TWO MEN & A LADY

This is Our Life ~ Our Photo Book ~ Our Journal that will never sit on a shelf, be placed in a chest or find its spot in the attic but instead put on display for all of you so you can share in our joy and sorrows that come complete with life. Learn from our mistakes (THERE ARE MANY) or give advice when needed. Welcome!
Clint ~Teri & Dax
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday, July 19, 2010

June... More Like Zoom - a - Zoom - Zoom!!

No more foolin around, time to update the family life via Blogger.  I mean, did we even exist during the past few months if it's not documented here?

The answer to that question is of course, yes.  Boy did we! and I certainly have the pictures to prove that we weren't hiding out or anything like that.  On the contrary, life smacked us in the face again this summer.  I'll leave out the unpleasant and stick with the pleasant, or at least interesting?

I've actually got so many pictures that it's taken me a ridiculously long time just to sort through them. I'm probably not going be able to catch up entirely by next week because I have July and now August, but also 6-7 special people posts!!   Since my life has now been threatened by a few family members unless I update soon (okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration - just a little) I'm going to get the ball rolling.  I do promise that when I get an extra week to do nothing except sit in front of the computer downloading pictures and commentary for them (b/c the whole post/pictures process takes a long time) it will all be here in picturefied glory.

Enough already, on with the show - Picking up where we left off:  June . . .

started out with a bang literally

1.   Dax and Clint were in a wreck.  This topic deserves it's on separate post.  Until then, the bottom line and what's important - they are okay and as far as we can tell other than Clint suffering from a case of whiplash there are no other injuries. The worst that came out of it was all the damage done to Jacob's (a good buddy of Clint's) truck.

2.   Bachelorette Party:...ride in Limo with the girls - need I say more??  Actually, I think I will say more.  This mom needed some estrogen filled fun and celebrating Heather and Jon's upcoming union couldn't have come at a better time.  We had a lot of fun.

3.   If my son wants to grow up and join the circus, he's certainly off to a good start  He climbs anything and everything he's not supposed to: our stand-up mirror, dressor, into Clint's boat, and this last is really incredible I've added a picture of presentation to prove my point.  Potice - I mean Notice:

Exhibit "A"  Is a pink index card some very important numbers I need to keep up with.  I placed it on the shelf (far out of Dax's reach) so he can't get a hold of it and hide it, tear it and etc.  While I was in the bedroom putting sheets on the bed, Dax was in the living room coloring (so I thought).  When I went to check on him, I happened to notice Exhibit "A" lying on the floor???

Which means he had to climb on Exhibit "B, C and D" without so much as even disturbing the picture frames or papers - all the stuff that was on B, C and D even a little bit to get to "A."


4.  Dax's favorite phrases used often in June:
"Um-Hold me?"
"Snipps!!"
"Down Please"
When he wants to smell a candle he brings it to me and says "mouse" or "mouth"  I don't know why he doesn't say "smell"...
"Oh gah!"  He didn't pick this up from us, he actually picked it up from Wow Wow Wubbzy (go figure!)
"ALRIGHT! or Awesome!!!"
Singing ZBB's Free loud and off key.
Twinkle Little Star is his absolute most favorite song in the world!
He talks on the Ipod and the remote control like it's a phone.  He does so just like he's a grown up.  He mimics the phrases, the looks, the tone - everything to the letter.

This video is actually from May I think. Notice how he looks out the window while talking - a habit his Daddy often does.



5.  Like everyone else on these hot summer days in June we spent a lot of time at the toddler hot spot - Splash Pad.  One of those days we met Sharon with her kids, Lauren and Evan.  Evan is two weeks older than Dax.  Sue Ann, mom's best friend and Lauren and Evan's G-mother was with us also.

Sharon and Evan

Dax rarely stands in one place longer than a minute. This is what he usually does the whole time he's there. I enjoy - no actually I NEED the splash pad more than Dax. After chasing him in the hot sun, I literally wrangle him up and go stand under the waterfall so I don't pass out.


It helps when Mom is there but we still both get worn out.






While sitting under the pavilion Sue Ann had given Dax a cookie or something of the like.  Usually Dax never forgets to say thank you (my child folks... the epitome of mannerly toddlers)  This time, however, Dax didn't say thank you.  So, mom reminded him by saying "tell her thank you" Mom kept saying this over and over again trying to get Dax to say it but he never would.  Finally Dax looked at Mom and said "YOU'RE WELCOME!" 

