BIRTHDAY WRAP UP!!

It's time to wrap up Binky girls' birthday month. I am guessing this little girl had a great, never-ending birthday. We ended up the month at Wet-n-Wild with our family party. Grammie Diane, Auntie Kelly and I snuck in KFC to eat for lunch and Binky got to open the last of her birthday presents.
Grammie Diane gave her a new helmet to wear when she rides on her scooter, 8 gold dollars and a gift card to build a bear! She was over the moon excited.
Auntie Kelly and the girls gave her the cutest outfits... so she can party like a rock star when she uses the presents Jax and Pudgie gave her............
Tickets to see Miley Cyrus on September 25th.
Grammie and Grampie Jensen celebrated the week earlier with a surprise pizza delivery and another new family addition. This one I actually love. No feeding or messes to clean up!!
Happy Birthday Month Angel Girl!!!

GREAT TASTE

It is official, my little 8 year old has great taste in restaurants. For birthday dinners, we let the crumb-snatchers choose where they want to go and eat. It is usually McDonalds or Peter Piper Pizza. This year Brinkley chose P.F. Changs. A little more pricey than Taco Bell, but who was gonna argue with the birthday girl...

We all love their food!

I go back.....

This is probably one of the biggest pet peeves Tommy has with me. Every single part of my life, I associate to some song or band or group. Every moment. It is crazy. It drives Tommy nuts when I can hear a song and I am right back to a particular moment in time. Some good, some amazing and some that should remain tucked far, far away. Whatever the case, it is hereditary. Just like Kenney Chesney's song, "I go back," I do... to any place, any time, any where I want, in my past, with just a song.

I heard Bryan Adams today. "Summer of 69." It took me back to Susan, Crista, Amy and Jesse. We graduated in '89 so of course we changed the number. What a summer we had. Then of course, the clock started re-winding, back and back.

The sound of Creedance Clearwater Revivals, "Rollin on the river," takes me back to the Ozarks. Learning to water ski at 4 years old and fishing with my parents and my sister on our boat. Swimming all the way out to the floating dock, in the cove, by myself.

I learned how to country dance to, "Copperhead Road," at Denim and Diamonds, when I was 22 and thought I knew everything.

"Must have been Love," by Roxette takes me back to high school and seeing the movie, Pretty Woman, with the wrong guy.

"Let's give 'em something to talk about," by Bonnie Rait takes me back to my first love. Jon Secada's, "If you leave," takes me back to that heartache of that lost so-called-love.

"Go rest high on that mountain," by Vince Gill immediately brings on the tears. The horror of when Jimbo was shot and killed in the line of duty is right in front of me again.

"I'm alive," by Celine Dion flashes pictures of the hospital after my wreck. It is like I am right there, reliving those long 31 days at SHC-O.

Meatloafs, "I would do anything for love," sets me back to the days at the jail when I was so young and living life at mach 3 with my tail on fire.

Each of my kiddies have songs associated with the day we brought them home from the hospital. The song that was playing on the radio, in our car, will forever be embedded in my mind with each baby.

I am instantly transported back to Scottsdale Road and Thunderbird when we had to pull over with Jax. He had just made a sound and of course, being new parents, we had to stop and make sure he was ok. Sound Garden's, "I wanna stand with you," will always take me back there, instantly, to that moment.

Barney's, "I love you, you love me," as funny as it sounds... is everything Brinkley. She bopped around singing that all day everyday. to this day, I can't stand to listen to, look at, or touch, anything Barney.

I just find it amazing that Brinkley has this trait. She equates all aspects of her life to songs she listens to and loves and whatever may be happening in her life right then and there. Colbie Calait and Taylor Swift are huge for her right now!

I love that she thinks like me when it comes to this. I always tell Tommy, and our kids, that the past is what has made us who we are today and if we were to change one single inkling of what we did, who we did it with, or how we lived.... our life would be completely different. There would be that possibility that we would not even be here together.

It still drives him nuts, but he knows that no matter where a song may take me back to in the past........

anything, "Enya," is what reminds me of rose petals, candles, and a long plane ride home, to my future!

~BINKY'S BIRTHDAY WEEK~

As traditions go, it is Brinkley's birthday month around here. Her actual birthday is this Monday. We have plans galore for this girls big "8" so we had to start them off today, with a ZIP BANG!

I am known for bribing my children into not having birthday parties with all their friends. It is usually a little bit more expensive but much less of a headache for me. Jax fell for the bribery this year. It cost me a television. Binky was a little reluctant to opt for the big present. She was struggling with taking her friends to Makutu's Island. I was dreading it. She finally thought it over a little more, prayed about it and viola....... the present won out. We surprised her by taking Jax with us to actually pick one out, rather than using the internet. The one we initally picked out was super tiny and we would have been beyond sad if it got here and it was for someone the size of Pudgie. After school, Binky and I walked home, hand in hand and when we hit our corner... well.... I have never seen any child run so fast.... let alone Brinkley.
As luck would have it, the weather did not cooperate with us today. We had huge plans for a family party at Wet~N~Wild. Since my sister lives up there, she gave me the minute by minute weather report of dark, dark clouds with sprinkles going on as I was talking to her. Thankfully, we can move the plans to next Saturday, everyone who was planning on coming today, were good to go with changing the plans, and in the end, we get to take the birthday girl to P.F. Changs for a family birthday dinner tonight! It's a WIN ~ WIN, all around, I would say!

