The dog days of summer....

Silly girls.....

Kyra: "Mommy, are you having any more babies?"

Me: "Um, no, I'm done."

Kyra: "Good because if you had a boy, I'd kill myself."

Me: "Kyra, don't say things like that. It's not nice. In fact, that sounds horrible."

Maeve: "I want a boy! I love boys! Raider is a boy. I love boys!"

Oy.

First of all, I have no idea where Kyra picks up language like that. But I know she's not serious because of the sarcastic tone of her voice. Thank God. I swear I'm not raising serial killers here or anything. ;)

Raider is my sister's chocolate lab. And yes, he's a male. Maeve is captivated by him, yet is annoyed with either Mia or Zoe most of the time. I don't get it.

But Maeve's comments about boys have me worried. Very worried. *sigh*

And in other news.....

-This Hurricane Dolly better drop some wet stuff on my yard. It's suffering miserably. I cringe when I see patches of brown grass. :( I'm so sick of watering the yard and it still looking pathetic.

-I'm also sick of Kyra walking around the house and singing, "I kissed a girl and I liked it..." Ugh. Damn radio. Such CRAP on the radio these days.....

-Maeve's behavior has been HORRIBLE lately. I don't know if it's because of her age, boredom, or a combination of the two. When does school start again?

-I'm bitchy this week, but I have a reason to be. ;) Hopefully next week I'll be back to my regularly scheduled self. LOL!

-We are taking some new family photos on Sunday. I can't wait. One of Maeve's teachers is a photographer and she's offered to do it for us. These will be outside. Then in two weeks, we take more photos at church for our church directory. Those will be inside. We even get a FREE 8x10 out of that sitting. I am excited to finally take photos as a family of FOUR. Yes folks, we are rather behind. ;)

-There is still so much I want to do this summer and I feel like we are running out of time. Ugh. I hate that. I need to make lists. LOTS of lists.

-I'm so excited that I'll have a new nephew soon. I keep buying him crap. He's gonna be so spoiled. I plan to leave the kids behind for a long weekend and put Richard in charge while I spend some time with him and his mommy and daddy after he's born. I can't wait.

-Speaking of babies, my husband thinks I'm seriously looney because I know a lot of the celebrity babys' names. Um, don't we all? I know that some of you stand in the checkout line at the grocery store and can't help but browse through a magazine or two. Am I right? (sure I am.)

Weekend tidbits....

Went to my hometown for a 4 day weekend (sister and BIL had a baby shower on Saturday). Lordy, that town (I refuse to call it a city) has changed....or has it? Hmmmmmm.....

-There are STILL a TON of old people driving the streets, which is both hilarious and annoying. You see more brand new Cadillac cars in that town than anywhere else. And OMG are the streets the WORST anywhere. I thought that Austin had bumpy streets. I was wrong. They SLOWLY fix them there. It takes a year or two, but they get the job done. The construction crews there could never build a tollway. Even the thought of that job would make their heads explode.

-I think I went to Ghetto Mall three times. I NEVER go to Ghetto Mall while I'm there. I hate even looking at it. But I HAD to go. Thank God Maeve was not with us when there were like 5 HUGE moonwalks set up in the middle of the mall for kids to pay for to play on. Ugh. And Sunday when I went there, I had to pee, so I used one of Ghetto Mall's bathrooms and people WOULD NOT move out of the way to let me into a stall. One lady was changing a diaper. Another was washing hands. Still another was just checking out of the scenery. I wanted to scream, "Get the heck out of the way!" I wish I would have had my sister with me. Pregnant woman having to pee + people not moving out of the way = some sort of altercation. Sweet. I do have to add that Ghetto Mall has quite a lovely smell (not!). I guess I'm officially a "mall bitch" now. ;)

-The price of gas dropped tremendously while we were there. We got there on Friday and most places had it for $3.80-$3.85. Saturday, it dropped 10 cents in one day. When we left on Monday, we filled up at HEB Plus for $3.69 a gallon! SCORE! We come back up here and it's back to paying $3.92. WTF?

-The humidity down there is stifling. And the mosquitoes? OMG. I was standing in the grass at my dad's house and they were swarming around my legs. HORRIBLE. I guess maybe that 8 inches of rain that they had the other week didn't help that situation at all. LOL!

