My oldest monster, Patrick, has been growing like a mad weed since we moved to Alabama. I’ve been trying to keep a ‘redneck eye’ on it. That is my official way of measuring my son’s height. It goes a little something like this…I have him stand right in front of me and ‘measure’ where his eyeballs are in relation to my eyeballs. Pretty good, eh?

So I’d been ‘keeping an eye’ on him, so I thought. Then the other morning, while getting ready for school, I noticed that Patrick was not just a itsy, bitsy smidge taller than I. No, with shoes on, and myself barefoot - he was FOR SURE taller than I. More redneck measuring skills - itsy, bitsy smidge - or - FOR SURE. Pretty good again, eh? Yeah, so I made him come over to me so I could see close up how FOR SURE it all was. It was definitely FOR SURE. But the little bugger had shoes on - and I didn’t. See - all was right with the world. It was okay. I could deal. Fine - go on to school, boy - Momma’s just fine.

And then it happened. A weekend morning - both of us wandering the Redneck Roberson Castle barefooted…
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My wee little children (snort) have only three days left of freedom until the school bell rings once more. The same is true for their wee little cousins (who really are munchkins! ha!), whose school in the next town over starts on August 7th, as well. And their sweet cousins daycare was over on Friday, but, their school doesn’t start until this Thursday, leaving them without care for three days. Sammie and I were super excited to hear this news, as that means that we get to keep them for three days! We don’t get to see them a whole lot, so this was good news!

So the kids are here, and they’re all playing together - even the gangly teenagers - and they’re having a blast! Three days left - it’s a lovely sunny day out - and on Thursday they will all be stuck in the walls of their assorted schoolhouses. I wonder what five children would do on such a day as this? What is it they would find exciting and fun to wind down those last, lazy summer days?
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Man, oh man! We’re under a tornado warning until 3pm and a tornado watch until 9pm. We don’t, however, have time for any of this! All three of my kids have plans this afternoon/evening and this just won’t do! Here’s the blurb from the school district website:

STUDENTS BEING HELD IN SAFE AREAS
After the Tornado Warning is lifted, parents may check children out. However, buses may still be held based on the anticipated time before more severe weather may be in the immediate area.

School will not be dismissed on time, but will be dismissed as quickly as possible this afternoon.

They are not even coming home at the regular time, because, of the scary, creepy weather. I suppose there could have been news of this hours ago, and maybe even a day or so ago, but, I had no idea! To me, it was just a regular ol’ day! And then POOF! come 2:00pm, a mere fifty minutes before expecting my first delivery of monsters, there were all the icky warnings! I hate that, hate that, hate that! I want my kids home with me, for number one, when it is storming badly! And also, I got nervous they were gonna be on their buses. And if they aren’t getting on their buses, when are they going to get on their buses??

And worst of all…
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This is cool and super exciting news, ya’ll! My sweet friend, Mary, (one of my blogging buddies) had a baby three months ago, only he was way tiny and needed to stay at the hospital for quite some time. She thought he was going to get to come home last week, and then was hit with another, “No, we need to keep him a bit longer for this, that, and the other….” Sucker punch! Oh man!

I got news today, however, that she got to bring him home!!! She left a message for me on one of my posts here, and when I read it I was so excited for her, that I got chills and tears in my eyes!
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What?!  You’re going to do what?!

Flickr pic from Dizzy Girl

I’m going to buy my 13 year old son a dress this afternoon.  Pretty typical, right?  Haha!  Ok, he’s going to be in a Womanless Beauty Pageant at school! Isn’t that hysterical? A good friend of my other son was in it last year, and although we didn’t go (said son doesn’t like to inform me of much..hrmph…), the pictures were a SCREAM! His mother actually took him to some dress shop. Dress shop? Hello? I don’t even shop at dress shops, and no, the child will not even be shopping at the fancy boutique where I do shop for myself - WalFart. No, actually, I will be taking him to the thrift shop! He argued with me on this point, and I told him that if I bought him a dress at WalFart, he had to wear it a minimum of ten times! Ha!
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Our high school is in the middle of tennis tryouts.  My son is one of the ones trying out.  They get together and do drills and stuff for several days before the coaches make their final decision.  Shawn has been getting home and riding his bike up to the college every day, where they are holding the tryouts.  He’s really enjoyed it so far.

