Belay On?.......On Belay!

Months after their initial invitation I was finally able to meet up with my cousin Joseph and his girlfriend Jennifer for a little indoor rock climbing. Bobby was suppose to give Joe a run for his money in the climbing arena but a shoulder snafoo had him sidelined for this go-around. My sis, Tracie, made a trip up to tag along for the fun.

Since we were not avid Climb Nashville participants we had to go through an intro class that taught us the basics of how to harness up and how to belay (where one person attaches themselves to the opposite end of the climbers rope in order to keep them from falling). Needless to say, it was quite nerve-racking for me to know that if I came flying down that wall all I had tethering me was my 100 pound sister. I'm sure if I'd of come down fast enough the rope would have completely jerked her into the air........anyway, thankfully that didn't happen.

Jennifer was my belay on one climb. I'm saying, "You best not let me die...." in this pic. She didn't. Thanks, Jenn!

I'm nearly 45 stories up in this picture. Well, not really. Actually, not even close. But that's not what my central nervous system was saying. I had voices in my head saying, "Get Down!! Go back!! Turn around!!" and then others saying, "You wuss. Suck it up. Baby. Make it to the top or die!!" I'm not going to lie--- my pits were sweating. Not so much from working hard, but from sheer terror.

I found out that I'm pretty much a fraidy cat. My sister also called me Nancy Nay-Sayer because I'd take one look at a path on a high wall and say, "yup, can't do that one. Not even gonna try."

She hung in there and belayed me on even the eaisiest routes. And for once in her life she can say she beat me at something. There. I said it. She's better than me at indoor rock climbing. :)

It was a great time hanging out with Cousin Joe and Jennifer. I know they think Tracie and I are complete goofballs. Which we are no doubt. I am definitely up for trying Climb Nashville again.

Until then I'll be channeling my inner Spidey Man and working on my fear of heights. Next time people it's Game ON!

One Season Down, Umpteen to Go.

Rhett was ecstatic to finally have a turn being the sports participant and not the sports spectator. We signed him up for Lollipop t-ball and he loved every minute of it. His first uniform came with a ball cap and he thought that was the greatest thing ever. In fact, one game I forgot the cap and we had to borrow one from the coach because Rhett just couldn't play without one. Ball without a cap was just unheard of!

His team was full of buddies from church so along with a little batting and fielding there was a lot of horseplay and roughhousing. I'm pretty sure that he and his bud are discussing team strategy here not whether or not their mom's are packing Lunchables to the pool tomorrow.

It was a sight to see him running with reckless, and I do mean reckless, abandon toward any and every ball that entered the field. Once the ball was hit it looked more like tackle football than baseball for sure. Every now and then Rhett would surface from the pile holding the prize.....more often than not he just wrestled it out of some girl's hand.

He did fairly well hitting this year. Every time Bobby and I tried to practice with him in the yard his response was, "I know, I know, I know. Now just back away and let me do it. I don't need anybody's help!" I'm giving him an "F" on teachability this year.

He was always all smiles running the bases. It takes skill to run and hold your helmet on at the same time!

And the moment he lived for: the end of the game when tickets were passed out. Inevitably one of his brothers became his very best friend and would escort him to the concession stand. It was there that they would choose something wholesome and filling....something good for bone strength and stamina.....and excellent for tooth enamel:

Fun Dip. Nothing like dipping a sugar stick into sugar and eating it an hour before bedtime. One plus is that it's good for sharing....hence the reason he always had an overly loving brother to accompany him with his ticket. Next sport on the agenda- soccer. Hopefully my eighty bucks will go towards watching him learn to kick and run, not twirl on the field and ask when snacks will be given out. Only time will tell!

Did You Know You Could Bedazzle That??

We have a new nail establishment in the area......and thank goodness. I thought it was just a disgrace that we didn't have at least 10 to choose from that were less than .01 miles from our house. So, I decided to take them up on their advertisement of a spa pedicure for $19.99.

Of course when I get there I'm promptly placed in the standard massage chair with my feet submerged in warm, bubbly water. My first mistake was pressing the button with the little bootie picture. I'm not sure what kind of place they're running over there but my eyes when all silver dollar size and I let out a "whoooop".....I was violated. Moving on to my second mistake: Not knowing Chinesglish.

The conversation (or lack thereof) went similar to this:

Lady: "Whowaseeesiiiinne?"

