OOOHHHHH what a day it has been!!!

hello to you friends. i have had quite the interesting day!

here was the original plan for the day...
wake up, sit around the house for a while, get dressed and come to a-town to meet scott, then go out to my parents' house, drop off lincoln, then make a run to DeLeon to sell some pecans (for those of you who don't know, my parents live on a pecan orchard with 70 trees)...

well, needless to say, only the first 3 things on my list happened.

Link and i were hanging out at my mother-in-law's house- i was actually, er, in the restroom... and he was watching tv. all the sudden, he runs in the restroom and say "OH NO! MY NOSE!" so i figured he has just picked a booger or something- he IS known to be a bit overly dramatic!
Lincoln: OH NO! MY NOSE
Me: What's wrong baby?
L: OH NO! I blow it!!
Me: You blow it? What's wrong?
it's about this time i hear a squeaky sound every time Lincoln exhales...
Me: Lincoln, did you stick something up your nose?
L: (looks up at the ceiling, looks down at his shoes, looks up at me with a very guilty look) yeeeeeah.
M: ok, ok, let's go-

so i drop everything, grab my child, head out to the car, call Scott to let him know what's going on and that i'm on my way to the Emergency Room... and the following takes place in the car:

L: OH NO! MY NOSE!
M: Lincoln, what did you put in your nose?
L: the itty nitty red ball
M: did you put it way up in your nose?
L: (again, very guilty) yeeeeeeah.

so, the itty bitty red ball is actually a small red bead that came off of an ornament on my mother-in-law's Christmas tree....

we get to the Emergency Room, go sign in, wait forever, Scott finally gets there- by this time Lincoln feels just fine and you can't even tell anything's wrong with him... we waited about an hour and 15 minutes... FINALLY we get called back to be admitted, they take Link's pulse, ask us a bunch of questions... then we find out we have to wait LONGER because we have to wait for the Ear, Nose, and Throat room.
we finally get to the ENT room, wait about 30 minutes, then a nurse comes in... her exact words "oooh, that's really up there! i'm gonna let the doctor tackle this one." so we WAIT another half hour or so- FINALLY a physician's assistant comes in, gets the dang bead out with this long pokey-thingy, and says "ok, you can go as soon as i get a Dr. to sign off on this"
We had to wait more than 45 minutes!!!! damn Dr.!!! we ended up spending THREE HOURS in the hospital today all over an "itty bitty ball".

HERE'S the culprit:

ah yes, friends- we KEPT the dang bead. it's got a place in his baby book for "First Emergency Room visit"

Lincoln is doing fine- his nose bled a tiny bit, and the Dr. said there was "a small abrasion" in his nose, but nothing to be worried about. Poor kid had the dang bead in his nose for about 2 hours!
One thing to be said- he was EXCELLENT. he was calm and behaved well for all the waiting (only about 15 or 20 minutes of our 3 hour visit was actually being helped- the rest was just WAITING), and he let 3 different people look up his nose. he sat in his Daddy's lap and let some man he didn't know stick something up his nose and get the bead out. what a little fart, though! watch your kids around the Christmas tree!

hopefully you all had a less eventful day than i did!

love to you all :)

it's the end of the world- er, musical- as we know it

so yes, my dear ones... the musical (uhm, the Clyde H.S. musical that i've been helping with) is now officially over. **wow i totally just sneezed 9 times** ANYWAY, last night was our last performance- and so yeah i'm pretty glad it's over. i mean, YEAH i had a great time and YEAH it was a good experience for me and YEAH i'm going to do it again next year (assuming i will be asked by my dear friend Ruth Knightstep to help out again- which i'm sure i will) but holy cow i will enjoy kind of just having my life back. little things like being home to cook dinner- or being home to watch my favorite TV SHOWS (though it IS holiday season re-run B.S. for the next month or two)... yay for my life. yay for HAVING a life. i'm somewhat boring, and i am not afraid to admit that... i look forward to returning to my old boring self :)

so, um, i really hate it when you write a check for a large amount of money and then the business to whom who WROTE the check waits almost a MONTH before depositing the check... yeah, so you TOTALLY had enough money to cover the amount of the check when you wrote it- and they take their sweet time- and YOU think that for sure that check has already gone through but NOOOOO- the evil business you wrote the check to really just wants to screw you over. THANKS A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT. for reals.

i don't think i like being a grownup. everything is uber expensive and GEE WHIZ i just want a HOUSE of MY OWN and i want to have another BABY before i'm 30 and i really dislike money.....though i won't turn it down as a gift in case you were already planning on that :)

i really haven't blogged in such a long time. so much has happened yet for some reason i am drawing a major blank on what i should blog about. i'm been sooo busy and all the sudden i've got time on my hands and i'm like WHAT THE HELL WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN..??

ok, ok, melanie- think of something.... something good.

so yeah fireworks season starts pretty quick. i'm not REAL excited about that one... y'see, in case you don't already know, i married into a family who owns a small fireworks business... it belonged to my mother and father-in-law... so we inherited it... not the whole thing- - scott's got 2 siblings and they're both married, so the 6 of us all own the business. basically we're only up and running about 2 weeks out of the year. but it's a mega painus in my anus. seeeeriously. it sucks. but, i mean, the end result is nice! so you guys are going to have to come and buy fireworks from ME this new years!!!! cuz i know you all like to blow stuff up- so why not help out your pal Mel in the process??? ....that's what i thought.

my sister has a boyfriend. yeah, you read right. Mitsi. has a boyfriend. and he's nice and we like him and that's all there is to this story. the end.

ummmm ok so i think my brain has been drained of all things interesting or even slightly worthy of typing. goody day to you all. and buy me a freaking christmas present!

tis the day to give Thanks

Indeed, my friends, it is one of my favorite days of the year... a day filled with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and TONS of desserts- but most importantly, it's a day for reflection.... a day to look at your life and see how BLESSED you are and even if things seem crappy, there's always good stuff to be thankful for....

*like umm.... family. the people who are there for you through thick and thin no matter WHAT YOU DO. the people who love you for WHO YOU TRULY ARE. the people you can actually LET LOOSE around and BE YOURSELF. the ones who will always love you, even when you do stupid stuff.
*speaking of always loving you even when you do stupid stuff.... on this day i am truly thankful for my Lord and Savior. i am so thankful that even though i'm a sinner and i'm not worthy of His love, i am loved... i am forgiven.... i am promised eternity- and i don't deserve it. God blesses me in EVERY DAY of my life. and i am so thankful to Him for it all.
*my son... this amazing, brilliant, gorgeous, loving, hilarious, full-of-energy little boy that has been placed in my life... he is such a huge part of who i am. every day as i watch him grow, i see so much of me in him. he make look like his daddy, but he's got my personality for sure! i love him more than i ever thought i could possibly love someone.
*my husband. this amazing man God put in my life more than 5 years ago. we met in October of 2001. and immediately i fell head-over-heels in love with him. we are so perfect together, and i couldn't have asked for a better man to share my life with, to have and raise my children with, to serve God with, to laugh and cry with.... i love him with all that i am.
*my friends. though it seems like my true friends are few and far between, i love them dearly. they are such a huge part of who i am. they love me even though i'm goofy, weird, and a bit annoying at times. you know who you are. and i love you.
*actually, everything in my life has a place in this 'thankful' list. every single thing. every stupid thing i've done, every hard time i've ever had to go through, every challenge in my life. everything that has been placed in my life has made me who i am today.
THANK YOU GOD FOR ALL YOU DO....
i'm singing a song for Rebekah's wedding in January- it's Psalm 139 and it says "even though You know, You will always love me. even though You know, You'll never let me go. i don't deserve Your love, but you give it freely. You will always love me even though You know."

