HELICOPTER OMG!!

So I wish I could have taken photos but I didn't have my camera.  BUT, the local police department were doing training at the police station directly neighboring Olivia's doggie day camp.  Yes, Miss Olivia goes to camp when we go out of town occasionally.  We were picking her up and as we walked outside I saw a bunch of the officers dressed in flight gear?  I know right?  Weird.  THEN I head a helicopter coming, and looked up to see it starting to circle over head.  THEN the lady from the day camp came out and said "OH THEY TOLD US THIS WOULD HAPPEN TODAY!"  So Olivia, Lucas, Nick and I walk over to the fence and watched the helicopter land probably 60 feet away.  WE were closer to it than the officers in flight gear were when it landed.  The boy's hats were blown off from the wind generated from the rotor wash.  Very cool for two little boys (and their Momma too).  Olivia was curious but not impressed.  The loud noise didn't seem to bother her either.

The funny part is that the 4 man flight crew hopped out of the helicopter and stood around while the rotor blades came to a full and complete stop.  This took like 5 minutes, people.  They were talking and spitting and doing very manly things because they were . . . the awesome flight crew and those pansies over there . . . huddled by the parking lot in their brand new flight suits (which probably weren't even their own) because their boss won't let them MOVE until the rotors stop . . . . those dudes are just cops.  IT WAS FUNNY SHIT.  I loved watching the body language because the helicopter dudes were posturing as the "bad asses" and the cops were not too happy to be huddled up like school children who can't control themselves.  And I'm sure some, if not all of the cops had flight experience (military or similar) so they didn't need to be treated like they were a bunch of 3 year olds who were about to run straight into the tail rotor.  It was just very funny. 

Not Much News

Well I don't have much news going on here.  We went to Las Vegas NM while AJ traveled for work up there.  It was a cute little town that has a lot of really cool ollllldddd homes with the big porches under huge sagging trees.  It reminded me of the south a bit.  The city was doing a lot of work to revamp the older neglected neighborhoods and make them beautiful once again.  It was nice to see and I can't wait to see how it looks when they are done. 

We stayed in a historic hotel (complete with it's very own ghost!!) which had been remodeled tastefully to keep with it's original Victorian theme.  Our room had about a 14 foot ceiling and all the furniture was old replica Victorian wooden furniture.  It was very clean and very comfortable.  We ate dinner the first night in the restaurant in the hotel which had good food.  The problem was that the boys were BOUNCING off the freaking walls because they'd been in the car and had all this energy to release.  What a BIG mistake to hope they could sit still in a nice restaurant.  Nick was screeching - and MY GOD does he have a loud, glass-shattering screech.  Lucas was banging silverware together and loudly announcing "is that your butt I smell mommy?" NO it wasn't my butt he smelled but it didn't matter, the damage was done.  Everyone stared in the intimate, quiet dining area.  We were those horrible people who bring young children into a public place and ruin the experience for everyone.  AJ ended up taking them into the lobby until dinner was served. 

We went to Fort Union and walked around out there.  It was a neat area.  The trail took about an hour to walk around.  To wear the kids out I had them race each other to get to the next interpretive sign.  Their little legs would be moving so fast and they'd be huffing and puffing to go faster all the while I was keeping up with them at a comfortable walking pace.  Funny.  When they got tired they loaded up into the stroller for a rest.  We saw lots of birds ( I wish I'd brought my bird book!) and two larger bull snakes.  One of the snakes was hunting frogs caught in a large circular pit.  Very neat to see.  The other snake was catching some rays on the edge of the trail.  The boys and I were able to watch it for quite a while as it tried to figure out what we wanted and why we were staring at it.  Finally it decided to move away from the trail for some more privacy.  The boys loved to see it's tongue dart in and out.  Such a neat and beautiful animal, I'm so glad it let us check it out for so long. 

