Blues & Bling Retirement

Friday morning was a special day in the RED HORSE family - the retirement of our good friend, MSgt Jeff Warnecke. Not only was it a day to celebrate his honorable 21-year Air Force career, but it was also a perfect opportunity for me to see my hubby all dressed up in his blues and get a picture with him. Matter of fact, it was quite impressive to see so many of Jeff's good friends dressed in their blues & wearing all their "bling" (decoration ribbons) which is unusal in the day-to-day at the squadron given that they are in engineering and construction & BDUs is the dress of the day.

Congratulations Jeff... you will be missed by all. But you know how life goes at the HORSE: "Once a member of the HORSE stables, the heavy needers of the deeds of the HORSE will always think of you as a lifetime member. Can Do - Will Do - Have Done!" Good Luck Jeff!

Me & My hubby

Splish, Splash... Sip

She is a mess. By that I mean she cracks us up daily. She insists on her way. She does everything in her power to keep up with her brother (so much so that she tripped while they were laughing and playing and chasing each other and cut her lip open when she hit a small night stand). She is a tough cookie though also. She is finally comfortable enough up close with Ziggy that she wants to feel his wet tongue in her fingers; his soft ears, his moist nose and his long furry hairy body. When he walks into site of her, she squeels with delight and can't wait to walk over to him and "play." She is curious about everything.... how things work, what is inside cabinets, drawers, doors, toilets, pockets, underneath, above and basically all around her. We love watching her grow...

Splish

Splash
Sip... Abby thinks she is big time because she knows how to drink from a straw now.
Unfortunately this is now hazardous - one wrong squeeze and juice is everywhere. So I have had to resort to her using a juice box holder because our little moody princess wants to do it all herself. Ohhhh, she isn't even 1-years old yet and the independency is in full swing already.

Little Slivers of Me

An old friend of mine who is blessed with two beautiful children of her own, is a gifted writer and writes from her heart.  She said it perfectly when she explained what having small children does to a person. After reading her blog over & over, I realized that what she put into words is exactly how I feel about the "little slivers left of me."
Because my children can not do anything without me and are totally dependent upon us, I am split. In terms of what constitutes "me", I must divide myself into thirds. One third of "me" automatically goes to each of my children, for the simple fact that they are not self sufficient. They must have a piece of me, whether I want them to, like it, feel sick, am busy or want to do something else. It doesn't matter, they own me. With the last third of "me" I must nurture my marriage. With so much of [both my husband] and I owned by our children, we must work even harder to stay connected. After the third of what's left of us is shared with one another, we have to go to work, go to school, take care of our house, our bills, our dog, our yard, our responsibilities. Then, we support our family and nurture those familial bonds. And then, we have our friends. Friends are incredibly important to both of us, yet in the grand scheme of life and the little slivers of what is left of us, we do what we can. It's hard. It's an incredibly difficult balance to do it all and to be all things to all people. Little slivers, that's all that's left when the day is done. Right or wrong, good or bad, it is what it is. In the long run, I hope that once my children become more self-sufficient I will get a little more of myself back. My children will always "own" pieces of me, but these years won't last forever. And, in the meantime, I'm relishing these days with my children. It just goes by way too fast."

Thanks Jen for your words...

Belated Friday Night Leftovers

Onto the belated leftovers...

• Transition week back to "school" went fairly smoothly. Thomas really is lov'in being back at school with his friends and has really taken to Ms. Tisha's 3-year-old class. His favorite part this week though had to be Show and Tell on Friday when he brought one of his new digger trucks. Oh the excitement of being in a big boy class.
• Abby continues to eat and eat and eat. Please Lord let this be a growth spurt. Another tooth has busted through and with that has come some moodiness & drooling (to be expected) = total is 7 teeth now. She too has adjusted well back in Ms. Betty's & Ms. Angie's infant room at school, although she has spent a little bit of time each morning playing in Ms. Deborah's 1-year old room so she gets to know new friends & be familiar with a new routine with the toddlers in there. I can't believe Abby is going to be in the toddler room in a week - OMG, my baby is growing up.
• I'm so glad I spent the mornings this week working in my classroom and getting organized for the year... it was quiet & productive which made me quite content. Starting Monday morning (planning days for teachers), it will be chaotic to say the least at school with socializing, meetings, trainings, trying to fit in lesson planning, copying, and meeting new students who are just popping in to look around. Anyway - I feel like I got a great headstart for the school year.
• Temps here in FL have reached some ridiculous highs... 95+ degrees by 10:00am and then reaching the low 100s by lunchtime. It isn't pleasant to walk the dog, swim in the pool or even grill dinner outside. Needless to say, we have spent more than usual amounts of time trying to stay cool these last two weeks - and my power bill this month shows it.... $250+. Auuughhhhh.