I will praise God's name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 69:30

illness, Clyde High School, and other ramblings

welllll hello to you- you MUST be cool if you're reading my blog.... only cool people read MY blog. that's probably because I AM the COOLEST person you know.... ok, so maybe i'm a dang loser, but it's ok, i'm ok with that.

so yeah last time i was blogging i had been sick, then like a week later i got sick AGAIN- upper respiratory infection. i get one EVERY november. never fails. so that was fun, i was sick TWICE within 2 weeks. fun stuff. NOW, Lincoln is sick. which is GREAT becuase we have plans EVERY DAY of this holiday week since all of scott's family is in and all of my family is here (well, my sister is the only one of us who doesn't live here- but this year she brought a BOY with her!!!!!! WHAT?). today was the beginning of the festivities. dinner and just a fun evening together with scott's siblings, spouses, our niece, and scott's dad..... well guess who's NOT going to be at that gathering? that would be me and my son... yes, because Lincoln was up until 1am last night vomiting and now has a fever. funnnnnn fun! i only hope that this is a short 24-hour type of thing because tomorrow is dinner with scott's siblings, spouses, our niece, and scott's mom- and then FRIDAY is a day with MY family (plus my grandparents... and mitsi's boy friend. NOTICE that i typed boy friend and NOT "boyfriend" - there's a difference) then saturday and sunday are packed with more family stuff, so y'know, i don't need a sick kid on my hands.... this is my favorite time of year! i mean, c'mon, i LOOOVE food!

so you all know (because i blog about it often) that i am doing music direction of the Clyde HS musical... our first performance is a week from this saturday, which is scary because of course we're never ready until the absolute last minute. but seriously guys, i thought working with high school kids was going to drive me out of my mind... but it's just like old days for me, i mean, every day that i get to spend out there reminds me of how much i MISS the theatre life! being with my friends every day for rehearsal, being goofy, singing and dancing and getting to be someone i'm not with the spotlights on me- AH i miss it SOOO much! and it's been really fun hanging out with these high school kids- even though i really thought it would be horrible, i'm having sooo much fun. especially since i have allowed myself to let loose around them- i don't have to be some stuffy 'professional' adult around them, i'm being my goofy ass self- and it's been so fun. especially with the 4 or 5 main girls. we're hilarious. plus i get to be goofy and immature and get paid for it! WHAT WHAT?!

today, since lincoln is sick, i'm staying home and baking pies for the next few days of Thanksgiving dinners. my husband is going to go out and meet with his family this evening, because i hate for him to miss the opportuninty to spend time with them when i could easily handle lincoln by myself at home. y'know.

i feel like i should be more exciting.... but alas, i fail miserably once more.

ok so i'm stumped. i had more in mind when i started this blog, but have reached a SERIOUS blogger's block (ha, i crack myself up)... i hope you all have a FANTABULOUS Thanksgiving and ummm i love you all :)

Expect the unexpected!

so last night was Halloween. I'm not too big on Halloween, I just enjoy the fact that I get to dress my son up however I think he will look cute. HAHA. Well, last night he was Pablo the Penguin... You who have children know who I'm talking about... You who DON'T know who Pablo is, go Google "The Backyardigans" and you'll quickly find out. He was SO cute. This kid absolutely hates hoods or anything that fastens under his chin, but he wore his Pablo hood ALL night (well, at least while we were out and about, 2 1/2 hours or so) and I got some REEEALLY good pics of him, but alas, they will not be posted today as I had promised so many people.

Y'see, there's this annoying phenomenon known as the STOMACH VIRUS. ah, yes, fun indeed. Yesterday I felt excellent. Took Lincoln out for a good 2 1/2 hours, came home, hung out with my boys, stole some of Link's candy ;) , went to bed, felt fine... ah, come 5am and here's Melanie running to the bathroom. What a fun night it was indeed. INDEEEEED. So I am momentarily out of bed to explain to your folks why there will be no pictures today, you will have to wait till tomorrow... Assuming I am well then.

Scott and Lincoln have gone to my mother-in-law's house for the day (Scott had to take off work) so that hopefully they don't get sick. Our digital camera doesn't work with this OLD computer of ours, so I need my mother-in-law's computer... But alas, I will not be going there today.

I am about to go turn UP the heater (like crazy), curl up on the couch with about 15,000 blankets, and watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (which, btw, I have not seen since the LAST time I was sick...). Close beside me will be a bottle of water, and imaginary bottle of 7up (ohhhh how i wish i had one), and my handy dandy.... TRASH CAN!

....I hope you are all having a better day than I am.

What's not to love???

t has been an amazing past 48 hours or so. I love life. Yeah.

For those of you who never get out of bed and know nothing of what's going on in the world around you, the FREAKING St. Louis CARDINALS won the FREAKING WORLD SERIESSSS!!!! Seriously, honestly, I can't believe it. I mean, the 2nd half of our regular season- we SUCKED. we barely made it to the post-season... We weren't supposed to make it past the Division Series... we did. we weren't supposed to make it past the Championship Series.... we did. We DEFINITELY WEREN'T supposed to win the World Series- WE FREAKING DID! BUT, during the post-season, we had all our guys! We had SO many injured guys during the 2nd half of our season and we got everybody healthy, and we KICK ASS!!!! ...the end.

On another note, I GOT MY CAR BACK TODAY!!!!!!!!! A couple weeks before Christmas last year, my car messed up. My dad told me he would have it fixed after Christmas- but he didn't tell me HOW LONG after Christmas. he didn't tell me it would be 10 MONTHS after Christmas! But holy cow! i've been driving that crappy little Civic (i can't stress LITTLE enough- it's tiiiiiny!) for almost a year, and i finally have MY car back! My absolutely b-e-a-utiful Accord. it's shiny and the leather looks like new and it's fully loaded (love it!) and it's BIGGER and it RUNS like a freaking dream. it's like driving a freaking Mercedes after driving that crappy Civic. So I'm happy. I've got such a great dad. He fixed that mostly by himself, Scott helped as much as he could, but my daddy really did most of it. he bought the parts, fixed it- spent like a week on it... saved us about $2000. yeah, he's amazing.

I walked into a serious time warp today... I'm helping with musical direction of the Clyde H.S. Musical... today was my first day to have to go help (yes, on a Saturday). Before I walked in there I was thinking "this isn't going to be weird, it'll be just fine" well, i had to go in the side door (the door the cast/crew/students use) and when i opened the first door, as i was walking down a small set of stairs, it was WEIRD!!! it was like a freaking time warp! i felt like i should be getting up on the stage to do some acting myself. I can't believe it's been 5 years since i've been on that stage. gaaaaaah i miss it!!!!! FIVE YEARS. that makes me feel old. it was 2001, i was the lead role in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. that ACTUALLY wasn't the last time i was on it, now that i think about it.... OAP (One Act Play) was after that. gosh, that's the ONLY thing about high school that i even remotely miss. high school sucked, though.

and i've got a great husband and a great son.... i've got a great life.
it's just been a good past couple days.

mostly baseball, but other interesting things as well!

Do you watch baseball? No? How 'bout you? Still no? YOU?? AH, YES, you do! Well, I watch baseball, yes I do. And how about my freaking CARDINALS, baby!!!! Hell yes, we're going to the World Series. that's what i'm talking about! now, whether we WIN The World Series (which i see as highly unlikely, the Tigers kicked our pansy little butts earlier in the season during interleague play...) is up for grabs, but i a, just damn satisfied that we will be playing in the World Series... that's 2 out of the past 3 years.... Now if we can JUST do better than when we got swept by the freaking Red Sox!!!! ....pathetic...

