Living Vicariously

Uncle Clark is a volunteer firefighter.  That means he is REALLY cool.  Especially in the eyes of his nephew, who got to try on some of his gear today.

Camden's been sick, but he seems to be on the mend...finally. How do I know? Because he's getting a little of that old spunky attitude back, that's how.

He was mad at me because I wouldn't let him go play until he finished his lunch, so he said, "You used to be nice but now you're mean!" When I wasn't sufficiently chastened by that one, he added, "If you don't stop being mean, I'm not gonna...well, I'll still like you...but..." And when he couldn't think of what he would do, his last attempt was, "uhhhhh!" And then he climbed in my lap, gave me a huge, wet, snotty kiss (yeah, I'm just waiting for this bug to get me) and then ate his mac-n-cheese.

Tonight he put himself to bed at 5:15. Yes, that's right. Ten minutes before I took the pizza out of the oven. The pizza he begged me to make for him. The pizza I started making in the middle of the afternoon so it would be ready when he needed his dinner. Yeah, that one. I guess it's cold pizza for breakfast tomorrow!

Nothing To Write About

I feel like I've been neglecting the blog.  But really, there's been nothing "blog-worthy" going on.  I guess I need to up our excitement factor around here.  Oh, my excuse: Camden is sick.  But don't worry, he's still cute.

Since I really have nothing to write about, I thought I'd share some random facts about me.  I know your all on the edge of your seats for this one!

1.I love to move. After about a year in one place, no matter how much I love it there and how many great friends I've made, I start itching to move on. Civilian life has proven to be a big adjustment for me.

2.I am deathly afraid of dragonflies. I swear I was attacked by one on vacation as a kid. Nobody ever believes me. But I know the truth.

3.I majored in US History. Despite the 500,000 credits I took on subjects such as “battlefield reporters for the Union at the Battle of Gettysburg” and “what animal skeleton pieces were used to build P.T. Barnum's mermaid,” I never actually took a US History survey class. Please don't ask me what year the Revolutionary War began.

4.I remember birthdays. On any given morning, I'l tell Dan who's birthday it is. Usually, it's someone he doesn't even know. More often than not, it's somebody I haven't seen or talked to in years.

5.I love cold peas. The kind that come from a can. When I was in college, my mom would send me Leseur peas and I'd eat them straight out of the can. Now, I've corrupted my kids. They will only eat cold vegetables.

6.I do not like swimming in the ocean because of all the things that live in the ocean that might touch me. I love swimming in a lake. Here's the funny thing – I've never actually been touched by anything while swimming in the ocean. I have been touched by many things while swimming in a lake.

7.I laugh when my kids fall down. I think this has made them tough. Yeah, that's it. (I do comfort them when they get hurt, though, so I'm not totally awful...right?)

8.I know when people are pregnant. I once told a friend I thought a girl was pregnant and found out 3 months later that she was – and had been about 2 weeks along when I noticed it. Having said that, I didn't have a clue when it was me that was prego. 

9.I told a friend that Dan was, “the kind of guy I'm going to marry” after only two dates. At that point, however, I didn't want to commit to one guy...I changed my mind pretty fast after that, and he's been the only one for me ever since!

10.I absolutely adore my children. Aside from my husband, they are my very favorite people in the whole world, and I would be perfectly content to spend every minute with them. Sending them off to school is hard for me. I miss them the entire time.

11.I've known since I was twelve that I belong in New England. I first realized this when I saw a picture of an inn in New Hampshire. It was beautiful and I kept that picture for years. I lived on Cape Cod for a year and found out I was right – I do belong in New England. Someday I'll get back where I belong.

12.I love to watch medical dramas like ER and Grey's Anatomy. They are definitely my guilty pleasure. The problem is that I sometimes become convinced that I must have that rare (and most likely completely made-up) disease that the patient on TV has. Please somebody tell me I'm not the only one who does this!

13.I don't mind doing laundry, but I hate folding and putting away the clothes. The same goes for doing the dishes. I don't mind washing dishes or loading the dishwasher, but I hate emptying it! I think this is because it feels like having to do the same chore twice.

14.I don't remember faces...or names. I will introduce myself to the same person ten times and never remember meeting them before. Really, it's happened more often than I'd like to admit.

15.I used to think my in-laws hated me. Luckily, that was back when I was a teenager, and it turns out they didn't. In fact, they swear they always liked me. It was another kid they didn't like.

16.I love to read, but I have to limit myself. When I read, I forget that I'm a wife and mother and responsible for the feeding, clothing, and general well-being of other people. I will read a book, no matter how long, from cover to cover in one sitting. And so, to ensure that my family is taken care of, I limit my reading.

