A day in the life!

I'm home today! It's Monday and I'm usually at work, but my Josie is sick (again)! Talk about tis the season. Tis the season alright.... fa la la la la, la la la la! for pneumonia and asthma, and ear infections and coughing until my child pukes, and REAL vomiting, and sleepless nights...wait I always have sleepless nights because my son is Joey Jr. in that aspect. The sweet codger refuses to sleep through the night. If he does I'm in there checking his breathing :) Even though he and I have had numerous talks about Mommy having to get up and go to work he simply doesn't care. He always makes for the best stories, though!

We head to the doctor around 10:30. Leave around 12:45. And we're headed home. I got them some nuggets from Chic-fil-a. Being that we weren't going to make it to the house for lunch. Picture this: Jake, Josie and I are in the van. It starts out with the 12 days of Christmas. You know two turtle dougs and a partridge in a pantry. Jake's wigging out because he wants me to cover him perfectly with his blanket and get his teddy because he's dropped it for the umpeenth time. Josie's coughing and coughing in her seat in between questions about me getting her a chica-wawa. I'm sure you've heard about those cute little dogs. Formerly known as chiuaua's. About that time she yells out "I'm gonna frow up!" I pass the chic-fil-a kids bag to her. She chunks up what little protein value she just received and requests a wipey! The phone starts ringing because Joey wants to know what the dr said. But, we did it. We landed safely at home despite the never ending Villages traffic! I know my guardian angels be working them some overtime!

Oh sweet Lord! I had to interrupt this quick blog to clean up the entire glass bottle of antibiotics that was just prescribed to Josie. Seems it was accidentally dropped by Josie onto our freshly mopped floor. Little brown shards of glass are lingering everywhere. We'll be wearing our shoes for a while!

Josie was being Dr. Albino today. I got to be her patient. She was acting out everything exactly as it occurred just a few short hours ago. I have been diagnosed with several problems. Double ear flections, a chin flection, and eye flections. Seems my nose was all clear. How do I know that? Well let me tell you the highlight of this pretend game. Sweet girl stuck a q-tip up my nose to re-enact the flu swab! I literally had to plug my left nostril, blow as if to spew a booger on her, and pant like a dog! "Ok Mommy, stick your tongue out and breath like this Hah-hah-hah!" Her words exactly!

Back again! You have no idea what just occurred in the past half hour. Another interruption. Seriously. Jake got a hold of the children's Tylenol, bubble gum flavor. Apparently, "The policemans gave it to him!" No wait, "It's was dos boyz" Umm on second thought "He only had a cup." Yeah, that's what he's telling me as I realize the sticky all over his toy gun that I've been pretend shooting him with is Tylenol! I know you may be wondering, "Why were you pretend shooting your son?" Well, he was pretending to be a deer and wanted to be my supper so I had no other option! So, which is worse that he got the Tylenol or that I pretend to shoot him??? Needless to say he's fine. I called poison control and all is well!!

I can't even believe this craziness! On that note I think I'll call it quits and go supervise my children :) It's never ever boring being at home!

Ok, I just stink like Jake's poopy diaper! Yes, he's still wearing diapers!

I guess I'll start with some pictures since I typed all my stuff first, but don't know how to move it to the top! :)

Here's Jakey cleaning pumpkins for Halloween.


Josie looking crazy haired, but lovely.



Jakey on his 3rd birthday! Nana made the Mickey Mouse cake!

Josie and Jake with Josie's favorite (Jasmine)! Alladin is crackin me up with that smile though!

Buzz Light Year! Love that little guy!

Josie and Jake at Minnie's house!

Seeing a family of 4 manatees at Blue Springs! Our first trip out with our camper!

Our adorable home on wheels!

Look at Jake! Trying to fill his daddy's shoes already!

Josie's first day of preschool! She and Joey both cried like babies. I think he was the biggest baby of the two :)

Man oh man, where do I even start? I turned 33! Jake turned 3! We had birthday parties and Disney World. Camping is a wonderful new pastime for our fam! Halloween was a big hit. Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas is about to be here! I've been teaching up a storm and loving it! My Josie is c-razy about her preschool class! Jake couldn't be happier to be "home" with Nana and Pa! Joey is about to graduate from CFCC! He starts UF in January! Go Gators!! Geez Louise that's a ton of stuff!

