Ask Amy Anything Answers

Last Thursday I opened my blog up to another Ask Amy Anything segment and I had some great questions!

My wonderful sister-in-law Amy, who we will have the pleasure of visiting her new house in Starkville this weekend, asked “What do you want for Christmas? Help a sister out.... :)”

Amy, it’s funny you asked this question. Esther, over at The Mommy Diaries sent me an email the other day with a photo of a shirt in it that was right up my alley. I love it! She knows me so well, and we've never even met! And since it seems that I’m on my political bandwagon lately, I got to browsing around and also found this and this, but I wouldn't actually put the bumper sticker on my car because I don't believe it would go over very well in the part of town that I work in. And here is my favorite of all four. Gotta.Love.It.

My friend Miranda from Nelson: Party of Four asked about a million questions. She's pushy like that. I'm gonna take them one by one.

"When are you going to have another baby? Jackson's not getting any younger...."
Obviously Miranda was one of the well-meaning friends that I mentioned in my last post about having another baby. All I'm going to say is that yes, we do want another baby. And yes, we are thinking about it. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

"Do you want a boy or girl? And don't say "I don't care as long as it's healthy" because that is the stale, generic answer that me and everybody else uses."
Since I'm forbidden from giving a stale, generic answer, I'll answer honestly and say that if I could pick, I would definitely LOVE to have another boy. It's funny that when I found out I was having a boy I was terrified because I didn't know anything about boys. Now, I would give anything to have another one.

All that being said, if God decided to bless us with a little girl, I would be thrilled also.

So the whole answer is that I would love another boy, but I would be just as happy with a little girl.

"What will you name it?"
I'm kinda funny about releasing favorite baby names for fear that someone will steal it and then I can't use the name anymore. I will say that my sister has announced that her little boy is going to be named Luke Thomas Gibson, which I LOVE, so any baby we have will not be named Luke!

Jackson has decided however, that he is going to call the baby Spidermonkey.

"Will you let Jackson help pick out a name?"
Maybe. But I draw the line at naming a child Spidermonkey, Allison, or Spiderman.

Seriously though, I decided as a child that I wanted my baby sister to be named Kellyn, after the aerobics instructor on Mousercise, and my parents went along with it. I would probably take any suggestions that Jackson may have into consideration.

"If it's a girl, what will you do with all of Jackson's old clothes you are stock piling?"
Keep them just to bug you. Kidding!!! I do have every single piece of clothing Jackson has ever received because I can't fathom getting rid of any of it in case we have another boy. And I'm a hoarder. And I do have a nephew on the way!

Lyndsey asked, "Do you like your job? Where is your favorite place to go with Jeremy on date night?"
Yes, I do like my job. I am blessed to work in a Christian environment and we are more like an extended family than coworkers. We can openly send prayer requests and with the way our country is moving, I know I am fortunate in that.

I still do want to write a book. I have begun working on a children's book. And by working I mean that I have a title page done. If I ever get it finished and published, every reader has to promise to buy 5 copies!

And my favorite things to do on a date night is probably dinner and a movie, preferably dinner at a Japanese hibachi place. I know we'll see New Moon when it comes out. I'm already looking forward to that.

Candy over at Keeping Up With The Jones' asked, "What are some of your favorite baby names?"
Once again, I won't release the top first name contenders because I would really hate to have to give the hairy eyeball to some baby name stealer out there, but I do know that if it's a girl the middle name will definitely be Elizabeth. And I know it will totally bug y'all, but our favorite girl names begin with a "C" and a "C" and an "M" and our favorite boy names begin with an "L" a "C" a "G" and (ssshhhh) even another "J".

That's all for today. I hope you have a wonderful Thursday!

He Said What???

Jeremy went to pick Jackson up from school yesterday and had the most interesting conversation with Jackson's teacher, Mrs. Deanna.

Mrs. Deanna: "We were talking about policemen today and Jackson told me about the time that you had to call the police to help get him out of a tree."

Jeremy: "Ummm.....excuse me?"

Mrs. Deanna: "Yeah, he told us that he had climbed into a tree and he got way too high and got stuck, so you had to call the police to come help. The policeman couldn't help so he called the firemen and then the firemen came out to your house. Jackson told me they brought the ladder truck and as they were raising it it was making a 'ssssshhhhhhh' sound. When they got the ladder up, the firemen climbed the ladder and got him out of the tree."

Jeremy: "I hate to tell you this, but that's a bedtime story Jackson's heard."

As Jeremy was telling me this story I was dying laughing. I immediately knew this was a "Reroy" story, but Jeremy told me that Mrs. Deanna was more than a little concerned about the thought of Jackson getting stuck in a tree.

And just think, he's only three years old. Imagine what he's going to come up with when he's a teenager!

If You Give a Mouse A House

You know we have our house on the market.

And you know that someone has been interested in it.

Well, apparently there is more interest in our house that from just that buyer. We have a mouse that has taken up residence in our home. Considering that we live very close to some woods I'm surprised that it hasn't happened before now.

It all started on Monday morning when Jeremy was heading into the kitchen. I happened to be right behind him to ask him a question when all of a sudden he jumped about a foot off the ground.

Our little visitor had run out from under the refrigerator right across his foot and into the laundry room.

Had it been me, Jeremy would have been announcing my funeral plans right now.

