The Circus is Coming to Town!

My folks treated us this Memorial Day to an old time Circus that came to town. It was mostly performers rather than animals, but they did have a lion and two tigers. I haven't been to a circus since my first date with Josh. It was really fun for the kids. They have been talking about since last night. The best way to share this wonderful time is by a good old fashioned picture blog. So with out further ado...

Ladies and Gentlemen!
Welcome to the Circus!
Sit back and enjoy the show!

The clown was hilarious. And I'm not just saying that because he's a clown.


There were two tigers and a very loud lion. He roared before the show started. It was impressive. I've never heard a lion roar in real life before.

The female tiger was in heat. So...uh...she didn't really feel like performing. It was funny.

This amazing woman showed amazing strength with high up on the rope.

Alex and Abby were in awe.

And what is a circus without the trapeze? I tell ya, the death defying stunts these circus performers do still astounds me. And there was no net!


Here we have the fast juggler. You should have seen how fast this guy was. He even juggled hats that had to go from his hands to his head.

The comical sections had even the adults laughing hysterically. This 'nearly human gorilla' (as they called it) was a riot. He stole the purse from the 'old lady' and tried on her mammoth underwear and bra.

There were unicyclists...

And the bird girl...

And of course sno cones!

First Fruits

I have a lovely strawberry bed that is now in it's second season. Last year, my mom loaded up an old tractor tire that had been lying around their yard since...well...forever (that's a bit of good ol' country livin' for ya) and brought it over with a good bit of dirt and some strawberry plants. I believe it was for mother's day but I can't really remember for certain. They went nuts of course and outgrew their barrier into the ground around it. I got about five strawberries off of it last year. This year, The plants aren't quite going nuts yet and I've already gotten about thirty or so. Granted, about half of them have slug eaten holes and ant nibbles out of them, but I just cut them off and we're good to go. I'm also not counting the casualties from squirrels and birds. There is always the tell-tale white bird poop stains on my black tire where the guilty party sat and reaped the benefits of my hard work. Stupid birds. Why they don't eat the million mulberries that litter my yard is beyond me. Oh well. The kids are loving it. Every day we go outside and they want to check if we have anymore strawberries to pick. Of course, they also pick the green ones before I have a chance to stop them half the time, but still...it's fun regardless. While still hopeful that this isn't the house we are stuck in the rest of our lives, I am excited to have an even bigger strawberry garden in the future. It's kind of sad to think that I can't take it with me when/if we move one day. Guess I'll just have to keep my eye out for another big ol' tractor tire. Sure, it looks a bit white-trashy with a giant tire in your yard, but I love it. It reminds me of the country life I miss so much.

This is the kiddos enjoying the first fruits of the season. It was all I could do to stop them from eating them before I took the picture.

Fun in the Sun

Every single morning, the kids wake up and ask if they can go swimming. Seeing as how we have no pool, I always tell them 'Not today, guys. But soon." Josh's Grandparents sent them some birthday money so this weekend I am buying one of those handy little hard pools that you get at Wal-Mart. Not just the dinky one, but the one with the slide built in for an extra bit of fun. Regardless of how many times they ask and get a negative response, they still find time during the day to ask again...and again...and again. This morning we were sitting out in the humid heat and Alex sat down next to me on the bench, wiped his forehead and said, "Momma, I'm all sweaty. I need to go in the house." We had been outside for a whopping five minutes so I wasn't ready to throw in the white flag for our outdoor time. I told myself that there is nothing to do in the house so why not find something to do out of the house. That's when the light bulb clicked over my rather slow moving morning brain. Ah ha! Abby got a fun sprinkler for her birthday! I barely got the words out of my mouth, "Hey guys, do you wanna play in the water?" And they were both already half way into the house to get their bathing suits before I could drag myself off of the bench. Five minutes later, they were enjoying the new sprinkler, which I might add was pretty darn cool. I have a feeling that I've just set myself up for a new pattern. I bet that every morning around 10:00 now, I'll be lathering up the kiddos with sunblock for some early fun in the sun. At least I know we have something new to add to the roster of things to keep 'em busy every summer morning. Have I mentioned how much I love spring and summer? Bring on the heat!

Wanna see how much fun they had? Here's a video of it. And yes, when Alex falls he ended up with a good scrape across the knee and a band-aid.

Old School

The newest thing with Alex is his fascination with watching new movies every day. Unfortunately we've run out of 'new' movies. He's pretty much watched everything we own that is suitable for his age appropriate audience. Every day during his quiet time while Abby is peacefully snoozing away for her nap, he picks a movie. Now that he has exhausted our movie supply, he is finding it increasingly difficult to find something that will hold his attention. Luckily I have parents that have a vast supply of kid's movies...on VHS. Now, if you don't know what VHS is, then you are too young to be reading blogs on the internet so run a long and go play at the park, k? Funny enough, my parents also own about a million movies on Betamax too. If you don't know what Betamax is, then just think of a VHS and cut 1/4 length off of the tape and wa-lah! You have a beta tape. Sadly, Betamax players only exist in the homes of people over the age of 40+ and you'd be hard pressed to find one in working order. (My parents are the proud owners of one of course...though it probably belongs in an artifact museum.) So needless to say, I packed the kiddos into the car and headed for my folks' house to dust off a few of their old VHS tapes to expand Alex's viewing library. I picked out about five or six to sample for the week and we'll see how it goes. The local library also has a decent collection of VHS movies for kids so we occasionally go there to check out a couple from time to time. DVD's look a lot nicer and the machine isn't likely to 'eat' them like VHS players have a tendency to do. DVD's are also generally in widescreen and for movie nuts like me, widescreen is the only option for a proper viewing experience. But for now, I'm just happy to have a bit extra variety to spice up our days. The DVD player is going to get a small vacation for a time. We'll be kickin' it old school for awhile.

