O-M-G

Two days back from vacation and I finally have a chance to sit down and recover (and not fold the million loads of lake laundry)/The eight day vacation was somewhat relaxing(during naptimes).  I finished 3 books, made dinner and ate some yummy food on Chopped nights.
So, now that vacation is over, it is time for me to make a list of some things to remember.  If you plan on vacationing at the Lake of the Ozarks, please take note.

13. Thank your youngest sister-in-law for teaching your oldest child new phrases such as OMG.
12. When meeting your caravan at Bass Pro Shop, be sure that they have left before you and not returned to their house three or more times for missing items.
11. If you rent a lake house and decide to rent a boat, make sure that the lake house STILL has a dock.
10. If afore mentioned boat is all ready rented, DO NOT under any circumstances, trust Craigslist.
9. When vacationing with 14 people and expecting a fish fry, be sure that at least 2 people(male and/or female) are willing to clean and skin any catfish that is caught.  Blank stares and pointing are not acceptable.
8. Be sure to make nice with the neighbors who were terrified of the previous renters.  They can (and did) call the cops on you on your way to Big Surf Water Park.
7.If one drain is clogged in the lake house, it won't be long before several of the other sinks start leaking--kitchen, bathroom, etc. etc.
6. DO NOT attempt to potty train any child( let alone 3) under the age of 3 in the lake house.
5. If you do attempt to continue the potty training of three children, make sure the washer and dryer are working for the several thousand mishaps.OOPS!  Some snakes don't make it to the toilet.  In fact, some snakes slide all over the floor and have to be cleaned up by an ill fated vacuum.
4. On the day of returning the rented boat(not from Craigslist), do not freak out about using a dock that was next door unoccupied until that day.  If they haven't said anything for the past three days, chances are they still don't care on the fourth day.  In fact, the people occupying the house probably won't even answer the door.
3. Do not attempt to modify the way Hand and Foot is played.  For some relatives, change is not good.  Red threes were not meant to be thrown on the floor!
2. On the return trip home, make sure all tires are good.  Be sure to notice any bulges that may cause your steering wheel to wobble.  Trust the person that lives out in the "country" to take you to Orscheln's to get a tire change.  Apparently, not all Walmarts have a tire center.
1.  Finally, be sure to update your GPS so it can find your lunch destination on the way home.  If you don't, you may cause bodily harm to the passenger and or driver of the lead car in the caravan.

And that my friends, was the last vacation of the season.  Taylor starts school next week and Josiah the week after.  What am I going to do with all the time on my hands??? I think I got it covered. :o)

Ides of March 14 days early

Can I have a do over?  This is how my day went. 
Got the boys ready and took Taylor to preschool.  Then, I stayed and talked to his teachers and a friend of mine until 9:30.  Whoops, I did have some errands to run. So, now, my three hours to get stuff down with one kid just got knocked down to 2 hours.  So, Josiah and I cruise to Babies R Us because we are trying to locate a potty alarm for Taylor.  I tried to explain to three teenage guys what I needed.  Note to Babies R US human resources: please find employees that know a little bit about children BEFORE you hire them.  I'm pretty sure I was talking to three deer caught in headlights.  Long story short, Babies R Us does not have potty alarms.  Then, we went to Kohl's and I finally found the right size shirt I've been looking for for a birthday present since December.  At least I got something accomplished. 
After Kohl's, Siah and I head over to Target to get a couple of items.  I got in line and realized I forget something, so I get back out of line to look for it.  They didn't have what I wanted, so back to line I stroll.  I get in line and the powers that be person tells the cashier break time right before it is my turn to check out.  There was NO ONE behind me.  Could she have waited until she scanned my two items?  Apparently not.
I look at my watch and it's 11:15.  SHOOT!!  Gotta get back to Kearney, so I'm not late picking Taylor up.  Josiah and I drive home, no problems.  Which is amazing since I have to drive down 152 in Liberty around lunchtime.  We get home, I get out and hear SSSHHHHHHH!  Guess what, I have a tire losing air.  Not just any tire.  The same exact tire I had patched the day after our lovely snowstorm last week.  So, after assessing the situation, I take Josiah inside to go potty. At this point I take off my jacket and look down.  I forgot to change my shirt this morning!!! I'm wearing my pajama shirt. Wow, that would have been embarrassing if I ever unzipped my jacket.
Now, back to Josiah.  Um, his Elmo potty seat is nowhere to be found in the bathroom.  And, apparently, there is an invisible vortex that sucks him into the toilet when Elmo is not on the toilet.  Only the toilet at home, though.  I look all over the place and cannot find it.  He goes to the bathroom anyway.
I take Josiah back outside and go pick up Taylor a little early in case my tire goes completely flat. TOO LATE!  The tire is flat, flat., flat!  I drive the 2 blocks anyway and get Taylor home.
After the boys go down for naps, I decide to put the spare on myself because that's the kind of girl I am.  I get the jack out, the tire ready, and call Brad to ask where the four way is.  He has no idea.  NOT HELPING . . . and the jack needs hydraulic fluid.  So, its a bust.  I go inside and clean up my desk.
Brad comes home from work with a four way and a jack, thanks to my dad. The four way isn't metric and the jack won't raise the car up enough to get the tire on.  Another call to dad and a 4 x 4 later, the tire is on.
We eat dinner and then decide to take a few things to the storage unit.  We get to the storage unit type in our code and get "Access denied, LOCKOUT."  Luckily, the owners answered their phone and got that taken care of.
So, if I was a drinking girl, I might sidle up to a strawberry margarita on the rocks, no salt.  But, I'm not, so I will settle with a hot shower and a good book.
Beware the Ides of March.  They might just bite you in the behind when you're not looking!

