Oh My Darlin'....

Oh my Darlin', Oh my Darrrrrrlin' Clementine...

Kellen loves clementines. He's had one in his lunch every day for the last two weeks (maybe longer). He loves to peel them and has recently discovered that he can even start the peeling himself with my never used Pampered Chef orange peeler. It has been in the drawer for a while (*cough* years) but I had never used it. We (I) don't eat many oranges and when I did start eating clementines, they're so easy to peel that I didn't need a peeler. He likes it though and he's so determined when he uses it.

About all we had time for tonight was dinner and some reading. Someone didn't take a nap today and part of our new rule is that if you don't sleep during nap time (b/c it is REALLY still obviously a necessity), then you go to bed a little earlier. He probably should have been headed that way even earlier based on the dramatics. He was tired...but he'd never admit that...even up until the end where for the 3rd night in a row he fell asleep as soon as he got quiet and with the light still on.

In all of my nerdiness, once K went to bed, I watched FRESH - a documentary on industrial vs sustainable agriculture...the big corporations running the show, the smaller farmers trying to grow things naturally, what is going into our food and how different things are now compared to, say, 50 years ago. In case by some chance you're interested in seeing it, it's available online for free through tomorrow and can be found here: Fresh. (Side note, it's about an hour long) To me it was enlightening...or maybe interesting...and thought provoking (albeit a little on the slow side).  JT would probably use the term 'hippie' but at any rate, regardless of whether I subscribe to the ideas and principles of it (or not), it was still interesting. However, it was clearly written on a bias so I wonder what the response from the other side would be like....

Thrown together

As much as I like having a plan for meals, there are just some days where I don't have it all together and wing it. I sort of had a plan for today, but in all honesty I just didn't feel like going with it. So, as I do sometimes, I improvised. With the help of my trusty assistant, we made what I'm going to call...chicken, bacon, broccoli, cheese thing.

For a sec let me get to one thing that if you don't know about me, you need to know. I am a chicken person; however, I do not do bones, skin, veins, or dark meat. I'm a boneless, skinless, chicken boob eater. Yes, I can admit that...I envision chickens with no feathers or bones or clucks for that matter. Something else I've realized over the last couple of months though is what many of my dear dark meat eaters have been telling me for quite some time - I'm eating the driest part of the bird. Okay, this may be true...but for someone who doesn't do bones (and who has tried the boneless thighs, yuck!) it is hard to get into the dark meat.

In prepping tonight's dinner (meat off of a rotisserie chicken), I found that my trusty assistant was a very valuable tool when it came to deboning the chicken. I forgot to mention that not only do I not like to look at bones or eat off of them, I really do not want to touch them either. Turns out, my trusty assistant had no problem digging right in. ;) If I ever had any doubt (which I really didn't)....he's definitely a keeper!!

(In case you were wondering where Maddie is in our life, her nose can be seen right by Kellen's feet. She has learned that she can get all kinds of surprises...on purpose or by accident...by hanging out near him. I can't blame her for trying...)

He was pretty happy with how dinner turned out. I didn't take a pic of it in the pot because it just was not picture worthy, but it did taste pretty good.

After dinner, we played with horses and bulls. (Gasp! It was not knights in shining armor tonight! He did talk about it though.) He lined up his horses on one side and bulls on the other because the bulls were "not very nice". He also took the daddy horse over to a different part of the carpet because that daddy horse was going to a new barn while the mommy and baby stayed with their friends. This is the second night in a row he mentioned that....

To end the night, we did our normal reading and he fell asleep almost before we were done reading. Ever since he was a baby I've loved watching him fall asleep. Blink...blink...slower blink...slower blink...eyes closed.....zzzzzzzz.  I didn't have the heart to snap a pic or take the chance at waking him up. He looked so peaceful.

Goodnight!

Our day #2

Today was pretty much just a day at home. Kellen was literally in his PJs until almost 4pm. I had sort of planned on doing a few things out of the house today but we hardly ever just stay home and since there was nothing super important on the agenda and Kellen was really liking playing here, I decided that we'd just stay put. (Wish I had made that decision AFTER I did my morning routine...I could have been in my PJs all day too!)

He had so much fun playing with things he hasn't played with recently. One of those things was a little animal attached to a ball.

After that he marched around like a drum major in a parade...with the hat Daddy gave him. He loves the hat! He thought it was pretty neat to pull the band down as a chin strap.

Finally, once we got dressed, we decided to take the walk we'd been planning for most of the day. It was another pretty day (although not as pretty as yesterday) so we needed to get outside. We walked up to his school's parking lot and did some sword fighting (yes,  he takes a sword with him almost everywhere) and then some balancing on a balance beam...although he told me they were really "car waiters". I asked him what that meant. Of course he answered, "Mommy, it is where cars wait, like when you bring me to school. Your car waits here". Well, why didn't I think of that?

