Best Quotes of The Summer!

“Mom, Hunter’s big brother saw my new shoes and called me a baller, What’s a baller”?

I then told him it’s a kid that plays good basketball.  I looked it up on urbandictionary.com and it’s a thug that made it to the big time, I just kept that to myself.

“Mom it would be nice for me, brother and dad if you liked nature”!

This is what my youngest said to me after he brought a dripping dead fish into the house.  And I said get the heck out of my house with that thing.

“Mom why don’t you just go back to bed, we were just fine without you”!

This is what I heard after a refreshing nap, when I woke I came out to a living room from hell, and began to give out chores.

“It’s okay mom everyone makes mistakes”

I was given this tidbit after I spilled a bowl if sudsy water while I was on my hands and knees scrubbing out stains in the living room rug.  It did make me feel warm and fuzzy, and that kid got a hug.

“I’m gonna kill em”!

This was said many times by me this summer, I mostly used it as a cry for help!  Husband quickly stepped in and assisted each and every time!

“So when will you be home? I don’t know it matters how drunk I get”.

This wasn’t a quote from anyone in my household but from a favorite movie of mine Overboard.  It made me laugh so darn hard.

“As far as I’m concerned this is my park”!

Yeah, so I said it. And yes it was to 5 kids.  We live across the street from a park and I am… “The Park Nazi”.  My husband hasn’t taken my binoculars yet, but has put a stop to me going over there without his permission.

“Yep, she’s still alive… but she looks so dead there are flies around her”

Our oldest cat basking in the sun in 100 degree heat, this statement was uttered many times by each family member, but only twice did she actually have flies around her.  See post – I used to love cats really.

“My wiener is tingling"

No comment

“He doesn’t need to put on suntan lotion he’s already toasted”

This said by my nephew about my son.

Welcome to the Clubhouse!

The fourth of July for our families is kind of a big deal.  We get together twice a year, Christmas and The fourth of July!  My husband and I are both from the same town in Nebraska, where both of our parents still reside. 
So this year on my side of the family it was me, John boy, and the boys, my parents and my niece and nephew.  My niece and nephew just love my boys, and vice versa.  My oldest is into the tweens, so he spent a lot of time with the aunts & uncles.  But my youngest just loved being around the two younger kiddos, and finally being the oldest.  They did everything together they went to the ballpark together to catch a game, and buy candy.  They had a ball at the pool together playing and buying candy.  But the most memorable thing the three of them did together, will be talked about for the rest of their lives.

They made a clubhouse.  It sounds so cute and simple.  One of the kids announced we're going to eat our lunch in the clubhouse, my mom and I were like oh great and Grandma went out to give them lunch and they had put a tiny table and chairs in my moms lilac bushes.  Grandma brought out a table cloth and they were set! The next day they wanted to eat out there again, we thought nothing of it, how darling are cousins working together to create a "Special" clubhouse!

Later that night my dad and I were out on the patio visiting and my mom was inside making dinner, the evenings had been so beautiful no mosquito's or flies so we all ate dinners out on the patio. From what I recall dinner wasn't quite ready yet, and my mom went back to the clubhouse to look in on the kids - now mind you my dad and I were out in the same back yard.  When she came back she was furious!! I was thinking what could they possibly have done, I didn't think anything of it, maybe they were feeding her dogs?  She came back out of the house with wal-mart sacks and paper towels. I went inside and my dad went out to assist in getting after the kids for whatever they'd done.  I came back out and she said your dad's going to hose it down, whatever you do don't let him do that, Garden club is coming next week for a garden tour. I was confused and went back to check it out.
OMG!
Well earlier I went back to take pictures of the kids and their clubhouse and gave them Popsicles.

Had I only asked for a tour, then they would have taken me to the next room, which was oh yeah! the bathroom! The bathroom they'd been using for the last 2 days, length of time measured simply by the amount of output.

Yep, that is the toilet! Can you see the toilet paper?

In the toilet there was of course a drain hole. 

As for the number 2, they did that next to the toilet.

I handled everything from here out being my son was the eldest. I was going to have each child clean up their own waste just as you would after a dog.

This is how the conversation went.

Me to my child:  Did you say this was okay to do?

Son: No

Me to my niece:  Did my son say that this was okay to do?

Niece: No

Me to my nephew: Did my son say that this was okay to do?

Nephew: No

Hmmm....  I didn't think they had this tight of a bond yet.  As far as they knew they were telling the truth, but I know for a fact that my son didn't say Oh don't do that!  It had to be more like a, do you have to go to the bathroom yet? Well you better go.

Me to all:  Does everyone know how to pick up dog poop?

