My Little Ray of Sunshine

They asked me to increase my hours at work again because of a heavy workload. So instead of taking more time away from my kids I agreed to come in to work at 6 a.m. Ahem...I offered to work this schedule. What was I thinking? Well apparently, after two weeks waking up before the sun, I've become a bit tired and grumpy.

Tonight while getting the kids ready for bed I nearly lost my patience and put myself in time-out. After a short while Jenalyn joined me and I explained to her that sometimes I need to take time outs too, in order to calm down and find my patience.

That girl is so sweet. She left the room briefly and brought back her markers and some paper and started drawing a picture to make me smile.

We saw a beautiful sunset tonight and I immediately recognized that she was drawing it. The more she drew, the more I smiled. The more I smiled, the more she smiled. Which made me smile even more.

She kept adding to her picture. The sunset. A flower. A tree. Herself. Me. Her BFF Madison. Madison's mom. A slide. Grass. Squirrels in the tree. Nuts for the squirrels.

I told her it must be a magical picture because it made all my grumpies disappear. She beamed, giggling and said, "It makes me so happy when I make you happy."

I wanted to capture that moment so I can always remember it. We taped the picture on the wall next to my bed. I love it.

Douglas County Fair

We met my good friend Leigha and her family at the Douglas Couny Fair on August 6. Leigha and I were best friends when we were 15 years old, living in Roseburg. We haven't seen each other in 12 years. So we decided to meet up again in our old stomping grounds. We're partners in crime, as you can see from the picture.

Do you have a friend who, no matter how much time has past, and how much you've changed as a person, is just so easy to be around? Like no time has passed at all? That's my Leigha.

Our kids got along great too! Leigha has an almost 3-year-old named Connor. He and Corbin cruised in the stroller and went on lots of rides together. She also has an 9-year-old son and a 7-year-old step-son who were sweet enough to take Jenalyn on her favorite ride (more than once) because her parents can't handle spinning like they used to.

Anyway, we had a fabulous time. The weather was perfectly pleasant. About mid-70's and overcast. The kids went on tons of rides. And we ate some good food. We're hoping to make this an annual affair.
One of the highlights of the day for me (almost as great as seeing my Leigha again.) was seeing JOSH TURNER's concert *squeals* Oh yeah baby! His voice melts me. He's so talented. I had Jenalyn convinced that he came all this way, just to sing to *ME* hee hee. Even though we had the worst seats in the house, and were surrounded by hundreds of other people...she still believed me.

We didn't stay for the whole concert because it was the end of the day and the kids weren't havin' it. But I did get to hear him sing "Firecracker" *swoon* I wish I could have heard "Your Man" or "Would You Go With Me." Ah well, maybe next time. (Please let there be a next time.)
So anyway, that was our day at the fair. We had a wonderful time. Even Jason, who hates going to the fair, admitted it was a GREAT day.

Love you, Leigha! See you next year...if not before.

For the love of dinos

Corbin has been aching to see Dawn of the Dinosaurs for months and months - May is the earliest I remember.

This boy loves dinosaurs.

I believe I know what it might be like to live with a real, live dinosaur. He's always stomping around the house with his two fingers crooked like dinosaur claws, rawring at everything that gets in his way.

Sometimes he asks me to push his "nose button" and when I do so he rawrs like a T-Rex...just like so many of his beloved dinosaur toys.

So we finally took the kids to see Dawn of the Dinosaurs tonight. Corbin sat on my lap during the whole movie. (Mmm...I love that! Lots of good snuggle time.) During the more intense dinosaur-chasing-rawring-parts he was sitting there shuddering - literally shaking - in my lap. At one point I asked him, "are you okay, buddy?" and he said (still shuddering), "Dinosaurs are so cool!"

Made me laugh.

Had to blog about it.

These Kids Crack Me Up.

Corbin.

Yesterday I was getting ready for work when Corbin walked in and asked me if I would get him some cereal with blueberries in it. The conversation took an interesting turn:

Me: Well you kinda look like a blueberry (he was wearing navy blue shirt and shorts). And your eyes are like big delicious blueberries!

Corbin: And you look like an old potato!

Me: ...silence...

Honestly, what do you say to that? I don't think I look like an old potato...but I dunno, maybe I do. In my defense, I was wearing white.

Jenalyn.

I usually take Jenalyn with me when I take my mother-in-law to her medical appointments. We were sitting in the exam room waiting for the doctor to come in and there was a big poster on the back of the door of the female anatomy. She was interested in it so I explained what certain things were. I showed her where the lungs are (Grandma 'Nee just had a lung biopsy), where the heart is, and I showed her the uterus...where babies grow inside their mommy's bellies.

Later that night we were at the grocery store and she pointed to a BBQ sauce bottle and said, "LOOK MOM - that's that one thing...you know, where babies grow!"

Yep. I guess it sorta looks like a bull's head.