17.I watched “The Princess Bride” twice a day every day for an entire summer when I was a kid. I can still quote the whole movie. And it's still my favorite.

18.I love the color orange. It's happy and fun. That's why I like it now. But back in high school I chose it because orange wasn't anybody else's favorite color. I felt bad for it.

19.I hate the telephone. It takes everything I have in me to pick up the phone and dial – even my family or best friend! I can talk to anybody about anything – in person – but on the phone I never know what to say and I feel so awkward. So if you're wondering why I never call, just know that it's not you...it's me.

20.I love to watch my boys sleep. They all (including Dan) sleep with their eyes a little bit open. Okay, so that was more about them than me, but 25 is A LOT of things to think up about myself!

21.I have a real problem with raw chicken. I have to wash my hands and disinfect every surface in the kitchen every few minutes when I'm cooking it. That said, I also think whole raw chickens are absolutely adorable. They look just like little baby bodies...without heads.

22.I used to work for a vet. My job was to restrain the animals while the vet examined or treated them. I also fed, walked, and cleaned kenneled animals. My grandmommy called me the doggy janitor. She was right.

23.I once had a dream about a spider that was as big as a toilet. The dream was so vivid that for years I thought it had actually happened.

24.I attract severe weather. Everywhere I go, the natural disasters follow. I've brought hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, and floods. And all to places that don't normally experience that sort of weather. Not before I got there, at least.

25.I am so glad I have sons. I can't even imagine what I'd do with little girls. They are cute and all, and I'm sure dressing them up would be lots of fun, but I'm so glad I'm not going to have to deal with buying bras and talking about periods and stuff.

Valentine's Day

I spent Valentine's Day this year with two of my three favorite men.  I missed my biggest Valentine a ton, but had a wonderful day with the boys.  I received a home-made pop-up card and a beautiful yarn and bead necklace, created by Jake.  I can't wait to show it off at church today! We ate dinner at Pizza Hut (thanks to Granny and Poppy for the gift card!), where they were nice enough to make two personal pan pizzas sans sauce.  And then we went to bed. Pretty exciting, don't you think?

I hope all of your Valentine's Days were spent as happily as mine.  That you received lots of hugs and kisses - I sure did!  And that you had someone special to spend the day with.  Of course, I know nobody else had valentines as cute as mine...

Six

So, I wasn't actually tagged on this one, but since we just moved all our photo files over to the new computer - and I've been having way too much fun looking at all those old pictures - I thought I'd do it anyway.  Humor me.  Thanks.

Here are the rules:

1. go to your my document/my pictures

2. go to your sixth file

3. go to your sixth picture

4. blog about it

5. tag six people (I'm not gonna do that, since I wasn't tagged myself.  But feel free to do it if you want.  It's kinda fun!)

Oh my goodness.  Have you ever seen anything so precious?  Camden, 7 months.  That's all I have to say.

He's Melting My Heart!

Yesterday, Camden brought this painting home from preschool.  Sorry it's backwards.  I'm not scanner-savy, and I couldn't figure out how to get anything but a mirror image with the photobooth thing on this fancy little computer.  But in case you can't read backwards, here's what it says:

"My favorite thing in the world is Daddy and Mommy."

And then today's picture says:

"Planets, sun,moon and Jesus makes me happy."

Oh my goodness.  Could there be anything sweeter?

Shoe Shopping

As many of you may know, Camden has a bit of a tactile issue.  He doesn't like tags in his clothes.  To be honest, he doesn't like to wear clothes at all.  He also doesn't like to feel sticky.  But his most severe tactile issues seem to be with his feet.  If you've been around Camden, you've probably heard him start crying, "tighten!"  He constantly wants us to tighten his shoes.  Then, a few minutes later you'll here, "My foot itches!"  What he really means is, "My foot is asleep."  And we can all see how that might happen, given the fact that his shoes are cutting off all circulation to those cute little toes.  Camden doesn't see the connection.  As was evidenced yesterday on our shoe-shopping expedition.

See, both boys were in desperate need of new sneakers.  So we took a little family outing to the shoe store, where Jake happily chose his first pair of laced sneakers.  Now if he can learn to tie them, I might be as happy as he is.  Camden, on the other hand, was not so happy.  None of the shoes were tight enough.  Know why?  Because they actually fit.  He begged us to get him a smaller size so they would be tighter.  Okay, maybe I'm a really mean mom, but I just couldn't do it.  I kept having images of those Chinese ladies with their bound feet.  Sorry kid, but I'm not going to carry you around for the rest of your life because your shoes were too tight as a child.  Instead, I carried him out of the store because he couldn't walk in the shoes we bought.  The shoes that, I promise, fit perfectly.

Now I'm off to find pictures of those Chinese ladies' bound feet.  Yep, I'm resorting to scare-tactics.