My addiction to Coke and Adam Levine

Yes, it is true. I am addicted to Coca Cola and I will explain now....

Today at CVS, I was reminded of why I sometimes like to run into a store, SOLO. I was also reminded of why I am addicted to Coca Cola (Not even the diet variety, but the full sugar, full calorie variety that makes it impossible for me to lose weight.)  Ashley, if you are reading this, you saw me…You understand. First off, why do I consistently get the buggy with the torn seat belt, with at least one of the sides of the buckle missing? EVERY SINGLE TIME.  I had a buggy full of candy, Hot Wheels, cookies, chocolate milk, and the one important thing that I actually went in there for, pain medicine.  While I was attempting to pay, Lawson is cruising the candy assortment and asking for everything. He finally settled on chocolate coins that he had to trade one of his Hot Wheels in for. Garrison is pulling a nice variety of Bubble Gum, chocolate coins, and ring pops out and throwing them on the floor. Me consistently saying “Garrison NO! No!” doesn’t seem to make him hesitate at all. Sigh. I finally finish paying, snatch Garrison up who is making a run for the door, go back and put away all the candy that is strewn all over the floor and throw it in the boxes where it goes, and hightail out of there to  load the boys up into Chuck’s big, jacked up truck. Since I had to park in the very last open parking place that was up against the median and a tree was in the way of the passenger side, I had to load up the bags on the front passenger seat, climb in on the back Driver’s side, over Lawson’s car seat, all while holding GW and hollering at Lawson not to move a muscle to put GW in his carseat. I buckled him in, climbed back over and out, and got Lawson in and buckled in. Then I finally loaded up and headed home (With a big coke in my hand). Thus, why I drink coke. It is simply not acceptable or practical to drink wine during the day. I like  wine, it helps to relax me and is a stress reliever. Since society tends to frown on day drinking (especially while taking care of children: ), I turn to Coke instead. It is my replacement stress-reliever.(Totally joking about the day drinking thing…I would never do such a thing, even if it is tempting sometimes ;)  I have to admit, I do LOVE Coca Cola.  When I have had a bad day, spent most of the morning saying “Boys, keep your hands to yourselves. Garrison, don’t bite your brother. Lawson, don’t push your brother down, again!”, I just look forward to a cold, iced Coke. Is it that so wrong?!

 

I am also addicted to Adam Levine, mainly on The Voice. Chuck and I LOVE The Voice. It is the best show. It makes us laugh and it makes us (me, honestly) cry. We LOVE to watch Cee-Lo, Adam, and Blake's witty banter. X-Tina too, but only because she is funny with the other three. I have convinced myself that if Blake and I were to meet, we would become BFFs and if Adam and I were to meet, he would totally want to break up my marriage. (A girl can dream, right?! That's not weird at all....) But really, they seem so genuinely nice. They also seem like they are really friends in like, REAL life.  Even Lawson gets into The Voice. We all sit down after dinner in the evenings, either before or after baths depending, for a half hour to an hour of The Voice. We love it. Lawson makes little comments too, like "Ugh, Christina!...." and "What, nobody turned?!"  and my favorite "Oh, Cee Lo is so crazy." He is such a cool little 4 year old. Eventually we may even be caught up on all of the DVRed episodes we have to watch. That is our goal before the end of the show anyway. It is such a simple little pleasure but I adore when we manage to fit it in before bedtime.

 

jessie posted this to my FB wall today and it really made my afternoon. Puh-lease be sure and watch it. I hope this link works....If not holler at me and I will fix it.

 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xsw18k_parents-rap-about-maintaining-their-household_music

This couple could BE me and Chuck, if we were funny and/or musically talented at all. We can totally relate, as most people with kids can. I remember the days when I could wear white and not have 10 stains on it by the end of the day...like a nice mixture of  chocolate, juice, food of some type, and  boogers...yes, there are always boogers. I *think* I used to look nice, have makeup on, hair done, and a complete outfit on including accessories. Now I rarely wear makeup anymore, unless you see me at a special event like  a wedding or something it is unlikely that I will have makeup on. I traded it in for a little more sleep in the mornings. I also wear Nike shorts a lot...I used to never wear T-shirts anywhere. It wasn't that I had anything against them, that just wasn't a "go-to" for me. Now I wear Nike shorts and T's at least 4 days out of the week. I also wear a lot of pony tails. But I am OK with that.

