There's a gloom about...

So today I attended one of my high school class-mates' funeral. The weirdest thing is, this will be our 10 year reunion this year and at our 5 year reunion we mourned the loss of another classmate. Both were killed in freak accidents. I hope this doesn't become a trend. So today was a "mini" reunion for all the wrong reasons. :-( It was nice to see some of my friends from the past.

I hate death though, when someone I know passes on, I tend to obsess about it for a few weeks...I will have random dreams about it, them, or me...and they aren't pretty usually. It especially freaks me out when people I know that are MY age die. That just makes it more real and scary...because you never know...I try to stay positive and not worry about tomorrow, but it is scary, the unknown, the "ever after", the one thing science can't explain to give details about.

Anyway...it was a sad day and I felt really bad for his family. He really was a nice guy...the one from high school that didn't care if he was "cool" or not...reputation didn't matter to him. So R.I.P. Jacob Neal...i'm sure you will be missed.


(P.S. Sorry about the depressing post)

Repeat Offender...

So apparently the babysitter left some fun stories out of her evening with Decovin, Katrina & McKendra...



I guess right after we all left to go to the B-day party, the babysitter said that McKendra started to fuss, so she was trying to comfort her when she hears "splash, splash, splash"...she investigates and finds Decovin is toilet dunking again! I guess he has a thing for water, he doesn't care where it's located! So she puts McKendra in the crib while she washed up Decovin and then Katrina comes barreling in the bathroom stating she has to go! Well the babysitter has to help her up on the toilet...while she is doing this...she hears: "cling, clank, clank, cling"...after Katrina is finished she find Decovin in the room where the crib is with McKendra in it and he is taking his bottle of milk and dragging it across the rungs jail cell style! Oh MY WORD! My son is a handful...haha! Had to share.


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So we finally bought a GRILL! YES! Check it out:

This baby runs on gas! Oh yeah! LOL!

Isn't it pretty?! I just HAD to use it last night too...so I marinated some chicken tenders and some hamburgers and they were DELICIOUS! YUM-O! Weather permitting, I will be back out there again tonight grilling up some steaks! YES! :-)

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Here is a fun video for you...Great Aunt Ruthie taught him this trick! :-)

Toilet dunk

Funny...i'm in the computer room when I hear bob yell: "Is Decovin in there with you?" To which I reply: "no"...then he says...."Did you go the bathroom just a minute ago?"..."no"..."well, I think your son just flushed the toilet" (because it was running)...I say: "Did he stick his hands in the toilet?"...bob further inspects and we see glossy hands! EWWWWW! "WASH 'EM, WASH 'EM!" I yell!

Toilet dunking apparently is fun for one year olds! Gross!

Sorry, sorry...

I'm usually the one blogging about how no one blogs anymore and it seems I am now the slacker! Sorry! I have been busy though...:-)

Let's see, since I posted last, us girls made a fun night of bowling in an elite room of just us and Jeff our bar tender/beer bit*h. St. Patty's Day was a blast! Mandy & I have been together for the past two St. Patty's Days so I say we make it a tradition from here on out! That was much fun!

Christy followed me home after bowling and spent her Spring Break with us! It has been lots of fun! When we got home Saturday night, I ran upstairs to pay our babysitter (Decovin's very first babysitter aside from family members!)...then we moved Christy in...the next day we did NOTHING...I didn't even shower! That is how much of nothing we did...it was a great relaxing day!