You can tell when Dax has just about ran himself to a frazzle by the shade of color his face is. When it's went from red to a nice shade of purple, then it's time to go.  So though he looks burnt in this picture, he's not.

Mimi and Dax - See here - put a fork in that boy, he's done!


6.    My lovely rash from Sunblock. Oddly enough I'm allergic to sunblock - any type, any brand.  Which hasn't bothered me for years since I simply just don't wear it. But since Dax has to, and of course I have to hold him - I get to keep this lovely rash for the most part of the summer. Gorgeous! isn't it??



7.   Redbox Rentals.  We finally got to watch Dear John - Ugh! This movie was such a disappointment. It kept getting worse and worse until it was finally over.  We felt disgustingly sorry that we did watch it to the end.  I  would rather clean an army barrack's john than watch that movie in its entirety again.



8.   Most people would think is a no-brainer, but.... Note to self:  Always make sure you check the price of everything before you buy it.  No matter how cheap it looks. When the woman at Walmart rung me up, I thought that my total sounded a bit high... when I got home and checked the receipt, this ball was $8.00!!! It did bounce awfully high, but still.


9.   Skippin and a hoppin in Wally World. If you've recalled my mentioning that Clint very rarely if ever lets me go grocery shopping without him and thought this was a little strange, well no matter how strange you think we are, there's always a reasonable explanation. In this particular case, it's because Dax has so much fun skippin and running down the aisles and shrieks and squeals with laughter nonstop that Clint doesn't want to miss out on the fun. It's guaranteed to put a smile on your face no matter how hard or tired your day has been.



If I ever get time, I'm going to start a petition to Target and Walmart urging them to use this style of kid buggy rather than the monstrous aisle yachts they use. Winn Dixie's is the absolute coolest and Dax's favorite.  He actually likes their buggy and doesn't say "DOWN?!?"  every 5 seconds.


10.    Being called out for yet another one of my many... many  quirks.  This particular one happens to be ALWAYS inappropriately dressed for the task at hand.

I think it's widely known that I'm the type of wife that makes a "Honey Do List" but my impatience "can do attitude" leads me to cross a lot of those things off myself.  Clint had been really busy and the trash had backed up, not to mention I had a lot of junk from cleaning out our upstairs room - so I decided to take care of that task by myself. Of course I'd not thought too much about what I was wearing when I hauled all that trash to the nasty dirty part of the landfill until I got out of the truck  and heard some men laughing out loud. I looked at them and they were staring and pointing at me.  Oh hardy har har...so what if I had on a sundress and sandals!  At least I got the job done! Even if I did ruin a pair of Anne Klein sandals.  I can't remember, but they were probably knock offs anyways...

11.   Dax is definitely his mother's son.  Like his Mama he can hide/lose things forever within a 3 foot radius. Can we say talented??  My camera has disappeared from the face of the earth (the earth being our little house)!  Thank you SO much for this one, Dax.  Mama's been wanting a new camera for some time.  However, Mama is the most indecisive person on the planet.  It's now September 3rd (Even though this is June's post) and the count is up to 5.  Five! cameras I've taken back and exchanged for another one because I'd find something I didn't like about each one.  I've finally settled on a Canon Powershot G11.  For a compact or what some people call "point and shoot" - I really really recommend this camera.  I haven't tried them all, but most of the well rated ones and this is my favorite.  Clint's mom has a Sony Powershot DSC-W120 Carl Zeiss Super Steady Shot.  It's awesome for action shots and toddlers.

12.  Terrible Two's came fast and furious to this household.  Guess what else my son is talented at?  Meltdowns.  Not 'fits' mind you but Meltdowns with a capital M!

I actually have one of them on video, but for Dax's sake I'm too embarrassed to show it. Up to this point, he's had 3 of them. All of them were sleep related (waking up or trying to put him down). 

13.  Clint shaved his head. When he was finished, I could have swore I heard an echo of Mel Gibsom's FREEEEEDOOOOOMMMMM! when he gave his relief sigh. Only to be interrupted by "ME NEXT!!"  Sorry, forgot to take a pic.

14.   YARD SALE!  Everyone should do this at least one time in their life.  Now that I've done it and even though it was a great success, I can say I'll never do it again. It was a complete hassle getting everthing ready.  Erin and I felt as if we would melt into the porch at any minute but it was fun AND funny going through all kind of junk and finding stuff then watching Dax play with everything. 

