You Call This A Snack?

Seriously, you guys know I'll be hungry again in half an hour!
I just couldn't help it! It was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this picture. I'm no dog whisperer, but Mack was trying to tell me something with his eyes. For those of you who don't know, This is my cousin Sarah, her Boxer Mack and her new puppy. He's not small, he's bite sized!

Sweet Victory

All of my complaining (surely I wasn't the only one) seemed to have worked. I got an email a little while ago saying that Alabaster Athletics (with help from the mayor?) was able to "move some money around" and now we will be having some games on Saturdays. We should be getting our new schedule by Tuesday. Joe has his first game tomorrow night....hopefully he can hold it together at school and not wee his pants with excitement.

Why You Shouldn't Make Fun of an English Major

I won something, but I'll have to tell you about it later. It required me to think of something catchy to go with Rambling Robinsons, a tag line, if you will. I was bouncing some ideas off of Jason and decided to read him some lines out of a certain...work.

He decided to make fun of me, summoning his inner Shakespearean baritone and yelling out "thees!" and "thous!"

Me: *eyebrow raised*.....*blink*......*blink*

Me: "That was Led Zeppelin"

Jason: oh...

Tee Ball

I'm going to start by posting Joe's tee ball schedule for this season. As always, click on it to enlarge it or print it for those of you who would like a copy. Now, once you have looked at the schedule, you might notice that there is something odd. Aside from opening day tomorrow, which will most certainly be canceled due to inclement weather, we have no games on Saturdays. These are 5 and 6 year olds for crap's sake! I am really ticked off about this. According to the city's website, the only league with Saturday games is the 4 year old league. After some deep breathing and counting to ten a few times, I emailed the Alabaster athletic manager. Boy...was he insightful (the problems are, of course, due to the recession). I learned that the 4 year olds do not require umpires (i.e. the city doesn't have to pay umpires) so they can use the fields on Saturdays, whereas 5/6 year olds require umpires and the city doesn't want to have to pay them and their maintenance staff on Saturdays. Here's where the situation gets hairy. After we signed Joe up and paid his ONE HUNDRED SIXTY DOLLAR registration fee, we were informed that his league would not be keeping score or counting outs....hmmmm. Why again do we need a certified umpire? I'm not exactly sure.

Don't get me wrong, I love Alabaster. We have some awesome parks and recreation facilities, three municipal baseball complexes as a matter of fact. Instead of spending my Saturday afternoons at the ballpark like I did last spring, I will be rushing home from school, trying to get everyone something to eat, getting Joe to the field 2-3 times a week for his 5:30 or 7:00 games (mostly 7:00) and crossing my fingers to have him in bed by 9:00. I'm sure he will be on his best non-cranky behavior the following morning at school.

So yeah, I'm pretty ticked.

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain"--Longfellow

Do you ever have those days where you feel like you are a jar of mayonnaise that someone has left out in the sun? Or maybe you have fallen down 100 flights of stairs into a cactus patch?

It hasn't been the best day for me. I have a big test tomorrow and I have to beat my 105 so I better save all my good writing.

Here are some pretty spring flowers that I photographed before all this rain knocked them right off their stems as a testament to my day.

Six Flags!

Sunday was a great day! We decided (although rather foolishly)that we would visit Six Flags on the absolute last day of Joe's spring break. Now, this was a bittersweet choice. It was great because the park was nearly empty...but Joe might have been the slightest bit grumpy at school today. Sorry Ms. P!There were places like this one where there were so few people that it was just eerie...must be the recession.
Before I tell you about our day, I just wanted to note that when you have people in mass gatherings (even a small mass) there are two things that you will always see. Go ahead...guess.

1. Questionable fashion choices.There were worse ones than this, but I feel like I can only pick on someone if they do it on purpose since I am not exactly the fashion police.

2. Overt public displays of affection. Come on y'all, I can't photograph that. I'll just chalk it up to spring fever...or maybe he really did lose something in her back pocket. Annnywaaaay......

We all had a wonderful time and after a two hour nap today, I'm good as new. Joe especially enjoyed himself, but things got a little hairy when it came to the roller coasters. Joe is a roller coaster veteran having mastered such beasts as the Scorpion, Mummy and Kwazi in Orlando.
Joe forgot this apparently.

Joe: I wanna ride NINJA!
(we approach said Ninja)
Joe: Nevermind, I'm just gonna wait down here with Mama
Mama: Oh no you don't we bought season passes, you'll be fine.
(coercion continues.......Joe takes his seat on Ninja beside Jason because I am untrustworthy and will surely let him fall to his death)
(safety bar fastens)
Joe: NOOO! LET ME OFF I DON'T WANNA DIIIIIIIE! (people stare...."How dare they FORCE that poor child to ride roller coasters at Six Flags!")
Jason: Joe, man up, you'll be fine. You've done this a hundred times.
(ride starts.......30 seconds of screaming)
Joe: (wobbly) Oh Man...that was AWESOME!!!!!

Doesn't he look like he enjoyed himself? Maybe it was the forty dollar pizza.


He met Daffy Duck and Sylvester. He thought Sylvester was a skunk. Poor kid, he only knows Nickelodeon.
He was only moderately impressed by Batman and not at all by Wonder Woman. He was probably bothered by her horrendous posture. I'll tell you what he was VERY impressed with....


Jason winning him TWO basketballs!!!

