What Corey Thinks

Here are a few things that Corey had to say today:

1. "Hey, the moon looks like a backwards C!"

2. "My poop looks like a little j!" (The other day it was an exclamation mark.)

3. "Born to be wild!" sung as he coasted down the driveway on his big-wheel.

4. Shortly thereafter it was, "Bad big-wheel, Bad! You hurt my foot and I don't like you anymore."

5. Telling me a story today, Corey began, "Chapter One..." It was a long story, too, deserving of all five chapters.

Ten Loooong Years

So today was our 10th Wedding Anniversary and we celebrated it by, well... saying, "Happy Anniversary, wow, we're really old!" In honor of our anniversary, I'm going to let YOU GUYS give us your memories of us in the 'ol comment section. Yep, all two of you. Get to work.

My Trip In Pictures

After dropping Corey off with Grandma, Riley, Shannon and I went to Texas to see Aunt Shannon. We also visited with the Flynn family and completely forgot to take pictures. I know, we are not good people.

On the way back to Nebraska we had an unexpected stop over in Stillwater, OK, when this crazy storm came out of nowhere. You know that green iridescent color clouds get right before a tornado hits? Blow up the picture... It was an exciting night to say the least.

Back in Nebraska, Uncle Casey took a day off and we all went to the zoo. The boys loved the animals and Corey loved all the signs (in foreign languages, no less, talk about heaven.)

I also took Riley, Shannon and their cousin Spencer to Meadow Heights, my old stomping grounds. Shannon proceeded to go off the boards for two hours and learned to do a flip. I also went off the boards the entire time because Riley and Spencer, (who had a high fever unbeknown to us at the time,) didn't feel like swimming much.

And finally, I got to spend a day with Leigh, who I haven't seen in years. I also met her adorable little boys, but once again, I forgot to take pictures. You'll have to trust me when I say they are the cutest little things. So is their mom, as you can see. Me, not so much.

What Happens In Texas...

Argh! Day five of our trip, and the kids are a little tired of seeing me in a bikini. Maybe tired isn't the right word, how about inspired? All the way back to Aunt Shannon's after an hour of swimming, Riley began the contest:

"Mom's butt is behemoth!"

"Mom's butt is big as a planet!" countered Shannon.

"Yeah, well Mom's butt is so big that it has it's own gravity!"

"Mom's butt is so big that if you fit all the people in it, they would faint!"

The contest continued, but I tuned them out when I realized that I couldn't argue with them one bit.

Texas

I dropped Corey off in NE the other day and took the other two boys with me to TX. We made it to San Antonio this afternoon and are enjoying the excessive heat and sunshine. Will blog about it next week...

The Things You Do For Those You Love

What a strange weekend. Ken actually had the whole weekend off, and it was weird having a man around the house again! He managed to do a lot of little projects and even helped me with the lawn. Of course the kids didn't seem to notice Ken's presence, all weekend long it was, "Mom... Mom! Hey, Mom!!!"

This evening I drove us all over to Frosty's for some ice cream and the whole way there it was, "Mom? Mom. MOM!" Finally I asked the boys if they realized that their father was in the car with us, and since I was trying to drive, would they mind directing their comments to Dad? That worked for about a minute, and then we were right back to, "Mom?"

Ken decided that he would take care of this conversation. "Daddy's been home all weekend and nobody wants to spend time with him. All you want to do is talk to Mom," he observed.

"That's not true, Daddy, I played with you yesterday," somebody said.

"Yeah, well when I asked which boy wanted to go to Home Depot with me today, nobody wanted to go! I had to go all by myself," was Daddy's dejected response.

"Well we just didn't want to go right then at that moment," was Riley's reply.

My turn. "You know, when you really love somebody, you take the time to do things that they want to do when they want to do them. Before you guys came along, I spent lots of time doing things that Daddy wanted to do."

"Yeah," said Daddy, "and I always had to go places Mommy wanted to go."

"Like where?" questioned the kids.

"Like shopping. All the time," I answered. (BS, I hate shopping, but oh well, it was my turn to exaggerate.) "You know," I continued, "we'd walk throughout the store and your Daddy would chase me around with small kitchen appliances!"

"Really???" exclaimed Riley.

"No, but it sounded fun," I replied.

Roku

We've been finding symbols like these all over the house, usually made from pillows, toothpicks or tinkertoys. From what I understand, this is roku, the japanese 6. But you'd have to ask Corey to be sure.

Conversation

This morning Ken and I were discussing the value of the work that each of us do, which is something we discuss often. Although Ken wouldn't have it any other way than to have me home raising the kids, it's not uncommon for him to tease me about how little I do compared to him.

I can't win an argument regarding the monetary value of what I do, so this morning I tried a different tactic.

"Okay, Ken, let's say you go to work everyday and you just do your job with minimum effort and what happens? You still get your paycheck and the cereal still gets made, right?"

"Right."

"So imagine if I woke up every morning and decided to do MY job half-a**ed. The outcome would be a little more serious, right? We'd end up with messed up kids! Kids that... Kids that are like..."

Cue children screaming and fighting running upstairs to tattle. Hmm. Kids. Like. MINE.

Yeah, I kinda lost THAT argument.

10 Questions (Because I Don't Have the Energy for 20)

#1: Why haven't I blogged in ten days?

#2: Why did my husband leave me a note telling ME to pay his $167 speeding ticket?

#3: Why can't my kids pick up the playroom in the basement like I asked?

#4: Does Riley REALLY want to have a slumber party Saturday night?

#5: If Riley did want to have a slumber party, wouldn't he PICK UP THE DAMN BASEMENT?

#6: What was I thinking when I said Riley could have a slumber party Saturday night?

#7: Will the basement bathroom still be clean by the time Saturday night gets here?

#8: Why do little boys always want to poop in the bathroom that you happen to be cleaning?

#9: Why do little boys always pee all over the clean toilet seats?

#10: Why don't I just go take a nap and forget about cleaning for the rest of the day?

Sunset Beach Vacation

We had a great week in North Carolina, but dang it's great to be home. Here's how it went:

Ken and I LOVED the beach. So we made a big heart.

We also spelled out the consequences. (K + C = three boys.)
The boys played in the sand.
Corey kept cleaning the sand off of himself.

I was nice enough to crop the scariness out of this picture for you.

When the weather wasn't too great, we headed to Myrtle Beach for some fun.Riley is the speck in the sky, Shannon is in the foreground.
All my boys liked the go-kart park.
Things got a little hairy with the boys, but we stopped short of actually doing this.Every time we said, "Let's go to the beach!" the boys cried, "Let's go to the pool instead!So, yes, even though we have a season pass to our local pool, a LOT of our vacation was spent in this one.