Bug started school

Bug started school today.

It was nice to have my three hour "mommy time" back.

4 days a week, 3 hours a day.  Perfect.

I can get a lot accomplished in that time.

We prepared Bug for school.

We don't mention the word "cry" or "talk".

Today, she walked right in the classroom.

No tears.

I was amazed.

Even more amazing is the fact that her teacher asked her a question and she responded.

She actually uttered uh-uh.

What a big step!

It's going to be a great year!!

Em's favorites:

Last year's favorites:

Cats Yuck

I hate cats.

Let me rephrase that... I hate cats with a passion.

They make me sneeze.

They make my eyes swell and water.

They make me feel like I have a three ton elephant on my chest.

I am gasping for air just thinking about it!

Have you ever noticed that when you hate an animal, that certain animal loves you?

It was no surprise when this little thing showed up on my doorstep.

I screamed.

I panicked.

What the hell am I going to do?

Who does this little itty bitty thing belong to??

HELP!

Thank God my sister was here and went to the rescue.

She loves cats.

Weird.

Anyway, she picked him/her up and we walked to my neighbors house.

She verified that it was her new kitten, Oreo.

Properly named being that he/she is black and white.

She informed me that Oreo is a wanderer but would come back home.

"Not to worry," she said.

Well, not really.  She doesn't talk like that.  But she said something along those lines.

So, everyday for the past month this little itty bitty kitten, Oreo, has shown up on my doorstep.

He/she just lays there.

ALL DAY!

It is all Ryan's fault.

He came home one day and informed the girls that cats LOVE milk.

"Let's give Oreo MILK," they squealed.

I coldly told them "NO!"

Ryan did it anyway.

Do you know what happens when you feed a cat?

They NEVER go away.  They keep coming back for more.

Fabulous.

There are a few that are ok with the cat.

Emma is smitten with the kitten.  She has even gained enough courage to hold the cat.  The cat just lays in her arms.  He/she doesn't try to fight it anymore

My Dad was all, "It's nice to have a cat around, Hailey.  Cats keep other animals (umm, rodents) away."

Too bad this cat hasn't done anything.

Zoey, though, is a champ of rodent killing.  She is slowly digging up the backyard looking for a mole.  She has also brought us birds, june bugs, turtles, july flies and a mouse.  I wasn't at home for the mouse situation... thank God!

Dog catches animals while cat lounges on the front porch sipping milk.

No wonder I hate cats.  What assholes.

(This picture just happened to be the cat's butt because the stupid thing pounced on Emma's foot right before this shot.  Jerk.  Good thing the picture went along with my last statement though.  Score.)

Sisterly Love

Caroline is adjusting to school.

Actually, I can't believe that I am saying this but she loves it.

She woke up this morning, hopped in the bathtub, ate breakfast, brushed her teeth and was ready to go.  No  fight.  No screams.  No vomit (thank God).

I will admit she may have been excited because today is PE day.  She LOVES her PE teacher (she even stalks his pictures on Facebook... I'm not kidding).  I hated PE as a child.  I do not have an athletic bone in my body.  Caroline though, is pretty coordinated.  She is pretty great at everything that she does.

She was also excited because she has a pretty awesome teacher that has promised to do pretty awesome things this year.

So, while Caroline is at school having a blast... Bug is NOT adjusting very well to being at home without her.

By 9:30am this morning, Bug had:

- a meltdown because "we can't go to storytime without CAROLINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!  We can't!"
- asked 3 times, "When do we go pick up Big?"

Although I want to pull my hair out on the daily, my girls do play well together.  They will hop on a plane and fly to China, eat lunch in New York City, be teacher and student, be mama and daughter.  Most of the time they enjoy being together.

It is easy to say that depression has set in because Big is not here all day.

Bug is in a slump.  She just lounges on Caroline's bed, watching Doc McStuffins reruns with her babies most of the day.

Occasionally she will come out of Big's room and ask, "When are we picking Big up?"

She starts preschool soon.  That is sure to bring about multiple meltdowns.  So, until then I will let her lay quietly in her sister's room.

Young, wild and innocent

This post is about Chick-fil-a.

I do not care to argue over politics, religion, etc.

That is not the goal of this post.

I just want to share a story about my sweet babies.

Things are so black and white to them.

Things seem so easy through the eyes of a child.

I think this a quality we all cherish most in our children.

