Michael Jackson

We will never truly know if Michael Jackson was a creep or not. People can speculate until they're blue in the face, but I'd like to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Odd, mysterious--I agree that these are suitable adjectives of him.
An extraordinary entertainer and artist...definitely. I was so sad to hear about his death yesterday. I saw conflicting reports: one of his death, and one reporting his collapse and comatose state. I don't wish comas on anyone, but I was pulling for that report to be more true than that of his death. It was sad ot me that he spent the first part of his life with great fame and fortune. The latter part of his life was clouded with creepy undertones, personal attacks, health problems, and introverted hermit behaviors. He still remained famous, but much had changed.
When I was six, my dad took me to the Thriller concert at the Astrodome. I remember parts of the concert pretty well. He was all the rage, and his theatrical choreography and music just pushed the limits of popular music. I can imagine a little girl with blond pigtails dancing around the house singing Thriller and Beat It.
I'm not really a fan anymore, but when his songs blip onto the radio pretty rarely, I sing along. It's just sad to know he is gone.
It is just really sad.

Some Recent Funnies

1. Nathan is OBSESSED with Magic Tree House books. I didn't quite understand the depth of the OCD until he rattled off 40 out of the 42 book titles, in order, and categorizing them by whether they were his from the book fair, mine from my class library, on loan from this public library or that one. He was very distraught about forgetting two of them, and raced to the computer to google the titles. Weird.

2. While Nathan is rattling off the book titles, Michael wants in on some fun and attention. He sat with us in the kitchen, in his high chair, eating a spice cookie. He keeps shouting, "CHICKEN! CHICKEN!" What? Nathan rambled on, book number yada is yada yada, blah blah blah. CHICKEN! Michael, you're eating a cookie not a chicken. "Mommy, it wooks wike a CHICKEN!" Sure enough my brilliant little toddler was correct. He bit that little cookie into the shape of a chicken. A cookie cutter couldn't have been any more precise. So, I have a Magic Tree House book savant, and a poultry shaped cookie biting master. Oh, the intelligence runs rampant in this house! HA!

3. There's a children's poem by Jack Prelutsky called I'm Being Eaten By a Boa Constrictor. This morning, I swear, I was being eaten, chipped away, by the ENDLESS talking of a six-year-old. There's was a really cute commercial not too long ago where this little girl was juuuust a-talkin'. This, that, saying just about everything about nothing. Nathan is a talker, most definitely, but this morning he was REEEEEALY pushing it. I love to hear the creativity that comes out of his mouth. He beams with ideas, excitement, and wonder, but there must have been some atmospheric pull this morning that had his little mouth gushing out as many words as he could physically form. The house is really quiet right now, though. He found a Magic Tree House book-on-CD at the library and darn near busted a gut with excitement the other day. He's in the other room listening...perfectly still...quiet...aaaaah!

Oh, the really dark photo in the post just before this one is of Nathan reading in bed--yep, a Magic Tree House book--in the dark, by the light of his super cool, flip up LED book light. He loves it. So, so cute, but he IS obsessed!

Sheets + Chairs = SOOO Much Fun!

What can I DOOOOO? There's nothing to DOOOOO!

We have enough toys for a small country worth of children, and somehow we're lacking fun.

Nathan wants to set up Battleship. Great. However, we have Michael whose battle tactic would be WAY more destructive that sinking a few ships. We'd have little red and white game pellets all OVER the house. Battleship is better when Michael is napping--which he is not at the current time.

Zoo Game? Nope. Pieces, cards, shiny little circle things...also better for when Michael is napping.

I've done a nice job changing up routines this summer, making time to spend with each son individually (often while the other is at school) and still having lots of together time. This morning it is "back to basics." I enlisted some kitchen chairs and a few sheets. They're having the grandest time. They've manage to drag in EVERY SINGLE STUFFED ANIMAL that we own, blankets, play costume stuffs, and an occasional dog who will manage to sneak into the new, odd structure in the living room.

Here are a few pictures: one is of the "tent" and some others are of our summer experience so far! (I took a photo of Michael sleeping in his crib...notice the difference compared to his infant picture from 2006!)

