HE'S ON FIRE!

My boy is on fire! Last weeks game was for the most part uneventful except for a few flags but this week he was back on track!! FOUR TOUCHDOWNS AND SIX FLAGS THIS MORNING!!!

He was hot! So proud! He was juking, running and diving like a little pro. I guess Martez taught him how to juke this week and he is really good at it. He was the star today well at least in our eyes. One of the parents not realizing we were Elijah's parents said they need to stop letting him run the ball the other kids can't catch up and who taught him how to juke and stiffarm (oops that is illegal) and Martez proudly spoke up - Me, that's my boy! Another parent commented on how fast he was and I proudly said he gets it from me! HA!

I hate football but watching him play and enjoy it makes me so proud to be his mom. Well we have to go now to go to his second game today - a makeup game. He is aiming for six next time!

Our cheerleaders - how cute is that!

THE NICEST INSULT EVER

I had to go to Neighborhood Wal-Mart tonight to get a few groceries and was verbally attacked and loved every minute of it!!!! Weird I know but you will understand why in a sec. I was on the bread aisle and stopped to get a loaf but stopped since a couple was about to walk in front of me. She stopped but when I went to reach across her to grab the bread she started to walk again. I said, "Oh I am sorry I thought you stopped." OK so I apologized but she was not happy. She says, "You better watch where you are going you stupid skinny white bitch!" WHAT SKINNY YES!!!! I reply with "Thank you I do believe that was the nicest insult I have ever received!" She said "What?" with a go to hell look. So I answered with "I've been called a bitch. I don't think I've been called stupid but I KNOW I've never in my life been called skinny so thank you that was sweet!" Seriously it was like skinny was all that mattered. I don't think in my entire life I've been called skinny but since she was easily about 400lbs I guess I was skinny to her. Normally I wouldn't let that crap fly and would flip out but since she called me skinny and she could've easily kicked my ass if she didn't weeble wobble down the aisle first after my attempt I let it all go and smiled!!! Don't get me wrong I don't have physical altercations at the Neighborhood Wal-mart but you don't talk to me that way and not get an earful in return! I think my reply really threw her off because then she said "Ok grab your bread pretty girl. Sorry about that but you are too funny to be mad at!" Gotta love neighborhood Wal-Mart!!!

THINGS CHANGE!

For years Martez has been wanting to go to an OU football game since he has never been. Our anniversary is Sept 27 so I decide to surprise him a little early with OU/TU tickets, I have been to OU games before when I was little but I am NOT much of a football fan unless it is my boy playing but I sucked it up and bought him tickets. That's the way love goes....are you singing?! It was really cute Friday when I gave him an OU shirt with the tickets he said, "Are they real?" No I thought I would get you a shirt and some fake tickets silly! Well we get to the game and discover our seats suck and there is no entry/exit aisle near our seats so we had to climb over about 30 people to get to our seats. Sadly this also meant we would have to climb over those same people to use the restroom or get a drink. Needless to say we didn't pee or drink the entire game and I thought I could died by the 4th quarter! The game went on and on and on.........! Never again will I go to a televised football game! They stop everything for commercial breaks and you sit there. I guess I should've been happy since that was the only time we got to sit. Man was that irritating! Standing for almost 4 hours elbow to elbow is not fun especially if you have plantar fasciitis!! I don't get it why can't they sit down to watch the game. I know our seats sucked but really you can see from anywhere until that one row of people stands and slowly but surely EVERYONE behind stands up row after row. THEN I think the man behind me had something wrong with him like maybe tourettes and I tried not to get annoyed since he couldn't help it I don't think but after the first hour my sympathy wore VERY thin! You can't even imagine how I was after 4 hours!! He would just shout any and all random football words which normally had nothing to do with the current plays. Then he just started yelling things that other people were talking about. One man talking to his friend said the refs needed to go back to Oregon so he yelled "GO BACK TO OREGON!" Then some lady said "what was that" so he yelled "WHAT WAS THAT?!?!?" Take into consideration these people were some of the few not yelling but he made sure to yell out there random personal conversations. Then for hours he yelled "HEY TU YOU ARE LOSING!" Finally I said, "I think they probably know that and they can't hear you anyway no matter how loud and often you yell." This of course didn't stop anything and I wish I could say he was drunk but he wasn't drinking nor did he smell of alcohol since I think I would've been drunk off his breath since he was so close to me. I started feeling like I could hear him even when he wasn't yelling like his voice was stuck inside my head. He hit me in the back of the head about 6 million times and the guy beside him got mad about a call and karate chopped my shoulder and brought tears to my eyes. Martez was not real happy about that but I asked him not to say or do anything since I didn't want to be crushed by an angry mob if a fight ensued especially since we had no exit aisle. But you gotta love when your man would fight for you, I guess! Anyway I tried to enjoy or at least pretend to enjoy the game for Martez's sake but I can't say I wasn't ecstatic when he said we could leave when there was ten minutes left!! YIPPEE! Afterwards we went to the bar where we met about 7 years ago. We haven't been there in almost 6.5 years but have been together ever since so don't say anything about meeting people in bars. Needless to say the bar much like ourselves has had a total overhaul! It was nothing like it was then. They knocked out walls, rearranged and added on a room which now hosts live bands. The live band was hardcore rock 'n roll playing hits from today and all the back to the 80s. We aren't really rock 'n roll/metal people but the 15 people who were there were really nice. They asked what brought us there. When we told them we met there 7 years ago and now we are married with two children but we just wanted to reminisce a little, I got a free beer, woohoo! We stayed about 45 min then went home! All in all we had a great night because we were together without children for once!!!

