Pets

Aren't these faces just precious? These are our furry little friends. The lab on the left is "Cheyennne", but we call her "Shy". She is so sweet but came from a shelter and is still a little nervous around loud noises and fast movements..(I'm sure that my 'quiet' home is the perfect therapy for her...not!) In the middle picture is "Sam" He thinks he's half human/half dog..We love him. He is very spunky and will stand up and box you with his paws, like a human would hit someone in a fight. Nothing really scares him, and he's overly nosey. He's pretty much just a laid back and lovable cat. We have another cat, but I can't find a picture right now. She's pretty old and crabby hates everyone and everything, very neurotic..After $500.oo in vet bills we finally nailed down why she pees around the house...it's because she needs calm and quiet. She has anxiety issues. Again, I don't know what the problem could be. I ONLY have 3 boys and their friends running crazy around this place! So, she's pretty much grounded and is being kept away from everyone so that she can enjoy her peace and quiet and be calm and happy. Our dog on the right is Heidi. She's another yellow lab, although she's not related to Shy like everyone thinks she is. We've had her since she was a puppy. She's a very nice dog, pretty smart too (although Leo would disagree with that) She is an adult now and was still so full of crazy energy..she was driving us nuts! So, we got her Shy to play with..They absolutely love each other. It's quite a good mix of animals and the boys couldn't be happier with their pets.

Ok..so what's wrong with this picture. It's an animal that has no hair, you can't pet it, carry it around or cuddle with it..But Kogan has decided to keep it. (I don't think that he's named it yet) It's some sort of beetle thing. You see the small black dot in the middle of the jar? Trust me, this thing is HUGE up close! It looksl like a cockroach or something...eww! Someone please tell me how this animal qualifies as a pet? This is from his class project. (Thanks Mrs. S.) The teacher gave the kids a baby food jar and they put holes in the lid. Then they filled it with Oatmeal..then they put in the bug in its pupa stage. (cocoon)? Well, the thing actually lived and has been with us ever since. It's been about a month or so. Kogan has to leave this thing up in his bedroom..I was tucking him into bed the other night and peeked in the jar. I just saw a little bit of it poking out of the oatmeal. It wasn't moving! Hallelujah!! I was so happy..I was even forcing a fake frown on my face for when I turned around and told Kogan that his beloved pet had finally died. I was even preparing the funeral for the little guy in my head. (all of our pets get a proper burial in our back yard, no matter if I liked them or not..We have a Hermit Crab grave yard back there) As I picked up the jar to hand it to Kogan, I saw it move. I actually saw it's little tentacles twitch. So, I put the jar down, and it stopped moving. So, I handed it to Kogan and he looked. By now it was buried deep under all of it's oats. I told Kogan to shake the jar really hard to make it come out..I was secretly hoping that it would give the thing brain damage. "Shaken Bug Syndrome" or something...but nope, here it is all of these days later just sitting in it's jar living the good life. One of these days I might be tempted to just get rid of it. I wouldn't torture it or kill it..although I have thought about sucking it out of that jar with my vacuum cleaner..but no, I would free it into the bushes outside and then replace it with a raisin or something and bury it under the oats. Kogan would just see it and assume that it was his bug. Now, where can I get a raisin that BIG! Did I forget to mention that I HATE bugs. I don't even like lady bugs.

**Oh, and Kogan doesn't normally just sit around reading books to our dogs..He was doing a book report on the book "Winn Dixie", which is a story about a dog. So, we thought that it would be cute to take a picture of him reading the dog book to the dogs and include them in the report. No one was actually reading or listening in these pictures..The best part is that he got an "A" for his grade..woo hoo!

Not again!

We live in a good neighborhood. There are always kids out playing, it's safe to be outside, and most people are friendly. BUT....Leo's truck was broken into for a 2nd time! (Are those bad odds? 2x in a year and a half?) Our nice neighbor even chased some kids away looking in his truck at night once...grrr! What is it? It's a nice truck, but that's it..it's not some super duper fixed up, tricked out way too expensive truck! We did everything right. We are well lit around the yard. In fact we have a street light at the end of our drive way. 2 outside garage lights, a porch light and tons of landscaping lights in our yard. (the brightest house on the street in fact) Last time they broke his side window and reached in and tried to pull out his radar detector and i-pod. They were plugged in and couldn't be pulled out of the plugs very easily..so the kids (assuming that the misfits that did this were kids) ran away and left them dangling outside of the truck, in the rain. So, we repaired the truck and the rain damaged radar detector..and upgraded the truck alarm. Also installed all of those expensive landscape lights.

