Do you know...

That I have been telling Robert for nearly 7 years that I want to go camping with the kids and that tomorrow we will be leaving to do just that and that on Wednesday (day 2 of camping) there is a 70% chance of RAIN. Needless to say I am not happy about this at all. The only days this week that it is supposed to rain are of course Wednesday and Thursday...of course.
The boys are excited...I am excited....except for the rain part.
We hit up the zoo today with some "new" neighborhood friends...we have been trying to get together for a few weeks now and it was nice to finally get to. The kids were cute and well behaved and are now being read to by Bert...who was gifted that duty tonight...I am beat!
Fingers crossed we can manage to get all the things done needed to get out of here tomorrow and hopefully enjoy some of the rain free weather we are promised for tomorrow. We may end up packing up and heading for home in the middle of the night but I hope not. Hopefully our citified bodies can rough-it in the cheapy walmart tent without freezing our rears off or getting drenched. We'll see how it goes. Wish us well.

My little studs..

Took these this past week at the farm...and I suppose I am slightly partial...but these are some damn cute kids.

Sunday Sixteen

A bit of whack for the numbers but whatever...I can't think of a good topic or story to tell yet feel like doing a bit of rambling...soooo off we go with 16 random thoughts from yours truly.

1. I can't think of anything...

2. I discovered today that there is a chance Zachary CAN actually take golf lessons which he has asked about several times now.

3. The boys are on fall break this week...I am SO happy not to have to get up and be "on the ball" at 6:15 every day.

4. Robert is also off!!!

5. We are going camping at Fall Creek Falls Tues/Wed.

6. There is a 50% chance of rain for Wednesday...fan-freaking-tabulous

7. 5 Captain Morgans girly drinks DOES give me a good little buzz...Yet another reason why I am glad it's fall break and I don't have to get up in the morning...

8. We hung out with the neighbors tonight around the "fire pit" letting the kids ride their bikes and play until 10pm *gasp*....

9. They are now bathed and passed out happily in their beds.

10. Robert thought to record Desperate Housewives tonight and I am so glad for that because I totally would have forgotten....which is why I suck at TV watching!

11. This is some seriously randomness...sorry for that see #7....

12. Next weekend I am shooting a wedding all by myself for the very first time...I am not too nervous, I know I can do it just fine, I am finally starting to find some confidence in my photography...at least a little bit anyway.

13. I cannot believe Zachary will be starting Kindergarten next year, seriously he's almost 5, that's nuts.

14. Gavin started riding a "big" bike this weekend, like the big one with training wheels and brakes. It's so damn cute I cannot hardly stand it.

15. I really dig our 'hood. And it's a good thing since our house price has dropped nearly 10 GRAND since we bought it...lovely.

16. 'tis all she wrote. We are going to the zoo tomorrow with some new friends from our neighborhood....Jakeb's "girlfriend". I am curious to see how he and her are tomorrow hehehe. Plus it will be nice to hang out with them again!

Off to watch my recording!!

Nanny Wii and Uncle TV

Have been spending a lot of quality time with the kids lately. It's so nice of them to come over and entertain them for so many, many hours while I pretend I am doing very important emailing and photo editing, or by some freak chance actual productive house work. In fact Nanny Wii, decided to stay a little longer tonight than normal becuase she knows that I really am just not feeling like doing the bedtime/clean up routine just yet. What's really neat is that they are now able to occupy Gbabes for longer periods of time, heck almost the entire day! I think he just might be bilingual by the end of this month. Really they offer such nice services yet the Mommy Guilt for using them so frequently is hovering around here somewhere.

**I will note that Nanny Wii and/or Uncle TV do not ever watch them overnight and they never watch them unsupervised ie I don't leave them home alone with them. I just don't think I can trust either one of the two very well. And I will say we do, some weeks try to limit the amount of time our rugrats spend with the ever so gracious family members...this week, er month just hasn't been one of them.

