Monday, May 30, 2011

JP the Superstar & Captain Pokey Hair


This also ended up being a family photo. My mom is on the right, then me, then Coconut and the cool guy all the way on the left with the sunglasses is Bubba.




This boy cracks me up with his cross-eyed photos. Since I always laugh because he can make them go different directions, it's his new favorite pose.

We finally got some nice pictures of JP at baseball. It's hard when one of us is keeping score and the other is doing pitch count. I love the quality of our new camera when we have the 'sports' lens (as I like to call it) on.

Peanut's hair is really long now so it's hysterically out of control most days. It looks handsome when it's actually combed down. Everyone (except Coconut) didn't have the top cut last time. They all decided to have an opinion. Bubba looks really cute with his bangs combed over in the 'skater' style so I encouraged him to grow it out on top (but won't allow it to be long in the back). But apparently JP didn't think he needed to cut his even though he looks better with it really short.

Sat. night for our anniversary we went to see Flogging Molly. I happened to look online about a month ago just to see if they would ever come here and I found that they were! Tickets were only $30 since it was at a small venue (a local club). We showed up an hour early when the doors opened and still had to stand in a long line in the rain (with no umbrella) for about twenty minutes. Luckily it wasn't pouring. They had a pit in front of the stage and then like four stairs up to an open area that was at stage level. We ended up right next to the stairs against the railing. It was perfect! I had a super view of the whole stage. They put on such an AMAZING show. The lead singer talks between the songs and tells you what they're about and they're just really fun and energetic. It was great. B said he thought I was going to pee I was so excited. We both got a little recorded on our phones. Mine only records for like thirty seconds at a time. :( And they won't let you use a flash so the pictures aren't super great, but I was excited to get a couple nonetheless. I got a t-shirt and 4 stickers-one for me and then one each for the three older boys. Bubba was bummed he didn't get to go. There was a super young kid there and then really old guys. There was even a guy who was at least sixty directly in the middle of the mosh pit! It was a great sight to see so many people of different ages there. On the way home we realized we hadn't eaten dinner so we made a Taco Bell run and it reminded us of our college days when we were engaged (although back then it was always at 2 a.m.).

Last night Coconut was attacking JP in hallway upstairs and JP finally got him off, but he fell on a truck and back into the wall. He hit his head on the corner of the baseboard. I came upstairs to see what was going on and B was holding him. He put him on the counter to assess the damage and I freaked out when I saw blood dripping down the side of his head. We tried to act calm so he wouldn't freak out. We took him in our bathroom to clean him up and he was asking, "Am I bleeding?" in a nervous voice. When we finally got enough blood off to look at it, we could see that it could probably use some glue or a couple of stitches. But B made the point that if we took him in, he would have to be shaved there and go through the trauma of all of it. It's not huge enough that it will make much of difference so we opted to clean it up and staunch the bleeding. He's doing fine today. You wouldn't even know that anything happened. It has clotted nicely so I think if we continue to use Neosporin it should heal okay. I think it was as traumatic for me as my 'mama bear' instincts kicked in. I hate when my boys get hurt.

Lastly, I've started writing again after a brief bout of writer's block. Bubba gets so proud of me when I reach another 1,000 words. It's so nice to have family support not just from my husband but from my young son who thinks it's so cool that I'm doing this. I had B read a section the other night. I've been nervous about letting him read any of it. But I wanted his opinion on this intense fighting scene. He said he was pretty blown away and could picture it in detail, and I know he wasn't just saying it because he's my husband. It felt really good to hear him say it.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Happy 11th Bubba!


Last Monday the 16th was Bubba's 11th birthday. I can't believe my little guy is so big already. He got a new infielder mitt since he's a permanent fixture at short stop. We got him a gift certificate to a sports store and found out that one of their locations is going out of business so he was able to get sunglasses (for baseball), one of those power necklaces and bracelets, instead of just one thing. He had an early baseball practice that night, which ended up being cancelled due to non-stop rains flooding the fields. We had a bunch of friends over for cake, so I had to buy one instead of making one because I realized we would have over 20 people including our family. We had the coach and his family over, plus two sets of neighbors and then my sister and her husband. He had a great birthday. I love when they tell me that it was the "best birthday ever."

My traditional birthday ode-baseball, Yankees, football, ESPN, piano, singing, BSU, cool dresser, infectious giggle, responsible, music, reader, popcorn, Flogging Molly, Disneyland, Silverwood, roller coaster junkie, friendly, kind, thoughtful, loving, hard worker, smart, strong, movies, shopping, Professor Grumpy Pants, Little Guy, cereal, and so much more.

I love you Little Guy!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

I Got a Job

So there's a guy in our ward with an internet company. They sell greenhouses, playsets, pool cleaners-stuff like that. Anyway, I've been looking for a job to make some money to pay for a trip to Ireland. I really want to see the places I'm writing about. So I asked him if he needed a writer for reviews, which he did. Yay. So I re-did one that they already had as a sample of my writing and now I'm officially working for them. My first review will be on a playset. The research part of it is actually pretty interesting. Anyway I'm excited to be able to do something from home and to be paying for my own trip.

Monday, May 2, 2011

A Day in the Life

Today I woke up at 7 am (I usually get up at 8) so that I could go to the grocery store. I was only half awake because I got a poopy night's sleep. I had to buy smoothie ingredients. Bubba and his best bud have started a smoothie business at school, which means his mom and I are in the smoothie business. Everyone in the class had to come up with a business for their mini-economy and they sell their items for scholar dollars. They can use the money they earn at the end of year carnival and also on other kid's items. Bubba is such a sweet boy. He's bought me a purple and green striped duct tape purse, Coconut a cute cloth bag with a dinosaur and his name on it, a full size candy bar for dad, popcorn for the whole family, and eggs with goop in them for each of his brothers. They take orders on Fridays, but had no school Friday so they took orders on Thurs. But they had a field trip on Thurs. and forgot to bring them home. So C's mom decided to make 7 chocolate chip and I would make 7 strawberry because we shorted some kids last week (due to the fact that our kids didn't have the orders with them). So hopefully everyone got what they needed today. So anyway, I had three wet beds (not sure what happened there), grocery store, smoothie making, and one over-flowing toilet all before 9 am. So I've had several loads of laundry and practically having to force Peanut to do his homework and get dressed before getting him off to school. Tonight at 5:30m Bubba's baseball team started showing up for batting practice. Last week on Mon. night the fields were flooded so they decided to have a batting practice here since we have a pitching machine and batting cage. Then on their Wed. night game, all of the kids that hit in the first inning ended up hitting the ball. They figured since it worked out so well, they would do it again tonight. Currently (including my boys) there are 14 boys in my backyard and 3 dads. And it's also raining on and off on them. I guess Mother Nature doesn't realize that it's May.

On another note-my book is coming along well. I ended up writing over 60 pages in one week. So I'm on 109 right now and B counted the word count in a couple of the books that I read and it sounds like my pages will end up doubling if it ever gets printed. I still have a section toward the beginning that I have to work on that I've been putting off because it involves more research than I've felt like doing. And I'm not even close to the ending yet. I have even thought of how it might continue if I were ever to write another one. I've been on a break for about a week now though while I've been reading another book by a local lady. I would highly suggest it because she's Christian and it's all very clean. The only thing that bugged a little was how much she talked about praying and God, etc. You can get the idea without having to over do it, but it was still a great story. It's called "Ice Moon" and I guess the second one is out this month. It's available on Amazon because it's a sort of self published book. Our coach's wife and I swap books and she met the lady back while she was still writing it so she let me borrow it. Fun stuff.