Cookie Monster

I haven't posted in a while, so I guess I'll post a little riddle for you. What do you get when you take one batch of freshly baked cookies, one 3-year-old watching Gummi Bears DVDs, and a mommy thinking she can sneak out of the room for 10 minutes to do some laundry and answer an email?


A completely empty cookie sheet.

Sun, Fun, and Puppy Dogs

Anyone who is a parent knows that you never stop learning from your kids. Today Jody and I had a very entertaining lesson courtesy of Colt.

We took him to the lake to swim at what we've started calling Colt's Island at our local lake. No matter how busy the water is in the summer, this little outcropping is always abandoned, probably due to the fact that it's mostly clay and no sand.

Well, we love it because the water around it is very shallow and Colt can walk out a long ways before it's too deep. We are always within arms reach of him at any time, but we (meaning Mom) decided to teach him to doggy paddle. I calmly explained the mechanics of this move to him as he was standing on the little clay beach.

"Kick your legs and arms like you're crawling. You know, just like a dog does in the water." He got on all fours, laid down in the water and . . . . "woof, woof," at which point he stood back up and proceeded to build a sand castle (i.e. lump of wet dirt). Lesson over.

Skunk Ice Cream

I read somewhere a long time ago that couples who spend 15 minutes a day talking (about non-children or problem related issues) are twice as likely to stay together ad those who don't. Well, whatever brilliant psychologist thought that up has never had a conversation about my husband's childhood.

Jody and I on average spend way, way more than that 15 minutes each and every day. We talk about how our days went, funny things he heard at work, things he reads on Facebook, and stuff that happens in our families. And then, when we FINALLY run out of things to talk about, we generally start telling amusing stories from our childhood.

Now, anyone who knows my husband can tell you that he says he never did anything wrong as a child. However, his mother's ruined Tupperware container showed a different story when he used it for target practice around age 12. But that's not what concerned me. But first, a little background on this . . .

A couple of weeks ago, we stopped by my in-law's house to drop something or the other off. They had homemade ice cream and we, OF COURSE, had some before we left. As everyone knows, homemade ice cream is just too good to pass up and you can't beat it for taste. I've always loved it . . . . until today.

Colt was in his room having a rare quiet moment (thank you Bee Movie) and Jody and I were sitting around talking. The conversation eventually got around to when he and his friend (now his sister's husband) went out with his new bow one night. (Remember, these guys were all of about 13-years-old) and they saw a skunk.

Being the bright, intelligent boys they were, they thought it would be a good idea to shoot it. (I'm sure you can see where THIS is headed). Anyhow, Jody made his shot and it was a good one. However, his arrow, thanks to the fletching (little feathers on the end of the arrow for those non-bow hunting maniacs) came out smelling like, well, skunk.

After getting home, Jody thought it might be a good idea to soak that nasty thing in some water so he goes and gets the bucket that went to the ice cream machine and, you guessed it, filled it with water and stuck the arrow in.

Of course, his mother wasn't too happy about that, but I have no idea what she did. It was at the point where he said "soaked the skunky arrow in the ice cream bucket" that my ears closed and my mind went back to the ice cream we had out there. Let me tell you, I've NEVER been so happy as I was when my mother-in-law emailed back and said that the skunk bucket ice cream machine died years ago and the one she used was a newer skunk-free model.

Now I know where Colt gets it from. Despite his cries of innocence, my husband has a very colorful past when it comes to getting into all kinds of shenanigans, little-boy-style. God save us from boys and their toys!

Until next week, I hope everyone has a great time. Now back to my vacation!

We love you Granny!

Well, after weeks of struggle, I’m sad to say that Jody’s darling little grandmother finally went home to be with her Lord. Tonight was the viewing and I should still be at the funeral home with the family. Instead, thanks to a mischievous 3-year-old, I’m sitting here in the house since I got tired of trying to catch him in my 3-inch high heels. As I sit here, lots of things go through my mind. After just three days, the grief is still raw for everyone. We all knew it was coming, but, well, how do you say goodbye to someone that you love?

