From Tween to Teen: Happy 13th Liam

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIAM
stay sweet and happy
WE LOVE YOU

My baby, my sweet little innocent baby is turning 13 today. We cannot believe it. Not only does it make me sad, it makes me wish he was just so little again and I could rock him to sleep every night and make everything better for him. He is 13 going on 30 and I am not kidding. Brent and I are just amazed at how fast time flies by (when you're having fun) I guess. He's so little for his age but he's growing. He's actually grown about two inches since the end of the school year last year and he now weighs 75 pounds. Yeah, we made it to the mid-70# mark before high school. Bad thing is the little fart eats night and day. He eats more than my friends 12-13 year olds who tower over Liam. He loves being little and fast. He loves track and being the fastest kid on his soccer team. He is so funny with the "being fast" and yet in everyday life he moves sooo slow. He talks slow, he eats slow, he walks slow. He is never in a hurry. Unless he's playing soccer or running. Some days I'll call him a sloth and tell him I'm going to have to mount a camera on him just to make sure he is moving when we fast forward it. I guess it will only get worse as the teenage attitude is starting to rear its ugly head. But in his case I'll say damn cute little head if you ask me, but then again, I am his mom. His friend at school is 5'10" and weighs 175 pounds. Can you imagine what they look like hanging around together? LOL That's almost as big as Brent!



So today is his birthday and we have a soccer game out of town at 4pm so I'm trying to do this really quickly so we can load up and leave. Then we're having dinner at his favorite seafood place and doing cake and ice cream. He really wanted an IPOD touch for his birthday and we kept saying no, no, no but guess what he got. YUP, we broke down the other night at the mall and got it for him. Hey, he's a good kid, says yes ma'am and no ma'am and makes straight A's in honors classes. I think the kid deserved it and so did his daddy. He was so happy. I told him we'd give him some $ and let him pick out his own gift and I could see the disappointment in his eyes. So I guess the surprise this morning was all the more better because he had no idea he was actually getting one. He said he knew he'd get it for Christmas if he didn't get it for his birthday. I hate when they're right all the time.


Anyway, doing the hurricane clean-up crap day after day and whittling my way through major cleansing of clutter. Actually broke down and got new cell phones the other night so now Brent and I can write nasty texts back and forth to each other. That's what we did last night when we took the kiddos to Chili's for supper. Drank margaritas, ate chips and salsa and sent nasty texts back and forth. The boys were just laughing and talking and had no clue we were texting each other. In fact, Liam said it was rude for me to ignore his daddy. We just started laughing because it was our little secret. Came home and set up the birthday table with all the decorations I bought for Liam and it turned out really cute, of course we waited until he went to bed. I know he thinks it's a babyish thing but I told him to indulge me and act happy about it. No one else will see it! (just everyone who sees it on here!) I'll try and download one of the pics from early this morning. We woke him up at 5:30 to open his presents and blow out the candles on his cookie just to indulge me before Brent and Ian went to work on his uncle's property that had hurricane damage also. Take care, have a good weekend. Waiting on adjusters and waiting.... and waiting.... and waiting. I guess that's the name of the game. Ciao!

Can A Mom Say That School Sux??

Liam, Ian and Trent, our neighbor, playing in the sand before the rains came.
Brent relaxing with a beer. He was resting while I was busy preparing. wtf?
This is not a great picture of the cake but we used a John Deere tractor pan and then decorated it. He absolutely loved it -- it wasn't perfect but he thought it was.
Ian was actually blowing out his candles and was not happy about his picture being taken.

This morning before school -- Ian was excited, Liam was almost indifferent. Sporting his approved standard uniform -- school shirt and jeans. Can you believe Liam got his hair cut on Thursday? Hopefully with the new uniform code he will not be in violation. As long as it it "appropriately groomed" it should be ok. Should Liam get more cut off, what you think???

Yes, school officially started today at 8am. I'm really kind of sad. I love having the boys home, even though they do fight a lot, but it keeps it interesting and I guess I just love the freedom myself. So, can moms say that getting up and going back to school sucks big time? I guess so because I just did. So, we've been busy right up until last night. I'll break it down:

August 18th -- Ian's 8th Birthday. We had a neighborhood birthday/family party for him in the garage. It had rained all day but they were able to deliver the sand as promised and the kids all played in the sand pile, swam, and we did the eating/birthday cake usual. He said it was the best birthday he'd ever had. Really laid back and casual and since the kids weren't running in and out of the house all day I pretty relaxed. They even swam in the rain and they were so excited. It turned out well and we all had fun. Kind of ended up being a neighborhood get-together but it was nice to reconnect after a long summer. Of course the only downside is that some of the kids were over playing at noon although the party didn't officially start until 5pm and then I had to end up sending some of them home at 8:15pm. Ian had a blast with his friends so I guess that's what counts, not all the hairs I pulled out throughout the day. Good thing I have a lot of it so you can't see the bald spots! Nah, it was good.


