It was that kind of day

I’ll try to keep this short, but it’s likely to be a long one…..
You know the song, “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.”  I totally had that kind of day yesterday.  I bet you want to hear about it, too.  See I have to share it with you, I just have to.
So yesterday I took the boys to school, did my morning volunteering and stopped at my neighbor’s house across the street to pick up some bacon that she bought for me.  Yep my neighbor bought me bacon.  She’s awesome!
While I was there I mentioned that my brakes were acting funny and  her husband comes out and starts checking things out for me and then pronounces them ok, and for that matter my tires are not in as bad shape as I thought. I never even knew he knew so much car stuff and we’ve lived across the street for 2 years!  Awesome right?
Then I have a coffee date with my friend and so I got over there (with chocolate chip croissants, of course) and we have a lovely time. 
Being a stay at home mom with no children at home can be tough sometimes.  Sometimes I have to have coffee with a friend and play tennis on the same day.  Is this getting to be obnoxious?  Yes?  Well just you wait!!
So as we were finishing up she mentions that she is going to have to get to work organizing her laundry room.  Organizing?  Yes, please!  So we go in look at what she needs and head out to the mall.  I use the term mall very loosely.
So we walk into the first store and lo and behold they have exactly what she needs.  All of it.  In one store.  And it was affordable. That NEVER happens here.  I have to get groceries from at least 3 stores and pay through the teeth. 
We run over to another store just to check their selection, but it wasn’t as good as the first, so we head back to the first store.
As we are walking back I realize we are walking by the phone store. The one where I got this little number. I said I wanted to pop in and see if they knew if I had to get a new cell number when I got a new SIM card for my new iPhone.  (Well to be fair it is new to me, not new, new).  After a minute or two the woman comes out with a little SIM card cutter and cuts my old SIM card for me and I am in business, in just a few minutes.  For free!
What?  How could that happen for free and so easy?  That never happens!
So we went back to the first store, grabbed the things we needed and headed back towards our neighborhood.  Along the way we stopped for gas. 
As we finished she tipped the gas pumper guy (we have those here) $2.  That is exactly 100% more than I –and most of the others- tip them.  I was giving her a hard time about making the rest of us look badly when she turned her key and heard click, click.
Dead battery.  She tried a few more times and nothing.  So she gets out of the car and starts walking towards the gas pumper guy.  He is waving her back into her car and I’m am momentarily puzzled.  Until  just then a pick up truck suddenly pulls right up to the front bumper of my friend’s car all ready to give us a jump.  Huh?  We didn’t even have to ask, beg or pay someone to help us.  They just appeared.
We are quickly back on the road and decide lunch is in order.  We have just enough time to grab a nice lunch before picking up our boys from school.  We pull into the parking lot and there is one parking space.  We got it!  We walk into the restaurant and there is one table.  We got it!
We order our lunches and  they came so quickly.  And they were delicious!  As we are eating, I was looking at the men sitting at the table beside me.  They looked awfully familiar.  As we were having a conversation about people you meet by coincidence, I had a realization.  I picked up my new phone and typed my friend a secret message.  I was being very sly, right?  It said, “I think the Prime Minister is sitting beside me.”.  Yep, he was.
As we left we saw his car.  His license plate reads “PM”.  The leader of this country at a hamburger at a Greek restaurant beside me.
We returned to my friends house, had a quick cappuccino, assembled her laundry sorter and headed to pick up the boys.
I’ll skip the part where I have to do homework with Jackson, because there is nothing magical about First Grade readers and spelling words.
I then decided it was a great day for the park.  As the boys are getting ready to go, my neighbor and the mother of Jackson’s good friend calls and says, “I don’t think we are going to the park, why don’t you bring the boys over and we can have a glass of wine.”
Don’t mind if I do!

Halloween 2012

This year we spent Halloween in Orlando, Florida.  Originally I thought it would be great to spend Halloween in Disney World.  As it turns out Disney thinks that over $800 for a family of 4 is an appropriate price for admission. 
Turns out I think that is robbery.  So we skipped the Disney shenanigans and went with plan B.
We went to a Halloween movie, Hotel Transylvania, and the boys loved it.

Then we headed out to trick or treat in Old Town Orlando.  I have to say that it was not quite what I expected but the boys thought it was fantastic.  In my book that makes it a success.
This year Miller really had his heart set on being a Super Hero.  I could have toiled day and night and not done as well as Toys R Us did on the Superman costume.  Luke Skywalker on the other hand…I can make that!!!

Now for what you came here to see!  Luke Skywalker and Superman!

He really got into the Jedi moves!!

Miller was really into trick or treating!

They took off into the stores to begin their trick or treating.
As soon as they got a whiff of the candy, they were on a mission.  They trick or treat like it is their J.O.B.


Until they got to the haunted house.  Stopped in their tracks!
I made them pose in front of the scary decorations.  They did their best to make scared faces in these photos.

The guys stopped for a ride on the teacups.  Mama doesn’t do spinning!

Miller cracked us up. Almost everyone said, “Hello Superman.” To which he responded, “I not Superman, I’m Miller, and I’m 4!” at the loudest volume he could muster. He cracks me up!

Speaking of cracking me up, he now says, “That breaks me.” instead of saying cracks me up.
One family photo and we called it a wrap!

We’re Back!

Saturday we returned back to our island home after 15 days back in the U.S.  Going back to the U.S. is such a treat for us.  The restaurants, and stores seem so amazing to us.  The variety and choices are endless.
Our first stop was S.C. and we packed in a lot of fun into our 5 days there.  The weather was perfect the whole time we were there.  Cool in the mornings and evenings and warming up during the days.  Lovely!  My sister lives way out in the country and the boys love it there.
Riding 4 wheelers was probably the highlight for the boys (and Allen).  They went way too fast for my heart so I had to stay inside for most of their trip. 

I even took them for a few spins around the property.

Being in the country brought out the redneck in us and we did our family photos on the 4 wheeler.

We spent some time in Greenville visiting some parks.
My mom took these great pictures of us in the park.  Thanks Mom!


Love this smile!


This is Miller saying, “I’m 4!”

We met up with some friends and had a fun little playdate.  I love seeing my children with their children.

We don’t have any pictures of our evening bonfires. Many   marshmallows were consumed!

Where are the pictures of my sister with the boys?  Hmmm?  Let me find one!


My sister has two huge dogs and they are the biggest babies ever.  The Great Dane, Sassy, loves Allen because he will love on her endlessly.

He’s not the only one.  My older sister Sharon got some lovin’ too!

The last day we were there we took the boys to Frankie’s Fun Park.  They adored it!  Video games, yes, please!
The boys also got their teeth cleaned and did fantastic!
We loved our time in S.C. and already miss it!  Thanks to our family and friends there who made it such a fantastic time!
Our second stop was visiting Allen’s family in NC.  My camera battery was dead by then, so hopefully I will get some pictures from their camera soon!

Flashback Friday

Ohhhh,  Look at those widdle faces!

Have you seen one?

Did you ever stop to think what a banana tree looks like?  This is the banana tree behind the boys’ school.  I never imagined that bananas would be growing in that direction.

 

How about a pineapple? Pineapples don’t grow on trees, though. That would be silly. They grow on a bush!  This one is near a friend’s house.

This one is near the place we went to ride horses. 

Looks easy enough to grow, right?  Maybe I’ll get ambitious one day soon!