I also can not tell y'all how many times I use the "Count to three" thing. ALL THE TIME. Lawson knows three means trouble. I usually only make it to two though...which is better for everyone. Garrison on the other hand....three means nothing to him.

Grateful for laughter and simple pleasures...

My Cup Runneth Over
~Shana~

 

 

 

Randomness

Randomness AKA I haven't blogged in a while

 

 

This is just bits and pieces that I have been typing as they happen and saving for a post:

A random, stray thought from about 2 months ago:

Why are eggs really high in cholesterol, the yolk really, but chicken is low in cholesterol? Eggs become chickens, does something happen in the process of incubation? This really stumps me…I randomly thought this and proceeded to ask my Husband, who happens to know everything (and not in that, “I don’t know everything but I just think I do” way. He legitimately does know everything. His mind is like a freaking sponge for random facts) and his concern was “What in the world made you think of that?!” I still have no answer to this conundrum. Do any of you know? Please comment it if you do.

 

 

Lawson and I were walking in Target last week when he looked up at me and asked “Mommy, can I hold your hand?” (Yes, he really does still call me Mommy and I LOVE it!) I answered, “Of course Son, you can hold my hand anytime you want to!” He then brought up Despicable Me, his current favorite movie that he watches every single time he gets to watch a movie, and told me “Mommy, when the little girl asked to hold Gru’s hand he just said “NO” (he even did the little accent, hilarious!) Why did he say no?” Ah, Gru what an enigma you are. For those of you who haven’t seen Despicable Me, you should watch it. It really is a great movie. I don’t know that  little ones under the age of two or  three may really appreciate it, Lawson more recently started loving it, since it is not really your typical kids’ movie but I know Chuck and I both liked it. Steve Carrell is Gru and the minions are super funny, too. It does have lots of really touching and sad parts too, though.   I tried to make my answer as simple as possible since Gru is a tad bit complicated. I just said that Gru was not used to kids. He didn’t have any kids, he was not ever around kids before the girls, and that he didn’t know how to act towards kids. So we are walking down the shampoo aisle where there are several people around and I am half way browsing and talking to Lawson.He says “Well, maybe he is allergic to kids” (One guy next to us kind of chuckles).I said, well Lawson being allergic to something means you can’t be around it or it will make you sick, like if you were allergic to cats and you were around one, you would start to not feel well like maybe cough or get a headache.” He then proceeds with “I think I am allergic to kids!” (The lady on the aisle down from us giggles). I replied, “Lawson of course you aren’t allergic to kids, you ARE a kid and you are around other kids all the time. Plus, no one is actually allergic to kids.” Lawson comes back with, “Well, some people are allergic to kids.” I was half chuckling along with the rest of the aisle while saying, “Lawson, who did you ever hear say they were allergic to kids?!” His response, “My Nana said that she was allergic to kids sometimes.” The 4 other people on the aisle erupt in laughter.  Yep, NANA you were the talk of the Target that day : )

 

 

First, why do all of my stories involve Target?! Apparently I am there A LOT.

At Target a few weeks ago, I had both boys strapped into one of those double seat buggies. You know, the ones that have a seat for two kids that are a little bench with a space in between and harnesses attached. Yeah, I used to think those were the best things ever. So did the boys. So, Lawson was adamant that they needed to sit in one of those, not the regular kind so we tracked one down. We went and bought a bag of popcorn and a drink for them to share (first mistake). At first they were just as happy as can be sitting there, facing each other, sharing their bag of popcorn. It lasted all of 3 minutes, during which I had that smug mommy moment and dared to think “Wow, I am pretty good at this. And just look at how sweet my boys are being!” Fast forward two minutes….”MOMMM, Garrison won’t share the drink with me!!” Garrison responds with a shrill, shriek as Lawson snatches the popcorn away. I say “Boys, share. Lawson, share the popcorn. Garrison, give your brother some of the drink! If y’all can’t share, I will take it away.” Then they are OK for like, a minute. During which, my phone rings. It is my sister, so I am talking to her while pushing the buggy around the baby section looking for whatever it is I needed, maybe sippy cups or diapers; It could really go either way. The boys decide to start hitting each other. Lawson: “Mommm, Baby Brother  keeps pinching me!” Garrison: “Momma, Momma, Momma…SHRIEK!”  Then Lawson hits him, Garrison hits back and on it goes. I tell my sister, who is laughing on the other end because she can hear all of this, “Hold on a minute please, I need to deal with my two little dears. Hahaha” So I put down the phone, turn to them and say, “Nobody had better touch the other one! You both wanted to sit in this buggy beside each other and we had to hunt one of these down. So you both sit in it nicely, like sweet brothers, and if you can’t be nice, don’t even look at the other one.” All while pushing down the aisles…getting some pointed looks from other shoppers. One lady in particular gave me a rather harsh stare while they were both screaming and I was still on the phone. I wish I could say that I was making up what I was about to tell you, but it is gospel. I tucked the phone between my ear and my shoulder, threw both arms up and gave her the “What are you looking at?!” gesture. True story…I am slightly embarrassed to admit that now. But lady, if you ever had two boys 4 and under, you would/should understand. Chuck laughed uncontrollably when I came home and told him that. He even made me reenact the whole “what are you looking at?” gesture.  I don’t think I was rude, per se, but looking back I could have just ignored her.  

