Stuffing!

I don't have a ton of time to blog tonight- one reason being that we are all sharing one computer... which is practically a national tragedy. So, I'm "stuffing" everything into one post. We made it to Oklahoma once again this year for the BMX races. The ride was interesting now that we have Camden- he did very well but when he got hungry or bored you knew it! We had to pull over so I could feed him twice, I did try once to lean over and feed him, which worked a little but made my back hurt and frustrated him. What is normally a 5 hour drive if we stop for dinner and gas took 7 hours this year. So far I am having an ok time- but I really miss Chan who stayed back in Texas. I guess because of Camden and my new routine I feel really weird being away from home in a hotel with a baby. Plus, I really wanted to be with as much family as possible this year and have a memorable first Thanksgiving for Camden. Don't get me wrong this is fun and I've enjoyed it the last few years but I think the novelty has worn off, so I am not sure what next year holds.... It is Chloe's first year to race and Hunter has kinda lost interest so I am wishing her, Jon, and Hayden good luck! I will definitely keep everyone posted. So funny- last year, Chloe and I had fun walking around the venue in our new sweaters and scarves just chillin' and people watching. We saw a lady with a newborn and I mentioned to Chloe how crazy that woman was to have a new baby in a dusty arena and to have to bunk in a hotel for 5 days. Gee, what a difference a year makes! Here I am hanging out with Hunter and Camden- people watching, bunking in a hotel but also stopping to rock, nurse and soothe a 10 week old baby while my Chloe girl races. Weirdness...
Anyway- we stopped for Thanksgiving lunch at Ruby Tuesday where I had a traditional turkey dinner and my family ate buffalo wings... dorks! Now, we are hanging in our hotel room watching Horton Hears a Who and snacking on junk- squeeze cheese on Ritz, pecan pie and birthday cake. That's right- my Hayden is 8!! Happy Birthday Hayden! Thank goodness we did a party at Trail Dust last weekend or I would have felt that he was cheated on his birthday. But really is he? I mean- road trip, junk food, BMX'ing etc? I'm sure he's having a ball! Anywho, I am off to watch the tube. I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving!

snacks!


Hayden and his mini birthday cake in our hotel



me and Hayden at Traildust last weekend


Hayden and his cake at Traildust


taking a bath in the hotel sink


Thanksgiving outfit

Homecoming Mums

This week me and my friend Erin made Chandler and Hunter mums for Homecoming. Those two stinky boys informed me they had dates for Homecoming 1 week before Camden was due to arrive. I informed them (with smoke coming out of my ears) that as soon as I got the baby here safely and had a day or two to recover that I would make mums. And, true to my word when Camden was 6 days old I took my hot post pregnant bod to Michael's with Erin and shopped for supplies. Of course I left Jon in charge of all the kids and he did splendidly even though the baby screamed for breast milk almost the entire time. It was nice to get out even though I was a bit scatterbrained and Erin had to pretty much shop for me. Making them was fun if not a little interesting, simply because we kept burning our fingers on the glue gun and I had to stop and breastfeed ALOT. Thank goodness I had Erin on diaper and rocking duty... she swore she didn't mind! On another note- I just want to say how absolutely grateful I am to Miss Erin. I have known her for about 4 years but it feels like a lifetime. She is an AMAZING friend and has been there for me so many times and I can never thank her enough. She arranged all of our dinners to be brought in for a solid week, brought me lunch, sat with Camden so I could shower, helped me make and deliver mums, and even ran over at a moment's notice to watch the baby so I could run all the way out to Jon's shop (what? we live on almost 2 acres....) She has been a lifesaver! Love you Erin. Anyway- I'll shut up now and show you the mums. I will hopefully get awesome pics of the boys and their dates up Saturday.

The silver and white mum is for Chan's date. Apparently all Seniors do a silver and white mum. The pics don't show the cute stuff we added (my camera stinks). But there is a whistle, a lipgloss, Sharpie marker, musical notes, Tootsie Rolls, and Dum Dum pops in addition to all the footballs (him) and tennis stuff (her). It was gonna have bubble wands too, but I forgot... Either way-I love it and I hope she does too!!






