playing at the mall & the trunk-or-treat

here are some pictures we took this past week. we have an awesome mall about 10 minutes away from our house that has this HUGE play place for kids. there's slides, a little climbing wall, enormous soccer balls & baseballs that you can climb on and go through tunnels. caleb was shy at first but soon warmed up and had a great time.

we went to the ward trunk-or-treat on saturday, it was just carrot top, fantasia, caleb and myself. ernest had been going on a 4 day long temper tantrum and lost the privilege to go so ben stayed home with him. the party was mainly designed for young kids. so picture an enormous redhead dressed up as a "zombie," sticking his face in a bowl full of apples. i was tempted to tell the people in the line behind him just to turn around and go to one of the other activities. i just don't think he brushes his teeth that often. so i'm sure his teeth are carrying some type of contagious virus, such as the bird flu or ebola. i would not even be surprised.

we had a good time anyway, caleb was more interested in handing out the candy then in actually receiving some. i bet if they were handing out cucumbers or apples it would have been a different story. he dressed up as a monkey, he is obsessed with curious george and anytime he looked in the mirror he would yell, "look at that! it's georgie porgie!" that's his nickname for curious george, i don't know where he got it from.

the kids are out of school today. you have no idea the amount of disappointment i felt when i heard that it was a "teacher-prep day." WHAT?? who do these teachers think they are?? don't they know the amount of suffering they put us through when they schedule days off? do your "prep" at home on a sunday! ok enough venting.

he's baaaaaccccckkkkk

our friend has returned. just take these two pictures and make your eyes blur them together and you will come up with our fresh-out-of-the hospital client. i must say that he was ridiculous tonight, ranting and raving for about 1 1/2 hours and pulling out all of the stops to try to go back. you see, in the hospital he gets to eat icecream and watch t.v. and not be held accountable. not so easy under the straders' watchful eye, is it? tomorrow, our "DAY OFF" should be an interesting one. we'll see if we can at least steal away to visit ben's ladylove over at bob evans. mmmmm....the turkey, spinach, tomato omelette. sounds good right about now. now the real question is whether or not a 'stack of shortcakes' is on the menu for the day. maybe it's the soup du jour. or the ben du jour.

ernest "isms"

during our stay here we have learned a new language. it is the language of ernest and on a daily basis we are constantly translating to each other and others what exactly ernest is saying. we thought we'd start to compile a list of some of the things we have translated so far. a few words we still aren't sure of & i'm willing to bet this isn't the last of the list. i will try to use each of them in a sentence.

making stones: as in, "hey ben, why don't we make stones some time? you know, the doughy stuff you pop in the fryer an' they come out an' you put butter on em."
translation: making scones

gay walkin': ben crossing the street, ernest yelling extremely LOUDLY throughout the neighborhood, "BEN! DON'T DO THAT! YOU'RE GAYWALKIN'! YOU COULD GET A TICKET! STOP GAYWALKIN'!"
translation: jay-walking

hargo: "hargo, hargo, watch me pick up this stick. hargo, i'm gonna run through that sprinkler. hargo, hargo, i'm gonna go to my room."
translation: here i go, an announcement ernest makes anytime he does ANYTHING

strawburst: "for my snack can i have some strawburst? them are good."
translation: starburst

mental spatula: (i've mentioned this before showing up on the grocery list) "ben said he needs to buy a mental spatula so he can flip them eggs real good."
translation: metal spatula

pasghetti: yes, he pronounces spaghetti just like a 3 year old does. pasghetti.

our trip to the fair

we decided on saturday to go to the state fair. this was after much deliberation over the "incidents" that happened on thursday by both ernest and fantasia. carrot top was still in the hospital and arrived tonight. we had a good time, ate some classic food, watched some really great fireworks and enjoyed a night out.

caleb was able to go to the free petting zoo which he loved and then spent a good 20 minutes at the sinks designed for a quick washing of hands. he loves water, he loves bubbles, and when you put the two together it is better than the entire christmas season combined, including presents and home made toffee. at least according to him.

