Some weeks are hard

Fred asked me the other day if I had posted for the week and I told him I hadn't because nothing really funny or noteworthy had happened.  Honestly, it has been quite the opposite over the last few weeks.  To be honest, I've been kind of down...as in I cry over the simplest things (which I rarely do) and I'm just in a generally foul mood.  I am not in the running for mother of the year this week.  In fact, at one point last week I got so disgusted at dinner that I left the table and sat in the car...with the windows rolled up and screamed at the top of my lungs...for a pretty good while.  It was the only place I could think of to be alone.  We are on top of each other.  Literally, Andrew talks to me from his room on the top bunk when I am laying in bed.  This week my parenting has felt like I'm playing zone defense in an NBA game:

Jack, stop annoying your brother.
Andrew, stop whining.
Clayton, if you wouldn't let him bother you he would stop.
Jack, quit.  He's asked four times.  I've asked once.  It's enough.  Be a joy.  Don't annoy.
Clayton, finish your school work.  No, it is not too much.  Just do it.  (Que speech about work ethic and responsibility.)
Andrew, get off the floor.  Seriously.get.off.the.floor!
Me, who tracked in mud?
Jack, QUIT!!!  For the last time...quit whatever it is that you are doing.
Jack, have you started your school work?
And on and on and on...one right after the other.  Zone defense in a basketball game for which I seem to be very ill equipped to play.

This was a conversation this week.  I can laugh at it now, but not in the moment.
Jack:  Mom, Andrew hit me in the head.
Andrew:  No I didn't!  I hit you in the face!
Classic.

Don't get me wrong.  I've counted (and am counting) my blessings.  We love it here.  We have a place to stay, with warmth on cold nights and a roof over our heads.  We have family here.  We are all healthy.  God has taken care of us at every step of the way and provided a "new family" here.  My list of blessings could go on and on.  But some days, some days are tough.  I miss my friends.  I miss a few of them so bad sometimes it hurts.  I miss my "stuff".  I know, first world problem, but I do.  There is just something about sleeping in my bed.  I miss my running routes.  I knew all the dogs on each route, for crying out loud.

Why write all this down?  Who wants to hear this?!?  Do I really want to remember it?  Do I want sympathy?  (Not at all.  It makes me very uncomfortable.)  Sometimes life is hard.  Sometimes we go through rough seasons.  I write it down because I want to remember it...for the next time I'm down...for when I'm on the other side of this season.  So I can show my children that there are times that life is tough, but God is always faithful to move us from point A to point B.  If we never walk in valleys we don't appreciate the mountain.  If we never know the night how can we enjoy the sun?  It's going to be okay.  Yep, it will be.  He is faithful and He is enough.

Friday night Fred and I did get to go out.  It was a much needed time together.  Several times during the night he said, "Can you believe we live in this city?"  No, no I cannot.  I dropped the kids off at Fred and Renee's (Yeah for family in town!!) and then headed over to Liz's house for a run (this is a Hooray on its own!).  I came back here and got ready for our big night.  We had dinner at The Flying Fish and then headed to a Grizzlies game.  It's difficult to get a good picture in the Forum.  The Grizz won and it was quite the game.  We were too late for the free neck tattoo giveaway.  Clearly, we should have been more on top of our game.

After the game, since we were feeling spry we headed to The Cheesecake Corner.  We shared a piece of Peaches and Cream cheesecake.  I love cheesecake.  I love peaches.  And, I love Fred.  It turned out to be perfection.  Here's part of the perfection, minus one bite.  I got slightly excited when this was delivered to our table.  So excited, in fact, that I ate the end of it before I realized I didn't have a picture.

For those that know me this will make sense....We paid $8 for one piece of cheesecake and we didn't eat it until 10:30 p.m.  Every bit was worth it.  Worth.it.

This...

was at Kroger today.  I bought all they had.  Seriously, it must be my lucky day. Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket?!?  I kid...really.  I'm kidding.