Me:  "I'm sorry....what did you say?"

Lady: "Whowasseesiinne?"

Me (leaning forward):  "Ummm. So sorry. What?"

Lady: "WHO.WASS.SEEE.SIIIINNNEEEE???"

Me: "Uhhh. Design??? Uh....sure?"

So next thing I know she's bringing out all this colored toe paint and containers of things. About ten minutes later I've got a Georgia O'Keefe on my big toes.

I was telling a friend this story later that night and she politely responded, "Well, at least she didn't put rhinestones on your toes." Ummm, well.....yeah, she totally did. Take a gander at the center of that little flower:

She bedazzled me. And just for the record, when she brought me my ticket she said, "Fo you.... twenty fiiiiii dolla." I got hoodooeyed out of my $19.99 spa pedicure but came out with a wearable work of art. Watch out tweeners.....I'm all over it.

It Really Is Windy

Bobby and I made a quick getaway to the bustling streets and honking horns of the city of Chicago last weekend. Bless my parents for keeping the kids even though two of them had just finished puking and were still feeling less than optimal. Perfect timing for me, you know, since I've got a terrible aversion to the word "puke" and definitely to the actual physical act of anyone tossing their cookies. Mom and dad held strong while we were gone though and no one's food revisited.....until Sunday night and they were officially off duty. Sorry dad. Poor dad. Leave it to 3 germ carrying kids to take the man down. In all of my 31 years I've never seen him ill with a stomach bug until Cade was born. And now this makes number two. Kids are germy people. Really germy.

Bobby had a business meeting on Thursday so technically this qualified as a "business trip" so lucky for us we shacked up in the ever so inviting Four Seasons Hotel and as luck would have it we were upgraded to a suite. And let me tell you, it's even sweeeter when the suite is on someone else's tab.

This was the view from our window. One big one in the room with the bed and one huge window in the sitting room. We were on the 43rd floor so all of the cars below looked like Matchbox. It was incredible at night too.We were lucky to have some friends come along for the fun. A'lyce made my shopping more enjoyable and we loved having friends to converse with over dinner.Speaking of dinner, I had salmon TWO nights while we were there. I don't even like salmon.....usually. I'm more of a white flaky fish kind of gal. More specifically I prefer a white flaky fish that tastes like chicken. Just keepin' it real. However, the salmon was delish. I'm assuming that I probably wouldn't have liked it if it had come from Captain D's or something but somehow if you're in a nice restaurant you really can't go wrong. A sad thing in any city is walking past numerous homeless people. What is more sad is that one homeless man, in an attempt to get these fellows to give him money called out "Hey! Hey Tony Soprano!! Hey Kirk Douglas! How 'bout some change, man!" Then he added, "And ladies, I ain't forgetting ya'll either. Ya'll are like supermodels!"

Supermodels? Maybe A'lyce but not me for sure. Worse off, have you seen Kirk Douglas?? Let me refresh you:

And Tony Soprano?? Better than Kirk for sure but still not quite a compliment:
Needless to say, after suggesting that Bobby appeared to have one foot in the coffin and Jason was perhaps overweight and balding the poor man didn't get any moola. I personally would've given him ten bucks for suggesting that I was supermodel material but unfortunately I didn't have my purse.

Some other things I didn't bring with me were my common sense nor my spectacular comfy shoes. Wait. I really don't think both can coexist. You really can't be wearing spectacular shoes if you're all comfy. Anyway, after walking block upon block in the city the first night in some stiletto pumps, I quickly decided that I would prefer that someone chop my feet off and just let me walk on my bloody nubs. It really couldn't have been any worse. As with child birth though, I forgot the excruciating pain and wore a pair of wedges the next night. Hello blisters on parts of the foot I was unaware that I had. Needless to say, in an attempt to salvage my feet we ended up taking cabs the rest of the night and there will be no mention of how I used napkins from the movie theater to bandage my wounds.

It was a great trip with great friends to one of my favorite shopping destinations. I am now going to save a quarter a day so that I can go back to Chicago and make my dream of owning a pair of Jimmy Choo designer shoes come true. These in particular are fabulous:
At a quarter a day I can go ahead and clear my calender for summer of 2022. I'm pretty sure it's wide open that year.

