After my last post yesterday, things got even more interesting. At least I can laugh about most of it now.

My neighbor down the street and her daughter came by here around 2:30 yesterday afternoon to see if Travis wanted to play, and we made an interesting observation about our kids. Every time Travis picked up a toy, Allie wanted it. If Allie picked up the toy, Travis had to have it. It didn't matter what toy it was...and the kid who wanted the toy the other kid had would just stand there crying his/her little lungs out. Well the interesting part of it all is the fact that 2-year-olds do not even consider the other child's feelings at all. I mean, everyone knows that, but if you really stop and think about the psychology of that, it's like 2-year-olds really don't have the capacity to feel sympathy yet. They can feel hate and jealousy, but not sympathy. I guess that proves that everyone's true nature leans toward "bad", and later on we learn how to be "good".

Reluctantly, we loaded up in the car and drove out to Wolfchase so we could go to Stride Rite to buy Jacob some shoes. Well the sales clerk measured Jacob at 4 and 1/2, but Jacob's shoes he has NOW are that size, and his toe is almost to the end. Sorry, but if I'm going to pay $42 for a pair of shoes that aren't going to last but a couple months, I am going to buy them a little big so that he has a little room to grow. I'm not made of money here, nor do I have a money tree growing in the back yard. So we got size 5's, and went on our merry way. We were hungry before we even left the house, and on our way to the mall I saw On the Border, which we've been wanting to try for quite some time now, so after we left the mall, we crossed the street to the restaurant. Right off the bat, we made some interesting observations. Before you even walk in the place, you will immediately realize that it's not a "real" Mexican restaurant. It's like a fancy, high-dollar Panchos. For one thing, the place is HUGE, but we had to wait 20 minutes to get a table. I can go to any local hole-in-the-wall "real" Mexican restaurant, the place can be packed like sardines, and you are still going to get a table almost instantly. Secondly, we noticed that all of the servers were white, and all the guys cleaning off the tables were hispanic. I wonder who did their hiring, and I wonder if that person knows that it's illegal to hire/not hire people based off their race or ethnicity? Once we were finally seated, we looked over the menu. There were ribs, steaks, and mashed potatoes on the menu?? Of course, this was along with all the other prefabricated cutsie named foods. I realized this restaurant must be for those who are afraid to try the real deal. So as we always do at a Mexican restaurant, we ordered cheese dip to go with the chips. It took at least 10 to 15 minutes before we got our cheese dip, and like 2 minutes after that we got our appetizer, and I'm thinking "What's the point?" You go to a Mexican restaurant to stuff your face with chips and dip, not sit there and get it the same time you get all your other food. What kind of place IS this? So we got our food, and mine was all wrong. I ordered the Big Bordurrito with steak (you could choose chicken, too) with no onions and no red bell peppers. Well they brought me a chicken one AND it had onions in it, so I had to send it back. Well then the "right" one came back, except it had tomatoes in it. The menu didn't even SAY anything about tomatoes or pico de gallo. By this point, the waiter must've thought I was the worst customer he'd ever had the pleasure of serving, but you know, I want what I order. We pay good money to sit there and order what we want, and for it to come to me wrong twice?? So the manager walked over to us and I told him about the problem, and he said whoever made it in the kitchen didn't know what they were doing apparently because it's not even SUPPOSED to have tomatoes in it. I'm thinking to myself "Yeah, maybe you should get some of the Mexicans to go back there and actually cook it." So he ended up taking my meal off the ticket and then I ordered dessert, which was also on the house because of their screw up. So my overall review of On the Border? Maybe we caught them on a bad night, but even on their best night, On the Border is a disgrace and shouldn't even have "Mexican" on the lit up sign out front. Oh, and did I mention we were in there for over 2 HOURS?!

