Mana Toys from heaven.

You guys are in so much trouble.

You know how a few days ago I told you I'd won some Rescue Hero toys off of eBay? And I showed you the picture from the auction of the cute little action figure toys? I thought, "Oh! These are so LITTLE and cute! They will be great!"

cute wittle itty bitty rescue heroes! awww!


And then, yesterday, a TWENTY POUND BOX showed up on my doorstep. TWENTY. POUNDS.

Turns out, these Rescue Hero toys are about 5 feet tall EACH. You all are in trouble because none of you said, "Hey, Emery! I know those toys look all cute and everything, but really? Each Rescue Hero is approximately the size of a grown man. You're gonna need a lot of room."

Not one of you warned me! So, it's, um, your fault! Yeah!

Heh. I kid.

These toys are freakin' AWESOME and Ezra loves them like they are his own children. You guys should have seen the look on his face when we opened that box. It was like a million rainbows exploded from his eyes and he'd seen the very face of God. Should've snapped a picture.

And the toys couldn't have arrived on my doorstep at a better time, because Ezra is really sick and he's been going stir-crazy the last couple of days. As a matter of fact, only moments before the UPS guy rang my doorbell, Ezra was throwing a fit and demanding I put on his shoes and take him somewhere. But the little guy- his fever has been so high and he's been throwing up every now and again, and sooooo NO, I didn't think an 'outing' was the best idea at the time... What he needed was some gargantuan Rescue Hero toys to fall from the sky to keep him quietly entertained and happy until his bedtime. And that's what he got.

they don't look quite so little anymore, do they?


Also, he's been playing with that car garage toy I got him at Toys R' Us for HOURS everyday. This garage toy has taken priority over all other toys for over a week now... he's even lost interest in *GASP!* Thomas the Tank Engine! This also came at a very opportune time, because sometime last week I had to sneak into his room while he was napping and steal his wooden 'James the Red Engine' train and his corresponding tender because they had been recalled.

It seems that James had been painted in a nice, thick, yummy coat of LEAD. Ehggg.



For more info about that recall, click here.

The RC2 Corporation has promised to send us a new lead-free version of James, along with a FREE BONUS GIFT! It had better be good bonus gift, too, what with them selling my son a poisonous toy and all. If it's something totally lame, like a replacement wheel or something, then I'm going to send it back to them with a note that says "TRY AGAIN."

Operation: Grow Hair! (an uppy-update)

before.


and now!


Now we're gettin' somewhere! woo woo!

I've had such an urge to chop chop chop away at my hair again... restless feelings always make my scissor fingers itch. Looking back at how much progress I've made since beginning Operation: Grow Hair! has been quite motivating, however, and has staved off the drastic hair-cutter within.

(For now.)

Plus... I am only milimeters away from a legitimate PONYTAIL! I know, I know- you all just fell right off of your chairs, didn't you? ALERT THE MEDIA! Emery has almost reached the next phase in Operation: Grow Hair! It's the phase where she begins to shower less often because, hey! Ponytails cover a multitude of sins!

Stuck at Home.

I was ALLLLL excited to go to church today because I had the cutest outfit picked out, (and, of course, I wanted to go to church to worship and pray with my precious community- but the outfit! OHHH, the outfit!!) but now Ezra is sick with a fever/stuffy nose and he just crashed out on the couch while watching 101 Dalmatians at 10:00 in the AM. This should make for an interesting day....

*sigh*

"Come Under My Umbrella"a stroll to the neighbor's house.

Time Eating Train.

Today was glorious.

Today was co op.

I was meant to bring Ezra up to the church by 9:00AM so that a couple of fellow moms could watch him and the other kids from 9-1pm. I was so excited as I packed all of his stuff this morning into a never-before-used diaper bag and made my way to the church.

We were coming up on some train tracks that cross a major road about a block before the church, and Ezra pointed to the train signs and said, "Ding ding ding ding!", Just like he always does. But this time, my son was eerily accurate, and the second he started making the noise, the arms came down and the lights started flasing. A train was coming.

I was the first car to pull up to the railroad crossing, so I pulled the emergency brake and Ezra and I sat patiently and watched the train. Which was not moving, mind you, but it was, you know, JUST SITTING THERE. They were coupling two trains together (um I watch too much Thomas the Tank Engine), which means the engine train backed up and slammed into some awaiting box cars. Then, a guy started hooking the two trains together.

All this time it was POURING down rain- the roads were flooding and my wipers couldn't even keep up with all the water hitting my windsheild.

So, Ezra and I waited...

And waited...

And waited.

34 minutes later, we were STILL WAITING.

