An Enjoyable Vacation

If anyone has any digital pictures of David's birthday party, please email them to me!!!

Friday: David went to MawMaw's house for an overnight while Mom & Dad went to 4HIM's farewell concert tour. We didn't get to keep our ticket stubs, so my bad pictures are all the proof we have that we were actually there! We hear David had an enjoyable evening as well.

Saturday: David's 2nd Birthday! When we got back from the concert, Mom & Dad blew up a bunch of balloons. David slept late & actually had to be woken up so that we wouldn't be late to his party! To wake him up, I asked, "Do you want to see balloons?" As expected, he loved them!




After getting dressed, David helped MawMaw feed & water Spit. David also enjoyed this, but I'm not sure that Spit thought the same. (notice the ears) We have to remind David, "Spit is not a play-cat."





I borrowed this picture from Grandpa's Blog. Left to right, as David would call them: Grana, Uncle Curt (seated in background), MawMaw, Aunt Marlene, Grandma (seated in foreground), Mom, Dad and the legs of Mom's friend Valarie.




David's cousin, Logan, watches as David opens presents. David is blowing on bubble wands. Logan was eager for the cupcakes!





The entire "Happy Birthday" song, David had his head down like he was hiding!!! And it was too windy to light the candle.

David was asleep shortly after leaving the park and slept until supper time! Then we had supper at Taco Cabana.





Sunday: We went to church with Grandma & Grandpa and took good naps again!

Here is David playing on Grandma & Grandpa's piano. I *think* this was the first time he's ever seen a real piano. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember how to play anything, but I was able to one handed play "Jesus Loves Me" from the hymnal. David played it just like he plays his toy piano.

Monday: We went with Grandma & Grandpa to IKEA!!! Mom loved it! Dad even liked it. David loved getting on all the couches, the little chair that looks like an egg, and their macaroni & cheese.


After we got back from IKEA - Uncle Bubba, Aunt Wee, Andy, Will & Jesse came in from their trip to their Meme & Papa's and visited for a little bit. They gave David his first drum! And look! He's holding the sticks correctly! Must be in his blood...







Tuesday: We came back home.

And Someday... one of these beautiful roosters will live at the North Place!!!!

We're Back!

It's been a while since I posted! We got back from the Grandma/Grandpa/MawMaw Metroplex yesterday, so I'll post more on our trip later. For details about David's 2nd birthday party, you might visit Grandpa's Blog... in the mean time, here was the big announcement:

Strange What Makes Me Love Him More

Today was one of those days when I wonder how I could ever love David more than I do today. This afternoon, David helped me assemble the pizza for supper tonight. Notice the tomato sauce all over his shirt? He put his hand in the can of sauce, took it out and shook it. That reminds me I still need to go wipe the side of the fridge. Anyway, I told him no to shaking his tomato hand, but before I could get him a towel, he'd used his shirt to clean his hand. Look closely to see tomato sauce and mozzarella on the table. And there was a strange divit in one corner of the dough...




David was playing in his room shortly before bedtime when he came barreling into the living room where Mom & Dad were watching a movie. He had on nothing but his diaper and his fire helmet, which he had put on all by himself... backwards. He was running full blast, grinning ear to ear, and when Mom & Dad burst into laughter, he hammed it up all the more!



After his hat fell off, he put it back on correctly. We figured it was more like a cap to wear it backwards, which is what he usually sees Dad wearing. (a cap, not his helmet backwards!)

Dad's Shattered Dreams

Today Dad participated in the Shattered Dreams program at a local high school. The program simulates a drunk driving accident with students in the cars. Local police, fire/rescue, county sheriff, state DPS, and undertakers from a funeral home also participate to make it very realistic. Click on any of the photos to enlarge them. The crowds of people you see in the background are high school students watching.

Here is the accident scene. At this point, the paramedics have already determined that one student was DOA (dead on arrival) and he was pulled out and covered in a sheet. You see firefighters on the left working to get another student out of the car and PD on the right talking to the drunk driver who was subsequently handcuffed and drug off.

