Booboo

I’m blaming it on the fact that in a few short days I’m going to be 35 and I admit that I’m a huge bundle of emotional mess. Or maybe I’ll blame it on not enough sleep instead of getting old. Or maybe it’s all the changes that are going on in our life. One minute I’m laughing hysterically at something my kids say or do, the next I’m just before tears at something they say or do. It’s all just happening so fast. It’s so cliché but it’s also so true.

Seems like yesterday that I decided to stay home and be a full time mommy. Not long after that our world was blessed with another little boy that stole my heart the moment the Ambien wore off (I’ll post about that fiasco another day). He came into the world a whopping 9 pounds with a head full of dark hair. Taylor was convinced that we were naming him Froopie but soon after we brought him home he was renamed Booboo. I’m still not sure how that happened but it stuck. Bless his heart, he’s been called Booboo for 5 years and now he’s off to kindergarten and people are calling him Landon for the first time in his life. It’s a nice name but he’ll always be Booboo to us.

I wonder if I did him an injustice by never putting him in preschool or day care. I felt like when I was staying home that being a full time mommy was my job. I didn’t think anyone else should take care of my babies. Now I wonder though if it was fair to him that he’s never been in a classroom and he’s never been left with anyone other than family or friends for any length of time.

I dropped him off this morning at school and didn’t walk him to his class. The moment I drove away I regretted that decision. I have thought about this day for a while now and had decided it would be better for him if I just drop him off and let his big brother walk him to class. It would allow him to go straight to his class without clinging to me and both of us ending up in tears. I believe the plan worked except I still had a few tears.

Ya know, on second thought I’m glad I never put him in day care or preschool. I don’t regret a single moment that I spent sitting on the chair nursing him while Taylor snuggled up on my lap or teaching him how to write “Booboo” instead of Landon. I don’t regret a single play group or getting to experience him dressing as Spider Man for 7 months straight. It may take him a little longer to warm up to kindergarten than some of the other kids but I know he’ll be fine. As I wipe the tears from my face thinking about the last 5 years that I was blessed to be “just a mommy” I am so thankful (and emotional). I can’t wait until this afternoon when I can hear all about his day and then tonight when I can snuggle up next to him just like when he was a baby (minus the nursing).

Here are a few pictures from Booboo’s ½ day last week. He cried that morning but it turned out to be a great time for him getting to know his teachers and a couple of his new friends.





He's goofy when it's just us but a little shy when other people are around.



I could seriously eat this kid up!





Ok, so this isn't school but it's what he did the weekend before school started. He LOVES to fish and
could stand at the pond for hours! 



Will Not Quit

Over the past couple years I've pretty much labeled myself a quitter. I'm not looking for a pitty party here, I'm just saying I've given up on some things because of other things being more important. For example, I enrolled in school (AGAIN), went 2 semesters and decided it was too much. I'll admit, I beat myself up, and still do a little about giving up (AGAIN). I had to make a decision though, weigh the pros and cons. I decided that spending my weekends with my face in a book and computer were not as important as being with my kids, going to football games and just having fun. Maybe I put "FUN" too high on my priority list but I'm doing this life thing one time and doing it fun with lots of laughter is how I want to go out. I want my kids to remember growing up with a mommy that puts fun right there at the top of our list as eating and sleeping. So, back to my school dilemma, I am officially a college drop out AGAIN. It can wait, my kids can't.

Last year in May I ran my first 5K. I had commited to training for this race and by race I mean I just wanted to finish without walking. I wasn't trying to beat any of the other runners. I did the Couch to 5K running plan that I downloaded onto my iPod. I have a neighbor that would occasionally run with me and I remember one day when we had to do a longer run (25 minutes I think). I wanted to stop so bad. She kept encouraging me. It's not much longer...it's not much longer. I wanted to push her in the ditch but she was pushing her baby in a stroller and didn't want to hurt the baby. (I'm kidding, Katie!) When race day came I was so thankful for that encouragement. When I crossed the finish line it was an emotional moment for me. I had committed and kicked that trail's butt!