The blue and black is for Hunter's date. She's a freshman and he's in 8th! Hers has alot of the same stuff as the other one except his date is on the swim team and she has a rabbit's foot on hers. I am kinda bummed that I didn't get a chance to add bubble wands or a BMX bike like I had planned and I was gonna do lights but they would only last 8 hours. But, she loved it as much as I did so that's a good sign!

Just another Manic Monday!

I am not sure what set me off today, but I am in a rotten mood. It was a Monday for sure! The cat woke me up 30 minutes before the alarm rang. I went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, which makes me crazy. My husband is being a butt and is driving me bananas. Hunter has an attitude from you-know-where. I splashed pizza sauce on my brand new white shirt. My 1 week old pedicure is already chipped. I spent alot of $$ today and got hardly nothing for it. Ugghh! Put it this way- I am so glad it's almost time for bed. I am going to take a bubble bath with my brand new magazine and yummy bath products. And, I am gonna use up all the hot water, so there.

Blah!

Blah, blah, blah....*






*translation- nothing blog worthy going on at all! Back to the grindstone. Ready for Spring Break. So ready to get our house on the market, I am ready to move and re-decorate. Visited with Kelli's family twice this weekend, that was nice. Just paid the septic guy $500 smackeroos to suck the poo out of our septic tank with his magical giant vacuum (honey wagon). My dogs have their days and nights mixed up. I think my cat's schizophrenic. Chloe and Hunter have grown out of their school uniforms from the beginning of the year, back to the mall I go. So that's about it. I am sure hoping something exciting comes up to blog about soon.

Friday night at the Factory

Tonight Chloe and Hunter had hair appointments with my friend Israel. Since he is a stone's throw from our new favorite restaurant- The Cheesecake Factory, we stopped there afterwards for a late night dinner and some dessert. We had a ton of fun, cracking up and being goofy. We were all annoyed by the warm bread and frozen butter, which is pure cruelty. So, Chloe stuck her pat of butter in her bra and Hunter put his in his armpit. Yes they were still in the foil and no it didn't work... but it was a good idea. And, did you know it only takes about 4 minutes for 3 people to devour a serving of the 30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake Cheesecake? I kid you not, I think I took 3 bites. Those 2 kids have their daddy's sweet tooth and their mommy's appetite. DANG! That cheesecake didn't stand a chance. It was fun to hang out with my little pre-teen drama king and queen. They can be stinkers, but tonight they were dare I say it, normal?


See, we like each other- sometimes


Me!


Smile! Mom's got her camera out, again!


me, waiting on my 3 whole bites of cheesecake to arrive


DESSERT! Don't ya love the big "30th" in cinnamon?


where do we begin?


checking out the different layers and marking their territory


2 minutes later...


4 minutes later...


Holy Cow, we're full!


P.S. I loooove Chloe's hair. She looks more beautiful than ever. She is growing so fast it's unbelievable. And, no I am not ready for it.

BMX Grand Nationals Day 1

Today was looong and exhausting. Basically it was a practice day, to get used to the track, as it changes every year. One morning and one late afternoon practice each for Jon and the boys. Yes, Jon races now too. Basically I am just gonna put a little story by each picture so you get the idea of what's been going on. Too much for me to type and way too much for y'all to read. All the pics are interesting I guess you could say- No one was cooperating with me and my camera and the lighting was off so I chose the fun ones to post. Anyway, long story short: all day we (me and Chloe) pretty much walked for miles, the expo is huge! And, Jon and the boys rode their bikes ALOT. I managed to eat fairly decent, for being on the road. I did spend some $$, but just for T-shirts and caps commemorating the event. Oh, and we ate Ruby Tuesday twice, once for lunch and once for a late night snack. I did have a turkey burger, Happy Thanksgiving to me! Enjoy the photos!

In the car. Hayden eating his fingernails and Hunter SMILING! They were watching a movie while waiting on Jon to check us into our hotel, hence the no seat belts. Just in case you were wondering.


