I caught Porter looking at porn today….

while I was DRIVING back from the grocery store… WHAT THA…?

So the kids and I are driving back from the grocery store today and we’re stopped at a red light. I’m blaring my latest Michael Jackson mixed disc tribute (RIP) and not really paying attention to anything. All of the sudden, Porter starts laughing and pointing and saying “BOOBIES! MOM! MOM! MOM! MOM! BOOBIES!” Being that my son is quite crude and loves to say things just to annoy me, I sort of ignored him. That was until a black Chevrolet SSR convertible truck drove past me with this custom paint job:

Now I obviously got these pictures online from this site: Hemi Truck Club but the thought of there being more then one of these and being exactly alike seems far fetched to me. I’m guessing that this is the same truck and even if it’s not, what the hell people. I didn’t realize that porn as a custom paint job was legal!

Our New Puppy – CHLOE!

So several of our neighbors have adopted a few puppies from a littler of boxer/bulldog that were born a few months ago. For some reason, all these little puppies coming in and out of my house (so cute) got me into the puppy spirit. So after many days of coercing, I was able to talk Eric into letting me start looking for a puppy. We have always been people who wanted to adopt our dogs since most purebreed or breeded puppies tend to not go to the pound, so we started looking at Petfinder.com, which is where I found Bailey six years ago, for our new puppy. As some of you know, I can usually tell a lot about someone from a picture and just like when I first saw Baileys, when I saw our new puppies picture on the site, I knew she was the one for us. We mulled over it for a few weeks and brought the kids to visit her at her foster home and then took a few more days and decided that she was definitely the one for us. So far she’s been great. She hasn’t barked at all although she has whined a few times prompting me to allow her to sleep in our room. There have been minimal accidents and the kids and Bailey have taken to her just fine. We are not sure her mix and neither is her foster mom. They are thinking something along the lines of Akita, German Shepherd, Sheepdog, Lab, and who knows what else. Whatever she is, her coat is beautiful, she’s tender and sweet, not too jumpy and great with our two kids. Here are some pics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting Leigh In Pensacola

As most of you know, one of my best friends, Leigh, joined the Navy a few months ago and was finally released from boot camp and is currently stationed on the Naval base in Pensacola awaiting instructions and taking final classes before being transferred to her more permanent home. We got the chance to go down there this weekend and although it was an extremely short trip and full of the hassle dragging two kids along can sometimes bring, it was still wonderful spending some time with her. We did some swimming, went to the the beach and mostly hung out and talked. Here are some pics from our trip. Also, if you are interested in reading what boot camp was like for Leigh, her blog can be found here: Leigh’s Naval Adventures!

 

Finally there!

YUM! Vacation junk food

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Worst Mexican food ever!

Pensacola Beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soakin' up the sun

 

 

 

 

Gracie loves the sand...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leigh and Porter enjoying the surf

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

As usual, I look over to make my weekly grocery list and OF COURSE there are those pesky few bananas that the kids begged me to get that are now all brown and bruised. Wanting them not to go to waste, I decided to try my hand at a new banana cupcake recipe and even do an icing. I found this one and while it is a bizarre recipe, calling for 3 cups of flour, 2.5 cups of sugar and a little over a CUP of Canola Oil, these are smelling tasty as can be while they bake.  

You can find the original recipe here:  Banana Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

Pool Days

So today I decided that I would finally take Porter and Gracie to the pool today. In my mind it went like this; towel, sunscreen, toys… done. In reality it took quite a bit longer.

First off, my kids wanted to go immediately when I suggested it. Unfortunately it took a good thirty minutes just to round everything up to get there. I had to first undress them, then apply the spray on sunscreen, which if applied in the house on hardwood floors, quickly makes the floors so slippery that you would have thought we had coated them in canola oil. So then I had to mop up the sprayed area and take the kids outside to finish up applying sunscreen. Then it had to soak in all the while listening to the constant whine of “why aren’t we leaving yet?!” Then there were toys to find, flotation devises to summon from last years pool days. Oh wait, just kidding. Because my 2 year old daughter grows at double her rate so the cute little 3T bathing suit/life vest that she worse last year is about the size of her big toe. So scratch that, everyone into the car so we can run up to Target to get a life vest/swimsuit that will fit a 41lb 2 year old.

