Storm Ready (or not so much)

Last night's storm was quite interesting here at our house. We were in bed just watching the news and Dan Henry is warning everyone in the DFW area that at one point in the night, your city will see this fierce storm. We sort-of laugh it off but stay awake to see whats going on. At one point we hear the storm sirens outside and Jason casually announces "Everyone's trash cans are all over the streets." This simple statement didn't sit well with me. All I could imagine was trash scattered throughout the neighborhood and this big green trash can flying through Colton's windows. And of course I'm gripping at Jason for not thinking about the storm and waiting until the morning to put them out. I might have even said a curse word or two at him. Poor guy, sorry Babe! The sirens continue and my thoughts of shattering glass and a four foot tall trash can flying onto my child's bed continue. So up I am off the bed, putting on my shoes to make a run outside to pull the trash cans in. That's right... The fear of the trash can crashing into my house was more fearsome than the storm sirens or the tornado warnings from Dan Henry. Jason wasn't going to let me do this alone so we make a mad dash together outside to pick up the debris from OUR trashcan and to pull the two bins into the garage. Once in bed again, Jason bursts out laughing and says "You always bring adventure into our marriage!"

The point of the story is, The Gautreaux's were not storm ready! However, we did survive and didnt have to camp out in the bathroom afterall. That is a blessing itself =)

"Daddy" by Courtnie Gautreaux

At the kids' school, the second graders had a poetry program last night. They sang two creative and energetic poetry songs and read poems aloud. They read some that other famous poets had written and some were their very own. Three children from each class were chosen to read their poems aloud and Courtnie was one of them. Her poem was about her Daddy, so sweet!

Black Eye Memoir

A year ago today, Cameron gave us quite a scare! He had baseball practice in the early afternoon on Super Bowl Sunday and Jason called me in a panic, almost in tears asking me where to take Cameron for an injury. I told him to head to CareNow and asked what happened and he kept repeating "It's not good". They beat me there and they walked in and they immediately told them they were not able to treat injuries like his and we needed to go to Baylor Garland ER. We get there and what I saw will never leave my mind. He was catching pop-flys in the outfield, facing the sun, and just completely missed the ball and it landed right in his eye pocket. By the grace of God, he sustained only a black eye. We totally know he lucked out on further injuries (a broken eye socket or eyebrow, loss of vision due to swelling, injury to the eye muscles). He was out of school for a week (more so because he couldn't see anything) and we spent many trips seeing multiple doctors just to make sure we were in the safe zone that week. Cameron told us tonight he even remembers watching last years game with one eye. Poor guy!

Home Depot

So I don't actually use the word "hate" very often and when I do I must truly feel that word passionately about the subject I'm speaking of. I certainly do not want to hear that word from my children's mouths. When talking about Home Depot, this word immediately comes to mind. You see, I am not a fan of this store and as a matter of fact, I hate this place. My husband likes for me to join him on his little adventures to this local retail shop and I don't know why exactly, its not like I'm great company or encouraging in any way. In fact, I don't care what he buys or how much it costs so long as he gets me out of there as quick as possible. Did you ever see the episode from The Newlyweds where Jessica Simpson (and DO NOT be ugly about her, she is my girl crush, I love her!) is complaining about being at Home Depot with Nick? That's me, perfectly. Today, while shopping at this popular retail store (problem #1) as a family (problem #2) Jason makes us walk up and down just about every aisle. Not only this, he thinks he must backtrack down the aisle a few more times to make sure he hasn't missed something that he MUST have. As he turns around from one fun toy to the next, so are the kids. This is when it happened.... Colton kicked my foot as he turned and broke my big toe nail on the skin. So this incident just added more humor and fun to my lovely trip. So rather than grumble any louder (which is almost impossible) I take out my camera to catch a few more highlights of our Home Depot trip. Colton LOVES this store as much as his father and actually tried to use these beloved tools right there on the spot. I even caught him unscrewing a level. Cameron would be more interested if they had a sporting goods section. And Courtnie.... well she tries to stay involved and pretends to know what things are and how they work. I guess that's better than her mother.
Afterwards, since we were all so good at the store (myself included, although my family may tell you differently) we went to lunch. Again, we had another playground disaster which required me to rescue Colton from inside the play structure. I come out just as Jason was getting the camera ready to snap pictures. LOL. Luckily, I made it out this time before a picture was taken or an injury occurred. I'm going to rethink Coltons participation in playground areas for awhile.

What do you do all day?

I have had this asked to me numerous times over the last 10 years of being a stay-at-home mom. And sometimes I don't have all the answers. Truthfully, there have been times I've asked myself the same question; I've wondered why I am so exhausted and haven't sat down all day and yet nothing on my to-do list was checked off. So AMEN SISTER to this article written for all mothers. If you are a working mother, AMEN as well because you do all of this and work.

Colton's "C" Book

Upon a friend's suggestion, I did this book with Colton to try and keep him entertained on this freezing cold morning. He is very reluctant to learn for some reason and since I wasn't blessed with an abundance of patience, we do not make a very good pair sometimes. BUT, we did finish the book and he is very proud of it. I cant however figure out how to get him to tell me that it's the letter "C", he keeps telling me "I don't know. I don't know." For reference, his "car" he can drive across his book, the cross moves around like an accordian, and behind the "C" cover page is a page where he traced upper and lower case "C"s, and the smaller pictures are things that begin with the letter "C". If you are a teacher of any age -bless your hearts.