USE YOUR COMMON SENSE!!

One of my biggest pet peeves is stupid or repetitive questions and I just so happen to have an example. Today at work I was remerchandising an entire twenty four foot aisle of merchandise. Stuff everywhere, replacing hooks, moving labels.....the list could go on and on basically creating a huge mess to make the aisle look better!! A customer comes up to me and asks, "Do you work here?" Seriously! My answer was "yes how can I help you?". My thoughts were "No you freaking idiot I am just a loyal customer who thought this entire aisle needed a change so I volunteered. Yes I work here but I refuse to help people who ask obviously stupid questions!!" Man that crap gets on my nerves. Can we say common sense??? Or I ask an employee to price some stuff and she asks how. Okay let's see you've worked her for almost a year - call me crazy but my guess would be a price gun!!!! Bad few weeks at work obviously so everything is annoying the crap out of me!

THAT'S MY BOY!

Elijah had his first flag football game this morning and it was hilarious and he did SO good! He is playing flag this year to see if he even likes football then he will do tackle next year if he wants. Well the first time he got the ball he ran half way down the field with no one even near him then STOPPED! I do mean completely stopped and stood there! The whole crowd was shouting and laughing "RUN RUN RUN!" It was like Forrest Gump all over again! His reply, "Wait they need to catch up!" Freaking hilarious sometimes I think he may be too nice! I would like to credit his TWO touchdowns afterwards to me because he only learned to run that fast because of running with me far behind him when he is in trouble! HAHA! Two touchdowns in his first game simply amazing and that's MY boy!!! He is a fast little runner! I always thought I was just really slow but he was really fast like Flash was his response! I guess he channeled Flash's running powers! Both touchdowns were great no one was even close to him! Good thing, here he comes NFL (well if he wants to) pay him well so he can take care of Momma. Can you imagine NFL salaries by the time he would play? Dream on Angela dream on! I don't think football overpowers his dream to be the next Steve Irwin, a zookeeper or whale trainer at Sea World yet!

OVER HOMEWORKED

Elijah started kindergarten and has way more homework than I ever imagined. I didn't even expect daily homework let alone projects every weekend. I mean it is like I told my friend I didn't have homework at his age and I turned out to be a genius so what's the deal!! At first I thought maybe Elijah wasn't completing his work in class so I asked the teacher who replied with no he is doing great in class that is assigned homework for all of my students. My friend's daughter is in the class across the hall from Elijah and she has homework but as of now not as much as him. What the crap - he is five!! They are going to burn him out before first grade and it is only the first month! I need to start Isaiah on reading and writing now at age 2 because when he starts he'll be doing book reports on the first week! Ugh!! Anyway so tonight at football practice one of Elijah's friends is on the team so I was talking to his mom and a mom who I know from his soccer team who is a kindergarten teacher and they both said he has way too much! The teacher said yes she assigns homework unlike many of her fellow teachers who do not but she only does it 2 days a week and it's something like write your name 5 times or color something. The other mom said Avery who is also in kindergarten hasn't even had homework yet. WHAT! Hasn't had homework! She also said the books he has been coming home with to learn how to read in two days are the same books her daughter got in first grade! So far Elijah has been able to handle the load as long as I break it up instead of making him do it in one sitting but I really don't want him to hate school and burn out now! Little boys don't want to sit and write their name 50 times after being in school all day - get real!! This is the first weekend out of the past four that he hasn't had a weekend project thank you God! He has handwriting homework for two nights which right now consists of tracing his name 25 times then writing it on his own 25 times, a rhyming maze and coloring worksheet twice a week, a book to learn how to read for two nights amidst the other projects and papers we have had to do! I am worn out so I can't imagine how he feels! I realized at one point I would have to deal with the homework issue but I NEVER ever thought it would be now in kindergarten at age 5!