Best Western sign welcoming the BMX'ers. It was down the road from our hotel. (Which didn't have a sign welcoming us.) It was after midnight when we got here and I made Jon stop so I could jump out and snap this pic.


our broken bed. I called the bed by the window for me and Jon and as soon as we plopped down after dragging in our luggage it broke on one end. So, Jon lifted it up to investigate and the other side broke. Now it's even. It's also really short!


Chloe doing what she does best, surfing the internet...


this years track, it is HUGE!


Where's Jon? Can you spot him in the crowd of bikes and people?


Mom, can't you see the sun is in our eyes? No more pictures!!


me and the hubby. Our noses look rather large and we look so tired. We left for our hotel like 3 seconds later.


Chloe, keeping Hayden's hat safe. Good grief she's even beautiful in a baseball cap!


look at all those trophies. 1st place is like 6 feet tall. We would like to win a few of these bad boys, except we have no more room for trophies!

Busted!

Today we hung out with family in Rockwall. It was our niece Cadence's birthday party. She got some new goodies for her awesome doll house. Guess who was caught red handed playing with her new dolly furniture?




HUNTER!

If it's Tuesday, why does it feel like Monday?

Ugghh, I am bummed!! Because of the child support "deal" we worked out with Bio-Dad, a few things we had planned this evening are no longer. Thankfully, Jon has been doing all of my dirty work for me. So, today I was able to be the same Supermom I always am while he ran around getting things in order. But, he had to miss a Father/Child pizza party at Hayden's school. Hayden told me he hated Cici's anyway, so I guess that turned out ok. Then, Chandler and Hunter both missed the bus. But, the biggest disappointment of the day- I was gonna start institute class at church and tonight was the first class. Bummer! Plus, I am trying to eat more healthy and less quantity, so I am freaking STARVING! I have only had 750 calories today and I worked out twice, which means I am grumpy. My head is pounding from lack of Coke, a true sign of addiction. Anyway- Before I "log off" I wanna share a little story Hayden told me. Today in class they were discussing gases, solids, liquids, etc. in Science. The teacher asked the kids to name a solid. Hayden told me a little boy in his class raised his hand and said, "diarrhea is a solid." And, the teacher said "no, that's a liquid, but next time let's not talk about poop."

No, not that hair, and other misconceptions men have about women

Tonight Chloe and I were at Target shopping and we were having a hard time finding hot oil treatments for Chloe's hair. So, I head down the shampoo aisle where this teenage boy and older woman who worked there were straightening shelves. I asked aloud where the hot oil treatments were. (I was directing it at her.) Well, he stands up, hand on hip and proceeds to tell me where to find them. I politely told him that I looked on the 2 hair product aisles and that it wasn't a big deal. But, he kept talking and talking about where I could maybe look. I finally got annoyed and told him we would check at the beauty supply store and to have a good evening. Well, as I am walking away (I am down 3 aisles at this point), he says really loud: "oh, I bet I know where they are. Check the TAMPON aisle." Huh? Like that hair needs hot oil... sounds pretty freakin' un-necessary and painful to me. And, while I am on the subject of men say the darndest things...The other day Hunter called to tell me his friend's mom was going to the hospital to have her baby. And, I was all like really, she's in labor? And he was like no, they are seducing her at 8... and I was all like, you mean induce? And, he was like yeah whatever you call it. And, I was like, I think she was seduced already about nine months ago...

Nipped in the Bud

A few days ago I posted about Hunter and his friend Will. Turns out, it kinda solved itself in a round-about way. The other night Jon gave Hunter permission to spend the night with Will, (I was out shopping). Anyway, I had just gone to bed at 3 (don't ask) and about 47 minutes later I am jolted out of bed by the doorbell! Scared me half to death! I was in that just getting unto a deep sleep state, that when you are woken up suddenly you are all jittery and shaky. Toss in some adrenaline, and I was a little freaked out. I nudged Jon to wake up, and got the kids off of the couch and into my room. I am not suite sure who I thought it was? But, in my opinion anyone ringing your doorbell at 3:47 can't be bringing a plate of brownies, only bad things. I quickly remembered the dogs ate the baseball bat I keep for protection and that somewhere in Jon's shop he has a stun-gun. So, the words oh and shit flashed through my mind. Turns out it was Hunter! Will's mom and stepdad got into a fight. And, apparently it was bad enough to bring my kid home. WTF? He said that they were sleeping and the mom came in and said that they had been fighting and Hunter needed to leave. No phone call, no details. I made a mental note to check the news the next day. It must have been pretty intense for them to make Hunter leave. So, needless to say Hunter won't be hanging out there anymore. I am gonna be on him like white on rice. (thanks, dad!)

