The Culprit

Yep .. these are pictures of my peaches disappearing.  Do you see the size of that box??

You can see them inside the box below.

Really love your peaches wanna shake your tree ...

Oh you know what song I'm singing!  Steve Miller, The Joker.  You may know the song as:

"Some people call me the space cowboy yeah

Some call me the gangster of love

Some people call me Maurice

Cause I speak of the pompetus of love"

Well then towards the end of the song it goes:

"You're the cutest thing that I ever did see

I really love your peaches

Want to shake your tree ...."

Yep that's what I'm talking about.  This song is now stuck in my head and I'll tell you why.  So let me back up a little bit.  When we first moved into this house my mum bought us a tree. It was labeled a Flowering Almond (sp?).  It was cute, was only supposed to grow to about 5 feet tall.  We planted it in the perfect spot right in front of the window by the front door.  However, this year the tree had a surprise for us.  It was much bigger than 5 feet, weird but okay we'll just keep trimming it up and maintaining it.  Well then all of a sudden it starts growing these green things.  Yep turns out that our little 5 foot Flowering Almond is actually a 12 foot PEACH TREE.  And it was growing a whole bunch of peaches!!  After much discussion we had decided that we would allow it to run it's course this year and then at the start of next year we would dig it up.  It's a really big tree and in it's current location just isn't going to work unfortunately.  However, I have been enjoying the little bit of camoflage that it has created in that front window that I have been able to leave the blinds open all the time and let a little light in.

So this leads to part 2 of this story.  Last week Baylee's bus driver, the same lady that ignorantly allowed her to consumer her lunch every single morning for a week while on the way to school, leaving her with nothing to eat at lunch time (another story for another day), yep that lady.  She summonds my mother in law outside one afternoon and tells her, "I've been really wanting some of your peaches, can I come back later and pick some?"  REALLY?  What stranger asks if they can pick fruit off of your tree?  So my mother in law tells her she will have to ask me.  Well that was kind of the end of the discussion and I didn't hear much more about it.  So last night my mum was over for dinner and as she was leaving she picks a few peaches to take with her.  She comments on how it will be sad when they're all gone because my door step right now smells SO good.  I helped her pick some. We threw away ones that had little birdy holes in them.  So I knew what kind of ratio good to bad peaches there was.  Well I'm driving home from work tonight and Jeramie tells me, "Wow there's NO peaches left on the tree!"  Umm .. what are you talking about??  There was tons left last night.  APPARENTLY the bus driver came today with a large box.  She took just about ALL of my peaches!!!!!!!!  My mother in law said that they threw away alot of peaches that had been picked at by the birds.  I seriously can't believe this has happened.  I don't even know this lady and she helped herself to pick my peach tree DRY before I had even picked any for myself!!  I am so angry.  Who does that?  I seriously don't understand what the heck is going on in this world right now.  People are weird.  People have no manners.  People are rude.  People just don't give a crap anymore.  I know it's not all people, because I don't feel like that is how I am.  And it's not how lots of my friends and family are.  I'm just so disheartened with people lately.  So many people just don't care anymore.

So anyway, back to the peaches.  Here is what I have been left with.  This was left on my kitchen counter and is the total of what is left for my family to eat.

Yep, that's eight peaches there.

What a weird night!

So last night had a strange series of events.  I decided that I wanted to start a new tradition at our house on birthdays.  Having two small boys (and another on the way) it's very hard for us to go out to dinner anywhere.  They're just downright naughty and once one starts the other joins in.  Wyland is at the age where he just wants everything to be fun, which sitting still at a restaurant table isn't exactly fun for a two year old.  Plus as our family grows it will become more and more expensive to all go out to eat together.  So my new tradition is to have a family dinner on the actual birthday, whichever day that falls on.  We will still do the "Howard Family Sunday Dinner" like always.  But it's a shame to have the little kids wait to celebrate on a different day.  So we started with Baylee's birthday last night.  She had gone to a charity event with my parents in the afternoon and then they kept her for a couple hours afterwards.  This gave me time to hurry home from work.  I decorated the dining room with streamers and balloons and then wrapped all her presents and put them on the table.  I threw cake in the oven to bake, another part of the new tradition.  I don't even really enjoy the taste of store cakes.  Don't get me wrong, I love Costco cakes (although WAY to huge for our little family) and if you go to a real cake shop (i.e. Nothing Bundt Cakes) then yeah you get a delicious cake FOR A PRICE.  So I decided I will bake a cake, nothing real fancy just delicious.  So yes I threw my cake in the oven and then moved on to making dinner.  Dinner will be whatever is the birthday persons favorite meal.  As they get older they can choose.  Until then I'll try and choose something they especially like.  For instance last night we had spaghetti, Baylee LOVES spaghetti.  With the little boys it will likely be pizza!  So when Baylee came home I would say that she was pleasantly surprised with the decorations.  Since she'd spent the afternoon with my parents they came for dinner too.  Overall I think it was a nice success.  I felt good about making the day special.  Another bonus to our new tradition is that it kind of spreads the celebration out.  She had some presents last night and then when we celebrate with my family on Sunday she'll get some more.  All in all it was a good event!

