Oh dear crash!

My 3 year old thinks he is nearly 6. He wants to play computer games, the Wii, and the DS all at the same time. However, he has none of these other than my computer. He just has knowledge thanks to friends and relatives. We have a constant convo about my computer being MINE, it is not for games.

However, one afternoon this week, his Daddy showed him a game on lego.com. He never moved from it for minutes upon minutes. Craig watched him carefully and then walked away for a second. As I was cooking dinner, I heard Will BANGING on my laptop. After rescuing it, I noticed it was off.

I said, "Will, what happened?" Much to his dismay, he had no clue and it had crashed. I told him he could not play games on the computer anymore, it is for work (and a few other things). We discussed that the computer did not need to crash. We used the word crash several times.

On Saturday, the girls and I had Regina school stuff and a baby shower so Craig took Will to the lake. I called to check on him later in the day & Jeannie said he was playing a game on the computer. I told her our story and to watch him, because he may press too many buttons and cause a problem.

On the way to the pool, he and his Ma had this convo.

Will: Ma, did Mommy talk to you about the computer?

Ma: Yes, she said sometimes if you are not careful, it will break.

Will: I did not do anything to hit, it just crapped.

Ma: It did what?

Will: You have to be careful or it will crap.

One must be careful about a lot of things or they may crap too. Oh, the truth of some of our words.

Red Hot August!

Seriously? Is it August? Where did summer go? We fired up the chiminea tonight and made smores again. It reminded me I had not blogged since then. I know you know, I have been busy.

Rally 2010 was a success, a huge blessing. I will never think of it without repeating "I walk by faith, not by sight" 100x in my head.

Then, my eldest child grew up before my eyes and flew on a jet plane to visit the Arkansas fam, by herself. Yes, I know, she is kinda a big deal now. At our mother-dtr Bible study on Thursday, Claire announced that Faith had courage like Elijah because she flew on a plane. Then, she admitted she was not going to follow in her footsteps anytime soon.

Don't worry sister, you are not going anywhere. By the way, I had to "walk by faith, and not by sight" as my eight year old journeyed to Little Rock.

Did I mention is was hot? We took the Pearson family vacay to Hot Springs, it was hot and chaotic, but we had a blast. The house was wonderful, I think we finally picked one we all love. Of course, it is the most expensive too. We have impeccable taste.

Then, we came home and the in-laws carted all the kids off to Khema. Craig and I felt the need to check on the lake house, you know, it was feeling lonely. It is a good thing we did, because guess what? IT WAS ON FIRE WHEN WE GOT THERE. I do not kid, on flipping fire! The front yard that faces the golf course was burning and it had just caught onto the lattice work of the little house, affectionately known as the storage area/honeymoon shack. We arrived in the knick of time before you can say "Kaboom!"

I think that was the first ordained activity of my summer. After distinguishing the fire with various water hose and sprinklers, I celebrated by reading my book, Mississippi, #16 of the series.

Did I mention I turned 38? Does red hot still apply? Doubtful, very doubtful, only with the help of photo shop.

Speaking of red, poor Will, his ear is red and if you remember our ear drama last summer, you can imagine how well our dr. appt went today. He has a major ear infection. I hope this activity had nothing to do with it. He just needed to cool off.

A grasshopper & smores!

Craig found this giant grasshopper on a fishing trip. For a bit of a learning activity, he brought it home to the kids. He had no idea Claire would be so fascinated to want to keep it.

After starving him (or her?) for an entire day, she let him go yesterday evening.

I am so glad he did not escape in my house!

Notice Will's hesitation of the large friend.

He is chillin' by the HOT chiminea and keeping a close eye on hopper.

Once the chocolate & marshmallows kicked in, they were happy to let their friend live a longer life in the SE TX heat vs. a Ball jar.

Lately...

Lately may also be termed "a few weeks ago" since I am just now posting these. Faith & Claire attended Superkids this year at Lamar. I was super mom since I did not forget and no one had to be rushed to the dr or ate watermelon in the middle of the night.

They were young medical scientists while also studying oceanography & children around the world. Ironing was not part of their curriculum, nor is it in my daily routine. It just sits on our dining room table beckoning me to use it.

I never find the time to iron, I am too busy picking up my desk!


