Money Well Spent

This week, Lincoln and I perused the dollar spot at good ol' Target and among other things, we came across some fantastic fake poop.  I've never been a girl to spend hard earned money on fake poop but I have come to the conclusion with raising boys, if you can't beat em', join em'. 

 And that's just what I did.

I proudly purchased the fake poop and brought it home.  For several days it stayed in my purse.  Yep, girly girl let fake poop remain in her purse until precisely the right moment.  

Friday night was Jackson's schools fall festival type event.  Jackson was getting ready for bed as I neatly placed the poop on his pillow.  I knew Jason was going to be putting them to bed.  It was genius.  Sure enough, Jackson pulled back the covers and started squealing for me to come and I asked Jason to dissolve the situation.  Jason went in and they were both examining the pile as to discover it's validity.  Jackson wasted no time and dove right in to pick it up with his hands.  Jason then started squealing because it was actually squishy and he was not convinced it wasn't real either then.  Soon they both realized it was fake and Lincoln and I came in laughing as we had just fooled the two of them pretty well.  Jason was just as disturbed that Jackson was willing to pick it up with his hands before he knew it wasn't real in the first place. Wouldn't you know then, there was poop flying everywhere.  It has that sticky hand quality so it sticks to everything.  They threw poop on the wall, they stuck it to the ceiling.  It actually remained there all night and the first thing they asked for when they woke up was if someone could please get the poop down so they could play with it.  Poop on their face, on the tv, on the glass door. 

 It was without a doubt the best dollar I spent all week. 

 The fun carried over into Saturday night as Jackson and Jason placed it on the neighbors doorstep.  I heard them come home and Jason snuck over to witness their reaction.  To his surprise, they were down making cell phone photos of the awesome prank.  They were good sports and relieved to find out it was purchased poop and not the free stuff our dogs give out. 

Again, best money spent all week.  If you find yourself needing fake poop in the future, Target dollar spot has you covered.

Ten on...

1.  I know right now that starting this at 1045 on a Tuesday night isn't going to be successful.  I took the liberty to leave the day blank so I don't limit myself.  It's my blog, I can procrastinate if I want to.

2.  I bought some boots today at 6pm.com.  It was on one of my coupon following sites as *HOT and I made myself late to bible study because I was frantically trying to make sure they didn't slip by me.  In that, I was successful. I am the proud owner of THESE babies!  I love Jessica Simpson shoes and at this price, who wouldn't!

3. I'm living with Incredible Hulk.  Lincoln is convinced he is Hulk.  He refuses to wear a shirt nearly anywhere.  He regularly fights pretend bad guys and shows me his fiercest scowl to prove he's "cul Hulk" as he says it.  I have to bargain with him to wear a shirt outside the house.  Guess what he wants to be for Halloween?

4.  So I have this water bottle.  It's actually just a neoprene sleeve that I've had for quite some time and a new camel bak water bottle .  Mom has actually sewn it once for me.  It's handy becuause it doesn't sweat, it holds my YMCA tag, it has a nifty handle.  It goes just about every where I do.  It's like my special coffee cup, but for water.  (Ok, maybe I have some cup issues here.)  Anyway, I had a trunk show on Sunday and brought the water bottle with me.  When leaving, I remember sitting it on the back bumper of my car and forgetting about it.  Later that night, I knew I had left it and had little hope for recovery.  I had a busy Monday and went about my day but could tell it was missing from my routine.  When I got a moment of free time, I decided to try and see if I could find it on the road at the house I was parked at.  It had been raining non-stop and no one wants my dingy water bottle anyway.  I drove over and wasn't' surprised to find nothing.  I resigned to amazon a new (but not as good) one.  I got about 1/2 mile from the house I was at and there in front of me at the T in the road sat my water bottle upright on a culvert wall.  Someone had obviously placed it there just for me.  I jumped out and scooped it up like a long lost friend!  I guess you could say my Camel Bak bottle came Bak!?!

5.  I'm refinishing my kitchen table.  This project started out as a class to learn about chalk paint and the waxes to go with it.  It has turned into MUCH more!  I didn't even plan on taking this table with me when I left Nashville but now, it's going!  I've painted, glazed, waxed, sanded, stained and poly'd everything on it.  I still have to refinish the cushions.  It's been fun and I love the finished project but there's no doubt, I had no idea what i was getting myself into.  I think I'm better to stick with smaller, one day projects. 

6.  We had THIS for dinner this week!  It was amazing and the best part is I successfully replaced the noodles with spaghetti squash and my family didn't mind at all!  If you haven't tried spaghetti squash, now's the time.  It's in season and on sale and you might just like it better than pasta!

7.  As much as I love all things fall such as football, leaves changing, cooler temps and cute sweaters, I despise the first few times I have to squeeze into the torture we call skinny jeans.  All summer long I've been footloose and fancy free in my dresses and skirts plus the constant wear of my workout gear.  I haven't donned a piece of denim since May at the latest and now that the temps are dropping, it's required that I start breaking a sweat while trying to tell myself that they were always this tight and I just have to get used to them.  That's what I'm going with anyway.  Well, that and a few more trips to the gym in the next few weeks.

