A nice dinner out

Anita's cousin flew into Nashville today for a training seminar that he has here this week. We drove downtown to tonight to meet him for dinner. We went to his hotel and he wasn't quite ready when we got there so we waited in the lobby for a few minutes. Just before Herbie comes down from his room Conner tells me he needs to go potty so we trot off to find the bathroom. Eventually we find it and go into a stall. As he is pulling his pants down I do the typical "clean check" of the potty and go to flush it and then grab a piece of toilet paper to wipe down the front edge so that he won't lean up against it as he goes to the restroom. Well, this is where it gets interesting. Why is nothing ever just easy with kids? As I flush it and start to reach for the toilet paper, Conner has his pants halfway down and tries to take a step forward. In doing so, he hits the tip of my shoe and since his pants are halfway down, he has no balance. So, he sticks his arms out to catch himself and shoves his right arm all the way in the toilet JUST before the previous occupants urine has completely evacuated. Greeeaaaat. So, of course Conner still has to pee, but now his hands are wet so what does he naturally do? Start to wipe his hands on his shirt. I scream out, "STOP!" and grab his elbows and tell him to just hold his hands up. To which, he puts them over his head and I'm shrieking, "NO. No good. It'll just run down your sleeves that way. Just stick your hands straight out to the sides." And that's what we wind up doing. Standing there with the hands at the side while he pees and then I pull up his pants and snap them for him and we both go and lather up from elbow to finger tips. I then try to wash his sleeve some too and so by the time we get done, he walks out with sleeves wet up to his elbows and I have no idea of the urine content in them.

Conner and I then go out and meet up with Anita, Zach and Herbie in the lobby. While Conner is talking to Herbie, I share the story with Anita to her complete disgust and then we leave to walk out to the car. Conner of course, as usual, has to grab the hand of whomever is our guest and at that point I lean over to Anita and say, "There we go. At least I don't have to hold the hand of Captain Toilet Sleeves."


We ended up going out to eat downtown and then had a really nice walk around the downtown areas. Conner loves the batman building as usual and made sure to tell us that Batman plays baseball on top of the two peaks at the top of the building. We told him there wasn't enough room for that, but he insisted, so we had to relent. I mean, I guess I don't actually know for SURE if he does or doesn't.

Then, as we were just about to our exit on the way home, Conner pipes up after several minutes of quiet, "That eating place sure was a long long way away!. I'm tired already." It is of course 8 minutes till 8:00 at this point and Anita and I are both thinking... "I hope you stay that way when we get home"


ps. Anita couldn't stand it. She made him jump in the shower when we got home before he could get in bed. =)

Makes me CrAzY

I'm not sure what started this. I guess it was the whole Pink Lemonade thing, but who knows. I'm not sure where he picked it up, but so far this week it has come back up twice.

Today, after finishing his snack, Conner informed Anita, "The strawberries in this yogurt make me CRAZY."

I think this weekend we had an "Orange Juice makes me crazy." ... or maybe it was waffles. Who knows with this kid. I think they all do.

Jenny Pooh's Birthday This Week

I cleaned another photo up a little bit. The color was pretty good on this one, but it had some other coloring damage in places. It has lots of little orange dots all over the place on the photo. I tried to clean some of them up as much as possible, but I don't have time to make the picture "perfect".

Anyway, here is a picture of me with my little sister Jennifer sometime in 1980. I'm guessing she's about 5-6 months here, but that's a total guess. She's turning 26 on the 3rd (Friday), so I thought it appropriate that I made sure to post this picture :).

Happy Birthday Jenny Pooh!

A great old picture

This was one of the pictures that I found and scanned in. It was in pretty good shape, but I did just a tiny bit of color correction on it because it was off just a little. I love the photograph though and thought I'd share it with everyone. I'm going to make a photo post on the forum with all of these photographs with before and after shots when I finally get them all done so that everyone can see all the great shots restored.

Anyway, enjoy the photo. This is the whole crew circa September 1977. I'm guessing on the month, but it seems about right. The picture was taken at Lake Malone while we were celebrating Mom Mac and Grandaddy Clarence's anniversary. I'll get an exact date on it at a later date. The original is much higher resolution and probablya little better quality than this one. I compressed it at about 60% of the original quality and it is about 30% the resolution (size) of the original. I will make the original available to anyone that would like a copy of it though.