Check that and we’re back home. Now time to put on our bathing suits… remember my daughter who grows so fast? Back to target because the 3T bathing suits from last year, still don’t fit. Now check that again and we’re back home. Time to reapply the sunscreen and wait for it to soak in….cue the whine.

NOW that we successfully sunscreened  and suited up, time to pack the toys bag with goggles, masks, toys, water and snacks. Alright kids, get in the car…we are ready! Here we go, we’re driving to the pool…. oh shit, turn around (sorry kids – please stop whining) because I didn’t even have towels. That’s right – I forgot the towels. So back home, grab the towels and head back out the door. Drive to the pool feeling pretty good that I had remembered everything… get there and WHOOPS! Still need the key to get in. (Insert cuss word here). Back into the car. Now the kids are beyond whining and actually crying at this point. Back home to search every drawer, cabinet and beach bag to find the key from last summer to get into the pool only to have Porter walk up to me and go, “isn’t the key attached to your bag that’s in the car on the keychain?” (insert worse cuss word here). Back into the car, drive to the pool, get there, unlock door, set things down…. and…… OH…(insert worst cuss word you know here) because it’s way past Gracie’s nap time and no one’s even eaten lunch. Awesome.

PS. I did let them swim for an hour – they deserved it!

SUMMERTIME

I mistakenly belived that once Porter was out of school and Gracie was done with her classes, that we would have a ton of downtime to just relax and goof off. I got the 2nd part right but was way off when it came to the “relaxing!” We have been making tye dyed shirts, sand bottles, painted our hearts out, ran around our finally finished backyard, went to the zoo, and met up with neighborhood families for outdoor antics. It has been wonderful but definitely tiring when you also add into account the heat and humidty down here in the south!

The one thing we havne’t done yet is go to the pool so that is definitely on the agenda next week. Here are some pictures of our first month of summer!

 

Planting Flowers

 

Hanging with Friends

Dying it UP!

Bouncy Playgroups

 

Being Sweet!

Going to the Zoo

Dirty South Roller Derby

Eric and I had the pleasure of attending the Roller Derby this weekend as his parents took the kids for the night and our friends met us up there. All I can say is AWESOME! If you live in the Atlanta area, I highly suggest setting aside a few hours each month to see these local girls in action. Not only are they totally bad ass but they are extremely good at what they do. One of the friends that went with us is in the process of training for the next try out. After watching the strength these girls had to roll around the rinkl for over an hour, all the while being body checked and rolled over, I was in awe. In a culture obsessed with skinny = healthy, it’s nice to see a sport where women of all ages, sizes, shapes and colors can throw down together competitively. Check it out here: Dirty South Derby. Oh, and the best part? It’s BYOB??!!

Sneaky Porter

So last night I left to go to the grocery store after the children went to bed. When I got back Eric told me that he had to go in and put Gracie’s diaper on five differernt times because she was taking it off and throwing it out of her crib, even after Eric put shorts on her.  As it got progressively worse, Eric threatened to spank Gracie and eventually carried through on two separate occasions. Of course it was barely a tap and mostly just to let her know that he was serious.

Regardless, when he told me the story I said, “what did she say when you walked in the room?” and he goes, “Well, it was weird because she kept saying Porter.” Ahhh, I get it now. What Eric didn’t know is that Porter is going through this stage where he hears us say something like, “Gracie, please don’t do that again or you’ll have to go into time out” and then he will run over to her and whisper in her ear to “do it again.” Of course she complies as she is almost three and does whatever Porter says to do.

So this morning I pull Porter aside and ask him if he was prompting Gracie to take off her diaper last night after Daddy came in and told her not to. He then admits to telling her to do it. When Gracie got up I asked her why she took off her diaper and she said, “Porter says so!” with her brilliant smile.

My heart just sunk. I realize that this is just something that we are dealing with developmentally but to know that my sweet baby girl got in so much trouble last night because her brother was telling her to do something that he KNEW was wrong. It was not cool.

