Baby's 1st Monster Truck Show

Last week Charlie heard about a monster truck show coming to the Wicomico Youth and Civic center in Salisbury, MD and wanted to take John. He asked me to find out ticket prices and show times. I found it and the tickets were very reasonable. I purchased a VIP adult and child ticket and got to pick the best available seats for my boys. Center of the arena 3rd row back. SWEET!

The tickets were ordered and now it was a waiting game until the day arrived. Well. The night before the monster truck show John began crying and complaining about his ear hurting. I gave him some children's pain reliever and put him to bed. He woke up twice during the night crying and saying his ear hurt. I told him when the sun came up I would take him to his doctor to get some medicine to make his ear feel better.

The morning came and I felt yucky myself. I took John to the doctor and found out he had a bad ear infection. Got a prescription and was on our way home. He said his ear hurt too bad to go to the Monster Truck show (which meant this was serious and he was REALLY hurting if he didn't want to go to see the monster trucks). He actually slept the whole way home from Easton and as soon as we got home he got sick into the trash can and put himself to bed.

Charlie was at a loss. He didn't know what to do. He didn't want to NOT go to the show and waste the money he spent on the tickets and Tabytha was away for the weekend with her mommom. I suggested taking Jessi. We already had kid size noise reducing head phones. He thought about it for minute and said he'd take her instead. It wasn't going to be a really big show and figured he and Jessi would get some good quality time in and make it a "father/daughter" day instead of a "Man Day" with John.

He got Jessi ready to go and off they went. Jessi was beyond excited to do something with her daddy that was just for her (even if she was the last minute substitution, lol). Charlie and Jessi ended up having a blast together. John spent the day sleeping and I spent the day resting on the couch with whatever bug I had picked up.

Charlie brought home 2 Monster Truck t-shirts, an autographed photo and a track flag for John. There's another Monster Truck show coming to Baltimore next month and, Lord willing, John won't be sick and Charlie can have his "man day" with his best little Buddy.

A New Addition To Our Family

Tonight, when my husband called to let me know he was on his way home from work, he asked me "How mad would you be if I brought home a cat tonight?". I laughed it off and said there's no way he had a cat in his truck. He proceeded to tell me he DID in fact have a cat and he was going to prove it when we got off the phone and text a picture to me. Well, the text was a big blur of darkness and didn't resemble anything close to a cat.

I'm a "cat person" to the core. My husband is a "dog person" to the core. When we met he said he had a dog and asked if I had any pets. I didn't but said I love cats. He told me up front he's allergic and doesn't really like cats. Well, since I didn't have a cat when we met, it wasn't that big of deal knowing I wouldn't be able to have one again being with him. I didn't have any deep longing desire to have a cat again and was totally fine with not having one if our relationship went deeper and we ended up getting married. (which we did, obviously, lol

Charlie had talked about a cat at the lot that would jump up into his truck when he was unloading his cars and they developed a special "bond" in passing each day when he'd get back to the office. The cat had been abandoned nearby and found his way to the lot Charlie brings his cars back to each day and this is the cat he said he was bringing home. Someone was going to take him to the local pound but Charlie said he'd rather give him a home instead of taking the chance of not being adopted from the SPCA and possibly being put down.

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty excited about him bringing home a cat. I didn't say anything to the kids so that it would be a surprise for them. When Charlie got home and brought in a pet carrier with the cat in it the kids went crazy. They were so excited and wanted the cat out of the carrier so they could pet him. We didn't open it right away. He stayed in the carrier in the living room getting used to the idea of being in a new home while we sat down to dinner. During dinner Charlie said one of the guys at the lot had been calling the cat "Boots" and the kids figured it was a good name and would keep it.

After dinner Charlie took Tabytha with him to Target to get Boots a litter box. While he was gone I got Jessi to bed (it was after 8pm at this point). Once she was settled in her room I opened the carrier door and let Boots come out and explore his new surroundings. I told John to leave him alone while he got used to being out of the carrier and sniffed around. He came up to both John and me and let us give him a quick pat on the back and he went on his way. I gave him some food (Charlie remembered that on his way home) and let him get settled.