Houston... She has a problem

In light of the cool weather we have had for the past 3 days I thought it was a good time to unpack and wash the boys clothes for the winter. Most of Jakeb's is all new stuff and a few things fit from last year...he still "could use" a few more pairs of pants or something but really...well really, not really. Zachary is set and has tons of pants/jeans and I still need to dig out the jeans Jakeb had last year because well because Zachary is bigger and needs the size up. Gavin is also set but while I was going thru the box deemed "2T winter" I realized the magnitude of clothing actually in this BIG box, I just figured I needed the bigger box because it had coats and sweaters in it and maybe even 2T winter AND summer...but no. Instead it's all one size for one season...and yes I counted because I couldn't believe it, he has 37 pairs of long pants for the winter, technically 39 if I count the overalls. Um, yeah not sure how that happened. Some I do remember getting from Gap for Jakeb at ungodly high prices but in my defense he is my oldest, now we shop SALE at Gap. Some I bought for Zachary and then now of course I have bought a few things for Gavin, a couple have come from Hope. Now I will say that he is way too thin to wear about 1/4 of it but still...and I keep finding more and the number has creeped up. Really it's shamefull. Guess how many pairs of jeans *I* have...3 oh wait if I count the fraying ones that are slightly snug, I have 4. I am not sure how we ended up with THAT many pairs of jeans/sweats/cords/khaki's...I mean really, I am not. The thing is I haven't bought him hardly anything...in fact 2 pairs of Jeans and that's it. Sad. is what it is. I am a sucker for kids clothes...well or just a sucker for buying. I think it got worse when Jakeb started school and that winter they kept commenting on his clothes and how cute he always was...and then I just had to keep it up. And don't even ask about the shoes.

Domestic-ish

While spending the weekend at "the Hill" I thought it would be a nice treat to my family to prepare nice-ish meals for us...good ole Southern make ya fat food for all of us (aren't I nice?). Really I wanted to try to fix some of my grandmothers meals for my grandfather....or at least try to. Friday afternoon the neighbor brought Okra by like he does every year and has for quite some time now. So Sunday I thought I would prepare it up like I know my grandmother did....So I chopped and washed....

Smothered it in cornmeal and fattening oils to get this.... not too bad and tasted just about right...

I then thought I would make her homemade biscuits...drug out the recipe and was off to a good start til I realized there was no "self-rising" flour as it called for...but I thought it would be ok..so on I went...

Zachary helped me cut them out...they looked nice...Then they cooked....and of course they didn't rise...and they didn't fluff...and they had NO flavor...Bye, bye homemade biscuits...we didn't need the extra carbs anyway...oh wait we ate the frozen ones instead...And of course our "main course" the Tenderloin...which turned out near perfect, tender, juicy, nice flavor...the gravy however was a flop as I expected it to be. But 2 out of 4 was decent right? Really the picture just doesn't do it justice...
So there you have my play by play attempt at southern domestication...as I type this in my t-rashed house.

Patton Road

Is where we spent the majority of our weekend and I am mighty happy about doing just that. I know you haven't heard of it but it's this fabulous little home away from home for me. My grandparents house/farm...aka "the hill" aka Lilac Hill. It's really nothing special to everyone else...just a cool rock house on the corner. But to me it's so much more than that. It's been the one constant in my life, the one place I could always, always go back to. It houses a great deal of memories for me...my brothers and I romping around the entire place..."the nature trail", "the big hole", "the hay barn" "the creek" "the railroad tracks"....so many "the's" that we had coined. Now a good portion of the entire place has been sold and converted to THIS--Arrington Vineyards. That picture of the driveway is where I used to stand to catch the bus, that "tasting room" used to be our living room....to bad it wasn't that fancy schmancy when we lived there hehe. Either way it's pretty cool to see it transformed into what it is today. My Aunt had that house built when I was little and it stayed within the family until it was sold 10 or so years ago to another family who then sold it to the vineyard who also acquired other pieces of the property. There are vines growing all over "the hill" and they have some tasty wines at the house that we have tried. Surprisingly Robert and I have yet to actually go to the vineyard. It's on our long list of "things to do" sans kids.
I do hope "Lilac Hill" will remain to be the one place for me...I am having to try to come to terms with the fact that it may not be and it's very very hard for me to do...especially after spending a gorgeous weekend there.

