One of THOSE women.

Man, I hate when I do this. I hate when I wait so long between posts that I don't know where to start. I guess I'll just start blabbing about the notes I've taken and see where that leads me!

An interesting tidbit: as I may or may not have mentioned before, Jennifer and Stacie are my only readers, that I know of. They might be my only ones, period! Or...exclamation mark!!! Or...whatever. Anyway, every time I go a few days without blogging, I usually hear from one or both of them to remind me to get on the ball. Well, it's been a few weeks and I hadn't heard from either of them. Then, today - they BOTH emailed me about it. See? It *is* an interesting tidbit.

You may be suprised to learn that I have become one of THOSE women. You know - the kind who doesn't expect her husband to help with 50% of all the housework. I never thought I'd be okay with doing 98% of it. Now, it helps tremendously that Scott has so graciously agreed to pay the housekeeper every two weeks, but even before that, I'd almost completely let him off the hook. He's only expected (okay maybe not "expected"...more like "begged") to keep the dishwasher and trash can in the kitchen emptied. Other than that, I do it. I don't LOVE to do it, but I have learned that if my children and I are going to have clean clothes, then I need to clean them. If I want a path from the living room to the bedroom, I am going to have to clear it. You get the idea. So....imagine my surprise when I came home from work today and Scott had done ALL THE LAUNDRY! And, we're talking, we had four full baskets. I sort my laundry as I go, so I have four baskets in my closet. Makes it easier when it comes time. I can just dump a basket in the washer and not worry about sorting. Anyway, he washed/dried/hung/folded all that laundry! There is a load of towels that I moved from the washer to the dryer, but that's it! Wasn't that terribly sweet of him? That is why I have some time to sit now and write my blog :)

I think now is a good time to play "WHAT DID JAMES SAY THIS TIME??" We have two funnies, an inappropriate, and then one that is a cross of the two.

Funnies: Andrew and Caleb gave away Thomas the Train goody bags at their joint birthday party a couple weekends ago. Inside the goody bag was a maze for each kid to solve. James named his maze Melanie. I am not sure what happened to Melanie. The last time I remember seeing her, we were in the car and she was sitting next to James. I took a sharp turn and Melanie drifted to the floorboard. Next thing I know, James is wailing, "MELLLLLLLLLLLANIE!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" It would have completely broken my heart to hear him so sad that his friend had fallen off the seat, IF I DIDN'T KNOW HIS FRIEND WAS A FREAKIN' MAZE. NAMED MELANIE!

Second funny: one of James's favorite things to do is go look at the toy section in Target. He knows we are not going to buy things (he also knows I nearly always give in and at least get some tiny thing)...but he just loves to look forever! Last time we went, we were there for over an hour. Just up and down the toy aisles. We turned the corner down the Thomas the Train aisle, and James startled a couple of other shoppers and me with his exclamation, "GREAT BALLS OF TRAINS!"

Inappropriate: last night James sat in my lap and rested his head on my...bosom. He then picked his head up, cocked it, pointed at the right side of my....bosom, and said "what is that again? I forgot." I answered matter-of-factly, "it is a breast." He looked at me thought fully and said, "can I see it, on your body?" "No, it's a private part," I told him. He started to whine...and I asked what was wrong. "I don't have any private parts!" LOL. Then we discussed what constitutes a private part. I think he's got it now.

Funny/Inappropriate: Stacie, Andrew and James were playing with Andrew's new go-cart. James explained to Stacie that he would be a Speed Racer, Andrew would be a Speed Racer, and she could be the chick from Speed Racer. Hahaha! That one really gets me.

We have some news in the Clara department! She is getting braces on Tuesday. Yay! We had quite a time finding just the right orthodontist for us, but I think we're going to be really happy with our choice. The first one we went to seemed to be kind of an old-school guy. I actually had a few problems with this one. First of all, we were at his office for TWO HOURS. It being our first appointment, I thought maybe this is just the way it is for consultations. Well, not so, I later learned. Anyway, that was strike one. Strike two was the biggie: while Clara was back having x-rays and whatnot, she was asked if she was ready for braces. When she answered "yes," they went ahead and put spacers between her teeth. Without asking me! When they finally called me back to discuss procedure and cost, THEN I was informed that they had put in the spacers so we could go ahead and get started in two more days. I was thinking, "ummmm. She's 11. She might be ready, but she ain't payin'. And is that even okay to do to someone's kid without asking?" I was pretty put off about it. Strike three was the way the doctor made me feel like...well...this is what he said. "If you're ready, we'll go ahead and set the appointment for Wednesday." I said (which was the honest to God truth), "i need to talk to her dad before I make any decisions." To which he said, "well I'm not trying to push you but I don't want to waste your time either." Which was ironic because he'd just taken two hours of my time, and it was pretty apparent he wasnt REALLY talking about MY time. So...I was not sure how that would compare to the other places we had lined up, but I was pretty sure that was not the place for us. That was confirmed when I realized they were the most expensive and furthest in distance from us.

