Don't Fence Me In

The East Texas sun was high in the sky when he stepped out of the house. Noah had been sleeping well past any respectable time to wake up and when he finally rolled out of bed, he found the house empty. He decided to investigate further and stepped out the front door into the blinding sunlight and heat that sucked the very breath right out of him. He blinked several times, looked around and finally spotted his father and uncle working on the tractor. He panned the property and spotted his mother cleaning out the van with his sister happily supervising the process.

After a few moments, he walked over to his father and his uncle, sighed and said, "I'm bored." They looked at him incredulously. "There is a pool, endless toys, a sister, a cousin, a trampoline, and a wide expanse of pasture. GO PLAY! ", replied his father.

"BOY! If you want something to do... get to work..." replied his uncle, "...there is plenty to do around here. Feed the chickens, feed the ducks, feed the dogs, help with the tractor..."

"Can someone take me for a ride in the golf cart?"

At this point, his father told him he would have to wait until later when the adults were done working but his uncle said, "You are big enough to drive that golf cart yourself. There's nothing you can hurt around here, get on it and get gone!"

And so he did. He took off in the golf cart down the road that divides the property into two pastures.

His mother got nervous and walked to the end of the driveway to watch him. Just as he was instructed, when he got to the end of the pasture, he turned around to come back. His mother observed as he then did what can only be described as an eighteen point turn and started back up the road toward the house. She sighed with relief. The eighteen point turn was funny and bordered on ridiculous, but at least he was being cautious.

His little sister then called for their mother's attention and his mother reluctantly- but partially confident that he was on his way back up the straight road- went to see what the little girl needed. As soon as she reached his sister, there was a loud bang followed by the sound of the boy crying in the distance.

She yelled for the boy's dad as she was sprinting down the driveway and then down the road. She arrived first to find Noah standing in the middle of the road crying. The golf cart was straddling the pasture fence. She did a quick assessment and discovered that Noah was crying more because he was afraid of getting into trouble than because he was in pain and she then calmly got on the golf cart and backed it off the fence to assess the damage.

By that time, his father and uncle had arrived. Noah was dubbed the "fence wrecker" and they began discussing repairing the fence and that it would have to wait until later in the day when it was cooler since the fence was in the direct sunlight.

Luckily, there was a spare fence post in the garage and all of the supplies needed to repair the fence were lying around the property so Noah didn't have to contribute any money from his savings. His mother did, however, require that he be present for and help with the repair.

We are thankful Noah was not hurt, that our family was such a good sport about the destruction of their fence and a mental note has been made by all not to let Noah get a driver's license until he is AT LEAST 21.

I still have no idea how he fell off of a completely straight road.

{the battle scar}

Coming Soon

I have just spent the last two weeks on-the-go, in Texas visiting family and have pretty much been without my computer the whole time. I have been quickly checking email and Facebook with my phone, but have not had the time to get the laptop out. We head out in the morning, on our trek back to New Jersey and when we get back and get settled in, I have plenty to talk about.

In the last two weeks, we have gone on little outings, attended a fabulous family reunion, visited with family and friends and taken loads of pictures! My son has: acquired three hermit crabs (much to my horror), neglected three hermit crabs, buried three hermit crabs and was deemed proficient enough in golf cart driving to drive my sister-in-law's golf cart all around the property by himself. And, by the way, that didn't end well. There is a story there. There are also photos.

See you soon.

The Evolution of the Beg

While leaving the parking lot of my meeting this morning, Zoe spots Burger King and here is what follows:

ZOE: Mommy, can I have fry-fries and chicken nuggets from Burger King?

ME: No, you just had breakfast.

ZOE: But I hungry!

ME: We are on our way to Target and maybe if you are good, we can stop at Chick Fil A on our way out.

NOAH: (being a typical little boy trying to antagonize his sister) Why don't we just stop on the side of the road and kill a chicken and eat it?

ZOE: Stop it, Noah! I not talking to YOU!

*silence for about ten seconds and then we pass the local pick-your-own farm*

ZOE: Mommy! I want to go there and get strawberries!

ME: No, do you see those dark clouds? It is going to rain, so even if we stop there, it will rain on us and if it starts thundering, they won't let us pick strawberries.

ZOE: But, I'm hungry and I want to eat strawberries!!

ME: Sorry, Zoe. We have to go to Target.

*silence for another golden twenty seconds*

ZOE: Mommy! I want to go fishing.

*I have no idea where this came from and I was silent for a moment because I was confused*

ZOE: MOMMY!! I SAY I WANT TO GO FISHING!!!

ME: I heard you, Zoe. Maybe one day Daddy can take you and Noah fishing. I think Noah has a fishing pole.

NOAH: You are not using my fishing pole, Zoe.

ZOE: SHUT UP, NOAH, I AM TOO!!

ME: Alright! Why are we fighting? In the entire time we have been a family, we have never gone fishing, so why are we fighting about it?

ZOE: At Target, can I buy a fishing pole?

ME: No.

ZOE: Why? I want a fishing pole with pink princess on it!

ME: BECAUSE WE DO NOT GO FISHING! We don't need more stuff in the house that we don't use.

ZOE: (on the verge of a meltdown) BUT. I. WANT. TO. GO. FIIIISSHHHIIIINNNNGGG!

ME: Zoe, what would you do if you caught a fish?

ZOE: I would put him in a bowl and put him in my room like Noah's fish.

ME: Ohhh. No, Noah didn't catch his fish in his room. That fish is a pet. We bought that fish.

**five second silence**

ZOE: Mommy, can you buy me a fish at Target?

ME: No, no more critters in the house.

ZOE: I WANNA FIIIIISSSSSSHHHHHH!

ME: Zoe, you need to straighten up or we are not going to Chick Fil A after we leave Target.

**about thirty more seconds of golden silence**

ZOE: Mommy, I hungry. Can I have fry-fries and chicken nuggets?

**Seventy- five days until school starts**

Summer 2010- The (Very) Abridged Edition

With only one and a half weeks left until school starts, I find it time to reflect on our summer. And while we've done loads of awesome things and two small trips, in all reality, the entire summer and all the events contained within it can be summarized in three words.

"hot", "sweaty"

and "cantankerous"

How was your summer?

End of Year (FINALLY) Teacher Gift

Tomorrow is Noah's last day of school. ( I know- it's about time!) Here are the very simple gifts I made for his teacher and bus driver: ( you can click on the image to see it enlarged)

I took a simple canister jar from WalMart, filled it with pink lemonade mix, cut out some cute little flip flops with my Cricut, tied a pretty bow around it and added a tag. The pinwheels were easy too. I used paper I already had, a long straight pin, a bead and a pencil. Easy Peasey.

Happy Summer!!