Tiger Cub Badge

Last night Thomas had his Cub Scout meeting for the month of May. He was a bit excited because he knew what he was in for. He had been working hard to earn his Tiger badge and we had recently been running around town finishing up his requirements to complete certain tasks so he could earn his Tiger badge. Certain requirements included visiting a troopers station and finding out what they did for the community and interviewing them, visiting a newspaper office and finding out what goes into making a newspaper, going to a library, making a scrapbook, going for a hike or walk with the family or pack, recycling, clothing the needy { making a goodwill bag} and donating food to the needy - { we gave food to the church} So we did it! Last night Thomas earned his Tiger Badge, his one year service star, two tiger beads for other extra achievements he's done throughout the year, and an attendance star {which was on backorder but will get it soon} He was pretty proud as was I! He kept asking me when I was gonna put it on his shirt, I guess I gotta do that soon! I put his cards for his badges in his binder, and when he saw his badges, I guess he forgot or didn't realize he got so much and said 'Are those my badges '? I said sure are! he was like whoah! And got a bit MORE proud of himself! Way to go Thomas! I'm glad he's found something he enjoys doing and feels good about.

Mother's Day

Today was Mother's Day/ It started out very nice. I got to sleep in a little bit, until I couldn't sleep anymore, then got up , had breakfst with the kids, hung around and watched T.V. with Tom, then decided to get my act in gear as Thomas needed to be at church for the 11:00 mass for the Crowning of the Blessed Mother this morning, annd we needed to pickup a bouquet of flowers from walmart before church. First we needed to get DRESSED an do our hair, then go to church. The boys came out SO cute as they both got their hair cut yesterday and i decided to give them the same haircuts upgrading brendan from a little boys haircut to a big boy cut- GOD does he look Adorable! I spike it right in the bang area and what a little cutie! I got mine cut and collored and hilighted- we won't discuss the price or I'll start to hyperventilate again... what IS it with salons that need to charge a kidney for hhair do's these days? good lord??! I need to find a new place- a CHEAPER place- that's all I'm sayin ! I don't wanna get all worked up again. . AnyWAY back to today, we go to mass, and the boys are noisy as heck , but cute as a button. I have to keep reminding them to be quiet, and that this isnt a playground, its church, otherwise they were good. we drive home and they were so loud they could have driven me off the road! I need to instill a quiet rule while Im driving or something- yeah- like that'll work - who am i kidding? we get home and decide to go to Coquina beach. That was fun. Brendan had a time chasing the seagulls while Tom and Thomas romped in the water. After a while , we all had our fun and decided to go home where the boys took a bath to wash the sand off and Brendan ruined it by "adding a few souveniers to the water " shall we say! Thomas was horrified! he said what's this? because he went to pick it up and when he realized what it was, said " aaaggh! I'm oouutta here! ' I touched pooo! while Brendan had this look on his face like what? what's the matter. what's goin on? LOL It's funny but it's not. I told him from now on you don't have to bathe with Brendan anymore- this was a deal breaker for sure. and told him how sorry i was, but not as sorry as I was going to be when i had to clean it up! Thankfully i could take it out with toilet paper and drop it in the toilet. Just eww. He's been VERY good with the potty training and he went just before the bath, I donno what triggered this- the warm water relaxing him , but UGH- gross. Thomas did this when he was little and I was NOT looking forward to having it happen AGAIN EVER! After all were immediately evacuateed and clothed we had a nice ziti dinner and later boys watched t.v. and we watched ours. Just a nice Relaxing Mother's Day with a Little bit of excitement to spice things up for memories sake I guess you might say. There's always SOMETHING happening that eacked out around here! must be the God's with a sense of humor! a weird one! That's my Mother's day in a nut shell.. Hope You had a Wonderful one too...