Charlie and Tabytha got home and we set up the litter box. As soon as we were done pouring the litter into the box Boots went in to use it. He came to us already litter trained! What a pleasant surprise :)

Christmas Cookies

Every year, typically the first week of December, I mail out what seems like a billion Christmas cards to friends and family. I LOVE it. I look forward to it each year. I'm a huge fan of the 'snail mail' system.

I also make out Christmas cards for my kids teachers and bus drivers (and even for our mailman). Along with the Christmas cards the give to their teachers and bus drivers we always do something a little extra. This year I got a container of 101 cookie cutter shapes. A longtime friend of my family gave me her coveted sugar cookie recipe and yesterday I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and a double batch of sugar cookie dough.

This morning the kids and I rolled out sugar cookie dough and stamped Christmas cookie cutter shapes into the dough. It was a long and tiring process to say the least. After a few batches of sugar cookies John and Jessi lost interest and left the kitchen to go play. Tabytha stuck with it. After nearly 3 hours of baking sugar cookies, I told her I'd finish up them up and when they were all done she could come back to frost them and add sprinkles.

Finally, all the sugar cookies were done and I moved on to the chocolate chip cookies. Thankfully they were easy, just scoop, plop and bake. No rolling out the dough, stamping a few cookie cutters, re-rolling out the dough, stamping a few more and so on.

Somewhere in all the cookie baking "fun" I managed to get dinner prepared. Yup. I said Dinner! If you recall the beginning of the blog we started our cookie baking adventure in the Morning. I spent 7 hours in the kitchen baking cookies *sigh*. After dinner was all cleaned up I got the blank sugar cookies back out. I put some vanilla frosting in a zip top bag (a homemade pipping bag) and frosted the cookies. Tabytha went to town putting Christmas themed sprinkles on the fresh frosting and set them aside. Near the end of decorating Jessi came back and wanted to help with the sprinkles.

The cookies were FINALLY done. It felt like the day would NEVER end and there were moments in there I wanted to just be done already, BUT, all in all, it was a super fun day spent with my kids making treats for their teachers and bus drivers (and even for our mailman) to let them all know they're extra special for all they do for us each day. And, after Christmas break the kids all brought home "Thank You" cards from their teachers saying how much they enjoyed the cookies the kids made for them.

We'll definitely make some kind of treat again next year for the teachers, bus driver and mailman. If we do sugar cookies again, I'll be better prepared and make and bake them all in advance (instead of just making the cookie dough in advance) and leave the decorating part to the kids. That's the best part anyway :)

Thanksgiving With Loved Ones

This year we had Thanksgiving at my Sister-in-laws house. Her husband cooked the turkey in his smoker, Faye made her pineapple fluff (like stuffing with pineapples in it), some kind of creamed corn dish that was out of this world and pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

My Mother-in-law brought dinner rolls, green beans and peanut butter swirl brownies. I made regular stuffing, mashed potatoes and an apple pie.

We got to Faye's house around 2 and dinner was still at least an hour away from being ready so I took all the kids out back to play in the open field behind Faye's house. Keith (her husband) got out the little castle moon bounce, wagon, barbie jeep powerwheel and baseball stand for the kids to keep entertained until it was time to eat. My kids love going to Aunt Faye's house to play with their cousin, Shelby.

Once everything was ready we got the kids back in the house and washed up. Keith has a large folding conference table we all sat at together. Faye said grace and we all ate. This was our first Thanksgiving without my Father-in-law, who passed away earlier in the year. There was a little bit of sadness being together without him, especially for my mother-in-law who had been married to him for 44 yrs. But, all in all, the day was wonderful and I was grateful to be surrounded by loved ones and we all had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving together.

A Bouncy Birthday

Today we had a joint birthday party for the girls since both their birthday's are in November. Each year we typically have the birthday party at our house and I make lots of food, spend a week cleaning the house top to bottom and getting chairs set out for the guests.

This year Charlie and I decided to nix that idea and have a birthday party for the girls at a place called "Kangaroo Kid Zone". It's on the other side of the bridge, where all of our guests would be coming from anyway. The KKZ is a room with giant inflatable moon bounce stuff like an obstacle course, 2 slides and a massive bouncy house for kids to jump around in.