Playtime Woes

Even with the wintry forecast being predicted for today and tomorrow, my good friend Anna and I braved the weather and made it for our routine Tuesday storytime. Afterwards we went to eat lunch at a popular fast food place where the kids could play and run off some of their stored energy. One of Anna's little girls runs to me and says Colton's stuck inside the play structure (I'm certain my face went from smiling happy to fearsome). I immediately look at this play structure and it instantly starts to grow into this monstrous size; I'm not near as small as I once was. Anna laughs and comments on the fact that she wishes she had her camera. I am finding appreciation in the small blessing that Anna doesn't have her camera because all I can imagine is a picture of my massive size butt hanging out of one of the entrances, windows or slides. On my way up to the top (because he certainly couldn't have gotten stuck towards the bottom) I hit my head not once, but twice on solid plastic. Keeping my teeth clenched from cursing this structure, I get to the top and there Colton is - sitting at the top. "Hi Mommy. I'm stuck." Interesting, he doesn't look stuck to me. At all. He's merely sitting there chatting away with his friends. He claims he couldn't get down, except by the time I made it to the top, which was not an easy task, he mustered up enough courage to move and head down the slide. So the kids are headed down and I just sit there rubbing my head trying to figure out the best way to get down with the least amount of injury. So down the slide I go. Did you know that the cracks on the slide are painful to the backside? No really, surely kids feel this. They have far less padding on their tush than I do. So along with the grimaced look on my face, my hair has been completely taken over by static. That would have been a lasting picture. Thank you Lord for keeping Anna's mind distracted this morning and forgetting her camera =)

If Mama Ain't Happy....

I try not to vent on my blog but I have been deemed the worst mother and wife of the year today. This evening rather. I had a great day actually! While at work today I received a call from a marketing research company and they needed Cameron and me to come tonight to a study that paid $100 per hour. Of course I'll be there! And it's a great opportunity for Cameron (plus he owes me money). Jason and I had also talked about taking the kids to my moms to spend the night and after the study going to see a movie.

I left work and called Jason only to hear he was in a terrible mood. (I still haven't figured out why though and he is standing his ground that he is not in a bad mood. Hmm.... denial. Isn't that the first sign?) Cameron gets home from school and is ticked about going tonight. Because you know, going to a study to talk about watching movies in a theater for $100 an hour is sheer torture. We are on our way there when it dawns on me that I'm an hour early. However, this is a perfect opportunity to have dinner with my son. Right? Apparently not. This to Cameron is like throwing him to the wolves because now he wont talk to me. Great. So here I am tonight trying to make a little extra cash, broadening Cameron's horizons, trying to have a date with my child and everyone is in a TERRIBLE mood. I was feeling totally frustrated and resentful (still do as I write this). We ordered our food and sat down to eat and my son still wouldn't talk to me and Jason kept calling to release his frustration (except remember he wasn't in a bad mood). I sat inside the restaurant and just cried. What else does a woman do at this point? Smile and talk to herself?! Just how I had planned my evening. It gets better....

We get to the study and apparently the lady I talked to had two studies confused. The earlier time was for kids and the time slot they had me in was for adults. So they kindly ask me if it's okay that Cameron wait for 90 minutes or so while I do the study. Uh no. My son may be acting like a jerk, but I however am not that cruel. It would have been fine for me to sit for 90 minutes while Cameron did the study because that's what mothers do - we sacrifice. But I'm certainly not going to make my son do that. I'll take the hard piece of bread, the dinner scraps and cold showers, but I'm not about to make my kids sacrifice on my behalf. So we left.

So here it is Friday night. I'm sitting at home in my pj's with everyone mad at me. And what did I do to them? We'll see who gets homemade meals this weekend.... If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. They'll learn that rule soon enough.

Colton's Birthday Party

We had Colton's birthday party last weekend at Texas Skatium (for all my friends since way back in Elementary school, this is most commonly known as Jamie's). We had a blast! All of his friends were there and every child skated. They did so good!! Here are a couple of pics from the event. Thank you to my sweetest friend Jaimie for helping with the picture taking. I am so very terrible at taking pictures while hosting (that's the problem with my one-track mind). On our family album there are over 80 pics, check that out for more sweet faces.

Happy 4th Birthday Colton!

My baby turned 4 yesterday, I can’t believe it! He has turned into quite a handsome, comical and very intelligent little guy. He knows what he wants and how he wants it and anything less is unacceptable. He has lost that baby voice when he talks, he speaks words that I never knew a child his age knew how to say, much less use them in the perfect context. He is the most loving and affectionate child ever. He can give some mean hugs and kisses too!! He also loves boy-words, which I will leave to your imagination. And food – my heaven’s this kid never stops eating. He eats all day long (healthy stuff too). He can put a plate of food away in record time and ask for more. Where he stores this we haven’t a clue! He is still undecided on using his left or right hand. At this point, we think he’ll be ambidextrous. He definitely writes, cuts, and eats with utensils with his left hand. I also discovered two days ago that he uses a computer mouse with his left hand (and they only had a right-handed mouse, poor guy). This never occurred to me since we have a laptop and we just use the finger pad. We think he kicks, throws and bats right-handed. Oh and he also eats with his hands right handed.

Just to remember some of the sweetest words he says, with their translations:
Wonderwear (underwear)
Fruit luh-luh (Fruit Roll-Up)
Pop holder (pot holder)
Boy cheese sandwiches
Chucky Charms (Lucky Charms)
Estercise
Chick-a-lay
Elegator (elevator)

Happy Birthday son, we love you!!!