A baptism... of sorts

I'm being lazy today, so I'm posting some pictures from summer of 2007. I know it sounded like I was going to post something from the archives of my blog, but I'm not that lazy... yet.

I was going back through my pictures on Photobucket, and found these pictures and came up with a story for them.


John: "Hey mama, how do you get to heaven?"

Gary: "Oh, I'll tell him mom! Can I tell him? You see John, first you have to accept Jesus in your heart."

John: "Ok, got that. Anything else?"

Gary: "Yes, then you have to be baptized!"

John: "Baptized? What's that?"

Gary: "Here, I'll show you!"

John: "Really? That's it?"

Gary: "Well, that's how some churches do it, but I think in your case, you need full submersion."

John: "Wha...."

Gary: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

John: "Look Ma! I'm saved!"

Gary: "Will you baptize me now?"

John: "No."

Gary: "Fine, I'll do it myself!"

(In the interest of full disclosure... what is up with all these disclosures lately? Anyway, in the interest of full disclosure this conversation did not actually happen. I made it up as I went along! I have no idea what they were doing or why Gary was trying to submerge John, but obviously Gary wasn't too successful. Also, I'm pretty sure a 1 year doesn't understand the concept of heaven. Come to think of it, that 1 year old who is now 4 still doesn't understand the concept of heaven.)

WW - A clean room

Cleanliness is next to Godliness. In this case, it's next to Momliness! Because mom spent hours cleaning, organizing, dusting, vaccuuming & purging this room last Thursday. Right after all the cleaning was done, mom made a list. A list of all the things that needed to be cleaned and exactly where they went. This list is to be adhered to every.single.day with a box for a check mark next to each item. Only after each and every item is checked off are the boys allowed to play.

And a clean room makes me happy!

I'm linking up with Angie at 7 Clown Circus and 5 minutes for mom

The difference in randomition

Today’s random post is different then the normal randomonium in that my regular random posts have no rhyme or reason to them. I just sit down and write whatever comes to mind. Today’s random post is due to several things on my mind that could probably fill 2 or 3 posts, but I’m too lazy to write that much. Either that or when I write more then one post a day, my comments suffer for it. *Yes, I’m a comment whore. I freely admit it. kthanksbye

First on today’s agenda: Bloggy Boot Camp – and my confession to being a social retard.

I blame my brother, my elementary school, the bullies who picked on me; pretty much anything to shift the blame off myself for my social awkwardness. Yes, I know I’m a grown up now, and the vices that held me down are gone, but those fears of rejection still hold me in their tight grips. All I wanted was to be accepted, have a group of friends to call my own, a posse. But that was hard when you had a brother 1 year older then you who spent his time terrorizing teachers, drinking behind the band room and smoking in the bathroom. His reputation for being horrid and weird passed on to me and I was too much of an introvert to do anything about it. They called me names, threw rocks at me and destroyed my property. I had one saving grace in elementary school and that was my friend Ginger. She didn’t care that I was unpopular and she didn’t let what the other kids say get to her. She was unpopular by association, but she still remained my friend.

I guess, I’ve let my past fears grow with me and my natural introvertedness (is that a word? MS Word says it’s not) has stayed with me. This is not a good combination when you’re thrown into a social setting of (mostly) perfect strangers. It’s not so bad when that social setting is online. I have my computer screen to hide behind. My thoughts come out exactly as I want them to. There’s no awkward silence when you’ve said something dumb (that happens a lot, just warning the BBC girls now); but face to face? Where people can hear my voice, see my face and my expressions?! They get to know the real me behind all the insanity that is this blog. I’m terrified.

But it’s time I put my big girl panties on; and if the BBC girls don’t like me or my weirdness, then that’s ok. I’m stepping out of my fear. I’m no longer going to let the past decide my future. God has me in the palm of his hand and He says ‘Fear Not’ 365 times.

***

Second on today’s agenda: Gary – and an official diagnosis

We’ve struggled the past couple years with Gary and school. This year has been especially hard, and I think each year will get progressively harder (I’m fairly certain that’s how school works, but I can’t be sure). Gary is a very disorganized kid. In second grade his teacher took everything out of his desk and made him use a bucket until he could keep the bucket organized. When his bucket got out of control, she moved his stuff to a shelf in the class room. All his school work remained on the shelf until the end of the school year. Organization is not his strong suit.