This brings me to right now. I got lazy over the past year, didn't work out and about a month ago I made the commitment again. Let me just break this thing down real quick. It's 3 days a week for 8 weeks. On week 9 you graduate to running the entire 5K. Each week is a different amount of jogging with walking in between. It gradually builds up to running the entire time. Last night I completely week 4, day 1. It was a 5 minute warm up walk, Jog for 3 minutes, Walk for 90 seconds, Jog for 5 minutes, Walk for 2.5 minutes, Jog for 3 minutes, Walk for 90 seconds, Jog for 5 minutes, then a 5 minutes cool down walk. It was drizzling rain and I was dodging frogs in the road but other than that I survived. I'm not going to lie, it was tough but momma's got this!

Dodging frogs in the drizzling rain. A few almost got slaughtered by some pink Brooks!

The sun finally came out last week after almost a month of raining plus I got new shoes for my old lady feet! It was a good day!

Night Cache-Part Deux

Seriously, I'm not sure why at 34 years and 11 months old I'm still the victim of my sister's peer pressure. She can talk me into just about anything.  Since our most recent geocaching tragedy (you can read about it click here). I haven't had much desire to head out into the National Forest in the middle of the night but it all changed when my big sister with large kahunas came back to town. It was the weekend of our mom's birthday and while I know she came to celebrate a milestone 60th birthday with our mom, she also came to conquer the geocache that we had tried so hard to find the month before but left without our smiley. (remember, getting a smiley on your profile is a big deal). After grumbling about not wanting to go back to find the cache from H*LL I finally agreed to go with my sister and two nieces. "The Original Four" as we have been named (another neice joined so there were actually 5 of us).  As I said in my last post we had to take a couple gallons of water, a dog collar, thumb tacks and chewing gum. Let's not forget a really good flashlight too!  We have all our equipment and take off to the woods...at 11:00 at night! Again!!!

As we drive down the first long gravel road, I notice the grass and bushes on the side of the road are sticking out into the road a little more than it was just a month before. Well Duh! It's the middle of summer and we've had a ton of rain. So what was up to our shins the first time was up to our knees or even our thighs this time. Not kidding. This girl who doesn't even like to walk in ankle deep grass was going to walk through the woods with brush up to my knees! I get those scaredy cat goose bumps on the backs of my legs just thinking about it.

The owner of the cache had posted on the log that he had moved a few things so that the bee situation shoudn't be an issue but also put a little disclaimer that you "Cache at your own risk". Well, no kidding Mr. Smarty Pants but it's up to you to make sure there aren't Bee Hive Booby Traps out there too! Anyway, the first box is exactly where it was last time so that was quick and easy. Thank you, Lord! This is when we have to drive a little further into the National Forest, park our car at the cul-de-sac and walk another half mile into the woods. Seriously, not my idea of fun but I couldn't give up now! Let me remind you that the brush is THICK! The rain must have made it grow two feet into the trail on both sides. My crazy sister led the way and as we are walking along we hear and see something bolt out in front of us and this gigantic deer runs across the path. I think we all needed to go back home at that point and change our undies. Not only that but my neice and I heard something that sounded like a growl. For real, I heard it. I thought maybe it was the deer grunting at us but when I told my husband about it later he said it wouldn't have been the deer. 

After all of us gain our sweaty, andrenaline pumping exposure we carry on down the trail. Because I'm super outdoors savvy (note the sarcasm) I took my son's hiking stick with a bear bell attached. I'm convinced that the more noise I make in the woods the better because I'll scare away whatever boogie man/animal is out there. So the entire time we walk, I ring the bell and beat the stick on the ground. Pound the stick on the ground is more like it.

Finally we make it to the point where the reflectors on the trees that are leading us along the trail stop and point us in the woods. The trees in the woods are lit up with tiny reflectors so that's our cue. I had never really given the phrase "scared $hitle$$" a thought until I went caching at night. Now I totally get it. My bodily functions were even scared. I get it now! We walk in the deep brush and find the next clue. It's the tube attached to the tree. The gum we had been chewing for the last 30 minutes came in handy and plugged the holes at the bottom, we pour the water in the tube and up comes a little plastic container with a key inside. The key then opens the lock on the ammo can that holds the log book! At long last we get to sign the log book and got our SMILEY! 

These girls I'm with are chatting it up in the middle of the woods like they are sitting in a restaurant sipping tea. I'm like "REALLY?! Can we get the heck outta here?!" Finally, we head back to the car but not without this whistle that I found in my sister's backpack. I blew the mess out of that thing the entire walk back to scare away whatever it might scare away.

