Pumpkin Tales

Kaelin and I spent so much time carving out and decorating pumpkins this year. We had a blast doing it and Kaelin loved turning the battery operated candles on each night.

However....

Our pumpkins did not make it. We had to peacefully lay them to rest (in the trash can) on Tuesday. I came home from work Monday and there were some little bugs swarming all over the pumpkins. By Tuesday afternoon, it was just disgusting. Our pumpkins had completely rotted. (I guess we may have carved them a little early)

So Kaelin was just devastated. She had worked so hard on her poor little rotten pumpkin.

But... Todd saved the day. On Wednesday, Todd bought us both new pumpkins. They are fake (but look real) and the light plugs in rather than runs on batteries.

So, now we have new (fake) pumpkins. Kaelin is happy. And the rotting gourds are off of my porch as well as the nasty little bugs.

At work, someone got the bright idea to have a pumpkin carving contest. We had to bring them on Wednesday and they were judged on Friday. By Friday, they were so stinky. It might not be a tradition that is continued next year.

This is the winning display. I loved this one, except it made me want to get a pack of M&M's out of the vending machine everytime I looked at it.

My office made a snow man. We called it "Is it Christmas break yet?"

This is the other one that I thought was cute. It is a purple people eater. They were playing the song "Purple people eater" beside the display. It was pretty creative.

Life as a cheerleader

Kaelin has been keeping us EXTREMELY busy lately. Her social calendar is full. (This is the reason for not posting more stuff this week).

Last weekend, Kaelin had a birthday party to go to on Saturday. We took Laney with us.

The Cheerleader and Bat Girl were ready to party.

The Cheerleader had partied herself out. She was just about asleep in the swing.

On Wednesday, she had book character day at her school. Of course, Kaelin was a cheerleader. The only problem was, I did not have a book to go along with her character. So I just sent a Fancy Nancy book with her. Fancy Nancy is probably a cheerleader in one of her books, so I just sent it with her.

Kaelin the cheerleader and her friend the fairy along with their pal Buzz Lightyear (I think).

Kaelin was a little upset because I could not be at her book character party. I had mistakenly scheduled a meeting at the same time as her party. But, I made it up to her the next day. I brought her and two of her friends Happy Meals for lunch.

Our final cheerleader outing will be tomorrow night. Kaelin's social calendar even has us busy on Halloween night as well.

Pumpkin Time

Kaelin and I went to the pumpkin patch today. We were searching for the perfect pumpkin, but ended up with 3 perfect pumpkins.

When I was a little girl, pumpkins were orange. I guess in a world so focused on the color of your skin, the pumpkins had to get in on that action as well.

We came home and began decorating our pumpkins. We got two out of the three done. We will finish the other one this weekend (in our free time...ha ha ha).

Of course Kaelin's pumpkin has jewels on it.

I don't know if Kaelin was trying to make a scarier face than the pumpkin, but she looks a little scary.

Ever had a poopie Monday???

I often dread Monday's. I have to get up early, get dressed, go to work, etc. I really like the relaxing weekends (although there is usually nothing relaxing about our weekends).

Yesterday was a true MONDAY. Everything seemed to take longer, require more effort, and result in more frustration.

Over the weekend, Kaelin began getting sick. It was turning into a sinus infection, so I decided to take her to the doctor first thing Monday morning so she could go ahead and get started on antibiotics.

About 2:30 AM Monday morning, Todd and I woke up to a loud BOOM, followed by no electricity. A transformer blew up and as of 8:00 AM, we still had no power. I dressed by candlelight and flashlight. I attempted to put on makeup by candlelight, but once I got into my car, I realized I had made a very lousy attempt at the makeup thing. I had more of a Tammy Faye Baker look going on. So I had to use baby wipes to clean up some of the makeup mess, which ended up taking off most of the makeup anyway. My hair was pulled back in a clip (which clips don't really work with short hair).

