FREE TOTS!!!

Evidently when you go to Sonic dressed in a flower bra they give ya free tots. I didn't try it, but Pete & CJ did and were rewarded for their efforts. Sonic better hope word doesn't get out; otherwise everybody in town will go to Dollar Tree to buy a flower bra, drive to Sonic and claim their free tots!

Thinking about getting a nose job....

I'm told with a good surgeon we could look like this:

Where to start?

This was quite an exciting week around here, not to mention somewhat busy. Monday night was graduation at the kids' old school, Marshall Academy in Holly Springs. We went to see old friends and had a great time catching up with folks over there (though most didn't recognize me!).
On the way over there we found out that Mom was coming to our house the next day for Pete's graduation. Oh, boy....as she talked, I just kept picturing my house in my head. Or more to the point, I kept picturing the MESS in my house! I knew there was no way to get it looking decent before she got here (Patrick and I had to work Tuesday, leaving the kids home alone to "clean". Since I never really taught them, I knew we were sunk!). But we were so blessed to have her here and really enjoyed the quick visit. She got here Tuesday evening around 5, we left for Pete's graduation at 6:30, then dinner, then home to bed. Mom was gone by 7:45 Wed. morning.
I was reffing the water-balloon volleyball game, standing a safe 5 feet from the jello pool, when I caught a flash out of the corner of my eye. Next thing I knew I was flying through the air in Eric's arms, right into the pool! I had no time to brace myself so there was very little damage done (Patrick's first question was whether I "popped" anything!). Thus my first foray into the jello-wrestling, and it's awesome! In fact, if it didn't need to be an outdoor sport, I'd bring all the stuff to my sister Leslie's house and we'd do it for a new Thanksgiving activity! OMG the kids would have a BLAST (so would the adults!).
At some point during the party my neighbor Eric decided it was time for Ryan to have a haircut. So he recruited one of the kids' friends to help, and they duct taped him TIGHT to minimize the fight. Then Eric carried him outside to a chair and duct taped him to that, also. Then he whipped out the clippers and began to shave Ryan's head! I gotta give it Ryan.....he took it like a man! :)
The week's over now and all we have to do is clean up from the party....still. I picked up tons of stuff tonight, but we still have 50 gallons of Jello to dispose of!! That stuff is STILL the same consistency it was Wednesday night, so I had to call to find out how to get rid of it. That's probably something I should've considered before I bought it, huh?
Oh yeah, also on the agenda this weekend (besides disposing of the Jello) is cleaning the hot tub. Funny (or NOT) how that jello just clings to EVERY inch of you, even fully clothed! Put 6 or 7 teens in a hot tub after they've been wrestling, and well...it ain't pretty! I think there's probably a brownie or 2 floating around in there, as well. I know it's brownie, because I witnessed the act myself. Christy threw the brownie to Pete, who dropped it in the hot tub. When he said, "Where'd it go?" someone else said, "There it is!" and everyone else yelled, That's not a brownie!!!" Teens are so much fun!

Congrats, Ryan!

Ryan turned 15 a couple weeks ago, which means he's "permit-able". Pete took him to get his permit the day after his birthday, only to find out that there's a special application that we, his parents, had to fill out and sign. So they picked up the application, brought it home for Patrick to fill out, and headed back to the DMV (nearest one is 20 miles away)with Mabry. Got to the DMV, where Ryan realized that he forgot the application his dad had just signed!
Earlier this week, Pete took Ryan back to the DMV with the application. Ryan got to the window, handed the papers over to the lady, who promptly wrote "VOID" on the application because it wasn't notarized!. Oh, boy, was Ryan ticked off!(To be fair, he had every reason to be ticked; on the bottom of the application is a place to get it notarized, and Patrick didn't think it needed to be done. That in itself was an argument between Patrick and I, but we won't go there right now! :) )
So, Friday being my birthday, I took off work, spent $70 getting my hair done, checked Ryan out of school, got his application notarized and took him to the DMV. You'd think having JUST had my hair done that I wouldn't want to get it messy, but it was such a pretty day we drove Mimi with the top down and my hair flying free. When we got to the DMV, I realized that MY license expired that day. What a pretty picture I made.....NOT!
Anyway, Ryan took his test, passed, and got his permit. He didn't get to drive home, though, because Mimi's a stick. Ryan barely has a clue about an automatic, so I wasn't even gonna attempt letting him drive Mimi! I let him drive me around yesterday in Sparky (our '94 F150), and I've got to admit I quite enjoyed having my sunglasses fly off my face twice. I'm sure eventually the boy will get the hang of those brakes!

Graduation Party: Take One

I should have known. Nothing much else was going right so far: I'd paid $33 for express shipping from Oriental Trading only to provide them with the WRONG address (correct home street address, but with my work city/state!)I discovered my mistake Friday evening and was told (praise God!) that the box was in Batesville and I could go pick it up. That was 6:30 Friday, Batesville's 20 minutes away, and the FedEx closes at 7pm. I was up to my elbows in hamburger meat (making patties for burgers), so I yelled to Pete to finish the burgers as I ran out the door. Crisis averted! Got all the buckets filled Friday night for his party on Saturday. We're SET!
Saturday morning we're awoken by loud thunderstorms and rain beating against the windows. No sweat, I thought; party's at 5 so surely it'll clear up. And it did....right up 'til 4 pm, AFTER we'd set evertyhing up for the party (luckily not the jello yet). Promptly at 4 the bottom fell out of the sky and thunder & lightening came quickly & fiercely. It rained for hours! No way could we have had to games we'd planned on, so we moved on to Plan B. Everyone still showed up, so we projected movies onto the wall. They ate hotdogs (thanks, Patrick, for grilling them in the rain!), chips, about a million canned drinks, and cake. The music was so loud, and there really was no room in here for adults. So we (7 adults) did the practical thing: we took all the alcohol next door to Angie's house and sat on her (covered) pack patio, leaving our house to the kids! :)
When we came back they were playing a game they made up that involved lots of leis and the ceiling fan!
Later this week we're going to do it all again. We've still got plenty of food & drinks, so we're just gonna pick a sunny day, call all our friends, and have another party!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

For some reason we celebrated his birthday twice...I guess it's 'cause he's twice as special. Or as Mabry would say,he's 2-handed special! The night of his birthday, Patrick and I took Ryan to Windy City Grille. Since it was only the 3 of us (Mabry & Pete were otherwise occupied), it wasn't quite as lively. So we decided to try it again last night at Outback Steak House. YUMMMY!!!! We asked the balloon-lady to make him something special for his birthday, so she made him a lady-viking hat and sang happy birthday to him! LOL
How do these things go so fast?! The night before his birthday, I just kept remembering how short & fat he was when we brought him home from the hospital. At just under 9 pounds and only 18" long, he looked like a Butterball! I should've had my first clue he'd be tall when at his one week checkup he'd grown to 21"! Now the boy's 6'4" and looks like a string-bean!
He'll go to get his permit next week; he hasn't studied for it yet so didn't feel ready for it on his birthday. The boy had BETTER hurry up with it, though. In MS you can drive w/out an adult at 15 & 1/2, and by then all my other drivers will be out of the house. As it stands now, I'm gonna have to do my own grocery shoppping for 4 months!!! :O