Fish Tales

Ollie and I were good Catholics and went to 8:00 mass this morning. It's a good thing too, because I think Grandma and Aunt Georgiann were about to put the smack down on us since we missed three weeks in a row.

After church we went to the grocery store and then straight home to prepare for our afternoon adventure. Daddy headed to Grandma's without us while Ollie napped and I put away the groceries and packed up our fishing gear. As soon as he woke up, I slathered so much sunscreen on both of us that we looked like we belonged in a greased pig contest...as the pigs. We put on our Bass Pro attire and checked ourselves out in the mirror, deciding Daddy will be pleased with our fashion statement.

Next, we were off to Grandma's with the windows rolled down and the radio blasting. Okay, maybe not blasting, but turned up a notch or two. I'm starting to long for the sunny day drives in Daisy the Jeep with the top down and radio cranking. I guess that would be inappropriate with a baby in tow.

Once we arrived we greeted Grandpa, Grandma, and Massey then waited for Daddy and Chad to bring the Gator back to the house. All of our gear in tow, we were off to the lake to catch some fish.

Grandma, Ollie, and I settled underneath the shade tree. I prepped my fishing pole with my new bobber and a night crawler, hoping to catch a big one. Although this is the cutest can of beer I've ever seen, I can't say that it brought me any luck catching fish. Daddy and Chad were having tons of luck casting their way around the lake. I guess the lazy beer-bobber method didn't cut it because I never did catch a fish. Not one.

Eventually, Ollie and I were lulled asleep by the cool breeze. There is something about hanging with my sweet baby boy that relaxes me so much that I fall asleep. When I woke up, Grandma and Ollie were exploring the lake and checking out all of the baby fish swimming by the bank. After about 3 hours, the fish stopped biting and everyone was ready to call it a day.




Tomorrow is Monday, so that means back to work. I'm confident this week will run much more smoothly than last week. Wish us luck!

Prune Hunt

What a blissfully uneventful day this has been! Ollie slept until 7:00 and after enjoying his breakfast he went back to sleep for almost 2 hours. After all that rest, he was rearing to go, so he went for a long ride on Rusty.

Daddy and I spent the morning and most of the afternoon cleaning the house and doing laundry. Not too much fun, but we really got a ton of stuff accomplished. Since I still haven't figured out a way for Ollie to clean the toilets, he weaseled out of helping with chores.

He did manage to get plenty of tummy time in, even though he insisted on rolling over onto his back every time I put him down. He's already making a liar out of me because just yesterday I was telling Grandam how he tends to be on the "lazy" side and won't roll or put weight on his legs. I guess he overheard me talking about him behind his back and decided to clean up his act because I couldn't keep him still. Mobility is just around the corner and that scares the crap out of me!

Daddy and Grandpa went to a tractor pull tonight, so Grandma, Ollie, and I planned on going to Sonic and Walmart. After enjoying the novelty of the drive-in, we were off to stock up on baby food at Walmart. Can you believe they were out of prunes? Is there an epidemic of constipated babies in Campbell County? There are certain things a household should never run out of and prunes is at the top of the Bentley staple list, so we were forced to go to Kroger. The good part of going to Walmart was Dusty was working, so Ollie got to meet another one of his cousins. Of course I forgot to take a picture.

By the time we got home it was after 8:00, so Grandma fed Ollie his pre-bedtime prune/cereal snack and put on his doggie pajamas. He talked and squirmed the entire time he ate his bottle, but could barely keep his eyes open as I sang him Love Me Tender.

Tomorrow we are going to church (we can't skip again this week) and then going fishing at Grandma and Grandpa's. I'm sure we'll get the chance to check out the garden and maybe even go for a ride in the Gator.

Extra Baggage

Ollie slept all night again last night! It's amazing how much my perspective on the new job has improved with two full nights sleep. Rest should not be underestimated.