ernest and fantasia rode the bumper cars and the ferris wheel together, then split up for fantasia to ride the "ring of fire." ernest claimed he had a sick stomach but we all knew better. the kid is afraid of heights. who am i to judge? so am i.

we ran into a crazy man who was dressed up as some sort of fancy leprechaun carrying a boombox playing patriotic music. and why not. a kodak moment if i've ever seen one. so that is who the man is in the shiny green hat. there is a side view also just to try to help the mental image.

we capped off a late night by a 25 minute, over two mile walk back to the car because we were too impatient to wait for the shuttle. we should have waited. i guess it gave me an opportunity to work off the tramillion calories i packed on in a total of a couple of hours. bonus!

finished!

just finished 'twilight' and it did not disappoint! definite page-turner and i felt like i was in high school again. i have to admit my imagination gets the best of me a little too often and one night i slept with the lights on. not because the book was scary but because i kept thinking that there was someone....or something... hiding in my curtains, watching me while i slept. i'm excited to read the next one although i've got to give myself a break before starting it because once i start, i'm pretty sure it'll be difficult to stop!

too cute!

so at church yesterday the primary got up to sing "i love to see the temple." caleb knows this song well and when he heard it start he stood up on ben's lap to watch the kids sing. he started singing along at the top of his lungs. people around us started laughing and smiling at him. if that wasn't enough, the kids stopped after the 1st verse and started to go sit down. well apparently caleb wasn't through. he busted out the 2nd verse with all the strength his little body could muster. we tried to quiet him down but he would not be shushed and continued singing all the words until the verse was over. luckily the next speaker hadn't started yet, the kids were slow to sit down. ben & i couldn't help but laugh because it was so funny. he sings along with hymns too, he knows a few of them now. it's so cute to hear his little voice & see him sing words he doesn't even understand. 1st stop, chapel hill 2nd ward. next stop, the record studios. cracked me up!

thanks mama!

i just got this in the mail from my fantastic mother & i'm soooooo excited! i've been wanting to read it for some time since i've gotten so many recommendations. i love surprises like this in the mail. i also love my mom!

only 8 fast sundays left to go

i sometimes have to remind myself of this fact when we have weeks like we just did. thanks ginny, for helping us see the light at the end of the tunnel.

all over a stolen fruit cup

wow, oh wow. we have now been witnesses as to why in the world fantasia belongs in a group home. up until this point we've seen a few minor displays of 'crazy' from her but she has been generally easy. i take that back now with all of my heart and soul.

so during the ernest-gone-wild time frame, fantasia was being fantastic. getting her homework done, her chores, and being very quiet even while ernest sat next to her at the kitchen table. she had seen the grill go flying and didn't bat an eye.

while ben and i decided to actually take some time to ourselves on our day off and enjoy an exciting shopping experience at target, fantasia enjoyed a shopping experience of her own. it started when carmella caught her trying to sneak some food down to her room. a fruit cup to be exact. she asked fantasia who gave her permission to have it and she tried to distract carmella from her stealing by yelling,
"FINE! I CAN HAVE WHATEVER I WANT! I'M GOING SHOPPING!" and began to pull canned food and bags of ramen noodles out of the cupboard and load her arms up with them. carmella prompted her to be compliant and obey house rules but that she could do what she wanted and there would be consequences for her actions. then fantasia put the food back and went into the living room and hid behind the couch. which would have worked except her foot was sticking out. gotcha! she then began to throw the BIGGEST tantrum i have ever seen. ben and i had arrived home about 5 minutes before and had gone straight upstairs without saying a word. suddenly i hear her yell up the stairs to me. i ignore her, because the kids are not supposed to talk to us on our day off or while we're upstairs. angel, our other staff begins to talk with her to calm her down but she becomes more escalated & i can hear that the waterworks are about to be turned on.
so i come down the stairs and she starts to rant and rave about how she had earned a "treasure chest" item (which is something you get if you've had a really good day, it's $1-$3 item they can choose from) 4 days before and she has been waiting patiently and she wanted her treasure chest item NOW. i calmly explained to her that she had made the decision to wait, there had been stuff in there but she didn't want any of it. i told her that the item would be there for her in the morning. well then she started pounding on the wood floor screaming,
"I WANT MY TREASURE CHEST! I WANT MY TREASURE CHEST! I HAVE BEEN GOOD ALL DAY! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR 4 DAYS! I WANT MY TREASURE CHEST!"
i again restated what i had said before, that i understood she had been waiting and that it would be available to her tomorrow morning. at which point she decides to bolt out the front door without any shoes on. it's pitch dark outside and there are no street lights here like there are in utah. it's like one street light per street, no matter how nice the neighborhood is.

