TTT: Season 2, Episode 43

1. Last Thursday, shortly after doing my weekly blog post, I'm ashamed to say I gave my pretty new car her first boo boo. I knew it was inevitably going to happen. I mean, really- brand new cars should have a large red target painted on their sides. And I literally drove around town feeling that way most of the time. Knowing it was going to happen and just wondering when. I tried to be uber careful all of time, but my munchkins in the back seat managed to get the best of me. And in my own driveway, no less! You see, we have a two-car garage but with a divider in the middle. This makes the individual doorways pretty narrow. Like to the point where we usually roll the window down and pop in the rear view mirror to make it easier to pull in and out of the garage. I was in the process of backing out and had managed to get the widest part (the mirrors) out and just that those last few feet of the front of the car left to back out when Kolbe yelled from the back: "Mom!!! Rudy messed with the light switch back here!!!" In our car that's a big no-no, so with one hand on the wheel, I jerked around to see if the light, in fact, had been turned on. Unfortunately, my hand decided to participate in the turning action and a second later I froze as I heard the massive scraping sound of the left front side of my car scraping the frame of the garage. Ugh. Actually, I'm pretty sure a curse word might have escaped my mouth. Oops. Of course, I made it out to be far, far worse than it actually is, but still! The shame of having to call Mark and tell him when we've tried so hard to keep this car in wonderful condition was just awful. But like I said, it was inevitable, I suppose. I did it to my brand new Camry back in 2004 just weeks after I bought it. I guess big black just needed a little character charm to add to her beauty. Just add it to the list of things I'll never live down.

2. We spent most of Saturday morning doing some much needed cleaning around the house. By the time lunch time rolled around, I don't think I had sat down other than to feed Grant all morning. I was pooped and looking forward to taking a nap while the boys napped. But just as I was getting the boys to sleep, there was a knock on our door. Our neighbor's oldest daughter (roughly 9) had been sent over to fetch Mr. Mark. The younger daughter (4) had fallen and was bleeding. Mark went over and checked her out and told her mom that she definitely needed stitches. He would have gladly done it himself, considering he does stuff like that in surgery all day long, but he didn't have a suture kit on him. So instead, we inherited older sister and older brother (6) while Mom went to the ER. No nap for me. In fact, no nap for anyone. Of course the boys heard all commotion, knew that the neighbors were hanging out downstairs, and abandoned nap time quickly. While the loss of a much desired nap was sad, I have to admit that it was kind of neat to have the neighbors turn to us in a time of need. It's something we had hoped for when looking for our new house: a neighborhood with friendly neighbors who care for and support each other. 'Cause really, I know our turn is probably just around the corner. And it's comforting to know that if something happened and I had no one to help me out, I could easily run out and grab any one of our neighbors and they'd be right over. We didn't exactly have those kind of neighbors at our house in Lubbock. Adds a nice sense of security.

3. On Sunday we made our first big trip to the zoo. We've been planning this trip for quite some time, but with the unmerciful heat down here, the days from late May to early October were pretty much off limits. Especially with a newborn. That is, unless we all wanted to die of heat stroke. We chose to go on Sunday because it was a rare occurrence of both Mark being off-call and my dad not being gone on a trip. Unfortunately we didn't get the memo that Sunday was Boo at the Zoo...a big Halloween themed day. Most of the people there were dressed in costumes and it was packed. I'm sure if we had gone a random week day it would have been less crazy, but it was a beautiful day, nonetheless, and we had a great time. The kids were fascinated by the animals. And I'm pretty sure Mark and I were too! It's interesting how animals seem so cool when you're a child, but when you're an adult, it's more of a feeling of awe. They really are amazing! We didn't manage to see the entire zoo...it's really big and the kids were getting pretty tired.But I'm sure we'll be back many more times in the years to come! All of us loved it.

I went a little overboard with pictures again this week...

this was actually supposed to be with last weeks pics...his 4 month head shot!

I know, I know.  The majority of you want to strike me down for this shot. But really, my dad is a HUGE Cards fan. We had so much fun following the post season with him this year...all the way from the final game of the Cards regular season where they beat the Astros to make it to the post season (we were in attendance at that game) to game 7 of the World Series. Kolbe truly fell in love with baseball. And really, we would have been happy to see the Rangers win too. We're Texans after all! But Pa just had to pick up these Cards hats at the St. Louis airport. And they look adorable on the boys.

You want to squeeze his fat little cheeks, don't you.

hark! A rare photo with Mark and me in it! Checking out the elephants at the zoo. I have no idea why Rudy isn't in this shot. Kolbs was getting tired.

Pumpkin carving time!

Trick or treat! And me in not just one but two pictures this week! (thanks for forwarding me this one, Dad!) I really think this might be my only photo of me with my three boys. I need to change that soon.

Weren't my little dwarfs adorable? Who knows...this may be the last year where my heavy persuasion of what they should be for Halloween wins out. Though they just had to choose the two dwarfs who not only look very much alike but wear red as well. Kolbe picked Doc so he could wear glasses, though he refused to wear them low on his nose. Rudy picked Grumpy 'cause it was the closest to looking like Kolbe's outfit. And the result of the Doc and Grumpy selection...two kids that look like they're dressed as Santa Claus for Halloween. Oh well. At least Dopey was pretty spot on. He got that one on default so I didn't have to mess with a baby beard.

Cutest Dopey ever.

My dad seriously loves these boys. Most of you who know my dad know how easy going he is. He has the patience with them that I dream of having some day. They really have become his best buddies. And he, theirs. This is them in his backyard where he set up his camping tent so they could hang out in there together. (while I ran to the grocery store. Alone. Yes!)