WW: A Hairy Situation

No hair

New hair

Neon hair

I was ran ragged by a 5 year old...

My nephew should be starting a new daycare/after school program next week, but during the transition my Lil Sis still needed a babysitter for him. She asked my Dad, and he agreed, but we all knew that really meant I would be the one doing it.



See, I work for my Pops so basically I got paid to babysit. Not a bad gig, especially if you like the kid you're watching & I just so happen to love my nephew.

For the past three days he was here with me until about 5ish when I get off from work and dang it, I'm exhausted! Truth is he wasn't even that much trouble, mostly playing on the computer, watching TV or playing with his toys.



I took him outside to play yesterday and within 5 minutes he says "I think this is perfect weather for the DS." and then proceeded to go inside to get his DS so I didn't even have to run after him.

The only thing I can figure is that I'm tired from all the talking. He's little Mr. McChatty, and when I'm the only one in the house with him I was blessed with ALL the conversation.



You may have seen some of my best moments noted on FB such as when he said:

"BTW, I have to go poop." in the middle of a conversation and then promptly went upstairs.

or "You're just being 'health-ful'." I asked him why I was being 'healthful' thinking maybe he noticed all the fruit I was eating. Nope. I was being 'healthful' because I wouldn't let him play on the computer. He meant to say hateful.

or yesterday when he was watching Teen Titans & they had a monster of some sort on there. He ran over to tell me about it and excitedly said it was "terrified". "So he was scared of the Teen Titans?" I asked. "No he was scary." "OH, so he was 'terrifyING'?" "Yeah he was terrified!"



All the talking was truly exhausting when I'm usually here by myself but I think I've narrowed it down and found the real reason why I'm so tired. Everyday I faced with goldfish crackers, gummy bears, french fries, peanuts, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches - all mocking me & testing my willpower.



You don't know how hard it was to throw away the popcorn chicken he didn't eat because he doesn't "like little chicken".

Or maybe you do know.

Kudos to all you mothers of small kids. You are my new heroes.

This is big news...

This little boy, first born to my youngest sister turns 5 today. I'm not sure who feels older at this moment - me or her.


Bratty nephew #3 has always been curious; talking to anyone who would listen. He once had a 6 minute talk with a cashier as I was trying to usher him out the door.

Like most kids he doesn't hide his emotions so when he's really happy or excited you know it. And you know it when he's not. He's honest when most people would bite their tongue. It's this innocence that makes him so special.


BN#3 loves his little sister, and has since she was in her mommy's tummy. He used to sing "You are my sunshine" to her before she was born.


He's crazy and kooky. He laughs at all my corny jokes and loves it when I wear my vampire teeth.


He dances on queue. And he's too cool for a normal picture.


Best of all he invites me on his school field trips and yells for me when he gets on the bus.


Cause he loves his Aunt Brandy.

And she loves him back.

Happy Birthday kid!

*****In other, completely unrelated news, the Grand Prize for tomorrow's Merry SITSmas has been released. I hope you are sitting down for this one...a $200 Target gift card! AND you get to be the featured blogger on Friday! Can you say OMG!? Plus they are giving out prizes every hour starting at 6AM (MST)...which I think is 8AM my time. So join me and my other SITSa's tomorrow.*****

Gratituesday

It's been a while since I did a Gratituesday post but I thought it would be appropriate considering Thanksgiving is this week. It always humbles me to actually think of everything I'm thankful for.

I have been blessed to have many great people in my life and to have have lots of nice things, but nothing is more important to me than family. I have a relatively small family, that while not perfect, they have been there for me my entire life at one point or another.

Each day I'm thankful for S and what he's brought to my life, including SS and SD and now Lil J. But before I met him there's always been my Dad, Aunt M, my two sisters and most importantly my Granny.


Granny passed away in January of this year so it will be my first holiday without her here. It will be tough since she was more my Mother than Grandmother, but I still have her in my heart and memories so even though she isn't there I won't be without her.

This year I've been exceptionally blessed to have two precious, adorable, girls added to my family. My first niece was born in May and then we welcomed Lil J in October. I love all my nephews but after 20 years+ of nothing but boys it was a nice surprise to have girls added to our family.



This holiday season I look forward to spending time with all my family and friends and I'm grateful to have so many special people in my life.

My bad...

I know I never posted yesterday but it was pretty busy around here. Then after work we had darts.

I'm still a good person though.

I promise I am.

Look I can prove it.

I made cookies for the boosters bakesale and snack mix for the hospitality tent. There were other ways I could have spent my Friday night but instead I did my duty at the stove.



I bought and delivered 20 plastic & 20 real pumpkins to Bratty Nephew #3's school for his Halloween party.


Delivery included carrying all the pumpkins to the classroom. And while I'm a good person, I'm not too smart. I didn't think to put them in some sort of container or bag so Sis and I had to carry 40 pumpkins and a baby through the school hallways.



Totally was worth it. Just look at his face.



Then I stayed for lunch. Sat in a little chair, at a little table with my knees near my chin while little kids gawked at me. I'd say that makes me good right?



