Diversion

I am going to tell on myself.  I know that this may open myself up to some teasing, but if you can't laugh at yourself then you might as well crawl in a hole and hide.  :0)

My court date is coming up for my speeding ticket.  I called the prosecutor today to see about getting out of my ticket.  I have only had one ticket in my life about 10 years ago (gotten out of quite a few) and the thought of going to court makes me want to throw up.  From what I understand it is just me and the Prosecutor not a judge throwing down the gavel saying "YOUR OUT OF ORDER" and hearing the words "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!".  A little dramatic I know but would you expect anything less?? 

I have a hard enough time with the English language and when I get nervous I get my words all twisted up and end up making a fool out of myself.

*Exhibit A*


I finally got a hold of the office that I needed to speak with about the matter and asked the lady that answered the phone....

Me: Yes, I would like to speak with someone about a ticket I received.

Lady on phone:  Well the Prosecutor is on lunch but I can give you a generic answer possibly.

Me:  I received a ticket and I have only had one in my life.  My husband and I are not wanting to have any points on my license and from what I hear I need to ask for a "diversion".  You know like traffic school or something?

Lady on phone: Umm......well......You need to show up for your court date and see if you are eligible, we haven't had traffic school in about 10 years,  and the word you are looking for is "Dif-fered".

After realizing that I just asked the lady for basically a distraction from my ticket I wanted to crawl under the carpet at my desk. THANK GOD I didn't ask in person for a diversion!  They probably would have written me another ticket for being an idiot.

I told James of my mix up of words and after we both got a good chuckle he told me that I should take all 3 kids to my court date.  That would be a wonderful diversion!!  Har Har Hardy Har Har!

LOVE my girls

God has just blessed me so much with such an incredible group of women at my table for Breaking Free.  Today after watching This Is It, I heard a knock at the door.  I opened to find my buddy Michelle standing on my steps.  She had gift bags in hand that were filled with coffees, and a Starbucks coffee mug (we talk coffee and coffee creamers all of the time!) Krispy Kreme Free doughnut coupons (she knows me so well!) Hot chocolate for Victoria, Starbucks gift certificate, and a book on Mothers of the Bible.  How sweet is that.  I am so incredibly blessed!  Oh I can't believe I almost forgot.  During our 3 weeks off of study due to snow we chatted online a few times about music and she asked if I would mind if she burned me some CDs.  I told her to go for it.  2 weeks later she pretty much told me that I would need to buy a new shelf for all of the music that she had made.  She left me 45 CDs!!!  I guess I should start listening now?!?!  Love that girl!

Baby Genius

God bless Redbox!  What a great idea!  A sick households dream.  I rented some movies yesterday during my grocery run to keep us entertained and contained during the day today.  One of the movies that I rented was This Is It.  Victoria is obsessed with MJ and has wanted to see this for quite some time. I let her watch it late last night while she was resting.

 This morning after breakfast I attempted to have everyone out of their bed and roaming about the cabin.  :)  I put in This Is It to try to capture their attention.  A&A spent most of the morning tackling each other and not keeping their distance from each other.  Until I have results on Anthony's swab I need them to keep a 3 foot perimeter.  I loaded them up with some toys and snack and placed them back in bed to rest as best as they could for one more day. 

Victoria and I sat on the couch and watched the whole thing.  Near the end Victoria started to squirm and said "Oh mommy you are going to LOVE this song!!"  I looked over at her and smiled I already knew from the music what song it was.  Then Victoria started to sing...."Baby Genius, not my ya, just a girl"  while rocking out from the shoulders up.  I almost fell off of the couch in laughter.  I corrected her and after her face turned a familiar shade of peach from the crimson that she turned, she began to again sing but this time singing "Billy Jean's not my lover, she's just a girl"  I won't even begin to try to explain the face and comments she made as I attempted to explain the song to her.  She has been asking a lot of questions these days.  Very inquisitive...."Who's not his son?".  I gave her a brief 6 year old explanation to which she responded, "She's lying' should be part of this song too.  THAT is what he NEEDS to say."

"Streth"

What a wonderful two weeks it has been having James home.  We got a chance to have a date, I got to sit next to him in church, I have had meals cooked for me, pizza ordered for us, life has been good.  He spoiled me rotten.

After two wonderful weeks I knew I could get through him leaving again because I had Leslie Monday to look forward to, along with FINALLY getting back to Bible study after 3 weeks of it being cancelled, due to weather issues.  Sunday night Victoria started complaining about her throat hurting.  I kind of made light of the situation because Brooklyn came over with a sore throat and Victoria tends to acquire things that other people have.  (She doesn't like to be left out).  When this morning rolled around and she said her throat was still hurting and she didn't think she should go to school I knew something was up.  I had checked her throat yesterday and it looked a little red but not anything too serious.  When she wasn't interested in school knowing she had a brand new shirt to wear (with matching bow of course) I called the doc.