I’m all right most of the time, but every now and then the image of that moment pops into my mind. One minute you know who you are and who you love. They’re sick and you know time is limited, but they’re THERE. Two seconds later, they’re just NOT. Then follows days of crying and laughing and preparing for the final goodbye. Hard days, but necessary ones.

As my mother-in-law and I sat laminating and carefully placing ribbons on the keepsake bookmarks for the service, we couldn’t help but think about the woman whose life we were celebrating tomorrow. Words cannot accurately describe Doris Marcantel. Doris was always one of those people who was happy with her lot in life. She was happy for whatever she had and, in my 11 years of knowing her, never heard her complain about not having enough.

She loved her friends, her family, and most especially her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, which she ended up having plenty of. Granny “Sirod” as they call her, was a favorite destination on any given day, but most especially at Halloween. You could always count the “green witch” to be standing by her cauldron doling out oodles of candy and popcorn balls. Even if she knew only one or two kids besides the grandkids would come by, she went all out.

And the fun never stopped there. Doris was always cooking something. If you came by, you were GOING to eat something. More often than not I’d catch my husband and boys sneaking over there to “check on Granny” right about noon. Yeah, right. I knew what they were up to and more often than not was happy to tag along. She was just as wonderful a cook as you can imagine.

We would eat and laugh and gossip, of course, and we’d always talk about the grandkids and any new additions coming up as well as fond memories of the past. My favorite of all time has to be at my wedding reception. My cousin, Caitlin, was my maid of honor and she was determined to catch the bouquet. Being a good cousin and bride, I tried my best to aim for Caitlin. I missed. My bouquet gaily sored through the air and smacked poor Granny square on the head. I was mortified, but she had quite a good giggle and loved to remind me about that on my anniversary.

Granny and I made some good memories. We traveled many a mile to Nacogdoches together taking her to her foot doctor and then me going to my prenatal appointments. We learned a lot about each other (and where NOT to eat Mexican food) on those trips. And while the prenatal appointments are permanently behind me now, I’ll think of her every time I head through that long road between here and there.

I could go on and on, but they boys just got back and we’re headed over to eat some of the masses of food that kind friends and neighbors have brought to us in our time of grief. We love you Granny. We miss you. We always will.

What a Week!

What a nice weekend! The weather is pretty, the boys are getting along and Jody has one of his rare weekends off. We've pretty much just vegged out here at the house. The one thing we did manage to do was to get Colt's pool set up and ready for summer.

We cleaned it out, filled it up, and turned him loose. He did good for a few hours. That is, until Jody had to come inside for a minute. He had only taken his eyes off him for a second and was heading back out the door when I heard him yell.

Now, knowing we live about 20 feet from a MAJOR highway, I was worried that Colt had gotten too close to the road. It was worse than I thought. Just as Jody was going out the door, apparently a little pair of trunks went over the side of the pool . . . sans Colt.

While Jody and I were having fits trying to gather him up, he was happily giving everyone that passed a free peek at him skinny dipping! We finally managed to get the slippery little eel back in his drawers and inside, but boy what a situation. Hopefully no one we knew passed. Hmm . . . wonder if duct tape is kid proof. Maybe that could keep his drawers on.

Summer Ahead!

Well, it's Tuesday. Bleh. Three more days until the weekend! Seems like it will never get here. Lots of work and cleaning to do this week and no energy to do it with. But at least summer's coming up quick. No more getting the kids up at the crack of dawn to get ready for school. They can sleep until noon and I can use that time to get all my stuff done. I'm sure I'll be using a couple of those days to sleep till noon too . . . maybe.

Now if I can just find some good recipes for summer. I'm still stuck in winter food mode. I love the soups and stews and casseroles that are warm and cheesy and good during winter. I love them all year around, but having a big bowl of chili in 90 degree weather kind of ruins it.