I was (unfortunatley) in the right hand lane, so to my left was a row of waiting cars, and to my right was A TREACHEROUS RAVINE. There was no way for me to turn around unless someone decided to let me out.

After about 40 minutes, The person sitting directly next to me turned around and left, and before the person behind them could inch up, I darted out of the gap and turned my car around. 40 MINUTES LATER, people. I could have cleaned my entire house and then watched a movie and then done all my Christmas shopping in that time. But instead, I sat.

40 MINUTES OF PRECIOUS CO OP TIME. WASTED. LOOKING AT A TRAIN.

By the time I'd turned around, the roads were incredibly flooded, and I almost didn't make it to the next crossing to cut over and loop back around towards the church. The roads had turned to rivers.

Around 10:00 I finally pulled into the church parking lot- safe and sound. That bleepity train had sucked up an hour of my free time. And when I pulled away from the church again, I could see the train-- still sitting there. An hour after it had pulled up.

In the remaining time I had, I was able to pick some things up at Target that I needed (how did these shoes get in my basket?) and then I rushed home to clean my house like a mad-woman. I turned up some music really loud on the stereo (my mom's suggestion) and I scrubbed and vaccumed in hyper-mode.

clearance. shebang!
clean floors. double shebang!

Less than an hour later, I was done. My house was clean, I'd run my errands, and now it was time to go pick up my little snoopy poo.

Thankfully, the train was gone by then, and I was able to get to him no problem. He played really well today and now he is passed out in his little bed-- sawing logs and oblivious to the rumbling thunder that is pressing against our cozy little (clean!) house.

"I have yet to meet a fort that I didn't like."

Rocket Heart.

A Trip Down 'Memory Lane'. (aka eBay)

Ezra has really started to outgrow a lot of the toys we have for him, or he's played with the same ones for two years so he's getting bored of them. Chris and I haven't really bought him a whole lot of toys, because we don't have a whole lot of extra room, for one, and also, because we believe that you don't need all the latest, greatest toys to have FUN. I want to encourage Ezra's imagination and creativity from this early age.

This doesn't mean that his room is full of rocks and bent spoons, but the toys we do buy require some... participation.

So, the last few days I've been scanning ebay for some good deals on toys. Ezra has reached this phase where he spends good chunks of time pretending. He'll grab a couple of toys and have them interacting and talking- often knocking the living daylights out of each other followed by a dramatic plunge to the ground by the losing opponent. His robot soars through the air and shoots at airplanes. The barn animals scold each other for jumping over the fences. The farmer runs from the gargantuan snake, only to be eaten a moment later. (he never had a chance.)

It is so much fun for us to see him playing this way. He's brilliant. Genius. This is all Spielberg worthy.

I thought it was high time to get Ezra a few new toys to jump-start this new talent.

Soooo, I bought a couple things.

Like this nice bunch of gently used Rescue Hero toys off of eBay:



And then I am also bidding on this giant lot of Little People toys:



And then maybe (just maybe!) I took little Ezzie bug to Toys R Us this morning and bought him this too:



I just put the garage toy together (Ezra is napping) and I can't wait to see the look on his face when he comes out into the living room and sees it all set up.

Why is it that buying toys is GARGANTUANLY, RIDICULOUSLY FUN?!?!

Also, while browsing ebay, I've stumbled upon a few blasts from the past. There are a lot of vintage toys for sale on there, and when I saw these ones in particular, I felt like a little kid again. Here are a few that I remember vividly from my childhood:








Ahhh... the memories!!

Do you remember your favorite toys from growing up?

When The World Goes Black.

Today was GYMBOREE DAY!! (can't you just feel the energy in the air?) I packed my son into the car and headed out into the torrential down pour so that he could spend some good, quality time with his pal Gymbo The Clown.

It was raining so hard that some of the roads were quite flooded. I had to keep to the middle of the road and pray that I didn't hit one of the lake-sized potholes that are much easier to avoid when not covered in a layer of water. We got to Gymboree and made a mad dash for the doors. But, wait... what's this? Ezra? You want to hold the umbrella? Well, I don't know if that's such a... OK, OK... um, stop screaming. You want to hold it? Uhhh, Okay! Um, here you go! Keep it stea- AGGCK!

We were SOAKED through and through by the time we hit the doors. Sigh.

We played at Gymboree for about a half an hour. Right when Ezra had a ball poised above his head to throw in my direction, the power went out. I instinctively ducked. I still have no idea if I narrowly missed a basketball in the face.

There are NO windows in this gymboree, because it is in an old mall. So, when the power went out, it went COMPLETELY and TOTALLY BLACK. I took a picture:



And here's Ezra attempting to climb the slide in the dark:



And here's Ezra tripping on the corner of a mat:



And here's Ezra stealing a ball from another child:



HAHA, I kid. I was not actualy snapping pictures in the dark, I promise.