James came home to help me out.  (Very thankful for that) I met him and his semi, with trailer, behind the New Albany shopping center and we headed to the doctor's office.  Victoria told me as she was stepping on the scale that she was sick and had "Streth".  She must have heard me talk about my suspicions while frantically making phone calls to find someone to help me get the kids to the doc. 

I had James bring the little ones into the office to have them checked too after finding out that Victoria did indeed have Strep.  After having the joy of weighing myself so that they could check Addison's weight (she wasn't very excited about standing on the scale), Addison tested positive too.  Anthony so far so good.  But the doc said she wouldn't be surprised if his second culture came back positive in the morning.  They have a prescription on stand by for him. 

I can't tell if my throat is getting sore or if my mind is playing tricks on me.  I have the antibiotics already going in me just in case.  Fingers crossed this passes soon.  I am stocked up on movies and have some homemade chicken soup on the stove.  I guess Leslie Monday is a no along with Bible study in the morning.  Doc said the girls are contagious for 24 hr so no school for Victoria tomorrow either.  This would have been her first full week back in quite a while with Holidays and snow.   This messes up her perfect attendance this year. I am sure Tyyus will miss her  :)! 

Happy Valentines Day

After sounding the trumpets to drag James out of bed the day after his Birthday bash his aunt and uncle came over to meet up with him to share gas on the trip over to Vincennes.  They headed up early and got a room for the Monday funeral.  Victoria was dropped off early and she and I headed over to Gramma Harb and Grandpa Jerry's house (after I realized that my keys were in my purse that was still parked in downtown New Albany where we celebrated).  Victoria was so excited about the adventure especially when she heard that there was going to be snow. 

The kids were asleep when we got there and Victoria and I scarfed up all of the left overs for lunch.  Victoria was chowing down!  Mom made a pot of decaf and we all sat at the table and ate a piece of chocolate cake with whipped creme.  Mom gave me a wink and doctored up a half a cup of decaf for Victoria.  She sat it in front of her and you would have thought she gave her a cup of liquid gold.  How grown she looked sipping on her coffee too.  She said "I can't believe I am drinking my first cup of coffee on Balintime's Day". 

The kids woke up and the excitement began.  Everyone was excited to see Toria, but mom was no big deal.  Isn't that the way it goes?  I wipe the butts, clear away the boogers and they rush out and say to Victoria "SISSSSYYYY!".  :)  Mom and I headed into town so that she could show off the new addition to the big town of Pekin, Dollar General Store!  This is huge folks.  Pekin has nothing other than a 2 lane grocery store and a 4 pump gas station, that is pretty much it.  I was quite impressed.  Plus I scored a Superman toddler ball cap for Anthony for Valentine's Day.

The trip back home led to another batch of snow ice cream that didn't turn out too well (old snow and skim milk) and hot dogs.  Victoria and I started loading up the car for the trip home. The snow was coming down quite hard and I wanted to head out before the roads got slick.  I took a long cut through Sellersburg to drop off my cousin's birthday present only to find that they are on a vacation in the sun, the little stinkers :) and we shot up Charlestown Rd on our way home.  This trip took us right by our church.  Victoria looked over and saw the parking lot full.

 "What is everyone doing at church Mom?"  I hear from the back seat.

  "Oh honey they are having a Valentine's Day dinner at church."
there was a short pause and then I heard in the most disappointed tone...

"We shouldn'ta ate that hot dog at Grandma's we shoulda ate there."  Poor kids a hot dog that she inhaled earlier wasn't enough when she found that there was better options at church.  Ya give the kid a cup of coffee and she thinks she knows everything.  :)

Happy Birthday James

The day started with some pink heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  We wouldn't have the kids in the morning so we did a little Valentine celebration early.  I couldn't whip those things out fast enough.  My family was inhaling them!  Always a good feeling for a mom.

I had to spill the beans about the surprise party that I had been planning for James with the news of his uncle passing.  The plan still worked out because the funeral was scheduled for Monday.  James and I got the kids dropped off and headed over to church.  Great sermon as always and headed out to get some food. I had planned for some of his old friends that he hasn't seen in quite a while to meet up with us for some celebration time.  James and I both had a ball and we got to blow off some steam of the day.  (On top of the news of the death, Ford shutting down for another week meaning James won't be on his regular route, and Tina telling us earlier in the day "See you in court" our stress level was through the roof.)  We got all of our stress out, visited with friends, did some dancing and arrived safely home around 2:30.  It was nice to surprise him even if I had to spill the beans before the event.  It made him feel pretty good to see everyone come out to say "Happy Birthday" to him.   