He has also had a physical at the doctor’s office.  (That was a big deal - the old man doesn’t like paying doctor bills to begin with, but, going to the doctor when you’re not sick?  What?!  Hahaha!)  He has also gotten new tennis shoes and a new tennis racket.  He’s really excited and has been looking forward to this for months.  He’s taken lessons back home in Dallas, and I’m just glad to see him interested in something physical, for once.  I do totally have a vision of this kid in the future as the lead developer for Bungie, or some such company - and I love that about him, but, I need him to get outside and get moving around, too!
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Sammie and I are in her room watching Pirates of the Carribean 3. I love these movies, although I pretty much stay lost throughout. Ha!

And I haven’t actually seen PC2, so I come by some of my lostness honestly. I’m enjoying it immensely, nevertheless.

Jack Sparrow is oh so adorable.

We’re watching the movie, the beast is snoring next to me (having gotten as close to me as he possibly could - he just wishes he was a lapdog - poor, giant thing), I’m blogging, and we’re playing ‘Oh Heck’ - multitasking babes, we are - my darling girl and I!

So anyway, I’ll catch back up with ya’ll tomorrow - I’ve got a few things here that need my attention.

Thank goodness!  It’s Saturday night, and the kids go back to school on Tuesday.  We’ve vetoed any more sleepovers, we’re gearing up to get back into the swing of everyday life.  I already feel like I can breathe better.  The holidays are so much fun and so exciting, and it is so nice to have the kids around more, but, now I’m tired.  I’m ready to just rest up and then get back into ‘life as usual’.

One thing for sure, I never know what day it is during the holidays.  Not even close.  I admit, I often have that problem during ‘normal life’, but, nowhere near as bad as during the holidays.  I do need a new calendar, too, though.  I’ve got some rinky-dink Pizza Hut full-of-coupons-for-the-year calendar that I am surviving with for now, but, I need to get up to WalFart and buy a new ‘Mom’ calendar.  It needs to have lots of space in each block to write down all the millions of things that the family needs to accomplish, do, attend…  Yes, I do have my beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful yearly calendar from my mother.  It is filled with wonderful pictures of the whole family, pets included, of course.  But that hangs in the kitchen for all to enjoy, and we can’t write on it, because, that would mess up the pictures.

These kid have been so busy for their holiday break, though - it’s been crazy!  I figured it up and I think Sammie had SIX sleepovers.  And she, of course, played with friends every single day.  Except for Christmas, of course.  Patrick and cousin David had a few sleepovers, here and at David’s house.  And Shawn had one sleepover and his ROCKIN’ party yesterday for FIVE hours!!  He invited about seven kids over and they had candy, soda, and cookie dough - yummm!  And they ordered pizza.  And they partied like maniacs in the basement - they were beating on the drums, playing the keyboard, and stomping the ever-loving daylights out of the Dance Dance Revolution pads!  Oh - and then Shawn went home with one of the party-goers, to have another sleepover at that child’s house.

So I’d say, they have had some good fun and are quite ready to get back to school.

Wonder if they’d agree with me?  Hmm….

That would be our house! Yep, yep, yep! Hubby went crazy for Christmas and now we have the COOLEST basement in town! All the kids will want to be here, at our house! Which is exactly our goal! Make our house the ‘cool house’ and keep the kids close by, during those tumultuous teenage years!

‘Santa’ brought Sammie a new set of drums - yes, real ones. And they are sweet! And he brought Shawn a keyboard, and he brought Patrick an electric guitar. Oh yeah, and he brought Sammie a much better karaoke machine than her little Barbie one! Now we can totally ROCK OUT down there! Mark thinks he and I should learn to play an instrument, too, then we can all play together.

It’s not just a concert hall down there, though. We also are set up for movie/TV-watching, game-playing heaven! We have a regular TV and a large flat-screen TV, an Xbox, and Xbox 360, and some other game system. Darn - I can never get those names straight. I usually call that other one a ‘gamebox’. I know that’s not right, though. Oh, I know - it’s a Gamecube, yeah, that’s it! And we have movies and games out the whazzoo - for endless hours of enjoyment!

And we, of course, have the Mack Daddy modern furniture down there, so you can get supremely comfortable while you’re hanging out at the Rockin’ Roberson house! Ha! Really - it is this uber comfortable, green leather couch, loveseat, and chair. And let me tell you - when you put the footstool in front of the chair - well, that there is a slice of heaven! It feels like you’re in a chair made just for you, it just wraps around you perfectly. It’s like sitting on a cloud. Anyone who sits in that chair does NOT want to get up out of it!

Yeah - we’re gonna have all the kids at our house, that’s for sure!

Check out our Christmas morning and our awesome musical surprises for the kids! We’re going to be the coolest, hippest family on the block! Come on over for a jam session any time!

Part Two: