Soapbox, Please

I'm sorry but I cannot understand nor am I enamored by this "Presidential Euphoria". I mean, come on people, we have a new President. Get on with your day. No, he didn't get my vote, but I really don't think I'm bitter. It's just scary when people act like a former Senator is the next Messiah. I'm all for hope and change to make our lives better, don't get me wrong. And I do want many things improved, such as affordable health care. I've just never understood why people are so enraged with Bush. If I recall correctly from my Political Science classes, everything the President does goes through Congress. A bill does have to be approved by Congress before it is signed by the President. That's the point of a democracy. No one man runs our country but everyone is looking for a scapegoat. If people are so unhappy with Bush's politics and the past eight years , maybe we should all start taking a second look on who we vote into Congress. We choose who will represent us and I would bet money that lots of folks can't even name the representatives from their voting districts. Why don't we all take a few pointers back from the days of FDR. People lived simply and worked hard. The President isn't going to fix lazy or stupid. Don't take out a mortgage you cannot afford. Try to chip away at your debt. We all need to suck it up, do without some of our extravagances. That should make a dent on our economy.

Ok, so I've stepped off my soapbox now. Maybe I'm just grumpy because my stomach is hurting.

Hanging Out

I told you that we would use all nine hooks!

And the Birthdays Continue

We went to Campbell's house to celebrate her first birthday on Saturday night. Brandi made some yummy dips and we had fajitas for dinner. She had her little outfit made with the extra material from her cupcake bedding and it is soooo cute. I found the decal on her shirt-it says, Miss January. I got one for Finley, too.

She just stared at the cake for a minute and then decided to tear into it. What girl can resist chocolate-even if your only one!

They really weren't this serious. Finley was just tuckered out-she ran fever the next day actually. I think she had too much fun. Cita loves her girl!

I just thought this was a cute pic. The strings are from the balloons that the kids played with for hours. Finley got one wrapped up in the ceiling fan and we had to cut it loose.

Nana's traditional tiny cake in a tiny pan. For those that don't know the story, this was my great grandmother's little pan. She used to make mom and my uncle little white cakes in it. Nana now has the pan and makes everyone their own cake in it every year. Plus her chocolate cake is yummo. I think I mentioned this in a past post.

Brandi and Miss January. She is munching on some cake at this point!

Lot's of help with the gift opening. Maybe too much help? Brandi was a good sport to let everyone help. I've been to one year old parties where we were directed to sit on the couch and not move. No kids were allowed to help! I was sooo boring. I know that someone reading this knows exactly what I'm talking about!?!? Everyone helping is much more fun. I'm mean, who remembers that someone else opened their gifts when they were one? My point exactly.

We made a really cute little table with all our cupcake items!

Mr. and Miss January-our birthday kiddos! I swear they have a bond. I think Slade is sweeter to Campbell than anyone else.

And the big cake. It was really cute, too. Half of it was Mexican vanilla-I highly recommend that flavor!

And two things to add that are not birthday related-

1. My sister conned me into a session with a trainer for us together. Can I just say that I'm having a hard time walking and it brought back memories of beginning of the year basketball workouts in high school. I haven't sucked that much air up since Coach Sellers made us run lines after basketball practice. I hope there is some oxygen left for other human beings in the Lubbock area. I mean it was really hard. I haven't decided if I'm still mad at my sister or not. I'll decide in the morning.

2. I am going to be having the scope done on my stomach on Thursday. So please say a little prayer for me, as I am a nervous wreck with any procedures done on me. I hate it!!!

Birthday Festivities

We began the birthday extravaganza on Friday at Slade's school. He was "Star of the Week", which is code for your birthday is this week. He was the leader and got to do some special things throughout the week and wrapped it up with cupcakes and favors on Friday afternoon.

He wanted frogs for his school party. I found a picture of these cupcakes online and decided to try them out. The eyes are marshmallows and chocolate chips. They were really cute. I started decorating them on Friday morning around 7:15 and finished just before 8, so they didn't take too long. Finley helped eat chocolate chips before the sun came up.

