all the blue bugs, so he decided that they should alternate. He would put one's head this way and then the next the other and so on. So I couldn't resist having another picture of his OCD.

Baby No No

Is this not the cutest blue eyed boy you've ever seen in your life?
Things he's started saying this week:
-"Ba ba"=bye bye (while waving)
-"Ow"=out
-"Ine" or "Awn"=drink (not sure how this one fits)

He just discovered today how to climb onto the kitchen chairs to reach the computer or sit on the table. Oh joy, now I can't ever leave him downstairs alone. He's also discovered how fun it is to grab the counter top and lift his feet so he's hanging and swinging. I've said it before and I'll say it again that this boy is going to be the death of me. He also really loves the pool. He likes to chill in his floaty and hang over the side as far as he can to put his face in the water, or lean his head back and relax. When he's not in the floaty he likes to climb in and out onto the top stair and throw anything and everything in for his brothers to fetch.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad I know-my sweet honey! It's so nice to have him back home. The kids go to bed way better for him. Maybe he secretly beats them upstairs without me knowing;) And baby Jo Jo has been attached to him since he got back. Bubba was clinging to him all morning yesterday. We all love dad so much!

Loving, fun, tender, manly, protective, respectful, supportive, hard-working, devilishly handsome, beef jerky, mountain dew, guns, farm boy, fisherman, hunter, camper, very smart, priesthood holder, loser of things, motorcycle riding, steak eating, beautiful man. I know there are many more words to describe this wonderful man, but I'm too tired to think of anymore. But you get the idea:)

The End is in Sight

Yay! My sweet honey comes home tomorrow night. My mom is going to watch the kids so we can do something because we're not sure how long it will be before we can again. He's coming in late, so maybe we'll just get dessert or something. I'm so excited. We've never been apart for this long in our entire 11 yrs. of marriage and it's been killing us. My SIL is my new hero for doing exactly this for so many years. I don't know how she survives.
We went to the pool today. It was finally nice enough and they finally re-opened it after a broken pump. I put sunscreen on twice, but apparently I missed my left arm and the front of my left leg somehow because I am completely fried in those spots. I haven't been this burnt in years. It's so bad I have to keep a cold wash cloth on it. It really helps when Jo Jo thinks he needs to climb all over me while I'm sitting on the couch. I have to keep getting up and playing musical couch. But at least the kids haven't been fighting today. I hope they get into a groove so they aren't "bored" or fighting all summer. I'm plannig on banishing them to the outside to be creative and use their imaginations because kids get bored way too easily nowadays.

Here's a picture of Jo Jo's head from the other day. I know it looks small, but it was an open circle like wound so I was worried, but it scabbed over really well. I guess I overreacted a little.

This Summer Totally Blows So Far!

So Peanut has been on the war path. He's been acting out beating up his brothers, throwing stuff at them, hitting them, and peeing everywhere. I'm not sure if it's because daddy has been out of town for a week, or if because brothers are home and messing up his schedule and mom time. Either way, I'm completely losing my mind. He's peed 6 times since last Fri. Generally, it's twice a day. In the garage, kitchen chair, bathroom floor (twice), playroom, my lap during a parade on Sat. It's so frustrating because whether I yell at him, or just calmly explain it to him, it doesn't work. What do I do? Any suggestions? Yesterday, he threw a plastic nerf gun at his baby brother's head! It cut his head open. It's tiny, but open. I was pretty much freaking out. It looked like it would take one stitch, but the ER seemed a little extreme, not to mention expensive. So I went to the drugstore and got some liquid bandage stuff. The pharmacist didn't think it would work, but I cut his hair around it as much as I could and put it on. It's scabbing over, so I think it will work just fine. Luckily, it's kind of in the hair line. Even if it scars, it's so tiny it will be fine. But I sent him to his room for a long time out, which equals him playing in his room. But then when JP went up to let him out, he had peed on the bathroom floor on 3 of his brothers books. It's sort of their fault for reading in the bathroom and leaving books on the floor, but this time I think it may have been a case of not getting there in time. He did tell me that he was trying to make it, so I think I can believe him.

