A & E and Little C

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Wednesday Confessions

I watched A League of Their Own twice in two days. That's a movie that I will ALWAYS watch if it's on. It never gets old.

So I was skimming through this Sunday's Parade Magazine. I had no idea that Liza Minnelli was Judy Garland's daughter. Maybe I knew this once upon a time, but I certainly had a "really??" moment.

We went to a birthday party at a bounce place and they had those gigantic, over sized boxing gloves... they were usually present anywhere they had those big sumo wrestling suits back in the day... anyways, I totally wanted a pair for at home. Sometimes, I think if I just hit something, I'd feel a lot better.

I'm the one who ate pizza and cake at a birthday party, not my kid.

I HATE folding socks, so they often just get left in the dryer for a couple loads until I have to take them out. Lazy.

I looked at Carson's April calendar for school, and OF COURSE the two days they are taking individual and class pictures are the two days I'm gone on a business trip. Dang it. I haven't traveled in a really long time for work, and it just happens to be on school picture day. I hope Andrew can get his "wild man hairdo" under control. I'll be setting his clothes out for sure!

I know I had a couple good ones for this week but can't remember them... Dang.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Wednesday Confessions

So Carson had a lovely little stomach bug two weekends ago. It was mostly diahhrea and tummy ache.... until we were at Chick-fil-a. The kid had barely eaten in 2 days, I was hungry, and he actually had an appetite (although I'm sure fried food wasn't the best choice). He scarfed down his food, and we were just having a grand 'old time... then he BARFED. EVERYWHERE. It just kept coming out, and I just felt so helpless trying to shove the paper bag under his mouth to catch some. Yeah... didn't work. It was the BIGGEST mess. Of course, his backpack and spare clothes were in the car, so I kind of just told someone my kid got sick everywhere, said "I'm so sorry. Bye", and then left. I felt like I should have helped clean up more, but my sweet baby was COVERED in throw-up. I stripped him naked in the parking lot and he rode home with just pants. At least I had pants... I was planning ahead knowing he'd had the runs all weekend. I feel like I should write the Chick-fil-a people a thank you note. I guess the big confession here is that I was just thrilled he didn't puke in my new car or at our house....both of which I would have had to clean up myself.

Did I mention Carson and I had a donut date for breakfast that same day???

No cute Easter things were made for Carson's class or teachers. They said bring 10 eggs filled with candy, so that's exactly what I did.

I cherry picked all the good candy out of one of the mixed bags to keep for myself.

I admit it. I like gas station food, or at least the crawfish pies from Crawdads.

I was so worried about leaving Cupid (our Betta) while we are gone over Easter. I felt like a dork, but I texted our contractor and asked him to feed him while we were gone. I couldn't bear the thought of having to get Cupid_v3.

For some reason, Carson has started hitting again lately... I think this whole house renovation is getting to him too. Poor kid has had no normalcy for almost a month. Regardless, he does not get away with it at home. We've had lots of time outs and an occasional spanking when the time out thing wasn't getting his attention. Anyways, he hit me on the way to take a bath, and I was not too happy about it. Time out hadn't been working this evening, so he got a spanking (diaper was still on, so probably wasn't that effective... I just realized I'm trying to defend my decision to spank Carson. I know some people are very pro- or anti-spanking. With him, sometimes it's the only thing that will get his attention and make him stop. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it works. No judgement, please. :-) ) I threatened no book time. It was to be a quick in and out bath and then straight to bed. Well, I asked him if he needed to go potty. He said no. I turned around to go get the towel and he turned around and started to tee tee in the big potty. Yeah, "mean" mommy suddlenly disappeared and was so excited that he got a sucker. So much for the hitting punishment...

I have successfully already junked the new car out. I can NOT keep a car clean to save my life.

Nederland Heritage Festival

The same weekend as the BASS tournament, the Nederland Heritage Festival was going on. It's always during Spring Break and last year Carson could have cared less. We found out later that it was because he was sick (he had a major fever when we came home). Makes sense now why did didn't enjoy himself.

This year was a WHOLE other story. He LOVED it!!! I wish now we had bought the FastPass for all the rides. Those silly little Midway rides add up!

While Andrew and Josh were fishing, we headed to go to the festival and then realized the parade was going on. This was Carson's first parade and he definitely enjoyed it! There was a slight learning curve on the whole running to pick up the candy and beads people were throwing out, but he eventually got it.