so angel, ben & carmella all go outside. angel takes off running after her, while maintaining a good distance on purpose and carmella gets behind the wheel of the company van. fantasia soon tires on a main road and sits down, right in an area where she could be hit. angel asks her nicely to come over to the side so she won't get hurt. instead, fantasia stands up in the middle of the road and just screams her guts out. a man pulls over, asks if everything's okay and when he's told the situation, moves on. fantasia gets in the van after she is told that the goal for the friday activity was to go to the fair.

the three of them come home. i know this because i hear the loudest, most ear-drum breaking scream erupt from downstairs. the girl has been blessed with a great set of lungs. i actually checked the windows to see if they had cracked. then i hear CRASH! BOOM! CRASH! and this continues for some time. fantasia was ripping the entire living room apart, the only thing left untouched was a picture of jesus that is up on the mantle of our living room. at least fantasia had enough sense to not touch jesus.

as soon as she's done with that, she begins a huge bawl session, complete with the hup-hup's and throwing herself on the floor. did i do this at 10 years old? i'd like to think not but i will have to ask my mom for verification. maybe i am giving myself too much credit.

finally she calms down and goes to bed. all with the motivation to go to the fair the next night. i came down to look at the damage and luckily the owners are smart enough to not put too much cashola into decorating this home. don't get me wrong, it's nice, just the furniture items are semi indestructable. now i know the reason.

boondoggle and a broken heart

carrot top as i mentioned has struggled since monday. i am sure all of you are sitting on the edge of your seats wondering how his quest to "meet the love of his life" went and you may be able to tell the outcome by the picture on the blog.

basically carrot top said that he met this woman, went up and pledged his unabashed love for her and she returned the favor with a slap in the face and threats to hurt him if he ever came close to her again. tragic? yes. repairable? not so much. you see, carrot top has hygiene problems. MAJOR ONES. it is a sad thing when you have to tell a 16-yr. old boy he needs to take showers on a daily basis. and to have to go through the actual steps of what is included in washing yourself. i took a backseat to that conversation and gladly handed the wheel over to ben.

so i can just imagine the fear in this girl's eyes as she smelled the pungent smell of what surrounds carrot top by about a 10-ft-radius. think pig-pen on the charlie brown & snoopy show. then times that by like 15. i literally have to breathe through my mouth whenever i am close to his bedroom door and even then sometimes i swear i can taste rotten peaches. okay, enough of that.

but since that happened at school, carrot top has gone into what we call "avoidance phase." which means that he will do anything, ANYTHING to avoid going back to school. it began when he told us he was going to kill himself and walked out of his room with his belt strapped around his neck and began pulling both sides to choke himself. ben informed him that all that would happen is that his body would pass out from lack of oxygen, he would fall down, release his grip and then would begin to breathe again. so he tried something else. this time grabbing strands of boondoggle (remember that from girls camp? well apparently it's all the rage in group homes)
string and wrapping it around his neck. this went on for some time.

he informed us that he needed to go to the hospital, that he was going to hurt himself. we said that he needed to calm down and get a grip on life and deal with what happened. long story short, he continued to say these things and went to his psychiatrist who legally had to admit him to the psych ward at a hospital 2 hours away. that was last night. the funny thing is, i think he actually thinks he can get rid of us! not so easy, my freckled friend. see ya next week.

see ernest walk. see ernest run. see ernest throw a grill off of the back deck.

the past few days have been very interesting & entertaining between all three clients. monday carrot top was in fine form, i will do a new blog regarding that whole thing. but basically he's in the hospital in the psych ward of his own free will.

