Tuesday 12, 13, 14....

I never seem to keep it under 12 so we will just see how far I get and promise not to get TOO carried away....

1. Gavin is on a food strike lately....drives me bonkers. Until about 12:45 today all he had eaten was 3 bites of a blueberry muffin, healthy.

2. Jakeb and Zachary are w-i-l-d lately.

3. We are trying to plan another "vacation" for this next week....Robert has a trip to Virginia Beach and are tagging along, he only works 2 of the days and we are going for 5.

4. We are pondering going up early and spending July 4th in DC...if we can manage the travel....currently reservations have been made but we'll see.

5. The boys seriously thought we could bring the new kitten with us and Zachary nearly burst into tears when I told him that was impossible.

6. After this week Zman is done with camps for the summer....he did 2 camps at the Discovery Center...Dinosaurs 2 weeks ago and this week is at Bitty Bug camp. He has enjoyed them but the driving back and forth has gotten old.

7. Jakeb had Art camp last week and loved it...he has another Mid-July. Crocodile Hunter!

8. We have been cleaning and moving things around in the house...it will tide me over for a while, things are a lot less cluttered...makes me happy!

9. Somehow I managed to leave BOTH my sunglasses and my cell phone in the store today...neither of which I realized leaving at the same time...which required 2 trips back to collect them. Lovely.

10. The cool front we are having is awesome....seriously.

11. I have been supremely lazy lately....like I haven't even had a shower today.

12. Yet I did give both dogs baths yesterday...go figure.

13. Gavin is refusing to sleep and it's infuriating me...so I am stalling...

14. Is it Friday yet?

Pet Review....

So we have been thru quite a few pets over the years....our one true loyal whose been here from the beginning...my very first "on my own" pet. Bailey aka Baydog. Bailey is fast approaching 9 years old and has gotten grey faced over the past year or so. I still oddly remember the date I got Bailey...January 17th 2001. From the "pound"...he was the cutest puppy EVER...with a little lightening bold bent tip on his tail I just knew he was perfect...and he has been...for the most part.
After getting Bailey we were told of someone trying to get rid of their "beagle mix" so we took him in and ended up with "Tucker". He was about 4 years old when we got him, and a bit ornery. Our favorite thing about Tucker was the howling he would do when he would scratch his back on the floor...he would moan and howl with happiness LOL. Tucker disappeared sometime in 2005. About that time we also somehow ended up with Zoey the cat....Zoey the cat's stay at our house was short lived and she soon got to move in with my Mom.
After Tucker's disappearance we adopted a Lab/Rottweiler mix pup from a kid in the neighborhood...we named her Nia. And she was cute as any puppy could be...Nia's story however is quite sad. One day I hoped in the car heading out to get her some puppy food...kicked it in reverse and had no clue she was under the tire sleeping. You get the gist of the story...I was devastated and horrified, cried for days.
So after our brief stint with Nia and Zoey we were back with just Baydog...again we--er I--decided he needed a buddy. So off to the pound we went again...this time we came home with an adorable white pup. Said white puppy became Brody, and upon our first trip to the pet store we were told "Oh that looks just like a great Dane puppy!" Sure enough Brody soon became a quite large puppy! At our old house we had a giant yard and he was happy as could be. When we moved to this house our yard and house just got too small for both Brody and Bailey. We struggled with the decision to find a new home for Brody and then bit the bullet and did it. It was awful honestly and the boys still say they miss Brody, now 3 years later. He was a sweet, sweet dog but just so darn big. Shortly before getting rid of Brody we got Izzy kitty. She is the best cat ever, seriously.
Hmmm where next....oh yes Catty. Yes she was a cat. We got her in September of 2006 and she was Izzy's half sister, we also "fostered" 3 of her siblings as well and found homes for them. As previously read Catty got sick recently and had to be put to sleep.
We did try out another 6 month old puppy. This craigslist puppy was definitely not for us. Her name was Lilly and was supposedly a beagle/Dalmatian mix...who LOVED to terrify my cats and poop on the floor. This puppy lasted less than a week before I took her back to her owners.
We have heard numerous stories of the newest dog addition...Maddie the Boxer. She's wild, she's crazy, she drives me nuts, but she's the sweetest girl ever. She chews and chews and jumps and bounces and one day may dive thru my sliding glass door...but has a face that cracks me up daily.
AND the newest addition...Rose. A 10wk-ish black fuzz ball of a kitten. She's already been threatened to be evicted for pee'ing on our bed...MY bed, my duvet AND duvet cover, not once, but FOUR+ times. But the boys are crazy about her...so yes we are nuts. And Izzy isn't pleased at all. Not at all. So if you have kept count to who is left...that's 4 pets. 2 dogs, 2 cats. Bailey the Original, Maddie the Spazz, Izzy the Watch Cat, Rose the Fuzzy Pisser. Yes it's a zoo thankfully we have a decent sized house and a fenced yard. I vacuum like crazy and manage to keep the fur from flying fairly well.

