About a Boy

He's not a baby anymore. Gavin is 10 months old. It's hard to think that this time last year, I was carrying him in my belly. Boy, how time does fly. I've blinked my eyes, and here he is: So, in honor of Gavin,

Ten Things About My Ten Month Old:

1. He'll eat anything...even green peas. Yuck!
2. Speaking of eating, even if he just got finished eating, if he sees anyone eating in front of him, he's got to have some too. The boy is a bottomless pit!
3. He never just sits anymore - he HAS to pull up and cruise the furniture.
4. He loves the remote controls to the TV and the ceiling fan. If he sees it, he'll drop the toy he's playing with and go after it.
5. He waves hello and goodbye. And he says ma-ma, da-da, na-na, bye-bye, and hey-da (hey there?).
6. He sleeps with his hiney in the air.
7. He's very daring. If he's on the couch, he doesn't think twice about leaning over the side to try to reach for something on the floor.
8. He always has bruises on himself - on his legs, or arms, or his head, from where he's constantly climbing on things or falling on toys. He is definitely all boy.
9. If Jason and I are laughing about something, Gavin feels like he has to join in. He'll start laughing too. And sometimes you can tell it's a forced laugh.
10. He does this fake whining thing. He'll squinch his nose up and then whine. It shows his two top teeth. He looks so funny.

Friday Five

Today, I want to rant. So pardon me while I release some steam.

Five things that get on my nerves:

1. You know the big intersection at Westgate Mall? As you're leaving the mall and turning right to MERGE onto Hwy 29, there is a YIELD sign...not a STOP sign. I hate it when people stop and wait for all traffic to pass before getting onto the highway. A yield sign and a stop sign are not the same; plus, there's even an acceleration lane - plenty of room to merge in with the traffic.
2. Anyone ever bagged groceries? I'm not knocking the job, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that you don't put raw meat in the same bag as your other food - like bread, for example. Beef and chicken get put in a separate bag from the rest of your groceries. Or! Even worse...my Pine Sol and air fresheners are put in the same bag as food items! Sometimes, I'd rather just bag my own groceries.
3. I know when a child throws a temper tantrum that sometimes the best thing to do is ignore him. But when you're out in public, no one wants to listen or watch a screaming child begging his mom for a toy. If I ever caused a scene when I was little, my parents would not hesitate to spank me in front of God and everybody!
4. I hate going into a public restroom and having to hover over the toilet seat to do my business. We are not men! We don't have to aim! So why in the world is there pee all over the seat?? This is bad for me. I have terrible aim and direction, so hovering is not a good thing for me. But at the same time, I don't want someone else's pee on my rear. Basically, what I'm saying here is that I don't like women who are inconsiderate of others and don't clean up after themselves in the bathroom.
5. My phone rings a hundred times a day, and it's not even family or friends calling. I absolutely cannot stand telemarketers! Do they not have a life? Is it really necessary to offer me 5 different credit cards, and then have someone call me about debt consolidation? It doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Thrilling Thursday Evening

This wasn't taken tonight, but I still had to share it. I met my friend from school, Meredith, at the pool on Tuesday. This is Gavin taking a break:

I love how he's just leaned back chillin'.

Tonight, Jason almost stepped on this small bird in our backyard. He said it didn't even budge. We all went to check it out. It was alive, but didn't move an inch when we got near. I don't know what's wrong with it. It's got to be sick or something.

The sprinkler was on in the backyard - watering our grass since we're getting zero rain. The kids loved running through it. It made my heart happy that they enjoyed themselves. My house isn't very "kid friendly" or fun since we don't have any kids their age yet; and I just feel like they get bored at my house. So, seeing them do this made me feel good.

I love these kids.

Wild at Hollywild

Before I get to the Hollywild part of this post, I want to show you something really WILD. Check out my Wolverine husband.He said he wanted to "do something different" with his facial hair. It's different alright. I know my wedding vows said, "for better or for worse", but what about in times of lunacy? Now, on to Hollywild. Several months ago, my next door neighbor, Sam, was in a really bad motorcycle accident. He wasn't wearing a helmet, and he had serious body and head trauma. He's home now, and his wife, Tamara, threw him a surprise welcome-home party tonight at Hollywild Zoo (they're big animal people). Here are some pictures from the zoo.

I'm not an animal activist or anything, but I do believe in treating animals with respect. I know this totally contradicts itself...I hate seeing animals in cages, but at the same time, I enjoy going to the zoo. This pony was in the same cage as billy goats. I really didn't like what I saw.

Can you see its ribs and its hip bones sticking out?

Other than that, we had a great time at the zoo. I can't wait till Gavin gets a little older so he can enjoy it more.

Friday Five

Five reasons I'm celebrating today:

1. Kelli and I have hired a babysitter to watch the kids so that she and I can go scrapbooking today. (Pray for her survival.)
2. Gavin spent the night with Kelli last night, so I went to bed to peace and quiet; and not having to hear breathing noises on the monitor all night.
3. To go with #2, I was able to sleep later than 7:00 this morning. Even though my body woke itself up anyway at that time, I was able to lay in bed till 8:00. Then I even took a shower without having to worry about anything else but myself. That was refreshing.
4. I have my kitchen back! I can see the floor, I have room to move, and the floor has been swept and even MOPPED!
5. I'm celebrating the most today because of this:

My sunroom floor is finished!!! Jason and I stayed up till 12:30 last night (or this morning to be technical) finishing it and cleaning the kitchen and dining room back up. Pardon the things on the desk - now that I have somewhere to put my scrapbook stuff, I need to go through it and clean things out. (Yes, that's Gavin's highchair in the corner. Got to have something that belongs to him in every room, it seems.)