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I took the girls to Chick-fil-a last Wednesday.

I stood in line with 8 million other people to pump my kids full of processed meat and a load of fat and sodium.

They enjoyed it.

Going out to eat, just the three of us, is a treat.  I rarely tackle that situation by myself.

Caroline asked from the backseat, "Why are we going to Chick-fil-a tonight?"

How to explain freedom of speech to a 6 year old?

This is going to be tricky...

"Well, because the man that owns Chick-fil-a said something that some people didn't like.  You see, whether you like something or not, you can say it if that is how you feel."

"So, he said something ugly?"  I am sure a slew of curses were going through her head.

"No, but people are being ugly to him.  They don't like what he said and they are not going to eat at Chick-fil-a anymore."

"Why?"

"I don't know, Big."

Silence.

"Whether we like what he said or not... that has nothing to do with Chick-fil-a.  Let me see.  Hummm... what is my favorite color?"

"Orange!"

"Yep!  I love orange.  If you tell me you don't like the color orange, I am not going to get angry and not be your friend anymore.  That would be mean.  It would be ok for you not to like orange.  That doesn't mean that I can't like the color orange."

We are getting way off course here.

Obviously Bug was listening to this in-depth conversation.

She chimed in... "So, the people are mad because they don't like his lemonade?"

Oh, if only it were that easy sweet, innocent child o' mine.

While adults seem to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, kids only care about lemonade.

Oh, if we could be young and innocent again...  there would be world peace.

Sharks and penguins

We checked *Go to the aquarium* off of our summer to do list.

We were super excited about seeing the penguins.

Little did we know that we would be a little disappointed.

The aquarium loves to wow you with some things.

Walking in was this awesome sand sculpture.

Way to make my sand castles look like a piece of crap.

Impressive though.

The girls took complete advance of EVERYTHING they could climb on.

Even if they weren't suppose to climb on it.

The pegiun exhibit was the size of a large window.

Three of the four penguins were sleeping.

The one that was awake just stood there facing the fake rock wall.

We saw his back.

That's it.

As we were leaving the exhibit feeling very disappointed, this little guy popped up.

He looked right at me.

It was love at first sight.

I have loved penguins ever since I read And Tango Makes Three in college.

That is when I found out that penguins are one of the few animals that mate for life.

How awesome.

I love that.

Anyway, we walked outside and snapped pictures of the girls that everyone has snapped of their children.

Emma was the size of a King Penguin.

King penguins have colorful feathers around their necks and heads.  They are the brightest of all the species of penguin.  (credit)

That is a perfect match for Emma.

She would definitely be the most stylish of penguins.

Caroline was the same size as an emperor penguin.

Emperor penguins can stay underwater for around 20 minutes at a time. (credit)

This is a feat that Caroline swears she is going to accomplish one day.

We even had to google the world record from holding your breath.

The answer:  22 minutes, 22 seconds

While outside, we went to the snake hut.  We took no pictures of that because my Nana would have a heart attack.

The girls did touch a snake.

They were asked NOT to tell Nana.

She is deathly afraid of snakes.

What was the first thing the girls did when they saw Nana?

Told her.

She was upset and swore they could not be related to her.

We also did a little bird watching outside.

It was 8 million degrees so really the "bird watching" consisted of the girls hanging on the binoculars like monkeys for a total of 2 whole minutes and then we headed back inside.

While we were "bird watching" I spotted this compass.

I love a compass.

They are so pretty to me.

This is the exact compass (or one just like it at the aquarium) that taught me years ago that our coast faced South.

When you are at the beach, you just assume you are looking west to places like Morocco, Spain, and Portugal.

Nope.

Our coast actually faces South... to Florida.

It was also shark week at the aquarium.

Who doesn't love a good shark?

This awesome picture of a shark in the big shark tank should totally be entered into a photograph contest.

Best picture of a shark's tail everrrrrr!

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And now a little

interview with Big & Bug

What was your favorite part of the aquarium?

Big:  The otters

Bug:  The penguins

What was your favorite animal?

Big:  The octopus

Bug:  The otters

Do you want to go back to the aquarium?

Big:  Yes

Bug:  Yes

What did that snake that you touched feel like?

Big:  Wet shingles

Bug:  Rubber

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Ok, so Big must have been in LaLa land while we were at the aquarium.

Her favorite animal... the octopus?

