No rest for the Choleric...

For those who don't know, my husband and my mother share the same temperament- Choleric. Both are great at leading, but don't tell them they're wrong without expecting a fight. They're great at organizing, but expect to get yelled at (loudly!) if you leave a room with a messy trail behind you. They can be very generous and good-natured, as long as you keep them in good spirits by keeping everything neat and tidy around you.

I, however (and a few of my sisters will understand) am of Sanguine nature. Very chatty and personable, fun comes before cleaning. Life's too short to do the same monotonous chores every day. One room a day should be sufficient, so long as the toilet's clean and the dishes washed. And if another room takes priority for the day (bedroom, perhaps) then the dishes are fine to sit til morning.

Anyway, here's a few pictures of our living room in the midst of holiday festivities:

One might think these pictures are from yesterday, Christmas Eve, before the gifts were laid out or opened. Nope, this is our living room by 12pm Christmas Day. We were up at 9:30am when Slade woke us, did all the gift exchanging, spent an hour playing with Slade and his new toys, cooked & ate breakfast then put all of Slade's toys away in his room. "A Christmas Story" started at 10am, which we turned on during breakfast, and before it had ended this is what our living room looked like.

Meanwhile, this is what Slade & I did: (alas! is that a grey hair springing up on my mother's head?)

I did what I could to convince my husband that the tree & decorations CAN'T be taken down today- the Christmas season just started, even though it's commerically over. I think I may have bought myself one or two days longer, max.

These are the before Christmas morning shots:

And then Christmas morning, when Slade discovered his new-ish GeoTrax & Rescue Heroes, and plenty of gifts from family and friends.

Honestly, this is his favorite gift, courtesy of Uncles Dominic & Anthony:
And the before-Christmas preperations...Christmas cookies, and attempts at photos of Slade. He was very uncooperative as you can see:

Merry Christmas to all from our home to yours!

Halloween pictures!

Since I was head of 'Pirate Treasure Photography: Documenting your most rogue-ish moments' I didn't get any pictures of my Halloween costume, but here's pictures of James & Slade! Slade was our Captain & James & I were his crew...

I had ordered the costumes from one of my distributors, but mine didn't fit right so I ended up spending WAY less at Goodwill ($15- Black gauze skirt, white mens button up shirt, black boots & black suede jacket) and sewed my own. Skirt got all slashed up; mens shirt was cut into a boatneck, hemmed into a drawstring & tied off-the shoulder for a flowing shirt; & the jacket I cut & sewed into a waist cincher.

I bought this 'civil war' gun from KB Toys and that was the highlight item!

Gifts from Gulf Shores!

Slade received a package in the mail from Mia, PopPop, Michelle & Grandma today! He was SO excited when I handed him the envelope- wish I would have gotten his reaction on film. But once he had opened his gifts, we put his new 'Gulf Shores' shirt on and went into his room to take some pictures! Here he is holding all of his gifts:Yelling at me to take the money from him:Playing with the sea-shell sea-turtles from Aunt Shellie:
Offering me a couple of the sea-turtles: (he was non-stop smiles, but EVERY time I snapped a picture, it was before/after he smiled- getting him to look at the camera was pure coincidence)Bucket head!Meticulously placing all of his new treasures in his bucket:

We put two of the four sea-turtles on his shelf for display, but he was insistent that he was going to play with two of them.

All in all Slade was thrilled to receive the gifts! Thank you so much!

Possibly a new move?

We've had some VERY interesting news lately, and I've waited to blog about it til we hear more, but might as well share.
We might be moving to New York City! Long Island, and more specifically, right in the middle of Manhattan and the Hamptons. James has been doing custom audio boxes/installs/wiring out of our garage and making some very complex speakerboxes. He's always been obsessed with all aspects of car shows and competitions, watching YouTube videos and teaching himself what he knows. He (well I for him) established a legit business and is also a 'wholesale distributor' for Aamp of America so he gets all of his supplies at wholesale.
Anyway, since his contract with the Army ends in September, he's been forwarding his resume w/ pictures to various audio stores in our area. He also is a fan of the Speed channel, and diligently tunes in to "Unique Whips" every night at 6pm. Will Castro & a guy named Reme started Unique Autosports together a few years ago, with Will as the owner and Reme as the shop manager. They do a lot of celebrity vehicles, customizing them with audio, upholstery, rims, whatever the client wants. Show's been on for about 3 years, and now it's mostly reruns because Reme left the shop to start his own, "Reme Designs." Well, James submitted his resume to Reme, dreaming that he too might land a job working alongside these guys.
Reme called James about two weeks ago, responding to his application, and after learning that James is military asked for a brief bio, as that would make a good character angle on HIS new TV show that is in the baby stages. They've talked at least once since then, and we're supposed to receive another phone call next week. All things sound promising, but nothing is set in stone.
Here's to hoping!

