Fear of the Mama

Just the other day my friend and I were talking about how kids today don't fear their parents, and how much harder it is to parent under those circumstances. Do I sound old or what? "kids today"
Anyway this afternoon while I was mowing the grass, Sophia came running out to tell me that Logann was making a mess in the kitchen. Normally a mess is toys everywhere, or some spilled juice. No big deal!
Today's mess however was a different story. i came in the house to find 2 bags of rice dumped all over the kitchen floor! According to the girls, the 25 My Little Ponies they have needed some food! Didn't look like those ponies were too fond of brown and jasmine rice though because it managed to get everywhere, in every crevice of the kitchen. I personally think the girls were throwing it at each other and the ponies had nothing to do with it. What would possess them to get out the rice?
At some point the guilt set in with Sophia and she came to get me as well as tattle on Logann, and herself! She's smart like that.
Lets just say the rice proved it, I have it, that fear! I didn't think I did but 5 lbs of scattered rice all over the floor was a great test. I didn't even have to lose my temper. It was all about the look, that sent my two little girls running away shaking. A long time out, countless "I'm sorry's", and some sweeping and I was over it.
I'm feeling quite confident now in my parenting abilities. fear of the mama is a good thing.

Eyeballs

"Mom look I found my pink eyeballs" - Logann.
I think this will be a blackmail picture for the future. I remember a similar picture my mom took of me and my brother at this age wearing my grandparents big glasses. Gotta love the way Logann is sporting the buddha belly too.

myrtle

my dad and fam came to visit us for the week. we lucked out immensely and are staying at a friend's ocean front condo in myrtle beach for the next 4 nights. everyone is having a great time . today it was sunny and 75, a great beach day! the girls are loving it! the ocean is freezing but fortunately there are lots of ocean puddles for the girls to play in. after seeing the guy next to us catch a sand shark i'm not sure the girls will ever go into the ocean again. that was pretty wild!

Color

Neutral this house is not! I'm a color freak this time round. My dad came to visit last Sun. and I put him straight to work helping me paint my kitchen, den, dining rm, living rm and Logann's room. He was so much help, taught me some new painting tricks and the job looks so professional. Thanks Dad!

Here's my kitchen color, "Copper Mine", I love it! All my colors are earth tone-ish. I am sorta getting my ideas from this and other metal artwork I recently bought. I'm not sure this is going to show the color well but its basically chocolate browns, greens and gold/oranges. In our living room we have a stone fireplace that has all the same colors muted, so it came together perfect.

When I finish with all my decorating projects(almost there) I'll post pics of all my colorful rooms

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Look close and you'll see John's new 52" plasma or is it a LCD TV don't ask me? A TV is a TV. It does have a nice picture though I guess I can get use to it.

Cary Road Race

last Sat the girls and John ran the Cary Road Race. John ran the 5K and the girls the 1 mile(well they were suppose to). It was a great family race around a really beautiful section of Cary. I was in charge of photos, cheering, and babysitting Willie, Sophia's class pet. During the kids race I urged Sophia on running alongside her and eventually carrying her piggy back to the finish. She is quite the runner with her long skinny legs and perfect stride already. Definitely has more Hook blood in her.

Logann started the race with John and fell twice within 50yds. We tried really hard not to laugh but I have to admit it was funny and so typical of Clutszy Lo! After two skinned knees and some tears, she bowed out of the race. Our friend's 7 year old daughter Celia up above, completed the 5K as well, pretty impressive! It was a fun morning!

Caterpillar hunting

The girls had their buddy Nolan over for a playdate the other day. On our way to the neighborhood playground we ran into loads of caterpillars on the sidewalk. The kids had so much fun playing and collecting the "fuzzy guys" on sticks. Something I never did as a kid because I am not and never was crazy about bugs or creepy crawly fuzzy things. Yuck!

I let Sophia and Nolan take one home as a pet. Logann apparently takes after me and wanted nothing to do with taking one home. We made a house for Sophia's in tupperware with holes for breathing. Dinner consisted of lettuce and carrots, standard caterpillar diet Sophia thought. Before dark I convinced her to release him to his parents who were surely looking frantically for him. I must admit the caterpillar made an easy pet for the day, definitely easier than the poodle, hamster, rat, or baby brother she's been asking for.

Brandon

Last week I had to volunteer at Logann's preschool. I was anxious to meet all the kids since she doesn't say too much about school, well except for Brandon "her boyfriend". He was so sweet, came right up to me and sat on my lap during music time. Looks like she has good taste, I think he could pass for her brother.

Hard Knock Life

is sophia ready for broadway or what? : ) i taped annie for them and they're hooked on it.

new friends

we finally have met some of our new neighbors. we've been hanging out with one family lately. they came over last night for dinner. fellow new yorkers, go figure. they're a lot of fun, and best of all they have a 4 yr old daughter too. i think she's even more of a girlie girl than my two. they just love isabella. you never know after our last neighborhood but i have a feeling they will become good friends.