After lots of balancing and jumping off the "car waiters", we walked over to the gas station to get a drink. He stopped where the Nativity was during Christmas and noticed there was still some hay left behind. He started exclaiming, "It's WHEAT! Look, I found wheat! We can make our very own flour!" Sometimes his randomness really amazes me and keeps me entertained! :)

^ Can't you just sense the excitement?!

^His "wheat" collection.



As we were about to head home, we heard the train coming. I am not kidding when I say it is amazing that I even got a picture of this "little" train. He was bolting down the tracks like a bat out of....anyway, I have never seen a train move that fast...especially so close to intersections. I'm not even sure the lights had time to start blinking or the little arms had time to come down. He was moving fast. I wouldn't have gotten a pic if I hadn't already had the camera out!

Happy end of the weekend to everyone. It's hard to believe tomorrow is already Monday again...and for the first time in a few weeks I actually am planning to work all 5 days. :/

Our day

I have a lot of thoughts on what to write...but since I'm tired I'm going to go with what's easy tonight. :)

We had a pretty nice Saturday. We started out the day with the usual...K making my coffee while I poured his milk and we watched an episode of Curious George.

Once we got up and moving we headed to New Bern to The Accidental Artist to do a little painting at what K calls "the painting office". Not sure where he got that from.

What we didn't realize was that we would get kind of stuck downtown because the Shriner's parade was today. Since we were there...and sort of stuck...I knew K would like to see the 'little' cars and trucks. He loves watching the Shriners in the different local parades so we watched for a few mins. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture but it was a BEAUTIFUL day today. I don't know the exact temp but it was pretty close to perfect! I cannot believe this is JANUARY!

Of course on the way back to the car we had to stop and talk (and hug) several bears.

We had lunch with Dommie and then headed over to see how Poppo was doing. K got surprised by a popsicle while he was there.

Then we headed over to Dommie and Poppo's house to have some fun outside. We have to enjoy this weather while we can! K had fun walking on my (old) balance beam.

He also did some of his normal 'yard boy' duties.

Of course we did lots of other things too...roped each other with pseudo lassos (the rope holding together a bale of pine straw), checked on Poppo's garden, jumped on the neighbor's trampoline...and then lastly, K had to show is "Angry Bird face". (Not sure why my camera zoomed in so far but it is still a cute picture anyway.)

We ended our trip with the normal ride home. He usually ends up reading something on the way. This time he stuck with the same book the whole way home.

THE Table

So…we have this table. I LOVE the table, I really do. It is a square, high top, two seat table.  We bought it not long after we got married and it was our kitchen/dining table back then. Did it have functionality at one point in our lives? Yes. Does it now? Not so much. The problem is that I love this table so much that I just cannot get rid of it. I REALLY want to use it, but it just doesn’t have a place right now. I’m bound and determined to figure out a way to USE this table in some other way than how it is now.

So for now, here is what it is doing… *sigh*

Yes, it is in the garage...housing various (probably unneeded things that I cannot seem to get rid of as well)...but do take notice that I have covered the table with a blanket so it will not get hurt. :)

I told JT last night that we might just have to find two extra chairs to make it a 4 seat table...so that maybe we'll actually use it!

Waiting...

I have become less and less tolerant of waiting in the last year. I am a pretty patient person about a lot of things, but when it comes to waiting....not so much. The kind of waiting I'm talking about is the time I could be doing something else.

Commercials, for example...I hate them. There is nothing about commercials that I like. Food ones make me hungry, clothes ones make me want to shop, and kids ones are just annoying. :) Thank goodness for DVR!

Today we were house hunting in GA. We spent the day going around to different parts of the town looking at homes. What a daunting task. It's completely different looking for a place to rent vs looking for a place to buy. Completely different. This afternoon we spent a while waiting to hear back from the rental company. Thank goodness for GOOD NEWS!

How about stoplights? I like the idea of stoplights, but I do not like waiting.
How about dr office waiting rooms or standing in line behind a person with a cart full of stuff at Wal-Mart?  I feel like I need to be doing something. If K is with me, I talk to him wherever we may be. If I'm alone, I use my phone. Although I don't actually talk on the phone nearly as much as I used to, I use it for it's other features. I never really cared much for a data plan until after I had one. Wow, I use my phone to look things up all.the.time. Literally. Saturday I was learning the history of South of the Border (b/n NC and SC) We were at Carrabba's last night waiting to order and I looked up tagliarini b/c we didn't know what it was. In case you didn't know (and want to) it's a paper thin ribbon like type of pasta that looks like of like fettuccine. Today I found out how much I really do use my phone...b/c it was not working. It hasn't been working right for the last two days. There were so many times I wanted to look something up and couldn't. I have become pretty attached to my phone. Hopefully tomorrow I can say thank goodness for my phone b/c it better be working!