To be honest, it was fun. I was scared, yes. I was pretty terrified a few times, yes. It was a great memory though with my sister and my nieces and it's made me think about the risks that I pass up because of fear. The things I've missed out on in my life because of fear of failure, fear of change, fear of rejection, fear of looking dumb. I'm not getting any younger and I sure don't want to look back at my life and have regrets because I was scared. I tell my kids all the time that we weren't born with a spirit of fear but sometimes I secretly feel like I'm exempt. I'm not.

This brings me to the next crazy thing my sister has talked me into. I'm driving to Atlanta next month to do the Mud Crusade with her. We're neither one in the best physical shape so we aren't doing it be win among the competitors or get the best time. We're doing it because it's fun, because why not?!  I'm sure I'll be scared that day of looking like a complete idiot but I don't even care. We only get one chance at life. I'm doing this thing!

Me with my hiking stick and crazy sister in the middle of the woods.

See that foot? Yes, she wore flipflops. I wore sneakers.

Ooey gooey gum



Terrisa and Danielle at the final spot of our jouney



This was in the car on the way when I was trying to get out of going. There was no stopping her, I mean,
she had on her trucker hat.

Adventures in Geocaching

It's been about a month since we first heard about geocaching and tried it out. Since then we have successfully found 66 caches! Go us! If you want to learn a little more about geocaching...just click here. So about a week into our newest obsession my sister comes to town from Georgia. She, too, has just started geocaching and is addicted. I tell her about this one particular cache that is very close to my house that has to be done at night. First, let me tell you that my sister has bigger kahunas than most men and will do just about anything. Of course she was ready to go do it.  I was too until she actually agreed to go! Then scaredy cat me wanted to back out but it was too late.

Like I said in my previous post about geocaching, each one has a name. This one is named Achluophobia which means fear of the dark. Among other things (like snakes, spiders, bears, coyotes), the dark is not my favorite thing. There is also a list of things we'll need to actually complete the cache and "get a smiley" (that means you sign the log book at the cache and can mark FOUND IT on your profile). The things we would need are the following:

at least 32 ounces of water
socks
a dog collar
gum
thumb tacks. Oh, and a really good flashlight.

I've watched enough psycho movies to know that list sounds like a list a crazed lunatic would make. She is still ruthless about going so the two of us along with my nieces that are 14 and 21 go at 11:00 on a Saturday night to find this thing.

Here's a little of how it goes...

We stop at the store to get the supplies we need then drive to where the GPS takes us. We end up driving down a long narrow gravel road in the middle of a National Forest. Sound crazy yet? We get to the place where the GPS takes us, get out of the car, walk into the woods which is mostly high brush and after several minutes that seemed like an eternity we find an ammo can. Let me just say that I felt like I needed to position the car just right so that the head lights were shining on the area that the GPS showed. They called me a chicken....I called it using the tools we had which in this case were my car headlights. Anyway, while we are looking for the ammo can we notice there are reflectors on several of the trees surrounding us. Curious and confused we open the can. There is a note that says we have found the first step but there is more. We now need to drive about a mile further into the woods, come to a cul-de-sac where we'll have to leave our car-LEAVE OUR CAR!!!!- and WALK about a half mile along a trail where cars are forbidden! 

Ya know that scared to death feeling where you have goosebumps on the backs of your legs? Well, that was me...I'm not going to lie. At this point we make it to the walking part. I'm questioning our sanity and my sister just keeps truckin'. We then figure out that the reflectors will guide us while we are walking. Great, that's comforting {insert sarcastic tone here}. So we walk and walk and our imaginations run a little wild. Nervous giggles from all of us except our fearless leader.  My sister yells at one point and makes the rest of us nearly mess our pants. Suddenly, we come to a place where there are reflectors in the woods and not on the trail anymore. Meaning we would leave the trail and start walking into the woods.  If anything the trail was "safe". I was not looking forward to trekking though the woods off the trail. Oh but we did and we found another ammo can.