The finished two batches.

Slade got to point to all his photos on his star board and tell about them. His teacher does a great job at making them feel really special when they are the Star!

The party continued on Saturday at Ready,Set,Go. We asked some classmates and soccer friends mostly to come play at the gym for his party. They played for an hour and ate pizza and cake the last thirty minutes.

Nana holding a girl that jumped about 500 calories off during the party!

Make a wish!

The other birthday girl is getting a little sleepy-it was right during her nap time.

The silence in the room was when all the pizza was passed out. You could hear a pin drop!

Only the very brave attempted this! Tucker is still trying to decide if he likes this or not.

He had lots and fun and was really sweaty.

They would swing from the rings into the foam blocks. These blocks will ruin all socks-we've learned the hard way. Finley loves swinging on the rings during her gymnastics class. This is the same place she attends class on Wednesdays.

The Ocean cake. It was so cool and very large! It looked like a wedding cake because it was so tall! Slade saw a picture of one and he wanted it "tall". I think we achieved that! We are still passing it out to neighbors! It was yummy, though.

We can't believe he's six!

The birthday group minus Finley and Emma.

So much fun in the big rolling circle!

Happy Birthday, Slade!

My firstborn is 6 today! I cannot believe that he has been here for six years, and yet we don't remember life without him. On my 25th birthday, we went in for my sonogram and found out he was a boy. Dr. Lampkin asked what I thought it was, and I said boy. I was right-mother's instinct maybe. The day I had him, I had been on bedrest for a month. I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, the 20th and had gone into the office the Monday before. Dr. Lampkin was gone, but the nurse checked me and said to go to the hospital in a week for induction. Later they called me back and told me the doctor wanted to see me once more before the 20th, so to come in on Friday. When I went in to the office that morning, my blood pressure was creeping up and he checked me-he was breech!! I had been telling them all month because I could feel his head in my rib cavity! Dr. Lampkin was leaving to go out of town, but sent us immediately over to the hospital. He said let's just do it today before he left and we could quit worrying about the blood pressure and now he was breech. I was just ecstatic that I wasn't giving birth to a breech baby-thank goodness for sonograms! I told him my mom was going to be really mad at him because she was four hours away and I was going in to have a csection now!!! Evidently he doesn't plan csections around grandmothers! I had to call Shauna to bring me my things from home. My sister was on her way to Amarillo and had to turn around and come back. It all was so quick, I didn't have time to get horribly nervous. So Landon Slade Smart was born at 12:44 pm and weighed 7.7 and was 20 inches. He was only 37 1/2 weeks, so he probably would have packed on a few more pounds if he was a forty-weeker! One of the three best days of my life!

And little did my sister know that five years to the date, she would be giving birth to Campbell Grace Beeler at 4-something in the afternoon on the 17th. Pretty cool! Happy 1st Birthday, Campbell!

Clean Sweep

You know I don't hold back on this blog. This is an honest portrayal of what was swept up off my kitchen floor on Friday. I believe there are some remnants of Baked Lays, leaves, crunched Goldfish, green and blue Playdough, and of course the purple crayon. No, I actually do have better things to do than to take pictures of my floor debris, but I found it quite astonishing. Please tell me that someone else has this much crud on their floors. I don't think we were this messy when I was at work all day-or maybe I just didn't have time to notice it! Can you imagine what's lingering under the stove and fridge?!?!?!

Could this small tyke be the culprit? In this photo she had "helped" make the salad and torn up about 400 pieces of lettuce. She actually did a pretty impressive job-very precise shredding. The floor was the big clue that she shredded a little like Edward Scissor Hands cut the shrubs-just imagine lettuce flying all about. But to her credit, all the pieces were about the same size.

