Turkey Day: Prep

We planned our Thanksgiving Break a while back, but I still procrastinated packing and taking care of last minute details. I tend to do that a lot these days. We had known for weeks that we would be going to the lake house, but I waited until the afternoon before and the morning of departure to pack and get all of our stuff together. Suzy was scheduled to go to Tattle Tales the morning of departure; I decided that I would keep her home instead. What was I thinking? I thought that she would be fine while I packed our stuff and I got dressed and ready to leave by eleven. Again, what was I thinking? She completely demolished my bathroom with cookies, clothes, and toys while waiting on me to finish all my tasks. I should have listened to the good Lord when he was trying to prepare me for a rough week, but I missed the signs he was sending me. I was finally ready to leave the house a little after eleven, but I still had a few errands to run in town before I could meet Mimi. Before we left our house Suzy had to play a little in the yard and give Bernice ‘bye love’.

She had sprinkle sugar cookies before the cracker. We like to call her the Cookie Monster. She was living up to her name for sure.

My bathroom WAS spotless before the Monster entered the room. She drug out everything you could think of. Notice all the cookie crumbs on the floor, please. Do you think she may look guilty?

She put her snack container in the garbage can and got an empty Gas-X package out of the garbage can. Equal trade, right?

The best friends had to give some loving before we left for a few days.

Bernice is trying to convince her that it is a good idea to climb on the trailer.

Then, Bernice decides that she wants to join in on the trip.

 

I think I may have pulled out of my driveway by eleven thirty. I still had to go to the bank, City Drug, and to get gas. While I was getting gas I thought it would be a great idea to go through the car wash. I didn’t really think about the fact that Suzy was with me. Thank goodness the car wash didn’t freak her out. She actually loved it. She was amazed by it. I may have even talked to her the whole time that the car wash was running its course like that crazy lady on TV does (when the soap was put on I said something about snow, then when the heavy rinse came on I said something about rain). I really am super lame when behind closed doors. I am fully aware of this issue. What could have turned into a nightmare was quite fun for us. Things to remember: Suzy likes the car wash.

She was amazed by all the white soapy foam covering her window.

 

I finally made it to Mimi’s house to pick her and Lucy (her dog) up. We ventured around the corner next to pick up Memaw and Sonny (her cat). Yes, we had a car load (3 adults, 1 baby, a cat, and a dog). We were crammed like sardines.

 

I borrowed a portable DVD player from Jill to help occupy Suzy on the ride. She did much better with traveling before she was so aware of her surroundings. Now, she just wants out of her seat to walk around and such. The DVD player helped tremendously. It will be on our list for Santa. We stopped in Tupelo to get some lunch and to look for Sue Baby some tennis shoes. Now that she is walking she needed something on those little feet of hers. She can get her other shoes off by herself, so we needed shoe strings/straps. We found some shoes that fit her just perfectly. She officially has her first pair of big girl shoes and they apparently made her feel like a big girl. She wears a size 4W in New Balance.

Our big girl getting real food for lunch with her big girl kicks on.

She was laid back wasn't she!

Grocery Shopping for the Big Meal.

Had to stop off at Troys to get some dinner that day. Yuuuumy. And, the shoe is in the mouth.

 

Those shoes started a downhill fight from Tupelo to the following Saturday…… She was an absolute terror the 4 out of the 5 days we were at the lake. She was so bad that she deserves her own post describing the “badness”.  

Does this baby girl look like she may have a slight attitude problem?  Part II will fill you in!

 

Celebrations or Not

Scott and I just recently celebrated our three year anniversary, which just so happened to be Suzy's 10 month birthday. We decided that we would celebrate the weekend before our anniversary due to him being away during the week. I am sure that when you see the word "celebrate" you automatically think that we did something romantic and full of love, don't you? Well, apparently "celebrate" to us is a bit different that what it used to be..... In our dictionary the definition for celebrate reads: go shopping/play golf all day without your spouse, get exhausted, and watch funny home videos at your local Mexican restaurant. You may also think that we went out and had a few margaritas and laughed hysterically at the funny home videos... Yeah, well, you are wrong again. El Charro is in our lovely dry county and Scott was the only one facing the TV. I sat staring at a bowl of carbs while he watched little boys throwing objects at their dad's private areas or a drunken bride busting her butt on the dance floor. As he was watching whatever it was on TV he laughed out loud, so it must have been pretty entertaining. He was burning calories laughing and I was collecting calories scarfing down chips and cheese dip. We left the restaurant, went home, and went to sleep. I think I may have been asleep before Scott even came to bed? I am telling you what..... We must do better next year. It is a must. Last year I was massively pregnant and this year was a total flop. It sounds as if I am upset about our celebration this year, but it is exactly what we wanted. We had a sitter, we planned to go to dinner, and I planned on going to bed early and sleeping very late. Now, we may have discussed going to Como earlier in the day, but we were just too tired to make the trip down South. I think our anniversary was just lovely, but I will admit that we should take more time together and try to do exciting things when we have time together. Maybe next year!

