Karoake Winner

By the way, I forgot to mention that Scott DID sing Karoake. He sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water!" So next time you see him, be sure to ask him about it. And Erica scored the highest points for her song she sang ... the rest of us got the "Needs Improvement" award from this "chip" in the microphone ......

A VACATION IN TAHITA

Well, not really, but the title sounds great, huh? It is Friday night and 10:54pm. I can't sleep. Scott is laying next to me softly snoring. I'm just glad he isn't breathing and then "puffing" like he does sometimes. Of course, I snore like a freight train according to him but that can't be helped. I'm just tired when I go to sleep!! You are wondering about the title ... well, over our Spring Break, we booked three nights at a place called "Tahitian Beach Cove." It is this cute little place on the internet that I found but it isn't in Tahita and it isn't on the beach! It is actually a small lake house in Interlachen, Florida. You might ask yourself where is Interlachen? We wondered as well but we found it east of Gainesville about 25 miles or so and we actually passed up the one red light in the town. So we had to turn around and go back. No joke. We thought when we were going we would get directions to the key for the house but there was no need for that. The owners lived two doors down. His nickname is Bubba and he personally decorated the little lake house in his Tahitian Noni Juice decor; lamps, magnets, awards and all! He is a rep of the company. We met him and his wife in the driveway on their golf cart. They were expecting our arrival. He showed us the place and how to operate all the lights. Even the red light over the towel rack to warm our towels when we got out of the shower! Erica thought it was a dream come true. The dock and lake was beautiful. Bubba gave us plenty of bread to feed the fish. Our first evening, I drove to the one red light and went to the grocery store. I had forgotten what it was like to shop with men half dressed. No shirts and that was pretty weird but the weather was a little warm so well, go figure. Scott heated up the charcoal and we grilled hamburgers and sat outside on the deck picnic table and had dinner and fruit. It was very cool and we enjoyed it. The kids went down and fed the fish and then Scott and the kids did a little fishing. They decided it would be fun to get in the pedal boat with the poles and pedal out farther to catch some fish. Jack was fine until he felt like the boat was sinking on his and Scott's side .... they pedaled back not long after they got out there.
The next morning, we got up, had some breakfast and went down to play in the water. We fished some more and fed them more bread. Bubba woke up and hollered over to see if we wanted to go for a boat ride. He drove his ski boat down to our dock and picked up Scott and the kids. Off they went around the lake a time or two. That wasn't enough fun so they got the tube out. The kids got in and off they went. I don't think they stopped smiling the whole time. When they finished, we watched Bubba pull up his four fish traps he has by his dock. They were full of fresh catfish and brim. He also showed us "death row" where he keeps his fresh fish he has caught in the traps. Fresh fish any time you want it. Why not tonight? We were invited for a fish fry. We went back to the lake house for lunch and chilled for the afternoon. I made a mac n cheese casserole thinking the kids won't eat fish. I could not find a dish the right size so I ended up pouring it into a cast iron skillet and baking it. That was a first for me. We walked down to Bubba's for dinner at 6pm. Bubba was deep frying catfish, gill and brim, chicken strips, green tomatoes and onions. He forgot about the green pepper and corn on the cob in the fridge but we told him it was okay and not to worry about it. He also made his famous "Bubba's Baked Beans" with sausage and his wife, Darlene, made great potato salad. Bubba and Darlene also invited some friends they had met last year. By the end of the first hour, my kids were calling them Uncle Dave and Sarah. Uncle Dave beat Jack in checkers to which Jack had a good cry. No mercy even to the little ones!!! We had a wonderful dinner hanging out and eating until we were stuffed. We watched the sun start to set. Scott and Bubba went down and helped the kids try to fish at dusk but it ended up being to windy. So we ended up inside having dessert. Bubba and Darlene wanted to know if we had time for Karoake. We said we had about 15 minutes which turned into 1 1/2 hours ... my kids could not stop singing or dancing. I can't remember the last time Scott and I laughed until we almost wet our pants ...... it was a surreal moment ... it felt like a National Lampoon Vacation moment! Bubba's 92 year old mom even was in the mix. Bubba makes her fish special --- chops the head off and deep fries it. She ate the tail and all. We walked home in a daze, full and memories we can laugh over for years!!
Tuesday, we had a family day. We went to Alexander Springs and went canoeing. We saw turtles, fish and an otter. When we got back, the kids wanted to swim. So they got in the springs and played and chased crawfish and minnows with cups. We had to convince them to let them go. We had a picnic and headed back toward Interlachen. We thought we better drive through Palatka to see what we could find for dinner. Chili's .. kids said no .... Pizza .... kids said no ... Sonic ... parents said NO Sonic tonight ...... but wait ... like a brilliant yellow glow the kids could see it in the distance. Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! GOLDEN CORRAL! Scott and I looked at eachother with the look of "you've got to be kidding..." We drove back to rest and "anticipate" a full buffet. When the kids got back, they ran to Bubba's to see if he would take them on the boat. Once again, we ended up at the lake zipping around in a tube to which I ended up in. I still can't hold my head up straight and turn my neck to the left!!! I am getting TOO old for this kind of stuff. But we had a great time, checked the traps again with Bubba, fed the fish and returned to shower and get ready for the "Corral." We drove their with the kids singing Achy Breaky Heart which they had learned from the karoake night. We arrived and got our trays. We found a table and about three feet from the table, Spencer's drink fell of the tray and hit the floor. His lid flew off and the Coke went everywhere. He was furious. We turned to Jack and as we did, in slow motion, Scott and I watched his drink slide off the tray and into the floor about two inches from where Spencer's fell. Scott and I looked at eachother and we just busted out laughing. What can you do? NOTHING. So we laughed. Scott almost threw his drink down just for fun but decided not to :) We had the works at Golden Corral ... ice cream with gummi bears and all. We got home and watched American Idol. We were done for the day.
We drove home Wednesday morning .... we were beat. Bubba even checked on us to be sure we got home safely. He said, "Ya'll are like family!" It was probably the most bizarre encounter we have had in a while but yet will be the most memorable vacation for a long time! One of our friends told us yesterday, "only you and Scott would have a vacation like that and end up at someone's house for a fish fry and singing karoake!" YEP .... our kids will have great material to write about one day ... just think ... we might make them famous yet! :) And Bubba and Darlene will not be forgotten anytime soon. Their hospitality, warmth and love for the backwoods of Florida and fishing will be remembered for a long time to come!!