All my boys have headed to Paris for Fred to take care of some important business...like picking up his road bike...ha!  The big boys are going to stay for a birthday party and we'll pick them up tomorrow.  So, for tonight and tomorrow it will be just me, Fred and Andrew.  Weird, but quiet.  Well, except for Andrew.  He talks incessantly.  It will be nice to just hear him though.

Going on

-Several of our friends from Paris had a swim meet in Tunica and Bartlett was on the way...lucky us!!  It just so happened that our other good friends that used to live in Paris, but now live in Covington were able to come and meet us for lunch as well.  After lunch we came back to the house and let the kids play.  I'm not really sure who had more fun...the kids or the grown ups?!?
Seriously, when did these kids get so big?!?

-The Lego Movie premiered Friday.  We hit the 4:00 pm show with a few friends from church.  The movie did not disappoint.  It did not.  

If I was a good mother I would have gone to the sneak preview Thursday night at 10:00 pm, but we all know how that turned out since we were at the 4:00 pm show time.  (PS-Andrew was really excited...even though his face does not show it.)

 Mimi sent us to the movie with some snack money.  The guy below ate a little bit of popcorn.  We passed it to Jack to share it with him.  He passed back an empty bag...what?!?

-It snowed in Memphis.  Who knew it would snow in Memphis?!?  At least I have my coat now.  These guys ran outside at 7:30 am.  Good thing they went out early.  It was all melted by 9:30 am.  

-My Aunt's birthday was Monday.  We made a quick trip to Nashville to take her to lunch.  While she's not 16, we thought this balloon was just perfect!  We had a great time!

-For Valentine's day we celebrated all day with the boys.  We had breakfast of heart shaped biscuits, sausage, eggs and chocolate gravy.  We then went to On the Border for lunch.  Later that night we headed to Fred and Renee's for a party of homemade pizza, chocolate fondue and minute to win it games.  We had contests to see who could stack the most candy hearts, who could throw the most marshmellows in a cup and who could wrap the Valentine mummy.  It was a blast.  Mawmaw even came through with some prizes.  It was a night to remember!  Below are the three teams for wrapping the mummy.  I love the look on Jack's face in this picture.  He was in it to win it!

Sweet little kiddos making their own pizzas.  It was serious business...

-Fred takes each of our kids out individually to spend a little one on one time with them.  Clayton's turn was this Saturday morning.  He picked breakfast at IHOP with dad.  How could this disappoint?!?

-Andrew asked me this week, out of the blue and very seriously, if we could "change his middle name to Awesome, because that's what I (meaning Andrew) am!?!"  Glad to know his struggle will not be with confidence.  

This week...

-We celebrated Zachary's birthday this week by meeting at Gibson's. Good time, good donuts!  Happy Birthday to Zachary!

After dining on donuts Andrew, Zachary, Eli and another friend headed to Incredible Pizza with Zach and Liz.  Zachary and Andrew played Deal or No Deal (all by themselves) and won 400 tickets.  Then someone else spun something and hit the jackpot.  It was a big day.  By the time they left they had over 2000 tickets.  I'd call that Incredible Pizza success!

-Clayton has another science project due.  Gag. We are trying to bite off small pieces each day to get it done on time.  We were sitting on the floor and researching.  I was typing everything Clayton told me to put down.  At one point he said with all sincerity, "Mom, do you just want to finish this up while I go work on my Latin and Greek root words?"  Uhhh...no. Thanks anyway.  

-Thursday was free FroYo at Menchie's.  I love frozen yogurt and I love free things.  This was a perfect storm for me.  Fred and I both got free yogurt and the boys enjoyed a treat.  Mawmaw and Mimi were even able to meet up with us.  Good times.  

-We had bagels with cream cheese Thursday morning.  Friday morning I found this in the pantry...

I think my biggest boy cleaned up after breakfast.  It's better than when I found ice cream in the pantry.  

-I write this for my memory, not for anyone else.  If you think it's crude I apologize.  It's just the story of my life with three boys.  