"Oooo that smell..."

Ahh the smell of melting plastic. My beloved Eddie Bauer thermos has met with the coil on the dishwasher and stunk the house up! I knew not to put that thing in there and was feeling lazy...and a bit rushed to get the dishes tossed in the dishwasher so I could watch Grey's and know that Robert wasn't coming home to a T-totally trashed house. And damnit my "thermos" is ruined and our house stinks. Glad to know it was just that and not something worse but still, I love that thing lately.
So woohoo for season premier of my show! I have said it many times that TV is not my thing, I watch very little of it closer to none than anything. I am completely out of the loop on every show out there, except Grey's. It is my one show that I can be dedicated to...which is the biggest reason I dont watch others is because I can't stick to remembering when they come on! I can handle one night a week though.
We snatched up the boys Halloween costumes today and OMG are they cute and excited. I have been telling them for a week now that we were going to go look at them so they could pick some out. So we went tonight and did that and got them, except for Zachary's. He has been saying for weeks that he was going to be Captain America which I have seen and is cute built in muscles and everything...CUTE. Well we get there and he starts saying he wants to be a Ninja Turtle...not so cute...I kept telling him to pick what HE wanted but as soon as he would say ok the turtle I would start with are you sure?! Way to not sway him right? Yeah I suck. So then he said he wanted to be Iron Man...which is sold out so surprisingly he said he wanted to wait. Zachary has a history of having issues with decisions. He has the hardest time with them. Jakeb and Gavin not so much they know what they want and that's that. Zachary wants it all and just cannot decide. So we'll see what he decides. Jakeb has chosen this costume and Gavin has chosen this one. Ok so you can't see Jakeb's face in his but trust me he's cuter than that kid and Gavin well he was so gosh darn cute I had to take like 50 pictures of him...Zachary even showed him what superman does (since he of course is clueless about "Superman Baby" he just liked that one best) when he flies so he ran around doing just that and trust me I took pictures it's cUTe. I can't wait to get Zachary's and get them all in disguise. Good times.

THE Baseball Game.

Holy Cow...who knew that a tee ball game would be SO exciting! I don't know about you folks but I personally say they are more exciting than a pro game any day. Yesterday they boys had the most exciting baseball game EVER. It was awesome. First of all Jakeb (mr. doesn't care about baseball) was put at short stop, ie the IN field. They have said he's like a different kid out there and last night he was! He did AWESOME. Didn't let one single ball past him and managed to get an out and was "baseball ready" watching the game the entire time! Go Jake! The game was against an undefeated team and we won by 1 point! And when that last out was made just as the runner was coming up on home all of us parents lost it...screaming, woohooing, jumping, clapping and just beaming. It was SUCH a great game...who cares if the kids have fun the parents sure do! I think it made it so much better because the other coach was getting his panties in a big ole wad because his undefeated team was losing oh the glory! It's seriously NOT about having fun, it's about winning!!!! hehe.
Jakeb at shortstop...he's in the middle of the picture, sorry for the fence but I kinda like it :)
Zachary hitting the ball...

And here are a few pics from the canoe trip via blackberry...not too shabby really.

"No, elmo...

No elmo!!" From Gavin concerning his underwear choice he was given this morning....however it's not the character on his draws he's objecting to (although I can't say that I blame him for not wanting two big eyes, a large orange nose with a smiling face planted on his rear end all day) but no he is pissed because yet again we have put him in underwear--something he's been wearing for over a month now but from time to time Gavin likes to pick something--scratch that, every flippin' day he picks something if not several somethings to throw a massive headache creating fit. Over something we are making him do...of course some might say it's not worth the fight but if you see how often we avoid the fight with him you would understand that at some point we just have to put our foot down. He is one opinionated little boy and by gholly at 2 years old the only opinion should be ours! Right? Currently he's alternating from "No unnerwear" to "No elmo" to "I don't yike Elmo!" So I will take his Elmo clad booty up here to see if another character or a sans character underwear choice will make him happy...and in turn the whole house happy. Oh the joys!