This time they broke the same window and reached in for the radar detector..it came unplugged this time and they ran off with it. Thankfully it wasn't raining that night, so no water damage was done to the interior. So, as we were cleaning up the broken glass and giving our info to the police man (who wasn't at all interested in our sad story), Leo shut the passenger door...and guess what? The alarm was armed..and it never went off..Apparntly the alarm company installed the alarm on the drivers side, but not on the passengers side? aye, aye, aye.. Thankfully we were able to get someone to fix the window that same day. Yesterday we had a shop tint the window, and fix the "half working alarm" and also install a glass sensor. If those brats try it again, hopefully they'll get scared off this time! Leo has been online researching new radar detectors (I secretly think that he's happy about this). We could just park his truck in the garage with my car, but there's just too much stuff (junk) in there right now.

Big and Chunky

***PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT***

For the health and safety of everyone, please read:

I just want to be very clear and make it known and that the song playing on my song list called "Big and Chunky" in NO WAY referrs to me! This is from the movie "Madagascar 2"..Moto Moto is singing to Gloria (the hippos). So, no one even needs to wonder or ask what this odd song is about! (my boys absolutely LOVE this movie!)

cowboys and fried twikies

Yep, it's that time of year again. The time when all of the city folks dress up and get to play cowboy and cowgirl. Yes, that means that the Rodeo is in town! We have never been to the Rodeo, so we decided to go. We had a blast. We didn't go see the actual rodeo stuff..we went to the carnival part. The boys rode rides and ate their way through the night. Some of the gourmet food included: Deep Fried Twinkies (actually very yummy!), ice cream, dots ice cream, hot dogs, cheese fries, nachos and their beloved blue cotton candy. (they will fry anything here: cheese cake, twinkies, snickers bars, moon pies, pickles) I was so happy that there was a Starbucks there too! Of course, those cowboys get awful thirsty and nothing quenches their thirst like a Vanilla Late. Thankfully after all of that junk food, no one threw up on any of the rides! The boys got to use their first porta-potty, which is a nice way of saying an ugly, stinky, germ infested green box, where you potty in front of other people waiting in line right outside the door that can hear everything! While I was changing Nathans diaper (on my lap, not letting him touch ANYTHING), I could hear Kogan and Michael in the next door porta-potty. This is what I could clearly hear "Whoa..there's a big hole where you poop! Cool..there's a lot of poop in there" And then lots and lots of laughing. So, I get up as fast as I could, without dropping Nathan and knocked on the boys door and told them to hurry up and get out of there! I smiled at the 20 people waiting in line and hearing the boys playing in there.. They just thought that it was the neatest invention ever created. Yep, it doesn't take very much to please my boys.. So, after a good dousing with my hand sanitizer (I would've stripped them naked and bathed them in it if I could...you know that I would too!) we were off to ride the traveling death contraptions..I mean rides and roller coasters..All in all, it was a lot of fun..and we will be going again next year.

Here's Nathan looking at the rabbits! He kept calling them "kitties" And Yes, I have taught him the difference..

"Please, please mommy can we get a tractor?" Of course, I'm sure that we could use it for many things, like walking the dogs, scooping their poop in the back yard, playing with the other neighborhood kids,..very practical for the city. Michael was mad that Kogan jumped into his picture. (can you even see Kogan?? Far right... way over there)

Last but not least..you can tell from the excitement bursting on my boys faces, that this was the prize winning cow/steer? It was auctioned and sold for $300,000!!! A lot of money, but it was pretty and very nice too! Of course we can have it..it's only practical that you'd need it to go with the tractor..Do I have some future farmers here?

Peanut Butter and what?

Nathan being silly while waiting for his lunch - Peanut Butter and what???

****YOU CAN TURN DOWN THE MUSIC PLAYER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN IF YOU CAN'T HEAR HIM..****

To the moon

Yesterday was a very fun day for us. We went to Space Center Houston. The boys got to play with their friends while I got to catch up with my friends. The boys got to see Sponge Bob..(I don't know what he has to do with space exploration?) Ronald McDonald was also there doing magic tricks..again, the whole space exploration thing?? Michael being the ripe old age of 7 said "Theres Ronald the Donald"..LOL..As much as he eats at McDonalds, you'd think that he would know the correct names for the "executives in that company".