this afternoon was ernest's time to shine and then we will get to fantasia who stole the spotlight for the late evening. anyway, ernest was supposed to turn in his progress report from school today. he did, which his teacher had given him a zero in everything, saying he never did any school work. so our lovely staff (keep in mind that it is mine & ben's day off....which is ALWAYS when the poop hits the fan) was letting him know that he was going to earn consequences since he is always denying the fact that he has homework. well that didn't sit too well with ernest and he got ANGRY. more like flipped out. this doesn't happen often because ernest is well-medicated to keep these situations from happening. (side note: found out that his school hasn't been giving him his meds AT ALL since they ran out and decided not to let us in on that little fact)

ben and i were upstairs and we heard a huge crash, then carmella our associate staff called us and just said, "i need some help, ernest is off his rocker." so ben goes downstairs and outside to help with the problem. i look out the window to see a big potted plant on our back porch tipped over and broken. but then i notice something is missing. hmmmm...our huge grill. where did that go? so carmella sees me looking through the window & i motion to her to ask her where it is and she points to a spot about 10 feet away. i couldn't see the grill laying in pieces because there was a bush blocking my view. since we can't include pictures of the clients because of confidentiality, i thought i'd include some of the poor old grill and the potted plant. RIP.

ben is able to calm ernest down, we get some meds going in his system and he spends the rest of the evening being calm but non-compliant to the house rules. he decides to spend his time playing the playstation, which was then taken out of the home because he was abusing the right to play it. good times.

dreaming of the stars

so i dreamed last night that ben and i were able to visit brad pitt & angelina jolie in their penthouse apartment at the waldorff (spell?) hotel. we hung out with them for like an hour and then went to a big mall right around the corner from their building. they were nothing but nice, by the way. just regular people. anyway so we're on the 3rd floor of the mall when we hear crowds of people saying "brad pitt is down on the first floor!" so of course we hurry down to get another sighting of our new 'friend.' brad (he asked us to call him just brad) had decided to pick up some pizza for the family. we see him from a distance when suddenly i remember, he gave me his cell phone number! i can call him if i want to! so that's exactly what i do except i don't want to seem desperate. so i pretend i have the wrong number. i put it on speaker phone so the strangers around me can hear me talk to brad.

"hello?" he says...long pause where i freeze & don't say anything.
"heLLO?" he says again, now verifying for the strangers that this is, in fact, brad pitt's voice. they are all very impressed.
"um, adam? is that you?" i ask.
"no"
"oh, sorry about that."
CLICK. he hangs up.

by the way, his phone number, for any of you that want it is, #609-7800. i don't know the area code. you'll just have to guess.

2nd part of my dream in the same night was that ben & i went to visit jennifer lopez who just gave birth to two 8 lbs. twins. they were huge! i kept saying over and over to her that most twins are between 5-6 lbs. she had one girl and one boy. named them chloe and tanner, which i feel are very appropriate names for jennifer and marc anthony. in my personal opinion.

so there you go. if i can't meet them, i'll dream about it.

gives me the chills

this is a clip from the movie "camp," a movie that had great music by some talented teenagers but otherwise was sort of unforgettable. every time i hear this song though, i get the chills. where was she on american idol?

we thank thee oh god for a prophet

i got this forwarded email of something that happened during conference & i thought it was great. i love president hinckley's sense of humor!

>>After President Hinckley finished with the sustaining of
>>the officers of the church during the Saturday morning session,
>>Elder
>>Eyring had moved into his new seat on the stand. Unfortunately,
>>they
>>didn't show this on TV, but when President Hinckley turned around,
>>he
>>stood there for a moment looking at Elder Eyring (probably with the
>>little twinkle in his eye), then picked up his cane and 'knighted'
>>him
>>on his shoulder and head. Truly one of the funniest things I've
>>ever
>>seen him do.

school is in session!

fantasia has been relatively easy to live with. the great part is that she is smart in both social and academic areas. the sad part is that she is actually more advanced in these areas than the other clients in the home, who are about 5-6 years older than her. sometimes i forget that she's only 10 years old. then i am quickly reminded.

