Today in pictures

A trip to the bug museum:

Airplane

On my mind

I downloaded a couple of albums so far.

1. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours, this was recommended tunage on Dooce.com and she never steers me wrong. It's funky 80's music, a lot like Erasure. Keith said it's pretty gay.

2. M.I.A., Arular, which was released in 2005, but is getting a lot of buzz lately because Paper Planes was in Slumdog Millionaire. Turns out she's been popular among the cool folks for awhile, but I just jumped on the bandwagon. A week after I got her album, she performed on the Grammy's, totally pregnant, in a crazy outfit. M.I.A. is the S.H.I.T. Anyway, her Bucky Done Gun song rocks and listening to Kale sing it is effing hilarious.

You can give me a big fat F for all the non-posting I've been doing. Sorry. Bringing that up all the time is essentially the beginning of the end, huh? Well, I'll try and not let it be.

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Kale sent Valentine Transformers with a lollipop and M&M's to all his friends in class. The Valentines weren't to be addressed to anyone in particular just to "My Friend" from their name. Kale got a small heart box of Spiderman chocolates from one little girl. Pump ur brakes lil lady. And, it was addressed to him. Hmmm. Hmmm. This is the same little girl we ran into at Luby's ' a couple of weeks ago after school. Kale urged me to let him go say hi. So, after we finished eating, we headed over. As we got closer, Kale increasingly became glued to the back of my leg and disappeared. I introduced myself and nudged him to say hi to her, to which he did and was very happy. The little girl's grandmother whispered into her ear "Is that your boyfriend?" to which she very enthusiastically said "YES!" to.

Our weekend was spent with Uncle J, Na-na, and Melissa. We took turns babysitting while the other couple went out for the night. We've been spending a lot of time together, us four. It's been great. Last weekend, my Mom stayed home after the boys had gone to bed, we went to dinner and then bowling. We haven't had this much fun in a long time. I jokingly told them that getting pregnant at the same time we did, was the best non-planning they'd ever done. Ha! But, seriously, it's really been such a blessing and I can't think of any other way things should've turned out. We're looking forward to our vacation together this year. They're ready to get their arses handed to them in Scrabble...with love.

***

I'm going to end with news that's been spreading like wildfire where my Mom works. It's just a reminder of how precious life is and how we never know what path it will take. A well known Dr. at Methodist was recently featured in an article in Reader's Digest. Well, he lost his son in a tragic car accident this weekend. His son's obituary is truly remarkable and moving. Any mother and father would be proud of such a wonderful young man he was turning out to be.

I look at Kale and Mack and see their potential and I wonder what they'll be like one day. I can't imagine doing what every parent does...the feeding, the bathing, the hugging and kissing, the teaching, the nurturing and everything else...only to have it taken away from you. It's a pain I pray I never experience. Please pray for this family.

http://www.legacy.com/houstonchronicle/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=124138021

Texas sledding

It is almost time to pick up Kale and I've been meaning to post these vids of us at the park, for oh, 3 days now. I don't have enough time in the day. If only there were 3 extra hours, or if I didn't need sleep. So, I will leave while the computer uploads them and when I come back, I will attempt to publish, but that may be too ambitious for me. I'll come crawling back to the computer at 11:30 tonight...


Yesterday I took Mack to his new tumbling class at the YMCA, he's so crazy. He only does what the teacher asks 57% of the time. And, if he were my first, I'd be chasing him around the room trying to get him to do a pencil roll for the 5th time. Instead, I get him to try it once and then I let him do whatever activity that interests him, until the next task. Maybe it's the balance beam or the big triangle pad, whatever. I'm paying for it and I don't really expect him to learn anything, so it's about having fun for me. The poor teacher hasn't taught a toddler class before. Ha. She tries her best to keep them focused on her and at the task at hand. She was sweating at the end of our class (3 little boys, 2 and under). My little monkey...

Here we all are kickin' it old school. Yes, that's cardboard. And, yes, it was a lot of fun. The funniest video is on Melissa's blog, it's of me flipping off at the end of the hill. At the beginning you hear Justin giving me a tip on how to go faster and I respond with "No, that's alright." And, right before I put my second leg in, I tell Tatum to move before plunging to bottom and eating grass. Check it out here.

Keith's turn, he got some pretty rad grass stains:

Here's Melissa and I racing:

And, here's one of many of Justin:

For a good time

We were out to dinner the other night and I got a misdirected text message on my phone.

So, I decided to have a little fun with it...I replied

I thought the guy would figure it out and I'd get a pissed off or a funny reply...

Keith and I almost peed ourselves. What's the Meat Whistle? Really?! No clue?! We left it at that because this poor boy was lost and didn't need the help of our twisted minds. But, the next morning when I turned my phone back on, I'd received a text message at midnight that just said...Dude. And, I don't know what's funnier? What's the Meat Whistle or Dude? Dude could mean so many things. For instance, he could be saying Dude, you fucking bailed on me. What's up? or Dude, does Meat Whistle mean what I think it means? or it could mean Dude, you missed the most kick-ass night ever! Either way, I'm leaving it to the universe to help this guy figure out what the hell happened to his friend Aaron on Thursday night.

In other proud moments...

Justin just started his first semester at the Art Institute this month majoring in Web Design and Interactive Media. He's been working really hard on his assignments. He's so excited, because he's getting graded on his artwork. Actual feedback and praise. I can only imagine what the other first year students drawings look like. I'll say a little prayer just for them. This is impressive. You miss a lot of detail on the blog, but you get the idea.

*this is their living room, minus the Monopoly guy.