This is Beckham.

Isn't he a cutie-pie?

The wieners were very interested.

So, here's the drama.
I get an IM from Jessica asking to borrow the "Luxury Vehicle", ie, my truck, so she can move the dining room table into her house. "I'm sick of eating on the floor!"
Ok, so no biggie, 2 hours tops.
Then, said daughter sprains her ankle, goes to the ER and is on an air cast for 4 weeks. I help Shannon move the dining set into the duplex at 10 at night.

I had fun with Beckham, though, Jack has this tremendous fear of baby drool.
He acts like it's acid.

I keep telling him, "Be happy you are an only child. And, you wanted a baby brother!"

Having chocolate cake for breakfast is fine so long as it's offset by a banana, right?
Ok, he actually had 2 pieces.
But, he really did have a banana, you can see the blue "Brain Fuel" sticker on his forehead.

Jack's 9th Birthday


"This is the best present Mother Nature could have given me."

Yeah, I'm sure the rest of the state agrees with you. 12 inches of snow is always fun.
By the way, I called Todd when I was out driving in this crap and said, "Thank you for buying my this big tank to drive around. I love my truck."
To which he grunted and said, "Yea, you do. Why are you calling me?"

So, I decided it had been long enough, so I braved Chuck E Cheese.


Awwwwww.


Awwwwwww.

Ok, Patrick looks kinda scary in this picture,
and I just realized he doesn't have his glasses on...
do you suppose they do Lasik on 9 year olds?

We're in JAIL!

Yes, right where you belong....

Need I say more???

Todd was here...and the really funny thing was, he went through about 4 tokens, was on this machine for like 45 minutes, and totally worked up a sweat. Hilarious! Nascar, hahahhahahah...

"It's like High-Def! This is awesome!"


Ok, so that's the volcano cake, though it looks more like a hilly, sickly, tarantula cake. Thanks, Luke, love the spider.

Cake, on fire.

I think one of those "Never-Blow-Out" candles made it in,
because there was one that just didn't want to go out.

Come on, blow them out!

Wait, you aren't spitting on the cake, are you??

My weekend, in pictures.

Ok, really only my Sunday, but I had a wee too much wine on Saturday night, and now Jessica is calling me Anna Nicole and she said I'm never allowed to drink again, which I agree, since wine is way to yummy and they sell my favorite way too cheaply at Sams.

It was an accident. I was working on the yearbook for several hours, then I stood up.

Oops.

Ok, pretend that's me...or maybe Jack..

Yes, I brought Small Boy with me to yoga class on Sunday. He did great! The class is 45 minutes long and he hung on for the whole thing. I was so proud.

(Insert beaming mother here)

I asked him if he would like to go again, and he said he would go with me every Sunday he was home, and then asked if he could have his own yoga mat. So I bought him one, of course, it's orange. I can't believe his favorite color hasn't changed since he was 3. I bought my self a new one, too. It's black. I can't believe my favorite color hasn't changed since I was 13. Go figure.

So work has totally sucked lately. Everyone is on hightened alert and afraid of getting laid off. Most of the underwriters on my team were sent home for the week, and somehow I'm still there. Paychecks are nice. I thank God for small miracles.

Speaking of, it's Lent. I am teaching Sunday School for Lent. Does that count as enough of a sacrifice? I think it should. Plus, I started running again...I have been doing the stairmaster since the treadmills were so full and I started getting shin splints last fall, so the desire to run went to zilch. I'm doing well, I think the weightlifting has helped a lot and I stretch tons afterwards. So far, I don't want to cry every time I move my legs.

I also started swimming once a week. Ok, it's been once so far. But I'm trying to go Wednesday morning at 5:30 if Todd's in town. And to be honest, I feel like the biggest dork EVER. I totally suck at swimming. I'm afraid of my hair turning green so I wear a swim cap, and I need to wear goggles because the chlorine kills my contacts. So here's Amy, splashing around like an idiot trying to do laps, but barely knowing how to swim, with her swim cap, goggles, and feeling way stupid next to the 80 year old women in the other lanes that can swim lap after lap smoothly doing free-style. On the upside, I only crashed into the wall once.