So, we're all used to crap bulletins and junk mail - "If you don't post this in 10 minutes, you will be haunted in your sleep tonight" and annoying shit like that.... well, i got a crap mail AS A TEXT MESSAGE ON MY PHONE!!!! yeah i was rather unhappy about that. people are taking that annoying crap too far! my freaking CELL PHONE. AND, what made me even MORE mad, is that it was from a girl whom i haven't talked to in probably about a year. we used to talk all the time, went to high school together, our sons are the same age, but i haven't talked to her in like a YEAR, and does she ever call to say hi? NO. does she send texts to say hi? NO. but she sure as hell doesn't mind sending me a crap text message about some curse or some crap like that. it's just plain irritating- and RUDE! wasting my money to send text messages. they're not free, you know! ugh!

no more rattlesnake encounters, and that keeps me happy. even though i know the bastard is living under my house.... i look by the back door like crazy before i enter or exit my house. now i'm a paranoid loser. oh well, better than a snake bitten loser i suppse!

yay for cold weather. just..... yay.

i'm about to have a whole freaking lot on my plate.... way more than i had planned on having to deal with - especially during the world series.... there's the usual stuff, like garage sale-ing on saturdays and church on sundays, those aren't a big deal. but then there's church choir/praise team every wednesday from 7:30 till 9:30!!! i hate that it ends so late! i'm not home to put my son to bed, i'm not home to have dinner with my family (it's usually about 7:30 or 8) and i miss my FAVORITE TV show (LOST).... but i can deal, because i enjoy singing... but NOW, i've been asked to help with musical direction of a high school musical.... more specifically, the Clyde High School musical... wow, i used to star in those babies back in the day, now i'll be doing musical direction. so my job is to teach the kids their parts (like singing wise) and work with them on it... BY THE WAY, it's a musical i've never seen or even heard of, so i don't know the music, so i've got to learn the WHOLE play in like a week... and that will take up EVERY night.... Monday, Tuesday, (NOT WEDNESDAY cuz i'm at church), and Thursday.... *sigh* this is an awfully hefty workload for melanie.... now i'm hoping the scheduling of the World Series will be different than musical rehearsals.... we can all hope!

i'm going to head off and figure out something to eat... then i'll probably get link and me dressed and head to my mother-in-law's house.... i missed Grey's Anatomy last night because of the baseball game, so i'll have to go to ABC.com to watch it- but my comp at home is so slow i'll have to do it on my mother-in-law's cable internet... apparently you can just go to ABC.com and watch a show you missed. that's effing GENIOUS!!! LOVE IT!

hope you are all doing marvelously! Love to all of you, dear ones!

family, rattles, Barney, and the like.

Hello all. The past few days have been absolutely lovely. My sister is in town from Austin and we have been hanging out with her a bunch. Yesterday we hung out and carved pumpkins because we thought Lincoln would enjoy it, but he cared nothing about it (he kept saying "pumpkin guts! ewwwwww!") so Mitsi and I carved them for ourself while Lincoln took a nap. Mitsi made a kitty and I made a very nice happy face, however, once I was through I noticed a large 'scar' on one side of his face. This reminded me of Aaron Neville and his face tattoo. I names my Jack-O-Lantern Aaron Neville. My siblings and I proceeded to sing Aaron Neville songs throughout the day yesterday and today. That was fun. And we like to do the Horatio Sanz impersonation of Aaron Neville... if any of you watch Saturday Night Live, you might appreciate "I ned some CO-COA BUT-TER!" most of you are probably confused. it is ok. it is hilarious to me.

My brother SAVED A MAN'S LIFE the other day!!! In case you don't know, my brother is an X-Ray Tech in training at Hendrick. He is almost through with Radiography school there and when he has completed that he will go on to some other school in San Marcos to become a Radiation Technician (he will give Radiation Therapy to cancer patients and the like). Well, the other day, there was a man in critical condition whom Matt needed to do an X-Ray on, so my brother goes to the ICU and the guy is coding... a nurse is giving him CPR (y'know, where they press on yoru chest to get your heart to beat... COMPRESSIONS!) so the girl is getting tired, and my brother, being the gentleman that he is, offers to take over for her. Meanwhile, a cardiologist, the dying man's general physician, an anesthesiologist, and several other nurses are in the room... So the man's heart COMPLETELY stops beating, he flatlined.... he was DEAD. my brother kept pressing on his chest.... a couple min utes later, his heart started beating again. My brother freaking saved that man's life. How amazing is that!!!???

So tonight included one of the scariest events of my entire life.... Scott, Lincoln, and I got home from dinner with my family... No big deal, the usualy getting home process. Scott gets out of the car, unlocks the back door- no rush, taking his time- goes back to the car to get some tools, goes back to the house to put the tools inside, goes BACK outside to get Lincoln... meanwhile, I have gathered our things and begun to make my way into the house... Scott grabs Lincoln. I walk in the house, Scott puts Lincoln down and Lincoln steps in the house, then Scott is standing on our back step... I heard something, and it seemed like it took an eternity to register, though I'm sure it wa sonly about half a second... It was a RATTLESNAKE!!!! So of course I yelled that to Scott, he jumped in the house, and looks outside to see that a big rattlesnake is about 1.5 FEET away from our back step, definitely in striking range. Scott walked back and forth past that thing 3 times. I walked past him. Lincoln was right there by him. We were all a max of 1 1/2 FEET away from a poisonous RATTLESNAKE who had made him bed comfortably behind our grill. I yell at Scott to go get the gun, but he didn't have the right kind of gun here, so I have to call my aunt and uncle (who live next door) to come kill this thing that is RIGHT BY OUR BACK DOOR. Meanwhile, Scott is standing right in the doorway and of course Lincoln wants to see what Daddy's looking at. I'm shaking, I'm SO scared.... So I take Lincoln and put him in front of the TV, by the time my cousin comes over with a shotgun, the snake is long gone... and even creepier, he slithered under our house! how scary is that, the whole time we were nonchalanlty entering our house AS USUAL, that guy was less than 2 feet away from us, could've struck any one of us at any time... This is another major reason I don't like living here! It makes me want to move even more.

Lastly, (I know this is long but this is my last story so bear with me), we put Lincoln down to sleep, he DIDN'T ask for his passy!!! (which is a horrible habit I HATE, but he only asks for it when he's going to sleep and we haven't had energy to try and let him scream himself to sleep to wean him off of it) So we put him in bed and I cam eback here to get on the computer, and Lincoln is singing to himself, "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family. With a great big hug and kiss from me to you! Won't you say you love me too?" in tune, i might add... and he repeated the song about 5 times. SO CUTE! ...what a great boy i have...

AH! THE CARDINALS HAVE WON 2 IN A ROW!!! Tonight's game was a SHUTOUT. We won 5-0! It was awesome!

Sorry this was a frickin novel. I better get ready for bed since I hardly got any sleep last night (woke up early as hell for garage sale-ing) and tomorrow we've got to get up and get to church! Love to all of you my wonderful friends :)

poison control, fortune cookies, things i'm annoyed with, and other fun things.

ahhh what a week it has been. this week has been MUCH less stressful, thank you. but alas, it seems like life is always a WEE bit stressful, no matter where you are or what you are doing. i suppose that is just life, just a test from God to see how we deal with our earthly lives.... ok, no more of this seriousness talky talky. let's get down to business.

first, we will start with a very interesting day that was saturday... scott and i woke up a few minutes before 6am, left our house about 6:15am, and spent about 3 1/2 hours garage sale-ing... i know you're jealous, try to hold it in... then we went out to my parents' house to get our boy and to watch a baseball game. it's official. we are never allowed to watch another St. Louis baseball game at my parents' house. they lose EVERY time we go out there to watch a game. after baseball and pizza, my dad tells scott that he gets to help my dad haul hay. you can imagine scott's excitement. and then I get brought in to all the fun of this... yes, i had to help with hauling hay... i did the girlie job though... scott and my dad walked around this huge field filled with hay bales as i drove the truck, pulling the trailer, so they could load the hay up on the trailer. yes, it was a fun time. fast forward about 3 or 4 hours and we're home... lincoln is watching a new Blues Clues video we got at a garage sale and Scott and I are watching-- Dateline or something in the other room. I look into the room Lincoln's in and see him holding my deodorant. so, first reaction "LINCOLN, NO! put that back!" and defiantly as he's ever been, he opened the lid, and took himself a nice big bite of it. yeah, so disgusting... and i'm thinking "crap. what do i do now?" of course the back of the deodorant says IN CASE OF INGESTION, SEE A DOCTOR OR CALL POISON CONTROL IMMEDIATELY. fun for me. so i call poison control... "How much does the child weigh?" "uh, about 35 pounds..." "Did he eat a mouthful or less?" "yeah, it was a little less than a complete mouthful" "Well, he may vomit a few times, but just give him a full glass of water or juice and he should be fine" I must admit that was my first ever call to poison control... no vomiting on Lincoln's part, so it was all good. but what a fun experience THAT was.