Yeah, we didn't see an octopus.

He was hiding.

I guess she dreamed it.

Her answer about the snake feeling like "wet shingles".

What does that even mean?

When has she ever felt wet shingles?

Weird.

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All in all, it was a successful aquarium trip.

Fun was had by all!

OMG Cuteness

I flipped open the iPad and this is what I saw...

Clearly, my six year old is extremely technologically advanced.

Not only can she take the same picture at least 23 times, she also knows how to make it our background AND lock screen background.

When I was six, I was holding onto the screws on the bottom of a MAC keyboard so I wouldn't get electrocuted when I turned it on.  I guess that is why we had to keep our fingers on the screws.  Who knows?

My, my, my... the times have changed.

Tetanus

I vacuumed out the minivan this morning.

We had sand everywhere.

I don't do this very often so I decided to make the best of it and take the girls carseats out, take them apart, and wash them.

I rarely wash carseat covers for many reasons.

For one, it takes a freaking rocket scientist to figure out how to get the carseat covers on and off.

Seriously.  It is ridiculous.

Let me just tell you, Bug's carseat was disgusting.

I am pretty sure DSS would take my children away from me if they saw what was in Emma's carseat.

I am surprised an animal wasn't living in there.

It was so gross, I was too embarrassed to even take pictures for "the dot com".

There were chips and candy in there that I had NEVER seen.

I am pretty sure I need a new tetanus shot after dealing with that this morning.

Help me mamas...  I hope your kids have digusting carseats too.

Please tell me that they do.

AND if you have any secrets or tricks about taking factory carseat covers on and off please let me know.

Bible School

Today the girls are sitting on the bed pretending to fly to China.

China.

I wonder where they think China is.  I wonder what they think they would see in China.

Their imaginations are amazing.

Midflight to China, they heard me turn on the bathtub. Their flight was cut short and they were both following me to the bathroom, not letting me get too far out of their sight.

They were both on edge.

We have been preparing them all weekend for tonight.

I let them know that I would be leaving them at Bible school at our church.

There were tears.

There were screams.

There were meltdowns.

China?  That would NEVER happen.  They can't even let me shave my legs without sitting right beside the bathtub.

China?  Psh!  They are having a meltdown about BIBLE SCHOOL!!

The time came.

Emma immediately started crying because I was walking too fast for her to catch up to me.

Caroline cried because I left her in the sanctuary with MG (our 11 year old cousin).  I made a quick exit just before clawing my eyeballs out.

Emma was clinging to me for dear life... literally.

I pried her off of me and ran out the door leaving her with my aunt to deal with.

These sort of situations go much more smoothly if I am not involved.

I felt like such a crappy mom but it was the perfect opportunity to leave them and possibly kick this separation anxiety in the ass.

I was back at church a whole hour early to pick them up.

I was armed with their new American Girl dolls.  Peace offerings, if you will.

I slowly crept around the church watching them.

Then they saw me.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

Oh man.

It's over, I thought to myself.  They have seen me and they are going to want to crawl up inside of me and never let me leave again!

They didn't.

Did you hear me?

THEY DIDN'T!

They stayed in their line and followed their class to music.

I had to literally pick my mouth off of the floor.

I couldn't believe it.

I was so proud.

They started the day off going to China, a feat I felt they would never accomplish.

They ended the day going to Bible school all by themselves.

That is as big as going to China in my eyes.

Way to go girls!  We are so very proud of you!

Sunflowers and vomit. What a combo.

I wanted to take pictures of the girls.  I feel like they get lost in the hustle and bustle of taking pictures for others that I forget my own.

I had the day all planned out.   I should have known that this was a mistake.  NEVER plan anything.

Here were our plans... splash pad and pool with friends in the morning, dinner at a local favorite with my sister, and pictures in the evening around that time the sun was going down.

All went as planned.  I just didn't factor in the heat.

We ate dinner.  It was so hot upstairs where we were sitting.  I am talking super hot.  I got a little nauseous at one point, I had to take a break from eating.

Caroline has the habit of needing to use the restroom when she gets done eating at a restaurant.  I gave her the option, bathroom or a piece of gum.

She chose gum but cried a little about not being able to hang out in the bathroom.  "I have to throw up," she began saying.

Ummm, no.

Gum or bathroom?  Her choice.

She chose, gum.

