Farmer's Market

Let me just start by saying, YES, I do know that I'm a slacker. It's been way too long since I've posted on here and have absolutely no idea where my summer went and cannot believe I'm staring Halloween dead in the face. And i do mean dead!! HA! Get it halloween, dead, dead, halloween. (yeah i know lame joke, couldn't resist)

So, with that out of the way....

I took my kids to the Triad farmer's market in Greensboro this past weekend and had our nephew Caden meet us there. This is a bit of a tradition for my kids and I and couldn't not get Emily in on the action. They build little houses out of pumpkins which is perfectly adorable when they are little like her. I used to take Natalie when she was a baby. Ahh the memories.

We stopped to buy some peanuts from one of the local vendors. We of course had to go get some cotton candy ice cream from Hershey's ice cream shop, and then went to pick out our pumpkins. You have to love the prices of the farmers market we got a HUGE pumpkin and 4 little ones for the kids to paint for $18. Emily and Caden each got a bouncy ball out of the little qurter machines and spent a good 45 min throwing and chasing them around. We all had fun but were ready not to be freezing anymore so we said our goodbyes and got in the much warmer and far less windy cars.

Yay for blogging again. I'll try to better,

i promise. :)

Summer fun

We went out onto the lake with some friends. We all had a blast!! Madison and Bryson drove the boat. Bryson threw a couple of people around during his turn. He would go from 0 to 60 and then a dead stop, so...... the people who were standing payed for it. The girls had a lot of fun tubing. Bryson was a little afraid of this but had a lot of fun jumping off the boat into the water and swimming around. We fed some fish and had a picnic on one of the island beaches. It was a fun day!! Enjoy the pics. Hope everyone's having a great summer!!

OUR BIG NEWS!!!

Well, Nathan and I figured that it was about time to come clean with our big news. We've kept it quiet for sometime now... well, it's time you all knew:

Bryson is soooooooo excited! He has waited soooooo long for this. We even let Bryson pick out the names for him as long as it wasn't darth..........anything, really. And the name he came up with is ...drum roll please!

STRYDER DASH VLAZNY ...had you going didn't I....he he

(nathan may have helped a bit with his first name!)


We promised him when we found out Emily was a girl that we would get him a boy dog one day. They have all had goals they had to meet to show the capability that they were ready for this HUGE responsibility. They all rose to the challenge with great excitement! Stryder is 7 1/2 weeks, and is an Aussie. We are all looking forward to having long games of catch. Madison just wants to teach him lots of COOL TRICKS!! (I'm not really sure what they are.) I on the other hand am getting a wagon and am bound and determine to teach him to bring in my groceries!! You know you'll all be jealous when that happens. Not IF that happens but WHEN it happens. Anyway, here are some pics of us getting him and bringing him home!! Enjoy!!





LET'S GO PLAY!!!!!!


my do-dee

SCHOOLS OUT!!

After having a very lazy pretty calm and peaceful day at the pool it had me look back and think of my childhood summers. Here are some of my favorite things:

• After swimming for hours and you are so water logged your shaking from being so cold, then laying on the hot pavement and feeling like you are melting onto it. I LOVED THAT FEELING!




• I loved near the end of a thunderstorm, getting on my bike and riding through the water in the opposite direction it was running down the street and having it spray up on you.




• Spending all day at the baseball fields searching for lost change under the bleachers, from the pockets up above because Swedish fish only cost 1 cent a fish. I bought plenty of "just one fish" over the years.




• Being in such good shape you'd see the ice cream man go by your house and were able to go inside grab your money and then catch him a block away. I was a good customer! One year at the end of the summer he gave me all the leftover candy cigarettes, lollipops and paper button candies he had left in his truck.




• candy cigarettes, bad i know but I LOVED them!!




• Being freezing at someones house after they had the air conditioner blasting and then getting in a really hot car and having the warmth just take over and fill you up in a matter of seconds.




• Not having a care in the world, this I miss the most!

