Family Beach Night

This past Sunday we loaded up the van and headed to Destin to meet my mom, dad, sister and brother at the beach. 

It was a perfect evening - the heat of the day had lessened and the beach was beautiful - the sand nice and clean and the water was sparkling and clear and the blue that our area is famous for around here.

I didn't get the family picture I had so hoped for - Maddie would not cooperate and she's impossible to coerce if she's with her Mimi... let's just say she knows how to pull the right strings with her dramatics...

But other than that we had a great time - Wyatt got super sandy - he would climb up the ridge on the beach and slide backwards on his belly. This completely made my skin crawl - I hate sand!

I much prefer the waterpark at Big Kahuna's but I'm even a little burned out with that this year. I think we'll take the year off next summer and save our $ for the summer when Wyatt is almost 3 - unless there's another baby before then - and if that happens I'll just wait 3-4 more years before getting passes again!

Here are some pictures from the outing:

 Me in my almost new suit...

Mimi and Maddie

Mike doing his sexy pose

Papa, Mommy and Wyatt

Aunt Nat Nat, Mimi and Maddie

Mimi and Maddie

Daddy and Wyatt

My dad and sister, Natalie

On my own again

Mike pulled out of the Destin harbor around 6 am this morning - headed to Louisiana for a 5-day tuna fishing expedition aboard the Mixed Nuts - 50' Riviera Sportfisherman ...

The morning started earlier than I would have liked - as Wyatt was up 3 times last night and I was dragging by the time Maddie got up and started whining and crying about everything.

"Let's go make your bed," I say. 

"NOOOOOOO I Don't wannnnnnt tooooo," she yells and whines.

It's never good when the day starts like this. 

Wyatt wakes up in my bed and tells me "bye" and goes to terrorize some other part of the house as his sister continues to whine and moan about everything.

Did I mention that part of the reason I was up in the middle of the night was because Tarmak once again did his business in the living room? I threw him outside about 2 am after cleaning it up and trying not to puke because really - between the urine smell and the poop I was really not enjoying myself.

We managed to eat breakfast, get dressed and leave the house in time to pick up a-Julia as maddie calls her - over in Rocky Bayou - cut through Rocky Shores and go over to Becca's house for a reunion of sorts and then back through RB to Edgewater to check out the house Becca and her husband bought to serve as a rental. Brett does some nice work - their new house is nicer than the one they're living in themselves (even becca says this!). They are hoping to have renters in soon - so Becca, you better take those "after" pictures soon.

We left Becca's house just before 11 a.m. fully intending to drive to Sam's Club, but the whining in the backseat convinced me that lunch and naptime were taking priority. 

I tend to eat out a lot when mike is gone because it's just easier that way - so we picked up Jim and Nick's BBQ (yumm!) and went back to the house.

The kids went down for naps easily thank goodness and I walked across the street to chat with my handyman neighbor Mr. Gene. Julia was at the house working on the dishwasher...

I borrowed a sharp blade and came back to the house to have a small funeral for the cat, I mean carpet.

I started cutting out the guilty section - and it's been guilty time and time again - and I was overwhelmed with fumes...

Let me tell you we have tried everything under the sun to get rid of the smell and NOTHING has worked.

Fuming - literally - i grabbed some cleaning gloves, because I was NOT touching that stuff - yuck.

It was bad - and i mean bad - soaked through the carpet, padding and into the wood sub floor.

ugh.

so i pulled all that out, cleaned it up and used kilz paint to cover the wood.

i'm at a loss to decide what to do about tarmak, but for the first time in my life i'm considering putting an animal to sleep - i don't think he's going to stop. We've tried so many different things- medications, feliway, putting the litterbox in that space. He also pees in the tub sometimes and Mike went to hide in the tub  during a game of hiding spot and laid right in it... not good.

So I'm going out to price flooring - I know i need to cover about 450 sq. ft... I guess we know where the tuna trip money is going... i guess i'll get a new stove next year instead...