These dishes were my dear friend Kristie's grandmother's everyday dishes. They are called Independence China. I have always wanted white dishes to match everything. Kris gave me a steal of a deal!

The kids and I have been learning about proper place setting. Not that I am unaware of how to set the table, I just rarely apply it to my table. My etiquette days are linked with some other oh-my-gosh days that I have blocked out my memory as far as fine china. Some days I feel like we are lucky that I served dinner, let alone make it look full of southern charm.

Dinner plate, salad, soup, cup, saucer, & bread n-butter, dessert bowl. There are about a billion more little rules, but we settled for the informal place setting. I don't think the kids will need to know about fish, salad, & dessert forks anytime soon. Sometimes all of the forks are dirty! Claire is enjoying setting the table, Faith just wants to ask more questions and naturally, Will has no interest at all.

He would rather make funny faces at the camera during an impromptu art session because it is so darn HOT outside.

And, do not try to tell him his shirt is on backwards; he will disagree with you, no matter the time or hour.

Night vs. day

I would like to blog about the pros and cons of traveling by night vs day, but this post may sound like a bunch of nonsense due to the fact that I have been cleaning out drawers and chunking stuff like the world is ending tomorrow. (which you know, it could be!)

On our vacation of 1,730 miles (OH MY , No wonder I am tired!) last week, we drove through the grand state of Louisiana to stop and spend the night. I like to stay as far away from the swamp pop city of Baton Rouge as possible, the traffic is likened to Houston, it drives me nuts. Not to mention the drug trafficking on IH-10. I think everyone who drives it continuously would need to partake in something to survive.

Over the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, I want to close my eyes but since it is about 33 miles, that would mean I had to nap. A nap in the middle of a trip for me is rare. Someone may need a Kleenex, pretzel, gum, batteries, wet wipe, hand sanitizer, flashlight, lipstick, crayons, book, or settle a disagreement about one of the above. This leads me to my original plan in this wayward post. I was doling out snacks by Vidor. We had arguments through Orange, Sulphur and into LA. Someone is usually hungry, tired and asking when we will be there before an hour is up.

Brace yourselves people...at night, none of these things happened. We have never drove at night until on the return trip home from Arkansas. I ended up with a stomach bug on Thursday morning which put me out for about 24 hours. No one else got it, so maybe it was from a mixture of Purell & pretzels. Who knows? Anyway, I was a chicken that I would drive on Sat and someone would be sick, throwing up in the hills. So, we set out at night much to my family's dismay.

SO, here is the list:

PROS: they sleep, they don't eat, they don't need to go to the bathroom, the car stays clean, the phone never rings, you make good time, everyone gets along fine! Did I make a rhyme?

CONS: freaks come out at night, you must pick your stops carefully, you drink A LOT of cappuccino, conversations are interesting (this could be a pro?), gas stations are closed in little towns, drivers can't sleep, you miss scenery, Toy Story repetitively plays in the DVR in case your 3 year old wakes up.

Of course, some things are pros and cons. TOY STORY 2 played continously, I can see Buzz rescuing Andy "to infinity and beyond" in the elevator when I close my eyes. Thankfully, we have taken a slight T Story break and jumped into Squeakquel, kudos to Paula.

To be honest, Will & Claire did wake up once when we stopped and they both used the restroom in a parking lot in Mayflower, AR. Good times. I do not think they would have woke up if we had not roused them. Faith was a bit dissatisfied with the weather b/c it was a little cool in the car at night, Craig saved the day with his sweatshirt. Next time, I am going to give them each a travel pillow w/a blanket. And, I plan to save my snack money.

Cousins like snacks

Eating all day is beneficial to the Pearson grandchildren. On our trip, my kids were asking for snacks just out of IH-10 in Beaumont. On the way from Tenn to Arkansas, I doled out Paula's famous Puppy Chow, peanut butter pretzels, and gum 30 minutes after breakfast! (I would be lying if I said they ate all the puppy chow alone.)

I think all the eating produces healthy, big smiles!
Calder and Christian are such hams! I am so proud of these little boys, and their mama, daddy & Miss Abigail, who is sister of the year!

Will wanted his own photo op to hold "Wucy."

Not bad, Auntie A is a pretty good shot. However, it did take 4 adults jumping behind her like monkeys, even a special green one.

Remember this?

We have had the no blinking discussion before? It is still in force, even though I keep forgetting it.