I asked my kids what they liked about summer,

• Bryson- going to the pool and i'm excited there's no school




• Natalie- My birthday and going to the pool




• Madison- going to the beach with my whole family and the pool with my whole family. Oh yeah mommy, and getting soooooo HOT that you HAVE to go to the pool!




• Emily- uh-oh uh-oh uh-oh baoon!!!! (she let go of a balloon a few days ago in our entryway and it still hasn't come down. She is very concerned about it. It's all she has said for two days straight now. Her neck has gotta hurt from looking up!)

Well, that's our favorite things about summer. How about you, what are yours?

Beach Babe Blast

My friends Sheila and Alicia and I went to Myrtle Beach for 4 whole days without kids or husbands!! We had a blast!!!









We shopped til' we dropped (on a few separate occasions). We went out to eat and had people wait on us!! We didn't do the waiting, YAY!! We swam in the ocean and didn't worry about anyone drowning, we swam in the pool and didn't worry about anyone drowning, we spent a few hours in the hot tub........and you guessed WE DIDN'T WORRY ABOUT ANYONE DROWNING!! (do you know how amazing this is?)
We got a pedicure and a massage, and then we shopped some more. When we were shopping, we didn't go in kid stores. We even went into stores where EVERYTHING could break and didn't stress out about it! We thought we would sleep in but were so well rested from laying on the beach and not worrying about the well being of our families that we were all up by 8:30 ready for the day. It's funny....you don't realize how much your mind being on your kids takes such a physical toll on your body. One thing I did find absolutely amazing is with the three of us moms there the hotel room stayed really clean and all the grocery's were put away in maybe 3 minutes. THREE MINUTES!! I found this nothing short of miraculous. I think I gained a little bit of insight why women put up with polygamy. J/K :)

(This is a joke people, I really think that's disgusting but couldn't resist the opportunity.)




this was the theme for the weekend, next time we're making t-shirts!!




Anyway, I'm happy to say we all came home to healthy kids and husbands who had survived and were all a little more loving and appreciative of us all. Not that they weren't before, obviously they are all awesome for letting us go to begin with. Every mom needs to do this! It is sooooooooooo good for you. So to all of my friends out there, start planning a girls weekend getaway! We decided we are going to make this a tradition to go the weekend before school is out to let ourselves be ready to deal with summer.










Next year, I think we are going to Charleston. Who wants to come with?

Getting old is scary

I definitely believe I am a person with a young spirit. I still feel as though high school was just yesterday and I haven't aged a day since then. Life though has a very funny way of offering up moments of clarity so intense that a 1080 hd television looks fuzzy and gray.
I turned 28 last Friday and while i still feel as though this is not an "old" age the definite realization that I'm a grown up and I can't hide from it any longer has made my nights lets just say, far more restless. This is a big year for our little family as far as realizing how big our kids are getting. Natalie is going to be 8 and getting baptized in August and I now find myself questioning all of my parenting skills over the past 8 years and how the crap did it get here over night?!?!? My daughter is going to soon be found accountable for every roll of the eyes, stomp up the stairs, slam of the door, and slip of the tongue which is usually in the sound of "ehhhhEHHHHHehhhhhhhh." (I know you all know what I mean.) Now I'm worrying about stuff my mom worries about. Did I do a good job, is she respectful, is she confident, does she have a testimony, will she stand up for what is right? On top of all of that my 3rd kid starts Kindergarten just a few weeks after that and I have already succumbed to the idea (and warned of it by her preschool teacher) that i will definitely be getting notes home from kindergarten for Madison's behavior and to just be prepared for it. And while my daughter is not a bad kid, she is definitely full of energy and very stubborn with the ideas that she gets in her head. I'm not sure how to handle the teachers looking at me as though I've raised this uncontrollable ball of energy and haven't done anything to contain it. While I know that I have tried EVERYTHING in my power to steer her down the right road when i dream of the road she takes to adulthood it is always winding, very bumpy, with a few spots of, let's just call them shadows opposed to darkness. Not in any way do I think she is evil, she is just one of these people who won't learn from anything but her own experience and it still might take a few of her own before the lesson really sinks in.