At 8:00 AM, I called Kaelin's doctor and they could not get her in until 11:10 AM. So we took my dad to the airport. We went in to my office for a little while so we could wait until her doctor's appointment. We got to the doctor's office at 11:00, but were not able to get into see the doctor until 12:20. We dropped off her prescription at 12:30 and it was finally ready for us to pick up at 2:20PM. Yes... for all of you mathematicians, that is nearly 2 hours just to get some Amoxycillian. We were not waiting for serum from some sacred tree in the rain forest, it was the most common antibiotic prescribed to children. FRUSTRATION.

I ended up taking the entire day off of work and I was really glad I did because it took all day to accomplish small tasks.

The #2 big story of my day occurred on the way back from the airport. This was one of those stories I saved for the dinner table, since Todd just LOVES my dinner conversation. I told the story to him earlier in the day, but I saved it for Aunt Debbie and Uncle Truman until dinner time. They enjoy my gross conversations, in fact, Uncle Truman will usually try to top my gross story with another gross story. This is just part of a diet plan I am working on. If I gross you out bad enough, you will lose your appetite.

On the way back to the airport, Kaelin and I were driving down the highway. We were following a truck with a trailer. On the trailer was a Port-O-Potty. I did not think much about it until I kept getting hit by, what I thought was, mud. I continued driving. I am now having to use the water spray and my windshield wipers to try to get the "mud" off of my windshield. It finally occurred to me (slow on the thinking because it was Monday)... this was not mud... it was coming out of the Port-O-Potty. So, I quickly changed lanes, still using my windshield wipers and the water to try to clean my windshield. I pulled into my office parking lot, got out of my car and it looked as though my car had been paint balled with poop. It was truly the most disgusting thing I think I have endured in quite awhile.

When Kaelin and I came out of the pharmacy, I smelled something that had a sewer smell and the closer we got to my car, the stronger the smell got. Again, me being a little slow on the thinking since it was a Monday, I realize that smell is my car. It was like driving a Port-O-Potty on wheels. Kaelin and I go to the nearest drive-thru car wash because there was NO way I was going to spray, scrub, or come near the fecal material (that belonged to who knows) all over my car. I paid the extra money for the dirty dog car wash. This was suppose to be the mother of all car washes. It was suppose to scrub, spray, wash, re-wash, wax, rinse, and dry my car... all for $10. It did do a good job and 99% of the "mud" look is gone from my car. I am thinking another $10 will get the rest of it cleaned. Because I am just not getting near it until everything is off.

So, that was my Monday. It was just an all around poopie day.

Dancing the night away

Saturday we attended a wedding. Kaelin has been to about 4 weddings, so she knows the drill (and loves it). I don't know who gets more excited about a wedding Kaelin or the bride. I am serious about this being a close race.

I purposefully did not tell Kaelin about the wedding until Saturday morning because I would have been playing wedding all week long if I had broken the news to her earlier. As soon as I told her about the wedding, she ran upstairs to get all of her dress up stuff out. She played dress up and wedding up until the wedding. She had every long dress out as well as a veil. You seriously would have thought it was her wedding from the way she was acting. This must just be something girls are pre-wired about. So, I guess when it is a girls wedding day, it is something you have pretended and rehearsed since nearly birth. At least, this is the way it will be with Kaelin. She is truly obsessed. Todd better watch out.

Kaelin does not refer to the bride as "a bride". She calls her the girl in the beautiful dress that is marrying the handsome boy.

After the ceremony, we went in to the reception room. There were several hundred people in there. Kaelin immediately spotted the dance floor. She ran out there when the music started playing. She was the only one on the dance floor and had no idea that hundreds of people were watching her. She was dancing her heart out. She had every photographer at the wedding snapping shots of her, but she never noticed any of it. It was hilarious. She was in her element... stage... dance floor... music... and a spot light. The only thing that would have made it better was for someone to give Kaelin a microphone. Don't think she would have been too shy to use it. I swear Kaelin does not have a shy bone in her entire body.