Today we went to lunch with my parents at Harvest Moon. All you can eat Chinese food? hell yes! so... it comes time to open the fortune cookies and Lincoln's says "Others will be impressed with you generosity" HAHAHAH, he's a freaking 2-yr-old, he has absolutely NO generosity whatsoever... Mine was "You will obtain your goal if you maintain your course" and my dad was kind enough to add "IN BED!!!" ...ah, my dad.... it's nice to know that even when we're halfway to 110, we can be immature. then scott's was the best. i could barely even read it out loud i was laughing so damn hard. "Flowers would brighten the day of your close friend". hahaha.

uhhh i'm so annoyed with people who complain about their lives being so horrible, or their parents being SO horrible, when their parents do EVERYTHING for them and don't expect anything in return... people who talk crap about or bash their parents when their parents are constantly giving them money, paying for their cars, gas, insurance, food, clothes, entertainment... get up off your ass and do something for yourself if you're going to complain about how horrible your parents are.... if they're so horrible, stop relying on them for everything. freaking spoiled brats. ok, i feel better now.

i hope all of you are having a lovely weekend and have a great week next week! we're supposed to be getting some rain, so, prayers for that! and i'm excited because the end of next week is bringing some cold weather! get excited!!!!

WE ARE THE national league central CHAMPIONS, MY FRIIIIEND!

yeah so for those of you who thought the Astros were gonna pull through and overpower my wonderful St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League Central... eat it. ha, yes. how beautiful is victory! ...i don't know how long we'll last in the playoffs... but we made it, biatch. and that's what counts. yay for the Cards. oh yay.

on another note... our family has been going to BPBC for about 2 years now, and as of yesterday we're finally members... hahaha, i'd say it's about dang time.

my son is a terrible two. seriously, terrible. constant tantrums, crying spells, fits, whatever you call them, they're almost constant. ...cries about EVERYTHING.... "Hey, Lincoln, will you go get that book for Mommy?" "NOOOOOOO GET THE BOOK NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" yeah. fun stuff. i like it when he's sleeping. he's cute.... and he's quiet. he just turned 2.... now how long does this phase last???

I want the cold weather to come back. I'm ready, ok? Bring me rain and snow and ice and COLD! Bring me long sleeves and sweaters and scarves and shoes that tie.... Jeans and sweat pants, warm slippers, using ALL the covers in bed, a fire in the living room and heaters going in every other room... my warm snuggly robe after a hot shower (I MISS HOT SHOWERS! i can't stand them to be hot when it's hot outside!!!) Deer hunting and Thanksgiving and Christmas... New Years (well, maybe not New Years because that mean selling FIREWORKS and i never look forward to that!) then Rebekah's wedding and my 3rd anniversary, my 23rd birthday... so many things to love about Winter. Oh Winter, how I love thee. Return to me, baby. (wow that was a little creepy). I'm ready for it all, from the presents and bows to decorating the tree, holiday food, seeing tons of family.... yeah. SO READY! and snow, i want snow this year... my son hasn't seen good snow since he was about 3 months old, and of course he doesn't remember that. I want him to be able to play in it- hell- I want to play in it!!!!

officially random

this is officially going to be one of the most random blogs ever. prepare yourselves.

ok, i have been saying forever that i would post a pic of the cake i made for lincoln's birthday party and have yet to get around to it, and seeing as though the party was about a month ago, i figured if i didn't do it now it would never get done...

anyway, this week has been very trying on my patience... within the past couple says i have found out that a girl whom i trusted and confided (is that a word?) in went a ran her mouth to this other girl about whom i happened to be talking... now, keep in mind i wasn't saying the nicest things about this other person, but still, i didn't want this other person to know that i thought even semi-mean things about her.... i was nice to her, but really had no interest in being FRIENDS because of, well, that's really none of your business... but i wasn't talking crap about this girl, just speaking truth. mostly that she doesn't tell the truth. wait, i said that the subject wasn't any of your business. anyhow, the girl whom i confided in went and TOLD the other girl what i was saying. it felt like high school all over again. seriously. it took some serious restraint on my part not to start up crap and make a big deal out of it. what was done was done, i cannot do anything about it now. but it stirred up all those emotions of being betrayed and reeeeally made me want to tell the girl i had confided in EXACTLY what i was thinking about her at the moment... this is not high school, Mel. and thank God. high school was probably one of the worst times of my entire life... i mean, there was theatre, which was awesome... and i had a small handful of friends... and then there was after school social life which was cool... but high school girls are just plain cruel. and they let me know EVERY CHANCE they got that i was not one of them- the cool ones. ah, bitches. man i'm so glad high school ends. it's funny because once it's over, it doesn't even matter. thank the Lord above for college. even though i only went for a year, there was something about it- everyone can find their place, everyone is so much more accepting. no more cliques and annoying high school girls.
anyway, the moral of this story- if someone confides in you- keep your freaking yap shut.... another moral, don't trust people too easily. they'll screw you over if you do.

so let's see i know there's more than that topic, i came into this blog with a hefty amount on my mind. it's obvious in the speed of my typing . i haven't quit... the only time there's a break is when i have to backspace to correct something.

the other day in wal-mart, lincoln saw a little baby.... 1, maybe 2 months old... he looooooved looking at it and saying "hi" to it over and over and over. after we had to walk away, lincoln said "more baby please! lincoln have the baby! mommy, get a baby please!" ohhhh golly. has my husband been coaching my son? what's with this pressure? is it some kind of subliminal message from God? just one more year, people.... that's all i'm asking. one more yeeear!

my son locked himself inside the house yesterday.... i was outside the house. yeah that was fun. for some reason, there's a lock on one of our doors that no one has a key to. it's a horrible predicament, really, and i don't know why nothing has been done about it yet. pure slacking on my part i'm sure. anyway, i was outside trying to coax lincoln out of the house so that we could get in the car and leave, but he refused to step foot out of the house, so he closed the door and i said "BYE LINCOLN! see you tomorrow!" purely trying to freak him out so that he would open the door and run to my car, it works every time. he DID start freaking out, and then i heard a "CLICK!" ....lincoln had pushed in the lock of this ONE lock that no one has a key to. freak me out. i've got a couple of problems because A. my child is freaking out because he thinks i'm leaving him and i won't open the door B. i have no possible way to get in my house C. my husband is a 30-minute drive away... i asked lincoln if he would please open the door, he tries, and cannot. (by the way this is a solid wood door, no windows, so keep in mind that my child cannot see me) so i call scott, he tells me to grab a ladder and crawl in a window. YEAH RIGHT. like i could fit through the only window in the house that was unlocked... so he says he's going to come home and help me... lincoln's still freaking out... then, miraculously, THE KNOB TURNS! LINCOLN TURNED THE KNOB AND UNLOCKED THE DOOR! i swear i almost broke out into the halleluiah chorus right there. ....what a way to start out the day...

ok, this is long. i commend any of you who have made it all the way to the end... i'm sure this keyboard would like a break from my rapid crazy ass typing.

i must go put my child down for a nap.

good day to you all.

It doesn't get much better than.... THIS?!?!

hello to you. as i'm typing you are all peacefully sleeping in your oh-so-comfy beds... soft and sound, no worries (unless, of course, you're having a bad dream, in which case i cannot help you)

i just thought you all should know that it's 3:22 AM and i'm awake with a sick, hysterically crying 2-year old. do you have any idea how fun that is???? ..........i just don't think ya do.

Lincoln's Birthday Party

Let's recap, shall we? Lincoln's party was a HUGE success! I'm serious, here. It went way better than I ever could've imagined... Everything went off as planned or better- aside from a couple little boys getting extremely messy- one in water- one in mud... They were good sports about it, though.