What is most scary is that these are the minor concerns on my list, the past 10 years since i met Nathan have flown by faster than the wind carried my kids kindergarten registration papers down the street last week. I just barely blinked and they were gone. What is terrifying about that is that in another 10, Natalie will be 18 and our time with her at home will be finished. AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! I'm too young to worry about boys dating my daughters and girls dating my son, but the time is short at hand when we will be buying a shot gun to shine on the front porch as they approach my house to adore my kids. Natalie will be in a school with sixth graders in august, sixth graders know and talk about things i don't know and don't want to talk about. I have really learned how much I took advantage of childhood. Why didn't any of us listen to the wise old adage of "ignorance is bliss". I know that I would give almost anything to have just one day where I could live my life this way again. Even just a few hours where i didn't have to worry about sex, drugs, alcohol, and all the other insanely moral issues my little children go out and face in this world everyday would be truly welcomed. Really all can say is exactly what i started with, Getting old is really scary!!

KIDS ARE FUNNY

I was just thinking about all the funny things i have heard kids say over the years along with the things i never thought I would say or hear being said. I have many of these funny little quotes since becoming a mother almost 8 years ago and thought I would share some of the funnier ones i can remember from my kids and my friends kids.


Bryson to his friend Tanner
Bryson hears the words "a womens got" on the tv, he replys "women's got, what's a women's got?!?!" Tanner in reply "ohhh, you'll see!"

madison to me
"I'm right and yooouuur wrong mommy, YOU get an X!! "(while making an x with her fingers and shoving them in my face)

madison to a middle age hippee women in target
"Are you a witch?"

Tanner in prayer
"thank you for president Lincoln who was our 16th president and got SHOT IN THE HEAD!!"

me to Natalie
"Don't flush the elephant down the toilet!"

Madison to me
me " why did you want bryson to cut your pretty hair?"
Madison "because it wouldn't top gwo-ing"

Natalie to the peacock
"PRETTY CHICKEN!!"

bryson to the elephant
"kitty!"

Bryson to the bear
"kitty!"

Bryson to the alligators
"kitty!"

Bryson to the mountain lion
"kitty!"
me to Bryson "yes son that is a kitty"

Shawn to his mom
He dropped his stuffed elephant who he named horny for the tusks
MOM, GET HORNY MOM, MOM GET HORNY!!!
mom to shawn, shhhhhh i'll get him shawn just be QUIET!!

jennifer to madison
J "i didn't know that madison"
M "thats because Iiiiiiii am SMARTER thaaaan YOU "

madison to me
"All the boys want me to be their girlfriend and keep fighting over who gets to marry me. (huge sigh) Sometime that boyfriend thing makes my heart feel soooo empty."

I'm sure I could go on for hours, but I just thought I would share some funny moments. I love kids even on bad days, kids are always good for a laugh.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

hey everyone, i just thought i would catch you up with our family and send you some pictures. We enjoyed Halloween and the kids got tons of candy!! They had a few parties and really enjoyed the holiday. Our neighborhood was awesome for this!!! Here is what the kids are up to:

Natalie is doing very well in second grade. She just lost her third tooth and was very excited about that. Not surprisingly! The tooth fairy is a lot better to kids these days then she was when i was growing up. INFLATION HURTS!! :) She was the star student of the month for November. She has lots of friends and has started playing basketball. She is having fun with that. She spends most of the time laughing and giggling and seeing how everyone else is doing. It's funny how different from me she is.
Bryson is doing well. It took some time to adjust to Kindergarten. I think that we still are adjusting most days. He is a real home-body so it's hard for him to be gone all day. And the attitude that starts with kindergarten has definitely started. I take great comfort in the fact that Natalie is normal again. Bryson was the star student of the month in September. He also is playing basketball and gets really mad at himself when he doesn't do well. (now, that's my boy) He recently lost his two bottom teeth. Needless to say the tooth fairy is BROKE!!

