The week in review

 Here's what I INTENDED to post Tuesday night (fail) and Wednesday night (fail), but now I'm home and can just add in the pictures:

I tried to post something last night, but I ended up having a fight with my iPad instead. Sadly, it won. I cried "uncle," went to sleep and vowed to try again today. So, here I am. Here's hoping this works...

Well, the time has come-- Mommy's first business trip since Delaney has joined our family. We knew it was inevitable, but that doesn't make it any easier on any of us. After a wonderful weekend of visiting potential summer camps in the hill country and celebrating G-Daddy's 70th birthday (pictures coming, they are stranded on my camera until I get home), Kidd headed back home with the kiddos Sunday, while I stayed to begin my 4 day trip 'round the hotbox (also known as South Texas). I'm not sure who's more frustrated-- me because I miss everyone like crazy, or Kidd because I've left him with the kids for 4 days. Thankfully, Miss Shanon is there to help, so it's not like he has to do everything ALL by himself. 

 So, what happens when Mommy is away??

Dinner dates, of course... Miss Shanon worked her magic and multi-tasks with Delaney and the King kids while Justus is off at swim lessons.

 And don't you think Delaney looks like she's in a barbershop, waiting for a haircut?

This is one I took Sunday morning at G-Daddy and Darla's house. I melt at how they are each other's favorite person in the world right now. I know it won't last forever, so I'm soaking it up while I can.

At least I got to spend one day with this as the view from my "office"  

But, can you believe I left this face at home?? MacLaren should pay me for this advertisement....

And, now that I'm home, I can share the pics from G-Daddy's 70th birthday weekend!  I was remiss in not taking pictures of the summer camps we visited for Justus, but I think I was just so busy soaking up our few precious hours in the Texas Hill Country that I totally forgot.  So, you get birthday fun only.  

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this man and can't believe he's 70!!  I do have a great pic on my phone of him with his birthday breakfast and "70" candles, but given that he was still in his robe, I will not share.  Nobody's every accused Johnny B. of being shy, but at some point you just earn the right to not be on the Internet in your "home" clothes.  So, Dad, you're welcome.  It's my gift to you.  Anyhoo, here's his wonderful cake with sparklers.  So fun, and totally acceptable, even in a burn ban because we were inside and there was plenty of waitstaff at the ready in the event of a sparkler emergency.

Family had a great time visiting and telling stories (about Dad as a young lad, no doubt)...

 As expected, Justus gets bored and finds his own way to keep busy (thanks Uncle Jason and cousin Cyndi).  Don't mind the high water pants, they looked ok when he was standing up....really, they did.

I'm working backwards here, but  this is Delaney and Daddy getting ready for the party.  So excited about using this picture when her dad walks her down the stage at her sorority pledge presentation in, oh, 18 years.    Do they even call it pledge presentation anymore?  Hmm..

To prepare, Justus cozied up with a good book.

Delaney and the birthday boy.  You'll notice no picture of Justus with G-Daddy, and I'm pretty sure that's because Justus didn't stop moving once we got to the party.

And finally, a great picture of our favorite birthday boy and his beautiful bride.  Aren't they cute?

G-Daddy, we hope you had a great birthday!  We are honored to have celebrated with you and Darla, and appreciate you letting us invade your otherwise peaceful abode for the weekend. xoxo

Annoyed!!

I have tried repeatedly to blog from my iPad and include pictures. It is not cooperating fully (read: AT ALL!) so the post from the road will have to wait.

In the meantime, I do have a quick Wednesday's Winning Words for you.
When the kids and I arrived at my parents Friday night, with Kidd about 30 minutes behind us, Justus asked me where he was. I told him he would be there shortly, to which he replied "...but I want to be with Daddy...[LONG pause]...but I guess I'm okay with you Mommy...for now.". Gee, thanks little man. You really know how to make a mom feel special. Yeah, we'll see if he's still singing that tune after 4 days without me!

I promise to catch stuff up when I get home, so check back!