Merry Monday

Thanks to some Sunday afternoon pukage by Rhett our normal Monday routine was halted and surprisingly it didn't turn out too bad! Rhett woke this morning back to his normal self, appetite and all and by 8:30 was asking to go outside. So outside we went. I pulled out some sidewalk chalk, googled "Hopscotch" and 10 minutes later we were old schoolin' it.

Because Legos are never far from their mind, the boys chose Lego men to be their markers. You had to toss the marker into the right block....

and then take off hopping!

Grant was putting some serious concentration into his jumping.

Cade was perfecting his balance to be able to pick up his marker on the hop back. It turns out that even in hopscotch there is some fierce competition......

and unfortunately a sore loser........boooo.

We had had all we could take of the hopping so it was off to ride bikes. I broke the rules today and let the boys ride in the street since pretty much everyone was at work and the traffic was minimal. They rode bikes today for nearly 10 hours. I'm not even joking. 

It brought a smile to everyone's face!

Grant did alot of talking into his elbow while calling his brothers things like "Commander Rex" and of course there was alot of racing to escape droids and what not.

Cade used this opportunity to perfect his bike riding skills. It has taken him forever but FINALLY the training wheels have come off of his green Racer X. He did at least 800 loops from one neighbor's driveway to the next and thankfully had no serious wrecks. I'm definitely going to have to buy new crocs when this season is over because he generally chooses to forgo the bike's manufactured brakes and uses his own toe brakes. 

Rhett thinks it's the greatest thing ever to be able to ride his tricycle and keep up with the bros. He seemed to have made a full recovery by this afternoon and showed no signs of slowing down. In fact, he pedaled and used his outside voice to scream things like "I don't need yo hanitizaaaa!!!" (hanitiza is a Little Buddy language compound word for hand sanitizer....and when you read that line you must use your most country hick voice along with country song tune). He also brought out a new, inappropriate phrase: "butt wings" as in, "Ima goin' so fast I must have on some butt wiiiiinngs!!" I have no idea what butt wings are nor where he came up with such foul language.  We're not allowed to say the double T version of that word here. 

In any case, it was a fun filled day. Thank you clouds for hanging around so the day wasn't miserably hot and thank you projectile vomit for not rearing your ugly head again! 

"We Don't Even Need No Nap!"

Mmmmm Hmmmm. Just as I thought......

Frenzy on the Fourth

Another Fourth of July holiday has come and gone and we managed to survive having our annual Extravaganza Jubilee Celebration to celebrate the good ol' USA and Bobby's innate love of blowing things up.



Just like a good planner, I headed to Target on July 4 at around1030am and grabbed some festive tees for the boys. Grant's had a red, white and blue eagle or something crazy on it. You just can't see it. His picture attitude was less than stellar so don't be expecting too much from him.Little Buddy was Mr. Picture Poser. There may or may not have been candy involved.Bobby's attempt to make Cade have a normal kid smile instead of his iguana neck cheesy ball smile landed me a great photo op.Pyro Bob had a souped up arsenal this year under the guise of helping out a former coach of mine. On one of his usual tent stops he found that my high school softball coach was manning the tent to make some extra cash in the summer. Basically he was using his good nature to help put food on the table for the man, his wife, and three kids. It had nothing to do with the fact that Bobby LIVES to shoot fireworks......Now, contrary to what some believe, Bobby follows all rules and safety regulations regarding fireworks and any other flaming balls of hot paper and gun powder. I don't know why our neighbors fear their house burning down this time every year.We had the usual smattering of children watching army tanks, little china houses, and red hot doodads spinning out of control in the street. And, as every year past, they (Bobby) loved every second of it.They were pretty loud though.And what's the Fourth without colored smoke bombs??We had some good eatin'. Barbecue if you're into that (which I'm not), mac and cheese, hashbrown casserole and any other yellow/white starchy food you can name.....and homemade ice cream which I AM into.
The water slide and jump house made their debut for the kiddos.

And the men played cornhole (not pictured) and this ball-on-string game that I cannot recollect the name of.
Check out all of these boys. That's not even all of them. I just liked the picture of them all together with their tan little backs.

Here is this year's girl's group photo......sans Jon in the background. I'm pretty sure he was holed up in the play room making kids clean up and call him "Big Jon".We had a great evening spending time with our buddies and watching Bobby's pyrotechnic show. Mixed with all of the neighbors fireworks it was actually a site to see. Praise the Lord for being able to live in America, for freedom to worship as we please, and that no one walked away from our house with third degree burns or missing appendages! Happy Fourth!