It was a good day! Notice the aforementioned forty dollar pizza. I carried the leftovers around all day in lieu of riding rides. If you know me, you will know that if I have to pay FORTY DOLLARS for a medium sized Papa Johns pizza and there are leftovers, they will not go to waste under any circumstances.
All in all, I'm glad we got the season passes. I guess that means we'll be seeing a lot more questionable fashion choices in large quantities this year!

Joe-ga

Joe decided to start the morning off with a little Wii Fit action. Sometimes he can play that thing forever and sometimes he tires of it quickly. This is one video game that as far as I'm concerned, he can play as long as he wants. Well, I was sitting back minding my own business and I happened to catch this little gem of Joe doing the tree pose in yoga! (Don't tell him I said so but Jason can barely do this one without falling!) Anyway, I just thought it was adorable!

He is really hilarious when he "hula hoops" but I'll save that for another day!

Happy Birthday Mama!

On March 20th 19** this wonderful woman was born! She's my Mom and Joe's Meme and we love her so much. I will never in a million lifetimes be able to tell her how much I love her and how much she means to me. Mama, I wish I could be with you on your Birthday and I hope you have a GREAT day, week, month, life!

The Everlasting Flowerbed Saga

Jason, Big Joe, Little Joe and I have been diligently working in the yard for four solid days now. It all began with the front flower bed. I am convinced that when we bought the house last year, D.R. Horton gave us (and everyone else on our street) what I affectionately call "The Poverty Package" for landscaping. Now, bear in mind our poor plants have been pretty much neglected for the past year anyway so that all adds up to some pretty sad flowerbeds. Well, the stars have finally aligned and we have managed to have enough time, money, and help all at the same time to give our landscaping an amazing facelift...Joan Rivers style! Here are some before pictures of what we had to work with. Click any of the pictures to enlarge them.Have you ever seen gray pine straw? I have!

*hangs head* How embarrassing!

Notice the moldish-weeds that even roundup can't kill....This is a "rock patch" in the back yard that I turned into a beautiful bulb patch.
That beautiful rock patch again. Joe and I scooped these rocks out by hand.

Now for the progress. We started at 3pm on Sunday and finished around 6pm on Wednesday. We have moved 2 tons of rocks. Yes, that's 4,000 pounds of rocks if you trust the math of the English major! Even after that many rocks, I didn't break a single nail! WOW! Here are some pictures of the work in progress.

Lots and LOTS of rocks!Hard at Work!

After 4 days, 2 tons of rocks, 3 truckloads of mulch, about 30 plants and an embarrassing amount of money spent, I am so proud to say we have the most awesome yard in the neighborhood...or at least on our street! Here are the after pictures.

This is our bulb patch after. It has 3 colors of tulips and daffodils.
Here is where we created a flowerbed where there once was none.
These gardenias will be blooming soon.I think it looks so good!
And finally, another impromptu bed with our new patio furniture.
I am so proud of all our hard work. You really have to see it to appreciate it so come on by sometime!

Family Photos

Be sure to check out Tabby's blog at http://tabbyart.blogspot.com/ (just click it MOM!)
She has a few of our family photos up that she took. I definitely haven't been pestering her or anything :) Seriously though, she is an amazing photographer. I can't wait to see the rest of them and I will post some of them when they are made available to me. Tomorrow I am going to post about the flowerbeds that have been giving me night terrors for four days. Here is a little peek at what we have been working on. I call him Gorton and he makes me sing the McDonalds Filet-O-Fish song.

Another Snow Picture

All straightened out...

So, it seems I have been having some back problems lately. First I tried ignoring it. Then I tried complaining about it. Neither of those seemed to help so I decided to see a chiropractor. As it turned out, I had some vertebrae out of place. To give you a visual, I have included a rendering of my spinal x-ray. Keep in mind, this is my interpretation. Anyway, after a lot of cracking and popping, my back is starting to feel better.

To the Victor Go the Spoils

We had a very busy day today! After Joe's baseball practice, we had to run home so he could speed shower and not be that nasty kid at his friend Brad's Birthday party. The party involved lots of kids, pizza, an awesome Spongebob cake and some serious 80's flashbacks of LASER TAG! Jason would also like me to mention that he scored the second highest score of all time in the arcade's PacMan (he has the blister to prove it). After laser tag, cake and an undisclosed amount of time in the arcade, Joe collected SIX tickets with which he purchased this little gem from the gift shop. If you click the picture to enlarge, you'll notice that this is no ordinary army man. No, this army man is weilding a filet knife and wearing a loin cloth. He is also wearing a fur pelt on his hat rather than a helmet but Joe is covering it up. It was a proud moment for all of us :)

This must be how Michael Phelps felt...before the incident.

Y'all, I am just so proud of this! It is one of my greatest accomplishments to date. Keep in mind, this is not like a math test, you don't memorize methods or learn formulas, you basically have to show off what you know to the Professor. It was the highest grade in the class :) I should be over it by now because I'll never beat it, and I still have grad school to get through, but I am just so proud! Anyway, I'll get off my high horse now. I just wanted to prove I wasn't lying.

Snow Day!

Today was not like many other days in Alabama. No, today we had SNOW! Lots and Lots of Snow! Most likely because I bought some summer clothes last week and because I don't own a warm coat. I really wish Joe could have been here to see it. It's probably warm where he is! I'm telling you, I would not be sad at all if school was canceled tomorrow due to....ice. Click on any of the pictures to see gigantic versions!