Place two was AWESOME. They were super-friendly (they were friendly at place one, dont get me wrong) and the office itself was just too cool. It was all decked out in a sports theme (perfect for my daughter!) and they had video games for the kids to play. I have nothing bad to say about this place, and the price for this one was actually the lowest. It was a terribly tough decision to not go with this office, if you want to know the truth. And, we were in and out in 20 minutes (literally!) with as much info as the other place. The only thing we didn't get here that we did at the other place were those damn spacers.

Place three was almost as cool as place two. It was definitely kid-friendly, but it didn't appeal to Clara the way place two did. And it was between place one and place three price-wise. We ended up going with this office because of a system they use that I did a little research on, and if everything I found is true, Clara will be out of her braces a little earlier, she wont have to go in as often, and her appointments will be shorter each time. Like I said, it was tough to choose between the last two offices, and I'm still just crossing my fingers that I've made the right choice!The new orthodontist also had some cool software and equipment that the other places didn't. One thing they did was take 3-D x-rays of her head so they could look at her teeth and the roots from any angle at all. It TOTALLY creeped me out because it was...well, it was her skull! I could see her little eye sockets (shudder). The ortho blacked out the eye sockets after I joked around about it, but I was secretly very relieved! They'd also taken really up-close pictures of her smile so we could put them on the GIANT computer screen and see her teeth. LOL. She had a piece of pepper or something in her front tooth and it was so big on the screen. I told her I wanted a copy so I could frame it and hang it in her room. The doc's assistant told Clara she was so lucky to have such a funny mom and I could hear Clara's eyes rolling - I didn't even have to look.

I can't believe how much Clara is changing. She is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to being as tall as me. She still has me do her hair in the mornings and my arms get achy from having to reach up to do her ponytails! She is just getting more and more beautiful. She's always been gorge, but as she's maturing, her beauty is just almost too much to take. She's also getting into jogging! How exciting! When I picked her up from school for her ortho appointment, I saw all the P.E. kids running laps around the school. I was pretty sure Clara had P.E. at that hour, but I couldn't see her. I assumed she'd just not participated since she knew I was coming to get her. When she showed up in the office, she was red and sweaty. I asked her why...and do you know what she said? It was because she was SO FAR AHEAD of everyone else that I couldn't see her. She was the first girl to finish and had only been beaten by four boys! You go girl! Then she came home and ran on the treadmill, nearly 2 miles in 15 minutes! Awesome!!! Also, she calls the treadmill the "treadmeal." LOLz.

Uh oh. I thought of (surprise surprise!) another inappropriate Jamesy quote. Lane came over to play last week and he and James both came up to me, each with a colander on his head, and each with a toy containing expired batteries. They looked up at me through the holes in their colanders (they were being aliens) and asked me to help with new batteries. I put fresh ones in the toy James had and it didn't help. "Well," I said, "I guess this toy is just broken. The batteries didn't fix it. Dang." Then James added, "dammit." And Lane chimed in with, "dammit is a bad word." Ay ay ay! I immediately called Lane's mom to warn her that she might hear about this conversation, and to apologize that my son cussed in the presence of hers, and HER sweet son knew it was a bad word. "Oh please!" she said. "How do you think he knew it was a bad word??"

My sweet husband turned 32 yesteray, and I am only 10 days away from my own 32nd birthday. Last year I surprised Scott with a stay at the Gaylord in Grapevine and we adored it, so we're doing it again this year! A couple of differences: first, it's not a surprise, and second, my parents are going to go! I cannot believe I have grown into someone who LIKES her parents. I mean, it's my birthday - and I'm super excited to hang out with my best friend (Scott) and my other besties, my parents! How fun. Stacie's keeping James and Clara will be with her dad. We're going to just hang at the hotel, go to the club on the hotel grounds and watch a band, maybe have a drink or two (but maybe not HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA), and just chill. Yay, I can't wait!