I had to take a picture of this:  Clint's cassette tape collection and CHECK -  IT  -  OUT!!! Vanilla Ice, Poison and Anthrax all in the same case.  Oh and make sure you notice the B-52's.  Some might want to reject his Man-card after seeing this?  Nah, I'm just glad he didn't have some Debbie Gibson or Whitney stashed up in there.  I tried to give this (the case and tapes) away for free and can you believe it, nobody wanted it!?!?  Oops forgot about Ratt!!  Round and round....  I'm in high hair heaven just thinking about these songs.


I knew keeping all those empty diaper boxes would come in handy one day.  I used these to put our large DVD collection for sale in.  This occupied D for about an hour too.


Not sure about what this face was for...


15.   Wednesday night Cookouts!! Jacob moved down to Auburn and we've been mega busy so we haven't had them in a few weeks, but back in June it was a given. Wednesday nights we'd have plenty of food on the grill while Dax and who ever else's kid we could wrangle up would run around in the yard just enjoying being little and the rest of us sat around shootin the breeze.


 Yes, that's the garden sprinkler and yes we're using it for recreational purposes just like we did back when we were little bumkin kids.  And it's STILL fun!







That just about covers June - what I can remember anyways [If Blogger had a smiley icon, it would go [HERE]. 

Oh, one more thing...



(I didn't make this video, of course.  I found this when I searched for this song on youtube.)

Dax loves for me to sing it to him.   That song has been stuck in my head for months.  Now it's in yours...  




Saturday, June 19, 2010

The Comedian

June 19th was my nephew, Anderson's, Birthday. Since I wanted to pay special attention to his post, I had to wait until my little circus monkey is sleeping soundly, all yard sales were out of the way and I got my own computer back on line before I could do so.

When Anderson was baby I remember thinking "wow, all babies do is cry, eat, poop and sleep." Anderson was proof of it. I could never get him to stop crying when I held him.

The baby that convinced me that it would be a long time before I was ready to have one of my own is also the very same child that verified I definitely wanted kids later on.


Anderson turned into the most favorable, congenial child I've ever met. It's impossible to not smile when in his presence. Not only does this kid have ample amount of personality, he's as handsome as they come. Diane, get ready to be up all hours of night with girls calling...


We went to see Anderson play ball the first year he'd started. While the coach was warming up the other players, Anderson was in the field completely entertaining himself and us, to fight off boredom I guess. But it was hilarious. Since he's gotten quite well at ball and definitely enjoys it more.


His ability to entertain without even trying runs in the family I think. Dax does it as well and often reminds us of Anderson.




Anderson it's an absolute joy having you for a nephew! Since you are such a great person with such a wonderful personality you will never have problem meeting new friends and life will be filed with many people who love and want to be around you. A person with many friends is surely destined to have a wonderful life as I hope and pray you always will. Love, Uncle Clint, Aunt Teri and Dax.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Mother "May" I? Yes, You "MAY!"

There's more than 13 here, but since I'm not doing "Thursday's Thirteen" why limit myself.  So here's what our May was like.

1.  What can a unsupervised 21 mos old do in half the time it takes to microwave a burrito (that's 30 seconds flat)? A LOT!

30 seconds on a Monday? he can: rearrange living room furniture;

30 seconds on a Tuesday? he can climb onto the entertainment center, behind a 50 inch flat screen and down between the back of it and the wall

30 seconds on a Wednesday? he can get wedged between the furniture (oddly enough he loves this)

30 seconds on a Thursday? he can figure out an alternate way to get on the entertainment center and stand in front of 50" flat screen and make a hand print on every inch of TV screen.

on a Friday? Find himself tied to a chair!!! 


There are 168 hours in a 7-day week.  Dax spends approx. 49 of them asleep and the other 119 looking for trouble.  It is inevitable that I will look away for at least half a minute.  When I do, this child knows how to capitalize on just one second of me being unattentive.  Which leads me to No. 2...


2.  Mimi, Dax and I eating out with my Aunt Sherry, her 2 daughters Misty, Brandy and Brandy's 2 daughters Katelyn and Kourtney.  That makes 6 extra pair of eyes to watch over Dax while I ate my fries and enjoyed catching up without so much as even looking over my shoulder to see what Dax was doing.   Ha ha.  j/k  I might have asked the girls, K&K, a couple of times "are you sure you don't mind playing with him"  totally insincere of course. ;o)  My moment to capitalize... and boy did I!!

Katelyn & Kourtney (June 2009)
From Katelyn and Kourtney

Brandy and her husband own an embroidery business.  They can personalize/embroider anything.  Large orders - small orders, anything!!  If you are interested, please e-mail me and I'll send you their info.  I plan on putting up a button in the near future with their business logo on it.  She did the embroidery on his onesie and blanket in the pic below as well as the navy blanket with Dax in orange that's in No. 14's picture.


