We Have Not Vanished!

We have not vanished off the face of the Earth, just in case you were wondering!

I've been a workin' fool. First I covered a week for one of the girls to go on vacation and then covered last week and this coming week for the other girl who had her gall bladder taken out emergently.

The boys will be done with school on Thursday of this week. They are pretty darn excited and I'll admit too that I'm ready for a homework break!

I am looking forward to my girls week in Mexico that's coming up right around the corner! After all this working stuff, I'm really going to cherish my time away!

So, most likely, until mid June ****gasp****poor bloggy blog will take a nap! We are so crazy busy, the blog probably won't even cross my mind! But I should have some good blog material after all the upcoming excitement!

Happy Mother's Day: Here's Your Paycheck!

I find it so interesting that every year about this time an article or news clip talks about how much a mother should be compensated for in a dollar amount for all of the professions she juggles to make her family run. The article I got these numbers from said that a mom should earn $375,000 per year for all her hard work.

Here's how they broke it down:

Childcare - $13,000 ( X 3 please!)
Recreation Worker - $15,000 (That would be about right!)
Chef - $40,000 (I'd feel guilty to take that much so go ahead and cut that one in half!)
Food Service Worker - $20,000 (dishwasher, server....I'll take it!)
Meal Planning, Dietitian - $41,600 (ya, no good at this one either, take all but a 1/3 of that one away)
Housekeeper - $9,000 ( I'm pretty sure I deserve WAY more than this!)
Nurse - $35,000 (What? Nurses make way more than 35K!)
Management Analyst - $41,000 (delete!)
Family Financier - $44,000 (does it mean because I pay the bills, I earn this?)
Investment Manager - $39,000 (investments? In what, love? who has extra money to invest-besides retirement?)
Psychologist - $29,000 (I do believe I have some experience in child psychology)
General Office Clerk - $19,000 (that'll do)
Social Worker - $30,000 (that's a little on the high side)

So after the negotiation, I'll be willing to take less than the recommended yearly salary of a mother. How does $244,000 sound? Oh, and I would like a week of sick time and 4 weeks of paid vacation too! Deal? Deal!

How much are you worth?

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, mother-in-law, Grandma, Aunts, Cousins, and girlfriends! I hope you are all spoiled rotten on Our Day!

Notable Nonsense!

I have lots of little things on my mind to write about so I thought a tidbit post would be best before I forget everything notable!

*Cats DO NOT like to be pushed into the bathtub especially when there's water in it and most especially by a two year old!

*It's getting hot here, I'm going to have to break down and turn the a/c on! suck! We've been lucky and have had a wonderful spring!

*The boys only have 16 days left of school! It's hard to believe that LOB will be going into 3rd grade and DJB into 1st grade in August!

*Overheard in the gameroom on Sunday: DJB to DVB: "What, do you think this is an open invitation to put your train on this track?"

*I hollered at the kids multiple times recently when the cat went missing and I was sure it was because they were leaving the doors open! Then when I knew the doors were all shut, he got out again! He must have been just waiting to escape while the door to the dog kennel was open and he could go through the dog's door! Little poop! I think he wants to leave us!

*Airline ticket prices are ticking me off! Enough said!

*The Deputy that ALMOST gave us tickets for having "illegal" quads on Easter weekend, got shot in the abdomen by an AK47 by a group of 17 illegal immigrants that ambushed him! He lived!

*I'm soooo happy Siobahn got kicked off AI! I couldn't stand her!

*Apparently I am getting old and no longer know the cool lingo/slang! When a neighbor put on FB that her daughter said the new trees the association planned by their fence "were up in their grill", I was confused. I drove by and saw the trees and they were no where near their grill! After admitting I didn't get it, everyone was laughing their butts off like I was an idiot! "Up in your grill" is equivalent to "Up in your face!" You learn something new everyday!

*LOB and DJB think they need their own cell phone! Really? Let me think about it. Um? NO! Crazy!

*Toni, the dog, is going to be three years old next week! Which one of you promised me that she would be well-mannered by now?

*I am getting extremely excited to go on my all-girls trip to Mexico in a couple weeks! Momma needs a break!

*I had heard that it was cool to light a scorpion with a blow torch. We tried it, and it really wasn't cool. It's guts just boiled out it's body! Yuck!

