Ultranormal

Category: family

  • Grrrr

    OMG, Brian is so cranky and refuses to eat anything, yet won’t stop asking to eat!\
    ETA- Waahhh, when is Kevin coming home? (Now it is my turn to be cranky, apparently.

  • Max Loves the Wii

    Since we were out of town for Christmas, we had a New Years Eve Gift-Giving Extravaganza at my parents’ last night. Aaaand, my mom got us boys (Brian, Max and me) a Wii! We hooked it up in their basement to try it out, and Max is hooked. I took a little video of Max playing Wii Sports Boxing to show just how hooked the boy is (and I’m playing with Dreamhost’s new flash movie stuff):

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  • Brian Likes to Skip

    We were showing the boys how to skip at the zoo last week, and Brian really got into it. I took a little movie to show you just how into it he was:

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  • Happy New Year!

    I don’t want to make any resolutions this year; I just want to automatically be a better person and more disciplined.

  • The Mississippi Pictures

    Skyanne, Brian and Max onthe train

    The pictures from the trip are up and organized into sets. Here they all are:

    • Day One – This included sledding, and dinner at Leatha’s: the Temple of Pork.
    • Max Takes Pictures – I let Max use the camera and iPhoto to take pictures around the house. He loved tweaking all the settings on pictures, and trying out crazy stuff. He really got into macro mode, as you’ll see. There’s some really good stuff in there.
    • Dinner Out, and the Lights of Tylertown – Little tiny Tylertown, Mississippi puts on a great light show. Unfortunately, the batteries in the camera died before we could document the whole thing.
    • Christmas Eve and Day – Including the requisite tree shots.
    • Jen Takes the Boys for a Walk – Some really funny Max and Brian moments in this one.
    • The Hattiesburg Zoo – We went to the zoo! It was small, but the kids had fun and got to ride on a train.
    • Around the House and Out and About – Random stuff from the trip that doesn’t fit anywhere else. See little Brian pig out, ride a tractor and the Great Sundae Massacre of 2006.\
      Enjoy!

  • Christmas Wrap-Up

    The highlights and the lowlights (I will let you decide which is which):

    • The kids were SO GOOD in the car.
    • Having internet in the car so I could chat and goof off for the long drive.
    • The iPod FM thingie didn’t work as well as hoped.
    • Anne’s packed goodies for the kids, including stories on CDs, were awesome tantrum-savers.
    • Only eating fast food twice the whole time.
    • Leatha’s for ribs; my first ever trip to Stone Cold Creamery; some backwoods (literally, it was in the middle of some forest) restaurant for awesome, awesome steak and fried catfish; fried turkey for Christmas dinner, which was surprisingly not greasy at all. As Kevin said, “There is no reason to eat turkey any other way.”; Glazed Heavenly Ham which was better than the Honey Baked Hams I have had; Mom’s home cooking- yum!; Cherry Cordial Kisses, courtesy of my SIL, Jo. Apparently they are in a limited release since I couldn’t find any to bring home with me.
    • Seeing my aunt, Edna, my brother, George, his wife, Jo, and his kids, Skylar and Skyanne.
    • Watching my kids interact and bond with their cousins.
    • Max threw up multiple times the first night we were there. Thankfully, he is old enough to know to head for the bathroom. He didn’t quite make it to the toilet each time though, but the tile was so much easier to clean than the bed or the couch.
    • My dad walking in on my mom and me trying to hide the giant present we’d just gotten him.
    • The view from my parents’ house.
    • The Tylertown light show.
    • My mom and Kevin laughing at their many shared jokes and experiences.
    • Watching Brian love on my parents’ dog, Buddy.
    • Liking each other enough to make plans for another visit.
    • The first four places we stopped at after leaving Miss. didn’t carry People or US Weekly. Hello, I need my trashy magazines to supplement the needed twizzlers and peanut M&Ms!!!
    • Being smart enough to get Brian a new toy for the drive home. (Cuz his Christmas presents weren’t the kind to be played with while stuck in a car seat.)
    • The Country Inn & Suites we stayed at on the way home sucked ass. But, whatever, it is over and we won’t be staying at that one again. The one we stayed at on the way to Miss. was very nice though.
    • Looking at pictures on the computer via my parents’ large flat screen tv.
    • Brian and Max sharing a bed for the whole visit. They would giggle and tickle at first, usually, then settle down. Kevin saw them spooning at one point. At another, Max was barely on the bed, and Brian was sleeping perpendicular to the mattress and had stolen all of the covers.\
      Pictures are coming soon!