So in order to make sure that he understood that we were very serious about his behavior, we decided not to go to the pool today and spend the day in the sunshine. Hopefully this will be something that can be nipped in the bud quickly.

I’m still here!

I haven’t given up on this blog, I’ve just been so busy. Gracie has finished her music and gymnastic classes and Porter is out of preschool for the summer. This means a lot more busy time with the kids, traveling to Atlanta for outings and lots of at home crafts. In fact, today we tye dyed a bunch of shirts with the kids but I, of course, forgot to take any pictures and therefore cannot show you the before/after pics. I’ll remember next time I do it if you’re interested in it as well.

Needless to say, I am here, I am alive and well and looking forward to refiguring out my days with two beautiful babies in tow and time to blog as well. I’m back on Atkins, working out to Wii Personal Trainer and walking on the treadmill and hoping to get back to myself soon. Too  many Cheetos nights have not done me well!

Love to all

Yesterday was just awesome…

it started out with being woken up several times in the night by Porter who apparently was having some bad dreams but not really waking up. This is okay, it just meant that I had to get up quite a bit and go into his room to comfort him which equals less sleep for me. Then, of course, bouncing Porter was up at 6am and ready to go. I get up, take my shower and make breakfast. Gracie’s been having trouble eating lately so I’ve been trying to get her to try at least one bite of whatever I make. This morning it was simply cereal with milk and she refused to eat it. So we had a great little power struggle where I ask her to try ONE bite and she pitches a huge fit, cries and ultimately throws up because she’s trying so hard to make herself cry harder. That was about five seconds before I walk out the door.

Then I drop Porter off at preschool, late of course, and head over to ALDI  to do some grocery shopping. Aldi, in trying to keep costs down has a quarter return cart system. You stick the quarter in, you get a cart, you return the cart, you get your quarter back. I always keep a few quarters in my car so that I never have the issue of being cart-less with a toddler in tow. However, my son has recently gotten very interested in money, what each coin is worth and the history behind the faces on the coins. In getting into this, he’s also decided that any money left unattended is his. So I get to Aldi and sure enough, all of the money in my car has been confiscated by Porter and is probably residing in some secret place where he keeps his stash. I figured I’d wing it and go in anyways. I carry in a few reusable bags and start filling them with milk, bread, eggs….. then do a myriad of sprints and dashes as I chase Gracie all over the store while lugging the bags behind me.

After that we decided to go to Walgreens to get the pictures developed that I have been taking of my son’s baseball team. I decided to do a scrapbook as a gift to the coach and wanted to have enough pictures that I could fill in any missing spaces. I had taken about 114 pictures and instead of going through them all, decided it would be easier to transfer them to my card and take them in to get them developed. I really didn’t want to have to come back later with both kids so I waited for them to finish. Gracie has really been loving her independence and when it isn’t necessary to strap her in a cart, I enjoy letting her wander the stores while I follow behind and see what interests her. This worked up until about the last 15 minutes when she ran up to a plate of syran wrapped brownies and started taking gigantic bites out of them while I run up and try to grab them away from her. The store manager was less then pleased and made me pay for all of them. I didn’t want her eating this food so I took it away from her, placed her in a cart so that I could keep her from opening anything else and then she started her 2nd meltdown of the day. For the last 10 minutes of trying to check out and pay, she is screaming and crying and won’t let me console her at all. We walk out of the store, my nerves are shot, I’m frazzled and I’m ready to get in the car and get Porter picked up from school. I pick up the huge box of 114 pictures and realize that the developer forgot to seal the box. It promptly bursts open from the bottom and 114 pictures are picked up by gusts of wind that are around 25 miles per hour and scatter the pictures across three parking lots. I start frantically grabbing the pictures, running after them and dragging Gracie behind me. The best part was that not ONE person stopped, for even a second, to help me, offer to help or simply grab the pictures gathering around their feet before the wind blew them off again. Not only that, but after seeing me rushing after said pictures, several people had no problem simply driving OVER the pictures and ignoring the fact that I was trying to save them.

I picked up Porter from school and decided to hide at home for the rest of the day as clearly yesterday was DEFINITELY not my day.