Foggy Bottom

Yesterday a last minute decision was made to head our happy little fam out to Foggy Bottom to rent our happy little fam canoe's and hit the Harpeth River. We invited my dad along because we weren't sure how all 5 of us would fit into one canoe and being that I have only been canoeing one time we knew I shouldn't be tossed into one boat on my own much less with a kid or two as well. Granted I did seem to catch onto it pretty quickly on my one trip last year I surely did not and do not feel ok managing my own "ship". That and we knew my dad would probably love to come along with us. So we packed lunches, towels, drinks, changes of clothes, first aid kits, sunscreen, and bug spray and took off for the great outdoors! The Harpeth is a great place to go for families and beginner's because it is very calm and quite shallow thru most of the trip. Anyway the kids did WONDERFUL. My Dad and I took Gavin in our canoe and Robert had Jakeb and Zachary with him. Gavin sat right in front of me happy as could be the entire trip. And Jakeb and Zachary sat just like they should and did great! It went much better than we would have thought and there was no whining, no crying, no fighting, nothing....all smooth sailing. We had al lot of fun and will definitely be adding it to our list of things to do. I would LOVE to share photos with you from our trip...the boys first canoe trip, but lovely me who did BRING a camera did NOT think to make sure the good ole p&s had a darn memory card in it. So I pop it out to start snapping pics and get nothing, I was so upset :( We did manage a few with Robert's camera phone but we know how that looks...hopefully they will do. We will make more trips though so we will get pictures eventually!

And there's more....

Posted the rest of the photos from the Workshop on the Lilac Hill blog!

For those interested...

in checking out some of my photos from the workshop I attended a week or so ago...check out the photo blog link on the right...or HERE

A Talker...

I.like.to.talk. Unfortunately for me....it seems that no one around shares my same passion for nonsense. Damnit....my conversations are usually with someone listening and me going on and on...I know this, I really do so I stop give whatever person I am rambling on to a chance to spark up some interesting conversation...hell it doesn't have to be interesting even, but 9 times out of 10 they just don't take the bait and sit there in silence...(perhaps trying to make sense of what I just said)Yet on I go because really the silence makes me a bit uneasy. Don't get me wrong I love silence infact I am enjoying some "silence" right now but when I am on the phone or with other people the silence leaves me feeling odd. Robert and I can sit in silence for a bit and I can deal with that but really after a while I am want to scream...I start fidgeting, doing annoying things, twitching you know the normal stuff. My mom and I can talk and talk but poo for her she works and can't talk to me throughout the day for hours at a time. Oy vey...woe is me. So here I sit.....talking to space....
Anyway yeah funny kid stories for the day...
I came outside today as Jakeb was walking up from the bus, he had quite a bummed look on his face so I asked him "what is that look for?" and he blurts out quite dramatically..."Friendship is OVER with Melody!!" (Melody lives in our neighborhood and is in Jakeb's class for a 2nd year now and Jakeb says she is his "girlfriend because she is a girl and she is his friend") I of course ask why and what happened and he tells me that "she was being mean to him and not telling him her secrets" oh young love...the drama...
After Jakeb's piano we walked down to this little pizza joint of off Main...during dinner Zachary decides he wants Jakeb's lemonade takes a few sips and stops to tell me "this helps me not have to dig in my butt" seriously where the hell does he come up with this. We have been having issues with him constantly scratching himself which we are hopefully resolving with some good ole booty cream but OMG at dinner...at a restaurant...and because of lemonade?! I told him to hush and NEVEr say that at the table again and of course he keeps saying "but it weally does help" I informed him I seriously doubt that lemonade would fix that problem and it was dropped but geesh he's nasty.
On to my quietness I suppose....it's 8pm and all kids are safely in their beds...