Everyone should travel to Mississippi . . .

Seriously, we have the craziest trips and I have some of the best stories when I travel to Mississippi. I haven't quite figured out if it's because we are going to the state of Mississippi, or if it's just the story of my life . . . .

Saturday morning, while enjoying a relaxing morning and watching one of my favorite movies, "While You Were Sleeping", we received the dreaded phone call. Jonathan's Uncle passed away and thus our whirlwind weekend had begun. Here's a quick overview of the best parts of the weekend . . .

Jon Thomas caught his first fish and screamed like a girl when he touched it and it was slimy.

Jon Thomas AND Charlie broke out in hives while fishing due to an apparent undiagnosed allergy to the grass growing around the pond. Side note - apparently the combination of Jonathan's genes and my genes are about a couple of ticks short of producing the boy in the plastic bubble. Our kids are allergic to everything!

Jon Thomas fed a baby calf out of a bottle and rode on a tractor!

I had to have a serious discussion with JT explaining why it was inappropriate to tee tee by the tree in the cemetary during the graveside service.

While playing at Mamaw Spears house (she passed away when JT was 3 months old), Jon T was corrected for playing with Mamaw Spears' cuckoo clock and he said, "Mamaw Spears is in heaven with God and she really doesn't need it anymore!" (do you think I could stick another Mamaw Spears in that sentence?)

Charlie has added many words to his growing vocabulary - Thank you and Danggit are the highlights!

We are home recuperating now and listening to Jonathan throw up in the bathroom after eating some "not so good" funeral food. His illness gives me enough fodder for an entirely new blog about how men are the biggest babies on the planet and it sucks to take care of them when they are sick.

Have a great week everyone!

Cartoon Tyrannies, etc.

Okay, so lately when I'm watching TV with Jon Thomas (yes, he watches TV), I've noticed there are things that disturb (well maybe not quite disturb, but close) me. Here they are . . .

• Sir Topham Hat has his finger in the pie of every business venture on the Island of Sodor - he runs the trains, buses, and apparently has control of Harold the Helicopter too. Wouldn't that be considered a monopoly on the transportation industry and be illegal? I think there should be an episode where STH is tried before a jury of his peers for his obvious squelching of free trade.
• What normal person would have their COMPUTER set up next to their cannisters on their tile countertop in the kitchen so the talking cucumber and tomato can use it every now and then?
• Why does Dora the Explorer talk in an insanely loud voice on TV? The girl has clearly not been properly explained the concept of the "inside voice" becasue she never uses one. She screams throughout the entire program.
• Jon Thomas was allowed to watch Caillou a couple of times and now I do not allow it in my home any longer. First, that child is the whinest creature on the planet and secondly, no parent can use that deadly calm voice in the midst of total chaos - "Caillou, it isn't nice to set your sister's hair on fire. Mommy and Daddy don't approve of that." UGH!

PRODUCE!

Here's our first garden product of the season. I must say, I'm very proud of our little garden this year. We have blooms on all our vegetables (and some tomatoes that get checked for a color change EVERY DAY) EXCEPT the okra. The okra plants are covered in ants! What is the deal with us and ants!

Can you see the thrill oozing out of Jon Thomas? I guess he really was excited because before I could chop the pepper and add it to my stir fry dinner, he ate it - stem, seeds and all!

I GOT A NEW JOB - A REAL ONE!

After 11 long months of living in Huntsville, I have finally found a part-time job that has qualifications other than typing 35 words per minute at 90% accuracy! I'm so thrilled! I met with the owner of two Mathnasium (just don't comment on the name okay) franchise stores and I'm the new director of the Madison location. So the place is a math learning center that assesses kids and helps them in areas of math where they have gaps. It's a very neat program and I'm very exciting for a number of reasons which I'll outline for you now . . . (1) The center is (according to mapquest) 3.8 miles from my house (2) I will work 4 afternoons a week from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. (3) My children will stay at a woman's house 3 hours a day and her house is (not according to mapquest, according to me so give or take a mile) 2.5 miles from my house (4) they are paying me a lot more than my crappy hospital job. YIPPEE!