such was the case yesterday, when she said she was bored and needed something to do. i was in the office working on some things and so i showed her where we keep the games and puzzles so she could entertain herself. she looks through it and then goes down to her room. a minute later she emerges, carrying a HUGE pile of stuffed animals. 17 of them to be exact. she lined them all up on the couches, we have three of them in the family room (i was watching this all with the office door open).

next thing i know, i hear her talking. i say, "what?" and there is no response so i continue on. then i hear more talking. i lean in to listen and this is what i hear:

"huh? you talkin back to me? oh no you didn't! you've just missed recess young man, and if you don't stop your disrespectin', you'll miss lunch recess too!"

"what was that, chris? you givin' me attitude now? you're gonna be sorry mister because that is no way to speak to a teacher. you need to show me some respect!"

i stood up and peered out to see her speaking to her stuffed animals. she would then move one around and have it switch places with another one and yell,

"oh no you did NOT just get out of your seat!"

beware my little stuffed friends. school is in session and miss fantasia is kicking ace and taking names.

"i'm going to meet the love of my life today,"

carrot top informed us this morning. we usually read a scripture and set goals with each of the kids but normally their goals are something like "stay on task" or "follow directions." however carrot top said he wanted to set his own goal and today it was "i'm going to meet the love of my life." the kid cracks me up! he can be so funny sometimes, which is actually why the bad times with him make it that much harder, because we see his potential.

anyway we all teased him & he smiled about it. as he walked out the door to the bus we yelled, "go get her!" and he yelled back, "IT'S GONNA HAPPEN!" best of luck carrot top. best of luck.

made my morning

i love this song! i turned it on this morning while getting the clients ready for school. they were all grumpy & crazy...fantasia's got some serious attitude. but anyway after listening to the song it changed my mood. go ben folds!

it's a girl!!!!!!!!

so for anyone that didn't know i was pregnant it's because i'm not. however, the "stork" did deliver a package last night on our doorstep. the package is 10 years old and is our new client, we will call her fantasia. fantasia is the newest addition to our family & it's a little crazy that we now have a co-ed group home but we are trying to make the best of the situation.

i enrolled fantasia into elementary school this morning. it's weird that she is so young when the other two clients are in high school. so far she has been nice, calm and fairly easy. i guess we'll see what happens the first time she hears the word "no." the real reason i feel sympathy for her is the fact that this lucky lady gets to share a bathroom with carrot top & ernest. let's all say a little prayer for fantasia. three cheers for clorox sanitizing wipes! they will be her best friend, i am sure.

"mama wants to order me a stack of shortcakes!"

this is an actual quote delivered by the hostess at the restaurant bob evans to MY HUSBAND. no joke! she totally hit on him when he was paying the bill. it's a tradition for us to go there every thursday morning for breakfast & this hostess sees us together every time. she knows that we walk in TOGETHER with our CHILD. but apparently my husband is too irresistible for her to hold herself back from showing her true feelings.

so ben went up to the front to pay our ticket. he had to take out his I.D. because on the back of his credit card he always writes "see I.D." the hostess told him that he looked good in his picture and the rest of the convo went a little somethin' sometin' like this:

ben: "well thanks, it was a long time ago when i was younger, better looking and less portly." (ben is not portly i might add but he always calls himself this)
hostess with the mostess: "oh no, you look like you're in great shape."
ben: (chuckling nervously) "well that's nice of you to say. could be better i guess."
hostess with the mostess: (leaning over the counter, giving ben her "bedroom eyes" i'm sure of it) "mama wants to order me a stack of shortcakes, you know what i mean!!"
ben: (well past uncomfortable at this point) "well it looks like you're searching for a tip too!"

end of conversation. ben came rushing back to the table saying "let's go. i have a story for you!" when we walked out the door she said goodbye, i didn't know what words had been swapped between the two of them or else i might have grabbed his rear end on our way out just to show her who was the proud owner of the 'short cakes.' let me tell you what though, next thursday morning, i'm showing up in my wedding dress and she won't know what hit her. back off my baby's daddy!

jehova's witnesses, barfing his guts out & a well-deserved pop in the jaw

so the title pretty much explains our morning. it started off quite nice but things got a bit crazy when a couple of sweet elderly jehova's witnesses stopped by. they quoted a couple of bible scriptures, ben quoted a couple back. he got them water bottles and they were on their way. i did check to see if they had marked our door with a pencil (isn't that what they do if they're going to come back?) but no such luck.

after that we got one phone call from the high school stating that carrot top was "barfing his guts out" and needed to be picked up. we always give the guys just a little bit of time to "recover" since normally they are just trying to get out of a class they haven't done their homework for.