Saturday we wanted to do something fun to celebrate the end of summer so we took the boys to eat and went bowling. We've done it a few times but they were happy that their granny decided to go and we had so much fun. We had great Mexican food at Carlito's, bowling and then we came home and talked and laughed until Ian fell asleep. Even Ian didn't gripe or whine one time... well... maybe once, but that was it and that's pretty good for him.

Liam was really kind of scared, maybe a little nervous about starting seventh grade today. He seemed nervous this morning but he said he was fine. I'm just praying he has a great day. Some of his teachers are supposed to be really hard and sticklers so I'm kind of dreading that, but I didn't tell him anything. Hopefully their personalities will overshadow their reputations. Ian was so excited about second grade. I'll download some pics of the first day of school and the birthday party in a bit. I don't feel like going out to my truck to get the camera. Lazy I know but I'm comfy and sipping my hot orange tea. Trying to get back into the swing of being on my own. Brent went with us and then he raced off to work. I can't imagine racing off to be at work so whatever floats his boat. He usually runs in the opposite direction.

Let's start something new:


How do I feel today???? (1) kind of sad (2) kind of happy (3) nervous about their day (4) positive about this school year (5) indecisive --nothing new there if you know me really well.

Oh yeah. I almost forgot. My sister and I attended my friend's Pure Romance party on Friday night. We had so much effin fun!!! We drank daquiri's, laughed, made fun of all the "tools" used for couples, drank more daquiris and ate all her snacks. It was the most fun I've had with a bunch of women in a long time. So, me and Tricia decided to book a party for September. Mainly I want the discount and the free hostess gift. I really want the free gift and the consultant said she'd give it to anyone who hosted a party so we decided to do one together. I asked her if we had to share the gift, and she assured me and she would give each one of us one. It was pretty funny but I was really curious. I mean she's my sister and all, but no one wants to be that close! LOL So I bought $212 worth of "tools" and creams and edible this and hot that. Everything looked like so much fuuunnnn I just couldn't decide. I know, I know, I totally blew the whole not spending frivolously thing, but I did some freelance work a while back so I decided that's what I would use that money for, and well worth it I might add. Anyway, this is like the first time I came home from spending a bunch of money that Brent didn't offer up a negative comment. HaHa He actually sat with me and I told him what everything was and what it was for -- it was like Christmas, well, only in a naughty and raunchy kind of way!!! So needless to say we had a great weekend and if you haven't been to a Pure Romance party or bought any of their merchandise and want to know which flavors taste the best, just ask me. We had so many things to taste, sniff and lick that I was full by the time the party was over. Ok, so that's pretty funny even I laughed out loud at that one. Yup, that's been my week. Birthday party - check. School shopping and picking up schedules - check. Learning what your neighbors and friends do in the bedroom - check. Giving the boys a great weekend before school - check. Giving my husband a great weekend - priceless.

Birthdays Suck When You Get OLD

Another year older, another year wiser... I don't know about that part but I did feel pretty old this year. Brent came home at lunch to surprise me and take me to lunch on Thursday for my birthday, only he was too late. He was trying to surprise me but I was eating lunch with my sister. He was a little miffed but understood because he didn't tell me. We decided to go to Rao's for dessert and coffee. He brought me roses and a card and I wanted new cooking stuff so we headed out to Kitchen Koncepts (my favorite place besides Office Depot and Barnes & Noble) and I bought some stuff there. I got a Tracy Byrd cookbook, because he owns the store right, and they are going to have him autograph it for me for purchasing his cookbook. Haven't picked it up yet but for some crazy reason I was excited about that. My mom-in-law made the best cake for me and it was soo delicious. I love the icing more than I love the cake. It's Brent's favorite and he always has it on his birthday so this year I wanted one too. I think it's a buttermilk cake but the icing is like fudgey with pecans and is sooo guuud. Yummy. That was the highlight of my day. Anywho, he bought me a new huge dutch oven and I'm still trying to decide on stainless steel cookware but there are so many choices I cannot make up my mind. You know me, I have to over analyze everything and go through Consumer Reports and looks at deals online and compare prices and then, ONLY THEN, will my stomach not hurt when I make the decision. I emailed a cooking blog I visit to find out which cookware she uses (it looks really durable) so I'm waiting for an answer to my question on that also. I'll let you know when I decide, whenever that may be.

So what are your big weekend plans?? Ours, to get stuff done, business taken care of and out of the way. We have two bookshelves I bought on clearance at Office Depot to put together so I can sort through all of the boy's books and get yet more things ready for a garage sale this spring. I haven't had a garage sale since Liam was 2, he's now 12, so needless to say, we have a lot of CRAP that has accumulated in the last decade. Gosh, that sounds so ominous! I'm going to have to do all of my cleaning out when the boys are at school. Every time I try to do it on the weekends they put back just as much as I pull out to put in boxes. And then they never actually play with it again. I guess all of a sudden around here things will just start disappearing like when I was younger. "Hey momma, where's my Barbie?" "What Barbie?" That was usually the end of the conversation because then I was old enough to realize she was gone, gone forever. We're going to Lowe's today to get two new doors. I have two closets with hideous doors on them when you walk in the front door and I HATE them so this is it, the weekend to make changes. By Monday there will be two new closet doors if it kills me (well, actually "him" because he has to put them in).