Kaelin was obsessed with the bride. She thought of her as a celebrity. It was like have Taylor Swift in the room. Kaelin kept asking me if she could go up and talk to her and if she could give her a hug. Eventually Kaelin was able to talk to the bride and you would have thought she had just won the lottery. After she talked to her, she ran back over to me and told me all about it. She probably dreamed about her conversation with the bride. It was a true celebrity moment for Kaelin.

Let's get this party started.

Okay, I am going to show you some of the moves I learned in my dance class.

Let me show you a little break dancing move my dad taught me.

Eventually, the boys came out to join in on all the fun.

This is Kaelin saying "hey white boy, show me what you've got..."

Hey boys look up at the ceiling, I am not the only star out here tonight.

Pulling my hair out (or Kaelin's)

I will tell you a funny story and then a "not so funny to the parents, but hysterical to everyone else" story.

Funny story...
My uncle teaches (really just plays all day and gets paid) elementary school PE. He had a kindergartner try to tell him a story about his dog. My uncle (on purpose) began scrambling everything up and saying the story wrong, which was really causing the kid some confusion. The kid would start the story and my uncle would say everything backwards and mixed up. The poor kid is probably thinking "you bone head, how many times do I have to repeat myself?" Finally the kid got frustrated because he had tried to tell the story several times and my uncle just kept reversing it. So the kid just pulled at his hair and yelled "AHHH" in frustration. --- Oh how I know how the kid felt.

The not so funny to the parents, but hysterical to everyone else story...

Kaelin has spent several afternoons this week in her room in trouble. She has gotten in trouble at her baby sitter's house a couple of times this week for doing just ridiculous stuff. So, Todd and I always tell Kaelin if she gets in trouble at Tara's house, then she can expect to also get in trouble at home.

First episode (this week)...

Kaelin and Laney were playing in the kitchen and there were some helium balloons left over from Laney's birthday party. The girls kept wanting to play with the balloons but they weren't allowed to play with them in the house because Tara did not want to get them tangled up in the fan. The girls were going to be able to play with them outside, as soon as they were done eating lunch.

This all sounds very logical and very reasonable....right? Evidently not to two little girls.

So, Kaelin and Laney take two balloons when Tara is not looking and they sneak them into the play room. Tara is doing something in the kitchen and finally notices the girls have vanished. She goes into the playroom and what does she find.... two balloons tangled all up in the ceiling fan. Tangled to the point they have to be cut out of the fan. Laney's dad comes in and gets onto them. Laney says something to her dad that was very smart mouthed, so she gets sent to her room. Then Kaelin looked at him and says "You are just being mean" and then she gets sent to another room.

I picked up Kaelin, heard the story, and so Kaelin, of course, got into more trouble when she got home.

Second episode (this week)...

Kaelin and Laney (the dynamic duo) were playing at Tara's house. They went into the kitchen and got some yogurt (chocolate mousse flavored) out of the refrigerator. (Now, they both know they are not suppose to get into the refrigerator by themselves... because of previous episodes a few weeks ago). Tara was on the phone, so she did not see them sneak the yogurt (chocolate mousse flavored) into Laney and Kelly's room (Kelly is Laney's older sister that was at school while this episode played out). The house was very quiet (big sign that something is wrong when there are two little girls in the house). Tara noticed the door to Laney and Kelly's room was closed.

What did she find...

Kaelin and Laney were in the room... with the yogurt (chocolate mousse flavored)... (very bad combination). The girls both had a mouth full of yogurt (chocolate mousse flavored) and had yogurt all over their face. They were behind the door, looking into the mirror. Tara said she about had a heart attack when she saw them. They were making funny faces in the mirror, which entailed chocolate mousse yogurt all over their face, all over the mirror, and upon further inspection... all over the wall.

Sounds funny... not too harmful... a little (a lot) messy... but it does not end here.

The girls (prior to deciding to make funny faces with the yogurt) had crawled into Kelly's bed (who was at school) and had dumped their yogurt (chocolate mousse flavored) all over Kelly's bed--- sheets and bed spread. They had apparently just played with chocolate mousse flavored yogurt all over that bedroom.

