miss me yet?

no? shoot. oh well, i'm up to my eyeballs in sick kids and have been for about 2 weeks now. i'm a tired mama cause the daddy has been a little sick too. so hopefully, i'll be back soon.

thankful thursday::southern style

a few thoughts have come to me over the last few weeks about why i am thankful i live in the south. i figured i'd post 'em.

i'm thankful i can use yall's as a possessive. as in "it that yall's truck?" and it doesn't sound weird. well, at least not to me.

i'm thankful i live in an area of the country where people still pull off on the side of the road when there is a funeral procession. it's just respectful and it gives you an opportunity to say a quick prayer for people you don't even know.

speaking of respect, i'm thankful that around here, people don't think it's crazy to teach your kids to say "ma'am" and "sir". it's actually kind of expected. again, it's just respectful (even if your own kids can't seem to get a grasp on it.)

as much as i love some restaurants, i'm thankful that there are some that are closed on sunday...ON PURPOSE.

i took this picture outside of Lawler's BBQ where i live. you all know Chick-fil-a is also closed on sundays so that their employees can have a chance to worship with their families. i love it.

i'm thankful that when i go to someone's house and say you'd like tea to drink, it's gonna be sweet. i do not understand unsweetened tea (except for diabetics)...or hot tea. i like mine sweet and on the rocks please.

i'm thankful to live somewhere people will still tell you "have blessed (read bless-ed) day.

and something that i'm missing right now...my precious boiled peanuts. (by the way, the ones in this picture are the best. they are small and a little bit purple and a little sweet. soooo good.)

i endured a cold ball game this past weekend and called my brother to "give him a blessing" of my own. see, my SILs family is able to grow their own. they have no shortage. if you live above montgomery, you ain't gettin' any REAL boiled peanuts. infact, most people probably haven't even heard that you could do such a thing to a peanut. (it's strange to live in alabama and still sometimes feel like you are a yankee. no offense to my northern readers.) see, we have red clay up here...and that doesn't seem to be conducive to peanut growing nor white field pea growing for that matter. but that's a sadness to be shared in the summertime. ANYWAY, all that so say, i'm thankful i have access...even if i have to wait until thanksgiving to collect.

twilight tuesday

we are at T minus 30 days peeps. confession about new moon...it KILLS me to read this book. it took me 3 times to read it straight through. i can't stand a break up. and the one with bella and edward is so angsty...yeah. i don't normally spend time with the fan videos, but i thought this one kind of captured the new moon break up. well done.

it's happening...

a couple of weeks ago, i should have seen it coming. all of the tell-tale signs have been starting to emerge. the "demands". the whines. the pickiness. the mama beginning to feel a lot insane. only, this one has been more subtle in the build up. so i'm nearly afraid that the full on HIT is gonna be much worse. i've never had one of these little creatures before...these GIRLS. i wonder am i gonna be able to handle one of these monsters angels that comes with the "h" word (hormones). I don't want to say that word outloud for fear that they may awaken the beast hear me. Yes folks, the dreaded 16 months has hit in our house in a major way with ally claire. what does that mean? you haven't heard of "the 16 months"? well, basically, it's the beginning of the terrible 2s, only in our house, it tends to start around 16 months instead. my children are nothing if not over-achievers. especially when it comes to major attitude. have a good weekend lovelies!!
edit: did i mention that she has found the "girl squeal"? you know the one...she hasn't completely noticed, but i have. she got sent to her room twice this morning. yea. said just like that. with a period. yea.

braggin rights

i'm not normally that person. the one who likes to toot their own horn, if you will. but i have a couple of things that i just have to rub in your face share. let's recall that last week wasn't exactly banner in the tucker household. mama was in dire need of some anointing and i knew it was on the brink...which is why i am positive the devil was after me through his sometimes evil spawn my kids. the backstory...my first college roommate, ginny, asked me months ago if i wanted to go to memphis to a Living Proof Live event to hear Beth (cause like i have said before, we are on a first name basis. i know we are.) at the time, it certainly wasn't the want to that was the problem. it was the fact that school hadn't even started and my kids have birthdays during that time and soccer was a-comin' and i just couldn't nail down a way to make it all happen. fast forward to septemberish. i knew what to expect in our little life, and gin had plenty goin' on, as is her way. and i was ready for a break and we had never gone on a trip together. what was the worst that could happen? i'd have to enforce my end of the contract that binds us as long as she lives? (long story. she probably wouldn't want me to share. if so, she can leave it in the comments.) anywho, so i called her up, said let's go see beth and travis. (side note...get the man's live CD. so good!!) and we did. this past friday she came to pick me up, my hubby took a half day off of work to keep my kids (more on him in a minute), and without ever having been, we loaded up and went to memphis with about 6 google maps in hand. surely we could find where we needed to go. we got there fine. ginny was introduced to an experience like no other (can i say 13K+ people singing??? hello??) and lessons devoted to who God is...i believe we got what we went for. the Spirit was there and moving. now...remember those 6 maps i just mentioned. how bout it does you no good if you can't figure out where you are as a beginning point when it's dark, raining, and every downtown street is either blocked off or one way. after traveling in definite circles, we made a trip across a bridge. in the middle of that bridge there was a sign. that sign said "welcome to arkansas." i nearly threw up right there in her car. i hate metal closed in narrow bridges especially in the dark when it's raining and especially when i at least know we are headed in the complete wrong direction. i was wondering if i'd see our hotel that night. fortunately we did. what should have taken us about 30 minutes to get back to our hotel took us....TWO HOURS. that's what i said. Beth talked to us about what a wild goose chase was and about a wild God chase. we had no choice but to laugh about our wild goose chase. but i'll tell you this...after that debacle, i am a holiday inn devotee. that was good sleep. the next day was more awesomeness and zero lostness. soooo fun. want some good news?? Deeper Still is coming to BIRMINGHAM next December. (that's 2010.) what i want to know is who is gonna make plans to meet me there?? Cause I went to the one and nashville and I'll SHO go again!! (linds, since you live there, you better come. as with twilight, i wouldn't lead you wrong.)

