I'm Changing their names!

I have a complex about using my precious children's real names on a blog that is accessible by anyone, possibly including all the weirdos and pedophiles that could come in contact with us any time. So when I started this blog, I hastily chose names for them: RocketFire, Lightning McB, and Little Lady. But y'all...I never really liked the names I chose.

RocketFire was given that name by himself. He loves to think of himself as a superhero, and RocketFire is his super alter ego. But really, we hardly ever call him by that name, so it felt weird to call him that on this blog. So from now on, at least until I decide to change his nickname again :) I will be calling him "Dub." Dub is a name he's had almost since Day 1; this poor child has more nicknames than most people on earth, but Dub is one that we use maybe even more than his real name. I'm surprised at myself for not thinking of this one first.

As for Lightning McB, it's obviously because he loves the movie Cars. Sometimes he asks to watch it several times a week. He sleeps with Lightning McQueen or Mater most of the time, but NEVER Chick Hicks ('cause HE'S the Bad Guy!!!). He's a super-cool, super fast boy, but that is also a name we have rarely called him. So he will be called "Bo" on this blog now. This boy also has tons of nicknames, but most of them involve his real name. Bo is a good name for him, especially since we do use it quite a bit around here as a nickname.

Little Lady will keep her nickname. She is such a sweet little dainty lady that it is a perfect name for her. Of course, Firecracker might also be appropriate, or Loud Mouth, or PUNK...no, I'll just stick with Little Lady.

So Dub, Bo, and Little Lady, I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! And I want to keep you all safe, even as I air out all your dirty laundry. Your nicknames make me smile, but your SELVES make me happy and proud.

Well, it's over...whew

The 2010 Summer Fireworks Season is officially in the books. Well, technically not officially, since Jason is still out there at the moment taking down and cleaning up, and hopefully even selling. And we don't actually settle with the company until tomorrow afternoon, but it's pretty much over, and THANK GOODNESS for that!!!

This season has probably earned me an ulcer, I'm sorry to say. We had obstacles at every single turn, and all along they seemed insurmountable; that is, until now when I have the benefit of hindsight. I will never understand how Jason kept his cool (even in the heat) the entire time and did not give the Hatchet Face woman across the street from us the satisfaction of either cowering in the face of her evilness or lowering himself to her level to strike back. He has the gift of watching and waiting, which has earned us (him) huge credits with everyone in Cheatham County who has anything at all to do with fireworks tents and all their various licenses and regulations. They are all sick to death of Hatchet Face also; as a matter of fact, they have even been known to commiserate with Jason about her.

According to Mr. Hatchet Face, we (our tent) are to blame for the fact that they lost $11,000 last year. Whether or not that's actually the dollar amount, I don't know. But we (Jason) do every bit of the advertising to get customers to our tent/area, and it kind of makes us sick to see anyone leave our tent and go over to theirs. But it happens, we swallow it, and that is that. And last year even we did not have a great year, so it's absolutely absurd for them to blame us. This year, the Hatchet Face family pulled out every big gun they had to try to get us shut down, and I'm so proud to say they did not succeed.

Our tent has been there at the Shell gas station for much more than 10 years (because we've been running it for 10 years); their tent has been there at the BP station maybe 6 years (?). We watched the BP station being built about 6 years ago. So Hatchet Face's behavior is like BP coming in after the Shell has been there for 15 years or more, and BP doing everything in its power to get Shell put out of business because BP isn't making as much money as they want. It's exactly the same!!! And it makes NO SENSE!!!

The Vice President of Operations for Shell (maybe the regional one, I don't know) went to talk to Ms. Hatchet Face; he asked her why she she's doing what she's doing. Her answer: "Greed." Straight from the horse-face's mouth!!! He told us that she said it emphatically and with a straight face. Well, at least she knows. What she doesn't know is how big of a hornet's nest she has stuck her horse-face into, messing with both Shell and Mid-America Distributors; neither of them is going to let anything at all happen to this tent. She ain't big enough to stand up against them, and she has annoyed everyone else so much that she doesn't have anyone to stand with her.

Who knows what next year holds...and it's not for me to think about right now and especially not to worry about. I need to catch up on my prayers of thanksgiving!!! We really did have a good season, nobody got hurt, and we were not shut down. I really hope I learn a lesson from this episode, and even from Jason. He is an incredible salesman, an amazingly hard worker, and among many other good things, a level-headed manager. One thing he is not, however, is a complainer. Now that the storm is over, we can relax for a while (until football season at least) and enjoy the rest of the summer.