Need an escape

Victoria FINALLY went to school today.  2 hour delay, which was nice, but finally some kind of normal around here.  She was super excited because today was her Valentine's Day party at school.  Off to school she went wearing her new hair bow Mommy made for her, and don't forget the costume jewelry that had a diamond heart on it.

James made it home just in time for me to attend my first party for Kindergarten.  I was super jazzed.  I got to hang out with the kids at school, meet a couple of Victoria's friends and see Tyyus again (Victoria's little boyfriend at school). Tyyus' face was priceless as I was putting a temp. tattoo on him and asked "What are your intentions with my daughter?" Mrs. Anderson was close by and got a good chuckle out of it.

 

I made some really cute snacks that I found on Family Fun's website and they were a hit!! SUPER easy to make! Not a big fan of Candy canes (although I love peppermint in pretty much anything.) But, I love to save them and make these little guys. All you do is melt some white chocolate bark and spoon some into a heart made out of candy canes placed on wax paper. Sprinkle with a little holiday sprinkles and Ta-Da! You are the most awesome room mother on the planet! They take about 5 minutes in the fridge! The kids loved them!

Oh yes, now comes the escape part.  We have a screen door on our nursery.   A little redneck, I know, but has worked out well for us.  We have a hook and eye latch on the inside and out of the door for convenience.  A&A were chasing each other up and down the hallway all morning and slamming the door.  I am not sure how my little girl managed this but she slammed the door while Anthony was in the nursery and the hook went straight into the eye and locked the door from the inside.  Anthony was stuck although he was unaware.  James had to grab a hanger and shimmy it into the door jam and get our boy out.  Not surprisingly, Addison was nowhere in sight when we got him out.  She locked him in and conveniently made herself scarce.  Quite the sneaky one my little Addison.  I don't believe she could have done that again if she tried, but I am sure she will :)

 

Snow day entertainment....

Here is the latest obsession folks.  Hair bows!!  A little snow, some ribbon, buttons, double prong hair pins, and a glue gun I am set!!  Anyone needing hair bows I am your girl!  I believe I am going to make up a batch of them and sent them with my hairdresser friends and see if I can make a little cash on the side.  What do ya think?

 "Snow ice cream is YUMMY!  It goes GREAT with my crumbs of cookie on my face"  I saw this idea on a my friend Jill's blog and looked it up online.  Some snow, milk, sugar and a shot of vanilla and you are in for some really good sweetness.  Sweetness, as in good to eat, and kids that will do whatever you want them to do in order to get more.  :)

"Thupermain"

You have probably read my blog entries about my trouble making sister ;) and her Superman place setting for Christmas.  While out running errands with Gramma Harb yesterday we stopped in Old Navy.  I was at the check out getting a really cute sweater on a great sale and my phone rang.  Gramma called me from the back of the store and told me I needed to meet her.  I walked back to see in Maw Maw's hands......a Superman T-shirt.  I have looked high and low and can not find Superman toys or anything for that matter.  If ya want Spider Man, you have no trouble at all but for some reason Superman is quite hard to find.  Of course Anthony wants nothing to do with Spider Man, it is "Thupermain" all the way.  On top of this awesomeness on a T-shirt mommy found a Superman cartoon in Redbox at Meijers.  I brought it home and Anthony could not sit still on the couch long enough to watch it.  He was "flying" all over the living room (this is running full force with his hands thrown back like he is skiing, also the eyebrows must be as far down as possible.  This is in effort to make it look really cool looking)  Anthony then started throwing punches in the air and doing his Karate stances and lots of finger pointing while giving his best powerful voice (very low and with a growl) "Thupermain!".  He would then get back on the couch and sit for a second while maintaining the "Thupermain" fist in the air as he sits.  What a nut.  I don't think that we will expose him to many Superman cartoons.  The kid is aggressive enough, I don't need the help of fight scenes to help out with that.  If I allow him to watch the Superman cartoon, while wearing his Superman T-shirt and let him eat his snack out of his Superman cup, he may just have a stroke.  The kid is obsessed!

Mickey Mouse milestone

Today was a big day for A&A, they got a new place to sit and eat.  The high chairs have become a safety hazard because they constantly want to stand up in them and lean back.  They will inevitably come tumbling down out of them so Gramma Harb and I did something about it.  Check out A&A's new dinning experience!

