Tales of the T's: September 2009

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Baby Bash 09

Baby bash doesn't sound a whole lot better than a baby barbecue, does it? We attempted to have a baby picnic this weekend, but due to the week of rain we've had, we had to move things indoors. Baby picnic didn't really seem to apply.

Anyway, the point is, we had a party this weekend to gather together some of the babes born over the last year to the nurses I work with. Yep, that's 6 down there, and that's only half of them. There was a bit of a baby explosion from March of 08 to March of 09. Would you believe, two of those Mamas are expecting again? And no, I am not one of them. :op

Tess (13m), Logan (14m), Reagan (10m), Madelyn (11m), Sam (8m), Blake (9m)

Getting six babies from 8 months to 14 months to all look at the camera and smile was just as easy as that picture depicts. I think Sam, the "baby" of the bunch, may be the only one smiling. Funny, I just noticed there are 3 boys and 3 girls.

Tess and Maddy

Tess trying to be friendly

Tess being over friendly

Uh oh, here comes the smack down.

I just want to give you a hug!

This was after she had already tried to lay down some love on Logan.

Apparently, my girl is a love bug,

(or I totally misinterpreted that and she is training to be a female wrestler).

Reagan's not sure what to think.

She knows she's not scared of Tess.

Well, maybe ......

What? I was just playing.

Blake and Mama Stephanie

This boy is pure comedy.

A bouncing baby boy, a little spitfire, a ball of energy.

I think he runs on pure adrenaline. Or Steph spikes the milk. :op

Connor could care less about Blake's antics. He was too busy mastering the ice and water controls on the fridge door.

While Tess was busy jamming to guitar hero.

And Sam was crawling around everyone's feet for fun.

Right before he fell into a milk coma.

I'm pretty sure most of them were feeling like this by the end of the party.

Despite the fact that there were 15 adults and 20 plus kids, only the wee ones got in the pictures. The big kids were off playing in the little bit of sun that finally showed up.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Last week in review

I've been busy, busy around here which is why I've been absent from the blog world.

To recap, my baby girl is 13 months old and then some. She has turned into a speed demon. Not yet willing to take a step on her own, but not letting it slow her down. She uses this push toy just like a little old lady with a walker. If something gets in her way, she just picks up her walker and moves it.

She has mastered the stairs.

Can't catch me!

Teagan, Tess and I took advantage of one of the sunny days last week to go out to lunch and to the park. Tess ate like a piggy, as usual. She was loving the mandarin oranges from Wendy's.

Enough with the pictures, Mom.

I think you can see her two little toofers in this pic. The two of them showed up about 10 months and we have yet to see any more.

She liked the slide.

But she loves the swing.

This is another of her quirks. She likes to drink water, from the faucet. Doesn't matter how fast the water is coming out. She will still try it.

She is another little fish, just like the rest of them. If she hears water running, she comes crawling, ripping the shower curtain open to try to climb in.

Tatum and Teagan in their "new" jammies. They insisted on wearing the flannel pjs despite it being 74 degrees in the house. I went to Once Upon a Child to find some sleepers for Tess. She is officially too long for her 6-9 month size. And yes, Tatum was giving Teagan a piggy back ride.

Never to be outdone, Travis wanted a pic too. I guess he thought he had to pick someone up to have his pic taken.

So, what else is going on around here?

Travis joined the boy scouts (Popcorn, anyone?)
Tatum is now going to ballet AND tumbling
Bobby made the dean's list for last quarter
I finished my quarter and am on a short break
I joined another weight loss challenge at work. Sadly, I was 1/2 pound heavier than when I started the last one. Apparently, going out of town three times in two weeks is not good for the scale.
Two months and $1250 later, it's confirmed. We are not child endangerers.