Hockey star

Okay, so I'm sure there's some sort of blog law that says you can't shouldn't post twice in the same day, but I didn't get to post yesterday and I just have to share these pics of my little hockey star.  He's getting so good and we couldn't be more proud.

I use the term "hockey" loosely because he's really still just learning to skate, but isn't he adorable in all his gear??

He really likes it, so I guess we're going to have to start considering colleges in the Northeast if he wants to play Division I.  hahaha....no, I'm not THAT mom...yet.

I admit that probably my favorite part of him playing "hockey" is that in the heat of the Texas summer, I get to sit inside a cold ice rink and watch.

And, of course, his #1 fan

Wednesday's Winning Words

As is true with most little boys (it's innate, I swear), Justus is all about shooting things, sword fighting, crashing cars...all things destructive.  This has been fairly consistent since 1) an opportunity about a year ago to acquire a wooden rubber band shotgun that he still doesn't know shoots rubber bands, and 2) he's figured out that shooting, sword fighting, etc. creates that perfect imaginary world of good guys vs. bad guys ("I'm gonna shoot the bad guys" has been a favorite phrase lately).  In such games, he can ALWAYS be the good guy or hero.  Evidently, he didn't get the same recognition of achievement while playing dinosaurs and trains, so he's sorta moved on.  I suppose it's possible that his father's inclination to allow him to watch John Wayne movies may have some influence as well, but I couldn't say for sure.  

The other day, Justus was telling his dad that he was going to shoot the deer.  What deer?  We're not sure, just "the" deer.  He kept saying it over and over.  So, Kidd asked him why he wanted to kill the deer.  And Justus kept saying he was going to shoot the deer...and Kidd kept asking him why he wanted to kill the deer.  Justus finally said "Daddy, I don't want to kill the deer.  I want to shoot it."  There's something about that innocence I just love!  On the down side, we got a note home from school a few days ago that asked us to remind Justus that we don't play guns at school.  Do you think his teacher would be okay with it if we explained that he has no intention of killing anyone, just shooting them...and even then, only the ones that are playing the role of the bad guy??

Justus displays his latest sword acquisition at the circus.  Look how sweet that face is.  He wouldn't hurt a fly.

Happy Anniversary

Eleven years ago today, Kidd contractually bound himself to me for better or worse, in good times and bad, for richer, for poorer (seems to be a lot more of that lately), etc.  I will spare you all the 11-year-old wedding photo, but just want to say how lucky I feel to be married to my best friend.  I couldn't have asked for more, and then he goes and gives me the two best things ever imaginable.  My heart smiles just knowing how blessed I am.

What's that saying?  All because two people fell in love....

It's certainly not always easy, but it's our story and I wouldn't want it any other way.  Here's to many more years of our crazy life.

Wednesday's Winning Words

As I mentioned before, part of my reason for doing this is because of the funny conversations that happen in life with small children.  Constantly, Justus will say something that just makes me laugh on the inside for weeks.  I always say "I need to write that down" and then don't.  This past Sunday, I was also reminded of how, again with small children, I find myself saying something that I never in a million years would have ever imagined would come out of my mouth.  Really, the context for it just didn't exist.  As a result, and in tribute to the fairly recent random verbal shenanigans of one, Charlie Sheen, I have decided to create Wednesday's Winning Words (...and again with the whole alliteration thing).  Hopefully each Wednesday, I will be able to recap memorable things Justus has said, or something I found myself wanting to claw back as it came out of my mouth.  Since today is the first, and it's been a busy week, I'll give you a couple little gems to get us going.

On Sunday, we took Justus to the circus in Houston.  On the way there, we stopped at a Buc-ee's because of their wonderfully clean bathrooms.  Justus insisted on carting along his newly acquired Franchesco race car (from Cars 2, for those w/o little ones or affection for all things Pixar).  So, I told him to stick it in his pocket.   Because of his deep pockets, he did not appreciate the amount of room Franchesco had to move around and was worried he might lose him.  He grabbed his pocket to hold him in place, and because of the depth of his pocket, to the average passer-by, it appeared he was holding himself as many small children do when they need to go potty.  I blurted out "Justus, stop holding yourself like that, Franchesco is not going to fall out."  Given that Franchesco was totally hidden from view, and my son appeared to be doing the pee pee dance, I'm pretty sure everyone around us thinks 1) that kid has already named his private body part, 2) his mom knows what it is, and 3) it's Franchesco?