8.  95 days till Christmas.  Yep, that's right folks.  In my opinion, it is now legal to break our your Christmas CD's and start listening.  Who's going to argue with me that Jesus' birthday isn't worth celebrating for 3 months?

9.  Lincoln let me play "baby" with him tonight.  When I tell him he's my baby, he usually argues that he's a big boy.  Lately he's been pretending things and tonight, he laid in my lap and pretended to be a baby.  He made cute noises, pretended to cry and let me hold and carry him around.  Don't you think for a second that I didn't love every minute of it.  Can we say "baby fever?"

10.  Yesterday, Lincoln and I had a lunch date at Jeni's Ice Cream in East Nashville.  We then visited several antique stores nearby.  It took a little longer than I thought and we still had to go by Trader Joes before we headed home.  While walking out of Trader Joes, he said "Mom, I don't want to go to any more 'tique' stores."  He's a good shopper but he was ready to throw in the towel.  Also, while at Trader Joes, we were sharing a bag of almonds and I asked for one.  He said, "You say 'yes sir' and I'll give you one."  Really?  Now I have to address my son as 'sir' to get my own almonds?!

Dr. Lincon on Duty

Last week, it was requested that I become deathly ill.
So wouldn't you know, right in the middle of hanging up laundry, I met my demise and went down.  Lucky for me, Dr. Lincoln was in the house and came right to my rescue.

.  

I'm lucky that he was able to revive me so quickly.  He went straight to work on my ailments. 

I first received a shot.  I only cried a little.  

Then while I waited, there was an emergency case that came in.  Bear Bear (jackson's lovey) had been in an accident and needed immediate medical care.  Dr. Lincoln was on top of it. He went right to work checking his eyes and his heart.  He only needed a bandaid to make him as good as new.  Whew!  That was touch and go there for a while

Just to make sure my blood pressure was good, Dr. Lincoln checked it before I was released.  It looked like I was going to survive and make a full recovery!

He told me to get plenty of rest, do not return to making dinner for 3 days and drink plenty of margaritas!

Ok, maybe it was actually "Can I have a snack and a juice box now?" but a girl can dream!

This Fisher Price Doctors kit was mine as a little girl.  I can remember playing doctor with my sister and giving each other shots all the time. It's fun to see my littles playing with it too!

Baycation

 Last weekend we took a little "baycation" with Jason's parents to the Alabama shore.  They rented a cute little house on the bay.  It was a charming little place that just fit us all.  It had a grande pier just perfect for fishing and 2 adirondacks chairs perfect for watching.
My only request for the weekend was crab claws.  I've found over the last few years that those things are rare outside of the small stretches of Alabama beach.  Well, I can tell you I got my wish.  We stopped in a small town outside of Gulf Shores at a country seafood place and I ordered crab claws, a whole pound of them.  They were by and large the BIGGEST crab claws I have ever laid my eyes on.  They satisfied me for the entire weekend!  We only spent one day at the beach but the boys definitely made the most of it.  They jumped waves and were carried down the beach in the strong under currents more times than I can count.  It was a nearly secluded beach filled with great shell collecting too.  We made a VERY weak attempt at a sand castle but between Lincoln the Destroyer and the sugar sand, it was a futile effort.  

 Most of the time was spent fishing, baiting and checking out the numerous jellyfish that inhabited the bay.  We had considered swimming in the bay until the jellyfish made it quite obvious that no one but them would be swimming this weekend.

 Lucky Lincoln always seems to catch the largest fish.  It seems those kiddie poles have all the luck!

 We saw some beautiful sunsets and enjoyed pretty mild weather considering hurricane Issac was on the horizon.  We got out of there just in the nick of time.

I caught sweet Lincoln hanging his little head off the side of the pier trying to see fish, jellyfish or something he'd tossed into the water.  No doubts about it, this is the cutest thing I've ever seen hanging off the side of a pier.  Geez!

 These sweet brothers endured my  mandatory photo shoot.  Ideally, we'd have showered and gone back over to the beach for a photo shoot but they weren't going along with my plans and I had to go with plan b.  That means no family photos but let's be honest, no one really wants to see me and Jason anyway.

 Lincoln has been interested in taking photos and I've let him a few times.  This is the ONE he got of Jason and I that wasn't blurry.  It was a worn out from the beach look but he's photography skills are picking up!

 I absolutely HAD to make use of these colorful chairs.  The boys were properly bribed with popcicles for this 10 minutes of fun.

 I'm pretty sure they think it was worth it.  My only complaint was driving the 8 hours to spend less than 2 days at the beach then driving another 8 home.

This is my formal request to live closer to the beach when adventures in  grad school is over.