Today "Ronald the Donald" was looking a bit chunky..time to cut back on those Happy Meals?






Kogan doing his best Sponge Bob impression???

After a long day, we decided to get some ice cream before heading home. (I think that it was just an excuse for me and my friends to get some..Yummy Cookie Dough! mmmm...

And last BUTT not least, our view as we left (please enjoy)"Ahhh....Houston, we have a problem!!!"

Happy St. Patricks Day.

The boys were on Spring Break from school this week. That meant lots of staying up late, lots of sleeping in and NO SCHOOL! It was also St. Patricks Day. With a last name like ours, we had to celebrate..(although i'm pretty sure, that we have no direct links to the Irish) I decided to make the boys a great, green breakfast to surprise them. I put green apples and green candles on the table just to get a little more green into the scenery. But the food was the big hit.

Here is their delicious green eggs and green pancakes...The boys looked a little scared at first when they saw this creation. I believe Kogans exact words were "It looks like barf...COOL!" You have to love boys and their thinking. You can't really see it, but there are also green cookie sprinkles on those pancakes. mmmm...Just to add a little more sweetness to their feast. I added some more of those cookie sprinkles to their cups of milk. What could be tastier than a cup of green milk?

Here are my leprochauns waiting to dig in...see their big smiles? 2 of the 3 of them already had dressed in green...because yes, you do get pinched in this house when not wearing green on this holiday. It's funny that the boys remembered that little detail from last year..LOL..


And I saved the best for last..After my green kiddos were all stuffed, I got to sit down and relax and enjoy my coffee in my big green cup..This cup is actually huge! It can hold 3 regular cups of coffee in it. Heavenly! After Leo came home from work we all went to the movies and watched "Escape to Witch Mountain"..very good. And then we walked around the mall and the boys got to ride their favorite indoor 3-D roller coaster..We all looked cute in our green clothes..(sorry no pictures)

skating party

On Sunday my boys were invited to a skating birthday party. To be honest, my boys aren't skaters. In fact the last time they were on wheels was for this same party LAST YEAR! I was dreading having to walk out on the floor with them and basically holding them up while my toes and feet get trampled to death! (yep, that's my positive attitude!) However, these boys of mine really impressed me. As you can see, Kogan (full of my gracefulness) spent the first 45 minutes in either this position or flat on his rear end.. Michael seemed to fair a little bit better. He stayed up a little bit more, however you can see how relaxed he is by the claw appearance of his hands..LOL. They had a lot of fun, and after about an hour, the boys stayed mostly upright and even started to sing along with the music blasting, and having a little bit of fun. It was so fun to watch them. I kept remembering what it was like to be young and free and skating to those great 80s songs and the wind whipping through my hair...(well, not really that part) But it used to be so much fun! But, I just sat on the sidelines with the other moms thinking "If I were to go skating and fall and break a bone, my house would probably fall down around us!" My family wouldn't be able to manage with me in a cast for 6 weeks! So, I just lived through my boys instead. Nathan was too little to skate, so he instead stayed on the sidelines and chatted with the ladies.. (His dad was so proud). So, when the party was over, the boys were pretty upset. They felt like they had finally mastered the "great art of skating". They wanted to stay for another 2 hours, but it was time to go. By the end of the party, I was so proud of my 2 boys. They had finally managed to stay on their feet all the way around the whole rink. They were able to hang on to the side rail the whole time around this time..

Maybe i'll be a good mom and take the boys skating once or twice this year, so they'll be a little more "polished" by next years party. That night my poor Kogan was so sore. His body really did take a beating for the 2 hours worth of falling that he did. We had to rub IcyHot on his wrists and wrap them in ace bandages. hated the sell, but it felt soooo goooood!

Welcome

Well, here I finally am. I've finally stepped out of my cave and decided to come into the new century and start blogging. I love my family and the joy and chaos that they give to me everyday. I've decided to share my life with my friends and family. I've been blessed with 3 beautiful boys (my 3 little monkeys). For some reason God decided that I was to have only sons..no pink ruffles or Barbie dolls in this house! Thankfully God has also given me a pretty good sense of humor. I'm able to use my humor to help me survive being the only female in a "fully loaded" male house. My silly humor, Clorox wipes, lots of kisses and hugs and my sweet husband are what helps me sail through life smoothly..(well, mostly)...