Oooookay...

My husband, Ken, was being exceptionally sweet today, and while I have my suspicions as to why, (hunting and snowmobiling right around the corner, staying out half the night last night, or maybe the poignant homily at Mass this morning about strong marriages,) his attitude was bound to expire at some point.

We had a great morning and this afternoon I ran the boys around in search of Halloween costume ideas. As we headed out the door, Ken pointed out the hole in the rear of my (one pair of GOOD) jeans, and suggested I take the time to go buy some new ones while I was out. He also recommended I get a new pair of boots, as the sole was flopping around on the pair I was wearing. Ooooookay...

After a few hours of scouting out stores for costumes, I returned home empty handed save a few pieces of junk from the dollar store. Noticing the fact that I hadn't bought myself a thing, (and the fact that it was raining sporadically so hunting was out,) he told me to head out by myself and not to return without some new clothes. Oooookay...

I returned home a few hours later with two pairs of jeans and a pair of boots but minus $250, and we had supper and got the boys to bed. Ken decided to run to the store for his hunting license and I hinted that if he arrived home with a bag of Dove Chocolates today would just be too good to be true.

Ken returned home shortly thereafter but I noticed right away that there were no Dove Chocolates on his person. I asked him if he'd forgotten about my request and he looked at me and smiled. "You just spent $250 on two new pairs of jeans, and now you want me to buy you MORE chocolate so you can get even fatter and rip the butt out of those new ones too?" he asked.

Just before I smacked the crap out of him he ran to the car and grabbed the hidden bag of chocolates. And I'm not mad, just so you know, but sometimes the truth stings a little.

Fort Riley

I went to check on Riley before crashing for the night and found him surrounded by every single pillow and blanket he could find.

Riley's Observation

This evening I was laying on the couch covered in boys as we watched America's Funniest Videos. I'd hollered up to Ken a few times hoping he would wake up for work without me having to physically get him, but it just wasn't working.

Inspiration struck and I excitedly told the boys, "Whoever runs upstairs and gets Daddy to wake up first will get a big kiss!" Shannon and Corey, being competitive little creatures, jumped up off the couch and fought their way up the stairs to get their Daddy moving. Riley, still laying next to me, casually looked up and leaned over to give me a big kiss. "They're not too smart, are they, Mom?" he commented, and we both giggled.

High Aspirations

Yesterday was Corey's Star Day at school, a day where he was able to tell his class everything about him. The teacher walked him through a series of statements about himself and wrote it down for the entire class to see. Here is what you need to know about Corey:

No, my son does not want to be a police officer when he grows up, nor does he want to be a fireman. He doesn't even want to make cereal like his daddy, he just wants to make signs at a shop called The Sign Center. Just think of all the money we'll save when we need to have a... sign made?

All About Shannon

Back to school, time for my boys to tell their teachers awkward things. If you look in the sister and pet columns, you'll see that Shannon wrote, "I use to."

Bad Mom

I'm pretty sure I win the 2009 Bad Parenting Award. Just ask my son Shannon.

Yesterday I was crazy busy, I ran to the store, ran to the school, wrapped a birthday present, planted 16 sets of mums, and entertained a yard/house full of neighborhood kids for most of the evening. Today the boys woke me up shortly after the sun made it's appearance and I was tired. I still had 12 plants to put in the ground so early this afternoon I set to work, made lunch, then checked out some news feeds and decided at 4:00 that it was time to get in the shower.

Mid-lather my heart just stopped and I was overcome by a sickening feeling. That birthday present that I had wrapped the day before? It was for Shannon's BEST FRIENDS birthday party that took place this afternoon at 2:00. It was ending just as I stepped out of the shower. Oops.

So I woke my husband up and told him what I did, and he said that I probably should tell Shannon what he'd missed out on, "But you should wait half an hour so that I'm on my way to work when Shannon begins to throw a fit." Thanks for the backup, there, honey!

After Ken left, I decided that the boys were behaving pretty well and ignorance is bliss so I didn't mention my little snafu. Time passed and soon the boys were heading up to bed. The house grew quiet and I was certain that I had dodged a bullet for the day when all of the sudden I heard a great big wail descending the stairs. At 10:15 tonight, my son came hurtling down the stairs crying, "MOOOOOOOMM! You forgot to take me to my best friends birthday party!!!"

No Children Were Harmed In the Taking of These Photographs

I'll get heck for this but I can't help it. My children each have one new (clearanced out) piece of clothing for the school year (plenty of really nice hand me downs courtesy of Aunt Joyce,) and so I dressed the boys in their new shirts for the first day of school today. New MATCHING shirts. Oh well, they're cute to me.

Bathed, dressed and fed with 1/2 hour to spare.
The obligatory pose in front of the flowers. C'mon, it's cute that they match.

Two Wheels

I taught Shannon how to ride a bike without training wheels the other day. I then forced Riley to get on the bike he got for his birthday two years back that he'd never ridden. Why not? Because it has hand brakes.

This fact wasn't too big of a deal until Riley's Dad decided to teach him how to use the hand brakes. His advice? "Whatever you do, don't brake with the front brake only, it'll flip you over the bike and you'll break your neck!" Niiiiice, Ken, and now he wonders why Riley wouldn't go near the bike.

Of course this incident is right up there with Ken yelling, "Everybody be quiet, there's a big storm coming and there might be a tornado!" as the emergency alert sounded on the local TV channel. The boys had had no problems with storms before this incident and now they freak out if it so much as sprinkles!

But I digress. Here are a few pictures of Shannon riding Riley's old bike minus the training wheels:

Starting out.

Getting going.

Making a turn.

Taking a shortcut through my lawn.

Very proud.

The boo boo he got putting the bike away, not while riding it.

I Could Go On and On and On...

I could really bore you to death with the long story about how I just wiped out my computer and rebooted everything from scratch and how it took about five hours before I had everything re-installed and my wi-fi working after talking with tech support from two different companies only to finally get back on the internet to discover that I'M STILL GETTING SECURITY CERTIFICATE ERRORS AND THE SAME SIGNALS THAT CAUSED ME TO WIPE OUT MY COMPUTER IN THE FIRST PLACE.

But you don't want to hear about that. Trust me. So instead, I'll let you listen in on a conversation Riley and I had this afternoon:

"So mom, Cows get Mad Cow Disease from eating other cows, right?"

"Yep."

"So what do chickens get when they eat other chickens?"

"Mad Chicken Disease," I answer, of course.

"And snails?"

"Mad Snail Disease, just like Gary on Spongebob," I replied.

"And worms, they get Mad Worm Disease, right?" asked Riley proudly.

"You got it!"

"And ants get Mad Ant Disease!"

"Oh, no, ants don't want to eat other ants!" I exclaimed. "Then they'd end up with Mad Aunt Kellie Disease, and NOBODY wants that!"



Love you, Aunt Kels!