Spring break

 I love this picture because it's so our dogs.  Vizslas are often referred to as Velcro dogs and that they are.  They just want to "stick" to you all the time and be as close to you as possible.  I just love them and of course I love the boy in the middle of them too.  I spent my spring break juggling work and the boys which really has gotten easier as they've grown - minus the fighting between them.  The boys spent their spring break going to track practice (Jay), spending time with their nana, having friends over and seeing movies, lots of movies. 

 I took Jay and his girlfriend, yes girlfriend, C. to see "God's Not Dead."  Nick and I joined them and we all four LOVED the movie.  It was a very powerful movie. 

 Nick had his buddy, R. over one day.  Unfortunately he came on the day where it rained the entire day.  It didn't seem to bother the boys too much.  They still went outside.

 Nick's new thing these days.  He loves to climb the pine tree.  I will look outside and find he's already 20 feet up in the air.  This kid is fearless.

 And it wouldn't be spring break without mud pictures.  Jay had 3 friends spend the night on the last night of break (and I wasn't even drinking when he asked me if 3 boys could spend the night) and they decided to get muddy - imagine that?  I had four 12 year old boys and my 7 year old got the muddiest. 

The clan.  By this time they all had showers and were clean and onto what was next in their agenda - ice cream!  Let's just say that by tonight this momma will want some peace & quiet!  I do enjoy having these boys in and out of our house.  It's the season of my life right now and will be for the next 10 years.  Although it's crazy 95% of the time I enjoy the laughter and fun of it - at least for 24 hours and then they all need to go home - ha!

Technology Overload

I am raising a middle schooler and with that comes social networking, phones and technology overload.  All those who are raising sweet elementary school age children right now, enjoy it, your time is coming!  Here's the thing with technology and kids, it's yet another full time job and responsibility for parents.  Mike has all of Jay's texts come into his email so we can monitor what is going on.  In addition I'm watching his Instagram account daily and even with all that there is probably a few things here and there that I miss.  I often joke with my mom that it's a good thing she got my sister and I raised in the 80's because I would have been all over this social networking and smart phones when I was a middle schooler.  The best technological advance that happened to me was call waiting!  I even used a word processer in college to type my papers and I'm not that old.  That is just how fast technology has taken off.  As I navigate my way through this season in my life with Jay I do find the humor in it.  Yesterday Jay was home alone for a bit.  I told him he could have two scoops of ice cream.  Later that same day I checked his Instagram and found that he took a picture of myself holding the bucket of ice cream with a headline under the picture that read, "My mom told me I could have two scoops of ice cream but I don't care."  I immediately replied with, "Two Scoops, Jay, I'm watching you."  He shot back with, "I'm just kidding, mom."  Busted, Jay!  The good news is middle schoolers screw up, make dumb decisions and they are all up in everyone's business, there isn't much we as parents should miss.  Gone are the days of whispering sweet nothings over the phone.  Instead those sweet nothings come over texts for everyone to see.  Oh boy!

Animals Galore!

 Several weeks ago Nick's class hamster, Carmel, came to spend the weekend with us.  Nick describes her as fat and feisty and that she is! 

 Last night my mom and sister came out for dinner and Kim brought her dog, Peanut, but as you can see from the picture, Peanut isn't overly thrilled to be snuggling up to my dogs. 

 This picture makes me smile because Lauren and Luke have gotten so much better with my dogs.  My dogs would never hurt a flea but they are high energy and Lauren and Luke did not appreciate how they are always up in their face but they are so doing much better!  I was really proud of Lauren.  She even snuggled up to Copper! 

 My mom and Peanut.  Yes, Peanut always looks like he's trying to get away from something or someone.  LOL!

                                                      My sister - what a great sport she is!

 I have often said that since we got Cole he's been so good for Copper and now I'm not sure what they would do without each other.  They snuggle up together all the time and they play together for hours outside.

And finally, a sure sign that spring is coming (even though it's freezing here today).  The boys broke out their waders today.  Now we just have to hope and pray for warmer weather! 

Tales from TN

 This past weekend I took off with Jenny & her niece, D.A., to pick up Faith & Curtis in TN.  They were spending the week with their grandparents.  This is the second time I've done with Jenny and I call it my therapy!  I don't take my kids.  I go to TN to relax and every year it's mission accomplished!  We hiked with Jenny's dad, Wayne, we laid around like slugs and we ate, boy did we eat!  When Jenny and I got in the car on Sunday to head home, we both admitted we might have indulged a wee bit more than we should have as we felt like garbage!  Green smoothies here I come. 

 I love this girl!  She taught me to play the game "Clue" this trip.  Wayne, Jenny and I also hiked to a cemetery where we found an 11 year old girls plot (Vanny).  Wayne has a hiking book that not only gives you directions for the trails but the stories behind them.  Apparently in the late 1800's a fire was started by feuding families and a firey tree branch fell on Vanny's arm.  During the time that the women were trying to nurse Vanny, in a desperate attempt to save her life a dove flew onto the window and watched Vanny.  For two days that dove remained on her windowsill until she drew her last breath (2 days later).  Very sad story but I love stories like that.  I love the history!  I would have taken a picture of Vanny's grave but the lighting wasn't right. 