Including.....Little Lady's One Year Birthday on July 24!!! Oh great, now I'm going to go worry about that. Just kidding.

Sometimes you just have to say you're sorry. And then laugh at yourself.

We were on our way out the door to go to the pool; I mean almost literally out the door. LMcB decided it was time to announce that he didn't have his shoes on yet. Grrr. So I put down the baby, the pool bag, our drinks, the keys and the pool key so that I could help him.

Just a little interjection here...we have searched the world over for crocs (generic ones) this year, and what's up with NO ONE having them??? We have not found a single pair! Wait, I take that back; Target had some on clearance, but the 5 pairs they had left were not the sizes we need. And Walmart has them in the most ENORMOUS sizes I have ever seen, like men's sizes 13 and up. We have looked in every cheap store I can think of, except Payless because we don't have easy access to one since Opry Mills got flooded out; they probably have millions of crocs. There's flip-flops everywhere in every size and color imaginable, but LMcB can't wear them (or won't), so we're stuck with regular sandals.

These sandals have velcro straps everywhere, which can be confusing for a little guy. He thinks it's necessary to open up every strap every time to get them on. And usually he starts them out on the wrong foot. Don't laugh at that too much - when his Daddy helps him put them on even he gets them on the wrong foot half the time; it really is hard to tell. So anyway, since we were all waiting on LMcB, I just went ahead and did it for him. I told him, "See, it helps if you just unstrap this one, then you don't have to fix them all every time." This was while I was basically shoving his stubborn foot in because I was having some trouble getting it all the way in.

LMcB took over at that point, and he told me, "See, Mom, it helps if you get my little toe in the shoe too." Whoops!!! Sorry, darling! Hope that toe grows back soon! :)

It's hot, it's hot, it's hot in here...

I am SO thankful for air conditioners!!!
Unfortunately, we just got our electric bill. It is almost double what it was last month! What in the world??? So anyway, we are trying to ease the temp. in the house up a little (yeah right). Also, we are having fun trying to stay cool plenty of other ways:

1. We go to Nashville Shores. We actually got season's passes this year! Oh, let me tell ya, these little girls who walk around in less bathing suit than I wear in the shower...they should be ashamed. Where are their parents? Ok, I didn't even mean to start talking about that. But really, how do I explain that to my precious boys who don't need to see that??? RF even went down one of the big slides...Once. (he did NOT like that)

2. We go to our pool at the clubhouse. Even Little Lady loves it there; she has her own personal baby "boat float" and she just waddles around the baby pool by herself (with me hovering over her constantly, of course). RF and LMcB are just a little too brave, in my opinion. At least RF can swim, but they both try to "dive" in the big pool. (shudder) We have gone to the pool just about every day except church days lately. The water in the pools is getting a little too warm from the sun, though; I know there's such thing as heated pools...maybe I should come up with a way to COOL them, then sell that idea and make millions!!! I think I'll actually do that....

3. We have drunk gaaaaallllllllooooonnnnnnsssss of Kool Aid. I mean GALLONS!!! Seems like I'm making two gallons a day! But it's cheap and very refreshing (sounds like an advertisement). We buy the packs from Aldi, where you never know what flavors you're going to get. We have therefore had some pretty crazy flavor concoctions, but when you're 6 and 3, who cares if you're drinking Strawberry/Lemon Lime? Actually it wasn't bad at all! Sounds like something you could order at Sonic!

4. We have consumed about 4million popsicles. That does include the ones we share with the neighbor kids, but most of them have gone to RF & LMcB. It gets tricky when we're down to the last few...and both of them want The Green One. Really, LMcB just wants what RF wants, but we have yet to have two of the same when we get to the bottom of the box, whatever the flavor. If I ran the popsicle company, I would make sure there were 12 of each flavor in the box. That way, most families would be covered: 2 kids, 3 kids, 4 kids, 5 kids plus dad, and 6 kids (not including dad); now EVERYBODY can have the same flavor each time. Why is that so hard???