Poor quality...I pulled into the garage to this...crazy dog sticks her head thru the cat door...

Conversations...

Wanted to blog these before I forget...this past weekend as we were riding in the car to a friends house. I was telling Jakeb and Zachary that both of my friends we were visiting have babies and we need to behave and be gentle etc. Which of course brought on THE question from Jakeb, "How DO babies get in tummy's anyway?" cough*um*well*chuckle*cough*...now he has asked this before and I have dodged it quite well, answering with things like well a mommy and daddy love each other or well they are there to grow etc. And that worked just fine...this time nope...The whole when a "Mommy and Daddy love each other" line didn't work...he again said well no "How do they get there then..." and then said..."do they Mommy's eat a special food or something?" I love it, love the innocence still there. Robert then said well we'll talk about IT later...gah! "No, no we can talk about it now" I said. And then remembered what a fellow blogger had told her son...and went for it..."well when Mommy's and Daddy's love each other and they hug and kiss and stuff...and hey look out there at that cool tree..." Crisis averted, innocence saved...didn't even have to say the S-E-X word. Whew...yes we shelter in this house LOL. After all he's only SEVEN...and his brothers were in the car...we have plenty of time for the REAL conversation.
Then yesterday I was out laying by the "pool" (you saw pictures of this pool)...the boys and I were chit chatting and Jakeb blurts out..."You have wrinkles...wrinkles right here" (and points around his mouth). I said gee thanks, that's great. Zachary jumped to my defense after a quick study of my face and proclaimed "No she doesn't!" so they then are back and forth as to whether or not I do actually have wrinkles. Nice. I did let Jakeb know that's not really something people want to here and we left it at that. BUT not 30 min later, Zachary and I are sitting on the chair and he is smacking my thigh...and then annouces..."Hey look, I can make waves on your leg!" Lovely...so I have wrinkles and wavy legs...aka flabby. Joy of joys.

KaraTAY!

This past as well as the last...and quite possibly the one following are picture catch up posts....
So without further ado, I bring you the "Karate" post. The past week both Jakeb and Zachary tested for new belts at karate...both are doing VERY well and we are so very proud of them. Jakeb moved up to solid orange belt and Zachary is up to orange stripe. The difference is because of their age. So here ya go...

Jakeb...he is in the center closest to Sensei Taylor...


Orange Belt!


Zachary...practicing before with Jakeb


Doing his Kata...

Getting new belt


And Zachary with his very best friend Caroline...

Trampoline...

So I am not really a huge fan of the trampoline...in fact before we were married and had kids we swore we wouldn't have one---one of the many things we swore we would NEVER do, but I digress--so anyway I know they can be dangerous. However now that we own one we have learned a) they can be dangerous..IF kids are unsupervised, if too many kids are on it, if big kids and little kids are on it and b) they aren't quite as dangerous when you consider all the other things kids do that are dangerous...like riding bikes, running, playing on swingsets (how many kids get broken limbs from falling off a swingset)...and in Zachary's case sleeping (fell out of bed the other night and got a HUGE goose egg) and c) the kids absolutely LOVE the darn thing.
My dad gave us a trampoline a year or 2 ago...it started out with a net and a pad that our chew crazy dog destroyed. We keep saying we are going to take it down but the kids play on it ALL the time. Robert, much to my dismay, thought it would be a fabulous idea to move the trampoline directly next to the pool while he mowed...yes you know what he then let them do...jump from the trampoline to the pool. Yes this would be a dangerous activity, thankfully it didn't end on a bad note...and it was moved back.
Another favorite past time...that won me the "best mommy a kid could ever have" award. Putting the sprinkler under the trampoline...lots of giggling and screeches of joy from that event. Seriously they were on cloud 9....
All that explaining to support these photos....don't tell me it doesn't look like tons of fun...

Barely Above...