Time To Go

Today it looks as it's going to be Brandy's last day at the Higdon household. No matter what we try, walks, Supervision, parks, attention, She just is INSISTENT on escaping! We are up to our eleventh and final cement block that spans completely across the entire bottom gate on the right side of the house, and she STILL is trying to dig UNDER the stones to escape! I don't understand what the problem is, we don't abuse her, starve her, or any of that, we give her a good home, and make her happy, but apparently she's not. :( Otherwise she wouldn't have this obsession to keep wanting to run away. She's a good dog, She craves love, and we give it to her, sure when she jumps iup on people and the couches, we tell her to get down and when she begs for food, we tell her no - which is normal training and if she doesn't like that, well sorry! And if she can't go everywhere we go and has to stay home sometimes when we go out, sorry too, other than that, I don't know why else she should want to run away so bad- she has it pretty good here. we bought the electrical fence for 200.00, but found you had to carve into the driveway, and landscaping with trimmers would accidentally make one nick and the system would be crap so we returned it. Another one of the minor flaws was the kids were beginning to { or they always did} chase her out of their rooms all the time } this was done since she was a puppy so she wouldn't go after their toys and chew them and make in their rooms , But I think they built up a kind of fear that kind of backfired- Thomas would play with her and her toys , and Brendan would push his rocker after her around the house in a playful manner so maybe not..I'm gonna miss her- awkwardly I fed her, brushed her, walked her, picked up after her, and she was afraid of me! I to this day cannot figure that out! She loved Tom the best! laid by him while he worked, waited for him to come home,cried when he left, was all over him when he entered the room, Just nuts for him - she was his dog . what the hell? That's gratitude for ya! Was it the energy I gave off or something? Oh Cesar Why do you have to live in California? We could really use you about now... I really hope she goes to a nice family . She's a sweet dog and still a puppy. She just has That one issue where we don't know what to do anymore. A tie out in the back yard - she'll get tangled up or she's strong enough to yank it out of the ground . Heck I took her out for a walk from the front door one day and damn near took my shoulder out of it's socket when she took of like a rocket from the front door! Tom thought it was the funniest thing- ME? not so much! I damn near put Brendan in the ground! I wish Brandy all my best wishes for a speedy adoption to a new and happy family . I know shell get adopted- shes a sweetheart, shes young and great with kids and great other dogs and healthy, we just can't keep her anymore. I'm sorry baby. you just gotta go. You'll be in my prayers. I hope you find your perfect home.

Pinewood Derby races

Today was the Pinewood Derby races at Camp Flying Eagle campground . Thomas got to finally race his car. He was the first up,First to race, He didn't do all that well due to a flaw in one of the left wheels that seemed to have made the car pull to the left thus slowing it down and making it keep coming in last. :( When we test it at home it kept going straight, otherwise we would have remedied that problem beforehand. Anyhow, we watched the other racers, His friend Sammy came in first place of the tigers - his was really fast ! I don't know how he did it, I think it was aerodynamics- where everything was from the back end down like a shark's fin- - he even HAD sharks fins on his car- real cool and fast. Thomas was so proud of the medal he won, he couldn't have cared less if he won or not. That's good sportsmanship right there. Shows he had fun racing and was with his friends. That's all that counts. there were too many that TOO into it- It said in the rule book you couldn't do any special modifications to your car or it would be impounded- we get there and theres people there with their special tupperware and bags underneath to secure their cars , and LUBING the axels, and doing this and that to their cars- ummmm- I thought you had to weigh in and if NEEDED you could add a weight or two BSA approved to make 5 ounces and that was it! I was like dang! These people were obviously trying to bend the rules to cheat inspection! Anyway, it doesn't matter- there was a burr on the back left wheel we discovered when we got home that pulled the car to the left we must have not sanded well enough tha tmade it go so slow- could have been the weight placement in the middle instead of the back too - whadda ya gonna do? live and learn. What's important is we felt and Thomas thought he had the best looking car and said " I never won a gold medal before! when I go to school, I'm gonna bring this in for show and tell for sure! " He loves his medal, he feels like he won first place, he had a blast, and that's all that matters. And the day's still young to go out and have some more fun on this beautiful day.

Derby Car 's Ready!

Well we finally got done making Thomas' Pinewood Derby car for Cubscouts.. And in good time too! The races are tomorrow! I had been after Tom and Thomas to start making the car when Thomas recieved his car or block of wood from scouts at Christmastime! But we figured we had lots of time seeing the races weren't until the end of April. We had a great deal decideing what to make really. that took like a month! first it was Bumblebee from the Transformers, then it was Nemo,then a bonefish, then searching for something cool on the internet with nothing we liked , then we held off a bit , then back to the search and settling on the bonefish only to find it wouldn't come out right , so we settled on a Matchbox car! The car came out looking NOTHING like the model we drew it after, but I think it came out pretty cool anyway! I also found had we went with the bonefish, there was NO WAY we ould have cleared 5 ounces! we just about made it with this car's weight adding weights where we could. e would never have been able to race making the skeleton of a fish! That would have been a show car definitly! I never realized I had such crafty men on my hands! Who'd a thought? It came out beautiful just in the nick of time! Hopefully we bring home a trophy of some sort. - I think we get one anyway just for racing. It should be a fun day no matter how you look at it. These Scouting events always are. Tomorrow we race at 10 Am . Wish us luck! Whether we win or lose it doesn't matter , it' should be just plain fun.