COMPLETELY THROWN OUT - SIDELINED

So tonight Elijah wanted to play board games and decided he wanted to learn how to play checkers!! YES - I love checkers since playing with my dad for hours when I was younger! However he wanted to play with daddy! :( Oh well I watched in amusement the longest game of checkers EVER!!!!! Martez tried and tried to make Elijah understand you can only move on certain squares in certain directions and he tried to teach him to jump but Elijah wouldn't pick up the checkers he jumped instead picking up random checkers. Well after the neverending first game Martez said he could play again so I jumped in to "help" Elijah aka take over the game and woop Martez's butt!! I kept telling Elijah where to move and wouldn't allow him to move certain men because we had 8 kings left and Martez had 5 which were all trapped by "my" oops Elijah's men. And how dare Elijah try to destroy my unique and crafty trapping skills. Martez had absolutely no where to go unless Elijah moved the wrong man. THEN IT HAPPENED DO DO DO DO! Elijah spewed the words I loathed and cut to the core: Mommy can I play by myself now without your "help"! Oh the pain it was like a stab in the back and my response was: No I am too invested in this game now to quit! You always have to finish what you start son! Very mature I know so quit thinking it! I coordinated another move and again I get "Please I just want to play daddy!" Way to hit below the belt! As he is saying this he moves the wrong man and gets triple jumped and I gave up not being able to handle the rejection and loss that was about to occur from his inexperience and unwillingness to cooperate with my "help"! Anyone up for a game of checkers with the queen!

LABOR DAY

We went to Branson over Labor Day weekend. We really like going to Branson. I know I know some of you doubters are thinking isn't it all country.....NO! There is so much to do there. We go about twice a year and still haven't even seen probably a quarter of what they have to offer and we have yet to see anything country. There is something for every age a Branson. It is close and family friendly. Helpful hint though if you go get a good map with the back road shortcuts called Yellow Route, Blue Route and Red Route. It will save you a ton of time b/c the main strip HW76 can get VERY busy!! Anyway let's see......this time we played Pirate Golf, went to Silver Dollar City, went go-carting, went to the Butterfly Palace and Rainforest Exhibit, rode the ducks over Table Rock Lake, went to the Landings and went to two Outlet Malls (my favorite part always!) We have so much fun everytime we go! Let's see just a few helpful tips for anyone interested.....hmmmm....I already told you about the shortcut routes.......if you go to Silver Dollar City, go on a weekday if possible this includes Friday. The lines for the rides are cut by about 75% on weekdays. Riding the Ducks is actually fun and educational. We've been many times and never rode them but finally we did and loved it. Go in the cooler part of the day. If you have kids, at some point on the lake the captain of the Duck will turn it onto auto pilot and allow the kids to sit in the seat so you can have a picture of them driving the boat and then after the ride you get a free Captain's License (cool if you scrapbook like me). The Landings is the new downtown area of Branson. It is all new condos, hotels, and shopping with a lot of the mall type stores on the river or lake or whatever it is down there. They do a water/light show like the Bellagio in Vegas in the evening and then they will also have street musicians for entertainment. The Butterfly and Rainforest Exhibit is cool. They actually have 3 shopping centers with outlets but like all outlets you should know just b/c a store says outlet doesn't mean it is cheaper. The Children's Place outlet has great deals. You need to watch Old Navy b/c a lot of it isn't outlet pricing. The Tommy Kids store has good clearance along with the Levi outlet, Gymboree, Coach usually ends up being half of half (woohoo if you like Coach), Carter's and Osh Kosh normally have some good deals.....and I am going to stop there to put in my slide show.............sorry I rambled