So, my day started off early- going to Card & Party factory to get balloons blown up... $8.00 will get you a LOOOT of helium! Then off to my parents' house to start helping dust, vacuum, Scott helped my dad do a lot of things outside... And then, about 2 o'clock, BRING ON THE THUNDERSTORM. serious. 3 hours of nonstop rain. I really thought the party was going to get rained out, I was freaking. I was thinking, "I spent WAY too much time and money on this for it to crap up now!" But luckily (no lucky actually included, i'm giving God all the credit on this one) it stopped raining long enough for us to set up the party, H AVE the party, and clean up afterwards... (I asked God for a couple dry hours and He provided, which was excellent)
So people get to the party, we eat hot dogs and hamburgers, etc... Walk around and try to be social with everyone (which is hard to do when there are 20 adults and 7 children there), try to sit down long enough to actually be able to have a hamburger for myself, and then start moving again. Present opening time. AH it was hectic! I had 3 or 4 toddlers on my trying to all open Lincoln's presents and play with them at the same time and it was really hard just working around them. Pretty darn cute though. Now, it's hay ride time. Oh, that's right. We had a freakin hay ride. My dad put some hay on his trailer and hooked it up to his tractor, drove us out to the TANK (yes, the tank), where we let the boys throw rocks into the water... Who would've known that a big hole in the ground + water + some rocks could be quite possibly the most fun combination ever thought of? The boys LOVED IT. We did that for about 5 or 10 minutes, then Beau kind of fell into the tank (mostly just mud, but ya know, a little in the water) and Amy's flip-flop got stuck in the mud (WHICH WAS HILARIOUS by the way) so we decided to call it a day at the tank and make our way back to the party area... Amy and Beau were good sports about the whole thing, so it was all good... Went back to the party, sang Happy Birthday to Lincoln, had to let him blow out his number 2 candle twice because he enjoyed it so, everyone ooohed and aaahed over my cake (which was delicious and quite cute, i will post pictures) and then we ate cake and everyone went home. It was AWESOME.
Ah, by the way, I forgot to mention the little bouncy spring horse (that was mine and my siblings' when we were little) that was at the party, I think just about all the boys took a turn on it- SO cute. AND my mom bought this little bounce house thing, and the boys were crazy about it.

It was the best party ever. Now I'm worried about next year. I've got a lot to live up to!!!

Thanks to all of you who came for my sweet little boy! Ah, one last thing- my sister-in-law, Candace, gave Lincoln soem Dr. Pepper (NOT diet or caffiene free) right before we left... We got home, gave Lincoln a bath, and he was WIRED. fun. We had to put him in bed while he was still wide awake. He was a freaking madman.

I think i'm still tired from yesterday...

Happy Birthday to Lincoln, Happy Labor Day to me.

this is my boy in 2004. He was only a couple weeks old. SO tiny. SO sweet. this is my boy now... HUGE, still SO sweet and SO cute, but not SO tiny anymore... he's not even a baby anymore. it's official. Today he's 2 years old. My little boy is just.... a little boy. Not a baby. A little boy. my little boy is growing up much too fast. For those of you who don't have kids, when you do, everyone will tell you that the time will fly- but inside you'll feel like there's no way, because it's so much work, it MUST feel like it's going to crawl by... But it doesn't. I remember the day I brought my boy home from the hospital... Now he's 2. I've already taught him to say "I'm two years old!" though he's having trouble showing 2 with his fingers. Today Scott and I are going to take him to Mr. Gatti's for pizza, coke, tons of sweets, rides, and basically just running around like a sugar-crazed maniac. It will be fun. I am the mother of a two-year-old. Please pray for me

where to begin

ah, where to begin when you seemingly have nothing to type about? well, i must start somewhere- i am tired of my most recent blog being about a camel...

oh ok, i'm sure this will spark some controversy- - if you're not from around the "Big Country" area, you may not know what House of Yaweh is or how CRAZY they are... they're pretty much a cult. seriously. everyone changes their last name to the last name of their "leader", Israel Hawkins. ANYWAY, Mr. Crazy Hawkins is predicting that on September 12 of this year, a nuclear war will break out and within 5 months, the world will be destroyed. Also, 2 million Yawehs (we like to call them yay-hoos) will be moving to the Clyde/Eula area- because apparently this area will be spared. HA.
Muslims believe that on August 22, merely 7 days from now, the Earth will come to an end... something about Allah and all that jazz.
ah, what to think of all this... if you are a follower of Christ, as am I, you know that in the Bible, the end of the world will begin with unrest in the middle east- well- when is there rest in the middle east? seriously? and the Bible also says that we will not know the day nor the hour that Jesus will return... so i'm left here thinking... hmm.. what IF Jesus did come back in 7 days? and it makes me sad knowing my son will never be able to grow up and that I will never be able to be mother to another child... but then again, in Heaven, i would have WAY more happiness than here on Earth. it's such a mind-boggling concept... the end of days, that is... so, if you think the end is coming, you better get right with God! if you don't think the end is coming... well... you still oughta get right with God. cuz He's great.

ANYWAY, total subject change. Scott's birthday was 3 days ago. It ended up being a really fun day. I've been sneaking around making plans and i was proud that he was happy at the end of the day- he's kind of hard to impress. i wanted to make it a big deal without making TOO big of a deal- he wouldn't have liked that. he was just poistive that nobody was going to make him a cake and that i surely wouldn't make him cupcakes (like i have done every year for the past 4 years) so i just let him go on thinking that no one was doing anything special for him and that it was no big deal... well, i made him surprise cupcakes (thanks to Virginia, Scott's grandmother, living next door) and planned a dinner at Towne Crier (it's like 3 blocks from Scott's mom's house) and had Scott's mom, grandmother, me, Lincoln, Scott, my parents, and my brother (Matt) and his wife (Candace) all planning on going- all of this without Scott knowing... we also did a nice job with presents and such. it wasn't much of a big deal, but it turned out to be a great day... we were in the middle of dinner and i went out to my parents' car (they hid the cupcakes in their car for me) to get the cupcakes, and came back into the restaurant with his FAVORITE cupcakes, and that made him really happy. Lincoln also enjoyed the cupcakes. He ate the icing first, and, looking rather similar to Santa Claus, continued to eat the remainder of the cupcake. We got some cute pics- i'll get them up when possible...

my son will be 2 in 9 days. freaking whoa.

ummmm ok well i have nothing else to type about so i hope you are all having a wonderful Tuesday and au revoir!

camel time... that's right, camel.

that's right, folks... this is me feeding a CAMEL...

did you know that camels like pretzels? ....neither did i....

between Seymour, TX and Wichita Falls, TX, there is a camel farm... my mom stopped along the side of the road so Lincoln could see the camels...
they requested that i feed this extra-friendly one.... and all i had was a bag of pretzels.... he (the camel) liked them a lot.

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A, OKLAHOOOOOMA, OK!

today is my third day in the dreaded state of Oklahoma... ok, maybe it's not so bad- but there are things in Texas that i just can't get here.... let's start a list, shall we?

1. my husband
2. my own home
3. my own bed
4. my own vehicle
5. all of Lincoln's toys
6. a toddler-proof home
7. a WAY cooler state flag... check this out, seriously-

i mean, WHO likes THAT better than THIS?

....my point exactly....
8. i miss driving on free roads- every single damn road in Oklahoma seems like it's a damn toll road. Rebekah and i made up a song about it yesterday.
9. did i list my husband? yeah, i miss him...

So basically, kids, Texas is just superior, and that's all there is to it.

ohhh i get to go HOOOOME TODAY!!! i am excited.

the next few weeks are going to be crazy busy. i'm just warning you. because i know all of you await, sitting on pins and needles, greatly anticipating my next blog... but, it seems like this much there will be less blogging and more real life for me to attend. pity.

have i mentioned yet that i was awake for an hour between 3:15 and 4:30 am? ok, so slightly more than an hour... but all of this is because i am being forced to share a room with my oh-so-sweet son, Lincoln.... yeah, starting about 3am, he was tossing and turning and not sleeping well... then at 3:15, he starting calling out for my mom (his Nana) and i got him out of bed to rock him because i didn't want him waking everyone else... he wanted to be held and rocked, but he was now WIDE AWAKE. fun stuff. ...so i ended up having to turn on the bathroom fan, and a couple other sources of noise, so that he could cry himself back to sleep without waking anyone. i resorted to a middle-of-the-night myspace session while i waited for him to fall back to sleep so i could do the same. it was NOT fun!
OH! add that to my list of things i miss- we'll call it number 10. Lincoln sleeping in his own room!
ohhh toniiiiight...

ok ok ok kids, i suppose i shall be going. i should probably gather my bags and Lincoln's things and prepare for our 4 hour trip home... i hope you are all enjoying the end of your summer (unless you didn't get one at all really, in which case- haha. sucks to be you.)

ohhhhhhh i am ready for FALL, but that is a whole different subject...

au revoir!