A little "Mucki Mose Cubhuse"!  I thought Anthony was going to have a stroke as Daddy was opening it up for them.  He just couldn't believe his eyes, was this awesomeness in HIS possession?!?  Did the box REALLY contain that cool table and chairs?!?  Oh my it did!

The next morning Anthony came flying down the hallway and went straight to the table, "MOMMY LOOK!"  He was so surprised (Yes Honey is wasn't a dream, that really did happen, you and sissy have a new table)  We broke it in with a little McDonalds biscuits and sausage, and followed that up with 2 hours of coloring on the Mickey Mouse awesomeness!

Something more exciting....

Kind of had a God moment this morning.  Victoria and I have a saying when dealing with A&A "Something more exciting".  I use this with Victoria when she is trying to get them to leave her toys alone or her attempts to try to get them away from something isn't working.  "Something more exciting" is our code for "make something else so exciting that they won't want what they have anymore".  It almost always works!

In Bible study today Beth Moore talked about captivity and the effects that truth and lies have on our captivity. How Christ sets the captives free through truth and how Satan sets the free captive through lies.  My mind kind of wondered for a bit and drifted off and I couldn't figure out why "Something more exciting" kept running through my mind. 

This is kind of what Satan does to us.  Distracts us from our walk by saying "Something more exciting".  I have the attention span of the squirrel on the movie Hoodwinked and that Something More seems to always catch my eye.  Most of the time I don't catch that Satan is distracting me until I have already pulled away from God.  Thank God he always is waiting when I do a 180 and head towards Him again.

Then it hit me.  How many times has God said that to me?  In the areas of my life where I am in full captivity spiritually how many times has God said to me "I have something so much more exciting than the thing that you are holding onto."?  I am sure more than I care to know.  Here's to not getting distracted and running on towards what God has "more exciting" for me. 

Swimming upstream with my long To Do list`

I should have known this morning when I flew up to the bus stop in my car and the bus was there that I was going to have one of those days.  Especially when the bus driver didn't wait for her, shut the door and drove off, without Victoria.  Crap!   Glad we live within spitting distance from the school.  Turning left on my street is no easy feat. It didn't help later in the day that I was the one that was stopped in construction in a long line of traffic, that I was waiting all day for our check to arrive (3 trips back home to check to see if the mail arrived) so that I could go and start the second half of my day and buy my new vacuum, pay co pays, and everything else I needed to do.  On the third trip back home to check the mail  I saw the mail woman in our neighborhood.  (I did a little dance)  FINALLY I could get the mail.  She wasn't on my street but she was in the Pines, so I braved it and approached her and asked if I could pick up my mail.  She looked at me as though I had asked her to donate a Kidney.  She claimed she couldn't do it and I walked off while kicking  a little dirt at her unwillingness to help.  Remember, I gave this woman some Christmas candy this past year.  Err.  I know I am complaining but by this time I was good and frustrated.  I grabbed up Victoria from school to take her to an appointment and headed back to the house and low and behold the mail woman was on my street.  It stood in the street and waited..... she placed the mail in my hand drove off leaving my mailbox door open.  I think out of spite.  Oh well I have a paycheck now!  Off to Louisville we go for Victoria's appointment and to Build a Bear to take Addison's Puppy to the doctor. She found the seam and started pulling stuffing out of her, and since then she looks up at the top shelf in the living room, points and says "Puppy sick".  I did get everything on my To Do list done but left the house at 8:30 and didn't get home till 5.  We ran non stop.

OK now that I got all of my complaining out of the way.  The cool things about today....

-Went to Horseshoe with Mom for Breakfast.  I can go on and on about their made to order omelets on the Buffet.  So delish!!

-It was another miss (by about 10 minutes) but got a chance to see my nephew at the end of his first solo flight. He is 18 years old and on a journey to be a pilot.  I just think it is so cool!  He has been waiting for his first solo for a while now and the past 4 times he has been to the airport it didn't work out due to missing paperwork, or weather restrictions.  Mom and I flew (in our car) over to the airport and just missed it.  We did get to witness something very cool though. 

After a pilots first solo flight there is a tradition of cutting the shirt tail out of the shirt that you wore during your flight.  Tyler wore the T-shirt that he got at a balloon festival when he got the itch to be a pilot.  I asked about the tradition and it was explained to me that way back in the day the flight instructor would sit behind the student and without all of the fancy headset and mics to communicate the teacher would grab onto the students shirt tails to get his attention and instruct him.  Once you have had your first solo flight you no longer need your shirt tail for the teacher to grab onto.  Isn't that neat?  I am bummed that I missed seeing him in the air but very excited that I got to see them cut his shirt tails off.  Made me tear up and wonder where time went.  Isn't he still 4 years old??