I am getting the feeling again...the feeling that I am barely keeping my head above water. I get this feeling from time to time...honestly I think it's a "back of my mind" feeling all the time and sometime it comes to the surface. This feeling isn't about my emotional stability, it's solely based on the overwhelming amount of things I have to do to keep things running smoothly for me. I think the majority of the people in my house are A-ok with the house being a wreck, pieces of dirt or trash on the floor, dirty clothes thrown around, marginally clean dishes, dirty kids, clothes, shoes, counters...most have no clue what a bill is much less paying them. They have zero clue what exactly *I* do. Well I do...and I do a lot. Some days it's just overwhelming. I want to throw my hands up, stomp out of the room, and yell F-it. Typically I don't...or at least I don't yell it. Today...actually not even all of today...just the past 2 hours of being home has been one of those times.
I walk around the house and see all the things that have been neglected while we have been on the go the past few weeks and just UGH. The carpets are stained, the shelves are dusty, the floors are dirty, the rooms are messy, the laundry needs to be folded (again), the dogs are dirty, the yard is a wreck, the mail needs filing....the list goes on and on...on and on...and it makes my head spin. And as I type this Gavin is getting out of bed, the dogs are barking to come in--yet they cannot because they are covered in mud and have now coated the GLASS back door with a nice layer of slimy muddy paw prints and drool....and there are flies flying around my head thanks to the backdoor. Yes I am feeling quite flustered this evening...

Lazy Summer Days...

Not really a lot going on here at Casa de B's except a whole lot of running around. Zman has had Dino camp all week so we have been back and forth a lot. Jakeb starts his art camp next week and they both start swim lessons...yes I will be a crazy woman the next 2 weeks.

I have gotten my butt back to the gym this week so that's a good step. I have also been doing my "30 day Shred" Video...ok so I have done it 2 times this week but still better than none at all...and it IS only Thursday and I WAS super sore and I have been at the gym as well as doing the video so there. Jakeb and Gavin and I hit the streets this morning for a bike ride. I was impressed with Jakeb he hung in there the whole way and we went right at 4 miles. Gavin was on the back of the bike in the seat.
I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I signed the kids up for TWO camps each this summer...cus it was just plain stupid. Seriously...Zachary goes this week, Jakeb goes next, Zachary goes the following, then one week break, and Jakeb goes again. Yes, stupid. It's 20 min each way to get them there and then the camp is only 3 hours long. They have fun but it's A LOT of running around for Gbabes and I.
They are currently resting in the living room watching some 'toons. While I get caught up with some work and emails. And for what it's worth I am still sore, shredded here I come....

Laundry shmaundry

I have 6 loads of laundry to fold....six loads of LITTLE people clothes. That amounts to a lot of clothes. It's been sitting here staring at me since Sunday. I don't want to fold it...I really.really.don't.want.to.fold.it. When I wash the boys clothes I wash ALL of their clothes first and then sit down and fold them all...I do it this way because I am anal and like their pj sets and socks to be able to be matched together and put away at the same time. And I don't want to make 50 different trips upstairs with each set of stuff I fold. So easier to wash it all then fold it. Except for the 43454378 pieces of clothes in 3 baskets that now require folding. The kids have WAY too many clothes...Zachary's drawers are still over flowing with clothes despite not having been replenished in over a week. Jakeb is down to 3 pairs of shorts however...and is totally out of pjs. Must go fold laundry. Have I mentioned I don't want to? Laundry folding is my very least favorite job it even trumps mopping which I loathe....bleh.

Great and not so great...

First off I cannot stop eating this kettle corn...I have had it for breakfast (as I am currently doing), for lunch (as I did yesterday), and all day snacks in between....there is currently a crumb circle around my chair from me stuffing it into my mouth..it's THAT good.

Secondly...I do believe most children begin sleeping thru the night by 6 months...or at the very least a year...or at the VERy VERY least by 2 years. But why in the world does my THREE YEAR OLD STILL wake up!? Seriously as he was in our bed pitching a fit because we wouldn't give him a cup of milk at 2:30AM I began realizing for the 50th time that this is nuts. What are we doing wrong here?! Why is this child waking up!? Ugh, it's making me crazy...very.very.crazy.

Is it Ruby? Or Tuesday?