On the way home she was coughing.  Well, you know what followed?  Vomit.

And lots of it.

I had to pull over in the Dollar General and she threw her guts up.  Dammit.

I hate throw up.

Hate it!

I hadn't worked vomiting into our schedule.

Ugh!

I hate the unplanned.

So here I am in the Dollar General parking lot thinking about the beautiful pictures I had been wanting to take all day.

I consoled Big.  Hoping she would be better for pictures.

Luckily enough, she brought it up first.  "When are we going to the sunflowers?" she asked.

And so we gathered all of our props, dresses, and headed to the sunflower field.

Without further ado, my oldest child.

The baby that just finished vomiting but came home, threw on a dress and was ready for her photo op.

She is growing so fast and I teared up a little bit when I saw these pictures.

Oh my gawd, she looks so grown.

Maybe it is the dress... maybe it is the hair... maybe she is just growing up.

It is sad that she isn't a baby anymore but I am secretly thanking God that she is growing up.  This one is giving me a run for my money.

And the baby.  My Bug.

She is easy... especially compared to her big sister.

And she LOVES her hand on her hip.

Loves it.

I saw the wheat field on the way to the sunflowers.  I thought to myself that it would make the perfect backdrop for pictures.  Of all the wheat fields, we just so happen to find one that hasn't been burned yet.  To me, that is not a coincidence.  Then Big saw it and announced that she wanted her picture made.  She begged me after the sunflowers to stop at the wheat field.  I should have known that was sign.

I stopped.  I got the most amazing pictures of Big... 

And Bug....

Then I got the most amazing pictures of my girls.

My daughters, together.

My beautiful babies.

The babies I always dreamed I would have.

I am such a lucky girl.

Who does she belong to

I haven't mentioned it yet because I am trying to forget.

We have two new family members.

We have Lilly Lucy Lafone complete with a Dora twirly pink shell.

She is a night owl & likes to kick her rocks around (like most hermit crabs) but doesn't do anything crazy.

With a name like Lilly Lucy and a fancy shell, I bet you can't guess who she belongs to?!

And then we have Allie.

Allie is named after Ryan's first cousin who my children adore.

Allie is a bit different  (the hermit crab not the human.  The human Allie is super nice, pretty, & sweet)...

In other words, she is a nutjob (again, the hermit crab not the human).

I mean really!

Have you ever seen an Evel Knievel hermit crab?

I bet you can't guess who she belongs too?!

Rain. . . FINALLY

Yesterday was excruciatingly hot.

The humidity wrapped a blanket around your face when you walked outside.

You didn't even find much relief under the shade trees.

The Earth was super dry.  Everything, humans included, were longing for water.

Emma announced that her face was "burning" and she needed to go inside for a drink of Pepsi.

I will admit, I got a little excited at the sight of rain clouds.

They covered the hot sun and gave us all a second of relief.

We were all secretly praying for rain.

And finally, rain it did.

The rain came and stayed a while.

Our ditches and backyard overflowed with water.

I am pretty sure everything outside could be heard singing a sigh of relief.

The girls have never played in the rain.  To be honest, I have never let them.  It isn't something I was ever allowed to do as a child.  Not because my Mom said no but because I never wanted to do it.  I just always thought when it rained, you stayed inside.  Not to mention, I am not a big fan of grass sticking to my feet legs whole body.  

With their little noses pressed to the glass front door, I knew the girls wanted to go out.  I knew they wanted to "jump in muddy puddles" just like Peppa Pig.

"Do y'all want to go out and play?"  They both looked at me dumbfounded.  Before I could change my mind, they were out the door.

I think the rain was a shock at first because they started out kind of slow.  Lightly tiptoeing in the rain then deciding to gently bounce to splash just a little water.

The splashes eventually got bigger and suddenly they never wanted the rain to end.  However, Emma was nervous her white skirt was going to get wet.  She didn't realize the falling rain was soaking it already.  She held on tight to that skirt, protecting it.

I grabbed my camera to capture their first rain dance.

Sometimes when I am shooting, random songs will pop in my head.  Yesterday, Led Zeppelin's Bron-Y-Aur Stomp was the song playing in my head.

Click play and look at the pictures.  You will thank me later.

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"As we walk down the country lanes, I'll be singing a song,

Hear me calling your name.

Hear the wind within the trees, Telling Mother Nature 'bout you and me."