and speaking of twilight...know how i know i have the BEST man in the living flesh?? as i already mentioned, he took off a half day to be with the kids while i had a girls overnight. but today, i caught wind that people mag has a special new moon edition out. and like a total fangirl, i asked micah if he would look for it since he'd be at the store anyway. do you know that he DID. that he looked on every stand and even in the book/mag section for it?? he gets me. he said he felt a little weird, but knows he wasn't the first or the last hubs to do that. i have issues. but i have a rockstar hubby and i KNOW IT!!

more good news?? tomorrow is MMO. again. which means i'll be back at BAM tomorrow. i have a feeling i'm gonna start getting weird looks in there.

and you wanna know why you suffered this whole thing without pictures? cause i completely forgot my camera. but i promise all of the above things happened.

Happy Birthday Luke!!

Dear Luke,
Today you turn 6 years old!! SIX! I don't even know what to do with that. Where has the time gone? Today, as you were walking out the door to kindergarten, I realized that was the time your daddy and I were walking out the door to the hospital, 6 years ago, to go meet our first baby. You were the only one that required labor. And you didn't make it easy. But I guess you paved the way for the other two that were to come, just as you do now. Luke, you are so smart! You are too smart sometimes. I have no idea where you get some of the things you say. And music...you have a genuine LOVE for it and I promise I will feed that love as much as possible. I hope it's something you stick with and becomes part of you. You are kind to others (that don't share a room with you) and are a natural born leader. I am so proud of you and love watching who you are becoming. You are like your daddy in so many ways, but there is no doubt that your also mine. I love you so much it hurts!! Thank you for being the first to make me a mommy! You helped make all my dreams come true! Happy Birthday Big boy!!

it MAY have happened like this...

i may have giggled a little bit when i opened my eyes and realized that today was tuesday (translated as MMO day...)

i may have giggled a little more when i thought about the fact that MMO day meant I'd have 3 hours to myself (well, with AC).

I may have giggled a little more when i knew she'd be taking a nap for about 1.5 hours of those 3.

i may have giggled when i thought about the fact that MMO is in madison, and so is books-a-million.

i may have giggled when i thought about the cosmic genius that MMO drop off is at 9:15 and BAM opened at 9.

i may have squealed in my head a little when i remembered ok, planned for a week that the New Moon Illustrated Movie Companion went on sale today and i'd already be in town so that i wouldn't have to make a "special trip" to pick it up.

I may have dropped seth off at MMO at 9:15 and been at BAM by 9:23...or so.

i may have had my cash all ready to hand it over like my inner 14 year old. (but i didn't do that immediately because that would be a little weird.)

i may have noticed it right by the door, but walked all the way to the back where i know they have the twilight section to see if it was there first (b/c you know...i know i may have a slight tendency to be addicted to this series...and wonder how come since micah is so "white", how come he's not a 107 year old vampire named edward.)

i may have had exact change left over from my purchase to go across the street to chick-fil-a and get the number 2 combo for breakfast (and know again that God has perfect plans for our lives.)

i may have gotten home and held the book to my chest like it was a sweet letter that i had gotten from the love of my life and smiled big and giggled like betty rubble on the inside.

i may have been counting the minutes til the sis went to sleep so i could look over the pics until i had to pick up seth (ok. so i didn't spend that much time on pics, but i didn't DARE start reading it. that will come when i can be without children.)

i may have picked up some chicken salad from kroger on the way home from picking seth up and after a couple of bites thought it tasted weird. then giggled again as i thought of bella and her "rancid chicken" in breaking dawn.

it may have dawned on me that i have "issh-uhs" concerning the series.

the one thing i know for a fact...if i get sick tonight, i will KNOW it is from that chicken salad and not from me being pregnant (by my pale husband or a vampire. cause that's permanent. and after yesterday, i am praising God for that little procedure.) but...

i may giggle while it happens b/c i will totally be thinking about the chapter titled "unexpected."

i may have made you second hand embarrassed for me by letting you in on my twilight addiction. but that's ok. i will own it....maybe.

is it over yet?

i'm fairly certain i've had enough today. i try not to put specifics on here about how irritated i can get with the kids. but today, i am breaking that rule. big time.

