This Kid is Cute

Tyler cracks me up. He has recently discovered that is body will move in certain ways. For example, he did a Michael Jackson-type dance move from the video Beat It yesterday. (No, he doesn't watch things like that.) It was so funny. He also runs around the house when his favorite show, Sid the Science Kid is on. He squeals with delight. I wish I got that excited about stuff. :-)

Gas Tank is Full

Rick and I both have gas tanks that are full and happy! (Gas tanks become quite sad when they are on empty.) Our friend Frank called to tell us that the Exxon by Bi-Lo had gas. We only waited in line for a few moments! We're not stuck at home. YEAH!

Where is it?

I cannot find gasoline anywhere. I keep calling local gas stations. The one I forgot to call on my list until a few minutes ago said, "We just ran out of gas." Darn, what are the odds? Rick has so little gas that his buddy is picking him up for work tomorrow. Thank goodness for that. I think I'm going to stay up all night to periodically call because I'm too wound up anyway. (Most of you probably know that I have sleeping problems anyway.) It's 12:20 am now. I just watched the movie No Country for Old Men which was quite good by the way. I'll update once I get some gas! Looks like it will be an large Starbucks coffee for me in the morning!

State of the Economy

I listened to President Bush's speech tonight regarding the state of the economy. I knew that things were bad, you'd have to live under a rock to not know that, but hearing the speech just drove the point home harder. I am not a Bush fan whatsoever but I thought that the speech was quite good. He, or should I say his speech writers (which is what I wanted to be at one point - a political speech writer), did an excellent job of explaining what is going on and how all of this happened.

I am angry that our country is in such a poor economical state. I'm angry that our taxes will almost certainly be raised so that the government will bail out financial institutions that participate in imprudent business practices. My favorite one is mortgage lending. Financial institutions lent billions of dollars to people for mortgages who couldn't afford them in the first place. This is not to say that that individual people who took out the loans are not responsible, too. I think the responsibility is 50/50.

The price of gasoline/oil is another crux of the problem with the economy. No one will ever be able to convince me that the high price of gas/oil is justified. I love the excuses that are used...the war, the hurricane, blah, blah, blah. Pretty soon it will be, "Oh, the sun is shining too brightly so let's raise the price of gas!"
What really makes me nuts is that oil companies' profits have been super huge lately. Hmmmm, so oil executives are getting profanely, disgustingly rich off of us using by using lame excuses. Where are the checks and balances?

Why should this surprise me? The oil executives, financial institution executives, and the government are all in bed together. I can see it now, there is a round table of these people laughing their butts off at us. In theory, our government is great. It reality, it stinks! The poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer and the middle class is being squeezed out. I truly am thankful for all that I have; I just don't appreciate that my family's livelihood is threatened because of the greed of a few people. It makes me sick, actually. Then again, that is the way the world works and it shouldn't surprise me. I'm so incredibly grateful that I believe God because without Him this world would make little sense to me!

Wow, I don't usually go off like this.

Week in NY

We just got back from a week in NY to visit Rick's family. They live on Long Island and Rick and I made our yearly jaunt into Manhattan. We walked around a lot. There are no photos of this but we walked through Chelsea, NoHo (north of SoHo), and Grenwich Village. We went to Magnolia Bakery (Carrie and Miranda from Sex and the City went there in one episode) for a cupcake. If you'd like some amusement, read the entry I wrote yesterday. We also went out on the ocean on a boat with Rick's sister and her family. Here are some photos of our trip.


This is me at Riverhead Aquarium feeding rays. I touched them a lot and got a big kick out of it!



Rick and Ty at Riverhead Aquarium




Wall Street was on edge this day as AIG was expected to announce bankruptcy and the market closed almost 500 points down the day before! Rick was so glad to be off work that week!




NYC's Chinatown. I've been to Chinatown in San Francisco and LA but had never been to the one in NYC. It was like stepping into China!




Little Italy has been almost swallowed by neighboring Chinatown but here is the NYC Little Italy Feast of San Gennaro.




Tyler is in a tree. Seaford, NY




Rick, Tyler and cousins Brooke(age 7) and Jillian(age 11)




Rick's close childhood friend, Peter and 6 month old Jamie, who he has not seen in many years. Thanks Facebook!




This large pond is right near Rick's parents' house. Tyler kept saying, "Come on kwe-aks (meaning 'quacks')! It was so funny!



Tyler with our friends' children, Sara (age 4) and Dean (age 2).

Within a Few Moments of Landing in NY...

Rick, Ty, and I went to NY for a week to visit Rick's family. I have interesting experiences when I go to NY but this most recent visit provided an extra interesting one within just a few moments after getting off the plane! Rick's dad met us at La Guardia Airport. He greeted us, took Ty's car seat to install in his car, and was going to pick us up right outside of baggage claim. But he set the car seat in the car but didn't install it. You know how it is at the curb, you're supposed to move quickly. I can appreciate this and thought "Oh crap, this should have already been installed." Rick worked fevereshly to install it when I hear this rent-a-cop chick YELL at us like we were totally stupid, "What are you doing? You should have already done that!" For those of you who do not know me well, it's not what you say to me, it's how you say it. She was 100% correct in what she said but her tone was unnecessary.

