Lions, tigers and sweat oh my!

Yesterday, our friends the Kelley's came over and loaded Jake, Emma and I into their enormous rental car and we all headed off to the Austin zoo. The boys had been wanting a play date and we thought this would be fun for all. Ya'll. It was approximately the temperature of the sun yesterday. After about ten minutes the two least among us were completely sweaty and red cheeked. We all followed suit shortly after.

However, the kids did have fun feeding some goats and sheep (paper bag and all, sorry mr. sheep!) The two things the boys kept saying they wanted to see were the tigers and lions. We finally made it over to their homes and they were the only animals at the zoo who were not too hot to move around for some reason. The tigers were pacing and there was a big male lion lying around with his lady friend. Well, I guess he forgot to bring home the right thing for lunch or something because they started bickering. There was much growling and throwing back of the heads. I think I even saw them biting each other.

I was all "great! someone's doing something!" Just as I said that the big, ticked off male let out the biggest roar I've ever heard and came charging straight at us at approximatley the speed of a charging lion. Luckily for us, there was a metal cage between him and our children. Unlucky for him, he hit the metal cage at full speed and totally smushed his face in it. I felt sorry for him, but I mean he was trying to eat us. Jake started crying and is now traumatized for life about lions. This isn't the first time a male lion has roared at him and tried to eat him either. It happened once in Amarillo. Therefore, I have made a vow to never take Jake on safari.

Summer Fun

My parents came to visit last weekend for my niece, Katie's, birthday. I took the kids to my sister's house Sunday to see everyone and to help celebrate her big day. I wish I had taken a picture of Katie with the yummy cake Cheryl made for her. I cannot believe she is 15 years old. It seems like just yesterday she was keeping me up all night talking about how unfair life is when you're the youngest one in the family. When she was little we used to bunk together at my parents house over Christmas. She always made me laugh with her stories. Now, she's almost all grown up and she still makes me laugh. I love that girl!

We had a nice time with my parents too. They came and stayed with us for a couple days. Jake and Emma started missing them as soon as they got in the car to leave! Now, they're stuck at home with just boring old mama.

However, boring mama and daddy did take them out to the swimming pool yesterday morning. It was our first trip of the summer and they loved it! We put Emma in Jake's old swim vest and let Jake play in the water with no floatation device on. I'm not sure how long that's going to last. He did fine, but it kind of makes me a nervous wreck. I think swim lessons are long over due here.

Bananas, baubles, and budgets

We are trying to get caught up on a few bills around here. Summer is fast approaching which means I won't be at my part time job for three months. And due to the fact that we are driving around two cars that are both from the 1990's decade and the fact that I developed allergies that occasionally "act up" we have incurred some unforseen expenses this year.

All that to say, I'm dusting off the Dave Ramsey book and trying really hard to keep us on a budget. The hardest part for me has been that our budget doesn't have an "oh, that would look really cute on Emma" section. I think that cute clothes should be a need but Dave Ramsey seems to think that they are a "want." I also think that Jake "needs" for us to renew our Sea World passes for this year so he can visit his beloved Shamu, but again Dave disagrees.

So, once we gave up fashion and theme park fun the only other place I could really find for us to cut expenses was food. This includes dining out. We used to go out to lunch a couple times a week. Over. Gone. And it's really not that bad. I have found that I'm happy eating a sandwich at home. Okay, happy is a strong word. I'm okay eating a sandwich at home.

And I'm really trying to make sure that the food we do buy is locally grown and that we don't waste anything. And this is why my children are driving me crazy. They are prone to begging me for hours for a banana and then finally getting that banana only to eat one or two bites and claim they are "DONE". Oh, no you're not. You will eat that entire banana and you will love it. However, it is really hard to force feed banana to a child who has his/her mouth closed in defiance. This may have led me to go on a rant the other day which ended in the phrase "it's like ya'll think bananas grow on trees or something!"

Then I realized that bananas do indeed grow on trees. Note to self. Make sure crazy rants are scientifically accurate so children will continue to think you know everything. It is your last defense.

Tonight at dinner, I learned that my children were beginning to reap the rewards of our new found budgeting skills. Jake was talking about wanting a whale shark toy. So Mike asked him if he had any money to buy one. At first, Jake pointed to my change jar and said "yeah, there's some money." His face just fell when Mike reminded him that was mama's money, not his. Five seconds later his face lit up again as he informed us he had a great idea! So, tomorrow Jake is heading off to the local money festival. I plan on following him because, ya'll, I didn't know they even had those!

Picture Perfect???

I have spent the last year trying to get really cute pictures of the kids to put on canvas. I want three canvases. One with a picture of Emma, one with a picture of Jake and one with a picture of them together. I think they would look really cute hanging up in the playroom. The problem is that I cannot get cute pictures of the children anymore. Emma is constantly turning her head away and Jake is constantly giving me a cheesy grin that does not look like himself at all. This was my latest attempt. Does anyone have some tips about getting cute, candid photos of small children?