Until next week, when I will have had two full days of school with my new students this year, I'm sure it will prove to be an exhausting week but refreshing in the sense of a new routine. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

No Order, No Importance... just random cuteness

As I realized that I had lots of random pictures of us from the last week or so that I hadn't bothered to share or tell a story about... it quickly became apparent that I was going to end up putting together one of those RANDOM blogs - a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

First though, I am frustrated at my lack of good, quality pictures that I have lately. That is due entirely to the fact that I no longer have my camera. To spare the horrible details and placing total blame on anyone in particular, let's just say that my camera fell out of the opened camera case and into the water when "we" were boarding the boat the other day at the boat launch. Auuuughhhhh.... I loved that camera. So, that brings us to the present where I am completely dependent on my cell phone camera, other people's pictures they send me AND my hubby's little camera that he bought to bring on deployments. None of which are mine and do what I want/like it to do. Needless to say, I'm frustrated about lack of good picture blogs. However, the sunny side to this unfortunate situation is I'm in the market for a new camera........ and I'll be upgrading. **He-He**

Thomas loves dinosaurs. He can even name quite a few different ones. So, when my MIL pulled out this little surprise, I thought it was most adorable and couldn't wait to show Thomas. What you are looking at is a homemade clay dinosaur from Daddy when he was in 5th grade living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I couldn't believe she kept it all these years. She must have known that he would have a son one day to pass it on to. Needless to say, Thomas loves it. It will be properly displayed up on a shelf in Thomas' room so as to not break it... or rather, so that Abby doesn't break it.

We made brownies this weekend and they were a hit -

especially by my little baker you see here.
One day at lunch, Thomas convinced me that he should be allowed to eat his lunch by the TV while he finished watching Ice Age 3. As you can see clearly, I fell sucker to his "good idea" and he became quite lazy & spoiled at lunch. But isn't he too cute? He laid back and enjoyed every little tiny bite of his PB&J sandwich.

Thomas was in hog-heaven on Sunday when the "moving" truck pulled up from Lowes to deliver our new garage fridge & took away our old junkie one. Thank goodness for our successful garage sale the day before which paid for it.

About 2 Friday nights ago, Thomas had a sleep over at Grannie & Grandpop's house. There just aren't words to explain how much he loves this... obviously though... there are very little rules, he is spoiled to death and doesn't have to share any of the attention with Abbigail AND he gets late night snacks and even slept in the pull-out-couch with Grannie. Oh my... he was spoiled. And had a great time at that!

Because Abbigail is getting ready to turn ONE, we thought it was best to start transitioning both Thomas & her into their new respective carseats. I washed & cleaned out this one that Thomas has used since before he was one (it is convertible, so it can face backwards and forwards). As you can see by her reaction, she is NOT a fan of this one yet. Even into the 2nd day using it, she still puts up a little drama fit each time I buckle her in. I'm sure by the weekend she will just accept it and move on... I hope anyway.

However, she is quite content with sitting in Thomas' new booster seat. I just don't understand her. I'm wondering if she is going to be my challenging child? I better start warning her... she doesn't know what she is up against with Mommy.

Meanwhile, she is a happy camper most other times. Here she is showing me her prized possession - her NUK.

Lastly, Thomas was being a "nosey Nellie" and discovered Brian's dog tags hanging on the bed post. After finding out what they were called, he later told me, "Mommy, why does Daddy have those - he isn't a doggy?" Sometimes I wonder if Thomas will follow in his Daddy's (and Grandpas') footsteps and serve his country also. Time will only tell...

Mixed Emotions

This is how I always feel this time of year. I have mixed emotions about returning to school (work) and sending the kids back to daycare after having been home with them through the summer & tasted the life of a stay-at-home-mom. Today was day#1 that marked transition week.

Historically, Thomas has done pretty OK with getting back into the groove. Usually, a little resistance in the days leading up to me going back to work. Usually the night before he is excited. The morning of is most often times NOT very pretty. Not interested in getting dressed at the O'Dark hundred hour (sorry... military slang) and insists on getting cozy together in our 'jammies. The whole time I'm thinking, "you have no idea how much I would like to be in bed asleep Thomas." Anyway - we got to school and he saw many of his old friends & lots of familiar faces so he eased in much quicker than he has in past years. Thank goodness.