*A friend of mine told me to hang a plastic baggie of water and pennies up to keep flies away! For real! I'm gonna try it the next time I don't want to be bothered by flies!

*That's about all the notables that come to mind at the moment! Toodle looooooooo!

While The Cat Was Away....

...We Mice Played!


The boys took a little train ride at the school's Spring Fling. We certainly donated our share to the fundraiser! Ugh!

DVB and I went to our local outdoor mall and did a little pre-shopping park playing!

On Sunday I was feeling brave so after they all got haircuts, we went to Red Robin for lunch. They were very well behaved and ate all their lunch! Amazing news right there!


DVB doing a little stump sittin! We were waiting for DJB's class to arrive at a local dairy farm for a tour. I had been there when LOB's class went there 2 years ago and thought DVB would enjoy it too!

This is DJB feeding a 25 year old horse a carrot.

DJB hugging a chicken, no a rooster! (right?)

This picture is for Grandpa B! DVB would not get off this tractor!

DVB found some cute little bunnies.

So while GOB was away enjoying his Talladega experience, we kept ourselves busy. We are now anxiously awaiting his arrival and I'll now be checking out for a few days! I wish! Actually, I'll get my girl's time away the first week of June! I just booked the resort last night and I'm counting down the days! Paybacks!

Here I Go Again....

I think I will change my goal of blog posting to once a week since that is all I can seem to find time to do these days! It's making me feel a teeny tiny bit guilty but i don't think I'll lose any sleep over it!

I'm going to a Tid Bit Blog update today...a little of this and that to catch you all up on our exciting lives!

1. NASCAR was fun last weekend. 4 nights and 5 days of being surrounded by Rednecks is about all I can handle! Nothing too exciting happened this go around except for the horror that LOB and I witnessed as our neighbor dropped all his drawers to the ground! Yuck! Nasty! Gross! Scarred for life!

2. DVB is coming along wonderfully, all of a sudden, with potty training! That right there is pretty exciting news!

3. BoBo and Bumpa left today for the summer. They'll be back in August after they travel the USA! You too can travel along by reading their blog www.buzzboboandtheboys.blogspot.com

4. GOB just got back from a work meeting in FL and will be leaving again soon for a fun trip to Talladega! (he's meeting up with Uncle B, Aunt J, and his in-laws) Don't worry, I'll be getting my kid-free all girls vacation the beginning of June!

5. I'm on the lookout for some good airline prices to fly back to MN/IA in July. I'm getting very frustrated with the fluctuating prices! How can an airline change it's prices by $100 in one day?! Anyway, my wonderful job granted me the whole month of July off! So I plan to be on vacation the entire month! We will start in MN and make our way back home via a week camping in the Rockies!

6. DJB and LOB are looking forward to their really long vacation-I can't believe they have one month of school left! We haven't told the MN grandparents that we are planning a trip back there yet (but they'll know now!) The boys are excited to go to the farm! Like CRAZY excited! So be ready up there!

7. Mom and I spent the last few days Spring cleaning. While GOB was gone, we tackled the garage! It's a big feat, believe me! We also dug out tons of baby stuff to get rid of this weekend at our neighborhood garage sale. I'm calling this "The No More Babies Garage Sale!" LOB and DJB think for some reason, that they are entitled to at least 50% of the profits because all the stuff used to be theirs! Hmmmm? I'm not too sure about that logic! They have also priced a few of their prized possessions which they are sure will sell for precisely $75! I'm afraid they may be a little disappointed come Saturday afternoon!

8. Well that's all for now! I'll update sooner if we happen to have any exciting breaking news, otherwise you won't hear from me again until next week! Have a great weekend!

Camp and Quad: It's All We Do These Days!

Sorry, my blog readers! My poor little blog has once again been put on the back burner! Ever since we got our toy hauler and the quads, we spend as much time as we possibly can using them! Therefore, my blog material is the same from every weekend-we don't do anything else these days! But that won't stop me from posting some more pictures from this past weekend that will probably look similar to the last ones! Sorry, but that's all I got!

The boys built a couple model rockets and had a BLAST setting them off! On Sunday, LOB attached a big ugly black beetle to the rocket and sent him to outerspace! We were all amazed that he survived the trip and LOB continued to play with him! Ewww!

