Boogity, boogity, boogity!!!

I'm so excited that I can barely even type it, but I'll be leaving in about 4 hours for Bristol, TN. My VERY favorite weekend of the whole year is here - the night race at Bristol.

We have reservations at a nice place in Sevierville.  You've probably seen it... it's the Clarion Inn right there on whatever that road is that runs from Interstate 40 into Pigeon Forge.  It looks like a Plantation house with big white columns.  Apparently it's supposed to remind people of Tara (from "Gone With The Wind") because there are about 4 ba-jillion pictures of Scarlet and Rhett hanging everywhere.  That part is rather annoying, but other than that, it's a nice place. 

I plan to have a weekend FULL of racing and carbs.  Racing.. well, that's obvious.  Carbs... that's because we'll sleep late every morning and then hit Cracker Barrel.  After the race on Friday night and Saturday night, we'll likely either stop and eat at a IHOP or Waffle House.  That means between Friday morning and Sunday morning, I'll eat breakfast food 6 times.  That, my friends, is a lot of biscuits.  Not to mention that my favorite restaurant in the whole world in in Knoxville and I'm sure we'll hit it at least once.  It's called Puleo's Grille and they have the BEST spinach dip ever.  I could eat it every day the rest of my life.  It's that good. 

In anticipation of my trip, I bought one of very favorite treats... mellowcreme pumpkins.  Yum yum yum!  I always look forward to the stores putting out Halloween candy so I can stock up on them.  I carry a little backpack to the race with crackers and candy, so I was thinking my pumpkins would be an awesome idea. 

That is, until I see that Yuri and Gigi have decided to make a pumpkin float with MY pumpkins and Haley's pink lemonade. 

For the record, mellowcreme pumpkins do not withstand liquid well.  Ugh.  So much for my favorite treat!

BUT, this is my favorite weekend, and something as simple as melted pumpkins will not rain on my parade. 

Let's go racin, boys!!!! 

I need to carry duct tape in my purse...

There are many uses for duct tape.  I'm about to start carrying it so I can tape
Yuri and Gigi's mouths shut when they start blurting out things that they shouldn't!!!

Most recent example:  We went to the high school football game on Friday night.  A nice, older man (friend of the family... or at least he WAS) came up and started talking to me.  Yuri and/or Gigi, it's all a fog now, placed their little hands on his belly and said "Wow!  You have a really big belly.  Is there a baby in there?"  O... M... G... I wanted to crawl in a hole.  Luckily, he had a sense of humor about it and laughed it off but I was still sooooo embarrassed.

I took Y and G directly to the bathroom and explained why we NEVER tell someone they have a big belly and we NEVER ask someone if they have a baby in there.  The baby part is my fault because I'm constantly pointing out pregnant women and saying, "Look, girls, she has a little baby in her tummy".  My new rule to them is that unless they see the baby's head coming out (relax, they think babies come out the belly button), they are NOT to mention it. We went over it several times, with me stressing how SAD it makes someone when you talk about their big belly.  They said they understood and pinky promised not to do it again.

The little liars.

Less than 2 minutes after our "talk" in the bathroom, a man comes up to ask me a question.   This is not a man that I know well.  I mean, I know who he is but we're not close friends.  And now we never will be because I will have to avoid eye contact with him the rest of my life.  Yep, they did it again.... I suppose the word "mortified" would be the closest thing I can use to describe how I felt.  I mumbled my apologies and herded my little monsters away as fast as I could. 

I noticed that Target carries some really cute duct tape designs.  I think we'll start with Hello Kitty.

First day of school...

Well, it's the first day of school and they're all out the door.  *sigh*  Do I have tears?  I must admit I do.  TEARS OF JOY!!!  I love, love, love summertime but I need routine.  Yes, I know my life is chaotic, but it's REALLY chaotic without some kind of "regular" day.  Plus, the start of school means the start of high school sports and I can't even tell you how much I love volleyball...and basketball...and softball...

In honor of the first day of her senior year, I made pancakes for Haley Rae.  This won't happen very often.  I cook breakfast alot.... at night...for supper.   A typical morning consists of Pop Tarts, muffins or cereal. 

The babies actually started their preschool classes last Monday.  They went to daycare two days a week all summer but I would let them sleep late and take them to daycare at 9:00 or 10:00 or whenever.  This has turned out to not be such a great idea because they got in a terrible habit of staying up late and sleeping late (and not taking naps!).  When I go in to wake them up at 7:00 now, they're NOT ready to get up.

I don't even know why we have two beds in their room.  Their new thing is to sleep piled up on top of each other.

I'm posting this picture just to prove that the "bed head" blog a couple of months ago was not a fluke. 

It's hard to believe Haley Rae is a senior, but I think it's even harder to believe Karlie is a freshman! 

Even though it's not technially their *first* day, I made a big deal about taking "back to school" pictures of Yuri and Gigi.  They were in silly moods - I snapped about a dozen pictures and STILL didn't get one of them both just looking at the camera and smiling.

Gigi being goofy.  Shocking.

Monkeys.

This is as close as we got to a normal picture.



Gigi has started asking to take pictures whenever she sees me get the camera out.  She's getting pretty good at actually keeping the camera steady and taking a decent shot for a 3-year-old.  She took this "back to school" picture of Mommy.

I'm thinking I look a little TOO happy to be herding all my kids out the door.  I look...well, almost giddy.  Don't judge me!

I know it's reality TV but...

I know it's lame and I'm really, really sick of reality TV, but I LOVE "Sweet Home Alabama" on CMT. 

I just watched last night's episode and cried like a freakin' baby.  Having actually done clean up in some of the communities hit by the April 27 tornadoes, I know the emotions that those guys were feeling were real.  Seeing the devastation in person is nothing like seeing it on TV.  So, I was already feeling emotional as I watched it.

Then she said goodbye to Cody.  Ahhhh!  Girl, what are you thinking?  Haley Rae is only 17, so Cody is too old for her or I'd be looking that boy up.  He's the kind of guy I want for a son-in-law someday.  I know, I know... I can hear my husband right now.  "It's FAKE... F-A-K-E.  He probably works at Walgreen's and never roped a horse in his life."  But this boy is for real.  My maternal intuition is kicking in and I just want to follow him around from rodeo to rodeo and cook him fried taters.  (He's so skinny - he obviously needs to be eating more carbs.)

And just when I didn't think I could love him more, he tells Devin that he is GLAD she didn't pick him because he would never be able to give her all the things she deserves.  Be.Still.My.Heart. 

This boy is a diamond in the rough.  Somebody needs to snatch him up ASAP. 

What do you think?  Cute couple?