What's with sleeping?

Seriously, what gene is missing in our family that makes us stay awake for hours on end night after night after night.

Here is an average night...since as far back as my memory goes. YES, I do remember staying up half the night when I was 5 or 6 years old. Maybe the massive memory quality links to the non sleeping thing too. Hmmmm....this is boring, I think I'll interject a picture of me the last time I slept through the night.

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Night time thoughts...feel free to add your own...

- did I remember milk when I went to the store? Oh yeah, I bought that.

-wait...did I need milk? Did I put it away? I don't remember seeing it when I unloaded groceries.

-Danggit...is that a moth? Why is there a moth in here? I wonder if it came through the air conditioner. Maybe I'll turn the tv on and it will be attracted to the light.

- Dude, I've seen this episode of Will and Grace like a million times, I love this one. It's so clever, but I guess it wouldn't make sense if you haven't seen "The Sound of Music". Why does Grace have a moustache? OHHHHH that's the moth. I wonder how you spell moustache...I should turn the computer on and type in into a word document and let it fix it for me.

- Kill moth, step on hot wheels car, stub toe on dresser...fall back into bed.

- I should turn the tv off...the moth is dead. Well, it's only 1:15am I might as well stay up until 1:30.

- Was that the cat? Why is she so noisy? She's a cat for crying out loud, be fleet footed already you fat cow. I wonder if cow's are smart? They don't look smart. At least Maggie LOOKS smart, but she's probably stupid.

- Ohhhhh WHY do they start the next episode of Will and Grace without putting a commercial in between? Now I HAVE to watch it...I like this Fanilow episode. Ha, I remember when "Mandy" came out and was a new song. I think I was in Jr. High. Janine used to listen to Y-103 non stop and I remember hearing it anyhow.

- I wonder if Micah is buying lunch tomorrow or packing. He's so picky!

- I wonder if Alex is awake. I used to catch her up at all hours of the night reading books or making doll clothes out of Kleenex for her barbies....man, I had the coolest Barbie Jet. I wonder what happened to that? I wish mom had saved our old toys. I would love to have my old Bionic woman doll and her car...but those wires in the car never hooked up to her arm like they were supposed to. that was so frustrating!! Is is so hard to make toys that work? Sheesh!!

- great...now I've been up long enough that I need to go to the bathroom again.

Eventually...sleep wins and I doze off. But what a pointless conversation I have with myself on a weekly basis. How about you? I KNOW Allie is up planning on places to store her cell phone in case of a water landing. LOL

Oh my gosh, ALLLLISON...I stayed up the other night planning exactly what I would take and how I would pack it up if we were ever evacuated for a tornado or hurricane or fire. I'm so ready now...in my mind. :)

Vita...will you do my hair?

Dorm rooms

Alex and Caleb have been living in the dorm for 2 whole weeks now and they are basically settled in. Jake and I went to "cowage" yesterday to eat lunch with the big kids. We ate in the cafeteria, which is Jacob's favorite thing to do, btw. Afterwards we went to Alex and Caleb's rooms to hang out for a bit. I didn't end up bringing my camera because I had to much other "crap" to bring....so use your rusty old imaginations!!
First, we went to Alex's room. Jake immediately took his shoes off and climbed up on Alex's top bunk to play with her stuffed dog. He looked down and said, "I can't jump from here or I will die and break my knee". LOL He came down and rolled around on the carpet for awhile and then played with the refrigerator magnets and admired all the pictures on the walls and doors. It was such a "girl" room. They have coloring pages taped to the walls and little decorations scattered all around to make it cute and homey. Their comforters are bright colors and the doors are covered with little foamie people or animals bearing their names. (the get a new one each year, but like to save the old ones and hang them up together) The 8 "girl" suite shares a common room that is neat and tidy and rarely has anyone lounging around. Most of the girls are in their rooms studying or at class when we visit.
Caleb lives on the same floor, but in an 18 "man" suite. He has one room mate, just like Alex has. We walked all the way around the floor to get to Caleb's room and one minute after arriving Jake said, "I want to go back to Alex's room". hahaha It's such a BOY room!! They don't want a carpet, so they just have the bare linoleum floor. The room looks exactly as it did the day we moved Caleb in, except for the addition of his Arsenal soccer poster hanging on the wall. He and his room mate have solid dark colored sheets and absolutely no decorations or things that make it "individualized". Not a single toy exist...no stuffed animals...no pictures to look at, except for the single shot of Micah playing soccer that is magneted to Caleb's fridge. Micah should feel REALLY loved!! The big difference is the common room. The boys are lounging in there all over the place. They are draped across every chair and couch watching each other play video games on the communal tv. There is a Rock Band set of drums in the middle of the room with tube socks rubber banded to each drum head. Apparently, they are trying to muffle the sound, but it looks more like someone is drying their socks. It has such a boy "feel" to the room....stinky and messy. LOL They all looked pretty happy though, so I guess it suites them fine.
We walked back to Alex's room where she promptly sat at her desk and got her biology book out to study. I just had to laugh on my way home with the final sights of dorm life. Alex at her desk with her Little Mermaid light up pen and Caleb in front of the tv , playing some crazy Lego star wars game on X-Box. They are no longer living at home, but they haven't changed a bit!! Caleb will probably have all his books and projects strewn about his bedroom floor late at night. He's always done that...covered his bedroom floor with his homework at 11pm, he's a late night crammer. Alex isn't willing to give up her precious sleep for study time, so she does it in the day when she's "alert". heehee
That is my story...hope you had some nice pictures in your mind!

yes, more soccer

I just wanted to update my "siesta's" on Jake's soccer progress. LOL

He played his second game and he was sick with a cold...and it was drizzling outside. It didn't stop him and he was anxious to be out there with his team. His first game was a disaster, full of tears and tons of jangled nerves.

He did a fine job and took part in the game like the rest of the "pack". He even saved 2 goals from going in and his team won that game. He didn't play up to his full potential, but I think he will be the ball hog that he truly is within the next 2 games. It just takes him awhile to warm up.

I didn't take any pictures during his second game because of the rain. Here are a few shots from his first game...when he was scared to death! LOL He looks so dang cute in his over sized shirt and little shin guards.

I'm sorry Buddy

As I was lying in bed last night...tossing and turning....staring at the ceiling, counting the blades of the ceiling fan...it occurred to me that I left a few movies off my list.

ELF....ELF??? How could I forget that movie? I am here to officially apologize to Buddy the Elf for my lack of mental prowess. I can't get through a month without saying...
"I just like to smile, smiling's my favorite"
"You sit on a throne of lies."
[burps loud and long] Did you hear that? "

I can see that movie a million times and I still smile at the complete dedication Will Ferrell gives that character. I love that movie and it's become one of our family's favorite Christmas classics.
Hats off to Buddy!! He's my favorite Elf.

Have you seen these toilets? They're GINORMOUS!

This flu

It's official...this is not a cold, but the danged flu. My head is killing me and I've been spiking a fever off and on for 2 days. Jake is now sick as well and he is miserable.
In my delirium I wish to chop my own head off to ward off the extreme sinus pressure (yes every single tooth in my head hurts) and the massive head ache.
If I succumb to this urge and use the nail file on my desk to saw my head off...here is my last will and testament for my beloved sisters.

1. To Janine I leave my extensive memories. You can just pull those right out of my head once it's chopped off. You will now have the privilege of remembering every little detail of our lives on Perkinswood and some of the Landsdown stuff. You will get GREAT memories like: lying in the bed of tiny purple flowers behind the well and staring at the clouds, washing our hair in the drainage pipes from the roof during a rain storm, and sitting on top of the car many summer nights searching for UFO's. However with those fine memories also come a few weird ones: Being woken up by flying bats, Glenn telling us the devil is in the driveway, fighting ghost with a plastic banana, and evil ghost living in the attic. Enjoy them!

2. To Vita I leave the job of organizing family photo's and making calendars for mom every Christmas. You seem to have the photo bug , but you have a much nicer camera than I do...so you'll be better at this than i have been. This also requires digging through piles of old photo's and scanning them into your PC to preserve them forever...and use them on the calendar once in awhile. Good luck finding head shots of everyone for the birthday squares! I've had to reuse pictures of Mark's family for the past 3 years because we never see them. Maybe you should make Mii's of them and put those pictures on instead. Hmmm....that sounds like fun! You definitely should do that!! LOL

3. Last, but not least, Allison. I think that you are destined to be the "video gal". You and I have the same taste in movies, "oh my god it's Danny Devito I love your work", " Little town it's a quite village, every day like the one before, little town full of little people", " I'm NOT Josie Grossie anymore!!", " Do you know what I'm thinking? Pokemon?!". You totally knew what I was referring to for each of those quotes. LOL You can have all my video's and my video quotes...use them wisely. With that privilege comes the task of forcing everyone you know to watch the movies I LIKE! Make sure that they sit down and watch "bringing up Baby" (Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn) when they are tired ...it's funnier when you have the sleepy giggles. If you don't see them laughing appropriately at 1930's humor, then kick them out the door and never speak to them again. You don't need friends who can't see the humor in Cary Grant jumping in the air and shouting, "I became GAY all of the sudden" while wearing a woman's bathrobe and Japanese sandals. tsk tsk. It's definitely sophisticated humor.
I've left a list of "our" favorite movies on the side...in case you forgot them. If you don't know some of them....NETFLIX those puppies NOW!

