Maybe I was wrong?

So maybe it isn't the terrible twos?!

About a month ago I thought we were hitting the TTs and I went to work crying after a few days at home with a firecracker... and came home to a vomiting kiddo. 24 hours later he was back to his sweet little self. (Although he shared it with Lance and I and we were miserable for another 24.)

This week, on Wednesday, the attitude returned. I forgot about the last episode and how it coincided with gastro and spent most of my week in tears again. I told my mom on Wednesday that he had "the smell" but he had no runny nose, no vomiting or diarrhea and no fever so I wasn't going to give him an out by blaming it on being sick by just my "6th sense diagnosis", passed down from my mother.

Today I had a play date planned with Amanda and her 2 kids and I almost canceled on her after a rough morning. By 10, Maddox had launched his banana across the kitchen at me and squawked in my face like a bird and I thought there was no way I could deal with him like this in public . But since she is going through the same thing with her 17 month old, we decided that it was better to be miserable together than at home alone.

Right as we were leaving, Maddox was holding his belly and walking around. I asked him if it hurt and he said no. But I had never seen him do that before. He slept the whole way to FTW and I woke him up when we made it to OTB for lunch. He didn't eat at all but I figured he was full from his blueberries, banana and milk he had for breakfast and he acted great so I didn't question it much.

We ran to Target after lunch and again he was wonderful. He sat in his buggy and barely made a peep. He laid his head on me a few times and I thought I had hit the lottery.

Right until check out. Maddox vomited EVERYWHERE. His coat, my coat, his jeans and my shirt were covered. I trashed his socks and if it weren't our favorite pair of Gap jeans, they'd have been disposed of also!

Our mall trip was canceled and we headed home. I am hoping that once he has recovered from this virus that his attitude will be back to normal again also!

*hope*

Goes to show, that as crazy as me and my mom sound-- we really can smell illness coming on!

a little bit of Chicken fried...

• I surprised Lance with the Zac Brown CD yesterday after a crappy trip to WalMart. He likes ZBB and was excited. I was not excited however, over Maddox telling the lady to "go away" who squatted in his face to tell him he was handsome. I wanted to crawl in a hole. I said, "Pardon me? Do we speak to adults that way?" She stuck around for an answer! I definitely wasn't going to tell her its a phrase he has learned and that he is 19 months old and doesn't know the phrase, "I'm sorry" yet. I just said, I am sorry-- a buggied away.
  
• Maddox has been sleeping in our bed since Lance started his new job... I'm thinking about inventing turtle neck pjs because even in his deepest sleep, he can get his hand down my shirt. We have GOT to get him back to his bed. This has not been an issue for us since he was 6 months old!
• I love the website iamsecond.com. And picnik.com. (completely unrelated!)
  
• I hate laundry. I don't mind cleaning any part of this house but I HATE laundry.
  
• We gave Macy away. It is bitter sweet. She was not happy here anymore and I want her to be the happy dog she was pre-Maddox. Her new mommy is already spoiling her-- sending me updates and pictures which has made it so much easier on me!
  
• I love these tiny little ladles that my Nana got for me. They are so handy! And cute.
  
• Maddox has found his peetie. He will not leave it alone. We are trying to ignore it like the doctors say, but it is very hard to ignore! He will work like crazy to suck in his belly just enough to get his hand through the Velcro in his diaper. I will be glad when we are over this stage. So... 18 years-ish? (and then its not my issue!)
  
• The decision to go back to school or not is HEAVY on my mind still. I am still trying to chase down a program... but keep hitting dead ends. Sometimes I think I am doing it for everyone else more than myself. If I were a teacher-- and made less money than I do now, but paid 10 times as much to get it-- no one would harp on me to do more. But I also know that its kind of now or never-- the longer I wait, the harder it will be. And I will be glad I went for it once it is all over with! UGH!
  
• I am ready for summer. I love wearing dresses and flipflops.
  
• and flip flops= pedicures!
• I think Maddox is hitting his terrible 2s. I sort of wish he had not been such a great kid up until this point. I am in awe of how bad he can be. I cried a lot yesterday. Today was better.
• I forgot how good crunchy peanut butter on celery is. yum.
  
• During a crying episode yesterday, I went on about how I felt as if I was 1/2-assing everyone. Maddox had changed into a monster this week, breakfast and lunch are thrown together and at times not all that healthy, dinner's usually decent but cooked at 2 or 3 in the afternoon, (so I can leave for work at 4) and re-heated to eat. The house is straightened-- maybe even clean to the naked eye-- but not to me. Laundry--grrrrr. I see my husband in passing and miss him so much at work since our schedules are opposite right now that I am not the best I can be there either. I am tired. .........A co-worker who is in her 50s told me that when my kids are grown and out of my house I can nap. She told me it will be the best sleep of my life. She said, "you aren't great at anything right now-- some things you are even shitty... you don't have time to be great! But once they are gone and you have hind sight-- you'll be proud of what you could accomplish by 1/2 assing everything, you'll have great kids and then you can rest!" I hope she's right! She at least made me smile!
• I want to learn more about my camera. I enjoy taking pics. I need TIME! Maybe tomorrow?!
• My dream is to own a baby boutique. I would name it: 2 beetles in a bucket.
  
