Impulsively Mean

I guess "mean" is probably the wrong term to use... maybe "not nice", "bad behavior", or (my fave) "snarky" would be better.

Sometimes I do bad things. Usually they are completely impulsive. I don't have malicious intent, but I still do it. The "things" to which I am referring would not cause anyone else to pause and consider. But I was cursed/blessed (depends on your p.o.v.) with a guilty conscience.

I could never lie. Have never really been able to get away with it. In high school I tried lying to my parents. It was futile. Whatever I would say, my mother would respond with, "Hmmm... You have lying eyes Min." EVERY SINGLE TIME. (I pray that I can do that to Rea in 10 years) So, after a while, I stopped trying. Generally speaking, I am an honest person. Sometimes painfully. Shane has told me before that he wishes sometimes that I didn't have to be so truthful... But I think, if you don't want the answer buddy, don't ask the question.

Anyway, my truthfulness seems to have morphed into a sick sense of required confession to my super-close loved ones. Even if they have no idea a wrong has occurred. I think it stems from my fierce loyalty issues.

Proof #1:

I am going to make this short: I listened to and deleted a message left for a family member from someone I cannot stomach. Neither party knew about my sneak attack. And no one probably would have... until I confessed to five people!! FIVE! All five people thought it was funny. I fancy myself the villain but am clearly not.

Proof #2:

My family. How should I describe them? Nuts. Always laughing. Constantly poking fun at each other and everyone else. Burlesque at times. Yes, my family is the group of people in the ER waiting room laughing uncontrollably.

Again we were at my mom's house for dinner last week (seems a lot happens there). Anyway, I noticed this fabulous cookbook magazine on the desk in the kitchen. After flipping through a few pages, I knew I had to have it. At least for a little while.

Almost as if she read my mind, Mom said, "You can't have that. I bought it for Steph." I scoffed. Dad chuckled. I continued to flip through the pages. When Mom left the room, I put it in my bag. Dad saw me. I promised to bring it back when I copy all of the recipes out of it.

I don't think Mom has noticed because she hasn't said anything to me.

I made one of the recipes last night. Pizza Mac & Cheese (really, why wouldn't I steal this book??). It was AMAZING!!

But here's my need to confess. As I reheated some of it for lunch a few minutes ago, I felt a twinge of guilt for depriving my baby sister the joy of tasting this AMAZING meal. Sorry Steph.

Plane Old Fun

Yesterday, a group of little munchkins (and some Mommies) descended on my dad's hangar. It is Spring Break in PB County and the kiddies needed something to do.

There is this wonderful woman at my parents' church who watches kids for a living. She is truly amazing... and now that I am a "stay at home" mom of 2, I have a HUGE amount of respect for her. There are times that I want to pull my hair out because 1 of my monsters is driving me nuts. I cannot fathom multiplying that feeling by about 5!

Skye is always looking for interesting things to do with the kids. So she asked my dad about a field trip. And since the plane is really Rea's, we had to be there too. =)

I realized how much Rea needs to hang with other kids her age... She doesn't start school until August. She was SO excited about getting to see other kids. She kept calling them "school kids". It was the highlight for her. It hurt me a little to see how crushed she was when they had to leave.

The group of kids were adorable. They had cute questions and comments, as kids usually do.

Since she was given a taste of the co-pilot's chair this weekend, this is now where she thinks she sits.

Rea is guarding the entrance to her plane.

Ri likes girls, older girls. =)

Cutest little group

Another plane was getting ready to start up and roll by

Time Flies - Sometimes Slowly

This weekend was a very big deal... it was the first time Rea went out of town without me or Shane. 

She has been asking to see her Aunt Jack. Because of Jack's crazy work schedule and life, we only see her a handful of times a year. My parents were going up this weekend to help Jack out with some things around her house. It was the perfect opportunity for Rea to tag along. 