What, you say? What am I talking about? Well, many of you already know, but for those that don't, I'll enlighten you. On July 3, Teagan thought he wanted to follow Tanner on his bike. So, he went in the garage, got on his bike, and attempted to follow Tanner up the street. Unfortunately, Tanner nor Bobby or I knew. The police found him in the McD's parking lot. That's about 5 blocks up the street. The officer who brought him back charged Bobby with child endangering.

So, fast forward a few days. We're locking the doors, have a padlock on the gate and tell the big kids to shut the garage door after they get their bikes out. I checked on Teagan playing in the backyard, not even near the garage, then went upstairs to change a poopy diaper. I was gone maybe 6 or 7 minutes. When I came back down, I asked Tatum to go check on him again. She comes back all nonchalantly, "he's not out there" and goes back to watching cartoons, not a care in the world. I ran out the back, through the garage that I noticed was open, out the church parking lot behind us. I checked the creek behind our house, looked up and down the next street over, came back over to our house and looked up and down the street. It was about this time that I realized that I wouldn't find him on foot. All I could think was, I've got to get in the car. I went back into the house to get the girls and my car keys. As I was walking back out, a police car pulled up in front. It was the same officer that we dealt with on Friday.

I asked if he found him. Apparently, Teagan was riding his bike down the middle of the street in the plat behind our house, where we always take our walks. And, he would not get in the police car this time. Probably because he remembered how bad Mom freaked out the last time he came home in a police car. Anyway, I had to go up the street to pick him up. He was in the front yard of one of the houses we always walk by with a Mom and her kids, sipping on a juice pack. So, the officer followed me home to get my statement, and charged me with child endangering.

He went on and on about the seriousness of the incident. Um, hello? Do you think I don't appreciate the seriousness? That I didn't imagine every possible scenario of what could have happened? Anyway, we put his bike in the basement, installed a breaker switch for the garage and waited for a court date. Oh, forgot this part, I assumed Travis must have left the garage open, although he insisted he didn't. When we investigated a little further, Bobby noticed an old popcorn tin and my garden kneeler pad on top right underneath the switch to the door. We asked Teagan how he got out and he said "I pushed the button". Hence, the addition of the breaker switch.

When there are charges of child endangering, Children's Services will come by to make a house call. Of course, we had already installed all the locks and hadn't had anymore incidents, although not because he didn't try. There wasn't much else they could suggest. She listened to my version of the incident. My point was, even though the garage door wasn't closed the first time and the gate wasn't locked, they never were. We had three older kids who never left the yard, so how could we anticipate that he would. The case worker agreed and said she didn't feel the kids were in any danger (why, thank you for that), and closed her case.

With Bobby being in the police academy, we didn't want to take any chances with the judge. So we hired a lawyer. With his fee and court costs, we were out $1250, but the case was dismissed. I didn't mention it here before because my head was somewhere between being embarrassed and being pissed off. I mean who wants to admit they've been charged with child endangering? But then again, who wants someone telling them they are a bad parent and they deserve to be charged with child endangering?

The sad part was, right after that, an 8 month old baby was left in his Mom's car while she went to work, probably intentionally as he was on the floor board, not in his car seat. Then a 3 yr old died after shooting himself with his parents gun he found under the bed. And on top of that, two kids, a toddler and an infant were put in a trashcan by their deadbeat Dad. Just in the last couple days, a man left his 1 yr old in the backseat of the car when he fled the police, and a woman was arrested because her heroin and needles were sitting within reach of her two year old's car seat.

Somehow,on the scale of what's more dangerous for children, I just can't equate my Houdini 4 yr old with these other cases. And yet, we were all charged with child endangering.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Ahhh!

Alright! I am done with one class. I finally finished my case study which, if I hadn't of waited until the last minute, would have been pretty easy. But what's the fun in that? Instead, I did wait until the last minute as I am apt to do and just finished it, 2 1/2 hrs before the deadline. That's what deadlines are for, right? Motivation! I almost talked myself into running off and taking the kids to a corn maze. Thankfully I didn't because I never would have finished in time.