Healthy Smiles

Today the boys had their 6 month dentist appointment. I was a little concerned due to the fact that easter was just past, and Thomas has been really getting into the candy scene recently , and hasn't beeb brushing his teeth as good as he should , and lost some teeth and grew in some permanents and hasn't been taking care of them like he should. This time Brendan was going to get a look at his too. I was concerned he was going to freak out, not want to cooperate, Want to develop this hate for the dentist, the whole bit. It actually went over REALLY well!! Thomas had his xrays, came out with NO cavities, [ can you say WHOO -HOO! ?} Being in his shoes at his ageI can SOO breath a sigh of relief! I went through SOO much hell as a kid with cavities and drilling and pulling , I to this day HATE HATE HATE the dentist! The dental assistant found minimal amounts of plaque on the backs of his front lower teeth , and after that gave him a nice cleaning- done. I was like wow. with all the juice boxes this kid burns through and three musketeers he sneaks or shall I say CONS his dad into buying for him, thats all he had? Cool . I'm always after him to brush his teeth, I'm hoping it paid off! I'm after Brendan too. I scrub him whenever he lets me, and he got checked on my lap, didn't cry, had no cavities, and has a couple more molars that need to come in,as well as an eye tooth thats making its way in some more. Otherwise, he too got a big thumbs up as well. They both got stickers and little toys for being great patients, and I worried over nothing. As for Thomas' big horse front teeth, He's got two smaller ones on the side that are just about to come out so that one missing will have more room to come in and should be making its way down more any time soon. I was wondering if it EVER was gonna come down! It was good news all around! Now off to Religion. Another busy day in the Higdon household...

Made the Honor Roll Again!

Today I went to Thomas' school where Thomas had an awards ceremony where he made the Honor Roll- AGAIN! I'm tellin ya , This kid's on a roll! Not a semester has gone by where he hasn't come home without an award of some sort. this makes his 6th one in 1st grade alone- he got two Positive Behavior awards,one Certificate of Merit,A Student of the Month, and made the Honor roll twice including today's award. and in Kindergarten he got three outstanding attendances, a student of the Month and a Certificate of Merit.Along with the award he gets a "Good Egg Achievement Award From the Broken Egg which is a restaurant in the town of Lakewood ranch here in Florida - you show his report card, with all A's and B;s and he gets a free breakfst. also he gets a free apple juice from Publix supermarket,a free kids meal from Bob Evans for making the Honor Roll- so the whole community gets in on the kid's education which I think is cool! Also, I have a special file on my computer where I scanned all his awards ;). They're starting to accumulate nicely! :) He keeps complaining how he doesn't like school- I don't see why- It seems to like him! Ahh well. He hasn't had the best year making friends this year. They're all in separate classes from his and he doesn't get to see them as much as he wants or go to their houses as they live far away. and the kids IN his class aren't very nice to him. So I can see why he doesn't want to go - but I said he only has a amonth left and to stick it out then no more school and then the fun starts- swim lessons, and Grandpas house, fun times! and summer! For now, just stick it out and keep up the great work! Nice job buddy! I'm so proud of him!

Add a Room, Switch A Room

recently I had transformed the Boys' rooms into two seoarate rooms as I was tired of picking up toys in one room , then moving to the other room and having to pickup as well. I know, they need to start picking up after themselves, as funny as it might be or maybe not, Brendan actually helps me pickup moreso than thomas does. Maybe because he's so used to me picking up after him in the past? well, no more. I took his bed out of his room, and stuck it in Brendan's room as he keppt saying he wanted to sleep in with Brendan. Well, be careful what you wish for my friend! So far, so good. They have been sleeping together just fine. Brendan goes to sleep around 7:30, 8:00, and Thomas 8:30 9:00. so by the time he goes to bed, Brendan's sound asleep and doesn't hear him come in and doesn't wake him up so goes to bed nic eand quiet and they both sleep well. Their clothes both fit well in the same closet, so all their toys were transferred to Thomas' old room as a play room . The like it, I like it, Every ones happy, and it looks nice too. Thomas' friends come over, and they have a place to play and retrieve his games from his closet and toys from one locaton and they all get put back in their same spot . and if I don't feel like cleaning up the mess at the moment, I just close the door till later when I'm ready ... as my neighbor says ;) it all worked out well in the end. Now it's time to tackle some Disney movies I might sell to make money on Ebay - thing is- some might be worth money,and some the boys might still want so I must choose wisely.. sometime projects can be fun when you pick the right ones! Like these were.