THE NASTY

Warning to Christy you may not want to read this since some things about the body are better left unsaid!!!!! OK so last week went pretty good I even let Elijah walk to class with two friends on Thursday after I walked to him to the main door. I might add I have been asking him daily and he actually didn't want me to stop walking him at all!! Yes isn't it great to feel needed!!! Alas I pushed him on with his friends and watched for a minute from the window. I bet the office workers crack up at the kindergarten parents every new school year!! I then had to take Isaiah to his meet the teacher! It went especially well since his teachers from last year moved up and will be his teachers again this year! Yippee.....no screaming for him!!!! It was also nice to see they covered the toddler playground and fixed the grass, laid new tile inside, installed cameras in the rooms so you can get online and watch your kid (how cool is that).......glad to see my money is going somewhere!!! I also found out they started teaching kindergarten this year sure would've been nice to know that when I was dealing with the whole enrollment fiasco!!! But since public school is free I think I will stick with that for now! ANYWAY I worked, went to the chiropractor, went home then went with Martez to Parent night at Elijah's school for the class meeting with Miss Personality. She just talked about what they would be doing the whole year, what is expected of your child, dress code, PTA.....blah.......! Well an hour later after sitting in our child's seat in a childsize chair I realized I went to the chiro on the wrong day boy was that a waste of money. Do they not realize you can't put two parents into one child's spot at a miniature table and expect to keep that many spots at each table!! And they are the teachers!!! Well I got up and I stumbled and told Martez I was dizzy all the sudden. At first I said maybe it is because my oversize adult hinny was in the mini chair meant for a 5yr old and somehow it cut off circulation to something!! We signed up to do the whole class parent deals - I must say Martez was so excited but he is corny that way- and left. When we got in the car I instantly had a terrible headache. We went to get the boys at my moms and then my throat hurt really bad and I was hot but freezing with goosebumps everywhere. I said I think I must be getting something but I've been fine all day! I took Tylenol which brought the fever down some and eradicated the headache. Friday morning I got Elijah off to school and informed him there was no way mommy could walk him in. I went home and crashed! I called the doc and no appts so I went to urgent care after my friend said her and her other friend both had strep throat so I should go get some meds. Ok thanks but next time could you mention that BEFORE me and my family come near you!!!!!! Man that ticks me off! I hate it when people invite you over and they or someone in the family are sick or they bring sick kids to your house!!!! That has to be my biggest pet peeve and it happens again later!! Seriously can you be that stupid! If you don't know that is one thing but well you should just know!!!!!!!!!! I went to Urgent Care told him my symptoms all of which went with Strep but when he tested me he said and I quote "It isn't strep but whatever it is turned up to be one NASTY virus! Haven't seen something like that in awhile!" He sounded like he was in a sort of weird awe of the pain going on in my throat then proceeded to tell me my lungs sounded tight. What? I didn't even mention the chest since it didn't hurt YET but my throat was raw! So he put me on decongestant, an antibiotic in case I had a little some bacterial too, an albuterol inhaler which at the time I didn't understand and still don't since it is only immediate relief, and told to alternate tylenol and ibuprofen until the fever has been completely gone for at least 24 hours if not more!! It only went down hill from there! Today has been my VERY first day since Thursday night that I haven't had a fever. I have taken 5 million showers and am still paranoid I smell like sweat! I also have had to alternate tylenol and ibuprofen every three hours and with everything I had to take at different times I lost track of what I was taking when so with my luck I'll end up with kidney or liver damage from too much tylenol or ibuprofen which ever causes it!! Oh and get this the doctor instructions for the decongestant---take 1 every 12 hours but not in the evening since it will keep you up at night! Hello is that possible every 12 hours there has to be onein the evening! Good medicine for someone who is an insomniac coughing all night! Brilliant I tell you! Well Friday afternoon my husband's older son shows up at the door! Ok well he hasn't been over in awhile and Martez really wanted to see him so whatever just tell him to avoid me! Then Saturday morning Martez takes all the boys to the barber shop and it was wonderful. Peace and quiet! Elijah and Isaiah think every time Tez comes over they have to wrestle and fight like big boys and then someone always gets hurt and it is just a vicious cycle that I think they would learn by now but I guess that is why they have parents huh! THEN HE COMES HOME WITH SIX KIDS AND AN EXTRA ADULT!!!! You have GOT to be kidding me!! I am still mad about this one! He must've completely lost his mind to think this was ok! He had to pick up this one at his cousins then the cousins kid and his other cousin wanted to come to the barber shop! That is totally fine with me but he shouldn't have brought ANY of them back to the house. Even if your not thinking about me - which obviously he was NOT - did you stop to think about them at all!!! Do you honestly think the parents of all these kids want them to get sick and possibly pass it on to their family? I seriously doubt it! There goes the lots of rest part of the prescription! Now I go to the anger portion of the blog: I lost 8lbs in the first 48hrs from a fever average of 103.7 and going as high as 105 so far lasting 5 days (and hopefully won't return tonight because I am so sick of sweating), been