She asked me CONSTANTLY when it was time to go... when I would ask her to get dressed in the morning she would say, "So I can go to Jack's house house now?" You know how some kids get ridiculously stoked about going to see Mickey Mouse? That's the level of excitement Rea had for a trip to G-ville. 

Friday finally came. And after a few morning errands (and lunch), it was time to head to the airport.

I'll be honest, I was looking forward to having only one child for a few days. I didn't think I would go through physical Rea-withdrawals! Almost as soon as they pulled away, I wanted her back. I was already dying to see pictures. I had no idea how I was going to survive the next three days.

Rea was having a blast! We got photo updates often... 

But knowing how much fun she was having didn't help me miss her any less. I still checked her room at night and half expected her to come down in the morning. I almost made her a plate of spaghetti last night too. 

Now it's Sunday. And I get my girl back tonight! I cannot wait. 

The Good Wife

Ok, so the other day Shane told me that he wanted me to frame his Tebow picture (1).  I said ok and said that I thought Bronco Blue would be nice, because it is a deep, dark blue. But I was thinking it should be simple double matting. Shane said he had thought it would be nice in Gator colors with a v-groove and UF Pin. I tried to explain that I thought that was too formal for such a casual picture. (If you have not read "Just One More," you may want to... it explains the funny behind this particular photograph.)

From what I can remember, the discussion of matting for Shane's Tebow pic ended without resolve. So I decided yesterday it would be funny to mess with Shane. Since he wanted all this fancy stuff done to his matting, I thought it would be well-received to kick it up a notch. Below is my masterpiece.

Hahahaha. It actually took Shane a few minutes before he noticed it sitting on the table in our frame shop. Of course he LOVED it. =)

He is so lucky to have me.

Notes:
1. We own a custom frame shop "FanAddict Frames." You can check out our business at FAF Blog or our website.

Fashion Forward Toddler

Recently Rea has been experimenting with her outfits. It is so fun to see what she comes up with and sometimes hysterical to venture out in public. Her creativity seems to be at its best on Sunday mornings. Because of Shane's work schedule, I often single-mom it to church. There is a part of me that feels bad for the way Rea looks, but then I think the Lord is just happy we are all there.

The 2 different color Crocs really make this.

So, in honor of yesterday's winner, I decided to share some of my favorite Rea creations. =) I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

My husband has several tattoos... I think she uses stickers as temporary ones. This actually happens frequently at our house. =)

Wearing our clothes is always a favorite:

Halloween is not just one night of the year for Rea. The upside is that we really get our money's worth on costumes.

Rea loves to wear "daytimes" -- These are really pajamas, but she thinks they can be worn when the sun is up. She will actually change out of the PJs she wore to bed and put these on.

Searching for some Halloween pumpkins in pumpkin pjs... Makes total sense.

Because this is a nightgown, Rea assumes she can wear it to church.

Another nightgown... this greatly disturbed my G-ma. 

This is definitely one of my favorite church choices. She is sporting an actual outfit with housecoat and Disney Princess slippers. It was really cold that night. =)

The Poop Diaries

Potty training is interesting. Rea has shad ups and downs in the past 6 months. But, she has pretty much been potty trained for a few months. She's not completely trained... she won't poop in the potty and she can NOT make it through the night.
Shane and I are tired of buying Pull-Ups and changing her in general. It would be so much nicer if we only had one bottom in diapers.
After weeks of trying to get her to #2, I did what most people with a problem do: I took my issue to Facebook. And I got great suggestions from my friends.
One of the things we did was make a "Poop Calendar" for Rea. It was actually only Monday-Sunday on a piece of computer paper. I labelled the top with the days of the week. Then Rea picked prizes for each of the days. Monday was a trip to Sea World. Tuesday was a pack of Polly Pockets. Wednesday was a castle from Target. Thursday was a trip to Disney. etc...
Rea was very proud of this calendar. She showed it to everyone who came to our house.
She would talk to me about the list of poop presents all the time. Once in the car, she said, "I miss Aunt Jack. If I go poopie, I can go to G-ville to see her. Ok?" Of course Jack was super honored to have made it to such a place of honor on our fridge: The Poop Calendar.