So I'm trying to find something that good for the hotter weather that isn't strictly sandwiches or hot dogs. Guess it's time to fire up the old grill and cook some steaks this weekend. And put the pool up. And store the winter clothes. Or maybe I'll just put it off for one more week and sleep late since next week will be really busy with the 8th grade graduation coming up and vacation plans to be made.

Hope everyone has a great week!

TGIF

This has been one of those weeks when you're glad to see it end. You know the kind I'm talking about . . . starts out great and then fizzles like a balloon with a leak. UPS has been a tremendous thorn in my side all week. That Lufkin office can't seem to keep up with anything or manage to deliver before 6pm even when you've paid for advanced delivery.

On a different note . . . Jody's grandma is still hanging on. Her vitals remain steady though there's been no improvement. She's a fighter and we all keep hoping that maybe we can get one more miracle where she's concerned.

As for the weekend, well, Brandon is escaping to his grandparents house . . . again. Jody is off and we're just going to veg out and watch T.V. Well, he is. I've got papers to do and a report to write for class. Colt is busy tearing everything in the house off the walls in between trying to stick things in the microwave because "I need to cook." If you fix him something, he won't eat it, but he still feels the need to blow up something in the microwave at least once an hour.

And speaking of the little stinker, he taught his father a valuable lesson yesterday. Mama was right. Hunting is very, very annoying. Now, for those of you who don't know yet, I HATE HUNTING. I loathe it. I hate the spider filled deer stands, mosquito filled woods, and billions of deer horns that my guys continually drag into the house and insist on putting onto my walls. I hate watching the demon-like beady eyes of the stuffed deer head mounts that creepily watch you as you go about your daily chores. I hate opening my dryer to find that it's been infested with "dirt smell" from the dryer tabs that my hunters use to keep the deer from smelling them. But the thing I hate the most is having to wait on the guys to get back from the hunting or checking cameras or checking out their hunting spots because I want to go out somewhere and they insist on coming too, but also insist they need to do the "guy stuff" first.

Jody has never understood how much of a pain it is when someone insists on doing that when you have other things you'd much rather be doing. But Colt gave him a good feel for it yesterday. It all started when Colt decided to go ride his electric 4-wheeler that he got for his birthday. Well, we figured we'd trail behind him and watch him. We got him outside and put him on the thing and he takes off. He's speeding (at a whopping 3 miles per hour) across the yard and heads up the small trail that runs by our house.

Of course I had to go change into my tennis shoes so that I could go through the woods with them, but imagine my surprise when I get out there and they're GONE. I knew Jody had him so I came back inside and amused myself with a book. About 30 minutes later Jody carries a kicking and screaming 3-year-old into the house. He wasn't done. His dad was.

Apparently I should be really glad that I missed it. The ride started out okay. He went through the loop, then back and up through the high line, then he stops and says, "Where is the deer camera?" Jody tells him there's no camera out right now, so he jumps back on and takes off. He travels a huge trail through the land next to ours. He stops again. "I need to check the deer feeder." Again, no go. Not that time of year. Here they go again. Now, remember, Jody is walking the WHOLE time and it's hot and humid and mosquito filled out there. He's learned that it's not quite so fun when you have to wait on someone else to do all the riding. But they finally make it home and he gets him stopped long enough to pry his hands from the handle and bring him inside, screaming all the way.

But all in all three good lessons were learned. #1 - Jody's learned to take his own 4 wheeler with them when Colt goes riding. #2 - I've learned not to offer to let him in the yard unless his daddy's there to follow him, and #3 - I've learned that he's finally old enough to participate in the hunting stuff and so his daddy can't say he's too small to take this year. (Woo hoo! Three whole months of guy stuff which leaves me hours and hours of reading time!) Hmm . . . maybe I don't hate hunting so much after all.

Hope everyone has a great Friday and a super weekend!