Some kids started screaming and crying while panicky mothers tried to locate them in the dark. Other kids thought it was the best thing that had ever happened to them and started running wildly- bumping into other kids or jungle gyms as they squealed. Every mom in the place was calling out their kid's name- trying to outshout the other moms so that their kids could hear them.

CHAOS, people. Utter CHAOS.

I finally found Ezra over by the jumpy trampoline thing (holding another ball over his head) (or maybe it was the same ball?) and I tried to keep him corralled as the employees searched for flashlights. They found a couple, and we all waited to see if the lights would come back on.

After about 10 minutes, I decided to leave, because, Gymboree? It just loses some of its 'magic' without electricity.

On the way home, the roads were even worse, and the stoplights were all out for about a 4 block radius from the mall. People here in Oklahoma don't seem to understand that when a stoplight goes out, all you need to do is calmly treat it as though it were a stop SIGN. I saw crazies barreling through the lights without looking - almost getting sideswiped by oncoming traffic. I saw others who stopped at the stoplight, but appeared to have no intentions of moving forward again until the LIGHT CAME BACK ON. Seriously. The people who were unfortunate enough to pull up behind them (namely:me) had to backup and go AROUND them in order to proceed. I wonder if they are still sitting there, all these hours later?

At the front of my neighborhood, there is a very large and deep drainage ditch. When I pulled into the neighborhood at 11:00 this morning, the drainage ditch was raging full and starting to spill out across the road.

That was 4 hours ago- and it has been raining HARD ever since.

I wonder if my newest neighborhood feature is a rowdy, dreggy MOAT?

Mug Restrictions.

Busy weekend!

On Friday I planned a last minute surprise date night for Chris. Joel came over to watch Ezra and I took my hubby out to A MOVIE! We saw "Evan Almighty", and we both absolutely LOVED it. One of the things the movie talked about was "Acts of Random Kindness", and I couldn't help but think how amazing it was that earlier that day, I'd unknowingly placed myself in the middle of a chain of kindness of my own. (see last post) You all should see this movie. It is funny and uplifting.

On Saturday we went out to our friend's lake house again to celebrate three different birthdays. The house is about 30 minutes from where we live, and while we were driving to the house, it was pouring down rain and there was tons of lightning. (good thing I had my swimsuit and shorts on. heh.) (but at least I remembered to shave my legs this time.) We got about 4 houses away from the lake house and encountered a HUGE MASSIVE RUSHING RIVER cutting right across the road in front of us.

Our car tends to hydroplane when it hits liquid of any kind on the road. ("Watch out honey! Someone spilled a PEPSI!" SCREEECH!) Sooooo, there was NO way we were going to attempt to ford a river in the Matrix. We contemplated turning around and going home.

We called our friends who were already at the lake house and asked if anyone was brave enough (and maybe owned a hummer?) to come rescue us from the opposite side of the rapids. Our friend Amy decided she was crazy enough to try it in her Rodeo, and she gallantly charged the waters for us. She made it OK, but the way back through was quite scary and I think we almost didn't make it. But, you know, we did. That didn't stop me from telling everyone at the lake house moments later how we almost died. ALMOST! DIED!

You know how you always hear that you should never drive into water like that on the roadway? I had visions of us all being swept off to sea (well, swept off to lake) never to be seen again. But I'll be DARNED if we were going to miss out on yummy BBQ and free Sangria. If that's not worth risking your life for, I'd like to know what is.

It was totally worth it.

Then, on Sunday, Chris, Joel, and I led worship at church and then came home to BBQ the steaks that didn't get cooked at the lake house due to soggy briquettes and chance of lightning zaps. Then, I got to go thrift store shopping and found a motherload of awesomeness for my vintage site.

Oh, and did I forget to mention?



THE LAPTOP HAS RISEN AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel like I've been given a second chance at life. It seems that the little bugger just needed a few days to actually drink the coffee. After a day or two of acting goofy, it is back and better than ever! WOOO WOOO!!!

We have since backed up all of our files onto Chris' iPod and OHDEARGOD we need to backup up the iPod STAT. And then backup whatever we back it up onto after that. And then... *hyperventilate*

Lord, I miss paper.

Thank you all for your very helpful suggestions and stories and letting me know that I'm not the only human ever to offer a MacBook a drink. And a special thanks to the brother-in-law Dave who called and walked us through a process that involved an Ethernet cable, an eMac, and much celebratory whooping and hollering from my sexy-beast-of-a-husband.