Funk

So I haven't been writing much lately - because I've been in what I always call "a funk." There are a million reasons why this one came up, but that information isn't suitable for a family blog really - so just bear with me as I get through this and hopefully I'll emerge happy again on the other side. You will always know something is up when I don't post for a day or two. My best friend called me this morning for that very reason - "you're not posting... what's up?"......

I did just load a bunch of pictures into photo bucket and have a few little stories to tell with that, but it will have to wait until late tonight or tomorrow.

Daddy is getting ready to leave again for about 5 days so it's time to go play with him and the kids before bedtime.

Hiding Spot is already underway and I'm going to hide in the bathtub with some chocolate.

Custom Diapers for Wyatt

Some of you who know me already know that we switched to 100% cloth diapering late last year. I've really enjoyed the switch and become very addicted to the custom diapers made by work-at-home-moms (WAHM's). 

We use a variety of styles - prefolds and fitteds with covers, along with pockets and all-in-ones (AIOs). I was a big fan of Bum Genius 3.0 diapers - until wyatt discovered he could take them off because they were velcro - and he's sneaky - he can get them unhitched when he's fully clothed - without going under his clothes even!

So I was at a loss - I needed some diapers that were convenient - for church nursery and babysitters and Daddy, of course.

Being part of Granola Chicks has really opened my eyes to so many different things - from homemade dipes and wipes (Cottonmamma rocks!) to handmade soaps (also another product I love from cottonmamma). As I've participated in the community I've heard so much about Little Bean Diapers, made by Christi. So when it came time to replace the BG's I went to Christi with a custom order. 

We're getting 9 diapers - 7 AIO's and 2 Nighttime - a few are embroidered and the rest I kept plain. She's just posted pictures of 7 of them and I can't wait to get them next week. Click on this link and it will take you to her site to see what they look like - The FSU one is a surprise for Mike - he's going to be so excited to see his little boy running around in that diaper!

Special Visitor

It's not everyday that a policeman comes to your house - and I really hope that it doesn'thappen again - although he was very nice.

We had a surprise visit by a local policeman this week - and after the discussions were over, Wyatt walked up to him and lifted his arms in the air, indicating that he wanted to be picked up (or was he really turning himself in and saying "I give up!"?). 

My son is not one to offer himself to strangers, but the officer was quite tickled to be given such an honor!

It seemed a photo worthy moment and I gave the officer my blog address so he could see himself on the internet (with his permission of course). So Officer Nelson - I hope you enjoy this little picture and feel free to share the link with family and friends :) 

It was nice to meet you - and you'll get a warm smile from us if we ever cross paths again out and about.

New Dishcloth

It took me about half an hour and I am pretty happy with how it turned out! This one belongs to my friend Carol G. - I told her I'd give her the first one :)

She said she'd love it even though it's not necessarily perfect. I love the colors. I have several other colors, too - all picked out by Princess Maddie - can you guess that most of them are in the pink family?

Kids - 1, Parents - 0

We have this terrible secret in our house - 

Maddie still prefers- or rather demands a pacifier to go to sleep.

We've gotten to where she only has it at nap and bedtime, but it needs to go away. I swear it's starting to mess up her teeth and just the fact that she is so dependent on something bothers her father and me.

For a few weeks now we've been talking to her about when the paci's are going away - trying to mentally prepare her for when they are no longer available. 

So tonight was the night - we gathered them up from all over the house and put them in a box.

Then when bedtime came around it all went sour.

After an hour of screaming from my daughter - it was almost 10 p.m. and Wyatt was still not asleep because he was overtired and picking up on his sister's angst - I went into her room and stuck a paci in her mouth and told her to go to sleep.

Go ahead - lecture me on being inconsistent and rewarding negative behavior and all that other psycho babble - YOU come to my house and try to get her to settle down because nothing we tried worked.

Tomorrow is another day and I'm not ready to discuss the pacifiers quite yet. 

Honestly I need my kids to sleep more than I need to worry about braces and other dental issues. 

They'll probably end up needing them regardless of the pacifiers.