While eating potluck lunch with an older crowd of ladies at church Andrew was eating chili.  He wanted a spoon and I encouraged him to just wipe off the spoon he had and use it again.  Once he used his napkin he held it up and said (with all the older women gathered around), "Look Jack!  It looks like diarrhea!!"  

Around this house

-Andrew's birthday is October 26th.  Since October 27th we have been discussing what kind of party he will have, who he will invite, what he would like to do, what kind of cake, etc.  My answer is always, "Oh yes, that sounds like a good idea!"  This may come back to bite me since I don't really remember all the details.
Not only is he planning for his birthday, but he also plans for Halloween.  I can't count how many times, just in the last week, that he has said, "For Halloween I fink I would like to be...(fill in the blank).  Will that be okay?"  Just within the last two days he's asked to be a Memphis tiger, a lion, Captain America and Wolverine.  He asked about Wolverine this morning when I walked in the door from the gym at 6:20 am.  Like he'd been thinking about it all night.
-Jack is a good reader, but he doesn't really like it.  Since we drive to Jackson twice a week we have checked out several books on CD.  He loves Judy Blume's Fudge series.  I challenged him to read Superfudge by himself.  I told him if he did we would go to Menchie's and get frozen yogurt.  Of course he did it and of course we, as his parents, delivered.
The yogurt cup below is what happens when you leave a 7 year old alone with an empty cup and a yogurt dispenser.

 Games in the table and frozen yogurt...yes please!

 With all sincerity Clayton handed this cup to Fred and said, "Here you can have the rest of this dad."  Fred and I both laughed.  Clayton did not.  I still don't think he got the humor in it.

-Friday when we finished school I told the boys we would go to the Children's Museum.  We grabbed some buddies and loaded up my car and headed downtown.  Clayton stayed with our friends oldest son while I took the four little ones.  It was so much fun.  After I stopped Jack from running through the museum and playing hide and seek (I know, I'm a kill joy.) we found our favorite corner...the Lego corner.  They played and played and had the best time.  

-I went to Boot Camp Monday morning.  I sent my usual picture/text to my group.  For whatever reason the workout was really hard and at some point my headband fell off.  So, by the end of the class this is what my hair looked like...

Fred's response was boot camp hair, don't care.  He's so funny.
-Fred and I went on a date recently.  We have a list of restaurants that we like to pick from on this and this (follow the link on this) blog post. We are systematically working our way through this list.  Last night we decided to try Elena's Taco Shop and their Carne Asada Fries.  Once we got there we decided to split the fries and we both ordered fish tacos.  It was delicious!  Next time we go we will split a piece of their homemade flan.  I do love flan.

In keeping with the Hispanic theme we headed on down Summer Ave and hit up a Mexican ice cream shop called La Michoacana.  You know it's authentic when you are the only English speaking people in the place.  So good.  Then we found an awesome movie theater that shows older movies for $3 per person...not for the matinee...for the 7:00 movie.  Awesome.  In all we spent about $25 on our date night.  I call that a success!
-Fred and Renee's church hosted Preschool Olympics on Saturday.  Andrew participated.  He did not win an event, although we gave the three legged race a valiant effort.  He did have a good time though, especially after he learned that everyone would get a medal.  It was touch and go there for a while when he was not getting a medal.  He made it though.  Barely.

This week...

-My dad's birthday was this week.  We headed to Jackson to celebrate.  We also tried to get a picture, which proved to be an almost impossible task, but thankfully we prevailed...barely.

We also enjoyed a piece of German Chocolate cake.  It was beyond delicious.  I actually ate another piece the next day for lunch.  There was half a cake left.  I couldn't leave half of a cake for two people.  That would be too much, so I tried to do my part.  I'm a giver like that.

-Last week the boys attended Aunt Janice Academy on Friday.  I got this picture with the following explanation...
When school is completed they can go to Chuck E. Cheese.  I call that motivation!

Aunt Janice also surprised the boys with a mystery trip.  When she told the boys they were going on a mystery trip Jack wanted to know if they were going to Hawaii.  Not quite.  Pinson Mounds is a fun place.  It's not Hawaii, but fun in its own way...