She also did Dax's crib bumper

3.  Last month I forgot to mention that my parents celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary on April 4.  I have never seen a cuter couple than the two of them.  After all these years they are still in love.


4.  We've decided that we want Dax to call my mother "Mimi."  That's mom's new granny title - "Mimi."  Just get'n rid of them there words that skre-eeems Ima hick.  Though I'm proud to be a "southerner and it's impossible to hide the fact that I'm hopelessly country!

Actually we can't get Dax to say Maw Maw.  He'll say Mimi, but not Maw Maw and the truth is that Mimi fits my mother better.  The other grand kids aren't on board with Mimi at all, but we're determined.  You say to-mah-to, I say to-may-to.  On the other hand, Daddy will remain a "Paw Paw."   One of Dax's favorite words!

5.  One piece of dog food is all it took to finally break the ice after several attempts to get Dax and Eli to play with each other instead of along side each other.  So proud we were of this peace offering that Jac and I could have cared less that they were actually eating dog food. I mean, considering people treat animals as well as their own children, the dog food was probably more nutritious than baby food....  more importantly they seemed to enjoy it and it kept them occupied while Jac and I talked.  I might start bagging dog food for snacks instead of oatmeal cookies.  Whatever works, right?





SIKE!

This is Eli. Isn't he the prettiest little brown eyed boy you've ever seen!


6.  Okay, I always like to think I'm humble enough to admit when I'm wrong so I'm going to confess that Clint was right.  I really do tackle landscaping yard beautification with the same enthusiasm I do my other hobbies.  Only difference is, I usually don't bite off more than I can chew with my hobby projects.  I've definitely stuffed my face on this hobby.  I've started several different yard projects at the same time which means I'm killing myself trying to get any of them to the halfway point.  So, needless to say I spend a lot of time trying to get the dirt out from under my nails only to put them in the same shape the next day.  At this point, meeting a Fall deadline would be AWESOME!  But it might kill me first.  All this landscaping along with the fact that we have a full garden to tend to. I'm sure it will be worth it in the end, however, the yard may be more extravagant than the house.

7.  My child is already practicing his game on the ladies. While waiting to be worked in at the doctor's office one morning a little girl walked in grabbed a book off the shelf and sat down in the chair beside her mother's purse as her mother signed her in.  Dax, without missing a beat, went to the shelf grabbed a book (which he cared nothing about 2 mins. earlier) and climbed up in the chair right beside the little girl on top of the woman's purse and all. Grinning ear to ear staring at her the whole time!  Poor little girl didn't know what to think but she was called back before Dax and so he went about his business until another little girl walked in and sat down.  Dax treated her with the same enthusiasm.  He climbed up right in the chair beside her and blissfully giggled.  I hope he's not going to be a little Lothario!  At the park he chases girls down and does his best to verbalize pick up lines.

little Casanova himself

8.  Our new year resolution is still going strong and it is still the highlight of our day.  Even if Clint or I have already eaten or aren't hungry, we still sit down at the table with Dax while he eats.  I probably should start focusing on teaching Dax table manners instead of doing what we usually do which is laugh our tails off.  Here's why:

Check out those curls!

9.  I'm afraid our walks to my Aunt's house that is approx 1 mile away may be coming to an end.  Dax thinks he's too big for the stroller and wants to walk himself rather than be pushed around.  The only way I can get him to stay in the stroller is by singing to him.  Show tunes from Oklahoma and the Sound of Music are the only ones that work best.  Which is fine, except for the embarrassment I have to endure when I didn't notice someone standing or sitting on their lawn as we walked by.  Just imagine an off-tune "OOOOk-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain!"... I literally wanted to crawl into the bottom of Dax's stroller and DIE!  So it might be a while before we head back.

10.  3 different occasions someone referred to Dax as a little cherub. A cherub??  If I heard that once, it wouldn't be so strange, but 3 different times, by 3 different people.  Maybe he does resemble a cherub...


Hmm... I guess there's kind of is a resemblance.