Or perhaps this contributed to the kitchen floor. This was my surprise when I walked into the kitchen. She had taken the peanut butter off the counter and rubbed it all over her shirt and the pretend dishes from her kitchen. Nice. We all know how fun it is to scrub up peanut butter. I had some extra nut-oil moisture added to my hands that particular day.

This came clean with Tide and no extra scrubbing. Who would have guessed.

BTW, thank you for all the sweet comments on the pet rat. You all surprised me with your support for our pet cause. Well all except, I won't mention names, PPPPPPAAAAAMMMM. You rat hater! I'm going to sneak him into your purse.

Think What You Want

No, you have not clicked onto the wrong blog. Meet the newest member of the Smart household, Max. Or as Finley likes to call him, Maxey. I stand firm behind my decision. I will not be swayed. We are already attached to him. This was Slade's 6th birthday gift-a tad bit early. He is a four week old Dumbo Rat.

Let me explain my reasoning. It's quite a funny story actually. We, being myself, Brandi, Campbell, Slade, and Finley set out on Friday afternoon looking for a hamster. Evidently the "in-rodent" is a dwarf hamster. I just wanted a regular hamster like I had as a kid. If you know anything about rodents, a dwarf hamster is about as quick as bolt of lightening! We would have kept up with it for five minutes and then we would have had a fugitive. No way could the kids catch a dwarf hamster. Onto the second pet store and we ran into the same. Dwarf hamsters. Found a cute one that looked slower, but it might be pregnant the pet store lady informed me. Hence the slowness. Does anyone possess a normal sized hamster these days? Upon further investigation, we discovered that the hamster we were looking for is called a "teddy bear" hamster. They sent us to Walter's World of Pets. If you have ever been in there, you know that these folks are SERIOUS about animals. Finley was terrified-parrots, boas, lemurs and just about any other kind of species imaginable. Bingo! We found one teddy bear hamster. We'll actually, he was a Panda Bear Hamster. The end of the story. Nope. Read on........................

This hamster was just the size of the hamster that I remember. I go to pick up this lovely little rodent and it freaks out, jumps at me, tries to bite, and actually hisses. I mean who knew a hamster could HISS! I looked at the pet store guy and he was like, "yeah, we can't seem to sell him-too much attitude." I told him I didn't think this was the hamster for us. He asked if I had ever considered a rat for a pet. Ummm NO, I don't think so!!!! Sewer rat came to mind. His arguments were quite compelling to say the least.

1. Rats are much smarter that hamsters.

2. They have better depth perception and will not jump to their deaths like a hamster. (Could be important information with a six year old as your owner)

3. They are slow-unlike the lightening bolt dwarf hamsters.

4. They very rarely will ever bite.

5. Low maintenance-no vet, and you can leave them for the weekend.

6. They live 3-5 years(could be shorter with my two kids), so you aren't committed for say, twenty years.

I would say he was a rat expert. Wouldn't you?

So we arrived home three hours after our adventure began with Max, taped into a box that had a screen for oxygen, a cage and all the needed accessories to make a rat's life happy, and three bags of food from McDonald's (the food was for us). Not to worry.....................we washed our hands!

Some, well actually, most of the people we tell are repulsed. I may have lost some people for future playdates. But, in all honesty, we are all taking quite kindly to Max. He is sweet and calm and really furry. He is black and white with this little white tuft of hair on his head, not grey like a mouse in your trap. Campbell loves him. Brandi really loves him-he feel asleep cuddled in her jacket. I think he loves us too. It was either us or ending up in the belly of that big boa at Walter's World of Pets. Rats, no problem. Give me a spider and I'll be creeped out and have nightmares. Go figure. I firmly stand by my decision!!!! And yes, Kyle is alright with it. He just doesn't touch it unless absolutely necessary . And just so you'll know, all four pics are of Max. I did not photograph the "Hisser"-he is still making all the other hamster's lives miserable at Walter's World. I would be willing to bet that he will grow old in that store!!!

If you know the Smart's, you know there is always, always a story.