Abby is a first timer and she had no idea what was going on with us getting dressed so early and heading out the door. What she complained about was having to wear socks & shoes. "God Mom, the nerve of you to put shoes on my feet. I'm a Florida Girl & prefer to be barefoot," is the reaction I felt she gave me as she screamed and kicked. Drama. Drama. Drama. By the time we arrived at daycare, she saw her old "stuff" with Ms. Betty and I was history - she hardly gave Thomas & me a kiss. So much for a painstaking goodbye kiss.

Me, on the other hand, was excited to be bringing them back to daycare so they could get back into the swing of things, but it was emotional for me. I hate to say goodbye to them for, what seems like the first time, as well as the established routine at the time. I did save my tears for the car though... I refused to let them see that I was going to miss them more than the world for the few hours they would be away from me. I know... pathetic.

Back to the point of the blog... mixed emotions. After a summer of staying at home with the kids, it is time for a change in my routine. I need to be back in the classroom teaching and doing what i love to do. Yes, I do teach at home. I think ALL parents, to a large extent, are teachers. Some are better than others and results certainly vary. But what I'm talking about is teaching history (amongst other things) to teenagers. That is my calling and I love it. I also miss it by the end of the summer. Hense my mixed emotions.

I love that I get an opportunity to be at home with Thomas & Abbigail all summer. I get the best experience in the world and that is time with them. I'm a part of every bit of their daily routines (granted because they are still at the age where they are still dependent on me), I get 100s of kisses, snuggles, & hugs all day long and I get to be an intimate part of their learning. I love it. But at some point in the late summer, my head starts to be thinking about the upcoming work that is ahead at school and I start to get excited & anxious for the upcoming school year. I also get excited for what lies ahead for each Thomas & Abby with their new respective teachers and what they will be learning this upcoming year. What will Thomas master this next school year - start identifying words, more sophisticated art, even better fine motor skills, etc? Abby will start riding rider toys, start running, and how quickly will her vocabulary explode once she is with other 1-year olds? I can't wait.

But mixed emotions is what I have, especially on a day like today when our entire routine changed when the sun came up. But both of my munchkins did well. They were so excited to see me when I showed up at the end of lunchtime to get them. We talked (and babbled) all the way home about their morning activities and just 15 minutes after getting home - they were both fast asleep taking their nap. See... it was a good day. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better.

A Salesman...

... is what my hubby should be in his next lifetime. It is ridiculous. As mentioned in "Friday Night Leftovers," we had a garage sale this morning. We did great. Got rid of lots of things that have just been sitting around collecting dust or things that the kids have outgrown (ie: infant stuff). However, why is it that Brian will make a ton of bucks on things that he doesn't even intend on selling? Or knows just what to put up for sale that he knows what people will buy?

The first guy up our drive way this morning was a professional. You know - a person that goes to a gazillion garage sales all before 8:30am looking for things to buy just so he/she can turn around and sell it at their flea market or pawn store. Anyway, the guy asks Brian if he has any gold he is selling. I quickly interject and say, "nope... we don't have much jewelry. Sorry." The guy goes on to explain this is his business of buying old gold from people, etc." Brian's proverbial light goes of in his head and he says, "actually, I might have a few old gold pieces. I'll be right back." 15 minutes later Brian has sold the guy a total of 4 OLD pieces of gold that have been sitting in the back of our office closet since I have known Brian and the guy has given Brian $350. Yes, isn't that insane? How come I don't have that luck? Bastard. As the guy walks away, Brian fans the $100 dollar bills my way and gives me one of his smirks as if to say, "So, honey, what have you sold so far?" OHHHHHH, game on!

Just 45 minutes later (now its only 7:45am), this surplus-buying guy walks up who specializes in purchasing used military gear. Boy did he come walking up to the right house. He pays some pretty good money for all kinds of goods - BINGO for Brian. Granted, Brian didn't bother to dig out the 1/2 dozen boxes of all his old Airborne gear or deployment crap that just sits in the attic - but as soon as this guy gave Brian his spiel - Brian was up in the 200 degree attic pulling down boxes and off loading gear to him. 20 minutes later Brian was flashing more big bills my way. Meanwhile, by that point I had only about $7.25 in my pocket from selling some old photo frames and infant blankets. Damn. He's good.

