Score!

We got tickets to Friday night's ball game as a surprise for Luke, who has been working hard in rookie school. I must say, Patrick is getting to be quite a celebrity over there. He was on the big screen two times AGAIN and spent some quality time with his celebrity BFF, Romey the mascot. But we all know that with fame comes embarrassing pictures, and my little guy was not spared, no sir!
Patrick has warmed to the idea of being a catcher on a baseball team. Scratch that. He is totally obsessed with the catcher and spends all the time he is not being The Firefighter in a rousing game of being The Catcher. We all know about his dress-up standards--that they are low to nonexistent--so you should completely understand that wearing his hat backwards with his glove perched on top constitutes being the catcher.

So we had to endure half the game with him looking like this while the cameras loved on him, until it finally got so embarrassing that I was forced to get stern. He was bummed for a while, but as you know--with all the free swag, celebrities never stay sad for long. He scored a free large pizza during the "Scream for the Pizza" section of the game, and then the visiting pitcher rolled a ball over the dugout for him. We had a little conversation that went like this:

Patrick(with glee): Who gave me this ball?

Me: I think it was the pitcher.

P: The catcher?

M: No, the pitcher.

P: You mean the catcher?

M: No, I mean the pitcher.

P: I think it was the catcher!

So it was awesome all in all. We won, his favorite player (besides the catcher) hit a home run, and after the game, we went up to the press box to visit Uncle Jim, who was announcing the game for his radio station. I think Jim was going to put Patrick on the air, but for some reason, Patrick was not cool with that at all...hence the face. But he did get over it in time to give Jim some sage advice: "Watch out for porcupines." As sensible as this little tidbit is, I really wish he would have given us some other kind of warning, like how as soon as we got home, he was going to go all Exorcist on us and spew vomit into all four corners of his room. I'm just saying, THAT would've been a good heads-up. That's all I'm saying.

We *Heart* Firefighters

Lately in this house it's been all firefighters, all the time. But hey, that's cool--whatever keeps my boys happy, right? Here's Patrick decked out in his get-up, ready for action. Go ahead, try to get yourself into an emergency situation...he'll get you out of it faster than you can say "Turnout Gear by Carters Childrenswear"!

Today Luke had to get his picture taken for the department directory, so I hauled the kids over to the fire station to get a few shots with him. You never know how they'll turn out with three boys looking in all different directions and me having to yell "Look at the camera!!" at all three of them, but hopefully we got one good shot and I'll scan it in when they come back. For one of the pictures, Luke had to put on his jacket and helmet and then they smudged soot on his face and sprayed him with some sort of fake perspiration. That was the hotness right there!!! I will definitely post that one, and then Tom will see what all the hype's about!! ;)

After the pictures, Luke walked the boys around the bay and showed Patrick all the different trucks. Ben happily tagged along and got his hands on anything he could. I love this picture below, with Ben driving as Patrick shouts orders. They make a good team...

Classic.

A Grand Slam Night

Last week Luke took Patrick to another ball game and even though he had a ticket for me, I opted to stay home for the evening...so wouldn't you know that would be the night that Patrick steals the show. He got on the outfield big screen twice--once just for being so darn handsome and once for this little number with the mascot:

That's my boy...he climbed up on the dugout and shook his moneymaker for the crowd like nobody's business...and loved every minute of it.

I would have loved to see it, but when you're an almost SAHM, it's only fair to let the hubby have some of the great moments. Luckily, a friend of Luke's uncle Jim was sitting nearby and snapped these pics, so I didn't totally miss out.

The Mighty Beast

If there's one thing Luke has wanted since we moved into his house, it's a riding mower. Poor guy, I empathize with him--because I know it must be hard to cover all that yard with a push mower and have to push it up and down our steep hill--but have you seen the price of those things??? Sorry honey! Not gonna happen!
But last week he got the opportunity to store someone else's mower for a friend of the family that will come pick it up sometime in the summer. He was psyched because that meant he could use it for a few months. I was glad, too...however, I had to laugh when he came home toting this giant piece of machinery circa 1938:

Whatever, it got the job done in half the time (and trimmed back the remains of my daffodils...not on purpose) and Patrick was ecstatic with our new temporary acquisition. But I did tell Luke that he wasn't really going to look right on that thing until it had a white basket with plastic yellow Gerber daisies attached to the handlebars. Time to start scouring eBay, I guess...

Yes, he's a dork, but I love him...a lot.

As Patrick continues his obsession with masks, breathing apparatus and the like, yesterday he dug out my snorkeling stuff that Luke and I took on our honeymoon. Ahhhh, those were the days...those warm, warm waters of the Caribbean...anyways, while we transplanted bushes and performed various other gardening tasks in preparation for spring (which I am told will show up one of these days), my uber-cool son prepared for summer by "scuba-diving" in the "ocean" alongside "sharks".