Our little Tinker

You know what happens when Mike and Emma go to Target by themselves? She comes home with a fully loaded Tinkerbell costume, that's what. It's a little big but I'm sure she'll grow into it.

Mama's Day

I had a nice Mother's Day this year. I got my favorite flowers-purple tulips. Mike had to go to work but he managed to get up early and surprise me with breakfast in bed. He and the kids brought me cream cheese stuffed french toast and a yogurt parfait. Yum. They brought me the food on a tray and left it in bed for me and then they all went out to the kitchen to eat together. I have to admit I was lonely. I rolled myself out of bed (which takes some time these days) and took my plate into the kitchen to eat with my peeps. I also have to say I have some sort of weird feelings about eating in bed. It seems kind of gross. Not to mention the fact that I can't get comfy because we have no headboard to lean up against. I just prefer to eat at a table. Thoughts?

The kids and I hung out at home rather than going to church. I really wanted to be at church but sitting causes me great pain these days and the thirty minute car ride didn't seem like something I should subject myself to on Mother's Day. So, instead we played a little Chris Rice and Doug Crowder Band on the you-tube and had a service at home.

I played the Mother's Day card all day long. You know the one where the kids are hitting each other or whining or complaining and you say "I really wish ya'll could act nice today since it's Mother's Day." Or "it would be really great if you could obey mommy today since we're celebrating the fact that I gave you life." Have any other mama's out there played that card? Surely I'm not the only one. It worked like a charm on Jake. Emma, however, seems to be too young to be influenced by guilt. She still managed to be a little stinker.

I love my babies though and am happy to finally get to celebrate being a mama. I'll leave you with a conversation I had with Jake today. We were sitting on the couch when he looked at me and said "mommy, I have sticky hair." So, I'm looking at his hair to see what he managed to get in there at lunch time but then I see that he is looking at the hair on his legs. So I said "whatever do you mean, Jacob?" And he said that someone must have put glue on his legs before they put the fur on there because no matter how hard he tried to pull that hair off his legs it just keeps sticking!

Spidermen

Jake and Emma love to watch Spiderman cartoons. I think their favorite part is the opening sequence where they play the song. It's actually pretty catchy. They will come running from any room in the house if they hear this song to dance and fly around the room pretending to be Spiderman.

Poor Emma is very confused about the difference between good guys and bad guys. She is constantly telling us she's going to go get the good guys and that Spiderman is a bad guy. But look at those dance moves. She reminds me of my good old days dancing on speakers at Polyesther's. Of course, I didn't have my hand down the back of my pants like she does. And the two songs that could get me up there were Jessie's Girl and Dancing Queen NOT the theme song from Spiderman. Still, I'm strangely pleased that the need for climbing up onto the highest possible furniture to shake her groove thing has been passed down from mother to daughter.

Another day another tonsil update

We made it through our first week back of school/work since Jake had his surgery. He is doing much better and made it through today feeling good. He woke up yesterday morning and ate three cereal bars in a row. It was so funny. He had been begging for a cereal bar for several days but when he tried to eat them they were just too much for his throat. Yesterday was a different story. I guess he figured if he could eat one, he might as well eat three. Sounds like me with a pan of brownies. Only I figure if I can eat one brownie I might as well eat half the pan.

We spent a good portion of Saturday at the emergency room with him. His throat started bleeding in the middle of the night and he swallowed a lot of blood. So on Saturday morning I was in the middle of a hot bath trying to relax my back muscles so I could do things like move around, walk and sit down. I'm such a diva. Jake and Emma came wandering into the bathroom because they can't leave me alone for more than oh let's say two minutes. Emma was busy trying to determine if she was a good guy or a bad guy when Jake started crying non stop. Then he started throwing up blood. It was disgusting and scary and I was like a beached whale trying to get myself out of the bathtub. Nothing like having an emergency with one of your children on a day when you can't move. We spent the next four hours at the ER with Jake crying and kicking every single medical person who dared enter into our presence. And to the girl who HAD to take his temperature rectally, I'm sorry but you deserved exactly what you got. Leave him alone already! The Dr. finally sent us home with strict instructions to have Jake on an all liquid diet for the next 48 hours. It seemed to work because now I'm seeing our little boy rally to make a come back. If you or your child ever need to get your tonsils removed call me first because I'll tell you everything the medical profession won't so you'll be prepared for all of the drama.

The three year olds were crazy with a capital CRAZ-Y today. I couldn't wait to get home and cuddle on the couch with my peeps. Here are some pictures we took at the park right before Jake went under the knife. I'm hoping to get him back out there in a couple of days.