Justus loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates, a cute little show on the Disney Channel.  As the name suggests, it's a cartoon spin off of Peter Pan's Neverland.  Anyhoo, as many a Disney show does, it engages the watcher to repeat phrases, say their name when asked, etc.  In this particular show, Jake always asks the watcher to say the secret words (or something like that) to be part of the crew that day.  The secret phrase, I have learned, is Yo Ho Ho (as in..."it's  pirate's life for me...").  The other day, while watching the show, Justus was fully engaged and when the time came to say the secret phrase, he shouted with all the enthusiasm a 4 year old would have at the prospect of joining a pirate crew, "Yo Yo, Ho!"   I love these moments that clearly demonstrate how society changes our perception of things because he obviously had no concept that had that phrase come out of my mouth in certain company--not nearly as precious.

What's in a name?

I love my name.  This is not something you would have ever heard me utter prior to my marriage in 2000, about my first or last name.  I mean, really, isn’t Karen one of the most boring names you’ve ever heard?  I don’t mind it so much now, but I grew up with a few, some, a ton of Tiffanys, Jennifers, Tracys, Amys, Shellys, Heathers and any other popular late 70s name you can think of.  I was almost an Elizabeth (which at least carries the promise of a cute nick name), but somewhere in my parents’ circle of acquaintances, there was a fine woman named Karen that they felt worthy of honoring by saddling me with her name.  I think we met once or twice.  Neat.  Then there’s the last name: Barger….as in burger…or even better, booger (didn’t take long for the kids on the playground to get to that one, I assure you).  I know even parents can’t help the last name issue, but it doesn’t take the sting out of having to correct almost everyone you come across, especially telemarketers in all their creativity, to get them to pronounce it correctly.  Suffice it to say, the day I acquired Royal as my last name was a fine day indeed, and not just because I was marrying my favorite person.

Today, I love my name because it made it easier for my not-so-creative mind to decide on a name for this blog.  I thought it would be cute to do some precious take on the whole royalty angle, but my friend, Katy, has the corner on that market.  See “Blogs I Read” and follow her—she’s amazing.  And speaking of that, Katy, I think to preserve the integrity of our children’s royalty-infused names they should just marry each other.  Note: this would also undoubtedly shore up complete adorableness of our grandchildren.  Just sayin’….

Since I wasn’t going the Royal Family route so much, I moved on to other ideas.  With Royal, it’s much easier to come up with catchy phrases, and I do love alliteration (It’s the former English teacher in me, I can’t help it).  So, I decided on Remarkably Royal because it goes to the heart of why I decided to start a blog: my family.  Life with them every day is just remarkable.  I am so supremely blessed to have my wonderful family, and I love sharing our special and not so special moments.  I had grand illusions of keeping these great baby books and scrapbooks for my kids, but I just haven’t.  Life seems to be getting in the way and I would rather be living it than writing it out by hand (although I do miss scrapbooking).  Yet, I find myself able to tell the ladies in my office or do a quick status update on Facebook about the most recent hilarious thing Justus has said and/or done, and I know as Delaney grows it will be the same with her.  So, I figured since I am already on the computer most of the day, and I have gotten much better at being able to post pictures, I could just blog all the fun stuff and have a record of it.  As a result, hopefully I won’t look like the worst mom in the world when they are grown and ask me about all their –isms as kids.  It’s true-they really do say the darndest things!  So, welcome and I hope you stick around and enjoy it.  I can’t say how often I’ll post, but knowing my kids, there will be fodder for discussion on a pretty regular basis.  I’m sure I’ll have a few other things to focus on too, just about life in general….because I do also have a life outside of my kids….sort of.