After getting up at 6:30, Ollie ate his prunes and watched me put on my face and dry my hair before dozing off in his swing. I felt bad waking him up at 7:45, but it was time to get dressed and head to Grammie's. My sweet boy must have sensed my apprehension about spending the day away from him again, so he didn't even protest as I wiped his face, applied lotion, and dressed him for the day. I dropped him off and headed to work at Walmart, but I have to admit I couldn't stop thinking about my little guy. Of course today, I saw more babies than normal and more than one unfit parent. That's Walmart for ya!

I picked Ollie up a little after 3:00. Poppy came home early to spend some time with him and I suppose Grammie too. My heart just melts when he smiles at me after I'm away for a few hours. There's just something about that toothless smile and the unconditional love behind it. Not even Betsy is that happy to see me; sometimes she won't even get off the couch.

Once we got home it took us a good 10 minutes to unload my work stuff and the diaper bag. One of the most annoying things about working is dragging bags in and out of the house and packing and unpacking twice a day. I almost feel like a baggage handler for Delta, but without the travel benefits. As always, as soon as I got everything put away, Daddy pulled in the driveway. He has some sort of radar that tells him when I've finished unloading and it is safe to come home. Oh well, I can use the exercise.

After a quick shower, Daddy held Ollie as he took his pre-dinner snooze. He was so sleepy that he didn't even flinch as Daddy handed him over to me before he left for the tractor pull. It must have been catching because I dozed off as I held him and didn't wake up until Grandma showed up on our front porch 30 minutes later.

It was fun hanging with Grandma since neither one of us had seen her since Monday. She brought Ollie a cute July 4th t-shirt and jeans and jumped at the opportunity to feed dinner. Ollie wasn't crazy about the chicken with vegetable dinner, but he gobbled up the squash. After dinner we headed outside to swing and enjoy the beautiful weather.

We would have stayed out longer, but a bath was absolutely necessary. Grandma couldn't get over how much Ollie loves his ducky bath. He splashed and kicked until the water got cold and he had to get out before getting hypothermia. Grandma got Ollie ready for bed while I folded and put away his laundry. Realizing it was too soon to eat again, we headed to the front porch to watch the cars go by.

Finally it was time to eat again and head to bed. Grandma went home and I'm enjoying a glass of wine and some time with Betsy and Petunia. Peace and quiet is a beautiful thing!

Tomorrow is cleaning day and hopefully a restful evening. I'm sure we'll find some trouble or at least a nice place to nap outside.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I forgot how challenging a new job can be, but I had no clue how much a baby could complicate that situation even more. At least 75 times over the last three days I have questioned my decision to go back to work and how I would juggle everything. I've lived with myself for 32 years, so I should have known better than to think things would run smoothly for me while I adjusted to being a working mother. Afterall, I am a living, breathing example of Murphy's Law.

Was I delusional to expect Ollie to sleep all night as he had been for months? What made me think I would have time to do all the chores and be in bed by 10:30? How could I imagine sleeping until 7:00, yet reporting to work at 8:00? How did I envision having the same amount of time to read, play, and cuddle with my sweet baby? Who did I think was going to cook dinner and do laundry?

Sure, I set myself up for disappointment, but why, oh why was it necessary for me to have crazy hormone fluctuations this week? That's just the icing (not tasty butter cream, but nasty cool whip) on the cake. On some level I knew I was being delusional, but I also know I would not have even applied for a job, much less accept a position, if I considered this crazy transition period. On second thought, maybe it's not Murphy's Law, but Mollie's Law of Optimism Without Regard for Reality that causes me so much heartache.

The funniest thing is I'm only able to reflect on this situation now that I see the light at the end of the tunnel of my first week of working on my own. Now that I have time to pause, we're obviously over the insanity hump. I suppose I could learn from my mistakes for the next time I decide to take on two, three, or four major projects at the same time, but if the past is any indication of the future, I'm sure I'll bite off more than I can chew again and again.