When he got all the stuff out, we discovered that the strap to my mask had melted in the summer heat (you know, back when we used to have hot days). Undaunted, Patrick ran to his room to get his goggles that came with his Home Depot workbench set. I'm just throwing that in so you all don't think I went snorkeling using a pair of child-sized plastic goggles with no nose guard.

Then it was my turn to try it all on. Unfortunately, we missed snapping a picture of that, but I can tell you that the snorkel was still nice and salty. Luke told me that from now on, whenever I get a taste for the Caribbean, I can just come out to the shed and stuff my snorkel in my mouth, and that ought to take care of that.

"Daddy, you are so cool!"

Today Luke brought home his turnout gear that he will use in his firefighter training. Patrick was of course in heaven. The two of them went through it all piece by piece as Ben and I watched. Patrick enthusiastically tried on everything. He thought the helmet and the mask were the coolest, especially since the mask has a speaker on the side of it so the firefighters can talk to each other and hear what the other is saying more clearly. Patrick knows a lot about turnout gear from watching his firefighting videos, but this speaker was a new development for him, and he very much appreciated it.

After that, Patrick and I both said we wanted to see Luke in full gear, so he gamely put it all on for us. The helmet, mask and boots are his, but this is a used pair of pants and jacket. He will get his own by the time he starts his shifts. I thought Ben would get scared, but he was okay as long as I held him in my lap, though he never took his eyes off Luke for even a second. Patrick helpfully reminded us that "it's not scary--it's a just a friendly firefighter coming to help!" That's the video again.

Egg Hunt 2: Bigger, Better, Colder

Who goes Easter egg hunting like this? I don't know who's crazier, us or Mother Nature. I honestly believe if Jesus had walked out of his tomb all freshly resurrected and the weather was like this, he would have gone right back in and waited for a thaw...or at least gathered his shrouds to bundle up in...

Still, though...Gigi and Sandi put on one heck of an egg hunt. I am not sure we even got them all. Patrick gathered lots and lots of eggs and was especially thrilled to find one with a car in it. Ben found about four eggs with Grandpa's help, but as soon as he discovered what was inside of them, he opted to stop hunting and start munching.

I love this picture of Matthew, taking pause by the good old Blessed Virgin Mary!

This is one for the ages, I think. I've already got it as my wallpaper. It's not too often that we can get the three grandsons together, and even less often that we get a decent picture of all of them. Here we could at least distract them with candy for five seconds! I love it though...it's such a sweet picture, and it will always remind us of Easter 2007--the year the South froze over!

Happy Easter everyone!

We came, we froze, we lost.

As promised, on Thursday night we went to see the old boys of summer--er, I mean dead of winter--and rung in the new season by turning into popsicles while they racked one up in the L-column. There's not much to say except that it was cold (although merely a taste of what's to come this weekend), but as long as you stayed under five or so blankets, it was still fun.

Patrick was sorely disappointed that ice cream didn't come with the deal. He asked everyone but nobody would buy it for him. Ben, being the child genius that he is, thought "Cold weather + religious holiday weekend = It must be Christmas!" And come Sunday, they may well be wearing their Christmas outfits to church, so it wasn't bad thinking on his part.

Today it's off to Gigi's house for more Easter fun--wrapped up in coats and hats of course. Stay warm!

The Egg Hunt (no guns allowed)

Although it might not have been a bad idea to bring one anyway so I could off the mommy who made everyone eat outside in the freezing cold weather so her carpet wouldn't get messed up. Did I mention she's a Chick-fil-A foster parent? She's got nine kids--NINE--and she's worried about her carpeting? Yeah. So here's an idea...if you're going to ask Truett Cathy for deluxe Stainmaster carpeting, why not go ahead and get a steam cleaner too? That way, when you have people over, they won't actually know that you value your carpeting more than their company. But I digress...

Freezing temps aside, the egg hunt was not too bad. Patrick was as enthusiastic as I'd hoped he would be. The whole thing was very short. We basically picked up the eggs, ate on the driveway and then got kicked to the curb. All this in under an hour, which counted as Patrick's school for the day. The rest of the morning, I had to tote him around with me as I tried to get my work done. I'm lucky I have an understanding boss.

I am definitely looking forward to the egg hunt at Gigi's house on Saturday so much more. For one thing, Patrick will be allowed inside should his extremities start turning blue. Tonight however, will be a different story. Not foreseeing this early-April arctic blast, we got tickets to the season opener minor league baseball game. So we're going to go park our butts in some cold plastic chairs and root root root for the home team, and if we survive, I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

A different spin on Easter...