-spilled bottle of RED nail polish all over my bathroom and youngest. i didn't realize she had the bottle, nor that she could twist tops open. who knew?

-someone old enough to know better (not me) wet their pants for the 2nd time since starting school.

-someone stood in their room, took a toy bin, emptied it and peed in it.

i did what i knew to do. i called in reinforcement. i called "pop" and asked him to participate in shaming my child (cause i knew telling pop what he did would be punishment enough...well, after taking the tv away for a week.) what i didn't expect was what he told pop (and micah that i didn't hear.) when asked why he did what he did he said "cause i'm stupid." *siiiigh*

have mercy. what i said was "why did you do that? that was stupid." i guess the lesson i learned is that a 4 year old doesn't know the different between his actions and himself. so yeah, mama had to eat some words today. not the first time. not the last.

does anyone have the number for the valium hotline? cause i need it.

mama does a run-on sentence or 50

all women, especially mamas, have to-do lists a jillion and four miles long. and they nevah get any shorter (amen?) i don't know about you, but sometimes i get so overwhelmed by my to-dos, that NOTHING gets done. now how is that supposed to help? wanna know what is going on in my head these days of things i need to get done?? well, you can start with my little on going projects list to the right side over there. (i haven't done much lately b/c i had to put myself of a "freeze" of sorts.) however, this weekend, I will be getting my fall decor on. that is a favorite time for me. i have always done outside decor in the past, but not much for the inside. weeeeelllll, watchit. cause this year, the fall is MOVIN' IN!! i think i may also take this weekend to get that final coat of black paint on my doors. i Lah-HURVE them. i think the jury is still out for micah. and i haven't gotten around to sewing the pillows for my furniture outside, but it will happen sooner than later because i need to sit down in the next week and crank out 60 scent blankets for the Footprints Ministry (which reminds me, it's totally time that i gave yall an update and gave you the opportunity to give *wink wink*!) the next weekend, after getting my fall on, i'll be gettin' my Beth on. huh?? that's right. i'm going to Memphis for the Living Proof Live event with my first college roommate, Gin. we've never gone on a girls trip, and getting some Jesus on was a good plan for us both! We'll be really close to St. Jude's, and while they don't do tours on Saturdays, I'm hoping we can at least go and just see it. I have always wanted to go and just experience being there (without NEEDING to be there, ya know?) We have soccer every weekend until Nov. 1st. Luke has a birthday next week. Tomorrow is my day to bring the "black snack" for Luke's class. Today we have a check up with the ENT for ACs tubes. The boys and I all have check ups later this month. (and that reminds me that i need to make a dentist appointment. i haven't been since i was pregnant with AC. that's gross. at least i have brushed and flossed since then...teehee.) My house always needs to be cleaned. My monica is coming this weekend. and i think she's having a boy. I'll love him anyway, even though i wanted him to be a girl so we could take mommy/daughter trips together. now i'll just have to rescue monica from boyness. we are gonna drop by the fiddler's convention to catch some crafts and funnel cakes. cause that's the whole point of the convention if you ask me. Luke will start piano lessons in a couple of weeks that they offer through the school for 10 weeks. I want to learn to play the guitar. I also want to learn sign language and be able to communicate effectively. I also want to grow my hair out long enough to be able to donate to locks of love. I went to get it trimmed last weekend. it got CUT and for the first time, i was NOT a happy camper. seriously. it set me back 3 months on my hair growth. I'm also going to attempt to read Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice, because it struck me while reading the Twilight series for the 2nd time, that I had never read those 2 classics. And I've been walking at night, trying to find some semblance of my prebaby body which was lost 4 years ago (after luke, not so much. seth killed me.) oh, and speaking of health stuff, i am down to one thyroid pill still. my numbers are in the normal range with that one. i'm hoping to come off of them at some point. they have improved over the last 2 months while coming off of some of the dosage, so we will continue to wait and see. and in other health news, it's breast cancer awareness month. don't forget your "ladies". check 'em. tell your mama to check hers. tell your sister and your bestie to check theirs. they'll thank you. not sure what to do? go here. feel strange feeling yourself up? (that's what i said.) ask your hubs to help (cause everyone who reads my blog is married or at least grown.) your breast health is important to him, too. (how many readers did i just loose?)

so if i'm MIA for a little while, i'm either painting, decorating, soccer momming, growing out my hair, walking, praising, or getting felt up. (my family will die when they read that.)