• Lance and I are taking a vacation mid-May. Look who's excited!! [this girl] We still aren't sure where we are going but we have to take it before June and we have free vouchers for our flight that expire the 1st week in June. I hoping he'll give in and we'll go to a beach!
• I am a Words With Friends, Facebook addict. How did I live before the Iphone?!
• I'm off to get ready for work now. --And so the cycle continues. I am going to be thankful for that!! :)
• No work tomorrow. Maybe I'll find a way to use my massage gift card?!
  

ALL ABOUT SPORTS!

Occasionally he gets creative....
like this kicking tee that he made out of one of my Velcro rollers!

And here are a couple of baseball tees he made out of random things...
(There was no help from adults with any of his ideas!!)
He is a such a SMART, CREATIVE BOY!

We probably have more videos of him batting than we do anything else!

FuN iN tHe SnOw!

The snowy days were nice... Maddox and I sat inside with the blinds up and watched the snow fall. The snow became too heavy on the satalite dish so we had to go to the DVDs rather than TV (the music channel is what we like to keep on during the day). The last DVD we watched apparently was Maddox's first birthday movie... So we started it. Maddox was impressed with his Mommy and Daddy being on tv and all that sweet music made his mommy a little sentimental. So we watched it 3 times!

2010 Stock Show and Rodeo!

Allison showed one of her steers at the Fort Worth Stock show again this year. It went a little crazy before she went out, she got the gate- but all and all, I think she did well! it was definitely good practice for her Houston show!



After Allison finished showing; mom, Pam and I took Maddox to the FFA barn to see all of the baby animals. (I have a ton of pics from there but I just posted a few!)



This lady saw how excited Maddox was over the rabbits so she got one out for him to pet. He was so gentle to the rabbit so she let him hold it! He thought he was hot stuff. This just proves to me that he CAN be sweeter to Macy-- he just chooses not to!

Our friend Krisha gave us THREE pairs of hand-me-down boots and this kid is in LOVE with them. He wakes up everyday asking for his "booootsss." Maddox tried on her son's cowboy hat while we were at their house and apparently decided he wanted a hat too! It only took passing 2 booths with hats for sale and one "peeeese GiGi" and he got his own cowboy hat. That was the happiest $15 this kid has seen! (He now will not take it off either!)My friend Amanda brought out her two kiddos, we had some McKinleys lunch (yum!) and went back to the Stock Show to let the kids play! Maddox is always pretty impressed with Lucas, and he is always so sweet to him! And is quite a cute cowboy!! Katie and Maddox are just a couple of months apart and she made a super cute little cowgirl herself!
While we were waiting in line at the petting zoo, a man walked up and offered his box seats to the rodeo. At first Maddox loved it. He was yelling at the top of his lungs! "GO- GO- GO"
We thought it was going to be nice to sit for a while and let them enjoy it... but we were wrong. Neither of the 3 wanted to sit still... Katie and Maddox threw a fit... or 17. And Maddox peed out of his diaper onto my pants! It was sure a nice gesture from a stranger but we didn't stay long!

Happy Valentine's Day 2010

SALES. SALES. SALES.

I went shopping this Saturday with my mom after work. I will be honest, it felt good. I have tried my hardest to stay clear from things that would cause me to spend unneeded cash, so it felt good to spurge a little. And LITTLE was key!

I went after some square toe cowboy boots for Maddox. Cavenders was swamped and did not have his size. After a failed attempts at 2 other western stores, that have now closed down-- we ended up at Ridgmar mall.
I wanted to get Maddox some simple brown Stride Rites and to my surprise they were on sale from $29 to $17. After ringing them up they came to $12!! We did not know but we had hit Dillard's on one of their "30% off everything already on sale" days! So he ended up getting the navy pair also for the same price and a pair of Nike Shox (a little big) for Summer. Those were originally $49 and I think I paid $21!! I also got him a pair of khaki short and green colored cargo shorts for winter for less than $10 total!
When leaving there my mom spotted one of those teen trendy type stores was closing down and everything in the store was $5! It is cheaply made stuff- but I got 2 pretty cute shirts for a total of $10!
Children's Place was also a big hit since all of their sale stuff was $2.99! I bought him 2 sweatshirts and a jacket for next year. (Hopefully I will keep up with them between now and then) And a shirt and a baseball cap for now. I think I spent $18 there!!

The next day lance and I ventured out to another Cavenders and they did not have his size either. While we were out I had Lance run me by JCPenny's so I could return some New Balances that I had bought myself without trying on. While there we found him some dockers for work for a whopping $25 (usually $50) and I bought 2 shirts --one $7 and one $14!

I don't know why it is such a high to get things so cheap but I think that it the funnest part about shopping!

And just to end my frugalistic shopping... I am not a coupon user, just because most of them are stuff we don't use anyway BUT I found a website called couponsuzy.com where you type in your zip code and pages and pages come up of coupons! You click which ones you want to "clip" and then print those at the end. It is good stuff too! I think I am going to try it next time and see if it really saves all that much!