Madison, well, Madison has not been the star student for any month, but she still is definitely a natural phenomenon around here. She makes her presence known every second of every day. My other two grew up so much at 4 years old. we are still waiting for that to happen with MTV. She has lied about getting sent to the office. It's not what you think though. She wasn't sent to the office and she told us she was. Feel free to offer any advice on this if you understand it because I am lost. She obviously still has not adjusted to the fact that she no longer owns the baby throne. She is quite funny though. Her new thing is to refer to all people as humans and has a daily adventure of who won the battle over her hand in marriage on the playground. All the boys love her because she can keep up and can do a lot of cool tricks and loves to play karate. She is looking forward to this spring with great anticipation because she will be playing soccer. Emily is a scary reminder of madison when she was a baby. Today at Toys r' us she threw a HUGE fit when I took her out of a power wheels car. I put her in the back of the cart to contain her, she immediately stopped crying stood up looked at me and hit me right in the stomach. She is sweet most of the time, but she definitely has started objecting to things she doesn't agree with. She is taking 4 or five steps at a time and is very silly. She has a sense of humor already. She likes to scream and then laugh at herself when everyone looks at her. Nathan and I are doing well. Mostly Nathan is just working hard trying to make this new company work so we can stay employed and i am adjusting to my new found job of taxi driver. With preschool, basketball and church we have something every day of the week!!! It is so hard to keep up with it all but we have somehow found a way. Mostly I'm just in disbelief of how big they all are. Hope this finds everyone. well. Merry Christmas to you all!!! love, the Vlazny family

NO CUPCAKES, NO HUGS!!

Fair warning to all, this is going to be a venting session.

When did the FREE COUNTRY we live in turn into NAZI GERMANY!!!
So, I went to my sons school last week for his birthday to bring him cupcakes. I cleared it with his teacher to do it during their snack time. I spent some time making the awesomest cupcakes any 6 year old little boy
could want and brought them up to school. As I was signing into the school to see my son the principal came out to stop me from bringing the cupcakes any further into the school grounds. She informed me that they could only be store bought and still in the packages. I looked at her confused because I had brought in stuff last year when I was still living in AMERICA!! My thoughts on this are, don't you think that there is surely a higher probability of a terrorist wanting to hurt little children working at a Food Lion bakery poisoning cupcakes then a mother wanting to let her son celebrate his b-day. I mean really, what is wrong with this country. On the today show last week two girls were suspended for hugging. One girl hugged a freind because a parent had just died and another was a one arm hug to a girlfreind saying see-ya tommorow. This doesn't make any sense to me!! Let's teach are children to not have empathy and show caring to one another!?!?!?
Now, I am really mad that I was not allowed to have a party with my son that day. I had to go to the store and bring "store bought cupcakes" back at lunch to the cafeteria. This is not the same, because when you have a parent eating lunch with you in Nazi south elementary you cannot sit with your class. So Bryson gave his cupcakes to his friends and them came to the corner with me and ate one. They could have let it slipped past and asked me not to do it again. I mean schools all over the country let guns pass through their doors. Kids have profanity on their shirts. Teachers are sleeping with students. Profanity is written on the bathroom stalls. There is porn on shirts and folders and the teenage girls are dressing like porn stars. THEY ARE GIVING OUT BIRTH CONTROL PILLS TO ELEVEN YEAR OLDS WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT!! Let's not forget teaching our 12 year old sons and daughters to put condems on bananas. We cannot look pass the greater evil I guess. No birthdays, no fun, no laughter, no love, no empathy, no freindship, and worst of all,
NO CUPCAKES ,NO HUGS!!!!



Ps, i made this cake to isn't it AWESOME!!

DEER IN HEADLIGHTS!!!