But now if we can back up for a moment, during our "stay" at On the Border, I went to the bathroom to wash my hands, and there were 3 women in there, probably in their mid to late 20's, standing around the mirror talking. I was just in there to wash my hands, not really paying attention to them, UNTIL they started showing each other their tattoos and belly button rings. OMG!! One of the girls' tattoos was in a place you aren't supposed to be able to see unless you have your panties off...I am NOT LYING. She just lifted up her little skirt and was showing everything!!! And then the other girl raised up her shirt to show her belly button ring, and I mean, I couldn't HELP but glance over there, ya know? And they glanced over at me and gave me this look like I was a weirdo for even BEING IN THERE! I was just in there washing my hands, for crying out loud! Geez!!

Now on a totally unrelated note, here's my piece of wisdom for the day...and I thought this up all by myself...I could see this in a quote book someday:

"I would rather make 100 honest mistakes, than 1 dishonest mistake. The honest mistakes, we learn from and they make us human. The dishonest mistakes, we learn from those, too, but they make us inhumane."

So last night on the way home, we stopped at Blockbuster to rent a movie, and we picked up "Monster" and "The Last Samurai". Travis stayed at Mamaw's last night, so we stayed up late watching "Monster". Let me put it to you this way...it is not a movie I'd recommend to anyone I know. Lots of bad language (F this, F that, F'ing this, MF that), and a lesbian lover scene, plus a few other graphic scenes that didn't show all that much, but left things to the imagination that I don't care to imagine. I will say that by the end of the movie, I actually felt sorry for the serial killer hooker lady.

That's it for me now...Jacob is still sleeping, so I need to get a couple things done around here before he wakes up. Then Travis has a social function this afternoon...one of his friends from church is having a birthday party this afternoon...super yay!

Signing out.

You know,I was having a good day. Keyword: was. The party went really well last night...nothing got broken or spilled, and I maintained my sanity. Jacob was adorable...he crammed so much chocolate cake in his mouth, and then he wanted more and more.) So I was sitting here this morning, minding my own business, editing and organizing some pictures on my computer, and then I decided to stop ignoring the kids and take Travis out to play in his new water sprinkler frog toy he got last night. Well, I went out back to see if I could hook it up without a problem...after figuring out I had to sit the frog on a flat surface to operate properly, things were good. Well, I decided to take the patio umbrella back outside (it had been put away in the garage because we thought it was going to storm the other night), so I went out to the garage to get it, came back through the house with it, it leaked water all over me and all over the floor, I finally got out the back door with it, and wouldn't you know the dogs ran in the house. So I was outside trying to raise the umbrella and the darn thing got stuck a little less than halfway up. Apparently the mechanism that raises and lowers the umbrella got rusted out...piece of crap. So I finally got tired of trying, and came back in to get the kids to take them outside, and lo and behold, the front door was WIDE OPEN. Jacob was about to roll out the door, and Sparky and Travis just stood there looking at me, and I realized the Little Bear was missing out of the bunch. I asked Travis "Where's Little Bear?" and he replied "Outside." Great...just freaking great. So I ran outside to see if I could spot him down the street, but I couldn't see him. So I left the kids in the house screaming and crying, and walked up the street a ways to look for him somemore. Some neighbors a few houses down told me they saw him dart off across the park. REALLY GREAT!! There was no way I could just leave my kids in the house by themselves any longer to go hunt down a dumb dog, so I just said "Fine, he's gone...whatever...if he's that stupid to run off like that, then sobeit." So I came back in the house, called Michael to tell him the bad news and wait to get yelled at for it, and as I was sitting there talking, I saw Little Bear out in the driveway just standing there looking around, not even trying to get in or anything, so I opened the door and he came in. So all is well that ends well, right?

Anyway, Jacob got some birthday money, so tonight we're going shoe shopping for him and grabbing something to eat while we're out, so I guess I better go iron our my crazy hair, and kill a cat while I'm at it...she won't leave my ankles ALONE!!!