Mr. Big Shot

Well, that was an exciting doctor's visit. I had been refusing all week to tell Taylor that he was going to get shots at his doctor's appointment this week. I thought that since he had gone through blood tests and flu shots that this wouldn't be a big deal for him. Oops, I made a mistake.

As we are driving in the car, I tell Taylor that he MAY have to get some shots today. His reply: "No, I don't need a shot. Shots hurt. I don't like shots." All right, noted little guy. All the way there he was trying to convince me that he didn't need shots. It didn't work.

The nurse calls us back to get the typical height and weight check(Third percentile, by the way. He's still on the chart. Whew!) The first words out of Taylor's mouth are "Am I going to get a shot today?" The nurse just smiled and said I'm not sure, I'll have to check. He makes small talk with the nurse. She laughs and tries to keep the shot conversation to a minimum. She tells Taylor she has to "go check" to see if he needs any shots and leaves. He plays around in the room for a little while and the nurse comes back. She peeks in the door and proceeds to tell me that he needs 4 shots today and has he had a flu shot? Um, four shots in one day is good for us. Just because he is 5, doesn't mean he needs a shot for each year he is alive. And I don't need that guilt riding on me.

The doctor comes in and does the usual health history type thing and uses the word "immunizations" several times. The good doctor doesn't use the s-h-o-t word, he says. Pretty sure Taylor didn't pick up on that. He did pick up on the fact that the doctor left the room and we did not leave. He did not want a shot, let alone 4! He even tried "hiding" by covering his eyes as he sat on the bed waiting. Maybe if I hide, they can't give me a shot.

The nurses came in and Taylor told them point blank: "I don't need a shot. I'm strong and healthy. See? No shots for me." The nurses did their best. I had to hold Taylor down by his arms. The nurses had him by his legs. His little face turned bright red as he cry/screamed I don't want a shot!. Apparently, there was a struggle with his legs. I couldn't tell you because I turned my head and closed my eyes when the needles came out. Some mom I am, huh?

After the nurses were all done, they said they would bring him some treats for doing good. The nurse brought Taylor four suckers. He grabbed those right away. He refused a bag of chocolate chip cookies because he didn't want a shot. She tried to give him 4 stickers(including Spiderman and SpongeBob) and he didn't want those either. Poor guy was very adamant about not wanting anything because he didn't want a shot. He couldn't stop crying. The little guy had been traumatized.

Well, any good mom knows that ice cream and milkshakes cure just about anything. So, I stopped at Sonic and got him a chocolate milkshake for his troubles. I think the picture says it all:

Half a Decade

Taylor turned five over the weekend. That's a whole hand! He has decided that since he is five, he's going to try to buckle his seatbelt by himself and pee standing up. Not sure how that second one is going to work out considering he has to stand on a footstool. I see lots of bathroom cleaning coming on in the near future.

Taylor's birthday turned into more of a birth-weekend. Saturday was his actual birthday. He got to plan our day. So, he chose to go to Chik-Fil-A for breakfast. Mmm, chicken and biscuits, yummy for me. Then, he got his pictures taken at Target with all his Toy Story stuff. I'd post a picture, but I'm pretty sure there are copyright laws against that. After he was all pictured out, we went to FunRun. Apparently, everybody and their brother(including Josiah) was at Fun Run that day. Taylor was all over the place. He did wait for his brother to climb the big stairs in the Batman slide before he went down the slide, though. Such a good big brother(even if he didn't want for him to slide down with him).

Boys at Play!

Saturday night we went to On the Border, commonly known as the Purple Chicken Place by Taylor. Don't ask, it's a long story. He found Nana and Pa there and ate dinner with them. He got a cool fish backpack filled with two shirts and Ramone and Doc from Cars. He was very excited about his new cars. . . and his clothes.

After the excitement of his actual birthday, Taylor went to bed , but not before I got his 9:11 P.M. birthday picture playing with his new Toy Story toy Mom and Dad got him for his birthday.

He woke up ready to go to his birthday party at the roller rink. Before that, I had to attempt to make a Buzz Lightyear cake. I had strict orders to not forget the wings, Mommy! How did I do?This lovely creation took me all morning. I was a heathen and missed church, but I did go to Sunday School. So, hopefully that counts.

Finally, after a quick little nap for Josiah, we went to Liberty Rolladium. Unfortunately, my camera was acting up, so I didn't get too many pictures. But, I did get this cute little "couple skate" picture with his long lost friend, Averi.

He told her she looked beautiful. Such a little player, that Taylor.

While Taylor was putting the moves on Miss Averi, Josiah was strutting his stuff on the rink. He totally is Mr. Independent when it comes to skating. The cutest thing is he will stop wherever he is on the rink and just start dancing to the music. I didn't get pictures, but some random guy at the Rolladium did. Didn't quite getting him dancing, but still cute.

Thanks random guy with a camera that works!

The birthday party ended with Taylor putting his handprint on the birthday wall, at the very bottom where he could reach. So, if you ever go to Northland Rolladium, look for his dark blue handprint at the very bottom of the wall. You better hurry, though, it's about filled up and will be painted over very soon.

And so ends the birthday andventures of Mr. Taylor. He'as all ready talking about how old he will be next year! Sigh.