I helped a friend out

and in return acquired these:



LOVE LOVE LOVE musical instruments! Thank you Steenie <3

Attention Stefiny:

Its been a long minute, hasn't it? I'm sorry; really, I am. I've been busy & caught up in life. While I haven't any stories to share, I do have some impromptu child photos for you. Alex needed pics with him & his brothers for a school project & upon not finding any suitable ones, I orchestrated a quick family [ok, just the boys] photo op.

It was interesting... lets just leave it at that.







:sigh:

For some strange reason, Alex [being the voice of "reason" here] thought that it would be easy to orchestrate this... after all, Dylan & Jack 'pose' for pictures all the time.



See how well that worked out Alex? Yea.

So there you are, Steph [and anyone else who was itching for a cuteness craving].

Welcome to a New Year.

It's 2010. I've resolved to make a better life for myself and my family, no matter how many hours I have to work, how many jobs I have to work, or how little sleep I get. I will continue to create art & self-promote. I want to make as much $$ as I can to pay off that damn student loan, pay off Fred's loan, and be able to take a vacation.

Finally.

Or perhaps, a honeymoon?

[WHAT?! you say?? I know, we've been married for 6 years & haven't taken a honeymoon. I, - er-, We blame the kids.]

Any-who, to properly usher in the New Year, here are some cute pics of my kids!!

I just can't stand it anymore.

Cuteness this obscene should be illegal... then I would have the perfect excuse to be an outlaw.


In other news, Dylan's lip is healing quite nicely. He took a rather nasty fall at his friends' house last weekend, & came home with a giant fat lip. T-minus ONE DAY until we leave for Wisconsin Dells; we'll be staying at the Wilderness & watching Alex play some 8th grade championship football-- WOOT!!!

Gave jackjack a bath today & among all of his cuteness, he came up with this on his own.... I had NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. I SWEAR. I was lucky enough to grab the camera in time, because I had just shut it off to start packing the toiletry bag & I look over to find this:

Now, doesn't he look like Fredward with the bubble goatee & bubble-baby-chest-hair??

Have a great weekend, everyone!! I'll post following our wins [hopefully!].

Happy Halloween... a day late.

In the interest of all things entertaining, I'll give you lots of pics of my kids; including several of Jack-jack, who had a mini fashion show of his various & assorted costumes. That is to come.

Over the beginning of the weekend, Dylan one-upped his brother & face-planted off a ramp while riding his scooter. [Backstory: In case you didn't know, Alex flew over his handlebars on his bike over the summer, landing on his arm & prompting a late night trip to urgent care which was closed, and an early am visit to the doc office, only to determine that he landed on his arm. Nothing broken. Tragedy averted, as he had just started football practice.]

This was the next day... I felt pretty bad for him. His lip was so pouffed out it looked like he had a duck bill. The swelling has been going down, thankfully & the lip has been healing nicely with twice daily applications of triple antibiotic ointment. Good thing he was already missing his front teeth, or those would have fallen out upon impact. He bruised his gum & upper lip pretty good- its actually purple where his tooth would have been.

On to the costumes!!!

tiger [Dylan wore this at 1 yr old. .. he'd just started walking]


Jack in the box. Yes this was an option, but it was too freaking cold. Perhaps another year.
Jack the bear... the bear head wouldn't stay up. He wasn't feeling this one.


Dylan & E-man.

alex.
alex [gangsta], sam [jason] & dylan [tony hawk]

the boys.


the winning costume: a little devil. How appropriate. :)

Just a thank you to the neighbors who decided Jack's parents need candy too!!! I love you for that!!!

Seriously? He can't be yet. OMG!! Ah Well.

dylan's weak stomach [thank you carol]
seen & heard: Several attempts to get Dylan to carve pumpkins for Halloween. He always thought it was gross & he wouldn't touch the pumpkin guts. So this year, thinking because he's older it will be different, wasn't really any different!! Oh what was I thinking? Child [who gags when the cat vomits in the general vicinity] o' mine, O' child o' mine. I got some rubber gloves for him, thinking the texture might be too much.

Meh.

I tried getting him to look away while reaching in & grabbing a handful of pumpkin guts. Not so much!

:sigh:

I ended up carving the damn pumpkin. I really didn't want to. Believe it or not, digging out a pumpkins innards & taking a scapula to the exterior of said pumpkin is not high on my list of favorite things to do. I fully enjoy gutting a pie pumpkin, only to fill it with spices & bake it until its mushy then commence with the homemade pumpkin pie making. That I enjoy. Carving?