Happy Birthday to the Birthday Boy, Jacob!! He is a whole year old today, well actually, at 1:25 p.m. he will be. I've been busy, busy trying to get things in order around here. I made a To-Do list and got a few things checked off:

1. Order chik-fil-a platter...CHECK

2. Clean kitchen:
a. Dishes...check
b. Clean counter tops...check
c. Dust table...check
d. Sweep floor...check
e. Mop floor...check
f. Take out trash...check

3. Living Room:
a. Straighten desk...check
b. Scrub recliner...check

4. Guest bathroom:
a. Scrub toilet...check
b. Clean mirror/sink...check
c. Empty trash...check
d. Sweep floor...check
e. Mop floor...check

5. Straighten Jacob's room...check.

NOW, this is what I have left TO DO:

1. Vacuum living room, hallway and kids' rooms.
2. Dust living room.
3. Straighten Travis' room.
4. Make the jambalaya
5. Go to store to pick up cake and buy things we still need for party.
6. Bathe Jacob
7. Bathe self
8. Decorate
9. Wrap presents.

So I guess I better get busy...it just helps when I sit down and figure out what's still left to do, and checking things off makes me feel like I accomplished something.

Guess what? You are now reading post #299. So you know what that means? It means my next post, probably taking place tomorrow, will be #300. In celebration, I evicted a few blog buds, as you will notice to the left of your screen. No hard feelings, but it really gets old checking certain people's blogs every day since March, only to find no fresh material. (Okay, I am now ducking to shield myself from the rotten produce being hurled my way.) If you, in fact, should decide to renew your blog life again, please let me know and I will be more than happy to add you to my blog list again.

Today I took Travis & Jacob to their playdate this afternoon at my friend, Angie's house. Both her kids, Jeron and Melodie, are close to the same ages as my two kids...we were both pregnant both times at the same time. We had lunch, the kids played, we talked for awhile, and we had a good time.

This evening it sure kept looking like it was going to storm something awful, but it never did...it went right on around us. The sky looked really freaky to the north and west. I was actually kind of hoping for some heavy rain and some thunder. Storms generally freak me out, but it's sort of cool to sit here and watch it move in over the radar.

In other news, tomorrow is Jacob's birthday. I can hardly believe that it's been a year since he came into the world. It just doesn't even seem possible. This time last year, I was getting ready to go to the hospital. I was feeling extremely nervous, but probably not nearly as nervous as I was awaiting the arrival of my first baby boy. Needless to say, I'm glad that it's a year later, because I really don't want to go through all that drama again, at least not for awhile. We kind of go back and forth on the issue of having more kids...sometimes we say we're content with our two, but then we always say that somewhere down the road we want to try for another baby in hopes of getting a girl...but we all know that the likelihood of getting a girl is slim to none.

So anyway, in preparation for Jacob's party, not that I've done much of THAT yet, I had charged up the video camera battery overnight last night, only to discover this evening that apparently the battery is no good because even though it had been charging nearly 24 hours, it only held enough power to make the power on the camera bleep on for like half a second and go dead again. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the battery, but with the same result. So then I called my Dad to ask him if he still has his video camera, you know, because lately he's gotten all high tech with his fancy schmancy digital camera, and he may have gotten rid of his NORMAL old-fashioned video camera, lol. He said he'd find it, charge it up, and bring it, so PHEW. Also, I thought I had some leftover balloons from Travis' party last year, but I can't find them, so that means yet another trip to the dollar store. Whoopeee! But hey, my baby boy is worth it. :-) I can't wait to see him dig into his chocolate cake tomorrow. But before the cake attack can take place, tomorrow's agenda includes cleaning the house, decorating, cooking, ordering a chik-fil-a platter, running to the store to pick up a few last minute items, picking up the chik-fil-a platter, and picking up the cake. CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY!!!

NEWS FLASH:

I, too, am human. I make common, everyday, normal mistakes, just like you and just like everyone else. I am not perfect, nor will I ever be. No, I don't vacuum the carpets every day. Sometimes even I forget to replace the empty toilet paper roll. I don't make the bed on Saturdays. I don't always keep my toenails painted, and I don't remember to shave my legs every single day. I'm doing extremely good to get a shower every single day. I have never cut the grass one time in my life, and I will pay the kid down the street to mow the yard before I probably ever will. After supper, sometimes I'm too tired to load the dishes in the dishwasher, and I wait 'til the next morning to do it. I don't see the point in sweeping my white kitchen floor 15 times a day when 5 seconds later, grass is going to get tracked in or the dog is going to run across it. I have failed at many diets, and will probably fail at a few more. I hate to iron clothes...I prefer to toss them in the dryer for a few minutes when they are needed. I know how to be organized, it's just easier to shove random objects into a wal-mart sack in an empty kitchen cabinet than it is to put things where they really ought to go. I leave clean laundry in the basket for several days before I take the initiative to fold it. I keep waiting for someone else to, but it never happens. So tell me...what other faults do I have? And are these faults so bad that I have to be reminded that I'm a bad person because of these things? Maybe next time I'll make out a "good" list.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention the storm that took place Sunday night. I KNEW I was forgetting SOMETHING...