Farewell my sista's!

Wild West train ride

Grandma bought 5 tickets for a "wild west" train ride for Jake's birthday. Pam, mom , me , Jake and Haliegh drove about 45 minutes to the local of the train ride this past Sunday. When we got there he was beyond excited...hopping up and down and running all over the place. The whole parking lot was set up like an old west town and lots of people were dressed in period clothes and they never broke character. The "Marshall" asked Jake if he would help fight the train robbers if they got on the train and Jake was happy to be of service. Each ticket came with play money and fake gold that we were supposed to give the train robbers. Grandma bought him and Haliegh little six shooter guns, sheriff badges and train conductor hats for the ride. We had some time to kill before our ticket time, so we let the kids take a real stagecoach "ride". It was only 2 dollars per rider and was being pulled by 4 of the BIGGEST draft horses I've ever seen in my entire life. Jacob loved that ride and chattered the entire time about how this was the best thing in the whole wide world.
We waited in line to board the train and we were really thrilled to see that we had the "special seats" in the nice car. Jake took his seat by the window and just sat there absorbing the entire scene. Before the train left the station they put on a HILARIOUS wild west show just outside of the train for us to watch. One of the horses in the show lifted it's tail and pooped right there on the spot, which made Jake pull out his toy gun, aim and shoot at the horse saying loudly, "no pooping in the parking lot".

The train finally left the station and we went through some very pretty farm land, but Jake kept his eyes peeled for robbers. About 5 minutes into the train ride we saw them on their horses in the woods. He was so freaking excited and he and his cousin squealed and counted their money. Several of the cast from the wild west show kept coming up and down the aisles and chatting with the kids ...asking if they had their gold "safe". Suddenly, the train slowed down and came to a stop and the sheriff came running down the aisle shouting, "the bank robbers are on board, hide your money!". Jake and Haleigh were eating pop corn, so they both hid their money in their pop corn bags. The "robbers" got to our car and asked our group if we had any money. Haliegh smiled and said, "nooooooo", but Jake instantly got his money out of his bag and handed it right over. LOL He's so easy to rob!! They wandered up and down the aisle and finally came back to our group and found Haliegh's money. Then they all went outside and did another big show where the robbers were caught and all that fun stuff. They took a bow and we clapped for them and then the train went back to the station. Jake shot at every leaf and tree the rest of the way back, until he nearly fell asleep staring out that window.
We got back and he asked Grandma for one more stage coach ride, which she happily obliged. He LOVED those horses.
It was really fun and not scary at all. I was worried that it would scare him, but it was done very cleverly and was pretty funny most of the time. The only thing that Jake didn't like was the loud sound their cap guns made. I wasn't thrilled about letting him have a gun allowing him to pretend shoot people, but we talked a lot about it at the beginning and he actually hasn't touched the gun since the train ride.
If you ever get a chance to take an old train ride...do it!

A 5 year old birthday

Jake had a very precise idea of what his birthday should be like and since it WAS his birthday , after all....I did everything he wanted. Here is the list as told to me at least 20 times:

1. Get a cake with "fat mouth Jacob" on it.

- You really have to understand this one. Jake just loves the Wii and there is a character on the Mii channel that is actually from South Park, but Jake saw it and decided that it was HIM. He owns at least 20 "fat mouth Jacob's" and he's completely enthralled with those Mii characters. I got a picture of the Mii from the Internet and gave it to Caleb's friend who just so happens to work at the Dairy Queen. She did a lovely job!

2. Hit a pinata....a dog pinata

- He had this dog pinata picked out at least a month before his birthday. He picked out what would go into the pinata and helped fill it up. What I didn't count on was the fact that this was HIS pinata. He didn't want anyone else to hit it , but graciously gave in under parental pressure. However, once Micah knocked the poor dogs head off and we got the candy flowing Jake yelled, "don't touch that stuff, it's MINE"! LOL Yeah, we took care of that too.

3. Eat at Cracker Barrel.

-Yes, that really was his idea! Grandpa even got him a Cracker Barrel gift card that he could use in the store. He bought a beannie baby and a WebKinz stuffed animal and then ate chicken tenders. The waitress surprised him with a little chocolate Sunday and they all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He was beaming from ear to ear.

4. Go bowling

- He loves Wii bowling and has begged me for months to take him bowling. I told him that it was different and the balls were heavy, but he didn't care one bit. Haliegh and Eric met us at the bowling alley and we had bumpers put on one of the lanes for Jake and Haliegh. Jake never got tired of bowling. He bowled 3 games straight and everyone else just bowled one or two. LOL He LOVED it and has been begging to go back ever since.

There you have it....a perfect birthday when you are 5! :)