Conquering Your Fears

For awhile now, Alex has been absolutely terrified of the vacuum cleaner. It's strange, really. I've been vacuuming every other day since he was six months old so you'd think that he would be used to hearing that thing fire up. He wasn't originally scared of it, but after about a year, he decided that it was, in fact, a horrifying, toe-eating monstrosity that was created for the sole purpose of destroying his evening. And believe me, he could hear the click of the wheel when I popped it into it's rolling position from across the span of the house. He would then promptly scurry for what I like to call his 'base'. It didn't matter where he was in the house or where I was vacuuming. His only acceptable safe-haven from the dreaded vacuum was the couch. So for at least two years he's avoided the vacuum at all costs. Slowly over the past month, he's inched his way off of the couch onto the floor at the same time as it was running. I'm proud to say that as of this week, he no longer fears the vacuum. He merrily grabs his pretend vacuum and follows me around the house to 'help' me. It's so interesting to see this kiddo conquer a fear. I'm hoping that Abby will follow close in his footsteps and conquer her fear of other human lifeforms. It'd be nice to not have to pry her fingers from my hair every single time a new person makes eye contact with her. I won't rush it though. She won't want me to hold her hand for the rest of her life and I'm trying to cherish it while she still needs me so much. Even when it annoys me, I know that I'll miss it when it's gone.

The Big Crack v.2.0: The Not So Big Crack

Well...I did it. I went back to Dr. Awesome for round two of some spine-crackin' fun. Turns out that my neck issue and anxiety fix only lasted about three weeks. Granted, it was three glorious weeks of wonderful relaxation and zero headaches. But three weeks of feeling so good made me extra aware of just how bad I felt before. Some other back issues I've been dealing with had been creeping up on me as well so I had Dr. Awesome take a look at those too. This time around was a bit less intimidating. Though you would think, by the constant jittery behavior while on the table, I was being prepped for open heart surgery. Unfortunately, there isn't much any doctor can do about my bubble when it comes to situations like that. It takes time for me to get over the general paranoia I seem to have developed over the years of people or doctors in general. (Yeah...I'm a head case - I know.) Luckily, I have discovered a chiropractor with the talent for looking past the nervous wreck that is me and plowing ahead anyways. Once I got on the table, it didn't take long for Dr. Awesome to find that my same neck issue was back (this time no headaches) and ready to seek swift vengeance on my sanity. So what was next? It was time to prepare myself for the inevitable big crack of my neck. Was I nervous? Duh. Of course I was. hearing your spine make strange, unnatural cracking sounds that reverberate through your brain isn't exactly high on my 'Things I Love To Do' list. But I took a deep breathe (or four or five of them) and had to tell myself that I wasn't in the hands of the crazy, evil, maniacal Dr. Pain. I repeated my internal mantra, "It's all worth the crack...it's all worth the crack..." and before I knew, it was done! This time around, the crack...well...it wasn't so bad. In fact, I'd only give it a 7 on my spinal Crack-O-Meter. The original neck crack from a while back was easily a 10. It only took minutes to feel the pressure in my chest and neck to start disappear. I was miraculously anxiety free once more and my back and neck felt great. I never pegged myself for a believer in the power of chiropractic care. Especially after my first experience with Dr. Pain. But whatever the heck it is, it works and I'm not about to scoff at the results. This time I got about two weeks of joyous relief from my visit. The headaches have come back now, but the anxiety about the headaches isn't bogging up the network of my paranoid brain this time. It would probably help if I wasn't sitting like a primitive monkey at my computer for three or four hours a night, but that's the price you pay for bad posture, right? So until I can work up the nerves to get another round of spinal manipulation, I better bust open another jug of ibuprofen. The first visit with Dr. Awesome got me three weeks of peace and the second visit got me two. So never doubt the power of a good pop on the spinal Crack-O-Meter. Turns out that the bigger the crack, the better I feel.

Hallelujah?

I'm not sure it's quite time to break out the celebration champagne, but Josh got the 'call' from his Union. He is officially off of the bench and will be back to work on Monday. I know, I know. How can I possibly be complaining? Well, about two weeks back, his Union job hunter (from here on out, I shall call him Union-man...not that he is any kind of super hero.) told him that there was a job opportunity about 4 hours away from where we live. Normally it wouldn't be a huge issue. We'd say, "Yee-haw! Saddle up, it's gonna be a long ride!" Unfortunately, the employer isn't willing to pay for hotel, food and gas. Obviously, no one wanted this job that is local. Your checkbook would end up in the negative every week with those conditions. Two weeks later, Union-man called - with the same job. Only this time it's mandatory. He gets to leave on Sunday. It's a temp job, naturally. At the end of eight weeks, he can look forward to his next pink slip. No surprises this time around at least. The Union said that they would pay for the hotel, but that is all up in the air as of now according to Josh's new employer. I guess he sounded surprised when Josh mentioned it to him. Pardon me while I roll my eyes. *insert eye roll here* Food and gas is another story. We're just going to have to suck up and foot that bill. So when all is said and done, we'll just have to see if we come out in the positive after this summer. (I suppose it would be more fitting to say that we'll have to see if we have a house by the end of summer. :-) Just kidding.) Josh isn't thrilled and I'm not sure what to think. It's frustrating to go from one side of the spectrum to the exact opposite side. Josh here 24/7 to Josh gone 24/7. Poor Josh. He is so frustrated with his career. The kids will be a bit confused for awhile. I am fully prepping myself for the never ending choruses of 'Where's daddy, mama?" from the kiddos. We'll see what happens in eight weeks, but for now we are just saying, "Uh...hallelujah?Josh...uh..has a...job?"

*sigh* I'm gonna go take some more Tums...