I looked directly at her and said, "Ma'am, you are right, we should have installed this before we got to the curb. We made a mistake and we're sorry BUT you don't have to be so snotty about it." Here is where things get interesting....

I don't even know exactly what was said but she and I exchanged words back and forth but no swearing. She made it a point to tell me over and over how stupid we were. I kept telling her that she didn't need to be so rude about it. She told me she was going to give us a ticket. I said, "Okay, what are you going to give me a ticket for? For standing up for myself? Let me help you write that ticket" I WAS SO ANGRY! There were dozens of people there waiting at the curb so this all must have been entertaining for them. Oh, my goodness!

Finally the car seat was installed and we all got into the car. Rick said, "Jen, I thought you were going to punch that lady!" I said, "I wouldn't have done that, but I do not allow people to treat me that way." Rick said, "Jen, she doesn't even realize she did anything. That is just how people talk to each other here. But good for you for standing up for yourself. She looked shocked that you said anything to her."

It is good to be home in Charlotte!

Small World

Ty and I were out this morning running an errand and I had to do a double-take. For about a second I thought I was back in Phoenix. We were in a parking lot when I saw a Honda Element SUV with an Arizona license plate with a plate cover frame that said "Midway" (the car dealership) and "I-17 and Bell Rd.". Phoenix is a LARGE place but that dealership is only 6 miles away from the house that we sold before we moved to Charlotte!

I pulled into the parking space next to this SUV in hopes that the driver would soon return. I just had to say "hi"! (Doesn't this sound like something I'd do?) After all, the vehicle looked friendly because it 3 decals of sea turtles on the back windshield and everyone knows that sea turtles are a symbol of friendliness. I figured that the driver might be, too. Well, the driver didn't come back after 5 minutes and I had a lot of stuff to do so we left. What a small world.

Out to Prove Me Wrong

This is a tad ironic. I called Tyler's case coordinator yesterday to express my concerns about his verbal development. (She wasn't there so I left a message.) I also e.mailed Kat to seek her opinion about it since her son is just 5 weeks younger than Tyler. As if he was out to prove me wrong, these are the things that came out of Tyler's mouth yesterday afternoon at his Physical Therapy session at Plaza Fiesta:
"It's steep. I need help."
"It's so orange!"
"It's high. I need help."
"Let's slide."

Hmmmm.

Baby Shower - Mission Accomplished

I hosted Karen's shower today. I think it went pretty well. I owe my husband a huge thank you for taking care of Tyler practically the whole weekend so I could prepare for it. THANK YOU, RICK!! It seemed like people had a nice time and I think Karen got some nice gifts. Thank you to everyone for coming and thank you, Nicola, for all of your help. :-) The photo is of Tyler playing with the balloons left from the baby shower later that day. He had a blast with those balloons!

Throw it Away

Do any of your kids throw their toys away, toys they love? Or is my kiddo unique in this respect? He will get mad at me or Rick (or both of us) and he'll put one of his toys in the trash. Then he gets upset with us because he can't reach it. It's an odd yet funny trait he has. I have told him several times, "Tyler, it doesn't hurt Mommy when you throw your things away. You only hurt yourself." Of course, this logic does not register in the mind of a two year old but I try.

Tyler & Lauren and First Time at Monkey Joe's

Here is Tyler with his future wife, Lauren. They are playing inside of her box house. See, they already have a place to live!


I can't believe it took us a year and 8 months of living in Charlotte before going to Monkey Joe's! Tyler had a blast! I had a huge smile on my face as I watched him.

A Cart of His Own

We went to the Big Lots in Rock Hill yesterday. I love Big Lots. Tyler was sitting in the shopping cart, or as y'all say in the South, the buggy, and I could tell he was getting bored. I saw child-sized plastic shopping carts with play food boxes in them. I thought that Tyler could push one of those carts while I pushed mine; we could shop together. In theory, this was a good idea. Does anyone know where I'm going with this? I put him down, showed him the cart, and said, "You can push your cart while Mommy pushes hers." He started to push his cart and then began to run down the aisles while squeeling with delight. I chased after him with my cart. It was actually really funny and I was laughing in between saying, "pardon us," to the other shoppers as cut them off! Every shopper was understanding and smiled except for one old man. Sometimes he ran with his shopping cart behind him dragging on it's side. (I imagined how it would look if I did the same thing but opted to keep my cart in the traditionad position.) Oh, I wish there had been a video camera on us. Oh wait, I suppose the security camera was on. Should I call to get a copy of the tape?!(j/k) Let's just say that I didn't get much shopping done but we had a ball! Guess I should go back to Big Lots alone. hee hee.