This morning I had some plastic eggs sitting on the counter, waiting to be filled:

Mommy, what're those eggs for?

On Thursday, you're going to have an Easter egg hunt at preschool!

An egg hunt?

Yeah.

Can I take my gun?

Hell, thy name is Alabama Hwy. 68

Yesterday Ben and I drove over to Lake Guntersville, AL to see Luke and Patrick, who have been camping with Luke's parents for the past few days. I was not really looking forward to the drive so much, but now that I have made the trek twice in one day, I can safely say that I'd rather have another child--without an epidural--than drive it again. First of all, Luke told me that it was an hour and a half trip...which is probably true if there's been a nuclear fallout and there are no people or pesky traffic signals and stop signs to slow you down. Also, he failed to tell me that it was a two-lane road FOR THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE TRIP. I don't do well with two-lane roads. I prefer the good old Eisenhower interstate system, which people driving tractors tend to avoid, and where you can leave those people with their trunks dragging the ground and decals of Our Lady of Guadeloupe on their back windshield in a fine trail of asphalt dust. I tell you, I don't know where people from Alabama all learn to drive, but I know they all go to the same place, and I know that they are probably instructed by some half-wit cross-eyed circus monkey. Yes, that sounds about right...the final driving test definitely includes primal screeching and throwing poop at each other. And if you're from Alabama and you're reading this...I'm sorry, but it turns out you suck at driving too.

Anyway, a little over two hours later when even Ben was attempting to stuff his blanket down his throat in an effort to end it all right there, I seriously considered turning around and going home, just so at least I would not have to drive the last twenty minutes twice in one day. But I did want to see Patrick, so I grudgingly pressed on. As it turns out, we had a very nice day, although after making the harrowing trip home, I'm still too weary to go into detail about all the fun. We did all the normal outdoorsy camping stuff. Here are the pictures...see for yourself and enjoy.

Blogger Spring Break

This past week was the boys' spring break, and since as of late the blog has been about as exciting as watching the paint dry, I took my "Blogger's Spring Break", and thoroughly enjoyed it too. I filled my time the old-fashioned way--with a book. And not the normal chick-lit fluff I normally clog my brain with...nope this time it was real, gritty literature called The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It's about "Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy through the horrific invasion of the Taliban." The story itself is fiction, but the events are straight from the history books, and it truly is amazing how little I knew about the place. Afghanistan, even in its glory days, was a completely forgotten country until 9/11 essentially put it back on the map. I don't remember learning anything about it in school. The only world history we ever learned was history that had to do with the western world. I guess now Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle East have become part of that and our children will be studying it. Anyway, I had no idea it was such a modern and cultured place before the conflict began over thirty years ago. What it has become and what we see on the news is all I've ever learned about Afghanistan until now. I'd recommend this book to anyone, but I think Mandy would especially like it.

Anyway, on to the real reason you all read my blog--the kiddies. They have had a fun time together the past few days. Over the weekend, we took them to a friend's pond where the fish are practically trained to bite the line. Patrick was all for it until until he saw the first fish that came up--a catfish--and said he wasn't going to have anything to do with fish that had whiskers. He spent the rest of the time running away when ever anyone got a bite. We did finally get him to pose with one of the bigger ones, but that was it.

Tuesday I took them to a petting zoo which was being showcased by my college's agricultural department. Patrick took a special interest in what was under the cow (yes, Katie--a cow and yes, I thought of you when I snapped the picture), but there were also horses, goats, bunnies and lambs. Ben had the most fun scaring the poor goat to death by screeching and rattling its cage. Ever the good blogger, I patiently snapped pictures instead of removing Ben to spare the poor goat's life...

The rest of the time, we've just been hanging around the house playing outside and watching our favorite shows. It really warms my heart to see the boys playing together the way they do now. They seem to really like each other. Now...how do I make it last???

Happy Spring Break Bloggers!

Pride (In the Name of Love)

I normally prefer to bring a little comic relief into my life by making fun of my family on the blog, but today I have to take a moment to jive. I am unmistakably proud of my husband, who has gone and landed himself a job as a firefighter! And I'm stoked not only because the whole application process is somewhat competitive and he really had to prove himself, both physically and objectively, but also because this is something he has wanted to do for a long time. And I think sometimes when we become adults and have families, it's hard to keep sight of what we really want, and we sometimes forget to chase our dreams. I mean, my dream is to sit here family-free for a year, but doing that at this point in my life would make me sort of a deadbeat prick-type mom, so that'll have to wait...but I digress. Anyway, my point is to say that I'm proud of him for following his dreams, and making the huge effort of going to work every day, followed by school in the evening for twelve hours every week and then coming home to hit the books, and then getting back up the next morning and doing it all over again, without ever complaining.