10 minutes later, we got a call from the principal stating that ernest needed to be picked up because he had been hit in the jaw by another student. ahhhhh, beautiful. we were just grateful to hear that it wasn't the teacher ernest had been threatening last week that had finally snapped and punched his lights out.

so they are both home. carrot top has miraculously recovered from his ailment but the consequences for coming home "sick" are that you stay in your room for the ENTIRE day. we have been sanitizing the house just to be on the safe side.

ernest's story is that his entire class had been placing bets to see if he would punch a kid or if the kid would punch him first. ernest claims that once the kid knew there was cash involved, he hauled off and punched him in the jaw. however, the principal stated that other members of the class are saying that they were witness to ernest threatening to stab the kid with a comb. a lofty feat, but not too lofty for ol' ernest. get him riled up, give him a comb, and watch him go! the other kid earned a steep $55 for the alleged right hook.

hope everybody else is enjoying their tuesday, we sure are!

i'll never, no never, no never forsake!!

i am loving conference this year. it has been a different experience being at the group home but the guys have responded pretty well so far. they actually are kind of excited to sit and listen to the apostles and prophets speak.

when elder bednar spoke, ernest yelled out, "hey! i met him! i asked him for his autograph when he visited our ward!" fantastic. elder bednar's son is in our ward (& in our bishopbric) here & twice a year elder bednar & sis. bednar come & speak. i wonder how often the apostles are asked for their autographs? it is just something that has never crossed my mind before, even if i did ever come face to face with them.

once i heard carrot top yell out in the church hallway, "hi elder bednar!" to elder bednar's son. he was really nice and corrected him, "i'm just brother bednar, elder bednar's my dad."

but anyway, back to conference. we have only been able to listen to today's session so far & will have to catch yesterday's on the internet. i loved president hinckley's talk and his testimony on the book of mormon.

ben was able to go to priesthood last night with his friend troy & they had a great time. it's weird that it's so late here, priesthood session goes from 8-10 pm. ben's tradition is to go out & get icecream with whoever is with him & he called me @ 10:30 saying that they were driving around trying to find someplace open. they eventually stopped at the grocery store and brought some home.

ben is so great, he looooooves conference and looks forward to it for weeks. he loves the morning choir sessions & sings along with the hymns. usually i'm kind of like, yeah it's nice, but don't have the same affection for the mormon tabernacle choir that ben does. i prefer solos, duets, arrangements and that sort of thing. but after today's morning session when the choir was singing "how firm a foundation," i don't know what happened but i just teared up. the spirit was so strong as they sang the words.

How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word.
What more can he say, than to you he hath said;
To you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

Fear not, I am with thee, oh be not dismayed
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid.
I strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to His foes.
That soul, though all Hell should endeavor to shake
I'll never, no never, no never forsake.

just reading through it again makes me cry. these words are so powerful and meaningful to me at this time in my life. just these short two hours of listening to Heavenly Father's messengers and the beautiful music written by inspired people has strengthened my spirit and testimony.

who knew?

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i tried to do one of ben's (or bev, or jen) pictures but he looked like ashley tisdale so i thought it would be mean to post it. especially after the episode at wendy's. but here's a picture of our little material girl.