That stuff is for kids.

Jack is thismuch closer to crawling



Shortly after I caught this footage, he was on the opposite side of the living room, rocking back & forth on all fours. Naturally I couldn't get the memory card dumped in time, so I was unable to capture it, as my card was full. I so need a 1-gig [or higher!] SD memory card right now.

Bonus: Alex was bumped up to play at the RCA dome in Wisconsin Dells.
Alex had an opportunity to play a two game tournament at the RCA dome [now the Wisconsin Dells Center]. He was passed over, although he worked really super hard. The team reserved a block of rooms at the Wilderness Resort which has its own indoor water parks. [Yes, plural] We received a phone call from his coach tonight- Another player had to drop out; Alex was next on the list. Would he like to play? Made some phone calls to Alex & yea- he's in!

Downside- Fredward had to cancel the plans he made for my birthday, because we'll be in the dells. The sole reason he claims to never make plans- they never go through. Case in Point.

But, we'll be in the dells. At a Water park! Watching football!! At least I know what I'm doing for my birthday celebration.. & I'm pretty excited about it.

Lady Luck is pissing in my pond.

If lady bugs are supposed to be lucky, are they holding a conference in my kitchen right now to decide on how much luck I actually get? Must they crawl through the cracks in the window sills, and just 'hang out' on any unsuspecting glass just sitting on the counter? Or dive bomb me, Pearl Harbor- style, as I walk up my stairs? Anywho, just have your little meeting while I sit here wondering how long it will be before you decide to join my food on the stove & spoil a perfectly good meal.

Did you ever have a ladybug in your glass or food & not notice it until you TASTED it?? OOOhhh, it is all sorts of EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

Did I mention that Dylan used to be TERRIFIED of lady bugs as a kid? TERRIFIED!! Of Ladybugs!!

:Warning--> Topic change <--ahead:

Moving right along. So here I sit, heating pad attached firmly to my ass & shooting pain straight down my left leg. I've got a big glass of water [quart mason jars are the only water glasses big enough for me], 2 books on yoga & various poses for optimum health, and a healthy respect for pain medicines.

Case in point: Last week [?] I was having some major wrist irritation. Irritation turned to pain, pain turned into throbbing the moment I woke up. So after much deliberation, I decided to take some pain meds that I had leftover from when I had Jack. Its 1030ish by the time I've made this decision. I've gone about my normal morning routine: get some coffee, feed the boy, get more coffee, put the boy down for a nap, facebook/internets. Did you see breakfast? Yea, its not in there. The moment I opened the hatch & let the liquid slide down my throat I could feel it hit my stomach, and looking around, saying- "Nothing's here! Time to par-tay!!" Holy fucking hell, batman. So I, like an idiot, decide upon getting something into my stomach. 'A bowl of cereal should be sufficient.', I think to myself. Apparently I'm already high by this point, because I decided upon Crispix, which has about as much substance as Chex. Yea, there isn't any!!! I'm good for oh, about an hour, & then I really feel it kick in. Apparently the medicine brought friends & turned my stomach into a mosh pit! I decide to lay down. Cancel the afternoon plans with girlfriends. Jack is napping at this point, so he's safe. He wakes up. Shit. I'll be okay.. just stay close to the ground. Which I do... until he needs to eat. I fix him his baby mush & container of peas... & as I am holding the peas at arms length away from my face, I realize there is no way in fucking hell I can do this. Cue the reinforcements. Fredward wasn't going to be home until 530 at the earliest & all of my neighbors were gone. [Yes, I know they were gone, because I can see their driveways from my house. No cars = no neighbors.] I called my mom, with the highest of hopes [shut up] that she would be home early. She said she'd be off work in an hour. I can hold it together that long, just PLEASE COME GET THE BOY. She arrives to find me in Dylan's bed, blankets over my head & nauseated as all hell, trying to get Jack to get some sleep in his bed. My strategy clearly wasn't working so she scoops him up & takes him home with her for a few hours. Dylan is home by this point! He's pretty self-sufficient, & declined the offer to go to Gramma's for a couple of hours. He kept an eye on me & answered the phone when Fredward called.