Anyway, the folks we met up with in Pigeon Forge during vacation called us Saturday to see if we wanted to get together with them Sunday night after church to go eat Mexican. They said they'd call us Sunday night when they got through, and they said it'd be around 8 when they'd be out of church. Well, it was about 8:15 and they hadn't called yet, so we went ahead and loaded up the kids because we knew the rain was coming and we wanted to get them loaded up before the bottom fell out. Well just as we were walking out the door, Michael's cell phone rang, and it was them...very good timing. So we got to the restaurant, which is right down the road from us, and sat down to a table, all 8 of us (they have 2 kids, we have 2 kids), and starting munching on some chips, we ordered our food, got our food, started eating our food, and I could've sworn I kept hearing a siren. You know, like the ones that rotate that get louder as they are sounding off in your direction, and then get softer as they sound off in the opposite direction? Well, I kept hearing that sound, but then thought I was imagining things. When we got through eating, we invited them over to our house for a little bit, and it was POURING down rain, so we loaded up the kids the best we could, and then by the time we got to our house, it was raining 10 times harder than that, and REALLY bad lightning. Well if you've ever been to my house in the rain, the front porch is like Niagra Falls because we don't have gutters yet. All of us got drenched and I had to give out towels to everyone to dry off and then change the kids' clothes and my own clothes. So yesterday afternoon I was talking to my sister on the phone and she mentioned something about having the kids in the bath tub the night before during the storm and she said sirens were going off, and I asked her if DeSoto County was under a tornado warning Sunday night around 9-ish, and she said there WAS. I KNEW I was hearing sirens!! What is freaky/funny is that there we all are chowing down on Mexican food, and there's a freaking tornado somewhere nearby, and we didn't even know it. Tornados are less scary when you don't even know there is one, because had I known about it, I would've been freaking out. Oh well, at least we had fun playing in the rain.

It's June already. Where did January through May go?? Soon, the first half of 2004 will be over and done with. Is it just me or does time go by faster and faster every year? Now that it's June 1, that only means one thing...Jacob's birthday is Thursday. This time last year, I was wallering in pure misery, lol. NOW I'm wallering in pure misery because I have to throw together a small, inexpensive birthday party for him in 2 days. I also have to clean the whole house, order his cake, buy decorations, get the video camera charged up, and figure out what I'm going to feed these people. Then NEXT month we have to do it all over again for Travis' birthday, except for Travis' party, we're having it at McDonald's in Olive Branch so all the kids can play themselves silly and not destroy my house, PLUS we won't have to buy tons of food...everyone can come and buy their own food. That's not considered tacky, is it? Surely not. But if it is tacky, then oh well. We are poor so we have to be tacky poor people I guess.

