Tye-dye playdate

The meet up girls gathered at Tabatha's house today for a tye-dye craft get-together, this morning. We studied youtube tutorials with hippie men [who have too much time on their hands], got rained on [thank goodness for covered porches], twisted t-shirts and onsies, and dyed shirts and our fingers. It's always a great time with these girls and they have been such a lifesaver this summer.

Here is the finished products: mine [pink] and James's [blue/green].

This is Riley's, it looks way cooler in person, even though James's blue shirt dripped a little on it. Gives it character, right?

I'm so proud! Helped lighten up a crappy day. James got his shots he needed for school, both boys are sick, we got some bad news, and it's just been a rough one. Tomorrow we're going to register James for pre-school (he's so excited and such a little man) and celebrate by school shopping afterwards.

For now, I'm going to lay in bed and read "The Help" (started a week ago and about halfway through it--I can't put it down) and sleep until it's a new, brighter day.

Grandma and Aunt GeeGee visit

So my mom and sister arrived Friday night, right before Bunco. While Kelly and I were out rolling dice in tacky outfits, mom bathed the boys, wore them out and got them into their beds and still cleaned my kitchen and floor!
Saturday, we stayed home and Grandma kept the boys entertained while Kelly and I attacked the last few boxes and piles of clothes lying around the bedroom. We got almost everything folded and hung up and put a good dent in it. I made a nice, big roast, boeuf bourguignon-style and some chicken salad (we can put away some chicken salad, now), and after the kids were in bed we played cards and watched Mad Men.
Sunday called for at least a little outing, so we loaded up the floaties and towels and headed out to our favorite summertime hangout--Callaway Garden beach! The boys were little fish and kicked their legs and ventured through the water.

Grandma tried to get some sun, but James demanded that she go down and help him fill his bucket with water about every 3 minutes.

James decided to make his bucket into a pool. It was a scorcher.

We had a lovely time and picked up some ice cream on our way home to cool off. The boys got to skip their naps since it was already late and they were all sugared up. Kelly and I picked up some take-out at Olive Garden and when the boys finally got to bed [much too late] the three of us sat up late, talking and giggling.

They drove out Monday morning and the house was noticeably quieter and lonelier. The boys have been going through grandma-withdrawals. I will admit I've been sleeping much better without Kelly stealing the covers or beating me with her gangly knees.

Up until a week ago, James would still mention "that was fun at Grandma's house" (referrencing our Father's day visit a month ago), which has now been replaced with "that was fun when grandma camed my house". I think he takes after his Great-Granny and Aunt Gee-Gee as far as travelling goes. He's already planned trips back to Tennessee and to Texas to see his Grampy and Grammy and their pool.

We love seeing everybody. I'm hoping we'll get some more visitors, or maybe even get to do some visiting before school starts. :)

Ladies night: Trailer Trash Bunco

The meet-up girls had Trailer Trash Bunco night this past weekend. Yes I did iron that on to my shorts. What is it about dressing up like Brittany Spears during the Kevin Federline years that sends grown women into a squealing fit to Walmart for bubblegum pink lipstick and cheetah-print press on nails? I'm pretty sure we'd all been counting down, planning our outfits for weeks.
My mom and sister decided to drive down and spend the weekend with us since they had off work, so mom kept the boys (and cleaned my kitchen!) and I brought Kelly with me.
[it was BYOB so I brought root beer!]

These girls were the winners! Kelly won $2!

We had a blast! Everyone brought a dish; there were cocktail weiners wrapped in bacon, a twinkie tray, strawberry trifles--we were festive! I certainly wasn't the best bunco player ever, but I had a great time.

Ice cream

Ice cream. Those two words are probably the simplest description of summer I can think of.

I remember summers as a kid, sitting on my grandparents' front porch eagerly watching cream and sugar and fresh cut peaches swirling around in the ice cream maker for what seemed like an eternity. Later, licking the melting pools of homemade peach ice cream from the white and gold embellished corelle bowls that I remember Granny saying were wedding gifts when they got married. I can still remember the aroma of the peaches and cream and how sweet it tasted on those hot summer days.