Them: No

Me: Let me show you.

I show them with imaginary doo doo. And set each of them up with paper towels and I held the bag open.

Me to son: go get yours

Son: none of that is mine

Me to Niece:  go get yours

Niece: neither of those are definitely not mine

Nephew: Yep! Those are both definitely mine.

I gave my nephew a huge hug for telling the truth.  And we all went back to the house to announce that all was cleaned up and Grandpa could commence with the hose down.

After we adults stopped laughing, we calmly told the children that this was inapoopriate :)

We also figured out why there weren't any flies on the patio.





I used to like cats. Really.

I have 3 cats and I am ashamed to admit it. One would think that I am a cat person, but far from it!

I’ve always had a cat as a kid there was Frankie, Margo, Petie, Little Al.  So naturally when John boy and I got an apartment together what were we missing… a cat.  I guess the time of year wasn’t right because there were no free cats in the paper, no kittens at the pound to adopt nothing.  But then we did find a lady with cats and she had one left so we went and picked up Jazmin our little bundle of joy, this was 1994 and who knew she would hold the freakin world record for life.

Jazmin 17 yrs old

We always thought Jazmin our perfect little kitten was lonely during the day when we were at work so about a year later we wanted to add a new kitten to our family.  Again there were no kittens anywhere to be found.  We did find a farm family with one kitten left again another girl and we had to drive 45 minutes to get her.  So we did, and that is when Cali joined our union in 1995.

Cali 16 yrs old

Jazmin seemed a little pissy when we brought home Cali, but we thought it was just a phase and she would get over it.  Well she never has gotten over it and has been pissy pants everyday of her life.  Every now and then Jazmin will give us a peek of what she was like when she was an only cat, but it is rare!  When I say pissy pants I mean if you walk by her she growls, if you grab for something near her she will shoot towards you hissing, growling and bite you.

A year after we added Cali, John boy knew of a co-worker at work who’s cat just had kittens and if he didn’t find homes for them he was going to take them to the pound.  So we went over “just to look”.

We looked alright, looked at the cutest little marmalade fur ball I’d ever seen.  Only problem is he was infested with fleas.  If I remember correctly I knew a family that wanted a kitten and I took this cat thinking we will rid it of fleas and give the cat to the family.  If you have ever handpicked fleas out of a kitten you know that is too much work to just turn and give it away.  That is how we acquired Mongo.

Mongo 15 years old, sleeping on my side near my pillow

Together we all lived happily.  Jazmin of course lived pissily. 

Years later it was time for children, as soon as our eldest was born we noticed someone peeing on things.  And one night I got into bed and Mongo climbed up and pee’d right on Johns pillow.  We thought he was saying “get rid of the kid”.  We took him to the vet and he had crystals in his urine blocking his urethra, so it would just release at any given time.  Mongo was about 3 years old and the Dr. could either unblock the urethra for $300 with the chance that it could happen again, or do a sex change operation which she’d never done before so we would get a 50% discount and it would never happen again, but It would still cost $1200.  I wanted to put the cat to sleep.  John boy did not!!  We opted for the $300 un blockage with the agreement that if it happened again we would put him to sleep.  11 years later and it hasn’t happened again.

The cats have always been outdoorsy cats.  They have always caught rodents in the yard and left them at the doorstep for us to see.  One year the cats caught 8 moles, eight!!  Can you imagine the damage to our yard had those cats not killed them.  Birds, bunnies, moles, mice, and their babies.

We have noticed the cats aging in the last few years and changing into their elderly selves.  Jazmin can barley walk she is so slow, yet she still jumps onto the side of the tub every time I bathe, hasn’t missed one of my baths in 17 years.  Cali is still the friendliest cat but has a bit of a stomach issue and every time she eats she pukes.  We have a lot of puke.  Sometimes the dog will eat it as long as it’s not warm and no one is looking at him.  Mongo has a bit of tooth decay but that dosen’t slow him down in the field.  We have a doggie door now and Mongo is the only one who will use it.  He uses it to venture out in the night and feed.  He brings in his finds and puts them in our room so we will see it when we wake in the am.  Most recently he put a mouse in Johns path and when John stepped on it the next morning he thought it was puke, turned the light on and nope mouse.  When he stepped on it, it splatted on the door. Yuck!!

I can’t wait for these cats to pass on.  John won’t let me put them to sleep. He wants them to die of natural causes.  Every time we come home from vacation I think at least one will be dead.  Nope all still alive.  Is their a Dr. Cat’vorkian?  I got a book from the library "The secret life of your cat" by Vicky Halls, in this book it said to have a talk with your cat and let them know it's okay that they pass on.  I sat them all down and very seriously told them it was okay to go be with Jesus.  They all awoke the next morning.