Over the weekend we were at our town's fun days celebration. It rained, but not so hard that we didn't enjoy it. We went to the parade on Sat. and it's such a fun thing each year. The first part of the parade is dry, and then all bets are off while the people watching squirt the people in the parade and the people in the parade squirt the onlookers. The first "attraction" coming thru was a ginormous dump truck full of water and the men inside were filling and re-filling squirt guns and shooting the crowd. Now they're not your average gun, they're the ones that kind of look like those things that clowns use to blow up balloons. They suck the water up instantly and shoot it out. They shoot FAR!! The military guys come thru in their trucks and there are also several fire engines. This year they also had several people with tanks on the back of trucks with hoses! Of course mom, baby, Peanut and I re-treated before it started. Peanut originally wanted to participate, but when he realized how cold it was, he changed his mind. It didn't phase the parade goers one bit. The older boys stayed out the whole time and when it was over, tried to claim they were telling them to stop, but they're perfectly aware that you have to stand back several hundred yards if you want to stay dry. It's such a fun tradition that we enjoy every year. They also have a carnival (that we usually don't go to since we always go to the state fair). They have food and and vendor booths too. Bubba and JP both used some grade money to buy baseball plaques. Bubba of course got one with Derek Jeter (NY Yankees), and JP got one with a championship photo of all the guys from the Red Sox World Series. Each plaque also had two baseball cards on it. They were very excited. It was a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to my honey's return Friday night!

Scrapbook Anyone?

So to make a little extra money I've decided to start offering my scrapbooking talents to others. I have all the supplies and room to do it. I have 4 family books, 2 for Bubba, 1 for each of the other boys, and I'm working on more family albums. My pricing will be very reasonable. This is for anyone and everyone who tosses their photos in a box. This will give you a fun book to enjoy for years to come. I can make it a generic family book, or do just a vacation book, birthdays, Christmas, etc. I have plenty of sample pages if you're interested.

I'm Paying for My Doctor's Porsche This Week

My mommy got here Thurs. evening. Butch and I got to go to the Anniversary Inn Friday night. We stayed in the Treasure Island room. We decided we'll just stay at regular hotels from now on. It's too expensive and not really that exciting after you've been there a few times. But it was nice. The bed was comfy. We went and saw "Angels and Demons." Not impressed. I read the book several years back, but thought, "Hey I should read it before I see it." Well, I didn't finish it, but really wanted to see it. I couldn't get past the beginning that they totally changed, so I really didn't enjoy the rest that much. Note to self, don't read the book BEFORE seeing the movie. Although, "Twilight" was really close to the book. Anyway, they changed the ending of "Angels and Demons" and several names. They changed the chick's dad to just her partner. They made the camerlengo and chief cardinal NOT Italian like they were in the book. What the crap? At the end in the credits, it says, "Based on the novel by Dan Brown." I told B it should say, "Loosely" before it.

Anywho, then we went to eat at a shi-shi restaurant that B likes,but I had never eaten at where they charge you extra for all the sides and the steaks are like a jillion dollars. I didn't really think it was worth the money, but it was still good. The next morning we went to another movie before heading home. We had our end of season pool party for Bubba's baseball team. It was fun. They got to swim for about 2 hours and then we had a freak major rain storm.

Jo Jo's bum had been really raw for a few days, not like normal diaper rash, so I called the doctor Mon. and got him in. He ended up having rectal strep. Never knew there was such a thing. I don't think I mentioned my visit to Urgent Care last week. I was having stabbing chest pain and couldn't breathe very well. They ran an EKG and did a chest x-ray, but couldn't find anything. They gave me a strep test, which gags you, but also an infulenza A test. If they ever tell you that you need this. Tell them to go to H!@@. They stick to long swab things up your sinus cavity and hold it there for 30 seconds. I was bawling. It felt like they were pulling my brain out thru my nose. Anyway, they said my chest wall was inflamed and that's what the pain was. So she gave me pain killers. They worked really well, and by the next day it wasn't as bad. Fri. they called to tell me the strep test was positive. So I've been on anti-biotics. Anyway, I didn't give it to Jo Jo. The doctor said we all have strep in our system and sometimes it just manifests itself. He's one of the only doctors in town who even knows what it is to diagnose it. So he's on an anti-biotic cream. Poor punkin. So then last night JP was saying his ear hurt really bad. He was almost in tears. I gave him Motrin and called the doctor today. Sure enough, he has the start of an ear infection, so he's going to be on anti-biotics too.

The big boys have also been in a speed camp this week. They are learning proper running skills that we think will benefit them in future baseball seasons. Bubba will also be starting football in August, which will involve a lot of running.