The Letter A

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real. . .nothing made up!
1. What is your name: APRIL
2. A four Letter Word: ABLE
3. A boy's Name: ALEXANDER
4. A girl's Name: ALLISON
5. An occupation: ANESTHESIOLOGIST
6. A color: APRICOT
7. Something you wear: APRON
8. A food: ARTICHOKE
9. Something found in the bathroom:
10. A place: ALASKA
11. A reason for being late: ACCIDENT
12. Something you shout: AAAHHHH!
13. A movie title: ANNAPOLIS
14. Something you drink: AGUA
15. A music group: ABBA
16. An animal: AMERICAN ALLIGATOR
17. A street name: APRIL STREET in Houston
18. A type of car: ACCORD
19. The title of a song: KOKOMO
20.A celeb/singer/actor/actress/athlete/famous person: AVRIL LAVIGNE

One Polarized Potty Reaction

I JUST got finished with my bantering to Elizabeth today about how potty training wasn't going as well as I had hoped it would for my summer job. Michael was just totally uninterested, and quite avoidant of the whole process. No big deal. After all, he still has until the end of August before he turns 3. I'm not hung up on a child being fully trained by the time they're 6 months old or anything. Nor do I want him waiting until he goes to high school. It has really become a non-issue. I figured we'd give it another shot later in the summer.

I've really enjoyed being the one who does the school dropping off and picking up. I waltzed into his classroom today, and no sooner had I shut the door did one of the teachers announce to the room that Michael had just tee-teed in the potty.

WHAT!?!?!?!?

My Michael? I hadn't even completely scanned the room to find him amongst the other kids and toys. My son? The "Do you want to go to the potty?--uhhh, NOPE" kid? My simple, one word "WHAT!?!?!?!?" reaction held such a complicated meaning.

Surprise, Amazement, Proud Mama, Woo-hoo, Happiness, annnnnnd...

Deep, empty sadness.

I'm holding on to little frazzled strands of baby-ness in my house. They're so few and far between at this point; I think I'm just keeping things around for visual stimulation of what it's like to have a baby around. I didn't think my years of mommying baby-aged children would start to end so, so quickly.

10 Years in a Blink

I don't reflect upon our years of marriage using measurements of time. More often I measure our marriage by the events that we've collected to form the story of our lives. It all began in our Spanish teacher's classroom, well not exactly. We met in the halls of our middle school having some friends in common. Our relationship began in the fall semester of our senior year, when our Spanish teacher would allow some of us to dine in her classroom instead of experiencing the rugged chaos of the high school cafeteria. We dated, fell in love, attended prom together, graduated together, and moved away to college (520 miles away) together (much to my father's chagrin). Tomorrow, ten years ago, I was Nick's bride and he was my groom.
Here is a look back at the last ten years.
June 12th, 1999: our special, special day
Visited Massachusetts and (mostly) Maine for our honeymoon
Lived with four other guy friends while we waited for our house to be completed
Bought and raised our first furry baby, Charlie, a golden retriever puppy born on our wedding day
Moved into House #1
Cruised the Mexican Riviera
Adopted our second furry child, Sadie, a rescued golden retriever from Kansas.
Grew out of House #1. Quickly.
Graduated from Texas Tech University, May 2001
Became employed
Built and moved into House #2, became landlords of House #1
House #2 had a super-cool basement
Two miscarried pregnancies in one year, man 2001 was an awful year,
Bought some acres in Shallowater, TX, to someday live on forever
Drove through a neighborhood on our way to lunch one Saturday, stumbled upon House #3.
Cruised the Mediterranean Sea to soothe our sadness, see spectacular sights, and give our happiness a rebirth
Moved into House #3, what a glorious house!
Tore out lots of wall paper.
Sold Shallowater property. It would've been a flat, grassy money pit.
Pregnancy #3: Apprehensive for every minute, complicated pregnancy, unimaginably happy outcome
Nathan Nicholas Cobb, our first son was born!
I dreamed motherhood would be amazing, but I soon learned that it surpassed all of my wildest expectations.
Nick traveled like CRAZY with his job.
I did not teach the year after Nathan was born.
Nick, Nathan, and I temporarily relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio to be closer to Nick, 3 ½ months
Another year of Nick traveling, me working, and Nathan now in childcare
End the school year with a trip to Houston for Andrew's college graduation
Grandparents watch Nathan while we go to Churrasco's for a date
Dinner conversation: Let's jump ship, totally transform the life we know now.
Traveled to Colorado for vacation, road trip!
Quit jobs, sold house, moved to Houston where Nick would prepare, apply, and go to dental school—we hoped!
We moved TO Lubbock with all of our things fitting comfortably in the backs of our two little Ranger pick-ups. Moving BACK to Houston, after giving away SO much to our neighbors, we loaded up two vehicles, jam packed, and I can still picture the movers heaving shut the back door of the 54 foot humongous trailer.
Rented House #4, a tiny little thing with a great location. We tripped over boxes all year.
Began working at my old elementary school
Built House #5
Moved into House #5
Nick completed leveling courses, DAT testing preparations, and acceptance into dental school. All of that seems so trivial written in one line.
Pregnancy #4
Michael William Cobb, our second son, was born.
Nick begins dental school
Barbara manages much of the boys' care.
Cruise to Alaska for Barbara's birthday, more amazing that I could've ever imagined
Since then, work, school, backpacks, lunches, late nights, early morning, finals, grades, lesson plans, bedtime stories, playroom disasters, high chairs, cuddle times, yard work, house chores, and the list goes on.
I love our life. It's just how I expected it to be, and yet there are surprises all of the time. I have an amazing husband, two jewels of children, I am healthy and happy. What more could I ask for? There is no rush for time, but I cannot wait to see what the years ahead have in store for Nick and me!