One of our first "public" outings in God's Country (Starkville).

 

In New Orleans a few days before the proposal. I think the green stripes may have been his favorite shirt. It obviously held up well. I haven't seen that shirt in a good while. Maybe he lost it.

 

Backyard Bash 2011

 

The night of the actual anniversary.... This was the best part of the whole day. Rocking this little rascal to sleep.

Suzy started walking in full force that weekend. She was all over the place. I actually took a video of her and posted it to Facebook where many of my friends commented that they couldn't believe she was already walking. Well, now she is almost running. She traded in those crawling knees for those fast feet and never looked back. I will be baby proofing our house as soon as possible. I am scared to know what torture my Christmas tree will endure this year with this little monster on the lose.

I was very surprised to see a little happy on the kitchen counter when I came home from work Monday afternoon. It was a sweet, sweet card from Scott and a gift certificate for a pedicure. The man does know that these feet of mine need all the love they can get. He did a great job. I was very shocked to have something from him. I kind of felt bad for not doing anything for him, but we decided we weren't buying gifts. He always makes me out to be the bad guy when we decide on things like that.

 

I'll leave you with some Smith Stats:

* Suzy is a walker. I mean she is a machine. She doesn't want to go unless she can walk. She no longer wants to be toted.

* She still struggles with having a cold/allergies constantly.

* She is taking Similac Advanced formula now and we can slowly start adding whole milk

* Her favorite snacks are: Cheerios, Cheeto Puffs, Fruit Loops, Danino Yogurt, and banana rusks.

* Her favorite "people food" things are: English peas, mashed potatoes, sausage muffins, cheese, cheese pizza, cheeseburger, tator tots, French fries, strawberry muffins, grilled cheese sammy, and cheese grits.

* She is still struggling with bedtime issues, but the doctors say that she is just going through a growth spurt and that it is typically normal. She wakes up around one or two in the morning, I pick her up, she is immediately back to sleep. They say not to pick her up and just to sooth her while remaining in the bed. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. She isn't hungry; she refuses bottles. She just wants out of bed to be rocked back to sleep.

* She has a grand total of 8 teeth. These teeth may have a lot to do with the problems mentioned above, but I feel sure they are the problem with her eating habits. She will not eat anything unless she has had her teething tablets a few minutes beforehand. Her not eating drives me bananas, but if she has those tables we usually can get a meal or two out of her.

We are trying to teach her early.

 

Freckle Juice

Some of  my 3^rd and 4^th grade students just finished up the book, Freckle Juice, by Judy Blume. It is one of my all time favorite books. I was thrilled when I got my EEF card which allowed me to purchase reading materials for my kiddos. Freckle Juice was my very first purchase. I am proud to say that my purchase was a great one!!

This is a quick summary of the book:

Nicky has freckles. They cover his face, his ears, and the whole back of his neck. If Andrew had freckles like Nicky, his mother would never know if his neck was dirty. But how exactly do you get freckles? For fifty cents, know-it-all Sharon has the answer—a secret family freckle recipe. Fifty cents is a lot of money, but Andrew is desperate. It's not until after he goes home and carefully mixes the strange combination of ingredients that he realizes he might be getting more than he paid for. The concoction made him very sick and didn't give him any freckles. He couldn't face his class the next day without freckles, so he decided he would draw freckles on his face (blue freckles)......... His plan didn't work out quite like he expected. His classmates made fun of him for drawing fake freckles. His teacher gave him the secret recipe to remove his freckles (which was pretty much soap and water). After he returned to class with no freckles on his face Nicky decided he may need the recipe to remove his freckles, too. Of course, Sharon could whip up a recipe for Nicky to remove those pesky brown spots, but it would cost him..........