I need someone's 2 cents worth

Ok, here's the deal. Hunter has a buddy named Will. They met this past school year. At first they were content to talk at school, at lunch, after school etc. Well, the latter part of the school year they started hanging out ALL THE TIME. On Wednesdays I would let Hunter go home with Will and hang out. That was fine until I found out sometimes they were left alone, which isn't that big of a deal. Except once, on a school night around 9:15 Hunter still wasn't home and he wouldn't answer his phone. I went over there and knocked on the door and Will's mom said Hunter was at another kid's house. Which I don't think is a good idea, it was agreed he would go to their house. She shouldn't have let him leave her house to go somewhere else. I do let Hunter spend the night with them, but never thought it was a big deal. What mom wouldn't let her high strung, hormonal, borderline A.D.D. son spend the night with a friend? There have also been issues with money. Will hasn't exactly made it a secret that he is "rich". Well, his siblings are grown and both his mom and stepdad work, not to mention regular child support payments... Hunter isn't stupid, he has heard Jon and I discuss medical bills and this past Christmas was kinda lean compared to other years. I heard him comment to Will once that we were poor. That threw me off, since Hunter does have a cell phone, a brand new X-box 360, expensive race bike, etc. I think he took the money thing too far. Or, I may have teased that we were broke and he took it too literal. One of my issues with Will and his mom is that she has given Hunter nice shirts; new and used and the icing on the cake was when she bought him a $150 skateboard. Well, lately it's been constant asking to spend the night, Hunter sneaking over there when I am not home, and he even calls them for a ride when he does want to go over or when he needs to come home. Saturday she called my phone and asked if he could stay over!!! And, today may have been the straw that broke the camel's back: I called Hunter home to try on some new shorts I bought for our trip, I noticed he got home quick. And, sure enough when I looked outside, the mom's car drove off. Well, not 5 minutes after he had been here his phone rang. And, this is what I heard Will say; "are you done? It's been 5 minutes, we drove around." Is all this weird or am I crazy?

P.S. and before anyone asks, yes Hunter likes girls. I am not thinking it's that! I am just curious as to what the fascination is on Hunter, Will, and the mom's part? Is it no other kids are there? A cute girl in the neighborhood? What?

Do you smell that?

The first thing I noticed this morning when I woke up was, wow our house smells awful! So, I sniff around a little trying to figure out what it is. Nothing. It is starting to annoy me because the odor is horrible. The first thing I think of is some of us had bean burritos yesterday and some of us had baked beans at a barbecue. I make a mental note to add Bean-O to my grocery list. Hopefully I am not the only person this has happened to. I walk frantically around the house, investigating, sniffing. I am sure I looked like an idiot. But, I take pride in my house smelling good. I have plug ins and wallflowers everywhere. Not to mention all of my Bath and Body Works oil burners and room sprays. Anyway, I check the toilets, and they're all flushed! Miracle. I sniff the kids rooms, under the kitchen sink, the dishrag in the kitchen sink, the frig. Nada. I did discover some old pork chops, but they had no odor. Ziplock bags really do keep things fresh! I chunk them out and head to the pantry. Hah, I found it. A bag of sprouty potatoes. Funny, the pantry doesn't smell. But I am convinced it's the bag of sprouty spuds. So, I pinch the top of the bag with two fingers and my nose with the other hand and I run outside to the trash cans. Whew! Crisis averted! I definitely wasn't expecting the smell that hit me in the face when I came back in. Think of a giant wall of poo and you are running into it at full speed. I was nearly knocked out. So, I gag my way to the laundry room for some Lysol wipes so I can scrub the pantry shelf down and hopefully bring some floral goodness back to my house. Well, if I thought the giant poo wall was bad, nothing compares to the Poo Demon that is lingering in the laundry facilities. OMG! I almost lost the breakfast I hadn't had a chance to eat yet! Then I have a flashback to a conversation Jon and I had after I got home from church yesterday.

