Happy Birthday, Uncle Danny!

August 29th is Uncle Danny's birthday. Since he is on the road, we celebrated his birthday a week early.

Jason made Tri-Tip and Janice made baked beans. We had delicious bread and a wonderful banana split cake. Danny got a cooler for his truck and a digital camera so he can take pictures of all the beautiful scenery our great country has to offer. We all look forward to the photos!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Danny! And, congratulations on the new job!

I am the worst mom ever....

Today was the first day of school. I have a 2nd grader and Kindergartener. Nathan was excited about his first day in a new school and Brandon was content, but a little nervous about it. As you can see by the first photo, Brandon was a bit grumpy this morning before heading out to his first day of school.

We made it to school, on time, and delivered our school supplies. We met the boys' teachers and saw their classrooms. It was very crazy around there.

About an hour and a half after school started, I get a call from the principal.
Uh-oh, I thought. The principal starts off with "there's no emergency" and relieved some of my fears. Then she states, that little Brandon came to school today with street clothes on. Yes, he did, I thought to myself. She then states that this school is STANDARDIZED DRESS. No where in any correspondence from the school did it mention this fact. Not to worry, they have extra clothes and will be changing Brandon so he won't "feel uncomfortable." I sincerely doubt he noticed anything, much less felt uncomfortable. So, here it is, my little Kindergartener, sent to the principal's office in the first hour and a half of his school career. Poor baby!

I'm glad that it wasn't something horrible he did. I'm glad it was simply my fault. I ran out right away and bought uniforms for my boys. They have the choice of either red or navy shirts. Every day, red, navy, red, navy... Personally, we aren't upset about the uniforms, we're just upset that we didn't know. And, most importantly, that I embarrassed my Kindergartener on his first day of school. :(

Check out previous First Days of School here.

help me garage

Our garage door, the one into the house, has a lock on it that has a mind of its own. Probably over a year ago, Jason left the house with Brandon in tow to drop him off at his day care. Nathan was lucky enough to still be asleep. I went outside, for some reason that I do not recall, and found myself locked outside. I tried the front door, no luck. I rang the doorbell, a dozen times, Nathan slept through it. I ran to my car in the garage and found my cell phone. I called Jason since he had left 5 minutes prior. He didn't answer.

I rang the doorbell again. Nathan was sound asleep. I called Jason's cell phone two more times. He finally answered. After I explained my dilemma, he came back home and let me in the house. Problem resolved!

Tonight, I was working on my computer upstairs in the bedroom. I get this message from Jason on my instant messenger, "help me garage." I couldn't imagine why he didn't just come upstairs and ask for assistance with whatever it is. I thought to myself, why would he IM me from the study to get me to go to the garage? Perhaps he bought me some present and was surprising me. I was quite confused.

I went downstairs and called his name. He answered from the garage. I went to the garage and found Jason locked in it in his underwear! He went to the freezer for a late night snack and could not return through the garage door. He apparently had done everything he could think of to get my attention, but the television upstairs was too loud and I didn't hear him. He was knocking, and even honking the horn on my car! I didn't hear anything.

Finally, Jason looked in my car. No cell phone. He found a little laptop that I keep in my car for work emergencies. Luckily, I charged the battery a little today. After waiting five minutes for it to boot up, he logged into his e-mail account and caught me online to instant message me. I must say that I'm proud of his creative problem solving skills, but we really do need to get a new lock on that garage door!

Commercials and Infomercials

I'm convinced that commercials and infomercials are targeting 5 to 7 year-olds or those who have the mental capacity of that age. My boys are forever trying to get me to buy something, usually with an 800 number, that they saw on television. The most recent product that we have to have is Mighty Putty. "It can fix anything!" There's also HD Vision WrapArounds, sunglasses that make everything look HD, they even have night vision ones. Nathan is convinced that these are exactly what we need.


One day while driving in the car, Nathan asked me very matter of factly, "Mom, are you paying too much for auto insurance?"


When Nathan was about three, we caught him with the phone in hand dialing while looking at the television. When asked what he was doing, "Calling Disney!" Of course!


If you have an commercial or infomercial in mind, my boys can quote almost every word of it. It's quite amusing at times.