Tomorrow morning I will be up before the sun in order to sell pancakes to the masses at our local Applebee's. In our community Applebee's provides us with a fundraising oppurtunity by selling tickets to a pancake breakfast. They provide the facility, the food and the cooks. The students (& parents) will collect money, serve and bus tables. We get to keep all the ticket sales; last year we raised $3000+ for about 4 hours of work.

I'm not a morning person so I'm being good by volunteering to work the early shift.



I took this one to the doctor a couple weeks ago. For FIVE shots. For sure that makes me a good aunt.



On Sunday I bought SS an IPOD touch for his 17th birthday. On Tuesday I found out that our WV pals are coming in so I've planned to have a surprise gathering at a bowling alley with his friends to celebrate.



I changed this one's diaper on Sunday.

I'm good because I'm sharing this adorable picture with you guys. Just try to look at it and not go "awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"...


And finally I'm good because I did not get out of my car this morning and physically assault the lady that rode straight through a stop sign. Causing me to slam on my brakes, throw all my stuff to the ground and give myself a sore neck. I'm good because I didn't proceed to follow this lady to wherever she was going and give her a piece of my mind and taking with me a few pieces of her hair. I'm good because I'll refrain from finding her house and slashing her tires as I've fantasized about for the last hour.

I'm good because S told me I need to be. TGIF!

It's what time???

Okay my day has obviously gotten away from me seeing as it's after 2 o'clock and I haven't blogged, or read most of my daily blogs, or did any work. What the hell have I been doing?

Dunno.

Anywho...here are some recent (as in last week) pictures of my darlin' granddaughter who will loving be known as Lil J.






Oh and my sis said that I made bratty nephew #3 sound like a brat/hellion in my previous post so to clarify, I think he did very well for a kid that had 5 shots PLUS he got stuck for a blood sample, had xrays taken and had to pee in a cup all in one day.

That being said he still was supposed to put his toys away when my babysitting session was done. Instead I had to crawl my big bootay around picking up no less than 120,000 little toys once he left.

Not a pretty picture.

Cheating again...

Yesterday was one of those days.

I took my 4 & 3/4 year old nephew to the doctor. To get shots.

It was torturous. He got 3 shots in one arm and 2 in the other all while screaming bloody murder, kicking me and trying his darnedest to escape. I literally had to restrain him.

Then after that torment they wanted him to pee in a cup. I convinced him to do it by promising no more shots.

Why did they make me a liar? We took the urine sample to the lab only to have the lab tech stick the poor kid and draw blood. It was awful.

I was gone from work for about 4 hours so I had a ton of stuff to do and ended up working late, just making it to my hair appointment on time, therefore making me late for a booster meeting and missing S's tattoo appointment all together. Poor baby he had to go all alone!

We rushed through the meeting and I finally got dinner together at 9:00 BUT we had two guys there replacing our heat pump that didn't get done until 1:30 this morning.

Yes among all the other madness in my life we had to replace our f'in heat pump. And yet here I am...tired, overworked and with lighter pockets. Life is good.

Especially when you get an award like this.



Tattooed Minivan Mom bestowed it on me a couple days ago and I'm still giddy with delight. And since I've finished my morning coffee, I should have enough caffeine in my system to make my brain function enough to answer the accompanying questions.

1. Do you have the same friends since childhood?
Not unless you count my sisters.

2. What do you value most about your friends?
Honesty, loyalty and there overall undying love for me - I'm joking. Sorta.

3. Are your friends sounding boards?
Oh yeah. S gets the bulk of it, but we definitely use each other to get our frustrations out.

4. What is your favorite activity to share with friends?
Talking, shopping, just being together

I'm passing along the friendship love to

-Kim - We both love rock music and bad tv. Nuff said.

-Angie - I'm new to Angie's blog but I love her Monday posts. They are smoking hot. Plus, she loved all my favorite things for this swap.

-Kat - Not only is her blog smart, funny and well written but the lady behind the blog has got to be the most compassionate person ever. If you know her, you know why.

And since I can't leave you all hanging, here is a preview of S's new tattoo.



This is only the outline. He goes back in 3 weeks for the color and they are already talking about doing the whole back so who knows where this is headed.

Happy hump day ya'll!

Explanation Thursday...

Since yesterday was Wordless Wednesday, I figured that I would explain the picture I chose to post. It was really appropriate to post since yesterday was the last day of school in my district and it appears bratty newphew #3 is trying to escape from the bus.

Actually, he was just trying to get my attention during a field trip. All the little kiddies from his Head Start class rode the bus to a creamery & dairy farm. The picture was AFTER he sampled a bunch of milk (white, chocolate, strawberry & dreamsicle) AND all the kids had ice cream, so now you understand. ~Side note - this is a local place and all their products are made right there so they are to die for and as a chaparone I too got free milk and ice cream. Nifty huh?!~

Here's a few more pictures from our adventure:


The kids watching as she makes ice cream.


"No, I don't want to take anymore pictures."


Petting the baby cow...awww.


I had to wear a paper cap too...woowee.

Wordless Wednesday-This says it all!

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