Tara was fit to be tied when she saw what these two little girls had managed to accomplish in such a short period of time.

So, I picked up Kaelin, listened to the story, and of course, Kaelin got in more trouble when she got home. I felt like the little kid in my uncle's classroom. I think I may have pulled some of my hair out in frustration, while screaming "AHHHH" and I was definitely thinking something along the lines of "you bone head, how many times do I have to repeat myself?"

Todd and I will probably end up with hoarse voices from all of the talking we have done with Kaelin lately. We have told her that she only has to do a few very simple things and she will stay out of trouble. Those simple things are: do what the grown ups ask you to do, don't do anything they say not to do, and make good choices.

Okay... if everyone followed these simple rules, we would have a smooth sailing world.

Evidently Kaelin has come up with new definitions to these simple rules because she has definitely interpreted "good choices" to include things like yogurt painting and balloon experiments.

I am really expecting a good weekend which will be followed by a good week in Kaelin Land. We are hoping she has gotten all of this craziness out of her system and is ready to get back into the civilized society...

Okay... you can stop laughing because you know I must be on some type of medication to think this is the last of the craziness...

Yes, I did have to get up from typing to go clean up a spilled bowl of cereal that Kaelin was playing in (rather than eating) after I had asked three times for her to put it in the sink if she was not going to eat it.

The craziness has not stopped, eased up, or decreased even slightly.

My hair is thinning from pulling it out on the sides (before long I will probably look like I have some type of mohawk).

Where is Kaelin now... she spent a little time in time out (which did not work)... so she is now spending some time in her room (so she can think about ways to do what grown ups ask you to do, not doing things they ask you not to do, and how to make good choices).

So I am convinced that this is truly the turning point... when she gets out of her room, all of this craziness will be out of her system and she will be ready to get back into the civilized society...

What do you pray for?

Kaelin LOVES to pray. I mean, really loves it. She has been praying at the dinner table for close to two years now. She will sometime "elect" someone else to pray when she is feeling a little off her game. But other than those few times, dinner prayers are for her. In fact, she got upset when our preacher Tommy prayed at a dinner we were at. She looked at me and said "I was suppose to do that." Too cute...

Kaelin has begun saying, what she refers to as "Night Night Prayers". These are quite funny. Kaelin prayers for anything that comes to mind. In fact, sometimes, she even waits for God's response, then laughs about it. So, I know he talks to her and whatever he says makes her giggle. These are some of the things she has prayed for lately. They made me laugh because I usually forget to ask God for the small things, but not Kaelin. She leaves nothing out.

She always prays for anyone that is not feeling well or has some type of injury. She does not forget a thing. It surprises me sometimes about the things she remembers. She is very compassionate and caring (which will play a huge part in our Christmas celebration plan... more details to come).

The other day she asked God to "please let Mommy and me be able to go shopping every month". Can I get an AMEN?

She prayed that her friend Laney would play nice with everyone.

She prayed that no monsters would be at Laney's house.

She prayed that all of the kids in her class would not run around the room after their teacher asked them to sit down. (Good prayer. This one is applicable all the way through high school.)

Last night she prayed that God would make the baby swings at the park bigger for the big kids to play on. (Too funny. I guess this was just on her mind.)

I always say prayers with Kaelin and last night, she reminded me "Mom, you did not pray for me to make good choices." She was right, I had neglected this very important part of my prayer. I guess Kaelin is paying attention. Hopefully she is remembering my prayer every time she is having to make a choice. Anyone that knows me knows that I preach good choices to Kaelin, the dogs, Todd (when he needs it). I am all about good choices, so I thought it was too funny that she picked up on me leaving that out. Hopefully that prayer is being answered and she always makes good choices.

These are just a few of the funny things Kaelin has prayed about lately.

Let's Play Ball

Kaelin had her first tee ball game Monday night.

Now... if you have never had the privilege of watching a group of 3 and 4 year olds play tee ball, I highly recommend it. You will laugh so hard.