Now page 2...I came to a realization about myself yesterday. Over the years, I've had people tell me from time to time that I am closeminded. And you know what? In some ways, that is true. Growing up, I never really had the chance to form my own opinions and views on things. Whatever my parents believed, I believed because they constantly drilled their ideas into my head. It wasn't until I was 19 years old that I really started forming my OWN opinions about a lot of things. The only problem was, this didn't fly too well with my family, and that in itself is something I had a problem with. It's like there was this huge sign etched into my brain that said, "The proper thing to do is always do what pleases your family...nevermind what you yourself think." I am sure a lot of us feel this way to some degree...whatever our parents said, we believed to be the ultimate truth. If our parents taught us growing up that the sky was red, we would believe it and it would take us becoming adults to realize for ourselves that the sky is actually blue, but then this would cause conflict with our families because they would still try to argue and say the sky is red, even though we know better. There are certain things I want to instill in my kids...certain principals, values, etc., but there are lots of things I want them to have their own opinions on and I want to respect that. In case you are wondering what brought all of this on, yesterday I was watching on CMT that Crossroads special with Dolly Parton and Melissa Etheridge. Well, Dolly Parton is an EXTREMELY talented song writer, singer, and musician. Growing up, however, all I ever heard my mom say about Dolly Parton was that she didn't like Dolly's voice and she didn't like a lot of her songs. Not once did I ever hear about how talented Dolly truly was and is today. I never learned this information until after I moved out of my parents' house and got married. Back then, if Dolly came on the TV, I shut it off. I never took the time on my OWN to give her a chance. I am not, by any means, a Dolly Parton fan...I'd probably never pay to go to a concert of hers. But I have RESPECT for her musical abilities now, an opinion I wasn't able to form under the roof of my parents, and the ability to form my own personal opinions about many other things in life. Yes, there are certain things that people will still think I am "closeminded" about, especially when it comes to certain standards I refuse to change, or my religious beliefs, but besides that, I have thrown much of my closedmindedness out the window.

It's kinda weird that it's Memorial Day and we're not going to a cookout somewhere. So tonight I'm making fried chicken. It turned out really really good last time I made it a couple weeks ago, so I'm going to find out if it was just pure luck last time or what.

I still have this weird rash. It really hasn't gotten any worse, but it hasn't gotten any better. I'm starting to wonder if I'm allergic to the cat, but everyone I've talked to that is allergic to cats said they have sneezing and watery eyes and very clogged sinuses, and I've had none of that thus far.

We are dog-sitting Terri's dog, Sparky, while she's on her job training in Minnesota, and that dog sheds something AWFUL. We brought the dogs (our dog Little Bear and Terri's dog Sparky) home from the kennel Saturday morning, and this morning I vacuumed all the floors and the couch and the chair, and the cup that holds all the dirt and stuff that gets sucked up was completely FULL of dog hair...ICK. Little Bear may shed the same amount, but I really don't let him spend a lot of time running wild in the house to find out. Unless it's raining, extrememly cold or extremely hot, Little Bear spends a lot of his time in the back yard, and he comes in at night to sleep. So this only means that I'm going to have to vacuum daily (yay me) instead of a couple times a week like normal. Sparky is a very good dog...very calm, friendly, lovable...he's just too hairy, lol. Little Bear can be a good dog, but he's just way too hyper. He's friendly, but calm is not part of his behavior, lol.

Michael's is gone to the grocery store now, and the main reason I sent him instead of going myself is that he can come out of there getting pretty much everything we need by only spending like $50, but then I go in there getting what I think we need and spend around $120. We are very broke this week, considering Jacob's birthday is Thursday, and Michael's mom and Michael's other sister Wanda both have birthdays the day before, and we haven't even BEGUN to figure out how the heck we're going to get Michael's car tag renewed which expires TODAY. :::SIGH::: It's things like this that make me want to go back to work, but then we always manage to make ends meet SOMEHOW.

The only question I have today is...Is it time for Michael to go back to work yet? LOL. He's had 9 days off starting LAST Sunday, and ever since we got home from vacation, I've wanted to do nothing but sit around and watch TV or get on the computer, because I can't stand to be busy doing laundry and dishes and cleaning while he just gets to sit there. Don't get me wrong...I've really enjoyed having all this time with my hubby because I had really missed him A LOT while he was working and going to school so much, but it's just really hard for me to get my work done around the house when he's like in a totally different world, lol. Why can't momma be lazy sometimes?

In other news, we've decided to get rid of cable for awhile. I guess it all started when Michael came to the realization that we can't flip channels anymore without coming across a bunch of junk (I agree), not to mention, we spend WAY too much time channel surfing, SO we're going to stick with the basic channels for awhile and see what we can live without. Tonight we all 4 went on a walk and stopped at the part along the way, and it sure beat the heck out of vegitating in front of the TV all night, every night.