Moral: 1 dose = 1 Tbsp of that shit-also-known-as-liquid-hydrocodone can really, really fuck you up. Don't do it, kids. Ever. I was useless all damn day & night because of it. When I spoke to my mom the next day [she called to check in on me- thanks mom!] I told her I had thought about dumping the contents of the bottle & tossing it out as soon as the thought of that shit stopped making me nauseated.

Returning to the heating pad on my ass. Tylenol doesn't do a damn thing for sciatic pain. I nearly threw out my back today [getting dressed! who knew?!!] & as a result am in some serious pain.

:Blows on the dice in my hand, then tosses out:

Come on, lady luck. Shine on me. I've got an art show to prepare for. I'd really like to wake up tomorrow with no back issues please. Is that so much to ask?

Give the boy a bone.

Of course we don't feed him! Why would we, when we can give him a plastic bone to gnaw on whilst cutting his teeth?

Pay no attention to the dog he is dragging around which is attached to the bone. I actually did get some short video of him playing the xylophone...

--->Watch the mini musician<---

Have a nice day!

Poop. because I said so.

After having two little chompers on the bottom finally make their highly anticipated appearance, I've been feeding jackjack everything I think is safe enough... or whatever I can fit into the sock. The sock is a mesh feeder, and let me tell ya; that thing is awesome! It takes a little more effort to clean, but, the kid can eat anything in it! This week was the first time I'd gone beyond the banana in the sock; jack ate a soft apple, pasta, and mashed potatoes!

Because of the amount of "real food" the boy is eating, we've had another first this week.



---->Wait for it.<-----




---->Wait for it.<----





My kid can shit like a real person, y'all.

[Did you really think I wouldn't go there? Come on! now folks.]

No more of that mustard/sesame seed infused-multicolored-thicker-cream-of-wheat consistency. The more 'real' food he eats, the more he poops like a person!


Do lizards count as real food?

My Apologies

I know, dear reader, that you've been waiting [in vain, sadly] for a few weeks now for me to post something of good quality, side splitting humor, or just plain stupid kid stuff.

.....

waiting

.....

waiting

.....


Yea, sorry 'bout that. I know you don't want to hear we've been busy, blah blah blah, school started / schedules need to be solidified shoobedy doobedy doo. But yea, we have been busy, and school did start and in all the chaos and commotion, I felt myself slowly slipping away. I'm aware, I got it. I've righted the ship and am back to sailing toward the horizon.

I did start working out again, to attain that level of physical health/sanity[?] & acquired a new workout partner.


Although the poor little guy is a little under the weather. He's teething... which means fever, snotting & watery eyes. Although compared to Dylan... I'll take the snots.

Yesterday I was stopped

In the grocery store because of this:

and this:
Apparently my children are adorable enough to provoke sheer strangers to stop me and tell me how beautiful my family is.

It's awesome. I love my kids.

Eventful.

Alex had a record winning Madden '06 game today, ending 70-10 vs. Indianapolis Colts!

Dylan went to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum today with his best friend!!

Jackjack turned 6 months old yesterday. He's now a 18lb, 6oz bundle o' happiness!!!

The Packers are kicking ass -so far- it's only the 2nd quarter-OH THEY JUST SCORED- 31-10!!!!

I was offered a booth at Johnson Bank during Mukwonago's Fall Fest [September 19th], and they said I can have my art in the lobby over the winter!!!!!

I finished the ETACC logo, much to my surprise considering my struggle with Photoshop, and they LOVED it!!!!!!



As I said, eventful.

As if the 4am feeding times were pleasant to begin with

Jackjack has decided over the last week or so to bump up the time of those feedings to between 3-3:30am. Last night it was 2:45 am, when I was going to bed.

Don't even say, "Well Jessica, clearly you should be going to bed at 10pm..."

Let me tell you this: I don't want to fucking hear it. I'll sleep when I'm dead as far as I'm concerned. I don't mind the little to no sleep that I actually do get, or the fact that an 'early' bedtime to me is before 1am. I am concerned though, with Jack's little nocturnal habit.

As I type this, he's squirming on my lap, trying to "help" me type. It's currently 12:42am. Clearly he's helping. Or he just really loves his momma.



What the hell is going on with his inner functioning that he continues to need that early am feeding and why the hell does he keep getting up earlier?

I dunno... but he's damn cute & I'd be hard-pressed to give him back.

Where has the time gone?

I've done my best to put them in order of year. Look how cute & little they looked!!!


There. I Love my boys. Now you know.