Front Row (L to R): JT Olsen, Paul Olsen, Maxie (Mom Mac) Yarbrough, Clarence Yarbrough, Clark Pollitt
Middle Row (L to R): Jim Teague (holding Brad Teague), Linda Teague, Bill Olsen (holding Chris Olsen), Trudie Olsen, Melvin Roberson, Bonnie Roberson, Arthur Yarbrough, Eilene Yarbrough, Georgia "Gigi" Hunt, Alice Pollitt, Jim Hunt, Basil Pollitt
Back Row (L to R): Tim Teague, Johnny Yarbrough, Mark Yarbrough

Photo Restoration

We went to my parents house on Sunday to celebrate Jennifer's (my sister) birthday. 26! Wow, can't believe it. It's actually on the 3rd, but we're going to be busy next weekend and wouldn't be able to make it up to Kentucky at that time. So, we went and had a good visit on Sunday, a giant meal, and the richest dessert I think mom has ever made. I loved it.

Anyway, while I was there I pulled out a bunch of old baby pictures of me and scanned them into the computer using dad's christmas present (a new all-in-one copier/scanner/printer). The pictures scanned very nicely. However, most of the pictures were quite damaged from years of UV light and just standard image degradation from the pigments "pinking" over time. Well, I brought the pictures home and I plan on "fixing" all of them, but I haven't had time to go over all of them yet. I have worked on one picture though and I thought I'd share the results. Below are the old and retouched versions of a picture of me from 2/8/1977 (5 months old). I've also thrown in a picture of Zach at 4 1/2 - 5 months. The picture isn't that good, but it serves as a great comparison. I mean, WOW, the kid look insanely like me. It's just wacky!

  


So? What do you guys think of the photo restoration?

The Beard - Continued

Well, it's been a few days. Today is day 12 of the beard growth. It's filling it, but there are still some gaps. Day 9 was a pain in the butt. It itched so bad all day I wasn't sure I'd make it till the end of the day without running to the bathroom and hopping in the shower and shaving it all off. Alas, I held out and it's better now. It itches a little on occasion, but it is getting more tolerable for sure.



I went and got a haircut this morning so at least I don't look quite as scruffy as I did with the giant mop of hair that was on my head.

Eating Stickers

Yesterday was just one of those days. Anita had been out with the boys (speech, library) and when she got home I heard them in there running around and stuff. Then, I hear Anita come back through the kitchen and screech, "Zach! Did you throw up? There's puke all over the floor!" I then here Zach gag again, and then immediately I hear Anita make that standard gag reflex sound. Then I hear her saying, "That's why we don't eat stickers! Did you get it all out?" Of course she's now all in a frenzy because she can't stand being around puke (what a fantastically awful sounding word) without also gagging. So, I can hear this whole interchange in the other room of her yelling at Conner or Zach to stay back and not to step in the mess on the floor and the whole time she is saying stuff to them, she says like 3 or 4 words then makes that gag noise. So, even though it's not very funny at all, and I'm probably cruel, I'm in this room and after about 3 mintues of this, I'm laughing to myself because to me it sounds kind of like this, "Zach! This is why we *gag* don't eat stickers. Conner! Don't step *gag* in it. Get out of here *gag* No Zack! *gag* Go to the bathroom *gag* and take off your clothes. *gag*"

Well, she then takes them both and throws them in the bathtub and while in there, Conner keeps splashing after being asked to stop, so Anita gives him a swat on the bottom and of course he breaks into hysterics and starts wailing, which in turn sends Zach into a wail because big brother is crying.

By the time the bath is over and the kitchen floor is cleaned up, Anita comes out to the den to toss towels on the floor and I can just see that look in her eyes. That look that says, "One word, and I'll jump over that wall and stab pencils in your eyes." So, naturally, I just keep my mouth shut and let her vent about the situation. Which was definitely not funny. ... at least not to her.... not yet. :)

mmmmmm.. stickers.... so tasty

Bouncing on the bed

Man, this was a full day I guess :). Tons of posts.

Okay, I forgot a great moment today. Reading one of Anita's posts reminded me. During that time that the boys were being quiet and playing in the other end of the house nicely, Anita was in here switching out some laundry. I had gotten up to get a drink and I went back to check on the boys to see what they were doing since I too had noticed them being quiet (read: not screaming or crying for mom or ...just not around). So, I go back to Conner's room and I walk in to see no sheets or blankets on his bed (Anita had been making the bed prior to this) and he and Zach are both standing up on the bed and Conner is jumping up and down chanting, "16, 17, 18, 17, 18, 16, 18, 17" - at least that's about what I picked up before I bust in (man I feel old) with, "CONNER! Stop that. Stop jumping on the bed. You're wearing your shoes. Stop jumping. You know you're not supposed to jump on the furniture, and you you're not supposed to have your shoes on in your bed."