Lawson starts asking if he can get out and walk. I know what will happen, he will get out and run around and Garrison will want to do the exact same thing. Only, Lawson will stay relatively close but Garrison will run full speed ahead, all over the store leaving me to chase him while pulling the buggy behind and yelling for Lawson to “COME HERE!” and follow me. (Does it sound like that may have happened once or twice?) So I keep saying no.

So, on we go, still shopping (We were waiting for a prescription to be filled, go figure)  Somewhere down the snack aisle, the boys decide to start “Hulking” it and trying to get out of their seat belts. Hulking consists of acting like The Hulk, jumping up and down while trying to rip a shirt off (in this case a seat belt harness)and grunting.  Garrison is shrieking at the top of his lungs, standing straight up, pulling at the harness as hard as he can and Lawson, the Big Brother, the GOOD EXAMPLE, is doing the same thing but whining and grunting. It’s a pretty crazy sight. If it had not been my kids and I saw it, I would have laughed my butt off. But, since it was my kids and I kept calmly telling them to stay in their seats and quit and they wouldn’t, it was time for a talk. I sat right down on the floor, in the middle of the aisle, got eye level with them both and had a serious talk. I told them lots of things. I explained how we should act in public, how they should help me to shop instead of making it harder, that they should be sweet to each other, they should share, they should listen.  I even got into how the Lord wants us to obey our parents. It lasted a little while and gave me a little relaxing period, too. About this time, a lady who we have seen several times throughout the store walks by. I said, “Excuse us if we are in the way, we just needed to have  a little talk.” Her response, and I will NEVER forget it was to come up to me and tell me what an awesome job I was doing. WHAT?! I am literally sitting in the floor at Target having a “Come to Jesus talk” with my two little boys who have just about driven me over the edge and down the side of it, and this angel of a lady tells me how well I am doing? I replied “Really? Thanks. I am trying to keep calm and keep my patience.” She went on, “You are SO patient and are a lot calmer than I would be in your situation. You are doing a great job and don’t you ever forget it.” All I could say was, “Thanks!” She then walked away and I had a renewed mind. No one ever tells me that, randomly, in a store. I get a ton of “You sure do have your hands full!” or “Wow. You’ve got your job cut out for you” or other comments along these same lines, but I can’t remember someone seeing me in the midst of  a Time Out and telling me “good job”. Of course, a little while later we saw her in the party section and Garrison was in the big part of the buggy with Lawson, the front part where the seats are was piled up with all of our stuff and Garrison and Lawson both had a roll of wrapping paper that they were hitting each other with, almost hitting her as we passed by. But, it was too late…she had already told me “good job” and there was no taking it back!

I am truly never at a loss for laughter. There are so many times when Chuck and I, in the midst of a crazy storm, just look at each other and start laughing hysterically. I couldn't begin to tell y'all how many times a week that happens. It happens when the boys are hyped up right before bed and are running in circles, literally, and we just stop and stare, then look at each other and shake our heads. Then, we laugh...a lot. They are so darn entertaining. It also happens when GW does something hilarious and unexpected, like pulling his diaper half way off so that all that is showing is the top half of his booty and for whatever reason, he's running around like that, as happy as can be. We catch each others' eye and proceed to get sooo tickled at it. We also share a good laugh when Lawson comes up with one of his awesomely hilarious dance moves out of nowhere.

Never a dull moment and I am so glad that Chuck is the one who I share it all with.

My Cup Runneth Over
~Shana~