Everyone was having a grand ol' time until the Sheriff showed up! Doh! So I have to explain this picture. Brett, a neighbor's son, was getting a ticket for not having plates and registration on his dirt bike. But notice all the kids meticulously lined up under the camper? GOB's quick thinking is what that is all about! He's hiding the 2008 expired plates on the camper! Somehow, I'm still not quite sure how, the rest of us got out of getting tickets. We could have gotten about $1500 in fines because we didn't have the correct permits and other paperwork. GOB made me talk to the PoPo because he wanted the ticket in MY name (in case I had to go to court)! Anyway, I told the Sheriff that we were legitimately working on getting the proper stuff but it's all a process that is not fast! Thank goodness that he believed me! So needless to say, the quads were parked for the rest of the weekend. We sure weren't going to take any more chances because I'm pretty sure the Sheriff wouldn't have given us a second chance!

One of our neighbor's nephew came out with his legal sand rail. I had never ridden in one and let me tell you, it was fun! I should say it was fun until I got splattered with cow poop! Ewwww!

Somehow the Easter bunny knew we were out camping and he delivered a few hundred eggs to the desert!

We hope everyone had a weekend as great as ours was!

Our semi-annual Redneck NASCAR Weekend is coming up next!

There is a New 6 Year Old at Our House!

We have been celebrating DJB's birthday for about 3 days straight! The boy is so confused as to which day was actually his birthday!

On Saturday, we had 2 parties. The first one was with a few of his school buddies.


Here is DJB playing a fun game. I spread M&M's out on a table and the boys had to suck them up to a straw and they had to run them over into a cup. It was pretty funny to watch!

Cake #1.

Opening gifts with the buddies!


This was party #2. We had all our neighbors and family and friends over for a bbq.

I swear it's like pulling teeth to get this kid to smile! At least Cousin Big J smiled!

And this is #3! Yesterday was his actual birthday so I asked him what he wanted for supper and he said a cheeseburger and a banana split! That's easy! I stopped at Sonic on my way home from work and fulfilled his wish!

Happy 6th Birthday, DJB!

Another Great Weekend Spent Camping!

We had another great weekend of desert camping! The weather was perfect! Here are a few pictures of the good times we had!


Cousin Big J and LOB-riding buddies!

Since DVB doesn't have a quad we thought we'd better bring his bike! He can ride that puppy anywhere!

See GOB's new truck? I still haven't written about it yet!

GOB taking me out on my first real spin!

Cousin A and Cousin Big J...

CRAZY Cousin A!

LOB and Cousin S had to make a run back to camp while out on a long ride to get more gas for GOB who ran dry!

Here is BoBo taking her first spin. Why don't you toodle over to her blog so she can tell you all about her first experience!

Monkey see Monkey do!

Here is a family photo!

"Can you hear me now?" That's DJB in the helmet!

Silly Cousin J's! Taking a much needed break-eating fudgesicles!

DJB and Co. spent much of the weekend digging a tunnel to China! At least it kept them busy and kept camp nice and quiet!

DVB doing tricks!

Dirty Bird DVB! Good thing we have a nice warm shower to hose him off with now!

Cousin S giving BoBo a Facebook lesson of picture posting from her cell phone! Cousin S has soooo much patience!

Waiting for the boys to get the fire started! Hurry! It's cold!

After a little Boy Scout lesson, they finally got it going!

Toni stole someone's chair! Anytime someone would get up from their chair, Toni would jump right up into it! She does this all the time. It's funny, though, because she is not allowed to sit on the furniture at home! I guess the ground was too cold for her!

GOB taking DVB on spin on BoBo's Smashed Crashed Banana!

And a good time was had by all....

Up Next: It's Party Time~DJB will soon be turning 6!

Funny and Naughty!

So I really should be embarrassed to share these things with the blog world! But what the heck! I can laugh about them all now!

Here's scene #1: We are eating at Oreganos last week. It's like 8 pm. DVB is so done with sitting still so I let him toodle around the outdoor area as the rest of us finish eating. All of a sudden he walks up to another table and takes one of their chicken wings off their plate! AN ALREADY EATEN CHICKEN WING! I'm not sure, but I probably screamed out loud! The guy who he took the wing from says, "Oh it's ok. It's an already eaten one!" Me thinking: Really, no that's not good! *puke*gag*barf* OMG, what's your medical history? Do you have any communicable diseases? I didn't really ask him but I really wanted to!

