Drip-Drip-Drip...

That's the sound I hear in our office, and its not coming from outside - it's inside! We have several leaks in our office due to the rain and the roofing guys just showed up to figure out what to do. I put trash cans under each leaking area...hopefully, they won't fill up by the end of the day.

Weekend went by fast. I finally, finally put my fine china in my china cabinet. We have lived at the Marley house for two years now and I just NOW did that. Better late than never. I'm starting to clean out the two closets in the guest room, since my parents have moved into their own house. I realized how much baby clothes I've kept and need to consolidate some. Brings back memories when I see some of Evan's baby clothes. My, how time flies!

On Saturday, we had a Community Car Care Day and it was very successful. I stood on the corner waving to people as they drove by - trying to convince them to come get a free car wash or car check. By the afternoon, my right arm muscle was aching from waving too much. Hah! I wonder if those girls in beauty pageants have the same aching arm feeling when they are on the runway or in parades?? My back started hurting too....so maybe its just my age or the weight I carry up front?? I'm sure none of the those beauty queens have that!

Drip...drip...drip... - the roofing guys just left. I overheard them say, they have to wait until it stops raining before they can do anything. Oh no - I hope I can stay awake. The sound of rain makes me sleepy and now its dripping even more. Oh well, I could go back to Starbucks and try the Peppermint Mocha they had listed on the menu or get another PSL - decaf of course. :)

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Wow - last night we had an amazing small group. We talked about communication and how the Holy Spirit reflects in you, through you, spreading to those that is around you. We also came together as a group to pray. It was wonderful to see us all being together as one praying to the Lord and bringing our cares and burdens to Him. It was pretty awesome!

When we got home from small group, I got Evan ready for bed (changed into PJ's & brush his teeth). He knew already that we weren't going to read books before going to bed since it was late. Funny how I've already instilled that in Evan. He knows when its late, plus I think he knew he was super tired. So, after about 10:30 - I contemplated on staying up to catch up on my already-recorded shows on my dvr recorder. I opted out and went to bed. I guess I too was tired, b/c once my head hit my pillow - I was a goner!

Small group was great - but that meant we got home late too! Not a favorite for Evan, b/c he looses sleep since he has to wake up to go to school. So, I knew what was in for me this morning. Cy had to work late last night and didn't join us. Matter of fact, he got home about 3 am this morning. So guess who else was snoozing this morning??

I got Evan ready (Cy usually does this while I get ready for work) - and was pretty proud that I got everything done (lunch made for Evan, snack for myself, breakfast made for Evan, got myself ready, etc). Then we were going to head out the door. I knew I would be a few minutes late for work, but I figured -- well, I think I can manage being a few minutes late. But then Cy jumped out of bed and said, I'll take Evan to school! Awesome!

So - seeing that I would be on time - I stopped off at Starbies this morning to get me a blueberry muffin (which btw - is super yummy). I couldn't resist...Pumpkin Spice Latte was listed on the menu. It must be fall!! Eekk..I haven't been in Starbucks in a while, so I thought umm....I wonder if they could make that a decaf - OF COURSE THEY CAN!!

Arrived a bit early to work, now sipping my PSL. Life is good!

Conversation with a 4 yr. old

Since Evan is learning about the body in school, we've had many conversations about body parts and where they are located and what each part is used for. It's quite cute to hear him talk about his heart and what it does. He even sings a song about scraping his knee or cutting his finger - loosing blood and platelets. He knows the whole song, but when he sings it....I can tell there's a few missed words. OH! Which reminds me about the funniest thing ever - I have to share this!

Over the summer, Evan was in the summer school program and they taught him some other songs. Songs, of course I've never heard of - or they were unfamiliar to me, however being that Cy grew up "hippie" he knew these songs (i.e., "Blowing in the Wind" and "The Yellow Submarine"). Well, there was this one song Evan sang, the beginning goes like - "Oats and beans and barley grows, oats and beans and barley grows" blah, blah, blah -- I can't remember the rest. But, having to hear him sing this just makes me think - What in the world? On our first parent/teacher meeting, one of the parents had asked if there was any way for us parents to get the lyrics of the songs the kids sing in school. She also said, it's very hard to comprehend what her child was singing, when she repeatedly sang, "Boats are mean and Marley's a hoe". THE WHOLE ENTIRE ROOM FILLED WITH LAUGHTER! Hilarious. I still don't know the whole song to "Oats and Beans" and we still haven't received the lyrics to the songs either.