~BOYZ-N-TOYZ~

I couldn't ask for a better day than today, to go out and shoot some rounds through our new toys! Jax was eager to get a hold of my retirment gun and I couldn't wait to cuddle with the Micro-tech. All in all we had an amazingly fun day. Thanks to my favorite oldest boys who invited me along and a huge thanks to Patterson and Stanley, who ever-so-patiently worked with Jax on shooting the big boy sniper rifle and teaching him about all the guns in general! I think playing Hostage negotiator was one of our favorite games of the day for Tommy and I. Jax was not a fan of the sniper rifle. His arms are still a little too small to take the kick of this baby. He will grow into it though.

After our day together, Jax, who was so happy to take a day off of school, just for being the best 9 year old kid we have, helped pick out one of Brinkley's birthday presents..... Since we will be celebrating all week long, we gave it to her early...

HELLO TRAFFIC~

Tommy takes huge pride in all the successes that his squad accomplishes as a whole and individually. He is a firm believer that he is there to teach, nurture and mentor his people into the officers they want to become.

Some want to go the route of detective, some want to promote, and some want to go into traffic. With his expertise lying in the traffic section, Tommy took it as a personal challenge to push his officer into the number one spot when testing for this unit over the past month.

It was a very bittersweet day when "Pooch" called to tell us he had scored number one in the testing and that he would be transferred almost immediately to the night DUI squad. They would only get to work as a squad for two more days.

Our families have become friends and it is rare when I get to say that someone is just a genuinely nice person who would do anything for anyone without asking for something in return. I sincerely trust this man (and really, I don't trust anyone!!). I will personally miss him watching out for Tommy at night and getting together for hockey games, football night, and WWE fight night, at their house, with all our families!

To celebrate, we combined his big 4-0 and his transfer in typical Tommy fashion. They all chipped in and I scrambled to buy him a congratulations watch!

Pooch~ You are already missed. Everyone wishes you the best on your new squad. Wear the watch, that is what it is for! Be safe and remember, quite a few men shed tears at your party because you have moved forward with your career and you will be sorely missed by all!!!!

Congratulations!!! Now go hook and book those drunks Pooch!!!!

Baseball and Goodies Galore!

I gotta admit, there is nothing better than free tickets to see the Diamonbacks. We are always willing to buy the tickets when friends have games they can not attend, but when one of our friends offered us 5 of his 10 tickets to tonights game, for free...... we were all in. I am so glad Tommy and I made it to the gym today, since T.R. offered them to us while we were working out.

We surprised the kids after school with new Dbacks attire. New hats all around. A new shirt for Pudgie man and new matching tank tops for Binky and myself. Once the snake was out of the bag, off to Chase Field we went!

The kids had a blast. Tommy took them to the kids area to run around and then into the batting cages to hit some balls.

The night ended with a fireworks display worthy of cheers and screams from Pudgie.

Thank you T.R. and Jeannine for a great night!

Throats~

Yep, we have been at 'em in this house for about a month now.

It sucks too.

If it is not Brinkley and Pudgie, it is Pudgie and Jaxi or Jaxi and Brinkley or even worse.....

Me and Tommy.

I'd like to think we broke the cycle, finally.

So to celebrate... I got this to wear...
and this too.
I am counting down the days to celebrate and show these babys off!!!

~Lots

We have tons of stuff going on lately. Probably too much and not enough, if that makes sense.

Most of which I can not even talk about, but some of which I just am dealing with.... Like the extra 10 pounds summer brought on. Yea, I have had no desire to go to the gym...but I am not eating and so therefore.... I gain weight. NICE! Oh well..... This too shall pass.

This morning I had no motivation, again. Nothing new there, but I had to get Brinkley's room somewhat picked up. You know it is bad when the cat refuses to live in there. Only problem there was ... was Pudgie and Brinkley. They somehow feel like they are helping me clean by playing with everything once I put it away or throw it away. At any rate,

it is somewhat done, at least for now. I have big plans for her room. I can't do anything with it until I finish some other things and organize this and that....... and all the kids are away at school for the entire day.

For now, I like the washed glaze hot iridescent pink we changed the wall to and the black framing. Since she doesn't sleep or play in here, Spike, our big boy cat walked in and meowed at me. I took it as approval!

This is her room before! It had nothing wrong with it at all. I just didn't like a few things anymore. And really, when I don't care for it, Brinkley has no choice and has to go along with it. I did give her a few choices for things... like keeping the large clutter of stuffed animals out. (This makes me nuts, but she is only 7!)

This is from 2006!

This is from today!

~Nice Rack!~

Ok, I have been obsessed with this idea since Beth put it on her blog. I have been talking about it and I finally showed it to Tommy this morning, after we took the Pudgie man to school.

This is where the whole A.D.D. with me came in again. Brinkley's room is still ripped apart, the laundry room is in shambles, our bedroom and bathroom is getting to the point of being called a disaster zone, but I didn't care. I had to put this up today... I would not finish any of the other projects until we started this one and it was complete.

And being the laid back-most-of-the time husband that realizes that I will not stop until I get what I want, he conceded and went to Lowes with me to make our shoe racks for the toy closet!

LOVE IT!