This one has another box inside with a lock and another note that says the key to the lock is within 20 feet of that spot. So I stand there and the three of them walk out about 20 feet where they will circle me to look for the key. Not too far out they notice a tube about 5 feet tall attached to a tree. My niece had just watched a video online about a cache where you pour water into a tube and something (log book, key, or whatever) would float to the surface. We thought the key had to be at the bottom of the tube so we'd pour water in the tube, the key would float up and we'd be all done, haul butt to the car and go home! WRONG! As my niece starts to pour the water in the tube she yells SOMETHING BIT ME and grabs her leg. I think $**T! A SNAKE! but it was actually BEES! She was standing on a ground nest of bees. We were all literally standing in a swarm of bees in the middle of the night in the middle of the woods! HOW STUPID ARE WE?!

OK we get the bee situation under control after 3 out of 4 of us were stung multiple times but my crazy sister is dead set on finishing this. She walks over to where the bee nest was and proceeds to carefully pour the rest of the water in the tube. Guess what? We hear the sound of trickling water at the bottom and BINGO! that is what the gum was for! We were supposed to plug the holes at the bottom of the darn tube before pouring the water. So, we run out of water and we run out of mental and physical gas. And we still don't have a clue what the dog collar and tacks are for.

We didn't and still haven't completed the task. The "owner" of the cache did go out there and take care of the bee problem so that nobody else would have to endure being stung. It's not the intention of the people who place them for other cachers to get hurt. I just thank God that nobody with us was allergic to bee stings!

I'll close this post with a few pictures from our more positive caching experiences. The kids are really loving it and to me the best part is actually seeing and exploring places that we wouldn't otherwise. There is often some sort of hidden lesson too. The kids are learning without realizing it :) I'm a fan of that.



Taylor has even gotten his friends loving geocaching. Terrisa (my niece) is just slightly addicted :)



He's got his gear that my sister gave him for his birthday...walkie talkies, a fan that blows a mist of water, a compass, pens, hiking boots. He's set.
My husband rolled his eyes the first few times we went (including the night cache) but now he's hooked too and even has battle wounds from briers.



This tunnel is actually under the road going to the beach.
We never knew it existed and have driven over it a gozillion times.



My boys are caching fools.



This is a little trackable that we left while on a camping trip. I really love it :)



Taylor and Kenly found a cache while camping and this the one we put the "gift trackable" in for the first time.



OK, here is my crazy sister and her daughter. See that paint can? It had about 50 little sheets of paper with numbers on them. One lucky number would open the combination lock of the actual cache. This one was really cool! 



Trackables I ordered for each of the kids and my sweetie. Each one has it's own unique number on the back so that they can be tracked.



This cache was hidden near a Chiropractor's office. Clever that it was hidden inside a bone!



Attitude Adjustment

I have to admit that my attitude has sucked lately. I'm pretty much tired and grumpy most of the time and I'm in no mood to throw a party; HOWEVER my kids look forward to July 4 about as much has they do their birthdays and Christmas. Four years ago when Taylor was almost 5, Landon was 2 and Kenly was not even a year old a bunch of our neighbors decided we'd rather stay home on July 4 than battle the traffic so we threw together a neighborhood cook-out. It was a huge success and has become something the kids look forward to every year.

Since I have developed a bad attitude and just don't feel like doing anything especially socialize and clean up a mess in my yard I had decided I wasn't going to plan a block party this year. Well, the closer it got the more my kids and neighbors were asking if we were having the block party. I buckled under pressure and threw together an announcement, walked around the neighborhood one night at 8:00 with a trail of kids on bikes with me, put them on each mailbox and it was official...Our neighborhood would have it's annual July 4 Block Party.

Do you ever look forward to something and dread it at the same time? Like having a baby (sorta)...who wants to give birth but the outcome is worth it, right? That's how I was feeling about the block party. Geez, why does my attitude suck so bad? Maybe it was because I knew there would be tons of awesome food full of glorious calories and I've limited my intake considerably. I'll blame it on the food and my love for it. No, let's just blame it on me being lazy and not wanting to do anything.

Anyway, the day came and we set up the tables, chairs, tents, bases for kick ball and corn hole boards. All strategically planned so that we would be spread out among several houses and not at just one house. It was a success and I think everyone had a blast...including me and my bad attitude. 

A giant slip n slide with soap!

This looks dangerous.

No hands watermelon eating contest.

The set-up.

Happy kids = my attitude adjustment