Happy Birthday Big Brother

My baby turned 5 today. I can't believe this little guy is growing so fast. He had his special day planned out for us from the moment he woke up.

Dinosaur pancakes with birthday candles.

He had opened all of his presents before breakfast except for one. He walked outside and yelled, "My 4 wheeler!" and took off.

He even took Baby Jaws for a ride.

He had his standing birthday lunch at Chik-Fil-A.


Eat More Chikin!
Dinner was his favorite: Texas Roadhouse. He loves it for no other reason than he thinks it's cool that he can throw peanut shells on the floor.

He wanted to sit in the birthday saddle, but didn't want them singing to him.

He ended the day at church sharing his dinosaur cupcakes with all of his buddies. All in all, he had a fun 5th birthday!

Laundry Success

I found half of a granola bar in Baby Jaw's PJ shorts. I'm just thankful I caught it before it went into the washing machine, although as I've said before, I've washed worse.

Five Quote Friday

Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy fat women.
~Attributed to both Marion Smith and Nicole Hollander

A man snatches the first kiss, pleads for the second, demands the third, takes the fourth, accepts the fifth - and endures all the rest.
~Helen Rowland

It takes a woman twenty years to make a man of her son, and another woman twenty minutes to make a fool of him.
~Helen Rowland

Men want the same thing from their underwear that they want from women: a little bit of support, and a little bit of freedom.
~Jerry Seinfeld

Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.
~Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard

Mommy Brain

I had a severe case of Mommy Brain this morning as I was making a bowl of cereal of all things. Big Brother and Baby Jaws both wanted Cheerios. I had filled their bowls, set them on the table and went back to the fridge to retrieve the milk.

I walked back to the table, took the top off the milk, heard Little Miss Happy Go Lucky yell, "TEA!" and thought, what a strange child.

Then I noticed it. I was pouring brown liquid into Big Brother's Cheerios. The look on his face was nothing short of sheer terror. It's as if he actually believed I was going to make him eat the tea covered O's.

He was relieved when I told him I'd dump it and make him another bowl with actual milk.

Better Than a Hallelujah

My friend sang this at church a couple of weeks ago and it made me cry. I love it!

Sn-oop

Big Brother had a crappy day today. A few bouts of diarrhea and a few changes of underwear later and he was feeling better. After dinner, he was standing in the living room and sneezed. The look on his face was priceless. He started yelling, "Oh, I pooped my pants!" He was half shocked and half disgusted that his big sneeze had set off another poop.

And being the loving mother that I am, I laughed.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

I'm behind, which is nothing new for me. But since summer is here, I'm really behind. I feel a little guilty about not posting daily on my blogs. I love to write and it was a nice goal for me to have-this blogging every day.

I'm not going to sweat it anymore though. I'm spending more time with my boys and that's all that matters. We've had the best time this past week. We went to the nature center one day last week. They got to go to bible school with Pa and Gran. They got to go swimming with their cousin. Saturday, we had a BBQ and fireworks at PaPa and Mamaw's house. Sunday, we did more fireworks at our house. Yesterday, we all loaded up and went to the zoo, including Daddy.

I'm going to enjoy the rest of my summer with my sweet little guys. I'm not going to worry anymore about what I have or haven't posted. I'm going to relax like my little monkey friend here, but not before I share some zoo photos.

That's the life!
Big Brother was very impressed that Kevin from UP strolled by us.
Baby Jaws is my little animal lover so he got along great with the goats. It cracked me up that the goats kept cracking him up!
I can't believe that Big Brother actually touched the snake. He was quite brave!
So for the rest of the summer, I'm going to have fun like these little guys. I just wish I had the energy of an otter or of my boys for that matter.

So Long T-Ball

Big Brother ended his last season of t-ball Monday night. Next year, coach pitch. How did my little t-ball player grow up so fast? He's my little major league all star in training.

A Blessed Weekend

I absolutely loved the Beth Moore conference I attended in St. Louis over the weekend. It is something I will never forget. The praise team and everyone singing along was awesome! Beth Moore and her message was awesome! It was just awesome to be a part of it!