Yes, my son is still not completely potty trained. I know I know! It's one of those "nevers" biting me in the butt again. I've shole nuf said "My kid will never be wearing a Huggies Supreme at the ripe old age of 3!" But, low and behold here we are, buying Huggies way too often to say! On a funny note, we have been using the Dora potty...for recreational purpose only. Jake enjoys fishing in it with his fishing pole. One day..............

I do have so many stories, but I intend on blogging about them on a separate occasion, as to not overwhelm my readers (Mrs. Jackie) :) I almost gave up on my blog life until you shared your love of my stories. Shame on me for taking this long. Life truly has been busy and it's hard to blog when one is asleep at 8:30 almost every night!

Josie was right!

Well, there is a camper store! It's called Suncoast Schools Credit Union! :0) And they do give you money when you ask them. You just have to pay them back with interest, that's all!

We got a camper! It's super cute. Just as soon as I charge the battery in my 1910 Kodak Easy Share I'll post some pictures. It's a 2007 Kodiak 25 foot something or another by Skamper. All I know is its a blessing from God! We've been talking about getting one. But, you know me. I've got some stipulations. This one met and actually exceeded them all! Who-we!

Josie and Jake have bunks. Jake loves the nightlights. We'll probably be removing those eventually if he keeps up with all the on/off, on/off, on/off. :) Josie loves her bed being up top. It's got a slide out where the couch is. There's more storage than I could dream of (which was one of my main priorities)! It's new to us and we're so excited! Our first trip is next weekend!

Josie has started pre-school! She LOVES it! She's crazy about Mrs. Angela and talks kindly about every kid in her class. I'm so proud of her. She looks forward to going! :o) Who'd of thunk it?

Jakey has adjusted so well to being with Nana all day! She was a teacher, ya know. So, she's all about doing "school" with Jake. He's thrilled to show me his work when I walk in the door. God bless that woman for being so so good to my babies.

I've finally stopped crying (for the most part) about our new normal. That's what we've called it. (Thanks Lori). A position came open back at my old school. It's the 4th grade writing teacher. I KNEW it was God. That didn't make it any easier to change my plans of waiting at least one more year. I know that scripture....many are the plans of a man's heart, but the Lord directs his steps. Mine have been directed a little sooner than I had wanted them to, but it has definitely been the right thing for us.

I had forgotten how much I love love love children. I'm being used by him in ways I hadn't thought of! It's unbelievable the amount of pain these kids carry every day. I pray for wisdom to teach them and tons of love to shower on them.

My kids, Joey and I making the very most of our time together when I'm home, (which is by 4:00) every day! All about quality for us right now! And knowing we have a steady pay check is comforting too!

So, here I continue this journey of trusting in the Lord with all my heart and leaning not on my own understanding. In all my ways acknowledging him and he's directing my path! Until next time.....Jeanne

Did you know there's a money store?

Well, that's what my 4 year old is telling me. Tonight she says, "I want a camper." I say, "Me too." She says, "Let's get one then!" I say, "We can't yet." She says, "Yes, we can." Sounds like Obama if you ask me. Anyway, I let her know that campers cost money and we don't have enough to just go buy one. We have to save our money and then we can get one. Josie tells me, "No, you can just go to the money store." So I'm like what do you do there. She tells me. You go there tell them you want money they give it to you and you go buy a camper. It's as easy as that! For those of you who didn't know, that's what you do when you want something. Oh the kicker....I say how do you get to the money store? She says, "Um, you turn left!!" Funny girl!

The Beach!

We got to go to Melbourne beach for a 3 night stay at the Double Tree! Joey's daddy hooked us up with some Hilton points! Thanks for that one Pa! So here is a pictorial journey through the long weekend.


Josie and Jake after arriving at the beach. Of course we intended on leaving by 3:00, but no such thing happened..... You'll notice it's dark in this picture :)

Here's the kiddos and Daddy at Ron Jon's Surf Shop! I've never been. The kids really enjoyed it. Josie's sportin some beads she picked for Gigi and her very own cool rays. Please take note of Josie's stance. Jake's got his super high bouncy ball.