11.  An interesting or should I say painful trip to Walmart.  The one and only time Clint didn't demand that we all go together (Clint loves going to Wally world with the fam...call us bumpkins if you must).  Matter of fact it was the first time I begged him to go, but he declined due to fatique.  But we were out of milk and growing Daxes love his milk so it was a necessary trip.  Dax fell asleep right as we pulled into the parking lot.  Much to my amazement - unbuckling him out of his seat and picking him up didn't wake him up.  He was so konked out that I had to throw him over my shoulder and carry him - forget trying to put him in a buggy.  He was absolute dead weight.  Even after stopping a few times and adjusting the way I was carrying him he still didn't wake up.  So, we finally get to the dairy aisle, I grab a gallon of milk and try to carry dead weight baby over my shoulder and freezing cold gallon of milk in the other hand.  Both my arms were so numb halfway to the register that I felt as if I was about to drop the milk or the baby or both.  I had to requisition a customer to help me carry the milk to the register.  When we get to the car I can hardly move either of my arms from the pain.  Despite that I manage to get Dax in his seat and buckled up and guess what?  You got it.  Little man wakes up.

12.  Getting up to tinkle in the middle of the night only to have the living nightlights scarred out of me by a door swung open by a baby  announcing his presence with "H-AAAA-Y" while holding every toy his little arms could carry and running to climb on me just to get comfortable and fall asleep on my lap while I'm sitting on the throne.  How did this strange situation come about and what's up with all the toys you might ask? Dax has been going through a phase in which he must sleep as close to me as he can if not on me.  Of course this is uncomfortable and keeps me up so when he's in deep sleep I'll sneak out of the bed and go get on the couch.  This particular night he'd woke  up and followed me to the couch.  30 mins after he'd fallen asleep on the couch I got up to use the bathroom and much to my surprise he actually followed me in there.  It's kind of sweet actually.  I dare not complain because I know I'll miss this one day!!  So, what's up with all the toys???  Well, Dax is slowly turning his crib into a toy box.  The list of things he requires to get settled for a good night's rest are as follows:

  1. Binky "pooh"
  2. Passy "Paseeeee" (melts my heart every time he asks for it)
  3. Brobee
  4. "Froggy"
  5. AU "cover"
  6. Dax "cover"
  7. Ball 
  8. Football "catch"
  9. Car
  10. The list is STILL growing!!


Of course when I get ready to get him out of bed in the morning he has to carry all this to the living room. It's hilarious standing there watching/waiting for him to pick it all up.

13.  Clint's not one to quit a garment, hat or even shoes for that matter just because it's worn... No way.  His refusal of letting things go reminds me of my Mom's habit of watering plants a full year after they've died.  She'll say "well, it's still green!"  ha ha ha.  When it comes to shirts and hats, I literally have to dig them out of the hamper and throw them away while he's not looking.  Hats, shirts - you name it.  Shoes is a little more tricky because he wears a size 13 and in some shoes, a size 14.  So it's hard to find exactly what he's looking for in his size.  But still, this is just inexcusable ...


14.  Carrying on with the "Hobby" in someone else's yard at 1am.  For Mother's Day I made a flower bed in in my parent's front yard for Mom's gift.  She loves flowers, but doesn't love yard work (who in their right mind does).  Monetary gifts are fine and I know mom would appreciate anything I got her - even if only a card, but I realized a long time ago that stuff like this means more too her than picking something up at the department store.  Don't know what I'll do next year, how do you top hard labor?


16Spending Memorial Day at Grandmother's House




As you can see, it finally fits him.  Awe [whipping a tear from my eye] VERY hard to imagine the difference two years make...




17.  With all the heavy downpours, every bug in town wants to stay at our house.  Spiders and crickets and bears! OH MY! The bug man told me that if I found a bug in the house to kill it and put it in a plastic bag and list what room it came out of.  Nasty... but if I want him to take care of it I guess I better do what he asks.  This note is for the bug man.  I wanted to make sure it got his attention when he walked in the door.  If you remember last months post, you know why we won't be at home... Think he'll see it?


18.  Skinny Jean thief!!

19.  Dax telling Muffin (Our friend's, Jacob, dog) to "sshhh! be quiet!" while his favorite show The Backyardigans was on. Muffin was whining because she wanted on the other side of the gate in the living room where Dax and Jacob were playing. It's amazing what a 21-22 mos old can say. Not only that but that Dax can manage to communicate successfully to getting what he wants or needs, just by saying "pees" please and "tank u" thank you. Watch out if you don't jump when he asks you to. Dax repeats the word for what he wants over and over ... and over again each time getting louder until he gets what he wants. I heard the word "colors" crayons 20 times in a row. By the time I finally got up to go get it he was saying it so loud the neighbors could hear him. I have to keep from laughing. It's a habit he needs to break.

Until Next Month, "Th-th-th-