Come Awake

Five Quote Friday

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.
~Author Unknown

You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.
~Laurence J. Peter

Constant use will not wear ragged the fabric of friendship.
~Dorothy Parker

A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked.
~Author Unknown

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.
~Lois Wyse

Momma's Getting a Break

I'm excited I get to go to St. Louis this weekend with my girls from church to a Beth Moore conference. I will miss my boys tremendously, but it will be a blast!

I asked my boys (including Hubs) what they would be doing while I'm gone.

"We're going to sit around in our underwear and eat watermelon."

Lovely.

All Star

Publish Post

Baby Jaws vs. The Pen

If I Stand

Five Quote Friday

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass." "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys."
~Harmon Killebrew

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
~Clarence Budington Kelland

The greatest gift I ever had
Came from God; I call him Dad!
~Author Unknown

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
~Mark Twain

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.
~Ruth E. Renkel

The Good Book

Random Things I Did Today

I made blueberry muffins in my GT Xpress because my oven has been broken since Saturday. (The UPS man brought the new part this afternoon and thanks to Mr. Fix It Hubs, it was working again in no time.)

I bought a buttload of groceries at Dillons using my buttload of coupons and was told by the older woman behind me, "I'm proud of you. Look at those coupons. I need to do that more."

I went by Sonic to grab a drink and was told by the girl in the drive-thru, "Thank you. It was an honor to serve you today." Then I almost laughed in her face. I say almost because it kind of made me feel like a queen.

I texted this to Hubs, "You're no fun today."

I cleaned greenish, squishy poop up off the bathroom floor while a naked Baby Jaws stood watching and saying, "Ewwww."

I picked Big Brother up from summer school.

I met Hubs at Walmart. I needed things I had coupons for. He needed charcoal and lighter fluid. I went through one checkout while he went to the lawn and garden center. As the boys and I were leaving, Hubs was riding through the doors on a motorized scooter. I was shocked at first and then just amused. He swears a little old man asked him to drive it back in for him. I think he just went for a joy ride. And to quote Hubs, "That thing has a horn." Giddy up!

I went to the bank.

I ate an angus hot dog for dinner that Hubs had grilled just right.

I overheard Pat tell Vanna, "It's time to part," at the beginning of Wheel of Fortune. And then I overheard Big Brother yell, "He said it's time to fart!"

I went to church at our new church that is still a work in progress. It was awesome to be there again with the same guys that came last summer to help put up the outside walls. This summer, the inside walls are almost finished. Really awesome!

I tucked two exhausted little boys into bed.

I said, "I need a haircut," for the 257th time this week.

Say a Prayer

I was just reading the latest post at Steph's Gonna Win. Steph, her family and friends can use your prayers now more than ever. Remember her husband and especially her little boys. As the post says, "Today, all of the littles understand what is going on. Please pray for wisdom as we are all asked questions that we wish we didn't have to answer. Pray for their little hearts."

Please join me and say a prayer for them all.

Go Fish, Go Flush

I noticed our fish was dead today. You don't understand. This is the fish I thought would never die. You see, this fish has survived a lot. I don't even know what kind of fish it was or how long we had it. I just know it was old. It used to live in a giant tank with all of our other fish until our first big ice storm in 2007. Our electricity was off for quite a while and every fish in our tank died in the ice water, except for two. We got rid of the fish tank and all the dead fish. I put the two survivors in a little fish bowl, sat it on the kitchen counter and all was well for a few months.

In May 2007, we traveled to Oklahoma for a couple of days. When we arrived home, I went to the kitchen to feed the fish and found only one in the fish bowl. I found the other fish had jumped to it's death and was in our sink. We ruled it a suicide.

So our lonely little fish was all alone in his fish bowl. It didn't seem to bother it though. The next winter rolled around and so did another ice storm. Our electricity was off again, our house got cold and so did the water in that fish bowl. But our little survivor weathered yet another storm.

Over the past couple of years, I have been secretly wanting it to die, but after all it had been through, I never thought it would happen. It's as if it had nine lives. And I just didn't have the heart to flush it.

I actually felt a little sad today when I went to feed my little survivor and didn't see it. I found it under a rock. Poor little fish had such a long life, but now it's time to flush it to that big fish bowl in the sky.