Trip To The Highway Patrol

Today I took Thomas to the Florida Highway Patrol to see about getting one step further on his requirements on earning his tiger cub badge for Cub Scouts. We just needed to ask what the Trooper did to help the community, but it turned out, we got alot more than we bargained for! The lady Trooper that came to say hello to Thomas was SO nice and helpful. She asked if Thomas had any questions, and Thomas asked if she ever used any weapons. I was like " what a weird question, but ok. He's 7 and I guess a boy and into that sort of thing.. then asked "do you catch alot of bad guys?" Ok , now we're getting somewhere..., Then "do you like to help people?", as he got more comfortable, more questions started coming out of his mouth . I was impressed! It was like he was conducting his own interview! Before we knew it, the fun part began.. She offered to show him her police car. You wanna see a kid's eyes light up! What do YOU think? well she left, drove her squad car around,and Thomas' eyes lit up. She popped the trunk, and there was her hat in a shell to protect it- I never knew they kept it in a carrier- {so that's how they keep it so nice and tidy looking}, You learn something new everyday! Thomas tried it on for size, Brendan too- they looked too cute! There was this wheel where they trace one point of the scene of an accident to impact point {something like that} - I'd have to say Thomas' favorite item was the baton though for some reason. He kept wanting to hold it and have it taken out. We learned how to hold it and how to use it. Then Thomas got to sit in the squad car- front AND the back- he tried on cuffs too for fun. We slid them on loosely so he could slide his hands out- good photo op. He said - these are like mine at home only they're real! LOL We also turned the lights on and discussed safety like always buckling up because you never know whats going to happen on the road. And you never want to find out the hard way. { Thomas has a nasty habit of unbuckling along the way or not buckling at all no matter how many times we tell him to buckle up while were driving, so we thought if a police officer gave him a talking to, maybe he'd listen}.After bunch of pictures and souvenirs, and a tour of the department, we finally bid the kind Trooper adieu. She did more than her share of coming through, and definitly showed a kid that the police are definitly are our friends and should not be feared whenever we see them on the road as he had in the past. Score one for the good guys!

Brandygirl

I guess there comes a time in every woman's life where they enter the realm of womanhood, whether you are on the brink of becoming, or ARE a teenager, or in this case, a nine month old dog! Yes, Brandy has recently entered that stage. 3 weeks ago she had began spotting, then bleeding, and the poor thing couldn't figure out why we were freaking out and secluding her to her cage and the backyard and the lanai all the time . Everytime she came in the house, she wasn'y allowed to roam free as when she wagged her tail she would go "bloop bloop" and leave these droplets of blood all over the place , so into her cagfe she would go. or out side- at night she would get caged up. This lasted for two weeks. A couple times she snuck into our room and "left her mark" shall we say I shampooed it out, and thank goodness 80 % of our house is linoleum so lots of it just got wiped up - she couldn't help it. So I call the vet to find out how much it would cost to have her neuterd. and how long this would last. She said "' the bleeding would last a weekend to a week, and take three weeks for her uterus to go down " ok , sounds like a typical woman with a normal cycle.. well, she bled for TWO weeks so I have two weeks left? But she tells me it will cost 475 dollars to have her neutered and more to do it while shes in heat! SCUSE ME??! This is a dog! Not a human! I paid 25 dollars MORE for ME to have a scar revision done from my OB! Are you outta your freakin mind? and how much for if she needs to stay over? I cant afford that! is that the going rate? I can't see everyone having to pay that much- Theresgotta be a better price out there- what about the shelters and stuff? I'm gonna check them out and see if they can do it for a lower cost and I'll make a donation if I have to! 475 dollars My ass! Youre on drugs girl! My Car payment aint even that much { my cars paid off but still even when I was MAKING payments! } so now I'm looking around, The damn dog keeps escaping from my yard because shes in heat , so shes in and out of the house . I have these cinderblocks blockading the gap under my fence where she digs a trench big enough to fit herself under and squeeze her ass under and run away down the block. I got the neighbors returning my dog, and when I took the boys to Chuckie Cheese just as we were leaving , She came barrelling around the side of the house where she dug herself under the fence as if to say :'"wait for me ! wait for me! " It's comical, but it's not. Now we gotta look at one of those electric fences or something to keep her in the yard, because this is getting obnoxious. She's so determined and such a digger. Well,. Off to call the shelters on my neuter inquiries. That's my update on our Brandygirl. Ya Gotta love her!