Monday we decided to go to the base to the commissary...only to find that it is closed on Mondays....oh well...ran into the BX then we were going to stop at the Montseratt Winery on our way back but it was closed also...scratch that...so we went to both on Tuesday...lots of fun! Then Wednesday we headed to LaCygne to visit mom and then for us to go play BUNCO!! Oh and I TOTALLY WON! YES! $30 baby! OH YEAH! We headed home that night and made it in just before midnight...Thursday we got up early again as our friend Meagan came out for a day of fun! We took her to our wine store here in town, a consignment shop (where we both found outfits for Decovin and her niece), drove her all around base, then to the commissary, then we went on a beaver hunt at the Knob Knoster State Park! hahaha! Long story short, I pointed out a beaver I saw on the side of the road and Meagan wanted a picture of it...it ran off b/f we could get reversed so then we went on a half hour quest to find another one...no luck...but Meagan found a dead one on our road as she was leaving my house and I saw one yesterday on base...haha! Oh well. Friday I spent my day on base at the doctors office for me...if you are really curious about what it wrong, call me....i'm not posting on here...lol! Anyway...the evening was nice, I made spaghetti and we watched some Law & Order and then to bed. Today I am need to finish straightening my house as my Arbonne Party is today and just in case someone decides to show up, I need to have my house decent.

Anyway...sorry it took me so long to post...just haven't had time! :-) Oh & my mother-in-law is coming to my party today and then taking Decovin with her to have an overnight at their house and then they are going to return him tomorrow! I am beside myself...what will I do with all that time to myself in my house?! LOL! At any rate, I am very excited!

Peace & Love~Jen

Giggles

Don't you just want to laugh with him? I love this picture!

The wall of shame!

Well, as most of you know we have been struggling with our yard and drainage problems for 2 years now! Ugh! Bob tried building a wall...that didn't work...it tumbled 3 times over the course of a year...Bob finally said..."I'm done, call the professionals!" haha! So I finally got some people out here last week for bids and it is crazy how you can ask for the same thing and get 3 completely different bids...

We were asking them to do several things:
1. Fix the drainage problem by building a swell (which is like a really really shallow ditch that redirects the water further down on our lawn instead of up against our house and down the hill!)
2. Put in a new retaining wall to help with our issue
3. Till, add top soil, and re-seed our entire yard.

The first guy brings in a bid at $2100, telling us that he will build a wing wall facing the northwest on our house along with a swell and add top soil and seed and hay our yard...the catch...we have to remove the back of the current wall ourselves unless he wants us to pay him more to do it...ouch!

The second guy brings in his bid at $1500, I was concerned that they forgot to include top soil for our ENTIRE yard and not just for the area being worked on. I called and made sure and they said...no, that is for everything...not only that...they are going to remove our wall for us, build us a NEW wall all together, put in the swell, fix our gutters to go directly into the ground, harley rake (fluffs the dirt) the yard with the top soil and hydroseed the entire yard (The seafoam green stuff you usually see on highway exits, etc)...I was like HOLY COW...there is no way the other guy could even come close to that even if i tried to bargain with him...so needless to say...we went with them...

The third guy brought in a bid of $6400!!!!! I was like, where do you think we live? Beverly Hills! DAMN!

I win!

Ok, so the same day that I wrote that mock up review for the Atari shirt in my previous posts...I also entered a contest at a different website: www.dirtyoldshirt.com

It was the "Dirty Old Contest" and the rules were simple: "Think you have a great idea for a t-shirt? Send it in to our contest! Every month we'll announce a winner, and reward them with a free t-shirt. And if we like your idea enough to print it, we'll hook you up with 10 shirts (of your choice) for free!"

So I won! They just emailed me today...what was my shirt idea you ask? It was as simple as this: "McDreamy in Training"

So I got another free t-shirt for Decovin! I don't know if they "liked it enough to print it" but I still got a $18 shirt for free! YES! So I orded this one:

Cute huh? Oh and this one is the one I already got in the mail for the other:

You know you wanna laugh!