OK, so we have all heard this term used before, or the like phrase probably more appropriate in this case "it was like witnessing a train wreck i just couldn't look away". Yes well I had the opportunity of experiencing this situation and thought I would share it with all of you.
I had the opportunity of gaining some unwanted knowledge this morning as I entered a women's restroom. I opened the door with my daughter in my arms with the intention of changing her rank nasty diaper when i was abruptly stopped in my tracks at the sight of an overweight man in front of the mirror pulling up and adjusting and buttoning his pants. I'm not sure why I didn't immediately look away except of course for the phrases I have previously mentioned above. The knowledge I gained was that of apparently all men doing this in the same exact fashion.It's almost like a little dance. Now, of course i have only witnessed one other man go through this process so maybe it's just the two of them but I'm willing to bet it's more.

This man began by rocking back onto his heels and pulling his pants out, up and over his large rear end. He then (this is the disturbing part) Rocked forward onto his toes once to adjust his "hem hem". Rocked forward to his toes a second time while with his left hand holding his pants out tucked the left side of his button down shirt in, and the third time for the right side of his shirt. He then sucked in and rocked back and forth again to button his pants followed by one last rock to the toes while exhaling for the pulling up of the zipper with a little jump step at the end. Fix the belt, give both legs a little shake and wah la. (all of this is really funny if you imagine the whole thing with a little bit of circus music playing in your head.)

At this point as he looked out of the corner of his eyes the reality of the situation hit me and i quickly shut the door and took a few steps back. I then immediately turned around and did what any other self respecting individual would have done. I announced to all those around me that there was a man in the women's bathroom standing in front of the mirror with his pants open adjusting himself.

Now while learning this unwanted information of the process a man goes through to pull up his pants two questions came to mind.

1. Why on earth was this man standing in front of the
mirror where anyone in the bathroom can see him
doing this?

2. How do you not notice your in the women's bathroom?








Now thinking about the first question i reflected on my many years of visiting public restrooms. I swear that I have never once witnessed a women standing in front of the "open to the public" mirror with her pants undone to tuck in her shirt. All women do the same exact thing, we tuck in our shirts in the privacy of our own stall. The mirror is used for any adjusting that may need to be done. A little tug here a yank there a flip of the hair, (maybe a little make-up touch up depending on the girlyness of your nature) and we are out of there. Any dressing needs taking place in the women's restroom is done where it should be, in privacy. Naturally I went to the one source I could for information. I had the thought that maybe this man was a perve who was in there on purpose with his pants down to somehow get a women's attention. Nathan told me that all men do this in front of the mirror. I know women, we are all shocked right now. The behaviors in the opposing restrooms is definitely proof that men and women are very different. I personally would never undo my pants in front of the mirror to adjust a wedgie or any other needs i may be having. I would enter a stall as I am sure all of you other girls would do as well.

Anyway, getting to my other question; If you somehow miss the dress on the little stick figure girl on the front plaque for sure a man would notice the lack of urinals around. Again inquiring of my husband that indeed almost all of the public restrooms he had ever been in were definitely occupied with urinals and if not he would take a second look at the sign on the bathroom door. Now I am willing to admit that one time I have made the dumb mistake of not paying attention to the stick figure due to preoccupation with children, but the urinals tipped me off before the door ever closed behind me that I was in the wrong one. This made me think that maybe something should be done about this. I thought maybe we should put big circles in the chest area of the dress with an arrow and a huge sign saying if you don't have these don't come in. I thought better of it though due to the fact that there are many women out there like me who would then be forced to make it home to use the restroom. I'm not sure what the solution is, I just know that we need one.

As I stood outside the restroom waiting for it to be usable the man exited and looked at the sign on the door. He booms to those surrounding us that he had just made a big mistake. He looks at me and asks, "was that you?" "yeah" I replied. He shook his head stated how embarrassed he was, then walked out the door hysterically laughing at himself. The last bit of knowledge i took from this man is that a good sense of humor can make a devastatingly embarrassing situation as minuscule as dropping your sunglasses.