Kids say the darndest things

MAYA
We just got home from church and the first thing we usually do is get into comfy clothes. So, right after we walked in, Maya said "I'm going to go put on my sweaty pants." Matt and I started laughing. I told Maya that what she probably meant to say was sweat pants, not sweaty pants.

LUKE
At the end of church, the hallways are always crazy. Matt, Luke and I were getting Maya from her classroom. Another kid walked past Luke from behind and Luke fell down, complete accident. Luke jumped up onto both feet into a ninja position with both hand in fists and said "Hi-yah!" - and waited in the ready position for another attack. He was angry that he'd been knocked over, he had no idea who it was, and the kid was long gone. It cracked me up b/c I've never seen him do that before. It was hilarious. (Of course I never would have let him actually hit anyone - his stance was just so funny!)

Pain in my license!

So I wasn't paying attention and my driver's license expired on my birthday last month. I realized this while I was out of town in NY and could do nothing about it. Good thing I had decided not to get a rental car at the airport, because that wouldn't have worked. Being out of town, I had to wait to get things fixed, which left this big old stress hanging over my head. My husband Matt was going to be out of town for longer than I was (he just got back last Friday) so I couldn't avoid driving very much - it's pretty scary driving with an expired license. I was so afraid of getting pulled over. On top of not having a current license, I went to base for a doctor's appointment and they wouldn't let me on because the inspection on my car had expired 2 weeks before (DAYS!). So I had to park about a half a mile away from base and walk to the hospital. I was so mad! Mad at the security guard and mad at my car that we've only owned a few months as it continues to cause me grief. (My friend came up with a great name for it - the Craptima! - It's a Kia optima. Sorry if the nickname offends anyone, but it's very fitting for my car) I got the inspection taken care of the next day. And waited until Matt got back last Friday, to go the Driver's License office. (Another thing that's more complicated than it needs to be here in Texas - To get your car registered: That's through the department of transportation and you go and get your registration done at the County Tax office. There's one place to wait in line. Then Driver's licenses: Those are through the department of public safety and you take care of your driver's licensing needs through the driver's licensing offices. No DMV here.Of course the offices are sos busy that no matter what time of day you try to call, the line is always busy - no way to ask questions before taking the plunge and wasting away in line at the office)
We went to the driver's license office pretty much right away when Matt got back in town on Friday. Big mistake trying to go on a Friday afternoon, the last weekend of summer break. The line was out the door of the building with about 30 people on the sidewalk waiting just to get inside the building. We decided to wait until this morning (Tuesday morning) to go back. Matt said that the line we saw was just to get a number and then wait even more til that number was called. I've been feeling sick lately, so that was not going to happen. We hoped that since school started yesterday and people SHOULD be a work, Tuesday morning should be a lot less crazy. It was. I waited on line (just inside the entrance to the building).
When I got up to the information desk, they asked for my paperwork to make sure I had everything I needed before I waited longer. The only thing I didn't have was proof of registration, but I wrote everything from the registration sticker on my car down on a piece of paper. (I looked everywhere for the registration receipt. - Stupid car! We found the registration for my poor Sonata we no longer have and for MAtt's tercel that we've had forever! But no registration for the Kia, even though we had that sheet most recently) So, the guy at the info desk gave me a pass and sent my to the County tax office to get proof of registration. Luckily the line there wasn't crazy at all and I was inside that building for about 5 minutes. Too bad the drive was 10 minutes away from the driver's license office. Added a half hour onto the whole process. I got all my paperwork filled out on the drive at least.
It felt good to walk back into the license office and skip the line and go right up to the info desk. They put me on the short line since I had to make the extra trip. So I only waited 20 minutes behind 1 person, instead of who knows how long behind everyone else. Now, with an expired license, I have to take the written and driving tests. Because, you know, in the past 30 days of having an expired license my skills have gone down the drain and I've forgotten everything. I don't get it. Just make me pay a fine and check my driving record. I'm proud to say I passed the vision test with flying colors, only got 2 wrong out of 23 on the written (One of the questions I got wrong was what was the maximum fine for a person over 21 caught DUI - I wasn't sure, guessed $200, but it was $2000. That question is meaningless to me b/c I've never had a drink in my life and don't plan on starting. I guess it should be good that I don't know b/c that means I've never been fined for a DUI).
Next was the driver's test. A lady older than me, but not super old, was in the car in front of me waiting for her road test. The examiner was getting in the passenger side and the lady began to move the car before the examiner was in - the car door was still open. Needless to say, she didn't make it out of the parking lot before the examiner got out of the car and came back to the building. I felt bad for the lady (she apparently needs to practice), but at least my turn came sooner. I was very careful to not start driving until the examiner was in the car and seatbelted in with the door closed and she told me to start driving. Gold star for me! I passed no problem, even did well with my parallel parking, thank you very much. But, when someone is observing and grading every move you make as a driver, I think I didn't drive as well as I usually do b/c I wasn't driving naturally. I was overthinking every move. Either way, I passed with lots of room to spare. I'm 29 and I am still capable of driving a car - yay for me. I'm just glad this whole experience is done and I can drive legally again! Overall, the whole trip from leaving my home until we pulled back in the driveway (including the extra trip to the county tax office) was 3 hours. Not too bad considering.

