Our 90 day countdown begins

Okay. I have to warn you, Dear Diary...I'm in a mood. I woke up this morning and thought, "Where did July go?" I heard Josh's voice from upstairs talking to Johnny and then I heard the door slam ~ and he was off to Kings Dominion with Rodge to spend the day. I never even saw his face. I thought, "Wow...if July flew by, I'm going to be kissing Josh goodbye and sending him off to boot camp in a flash...NO! NO! NO!"

I'm. Not. Ready.
Period. 

I saw a post on his Facebook and that got me started at looking at the pics he has in his albums of his high school days. I was laughing my butt off at some of them and then crying.... Seriously, today you can just call my Cybil. I'm a mess. Where has the time gone?

Here are some of the images I looked at from Josh's Facebook albums:

My 7 year old insane son on my first date with Johnny at Carlos O'Kelly's....(so Johnny WAS forwarned and knew what he was getting into marrying the two of us, haha. Here's the proof.)
 His 12th birthday party.

 Remember....Johnny was forwarned...

 Turning 13, I think. He loves it when I sing to him.   NOT.
 Gangsta.

 And oh, the football year! One to be exact; 9th grade. Haha, I had forgotten all about that. Then we tried a year of wrestling. Wish I had a picture of that, I'll have to dig around.

 His braces had just come off! His teeth are sparkly new!

 In between moments of wanting to choke him to death slowly and publicly, there were also tender moments.

 The "I'm way too cool for you" years. Even though we drove around in a 1992 mini van.

And how could I ever forget the garage band years? "Sister Darkeness" they were called. Johnny and I sat through countless show performances at schools & clubs never really knowing what the lead singer was saying (er, screaming) ~ I still have packets of earplugs in my closet and I continue to find them in old jackets years later, haha!

My boy's first day of his summer job bagging groceries at Giant. Too cute!

First day of High School. I remember clearly this was a hard day for me. He's making himself some coffee ~ don't judge me. And did I think he was going to take an apple to every single teacher in the building? Hmmm.

11th grade...he was always on the cutting edge of fashion.

A student took this pic in photography class. Josh enjoyed that class and I still have some of his prints. I particularly love this captured expression; it's the same one I get when I tell him to go put his clothes away or to go scrub his bathroom. Love it! Ha-ha!

I want to see him shoot this look to his drill sergent when they tell him to go scrub toilets. Oh, I'm just being mean now {{{wink}}} But I would pay anything to be a fly on that wall....

Aaaww, Senior Prom!

And we are pleading the 5th where that Stop sign is concerned. I'm sure it's a fake.

Adorable!

Josh had very long blonde hair through most of high school (which I love, love, loved. Don't ask me why, I just did. I'm an 80's girl, what can I say?) and one day, just before prom I get a text message:

Josh: "It's gone." 

ME: "What's gone? The car? Your wallet? The house? OMG WHAT IS GONE!?!?!" (I've always been the level headed, calm one in our family).

Josh: "Gawwwd Mom! Chill" (I get that a lot) "My hair. It's all gone."

ME..."WHAT?!?! OMG YOU CUT ALL OF YOUR BEAUTIFUL HAIR OFF?!?!?! NO WAY YOU'RE LYING!"

Josh: "....And this would be why I didn't tell you first."

I'm still mourning the hair. It was so beautiful. Oh well, guess it's for the best. Drill Sergents don't like long, flowing, blonde rocker hair on their Soldiers. It doesn't stuff up under a helmet that great, getting roots done every 6 weeks could be a problem out in the dessert and I don't think they issue "camouflage scrunchies." Do they?

Will someone please tell me how a child can go from all of those images....

...to this...my 20 year old beef cake heading in to the Army. And as of today, we are in a 90 day countdown. I could scream. Cry. Have a fit. Laugh. Cry. Refuse. Deny. Guess I'll just go meet Johnny for coffee somewhere and think about the coming years.

I have been so blessed with an amazing son. He's been sweet, loving, kind, tender, horrible, evil, snotty, generous, deeply caring, hilarious, spirited, smelly, crazy, smart allec, lazy, tenatious, twisted, committed and 1,000 other things I can't even think of right now because, like I said I'M IN A MOOD.

I don't know what this mood is called, but I'm in it. Maybe it's just the mood where I don't really want my son to go but deep, deep down I realize that he needs to go start his own life and live out all of his dreams, and then some. And trust me, he will know that I support him 482%. I'm so proud of him I could burst.

I'm just going to stay off the Facebooks pics for awhile. I've been laughing and crying at the same time and if anyone walked in right now they'd be ordering me a size large straight jacket.

90 days.

Crap.

I warned you, Dear Diary, didn't I? But I'd rather be feeling this than to be feeling nothing at all.

Johnny's Birthday, pt. 2

So after Johnny opened his ipad and played around with it for awhile, I pried it out of his fingers with a sharp object from the garage, wiped the blood off the screen & carpeting and we went to eat supper!

We love to go to Mike's American Grill, (part of the Great American Restaurants chain here in Northern Virginia) for birthdays,  mainly because of the dessert ~ but more on that in a minute...

Decisions, decisions...there is NOTHING on that menu that isn't simply mouth watering delicious.

My arse is a living testament to that statement.

You're welcome for that mental image.

Sorry. But, I had to be honest.

And this is what I was talking about. The finale that makes the world spin perfectly on its axis.

The flourless chocolate waffle....served with ice cream, fudge and caramel sauce.

My birthday boy xoxo

We didn't want him to have to endure that dessert all by himself, did we Liz?