Here's scene #2: We met the cousins at a Harlem Globetrotter game last Friday-one day after the chicken wing scene! I was preparing myself the entire day for the prospective behavior Wild Man might try to pull. So the show starts, they have his attention for about, oh, 2 minutes! Then he throws a fit because he wants to play with my iPhone. So to shut him up, I give it to him. Then he runs up and down our isle a few million times. No big deal... At halftime I bought the boys a basketball to share, wrapped in a shopping bag. He throws a fit and wants to hold the ball. Fine! Hold it! Then all of a sudden he bounces the ball of the kid-in-front-of-us's head! *gasp* Why didn't he go to BoBo's for a sleepover? Why oh why did I even for one second think he would actually cooperate? BTW, the game was fun, very entertaining! GOB says we can check it off the list though! What a party pooper!

Here's scene #3: This time it's DJB! The boys are getting dressed for school Tuesday morning. LOB says to me, "Mom, DJB didn't wear underwear to school yesterday!" Me: *coffee spraying out of my mouth* What? How could you possibly not wear underwear?" DJB shaking his head up and down almost proudly: "LOB is right. I just forgot to put them on!" Me: "OMG! You didn't tell your teacher, did you?" DJB: "No." Then I texted GOB and told him I now have to do ass checks in the morning and he proceeds to share the text with his coworkers! *mortified* And how LOB knew was a question I did not ask!

And last but most likely not least for the week: Scene #4: DJB again. As I'm making the boys supper last night, DJB out of nowhere says, "Mom, you know there's a kind of worm that can get in your ear and make you go crazy (as he's waving his hand by his head and nodding his head up and down)!" Me: *beer spraying out of my mouth* "Oh, really? I had no idea!" DJB: "Yep! And I've seen them at the cabin so you better watch out!" WTH? Where on Earth did that come from?

So that's been the laughter causing scenes at our house this week! I tell ya, you never know what to expect from DJB's mouth and I do, however, know what to expect from DVB's behavior! Good times, I tell ya!

Last Weekend's Fun!

I thought I should you all how much fun we had last weekend!

After purchasing the required safety equipment, the boys were going nuts-o crazy-o to ride those new toys! So we packed up the truck and went out to the desert!


Here is DJB on the "Pumpkinator"! I had no idea that they had named their quads. But why wouldn't they when everything else has names like our campers!


This is LOB on "something about green slime" I can't remember the name!

GOB had to take them for a spin first to make sure they were safe.

Of course Monster Man didn't want to be left out of the fun! Surprisingly, he only asked to ride once! Maybe it's because his foot was HOT on his first ride!

Here DVB is telling me his foot is HOT! Oh really, why?

Oh maybe because his foot was resting on one of the HOT pipes! It melted his new Bizz shoes!

Then the boys asked BoBo to take one for a spin! Hilarious!

GOB geared her up!

Notice her riding apparel? Capris and tennis shoes!

Here's LOB and DJB toodling around. This area is designed/approved for off road vehicles. It was actually perfect because we could see them riding around without having to worry too much about other vehicles and obstacles.

After a long stretch of a ride, LOB needed to take a rest!

DJB teased us by poseing like he was going to take a nap on GOB's homemade ramps!

DJB was a little skittish at first when it came to riding his quad. His first spin only lasted about 2 minutes! But his next ride was about 45 minutes and then he really had to take a break!

More resting! We had such beautiful weather to ride in! I wish it could be 75 degrees all year long!

Then Grandpa took Pumpkinator out!

And last of all, we went scouting for a camping spot for the future. Does anyone blame me for not wanting to cross this creek with a brand new truck (whole other blog post) and a 28 foot camper? Thanks, I knew you were on my side. This area was beautiful but was not appropriate for our little inexperienced riders. Hills, corners, and water will have to wait till this Momma is a little more comfy with the riding skills of these miniature ATVers! AND, there was zero, nill, nada, zilch for cell phone service. Not that I can't live without my cell phone, but what if there were an emergency? Just sayin'!