Yes, those are Mr. Potato Head glasses. Decovin LOVES them...this photo really cracked me up!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

So it all started to get crazy busy on Thursday (should have known then that it was indication that March would be insane...but whatever)...I started my morning with a doctor visit for my annual exam...fun, fun! Then it was off to Wal-Mart to get my car's oil changed and for me to visit the eye doctor also...well, I got there a little after 11am and my appointment with the eye doctor wasn't until noon...so I thought, I have PLENTY of time to get my oil changed and that way I can just walk out of here when I am done with my exam...ha! Who was I kidding?
When I pulled up to the garage area of Walmart a lady came out and greeted me with paperwork and asked what I needed done, etc...I tell her, "just an oil change"...to which she replies..."Ok, how about for $4 (or whatever the cost) more we can vaccuum your car out also"...I thought...cool, sure, why not! :-) I then say: "About how long will this take?" she replies: "Oh, no time at all, there is no wait" and I watch her drive my car into the garage...I was thinking awesome, I will peruse Walmart for a bit get my eyes checked and get out of here in no time flat! Excellent! Well, I decide to window shop for about 15-10 minutes and by this time it was 11:30 so I thought I would see if I could get into my eye appt. early...I get there and the lady was with a customer and then she got me checked in and I was in and out of there in 25 minutes! So by 11:50ish I am leaving the eye docs office and go grab a few items I needed to pick up before I left for home. I take the 4 items with me back to the auto department to get my car and check out...I hand them my ticket and they said..."Oh, it's not ready yet, but should be done soon"...(this was about 12:15 at this point)...I'm thinking...wow, she said it was going to be done soon and that was over an hour ago...weird...oh well, I sit down outside the viewing area so I can watch nobody do anything with my car for 45 minutes!!! Hood is up, literally no one goes near it for 45 minutes and they only went near it after I inquired with 4 different people about my car!!!!! Long story short, I spoke with a manager and got my oil change for free...good thing too, b/c when I got in my car, not only did they NOT vaccuum my car, they didn't put the "reminder sticker" in the windshield to tell me when I need to come back in again...I wonder if they changed it at all! What a waste of 2 1/2 hours! Grrrrr...

So I finally get home with lunch around 2 and we ended up vegging out the remainder of the day. Friday morning I get up and get ready and Decovin and I met Amanda in Lee's Summit and went to the Independence mall for some serious shopping. I had some NY&CO gift certificates burning some holes in my pockets since Christmas so I figured I should use them. I ended up with 4 pairs of pants, and like 5 or 6 shirts and some undies! My cost....$40! They had everything in the store 50% off plus I got my military discount of 15% off after that! YES! It was a good shopping day! Oh and Decovin had his first meltdown in public at Lane Bryant...I'm sure the people in the dressing rooms next to us were just thrilled...he was OVERLY tired and beyond time for a nap...what can you do?! So after that we left.

When I got home, I washed clothes all night and then off to bed...got up Saturday morning and had a dentist appointment at 8am...after that was over we headed up to Shawnee, KS to help Bob's sister and bro-in-law move into their new house...it was a busy day...I hate moving...it made me cringe just thinking about it...anyway...after that was done we came home, ordered chinese, and I started feeling like poo so I went to bed on Nyquil and woke up feeling even worse...I have a sore throat and just achey all over...not sure if I am achey due to moving boxes or my illness...hard to say but I feel like crap regardless!

Today we have done really nothing...I've slept quite a bit and we had another individual come out to give us an estimate on our yard, aka spawn of satan! We have had 3 companies come and look at it and they have all expressed similar suggestions and ideas...we will keep you posted on what comes of all this. Sorry for the long blog, it has just been crazy...

Oh & you will all be happy to know that I received Decovin's free T-shirt in the mail yesterday from the company I did the review on below. :-) It is cute...it says: Buddha Belly on it and it is super cute! Anyway...thought you would want to know! :-) Cheers!

Trendy Tadpole review

The Atari shirt, a trendy shirt that reminds us of our youth and by gone days. Fun and retro, this shirt speaks mostly for the parents, a blast from the past displayed on our youth of the future. A conversation starter to other parents, an ice-breaker, a way to make friends who get your humor, what a fun display of our past! Trendy Tadpole shirts have something for everyone and for every style of humor! Fun, fun, fun, who wouldn't want one? Visit www.trendytadpole.com for more hilarious items of our past for our children to display proudly for us! :-) Thanks Trendy Tadpole for reminding our youth of today that we were cool once too!