So Jeremy put out some of those little glue traps around the fridge and in the laundry room.

For the record, and so PETA and ASPCA don’t come chasing me down, I hate traps. I hate the thought of a mouse trap and I hate the idea of a glue trap. Both seem very painful, and either way it doesn’t fare so well for the mouse.

But having a mouse in my house doesn’t fare so well for me.

So we put the traps out and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And nothing happened.

Then late Tuesday night Jeremy and I walked by the laundry room and caught a whiff of something really bad. We both thought that our little visitor had met his demise and had died in our laundry room. So Jeremy and I proceeded to move stuff out of the way, and I laid down on my stomach with a flashlight while Jeremy tilted the washer and dryer up so I could look underneath them and see if we had found our mouse.

I learned two things from this little experience: First of all, our dog Macy sheds a lot. I could have made a fur coat out of the hair underneath the washer and dryer.

Second of all, it’s extremely hilarious to tickle the back of Jeremy’s leg when he’s on a mouse expedition.

At least it was funny to me.

Jeremy wasn’t laughing.

So after checking out underneath the washer and dryer, we came up empty handed, but we could still smell something really bad. Then my eyes glanced in the direction of a bag of Wal-Mart bags. We always collect them and take them to Jackson’s preschool. I noticed that one of the bags looked kind of yellowed, so I held it out to Jeremy and asked him to check it out.

I may or may not have asked him to sniff the bags.

And Jeremy may or may not have sniffed the bags.

Let the record show that if someone asks you to sniff something, it’s probably not a good idea to do it.

After Jeremy went running from the kitchen dry heaving, it occurred to me that it looked kinda like milk that had spilled into the bag.

We haven’t seen or heard from our mouse friend since then.

And apparently the smell of spoiled milk works better than a mouse trap any day.

Ever had one of "those" days?

I don't feel quite like I am hitting on all cylinders today. I have the beginning of a sinus headache, and I'm just moving kinda slow.

So for lunch I decided to head for the border to Taco Bell and grab something really quick at the drive through. I pulled up to place my order and looked at the menu and was thoroughly confused as to why Taco Bell was selling fried chicken.

It could have something to do with the fact that I pulled into the Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot.

What is something completely crazy, stupid, or just plain dumb that you have done when you weren't paying attention?

Haiku Anyone???

First things first…Baby, it’s cold outside!!! After weeks of sub-tropical weather, it has finally gotten cold outside. Who believes in all that global warming garbage anyways??? Not me, and I would gather that there are quite a few global warming skeptics in the Midwest and northeast region of the U.S right now. Anways….guess what. I had a totally normal and fun weekend, and I will gladly share a few highlights with my loyal readership.

But first I have to share something that I found totally exciting. Many of you know that I am an admitted blog-stalker. I read the sites of people that I have no idea who they are, but yet, I feel that I have known them forever. Most of my blog-stalking comes from links from Heather’s page, but occasionally, I stumble onto blogs that I just get hooked on. Something along the lines of 7 degrees of blogging. Rocks In My Dryer was that way. Shannon is her name, and she has an amazing site, and it is hugely visited. Anyways, all that to say, I got a mention on her page the other day. She has tons of fun contests, and mostly you just have to enter a comment to be registered for the contest. Last week, she had one where you had to write a haiku (you know the 3 lined poems with 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and then 5 syllables) about the snowfall. I entered a haiku, and she named mine as one of the Honorable Mentions. This was out of over 300 poems!!! I was so excited.

Here is my (almost) Award Winning Haiku:
No white snow for us.
Too hot in Alabama.
Eighty in Dixie.

I know you are so proud of me. If ever you need a haiku written, you now know where to turn. I will be signing autographs later for a nominal fee.
In other news, here is our weekend in a nutshell.

Friday: Jeremy and I went to have dinner with my former boss and her family. They made to die for chili, one of Paula Deen’s salads, and then we had key lime pie for dessert. We had a wonderful time, and may I just say that Jennifer is one of my favorite people in the whole world. She is fantastic!!!

Saturday: We got up and headed down to Greenville, AL for Christmas with my Mom’s side of the family. It was a Mexican extravaganza, and the food was so good. On that side of the family we never do “normal” Christmas food like turkey and dressing. We have had seafood, Italian, sandwiches, and now Mexican food, and it is always so good.

Saturday night: Jeremy and I went out to dinner at Logan’s for our 6th anniversary. The food was great, and boy do I have a wonderful husband. I am so lucky.

Sunday: Normal church and then Jackson and I took an amazing nap together after lunch. After Jackson woke up, he tried his hardest to give Macy a kiss. She was all for it, and every time I stopped him from kissing the dog, he would just crack up laughing. It was so cute. Jackson was in a terrific mood all day, and we had a blast spending the day together. He is so much fun, and even though he has fought through a bad cold all weekend, he has been a trooper.

Sunday night: Apparently while I was at church Sunday night, my dear, sweet husband, thought it would be okay to give Jackson some of his sweet tea. Then, when it was time for bed, my dear sweet child was literally pinging off the sides of the crib. Jeremy tried convincing me that he had only given Jackson a few sips, but I beg to differ. Somewhere in our dishwasher is the rememts of a sippy cup filled with tea. I just haven’t found it yet.

I guess that’ s it for today. In the words of that famous little porker, “Th-th-th-that's all folks!"