to urgent care twice, I have been taking 29 pills a day, now I am doing 6 breathing treatments a day using a nebulizer, I can't eat, sleep, be around my own kids for fear of them catching the "NASTY" virus, can't work :), my house is a mess since someone can't seem to pick up and you are worried about them being "bored" at their apartment so you bring them to our house to have FUN!!! Man I am SO MAD! Did you not think maybe I want to sleep whenever I can actually fall asleep? Did you not think that maybe if I am able to get up to venture into another room that now I won't since I look like death warmed over and we have company? Did you not think that potty training Isaiah would involve actually making him SIT on the potty chair for more than two seconds instead of running around naked peeing whenever, wherever? Good thing we have wood floors and carpet cleaning machines! Did you not think that when I call your name even though I barely have any voice and haven't said more than 20 things all weekend I might need something and not yelling "what" three times expecting me to respond before coming to my aide would be really nice? Did you not think when you asked a million times that I don't know where I caught this, what it is, or who I caught it from and it really doesn't matter you are just supposed to support me and help me with whatever? It isn't my fault and I didn't have it worked into the plans for the week! What is it with husband's that are awful while their wives are sick? It is like a switch goes off and they instantly are buttheads and we are the grumpy ones! He really said Sunday morning after feeding breakfast to our guests (Yes they slept over! How sweet! Just wait until they are gone!) "I hate seeing you like this baby! I hope I don't catch it! You are just so grumpy!" I thought it was going to be a sweet comment but grumpy oh please if he was in my position he would be dying, call 911, he has to be in the hospital. He is NEVER sick so don't think I didn't want to rub all up on him but feared catching it again myself only worse the second time around! But when he is sick he is the biggest baby and everything is terminal! And me next time I am inviting over a ton of people~ anybody he knows that I don't like and don't care to get sick and allowing them to throw a major party while me and the boys go out on the town to Incredible Pizza! So by Sunday evening my future twelve pack (with all this coughing I have to be making twelve pack abs screw the six pack they hurt so bad it better be something amazing) hurt so bad and I didn't realize I kept moaning while trying to reposition on the bed and I guess Martez was in the bathroom and heard me and his response was "Are you hurting?" I instantly starting bawling hysterically and said you can't possibly be this dumb or inconsiderate to invite people over while I am sick and ask me if I am hurting. Are you kidding me? Please say that was a joke. So I went on and on about everything that was wrong with me right down to diarrhea from antibiotics to sweating buckets feeling like I was so hot I might just explode to finally coughing up mucus all day long but now all I taste is snot and the list went on and on and on and I made it gruesome for him! He actually even gagged - I was proud! I then called my mother to tell her Martez was bringing the boys over because there was no way I would be able to get them ready and drive them to school without interacting with them!! Martez took them I did a breathing treatment and fell asleep and when he got home he walked straight in and woke me up to ask if I needed anything! WHY would you wake me up??? He really is an amazing person so caring with the inability to tell others no (that is all new to him), he is a lover not a fighter, he is an amazing father and he has the most beautiful, contagious laugh and smile BUT if I am sick .zrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrrzzzppppp.....rewind because all that goes out the door!! Went to the doctor yet again yesterday and now am down to 4 breathing treatments a day until Friday because of mucus in a plug or something I think my friend Melanie has mentioned that before and it was scary! I am feeling better not good but better than I was this past weekend! Still unable to go back to work he said maybe tomorrow I said that like I missed weeks when I haven't missed but half a day yesterday because I HAD to go in yesterday for sales tax day because no one else knows how to do it! I have got to start teaching other people how to do my job! Oh and the doctor said yesterday to go ahead and take the nightly dose of the decongestant it shouldn't keep you up! RIGHT!! I did and it did! I have been going to bed about 7 every night these past 5 days sleeping about an hour and a half, up for about 2 then repeat all night long.....not last night I was up until 3 a.m. WIDE awake just sweating and coughing with no outlook for sleep. Won't be doing the decongestant at night again! I must say though there are two benefits to the ever elusive "NASTY" virus: 1) you lose weight due to excessive sweating from a very long drawn out fever and 2) it in no way involves your nose!! No stuffiness, no running it's great I think if the nose was stopped up too I would have rather been shot like wounded cattle but it is only throat and chest nastiness and trust me it is nasty! I love The Never Ending Story - don't ask me why just accept and move on - and I feel like I am fighting the NASTY like they were the the NOTHING!!! I think I will go watch that now! Oh Elijah is such a sweet boy he came home from school yesterday and said "Mommy I love you millions and millions and I am so sorry you are sick! I hope you get better soon so you can read to me because Daddy won't do the cool voices!" He is so sweet and I said "I love you too baby and because I love you I need you to stay out of mommy's room so you don't get sick and you should go practice cool voices of your own" He did and then I heard a coughing which was promptly followed by my prayers asking God to only make it allergies because I can't fight The Nasty for both of us right now!!!