Is it just me or do we (the general 'we') spend a lot of time waiting?

Sorry folks, K pictures today. I miss him so much but we'll see him soon....and in turn, so will you b/c then I'll have pics!

THAT Game

Have you ever played The Purse Game? I’ve played them at a few different kinds of parties....Tupperware, PC, even a Bachelorette Party. The idea of the game is that rewards are given to the person with the wackiest purse contents...or the most things on a certain list....or sometimes by contents beginning with a certain letter. So, for example, if the game was done by letter and the letter L was called, you’d try to find something in your purse beginning with the letter L. Lipstick is an easy one.

Under normal circumstances, any of these games would not be smart to play with/against me.  I typically have a LOT of random stuff in my purse. This is not just because right now I’m carrying a big purse. Even when I have a small purse, I still carry a lot of stuff....regardless of whether I need it or not.

This topic comes up at work pretty frequently when I can’t find something that I know is in my purse. Typically the item is my keys...sometimes my phone..or lipstick. You’ll notice these are things I use on a daily basis and they should be in the same place all the time, but my life is not that organized. :) I’m lucky to get them in the purse most days.  

So...for your reading pleasure...maybe entertainment value, I have taken a picture of everything that was in my purse while I was cleaning it out tonight. *Gasp! Kelly, yes, I’m cleaning it out!*

Here is the reason you shouldn’t play this game with me under normal circumstances. There were some normal things like lipstick, wallet, phone, pens etc.

The boys underwear is not that surprising for obvious reasons- you never know when you'll need those!

Oh, and fruit snacks (again, not all that surprising for a mom)

The kind of random things that have inhabited my carry on for a while:

Batteries - no idea when they entered

Silver spoon - came from a Christmas party Dec 2009. Edited: whew, no, I think it was '10.

Turkey thermometer - from Thanksgiving 2011

Ear plugs - from K's swimming lessons this summer

Jeweler's Loupe

Game tickets from Gatti-town (in Mississippi) in April 2011

In short, now there are less things living in my purse so if you invited me to this game tomorrow I wouldn't stand a chance.

I wonder how long it'll stay that way...yep, you're right, probably not that long.

As usual, I am posting a pic of the little guy...since I know that's really what's bringing you back. ;)

This may come as a shock....I don’t have a lot to say today. :)

We ordered pizza for dinner and set off a couple of fireworks. That was the excitement of the night.

Why not let K have the spotlight tonight for a minute (like he never has the spotlight, lol)? He grabbed hold of my camera tonight and the following are a few of his pictures.

A little while after that, JT and K were listening to music. K decided to play along with the music (or something like that). He started out playing his ‘stick guitar’ (aka, fiddle/violin), then moved onto playing his ‘stick guitar’ like a real guitar and then changed it up by trying out the bow on his real guitar.

Happy Tuesday. Maybe I'll have more to share tomorrow...

Cause on the 8th day...

I’ve been told that if you’ve never had an addiction you’ll never understand the power something can have over you. I think there is truth in that although I’m not addicted to anything hardcore. I’ve examined my ‘addictions’ several times and have come to the conclusion that I’m not addicted (that’s what all addicts say, right?)...but in all seriousness, I just don’t want to quit. I could, but I just don’t want to! :)

What am I talking about?

There is a song that I used to love. The band who sang it was Cravin’ Melon and friends and I would go to their gigs when they came to a local-ish area. I haven’t thought about this band in so long that naturally (as I do with so many things), I Googled it. (They don’t call me Google Girl for nothing!) I was excited to find they had a website! Then I was disappointed to see that the last tour dates listed were 2009. :/

Yes, this will relate to the addiction thing in a sec, hold tight.

Here are some of the lyrics I love to the song I was talking about:

Certain things in life I like to savor
Watchin' clouds and waitin' on the rain
If you ever question my behavior
Just a taste will make you feel the same now

Don't try to offer me anything
What it comes right down to baby
Don't tempt me; I'm where I wanna be
Cause on the eighth day, God made sweet tea

My not-really-addiction-addiction:

You may find this silly...even I do.  I mean really, who is addicted to tea? Caffeine maybe, but not something as specific as ice cold Big Bo “Legendary” Iced Tea with a red straw from Bojangles (yes, the straw matters - I've tried substituting with other straws). Some come close, but no other sweet tea actually compares to my beloved Bojo sweet tea. I swear to you there were days that I consciously told myself “Do not pull into Bojangles” on the way to work only to find my car heading that direction. My car must have a mind of it’s own. I am not kidding. I kind of compare my feeling of the Big Bo to a crack addict. If I didn’t have it, I found myself really on edge and craving it. If it had been more than a day or two, the first sip was what I imagine someone getting high on anything would feel like...an instant rush and complete relaxation. (Notice I said 'imagine', I have never been high on anything).