Here the firefighters are working to cut the car apart so that they can get the patient out. Dad is in the darker red helmet on the right. I believe he was cutting this side of the car. Paramedics in the gray shirts in the back waiting to have access to the patient. One firefighter is inside the car stabilizing the patient.

Now you can see they've almost dismantled the tan car and another team has gotten a patient out of the blue car.

CPR is in progress as they take the patient from the blue car to the helicopter which just landed nearby.

The patient was finally removed from the tan car and taken by ambulance to a local hospital. Dad is on the far side of the backboard.

After the patients were taken to the hospital, the undertakers pulled in and loaded the kid who "died" into their vehicle & drove off. If I understand correctly, more of the story will unfold to the students as the day carries on and they will have an assembly tomorrow to conclude the program. It was pretty realistic.

Picture Day!

The worst part of "picture day" is having to choose just one pose for the package!!! (We choose the one of him standing beside the big #2.) If you're family, you should have gotten the link to look at all of David's proofs. Let me know if you didn't get it.

As always, David was very photogenic and did soooo well. I was so proud of him!






This didn't start out as "picture day" - it started out as return some library books that belong 80 miles north of here! We made the drive and while stopped for lunch, I just happened to think about how much I liked the studio in this town better than in our town. David was in a good mood & I had a change of clothes in the bag... and voila! I'll post one more... they're all so cute!

Meanwhile... On the way to help build another metal building this morning, Dad drove off without paying for his gas! Never fear, however, he did the right thing and is driving back to the gas station even now as I type to pay for it. : ) This morning, he went in after pumping the gas, bought and paid for a honey bun or something, and forgot to pay for the gas. He just realized this when he saw the check still in his wallet a few minutes ago! I wonder if this was the first time a drive-off ever came back to pay?

Mother's Day: Post #2

To celebrate Mother's Day, here is my son crushing one of my flowers. I was trying to take some cute, beside-the-flowers pictures like I see my friends taking of their daughters. OK, so my yard is not that plush.... But you see that soaker hose under the flowers? Those puppies have grown a lot! We always try to leave a yard looking better than when we found it. Unfortunately, we didn't have much to start with... And not much water to help it.




David also loves to pick up sticks. Can someone please tell me why he is drawn to the ones that look like guns??? I guess he likes the ability to hold his stick by a handle. I do not point out to him that they look like a gun and we have no toy guns - not even a water gun. Oh, well...


This is a paper box that was filled with packages of printer paper from Office Depot. After we emptied the paper, it held a small collection of toys in the office. For the last two days, David has been putting his dump truck in the box & taking it out. Today he took the box into the living room & discovered that he could put himself in the box...

... And lean back .... And fall over. The first time he tipped over, banging his head on the floor, I rushed over to make sure he was ok & try to distract him if he looked like he was about to cry. And this is what I saw. Guess what he did for the rest of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

To celebrate Mother's Day... so far today: Mom & David went to church. David's class was packed. The preschool choir (had to be at least 50 preschoolers!) sang in big church (which was absolutely hilarious!!). You couldn't tell what they were singing at all for the 4 (I think) songs they did - except when they all shouted/spelled out "J-E-S-U-S" in unison for one song. All the songs & in between was full of waves & shouts, "Hi Mom!" or "Hey, there's Dad!" or "Grandma!" When the preschool director stood up to help them get off the risers, one of the kids hollered, "Do I know you?!" There was also baby dedication (12 babies) today, so it was a very "motherly" day at church. Then we went through the drive-thru at Subway and went to the fire station to eat lunch with Dad. I ordered a foot-long turkey breast sub because it was cheaper than ordering a little sandwich for David and if he didn't eat it, then I'd have supper. Would you believe that he ate all but an inch of his half of the sandwich?! No veggies, though, just bread, meat & cheese. So much for having supper in the bag. Then Mom & David came home & had a nice, long nap. More later...

Who Can Resist???

Beep, beep... make way for David!!!

This was Tuesday. Aunt Wee gave these sunglasses to David when he was born & he's finally grown into them! Isn't he cute!!

See the Sesame Street Band-Aid on his right hand? He found a blade to the food processor. Not a bad cut, but it keeps opening & bleeding unless we keep it covered. The Band-Aid on his leg was one that he could play with & move around.

Below, you will find another movie from our camera. Mom was making one of David's teddy bears do cartwheels & he thought it was funny! I hope you enjoy this clip!

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Photo Sharing

Quackers!

We went to the park today with some bread. The ducks were all still sleeping when we got there about 10am! Above, David is more interested in the hole he found than the ducks. Every time I gave him a piece of bread to throw at the ducks, he ate it!

This goose made David cry with his loud honking! We ended up dropping a whole piece of bread to distract the goose! Doesn't the park look lovely today?



After we made a loop across 2 bridges, we headed over to the playground.

At left, David is driving a rocket!

And now he's driving a truck!

And checking out a locomotive... just like Dad!

He seemed to enjoy this girl's attention.

And leaving the sand box was not easy!

Later this afternoon, Mom mowed half of the back yard before running out of gas. David played with the shells again. After mowing, Mom washed off in his water. After watching that, David apparently decided it would indeed make a good bathtub!

Am I Contrary???

Here is David playing with water and the sea shells we collected on the coast. This is our West Texas Beach! : )

OK, that's all of David... The rest of this post is about my garden and the plants in our yard. So if you're not interested, then go away at this point! (Guess I am contrary!)




Do you remember what my garden looked like on March 30? (click there if you don't) Well, it's much bigger now! Wish I had taken the pictures from the same angle, but I think you can get the idea.




See how that top leaf was beaten up by last week's hail storm? But somehow the baby pepper escaped! Yeah!! This will grow up to be a yellow bell pepper.




My yellow pear tomato had 2 baby tomatoes, but one was beaten off by hail. You can also see that the plant is pretty scarred, and there are dried up tomato leaves all over the ground. I can hardly wait for this one to ripen. I noticed more fruit starting today, too!!!



Here is my squash plant! This sucker's huge already! I'm glad only 1 came up! Notice the leaf on the far left was really beaten up by the hail. Another on the right side was completely destroyed. The rest of those leaves? All new! Crazy!




This is in our pot of barrel cactus that we dug up several years ago. I love it when these things bloom. They're beautiful!




One dessert willow in a pot is blooming. This is from the batch of bare root trees that Dad's been growing for several years.





Only one of our red yucca plants bloomed this year. This one is planted in what I call my butterfly garden.





These are one of my favorites - Four-nerve Daisy. I'd like to plant about 4 more of these in this corner.

Big Socks to Fill

Dad didn't get scheduled at the hospital much this month, so when the invitation to join the welding crew was extended, he took it. Here's the catch... it was today & tomorrow in Big Spring. Overnight. So... Dad was 24 on yesterday, left straight from the station in a carpool caravan of other firemen, worked all day in Big Spring, will finish the job sometime tomorrow & come home. My last MOPS meeting for the year is tomorrow night, so I don't know if I'll be here when he gets home. Then Friday he's on 24 again. Good thing we just took a vacation together!



This was Monday. Tabi was trying to take a nap on a pair of Dad's dirty socks. David slowly inched in beside her. He missed his cats while we were gone! Then he realized those were socks.

Where do socks go???



I could hardly contain my laughter to take these pictures! He was so proud that he was wearing Dad's dirty socks! I'm still cracking up... Does he look like he's getting ready for Flashdance to you?



Now, on to today. Doesn't Tort look happy? Go read his blog for the details of his traumatic day: Tort's Traumatic Day. David gets honorable mention in the story.

We're Home!

I am post-dating entries for our vacation, so you might want to start at the bottom and work your way back up.

The cats did surprisingly well while we were gone - we left out 4 litter boxes, an open toilet (for water), and an open bag of cat food! Looks like we had a hail storm while we were gone by the looks of the plants in the yard. Hardest hit: some of my butterfly plants, the white alyssum, the squash plant, my yellow pear tomato. Hopefully everything will come back ok.