Who Knew?

Who knew when I purchased It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, that I should have pre-screened it for content? Mitch has been running around the past two days calling us all blockheads!

Good grief!

Roots.

After almost a year of scouring the MLS on the internet nightly, 6 months of living out of a U-Haul in our cheesy apartment, constant reassurances to the hooligans that the movers, in fact, were taking very good care of all of our worldly possessions as opposed to their notion that they had stolen them and that their things were never to be heard from again, and numerous promises to our children that one day we would get them a real house with a real backyard, we have decided, offered, and negotiated. Here are our new digs, moving in one month.

It really meets our needs. Great schools. Wooded yard for hooliganizing. Sidewalks. Lots of kids running around everywhere in packs. There is also a third car garage area, that Mitch and Mike have already termed the "Man Room." They plan to have a workshop there. I am not sure yet if I am allowed in it. I do not know the secret password.

But do not fret. For me, it has this....
And this...
I'll keep you all apprised of the trials and tribulations that occur between now and closing. There are sure to be some doozies!

More Time Upstate

Last weekend- New day, new pumpkin patch. This time, it also include apple picking! Our little farmers were in Heaven!

That's a really weird looking lady. And why is she sporting a bee-hive hairdo? Someone should tell her it is not 1952.

Oh.

My cell phone is broken. One minute, I looked at the display to see what time it was while running the sack races at Mitch's Pre-school Hoe Down. The next minute, the screen went blank. I can make and receive calls, but the screen is completely blank. I can not see who is calling at all.

Phone rings.

Me: "Hello?"

Mike: "Hello? What's going on? You answered the phone so....nice."

An Answer For Everything...

5 minutes ago...Note Mitch's new nickname for me.


Mitch: "Mom, will you come build me a house out of pillows on the couch?"

Me: "Sure, bud. I'll be right there. I'm putting Matty to bed for his nap."

Mitch: "No, Mom! Right now!"

And then, he did it. He chopped me. He hit me on the leg, while sporting a very frustrated and mean face. Great. He does not hit often, but I really wanted to make a big deal of this and teach him that it is not acceptable. So....I sent him to his room, waited a bit, went in to talk to him, blah blah blah. Well, this is how it went.

Me: "Do you know why you are in time out?"

Mitch: "Yeah. I chopped you on the leg. I wanted to break you into 5 pieces."

Me (wanting to really get my point across): "If you chopped me into 5 pieces, then I would not be alive anymore." Ha- that will show him!

Mitch: "Oh. It's OK. I would then get glue and glue you back together, little buddy."

Me: "No. It wouldn't work. I would not be alive."

Mitch: "OK then. I would go and get the stuff that Jesus used to make you, and then I would use that to put you back together, because if Jesus used it, it will definitely work."

Me (exasperated): "Fine. Just don't hit, OK."

Mitch: "OK, little buddy."

The Cat is Sooo Out of the Bag

Ok. Who told our sweet Matthew that he is, in fact, TWO YEARS OLD? I want names, people! Someone has filled him in about the terrible twos, and, apparently, he was taking notes.

Upstate and Down River

As spacious and leisurely as apartment living is, we decided to go explore our fair state on Saturday. We packed up the kids, their "nature buckets," and maps and headed "Upstate." Here they are enjoying the car ride. Did I mention that their nature buckets are actually their Halloween buckets that I picked up at the dollar store last week? What a bargain- candy bucket, nature bucket, and hat all for one dollar!Here are two of the adventurers in outifts of their own choosing. Aren't they cute? Twinners!

We went to the mountains of Paris Mountain State Park- and it was gorgeous! Fall colors, blue skies, balmy breeze yet autumn was definitely in the air. Oh, and they had cool stairs to climb.


We had a great time. We hiked. We picked up sticks. We picked up rocks. We filled nature buckets with all kinds of twigs and nuts and nature junk. I tried to take their picture toward the end of the day. Matty was willing, but Mitch informed me that he was "too tired to have my picture taken." All in all, it was a wonderful day. We were impressed with the beauty of our new home base and it was very good for an apartment dweller's soul to see the boys....well, being boys.

And because we were on such a roll, we headed to a pumpkin patch the next day. Well, this was another side of South Carolina. The side that makes us call it South Cack-a-lackee. We went to the Hillbilly Farm of America (not the real name, but works well enough). There, we witnessed farm workers shooting pie pumpkins 150 feet into the air from a pumpkin cannon, while cursing loudly in front of our children. We also paid way too much for hayride tickets, and then had to wait forever because Bubba forget that we were waiting and went in to have his lunchtime vittles. However, we did manage to get a few photos. Note, please, Mitch's outfit. He planned it out specifically for the farmers to see. I have no idea how the Disney pins factor in, but he was not to be persuaded otherwise.

Here are some photos while we were waiting.

Please also note the ever present dirt smudges on Matty's face. OK- Bubba has done had the vittles. It took him awhile...what with the three teeth and all. Time to get the tractor going!
OK- Did I tell you that it was a haunted hayride? It was truly frightening, even in broad daylight. Here is just a sneak peek. It was like Freddy meets Jason meets Hillbilly. Hope you do not scare easily!

Here is the dreaded haunted mannequin and the shopping cart of doom.

The haunted oven.And of course, prepare yourselves! Protect the children! Nothing chills you to the bone more than the hideous haunted pink gorilla with a front butt!

This, my friends, is only a mere sampling of the horrors that abounded in the Haunted Forest. It is amazing we made it out in one piece.

You've Got Mail

Here is a letter from Mitch's teacher, Ms. Pam, to Mitch. Thank goodness for Ms. Pam. Does she know this kid or what?!?


Dear Mitch,

You are my favorite green-loving friend!Your enthusiasm over everything is contagious. You are great at building things...and knocking them down. I love to hear you sing and to have conversations with you. You are filled with joy and I love it.

Love you,
Ms. Pam

Did you know...

*Matty, at age 27 months, is still 2 whole pounds shy of what Mitch weighed...at his 1 year-old check-up.

*Both of my parents know all of the words to the new Kid Rock song.

*The boys' dentist asked me the other day at their appointment if they are good about letting us get in there and floss their teeth. WHAT? None of their teeth even touch each other?!?

*Almost all of the other people who live in our dumb apartment complex drive much, much nicer cars than we do.

*Even though I just "stay at home with the kids," there are many days when I do not actually get around to taking a shower. How can that be?

*Self-checkout lanes at Wal-Mart are designed and implemented by Satan himself. "Welcome to Wal-Mart, your cashier today is named Mitch." A nightmare of watching a four-year-old try to scan each item, place it in the bag....usually while Matty is freaking out in the cart. A nightmare. Oh, and did you know that at our Wal-Mart, they never open regular checkout lanes. It is only 20 items or less (and we never are under 20 items) or the do-it-yourself jobbie-do. Wal-Mart is defnitely one of the circles of Hell.

Busta Move...

You never know who's gonna find his inner-Travolta when the clean-up music comes on. Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk...