Media Days

I have been making a point to read more lately. It makes me happy, makes me feel more informed, and chills me out (typically before bed.) Lately, I have read some great books. Of course, I read The Help a few months ago which was unbelievable. My goal was to finish it prior to the movie coming out because I can't stand to see a movie THEN read the book. So, finish it I do and then.... I never got a chance to see the movie. I'm now waiting until it comes out on DVD/Infiniti. I know, I know, it was a breathtaking movie. You don't have to tell me.
After I finished The Help I was given a recommendation to read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I went into this read very skeptical. I am more of a chick lit sort of reader. I think a lot at work and don't want to think at home. While Homet reads something like The Life and Times of Genghis Khan, I'm snuggled up with Shopahaulic Takes Manhattan (and loving it. Don't judge.) Anyway, Unbroken is a story about a POW in World War II. I know right? I sound smart now. Told you not to judge. This book was so well written and the story so captivating, I couldn't put it down. After Unbroken was complete, I set my Nook down and allowed Homet to borrow it so he could read the book I had been gushing about for the last week. Well, after longingly staring at my Nook gathering dust on his bedside table, I swiped it back and bought another book. I gave him a solid 5 days and after that, I say "Too bad, so sad." (Poor fella was actually too busy reading up on some financial church literature that he has to teach on in a couple weeks. SUCKA!)
So then I just went into B & N Top 100 feeling all inspired by a "real" book. I kept seeing The Hunger Games pop up. Though it was, again, totally not my style, I bought it anyway. Y'all I REALLY couldn't stop reading. Homet found me reading while....putting on make-up, folding clothes, drying my hair, and even DURING BREAKS IN THE SAINTS GAME (I found myself wishing Payton would take a time-out at non strategic times.) It was quite out of control and I had to stop myself when I got flour all over my Nook while reading and rolling out dough for a pizza. Needless to say, it is a really strange plot but so well written.
Since my post is "Media Days" I feel it necessary to insert at least one other form of media besides books. Last night I got this great idea that, in "celebration" of Halloween, we put E to bed, pop some popcorn, and watch a scary movie. All that we could find was Halloween H2O which is apparently some sequel to the 5 previous Halloweens (is it called a sequel if there's 6?) Anyway, both of us couldn't even remember if we'd seen the first Halloween but we were both certain we hadn't seen 2-5 and feared we might be a bit behind with the info leading up to H2O. We opted for the only other option, The Happening. I'm not a big scary movie watcher. Hell, I'm not really a big movie watcher at all. I despise sitting still and not talking that long. Drives Homet crazy. Anyway, maybe I'm rusty on my movie critiquing but that was one of the worst movies ever. I was confused throughout and not in a really-pay-attention-you'll-figure-it-out-by-the-end-DaVinci-Code sort of confused. It left me scratching my head as the credits rolled. They tried to insert an occasional kiss and couples' dispute but it wasn't even a good love story. One plus was it had Mark Wahlberg and he's just as cute as he ever was (though this might be his first movie where he never lost his shirt:(()

--Please forgive my lack of underlining and quotes as appropriate. For one, I can't remember what's supposed to be in what. For two, I'm too lazy to look it up. Threesies, my almost two year old just woke up and I don't have time.

Yep, we're alive.

Well, hello there, blogging world! It's been a while. I have no excuses other than we've been busy. This blog post will be heavy on the pics since they pretty much sum up our recent life. Happy Halloween from our little boxer...


No, the shiner's not real.

Our little sports lover is gearing up for his second birthday in a couple of weeks. Here's a pic from his birthday photo shoot.


And here's his "Mom are we done yet?" face. He has mastered this quite well in his 23 1/2 months.

And a shout out to our pal, Lala, for E's birthday invites. Love them. Check her out at http://www.pickled-paper.com/. Not only is she fabulous, but she's super quick too.

Mouth of the South

Since our boy got his ear tubes in May, his language skills exploded. He now repeats EVERYthing. It might be the scariest, cutest, funniest, most intriguing trick as of yet. Here are a few gems you might catch if you get to spend a few minutes with our busy body.

Me: Ev, what's today?
E: Game. Day. (He says all compound words as two separate entities like he has to catch his breath between. Pine. Apple. is one of our faves. No Reunion jokes needed here.....)
Me: What do we say on game day?
E: Go Tigews (Tigers.)

You see, I'm a nurse and all about using the correct words for your body parts but when penis started coming out sounding like pieces, I must admit I did like that better. In fact, it came in pretty handy in the store the other day when I was holding him on my hip and he looked at me, scowled, and yelled, "MOMMY, MY PIECES."Sorry, Bud, I'll readjust so I don't squish your "pieces."

Mommy, moowwnn. (Come on)

He also LOVES to pray but mainly for Paw Paw and Gen Gen (my Dad and StepMom.) We haven't figured out yet why they need more prayers than the rest of us but you better believe they get prayed for multiple times a day. We pray before each meal then, as my hubs says, "We have to pray our way through dinner" as E will often stop us, try to hold our hands, and say, "Mommy, Daddy. Pay." and bow his head.

My Beach Baby

We go on a family vacay every year at the end of the summer. We stay around the Seaside area so as to avoid the big crowds. This year has been the funnest so far as Shoog thoroughly enjoyed every minute at the beach. He could have spent the entire time covered (literally covered. Like HEAD TO TOE) in sand and been perfectly content. Here's a progressive tour of our last three years. How time flies...
2009--The pregnant year. I think I was 26 weeks. This was the year that while my family enjoyed a nice glass of vino, I sipped on one of my hub's custom mocktails. There was alot of mocktail drinking this year.

2010--The year with a baby. This was a cool year. Shoog was 10 months old and FINALLY got a tooth (actually two, on the bottom) while we were on vacation. We were starting to think he was going to be toothless the rest of his life. We were thinking about the bright (cheap) side though...after the dentures, no real dentist visits. No dental insurance, no braces! Unless he got gingivitis...or we had to replace the dentures...I bet dentures are expensive...anyhow, he got teeth this year!




2011--The year of the busy toddler. His favorite game ended up being, "Whoa whoa whoa!" As in: Ev's heading straight for the water, who's going to stop him? Then, one of our crew would jump up and cut him off screaming, "Whoa whoa whoa!" He though it was hysterical. Actually, I was driving around today and heard him talking nonstop in the back saying, "Beach, whoa whoa whoa! Birds. Fly away!" Yeah, it was a hit.

Lazy Summer

There is gloriously absolutely nothing going on in our lives right now. We just returned from a family vacay to Florida. We were pleasantly surprised that Ev LOVED the sand and water. He would play with his cousins for HOURS. It was a nice change from last year where he just sat in his baby pool and stared at us as if to say, "What am I supposed to do now?"
I have been off of work for somewhere north of 10 days. I lost count. I go back Wednesday and am probably going to spend the first few hours just trying to remember what to do.
We are almost finished filling up our house. This has been a painfully long process as we moved in sometime in January. However, Homet and I are super picky (and cheap) so it's taken a while to find/purchase the extra furniture we need to fill up this extra space. I'm just grateful to have extra space.
Ev starts MMO next week and I am super fired up. I'm ready to grocery shop in peace and possibly get a pedicure (gasp!)
Last but certainly not least: FOOTBALL STARTS THIS WEEK and while I couldn't give a flying taco about Mississippi State's season, I sure will be glad to see some college football in action! It will be a holiday around our house and we grocery shopped today, planning our meals around what we were going to cook each game night. "Let's see, Thursday's just MS State so maybe burritos and Rotel." "Saturday is LSU so we'll channel our inner fall weather behavior and try beef stew." Speaking of MSU, why do they spell dogs, dawgs? It's not shorter and it just looks silly. Misspellings are the last thing Mississippi needs to bring down our academic image. Drives me crazy. What's so wrong with "Go dogs"?

Too much sugar

I think I've mentioned that I love birthdays. Perhaps it's because of all the sweet things that are guilt-free for a birthday. After all, it'd be rude not to sample the cake and ice cream with the birthday recipient. I'm pretty sure I learned that in an etiquette class once (or perhaps made it up...) Well, my favorite man had a birthday this weekend and that has meant one thing for this house. SWEETS. We have had three birthday cakes (thank goodness we left two at the host's house but we still wound up with one.) Then, he requested that I make brownies and who am I to turn down the birthday boy? Thus, brownies were made...and ice cream bought. In his humble opinion, you can't have brownies without ice cream...and chocolate syrup...and Whip Cream. Who am I to argue? I also made cookies for a friend that needed a happy and was left with about a dozen. If anyone has a sweet tooth, come on over. Our grand birthday total is=one birthday cake, one dozen choc chip cookies, a dish of brownies, and ice cream.

Dear Diabetes and extra 10 pounds, It's been a fun road, was a wonderful birthday, but I'm not so sure it was worth it.

Glass Half Full

Maybe it's the eternal optimist in me but this drives me crazy...

Isolated T-Storms High
92°F
Precip
30%

I mean why does it have this ominous looking storm cloud and lightening for a 30% chance of rain? If I'm doing my math correctly, there's a 70% chance that it will be sunny with a few clouds, no? I think they should bring that little sunshine out from behind that dark cloud a bit and let it peek it's head around more.....perhaps like 70% of the sun should show. Just thought I'd release this pent up pet peeve since Homet is tired of hearing it every night while watching the news. Thank you and have a great weekend. After all, I'm banking on 70% chance of sunshine in my neck o' the woods!