I make him sit down and take his shoes off and then I tell him I don't want to see any more jumping on the bed. Well, as SOON as I step out the door and turn my back, I hear *creek creek* as the bed bounces. /sigh. I turn around, "Conner, stop. That's enough. Just because I'm not here doesn't mean you can jump on the bed. Don't jump on the bed at all, or you are going to be in trouble." Now, as soon, and I mean, as SOON as I finish saying this Zach (who is still standing on the bed) turns and looks at me and lets out this piercingly loud laughing wailing screech. Conner turns and looks at him and just busts out laughing as if in admiration. So, Zach now with his audience, turns at Conner and does it again. Conner turns to me and says, "Zach likes doing that." Of course. It's that simple.

I just turn and leave the room shaking my head, proud that my boys can at least play together and entertain one another.

PUBLIC RECORD

Here is proof. 10 years from now when I call you up and scream that my boys have broken a window because they were throwing a ball inside after I told them to stop, this is who taught them that it was OK. DADDY. It's all cute when they are young, but when do the rules change from it is OK to play baseball inside to it is NOT OK to play baseball inside?

Well, I guess if there is no hope to change them, then I might as well join in on the fun!!!

Girls and Poneytails

This happened the other day, but I wanted to write it down before I forgot.

It was a Preschool day and Conner had just gotten into the car. This was our conversation during car line and ALL the way home.

Conner: I got a treat!
Mommy: Good.
Conner: Madison didn't get a treat.
Mommy: Did you have a good day?
Conner: Yes.
Mommy: Did you listen to Ms Amy and follow directions the first time like we have been talking about?
Conner: Yes, but Madison didn't, she got in time out, she didn't get a treat.
Mommy: We don't need to worry about Madison, you just need to make sure you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Did you play with your friends on the playground today.
Conner: Yes, on the new playground (it was new like 3 months ago), but not with Madison, because she's not my friend.
Mommy: Now Conner, that is not nice. Why do you say she is not your friend?
Conner: Because she is a GIRL!!!
Mommy (trying not to laugh): Conner, you have friends that are girls. What about Allison and Gracelyn?
Conner: I love them, but I don't like Madison.
Mommy: You like the other girls in your Preschool class like Emma and Allison and Natalie.
Conner: But Madison got into trouble and she doesn't listen to Ms Amy.
Mommy: Well, you have gotten into trouble for not listening to Ms Amy. Do you want Logan and Grant and the others to stop being your friend?
Conner: No.
Mommy: So you should be Madison's friend.
Conner: But she's a girl.
Mommy: Well I am a girl.
Conner: I love you, but she wears pink.
Mommy: Gracelyn wears pink.
Conner: Madison wears her hair in a ponytail and I just don't like that.
Mommy: (Not knowing how to respond to the poneytail thing) Well, we are home now, so let's go say hi to Daddy and we will play with all of our friends on Friday.


End of discussion. Please note that Conner and Madison are friends (I think), but this was just one day's discussion. So please don't share this with anyone who has a daughter named Madison in Conner's class.

Boys in the Bedroom

Well, Brad set this up so we could both "journal" about our family life. So here is my first entry.

Today is Wednesday, a Preschool day for Conner. He is always excited when I pick him up and our conversation is usually the same as we wait to leave the car line and on the way home. He gets in the car and tells me that he got a treat from Ms. Amy, he then informs me who did not get a treat. He says an excited hello to Zach who is reaching out to him. Conner and I then talk about his day and he informs me who got in time out or in trouble during the day. (I quickly try to respond with an explanation of why it doesn't matter what others were doing as long as he is behaving.) Then he asks what we are doing next, then after that, then after that, then after that, etc. until I have listed all of our next adventures through tomorrow morning.

By this time we are home. After treats and snack, the boys start to play. Today I was doing some housework while they were playing peacefully. I was hoping for 15 minutes of uninterrupted productivity. After about 25 minutes, I became curious/concerned. I could hear them the entire time and I knew they were OK, but I wanted to see what they were enjoying so much that they didn't feel the need to need Mommy for fun, like ususal.

