rattle,rattle,rattle...

That's the sound the last few brain cells I have left are making. Hubby has been a work trip the last two weeks. He arrives home tomorrow night, I might make it. Why rattle rattle? Igor's constant chatter. The. Kid. Talks. Non. Stop. All. Day. Long. Even Sonny Boy who can talk the ears off of an elephant declares it too much. It's bad when the eldest can't wait for the little one's bedtime and your both watching the clock. Happily Hubby learned his lesson teaching kids to tell time with the first one so I sneak Igor into bed 10 or 15 minutes early. I wasn't so lucky with Sonny Boy at that age. You see Hubby taught Sonny Boy to tell time, or at least read the numbers on a digital clock. If you tried to put him to bed at 7:59 that wasn't going to fly and all hell would break loose. The weekend was miserably long. Saturday we spent at the little cake competition. I didn't get squat. The cakes that won were nice so I don't feel like was cheated or anything. I do have to wonder at their pick of judges though - the traffic girl on the local tv news probably doesn't know the difference between buttercream and fondant, so I would have like to seen judges that might have been a little more schooled on the difficulty of technique. I'll post a pic, but not in this post since blogger hates me adding pictures and putting them in the text where they actually make sense. Sunday was even longer. I just wasn't up for the fight of getting the kids dressed presentably and off to church, cripes I had done it alone for 6 days of the week already and needed a break. Igor was in pajamas until 2:00 pm. Pajamas or not didn't stop the craziness and Igor was trying some break-neck stunt urged on by his brother somehow managed to hit the living room floor face first, cutting his eyebrow on his glasses and bending the glasses to a shape no longer recognizable. Thankfully Wally world's optical shop was open and bent the glasses back into a decent shape, they are still wonky but I've got to get off of my rear soon and get some new ones for him as he has a slightly different Rx. After reading the kids the riot act the rest of the day it finally sunk in to them that Momma wasn't playing around any more and we better straighten up. This week hasn't been too bad, though I'm surely tired of bearing the brunt of the family weight and have declared that Saturday will be my day off. Igor went back to the ortho on Tuesday and they declared him offically healed. He still is a little gimpy but it's simply lack of strength, muscle atrophies quickly when not used. Igor will go again next week to be fitted for SMO's I imagine they'll be similar to the link, though I hope more customized than those, I just couldn't find a good picture. The SMO's should help with his balance which always seems iffy and honestly his ankles look like they should be painful when walking, though he never complains. The hope that the SMO's will help strengthen his ankles and help everything to grow into alignment. I suppose I should scratch up some supper. Though I am thinking of a night out - maybe Chinese?

Family Vacation

Well we went on a Family Vacation, a semi-big one that involved planes, buses, and rental cars, thankfully no trains. Hubby had been scheduled for a while to go down to Melbourne FL for some training, I had declined to go due to school and I really didn't think the weather would be that great there. Old man winter though had been mean to me and a couple of weeks ago I decided to go. Due to my ill timing we could not get tickets on Hubby's flights so I ended up with Hubby on the flights right after mine on the way down and just after his on the way up. We took the kids. Not really a good idea, read more about that here. However it was some good memories for the kids. We did spend a day out on the beach and the only pictures taken are on my phone and I'm not technologically gifted enough to get them off. Despite the boys and I being coated liberally in SPF 50 several times during the day, I got NO sun at all, Sonny Boy turned brown as a little indian, and Igor turned pink.

Since Blogger won't let me re-arrange the pictures these are a little out of the order I would prefer. Our last day is first, the next to the last day is second.

Before we headed out we went to Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge. Hubby and the boys on the nature boardwalk.

We saw some manatees, but they don't photograph so well, I like this one that was in the airport as she's fancier.

Lots of birds. This is a blue heron (I think)

We saw quite a few alligators as well. We saw several bigger than this one, but he posed the nicest for the camera.

On Thursday we went to JFK space center....

and the kids met astronaut John Blaha

I have to admit I didn't really know who he was other than an astronut until I just googled him to give you a link. Wow, what an impressive resume. I knew astronauts were accomplished people but that man has some extreme brain power in his head.

the kids also met this astronaut -likely just some random shmuck in a costume but they liked him.

Rode a moon buggy

and waited on big brother while he was sent in the ride with a friendly Canadian family. Kids had to be 44" tall to ride. Igor measured up at 42". I had been told this was the coolest thing at Kennedy and I wanted Sonny Boy to be able to do it. I didn't quite know what to do so we went to a briefing thing that told all about the current space missions, Igor was less than impressed with that, Sonny Boy was bored but behaved. Anyway while ignoring Igor's whining the idea came to me to find a family with a bunch of kids and ask if Sonny Boy could ride with them. Yes, I sent my child into a building with complete strangers the say "eh" at the end of every sentence, but what do you do? They were very nice though and took Sonny Boy right in with them while Igor and I waited at the exit. Sonny boy came out thrilled and agreed it was the best thing at Kennedy. Too bad Mom didn't get to ride.

At Kennedy there is the visitor center where all the above stuff is and then you get on buses to move around in the secured areas. The took us to an observation platform that was as close as the public could get to the launch pads (about a mile) I'm impressed my camera took such a good picture, of course it's as zoomed in as it gets and I had steadied it on a railing. The space shuttle is on the pad, if you look close you can see the white and brown tips of the solid rocket boosters. The "orbiter" or as you and I call it the shuttle is behind a sheild to protect it until 24 hours before lift-off. This will be the next to the last space shuttle mission before the space shuttles are retired and we rely on the Russians to get us to the International Space Station for a while.