The best part about it all was the facility provided set up (with cups, plates, napkins and plastic ware) and clean up!!! All we had to do was bring the food and show up! SOOO much easier on Charlie and me.

The kids all had a blast bouncing around along with quite a few of the adults. Our time was set up for an hour in the play room and then 45 minutes in the party room for food, cake and gifts. Once our time in the play room was done everyone made their way to the party room and had something to eat. The girls opened all their gifts and got a lot of wonderful stuff

I'm so glad Charlie and I did this because it was a LOT of fun for everyone and we got to come home to a clean house and not have to worry about cleaning up anything, haha.

Halloween 2011

This year we were prepared for Halloween. Tabytha's mommom got her a pirate costume during one of their weekends together, my youngest sister found a ladybug outfit for Jessi at the SPEP Free Family Flea Market and I got John a "Woody" costume from Big Lots (on sale to boot!). Charlie even got in on the fun this year and went as a Fireman. John asked me what I was suppose to be and since I didn't have a costume to wear I told him I was what was known as "Paparazzi", haha.

We packed everyone up in the car and headed over to the neighborhood next to the elementary school. I put glowstick necklaces and bracelets on the kiddies and off we went. The kids were adorable and got lots of "Awe, look how cute you are" and "Oh, aren't you all just the cutest things!". I was really pleased with the kids because they all remembered to say "Thank You" at each house they got candy from.

We did a lot of walking and none of the kids got cranky or complained. I was pretty impressed. By the end of our trick-or-treating adventure John was pretty tired of me taking his picture and whenever he saw me hold up my camera he would tell me "Mommy, don't take my picture". Ah, the life of a celebrity being hounded by paparazzi, haha.

When we got home Charlie and I let the kids have a piece of candy from their buckets and then it was off to bed. Now that Halloween is done, John and Jessi like wearing their costumes around the house for playing.

Another Year Older

Friday was my 31st birthday. I still hadn't wrapped my head around turning 30 the year before and now I'm 31?!?! Well. Since I live out in the middle of nowhere and many friends don't like traveling so far to come out my way, I decided this year to get together with my friends closer to them and met up in Annapolis to have dinner and drinks with them.

My Mother-In-Law agreed to watch the kids overnight for us so Charlie and I could go out and have a good time. So, Saturday morning I got the kids dressed and ready packing up some clothes to spend the night at Gram's house. I've been wanting a new tattoo to represent my kids (now that I knew for sure I wouldn't be having anymore because I got my tubes tied after Jessi was born). So, since the kids would be with Gram all day Saturday I made an appointment to get my new tattoo before meeting up with my friends at TGIFriday's for dinner.

I told one of my girlfriends about my plans and she wanted a new tattoo also and we made plans to get our tattoo's done at the same time and hang out a bit. Another girlfriend wanted to join in and get a new one to go along with one she already had and our buddy who was riding with us over the bridge decided he wanted a new one, too. So, it turned out to be a tattoo "party" before dinner.

After we were all done getting inked we headed over to TGIFriday's to meet up with the other friends who were meeting us there. We were seated right away and those of us who were there went ahead and ordered our drinks and appetizers while we waited for the rest of our friends to show up.

Once everyone was there we ate and drank and had a great time talking and laughing together. There were about a dozen of us total. Charlie excused himself from the table at one point and went to ask the waiter if there was anyway to have the staff come and sing "Happy Birthday" to me. So, at the end of our meal our waiter came back with the other waiters and presented me with an ice cream sundae and sang Happy Birthday. It was a little embarrassing because I'm an adult and think that kind of thing should be reserved for kids, but, I did enjoy some of the ice cream sundae. =)

Some friends decided to head home after dinner and a couple of us decided to go somewhere else to enjoy some live music on the bay. Charlie and I had a really great evening and didn't get home until 1am! I really enjoyed the time I had with my friends celebrating another year of life. Looking forward to what joys 31 will bring me.

After we dropped the kiddies off at Gram's house Charlie and I headed over the bridge to the tattoo shop