Cataloochee Ranch

The last time "Sheriff Joy" came to visit, we took her to Cataloochee Ranch up in Maggie Valley, so her one request for her return visit was to go back. I didn't put up a struggle. Cataloochee remains one of my favorite places. As it turns out, it's one of the boys', too - especially Jones's! He was in his element - the horses to see! The leaves to throw! The horseshoes to toss (or, in Jones's case, to stack neatly on the stake)!

Both boys loved "fishing" by tossing leaves into the lake, and Jones concluded his visit by cuckling up on the couch in the "cowboy house" and reading a book about horses by fire light.

It was clear that his love of both cowboys and animals had found its resting place, so it's pretty safe to say that his fifth birthday party will be held here (unless he develops a love for something altogether unexpected between now and next October).

After such a beautiful visit this morning, I'm ready to start planning!

Mark-ed Man

Taking the most uncharacteristic action of his four years thus far, Jones SMEARED SHARPIE ALL OVER HIMSELF, FROM HEAD TO TOE.

My friend Sarah Joy is here - "Sheriff Joy," Jones calls her, and both she and I refuse to correct him - so last nite, Jones bunked up with Freddie. For reasons I won't go into (Freddie woke Jones up at 6:30 - a full hour earlier than he is used to, and Jones's behavior ... shall we say ... "suffered"), that can't continue, so Jones napped in our bed today.

Well, I THOUGHT he was napping.

When I went in to get him up, he giddily - though unnecessarily - confessed, "I colored me!"

You don't say?

I could only laugh. The only command I'd given when I put him to bed was, "Don't get out of bed." He didn't (the Sharpie was in my nightstand). Since I'd never explicitly told him, "Son, don't draw on yourself with permanent marker there, either," how could I be mad at him?

More, I was just surprised that Mama's Little Neat Freak wasn't completely LOSING HIS MIND over his fresh ink. His daddy, however, wasn't so laid back. As soon as Jeremy saw him, he was upset - so he took over the removal of the impromptu "art," which required a rub down with alcohol wipes and an all-out SCRUB with dishwashing liquid.

We'll be lucky if he wakes up with any skin left at all.

Later in the day, Sheriff Joy and I left to go to the grocery store. When we got to my car, though, the battery was dead, so we came up to tell Jeremy we were going to have to jump the car. He came out with us, and Sarah Joy asked if she should stay with the boys. They were in the den - behind the baby gate - so what could happen, right?

Well, I'd forgotten that Jones has recently acquired the ability to open the gate. A little later, Sarah Joy offered to go back in and check on the boys. She found them SITTING AT THE KITCHEN TABLE ("like they had good sense"), each with an opened container of yogurt in front of him AND cups full of chocolate syrup - both of which they had to get out of the fridge for themselves, which I didn't even know they were capable of (and I'm the one always telling my mom not to underestimate them?!?).

Again, I never explicitly said, "Hey, Boys. Please don't break yourself out of the den and then spelunk through the fridge to make yourself a snack," so I certainly wasn't MAD at them. I was just surprised - and pretty proud, to be honest. They've never done anything like that before - I was impressed with their independence, though I told them both at bedtime that, next time, they need to ASK me before they help themselves to something.

Still, Jones is either going through a personality overhaul, or he was DELIRIOUS from the lack of sleep.

Time will tell.

Pre-Halloween'ing

A couple of years ago, I read somewhere that it's a good idea to do "location shooting" for Halloween pictures - for instance, take a dressed-up bear to the woods or a pretend farmer to the feed store. Ever since, I've tried to do that with the boys.

This year was hard, to be honest. Since they're going as TOYS, I thought about a toy store pretty early on; I kind of envisioned the Toy Story section at our local Toys R Us, but after scouting it out, it was more like a Toy Story shelf that was otherwise surrounded by stuff from "Cars" and "Monsters, Inc," which wasn't a big deal, except that it didn't fit what I envisioned in my (absolutely, completely, and totally CRAZY) head. 

Our babysitter Haylee recommended taking them to play laser tag, playing up on the "Pizza Planet" part of Toy Story - an idea that I LOVED but knew wouldn't be feasible for a handful of reasons, not the least of which being that the boys would have NO idea how to play laser tag, and I would have NO idea how to get enough light in to a laser tag "arena." 

Thinking and thinking it over for the last several weeks has proven USELESS, so today, I was desperate - first, to get this ridiculous "Halloween location shooting" monkey off my back before my friend Sarah Joy came to visit in the afternoon, and secondly, to have a way to occupy the boys, while our house was being cleaned in advance of said visit.

Finally, I just decided to take them to the toy department at Wal-Mart. On the way there, it occurred to me that Kmart would be so much less crowded, so we went there instead. I can't say that we got any shots that I really LOVE, but at least, I tried to tell the story of my two little toys.

After we got home, it occurred to me that Freddie's room kinda looks like Andy's in the movie, so I tried to get some pictures in there, as if Buzz and Woody were playing while Andy was at school. Again, I didn't get any shots that I'm gonna print on canvas and hang in the house anytime soon, but I DID make a complete idiot out of myself for wasting so much time WAY overthinking something that no one else gives a flip about.

Happy Halloween, People.

The quality of this picture
is especially bad, but
FREDDIE'S FACE! 

Shadow Dancer