A Hairy Situation

There are few things I hate worse than having to clean. It just seems like an unnecessary waste of time. Now don't get me wrong I like a clean house. Actually I LOVE a clean house. It's just the whole getting clean process that I hate. If I could afford to have a maid come in once a week and clean my house, I would. But, unless I figure out a way to make my kids clothes out of recycled paper, discover an alternate fuel source or win the lottery, I am pretty sure that won't be happening.


Today, I decided it was time to run the vacuum over the carpet. It has actually only been a week since Haley vacuumed but I could see bits of trash on the carpet and since I hate dirty floors, I had to clean it. So I whip out my trusty Hoover vacuum (and it is the mama jama of vacuums in comparison to the ones I have had in the past). Before I started vacuuming, I emptied the debris canister (because I am apparently the only one in the house who knows that there is a debris canister). So with a clean, empty debris canister I start vacuuming the den. When I finished vacuuming, this is what was in my once empty debris canister:

Dog Hair. I know EWWWWW.

This is the culprit. Guilty as Charged!

And as much as I love him, I am thinking that one of these would be nice about now.

Look ma, no hair.

So here are the pictures I promised

Friday afternoon, Holden was at a birthday party and Haley was off spending the night with a friend, so we took Harrison down to the park to try his hand at riding a two-wheeler. I have to say he did awfully good for his first shot at it.

After he tired of the bike riding, we walked over to the playground area and I took a few pictures there.


Saturday was soccer day. Here's our little star in action.


Sunday, we went to the Blessing of the Fleet. I got some good pictures of the kids, but my battery died before I got any of the shrimp boats. Yeah, I know always charge your battery the night before. But, the pictures of the kids were cute and I can always scan the picture of the shrimp boats from the newspaper and pretend it was mine.

So there you have it. The weekend in review. Do you understand why I am so tired by Monday?

It's been a long weekend

It was a really long week last week. Monday and Tuesday I had a sick child home. Granted, he wasn't really whiny but it does throw the whole schedule off. Especially after being gone for four days. So by Wednesday, I needed kid-free time to get some things done around the house. Oddly enough, not much got accomplished though. Between running errands and grocery shopping, there wasn't time for much else. By Friday, I was pretty much fried. I am not sure if I was tired from last weekend, or from having a sick kid, or from my allergies, or maybe just a combination of them all. So when bedtime rolled around Friday, I was ready for a good nights slumber. That unfortunately did not happen.

At 12:15 a.m., I feel a light tap, tap on my arm and hear "Mommy, my tummy hurts". So I jump out of bed, hustle young child to the bathroom just in time for him to throw up. After he's finished, we go to his bathroom, brush his teeth, change his pajamas (he was very sweaty) and put him back to bed. I crawl back into the comfort of my bed (careful not to disturb husband who is either pretending to be asleep or who actually is). Just as I am getting back into a deep sleep, I feel a tap, tap on my arm again and hear "Mommy, it's happening again". So, I jump out of the bed, hurry young child to the bathroom and repeat. This time, I wash his face then put him back to bed. As I get back into bed, I hear husband ask "What's wrong?" This is the point where you really want to be ugly and smack them up side the head. But, I refrained and told him what was going on. To which he replied "Oh".

Fast forward a couple of hours to 3:15 a.m. and again, I feel tap, tap only a bit harder and hear a moaning. I open my eyes and find older son standing at the side of the bed holding his ear. When I ask what is wrong, he tells me his ear is hurting. At this point, husband says to son, "Come get into the bed". I am thinking, "How is this helping his hurting ear?" but again, I refrain from saying anything. So I get out of bed, tromp downstairs and find some Ibuprofen. Back up stairs, I give son the medicine and then try to find the ear drops that numb his ear which were no where to be found. I searched high and lo for a good half an hour. Husband did get out of bed to help but then exasperatedly told me I was searching for a needle in a haystack then crawled back into bed. The ear drops were not found and son did finally go back to sleep.

By Saturday morning, I was less rested than the day before. But, we had a soccer game to go to and a million chores to get done so there was no lying around resting.

Saturday afternoon, my husband suggested we go and have dinner with my parents. So we drove the hour and a half to eat dinner with them, the we drove home.