In other news the boys are now sharing a room.  Lucas's imagination is working at full speed now and he is becoming afraid of monsters and shadows at night.  Every night he'd ask me to stay in his room and "keep an eye on him" so the monsters didn't get him.  We would assure him that his stuffed animals were excellent guardsmen and would fend off any menacing monsters, but he didn't buy it.  So we asked him if Nick could move into his room to keep him company at night.  He readily agreed to a room mate and Nick is thrilled that he gets to spend more time with Lucas.  Nick has graduated to the big boy room in Nick's mind.  And the transition has gone off without a hitch thus far.  Lucas isn't as afraid of monsters because he knows Nick has his back and Nick is so happy to be a big boy that he is being well behaved.  They both giggle and jump from bed to bed playing with each other and then fall asleep where they fall.  It works out great and I'm glad they are becoming part-time friends.  The other part of the time they are fighting but we will gloss over that for now.

Lucas sliced open his hand pretty good with some toddler scissors while cutting paper.  He was really upset at all the blood which was dripping all over my carpet.  I was really upset about my carpet and told him to go bleed in the kitchen while I got him a paper towel.  Once we got the paper towel on his hand he kept taking it off to reexamine the wound and then he'd see more blood and start crying all over again.  We got a band aid on it and I was holding him and jokingly told him not to bleed so much next time.  He thought I was serious and told me that he'd try to not bleed that much again.  I then had to explain that Mommy wasn't serious and then explained what a joke was.  He is such a sweet boy. 

That's it ya'll.  Nothing horribly ground breaking. Have a good weekend!!

You're Lucky I'm Cooking

Tonight AJ and I were joking about how fast our trash can fills up in our kitchen.  He pulls the bag out of the trash can to haul it outside to the big garbage container and as he's walking by he snips "I'll be impressed if the trash can isn't filled back up when I return." 

To which I replied "Hey buddy, you're lucky I'm cooking.  Stop complaining."

JUST as I said this I threw a bunch of potatoes into a fry pan full of hot oil to saute up for dinner.  And the moisture in the potatoes caused a flame to shoot up about (no joke) 18 inches into the air and singed my arm.  I screamed and within seconds of my scream the trusty (and in my opinion, overly sensitive) smoke detector starts deafening us.  And our detectors are all wired together so that they ALL go off together in every room.  

Do ya think AJ would stop to help me fan the smoke detector until it shut the hell up?  Do ya think he'd stop to see if I was mortally wounded by flame?  Nope. He never stopped walking, but instead on his way out the door he calmly said over his shoulder without missing a beat "Don't burn the house down."

And he proceeded to take the trash to the container located next to our garage door.  When he returned he was laughing and asked me "AM I lucky you are cooking?"

AJ finished cooking dinner.

Port-a-potty

As we drove home past the park this morning we saw a port-a-potty being delivered to the park by a big truck with a lift gate.  The boys went APE SHIT because there is a real life port-a-potty and it is IN a truck ON a lift gate WITH a pump attached to the truck to clean it!!!  

I screeched to a stop but I had gone so far past the port-a-potty that they couldn't see it.  But the delivery man noticed my abrupt stop and looked at me for a minute as if I was a total nut job.  Well he ain't seen nothin' yet!

I drove around the block and came into the park's parking lot and stopped next to the port-a-potty.  The delivery man was in his truck by now and the port-a-potty was sitting on the suspended lift gate waiting to be placed on the ground.  I'm pretty sure the man thought I was a stalker and he was staring at us while we stared at his awesome port-a-potty WITH A PUMP OMG!!!!!! A PUMP!!!  WITH HOSES AND EVERYTHING!!!

He came over to my open window as I was pointing to the pump and explaining to the boys what everything was for, and he asked me if everything was alright. 

At this point I had to come clean with the man so at least he would know we weren't stalking him, just the port-a-potty - yeah, because that's less weird, right? 

"My boys really like Port-a-potties and so we had to stop to see this one."

Ummmm.  Silence.  Perplexed look. 

So, I'm just going to guess that this isn't a normal experience for him. . .and I'm also guessing that I am just as crazy as his face expression indicated.

Be Nice

Me:  Nicholas why were you just in time-out?

Nick:  Throwing ball Lucas

Me:  And is throwing the ball at Lucas nice?

Nick:  Yessssss

Me:  Noooooo, it isn't.  You don't throw balls at people, it isn't nice.  Are you going to throw the ball at Lucas again?

Nick:  Yeessssssss

Me:  Nooooo you aren't because it isn't nice. 

Nick:  We'll see

(I'm in deep trouble here people.  SOS!  SOS!!!)