The Cannon's came Saturday for a day trip. Jake and Josie LOVED being with them. The waves at this beach were c-razy rough. So they kind of waded at the shore....often getting knocked down by the waves. Jake and Connor would just get up and say something about how fun it was. Yeah, real fun to get smacked down by a big ole heavy wave. Not so much for this little mama. Jake's the one on the right looking like he's about to dive in.

Here's Jakey at the pool (without his floaties)! He's so stinkin brave. I'm afraid he may be one of those adrenaline junkies one day! Heavens, I pray not. Anyway, every time he'd jump in to swim to Joey he'd say Janaminioes! It was supposed to be Geronimo. :) He did that over and over and over and over. The next day Josie got brave and decided she wanted Mommy to learn her how to swim like Daddy does Jake. So, I learned her!

My little surfer dude posing!

Josie would get blobs of sand and call them "puffer knuckles". She'd just drop them and smile. There were tons of those little treasures all around. Who needs a sea shell??

Jake's sweet innocent smile here! You see it? As I was taking the picture he was taking his sister's juice box thinking I wouldn't notice. The smile gave it away.

My girl...always posing. Seriously, it cracks me up. I had like 10 of these shots to choose from. She'd be like, take this one. Wait, do it like this. No, over here. Aw man, she's too much.

Our first day out. The water was c-c-c-c-old!

Our last day there! I told them to get together so I could take their picture. This is what I got! Perfect I tell ya!

All the way there Josie says the infamous, "Are we there yet?" We hadn't even gotten past Irby when the questioning began. Jake was pretty quiet. He's a good traveler, but he should be....he owes us!

The first night they were so excited to get to share a bed. However, Jake kept bothering Josie. I know it's almost impossible to believe, but he did. :) She'd say, "Stop hitting me Jaaaaakkkkeee!" He'd say, "I not hit you Jos. I touchin you!"

The first morning after the hullabulu of sunscreen, going potty, swimmers, suits, hair, packing, snacks, etc. We were stepping out the door when Jake blew chunks. YUCK! It was literal chunks. He'd had fruit loops and sausage for breakfast. He just wiped his mouth and said, "C'mon. I wanna go to da beach." After some much needed clean up we headed down.

The elevator was the biggest hit! They took turns pushing buttons.

Our last night there we let the kids pick where to eat. Of all the places they begged for the Waffle House! Can't take Sumter county out of them I guess!

We really had a wonderful time. And no one burned! :)

The Bible says....

Look at this boy in his Daddy's hat! He thought he was so cool. Check out the rain boots. Jake calls them his work boots. What kind of job does he plan on having??? This has nothing to do with the blog. I just thought it was cute.

Jake and Josie have been saying some pretty funny things lately. They're always coming up with something to make me laugh. Here are a few....

Jake:

"Da Bible says don't drive your monster truck backwards!" This happened when I was playing trucks with him on his ramp. We used to have a basket and 2 books that made up a ramp. (See picture above). Not anymore. Thanks to Aaron we have an official monster truck ramp. (Picture to come soon). I was trying to show him some cool moves by doing the truck backwards when he came up with this scripture that I knew nothing about. According to Jake God's pretty adamant about only going forward. :)

When Joey hasn't shaved in a day or so he rubs Joey's chin and says, "Daddy, you gots ants on you face?"

Almost every morning Jake runs into our room crying. The other morning he came in and yelled, "Hey mom. I not crying. Will you make me milk?" I say it's still dark outside. He says, "Ok, can I lay wif you daddy? I need to kiss you." Guess who got up with Jakey??

Josie:

Tonight in the car on the way home from my Paw Paw's 82nd birthday party Jake's being Jake. Josie wanted the car quiet. Joey and I were good for that, but Jake kept making all these noises. Surely he wasn't doing it just to bother his sister. So Josie says, "Mommy, Jake is making me crazy. I'm bout to get mad at him and I really don't want to!" Joey cracks up laughing mumbling something like you are your mother's child.