 And I've been told they finished their school work so Aunt Janice delivered with Chuck E. Cheese.

-On Tuesday night, just a random night, we went to Chick Fil A.  It was kids night so you got a free kids meal with every adult meal purchased.  They also had a craft.  Why include this on my blog?!?  Did you read that we ate at CFA in the middle of the week on a random Tuesday?!?  Big.deal.
-For Christmas we gave the boys tickets to a University of Memphis game.  Fred had to stop by a funeral home that just happened to be on the way to the game.  After the funeral home we were hungry, so what to do?!?  Oh yes, we ate at Huey's.  We really suffered through it.  It was SO good.  So good!  Huey's is known for their hamburgers and for the toothpicks in the ceiling.  We all enjoyed a hamburger, but no one was successful getting a toothpick in the ceiling.  We did give it a valiant effort though.

 We sat on the back row of the FedEx Forum (by choice) and cheered on the Tigers.  Sometimes I have to pinch myself to really believe that I live in Memphis.

 We braved the cold to get to our car.  The game was over about 9 pm...not too late. We hadn't even made it out of downtown and Andrew was out.  So was Jack.  They were snoring by Midtown.

-While the boys are doing school I don't allow Andrew to play his Kindle.  He got frustrated with me and said, "Ugh.  Can't I just play something educational?!?"

What's going on around here

-Fred and I sold a lot that we owned in Paris.  The bank called us and let us know we needed to come sign papers to close the deal.  Since I was in Jackson for school with the boys I just drove on to Paris.  (Great time in the car with the boys.  We passed the time by listening to this and this.)  Before I left I checked with our lawyer to make sure he did not have our durable power of attorney papers.  I needed these to sign for Fred.  Once I got to Paris I looked for the papers at our house.  They were not there.  I had the papers for Fred to sign for me, but not me to sign for Fred.  I also had my last will and testament, but not Fred's.  Told that story to say two things:
1.  My will is really outdated.  We wrote it when Jack was one.  A lot has happened in our family since he was one.  Whoops.
2.  If you see my durable power attorney papers for Fred around please send them my way.
-Fortunately for us there is a branch in Jackson that we could close the land at and our friends were coming in to Jackson.  I love a plan.  The boys and I spent the night and then Fred drove up the next day.  We signed the papers together...which was a bummer...I had a giant shopping trip planned...not really...well...really...anyway...shortly after we signed at the bank we met these people for an unforgettable hour at Sky Zone.

After we left Sky Zone we went to Sparky's Pizza.  It was delightful.  So, who has two thumbs and is glad I couldn't find those papers?!?  This girl plus all four of my boys.  Not only did we get to meet up with friends we spent the night at my parents house.  Three words for you...Breakfast.at.Lathams.
While we were in Jackson Mun treated us to a Union University basketball game.  My crew stayed for the girls game, but left before the boys game began.  Jack and I stuck it out for the a little of the boys game.  Spending one on one time with him made my heart smile.  We got to sit and talk.  He loves a ballgame and I love to see him smile.  Win win for everyone involved.