Neither is getting school work done. It’s not that he’s having difficulties learning. When you ask him a question about what was taught, he’ll not only give you the answer, but he’ll give you all the additional information that is not required to know. This kid is smart! But he’s not very good at putting it down on paper. He goes off into his own little world when he’s made to sit still and do paperwork. At the end of any given week, he’ll be sent home with 6-10 class room assignments that were due on Friday. But because he didn’t get them done, they are sent home to do over the weekend. Then I stand over him with “whip and chain” just to make sure he gets them done and even then I’ll go over them and there’ll be answers left blank.

These issues with school have led us to a child psychologist. He gave me a booklet with 300+ questions and a ‘bubble test’ for lack of a better word. The next session included playing games with Gary that had him following directions and demonstrate patience. The official diagnosis is ADHD. That is not what I wanted to hear, but it is what we suspected. He said it wasn’t so severe that he recommended medication, but he gave us some idea’s to use with him to help change some of the behavior issues we’re having. I think just having the diagnosis is a weight off my shoulders. We know what we’re dealing with and we can help him in a way that best suits him. There are many different options to look and pray through; but at the end of the day he’s still my sweet boy.

***

Last on my agenda: John – and the fact that he’s a monster.

He’s the cutest, wildest, funniest little monster in the whole wide world.

Not Me! Monday - The evolution of John

Ever since John has been going to this babysitter Nana, at 11 months old, we’ve had a routine. I lay him Nana’s arms, I kiss him on the cheek/forehead/temple and we converse. Our conversation has evolved over the years but the gist of it is pretty consistent.


At 11 months

Me: I love you, John

John: …

Me: Have a good day

John: …

Me: Be a good boy

John: …

At 18 months, when he was conscious it sounded more like this:

Me: I love you, John

John: Blub Bloo

Me: Have a good day.

John: K

Me: Be a good boy.

John: K

Around 2 years old, he started forming real words.

Me: I love you, John

John: Love you

Me: Have a good day.

John: K

Me: Be a good boy.

John: K

The love you broke my heart a little because it meant he’s growing up and getting smarter. He’s one day
closer to not being my baby boy.

At 3 years old, he started to converse back a little more.

Me: I love you, John.

John: Love you too.

Me: Have a good day.

John: Have a good day.

Me: Be a good boy.

John: Be a good boy.

This conversation went on almost every morning for nearly a year. It was so cute and just another example of how John was still my little boy and had a lot to learn. I love it when he’s dependant on me for his (almost) every need.

So this morning, when I dropped John off with Nana and laid him in her arms, it was not me who was, once again, heart broken over my sweet boys choice of words. I do not dread the day my boys don’t need me anymore and step out on their own, and I do not see this conversation as one step closer to that day.

Me: I love you, John.

John: Love you too.

Me: Have a good day.

John: Have a good day.

Me: Be a good boy.

John: Be a good girl. *Wicked smile*

{hold me}

This post is linked up with MckMama and Not Me! Monday.

 

I should be sleeping, but clearly I'm not

I took the whole day off work today! I took Gary to school and John and I just hung out. All day! On our way home from taking Gary to school, John decided to show off his counting skills. His idea of counting:

25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 2030. Um, ok!

We started our day with a walk around the neighborhood. John rode his scooter while I walked behind him. Of course, I took my camera with me. I've decided that taking pictures of flowers is where my strengths lie with photography.

I have no idea what this is, but it grew on a tree. I was really intrigued with this 'flower' that I had to take a picture of it. John touched it and did not like it!

As we turned a corner, these flowers were protruding from the edge of someones yard.  Soon after this picture was taken, John decided he was getting tired of riding his scooter. But I managed to persuade him to ride a little further.

 I really liked the way this picture turned out. I added some texture in post edit and am really pleased with the effects. What do you think? I entered this one into the i heart faces community.

I don't think this one really qualifies as a flower, but I really liked it. So I took a picture of it! I saw one of these plants on the transition of 2 highways a week or so ago and wanted to stop and take a picture of it. So imagine my surprise when I found one in my very own neightborhood!

In the middle of our walk today, John really just wanted to go and I wanted to stop and take pictures!