This morning, we got up and packed lunches, sunscreen, blankets and chairs and headed down to the Annual "Blessing of the Fleet" where a priest blesses each shrimp boat before the start of the season (which is tomorrow). There were games, crafts, food vendors, music, jump castles and arts exhibitions. And lots and lots of people.

So tonight, I am headed up stairs to crawl into the bed and watch a few minutes of television before I try and get some much needed rest. Hopefully I will have no sick children, no snoring husband, and no bout of insomnia.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the weekend.

A camo shirt and a mannequin

Tonight we ran by Old Navy to find Harrison some camouflage for an Army party he was invited to. I know, you're wondering why my child doesn't own anything camo. Well, I despise the stuff, but that's a whole other story.

So anyway, I found a shirt on clearance for $2.99 (YES!) and am heading to the front to pay for it. Harrison runs ahead of me and as I round the corner to get in line, I see him shimming up to a mannequin. He starts swinging his hips and moving like he is slow dancing with this mannequin. I quickly look around to see who is watching and thankfully the only other person in site was David. So we pretend that he isn't our child and crouch behind the rack of clothes nearest him. When Harrison finally caught us watching him and realized that he was the center of attention, he kicked it up a notch and went into a full fledged gyrating motion.

I regretfully did not have my camera with me although I am not sure that even a still photo would have given an accurate depiction of the "dance". Let's just say that Dirty Dancing didn't have a thing on Harrison and his lady friend.

I am not a big television person. At the most I watch 3 hours a week. Due to the writers strike, my favorite show, Grey's Anatomy has been off the air for months now which left me watching next to no television. Enter American Idol. Now I am almost embarrassed to confess that I watch this show religiously. I am not sure what exactly appeals to me about the show. Maybe it's that regular people have a chance to make their dreams come true.

While I love the show, here's what gripes me. Rather than a talent competition, it has turned into a popularity contest. Last week, one of my favorite performers, Michale Johns was voted off the show. This week, 38 million Americans cast their votes and the two worst performers from Tuesday night, Brooke White and Jason Castro, somehow managed to avoid even being in the bottom two. Instead, the two strongest female performers, Carly Smithson and Syesha Mercado, ended up at the bottom.

Now I will be the first to admit that I don't have a clue what makes a good performing artist (I'll leave that up to Simon who is usually on the money even if he does come across as a jerk). And I am tone deaf and couldn't sing in tune if my life depended on it. However, I do know what I like and what sounds good to me. And the performance by Jason (who has been one of my favorites) was horrible. He was off key and the song just flat out didn't cut it. And Brooke. She is such a likeable person which is about the only reason I believe she made it through after forgetting the lyrics to the song and having to start over.

Syesha has never been in my top 5. She is a good singer but I have always felt like she was a much better theatrical singer than a pop star. But her performance of the Broadway song on Tuesday was outstanding. I am sure that in the end she will end up becoming a Broadway performer.

And Carly. To me she just had it. Her big voice could adapt to whatever theme the producers chose. She has an incredible talent, and she was a leading contender from the beginning of the season. So what can I say? I know in the end, Carly will end up with a contract because she is good enough to make a go of it.

Here's Carly singing Jesus Christ Superstar from Tuesday night.



Unfortunately, America goofed up on voting this season. And Carly Smithson was voted off the show last night. “It must be a bit of a popularity vote this week,” Randy said. And I believe he was right. Carly should have ended up in the Top 3.

We'll have to wait another week to see if America gets back on track or if the popularity contest is still going strong. In the meantime, don't bother me tonight because I will be watching the first NEW episode of Grey's Anatomy. At least no one gets to vote Dr. McDreamy off.

A medical emergency

I got a call Friday from David while I was away at my retreat. He said that he was sorry to call but there had been a slight medical emergency that he needed to talk to me about. I could tell from the tone of his voice that it was nothing serious so I didn't panic. It seems that while Harrison was at school, he injured himself. A note came home from his teacher. Here's what it said:

Well, I am not real sure how you hurt your neck playing a board game but I am glad to report that there seems to be no long term problems and his neck is feeling better.

Catching up is hard to do

I left on Thursday morning for a weekend away to do my favorite of all favorite things - SCRAPBOOK. It seems like I never get to scrapbook when I am at home so I have to go away to actually produce pages. I got around 40 pages so it was a very productive weekend. There were 9 of us staying at a small resort near Hilton Head. I don't think I even left the house Friday or Saturday. Those creative juices were flowing and I was bound and determined to take full advantage.

