Ten on Tuesday

(1) I feel like I've seriously neglected the ol' blog lately. I'm also WAY behind on reading and commenting on blogs. But I'm sure that as things start to settle around here, and our back to school routine is re-established, my time (and desire) for blogging will return. At least I hope it does. I miss my bloggie peeps!

(2) We didn't really do as many things on our Summer Fun List as we would have liked this year. Don't get me wrong, we certainly made a pretty dent. But in all honesty, when I think back to our summer, this is all that I seem to remember:

It seems like we spent most of the summer either taking swim lessons at the Y or swimming at my Mom's.

(3) Still on the list, and soon to come, a HUGE garage sale along with the kids' lemonade stand. My friend Tracey printed out a nice big banner for them to use on their lemonade stand. It is adorable and they can hardly stand it!

(4) I've got some really fun home improvement projects I am absolutely thrilled about, and lots of indoor painting that will soon take place. Stay tuned!

(5) Isabella survived her first week and is really enjoying being a first grader so far. We get to meet with her teacher tonight, and we're definitely looking forward to it.

(6) Sam has two more weeks before he starts his 3YO Pre-School. I'm ready! Him... not so much anymore! He's working overtime on his case for staying at Tata's all day, every day. How quickly things change! Poor baby...

(7) Scott has been lusting after a Dyson vacuum for years. No joke. However, I couldn't justify buying one while we had a perfectly good Hoover in the house. I mean, have you seen the price tag on those rug suckers? YIKES! Anyway, Scott decided to vacuum the house this weekend. Yeah, I'm not one to discourage anyone from such behavior! Amazingly, an item of clothing got misteryously sucked in and pretty much burnt the heck out of our perfectly good Hoover vaccum.

(8) Guess who is the proud owner of a brand new Dyson!

 

Yeah!

Coincidence? 

I think not!

(9) The Help

Loved the book!

LOVED the movie!

Did you read the book? Have you seen the movie?
The casting, the sets, the wardrobe, the acting...  It is AMAZING!
Seriously, go see it!
That's all I'm gonna say about that!

(10) Sam was being his silly self yesterday. So, I decided to pick up my camera and snap some pictures. This is my favorite one:

 

Technically, it's all wrong. But he's not making silly faces. He's laughing. Like, really laughing. And he's such an adorable and lovable and awesome child. And all that comes through in this picture. And that is exactly why I love it so much!

Have a great day!

Ten on Tuesday

1. I spent last weekend in Nashville. With some girlfriends. For a CKC scrapbooking convention. We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  Took some layout classes. Did lots of shopping. Ate at the Cheesecake Factory. I'm not gonna lie, it was HEAVEN!!!

2. In fact, I enjoyed the convention so much that it apparently reignited my desire to scrapbook for us again. Here lately all I ever work on are my classes, but suddenly I've got an itch to get to scrapping. And well, that just hasn't happened in forever!

3. It's official... we are now the parents of a first grader. Eeek!!!

4. Even though none of her former classmates are in her first grade class (not a single one! how does that happen?), Isabella has had a wonderful couple of days so far. She says her teacher, Mrs. Franklin, is very nice and she's already made lots of friends. She's very happy, which of course translates into me being very happy!

5. My neighbor and I are now carpooling. She takes them in the morning. I pick them up in the afternoon.  I love it!

6. OK, so I am now hooked on Words with Friends. HOOKED! Have you played it? You must. If you decide to check it out, be sure to play with me. Just search for user name "liztbutler". All I'm gonna say is that with my addictive personality, it's a really good thing I don't enjoy gambling.

7. As I mentioned earlier, my neighbor took the girls to school this morning, so Sam and I got to hang out today. All day. Today was the first time in a LONG time that I didn't have anywhere to be. (Notice I didn't say I didn't have anything to do. I just chose not to do anything.) So I made sure it was a very mellow day. We sat on the couch and watched episode after episode of Justice League. I read some of my book. We had lunch. We took a nap. We went to pick up the girls. Apparently my body was begging for some downtime, because it felt really good to just chill.

