flawless driving skills

I have always considered myself a "good" driver. I am very critical as a passenger. I always giggle or release a sigh of disgust as Todd bumps a curb during a turn, isn't centered and straight in a parking place, or does his "jerky" acceleration/breaking crap that makes us all car sick. I think he's a terrible driver, but I think everybody is a terrible driver. I am always yelling at people to speed up, slow down, get the hell out of my way, pay attention to the road, turn off your "I'm a dumb-ass blinker" (turn signal on when they aren't turning), and any other obvious act of stupidity that I see. Really, when I'm on the road, I am the only one who matters.
The streets here are very narrow. There is limited parking space, so people park on the main road in front of the houses. Only one car can fit down the road at one time. Being the courteous, kind driver that I am, tonight I moved over so someone else could use the road. S/he was stopped so I could go, so I went a little but needed to turn in front of her to get on my street. So, I moved over so she could go before I turned. I swear....that stupid-ass car just magically appeared on the side of the road as I took it out!!!! It was a short little thing (compared to my beastly SUV I need a step-up to get in) and I didn't even see it :o) Connie was with me and we both just thought, "Holy shit" at the same time.....I can't even type the noise that it made as it scraped all down the entire length of my car! Then, I got out and looked at the other car first. I giggled a little (what else could I do at that point?) and thought the other car lost the fight. It was dark, and I saw the lights on in the house, but nobody saw me :o) I drove home :o) Connie and I tossed around the idea of not even telling Todd to see how long it would take him to notice.....nah, that wasn't going to work. So, I told him (as I was laughing about it). He didn't find it humorous.....what a stick in the mud! I asked him about our insurance....I guess nobody gets "that kind" of insurance here.....I don't know any of that stuff. So, I was just going to call it a night and get ready for bed. Can you believe he made me go knock on that door???? The moral compass of the family put his foot down :o) He said it was my duty to set the example for Bailey.....ya ya ya, I see his point. Honestly, I probably would have done it after I saw the cars in the daylight. I'm not dishonest, and it's probably only a few hundred dollars, I just didn't want to go knock and say, "Hey, I ran into your PARKED car." Duh! But I did. I won't go into the whole conversation, but, let's just say....they were cool. We talked about how we all graduated from OU :o) They are from Oklahoma. Their son (that's whose car I hit) is getting ready to go to OU this next year. They don't even want me to pay for it. We just stood out there and chatted for a while :o)
Anyway, Bailey wanted to know how much it is going to cost to get our car fixed. I told him we're not going to.....it's just scratched (from bumper to bumper...hehehehe) a little. He told me I am so redneck and he doesn't want to be seen in the car if I'm not getting it fixed. I think he'll change his mind during rainy season :o) Believe me, it's not my car that makes that kid look redneck.
I really do have impeckable driving skills. I am blaming this on 1) driving on the left side of the road is just stupid 2) people shouldn't be able to have such tiny cars and 3) I just came back from having a pedicure and my feet were still very relaxed.
Please don't ever be afraid to ride in the car with me.....I've never been in a "real" accident :o)

dude......

Todd bought a couple of surf boards.....Bailey was SO excited.....he thought he was going to just hop up and catch a wave his first try. I only heard about the adventure, as it was father/son bonding time :o) Well, he's excited to try again....he can only get better :o)

Mr. Caden Potato Head
Mr. Camden Potato Head

playful brothers

I remember making silly little crafts at school. I wonder if my mom liked them as much as I do. It is so cute when they come home with things from school. They are so proud and love to show off their little creations.
Bennett likes them also :o)

It was such a nice Sunday, so we decided to go down to the beach during low tide. It's fun to just let the kids run wild....nobody fell in the water this time.....wow!