I'm not trying to get all "Jon and Kate" on everybody by being so serious, but I obviously need to vent about my current state-of-mind. I also don't want to come across as ungrateful. I know I'm extremely lucky to even have a job. On to the good news...

Sweet Ollie slept from 8:45-6:00 all night last night! Ahhh, the little things bring such joy!


Tomorrow should be a short day and then I'll have all weekend to regroup.

Power Failure

Last night our electric went out for about 2 hours, but that wasn't the reason I couldn't blog; I was the power failure. After not enough sleep and a long day I just didn't have the energy to do the things that I wanted to do, so no blog. Besides, nothing too exciting happened anyway. I'm really struggling with balancing work with home. I suppose it will improve as I get more comfortable with my job, but man the last two days have kicked my behind. On to today.

After eating his prunes and cereal, I put Ollie in his bed so I could get dressed. Within that two minute time frame, he fell asleep, on his side, with his legs crossed. I have no idea how he got in that position and dozed off in that short time span, but he managed. Doesn't look too comfy, does it?

I worked all morning while Ollie stayed with Grammie and Poppy. I picked him up around 3:00 and we headed home to get some chores done. This didn't work out as planned because we made the mistake of sitting down in the recliner to rest for a moment. The lack of sleep is really catching up with me because next thing I knew Daddy was standing above us. We slept for nearly an hour!

The dreary weather put Ollie and me in the mood for reading so after dinner we grabbed some books and a chair. Gone are the days of sitting quietly while I read. Now, I have a grabby page tuner. Oh, and he likes to lick the cover and chew the spine too.
After we returned the books to the library it was bath time. Now that he can sit up without support, Ollie was able to use his ducky bath tub Aunt Julie gave him for the first time. He loved it!


We're hoping the ducky bath got him in the mood for a long night's uninterrupted sleep, but who knows. I guess the theme of this week is "Let's See What Mollie Is Made Of" so I'll keep plugging away. Things are bound to look up soon. How can they not, looking at this face?

Down at the Bass Pro

After sleeping in again this morning, we decided to head to Bass Pro shop so Daddy could stock up on fishing gear. Daddy bribed me to go along by promising to stop at Chipotle. My weakness is a burrito bowl with guacamole, so of course I agreed. Grammie and Poppy are always up for a shopping trip and spending time with Ollie, so they tagged along for the ride.

After enjoying our lunch, we packed Ollie in his stroller and entered Daddy's mecca. Grammie headed straight for the children's department while Poppy, Ollie, and I hung in the fishing section. A pink fishing pole caught my eye, but after considering how many times I go fishing every summer, it didn't seem worth $35.00. However, I couldn't pass up the $2.99 Miller Lite bobber.

About 20 minutes into the shopping adventure, Ollie and I had enough of watching Daddy look at every lure in the store. We decided to join Grammie in the kiddie department. What a great idea! They had the cutest hats, t-shirts, and sun shield clothes. Of course Grammie loaded up on the essentials, including matching hats for Daddy and Ollie.

Next we headed out into the mall. That place is even more depressing than Florence. I'm not a big mall fan, but it's really a shame that so many stores are closing. I guess that's just a sign of the times. After hitting Baby Depot and Babies R Us (a year ago I would not have even been able to locate these establishments, much less care about shopping in them) we met up with the boys at Bass Pro's fish tank.

Ollie LOVED checking out the fish!


The fish tank inspired me to buy a pink Bass Pro sun visor with Larry the Cable Guy fish hook to put on the bill (pictures to come in the near future).

Once we got home, Grandma and Grandpa stopped by to pick up his peanut butter cookie snake reward. Grandma fed Ollie his bedtime cereal while Grandpa enjoyed most of his cookies with a big glass of milk.

Tomorrow is my first day working mostly on my own. I'm sure I'll be exhausted when I get home.