When we started planning our move to Georgia, almost a year and a half ago, I immediately dreamt of June and the start of peach season. Real Georgia peaches. Ripening on my counter top, dripping juice as I slice into them. Now that we're here, dream-come-true, my counters never go without a bag of peaches on them. And this week, I bought an ice cream maker.

See where this is going?
It was like sitting on that front porch, brain-freezing, clanking spoon against bowl all over again.

I'm in love with this Georgia-million-degrees-summer. Browning in the sun, pruning in the pool and lake, making friends, reading new stories, picking berries, seeing loved ones, growing imaginations, being courageous, singing loudly, laughing louder, marvelling at the sky. It has been a full one so far for me and my boys. Summer always goes too fast and while we have another few months to enjoy, I can't help but to look ahead two years and realize that it'll only be weeks left then, before my baby boy starts school and cuts our summers short. So while I'm pulling my hair out when my son starts exercising his newfound independence and bravery in the form of defiance, I have to catch myself. I have to remember: this won't last. But neither will the fun parts.

4th of July weekend

These were some happy boys!

Fort Benning had its Independence Day celebration Saturday evening and lucky us, Jason's unit let them spend time with their families! It felt so good to have my brood back together again!

We arrived around 5:30 that night, parked amidst the traffic-filled parking lots way the heck away from the field where everything was happening and trekked over there. We found Jason pretty quickly and I got to meet some of the guys he's in school with, all nice guys. It was especially nice meeting his two buddies, other prior service members, who he spends most of his time with. I call them the Three Muskateers.

While the guys stood guard over our picnic blanket and bags, we ventured off to explore the booths and games and to get some lemonade to cool off.

The lemonade didn't last too long. James insisted on playing a game or two, so with Daddy's assistance, he banged on this one and won two swords.

Many a sword fight followed.

More sword fighting (or rather twig fighting).

And even more sword fighting.

We settled down after a while. James wouldn't got near the inflatables, but marvelled at them from a distance. We were chatting with Jason and his guys when all of a sudden it started thundering. Out of nowhere we got caught in a downpour. Rain hit us like pellets and everyone started running off for either the parking lots or covered tents. Jason got called off to a formation, so I had to drag the wet, whining kids, and all our heavy, soaked stuff, and a stroller through the mud back to the car. We stopped under a tree with another group of people (which didn't seem like the greatest idea during a thunder storm, but the rain was hitting so hard it hurt). It was a horrible day to be wearing a white top. When it lightened up a little, we took off again toward the car. I cursed the far-away parking lot the whole way, alternately sliding and getting stuck in the mud. James was hysterical because he wanted his Daddy and he wanted to see the fireworks. We finally got to the car and got everyone inside and buckled up and like clockwork--it stopped raining. Are you kidding me??

We sat for a while, like several of the people around us. Some left, some went back. We sat. We stayed there for probably an hour and finally I got out and asked someone if they had shut it down. The man said that it didn't look like and that they'd started blowing up the inflatables and playing music again. My phone got soaked in the rain so it wasn't working at all, so we couldn't get in touch with Jason to find out if he got to come back. But James had to pee and we were sick of just sitting there all soaked, so we got back out and headed down there.

I looked for Jason where we'd all gathered before--nothing. We walked around past all the booths, looking through the concert crowd, the lemonade, BBQ, and funnel cake stands, everywhere I thought he might be. He'd been in civilian clothes before, so I looked for polos and khakis. Nothing.

