Life and Loves

Jason tore down a shed or most of a shed yesterday. The kids and I helped by bringing some of the wood from the shed and throwing it on the fire pit. The fire was ridiculously large and super hot! I never noticed what a great little backyard we have if we could just get it cleaned up a bit, so that’s what I was doing. I started pulling down moss and cutting up vines and bush things that were attached to the trees. In all my digging I found an old wire fence that Jason had to help me pull out of the ground. He grabbed a metal pole (for a fence?) to use as leverage and took a moment to quote his father, something about give me a lever and I’ll move the world… Anyway. Out plops a black snake. We totally live in the boonies. We shoo him away and Jason is able to pull out most of the fence as it is getting darker and darker outside.

The neighbors have chickens, as I have mentioned before and the land is a bit woodsy. Jason got Nora excited about “gettin’ those chickens” by going for a little walk in the woods. They stumbled upon chickens in the trees! The chickens were walking around like they were born to roost on a branch! They were up pretty high too.



As the kids and Jason started their walk in the woods a little grey kitten (wildcat) popped out to see what all the commotion was about.

Though the holidays are different from years passed, they are OH! so much better. :o)

I cannot even believe it is Thanksgiving already (or over at this point). We have our Turkey Day down to a science! Everyone makes their preferred dish, it is brought over to Aunt Carrie’s house, we feast and then play outside in the backyard. They have such a fabulous backyard.

This year was delicious as always and we were looking forward to Badminton afterward, but the wind just would not cooperate. I had brought a “kickball” in hopes of playing, but we (Carrie, Mom and I) ended up teaching Edd and Jason how to play a makeshift game of Foursquare. It was soo fun! The Phelps’ they are com-pet-itive! We schooled those boys! Noah even got to play and is pretty good. It is a little difficult finding games he can play at his age, but since everyone was out continuously, he got to see that it wasn’t just him.

We left after pie and a paper cut from viewing the Black Friday sale papers and made plans to come back on the 20th for Christmas.

Today, (day after) the kids and I went to Common Grounds Park with 500 of our closest friends. It was such a beautiful day out! It was just cold enough for a sweater and I do think the kids enjoy it more when there are gobs of people there to play with. Noah, who it seems has made friends with everyone at his school, saw a friend of his there and invited him into a picture perfect moment.

Noah went off to play, while I kept my eye on Nora. She was too funny! I forgot how much I love three.




She came sliding down like this! She is so sure of herself! All of that hard work the past year is definitely paying off.

Their other favorite area is the hill slide. Here is Nora slooowwllly sliding while it is complete chaos around her…



…and Noah who thinks backwards is the only way to go.


I rarely take them to the park by myself, but the weather was too perfect and my mood generous.

We have been wondering whether or not to do Christmas at all since the kids won’t be here and neither will we, but instead we went out tonight and bought a tree and are going to squeeze every drop we can out of this Christmas season together. I think we are off to a great start. :o)

Oh, and I took a bit of a break from blogging, but am back with some new perspective. :o)

We use Netflix, but occasionally I will grab a new release from the Red Box. It is super easy and only $1. I have never had any problems with the red box, plus I can leave the kids in the car, walk five feet away and quickly choose a dvd. Publix has recently started allowing Blue Box (aka Blockbuster) into their stores and gave us a coupon for a free rental. I decided to try it.

It was pretty much the same routine until I tried to return the blue box’s rental. It would not take the dvd. Well, it is just a box, what now?? I went to customer service and the chick agreed that it was very annoying and to call the 800 number on the dvd. I did this and was told (after they manually returned the dvd in their system to either put it in the drop box on the side of the blue box or to give it to customer service. No drop box, so customer service got it. What a pain! Not only did I have to go IN to Publix, but what good is “new” technology if it is borken? Totally unimpressed.

I continued to rent from the red box. It is especially awesome when one of the kids is sick and all we’re gonna do is veg all day! Yesterday I was returning Ice Age 3 and for whatever reason it would NOT return my dvd. Ok. Maybe the red box isn’t that great… I tried 5-6 times and then gave up and called the 800 number. I spoke with a very nice gentleman who asked me for the dvd info and then called me by name and asked me to try returning it again. I was thinking, “buddy, if you try walking me through returning the dvd, like I can’t follow simple instructions on the screen…” He then told me to let it sit in the slot after the machine rejected it. Okay… He worked his magic and the machine sucked it back in and successfully returned it! WHAT?! No way! Totally impressed.

Suffice it to say I remain a loyal Red Box fan and will NOT be using the dreaded Blue Box. Also, they are closing the Blockbuster store in front of Wal-Mart in central Lakeland. I’m thinking Blockbuster is just grasping at straws at this point. That’s what they get for charging $5 for one night’s rental for all those years! MUAHAHAHA!!!!

Red Box 1 – Blue Box 0