8. What I neglected to realize, until about 5:30pm, was that I had an eye appointment scheduled for today at 11:00am. Oops, it appears I did have somewhere I needed to be after all! Guess I'll be calling tomorrow to reschedule.

9. I'm not certain of what Sam's MDO start date is, but he is definitely ready! He can't wait to meet his new teachers and reunite with his little friends.

10. My brother is healing and feeling better and standing strong in his faith. Often times it's hard to see the good in life's speed bumps, but they are definitely there. And I am ever so grateful for him and his faith journey thus far!

Wordless Wednesday - Beautiful!

Now we're talking... "SAM" language, that is!

Once upon a time I was a very worried mom of an adorable toddler boy 

who would smile ALL day long, but would not speak.

I remember just waiting and waiting for the words to come... 

Wondering if they ever would.

Well, they did!

Our little boy is a talking machine these days. 

He talks NONSTOP!

All day! 

Every day!

I am no linguist, but I do have a passion for words. And I love how much his vocabulary has evolved within this last year or so.

The problem is that often times people don't necessarily understand what he is saying. And to be totally honest, I've had times when I've had to ask Isabella, who happens to be extremely fluent in "SAM" language, what it is he is saying. And I love how she looks at him, asks him to repeat what he is trying to say, and then turns around and without missing a beat, translates his words for all of us to understand. But I do have some favorites that I do understand. And I just happen to find them SO incredibly adorable (or funny), that they are worthy of documenting.

So here's what I'll do: I will give you his word, our word and I will use it in a sentence for the purpose of demonstration.

Ready? OK, here we go:

* GAY!, which really means YAY! As in:
Sam: "Mom, can I play outside?"
Me: "That's fine!"
Sam: "GAY!!!"
or, used while in the check-out lane:
Sam: "Mom, can you buy me some bubble gum?"
Me: "Sure, Honey!"
Sam: "GAY!!!"

*GOOSE, which really means JUICE. As in:
Sam: "I looooovvvvveeeee GOOSE!"
Which he really really REALLY does, and has been limited to one cup a day by his pediatrician, which drives Sam crazy and has turned him into the world's best negotiator.

*GUESS, which really means YES. As in:
Me: "Sam, would you like some juice?"
Sam: "GUEEEESSSSS!"
The first time he responded with "GUESS!", I looked at him, blinked twice and said "Yes?,... No?"
Which prompted him to look at me, blink twice and say "I said GUESS!"
It was all very confusing there for a minute.

* GAU, which really means WATER, and DOISTY, which really means THIRSTY. As in:
Sam: "Mom, I need some GOOSE, I'm DOISTY!"
Me: "No juice, Sam. You've head enough. But you can have some water."
Sam: "Fine, I'll have some GAU."

*ISABELLA's name has gone through an array of changes throughout the last couple years:
It all started with BA. As in: "Stop it, BA!"
Then it morphed to BEA. As in: "Stop it, BEA!"
Then came my all time favorite, BEATCH. As in: "Stop it, BEATCH!"
I won't lie, Scott and I just about died laughing every time we heard him say this. Yes, we're worse than a couple of 12 year old kids! And don't even get me started on the looks I got any time we were in public and he let out one of his very loud  "Stop it, BEATCH!" I can't help but giggle as I type this... 12, I know!
Which leads us to the most recent one, ISABEWA. As in: "Stop it, ISABEWA!"
Can you say adorable?

*KEEKEE, which really means CHRISTIE, our neighbor's name. As in:
Sam: "Hi KEEKEE! Look at me wide my bike!"

And finally, one of my favorites...
* TCBOY, which really means TCBY. As in:
Sam: "Mom, can we have TCBOY for dessoit? Pleeeaaassseee?"

So there you have it... your very own personal "SAM" language cheat sheet. 

Which I guarantee, will come in quite handy next time you sit down to have a conversation with him.