Waving at the cars...

He liked all the Jeeps!

A Boat!!

Who doesn't love firetrucks?!?

He LOVED most of the little kid rides on the Midway. The helicopters were definitely a hit! I went with him the first time (they are not built for adults I might add) and then he was on his own after that. I think we went three times! It was way more interesting than the others because it went up and down instead of just in a circle.

Future pilot?

The cars were fun too!

Honking the horn on the tractor was so annoying, I mean, so much fun!

The 4-wheelers were another HUGE hit. I think we went 3-4 times.

Got to eat some carnival popcorn!

Love this series of pics with my little man!!!

Goober!

Rockin' the shades!

"Cheese" with a mouthful of chicken nuggets.

He also loved the Crazy House/Maze thing... There was a BIG curly slide at the end. I went down with him the first time, and I think that was a mistake (ouch!!!). The next 2 times, he didn't wait for me and took off. As soon as he got to the bottom, he just ran right back in and the sweet man working the ride just let him since he could tell how much fun Carson was having... thank goodness because that slide was certainly getting expensive!

Next year we will DEFINITELY be getting the FastPass!!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Here Fishy, Fishy

March 14th through 17th the B.A.S.S. Elite Series practically came to our backyard for the first time. We were so excited when they announced the opening event of the year would be the Sabine River Challenge! We've gone to the Bassmasters Classic a couple times when it was in Shreveport and have met a lot of the pros at the event. The thing I think is probably the coolest about professional bass fishing is how accessible it is to the public. How many other professional athletes can you just walk up and start talking to? At the Classic, the pros that didn't qualify (only the top 40 qualify each year) are at the Expo and happy to talk, take pictures, sign autographs, etc. On the last day of fishing, all of the pros that didn't make the top 10 or 12 cut are at the Expo either at a booth or walking around, again, happy to spend time with their fans.

The Elite Series was no different. We went to the boat launch on Friday morning (with donuts in hand), and Carson couldn't get over all the boats. Yep, there were at least 100. He kept saying, "Look Mommy, a boat. Another boat! Another boat!" These guys have some pretty serious fishing rigs - big trucks and big boats covered in endorsement wraps. It's like a parade having them all drive in and go launch. Hearing 100 bass boats with big motors take off is pretty cool tool. The fans pretty much just line the boat ramp, bank, and dock and get a front row seat to the action.

Some launch pics....

So many boats!

Ready to head to the weigh-in...

Father-Son Love in their Ranger Boats hats

He loved this view...

He's got the clapping thing down...

The stage...

At the weigh-ins, Carson was getting a little anxious sitting in the stroller so we walked around. I saw a bunch of the kids behind the stage... well, that's where all the pros were after they weighed in. The were back there happy to take pictures, sign autographs, etc. Pretty tough to get that close to any Dallas Cowboy or Texas Ranger unless you've got some special privileges.

Meeting Edwin Evers...

...and Alton Jones

The eventual winner (Todd Faircloth) waiting to weigh-in...

The Texas boy won!!

The other thing that's great about professional bass fishing is that the vast majority of the fishermen are just good guys. They are regular people that just happened to be really good at bass fishing and took the risk to start doing it professionally. There are plenty that have made good money in winnings, but you have to be one of the really good ones to get all the big sponsors and endorsements. Almost all are very humble and only a few are what I would consider "flashy." But even the "flashy" ones are still approachable. A lot of the fisherman support charities. A lot use their position to help spread their faith. Being a Christian is "cool" in bass fishing. One guy puts Bible verses on his boat and encourages his fans to memorize his new one each week. Any time someone "thanks their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ", the crowd cheers. It's always nice to be in an environment where that is welcomed.

What was also pretty cool too is that the guy that won pretty much fished where Andrew works. A couple guys ran over 1,200 miles in their boat over a 4-day period and the one that won stayed pretty close. It was one of the toughest tournaments they've had in a long time and some probably didn't like the challenge, but I think the ones that faced the challenge and succeeded are truly amazing anglers. Fishing here is very different from some of the big bass lakes. We had a great time and are hoping BASS comes back to our neck of the woods soon!!! Given that they had record crowds, I'm sure they will!!