Parade of A*#es and Elbows

Since Ollie was up at 4:30 and I was still recovering from my late night adventure, we decided to skip church this morning...again. I'm sure Grandma and Aunt Georigann are really disappointed, but hopefully we can get back on schedule next Sunday. I don't think Grandma was too mad though, because she dropped Country Cousin doughnuts on our front porch on her way home.

After sleeping in and being completely lazy all morning, we packed up and headed out to the A-Town Memorial Day Parade to watch Grandpa drive his tractor. We arrived an hour early to claim our parade real estate. This proved to be less than necessary, but hey we enjoyed hanging with Grandma, Grammie, and Poppy.

At 2:00 the parade finally got started. The last time I attended this parade I was a participant as a Band of Pride drum line member, so it's been a couple of years. Wow, things have changed! Let's just say Grandpa and Jerry helped the parade break 10 minutes with their two entrants. Either way, Ollie loved all the activity, except for the really loud fire truck sirens.

After the parade, Ollie and I were so exhausted from the excitement we fell asleep in the recliner while Daddy surfed the net (probably catching up on his Mollie and Ollie Show episodes). I guess I didn't realize just how much one night of craziness could cause me to be exhausted for days. No matter, it was a great way to spend couple of hours with my sweet baby boy.

Next, we were off to the garden to cultivate, hoe, and plant. Everything is looking really great except the lima beans with less than 10 plants germinated. Grandma says "Be patient," but Daddy and I aren't sure. Meanwhile, Grandpa was teaching Ollie all about supervising, frequently demanding, "Asses and Elbows...Asses and Elbows...All we want to see are Asses and Elbows!" As you can imagine, the motivation from this cannot be overestimated. Lastly, Grandma helped Daddy plant his pumpkins, planning for plenty of room to grow a 200 pounder.


We finished up the garden work, then Grandpa, Daddy, and Ollie went for a gator ride, while Grandma and I cooled off with a cold bottle of water. After all, we were the only one's doing physical labor.
We're still not sure how we're going to spend tomorrow's holiday, but I'm sure we'll find some trouble to get into.

Viva Las Vegas

After the extremely draining snake episode, I was forced to take a one-day hiatus to recover. Unfortunately, I didn't really take the opportunity to rest, and instead ended up attending a George Strait concert and a having a very late night of shenanigans.

Yesterday Grandma, Ollie, and I took our car to Mike Castrucci to have the oil changed. Instead of waiting at the dealer, we decided to walk across 27 and enjoy a cold beverage at Sonic. Although this was a lot of fun, who knew how difficult it would be to find a crosswalk that would be easy to maneuver with a stroller. I'm so not used to being that mom with the kid in a stroller, that I have no idea how to scope out the best route.

Once we got home I handed Ollie over to Daddy and prepped for the concert. After giving detailed instructions about how many prunes to feed for bedtime snack, I kissed my boys and rushed off to meet Anna. George was too much fun, so much so that we didn't want the night to end. Next thing we knew, we were in MainStrausse with Jeremy and the crew. I'm certain Anna had no idea what she was agreeing to when I said, "Let's meet up with my brother and his friends." As you can imagine, this did not end early...or should I say this ended really early Saturday morning.

My punishment for staying out so late was Ollie waking up at 6:00 am this morning, just a mere 2 hours after I crawled into bed. Usually when he wakes up early he goes right back to sleep after breakfast. Not this morning. He was full of spunk and ready to play. I suppose this is punishment for years of tormenting Jeremy after late nights by playing the piano as loudly as possible to wake him up. Sorry Jeremy.

Luckily, we didn't have too much to do that was absolutely necessary until 5:00 this evening, so I reverted back to the advice I was given as a brand-new mother to "sleep when your baby sleeps." I shouldn't complain too much however, because Daddy had to work 15 hours today and since I was a little late getting home had to deal with Ollie waking up at midnight all by himself.