Oh, but that isn't the "weird part" of the evening.  After my parents left and we cleaned up as much as we could in the dishwasher we sat down to watch the finale to Big Brother.  It's about 10:30pm and all of a sudden there is someone POUNDING on the front door!!  Yeah .. I don't mean knocking, I mean pounding.  Jeramie flew out of his seat saying, "I'm not going to open the door!"  Who pounds on your door that time of night?!  So the next thing I hear is the front door opening.  My heart was racing at this point, because I'm thinking there is nothing good that this can be about.  I hadn't gotten up from my seat because I had Jackson's head asleep in my lap, plus it was 10:30pm and I'm in my PJ's.  So I hear Jeramie talking to what sounds like 2 men.  They keep asking him weird questions, things like "Do you work for ADT?"  "Do you know someone by the name of .. blah blah?"  Then another name.  I hear him say yeah I know so and so.  So I'm starting to get even more nervous because he's talking to two guys at the front door and it sounds like they're kind of bullying him in a way.  So I get up with the intent of telling him to close the front door.  I am seriously thinking HOME INVASION?!!!  Also, thinking to myself, "Jeramie how could you be so stupid to stand there with the door open to complete strangers?!"  HA!  Boy was I wrong, when I see who's at the door I can see that it's the police!!!!  So apparently they're looking for someone that is distantly related to Jeramie.  This guys ex-wife lives up the street and he comes and goes living with her.  Jeramie kind of knew who he was, I think the guy stopped by once when Jeramie was outside with the kids to say hello.  We're talking like 2nd or 3rd cousin.  Jeramie couldn't even tell me for sure how they were even related.  So it's distant.  And it's not like we every had any social interaction with this guy.  Well apparently the guy got in a car accident just up the street a little ways.  He was drunk and he got out of the car and took off on foot and so they were looking for him.  The ex-wife apparently told the police that Jeramie was a relative and they came to our house looking for him!!  Jeramie was convinced that they thought he was hiding him in our house.  Once I came to the door (which Wyland was already standing at Jeramie's leg the entire time) they backed off.  Funny how the pregnant "white" wife made a difference.  I really think that they were bullying Jeramie because of his ethnicity.  And that makes me sad.  I think he's almost immune to it.  Then they left us by saying if we saw or heard from him to call them immediately.  It left us both literally shaken, and we felt so violated in a way.  Jeramie had installed cameras outside our house after his work van was broken into and so he immediately went to check them and see if there was anything on them.  He could see the police going to our neighbors houses as well.  Which then led him to worry about what our neighbors would think of him, being related or involved with this kind of thing.  Which obviously he wasn't in any way!  He said he was at the point of telling the police to come in and search the house if they wanted to.  SO CRAZY!  Not to mention the real name of this guy apparently isn't the name Jeramie even knew him as. So at first he told them he didn't know the person.  The whole thing made me so mad the way they were talking to him!  Anyway afterwards we drew all our curtains and made sure all the doors were locked and the alarm was set.  Kind of scary!  Not to mention the thought that popped into my mind was how the police were telling us about the woman who this guy hit and how they were still trying to get her out of the car and that she was fighting for her life.  Which okay .. they may have been exaggerating a little bit.  But it got me thinking about all the nights we come home late from my parents house.  That could have been us that this JERK plowed drunk into.  We go through that intersection pretty much every time we come home from anywhere!!  SCARY!

In the end we didn't hear anymore about it and went to bed.  And THAT was our weird night.  We went from celebrating Baylee's birthday to crazy cops at the front door.  I hope they caught the guy!