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new book

also on the trip ben & i started reading "life of pi" and are totally loving it! we like to read books together, i'm a good reader and ben's an excellent listener. the last one we read was "the lovely bones." another goodie. anyway, this is very interesting so far, we are about 1/3 of the way through. my sister recommended it & i always respect her opinion for a good book. we'll let you know how it turns out.

a much needed vacation

so we just got back from taking a few days off and went to top sail island, about 2 1/2 hours away from durham. we stayed in our company beach condo which was literally like 30 feet away from the ocean. the condo itself was small, decorated and fantastic! also it was free so that makes it even better. our bosses just bought it from a lady who had decorated it to look like some lighthouses and seashells took their turns throwing up in each room. but it all matched and fit the beachy theme. i just am more simple in my decorating tastes, but who's judging? we had SUCH a great time just relaxing and being with our little family for a while. here are some highlights:

1) this was by far the FUNNIEST moment of the trip. the very beginning, when we were on our way to the beach we stopped at wendy's for some lunch. ben was at the wheel placing the order to-go. the man through the microphone called ben ma'am like 17 TIMES!! i was laughing so hard. first of all the man oversaid the word ma'am even if it had been a woman. every sentence started and stopped with it.
"ma'am, you wanted a chicken sandwich, ma'am?"
"ma'am, no mayo on that ma'am?"
"ma'am, just water with that ma'am???"
"ma'am pull up to the next window, ma'am."
my poor sweet husband has told me times where people on the phone mistake him for a woman but i didn't believe it. he said people have even gone so far as to call him "bev" or "jen." now i have been a witness. i love my boy!
2)while there, we made a pact that we couldn't talk about work. so instead we called the guys "those we do not speak of." turned out to be kind of fun, we may start trying this at home. but it helped us truly get away.
3) i was eaten ALIVE by mosquitoes! it was insane. we literally pulled up in the parking lot, i got out to start unpacking and had three bites on my arms immediately! i ended up getting them on my arms, my toes, one on my cheek and one on my "other" cheek if you know what i mean. they attacked me while i was in my swimsuit! okay it was more like upper thigh. but it makes for an awkward itch in public.
4) caleb became obsessed with his beach towel. he nicknamed it "tooley tooley" and carried it around everywhere, even slept with it. i had no idea i'd be arguing with a 2 year old about why it's not okay to walk through the grocery store wrapped in a beach towel. but then we thought you know what? we're on vacation. let the kid have his towel. so we were the ghetto family zooming through the aisles with a child wrapped in & loving on a tooley tooley. i'm sure people were thinking, "get the kid a blanket already!"
5) there was this store called "WAVE" that was about 5 minutes away that was this enormous beach gift shop. however it had a 50 foot shark in the front of the store, not real of course but still. you had to walk through its MOUTH to get into the store. it was like my worst nightmares had come true! i absolutely am terrified of sharks, to the point that when i was in high school & on the swim team, the way that i went turbo fast was by imagining being chased by sharks ready to nip my toes off. or rip out my brain, either one worked. so i may have been the shortest swimmer but i was darn close to the fastest!
6) i had the best time being with ben and caleb. it made me realize how lucky i am to have the little family i do. ben is the best husband to me & is such an example to me of how to treat a spouse. he makes me a better wife because he sets the bar for unselfishness, patience and kindness. not to mention his hilarious sense of humor. we laugh all the time together and that is what i love the most. we were able to talk about our goals for our family & our future & get a perspective on the life we have chosen for the next 9 months. and it was so much fun to be with caleb one-on-one, not in the group home where i have to constantly be on guard and watch him closely. i remember not too many months ago where i thought i had hit my stress limit, just having to go through all of his health issues. ahhhh, how things have changed. it's amazing how you can feel you've reached your limit and then look back and think, "that was a breeze! if only that was my biggest worry right now." but i loved being able to relax with them and enjoy just being us.

so it was hard to come back to reality, but that is what a vacation is all about! getting a little break, taking naps, sleeping in, listening to the waves 24-7, eating great food and then coming back home and getting back into it. we are forever grateful for the staff who covered to make it possible! they are awesome.

while we were gone, ernest decided to attempt to beat up a teacher (getting suspended until monday) and carrot top had a heyday standing up on our kitchen table and counters yelling profanities. but when we got home, the house was clean, the guys were in bed and we were able to not see them until the morning time. yippee! ben went to a duke vs. wake forest game this afternoon with them so i'm sure he'll have some fun stories to share after that.