50 Questions that I Stole from Leslie

50 Questions
1.What color is your toothbrush?Hmm. We have about a dozen of them on the counter…seriously. Nick is doing his own consumer product testing. We have two electric toothbrushes, about eight different manual toothbrushes, and two or three others that we use to clean our ortho trays. The boys’ bathroom counter displays two electric ones with suction cup bottoms (those are great), a manual dolphin one, Tigger one, Cars ones, and another one that has a little footed stand. Some of us have a little OCD about toothbrushes, but I guess that is going to be our life from now on.
2. Name one person who made you smile today:My boys: all of them!
3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?I was cleaning up the house, trying to get it back to its pre-party state.
4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?Stilll cleaning up.
5. What is your favorite candy bar?I like PayDays. I think those are the ones with peanuts and yummy insides, but maybe it’s something else. I’m not too much of a candy person, but I DO have other weaknesses.
6. Have you ever been to a strip club?Nope.
7. What is the last thing you said aloud?Nathan, can you get Michael’s “D” out of his bed? He can’t reach it. I think that darn dinosaur jumps back into that crib all the time just so Michael can’t reach it.
8. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?Pumpkin ice cream at Thanksgiving time.
Blue Bell must have changed their mint chocolate chip. It used to be better.
I’ll have sweet cream with Reese’s peanut butter cups about once a year too.
9. What was the last thing you had to drink?I had pomegranate lemonade last night with dinner. Water this morning.
10. Do you like your wallet?Yes, it’s green. I have too many cards in it, though. It needs to be cleaned out.
11. What was the last thing you ate?Cheerios Crunch.
12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?No, but I would love to go shopping. Nick seems to NOT share that feeling. He needs some clothes for the trip, though. Again, he begs to differ.
13. The last sporting event you watched?I’m waiting for football season. Go TECH!
14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?I don’t like popcorn unless it comes in Harry and David’s moose munch. Wicked stuff. I stay away from it unless I’m at the outlets.
15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to?My name is April Cobb and I don’t know how to text. I don’t really want to know how. I have enough things that keep me busy.
16. Ever go camping?I prefer to camp inside a hotel room.
17. Do you take vitamins daily?No.
18. Do you go to church every Sunday?No. I cannot remember when I went to church when it wasn’t a wedding or something.
19. Do you have a tan?No.
20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza?I like good Chinese food and I like good pizza. Nick likes all kinds of stuff on his pizza and I like mine pretty plain. I like Moo Shoo pork without onions and mushrooms. Basically just the pork and a few sprouts, egg, and sauce. They always look at me funny and Nick usually sighs in disgust.
21. Do you drink your soda with a straw?I don’t really like sodas.
22. What did your last text message say?See #15. I get texts from the cell phone people every once in a while about upgrades or something. I don’t even know how to retrieve them. Again, Nick sighs in disgust.
23. What are you doing tomorrow?Hmmm, spending the day with Nathan. Michael goes to his school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
24. No question 24.Do I make up my own? Yes, I did have a Speak-n-Spell when I was growing up.—ME TOO!
25. Look to your left, what do you see?One of the front windows to the house. The shade is down because workers are building the house across the street.
26. What color is your watch?No watch. I use my cell phone for the time.
27. What do you think of when you hear Australia?I’d love to see the Sydney Opera House, but what a crazy long flight that would be.
28. What are you listening to right now?The house is quiet and the dishwasher hums quietly. Aaaah.
29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?We go into Chick fil A so the boys can play until they crash! It’s has the only somewhat clean playground and decent food.
30. What is your favorite number?I don’t really have a favorite number, but I think it’s super cool when I find patterns or meanings within numbers. Such as, when Nick had his birthday in 2002, his birthday was 02-20-2002. For our college graduation, we went to Ruidoso with both sets of our parents. Our hotel room was 612 (our anniversary is 06-12), my parents had 613 (there anniversary is 06-13), and Nick’s folks had 614 (you guessed it, their anniversary is 06-14). I like that my boys both have the same number of letters in their names. Nathan and Barbara celebrated their birthdays on June 6. On the 6th of June, Nathan turned 6, and Barbara turned 6-2 (sounds like six, too when you say it). I’m weird with numbers.
31. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone?Nick. He sounded like a kid in a candy store when he called out of the blue from school this morning. He had just placed his first dental implant into a synthetic jaw. YUM! He was so cute and excited about it, though.
32. Any plans today?Oh, Leslie I wish you could take Nathan to “UP”. He wants to see it. I think we’ll hang out around the house today. We hiked in the Sam Houston forest yesterday. It was fun, but I sure wish I could KNOW FOR SURE that we wouldn’t see bobcats along the trail before we started. I like hiking. HOWEVER, I don’t like to have to think about what I would do if I saw something with claws or fangs along the way.
33. How many states have you lived in?Texas, Texas, Texas. El Paso, Houston, Lubbock, and back to Houston. Hopefully staying in Houston, but that will take some convincing and LOTS of money to afford a nicer house.
34. Biggest annoyance right now?It’s summer, I am a teacher, and I have no complaints.
35. Last song listened to?Michael trying to sing “Deep in the Heart of Texas”…it’s precious.
36.Can you say the alphabet backwards? very slowly, I guess.
37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?I tease that she keeps leaving the country. We used to have Eulean, bless her heart. She would not move from Lubbock to Houston. I miss her like crazy.
38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?Clarks sandals.
39. Are you jealous of anyone?those whose spouses just graduated from dental school without any loans to repay.
40. Is anyone jealous of you?Ooh, that’s a weird question. I hope no one is jealous of me, but if they are, hopefully it is because I love the life I have been given and the life I have helped to create.
41. Do you love anyone?My heart belongs to my family.
42. Do any of your friends have children?Yes, but I look forward to having more children in the family.
43. What do you usually do during the day?During the school year it is nothing but hustle and bustle. Early mornings to late nights, schedules, cleaning, cooking, readying two youngens for school, for bed, etc. During the summer, although there are things to be done and some things scheduled, we are much more relaxed. You can eve n feel the absence of tension in the house.
44. Do you hate anyone?Yes, but thankfully it is no one close to me. I am very fortunate.
45. Do you use the word 'hello' daily?Probably.
46. What color is your car?Black.
47. Do you like cats?I like cats, but I can’t be around them.
48. Are you thinking about someone right now?
I’m thinking about how Michael is starting to solicit my attention, with increasing volume.
49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?I’ve been to Astroworld, but it closed some time ago. We liked Sea World for the water and whales. I’m not really into rollercoasters, but I have a feeling that Michael will be!
50. How did you get your worst scar?My biggest scar is not a physical one.