Decovin's first real illness!

So D's had a small cold in the past...runny nose, that sort of thing...but yesterday was the real deal amigos!

The day started with him waking up quite a bit later than normal...8:30ish, he's done it in the past but not that often, so I didn't think anything of it...he drinks his bottle of milk and then later he ate a couple of small pancakes...I ask Bob: "Do you think he feels warm to you?" Bob's Reply: "No"...so we put him down for a nap and he sleeps for 4 hours! Again, nothing COMPLETELY unusual as he has done this before also...growth spurt, teething, etc...he wakes up from his nap and I think he feels SUPER warm...I ask Bob: "Do you think he feels warm to you now?" Bob replys: "No"...so I finally remember I have a regular thermometer in his diaper bag (I had attempted a temperature earlier in the day with a pacifier therm. but he wouldn't suck on it)...to my astonishment it read out at 102.6!!! I freaked of course, so we call the after-hours doctor and she calls us back w/in the 20 minute allotted time and says, give him tylenol (which we had already done) and make sure he drinks plenty of fluids and if he gets any other symptoms to call her back. Mind you, when he woke up, he had no desire to eat and just sat there in our arms and didn't move hardly at all! So unlike him...he never sits still longer than a minute! So we decide to put him back down for more sleeping...and he slept for like another 3 hours or so until we hear a cough and then some gagging sounds and Bob runs back there and yells: "Jen, he's throwing up, help!"...so we get him all cleaned up, I wash the sheets, clothes, etc and we call the doc again but it takes her 45 minutes to call us back and we had to call them twice to get them to call us! We were also in close contact with Dr. Mandy throughout the day/evening also...she basically said the same thing as our doc did, so strong work Dr. Mandy! :-) The doctor did finally call us and said that a virus has been going around and that it could last 24 hours or 5 days...and that as long as his temperature did not go above 103 to just keep monitoring him, give him liquids and that was that...oh and I forgot to mention that genius me decided that after he threw up he should probably eat something...so we gave him a saltine cracker to which he threw up in hand w/in 5 minutes of eating it...poor guy!
Well, we thought we were in for a LONG night of puking and whining, but he actually went down at 9pm and didn't get up until 8am...he drank his milk and had a waffle this morning and he actually played with his toys a little bit...I gave him some more tylenol b/c he still felt a little warm but he has been acting a LOT better...so maybe it was just a 24 hour thing for him...thank goodness! I'm just glad it is over for now!

Playdates are fun!

Playdates are not just for the kids!

Abby & Decovin played in the tent!

Decovin & Nathan stuff their faces as fast as they can! :-)

We had a really good time yesterday! I got to Stacy's house around 11:30 and Decovin was in a sea of new toys and just LOVED it...it took Nathan awhile to get warmed up but it wasn't long before everyone was playing and having fun! Aunt Ruthie came bearing herb bread and corn salsa & chips! YUM-O! Then Mandy showed up bearing chocolate and strawberries to dip in! THEN Stacy had made Tiramisu (my fave dessert ever!) and we ate it while we played Diploma Dogs while the boys napped (at the SAME time!!!)...so much fun!

Then we decided to order Imo's pizza for dinner...good call too b/c it was WACKY WEDNESDAY and it was buy one get one free and we ate both xlarge pizzas no problem! SO GOOD! BEST PIZZA EVER EVER EVER! Then we ate our chocolate dipped strawberries and watched American Idol...fun fun! I had to leave around 8 which was sad, but it was SO much fun!

A re-do is a must! I insist! :-)

New videos below...fun fun weekend!

A visitor, some dead scrolls, & parents

So Amanda was my visitor Friday evening. She made it just before the nasty snow fall and we watched Grey's Anatomy together where we gasped and cried simultaneously! We are true Grey's junkies!