MY 5YR OLD HIGH SCHOOL BOY

My baby started school today. I cannot believe he is old enough for school. It seems like I just had him! Today was his first day of kindergarten. I am in shock he is old enough but I didn't cry. I thought I would not because I don't think he is ready or I'll miss him but simple because he is starting a whole new adventurous chapter in life - school!! Maybe the crying is more for stay at home moms - tears of joy for more free time and tears of sadness for not knowing what to do without their child in tow! Me - I am used to not seeing him all day since I am at work all day. I think my mom is more upset than I am especially since Martez will get off earlier now and will be picking both the boys up from school. I have been very blessed to have my mom watch the boys when they got out of Wee Ministries at two everyday which I might mention is an amazing learning program for children and my boys have both been there forever! My mom is upset and insisting to pick them up a couple of days a week because Martez "must" have something to do! She said I need to wean her off slowly. My mom and the boys are obsessed with each other but I am sooooooo glad they have the relationship they do. She has kept Elijah since he was six months and had Isaiah since he was 6 weeks. They both went to Wee but she had them when they got out and all day on Monday so they are all addicted to one another. I told her no in hopes that she will keep them more often on the weekends so me and Martez can go out on dates since I wouldn't let her watch them on the weekends before because she had them all week!! Yippee maybe we will actually be able to go out more often!! I call Elijah's new school "big kid" school or kindergarten but he is jumping years ahead and calling it high school. I am more panicked about his teacher that seems to have no tact or personality or maybe that is just towards me or maybe just adults. Hopefully she isn't that way for the children or this could be a long year. The thing that scares me the most is letting him walk into the school then to class alone. Ahhhhh! How would I know he actually made it to the classroom? Would they call asking where he is? For this week I will be walking him to class for my own peace of mind then next week I will also be taking my friend's little girl every morning so maybe I won't be as anxious if they walk in together since they are both in kindergarten across the hall from each other. What are the odds of them losing each other and getting lost somewhere in the building? Hopefully small! Check out the new slideshow it is his first day of school pics with the outfit he picked out and he did a pretty fine job if I say so myself. I have taught him well. If I could only get Martez to match his clothes that well! lol Elijah even wanted to do a photo shoot with his own modeling poses. It was so funny! God I love this boy he is so handsome and he cracks me up!!!