I did have to bake the peanut butter cookies that I promised to make my snake heroes and heroine. This did not go as well as planned even though I have made my blue-ribbon-winning peanut butter cookies hundreds of times. I guess my sleep deprivation kept me from looking at all of my ingredients, because I accidentally used reduced-fat peanut butter. The cookies ended up being brownie-like and I didn't have enough butter to make another batch. I guess I'm still indebted to Grandpa, Grammie, and most importantly Jordan.

At 5:00 Ollie and I headed to the Queen Palace Casino on Jerry Wright Road to celebrate Aunt Peggy's birthday. Luckily, we're related to the management, so they admitted Ollie even though he's not quite 21. The best part was he got to meet his cousins and Uncle Bud, and hang with his church buddy, Aunt Georganne.

After enjoying the Grand Buffet and pawning the peanut butter mistake off on the unsuspecting gamblers, we watched Aunt Peggy open her birthday gifts. This took approximately 4-1/2 hours (or maybe 45 minutes). Finally, the casino opened for play and Ollie got his first taste of gambling. We opted for roulette, which was probably not a wise choice. Within 10 minutes we were busted. Since we were out of dough and it was approaching bedtime, we headed home.

Tomorrow we'll be going to church and helping in the garden. Hopefully the sun won't be too hot.

Cold Hearted Snake

Where do I begin? I'll summarize and then get to the juicy part. Up at 1:30 AM, back up at 7:00, prunes, Grammie's at 9:00, work, pick up Ollie. Finally, before the big show one small disclaimer: I'm fully aware that most pictures do not depict the events very well. This is not intentional, but I refused to get closer to document the specimen. I'll attempt to give reference points for clarification where needed. Now, on with the show!

Picture it. My house 1:45. I'm nosing the car into the driveway when I notice a long, foreign object stretched out directly in front of my parking space. My first thought: "That can't be what I think it...OH MY GOD IT IS!" You guessed it! A SNAKE! And not just a tiny snake. It was somewhere between 3 and 53 feet long. Now, anybody who has known me for more than a couple of days knows my irrational fear of snakes, and has probably heard my rambling tales of run-ins with the nasty creatures.

My gut reaction was to throw the car in reverse and fly back to Grammie's. She was really surprised to see Ollie and me crashing through her door. I can only imagine the look on my face as I held my sweet baby with a death grip, subconsciously protecting him from the evil intruder. All I said was, "I can't go home! Can we stay here?" After filling her in on the details, Grammie came up with a plan. I think she was looking forward to an afternoon of peace and quiet, and that didn't involve me nervously rocking back and forth in the corner holding Ollie.

So Grammie touched up her lipstick, grabbed Dorothy Louise's cane, and confidently walked toward our house. Ollie and I followed in the car, inching along. I didn't want to see that evil thing again, but I think I feared even more the thought of it not being there and having no idea where it went. Just for reference, the snake is alongside the Jeep next to the foundation wall.

Next, I took Ollie inside (through the front door) and put him in his swing where he fell asleep almost immediately, and thankfully stayed there throughout the entire episode. After he was secured, I headed to the basement to let Betsy out, hoping she would nudge Mr. Slithers along his way. I cautiously opened the basement door bracing myself to slam it shut and assuming the snake would attempt to attack me at any moment. Come to find out, Betsy has a snake phobia too. As soon as she sniffed it, her tail tucked between her legs, her head dropped, and she darted back into the basement, nearly knocking me down as she came through the door. This whole time, the snake didn't so much as budge. On to plan B.

Meanwhile, Grammie gathered a chair and was watching guard to make certain it didn't escape without us knowing where it went. I'm still not sure what the deal is with Grandma's cane, but Grammie never did put it down. Besides, I wasn't about to question her method considering I wasn't prepared to take any action. At this point, I mustered up the courage to open the basement door just enough to make room for my hand, and attempt to get a decent picture. The things I do for my readers!