Jack Has It To Easy

According to Erica this morning as we were getting up and ready for school, I was stretching in bed with Erica walked in with a very serious expression on her face. I heard Jack ask her to stop and then he screamed in his shrill voice to stop and I called for Erica. Well, she marched in and said, "I need to ask you a question." I write this and it is like watching myself sometimes!! She has similar expressions and actions and it is quite comical to see yourself done over - if it isn't a sanctification process, I'm not sure what it is... Anyway, she "informed" me that Jack gets off too easy and NEVER gets spanked. I laughed and disagreed and she was quite certain that I needed to understand that I never spank him. He never gets in trouble, I never ground him or punish him and she thinks it is TOTALLY unfair! Now, I'm rubbing my eyes and still trying to get the sleep out...haven't had my coffee...haven't even made it to the bathroom but this is serious. A serious crime in the mind of an eldest child. I explained to Erica that all three of them are different; what she responds to, what Spencer responds to, what Jack does is different! It is our responsibility to discipline in a way that is helpful and it varies for each one. Well, that wasn't good enough. So I hopped out of bed and I said, "Okay, we will do it your way." So Erica follows me to the boy's room and I looked at Jack and said as he is putting his shoes on, "Jack, I need you to get up. I am going to spank you for yelling at Erica. So stand up right now and she would like me to spank you and I need you to get up right now!" TO which Jack immediately starts to cry and be soooo pathetic and crushed. And Erica is leaning against the wall looking on with great compassion and feels horrible! And I said, "Erica, go get the spoon. I need to spank him right now." And she says, "No, no, I'm not going to get the spoon. I don't want you to spank him." We went back and forth for maybe 10 seconds before I let Jack off the hook and explained to him his actions and then apologized to him for having to be a sacrifice for Erica to learn a lesson on discipline. I'm not sure if he got any of it ... he was just glad to know he wasn't getting spanked. And to which it ended with Erica apologizing to Jack, him hugging her and it is what time in the morning and I still have not had my coffee????? I think Erica got it though ..... And look at that little guy on the right in the picture ..... sometimes, he is just too cute to spank :)

"THE HAND"

Spencer is a thumb sucker if you didn't know that which has always been so cute to us. He has this receiving blanket that sometimes gets confused with a "garage rag." Several months ago, we lost "KeeKee." So during that time, Spencer stopped sucking his thumb. It was really sad but we thought, "wow, that ended up being easier than we thought to get him to stop!" Then, months went by and we found him. The other night, I went in before bed to check on the kids and Spencer was sucking his thumb again. So I pulled out the nail biting liquid and talked him into letting me put it on his finger. That night, we heard this gagging and spitting and found Spencer in the bathroom at the sink. In his sleep, he had put his thumb in his mouth and he was NOT happy! The next night, he decided to where his batman glove on his hand which you can see in the picture. It looks kind of scarey, doesn't it?! But apparantly, if you hang your arm over the bed with a glove on it, you won't suck your thumb!!!!