Needless to say, most of the big stuff went and what is leftover will probably be donated to a Goodwill Store. Even better than putting some money in our pocket is cleaning out the unused clutter and crap that accumulates overtime in your house. Oh what a good feeling it is to purge. Even if Brian sold 10x the amount of stuff I did. His money is ALL my money! :)

**Friday Night Left-Overs**

Sorry about the minimum blogs this week - I place blame mainly on the fact that I was purging the house of anything & everything that can be tossed into our garage sale that we are having tomorrow morning. The other sliver of blame is because I felt lazy & unmotivated this week to blog. My deepest apologies. So... I'm going to throw my random thoughts into the "Friday Night Leftover" pot (although I may finally write some blogs about a few of these in the very near future):

• Have I ever said how wonderful of a feeling it is to go through your closets, cabinets, drawers, garage, etc and just start throwing things in the pile to get rid of? I love having garage sales - it is such a freeing & yet cleansing feeling. Do I sound wierd? I'm Type A personality (for those of you who don't know), so that should explain my wierdness.
• Good runs this week - I'm holding steady at doing 3.5 miles each run. I think I will wait until I head back to school a week from Monday to start increasing up to 4.5 miles. I'm really feeling good running lately (well, other than all the cracks & creeks in my knees) and I've noticed that my speed is also picking up too.
• Abby is continuing to eat like she is a 16-year old teenage boy... fingers crossed that all the food is sticking to her ribs. Actually, Brian and I have eached cheated and put her on the bathroom scale to see how close to 20 lbs she is... we think she is! Can I get an Amen! That also will mean I can turn old girl around and face forward in just a few short weeks and she can finally have a top-notch view while riding in the car... poor Abs has been looking at the same back of the car now for a year.
• Thomas is amazing Brian and me alike with how moody he is lately. What the heck? I'm heard of the "Terrible Twos" (which we were pretty fortunate to escape), but I've heard nothing of the "Threes". Auuuughhhhhh! Everything is drama with him. Even pulling up his underwear & shorts after going to the bathroom. If I have to hear, "I can't do it" one more time, I'm going to scream.
• I only have one more free Friday before heading back to school so I'm going to make the best of this weekend. Actually, my kiddos will go back to daycare starting on Monday for the mornings so the transition is a little easier. It's a bear if I wait until the first day of work/school and then have to deal with the morning dropoff resistance. I prefer as little drama as possible. Plus for next week - I will go into work each morning after dropping them off and ease into the school work I have to do.
• The biggest thing I'm looking forward to this upcoming week? Getting my "Going Back to School" manicure, pedicure & haircut. Since having kids, these sorts of things seem to be luxery services. Yes, even a haircut. Oh good days ahead...

TGIF everyone - enjoy your weekend. Thanks for listening to my randomness and catching up on my weekly thoughts.

Can anything else break?

I feel for my hubby. In the past two months (but most are much more recent), big things have been crashing at our house. Brian doesn't usually stress about things, but when many of these things are coupled together, its not pretty for anyone. Can anything else break?

• Grill
• TV... randomly shutting off
• dishwasher... a big no-no in my eyes
• AC unit

The air conditioner was the big one (of course, its summer in FL). So that we would have some kind of cool air circulation (even if it was minimal), this was the solution late yesterday afternoon. It is installed in the smallest window in the house - the master bathroom. It actually is a brand-new, just-out-of-the-box AC window unit which we bought a few years ago just in case we need it after a hurricane (we would hook it up to our generator). Thankfully, it has never needed to be used. Until now that is.

Thanks to Brian, good friend Steve and my father-in-law... broken parts were taken out; new parts (still under warrenty) were installed and the house is a cool 72 degrees.

Oh does it feel G-O-O-D!

family humps

For the usual HeckLure readers - please forgive me for not blogging about the kids or the adventures, but I must vent:

• In the light of some events this past year that my family is dealing with, my sister (who is my best friend) has reminded me that our parents did a damn good job raising two girls to be independent thinkers, to be compassionate towards others' unfortunate circumstances, speak up for ourselves, fight your own battles (or at least do it with the help of your sister), and keep our word (which is at the core of your integrity). I called my mom yesterday to tell her this & also tell her thank you. I'm going to call my dad tomorrow night for the same reason.
• What spurred this conversation on with my sister was how others were raised - or at least how they appear to be raised. Or heck, maybe its not how they were raised at all... maybe its the decisions they have chosen since being old enough to make their own. I will be the first to tell you that no family (mine included) is without its dysfunction, quirks, random "nuts", and members who you want to look at and ask "who are you related to?"... but I digress. In dealing with a family situation, I'm very frustrated with one individual because of a past incident this year.
• I'm reminded that different situations in people's lives bring out different sides to them. Some people will be a surprise because they rise to the occasion of need; others might disappoint when they don't come through for you or are very critical in a time of needed prayers & thoughts & comforting words... even family falls into this category.
• I'm trying to dig deep and not be bitter or angry or even resentful. As my biggest weakness, I hold grudges. I don't like that I do, but I do. I'm looking within to let go and move on.