Okay, real quick - getting back to Evan learning his body parts. In conversation about the lungs, he gestures what the lungs do (as he breathes in and out). Well, I said, "Evan, you have very healthy lungs. Do you know happens if you smoke?", he replies, "No, what happens?", I reply, "Your lungs turn black, and you can get sick and can also get cancer too". He was really like, yuck - black lungs. I emphasized on it b/c A) I don't want my kid to smoke - AT ALL and B) try to let him know that smoking is bad for you. So, now, when he sees someone smoking he is not ashamed to speak his mind out loud and will say, "Eww...look at that (lady or man) who's smoking, Mommy, his lungs will be black". And I say, "Yep - that's right, and smoking is bad for you, right Evan?" He agrees.

Just the other day, we were driving home from school and we were talking about birthday's - be it that my birthday was coming up. All of a sudden, as I was driving, he says, "Mommy, when I turn 7 years old, I'm not going to smoke, because smoking is bad." I COULD NOT HELP not to chuckle...and then he proceeded to tell me that none of his other friend's smoke at school. Thank goodness!

My Boy! What can I say? He makes me laugh!

Okay - for some ODD REASON, when I posted my birthday dinner picture @ Miyabi's (Sept. 24th, 2009), it comes up as a big red x. So, I'll have to figure it out later. Have a great weekend!

Blessing someone else

Today isn't just any other day. It's my birthday!! Woo hoo! At 12:01 this morning, my Cy turned his body towards me and said, "Happy Birthday Baby Cakes". Thankfully, I was barely awake and coherent and heard him and said, "Thank You". Then I turned over to my side and closed my little eyes. It's funny, how since we've been married - we have been doing the same exact thing to each other...wishing each other birthday wishes at midnight on each others birthday. It's sweet and thoughtful.

I started the day out with another Happy Birthday from my sweet boy Evan. Though he had his eyes closed, lying in his bed, daddy whispering in his ear to tell me "something" -- he blurted out "Happy Birthday Darby-Darby-Dump". That's his little pet name he calls me sometimes. I call him "Tweets". I'm sure you mothers out there have some nicknames for your kids too! It's a good start when Evan wakes up happy and willing to eat his breakfast. Sometimes we have those days where we have to get on him about getting up. It usually ends up with him crying, and moving even slower in the morning. It's very frustrating...and for Cy, it's worse, since he's in charge of getting Evan up, ready and out the door for school. I can blog about that in another blog entry, but I'll spare you.

I made some birthday brownies, and took them to work - sharing the love to my coworkers; at least to the ones who are in the office. :)

My day is going well and frankly, got a little bit better after I went to Publix this morning. Our Pepsi machine at the office is out of soda, so I had to make a mad dash to Publix. Got what I needed, then waited in line. This guy was in front of me and had lots of baby food jars. Oh, how I remember those days. Anyway, long story short, we had a few words between each other about baby stuff, yada, yada, yada. Turns out his credit card wasn't working, so he told the cashier he would be back. Well, it was my turn and the lady started ringing me up and so forth. So, I asked her how much was that guys stuff, she told me and I said, you know what - Let me bless that man, I'll pay for his stuff. She was like, really? I said, yeah, here, let me pay for it, but don't tell him who paid. So, I did and the bagger took the guy's bags to him (he was near the doorway or something on his phone). He kept asking who paid for his stuff, blah, blah, blah - the bagger gave in and pointed to me and I was walking out the door. BUSTED! Well, he was so thankful and kept saying, no, you can't do that - blah, blah, blah. I told him I wanted to bless him, and not to worry about it. And he kept saying no. Turns out, he's the owner of this new pizza place near my work and he gave me his card and said - consider this a gift certificate! So, while I was blessing him, he turned around and blessed me back!! Is that how its suppose to work? LOL! It was all good...

My birthday keeps getting better and better! When I got back to work, I was greeted with a wonderful surprise. A beautiful plant delivered from my parents. Thanks Mom and Dad! So "Hawaiian" looking. Hah! Can't wait to have a yummy birthday dinner at Miyabi's Japanese Steakhouse tonight. I'm actually excited that Evan will be going too! The last time he went to a teppanyaki sit down -- he freaked out! So, now that he's older...I'm sure he'll be alert and will have fun watching the chef cook our food in front of us. I'll blog about that later!

Here's the picture of my beautiful flower plant my parent's sent me. And the other photo is of Evan with a baby Alpaca. I took this last month - Ms. Lynn (Evan's previous sitter) has neighbors who have Alpaca's. Well, one of them was pregnant and we had a chance to see the new baby Alpaca. She was so cute and soft.

Who's your acorn?

Well, I'm ready for the fall -- come on already!!