FOR THE RECORD
*I think cats are cute and cuddly and I love people that like cats *

Martha Stewart? Nope, never heard of her.

Let me preface this story by stating a few things:  1. My family is only happy when I serve them meat and potatoes.  I know this, yet, I still try to get one “different” recipe in every couple of weeks.  2. My mother is Italian, what do Italians do? They cook, and my mother happens to be great at it!  Although it has taken a back seat to quilting, her new favorite thing, oh my poor father it’s a good thing he can grill anything on the grill J 3. I have a couple friends with blogs and they post recipes and cutesy pictures of their beautiful food.  Making it look effortless, simply mix this with this, warm it up viola! Ya whatever!

I saw this great recipe I knew my family would love. Hugs and Kisses Pizza Pinwheels I was not interested in making the pinwheels in an x or o, my intention was to place them like cookies on the sheet.

I’m feeling good; kitchen is spotless and ready to be cooked in. I gather all of my ingredients notice hers says crescent sheet, oopsy daisy – I have crescent rolls but will just flatten them out and squish the seams.Long story short this is what it was supposed to look like prior to baking. 

                                              

And here is what I ended up with

I didn’t cry about it, nope! I popped it into the oven as is.

This is the end result; notice I added a little cheese and pepperoni to the top for presentation.



Now I have tried it and it’s not bad, it tastes just like a crescent roll with pizza stuff in it. Now tonight when I try to pass this off as dinner I will get these comments. “What is it” -“it’s really dry” – “ehh, can I have a bowl of cereal”

Young Guns

The boys ran into a little financial trouble and called Grandpa for some "petty cash".  So they received it in the mail today and had to go shopping TODAY!  After only 20 minutes, they both decided on air soft guns.  Don't judge me.  Here is a tidbit I learned.. you do need parental permission to purchase an air gun at Wal-Mart, good to know. 
While I was checking out the lady before us was smiling at the boys and I asked her "ya think they'll shoot their eyes out?"  She said "I got one of those when I was 12 and it will just left a tiny welt."

I called John boy on the ride home to let him know he will be responsible for the gun lecture, his reply "Sweet".

We did allow them to shoot each other, not in the face though.  We do have some rules!  After about an hour of cordial shooting each other, we hear crying in the garage. We look at each other... Is that crying?  Then it subsides. Five minutes later in comes our youngest with tears still on his cheeks, dad dad can you cock this.  We ask are you okay, oh yeah. 

What I know for sure

After a week and a half with no children this is what I know for sure.

1. The house stays plenty cool when doors are kept shut.

2. Mornings can be calm.

3. John boy isn't the one peeing all over the toilet.

4. A person can get sick of dining out.

5. Mongo dislikes the boys. (our cat)

6. Movies just aren't as good when you pay $6 for popcorn.

Just the two of us

After our fun filled vacation we met my parents in Omaha to give them their car back and give them our little boys for a week and a half. 
Whenever this time of year rolls around, for the boys to go to McCook for a week or so, I always get a little anxious.  They are getting older, so are my parents, McCook is so small will they find enough to do, will the boys have enough fun that they will want to leave friends and do it again next year.  Hell yeah!
I mean Grandma put colored streaks in their hair today.  Grandpa has been feeding them the best steaks and ribs teaching them how to grill it as well.  They've made their own pizzas, done some planting, gone to Cody Go Carts, went to John's parents house and helped them with a garage sale and played with cousins.
So it's just John and I ... together... alone.... all alone with no kids... no reprimanding... nothing... quiet... just the two of us. It gives us a peek into the not so far away future when the boys are grown and leave the nest.  I have always said that when the boys are gone I will never cook, we will eat out every night.  Well for the last 5 days we have ate out for dinner and we're already sick of it! John boy said last night, "I'm sick of the process-waiting for a table-waiting for the food-yadda yadda yadda.  Not to mention our bodies can't handle it. I have to say we have been able to laugh a lot!  I think I forgot how much fun we have together. Its also fun to talk about how far we have come in our lives and how much we love our family and home. And some of the difficult times that once we got through made us even stronger. Enough lovey dovey.
This was John's obsession yesterday

it was so darn hot and muggy I just sat inside and watched TV, read, and napped.  I did grill him a nice big fat steak, potato and corn on the cob for dinner!
Our poor dog is so sad, he really misses the boys look at him

He might be enjoying the quiet.
I haven't bought milk in a week and we usually require 4 gallons, I haven't bought paper towels and we are usually at least a 2 roll minimum per week.