We have a saying in TN and it goes, "Only in TN!"  This year Jenny told me about how this summer a family (who lives close to Wayne but it's not his neighbor and he doesn't live in the mountains) had a family reunion and one relative decided to never leave.  After the reunion this person set up a tent in the bed of his pick up truck and lived in it for months or at least until the weather got colder.  Then when winter came he built himself the smallest log cabin you've ever seen.  I'm really kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of it because it's quite clever.  This guy even put a small fridge on his front porch and a small propane tank (that you use for grills) is hooked up so he can get some heat inside his cabin.  This cabin is probably big enough to fit a very small cot in it.  I kid you not, it looks like a small child size play house.  Only in TN can you have a family reunion where the family just doesn't leave but instead sets up shop in a child size log cabin in your back yard! 
Finally I couldn't wrap up this blog without writing about how much I love Jenny!  I have more laughs with her.  She is so good to me.  As soon as we crossed the TN line she cracked open a beer for me (which is legal in TN) - what a friend!  In all seriousness, I'm truly blessed to have her as my friend.  I pray my boys have a friend like I have in Jenny and Mike has in Mike in their lifetime.  Friends like Jenny are truly a gift from God and I'm so very thankful. 

Does he talk?

I have been so busy lately I have really fallen behind on my blogging.  I'll try to step it up this week!  I think it's safe to say Jay is on the down hill for 6th grade.  Thanks to 7 snow days he'll be going to school past Memorial Day (Hallejah) so he still has many, many weeks of 6th grade left.  Sixth grade has been by far his best year he's ever had, educationally and dare I say socially.  Ha!  We've entered the girlfriend phase but I'm well aware it's really not a phase, it's here to stay.  I enjoy Jay when he's got a significant other.  He's a little feisty and is more willing to joke around.  About 2 weeks ago he and C. started "dating."  Yes, believe it or not kids these days still call it dating.  I would have thought they would have evolved to just texting since that's all they do!  Jay asked if I would take he and C. to the movies.  I agreed.  On this particular night I picked C. up.  Her and Jay sat in the back seat together.  I could hear her chatting away and I was thinking to myself...."Ummmm, I like this girl already."  Ha!  Suddenly C. looks up at me and asks, "Amy, does Jay talk a lot at home?"  I replied that Jay really wasn't a talker, he's talks but not a lot, that you really have to wait for it with Jay.  She sighed a sign of relief.  I know Jay's future wife is so far into the future but somehow something tells me he'll need a girl who is outgoing and Yes, chatty.  Someone who can keep him engaged in everyday life, someone who will appreciate his quiet (very quiet) nature and love him for it all at the same time.  Heaven knows I love and appreciate the quiet men in my life!  I married a quiet man and then proceeded to give birth his minion.  I quickly figured out that Mike had a calm and gentle nature which really evens out my not so calm and gentle nature.  I'm just thankful I get the best of both worlds in my house!  

Spring fever...

 The picture above is Nick's artic habitat.  I might have already posted this picture.  I got lazy and didn't check my previous posts.  Nick worked on this habitat in December.  He researched how to make snow himself on the internet.  I was impressed.  The habitats were displayed in the school library for several months.  Nick's next big project is a tree house and a dog house for Cole.  Two big projects for a 7 year old but when Nick sets his mind to something there is no stopping him.

Everyone has spring fever including our dogs.  They played outside all morning and then came in this afternoon, found a place in the sun and slept.  We enjoyed nice weather today but I hear more cold snowy weather is coming again later this week.  Will spring ever arrive?  Ugh!

All for a belly rub

Our new puppy Cole loves his belly being rubbed and it doesn't matter what position he gets himself in, as long as he gets his belly rub!  This puppy makes me laugh! 

Happy Birthday, Nana

The beauty of my family is we accept each other for who we are and we roll with the punches.  This birthday was not what my mom had envisioned which was really my fault and Kim's (somewhat).  I own my part in it.  I'm sorry, mom!  It just proves that you're always a parent.........just about the time you have something envisioned in your head, things don't quite go as planned.  It doesn't matter that I'm almost 40 and Kim is 35 - we still screw up!

I made mom an Italian crème cake which again didn't quite turn out as planned.  I baked it with a white cake mix and should have used a chocolate cake mix. 

                                           Happy 63rd birthday, mom, we sure love you!!!

Nick.....a.k.a Karl Malone

 All of Nick's second grade class were assigned a famous African American character for black history month.  The kids researched their famous person and presented it at a "wax museum" yesterday at the school.  Nick was Karl Malone.  He worked really hard on his speech and poster (behind him).  He read fluently yesterday and did a great job!  I was really proud of him! 

 The story of how and where I got the Utah Jazz jersey is an interesting story in itself.  I made the mistake and ordered the first jersey from Beijing!  Yeah, that jersey hasn't shown up yet.  By Tuesday night I was in panic mode and ordered another jersey - this time from a company within the United States but I had to pay overnight shipping.  Needless to say this jersey ended up costing this momma way too much money.  But this momma was also a desperate one and we all know what desperate momma's are capable of.  Nick was excited about this project and he's had such a hard time in school lately that I didn't want anything to disappoint him, least of all not having the right jersey - something I can actually control!  LOL.