Cinnamon Rice

I had a hankerin' for something today: cinnamon rice. Well, my best rendition of it anyway. My Meema used to make cinnamon rice (it's only rice pudding with a different name). She made it often, but never did I make it with her. I wish I had the recipe. I can get close, as I did tonight, and it was quite tasty. Both boys turned and wrinkled their noses up at it which was kind of sad, but it was a nice blip of nostalgia.

Lounge-y Lounge-y

Michael has watched one Thomas the Train episode probably 10 times today. What do we have to do? Where do we have to be? It's such a pleasure to be at home with the boys. We'll get into summer activities, but I think the boys are enjoying the vegging out (for a couple of days) as much as I am!

Aaaaaaah!

Sigh. The school year is over and again I am reminded that, YES, I'd be a darn good stay at home mom. I'm pacing myself with housework because who wants to tackle the whole shabang in one day? Michael's toddler teacher brought me off the ceiling this morning. We had a chat about potty training, and she knew what I felt all along. He's not ready. He may not be ready by August for preschool. I don't think I am ready either. As much as I want him to be a big boy and be proud of his advancements, I want to hang on to the few "baby" things that I have left. While seeing him in big-boy, Lightning McQueen underpants yesterday was absolutely darling, it made me sad. My heart just wonders if this will be the last call, the grand finale of the baby years. Should we, would we, could we have an encore? I just don't know. Until I know, I will probably keep baby wipes in the cabinet just in case.
Another mother was picking up her toddler from Michael's class today, woo-hooing about being pregnant again. This will be her third. Why do I have such a desire to COMPLETELY complicate our lives?
In the meantime I am having a blast. Yes, right now the boys are hollering about something Thomas-the-train, and now Michael is crying. Aaaaah, the sounds of summer.