Jackson is so funny.

So last night I was laying in my bed reading my Kindle while Jackson laid next to me and was watching Dumbo.  I've been trying to get him interested in some of the traditional Disney movies so that Disneyland this summer will be more meaningful to him.  Well Jackson left for a little while to go see what Jeramie was doing and I just left the movie running because I knew he'd be back soon.  At one point I looked up and I saw like these men working on setting up the circus maybe (not completely sure since I wasn't really watching it).  It struck me as odd though because they were clearly "dark skinned" men but they didn't have faces.  It struck me as odd that they didn't have eyes and noses, maybe some had mouths.  It was just WEIRD, because they were missing faces but had ears.  So I remember thinking it was kind of strange and wow we have come a long way in animation!!  Not to mention it dated the movie because nowadays you wouldn't see only "dark skinned" people being the labor workers, it wouldn't be politically correct today.  Anyway, as I expected Jackson came back upstairs and was upset I had paused the movie.  So I had to rewind it to the beginning and he settled in to watch it.  I went back to my Kindle reading.  A little while later Jackson says, "Mom .. why don't those people have faces??"  HAHA!!!  He's such a smart kid!!  I just thought it was so funny that he noticed the exact same thing that I did.  Very interesting.

The Costco Incident

Okay so tell me what you would do in this situation ...

A couple weeks ago Jeramie and I were both at Costco getting our shelving units for the big garage clean-up.  We rarely go there together and so that means that Big Red (our big old Ford F-150) doesn't get her gas tanks filled all too often there.  See I'm that person that every week when I'm there doing my grocery shopping I fill up my tank.  I rarely buy gas anywhere else.  So it was a good opportunity to go through the gas station and fill up both cars.  So keep in mind I was driving my car and Jeramie was driving the truck right behind me. 

For those of you that have never been through the Costco gas station I will try and explain the set up to you.  Basically you get two pumps in a row, so two cars can fill up at the same time.  Then there is a center lane in between for the back cars to pull out and go around the car in front of them that isn't finished.  I hope that makes sense. 

Okay, so I pulled up behind the car at the back pump to wait for them to finish.  The pump in front of them was open but I figured I would wait and then Jeramie and I could just both pull forward at the same time and then fill up together.  See we also had to share the Costco card that you have to swipe first.  So here I am minding my own business patienting waiting for the little old lady in front of me to finish.  Next thing you know this old man is another old F-150 (really it was just like Big Red) swiftly swerves around both Jeramie and I and pulls into the front pump!!!  I couldn't believe it.  The guy just TOTALLY cut to the front of the line!!!!  Who goes around people waiting in line and takes it upon themself to go first?  REALLY WHO DOES THAT??

Needless to say I was ANGRY.  I honked my horn when he did it, which of course got everyones attention.  Right about that time the lady finished and pulled out of the gas station.  So as I roll forward into the back spot now (because of course this A-hole has taken the front one) I am literally yelling foul words at him from my car.  Oh .. he could read my lips.  So as I am starting to get out of my car this old man comes and gets in my face asking what I said.  Well, I repeated it to him.  What did he think that him being some big strong man was going to bully little old me??  Umm .. I don't think so.  So here I am in a yelling match with an old man.  Little did he know (and clearly he didn't) that my husband was in the car behind me.  So of course Jeramie seeing this guy getting in my face jumps out of the truck and he's behind me in an instant.  Next thing is the older Costco worker gets involved too.  They were both older white gentlemen.  So of course they joined forces to bully up on me too.  Telling me the space was open and that meant he could take it.  HELLO??  There were TWO people waiting in line?? How does that constitute you being allowed to cut in front?  Plus there is a line that says STOP right before the gas pumps, so does that also mean he can break the law?  I'll have you know I did not back down.  I told him what an ignorant person he was and of course once Jeramie was out of his truck this guy walked back to his own truck.  I finished pumping my gas and as I was driving away I told him he was an ignorant old man.  Well aparently that riled him up as well because he and Jeramie exchanged some words after I left.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't go around bullying nice old men.  This guy was not nice.  He was horrible.  I hate when men who are older than me think that they can bully me just because I am smaller and female, and younger.  It isn't right.  I must say that blantant bad manners are just a pet peeve of mine.  That kind of stuff gets my blood boiling.  So what would you have done in that situation?