So here's to Luke, who is my hero and definitely Patrick's hero, and well, Ben just loves his daddy, so he's Ben's hero too. Congrats to you for going after and getting what you want! We love you and we're behind you all the way!!

Flashback: A Dog Grows Up

From bundle of yellow fur...

To bundle of complete neurosis...

Yesterday I sat on the patio watching Savannah and wondering how it had all come to this. She spent much of the afternoon licking the cement and fighting with her shadow, stopping only to wrinkle her forehead in puzzlement when it disappeared. When she caught sight of the light reflected on the side of the house by my camera lens, it was all over. She canceled all other appointments in order to spend the rest of the afternoon with her nose pressed to the siding, waiting with unabashed anticipation for something, anything to happen. Honestly, she used to be so cute and sweet. I don't know at what point exactly that she lost her marbles, but I think it was around the time when we used to torture her by shooting laser pointers all over the house for cheap entertainment. My apologies, girl.

For Katie...

...who always likes new ideas for preschool crafts. Patrick brought this home today and I thought it was a trip. And by trip, I mean look at this dude's face...that's not just any old grass he's growing...

Yes, preschool can be an enlightening experience kids. You can really come out of it with an altered state of mind, if you know what I mean. Haha! I kid of course--I'm not implicating Mrs. Cindy of anything (although with eleven boys in her class, I wouldn't begrudge her a little "medicinal" help to get through the day). She's a great teacher and I thought this project was adorable. As she pointed out to me, you can cut his hair when it gets too long. I just hope I remember to water him.

Post from the Clearance Bin

We went for a walk around the lake last night, which is always an adventure of some sort. Patrick was feeling hammy, it seems. He started out by doing his best wind-up doll impersonation. All he needed was yellow braided pigtails, a dainty frock and two red circles on each cheek and he'd be shelf-ready.

The lake trail is about mile long, give or take a half-mile (that is, I have no idea how long it is, except I know it's too long for a four-year-old, but we're mean parents and we don't care). He always starts out walking, but last night he needed to "take a rest" realllly soon. Don't ask me what's up with the face...he's not my kid. He looks like an old man who's coon dog just let one rip.

Speaking of smells, this was one of the best shots I could get in front of this Bradford Pear. The poor kid pleaded with me: "Mommy let's go, it smells like pee-pee." Well, yes it does...in fact, it smells like something a lot worse, but let's not go there. Just smile so I can take the picture.

A good son smiles through his suffering.

Meet Dylan

This weekend, some friends of Luke's family were in town from Kentucky, and Patrick got to meet his newest buddy, Dylan. Patrick's Pa and Dylan's grandpa have been best friends since childhood, and they each had two sons who grew up hanging out a lot...so naturally, they were very excited about getting a third generation together for some manly fun. The boys did not disappoint. They bonded over Dylan's toys from the movie Cars, which Patrick has never seen but apparently still loves. He's such a people-pleaser.

Dylan's 3rd birthday was just a few days ago, so of course that meant an impromptu birthday party. This is where I came to really like him; see him disdainfully eyeing the cake? He is a kid after my own chocolate-loving heart. Get this--the boy refuses to eat any sweets other than chocolate chip cookies. How great is this? How can I get my own kids to see this point of view? I don't know why it appeals to me so much, but I love it.

Anyway...while Dylan munched on his cookies, everyone else chowed down on cake, and then he opened presents, which mainly consisted of 1) Cars merchandise and 2) Cars merchandise. Oh all right, there was a little Thomas thrown in for good measure. But the boys had a good time playing with it until it was time to leave, at which point Patrick became insanely jealous and decided that if Dylan was going to be able to keep all the good stuff while he left empty-handed, then maybe he didn't like him so much after all. Tough break, kid...it's only nine months till Christmas.

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2007!

Wilson the Imp

Wilson would like for you to think his life is tough...I mean, look at the pathetic expression, the Yoda ears, and for all we know he's hiding mutant paws behind that outdoor fireplace! But don't be fooled by his take on gansta rap, people. This dog hasn't been street-wise in a loooong time. He's got the good life like few other dogs have ever known! So he had to sit in the rain for five minutes today while I tended to the human subjects he's forced to share a house with...we can pity him now, but at 11:00 tonight--trust me--he'll be warm and cozy on my pillow, dreaming about three-legged squirrels and milk bones...

Ben celebrates his 16-month birthday

Another warm day yesterday, so we all headed outside to get really dirty and put more holes in the knees of our pants. Ah, well...what's a mom of two boys to do? It's best to just not fight it and let them become one with the earth. So instead I lounged in the hammock and got some cute shots...

And then it happened...

There are no words to describe the moment, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.