About a week ago Josie busts out with, "Mommy, I want to die!" I'm freaking out like Holy Canoly what kind of 4 year old says something like that. My hearts racing. I'm trying to come up with some Word from the Lord. Then she continues with, "Did you tell me that there will be lots of candy in heaven? And God will let me have as much as I want?" I'm feeling better now because I can see where this is going. I tell her yes because when she gets to heaven she'll have no tummy aches. So she can have all the candy her little heart desires. At least that's what I'm hoping for myself :0) I let her know that she can have candy here too and she doesn't need to go on to the sweet by and by for some Airheads. That resolved it! She now wants to live!!!

Tea Party!

Josie and I went to Polly's Pantry for a tea party with the Gaskin's girls. I'm pretty sure it was Kelly's idea. I think there were 15 of us there. Josie was very excited about the "Mommy & Josie" day. She's all about her some quality time. We spent 2 hours there and she was absolutely wonderful!

She ordered hot chocolate. It came in this little porcelain teapot. Josie got to pour some cold milk in all by herself to help cool it off. She thought she was so grown!

Josie Ryann and Taylor Rae! Josie is crazy about this girl!


Mommy & Josie!

She just stared at this dollhouse for a very long time. They even opened it for her later.

Look at that ice cream....along with that big ole happy grin!!

Nana, Josie & Me!


See this gentleman's shirt? Josie saw this and was like, Oh Mommy! His shirt it b-eauty-ful! We need to get that for Daddy! He didn't mind that I took his picture to show Joey.

Here's our girls! It's the only picture I have. Nana's got her eyes closed, but she still looks pretty! :)
Josie felt just like a princess. Mrs. Polly even gave the girls princess lessons. They got little gifts. Josie received a lollipop (blue one her fav) and some fru fru hair bows. We'll have to go again.

Is there such a thing as too much Taylor Swift?

Josie and Jake love some Taylor Swift. I must admit I like her, too. It's a good thing because Josie's got the Fearless CD and the child knows almost the entire album by heart. No joke. She has her own little way of singing it like "You be da prince and I'll be da princess. It's a lub story, baby just say yes!" I'm smitten with those 4 year old words that are turning into big girl words too fast for me to handle. Yesterday, she whipped out her doll that sings "Teardrops on my Guitar." Her Aunt Annette came down to visit and bought her that one and the "Our Song" one. Oh, and a Snow White doll, too. We can't leave out a princess! Anyway, I'm glad I had the camera right there so you can see how much they enjoy Taylor Swift. I'm laughing in it because Jake's so darn cute.

Kindermusik Recital!

Jake and Josie have done Kindermusik for the past two semesters. They've thoroughly enjoyed doing it. This spring we did Fiddle De Dee. There were all kinds of crazy songs in there. Luke and Laney were with us this time. The kids loved having them some twins time. Here are a few pictures from the recital this past Saturday.

See Josie's face in this one. She's shouting out to Bazoo Bazoo Butz. It's a donkey song and we're going hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw hee-haw hee-haw in our big voices! Man they were hilarious. The two beside us were focusing on playing the resonator bars.

This is some egg shakin goin on here. The kids made some good friends. They were with most of the same kids from the last semester. Such sweet bonds were formed.

Jakey was getting down in this shot. I'm sad it's over. They'll miss it next time.

After the recital we had lunch at Mickey D's, took Jake home for a nap, and headed to Ocala for the movie UP! Jake's never been to the movies, so we were a little nervous about taking him. To our surprise he was a dream boat. His sister, the old pro, did just fine. She didn't like it quite as much as the Hannah Montana movie, but the popcorn and candy were big hits. Jake just sat there in his booster seat, crossed his ankles, and ate his popcorn the whole time. He would start laughing in some scenes and give me this "I don't like this part look" in other scenes. I asked him if he loved the movie. He said, "Sometimes Jakey likes it, and sometimes Jakey don'ts." We topped the night off with some Chic-fil-a ice dream cones and went home for some much needed rest!

Raindrops, an Airboat, and Bobo!

If you live in Florida you are more than aware of the wonderful rain we've been getting. Back in the day, before kids, I would have probably slept through it all. Now, they'll be NO such thing happening :)

When we were at Mama's the other night I couldn't resist letting the kids play in the rain. They were so stinkin cute. Jake loves the puddles. No surprise there.