  • Five Things

    Five Things You May Not Know About Me:\
    1- I had the worst C-section in the history of the world. It was horrible and painful and a defining moment for me.\
    2- I was in the Engineering Honors College at my University. (Yes, me, she who blabbers on about tv, Blues Clues, and general silliness!)\
    3- I am wearing fuzzy, comfy, velour pants right now.\
    4- I am horrible at the paperwork of life (forms to fill out, etc).\
    5- I don’t think Mr. Pibb and Red Vines are crazy delicious.

  • Home

    We made it home! Splitting the trip up into two even days instead of trying to front-load it like the trip there worked really well. We were in no shape for the long day (although two short days would have been nice). We made it home this afternoon after leaving Knoxville at 7:30 this morning. Jen is dozing on the couch, Brian is being annoyed at everyone’s lack of energy, Max is drawing, and I’m waiting for the pizza.\
    I declare this trip a success. We had a good time with family, ate wickedly good food, laughed a lot (sometimes at each other – but we deserved it), hung out, played a lot of games, and no one killed themselves or cried too much. The boys have been promoted from Awesome Travel Kids second class to Awesome Travel Kids first class with honors. They were both unbelievably good – much better than I remember Tim and I being on car trips that long.\
    I’m exhausted, though. I’m gonna go crash on the couch until the pizza shows up. Then, I’m going to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special after the boys go to bed, and then go there myself. Tomorrow, it’s presents at my parents’ house. Whoopie, two Christmases!! It’s like Jesus was twins!

  • Five Things You May Not Know About Kevin

    I got tagged by Greg, so here we go… five things you may not know about me, in no particular order.

    1. I was a TV “star” on a Tucson Public Access TV Show called Tech X. I was a floating head called Otto (they had blue screen and everything) and sat behind the two hosts and said really stupid things. My pal, Diana, sent me DVDs with all of the episodes of the show on them, and I haven’t quite gotten up the nerve to watch them all yet.
    2. I graduated from Vicksburg High School in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I’m not proud of this fact, but that’s where Dad made us move, so that’s where we went.
    3. I moved 19 times in 21 years growing up. Since moving out, I’ve moved three times, once in the same town when buying a house. All that moving had done some weird things to me psychologically, which I think I’ve talked about here before, but it was so long ago that hopefully you’ve forgotten about it. I’m crap at relationships. When people leave, or I leave, I’m very good at pretending they no longer exist. Growing up, it was always easier to believe they no longer existed than to believe that I would never see them again. I never wrote letters, tried to never think about them, and did a good job of compartmentalizing my life. I recognized this a little after moving to Virginia, and have been trying to fix it, but it still pops up all the time.
    4. I’m an Eagle Scout. I earned Eagle at 14, and then maybe went on one camp out after that. I liked scouting, but was pretty much done with it once I got Eagle. If you’re a kid or have kids, and it’s important to you to get it – get it before you get interested in girls, cars or other stuff.
    5. I’m a big girl for Love Actually. I love that movie. I couldn’t tell you why other than it’s about all kinds of love, very well acted, is really funny, and makes me cry every single time I watch it. I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth (and you might not know it).\
      Since these things are 21st century chain letters, I now have to tag five more people. Let’s see… I’ll tag: Jen, Tim, Heather, Cindy and Jason.

  • In Mississippi

    We made it. Today was fairly short, although with a lot more rain than yesterday. There are lots of funny stories about the boys sleeping on a hide-a-bed, adventures in dining (Leatha’s BBQ in Hattiesburg, MS: Best pulled pork on the planet Earth, and this is from a guy who’s tried a bunch in a dozen different states from pig pickin’s in the Carolinas to pork sandwiches in Austin – and yes, it was as good as promised – planks of plywood for the floor, large women in mu-mus and the best Southern home cooking I’ve ever had).\
    But, I’m tired, my back hurts and there’s lots of family time to catch up on, so that’s all for now. But, we’re safe, happy, fed and tired.