It Takes a Neighborhood

The big day finally arrived... the play set is here. It's amazing how much work it takes to get a "clubhouse" (as Max already calls it) in the yard. Nate's parents; Nate's sister; our neighbor, Tim; 2 other neighbor guys whose names we don't know (Thomas and Jennifer's dad and brother); Sean Scotney; Nate's friend, Luke, from work; Spencer and Jacqueline Presley and John Nelson in spirit (thanks for the offer, get better, Big Guy).

The grand arrival.

Our neighbor, Tim, kindly obliged when we asked if he'd cut down a couple branches of his tree. The play set was too tall to fit under in order to back the trailer back to the fence. He's been talking about cutting down the branches for a while, fortunately he has a chain saw.

Everyone hard at work. The kids had to test it out before it was officially complete.

The grand finale! Thomas and Jennifer have already put in a lot of play time. Bring on the neighborhood.

Do you think they like it? Thank you, Memaw and Pepaw!

the mower

My boys love the lawn mower. Max and Grant have ridden with Nate while he mowed since they could walk. This year, Jack joined in. He is an official member of the "screaming if not on the mower with Daddy while it's going" club. Such a proud day for us all. Nate, especially, is excited to have so many motivated helpers.

Nate demonstrating his mad skills of mowing with no hands on the mower. He is a professional driver, don't try this at home.

easily angered

I do not have road rage. I'm not going to pretend that I don't get mad while driving. People cutting me off or driving slow in the fast lane makes me as crazy as anyone else but, overall, I'm pretty even tempered on the road.

But, I am beginning to learn through continuous exposure that I am developing "sitting in the line outside of the school" rage. Generally, I sit in the car about 30 minutes every day waiting for Max to get out of school. The lines begin before 2:30 and by 2:45 have reached the street. Once in the street, hoards of parents park on either side of the road to begin creeping through the lines.

Today, my wait began around 2:45 as the first car to form the line in the street. By 3:00 (the time school is dismissed), there were at least 10 cars behind me in the street and probably more than that in the opposing line ready to make the turn into the drive.

Let me interject there are some basic, understood RULES of the waiting process:
1. Don't block the buses.
2. Don't cut in line.

To my dismay, right around 3:00 3 cars pulled into the drive today completing cutting in front of all the cars who had been waiting at least 20 minutes in the street breaking both of the cardinal rules! To make matters worse, one of the cars parked at the end of the line, got out of the car and went into the school. When that happened, a mom from a waiting in the street car, also agitated by the cars not waiting their turn in line got out and told 2 of the parents they needed to get in the back of the line.

When the car riders finally got out of school (they are last after bus riders and walkers) and the lines starting creeping the one car was still parked, blocking off one of the lines of traffic. I confess, I had mean thoughts and gave her a glare when she finally made it back to her car.

AHHHHH!

that blasted music

For all who have been annoyed by that nonstop music, I finally just deleted that post! I tried over and over to get it to shut off but I finally had to take matters into my own hands. So, don't worry, no more songs about 3 men in a tub, however relevant they may be!

Funny Things

Tonight Grant had a soccer game. Oddly enough, he is not competitive or aggressive while playing soccer. It seems to have a calming effect on him... he runs around the field freely acting like a passive t-rex or a butterfly, all of which is not like the G-man. Tonight, he got a sudden clue about the game of soccer. He had a break away from the opposite end of the field, taking the ball all the way down the field toward the goal. About 10 feet from the goal he leaves the ball and starts running in a loop toward the side of the field. I just don't know.....

Max had a handwriting worksheet he had to do tonight since he missed school yesterday. While he was working on it he said, "Lee Lions is the hardest thing I've ever had to do my whole life." Oh, to have the problems of a kindergartener.

Jack's real cute but I can't really remember anything he did today besides throw his spoon at me during dinner. It landed in my bowl which was pretty impressive. Real funny.

Just Another Day

This morning I woke Max up for school and he said he didn't feel good. I asked him what was wrong. He replied, "My mouth feels funny." Well, any veteran mom knows what that means. I think I might have scared him when I told him to hurry up and run to the bathroom. Puking followed. So, no perfect attendance for Max-o.

I worked until 11:30 then came home so Nate could go to work. The fun afternoon activity with the boys was going to the Chrysler dealership to get a new key and keyless transmitter for the minivan. It has been over 2 weeks since my dear, sweet Max took my keys while on the sidelines during his soccer game to use the little scissors from my swiss army knife to cut the grass even after being told to put them away. At first, he said he put them back in my bag.... the next day he said, "Oh, I remember. I left them by those metal chairs." Many searches over the soccer fields and after annoying Jose, the grounds guy for the youth center about 5 times I gave up hope of my miracle. Just in case this ever happens to you: a new key costs $50.50, the little transmitter thing costs $37.00 and another $40.00 to program everything to work. Hold on to your keys, dear friends and don't let your little ones even touch them. It is going to take Max years to pay me back since his allowance only pays $2.00/week (just kidding).

We then went to Wal-Mart to get Max some sprite, white bread and bananas. It was here I realized he was feeling much better. He and Grant are not fun to take anywhere together because apparently, they are training for their futures in wrestling. Grant, the ANVIL and Stone Cold Max-o seized the open aisles of wal-mart to take each other down. I'm beginning to ignore the stares from the little old ladies. I pretend to look around disgusted as if I'm looking for their parents. Grant added a new element today, pretending to throw a fit as he touched every can on the shelf. He would shriek... laugh... shriek... laugh... you get the idea.

I love relaxing days out with my boys.

Weekend Lodging

In order to spread the McGooden cheer (and to relieve the Parrish household of the overabundance of boys) we stayed with the Callerys this weekend. We each have a small litter of children on our own so when we get together it is quite an impressive brood. From left: Luke-4, Grant-3, Abby-10 months, Kate-6, Max-5, Anna-10 months & Jack-1ish

Lori and I started out having babies every other year... (though she broke the trend by not having a baby 2 years after Luke so God gave her 2 babies later to help make up for the missed time) so it worked out nicely that every kid had a buddy.

Max and Kate were dance partners. We upheld a strict no kissing rule (there may or may not have been an attempt in the past that would have been a violation of this rule. Apparently, Max already is showing a weakness for pretty girls)

Grant and Luke had a tea party.

Jack enjoyed a fun time of giving one baby a toy, blocking her view of Baby Einstein, taking the toy away and repeating the process with the other baby. Anna was more tolerant of this little game than Abby.

You can't even imagine the fun. To top it off, last night Lori and I got out of the house after all the kids were in bed to shut down Target and walk around Wal-Mart all by ourselves. I bet 10 years ago we wouldn't have thought that was a good time but these days it is a luxury.

Weekend Trip

My mom flew into Tulsa for an extended weekend trip see her newest grandbaby so we headed over to Oklahoma for some family togetherness.

Max still loves Ava and Jack wanted to sit on her. Grant still doesn't care. Oh, the fun!