5. We occasionally have ice cream. Last time I took some outside for RF & LMcB, I delivered it with the song, "I scream, You scream, we all scream for ice cream...." I know for a fact this was not the first time LMcB has heard that song, but he asked (in a serious voice), "We ALL scream for ice cream? Why do we scream? Do we scream 'Yay'?" Maybe I'll make the "Yay" mandatory before he gets ice cream again. :)

6. This does not include me or the kids, but Jason has put up his own little shelter inside our fireworks tent; he wrapped it in plastic, cut a hole in it, and put an air conditioner in there! He sits in his little shelter until a customer comes in the tent. And he even sleeps in there. It's a great setup. Now why didn't we think of that when I was at the tent every single day??? I had to stick my head in our little dorm-room refrigerator whenever I wanted a breath of fresh air. He's gotten much better at rigging things over the years, I guess.

7. I almost forgot, but we go to the FREE MOVIES that Regal puts on every week! That is just too awesome. Their website is www.regmovies.com just in case you are interested...interested in taking RF & LMcB with you!!!! Have I said that I LOVE the free movies yet? I LOVE THE FREE MOVIES!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I hope y'all are staying cool too. I love the summer, so I'll take the "oppressive heat" if that's what it takes!

Communication is key....

We were eating lunch and talking about hair. Don't ask how in the world we started talking about hair at lunch... I know we were talking about a story on a CD we have, where the kid gets his mom back for embarassing him by yelling, "If my mom didn't shave her legs she'd look like a gorilla!!!" RF and LMcB LOVE that, so it actually does come up pretty often.

Anyway, LMcB was remembering how my hair used to be "really" long. RF said it wasn't THAT long - "Really" long hair would be down to my feet. Jason said, "If her hair was down to her feet, we could call her Crystal Gayle."

RF got quiet (which means he's thinking...). He said, "Mom, I think I just heard Dad say that if your hair grew down to your feet that you and Krista would go to jail...."

I know now why women are estimated to use 20,000 words per day and men use only 10,000. It's because we have to REPEAT every last word we say! And usually we have to explain what we said!!!

Like this:
Me: Get down from there!
Either boy: What, mom?
Me: I said, 'Get Down.'
Boy: Why?
Me: #1, I Said So. #2, you might break your arm! Or worse, your neck! Just GET DOWN!
Boy: Why can't I break my arm?

And then I start to try to explain why he doesn't want to break his arm/neck, which probably sounds like, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah" to him. At some point I realize that no one is listening to me, but by that time I have used up another 1,000 words. And Jason could say the same thing one time, using just the first two words (Get Down), and it would register right off. I was thinking that dads must have some kind of inaudible grunt that helps kids hear what they are saying, but then again RF thought that Jason said I was going to jail for growing my hair too long.
But of course, Jason let me explain what he had actually said instead of helping me out. He had to save up his words for the rest of the day, I guess.

Summer Slideshow

All the World's a Post

I promise, everywhere I look now, I think about how things could be my next post. Look out, I'm addicted!!!

I had a long post written that laments our latest Fireworks Tent stress, but I decided not to post it, at least not yet. It's way too early to be bellyaching on my baby blog! Suffice it to say that we have found out first hand just how malicious and nasty old women with too much time on their hands can be. Ugh. (Lord, Help me to learn NOW how to love people and treat them the way I want to be treated all the time so that when I'm old I will have had plenty of practice and can be a sweet old lady! In Jesus name, Amen.)

There's a good story I'll share instead:

Y'all know mornings; they are insane at our house. I don't know why I feel like everything has to be done or at least started by the time I sit down to eat my breakfast, but that's the way I am. Finally, a couple of hours after getting up, starting the laundry, unloading the dishwasher, feeding RocketFire & Lightning McB, then feeding LittleLady (poor girl has to wait, bless her heart, but she's the least squeaky wheel right now), then cleaning up Someone's milk (LMcB! grrr!), then giving RF seconds on breakfast, and probably putting the wet clothes in the dryer and starting a second load...finally, I got to sit down and eat, well SHARE with LL, my own breakfast. I had taken lots of pictures of LL this morning because she was feeding herself oatmeal and made such a sticky mess all over her hair and face, and it was really cute. But that made RF want to take pictures, so when I sat down, he asked for the camera. Oh, whatever! He went away, but came back a few minutes later to show me some of his pictures:

(RF's "parking lot")
(our diaper bag)

(LL's piano)

He told me he was only taking pictures of "the pretty things," then he said, "Smile, Mommy!" and took my picture!!!! Awwwww!

Sorry, though, I'm not going to post that picture. I hadn't had time to shower yet, so you can imagine. But that made my morning! Love you RocketFire!