So, since I left Thursday, I didn't get a chance to post pictures of Holden at his Terrific Kids ceremony from Wednesday. The teacher nominates 2 students each 9 weeks and Holden was the Terrific Kid for his class this past 9 weeks. Terrific Kids is a student recognition program sponsored by the Kiwanis Club that promotes character development, self-esteem, and perseverance. Yeah to Holden, our Terrific Kid!

Now that I am home, things are getting back to "normal", if there is such a thing in our household. Holden stayed home from school today with a sore throat, ear ache and headache. He had to tag along with me to a doctor's appointment this morning so I took him to the video store on the way home. He has been planted in front of the television for a couple of hours now. Poor guy is trying to watch a video while Harrison wrestles with the dog on the floor, which just means Harrison is his usual self. A few minutes ago, as I am typing this, Harrison starts yelling my name over and over from the other room to get my attention. When I answer he says "Mom, you forgot to brush Sullivan's teeth this morning." Geez, send me to time out. PLEASE.

Help, I need an exterminator

We have a problem here at our house. There is apparently some kind of critter living here that likes to create messes. It likes to turn my lipstick until it's completely extended and jam the top back on. It likes to unroll the toilet paper and leave mounds on the floor. It likes to squeeze half of the tube of toothpaste out into the sink. It likes to smear lotion all over the counter top. And after all of that it must get hungry because it likes to leave boxes of cereal open in the pantry.

After resting, it gets it's second wind and colors with Sharpie markers on pictures laying on my desk. It pulls all of Harrison's shirts out into a pile on the floor. Then heads for Holden's room where it takes his science experiment kit and hides it in Harrison's room. It likes to chew up gum and spit it into the trash can. And candy must be one of it's favorite foods because I find those wrappers all over the house.

I would call an exterminator but since the critter has been unidentified I am not sure it would help. I wonder if anyone else has a similar critter invading their home?

My Little Soccer Player

Harrison started playing soccer this year. It's his first season so he isn't quite sure of himself yet. He does a pretty good job of getting in there and trying to kick the ball. Sometimes he loses interest and I can hear him asking the coach for a little rest. Saturday was the team's fourth game. It was a beautiful day with a light breeze and no gnats. YEAH! The team played well but they lost by one goal. Fortunately at this age it's all about having fun and building team player skills. Each child gets a trophy at the end of the season so they all feel like winners. Here are a few snapshots of my little soccer player.

Warming up before the game

Harrison likes to play Goalie because he gets to "rest"

He's getting the hang of it. He got the ball from Number 1.

Taking a break is almost as fun as playing.

The end of the game

I am sitting this one out

On Friday, Harrison's class has show and tell. This past Friday, one of the kids brought in an Elvis CD. The teacher (bless her) put on the CD so the the kids could listen. According to Ms. Pat, two of the boys hopped up and started dancing a little. She looked over to find Bethany (the only little girl in the class) scooting closer to Harrison in an apparent attempt to get him to dance. Harrison saw this out of the corner of his eye and turned to Bethany and said "Don't even think about it."

So on the way home, I asked him why he didn't want to dance. He said that he didn't know how to dance. Jokingly, I told him that wasn't the way to treat his girlfriend. He said "Beffany (he doesn't pronounce the th) is not my girlfriend. We broke up because she was being jerkish."

Shake N Bake

David was going over Harrison's spelling words. Thinking that word association would help, David started making up sentences. He would say "Mom has to (blank) dinner." To which Harrison would reply "cook" and then spell it. So they went on down the list and got to the last word which was shook. David grabbed Harrison's arms and gave him a little shake. And he said "I just (blank) you". Harrison said "shake". David said "No not shake but.....". Harrison replied, "bake".

Say what?

David and I were discussing an acquaintance and I made the comment that she always seemed kind of "ditsy". Holden, who had overheard the conversation, chimed in "Well, it's probably because she has three bunctious boys and the dad is always gone." David said, "You mean obnoxious?" Holden said "No, bunctious". Laughing, I replied "Do you mean rambunctious?" Holden relied, "Yeah, that's it."

And then there's this.