Scott talks in his sleep.

first of all, may i bring to your attention that excatly one month from TODAY (yes, today) my son will be a terrible 2. yes, today he is 23 months old.

second, let's get to the point of this whole blog, i'm sure you were all intruiged by the title of today's blog... it will be short, but oh it will be worth it.

last night, scott was talking in his sleep- now he doesn't really do that very often, but last night was one of those lucky nights. he rolled toward me, and said "if you get taller than me, don't karate chop me or anything" if i hadn't been 75% asleep, i would've laughed my ass off, but i was asleep... luckily, i woke up enough to send myself a text message of his random rambling, and i just found that text message about 15 minutes ago... and i got to laugh my ass off today.

so kids, if you get taller than scott, don't karate chop him or anything. HI-LARIOUS!

ahhh relax now.

FINALLY my life is back to normal. fireworks is over. we went on our vacation. and now i'm back to my daily boring routine... i never thought i would be ready for boringness to return to my life. go figure.
so fireworks went well, this was our first time as being part-owners of the company, and it went really smoothly. then our trip to houston to see the Cardinals @ the Astros was unbelievable! we won 3 of the 4 games in the series which was a HUGE upset, mostly because we (the Cardinals) have been in a major slump for the past few weeks, and the Astros have been doing pretty well. but yeah, we totally kicked ass and cleaned up there. the first game we went to, we lost. and it really sucks to be the losing team when you're sitting in the stands, wearing Cardinals shirts and hats, and surrounded by about 40,000 Astros fans. but oh well, we came back. and it's a lot of fun to be the small fish in the big pond when we win, it's nice to hear their stadium get totally quiet, like when their team is getting their ass kicked. LOVED IT!
i think that was the longest amount of alone time i've gotten with my husband since our honeymoon. seriously. no parents, no child, no work, nobody but us and thousands and thousands of strangers. it was so nice to spend some time alone with him. we had a GREAT time.
it was nice to get home to Lincoln. we had missed him a lot the past few weeks, with fireworks and vacation and everything else.

all of you parents out there will appreciate this story.... this morning, i was writing out checks for bills, you know, addressing envelopes, stamping, etc... and Lincoln wanted to draw. so i gave him a blue crayon and a piece of paper and he was totally cool with that. he sat down on the floor and was drawing his usual little circles on this piece of paper... so i went about paying bills. and once i was through, i put everything back in its place, and got up from the couch, look over, and Lincoln is no longer drawing on paper... ohhhhh no, of course not! the door separating our living room and dining room was closed, to keep the air conditioning in the living room... and now, one side of the door, from the knob DOWN, is almost solid blue. OH I WAS SOOOO MAD. but i guess i had it coming, trusting a 22 1/2 month old with a crayon. i got some nice pics of Lincoln with his artwork, i'm sure i will have them posted before too long.

my boy will be 2 years old in 44 days. i can't even believe it. he is so big. he's currently in the 95th percentile for weight, and the 75th percentile for height. so basically, he's just a freaking BEAST! but he's such a nice beast :)

101.3

ah yes, how i adore being ILL. just kidding, kids. juuuuust kidding. so i'm used to my son being sick and taking care of him... but i don't get sick. i mean, i get sick- but i haven't in a LONG time. for like 3 days i've had the tiniest wussy cough and my neck hurt... but yesterday i got hit HARD. my back hurt, my head hurt, my neck reeeally hurt, and as of last night, i had a fever of 99.4, not that big a deal, but alas, a fever. so i wake up this morning @ 6:30 feeling like total a-hole. what's the fever NOW, you ask? 101.3. seriously. ridiculous.
so we were going to go to church this morning- it IS sunday... plus, scott's siblings are in town and they (and scott's mom) were all going to come to our church and it was going to be a dandy time. hey melanie, aren't you sick? yes, yes i am sick. so my husband got himself AND Lincoln ready with NO help from me- i was impressed- and off to church they went. it's weird being the only one in the house. really weird.
all i want to do is sleep, but i am just not sleepy. so i'm here, at my computer, with nothing better to do, blogging.

oh how i adore a 101.3 temperature, but not as much as i'm about to adore some Tylenol PM, hoes. oh yes, tylenol pm.

i hope you are all doing better than i am today.

conjunctivitis and such...

conjunctivitis and such

so, for like a week now, about once a day, Lincoln would say "eye hurts! eye hurts!" and we would look at it and saw nothing wrong with it, and just assumed that he got some dirt or an eyelash in his eye. well, friday night, we noticed some nice crust forming around his right eye... saturday morning it was worse, so we took him to the dr. (they're open till noon on saturday for illnesses only) and find out that he has PINKEYE. he also has a minor ear infection. so, for future reference melanie, when lincoln says his eye hurts, HIS FREAKING EYE HURTS!!! and since he rubs his eyes all the time, now it has spread into his left eye. so this poor kid has 2 bum eyes. i bet you can imagine how fun it is to pin a 21-month-old down for EYE DROPS. scott hold his arms, i hold his head, scott pulls his bottom lid down, and i pull up on the top lid... then we are able to get ONE drop in. not fun.

so my mom's in London right now. i'm so insanely jealous. i LOOOOVE London! and she's there...

ummm so yeah i've decided that i'm taking a leap and buying a BIKINI for this summer. yes, it's a huge deal. i have not been in a 2-piece bathing suit in 3 years. it will be exciting.

golly i'm boring today. i didn't get much sleep, so maybe that's it. Lincoln was up for 3 hours (from 4 am - 7 am) because the pinkeye had spread into his other eye and he was in pain and couldn't go back to sleep. apparently tylenol doesn't do a whole lot for the pain of pinkeye. anyway, at 7 he went back to sleep for a bit of a nap, which was nice. but still, i'm not a big fan of interrupted sleep- especially when it cuts down on the number of hours i get. that's another reason i'm in NO HURRY to have another child. i get 8 1/2 - 9 hours of sleep a night... and i could get more if i would just go to bed earlier, but i'm a freaking night owl... so, i'm really not interested in having another baby that will wake up several times a night expecting me to feed it. NO THANKS! not yet anyway.

having another child is such a crazy concept. it's like, we (scott and me) look at old pictures of newborn Lincoln and watch videos of him from before he could even crawl and we're like "aww, we want another one!!!" but then 21-month-old Lincoln wakes up from his nap and starts throwing a tantrum because i won't let him draw with a Sharpie and we're like "umm... no" i want another one, it sounds so much fun and it's SO great having an itty bitty baby, but, um... having TWO sounds like a nightmare. hahaha

ok alright i guess i will go outside and supervise my daddy and my husband as they haul hay off of the trailor and into the hay barn. how fun does that sound??!! notice that i said i will be SUPERVISING and didn't mention anything about helping.

hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

8 Random Things

i was "tagged" to do this by my cousin Rebekah via Xanga, but since i don't really Xanga anymore, i figured i could put this on here...

8 RANDOM things about me!

1. i am the slowest eater EVER. all of my food has to be perfect before i can start eating it. i will salt/pepper everything, fix up a baked potato (sour cream, cheese, green onions), apply salsa to things, or whatever is necessary.... once everything is good to go, then i will eat. it's actually not that i'm a slow EATER, i'm just incredibly meticulous about my food. everything i order, i always have to say "plus ____" like today i got a sandwich from Schlotzsky's, PLUS guacamole. you don't ever want to have to go get food for me.

2. my husband and i eat at abuelo's all the time. not only because it's probably my favorite restaurant ever, but because my brother and his wife, candace, both work there. they hook us up. so we don't go eat there just because it's great, but it's cheap for us.

3. i haven't driven MY car since before Christmas. it needs a new balancer and crank shaft, so my dad said he would just get a whole new (actually, used- but new to us) engine and would have it replaced 2 or 3 weeks following Christmas. i've been driving one of my dad's extra cars (a '95 Civic) since then. my car STILL hasn't been touched.

4. i make THE best low-fat/low-cal banana pudding in the history of Earth. i am currently waiting for a batch to chill so i can dig in to it.

5. i am singing at 2 weddings in the next 8 months. one for a girl i don't know- she's my sister-in-law's cousin... and one for my dearest cousin, Rebekah. i used to sing in front of big crowds all the time and never got nervous, now i feel like i'm gonna crap my pants when i get up in front of lots of people. this should be fun.

6. i have lost 20 lbs. since October of 2005. i now weigh only ONE pound more than i did before i got pregnant with Lincoln (i was 19) so that's very exciting

7. my husband has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is a national champion in the sport. that's more about him, but, it's a good one!

