A lesson from my son

Today has been a big day for Jax and for his mother. Lets begin with our morning. We woke up and ate breakfast. Jax watches 2 shows in the morning....mickey mouse clubhouse and seasame street. Jax was watching elmo on seasame - sitting in front of the tv - so I went into the kitchen to put some things up. When I returned to the living room, this is what I found (picture to the left) Jax climbed up onto the mantel all by himself and was having a great time. I was shocked....didn't know he could climb that well yet.

My fourteen month old son is still not walking but we are making progress. This afternoon, he took about 5 steps in our study and made it to our couch in the room. I kept making him do it - unfortunately, I was the only one at home and he wouldn't do it anymore when Jeremy returned from running some errands. But, it was still exciting. He's finally trying to walk....little by little.

Here's where the lesson comes in for mom........Jax may not be walking but he's talking. Today he was repeating a lot of what we were saying. He tells the store clerks bye bye now when we leave. I can ask him a question and he will tell me NO. He can count. I start off "one" and he says "two". He will show you on his hand up to five. He calls Mona moma. Anyways, Jeremy and I went to eat at double daves for dinner tonight and Jax was in the back seat in his car seat as usual. Jeremy had asked me a question and instead of just saying no, I used a little infuses with H-E- (double hockey sticks) no....get the drift. My sweet little son - clear as day repeated it exactly. We both laughed so hard. Jeremy keeps telling me to watch my language because I can have a bit of a potty mouth occasionally and boy did I get my lesson tonight. That is something I will never forget and probably should never do again :)

These last two pictures are from an evening in the pool with Jax. After his last pool busted, Jeremy went to walmart and bought Jax a good sturdy pool - I requested one with a slide and he loves it! We've had many good nights in this pool.

That's about it for now. We are dreading the return of August. Jax has been so spoiled by his daddy being home for the summer. He takes him to the park and out to Mt. Lebanon. They've had a great time and I am so thankful that Jeremy enjoys every minute of it. I think we have a few more weeks so we'll enjoy it while it lasts. Until then, we'll keep you posted!

Cancun Mexico Vacation

I've never been more happy to get home from a vacation than I was when we returned from Cancun! Leaving Jax for 4 nights was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But at the same time, it was good for Jeremy and I to get away for the first time in two years.


We stayed at an all inclusive resort in Cancun called Riu Palace Las Americas. We were on the top floor (3rd window from right in pic) I also included the view from our window


Our vacation.....our flight was delayed an hour because the pilots seat was messed up. So we sat on the plane until they got a new seat and then we took off. We arrived in Cancun starving and tired and were greeted by a stupid time share salesman that we had a hard time getting away from. We finally made it to our resort, ate a little and rested.

Each day, we ate off a buffet for breakfast and lunch then went to a specialty restaurant for dinner. Mexico is freakin hot and humid so I was glad that all meals were indoors. The service was great and the food was ok.
This was our second night at the resort in the Brazilian restaurant. Our waiter was funny...each meat he brought to our table, he told us it was frog or squirrel or donkey....when he said donkey we knew he was kidding. I took this picture and then our table cloth caught on fire and Jeremy put it out....I love Jeremy's face in this picture...good times! There was a head waiter edging closer to our table as Jeremy put the flame out. He looked a bit worried but Jeremy got it with his spoon.



The second day at the resort, we laid by the ocean, played in the pool and got some serious sun! It was great. Oh....and we drank just a bit :)


I did mention that it was all inclusive - right

We even had a liquor bar in our room so Jeremy tried some new drinks. If he didn't like them, he poured them out...it was funny watching him. We did try a new drink to us - the Mojito....very refreshing and not too crazy.

They had an entertainment staff that had pool games going, music and night time shows. There was also lounge chairs in the pools that I loved! I included a few pictures of the pools and swim up bars.















The third day we were there, we started our morning with a snorkel tour. After being in a van for an hour picking up all the other passengers from other resorts we finally got to our snorkel location. You can see the little boats in the background. They took us out into the middle of the ocean and dropped us off for 45 minutes in a shallow area with lots of fish. They picked us up and took us to a deeper area. We noticed a storm coming in but the guides didn't seem to care. They dropped us off for another 45 minutes and the storm began. The waves were insane and it was pouring. There was nothing to see in the water and it sucked!! I had my head between my legs on the way back to the shore because I get sea sick. I felt like crap but managed to hold it together. We were soooo ready to get back to our room after that.
My afternoon ended well with an amazing massage from the spa in the resort. I got a deep tissue massage from a male massage therapist that couldn't speak English. I totally relaxed and he rocked! It was a perfect ending to a bad morning.

Our third night, we went to a seafood style restaurant and had lots of champagne with our dinner. We then took a walk on the beach and enjoyed the evening. I like this picture because it shows our resort in the background and...I just like it! Notice my hair is up....did I mention the humidity in Cancun.....every evening, I did my hair and every evening it ended up like this!

I had to beg Jeremy to take this picture.I even threw a bit of a fit. He didn't want to get laughed at but....he did. I was very happy he played along even if its not the best picture of us. Oh and Jeremy had his cell phone in his pocket....yep, it was ruined. He got a new cell phone today!

Unfortunately, this is the last picture that I was truly happy in for the next day and a half. I got the Mexican bug this day. I began using the bathroom almost every hour in the afternoon on Sunday. It was horrible. We ate sushi for dinner and I barely made it through the meal before returning to our room. At this point, we were ready to go home. We missed Jax and I felt like crap...literally! Jeremy was so good to me and didn't care that we spent the evening in the room. We took a few good pics out by the ocean on this day. They are below.



























We left the resort Monday morning at 7:25 and returned home after lunch. I've never been so excited to see Jax in my life. Fun to get away....even more fun to get back home. Jax spent the week with Aunt Amy who flew in from Arizona to keep him. We are so lucky to have her and very thankful for helpful family members! They had a great time together. Until next time...We'll keep you posted!

Rest in Peace Razor 1997-2009

And then there were two....

This morning around 4am, I believe, Razor passed away. Our German Shepherd was 12 1/2 yrs old. Jeremy actually got Razor when we began dating my senior year in high school. He's been through a lot with him and we will miss him dearly.

Razor has had a rough year. He had his tail removed, we moved to a new location and he slowly became worse over the past few months. Nothing was really wrong except that he just wasn't himself....you could see it in his eyes. He wouldn't play anymore - just eat and sleep. He was a good dog! Last night Brutus began barking so I turned the porch light on and Razor was foaming at the mouth, breathing heavily and stumbling around. He wouldn't drink or eat and his stomach was bloated. We really don't know what happened but this morning Jeremy told me he had passed away during the night. Razor is in the process of being buried with all the other Jackson dogs out at Mt Lebanon as we speak.

Below are a couple of old pictures of Razor in his better days.