I have a safe place to put my prized possessions.

Hooray for Friday celebrations!

Happy Friday, y'all!

Belated Father's Day Pics

Gavin loves his daddy, and he misses him when he has to work late.

Father's Day picture Gavin chased Jason's dad's dog around. He loved it.

Jason's dad, Tim, with his children: Jason, Amy, and Little Tim

Pop with his grandkids

*I don't have a picture with my dad because he had to work on Father's day. I guess I'll have to get a picture of all of us together another time. I love you, daddy.

Splendid Saturday

What a great Saturday we had!

First, this is the joy I got to wake up to this morning:

Gavin and I joined my mom at Kelli's house to swim:

Before getting in the "real" pool, Mom and I found this in the water:

When I first saw it, I thought, "What a hairy spider!" But if you look closely at the picture (click on it to see if it opens up bigger for you), it's not hair. It's actually about 100 baby spiders on her back. We pulled out the Clorox Clean Up and drowned those little boogers!

And the best part of the day was that it was mom's birthday! Yep! She's getting OLDer.

Look at that HOT 53 year old!

Happy Birthday, mom!

Innocence of a Child

This afternoon, I went with Paul and Kelli - and all the kids - to BMW's health fair. (There were 7 of us, so we looked like the Brady Bunch walking in.) It was really neat. There were a lot of vendors giving away different things. They had demonstrations, and even had one of those models of fat. There was a kids' area with inflatables and popcorn, too. The kids could do karoke and win prizes. Even Gavin got some prizes - a mini beach ball and a fireman's hat. So, to the point of this post. Almost all the vendors had baskets of candy on their tables to give out as people passed by. Naturally, as we walked by, Jacob would grab some candy and put it in his bag. (It was almost like Halloween.) Well, on our way out, we passed a vendor with information about being tested for HIV and STD's. Instead of having candy, this vendor had a basket of condoms on the table. So...there went Jacob to snatch up some "candy". Just as his hand was about to go in the basket of condoms, Kelli grabbed him and said, "Let's move on, Jacob." You may not be bent over laughing right now, but if you were there to see exactly how it happened, you'd think it was hilarious. The funniest part was that we were dying laughing, and Jacob still had no clue what was going on. Ahhh, the innocence of a child.

Ten on Tuesday

Ten things going on in the Varner household:

1. Gavin has been so cranky the past few days. Not only does he have thrush, he now has a cold. His nose and eyes have been pouring!
2. I'm in the doghouse with my mom - not the first time, and certainly won't be the last. Life goes on.
3. My sunroom floor has been grouted and sealed! Now, just to get the baseboards back in place...it's almost done!
4. We have officially put gates up in our house to trap Gavin in the living room. That boy is everywhere!
5. What do I do for Jason for Father's Day???? It has to be sentimental. I have a few ideas, but I can't make up my mind.
6. I have faithfully watered the flowers on my front porch everyday. (For those of you who know me well, know that I don't do flowers. Nothing stays alive at my house.)
7. I got my hair cut this afternoon. It's up to my shoulders and has a few layers. I have really let myself go since having Gavin. It's so hard to "primp" now, so I wanted to do something to feel refreshed. We'll see how long it lasts.
8. Last night, I cooked dinner! I haven't cooked dinner for Jason and me in weeks! I made my version of Olive Garden's chicken scampi. It wasn't the exact recipe - instead of using white wine, I used chicken broth. It actually turned out really well...quite delicious, I might say.
9. I'm not a tree hugger, but I'm trying to "go green" by using the canvas bags when I go grocery shopping. I already have a million grocery bags and I feel guilty anytime I put them in the garbage. What a waste to only be used 1 time before going to the landfill. I love the canvas bags from BiLo - they're thick and strong - but the ones from Walmart are wimpy.
10. I want to have a yardsale. I have so much STUFF that has got to go!

Happy Tuesday!

Weekend in Review

It's been a week since I last posted. The last week of school was crazy busy, but now I sit here with no school worries! It feels so great. We had a very busy first weekend on summer vacation -

Gavin is officially 9 months old. He is EVERYWHERE in our house, and we have to watch him with a hawk's eye because everything he picks up goes in his mouth. He pulls up on the couch, in his crib, and loves to climb on people - anyone who will let him. On a sad note though, I had to take him to the doctor yesterday morning because he woke up with a swollen upper lip. It scared Jason and me to death. I was searching his crib for anything that he could have busted his lip on. We looked under his lip and he had white stuff on his gums; and it looked like blisters on the underside of his lip. The only thing that I could think of is thrush - but I thought only newborns got it. The doctor said I was right. It was thrush and it had formed sores under his lip. It's so pitiful, but Gavin seems to be holding up well. He's in good spirits most of the day, but I can tell his doesn't feel 100%.

We celebrated Jessie's 12th birthday (my niece). Friday night, she and a few friends spent the night at the ScrapHappy scrapbook store in Greer; then went to mom and dad's for breakfast yesterday morning; then went to her house to swim for the rest of the afternoon. Then, last night, all the family met over at Kelli's house for ribs, salad, and potatoes. Talk about spoiled! She got the longest celebrated birthday ever!

While we were at Kelli's we decided to see how Gavin liked the swimming pool. Jason got in with him first. It took him a second to get used to it, but once he did, he splashed around like crazy.

This morning on our morning walk, we saw this hawk in a tree. There were like 10 small birds trying to attack it, but the hawk wouldn't budge. I've never seen one this close up before.

Jason is almost finished tiling my sunroom floor. It should be completed this week - hopefully (a 2 day project has taken 4 1/2 months). It's going to be my scrapbook room. I'm going to post a picture as soon as it's finished.