OK... I feel better. OK, maybe not 100% better, but at least a little better that I vented. Good night. The sun comes up tomorrow, just like all days, and it is a new, fresh day. Good things can happen.

Cooking, Eating, Cooking, Eating...

My kids are certainly not strangers to the kitchen, be it helping me cook or eating what has been cooked... they are usually in the thick of things. Earlier in the week, steak kabobs were on the menu for dinner and so I enlisted the help of my young chef Thomas. Although I had already done the prep work with cutting up peppers & onions, as well as marinading the steak - Thomas listened attentively as I explained and showed him how we were going to "put it all on the sticks" and make kabobs.

Thinking it was hilarious that we were using the skewers (although he didn't call them that), he called the kabobs, "stick meat". Great... Mommy was serving "stick meat" for dinner along with corn on the cob and fresh sliced strawberries. Some how kabobs sounds so much LESS primitive than that. Anyways... back to my story. He did great stabbing the veggies & steak onto the stick and really did enjoy eating his own creation for dinner. Not too bad for a beginner.

Abby is in full swing of wanting to feed herself. She really wants very little to do with jarred baby food now... she would much rather use her hands to feed herself or have a spoon in hand to scoop something out of a cup/bowl. Such a little independent girl she is becoming. Did I mention that meals are VERY messy now. Abby goes through at least 3 shirts/outfits a day. This is just as bad as potty training...

Friday afternoon fun... Cooking & Snacking at Grannie & Grandpop's house:

• Not a lot really needs to be said here... every pot, pan, cooking utensil was pulled out in their kitchen to use/entertain with this afternoon.
• As you can probably notice in the below pictures - there is some real hands-on learning going on with cooking in the kitchen. Seriously... I walked in and Thomas ran up to me and told me he wanted to cook me an egg. He proceeded over to his "oven" (see oval table below) and opened a real egg carton in where there were 12 eggs. Granted the eggs were pink & blue plastic Easter eggs, it made no difference. He then asked me to pick which kind of egg I wanted (pink or blue?). After my selection, he picked it up, cracked it over the pan, pulled it apart and pretended it went into the pan. He then got out his whisk and started whisking away. I guess I was getting scrambled eggs as opposed to sunny-side up? It was too funny.

As part of the "cooking" going on, Grannie put different kinds of snacks in each of the pots and pans so they could continue "cooking". What a hoot Mary said it was. As you can see, the little chefs are eating the snacks... even Nosey Rosey herself who wants anything Thomas has.

Abby has decided that mini marshmellows are now a new favorite snack. She looks like she is practically fighting her brother for the last one.

Again... more snacks in the mouth. I'm not so sure Abby was doing a whole lot of "cooking", but boy did she enjoy the eating. The two of them certainly enjoyed their afternoon jaunt to Grannie's house.

Yips, Yap & Yove

... are probably some of my favorite words that Thomas says. I don't want you to think that he has a speech problem; quite the contrary, he is a very good talker. Matter of fact, he talks too much at times. However, Thomas doesn't seem to pronounce his "Ls" with the "lllllllllllllllllllllllll" sound. Instead, it comes out like a "yie" as in "yippy" or "yellow." With that all being said...

• "Mommy, kiss me on my yips"
• "Can I sit up on your yap with Abby?"
• "Good night Mommy, I yove you."

... are some of my favorite things to hear from him.

***Friday Night Leftovers***

My girlfriend from college uses this in her blog and I think I'm going to give it a try. The idea is to write down all the random thoughts in your head from the week that didn't quite constitute a blog entry of their own... hence the name "leftovers"! Here we go:

• I can't believe that I only have 2 full weeks of summer vacation left until I go back to school (work) - I feel robbed with how short this summer was due to the change in our new school calendar. Aughhhh!


• I always have a mental list of projects to get done around the house that I tend to save for vacations - I feel like nothing has been crossed off my list. I guess at least I've started to make headway this week with cleaning out closets, toys, etc so that we can have a big old Garage Sale next weekend. I can't stand clutter or things just sitting around that don't/won't get any more future use.