T-1 week

Only 1 week to go, and I'm a free woman!!! Well, at least free from late-night homework dates with the computer. Sure, I'll still have "work" stuff, mom stuff, wife stuff, etc.....but I can handle those :o)

Had a VERY stressful day today. It rained all day, and as soon as Bailey came home from school, Caden escaped!!! He bolted outside in his undies and t-shirt. Of course, Brainless followed.....they immediately ran to the largest puddle they could find. Hell no, I wasn't going out in the rain after them. So, I grabbed my camera and let them have a little fun before I kicked their little asses :o)

If they weren't go damn cute, I might kill myself.....they drive me nuts :o) I hate hearing, "you heard me, mommy" when I ask them to repeat something they said. I hate it when Caden looks at me to make sure I'm watching him as he does something he knows he's not supposed to do (like hit Cam or take a toy away from Bennett and throw it) and then comes over to me, pulls his pants down, and says, "spank me" with a big grin on his face. I never believed in ADHD until I had Caden :o) Oh, Lordy!!!!!! Good thing I'm off to the spa as soon as Todd gets home.....I need some pampering :o)

Ever had one of these days?

more kimono pictures

It sure it funny to see my little blonde-headed buckaroo (another one of my favorite words) in the whole Japanese get-up!!!!!!!!!

And the whole red-headed Japanese look is just TOO odd :o) These will be such great blackmail pictures 10-15 years from now :o) I can't wait to get more pictures done when the twins are 4 and Bennett is 2.....those will be hilarious!

school pics

Here is a preview of school pictures :o) Okay, warning you....the "real" school pictures are absolutely hilarious!!!! I'll start posting a couple every day. They are worth multiple days of laughter.....really.....it would be a waste of laughter to post them all in one day. We bought the CD, so we have all the good and bad poses......we'll post all of them :o)

Here they are in their school uniforms.....I guess a t-shirt is a uniform?????? These shots definitely capture their individual personalities :o)

And now for the preview of the laughter you will soon experience!!!!!

silly hats

We still like to dress up in our silly hats. I have one picture with Bailey wearing Charlie Brown, Caden wearing Curious George, Cam wearing Dr. Seuss, and Bennett was wearing Curious George. It is really cute, but Todd is wearing Nascar.....he won't let me put it up!!!!! He won't let me put a good picture of him on here. He'd kill me if I posted one with him wearing a Nascar surgical hat! Oh well, Bailey lucked out of getting his picture on here too! Of course I was wearing one also....I'm the picture taker though....I like it that way.

monkey see, monkey do

Grant and Clark.....here's the cute monkey shirt you sent Bennett. "Monkey get in trouble too" definitely fits the sibling dynamics around here. He's quite the chunky monkey, isn't he?????? When we go out to eat, I order a grilled cheese sandwich and fries for Caden and Cam to share, and another grilled cheese sandwich just for Bennett......he's a pig. He'll eat it, crust and all. Caden and Camden may finish their half on occassion. Forget the college fund for this one....we're praying we can feed him without going broke!

Thanks so much for all the goodies you sent us! The boys love their Curious George stuff. I love my bath stuff (I don't get to take a bath alone very often...."Mommy, I take bath too?") and Bailey always welcomes OU shirts!!!!!

these are a few of my favorite things......

"Peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat" is one of Caden's new favorite phrases. He doesn't just say it, he yells it and laughs hysterically. If you've seen the real thing, it's funny. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you probably think Caden is retarded. I can assure you he's not (Cam is another story though).

Cam's new favorite thing to say is, "shut up, Caden" when Caden's yelling from his bedroom. Again, he yells it at the top of his lungs. They have no volume control at all.

Bennett's favorite things are waving bye bye, shaking his head no, playing peek-a-boo, knocking down anything the twins build, and putting his arms above his head when I ask, "how big is bennett?" He wants to walk badly. He'll be standing up next to something and all of a sudden let go and lean out.....crash! He's tough though. He can take a spill and just get back up without crying.

Bailey's favorite thing to do is to talk about how cool Bailey is.....enough said! His mouth is growing faster than his body. His mosquito ass better catch up to his alligator mouth really soon, or he's going to feel the wrath of dad's fist pretty soon!