They were in Conner's room just playing and having lots of fun. They were playing together nicely!!!!!!!!! That is why this deserves an entry. I think this was the longest time they played together without Mommy or Daddy having to intervene because one was purposefully pestering the other. Conner was hiding under his bed and Zach was on top of the bed. Zach would move closer to the step stool, and Conner would roll out from under the bed and jump out at him. This would send Zach into fits of howls and laughter, which would send Conner into hysterics. This was all so cute and funny that I had to put it on film. So I don't have any snapshots to post. I asked Conner what they were doing and he said that he had taught Zach how to play catch.

All I know is that this hit me 2 ways. One, I was so excited that they could play together for a decent period of time and have lots of fun. Two, they are growing up so quickly!!!

I want to apologize for all of my typing errors. I am a horrible typer, and I couldn't figure out how to get this spell check to work.

Signs for the convention

I've been working on some signs for David and I to take to the convention with us this summer. Just trying to get stuff taken care of early cause I know a million other things will come up later on and we have so much to get done before it gets here.

Anyway, I thought I would share the two signs that I have made so far that I had laminated today.

Fixing the toilet

The handle on our toilet in the hall bathroom broke awhile back and Anita super-glued the arm back to the handle and actually it was a remarkably good fix because it lasted several months like this. Well, it fell off the night before last and yesterday I fixed it in the same manner using Gorilla Glue, because this stuff is supposed to be awesome. It was so awesome it only took about 16 hours for the arm to fall off again. /sigh

So, Conner and I ran out after dinner tonight to Lowe's to pick up a new handle. It was one of those really fun little Daddy/Conner outings that I always enjoy. He was in a good mood and even though he told me while we were driving there through the rain, "I don't like it when it rains on the weekends." You know, I think there's probably a song out there somewhere with those exact same lyrics. All I could say was, "You know Conner, me neither. I really don't like it when it rains on the wekeends either." Granted, today is Wednesday, but hey.. the kid has something.

We got to Lowe's and find what we were looking for - a new handle. As we are walking to the checkout and as he stops to look at something I prod him along with, "Let's go bud so we can fix this toilet you broke." (now, I now it isn't his fault, but was the one using it when the handle fell off so I wanted to see how he responded). He just said, "Not me. Zach broke it." LOL. oh me. So, I reply, "Wait a minute. Zach can't even USE the potty yet, how did HE break it?". He then tells me, "He was pushing the handle up and down like this - insert visual and sound effect of really fast pushing of the handle here -". /sigh. Yes, I have boys. And they are my payback for being me. It's okay though. It sure makes things fun.

So, we keep walking and then Conner tells me, "If we put Zach in the toilet and push the button then he would get sucked down and he would go outside." I'm guessing the cats should start staying long away from the bathroom.

Oh, and the )@&^ handle didn't fit. figures. back to Lowe's tomorrow night. But hey, maybe Conner and I can go together again, so it's all good :)

G'night,
Brad

A day in the life

I wanted to let everyone know that there are new picture sets up on the forum and I had some good stuff to say that happened today.

The day before yesterday I snuck up on Zach who was sitting in a bucket reading a book. It was so cute. It was funny because he was so quiet and just sitting there minding his own business...albeit while sitting inside the bucket. Click here to see all the pictures from this set.


The boys kept a close eye on the bread Anita was making to make sure all was as it should be. And to will it to work faster. The boys could sit and eat nothing but bread all day every day, I swear. Click here for the full set of pictures for this set.

Pink Lemonade

Conner walks into the kitchen this morning and tells Anita first thing, "That Pink Lemonade made me CRAZY last night" out of NOWHERE. It might not sound really funny to everyone, but it somehow was quite funny.

What's for dinner?

Tonight Anita was fixing dinner while I was finishing up some work when Conner walked in and asked, "What's for dinner?" Anita was fixing pasta shells stuffed with cheese and just said, "Shells" to which Conner said, "Did you take out the crabs first?"

Zach is such a little ham lately. He has taken to doing the "chicken dance" at dinner every night. He can see himself in the reflection in the window and so he does it and starts laughing at himself and of course as soon as anyone laughs at him, he starts hamming it up and keeps doing it instead of eating. We've been out in the den tonight watching the Olympics while I've been doing some stuff on the computer and Zach keeps coming out and standing up on the coffee table. /sigh.

Homework

I don't have a great entry for today, but I wanted to finish out the day by at least posting something so that I'll get in the routine of this thing.