Oh Heavenly Day!

You've may have already read my ode to tastykakes and the sadness I feel that they are only sold out east. Well, no more sadness! I saw them on the shelf at my grocery store today! Bonus point goes to San Antonio for selling Tastykakes!

He gets it from his Grandfather

For those of you who know my son, Luke, you know that he tends to have a bit of extra energy - he doesn't stop bouncing or moving. He's a crazy typical little boy. On our recent trip to NY to visit my parents I caught Luke and my dad (and my nephew Danny) having a nice little pillow fight. Now, this isn't the first time I've caught my dad getting Luke all riled up. He and Luke had lots of fun in Hawaii as well - even after Luke had stitches in his head, my Dad was still getting him all riled up (I have the home video to prove it, but that would take forever to upload). I also remember many a time when my dad has been right in the middle of the pile of my brothers and sisters and I wrestling when we were kids. My mom, I'm sure added some, considering she wasn't necessarily a perfect little teenager (oh, the stories she's shared with me), but she seems to have calmed down over the years. So, Dad, I am officially declaring that Luke gets his craziness from you. . .a little from his own father, but mostly from you!

Adam's

One of my favorite things about going to my parent's home is Adam's Fairacre Farms. It's a grocery store that is mostly fresh produce, Seriously, at least half, if not more, is all fresh fruits and vegetables and plants - GOOD STUFF! They have the best fruits and vegetables and an awesome bakery. Another fun thing about this place is they have kid-sized carts. So we took Maya and Luke and they were in charge of the carts and had fun helping us pick out the fruit.

Here's a few pictures.

Helping Aunt Becky pick out some apples

What kid can resist checking out the lobsters?

A Little bit of Rock N Roll

I come from a musical family. We always had a piano, organ, harpischord, little drums, tamborines, whatever band instrument we chose, and of course, the good old recorder. I found Luke rockin out on one and couldn't resist all his rock n roll poses he struck.

My sister and her kids participate in a community band/orchestra. My nephew Danny plays a little bit of the drums. They had to make room in their van for a trip we were gonna take that day, so he had to bring his drums in the house and Maya and Luke had a chance to experiment on them. (A lot of these videos I recorded for Matt since he's been away for several weeks, and as a parent, I figure he'll get a kick out of these.)

More NY Adventures

New York (upstate) is one of those places where fruits and vegetable are AMAZING! Everytime I turned around, Luke was eating another peach, or apple, or grapes, or carrots, which as a mom I have no problem with other than him being extra regular (but that's another story). We had some very tasty corn on the cob for dinner one night and noticed Luke was eating it a little differently than usual. I got a kick out of it.

Ode To TastyKakes

(This is for you Rach!)

Oh, sweet TastyKakes, how I love thee so!

Your chocolate and peanutbutter truly make me glow!

The only thing about you that makes me sad at all,

is that I cannot find you on my grocery store wall!

Cheesy? Yes. But if you have had this wonderful treat you would understand. I've only seen them out east which means I've had to go without for the past 2 years. I was so happy to be able to buy them during my trip to NY. My sister, Rachel, understands this dilemma. In order to get some out west, she had to order them by the case. You would think it would be hard to eat a case worth, but they go faster than you'd think. I should've thought to bring some backt o Texas with me, but they got eaten out of my parent's kitchen pretty quickly.

Back at Home

The kids and I got back on Wednesday from a fun trip to my parents house in New York. As much as I love to go home to New York, it felt good to come back to my own home. Here are a few pictures and videos from the trip.

The view from my parent's front door. No automatic sprinklers necessary in NY.

Maya enjoying Grandma and Grnadpa's swimming pool.

Luke spent a lot of time playing his cousin's Wii. He's obsessed with a game called Smashbrothers, and now I have to deal with the aftermath and the constant asking if he can play. The answer for a LONG time will be NO!

Maya, Luke and their cousin Danny at my old high school track.

Lots of fun was had. I'll upload some more stuff from our trip over the next few days.

I Haven't Fallen off the planet. . .

. . .I'm just hanging out in NY for a few weeks while my husband is out of town and it's still summer vacation. I'm hopin I'll get around to uploading some pictures and mini videos soon, but hey, it's easy to be lazy hanging around my parents house.