Although I have not completely severed my relationship with Bojangles’ sweet tea, I am no longer as attached.....I can go days...and even weeks without it...

....

....

....

but I did Google Bojo locations to see if there would be one in Georgia. ;)

...and I do want to believe that on the 8^th day, God made sweet tea!

For those of you who are really here to see the little man, here is the dentist at work. Yes, we did play "Knights" for a while, but ended the night with him pulling out his doctor kit and pretending to be my dentist.

Surprise!

I have to go back in time a little to portray the full effect of this story.

In November, Mom, Dad and I went to Myrtle Beach for a weekend. During that weekend, we went to Medieval Times. It is a dinner show that involves characters dressing up in 11th century gear and competing in a tournament. The dinner involves no silverware (since back then they did not use it?)  They joust, sword fight, and well, do all sorts of Medieval sports and performances. Kellen knew about knights before the show, but that was when his fascination of knights in shining armor truly began. Ever since, we’ve been ‘playing knights’ pretty much every day. He has wanted to take Daddy there since we left the show.

JT and I talked earlier in the week about taking Kellen again soon. “Soon” turned out to be this weekend. :)

Starting on Wednesday, we told Kellen we had a surprise for him. He thought it was a present so it was a little challenging to try to describe the difference. We told him he would find out what his surprise was on Saturday. Each day we mentioned it and each day he sort of started to get the idea of a surprise and started to get a little excited (at least I think so). On Saturday when he woke up, I told him he needed to pack his suitcase because we would be dropping Maddie off at camp and then we would be in the car for a little while.  He was pretty oblivious on the way down to SC but once we got there he was pretty excited about the hotel by itself (nothing exciting…just that he likes hotels) but he kept talking about his surprise so I think he was getting excited about that too.

We did a little walking around at Broadway, feeding the fish (giant ones just waiting for some food to drop in by the looks of it), making some new friends and looking at a stingray fountain.

Then...(drum roll please)...it was time for the surprise! We still had not told him where we were going. When we pulled into the parking lot, he immediately knew where we were and I caught it on video.

He got a new shield and sword and was pretty excited about his new gear. It’s not that we don’t already have a couple of shields and swords at home but it is nice to have two real sets and now different color sets of flags and crowns. Last time we were rooting for the Yellow Knight so we had yellow flags and crowns and this time we rooted for the Black and White Knight. He liked looking at the ‘real swords’ on the wall, sitting in a King’s chair, and watching the show.

He said one thing about ¾ of the way through the show that made it all so worth it. “This is the best show ever!”

Of course we ended the night at the hotel playing “Knights” and reading about them in the commemorative program.

As soon as we walked in the door tonight at home, we played “Knights” again and as he was going to bed he wanted to read about them again.

Watching Kellen’s excitement through the whole show and getting to see him take it all in was exciting to JT and me. His imagination already runs wild but this sort of brings it to life for him. I’m already excited to go again sometime!

P.S. In case you didn't notice, his shirt has a knight on it and says "future knight in shining armor'. That wasn't planned or anything....kidding. :)

Definitions

Definitions of words or a description of what something is varies by person. Sometimes people will never agree.

The definition of FLIP FLOP as given by The Free Dictionary is “A backless, often foam rubber sandal held to the foot at the big toe by means of a thong.”

You may wonder why I’m writing about flip flops. This topic comes up several times a year at work in relation to our dress code.

What is a flip flop really?

What is the difference between a flip flop and a sandal?  

Is a flip flop simply something that makes a flipping and flopping noise?

Is it because it has a ‘toe thong’?

Is it based on price?

Do flip flops not have heels?

Does it come into play at all on ‘Dress Down Friday’?

It’s obviously subjective based on the people I’ve talked to…but we cannot seem to come up with a true definition. Then when I think I have one, it’s not really a definition; it’s still an opinion of a description. 

I think I know what is appropriate for the workplace, what is not, and what could fall in between. If I think it’s appropriate, I’d wear it. If not, I wouldn’t and if it fell between and I had to think about it, I probably wouldn’t…depending on the day.

I’m attaching some pictures of what I consider flip flops and what I don’t.

My idea of a flip flop....something I would not wear to work:

My idea of a sandal...that I would feel comfortable wearing to work:

But what would this be considered?

I added this just because it's cute...I love flip flops so this would be a cute wine glass holder. I wonder if sometimes the glass is hard to get out because the stem gets stuck in the straps. Maybe it depends on how much wine is consumed. ;)