On the way home from school, Harrison was telling me that some people in his class didn't listen (not him, yeah right). He said that Ms. Pat calls this lack of attention, daydreaming and that one little guy in particular is constantly doing that. But Harrison disagrees with Ms. Pat's assessment. He said he believes that this little boy might need to get a "hearing affection". I said, "What do you mean?" and he said "That means he needs to go to the doctor to get his ears checked because they don't hear right." Hmmm, maybe that hearing affection runs in our family.

Little birdie

I was sitting at my desk yesterday when out of the corner of my eye I noticed some movement on the screened in porch. Most of the time I ignore it because it is usually the dog sitting on the bench outside my window begging to come indoors. But, the constant movement caught my attention and when I looked outside I saw that two birds had flown onto our porch.

We leave the door slightly cracked so that the dog can come and go as he pleases and apparently the birds thought it might be a nice place to explore. There was only one problem with that - they couldn't figure out how to get back off the porch.

I called Harrison to come and see the birds. We went out and opened the screen door hoping the birds would be able see that they could go out that way. After a bit, they were still flying from fan to fan to the screen but still were no closer to finding their way out. Harrison thought it would be a good idea to run at the birds waving his gun and screaming so that they would be scared into flying away. This only upset the birds and they flew harder into the screens. Fearing that the birds would either die from a broken neck or fright, I made Harrison stop waving the gun and making so much noise.

At this point, Harrison thought he might need to call in some reinforcement so he went upstairs and got his "telephone" and made some calls. Unfortunately his reception was not very good and he didn't reach anyone.

We went inside hoping that the birds would calm down enough to figure out how to escape. A few minutes later, Holden came home and Harrison told him about the birds. Holden went outside to see them and when he came back in I noticed he had put the birdhouse he made on the table. He said if the birds couldn't figure out how to get off the porch, he wanted them to have a place to sleep.

Apparently one of the birds was a bit brighter than the other because she (it had to be a girl, right?) found her way out long before the other one (which had to be a male, right?) did.

I had to leave to go and pick Haley up from school and hoped that our cat would not return while we were gone. It would not have been a pretty sight to return. When we came home, I am happy to report, the bird made it out alive and the cat was no where to be found.

Is there logic in this?

The other day we were leaving to take Harrison to his soccer practice when I noticed some paper balled up and thrown in the middle of the sago palm by our front door. Being in a hurry, I sort of brushed it off and reminded myself to pick it up when we got home. Finding trash strewn throughout our yard is not an unusual site. It seems that my children, the youngest in particular, think that our yard is a trash can. Finished with that granola bar, just throw the wrapper in the yard. Empty capri sun, not to worry here's the trash right next to my feet. You get the drift, right?

So anyway, back to the story. We get halfway to Harrison's soccer practice and it starts pouring down rain so we turn around and head back home. When we got home, I just happened to remember the paper in the palm tree and quickly grabbed it before heading indoors. Thankfully, I took a closer look at the paper, because it turned out to be Harrison's homework. Homework that had already been completed and needed to be turned in the next day. Homework that now was not only crumpled but soaking wet.

I asked Harrison how his homework got outside and his answer was "I don't know". This is Harrison's number one answer to most every question asked. "Harrison, how did your underwear end up behind the couch?" "I don't know." "Harrison how did this cookie end up under your bed?" "I don't know." "Harrison where is your brother's _________ (you fill in the blank here)?" "I don't know." So you see this pattern just keeps repeating itself.

Trying to figure out his logic here is sort of like trying to solve the mystery of the universe. You could spend decades analyzing all the facts and still come up empty. So I smoothed the paper out as best as I could and laid it out to dry.

The next morning before school, I wrote a note to Harrison's teacher that went something like this:

"For some reason, Harrison thought it was a good idea to ball his homework up and throw it outdoors. I found it in the rain, crumpled in the bush by our front door which is why it looks like this."

Her reply:

"Thanks for the note. Harrison and I had a little talk about it."

On the top of his paper, I noticed she had written a little note.

When I asked Harrison what his teacher said about his paper, he looked at me and said "I don't know what you are talking about." That would be his second favorite answer. Maybe I should try the denial tactic when he asks for something.

Track Star in the Making?

This weekend was the 31st Annual Cooper River Bridge Run. This is an annual feat for David but this year, we had a new family member participate. Friday, Holden ran in the Kid's Run held downtown at Hampton Park. We went early and visited some of the vendors that were there. The kids came home with a backpack (compliments of Skechers) full of goodies and coupons for free stuff (like Chick-Fil-A ice cream). Kohl's even gave them a Dr. Seuss stuffed bear.