I worked on some speech homework with Conner tonight. We worked on medial /sh/ sounds. Meaning, words that have the /sh/ sound in the middle of the word. Words like Slingshot, Ocean, Fisherman, etc.

He did really well even though he really didn't want to be working on the homework. It was hard to get him to concentrate and focus on doing what we were trying to work on, but he did it in the end. I'd say that 8 out of 10 words he can do really well if he slows down and focuses on what he's trying to do. He gets lazy and doesn't try to pronounce the whole word correctly. On multi-syllable words, I notice he often slurs or leaves off one consonant when he isn't focusing. It's more noticable if it is a word that has a syllable that is hard for him to pronounce. Such as, the word Slingshot. The /sl/ sound is tough for him and after each try to say the word "slingshot", I'd often ask him to repeat just the "shot" since we were focusing on the /sh/ sound.

Anyway, it's not too funny and it's not glamorous, but it's an entry :)


Oh, something that I forgot to mention from this weekend was a nice little trick Zach did. Mom and Dad were here on Sunday and we were all sitting around the living room. We looked over and there was a bucket on top of Zach's little bench (table) and there was a box on top of it. He was standing on top of the box, on top of the table. Figures. That, following on the previous day when I saw him climb up onto our bed, to stand on Anita's nightstand so he could get to the top of her dresser to get to the phone. This little guy is going to be trouble. I see it coming.

Conner and his New Roller Skates

Conner got some roller skates for his birthday but he hasn't gotten to ride them very much because of the weather and he didn't have any knee pads or elbow pads yet. Well, Anita picked some up while they were out one day last week and as soon as Conner woke up from his nap, he came walking in with the bag of pads and said, "I want to go roller skating."



So, Anita geared him up and set him loose in the driveway.

I've posted several pictures in the forum for this.
Click here to go to the forum and see all the pictures of Conner skating.

Growing a Beard

So, it's been 6 days since I last shaved. I'm going to be in a drama at our church of the Last Supper and I thought it might be nice to have the real deal beard to go along with the part. Of course the deal is... can I actually grow a beard? Who knows.. this will be the first time I've really tried. Here I am nearly 30, and I MIGHT be able to grow it to a full beard. As you'll notice, there are still splotchy spots though. Oh well. It kind of looks like a prison photo. "Hello, prisoner #883772 here."


Here's a happy fun collage of me with the new "beard", if you can call it that. I'll make sure to post more pics of it as it comes in and we'll see how it progresses.

Conner Teaches Mama-T video games

Mom and dad stopped by yesterday out of nowhere. They called from the driveway, in classic dad fashion. Well, we had a really nice visit and went out to dinner together at Jim and Nick's BBQ. mmmmm cheddar biscuits.... so yummy. Anyway, so while they were here Conner got out his video games (V-Smile) and he and mom played with it for awhile. It was quite entertaining.

In this picture, I think Conner was telling Mama-T she had to watch out for the alligator. After mom had tried playing the same board for about 10 times after Conner had already finished it of course, she finally made it to the end with an exhausted sigh, "Whew, finally! I tell you Conner, I'm getting hot just sitting here playing this game." To which Conner touched the sleeve of her sweater and replied in that classic seriousness that only a 4 year old can pull off, "You could take this off if you're hot." Connerism #11938 :)

So, we had a good visit and yummy dinner and then watched some Home Makeover and Olympics throughout the evening.

Click here to see the full set of pics for the visit

We got some snow!

We finally got a little snow worth playing in on Saturday (2/18). It was kind of powdery and not very deep, but at least it was enough to go out and play in and have some fun with. It was also very pretty while falling and it decided to keep falling for several hours which was nice. I only wish it had kept up the same pace for the whole day!


I've posted an entire series of pictures of us out in the snow in the forum. Click here to go to the forum and see them all.

Purpose

I have created this blog as yet another attempt to create a journaling project where I can chronicle the events of our family and the fun and funny things that happen to us. As every week passes, I look back on all the funny things Conner and Zach have done, and think... man, I really wish I had been writing this stuff down. Of course, I don't and then a week or two later, I totally forget those things that were really funny.

So, the purpose of this blog is to have a place for Anita and myself to come and journal those funny things that happen in a day. To have a place to write down what we have come to cherish the most in each day and share our feelings about what is going on in our lives. If for no other reason than to have a good place to store this information so that we can look back on it later, then that's enough.