Hair, Hair and more Hair

So my mum suggested I do a blog about the hair in our family. Sounds funny right? But really it's so weird. I started with a couple pictures of me. I went from having really short hair (not shown here) when I was in school, to REALLY long hair as an adult. You can see pretty well how long it was in my wedding picture below (keep in mind this was only 3 years ago). Then this last year I cut a foot off. A lot of people were surprised that I cut so much off at one time. I actually really like my hair now. So let's go through these pictures:

Me with LONG hair.

Next is a picture of myself and Baylee. My hair, the shorter length. And then there is my first born, Baylee. I spent literally 12 years battling her frizzy hair. It took forever to blow dry and even when it was dry I had to run a flat iron over it to make it presentable. So she spent a lot of years with hair in braids. Then about 6 months ago I decided to throw a little gel in it, spray a little hairspray and let it air dry. To my surprise it looked FABULOUS. Baylee has always gotten tons of compliments on the length of her hair. Now it's constant, people LOVE her curls. It's the easiest thing. I've gone from having to assist her in washing and styling it every day, to her being able to wash it herself and also being able to do her own gel and hairspray. How did I not think of this sooner?? So she's the first of my children to have super curly hair. However, I really didn't know this until she was 12 years old! She didn't have curly hair as a baby at all.

Then there is Jackson. He was born with curly hair! He has never been mistaken for a girl ever. He is all boy under those curls. However, I can't tell you how many people actually asked me whether IIII curled it??! Really? Do you think I would spend time to curl my baby BOY's hair? Umm, no. Even at 3 years old now Jackson has curly hair when it starts to get too long. I loved his baby curls so much that I waited until after his first birthday before I actually cut them off. Now his hair is thick and wavy.

So people ask me all the time where my children get curly hair from. Here is a picture of my mum and her brother. As you can see my Uncle Glyn has curly hair. It's easily as curly as Jackson's was as a baby.

And then there is Wyland. His hair is as straight as Jackson's was curly. They are polar opposites. Ironically enough I think that his hair is so straight in a unique way that it's equally as cute. He's kind of got this long bob looking thing going on right now. Throw a beanie cap on him and he looks like all he needs is a snowboard and he's a stereotypical Utah ski bum.

As you can see all my kids have very different and unique hair. None of which is really like my own. Neither of the boys have hair like Jeramie either. So all in all I think they're pretty cute!

So when is it apprpriate to talk back to a nosey stranger?

So yesterday I'm doing my usual sunday ritual. Yes, that's right my shopping at Target. We walk the same path every single week. Bribe the kids to be good while I grocery shop with the promise of a visit to the toy section afterwards. So I'm in the sheets section that is literally three, maybe even two aisles from the toys. Wyland has begun to fuss so Baylee took him over there for a little look at the toys. They are literally within earshot of me. I'm not one of those parents that just lets their kids wander off in the grocery store with a promise of "I'll meet you there in 20 minutes." Nope, not me. They are never out of earshot. So I walk up to the aisle that Baylee and Wyland are on. Baylee is sat on the floor with Wyland on her lap showing him some talking Transformer. I hear the following:

Target Clerk, "Excuse me ma'am, are these your children?"

Me, "Yes." (thinking oh shit, what have they done!!!!)

Target Clerk, "Okay." (and walks away)

Me, (thinking, okay that was weird but whatever. Thank God they weren't doing something weirdly illegal.) But it doesn't end there, within seconds the I hear:

Complete Stranger, "Ma'am .. Ma'am .. I just wanted to explain what happened."

Me, (I just look at this guy, thinking who the hell are you and why are you talking to me??)

Complete Stanger, "That little girl was hitting the baby and then when he would start to cry she would try and console him. Then she would do it again."

Me, (... well I said nothing. I turned and walked away.)

Now keep in mind, there is NO WAY Baylee would ever hit Wyland to be mean. She doesn't even do that to Jackson who beats up on her constantly. If this guy had said Jackson was doing that I would completely believe him, but not Baylee. And I could hear Wyland whining from where I had been. He was NOT crying the "I'm hurt" cry, the kid was whining! What makes people think they can make such unbased accusations like that?? Blows me away. But really I wanted to almost debate with this guy about it. Like, "Okay, and what exactly was she doing?" But as usual I just walked away from the ignorant stranger.