Becky the Elf

We introduced a new family member last Christmas season. My mom showed up one day after shopping with a box that included a book and a little felt doll. Seemed like Elf on a Shelf had become all the rage so Nana decided to get us our very own.  The story is basically that the elf goes back to the North Pole every night to report back to Santa. I'm not sure that story modified my kid's behavior but we sure did have some fun with her. Every morning the kids would get up excited to find out what she did while they were sleeping. Here are some of here favorite things to do...



Marshmellow Bathing



Q-tip snowflakes

Reindeer confusion

Stocking confusion (I think she was embarrassed)



Toilet Wrapping





a long 13 years

If the next 13 years is anything like the past 4 days it's going to be dreadful. My poor kid isn't adjusting to Kindergarten very well. I haven't gotten it from his teacher but from what he tells me he cries every morning. Poor Taylor has walked him to class and doesn't want to leave his crying brother either.

I've asked him why he doesn't like it and here's the list...

1. Bubba can't stay with me.  (well, Bubba is in 4th grade so....)
2. I have to stay too long.
3. They call me names I don't like. (He likes Booboo, not Landon)
4. I don't have any friends.
5. I don't get to rest.
6. I want to sleep in every day.
7. The bus ride home is too long.

I hope that when I see his teacher she'll tell me how great he's doing. Surely, this has to get easier.

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.