After we got done with our walk, I decided to take John out on his bike. We've been working on riding without training wheels. He's absolutely terrified of falling, but he did pretty well for his first time. He managed to ride on his own for about 3 seconds!

After school was out, I had promised Gary we would go to the park today. Gary is getting so big! Sometimes I look at him and wonder where my baby boy went. He's got this face full of freckles and blue eyes full of wonder.

I just loved his eyes in this picture. It's a rare occasion when Gary is willing to have his picture taken. Today was one of those occasions and I took full advantage of it! I just wish I hadn't cut his chin off in this picture!

It's been the perfect day off. After such a stressful tax season, it was a welcome break! I loved getting to hang with John and then both my boys after school let out.

What are your plans for the weekend? My plans include a birthday. Who's, you ask? Mine!! Of course!! :)

Beware the cuteness

Warning: The cuteness factor in this blog post might be too much for some.

So, remember when I said I would post the other pictures I took when attempting to get a good photo for i heart faces? Then I lied when I didn't? I'm about to rectify that.

First, I lied down on the trampoline and looked up while the boys jumped.

Then I told them to take off their shirts. Yes, my boys stripped for i heart faces. You know, in the name of photography and all!

But I just wasn't getting the shot I wanted.

My favorite face shot, right here! Again, I was lying down, but still not the angle shot I was looking for.

Do their expressions look worried to you? Probably with good cause. This is the point where I decided to jump while they sat down looking up at me. I tried to snap the picture while I was up in the air, but it's not as easy as you might think. After jumping into the net and knocking down one corner of it, I abandoned that idea.

Then I found a 10 foot ladder laying on the other side of the yard. I dragged it over to the trampoline and set it up. No, I was not planning on jumping off the ladder onto the trampoline - I have no idea why John looks so terrified. Probably because is 4'11" mommy was climbing a big scary ladder, or it could be because...

his brother was about to attack him. I can't be sure. I'm going for 'he was scared for mommy.

Then James came out and saw me standing on a 10 foot ladder with my camera in tow. Oh yes, he's thinking about shaking that ladder.

Then he shook the ladder... Jerk.

Since mommy broke the net, the boys were told to get down until the net could be fixed. I just love it when they look up to me. I know it won't be long before I'm (literally) looking up to them, so I'll cherish every moment I still have while they're still shorter then me. Gary's all ready eye level with me and he's only 9.

Speaking of Gary - today he told me that at the end of this year, it will be a decade. Because every 10 years is a decade. That got me thinking that Gary will be a decade this year; which got me thinking even further.... My realization for today is that 10 years ago today, I was pregnant with him. Aaahhh

*Disclaimer - no children were harmed in the making of those photographs. I don't think. But again, I can't be sure.

O my books!

It's O My Book Week over at O My Family and she's invited all of us to join her! I love, love, love books! And I hope I can share more then one. That's ok, right Allison? Right?!?!

My first favorite book is one Allison has all ready featured, but because I love it so much I'm sharing it too.

This is the non board book version of You Are Special by Max Lucado. I fell in love with this book when our chilrens pastor read it to the kids on a Wed. night bible study. They invited our class, which was right next door to theirs, to come listen to her read the book. I got goosebumps all over when Punchinello asks Eli "Why do I matter to you?" and Eli responds "Becase you're mine. That's why you matter to me." Chills... everytime.  I read this book to John every time he has an asthma attack and needs a breathing treatment. If I read it slowly, the book is just long enough to last through the entire treatment.

The next book on my list has been a long time favorite in our house. We've had this same copy of this book since Gary was very little.

Can you tell? Ok, so this isn't actually the book. This is the cover of the book that was ripped off some time ago. I'm thinking about duct taping it back onto the book. I love this book because I relate so well to Alexander. Sometimes, you just have one of those days where nothing goes your way. When you get no suprise in your cereal box, no dessert at lunch, the shoes you like at the store aren't available in your size and you just want to move to Australia. I often use the last phrase of this book in my posts when I'm telling about a really bad day!

The last book in my list of favorites is one I've read several times over. I'm not one to read books more then once, so it's got to be a good one in order for me to read again.