My sweet girl, Katy Bug. She did an awesome job on her project.

This is her recipe.

This is the mixture that had hot sauce, potatoes, and candy in it.

Brandon's mom said that her mixture was going to taste good, and she was right. It was very yummy. We drank it.

Brandon didn't share with us much.

We read the book, answered comprehension questions, did vocabulary words, and all the other "fun" stuff that went along meeting objectives for the state. All of that was lovely, but the real fun started when we got to do projects that went along with the book. I assigned several different things for the kids to do, but the most exciting was the "Make Your Own Freckle Juice" assignment. I sent a letter home to parents and explained to them what the project entailed. I also added some examples of freckle juice creations that other kids had done. Three of my students brought in the extra credit concoction. It was thrilling. They shared what all they used in their juice and how they made their mixtures. They were a creative little bunch, to say the least. There was one recipe that had instant potatoes in it, one that had peanut M & Ms, and of course they had to add hot sauce in one. After they shared their recipes we made the mixture that was shared in the book. It was quite disgusting, but we had a marvelous time making it. The kids decided how much of each ingredient we needed (the exact measurements were not given in the book). It was a yucky, stinky, icky MESS.

 

When the creation was complete I took the bowl out of the room along with a stack of "freckled cups" and told the kids that I would be back with their drinks. As I was walking out the door I told them that they would have to drink it to get their 100 test grade. I am sure they were squirming in their britches. Little did they know.... Mrs. Burns and I had gotten Lemonberry Slushes from Sonic while they were at lunch. I had them hidden in the cafeteria. I poured their slushes in the cups in place of the gross juice we made together. I had talked to Mr. Lundy (our principal) and Mr. Hollowell (my classroom neighbor that helps us out a lot) that morning about them being in on my scam. I gave Mr. Lundy and Mr. Hollowell a cup of Freckle Juice first and they walked in my classroom in front of me drinking the slush. The kids thought they were drinking the disgusting onion mixture. They started panicking. One of my kiddos, Brandon, even tried to run out of the classroom while yelling. He was not happy that his two favorite men at school were doing something so gross. Then, Mrs. Burns and I grabbed a cup and started drinking it. They were even more appalled. Finally, one of them got gutsy and decided they would try it too. That is when everyone decided they would follow in our footsteps. They were pleasantly surprised at how good their recipe turned out!

My idea of freckle juice was way better than their idea!

See Brandon..... Yep, he is about to run out of the room!

They are all loving their juice from Mrs. Smith. All, but Brandon, he is drinking his own mixture.

 

It was such a fun day! I am so thrilled with that book and all the fun stuff that went along with it. It is going to be hard to top that book with my kids. I think it has been their favorite by far.

Bernice, Bernice, Bernice

Bernice joined our family about two weeks ago. I am not sure how much longer she will survive being a Smith, but we hope she will be with us for a long while. I say that, because she has had a pretty tough journey since becoming part of our family. Let me take you back to Day 1…..

 

I have been talking to Veo and Ali Moore about getting a kitten from them. They had three little bitties show up at their house a while back. They had fattened them up and started trying to get rid of them. Me, being the lunatic I am, decided that we needed another animal added to the craziness around my house. I wanted a kitty, because we have a severe mouse problem in our garage. I guess with all the farmers clipping their fields and the weather turning cooler made them decide to flock to my garage? You see, my garage is very inviting. There are dog beds, cabinets, dog food, a golf cart and all sorts of stuff for them to make a nice cozy home. After one of these unwelcomed guests ran across my foot one night I decided that a kitty was just what we needed.

This is the picture that Ali sent me of Bernice before we got her. We fell in love with her cute little tail. Too bad she failed to mention that she was so mischievous.

One afternoon Suzy and I went to Veo and Ali’s house to pick up our sweet baby girl kitty. She was just a doll. We decided that we would name her “Bernice”. Strange name? Yes, it is. I wanted to name her something that had the name “Ben” in it somewhere, since Ben is their son that is giving up the sweet kitty to us. I googled names that contained the letters B-E-N and Bernice was the lucky winner. I think it fits her quite nicely. I got all the essentials for a little bitty baby kitty and headed to introduce her to her new home. She fell in love with her new crib. She even got a new necklace. What girl wouldn’t like a bright pink necklace, right? The first night of her arrival was probably the best night of her existence here. After night one, it all went down hill…. We got her on a Thursday and this is her life up to date.

