Meet Rusty...

Rusty came to the Adventure's home several years ago, I think we won him at Dave & Buster's. Anyway, he was put into the toy basket and various kids that came to our house found him rather amusing.

We have since gotten rid of the old toy basket... we replaced it with a toy room... anyway, so Rusty ended up amongst the boy's many toys. One day, the boy discovered Rusty... and they have been buddies since.

WHAT THE HECK?????

I would just like to say that I do not find myself to be a very political person, but this got my blood pressure up this morning. A correspondent on a national broadcast insinuating that some people are less than intelligent because they may not be voting for Obama... excuse me?? There should be an apology for this. Regardless of which way you vote, it is your right to choose... and hopefully every voter makes an informed decision. An informed decision - either way - would negate your "stupidity"... usually.

Monkey Love

A broom of his own...

I'm no dummy... I am taking advantage of the enjoyment he gets from sweeping!! Five less crumbs I have to sweep up.



I would have taken more pictures but he was seriously on the move.

First Major Battle Scar

Today we experienced our first "boo boo" that drew blood. It was bound to happen, but not much fun for mom. And of course it had to be on his head.... not like his knee, or something less threatening.

He fell out of the wagon... sort of.


After he started to recover from his crying his father informed him that if there had been a grandmother around... he would have gotten a cookie.

Grocery Store Wisdom

I was at the grocery store today (I am there a lot lately). Again I was with the boy and it was after my Bible study and way past lunch time and rapidly approaching the boy's nap time. So I was like a marathon runner... dashing for one item after another as fast as possible (come to think of it I guess that would be more like a sprinter). Anyhoo, I was in a hurry.

I made really good time in getting the few items I needed and headed for the checkout lane in a mad dash. I was waiting for the boy to have a melt down, or whither away from starvation... but we were doing fine. Until I got in line.

Why can't I ever pick the right line... I mean seriously, what it up with that? I got in the lane with only one other woman in front of me. All of her stuff had been scanned and it was being bagged by the time I got there. I thought "SWEET, no wait!!" Pssh... whatever. Little did I know that the checker was also the bagger at lane 14 and she had a "special system for bagging" because she "only likes her groceries bagged a certain way, and {she} passes that courtesy on to her customers." Oh crap. So, I stood there and waited. By this time there was a couple in line behind me that had emptied their cart onto the conveyor belt, so I was stuck... for the long haul.

I watched with envy as lane 13 quickly cleared out customer after customer... and still I waited. And waited. I could have been on my way home to make lunch by now. Ugh! Then... finally she was finished bagging (hallelujah)... but wait, there was nobody to carry out the groceries.

"I NEED A CARRY OUT ON LANE 14." the checker called over and over again. Nothing happened. Really... crappity crap. Then the little old lady in front of me looked my way and said "What a patient little boy you have there. He hasn't made one fuss this whole time." At this point I snapped back to reality and said "You're right. He has been very good."

Then came the guilt. Here I was in such a hurry to get on with my life that I hadn't even noticed how peaceful the moment really was. My good little boy was patiently waiting in the basket not complaining one bit about the fact that he was starving, or that he was dying for a nap since he had skipped the morning one. So, what was the big deal?

How often do I do that? How many times do I get overly aggravated that things aren't going the way I wish they would and miss the good stuff happening right before my eyes? I am sorry to say I do it all the time. Thank goodness God is patient... 'cause I know I am not.

So take some time today and look for the good stuff, it's everywhere!

It all started...

with this:


The overwhelming, insane, powerful force drawing his hands to the pile of dirt I had just swept up. He's pointing to it saying "Uhhh?" which means "May I please put my hand in the middle of it and scatter this pile of junk to the four winds?? Oh please mommy!! Please, oh, please!!"


I say "NO, don't touch!" So he watches me... studies my every move with the broom... then the dust pan. It is a scene that plays out day after day.


On this particular day I laid the broom down for a moment and he decided to do this...


...sweep... oh and hit everything in sight with the broom handle.

That's right, he's a ladies man all right! He will make some lady very proud some day with his sweeping skills taught to him by his mama. But let's not talk about that lady that he will make so proud, it just isn't a bridge I am ready to cross yet.

See how Chia manages to expertly move her head out of the way just in time to avoid a knock on the chin?

These aren't the best photos, but keep in mind that I was ducking a dodging the whole time... I did the best I could.

Boys... they're just dirty.

The Pack Rat

A few weeks ago I purchased some storage totes from Wal-Mart that happened to be on sale. It was all part of the back-to-school, tax free weekend stuff. Always being in need of storage containers I felt that I should stock up. They sat in the kitchen/dining area for a couple of days because... well, because I didn't know where their permanent home would be.


Well, the boy... he thought they were there just for him (as he does with everything in this house). He would push them around and bump in to just about everything in a 5 mile radius. This made me question why on earth we had dedicated an entire room to his toys when all we had to do was buy him a few $4 storage totes... I'll keep that in mind for any future children. My interaction with the totes during those days just consisted of pushing them back out of the way so that I could get by... and trying to figure out where I was going to put them.


Anyway, one morning while once again shoving them out of the way I noticed that one of them had an awful lot of stuff in it. Stuff I had not put in there. Stuff like this...

Let's see, we have 4 hangers, an old cell phone, a book, 4 or so Cheerios, a toy and some junk mail. If we were a family of pack rats I would be such a proud mama!

Deep thoughts...