If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon is my 'grown up' book for this series. It's about a woman who's engaged to be married to a good and wealthy man. She has a great job at a bank. She feels like a princess in a fairy tale. Then a tragedy brings her back to her home state. She finds out a mob boss had taken over her families business and tore it apart. She attempts to rectify the situation with the mob and finds herself in a world of trouble.  I won't tell you more, because the twists and turns the author takes you is a ride you'll want to experience yourself.

For more O My Books to read all about, head on over to O My Family and check out what other books people are talking about! I know I, for one, will be hunting down my own copy of Bear Snores On!

Thanks Allison for allowing us all to participate in your book week!

What's for dinner?

That's right, it's a bowl of cheetoes for dinner tonight. Why? Well, let me tell you why.

I'm sewing a blanket for my friend who's expecting baby #2. Her baby shower is tomorrow and I've still got a long way to go. James took Gary out for the evening so that I could work on the blanket, but left John home with me. I got finished with a section of the blanket, I picked up John and sat him on my lap and asked

"What do you want for dinner?"

John said "CHEETOES"

I said "NO! You can't have cheetoes for dinner!!"

In his sweetest little John voice, he asked "Why not?!"

I sat for moment trying to think of a suitable answer that would appease him, and you know what? I couldn't think of a good reason not to have cheetoes for dinner. So, it's cheetoes for dinner. And probably a sandwich later when he gets hungry!

Once again, James should have anticipated my complete lack of cooking skills and laziness and prepared something for me to reheat later. *sigh*

Yesterday

Yesterday, I took the day off work and so did James. I took Gary to school and John hung out with us. Want to see what we were up to?

We started our day working on our projects and cleaning house.

Then we made a trip to PetSmart for this little guy. This is Tonka, our Tonkanese kitten. He's 9 weeks old today!

John wanted you to know...

He loves his truck.

We checked out the rats

and then quickly checked out before John could say 'I want one!' Because I'm pretty sure James would have said yes.

Then it was off to Great Clips for a much needed hair cut.

While we were waiting our turn, John decided to amuse the other waiting patrons with his truck. Crashing it into walls, crawling under chairs to retrieve it. It's a good thing James decided to wait in the car. He would have had a fit.

Shaving the beautiful brown locks.

There's my handsome boy!

He's so weird.

Then we headed to Jack in the Box for some lunch. John showed off more of his weirdly goodness!

Then, it was Grandma time!

Grandma time is always the best!

For both of then!

Or quite possibly, all three of them!

Updated this post for my friend, Ruth, who's daughter also likes to show off what she's eating! In John's case, it's the sucker he got from Great Clilps right after his hair cut. The little stinker.

Another random post

I had a blog post half written out and decided to nix it because it was depressing me. It started out with me telling you about my stellar mom day I had yesterday, but then got into Gary’s bad day at school. 4 paragraphs later, I erased it all and started this one. You can thank me in the comments!

Lessons learned:

Don’t keep your kids up too late; they’ll be cranky the next day.

Never underestimate your 4 year olds intelligence; they are smarter then they let on.

Don’t leave a 64oz slushy on the edge of a table when a 4 year old is playing with his trucks on the same table. There will be slushy all over the floor and it will not be an accident.
**If your house is mostly tile, invest in a good tile cleaning machine.
***Never forget to take pictures when a photo opportunity arises. You never know when you need good blackmail material.

Don’t try to discuss something you think is important with your husband when he’s trying to pour vaccinations down a cat’s nose. It is not a good time and he will ignore you.
*** Honey, now that you’re not drowning our cats, I really want to go to blogging boot camp in May. It’s only $99! Spots are filling up fast!!

Due to parking issues at work, they are now offering valet parking. For free. No tipping allowed. (It’s not just ‘not required’ – it’s not allowed) Plus, for those who utilize the valet parking for the month of March and April, they are giving out $5 café vouchers due to not being allowed to leave for lunch. This would be awesome, except I come in an hour before valet parking opens. Bummer Coming in an hour later just to utilize the free valet parking is not worth the hour later I have to work. They can keep their $5 café voucher.

3rd graders are irrational. I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but don’t argue with them. Their arguments don’t make sense. You’d think I would have learned this by now, but no.
A good punishment for 3rd graders is to take them to bible study with you. Not to their bible study they attend while you’re at your bible study, but take them to your bible study and make them finish their homework. If they finish before bible study ends, they can take notes for you. The notes won’t make sense, but it gives them something to do.
*** It’s a good idea to review the 3rd graders homework to determine what supplies they will need to complete it while at bible study. That will nix all the excuses they have for not being able to complete their homework.