Well Sunday night we are going to the preview for our Dave Ramsey class that begins at the end of the month at a local Baptist church. We are so excited!!! Some friends are taking it with us and these people we know actually completed the course and are now the instructors because they loved the program sooooo much. It is a Christian-based debt program that teaches you how to budget, pay off debt and then turn around and take that new found wealth and put it into you and your family's future, such as different investment options and real estate. Really interested in that aspect. Anywho, these friends paid off all their credit cards, loans, SUV, about $35,000 of debt (in two years) and are now working on paying off their house. I got inspired because I think we are in a better situation than most people who start attending because we have no credit card debt whatsoever. However, I have never had a b-b-b-BUDGET (yikes) so I'm definitely thinking this could be worth it. We want the car and house paid off within two-three years so we can build. In the Dave Ramsey 13 week course we'll learn about financing real estate, how to invest in real estate and how to make wiser decision regarding our retirement and 401K's and things like that. You also learn about "stupid tax" but I have no idea what that is. I think this is going to be a very beneficial learning experience for us. We've been married 18 years and this is the first time Brent's been interested in anything like this. We have made wise decisions with our money as far as our future but deciding to build vs. buying a new house is something we've really struggled with. So I guess it's now or never. I think we're psycho: One day we talk about this and the next we're looking at new suv's (which is a big no-no in Dave's book) so I guess we're up for the challenge. If you've gone through the program, I'd really like to hear from you. I really need the motivation to make this work.

Another Birthday Celebration to Remember

We've had a really busy weekend and it's finally time to be settling down. We had so much fun yesterday. My sisters came in and we celebrated my mom's birthday and took her out to lunch. It was fun and all but at the very end when we were leaving the restaurant, my older sister walks out of the bathroom and goes out the front doors. Well, it's double doors so this guy is standing there holding the door for all of us and he looks down and I look at his face and see his eyes get big and I look down and I just died laughing. I fell back on the doors and was laughing so hard I just doubled-over and was in between laughing, crying and almost peeing in my pants. My sister had toilet paper stuck to the bottom of her shoe and it was a huge, really long piece. This guy is just mortified and I was laughing hysterically. I think he thought I was the most cold-hearted person because I was laughing at a stranger. But no! I was laughing at my poor sister who was oblivious to the whole thing. My other sister (I have 5) saw me laughing inside the doors, looked down and saw the toilet paper and she started laughing and screaming "Get my camera! Get my camera!" This is the sister who was walking out ahead of us bitching the whole time, "Why didn't anybody tell me I had chocolate gelato all over my shirt?? HUH, why didn't anybody tell me?" Well, that shut her up about the chocolate all over her shirt (ever hear of a napkin?) because then she was laughing hysterically and all of a sudden she started taking snapshots of my other sister's foot with the toilet paper. Oh no folks, it gets better! My sister with the toilet paper on her foot is yelling for us to get it off but all three of us and my mom were laughing so hard so she leans on my mom (who weighs like 85 pounds and is pretty old) for support while she gets the paper off her shoe and squishes my mom's take out container and as we're laughing and looking over at them, something starts spraying down in between them onto my mom's legs and the ground. One sister is screaming and the other is saying "momma's juice, momma's juice" and I'm saying "Who's juice? What juice?" Turns out my mom decided to bring her linguine with clams and clam sauce home and it was now all over them. Too much happening too fast. I swear, we all needed Depends. My poor mom was wet and we were wondering why the other sister would use her for support. Note to self: Do not lean on elderly mother when in need of support when you outweigh her by many, many pounds!

I HAVE A PRETEEN!!!

WTF???? I guess I'm back to asking myself that same question. Since when did I get old enough to have a 12 year old. YUP, Liam turned 12 on Thursday and every time I thought about it during the day, YUP, I cried. I know, it's a pussy thing to do but we cannot believe it's been 12 years since this beautiful soul entered our lives. He's kind, gentle, loves animals (which is the total opposite of me) and he is truly an old soul. He seems to just click with certain people and all animals. Now, certain people he does not click with and that's ok too. He's like me. He can tell you within the first five minutes of meeting someone if he is ever going to like them. If it's a no, then it will stay a no. I guess this blog today is for him. For that kindred spirit that brought our little family together, for that little boy that took us a long time and a little help to create, for that little boy that was given to us by God nine months after my daddy died and was a lifesaver for me, for that little soul that helped me heal my wounds for the loss of my daddy, for that little boy that I used to hold and pray to God to keep him safe and sound through the night (still do) and for that little baby who stole my heart the minute I met him at 5:26pm on Wednesday, October 4th, 1995. For him.