Friday Night FRIGHT!

Angelic, isn't she? Do you ever have those Friday afternoons that you plan out and then it does not even REMOTELY go how you thought it would? Well, that was this past Friday afternoon. It all began when I had an extra little boy over and then Erica invited a friend over as well. In the past, Erica and I have had countless conversations about behavior when friends are over. For some reason, your own children are 10x more hyper and so we talk about this prior to kids arriving. We were having a great time hanging out. The boys were having fun, the girls were quiet and I was making a nice dinner for all of us to have later. Well, Erica wanted to know if she could have one of my bath towels. Only it was too late to be asking. They were painting and decided to "splash" or flick paint on a towel. I decided to not make a big deal out of it and said sure. Just don't get it on the carpet, walls, bed, etc. No problem. HOWEVER, I did NOT say, "hey, don't watercolor paint the dog." Yep, they painted the dog. You are laughing out loud. I WAS NOT laughing out loud and neither was Chip who had a rainbow of colors on his back and red whiskers. So I commanded, yes, commanded her to take him for a walk and then bring him back and give him a bath. They return. No, you cannot put on your suits and get in the tub with him. Simply bath him like I HAVE SHOWN YOU ten times and then blow dry him. Twenty minutes later, I enter THE BOMB. The bathroom looked like a water balloon the size of a hot air balloon had gone off. They were both dripping wet from head to toe in their clothes. Water was everywhere on the floor and carpet. BUBBLES were all over the cabinet, sink, walls, etc. The first thought was, "Am I on candid camera? Are we making a freaking Disney movie here?" Well, I don't remember being so mad that I thought I could cry in a really, really long time. So I calmly looked at her and said clean this up and you are grounded. Now, when did the rules change? That was my only question. I don't know what came over her but needless to say, she is grounded this week. And I simply wrote her a letter for her to read. I figured at this point, I can write and tell her my thoughts without all "MY" emotion and drama and she will hear my points. She read it and didn't say a word. I know in a few days, I will laugh about this and think it was crazy and a few years, I will laugh even more. But in the midst of this, three boys were running and yelling and it was CRAZY!!! Between paint, wet dog, dinner and a husband on steroids right now who is a grump!, it was a Friday Night FRIGHT!!! And Erica's poor friend ....... we can only hope she would want to come back ..... At one point, Scott said "raising kids at this age is NOT fun. We aren't having FUN!!! It was easier when they were in diapers!" All I could think was when they were in diapers, we didn't believe them when they said that was easy, either!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go figure .......... I know God is showing us a lot about ourselves and teaching us patience and endurance. If we don't die while we are raising teenagers, it will be a MIRACLE from the Lord!!!

Olympic Proud

Spencer competed in the same Olympics as Erica. He was very happy with his ribbon. He scored 7th place in the Hurdles. I can only imagine why he won .... a few weeks ago, he got his manner stick pulled by his PE teacher. He was apparantly throwing himself OVER the hurdles and not landing on his feet. If they had a competition on hurdling your body through the air, I think he would have won! Speaking of hurdling bodies through the air, yesterday we went to a friend's 1st birthday party at the park. While we were there, Jack and a few of his friends were over by this area that has this contraption of some sort. You hold onto this handle with your hands and then you pull it back and it will roll slightly down an incline then up and you just hold on and when it stops, you drop to the ground about 2 feet or so. Well, I have done this a gazillion times with Jack at the other park. And what I do is lift him up, he holds on really tight and I sling him and when it hits the end, his body swings out and then his momentum brings him back --- no problem. You know where I'm going, right? This one "seemed" to move faster ... so when I gave him a good push, well, let's just say he got to the other end and instead of coming back, he flew through the air about 6 feet and landed in the mulch in a heap. It wasn't pretty. In fact, I think every one that was witness to it was "impressed" with my skills. So I left the park with him crying and took him to get a juice and wipe him off. I got the Mom of the Year Award "again." Things not to try at home -- or the park. It doesn't always go the way it is supposed to ...........................

LONG Jumper!!!

I spent an afternoon with Erica's 5th grade for their Olympics. Erica did the Obstacle course, the Long Jump and Hurdles. After the competition, she placed second in the Obstacle!!! I attached a picture I got of her doing the long jump. It was a great day and we had fun watching and participating with all the kids. Who knows .... she really may be a future Olympic star!!! But she may need to pick something other than the obstacle course!!