A good punishment for a 4 year old… _____Fill in the blank_____ . I haven’t figured that out yet.

When you need to buy pants for work, insist that your husband and 2 boys do not go with you. Offer to buy them ice cream. Across town. Far, far away from where you’ll be shopping. In addition, if you have a truck obsessed 4 year old – do not take him to Hobby Bench if you don’t plan on buying him something. The end result in either situation is never pretty.

Eating chocolate while angry might seem like a good idea when you’re in the moment, but your butt, thighs, and belly will not thank you later.

As James and I were doing out nightly clean up, it occured to me I had not taken a picture yet. I dropped the rag I was holding and grabbed my camera, snapped a few photo's of John who was more than willing to be photographed (as opposed to going to bed) and then continued the nightly clean up. There has not been a single day that's gone by that I haven't taken a picture!

Wanna see in a random sort of way

I'm warning you now. You are about to be inundated with pictures. Pictures of John. Why John and not Gary you ask? Because Gary was being a butt. Am I allowed to say that publicly? I don't care - he was being a butt. He refused to have his picture taken, so John and I spent quite a bit of time on an early Monday morning playing and taking pictures!

We started the morning by getting our shoes on. I think I've mentioned before that John is very independant and wants to do everything himself. So this process took a while. As you can see, I needed to work on my shutter speed.

We headed outside and after just a few tries, got this stunning photo. Please pay no attention to the greenish yellow bruise healing on his on forhead. He had a run in with a door.

Then John told me "Wait right here, I'll be right back."

and came back with a Capri-Sun. The boy loves his Capri-Suns.

John played on the porch swing. I was actually sitting behind the swing and John was laying with his stomach on the seat part. The piece above his head is the back of the swing. As he swung forward I snapped his picture. This took a while to capture as I had to adjust the shutter speed and ISO in order to reduce blue and still get light in the photo. Still, there was some post processing done to lighten it up some more!

John decided to head over to the side of the house where I practiced my multi-photo button thingy. (At the moment, everything will be described as 'thingy') I'm not posting most of those pictures because... well... let's just say I need to work on adjusting the focus a little quicker.

When he was bored running, he decided to jump from the electrical box. Yes, we have a trompoline but leave it to John to have more fun jumping from something that says 'High Voltage'. In my defense, there was no warning that said 'No jumping from this box!'

I decided to get creative and sat down while John stood on top of the box. This is the same Capri-Sun from previous pictures, by the way.

John reminding everyone that 'Only you can prevent forest fires'

Oh how I love this boy! You see those black lines coming from his eyes? Those are his eyelashes. No kidding.

Another pensive look. I think this one is my favorite of them all. He's just so darn cute!

Can you see me?

Seeing as how there was no trouble to be found on the electrical box, John was off to see what else he could get into.

This was about the point in the morning when John started getting bored having his picture taken. He even told me "ok mom, I'm done with pictures now."

So we came in for a bite of lunch. He is as weird as he is funny.

I really need to work on lighting in doors. I have decided I really don't want to use the flash unless I really really really have to. So I need as much help as I can get to figure out how to take great pictures indoors.

Nom nom nom. Love that mac & cheese.

See, I really do take pictures of Gary. But this was after Gary's total fit and telling me that I could take a picture of his butt. (see, told you he was being a butt). The smile came after I told him to bend over and pull down his pants. His smile quickly turned to a frown though when I told him he was going to take nap right after lunch. He told me he was going to hit his head so hard on the bed rail that he was going to forget this day ever happened. I told him to line his bed with towels to reduce the amount of mess he would have to clean up in the morning. He assured me there would be no blood.

*Please don't be alarmed by the above conversation. Gary is quite melodramatic and did not follow through with his threat. Although, I would have made him clean up the mess if he had.

And that my friends, is my first experience with my DSLR. Also, I apparently have to start naming all my electronics. Any idea's on what the DSLR should be named? I'm fairly certain it's a girl and being that it's a Nikon it should probably start with 'N'. What do you think?

Other items needing names:

Brother sewing maching

Apple iPod

LG phone

HP Laptop

Sony desktop