-I attempted to find someplace to get a pedicure on Sunday. Ghetto Mall's one nail place had a 3 hour wait. And the people at JC Penney were just plain rude about it with a resounding "No!". And do you think that any of the other nail places in town would be open on a Sunday? Oh hell to the no! Ugh. I think I'm spoiled. Instead, I waited and went to my sweet little pedicure place here in town today. Pure bliss, I tell ya.

-I seriously am bothered by the fact that I encountered so many unfriendly people in that town in such a short period of time. I'm definitely not used to it. My little town spoils me. In fact, I walked into Walgreen's here this afternoon and was approached by 2 or 3 people asking me if I was "finding everything alright." I just love it when people actually do their jobs AND are friendly. It really makes a difference.

I don't know when my next trip to my hometown will be. I hope it will be a more pleasant experience next time. Or I might have new things to bitch and moan about! ;)

She may look cute, but.....

Let's talk Maeve. She's quite the looker with her blond hair and big blue eyes, but don't let that fool you. I am having the hardest time with her right now.

First of all, she despises Zoe. She hates everything about that dog. She loves on and praises Mia, but shoves Zoe, hits her, and usually ends up yelling at her for something. The other night, she woke me up at 12:30am because Zoe was on her bed sleeping on her blankets and she didn't want her there. Ugh. Any ideas on how to get them to bond? I love on Zoe so much in front of Maeve and I hope that she gets the hint that she really isn't a horrible dog. She's just a hyper dog. Jen, any other ideas?

Maeve also goes into these crying fits and since she knows that we don't pay any attention to her when she's having a meltdown, she goes in her room, slams the doors, and screams louder. And let me tell you, it.is.so.fake. We all are on to her game. She comes out a few minutes later, walks around the house looking for attention, and if she doesn't get it, then she does the same thing all over again. Yeah, DRAMA QUEEN!

The other day, I taught a class at the gym and left the girls in the Kids' Club. When I was done teaching and picked them up, the first words out of Maeve's mouth were, "Mommy, I had to sit in time out." Ugh. Apparently, she and another little girl were running around and were told to stop and they didn't. I don't know if Maeve followed her or she followed Maeve. Whatever the case was, I had a LONG talk with Maeve at the gym and on the way home about how she needs to listen to the ladies there. She understood. Yesterday, when I took her to another gym, she yelled, "Mommy, I was nice!" when I picked her up. LOL!

The person that I feel sorry for the most in all of this is Kyra. That poor girl does everything in her power to try and help Maeve. She's like a "mother hen" to her and tries to teach her right from wrong. She explains to her how she should be a good girl because being nice is a lot more fun than being mean. I think that Maeve hears some of it, but a lot of Kyra's lectures go in one ear and out the other. LOL! I can tell that Kyra is completely frustrated with her too. At least I'm not alone. ;)

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Bowling tales....

Today I took Kyra, Maeve, and my two nieces to Gatti Town and then we all went bowling. Let's just say that the sport of bowling has come a long way since I was a kid. Where I grew up, there are two bowling alleys. One is the "old" one and one is the "new" one. The old one is where my mom started bowling on a league when my sister and I were kiddos. We had to stay upstairs in the creepy daycare. All I remember were crickets and roaches being everywhere. Yuck! You had to keep score by hand at the old one too. So naturally, that's where we went for H.S. P.E. one semester. Before I had no idea that a strike include 10 plus your next 2 balls thrown and a spare includes 10 plus your next 1 ball thrown. So I guess it taught me something!

The newer bowling alley in my hometown has a nursery too and guess who also bowled on a league many many years ago along with my mom? Richard's mom! So we were probably trapped in that hell hole together and didn't even know it! LOL!

I remember bowling a "1" one time. Another time, I bowled a "3". I was so embarrassed. Well, gone are those days!

Today's bowling included bumpers for the kiddos. Kyra bowled a 64 and an 86! Even little Maeve bowled a 43! So.not.fair. I really feel like it's "cheating". It's like not hitting a baseball and running the bases anyway and screaming, "I hit a home run!" Ugh.

But Kyra did restore all faith in me when she bowled a strike and the ball didn't even touch the bumper. You should have seen how she threw the ball to do it though. LMAO!

I bowled a 98 and a 101. I'm so embarrassed. I bet it's been 7 or 8 years since I've been bowling. We have some free passes, so we definitely need to go more often. Thank God there were only kids with me today!

But hey, at least I beat Barack Obama! ;)

All in all, a great day with the kiddos! I'm happy that I'm their "cool" aunt! LOL!