Saturday Bob & I headed to KC to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Union Station. Very interesting, very unorganized, & kind of disappointing as they only had 6 real scrolls of the hundreds they found and they were TINY! It was still a once in a lifetime event to see them, but still, they herd you in like cattle and you have to elbow your way around to see or read anything! It was crazy! Anyway...

Sunday my parents call me out of the blue and say, hey, do you care if we drop by? NO! I was really pleasantly surprised...it was nice to not be the one driving to see someone! Mom & I played scrabble, dad napped (he had worked a 24+hour shift the day prior) and then we all went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant in town...it was yummy and we had a good time.

We said our goodbyes and Bob & I went to Hastings to rent some movies and we watched two of them last night (Nacho Libre, The Night Listener, The Departed, & one other, I can't remember the name of)...Oh & Mandy...the "sure" from Nacho Libre would not have been nearly as funny if your friends hadn't made it such a big deal...but it was still worth a rewind to see him say it again! hahaha! "Sure"

Changes...

Well, I knew I had a sweet deal with how much Decovin liked taking naps in the past...but I can see that road dwindling away in the sunsets! He is now fighting sleep at all cost lately and only takes one good nap a day these dasy (used to be around 3 a day)...so my spare time is now limited...oh well, I knew the ship would sail one day...**sigh**

We had a fun weekend...Friday afternoon, Amanda stopped by and spent the night and then Saturday morning, after Amanda left, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law (Tabitha & Ryan) showed up for babysitting duty while Bob & I went to KC to meet up with Kim & Crystal and their significant others for our "focused fun night"...we titled it that way b/c the last time we got to see each other was at D's bday party and we couldn't focus on just each other...too much going on...so anyway...we went out to dinner at UNO Chicago Pizzaria and then bowling at Incredi-bowl in Stanley! It was SOOO much fun! They had black lights and music videos playing of music from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and today! LOL! It was wicked fun! We are going to try to do that more often!

Anyway, then yesterday was bum day...I didn't even get out of my PJ's!!! It was kind of embarassing, but at least there were no strangers or neighbors knocking on our door...lol!

Today, I have been burning The Backyardigans on DVD for Decovin...and I plan on burning some old movies too...fun, fun! Trying to clean out our DVR...well, I should probably get back to monitoring when I need to stop the recorder....

Peace & Chicken Grease!

Per Clog Nana's request...

SKUNK ROCK RULES MOM!!!

My new Hair Do

Click ME!

Check out Dancing Decovin on YouTube!

WE DID IT!

We must be nuts! It was SOOOOOO cold! But, we did it! I think my legs are still numb!! It was totally fun though! Bob & I agree that we would both do it again, if it was held in July! haha! Just kidding!

Saturday was also the day I had to help host a baby shower for Bob's cousin so I had to leave right after I plunged and hurry over there! Then when I got done with that, I went to pick up Mandy at Melodie's apartment and then we went out to eat at American Bandstand...it was YUMMY! We all shared the Oooey Gooey chocolate Oreo Orgy! I have proof!

Melodie & Mandy Looking pretty! I sat alone on the other side! :-) We had lots of laughs...see Melodie's blog for more on that! haha!

A joke as told by an 8 year old piano prodigy, Marc Yu (paraphrased by Jen Plummer-ha!)

As you know, the Great Ghandi walked barefoot a lot of the time. He also had a poor diet as he did not eat very much which made him really weak. Due to this poor diet he also suffered from severe bad breath...This made him a Super Calloused Fragile Mystic Hexed By Halitosis

Too funny, not to share...enjoy!

Scrapbook Queen!

You can easily replace the words "Dancing Queen" with the above title! B/C that is what I felt like yesterday! Mandy, Christy & I went to a "scrap-athon"! It was so much FUN! It started at 10am and ended at 11pm! We were there pretty much that whole time! IT WAS AWESOME! I got 10 pages done! Did I mention that it was fun?! Anyway, once Mandy figures out her new schedule, we are going to TRY to do it again next month! SO MUCH FUN! Oh and I also got my name drawn for one of their "give-aways"!

Mandy, did you notice my air ""? :-)