Because she and I are helpful like that.

Oooooh...but wait! There's MORE!

I made Johnny his favorite chocolate birthday cake! My chocolate ganache icing didn't turn out right, way too lumpy.

But these two didn't seem to mind much at all.

Hey wait a minute, what do you think you're doing? That's my cake!

I live with wolves.

They didn't complain that I'm not a pro at making a "ganache." Johnny says I need way more practice and that I need to make him a chocolate cake every week to get that icing just right. Uh-huh.

And guess what those two had for breakfast the next morning along with a huge glass of milk? Yessireee! We're all about super bad habits around here. They make me so proud.

Liz flew back home a few days later to finish her last semester of college. Her visit flew by! I'm still sifting through all of my Peoria pics (I took over 500) so I'll have more to post in the coming days.

My Josh just came home from a long day at work so I'm going to go spend some time with him now  :o)   Cya.....

Johnny's Birthday pt. 1

My Sweetheart had a birthday last week! Doesn't he look 48 now? Okay, not really, but Johnny, you'll always be 6 years older than me and I will use that against you for the rest of your days on earth, haha   :o)   I know. I'm so sweet. I can't help it.

Guess what he got for his birthday?

Any guesses?


He's insane. Just ignore him.


Yes, he finally got his ipad. His new love. His new obsession. His new "other woman." Can you tell he's just a little bit excited to rip that box open? Now.....If I may please just get one nice birthday picture of my honey...please?


Oh Lord, here we go...


A side of Mr. Goofy that I'm sure they don't see much at the office.


You should see him after a slice of chocolate cake and a Mountain Dew!  And yes...he does that to me.


48...but still a kid at heart. And I love it. Don't ever change, Johnny.
 All of a sudden the song "Endless Love" started playing in my head. Now I'm loosing it. I hope "She" knows how to do your laundry.
 "My Love...there's only you in my life...the only thing that's bright..." Doh! Now I can't get that song out of my head. I hate it when that happens. I won't see Johnny much anymore. He's in love. She has curves & buttons that I simply don't have  {{{sniff}}}

 You'd think it was his second wedding day or something. He giggled all day! Geeze. Get a room. Will ya?
 Yeah, baby! One for you and one for me. Now it's a party.

 Goodbye forever, my Love. Is there a "check in with your wife" app on that thing?
 Have you ever seen anyone more excited about a techie gadget in your life?

 And he's OFF! Loading apps at the speed of sound. 

Okay, I just need you to notice something here ~ my husband has the ipad in his hands AND...AND...AND!...not just one, but TWO laptops on in front of him! The angels in heaven are singing praises to nerds everywhere and joyously doing the geek dance.

Two laptops and the ipad running...I will never be able to make him this happy. EVER.

Finally! He's all calm and got all of the craziness out of his system so that I could get this handsome, beautiful shot of my birthday boy on his special day. Not to mention that I threatened that I'd never, ever fix him another supper again as looooong as he lives if he didn't give me something for my freakin' family scrapbook!! (Because I'm sweet like that). CHEESE!

48 and all mine. Only he now he comes in a package deal with his ipad...that I'm not allowed to touch, mind you. I love you, Sweetheart. Happy Birthday!

I'll post pt. 2 tomorrow ~ Liz and I took him to Mike's American Grill for supper (Josh had to work, boooooo!) then we came home and had chocolate cake! Yes, a cake that I made! "She" didn't make it...There's no app for that. I guess he still needs me around for awhile yet.

Happy Tuesday!

I've spent the day doing laundry....tons and tons of laundry. I don't know where it all came from. I was supposed to catch a movie with Josh after lunch, but he fell asleep and since he worked until midnight last night and is working until midnight again tonight, I just let him snooze and poked around on my computer instead in between loads.



I ran across these pics of baby Sophia from back in May. She loved this little heart toy and ran around my kitchen pretending it was her "magifying glass," just like Dora The Explorer, I learned. This little girl melts my heart. I can't decide which pic I like more. Her eyes in focus....



Or the focus on her tiny fingers. So I had to post them BOTH. OK...never mind. I just decided I love the second one, look at those little bitty fingers! It's my favorite. I think I need to print it.

Oh darn. I just scrolled up and looked at the first one...and her eyes and teensy button nose are precious!! Lord, help me, I could cry. How do Mommy's of little girls not just walk around in a puddle all day?

Too cute! Lori, don't ever throw those tiny pink crocks away. I'll haunt you forever if you do.

God knew exactly what he was doing when he decided not to give me a little girl. He knew that (1) I'd be a puddle of goo every single day (2) The child would get anything and everything her little heart desired and by now we'd be living under a bridge because Mommy couldn't say no (3) Did I mention I'd be a constant puddle of goo? (4) I'd never get anything done because I'd be staring at her all day long.

Which is exactly what is happening right now, even with the pictures that I found my May folder...my dryer is buzzing at me...my washer is beeping at me...UGH.



Looking up at her balloon ~ I need a Sophia fix!

I'm gearing up for girly time...last night Johnny & made arrangements to fly our 6 year old niece Madison up to visit us for 10 days in August. I'm so excited!!! I don't expect to get a thing during that time...she's already told me all of the things she wants to do while she's in D.C., including riding on the D.C. Duck, visiting the "Giant Abraham" (Lincoln Memorial!) and meeting the President (or at least meeting his dog Bo). Guess I'll need to get on someone's A-list pretty fast, haha. Anyone have a secret White House contact I can call? Play time over ~ laundry awaits. Cya!