Ok, short post, but I'm boring and spent a lot of the weekend working on the damn yearbook, so I don't have much to tell.

Jack's birthday is at Chuck E Cheese on Sunday, and I plan to be on anti-anxiety meds for it. We are keeping it WAY small and I promised the other parents I wasn't going to make them come with and chaperone... so I told Todd he had to go. I think it's going to be scary. Very scary.

Let's see, other than being worried about the yearbook, being laid off, meltdowns at Chuck E's, and making a total fool out of myself in the swimming pool, life is good. Todd is home so I have someone to fight with, and I can finally touch my head to my knees in a forward fold.

It's the little things, really.

I finished my taxes. Well, my taxes aren't that bad it's that guy I'm married to that makes it so hard.

Should we start with the hard drive he crashed in November with all his invoices on it or the fact that he doesn't keep track of anything? Well, to his credit, I told him to SAVE EVERY RECEIPT!!! And, he listened. He just didn't divide them out and paid cash for a bunch of stuff when I specifically told him, ALL BUSINESS STUFF GOES ON CREDIT CARDS SO WE CAN TRACK THEM!!!

Ick, thank God it's over and we don't have to pay in. I let the IRS borrow plenty, interest free, all year long, so I never have to pay in come April. I just don't think my mental capacity would be able to handle that.

Taxes aside, things are fairly mellow on the home front. None of our printers work, so I can't really do anything that takes printing from home. Jack has tons of homework and never does it when he's at "that one guy's house" so it sucks up a lot of our evenings.

Todd is coming home for a couple weeks (woohoo!) Friday, and I can make him take care of all the stuff that isn't working around the house.

It's like a cesspool sets in when he's gone.

I'm still working out 5 days a week...I see bathing suit season on the horizon...and it's scary. We are going to get season passes to the local water park again for summer. We had a lot of fun there last year, it's close and Jack always seems to find someone he knows to play with! Which means I can lay there and zone out to trashy magazines and work on obtaining skin cancer.

Life is good.

I'm hoping for some down time. I want to work on Zuzu's house, Jack's baby book, and I need a pedicure. My toes are feeling abandoned.

Most importantly, I need retail therapy. I'm going shopping Wednesday for jeans. My favorite pair just lost a big chunk out of a very private area this weekend.

I'm actually really excited. Everything is on clearance right now, and I'm braving Hugedale.

Wish me luck!!

It's a sad, sad day in any Mom's life when her children can wear her clothes.
I think it's worse when it's your 8 year old son...

Yes, that's my sweater. It looks way better on him than me.
Sigh...my baby is growing up!!! Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!

I wish I had some super exciting update...such as winning the lottery, or I cracked the unbreakable code and was hired by the FBI, or even that Jack cleaned the bathroom without complaining, but, alas...none of those things happened.

Jack got out of cleaning because we went to work today and he got caught up on all the homework he missed being out with an ear infection for 2 days last week. I didn't crack any codes, but my bones are about to crack because it's SO EFFING COLD HERE!!!

I also didn't win the lottery. My husband left to go back up North to his job, leaving me home again with Jack and the wieners. On the upside, Jack and I eat a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. It's my favorite, I think. Comfort food, unlike the tuna noodle casserole I used to have as a child and refuse to cook/eat/smell/think of....Ick, warm tuna! (Insert massive gag reflex here) I'd rather have it raw and make sushi! Which, for me, is scary since I usually won't usually touch anything that lives in water.

I think I need retail therapy...maybe shoes...or new jeans...

In this weather...I think I need to go parka shopping. I heard the high today was -3.


Ok, fine...I'll just sit here and dream of strappy sandal weather and pedicures...



Ok, so the Overheard Conversations at my house for the week...

Amy: Ok, the cookies are done. What do you say??

Jack: I will always relish that you will be older, fatter, and die sooner than me. Now give me a cookie.

Amy: (sloppily licking cookies and handing them to said naughty child) Here. I just gave you cooties.

Jack: Whatever, chocolate overcomes all. (Eats cookies and goes back for seconds...)


Amy: Oh. My. God. What have I created?