To prevent this from happening again, I have issued a proclamation stating that I, Emery Jo, will never again drink from a coffee mug whose bottom circumference is smaller than its top.

For example, a mug like this is no longer acceptable for Emery use:



Something like this, however, would be just fine:



With maybe a lid on top that would automatically close again after I took a sip. Anyone know where I can find a mug like that?

Coffee Has Redeemed Itself.

Today has been amazing.

It began with a routine trip to my local Starbucks drive-thru. I decided to stop for a JUMBO cup of coffee before I headed up to my friend Kerri's house for the first day of our new Co-op! (more on that in a minute.)

I was running a little bit late, and so I was frustrated when I pulled around the corner to the drive-thru and saw a line of cars in front of me. There were three cars waiting for their drinks and one minivan in front of me placing an extra long drink order. The mom in the minivan ordered 3 hot chocolates for her kids, a doughnut or two, and a venti coffee for herself. In my head I was thinking, "Ugg this is going to take SO long and now I'm going to be late!" and I was being a hugenormous poop-head in general.

It did take awhile for everyone in front of me to get their drinks, but then it was finally my turn at the window. I leaned out to hand the cashier my credit card, but instead of taking the card, he just handed me my drink and said "That won't be necessary! The woman who was in front of you has already paid for your drink."

I was in shock and disbelief.

"She did?? Whaa? Did she say why??", I stammered.

The cashier then told me that about five cars prior, someone had paid for the drink of the person behind them in line... "just because". Then, the person in that car decided to pass it on and said they'd like to pay for the drink of the person behind them as well, and so on, and so on, and so on.

I was the FIFTH person to get their drink paid for that morning. I of course was THRILLED at this amazing display of goodwill, so I told the cashier that I would absolutely love to pay for the drink of the person behind me as well.

Everyone working in the Starbucks had huge grins on their faces, and you could tell that this little procession had really made their day. I pulled away from the drive-thru with an entirely different perspective than I had pulled in with, and I couldn't help but thank God for the amazing reminder that good things really can and do happen these days.

I was so tempted to drive back through the drive-thru on my way home from Co-op (a mere 5 HOURS later) to see if the goodwill had survived that long, but I decided one trip to the 'Bucks a day was PLENTY.

I still feel giddy and blessed from that little exchange. I feel excited to pass on the favor and maybe start some more "goodwill chains" of my own across this town of mine. One tiny act can start something powerful and wonderful and could affect more people than I would ever know about!

I'm excited to have had my eyes opened again this morning. To small acts of love and kindness. And I can't WAIT to start putting what I learned into practice.

I encourage you all to try it too. Be creative. Be bold. I'd love to hear your stories and your outcomes as they unfold! Or have you had any similar experiences in your lifetime that have really shocked and amazed you?

*******************************************************

Today was the first day of our Co-op, and I'm so excited about this I could just pee........ my pants. I've been involved in a playgroup for almost a year now, where a few moms get together up at the church or at each other's houses and we just let the kids play and eat lunch while we attempt to chat and get to know each other a little better. It has been AMAZING for me to be a part of this group of women, (one of them happens to be Mrs. Oklahoma right now...how badass is that?!) and so I was crazy excited when my friend Darcy started talking about trying to organize a weekly co-op.

My brothers and I were raised in a co-op in my neighborhood growing up... a co-op that my mom helped organize and that is still going on to this day, 30 years later.

Our co-op is going to be every Friday. The moms all bring the kids to one person's house, where two moms will stay and watch them all from 9am-1pm. This was our very first week, and Kerri and I were the first teachers. We followed a schedule that Darcy came up with, and it was SO MUCH FUN!

The kids played and then did an art project (sunflower windsocks). Then it was snack time and storytime, and after that we went outside. I brought my guitar, so after they played outside for awhile, we gathered all the kids in the living room and I sang goofy kids songs and we all danced around like crazies. Then, we ate lunch, played outside some more, and it was already time to clean up!

sunflower windsocks!

The kids had a blast and as the moms came to pickup their little ones, they looked so refreshed and grateful for their time away from the kids. And now, I get to drop Ezra off every Friday for a whole month before I teach again!

The kids play so well together and there is quite a range in the ages of all the kids, so I think it will be good for Ezra to spend some time socially interacting with them all. He did great today. He even said "TREE" and "SWING" for the first time today.

I'm also still looking to get Ezra into a "Mother's Day Out" program once a week so that I can dedicate a good chunk of hours every week to growing my vintage business. I decided that this was more practical and fun for me than going out and getting a part time job somewhere. (due to cost of childcare vs. part-time pay, finding consistent scheduling, and not becoming too overwhelmed...) For now, this is the best game plan for me and my family.

So... yeah! Things are looking up!