THE SLITHERY STRANGER

My neighbors called their mortgage company back in September to tell them they would no longer be making payments and planned on declaring bankruptcy. They declared bankruptcy, divorced, and moved there separate ways. She didn't move out until March but it has been empty since. They have a pool and hot tub in the backyard aka breeding grounds for mosquitoes and frogs. In April I hooked up the pool in an attempt to empty it to ward off the mosquitoes and frogs! No such luck they had already begun their vicious cycle and you can only empty a pool so much and even that took two days. Needless to say we have a major infestation of mosquitoes and the boys can't play outside without being eaten alive and the mosquitoes always manage to make it in the house too! The boys enjoy catching the hundreds of frogs we have in the yard. We even have two rather large ones that come every night to sit under our front outside light to eat the bugs it attracts! Anyway the yard is out of control!!! I went several months ago to trim around the fence area since some weeds were poking through our fence. WOW! I opened the gate and had to walk with the weed eater in front of me to even create a path and ended up weed eating about half of the yard. It was unreal! Most of it was to my mid-thigh but other spots were up to my neck. I was really scared small forest creatures would attack me for destroying their home!! I called Helen, the neighbor, to tell her how bad it was - we are friends but she just said I am so sorry! Sorry really doesn't help me much now does it!! But I don't want to make her mad since she is also my hairstylist and I like my hair right now!! Well we have managed to keep the front mowed and edged since it is small and we just do it when we do ours. However the back is a completely different story! Martez tried to go in the other side of the fence but of course that half of the yard has not been mowed since only God knows when so it was taller than him and he could not even get back there. The side closer to our house wasn't as bad since I had weedeated part of it before but the mower won't fit through that side of course. Well now months later it is sooooooo freaking tall in the back and the mosquitoes are out of control! I was telling all of this to get to this: this morning I hear Elijah yelling at Isaiah then he comes in the bathroom to tell me there is a snake in the house. He is in to telling tall tales now so I didn't believe him until he was yelling at me about in tears that he wasn't lying. He said Isaiah kept trying to pick it up calling it a worm but he shut Isaiah in his room! Martez and I go out there and sure enough there was a snake between the backdoor and the dining room table! Granted it was just a baby but who wants a wild snake in there house with two small children. Sure as hell not me! So I called Helen and asked her to call her ex to see if he could arrange someone to tear down the forest because when I call the city they will charge him anyway! Well when and if they ever get around to it! So today we did our normal yard work which includes their front yard and now I am planning on going to the other neighbors to ask them to also call the city and complain about the yard, mosquitoes, snakes, etc and hopefully if enough of us call it will get taken care of sooner. I know the other neighbors are sick of it because a couple of them will stop every time we mow it and thank us for keeping it mowed, but I guess they aren't bothered enough to pitch in and take turns!!!! Gee there's a thought! But hopefully they are bothered enough to just make a phone call because if I can just get someone to cut the back I will try my hardest to keep it up until one day their foreclosure takes effect and it gets sold!! For now I will be dropping moth balls over the fence since my mom said that will hopefully keep the snakes from sneaking into our yard! Doubt it!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

I haven't been able to blog in soooooo long and I actually miss it! I know it probably sounds corny but I love to tell stories! We have been soooooo incredibly busy since we got back from the family reunion. It has been absolutely insane and hopefully it will calm down soon because I really need to do some major housework!!! We got back from Iowa and instantly started helping my mom and dad sort through their zillion belongings to prepare to empty their house to get their piers done for the fifth time! That Olshan commercial is a bunch of crap!!!!! Well we helped sort, had a garage sale, took ten days to move them out putting some stuff into a storage unit and the furniture returning to the house into the garage. While the pier work was being done we then helped his mom and four adopted children move from a 3 bdrm house into an apartment for about 5 days. THEN we had to help repair cracks in my parents house and paint after the cement was poured to fix the giant floor cracks, the carpet cleaned and then stretched. Then we helped them move the main furnishings back into the house and put some decorations back up to "stage" it so they can hopefully sell it however we had to hurry since my uncle, his girlfriend, my cousin and his girlfriend were coming from Illinois to stay for a week followed by my parents best friends from Iowa. In the midst of all the moving there was work, July 4th, SIX children birthday parties, decorating for one adult surprise bday party, Elijah lost his first tooth and had to get three shots to go to school, my car brokedown, the whole enrolling Elijah in school fiasco (it was an awful, stressful, complicated, anger inducing.........experience and all I have to say is it is a bunch of CRAP!!!), flag football evaluations and then Elijah got croup AGAIN! So now 5 weeks later I think it is all over and he starts school in one week followed the next week by football! Man do I need a vacation and a maid!