Sometimes they hit the ball and run to 3rd base. Sometimes they do run to 1st base but won't let go of the bat. And don't even try to get them out. If you tell them they are out, they just stand there and cry.

Todd is the assistant coach for Kaelin's team. He kind of got roped into it, but I think he is loving as much (if not more) than Kaelin is.

Kaelin's team is the "Green team". Kaelin is not a real big fan of the color green, so the first thing she wanted to know was why we could not be the purple team or maybe the pink team.

Kaelin and Daddy at their first game.

Kaelin is up to bat. (Is that a pink bat, pink batter's helmet, and pink cleats??? Of course... just because she can't be on the "pink team" does not mean we can't dress like it.)

If you are wondering how Kaelin played... she did hit the ball when she got up to bat. She did run to the bases (even the correct bases in the correct order). But... when she was in the outfield with her little friend Laney, they played in the sand, danced, held hands and ran around, and made sure they NEVER touched the ball. In fact, the ball came near them once and they both squealed and ran away from it.

Where did the weekend go?

It has been a busy weekend (but that is nothing new in our house).

Saturday we ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure. This has got to be Kaelin's ALL TIME FAVORITE RACE. I bet you will never guess why. This race is all about the color pink and as you know, so is Kaelin. Her eyes were as wide as saucers. In fact, she was pointing out everyone that was not wearing pink and asking them why they were not wearing pink. It was a truly great race for a great cause and it was all pink.

Pink is sooooooo my color!!!!

Sunday was brutal. I go back to my theory of God having a great sense of humor when he called this the day of rest.

I got up at 5:00 AM to meet some friends for an 11 mile run. Yes, I said 11. Now, if you don't know what the weather was today, then you are lucky. Today was a combination of nasty rain mixed with nasty drizzle topped off with about 200% humidity. So our run involved jumping over mud puddles (occasionally missing, which meant I landed in the middle of the puddle), getting carried away by mosquitoes, and getting rained on the entire time. Sounds fun!!!

After the run that felt more like some type of training for a military operation, I hurried home and got ready for church. Kaelin had already gone to church with Aunt Debbie.

Church was exceptionally good today (in fact, the highlight of the entire day, which is the way it is suppose to be, isn't it?). We had the author of "90 Minutes in Heaven". He was truly inspirational.

After the great sermon, things kind of went downhill fast.

Kaelin and I went to the grocery store (Sunday routine). She was pretty good at the grocery store... sometimes I am not quite so lucky. We left the store, walked into the parking lot where it was still raining. The rain was beginning to come down pretty hard, so I put Kaelin in the car along with my purse. I went ahead and started the car while I put the grocery bags into the trunk of the car. In the meantime, Kaelin decided to go lock all four doors on the car. Then, she even went as far as to buckle herself into her car seat.

So let me recap (before I describe my meltdown in the Kroger's parking lot). Kaelin is in the car... with it running... with all 4 doors locked... buckled into her car seat... with my purse (which contained my cell phone)... and it was pouring rain.

What was I to do?

The only thing I could... bang on the windows... holler like a crazy person... and stand there getting drenched in the rain. This went on for about 10 minutes. Several people came up to help me, but I think I scared them away. Kaelin knew she was about to be in so much trouble. She can buckle herself in her car seat, but can't get it unbuckled. After a lot of hollering and crying (on her part), she managed to wiggle her way out from under the straps in her car seat and come unlock one of the doors.

We did not speak the entire ride home. I was too mad at her and still a little scared of the thoughts going through my head on how I would have solved this crisis if she was not able to get out of her car seat. I looked like a drowned rat. I was wet from head to toe, Kaelin was in the backseat not saying one word. We finally had a discussion on why locking the doors was not a good idea and how dangerous it was.

After getting home and cooking lunch, Kaelin and I finally laid down for a much needed nap. We both slept for about 3 hours. So in the end, Sunday did become a day of rest preceded by a morning of stress.