8. i am a good cook, but i am a HORRIBLE cleaner. cleaning is my least favorite thing to do, ever. i would rather live in a dirty house than have to clean up every day. luckily, my husband helps me out a lot, and since i have a 21 month old who gets into everything, i HAVE to keep stuff clean. when i lived in dallas by myself, there was a 2 month stretch where i wouldn't let people come over to my apartment because it was so dirty i was embarrassed. the only time i was home during that period was to sleep. hahaha, gross. but when i DO start cleaning, i am a Nazi about it. if i'm going to clean, i'm going to do it right the first time so i don't have to go back over it. my husband says he hates me when i'm in cleaning mode.

babies and toddlers and weenie dogs, OH MY!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

ok, i feel better.... after the day i've had, a good scream is really what i need. my child.... ohhhh my child is, well, he's a toddler. that about sums it up. my sister-in-law (Michelle) and my niece (Hannah, 14 months) are in town and Lincoln and i have been visiting them during the day so the kids can play... Lincoln will do absolutely ANYTHING to g et Hannah to laugh. he's hilarious. any time Hannah laughs, Link's face lights up. he loves it. if something makes her laugh, he'll do it again and again and again... and, when Hannah's around, Mommy seems to be invisible. he shows off SO BAD around her, totally ignores me. drives me crazy. today i had to spank him more than i think i have in his entire life. now my spankings, they don't hurt... but Lincoln's such a sensitive kiddo that even the lightest tap will make him cry if he knows he's in trouble... but today, nothing would phase him. usually if i spank him, he will stop doing what he was doing and not do it again. TODAY, he would stop for about 60 seconds and go right back to what he was doing. i finally just gave up and started laughing deliriously at everything he did because at the time, there wasn't a damn thing i could do about it. seriously, he drove me about 90% of the way to insanity today. my child, just like his mommy, LOOOOVES attention!

so tomorrow should be interesting. Michelle, Pam (mother-in-law), and I are taking the kids (Hannah and Lincoln) to get pictures taken. luckily they will be taken outside and it's not like they have to sit still and pose for them, but it will be crazy nonetheless. (is that all one word? now i don't think it is. i am so confused) so, make sure all your good thoughts go out to Melanie about 6-ish tomorrow evening, because that is when we will all be trying to corral the kiddos into the same place to be able to get a few decent pictures. i'll post some at a later date.

i so cannot believe that i have not blogged about my parents' dog yet. they have this miniature dachshund named Tootsie Roll (because she looks like one- long and skinny and brown) anyway, my dad found her out in the middle of nowhere during a rainstorm about 4 1/2 years ago. my dad (he's a big guy, 6'6") and this tiny little dog have this crazy bond, she sleeps in bed with him, goes everywhere he goes, he totally spoils her... they're like the odd couple. so anyway, about a week and a half ago, Tootsie started acting weird, like she had been kicked by a cow (it's happened before and she's just sore for a few days and then she's ok) but she just kept getting worse and worse and eventually couldn't even move her back legs or her tail. it was so depressing. she was just dragging her back half around with her, only able to move her front legs. so my dad takes her to the vet and he's like "oh, she'll get better, here's some meds" and 2 days later Tootsie was even worse. wouldn't eat, couldn't poop or pee, couold hardly move... so the vet does some x-rays and finds out that one of the dog's vertabrae is crumbling, he called it a "degenerative disc" and the crumbling bone is pressing on her nerve in such a way that it's paralyzing her lower half. totally depressing, because this means she couldn't even move her bowels or anything, and could either have very very expensive surgery, or be put to sleep. my dad was a freaking basketcase. the vet gave Tootsie some steroids to see if she could possibly get better... my dad said "well, i guess he just gave us about 3 more days with her before we have to put her down" and one morning, SHE STARTS WAGGING HER TAIL! and now she can semi-walk... it's amazing, she was like completely paralyzed from the waist down for like 2 or 3 days, and now she can walk again!!! she's still really wobbly, but she can walk! and she can eat and pee and poop and so my dad's like a new man, so happy and giddy like a school boy. sooo, she might be able to get better on her own, but she could get worse again... anyway, that's my crazy story about my parents' dog. the end.

wow this is long.

just one more thing... for mother's day, instead of buying me a card, my husband wrote me a song. and he sang it to me... and danced. the song started out, "OHHHH MELANIE!!! I WANNA WISH YOU A HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!" there was a lot more, it was absolutely hilarious. and it was the sweetest damn thing anyone has done for me in a long time, maybe ever. he is amazing. how i love him so.

i hope you are all having a wonderful week.

au revoir
LOVE :)

April 21 BLESSINGS

What a good day today has been. Nothin out of the ordinary or exceptional, just an overall nice day. it even involved LAUNDRY and i'm STILL calling it a nice day!

so, it rained like CRAZY here... and i know it rained everywhere in the "Big Country", but where we live, we got 4 1/2 INCHES OF RAIN in 12 HOURS!!!! i'm not even exaggerating a little bit. overall we got 4 3/4 inches... can you believe that? i've never seen anything like it- our rain gauge was about to overflow! it's awesome... not burn bans have been lifted, and it's looking UP for the the sale of fireworks this summer... hopefully it keeps raining so we don't have to close down less than 24 hours after we open (like we did this past New Year's- that sucked SO BAD! we LOST money...)
i HATE storms, but i like the end result (as long as there are no tornadoes involved)

i am about to grab my kiddo, head to the in-laws' house, and enjoy a nice baseball game (Cubs @ Cardinals) and possibly some pizza. that sounds like a great combination.

*Lincoln just awoke from his nap... i am in the next room and just heard him singing "Halleluiah! Halleluiah!" what a good funny boy i have. he is unbelievable. being a parent is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. if you have not experienced it, i hope you get the chance to... it's such a blessing.

GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY! Scott got a major PROMOTION. indeed it is very very good news for our family. mostly for him though because he has been working so hard for years with no good end result, and now we think he's found a job he can stay with until it's retirement time... but anyway, he is now a DISTRICT MANAGER, so that's super great news for him.
when scott was down about th fact that jobs weren't working out, i kept telling him that God had something GREAT in store for us.... now look what's happening for scott!

SO WE SAY WITH CONFIDENCE, THE LORD IS MY HELPER; I WILL NOT BE AFRAID ....HEBREWS 13:6
AMEN!

Easter weekend misc.

How was eveyrone's Easter? Mine was fantabulous. yes, i am choosing to use that word.
So on Saturday there was this Easter Egg hunt that was NUTS. there ended up being EIGHT children 2 years of age and YOUNGER... and then there were two 4 year olds. none of the little kids cared about the eggs, really... it was more like "Mommy boss your kids around day" because everyone was going "here's an egg, pink it up. pick it up! pick it up!" PLUS, there were probably at LEAST 17 or 18 adults. it was a lot of fun, though... and i really enjoyed some of Lincoln's candy.
THEN on Sunday, i had to be IN CLYDE by 8:00am, and it's a 30 minute drive to Clyde... so we woke up freaking early, got ready for church, and headed to Clyde... Matt, Mitsi, and I sang with my parents' church's choir (my mom is in the choir too)... we sang the Halleluiah Chorus and it was pretty... we had to sing at both services which was nuts.
Then we went back to the parentals' and had a AWESOME lunch. you should be so jealous. we had THANKSGIVING for Easter! oh yeah, turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, sweet potato casserole (which is like a dessert, it's unbelievable), pink salad, rolls. OH it was amazing.
Then my mom had a little mini Easter Egg hunt for Lincoln, and he really couldn't have cared any less... he's go pink up one egg, and since he now knows that there are GOODIES hidden inside the eggs, he would pick it up, bring it to my mom (Nana) and say "open! open!" so that he could eat what was in the egg. hilarious.

overall, it was a great weekend. i got to spend time with the entire family (Dad, Mom, Mitsi, Matt, Candace, Scott, Lincoln, and myself) and that was great. Matt's a busy guy so we don't get to see him that often- even though he LIVES HERE... but whatever. we have so much fun together. we're all huge dorks, but it's great.

i hope everyone else's weekend was good too! and i hope you all remembered what EASTER is all about... HE IS RISEN! HALLELUIAH!

SO annoying!