Dad's favorite thing to do is go to work. I can understand why he likes work so much when he gets to take Australian "vacations" courtesy of Uncle Sam. Oh, my job changing diapers and keeping the kids from killing each other is so much more fun than going to Australia (I'll keep telling myself that).

Mom's favorite thing to do is drink her wine and watch grey's anatomy and desperate housewives. T minus 3 weeks until school is over. Life will change around here :o)

Hope everyone out there is enjoying a few of their favorite things too :o)

85 and sunny

It was such a pretty day on Sunday, we decided to go to the park to let the kids run wild....they all did. I just sat on my blanket in the grass and watched (and took pictures....about 80 of them)....it was lovely! Here are a few snapshot of the kidlets!

Bennett loves crawling around in (and eating) the grass :o)

Bailey hates to hang out with us anymore, so he brought a friend. They stayed at a "safe" distance from the twins and played with a football. Yes, Caden interfered every chance he got.

With his frustrated look and the wild, wind-blown do, he looks like quite the grump, ya? He was into everything out there.....

Cam, giving his typical camera pose, just had a grand 'ol time.....just a total doll, trying so hard to kick and catch the ball.

pictures....finally

I was finally able to upload pictures of the broken booger catcher!!!!! I still think he's darling.....he looks abused, but still darling :o)

happy birthday

I just noticed the date and want to wish Alice a Happy Birthday! I don't have your new email address since you moved to Germany....hopefully, you'll get this birthday wish and have a great one :o)

lost time.....

It's official....I'm crazy. I have so many things going on, I can't keep them all straight! I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I blogged already. Well, so much has happened in 2 weeks, I don't know where to start. First things first.....now that I've been here 18 months, I finally found someone I really like to hang out with. I mean, I have friends I go to lunch with and go to bunko with and so on, but I finally found someone I really like! I love Connie to death, but she's so busy....home daycare is a crazy, busy, restricting life. Now, Robin, is crazy! She is so funny and fun to be around. I am so glad I found her!!!! Plus, her husband is a civilian, so we don't talk about military crap all the time.....love it!!!! Anyway, now that I found someone I could hang out with all the time (she's my new Tiffany), I actually work!!!!! What was I thinking? No, really, I love my job! It is ony 3 days a week from 9-1 and I can take the kids with me.....how PERFECT is that????
Speaking of perfect, my perfect angel child broke his nose and doesn't look so perfect anymore :o( We've gone from red and swollen to black and purple to geen and yellow....we're almost back to perfect! Poor baby!!!!! I kept the incident report from school, just in case anyone ever accuses us of abuse!
We've fought with housing maintenance over our broken RADON fan. Well, they came to "fix" it.....Todd figured out they just turned it off and told me it was fixed. When Todd confronted them, they said there is no funding to fix RADON fans this year. Can you imagine my reaction???? If you know me, you can imagine my reaction :o) Well, the claws and teeth came out for this battle.....of course we won :o) I have sure rubbed off onto Todd over the past 9 years. When we first met, he was so nice, patient, understanding, and non-confrontational....now he's a bitch, just like me! hahahaha! Anyway, that is over, and we have a new radon fan!
I'm into the 3rd week of a six week class and I start another 4 week class on Tuesday! The first class end on March 26 and the other on April 2........then I'm officially DONE!!!! I can't believe in only 31 days I'll be done.....that sounds sooooo weird but wonderful! I might actually have some "me" time.....maybe.
I need to send a shout out to Diane.....I am SSSOOOOOOO happy things went well, and I'm so excited to hear about the Palm Springs visit too!!!!! We've got to get Michael on board next, then try to work on Paul :o)
I need to send another shout out to the Cincinnatti Airport.....strange shout out, right? Well, I know Sandy and her co-workers are reading this. I wish I had something funny for you, but right now I don't.
How about some pictures, y'all??????? No, no sorry, they are not of bald Brittney Spears.....they are much cuter than that!!!!! Actually, I've now tried to upload pictures 5 or 6 times throughout the day, so I'm posting without pictures this time.......next time!