I can't tell you what I think of Kennedy. If your into space stuff like Sonny Boy it's likely the coolest place in the world. I thought it was neat and educational, probably would have slowed down a little and looked at few things more closely without the kids but it won't be on my to do list again anytime in the near future.

We landed late on Friday evening. Igor had fell asleep on the plane, and refused to wake up and walk off. Sonny Boy and I were loaded with luggage and I was trying to figure out a way to haul him down the aisle, we had a stroller waiting in the jetway. Since we were the last ones on the plane the flight attendant picked up Igor and got him to the stroller which was great. Off we went, Sonny Boy pushing Igor in the cheap little umbrella I had picked up for travel. Igor was still so out out it he was sitting straight up with his mouth open out cold being pushed through the Milwaukee airport. It was quite a sight.

Sunday afternoon we made a return trip to the airport and dropped off Hubby for a two week stint in Dallas. Yay.

This week I'm busy making a wedding cake. No, haven't been commisioned, I'm entering it in a local cake decorating contest. I about have the first tier done. I keep looking at it trying to decide if I should pull the fondant off and try again. I'm using styrofoam cake dummies. (it's allowed) However fondant ain't cheap, and my inner tightwad is screaming at me, but I know I can do better so I'm having a hard time making the call. I don't even know what the prize is for the contest, likely just my name in the paper but it's a pride thing ya know?

Anyhow back to reality. Florida was nice, sunny, warm couldn't have asked for nicer weather. As I type I hear rain and wind beating at the windows, it's about 34 F. Think I might go back to FL, will you keep the kids?

Announcement of New Blog

You might be asking why do you need another blog? Well to be frank this one is just a simple glimpse into "the Litter's" daily life. Nothing overly personal and nothing controversial or really thought inducing. I hope to make the new blog a little different, a little bit of thought to chew on after you leave, a little more substance, possibly a few giggles. This doesn't mean that the litter won't make appearances now and then, heck without those three I don't have much happening in my life, they are my job, my entertainment, my stress and my life. I'll still keep up with happenings over here but the new one will have a bit of a different tone to it.

http://musingsonmotherhoodandotherramblings.blogspot.com/

The Real Houswife of (un-named county)

Well no news is good news lately. I see from the date of the last post I've been a little remiss in updating but for the most part boredom and mayhem rule the days. I can't imagine Bravo showing up anytime soon and offering to follow me around and tape. Most days I don't have on make-up, somedays it's noon before I comb my hair, and I haven't been in a screaming match with anybody but my husband or kids since high school. Yeah not much real about those Housewives.

I have a horrible case of cabin fever a.k.a. spending too much time with my children. Igor and I have been stuck at the hip (almost literally) since he broke his leg. The weather is in that season that should be called MUD and too cold to do anything but too warm for snow. Mud season also coops up Sonny Boy when he's home as well. Yuck. The boys have been watching too much T.V., too much Wii. Literally their speech is leaning toward the yelling side at all points even when sitting inches from each other or me and having a simple conversations. My ears crave quiet, so much so that the few times I get to go in the vehicle alone I don't turn on the radio. My own speech has degraded to orders yelled through the house as EVERY sentence begins " MOM..." usually yelled from another room. I need a vacation. I need a wife.

The gym thing is working out well. It's certainly a stress reliever to go move around a little on the machines and have few thoughts other than "I can do three more.." I did get a little more than aggravated the other day as I was watching Oprah and Gayle go camping while doing the elliptical machine and it made me wonder how in hell she made a cazillion dollars. Really camping isn't rocket science but to watching her and her buddy set up a pop-up made me wonder. My other sport at the gym is people watching. It's quite interesting seeing the assortment of people there. Surprisingly there is a large percentage of senior citizens moving around which is good for them. Hope I'm out working the treadmills at 70. I did finish my workout the other day just as the water aerobic class ended. I'll try to be aware of that from now on as I had to wait in line for the showers with all the little old ladies. I was hoping a side effect of exercise would be dropping a few pounds, HA I've gained a pound. Darling Hubby was diplomatic about it when I was complaining stating " it's muscle, your gaining muscle" even though I gained a giant bag of peanut M&M's on the kitchen counter as well.

Igor started back to preschool two weeks ago. He's getting around well on the walking cast now and that's been a great boon to both of our mobility. He slid right back into preschool with no problems at all. Igor's really glad to be back as he'd really had enough of Mom too. Tuesday we go back to the orthopedic doctor and most likely the cast will be removed. If not they'll have to replace it as the the little monkey has picked all the lining out as far down and his little fingers will reach.

Sonny Boy has been a little bit of a pill lately too. Grounded more than not. I don't know if my tolerance is down or if he's more wound up. Everything seems to be a case of frenetic activity for no apparent reason.

I do have hope that Mud season will soon morph into Spring though. I can see the very tips of the daffodils breaking through the soil in the flower bed by the back door. I have several projects planned for the yard this year, the least of which is to take pictures of the bulb beds when in bloom so I can add to them in the fall. I planted around 50 daffodil last fall but it was just kind of a random wandering through the yard and planting. The guy that lived here before us planted TONS of tulips, the flower beds were just gorgeous the first couple of springs we were here, but squirrels and time have done their damage and only a few meager tulips have bloomed the last few years. I expect few to none this year. I suppose it wouldn't kill me to plant a few tulip bulbs, however they are fairly expensive only to get a year or two of good blooms out of them. I like to spend money on things that will bloom year after year. I've also got to get some grass planted in some bare spots. The list is long and my enthusiasm runs low after a few weeks.

I suppose that's all for now, stay tuned for another exciting episode.