Me: "Hey Jon, why is there a kitchen chair on the porch?"
Jon: "Because Hunter spilled a giant bowl of cereal PLUS milk all over it and we took it outside to clean it off."

So, the moral of this story is: If you spill milk and use a BATH TOWEL to clean it up, immediately put BATH TOWEL into the washer along with soap and wash it.

Milk + towel + humid laundry room located in Texas = one nasty odor

Beautiful Day

On March 8, 2008 Hunter and Chloe were baptized. I really thought the day would never come. We had been inactive for so long and they really didn't know alot about the Gospel. I had just gotten into the habit of not going to church and not making scripture study and prayer more important. And, while we are not perfect we have made progress in our home and in our lives. For that I am so thankful. I am so proud and happy that the kids chose to be baptized. I am so glad we have nice and patient missionaries that really got along great with the kiddos. And most of all I am so very blessed to have such a sweet family. My sister's and their husbands helped so much with the baptism. It was a very sweet and special experience. The kids and I will be eternally grateful. Thanks so much for being with us on our special day.

**I feel terrible that I have waited so long to post about my children's baptism. I wasn't able to get pictures myself since my camera died. I was waiting on more pictures. Thanks Jesse!

No words can describe this...

For the better part of two days I have been cleaning and organizing Hunter and Hayden's room in preparation for painting and re-decorating. Today I discovered something that stunned me silent. I found what can only be described as "dehydrated fruit" under their dresser. A shriveled banana to be exact. GROSS! No telling how long it's been there. I seem to remember one night in January when Hunter came to me right after he went to bed complaining of hunger. I told him he could have a banana or an apple. He took one of each. I guess the apple filled him up....

Aloha Nights

Tonight was Hunter and Chloe's first school dance! The theme was Aloha Knights. Get it? A luau theme and the mascot is the Knight. Hunter would only wear the required shirt, jeans, and his precious ball cap (the shirts were your admission in). Of course I had to Maddona-fy Chloe's t-shirt. Chloe was pretty nervous and was a little wallflower all night. Hunter on the other hand was a dancing fool! He even did the Y-M-C-A! Except when he caught me looking, he would stop and get all still. He's too cool to let me see him having fun. You might wonder why I was there. First of all they strongly discouraged just dropping your kiddos off and secondly Chloe's anxiety won't allow me to just drop her off anywhere. I worry that she will miss out on alot of fun things throughout life and even regret that she let her fears get the better of her. We are going to see her pediatrician soon to address these issues. But, she did manage to have an ok time, and she even got out on the dance floor about 20 minutes before it was over. And last but not least, I am always on the lookout for blog material! I am glad I went in, the carpool line was down the block! I did get a few photos, I even got one of Hunter dancing.


Pretty girl



Pink Ladies



Hunter- dancing!!



My babies at their first dance! Awww!



Worn out!



Shoud I go out there and boogie? I'll just hang with mom...

Grreeeaaattt...

Hunter has a fever of 101.7!

Home Safely

We made it back in one piece, yee haw! We are probably the most tired we have ever been. We had a ton of fun and are kinda bummed that it's back to the grindstone tomorrow. Especially Chloe, she wants to go back. I honestly think she would be fine traveling the country watching her brothers race. Staying in hotels, eating out, etc. She is kinda down about school tomorrow and our trip being over. I have been trying to cheer her up this evening. We deep conditioned her hair, painted toenails, and ordered tickets to the Hannah Montana concert "movie". She seems to be snapping out of it. The boys I think are more tired and are glad to sleep in their own beds. Hayden did ok this weekend, but did not make any of his main events. We purchased a small trophy for him, so he wouldn't feel left out, because Hunter hit the mother load! He got 4 trophies!! He got a trophy for qualifying for his main event, a 2nd place trophy (it's over 3 feet tall!), and two 3rd place trophies (they're over 2 feet tall). He is on cloud nine! I am so proud of my boys! Anyway, just wanted to update everyone on our weekend. I am going to be adding my links and photos back on here tomorrow or the next day, so bear with me. I am also hoping to get a few videos on here of the boys racing. So, check back often. Have a happy Monday!