We walked around for over an hour, only stopping at the port-a-potty for James (who was super grossed out--who could blame him?) and there was no sign of him. Finally, I found this group of an older couple and a woman who I guessed was their daughter who looked friendly. I told them about my phone and the rain and not being able to get in touch with my husband who was in school and asked if I could use their cell phone. They were happy to let me, but he didn't answer. I left him a message to meet me at the token tent in the center and that I'd wait there a while. We sat for a little bit, looked around, and finally I lightened up. I figured we weren't going to see him, they were probably called back in and put on duty and that as long as we were at this thing, I might as well make the most of it. I offered to take James to the bouncy houses. He didn't want anything to do with them. He wanted ice cream. Blue ice cream (of course). So we stood in line for some tokens and got some blue italian ice to share.

As we were sitting there eating our ice, the man from the group before came over and told me that my husband had called the phone back and they'd just missed it and asked if I wanted to try him again. How nice were these people?? So I ran over and gave him one more call and he answered! They had just let them come back out and were in uniform this time (which was like trying to find a needle in a haystack--there were TONS of soldiers in uniform all over). We got to spend maybe half an hour with him after that, but it made the night so much better! I thanked them profusely for getting me in touch with him.

Our time together was short, but we all got some good hugs in there. It was hard for James to let go, especially. He kept telling Daddy that we had to take him home and he couldn't go back to school. It made it that much harder on Jason, too.

Riley was sad to see him go, too. Especially since he had to sit in the stroller again. hmph.

Even dumber than Jason having to leave--they called him in right before they started the fireworks display!! The boys and I tried to make the most of it and picked a good spot to sit down and wait for the show. A nice man in front of us offered them some gummy snacks. There was a tv news crew filming right next to us and when I told James he started acting silly in hopes that they'd film him!

When the fireworks started, James was a little freaked out by the noise, so he curled up in my lap like a kitten, begging me to scratch his back.

Riley loves a good show, so he ate it all up. He was grinning and clapping and watching with wide eyes.

James eventually warmed up a little, but kept my arms wrapped tight around him.

It was a nice, big show, and reminded me of the ones we used to see at Fort Campbell. We got stuck in forever-long traffic in the parking lot, which I expected but still sucked. It was after midnight by the time we got home and in bed and we were all wiped out.

The next day, my friend Casey's daughter Lucy came over for the day. She's right in between the boys' ages, so she's a perfect playmate to either. She hadn't been over for half and hour and James was already asking her on a date to "go see the fireworks" (he sure knows how to work it!).

When Riley went down for his nap, James set up his Mickey Mouse fold out chairs to "watch the fireworks" in the living room. He sat her and handed her a pink bowl of cheezits and worked his little ladies-man-magic. It was precious to watch.

I had intended on letting James skip his nap, but he kept acting up (and acting super tired) so I put him down as I got Riley up. He took her on a "movie date" and they watched Max & Ruby a million times and read some books.

Today, finally the actual Fourth, was low-key. We spent it grocery shopping, eating popsicles...

...watching Twilight Zone marathons on the syfy channel. No matter how many holidays I've spent watching these old episodes over and over I still get a thrill from each twist!

We did "arts and craps". We broke out the mod podge, clipped some magazines, and fancied up our $1 frames from the craft store.

Riley had a meltdown because he wasn't interested in decorating the frame as much as dumping glue onto everything.

After knocking everything off the table, and flipping over furniture and throwing things, he got a little time out in the corner. Pretty much his first real time out. He calmed himself down in minutes and came out to give me a hug. He's such a sweet little boy, but man are these tantrums wearing me out. James is having his own behavioral issues. He's very defiant and rather than asking or telling me what he wants, he just starts beating up on and picking on his brother. I'm afraid of him becoming a bully or how it'll affect Riley in the long run. I try separating them, explaining the importance of using his words and telling me what he wants, punishing him, comforting Riley, taking things away, everything. I make it clear that it's unacceptable to hurt anyone, especially his brother. It's just a lot to juggle right now, especially with Jason being gone. I know that's where a lot of the acting out is coming from. Whew! Kids, man.

But for every crazy-hard moment there are plenty good ones. I'm thankful I had these boys to spend the Fourth with.