Anyway, I thought I would share some of the pics from our little Labor Day weekend trip to the Smokey Mountains. The afternoon we arrived was sunny. But after that, it was pretty gloomy. Sprinkling rain on Sunday and thunderstorms on our ride home. So the mountains were particularly smoky that weekend. (You know it's the rain and evaporation that causes the smokiness, right?)

We mainly went down there because Bobby wanted to ride on the Dragon's tail. An 11 mile strip with 318 curves. Oh, and did I mention, the mountain? I'm sure he was paying attention to the road, which left it up to me to check out the drop offs right next to that white line.

You probably can't really make out the sign for the switchback there, because uh, we were moving towards it when I snapped the pic. Let's just say, it was a hairpin turn, and there were plenty where that came from.

I don't think there was one straight stretch along the entire road. I was okay when we first started, thinking "I trust my husband. I mean he has been riding a motorcycle for the 16 years I've known him, and then some, and surely he wouldn't put the mother of his 5 children at risk, but whoa he's really close to the white line, and ahhhh, the mountain just drops off next to me. Would the trees break my fall or would I just roll all the way down, and if I did, how would they find me?" Yeah, I was okay at first, the first mile at least, maybe.

When you get to the end (the beginning?) you end up here. Deal's Gap, NC.

Home to this place and not much else.

They have this tree there, at the end. Which is a good thing. It pays homage to all those who have wrecked before us and those who did not survive.

I'm glad I didn't check it out until after we made the trip. Unfortunately, the fastest way back to where we were going, was the way we came.

Did I mention, it was raining? And we were riding a motorcycle?

I thought this guy was cool. If you click to make it bigger, you'll see he has an orange Mohawk on his helmet. I thought the kids would get a kick out of that. And see the girl on the back of that bike in front? Totally not comfortable unless you are a skinny little thing like her. No, probably not even then. Not to mention the cracking of helmets every time you stop or shift because there is no way to lean back. Oh, and the wind! The person on the back gets all the wind. Not pleasant.

We were not on a crotch rocket like that. Bobby took his cruiser down there, of which I have no pictures. Because uh, it was raining, and my hair was a hot mess.

After surviving the Dragon, we took a leisurely drive through Cades Cove.

I wouldn't recommend it, on the back of a motorcycle, on a holiday weekend. There were a lot of stops and starts, and fumes.

I thought the cemeteries were the most interesting, but then, aren't they always?

Check out this guy. I just thought that was funny. I can't say I have ever seen the mechanism of death listed on the gravestone. But I think someone was a little bitter. Russell was murdered by them dag blamed North Carolina Rebels.

There was another little section that seemed to have nothing but babies buried in it. Kind of sad. One family lost four daughters. One at age 2, twins at birth 1 year later, and another at birth 2 years after that. I can't imagine how hard it was, even if losing children was not uncommon back then.

It was pretty, and pretty congested. It took us several hours to get through it. Cuz someone saw a bear, maybe, and that causes traffic to stop, and uh, there's no passing lanes there. And gosh forbid people actually follow the signs and pull off to the side to avoid stopping in the middle of the road.

Yeah, this last one is a little blurry. I was a bit tired of the stop and go traffic, and since traffic was moving at this point, I didn't dare make Bobby stop to take a picture.

We drove back on Monday, through a couple thunderstorms, which was no fun, on the back of a motorcycle. We had to wait it out under a couple overpasses, which if you've never been to Kentucky, let me tell you, are few and far between. Needless to say, we were soggy and sore by the time we got home.

And now I'm going to bed. For some goofy reason, I picked up a day shift tomorrow.

Speaking of work, although not really since I'm not allowed to mention my work on the Internet. So let's just say, if I worked in a hospital and if I was a labor and delivery nurse, I might have worked on the anomaly that was 9/9/9 and we might have had 9 deliveries. Kooky, huh?