• We are more than ready to get going on our patio building project that we have been talking about since Brian returned from the desert... I just hope we can make it happen before school starts because that really is when the insanity begins and our schedules will then both be busy.


• So glad it is Friday and my hubby will be home at a descent hour - all week long he has been working between 10-12 hour days getting ready for an inspection. Poor him only saw the kids for about an hour and a half each day.


• Feeling a little guilty that I slept through my alarm clock this morning (4:30am) and didn't get to run. Hubby tried to make me feel better and tell me that my body must have needed it. The thing is, when school starts my schedule is going to be even fuller and I fear that I will lose my precious "me" running time. Remember... November... 1/2 Marathon.

So... to everyone who doesn't mind reading my random thoughts for the end of the week - TGIF!

Cooling off

There is no doubt that I have two children who LOVE the water (pool, tub, and even beach). But on occasion we like to cool off in other ways - so the other day we decided to head over to the waterpad (aka: small, base waterpark) so the kids could jump around and cool off that way. Thomas has always enjoyed it, but I wasn't so sure how Abbigail would take to it (even though there were several kids there enjoying it also). As expected... she spectated at first.

She watched Thomas run around like a lunatic & crazy man. She tried to make sense of why the water "disappeared" sometimes and then would "reappear" other places. It was so awesome to see the preverbial "wheels turning in her head."

Once she finally decided to give it a try and follow Thomas around, she got up and waddled over to a small little water fountain. She proceeded to stand next to it and stare. Not until I came over and moved her hands over it and showed her excitement... she just acted like she wanted to say, "What in the hell is the big deal people?" When she was done watching, she headed over to wear the towels and snack bag were laying and sat down. I guess she was done.

Oh how could I forget. Right before she walked over to the towel, a cute little girl (maybe 6?) came over to Abbigail, sat down and put her arms around her. She started talking to her and loving on her. Immediately, Abby's body language said, "Um... excuse me... who the heck are you? You are in my personal space." But that didn't deter the little girl. Surprisingly, Abby warmed up to her quickly and relaxed. I think if the little girl's mother hadn't been watching, she might have decided to kidnap Abby and bring her home. She was smitten with her from the go.

Drama-free life

Oh to be young again... with a drama-free life. I look at my two sleeping beauties each time they are napping or right before I lay down each night at think about how peaceful they look. After a day filled with walking (Abby), running (Thomas) and playing until their heart is content... I see how restful their bodies are and wonder if they are dreaming of sweet-nothings. Of course, Thomas really might be dreaming of monster trucks, scarey dinosaurs, and how fast he can run outside when Daddy is chasing him ...
... Abby on the other hand might be dreaming of her little blankie she now carts around with her everywhere, or trying to walk faster when her brother begins to chase her without falling, or maybe even finding NUKs hidden in all her favorite places.

On a related note, Abby's new skill this week is learning to kiss someone - it is hilarious... she leans in with a smile to you with an open mouth. All you have to do is say the word "kisses" and she is all over it. Hopefully its just us she is kissing for a while - don't think Brian is ready for his little girl to be kissing boys yet. Her other new "thing" is refusing to eat baby food. I'm lucky at a meal if I can get her to take a few bites of a once-favorite flavor. Now she really just wants her own spoon and/or wants to eat food herself. Some new favorites lately are pasta, grilled cheese bites, waffles, ham, green bean bites, & carrot bites. Like I have said earlier... the girl eats like a truck driver. Thank goodness she doesn't act like one (yet).

Hussle Bussle

So on any other morning it would have seemed like a perfect time to take a run with the kids - 7AM. However, on this such morning, my kids actually slept until almost 6AM which meant that I slept until almost 6AM which ultimately means that I had to hussle to get everything (including them) together and into the running stroller so we could make our planned 4.2 treak to Grandpop's house.

Anyway - after getting pool stuff together, road snacks for the kids & sippy cups ready... we took off. Boy, if you don't get rolling by the early 7 o'clock hour on a run (especially with little ones) you are going to be toast. Burnt, HOT toast. Anyway, we made it and Grandpop had breakfast waiting, one of Thomas' favorite movies ready and then we hit the pool to cool off. Last but not least, he drove us home because there was no way I was going to cart the kids home in the heat (walking). It was like we had our own personal taxi service back to our house. Awesome morning... thanks Grandpop!