-We had a little church party the other night.  A precious lady at church made those peanut butter corn flake cookies.  They are so good.  She sent the plate home with us.  Not a good idea.  I have been rationing them to the boys.  I told Clayton he could have two after dinner.  Apparently, as they sat on the counter if they were touching they kind of melted together.  Clayton grabbed "one" cookie that was actually about six melted together and said, "I pick this one!".  Click here for the recipe.  Disclaimer:  They are NOT healthy, but they are so yummy!!
-One of the many lovely things about living in Memphis is that my mother in law loves to have the kids sleep over.  It is great.  The answer is always yes.  Some of the time Liz's kids will be there.  This particular night Clayton slept with Z.  Z had already gone to sleep when Clayton climbed in bed.  At some point during the night Z woke up and started laughing loudly because Clayton was in bed with him.  Renee could hear it from her room.  She told Z to go back to sleep.  When Clayton got up in the morning he said, "Man, at some point in the night Z work up full of joy!"
-I signed all three boys up for soccer today.  This should be interesting.
-Our house is still for sale in Paris.  If you would like to buy it we will consider all reasonable offers.  If you don't want to buy it join me in praying that someone will.  :-)
Click here to view it.  Tell a friend.
-Fred's sisters started a work out program.  Some how we discovered that they were texting pictures of themselves as they worked out for accountability.  Fred and I got in on the game.  Now we text them a picture each time we work out. Here are a few examples...
I got fancy with my "action" shot at the gym.
Fred's sister gets fancy with her collage.
My shot inside my bedroom was almost disqualified.  Your picture must prove that you participated in some sort of activity...not just got out of bed, clicked a picture and got back in bed.
I love these people.  They make me smile every morning.

 

    

                                      

-Another perk of living in Memphis is that we are close to the airport.  So, when Aunt Janice flies in from being in Hawaii what do you get to do?!?  Meet her at the airport and hug her neck!  These three boys were happy to see her!

-It never gets cold in Memphis...or at least that's what I told myself when I left my coat in Paris when we "moved" here.  Grin...fail for sure...Who knew it could get this cold in Memphis?!?  Not me obviously.

-Clayton loves a Lego.  A Lego movie is premiering in February.  He is pumped.  At least once a day he watches a promo for it.  Clayton ordered 10 mini figures from the Lego website of the movie characters.  The wait was torture for them to be mailed to us.  We tracked them and learned the definition of "it will ship in 3 to 8 BUSINESS days".  The wait was excruciating.  It was touch and go on the day they were due to arrive.  Just when all hope was lost dad saved the day and found the package at the office.  You would have thought it was Christmas morning.  Mercy.

-Andrew and I were studying the letter S last week.  We think of people whose names begin with the letter S and try to do something special for them.  We thought of two people back in Paris...Ssssusan and Sssstacy.  They got a sssmile.  It made me smile.  I hope it makes you smile too...even if your name does not begin with a S.   

Hello 2014!

-Our friends from Paris came and spent an unforgettable afternoon with us at Incredible Pizza Company.  It was so good to see them and spend some catching up time for the moms...I mean boys.  Oh, these boys just melt my heart.

 Trying to get five boys to smile and look in the same direction at the same time is like trying to herd cats.  It's next to impossible.  Here's the best I could do...

Glow in the dark mini golf was interrupted by a pose on this awesome motorcycle.

-Saturday we headed over to Fred and Renee's to watch the Memphis game.  (Isn't that fun?!?) Well, the boys watched the game.  I took down Christmas decorations, put back decorations and listened to the game.  It really was a good time.  I love January...getting all the Christmas stuff down, cleaning the house and getting it back to some kind of normal.  Since I don't have a house I'm thankful my mother in law allows me to use hers.  Good times.
-Fred is busy (good busy) with church stuff.  We have gone to lots of Christmas and New Year's parties.  We usually go to more than one in a night.  They are not every night, but who has a party on Monday night?!?  Seriously, I'm going to have to let out my pants.
-Our gym is a little over a mile from our house.  Sometimes Fred will just run there, complete his workout and then run home.  This is how he was dressed the other morning...

Nerdy, yes...but I still love him.  If you are in Bartlett and see this coming down the road don't stare, just keep going.
-The boys and I started back to school today and it went smoothly.  Our challenge for the semester is to memorize Psalm 103.  Our drive to and from Jackson twice a week really helps with this.  I haven't decided if we will memorize the entire chapter or just the first six or sever verses.  If we just do the first couple of verses we'll work on something in addition to these.  Any suggestions?

One of the perks of living, literally living, in the church parking lot is that you get to use the gym and parking lot.  We headed over to the gym today and Jack said, "Cool mom, it's like P.E.!!"
-Update on our house situation...We had a contract on our Paris house, but the loan fell through.  If you know of someone in Paris looking for a house ours is still available.