After we made our rounds at the vendor booths, we found an empty picnic table and had lunch. We had no sooner sat down to eat when Harrison announced he had to go to the bathroom. Since it happened to be halfway across the park, I let him go in the trees. Thankfully no one passed by while he was taking care of business. I did later notice that there was some poison ivy on the ground near the tree but so far no rash has cropped up so I think we are safe.

Afterwards, as David and I were packing up our stuff, Holden came running toward us all excited about some ducks down by the pond. After he calmed down enough we figured out he was telling us the ducks were "having some romance". I am not sure exactly what he was referring too but some questions are better left unasked. By the time we got near the pond, Harrison had discovered the ducks and ran at them screaming so that they were no longer in their romantic huddle. Now they know how I feel. Just no privacy with that boy around.

Holden did some stretches before the run and warmed up a bit. When they made the call for runners he started getting a little jittery but in the end he pulled it off and finished in the top 25 runners. I am not sure how many were in the race he ran but the total number of kids registered for all the races topped 1000.

Here's Holden before the race

This is Holden running by me (notice that the camera didn't focus on him, he must have been running by to fast) and I had to fight the other parents to get out and take this picture.

Holden at the finish line with his medal after the race

Holden and some other kids were interviewed by Channel 2 after the race

Could this be the start of a future track and field star? I'll keep you posted.

Field Day

Yesterday was field day for Holden. Luck was on our side since the bad weather didn't move in until much later that afternoon. It turned out to be a nice sunny day although a bit warm, it didn't stop the kids from having fun. Unfortunately Holden's class didn't come in first in any of the games, but the kids didn't seem to care. Here are some highlights:


Waiting in line


Running through the hoops.


Hot and thristy after running



Holden and his teacher, Miss Trucksis

NY pictures

As promised here are some pictures of our trip to NY.

Haley at Battery Park next to the statue that was located by the Twin Towers. They have an eternal flame burning next to it.

Haley and I on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Can you tell how cold and rainy it was by looking at the grey skies?

Haley on top of the Empire State Building. I have to say that it is much pretty to see at night than during the day. And of course the lines were not as long but it was pretty cold.

Haley on the subway after doing some shopping.

Haley at the world of M&M's in Times Square. They had every color you could imagine. Even one called Central Park which looked like grass.

Haley at FAO Schwartz

Haley in Grand Central

Finally back.....

Haley and I left last Wednesday to go to NY. We got to the airport an hour ahead of schedule so that we could check-in and get through security. Fifteen minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave, we were told that there was a delay of about 15 minutes due to a delay in the incoming flight. Five minutes before we were scheduled to leave, our flight was cancelled due to high winds in NY. That wasn't a good start to the trip but we rushed to the ticket counter and were able to get a flight to Atlanta and then on to NY. We arrived three hours after we were suppose to initially but at least we were there.

Haley enjoyed flying except for some ear trouble. New York was exciting for her. We got to tour Chinatown, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Chelsea and some of midtown Manhattan. We saw Central Park, Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza. We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Empire State Building and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We rode the Ferris Wheel in the Toys 'R Us store, visited Macy's and FAO Schwartz. We had dinner on Wednesday night with a friend of mine and on Friday night with my cousin, Spencer. We ate a wonderful breakfast at Norma's where the waffles were the size of a plate and topped with the most wonderful Devonshire Cream and fresh berries. We feasted on cheesecake from Junior's and had a hot dog from a street vendor. We got to see someone proposed to on the street (accompanied by a violinist). We met people from as far away as England and Australia and as close to us as SC and NC.

Haley said she loved everything about NY except for the cold weather. The high was about 47 each day we were there. It rained a bit on Thursday and Friday but not enough to keep us indoors. Saturday was sunny but the wind was bitter. By late that afternoon, we were both tired, cold and ready to come home.

Thankfully our flight back left 15 minutes early and arrived 45 minutes ahead of schedule! The boys and David were at the exit to meet us. The airport is arranged so that they even got to see our plane land. How cool is that?

Haley took as many pictures (or maybe more) than I did so we ought to have it well documented. Of course, I had intended to upload those but after waiting 15 minutes only to get an error, I think you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them. My head is pounding from lack of sleep and I think I hear my bed calling me. So until tomorrow...........