Bernice the first night that we got her. She was getting some loving on my guest bed. Wish I would have known what kind of "love" she would give the bed later.
Notice her pretty necklace.... She obviously doesn't like it as much as I thought she would.....

Friday- Bernice decided that the litter box was not where she wanted to do her business. She decided that my guest bedroom was her new bathroom. The bed would be the perfect spot. She not only peed, but pooped on my bed. So, several clothing items and the comforter made a trip to the dry cleaners that day and Bernice took a trip to “outside land”. That was the last night that Bernice spent inside. That afternoon Bernice got a little to close to Lola. Lola chased her into our garage and guess what she ran straight into? Remember the mice? Well, I had sticky traps set in corners for them. Bernice ran straight into a corner that housed a sticky trap. She was captured. I had to rip the trap off her foot, which was quite the task. After getting it off of her I thought that I would put her down so she could walk the stickiness off of her feet. WRONG. She stuck to everything she touched. She had big hunks of grass and leaves stuck to her paws.

The weekend- I was too aggravated with her to do much with her over the weekend. She spent most of her time exploring her new surroundings and climbing trees. We let her in here and there so Suzy could play with her, but that was the extent of our interaction (besides me knocking her down from a tree with a flag pole because she was too scared to climb down) . I was still pretty mad at her for the whole comforter and clothes fiasco.

Having such a fun time playing!

 

Bernice follows Suzy everywhere. They were having a big ole time in my closet one morning before work.

 

Monday- When I left for work I could not find Bernice, so I started calling for her. I heard her meow from a distance, looked up in the tree next to the garage and she was there. I decided that if she was dumb enough to get that high that she would just have to tough it out and figure out how to get down herself. I didn’t have time to fool with her. Monday afternoon I got off work at 4:30, went to the gym, ate with my parents, and got home around 7:00. Bernice was still in the tree. She was not smart enough to “figure out how to get down herself” obviously. I had to coax her out of the tree, yet again.

Tuesday (AKA “The Day From Hell”)- I woke up Tuesday morning, got dressed, got Suzy ready, loaded my car, put her in her seat, and went to crank my car. It wouldn’t crank. I checked all my lights and switches and I had not left anything on. I immediately called Papaw to come get us, but he didn’t answer (what’s new?). Finally, Mimi answered the phone and came to our rescue. Papaw called me back that morning and told me that he was sending the wrecker to get my car and that they would get it fixed for me. Around ten or eleven Tuesday morning my phone rang and it was Mimi. She never calls me while I am at work, so I knew she probably needed something. I got to a stopping point and returned the call. This is the conversation dialogue:

Mimi- Dad just called me and asked me if you had gotten a cat.

 

Me- Well, what did you tell him?

Mimi- I told him you had gotten a kitten. He asked me what it looked like and I described her to him.

--- I am thinking the worst at this point. ---

Me- And……?

Mimi- Well, she must have been in your car when the wrecker came to get it this morning.

--- My heart sank. I just knew what had happened (or so I thought).

Me- oooooooookkk, and?---

Mimi- When the mechanic lifted the hood of your car she jumped out from under there and was lose in the shop. They finally caught her and locked her in the lobby, but she scared the mechanic to death.

Me- (I’m laughing at this point) OH CRAP!!

Mimi- They are going keep her in the lobby until we can get there to pick her up.

Mimi went to get Bernice over lunch and I got her later that night from her house and took her back home, again…..

When I went by to pick my car up from the shop the next day I was joking around with the guys in the office about all her ridiculousness and they informed me that she didn’t know what glass was either. She tried to jump through the office windows as well. They said she looked like a Garfield toy attached to a car window at one point.

The rest of the week- I had to continue to dig her out of my car every morning before work and every afternoon if I went somewhere after work. She did not learn her lesson from her trip to town.

Bernice is a very peculiar cat. I think she may be a little “special”. She has been a handful, to say the least, but Suzy loves her. Bernice is great with Suzy, too. She lets her abuse her and does nothing to stop the madness. Maybe, because she “special” and doesn’t know how to defend herself? I don’t know, but I do know that we already love her weird little self and couldn’t be happier that she is so good with Suzy.

She loves her tail the most.

She picks her up by her tail and carries her everywhere. Bernice never makes a sound.

She also tries to use her as a chew toy.

 A big thanks to The Moore Family. I’ll send you a bill.