It looks like he's squatting to pee in this one. Yeah right! He simply won't potty train even if it means getting to pee outside. Maybe one day we'll be past the diaper phase :)



Josie refused to remove the hair bow or barrette. She insisted she have her hair that way. It looked hilarious even before the rains came. But she told me she looked beautiful and she did and that's what counts! There were pants on her when we started, but she got too cold to keep them on. She certainly looks warmer now. :)

The rain slowed down so good ole Angie got the hose out. Some of you reading this live close enough by that you probably heard the yelling.

Then comes Bobo pulling up with his airboat in tow. Oh you guys there are way too many "you might be a red neck jokes involved in this visit." And I mean that with the utmost respect. I dearly love my big brother. The kids are crazy about him. I need to find the picture from Christmas when he and Josie were comparing tattoos. His aren't washable though! Brett fired the engine up on his airboat and Jake started screaming with delight. He kept saying, "Bobo turn on dat washing machine." I'm like yeah buddy that's a washing machine on the back of the boat! Ha!

FOUND IT! Here's the tat shot!

Then he cleaned up real nice for another visit the next day. We very very very rarely get to see him, so it was really nice to have his company two days in a row!

Yeah, that's my kid in her p-jammers. It's one of the simple pleasures of being home. She would wear them all day everyday if I let her. Of course there'd have to be some princess costume intermissions off and on throughout the day. I just let her because in a few short months she'll be a big girl going to preschool (for real this time). It's amazing how quickly time goes by.

I thought she looked pretty here. She's forever posing for me. In this particular one she grabbed the basketball net and was like, "Hey take a picture of me. This is such a good one Mommy."

They looked too sweet not to put this one in. I love these children and this life. Their sweet little faces make it all worth it at the end of the day! Ummm, ummm, ummm!!

Your Son!

Yes, YOUR SON, as my husband so affectionately called "our sweet little innocent "Jake last week. Your son equals when our child makes a poor choice he becomes Mommy's. My son equals when our child makes a good choice he belongs to Daddy. Let me use these in a sentence. My son cuddled up with me in the bed and gave me the sweetest sugars this morning. The flip side is where this post comes in. JEANNE, LOOK WHAT YOUR SON DID!!!!!!!


First of all, how could this face be the face of a little boy who could do such a thing? For real?


Well, it is the face of such mischievousness...... This is where Saint Joey is using major tone-age with me. Joey is so spirit controlled it's enough to make this loose lipped woman lose it! He rarely gets upset. Can you believe he's actually telling me to put the camera down ( in his meanest voice possible)? Here's the proof that Jake really is MY son. Do you see the permanent marker all over his legs? Oh my!!!

He didn't stop there. Here's some Sharpie on Saint Joey's console......

......and seat.....

......on the outside of his truck.....

........on the headrest......

As we tried to clean up we kept finding places where MY son Jakey had been. There was marker on the seat belt clip, the floor mats, the passenger side door. Alot, alot, alot as Jake says. Oh man, what a mess! So after googling "how to get permanent marker out of skin, upholstery, vinyl, outside of vehicle" and then some. I stumbled on to the items below.

Spray sunscreen was the big winner! It got almost all of the marker off Jake's legs!

Hairspray was a close 2nd removing Sharpie off the door.

The baby wipes did absolutely nothing for us! Folex, as suggested by Aunt Krista, got most of the marker out of the upholstery. We tried toothpaste and hairspray on the dash, inside door, and console, but to no avail. Google isn't Gospel! Before I googled I tried Magic Eraser. That stuff does everything, right? Yeah, including taking the finish off Saint Joey's interior...oops! Turned out spray sunscreen saved the day on that one, too! So what if his finish is a little dull. It's better than black from permanent marker.

I hope you're wondering what I wondered out loud to my very irate husband! What on earth were YOU doing while Jake had the time to do what he was doing? Believe it or not, he was right beside him laying sod. He was just a few feet away. Joey said he had that moment. The one where you say to yourself, "Uh-oh, Jake's been quiet for some time now!" Then the feeling of panic hits and you realize.......that your wife's son has just made a very poor choice, to say the least!!! He always says, "I sowry mommy!"



Tell me, honestly, could you really be upset with this face?