Or both? We had lunch with my mom today and before we met her the boys asked where we were going to eat. I told them Ruby Tuesday's (though we ended up else where). Zachary apparently pondered that for a moment and then asked me this question..."Mommy, what if there were two restaurants right next to each other and they looked the same and one was called Ruby and the other was Tuesday's and, and, and...um I forgot what I was going to say..." and that was that.
I sat thinking about his odd question that never even got formed completely and tried to figure out exactly where he was going with that and just couldn't come up with an ending either. Zman questions everything all day long..."Mommy what if all the cars didn't drive on the road but on the grass?" "What if we didn't eat food..." etc etc. Drives me nuts and cracks me up...funny how his mind works.

After lunch we drove on over to Opry Mills specifically to get Kettle Corn--afterall we were already in Nashville....cost 6 bucks for a GIANT bag...it's the best.stuff.ever. Trust me...get cash...go get it...and ENJOY.

Home sweet Home...

Or something like that. We begrudgingly arrived home yesterday morning...despite wanting to stay for....um ever. We knew responsibility (and funds) would not allow such spontaneity. So home we came slowly but surely. We had decided earlier in the week that we would stop in Tampa to visit the Zoo for the day and then head home that evening. We have been to the Tampa Zoo before and really like it. Our plan went off without a hitch and we were home promptly at 3am, Sunday (yesterday) morning.
One of the first things Zachary said to me when we got up yesterday was that he wished we lived by the beach...me too buddy, me too. I don't know that any of us have wanted to stay more than we have this trip. I always want more time but the pull was a bit stronger this time around for all of us. But we are home and spent yesterday getting rid of JUNK we have held onto for too long. I think our stay in a clutter free home helped spur that activity. Both Robert and I were all about chunking things yesterday.
My bro stayed at our house while we were gone, taking care of the dogs and Izzy kitty. All was well while we were gone and it was nice to have someone here with them. He also did some computer maintenance for me and it makes me VEEERRRY happy. I know have more memory in my main computer and our back up computer is new for us thanks to my mom and stepdad. Fabulous-ness.
And as promised I will get some pics up soon...there are of course a ridiculous amount so it may take me just a wee bit.
We are now on official summer break and we are spending the day at home vegging...ah so nice.

Tuesday Twelve---beach side!

So I am trying to stay away for a lengthy time but the boys just sat down to watch Ghostbusters and I honestly can't watch it all with them LOL....so I will join them in a few! I will do a quick 12 since it's been a bit since I posted :).

1. We are currently located across the street from the beach in Marco Island, Florida.

2. Robert and I actually traveled without the laptop...but unfortunately (for my self control) my dad brought his. We have ZERO self control but it's sitting on the eat-in kitchen table calling my name every time I walk by.

3. The kids and I just made Jiffy Pop popcorn on the stove and they thought it was the best thing ever. Especially my dancing while we "continuously shook pan in very fast circular and back and forth motions" per the directions LOL.

4. We are staying in a house here and OMG is this the.best.thing.ever.EVER. We have our own pool directly off the dining room. If we want to leave towels or swimsuits out on the chairs we can...if the kids splash and get rowdy it's no big thing. Seriously I am spoiled.

5. We are a quick walk to the beach and while I do miss being directly on the beach...the not having to get in the car to drive to the beach was a Must. It's fabulous.

6. Robert is desperately trying to convince me to move to Florida....I just can't do it...at least not yet. One of the nice things about his job is that we can go anywhere we want provided a) we can afford to live there and b) it's relatively close to an airport. I asked Jakeb what he thought about that and he said YES! let's go...I told him he would be leaving all his friends...his response? "Well I can make new ones" well ok then...LOL

7. We drove over the Everglades National Park today and took a boat ride out and saw the most awesome natural dolphin show ever...it was amazing. Several dolphins jumping over the waves from the boat...even a baby one with it's Mommy! It was super cool...and I promise I have pictures.

8. Jakeb and Zachary are fish and I am calling to get them in swim lessons asap when we get home. They can swim but are beyond ready to learn proper ways to swim.

9. The pool goes to 8ft and Zachary can swim to the bottom and get things off the bottom..he's 5. That's amazing to me.

10. We have scared Gavin enough that he won't get in the pool at all without a life jacket on...thank god.

11. I haven't exercised officially in over a week...maybe longer. That's just not good. I did do a few laps in the pool last night...whew that's a work out.

12. I am already dreading having to leave....we only have 3 full days here :(

13. one more sorry...My grandmother is coming over to visit tomorrow! We are all excited to see her, she is staying the night with us, it will be nice to get to visit for so long!