I really miss my hubby this week. He's been getting up at the equivalent of 3 am where we live to get to the bus on time for his training classes that last all day. I have decided that putting the kids to bed really sucks. It's usually his job. The older they get, the more they stall, run around, etc. They're not very good listeners. Oh, we went and saw "Monsters and Aliens" at the cheap theater yesterday. My mom also wants to take us to see "Up." Thanks to her being here to keep me from going insane and leaving my kids. She also did a lot of laundry for me. Thanks mommy!

The Coolest Mom Ever

Okay, so not to toot my own horn, but I'm officially the coolest mom ever. We had a crazy week. Jo Jo finally decided to start walking on his 16 month birthday last Monday night (though he still crawls more than walks). Tues. night was 2 baseball games again. Wed. Bubba got to go to batting class because someone else had cancelled. JP stayed home with me and we played Battleship and built some Sponge Bob legos. Thurs. night were our 2 final games. I went to JP's and ended up with 12mosquito bites! Fri. I was baking a cake for Bubba's birthday party and running misc. errands. I got the frosting made late that night, but decided to hold off putting the cake together since I don't have one of those cake saver thingys. So Sat. morning I was sick and slept in and so felt like I was the energizer bunny getting all the party stuff ready. I had to make the chocolate chip ice cream and frost the cake and get the backyard cleaned and the games ready to go out there. We had to fill a zillion water balloons. I made the kids help clean the downstairs in case anyone needed to use the bathroom to change. Then we had kids showing up and fortunately 2 kids didn't make it because it was hard enough trying to keep JP and the other 8 kids from taking the water balloons out of the bucket before we were ready. They had fun playing lots of water games-sponge tag, water balloon toss, beach ball relay, cold potato, and ring toss. Then we let them throw the rest of the water balloons and Butch almost didn't get over there fast enough to stop them from doing them all at once. The 2 girls only got one balloon each as it was. Then we did presents and cake and ice cream, which we should have done first because at this point they were dumping cups of water on each other at the table. Oh well, note to self. Then they played with the hose for a few more minutes before parents came. After the party, Butch and I both collapsed. We both had body aches like the flu and sore throats when we woke up, so the party just drained us both. He's been doing a little better, but I stayed home yesterday with Bubba who has been coughing. I realized I needed to make 2 dozen cupcakes for the school carnival today. I got a cupcake cookbook for Mother's Day so I used it to make vanilla and devil's food cupcakes. I never realized it was so much work to make everything from scratch! Then I made the icing that was in the book, which involved holding a bowl over bowling water, but not letting it touch, etc. It was a lot of work. So it was about 10:30 when I finished with all of that. I did it in shifts since my body was still aching. The icing wasn't my favorite so I made it coconut and sprinkled coconut on top after frosting them. I used my icing decorator to make them look fancy and I'm so sad I didn't take a picture of the finished product. So then today I went over to the school at 9:30 (after dropping them off earlier for school) to volunteer at the fishing booth. Yes, I took both of the little boys. Jo Jo was so good almost the whole time just hanging out in his stroller. The big boys were so awesome and took Peanut to play games. Bubba came and got tickets from me and got Peanut lunch and later came back and got me lunch. I had one mom helping me out front taking tickets. Then after awhile, I switched with her. Another mom came over as a "floater" to help pinning the toys. Then, the first mom said, "I only volunteered to help until 11, so I'm going to go now." Um, okay. I have 2 little kids here, and you're going to go play with your 1st grader? Then, after awhile the other mom left her 3rd grader to help me behind the booth while she took off to play with her daughter. Hello! In the meantime, I haven't left once and hadn't eaten at this point. So she only came back once to bring more prizes because all we had left were beads and rings. Peanut was even helping. I was trying to do both, but all of the kids were really honest and put their tickets in the bucket on their own, so I could kind of go back and forth. Towards the end, half the 3rd grade class came back and did prizes, but they were getting a little silly at the end and chucking the poles back at the kids. But by then I was like, whatever, at least I have help. So I got home around 1 pm and collapsed to have a nap while Jo Jo had one. So I officially think I'm a great mom because of all the hard work I've done to help at school and do an awesome birthday party, all while sick. I'm done. I need a break and I'm on strike from doing cupcake dishes or cooking dinner tonight. Oh yeah, did I mention Bubba has a playoff game Tues. night and his end of season pool party on Sat. that I'm in charge of since I'm the team mom. I also had to do all the trophy stuff last Fri. I'm so glad it's summer and the kids can just hang out at the pool every day.