Summer Vacation

Camping has never been my idea of vacationing! I do love some aspects of the outdoors, sitting by the fire, drinking, making smores, etc. Swimming in a lake, mosquitos/bugs, tents, and no running water is not what I call fun!
Needless to say John has talked me into a week long vacation in the Adirondacks this July. Of course its not really camping though as we are renting a cottage on White Lake, but...its still the woods, in a cottagey lake place. I prefer ocean front hotels and sandy beaches, going out to dinner not diners but... : ) I'm comprising this year though. Last summer Sophia and John went to NY for a week and she has continued to talk about the lake and camping since then. So I'm sure it'll be fun!
Summer vacations for us will always revolve around the Boilermaker (15K race in Utica) which both John and I are racing this year, and the track schedule (Saratoga horse racing). Therefore we'll be in NY July 12-19 and Aug 10th-17.
Hope some of you outdoorsy people can come up to visit us at our "camp". We have plenty of extra beds. Its only 15 miles from Old Forge and Water Safari. It would be fun to get a big group to go up.

DVR

don't get me wrong i love and couldn't live without our 2 DVRs. but i can't quite make sophia understand that not every tv in the house has it. this morning she was watching little bear or something while eating her breakfast. when the commercial came on she demanded i "fast forward"!!!
kids today are too damn spoiled. and too hyper about all this technology.

Good Luck Chuck

very rarely do i watch movies these days, but over Easter we rented this one. I can't remember the last time i laughed as hard.it was hysterical, definitely worth the rental! watch it if you haven't already.

death

So a little while ago we were hanging out in the garage since it is so nice out. I stood there for a few mins. contemplating whether I really wanted to unpack all the boxes or not. Then I came to my senses and decided it would be a great weekend job for John.
While we were out there a bird flew into the front of our house and landed in this little crawl space hole thingy below our porch. (hard to explain,sorry.)anyway the bird was still alive but had a broken wing or something as it was struggling to get out of this hole. Sympathizing for the poor thing I took one of the kids shovels and lifted it out all while fending off Jack who thought he was going to make a nice little lunch out of the bird. Putting him down in the mulch I hoped he'd be able to fly away but he couldn't.
The girls then decided he must be hungry and needed energy to fly home so they ran in to get him some bread. He was opening his mouth like he wanted to eat, they were all excited, but we later learned why! After hitting him on the head with a few pieces of bread the girls and i watched him tip over take some huge gasps of air and DIE! The girls were very confused, screaming "oh no now his legs are broken, he's tipped over". Just as the bird died the guy fixing my dishwasher came out of the house and looked at the bird and said "that thing's a goner girls." Thanks dishwasher dude!
Sophia freaked a little and Logann just continued to shoot bread at him even though I tried to explain he wouldn't be eating it. They then wanted to bury the bird so the bugs wouldn't get at him. I was able to talk them into just leaving him and covering him with a coffee can. I'll let daddy do the digging or dumping of the bird Chester tonight. (Sophia named him before he died! Rest in peace litte Chester)

The Life

For the moment.....i am living the life. According to the Weather Channel.com its 71 degrees, sunny skies, slight breeze. Its gorgeous out! I'm hanging out on my screened in deck relaxing(something I need to do more of). I've got peace and quiet for the moment because the girls decided they'd rather play inside! AGAIN! yes they still hate to be outside. its either too hot, too cold, or in today's case i have no idea what it is. but right now i don't really care because its just me and the dog and its nice!
too bad i can't have a glass of wine to add to my relaxed mood.
day 3
its been harder than i thought.

Jack and his favorite girls

beautiful weather

we were spoiled with beautiful weather easter weekend. gave us a chance to enjoy our big front porch and screened-in deck. easter was the coolest day only in the upper 60s but the girls insisted on wearing the dresses grammy had bought them. no frilly easter dresses over here!!

best lookin bunny

easter

we had a family tradition every year when I was a kid, my mom would hide our easter baskets and provide us with clues that eventually led to the basket. this year i decided to start the tradition with S and L. i explained that the easter bunny brought the basket but instructed mommy to hide the basket with clues. the girls really enjoyed hunting for their basket - following the clues left in the eggs around the house. according to my mom though i was suppose to make sure all the clues rhymed!! i may need to call in amy for next year. rhyming is not my thing.

the girls eventually found their basket hidden in the dryer amongst a standard load of laundry left in there for days! laundry is not my thing either!

we had the standard easter ham lunch before john and his friend nathan visiting from charlotte headed out to the ncaa games here in raleigh. my mom and i relaxed all afternoon and polished off some bottles of wine. after sobering up, we headed out to do some shopping only to find every store here closed! what about the jews? bible belt living.

hunting

Sat morning we went to the neighborhood easter egg hunt at our playground. We finally got to meet most of our neighbors. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there are lots of little girls S and L's age. Finally we girls are not the minority! After the last 'hood I'm a little weary of getting to know the neighbors. Think I'll keep my distance for awhile : )