But her love and knowledge of the calendar did not immediately translate into the desired result. Shane and I never mentioned the list or anything about going on the toilet. We let her do her thing.
Well, if you read the previous blog entry, you know that Shane and I had a long Wednesday. We decided that we would just rest and hang with our kiddies on Thursday. Both of us needed a day to recover.
On Thursday morning, from the bathroom I hear, "I AM GOING TO DISNEY!!! YAY!!!" I asked her what she was doing and Rea proudly answered, "I AM POOPING ON THE POTTY! I GET TO GO TO DISNEY!! Go shower Mom."

I don't know if she just wanted to go to Disney, or if she actually knew it was Thursday and that was the corresponding prize. I guess I will never know. Anyway, we all got dressed and hopped in the car for a quick Disney trip.
We decided on Downtown Disney. We were in the car considerably longer than we were at Disney. But it was worth the look on Rea's face when we were there.

Good times... Rea is already planning the next trip up. Funny girl.

Just one more... It's for my kid

If you live anywhere near PGA Blvd, you are well aware that the Honda Classic kicked off this week. The signs are everywhere. Wednesday was a celebrity day. I am sure there were some great people of modest notoriety, but really, if you were anywhere near the Champion Course, you saw a sea of orange and blue.

The foursome most people came to see on Wednesday was made up of Jack Nicklaus, Jason Taylor, Kenny G and Tim Tebow. 

The scene was straight out of Happy Gilmore. The peaceful hushed golf world was taken over by the very vocal Gator Nation. 

The actual golf game moved at a ridiculously slow speed. This was my first golf game. So the night before I asked Shane how long the 18 holes would last... He told me to plan for 4 hours. The actual game??? -- 6 hours. As the PB Post put it, the "game moved at a glacial speed." 

And I would do it again in a heartbeat. 

We were behind the ropes, walking with Tim and Robby all day. We hung with our PBA friends. In my humble opinion, this is the BEST way to watch golf. 

This was my first Tebow Event from start to finish. I have met him a couple of times. My husband knows him, but I am usually at home taking care of our children. The kids and I usually pop in for a minute to say hi, but that's it. 

This probably isn't a shock to anyone, but WOW... he is wildly popular. One of the reasons the game took so long was Tebow kept signing autographs for people. Whenever he would get within 30 feet of the ropes the crowd would go crazy. People shouted the normal things "I love you Tebow!" "You're my hero" "Oh my neighbor is going to be soooo happy" "Go Gators" -- Then there was the most popular, "Just one more." The soundtrack of Tebow's life. 

Hands down though, my favorite part of the night was after the golf game. Shane and I went with Tim and Robby to dinner, then took them to the airport. A few months ago, Shane asked Tim to do this retarded pose with him in a picture. Tebow agreed. But below is what Timmy really did in the photo. 

This picture makes me laugh every single time I look at it. For whatever reason, Shane thinks this pose is actually cool, but my opinion matches the look on Tim's face. 

Naturally Shane wanted to frame this and hang it up. I said no. Then, kind of changed my mind. 

When we got the airport, we gave the picture to Tebow (of course he started cracking up) and I said I would actually hang this in my house if he wrote "Shane, you're a douche." 

Still laughing, he said "Of course I will!" 

So he starts writing and gets to "To Shane, your a " and then asks how to spell douche. I said, "Um, before that, could you please fix 'your'? That's the wrong one, and I won't hang it up with a spelling mistake." He laughed and then said he probably does that all the time. When he finished signing, he said "You have to tell people I spelled 'you're' wrong." 

My response? -- "Duh."

Anyway, it was awesome day! And I can't wait to do it again. =) Oh, and I would like to send some love out to the Dodson boys. We love you guys!