Grammie's confidence waned away with Betsy's display of cowardice. Plan B became waiting for Jordan to come home from school and enlist his help. I also called Grandpa to see if he could stop on his way through too. Now it was a waiting game. I took this opportunity to tell Grammie all of my scary snake stories, hoping she would understand my phobia. I could probably start another blog just to tell those horrific tales, but I certainly do not want to relive them any more than necessary.

Jordan finally drove by and we flagged him down. Grammie and Jordan surveyed the situation and came up with a plan involving a BB gun. I considered the possible damage to Daisy the Jeep, but I knew she would understand and be willing to be a casualty. I dug out the gun, but couldn't find ammunition except for the few BB's already loaded.


This plan didn't even budge the squatter so we had to consider using more force. In order to do this it was necessary to move the Jeep. Unfortunately, I was the only person capable of driving a standard transmission on a steep incline, so I was going to have to enter the vehicle with the snake hanging outside the driver's side door. Out of desperation, I found the courage to climb in the passenger door and crawl over the gear shift to get into the driver's seat, while the snake lurked almost within arm's reach. As I sat down, I caught a glimpse of the invader and jumped. This is quite possibly the closest I've ever been to a snake voluntarily.

I moved the Jeep without bodily injury, but believe me, I'm still experiencing post traumatic mental issues. I won't go into details as to what happened to Mr. Slithers, but I will say that my dear nephew "took care" of the problem and he won't be bothering me or Ollie anymore. As things were winding down, Grandpa pulled up. Note the length of the intruder on the right.

Just as the drama was coming to an end and I was promising my helpers some peanut butter cookies for their efforts, Ollie woke up. Grandpa filled him in on the details of the events and shook his head at the absurdity of my reaction the entire time. At least there were not policemen involved in the snake episode like some from my past. Maybe some day I'll learn to love or at least tolerate the creepy reptiles, but I'm sure that would only be possible with many years of psychotherapy.

This episode of The Mollie and Ollie show is dedicated to Jordan and Grandpa for their heroic efforts and Grammie for her moral support. Thanks to you all! The cookies are on the way.

The Show Must Go On

We're having computer problems, so I've retreated to Grammie's computer. I'm on a role with 20 consecutive updates and I don't want to start the bad habit of missing.

Today started out at 5:00 with problem after problem, but after that things improved by leaps and bounds...until about 6:30 this evening that is. You would think that I'd be used to getting up at all hours by now, but I just can't seem to get it together in the middle of the night. I stumbled to the kitchen to make his bottle, just barely opening my eyes. After a pit stop for me and diaper change for Ollie (all the while fussing) we finally landed on the couch.

I started to doze off, but jumped suddenly realizing the bottle was empty. Then I started to get a chill and realized my shirt was soaking wet. I'm sure we were quite a site as I was lifting Ollie looking for the leak while he cried and fussed. It took me a good 45-50 seconds to realize the bottle wasn't screwed together all the way. Poor Daddy had the night off, but we caused such a stir, I'm sure we woke him up anyway.

After another bottle that actually made it into his mouth, Ollie went right back to sleep. Daddy had to go off to work, but I headed back to bed. We both slept until nearly 8:00! After eating prunes and getting dressed, we were ready to face the day. We ran a couple of errands and rushed back home to enjoy the beautiful weather.

We both slathered on the sunscreen and gathered books and toys to head outside. After reclining the swing to bed position we snuggled up to take a nap. Ollie reminded me how much he loved sleeping there last summer since it was one of the few places I felt comfortable.

Once Daddy got home we had to go to Uncle Jeremy's to finish up the plumbing project. Just about the time we arrived it was time to eat. I improvised without a highchair and we watched the boys work while we shared green beans and pears.

After eating, Ollie's teeth really started to flare up and he had no patience with being at the "construction" site. I hope Uncle Jeremy's doesn't get a complex, because he wasn't crying at him, he just knew Jeremy would be understanding. Teething Bites!

Tomorrow I have to work, but not until 10:00 so Grammie and I can sleep in. I also get to pick up the family portraits...that should be interesting.