This morning, as I was getting ready for work, Evan came running into my room - jumped into my bed and hid himself under the covers. I can tell the boy did not want to wake up! I greeted him with a morning hug (he's still under the covers) and was so tempted to jump in the bed too! He was so warm...I told him he was an acorn, and I'm the squirrel. I'm going to bury him until the spring! His reply, "okay mommy". We have tons of squirrel's in our yard due to the many trees that surround our house. And those trees have lots of acorns. The squirrels have daily parties at our house. We know, because we hear them up on our roof just prancing away and then occasionally, we hear acorns dropping. Either there's a squirrel up in the tree shaking the branches, or the squirrels have dropped their acorns on our roof. I'm telling you...there's plenty to go around!

Boy, I wish I was a bear so that I can hibernate. I know as the weather gets cooler, I'll be the one still in the bed not wanted to get up.

I'm thankful for a short work week. We have tons of stuff going on this weekend. Actually, we've been quiet busy these past few weekends. Cy has been working on putting in a new drainage field in our backyard. Poor guy...he's worked so hard. He has been up before the sun rises and doesn't come back into the house until well after dark. Last night he got in at 1:30 this morning. I know we're saving a lot of money doing this work ourselves - removing four huge trees, trenching ditches, cutting concrete, pounding asphalt pavement, installing new PVC drain pipes from our septic tank, etc. We've saved thousands of dollars doing it and I know in the end, we'll be a happy family again. Just two more days until it's over!!! I'll post some pics on my Picasso picture site. Check it out:

I'm doing my part by staying out of the way and watching Evan. Well, Evan and I did help out a little bit on Sunday. Who's going to move the big tree branches out of the way? Somebody has to do it! So, after taking our Sunday nap - Evan and I ventured out to the backyard and helped drag the branches to the street. It was a good bit and I tell you, I was wiped out afterwards. We were pretty proud of ourselves and stayed out until dark. While we did that, Cy continued to move the big tree trunks out of the way. He used the bobcat for that job!

There's so much stuff going on....it'll be a while before I can get you all up to speed on my life. Until next time - who's your acorn?

Blogs! Blogs! Blogs!

So, I've been keeping up with my daily blogs. Well, not MY OWN personal blog, but other peoples blogs and they have inspired me. I need to get to it! I'll try my best to write random, not-so-meaningful thoughts about life. I just feel I don't have the time to do it. But, I'll try.

Most recent funny thing my son Evan has said. I was holding our friend's baby, Joseph and I asked Evan to look at him asked if Joseph was cute. Evan's reply, "Yes, he's cute, can I pet him?". And he said it with a serious face. Of course I burst out laughing...b/c dude - we have cats and everything that is small in hand, Evan relates to our cats - particularly Pickles. So, that's a funny that will go in his scrapbook!

I'm excited about going somewhere in August. Not sure WHERE we're going, but we're going somewhere! LOL... From the blogs I've read, everyone has been going to the beach. I too would like to go to the beach - just as long as its a beach where I can see my feet in the water. The only place on the east coast is Florida. So, maybe we'll go to FL. Who knows...I do know I want to get away.

I know, this is a boring blog entry. It's almost 4:30 and I'm on empty right now. I'm drinking 6 hour old coffee that I had to reheat a few times. That's how bad it's been today. Tick, tick, tick...time to go pick Evan up. :) Woo hoo!

Okay - so I tried to attach a picture with this post, but it doesn't seem to be working. Oh well..I'll try again tomrorow.

Proud Mama of a 4 year old Boy

It's Evan's birthday today! Wow - 4 years has just flown by. Actually, he doesn't officially turn 4 until 9:26 pm tonight. But hey, let him enjoy his day.

He woke up this morning in a very good mood. He said, "I'm FOUR" - today is my birthday. It was so cute. I reminded him that now that he's four, he's even a bigger boy and four-year olds don't suck on their thumbs. Yeah, way to go me -- tactfully using child psychology on him. ;) He agreed and went on his merry way.

I made cupcakes (rainbow ones) for him to take to Ms. Lynn's house. When we arrived, there was a "Happy Birthday" sign and then another sign that said Happy Birthday Evan. So cute. She also decorates the house when its some one's birthday.

We head off to Chuckee Cheeses tonight for a dinner birthday. We're also meeting Evan's "twin" Greer and her family. Greer is four hours older then Evan. When they are together, its like having twins! In the past, we have had joined birthday parties for Greer and Evan. But this year, we scheduled it separately. Greer had her party at Monkey Business last Sat., and this Sat., Evan will have his at our house. We're pretty excited....I'm still contemplating on making a cake or buying a cake. I planned on making a custom snake cake, but then Evan decided he wants a Hippo cake. He's into hippos now. Anyway -- what to do? You'll have to see....I'll post pics up after his party.

On another note...we are still looking for a van. Preferable a Toyota Sienna (yr. 2000 & up). Anybody know of anyone selling one locally? We'd travel maybe 2 hours radius from our house to find a good deal. Let me know.