April 15, 6:14 am

so yeah, check the time PEOPLE! ...not on your clock, but the time this freaking bulletin was posted. yeah. messed up.

so i woke up cold at 5:20(ish)am and i was thinking that if I was cold, Lincoln was probably cold. so i went to his room to check on him, and sure enough, he was very very COLD! so, i turned off his air conditioner, got a blanket, covered him up, went to the restroom, moved the clothes that i'm wearing tomorrow from the washer to the dryer, and crawled back into bed....i laid in bed for about 45 minutes and NOTHING. i got really comfy, but COULD NOT get sleepy! so now i'm awake. scott and lincoln are both sleeping. both of them WILL be sleeping for about 3 more hours... and here i am, awake, on myspace, because i have nothing better to do. i mean, i actually HAVE better stuff to do... i could be SLEEPING! but NOOO! i actually should do some laundry or something and make use of this time. but i just don't want to. so i won't. so there.

so today i'm taking Lincoln to this Easter egg hunt over at some dear family friends' place.... it will be way fun.....maybe. haha, it will be hectic! there will be SIX... count 'em, SIX children ages 2 yrs. and younger... and then a 4 year old. yeah. i know. it will be nuts. and then there will be 4 mommies and 3 grandmothers, and an aunt (my sister) chasing all the kids around. it's nice to know that the kids do not outnumber the adults. that comes in handy when you need one person to wrangle one kid, it's a whole lot easier. whose kid do i get? do i get my own? or does my mom get mine? or does my SISTER get mine? all i know is, Lincoln will probably find ONE egg, sit down in the grass, and proceed to open it, get the candy out, eat it, and then sit there playing with that ONE EGG for the entirety of the "hunt". (hmm.. the word "entirety" sure looks like it's spelled wrong... but i did the spell check and it's correct, but it DOES look weird)

LALALALALAaA i want to SLEEEEEP i am AWAAAAAKE and it really SUUUUUCKS.
(think of that last part a bit sing-song-ish.)

and i got on here thinking "this will be a great way to waste time! i will just fill out bulletins." there are NONE. bring on the disappointment.

um ok i suppose i will do something else now... maybe... check my email?
THIS SUUUUUUCCCKKKS!!!!!!

what if?

first of all, i must say that i am very, unbelievably, extremely sad about the madonna concert situation.... she is not coming to texas, damn her. and i've gotta add that i really enjoy the comments from all my friends who can AFFORD to buy plane tickets to fly to chicago... and tickets to see her LIVE in the windy city... (jk you guys i'm not mad... just soooo jealous). sad day for melanie.

second of all, the "second of all" is MUCH longer and deeper than the "first of all.

i think there is something about always wanting whatever it is that you don't have. i think that is part of being human. for some reason it seems like we are never satisfied. at the same time, i could totally tell people that i am satisfied with my life and not be lying. but deep inside of me there's like this little dark corner of all the things i had to give up when i got pregnant and started my family.... it's just one of those things that will stay hidden from the outside world i suppose. one of these days i would like to go on vacation by myself for a couple of days and see old friends and just let loose. life is so strange. i mean, my family is unbelievable. and even if i could change things, i wouldn't... i guess there will always just be that question in my brain... "what if...?"
i tell you what else i do not like. getting older. it is so strange to see all of the people my age graduating from college, getting married, having kids, moving away. even though i'm still so young i feel like so much of my life is behind me already. it makes me wonder what i'll feel like when i'm old.... like if i made it all count or if it just went by in a blur the way the past 22 years seem to have done. i remember being young and praying for the day when i would be old enough to drive, date, buy tobacco, buy alcohol... and once i turned 21 it's like "oh crap! there are no more birthdays to look forward to. only getting older."
sometimes i sit around and think about how bizarre life is. and ponder the question that no one will ever have an answer to.... why am i here? even if i think i know, or if i'm sure that i know- there's always that doubt in my brain. like- what would be happening right now if things were different? if i had stayed in school and stayed in dallas and if i were single and still partying? would i have gotten any good acting gigs? ...and no one will ever know...
but i AM happy. i love my husband and my son is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me.... i wouldn't trade that for the world... but still, WHAT IF?
i feel like i just poured my heart out...

FIRE!

this is a house (actually 2 houses, some sheds, and a barn) 2 houses down from us. our poor neighbors lost EVERYTHING today. since we rely on a volunteer fire department out here, it took 45 minutes for anyone to arrive at the fire... and by that time, everything was gone. it took them a couple hours to put all the fire out and it was very scary for us- i'm actually standing in front of our house taking this picture....

God blessed us today. Now may He pour his blessings out to the poor families who lost everything they own.

by the way, when we were driving home from church, we saw the smoke and actually thought it was OUR house cuz there aren't a whole lot of houses out here. we were totally freaking out and thought that WE had lost everything. it was an unbelievable feeling. and an even better feeling when we drove up and realized that our home was ok! ...it was a scary day...

TWO years...

today, scott and i have been married 2 years. wow.

we agreed not to spend much money on each other... so i made him this

it's his favorite kind of cake... i just made it look cute... i'm quite proud of it!

it's HUGE... i had a REALLY hard time finding a pan or tray it would fit on.... it's on an oven liner lol... the red trim is sprinkles :) ...cute, i know.

counting down..... 7 days till my birthday. oh heck yes.

Happy VD, everyone!

VD.... mmm....

yeah so i think valentine's day is quite silly. i think it is an unnecessary use of money. especially when you don't have much of it! so i told scott not to get me anything.... because our anniversary is 7 days after VD and my birthday is 14 days after VD.... but he buys me something anyway. a card (which i was actually glad he got me a card) and chocolate.... seriously? CHOCOLATE? i mean, i love candy.... but i can buy that whenever i want. i would rather have flowers. because i would feel plain silly buying myself flowers. but i am SO allowed to buy myself candy. oh well. it's not like i'm not gonna EAT the chocolate :)

ok guys there is some definite need for celebration... we now have the internet IN OUR HOME! i didn't realize how much i truly missed it.... we just got hooked up yesterday and already i am spending way too much time on it. i really should be doing dishes or laundry or something... but why the hell would i do those things when i can sit here and type for all of you? EXACTLY.

i feel like there is a lot going on that i should be typing about... but now that i try to actually sit down and type it all out.... and i can't think of a damn thing. SHEESH!

umm.... um....

thank any and all of you who have had my scottie in your thoughts and prayers... his new job is going really well and he ACTUALLY LIKES IT! like, he comes home in a good mood and totally has an optimistic outlook about it. it's been so good for all of us. what a blessing!

i'm really excited about birtheversary coming up (birthday/anniversary celebration rolled into one)... i don't know what the plan is yet.... but it's always fun. hmm... i'm really wondering what my gift from my husband will be.... he says he already knows... i wonder.

GEE WHIZ where am i today? i promise i really had stuff to talk about and it's like someone vacuumed out my head.

the few of you who aren't my myspace friends haven't heard about MADONNA going on tour this summer. we're all crossing our fingers (and toes and eyes) that she will come to Texas. we're going to party like there's no tomorrow if she comes... but if she doesn't, man, will we be DISAPPOINTED!

i've had the hiccups for about a year.... ok, 45 minutes. still- i'm deriously struggling with my concentration, patience, and pissiness about them. i don't like them so PLEASE GO AWAY. i seriously have violent hiccups. they drive scott crazy. i used to get griped at about them in school... they're so loud. and i cannot control them. yes, yes. i know. obnoxious.

i hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week and has bought me a birthday present.

au revoir~
Melanie

countdown...

ladies and gentlemen.....

it is 23 days until my birthday.

i like expensive stuff.

i accept american express.

thank you for your time.

Date Night with Scottie

i would just like veryone to know that scott and i went bowling tonight and i got the first STRIKE of MY LIFE!

yeah, i'm quite proud of myself...
for your information, i have only been bowling like twice in the past and not since i was like 11.
by the way, i actually got THREE strikes.... and FOUR spares.... i was way proud.

then we went to chili's and i had the best thing i've ever gotten there....seriously.... now i'm stuffed and extrememly sleepy and i REEK of cigarette smoke (bowling alleys are stinky)

i would LOVE a shower.

ta-ta!

What happens when...

This is what happens when you take your toddler to the local "Suck E Cheese".