The Suite Life of the Myers Family

Hey! I am blogging to you from the Best Western in Edmund, Oklahoma. We are finally back in our room vegging out before tomorrow's races. We were at the track from 8:00 this morning until 4:45 this afternoon. We went straight to dinner at On The Border, swimming in the indoor heated pool, down the road to Walgreens for swimmer's ear drops, then last but not least: Coldstone Creamery for dessert. So, today has been super busy! Leave it to the Myers family to go swimming in winter and need ear drops and seriously why choose a restaurant you eat at all the time? Because we're dorks that's why. We are exhausted! The boys have been having a blast racing. Hayden has had a hard time in his races. He is still very timid after his last big crash, and is racing in the intermediate class, where things are much more competitive. Hunter however, is still a novice and is doing pretty good. He won 3rd in the pre-race last night, got 2nd in his qualifier, and 3rd in his main event today. He already has 3 trophies! They have 2 more qualifiers and hopefully they make their main events tomorrow. We may have to buy Hayden a participation trophy for $5 if he doesn't get one himself. He got tears in his eyes when he saw Hunter's big trophy. Poor baby. Hunter is one 1st place win away from turning intermediate himself. And, his group is way harder to win in than Hayden's. Anyway... that's what's going on in a nutshell. In honor of this post's title I thought I'd share a few little tidbits:
1. The hotel provides good shampoo, Pantene.
2. They also provide toothpaste. Which you forget to buy when you are buying shampoo.
3. The walls are super thin. You can actually hear your neighbors shower.
4. You should check if the "sofa" in your room is a sleeper, before you book a room. 12 year old boys barely fit on said "sofa".
5. You can catch a Dallas Stars game on tv in Oklahoma.
6. Heated pools aren't very warm, especially when the temperature is in the teens.
7. Hotel rooms look nothing like their photos online.
8. The faucets in Oklahoma are backwards... is this a fluke or for real? Anyone know?
9. There's no place like home.
P.S. my computer is driving me nuts right now, so I have to add pics through my Picasa site instead, sorry! My spel chek wont werk eether, sory... Ha Ha Ha!

The most chaotic night of my life

Tonight was Hunter's birthday party, and man was it crazy over here! Hunter declined to tell me that he invited alot more kids than I realized. So, alot of teeny boppers showed up along with close friends and family. 5 minutes before our guests began to arrive, I dropped and broke a ginormous pyrex mixing bowl, which shattered all over my kitchen floor. I finally got that cleaned up and here came the crowd! It was sooo loud! We had pizza, salad, and cake. At one point I thought we were gonna run out of pizza! Before I could make a plate for myself, my friend Nona's son Dalton got into my purse and ate some Pepto Bismol caplets! We were slightly panicked and had to call poison control. It looks like he only ate 1 caplet, and appears to be fine. After all the drama, just about everyone here took turns playing Guitar Hero. The teeny boppers ran in and out, skateboarded, jumped on the trampoline, and did Silly String. Exciting huh? Overall, it was just really loud, crazy, and chaotic! Every time I have a party with children involved, I swear I'll never do it again. But, I am sure I'll have many more parties. Nothing will ever be as bad as the year Hunter turned 11 and had a slumber party. Never again, it was AWFUL! All in all, everyone seemed to have a good time. I got as many pictures as I could. None of gift opening though. Hunter opened his gifts as they come through the door, which I had no knowledge of.Teeny Bopper transportation

Me and Jon

Cake

Guitar Hero showdown

Blowing out the candles

So, there you have it, a Myers family party. Where fun is had by all, there's never a dull moment, and chaos reigns supreme!