Building dining room forts...

Life here in Georgia is going pretty well!
Slade's almost two and is growing to be quite the independant, loving little man. He's learning the thrills of potty training, and refuses to sit in a wet or poopy diaper. He takes his dirty diapers off himself, then plops down on his potty chair. We haven't gotten him to actually USE the chair for its purpose- rather, it's a place to recline while waiting for mom or dad to fetch a clean diaper. I think once he pees in it, he'll catch on immediately, but I'm not sure how to coax it out while he sits.
He's also tall enough to turn on the lights all over the house. Barely reaching, he's up on his tip-toes and 'helps' to also turn them off when asked. He figured that one out yesterday.
I cut his mohawk off cuz it was grown out and looked more like a mullet when we didn't style it, and being in Georgia is bad enough- I don't like my kid to blend in so well, lol.
Here's a few pictures to update everyone!

Working with Dad in the garage, building a speakerbox...


Enjoying the newly constructed (and colored) fort in the dining room...

Always one of action, don't mind the blurry Slade as he's caught eating a crayon

Peekaboo!

A secret hideout for serious truck-playing

And after a long scream-fit on the 4th of July, we find our Slade curled up in his secure fort, asleep...
Blurry, but an adorable picture nonetheless

Goofing around with Dad

Playing with the kitten instead of getting his diaper changed

Don't mind it being sideways- fish kisses!

Brief update

As always, since I wait so long in between posts, there's been a lot going on around here. Medically, my elbow surgery went well and they removed the wires and pins out of my elbow. I had a huge knarly scar (again) stapled up, and I removed the said staples last night myself. I have an ortho follow up tomorrow morning, but everything should be fine as my elbow hasn't felt this good in about a year!
James had an emergency situation on Sunday which landed him in the ER. He ended up flat on the floor in severe pain thinking somehow he pulled his back, but it turns out he had a kidney stone the size of a pea. Patient is recovering well, up and about as he is quite stubborn to take it easy. But it was a scary situation, and made for a LONG day.
Slade is about as cute as ever, impersonating James and I more and more and more. Which, in turn, is making us more and more aware of what we say or do around him. His latest: 'Slade, what does a puppy dog say?' to which Slade pants. 'Slade, what does a kitty cat say?' Slade (while rubbing his wrist against his cheek, impersonating a cat cleaning its face): 'mewmewmewmew!!!' in a soft voice. :)
His speech is a little behind, probably due to his chronic ear infections for so long, but we work with him on clarification. His biggest addition to the vocabulary: going around the room pointing at stuff saying "What's this?" And the dogs aren't allowed to roam around the house when they're inside, so we yell "KITCHEN!" when they push the boundary. Slade, today, after James yelled "KITCHEN!" ran after the dogs and screamed as clear as day, "Get in KITCHEN!!!" much to our surprise. We are left cracking up at his antics everyday.

New Pictures!!!

It's been forever (again) since I last posted an update. There's been a few upgrades around here, namely James' surprising me by getting Slade's haircut...
side view, eating ribs...Sly little smile. The haircut is suitable for a little boy in his terrible two's!
Other new updates include renovation of our master bath (finally!!!) It's been gutted out since July of last year. The bathroom is tiny, about the size of a closet. The original setup was all 80's, all yellowish and stained, vanity, toilet then tub. It's going to now be pedestal sink, toilet, custom walk-in shower, and storage by way of large medicine cabinet (holds toilet paper too!) and a custom in-set shelf James built. Here's some pictures, at least of where we're at right now. I don't have any before pictures to compare the differences- you'll just have to take my word for it being horrible! Top pic is of the shower floor and bathroom floor. Bottom pic is of the seat in the shower.

Shower with inset for shampoo, etc

Our shower! We're going to get an all-glass enclosure door when our funds get straightened out. If you've been to the Hard Rock hotel in Biloxi, you've seen the glass door style we're going for...otherwise, wait for more pictures when we get it done!

We've also added some decor in Slade's room. James painted my old shadowbox that I've had since I was probably Slade's age. It's very fitting to house some of our shell collection, and it works well in Slade's room!

When we left Biloxi during our last trip to LA, we stopped at Dino's gifts and bought some cheap figures to add to Slade's wall....notice anything 3D hiding in the seaweed?

We added the sea turtle and also a vibrant octopus.

Slade on a sick day, with his mohawk down.

All in all we're doing well. Have to go put Slade down for a nap. More later!