Daddy's Office and "He Knows"

The boys and I met Tyson at his office today for lunch. As usual, they enjoyed running around, making lots of noise, messing with Daddy's computers, drawing on Daddy's boards, getting candy from Coach Callaway's office, and blowing Daddy's whistle very loudly. I know the other coaches just love having us there. Ha!

Mr. Travis, Jake, and Tyson

On a different note, Jake's teacher sent home a class roster yesterday; I knew all but one child- Candace. I totally forgot to ask Jake about Candace before he went to bed, but luckily for me, Jake took multiple potty breaks (in an attempt to be awake when his Daddy came home) while I was in the shower. So, I decided to kill some time and I asked, "Jake, what does Candace look like?" His answer? "She's black." WHAT?? WHAT!!!??? How does he know what black means? All I could think was that maybe he meant that she had black hair or something. You see, Tyson and I agree that we don't want kids to hear someone call someone "black" (obviously if we can prevent it) because we don't want him think there is any difference in white and black people...or any other race for that matter. So, we've obviously not discussed race in our home...until now.

So I asked Jake again, "What does Candace look like?" Again, Jake answers, "She's black." All I was thinking was, ok, maybe he's still confused so let me probe a little bit farther, "Who else do you know that is black?" He quickly answers, "Mr. Travis." Dang! He knows!

Luckily, Tyson happened to walk in right at that moment. I quickly filled him in as I gathered my thoughts about what to say next. Anyways, I say to Jake, "You know, Jake, Mr. Travis is no different than your Daddy." (I used Tyson as an example because I thought it would be an easy example versus me (a girl) or Jake (a kid). Back to what I said, "You know, Jake, Mr. Travis is no different than your Daddy." Jake quickly responds, "Yes, he is..." BIG GULP....WHAT IS MY CHILD ABOUT TO SAY? "...Mr. Travis is not a Daddy!" Shew!!! "You're right, Jake, Mr. Travis is not a Daddy." End of conversation. Actually, Jake then went on to discuss Jesus' Crucifixion, but that's irrelevant to this post. ;)

So there, Jake has somehow heard or figured out what it means what it means to be black. And you know what? It doesn't make a difference to Jake. :)

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's...A BLACK WIDOW!

"Oh no! They're back!" (in his Poltergeist voice)

Unfortunately, this isn't the first black widow we've found outside our house. Does anyone want to come play now or what?

The black widow's final meal

Mike came to our rescue and made sure the black widow died a long, slow death.

The Oops Report

My sweet boy post-bite...tough as nails.

While Jake and I were enjoying our "Mommy-Jake Day," I received a text from one of my friends who teaches at the boys' school saying that Walker had been bitten by another child. She said it didn't break the skin but it was bruised already. I was upset for my sweet boy, but I was understanding about the situation....until I saw the bite. His leg looks awful! This picture doesn't do it justice; the area around the bite is pretty swollen and very tender to touch. Believe me, I've tried to put myself in the shoes of the mother of the biter, and I would be devastated if my child inflicted this pain on another child, but I know there is nothing you can do about biters at this age. One of our good friend's child had a problem with biting, and it was all teething related. She grew out of it, of course, and is sweet as pie so I try to keep that in my mind when I get upset. I just don't want this to happen to my child again, though. Is that wrong? He is honestly like the sweetest child ever!

Krispy Kreme!

Jake skipped school today and we had a "Mommy-Jake Day" where he got to choose whatever he wanted to do and where ever he wanted to eat.

He's been begging me to take to him "the donut shop" (aka Krispy Kreme) for a while, but we haven't been able to because of Walker's food allergies. So, today was the perfect day! We are very fortunate (and unfortunate) to have a Krispy Kreme right down the road from his school, so that was our first stop.

Next, Jake wanted to go to the "race track store" (aka the Cars aisle at Target), so we went there in search of "The King" from the first Cars movie. We didn't have any luck, so Jake settled on an Ironman toy.

I had a few errands to run; thankfully, Jake was entertained with his new toy and I was able to get everything done that I needed to. It's amazing how much easier shopping is with just 1 child! And it's also amazing how much more Jake talks without his brother around! ;) By the way, about halfway through our day, Jake asked, "can we go get baby Walker from school?'' I asked him if he missed Walker, and he said that he did. Shocking!

To end our day together, we went to Chick-fil-a as requested by my big boy. Again, we don't eat Chick-fil-a anymore due to Walker's allergies, so this was a big treat for my big boy.

We had a lot of fun on our "Mommy-Jake Day!" I can't wait to do it again!

Sometimes, there are just no words.

A Fun Morning at the Park and Daddy's Office

Days like this past Tuesday make me realize how much I love being able to stay home with the boys. We woke up, went to the park, went to Tyson's office for lunch, napped, worked on Jake's schoolwork, and then played outside until it was time to eat supper. Don't get me wrong, that's usually a typical day for us anyways, but for some reason, I just randomly thought "how lucky am I to be able to spend this time with my boys?"

I think what confirmed this feeling was working with Jake on his schoolwork. You see, he came home from school Monday with some papers where he is learning to trace/write the lowercase letter "a." Well, on his sheet that he had used in class Monday, he literally scratched through all the "a's" and had not attempted to write an "a" at all. I don't know why that bugged me so badly (perfectionist perhaps?), so we sat down yesterday and started working on writing the letter "a." Sure enough, he did it; he wrote the letter "a" over and over again. It was an amazing feeling to be able to teach him to write that. Again, this is not atypical for us; we constantly work with the boys to reinforce what they are learning at school and what-not, but again, I just had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude for being able to be home with the boys to work with and teach them.

Ok, so I'm sorry if this is a little sappy, but I just don't get the opportunity enough to thank my hubby for letting me stay home with the boys...well, other than that 1 shift a week. ;) And I also get down on myself a lot about staying at home...it is HARD WORK! Times like this, though, confirm the fact that this is exactly where I need to be. Now if we could just win the lottery so I could stay home and continue to work just 1 shift a week for the rest of my life. ;)

Florida Game

Calvin Jones #11, my new BFF (best football friend)
My bestie wife, Kesha, and I in front of the hotels' own Clydesdale horse
The wives on the trip- Mrs. Karen, April, Kesha, me, and Mrs. Pam

My hot hubby (who could pass as a player) and I at the hospitality suite

Game day!! I love how my hubby color-codes everything...don't you like his pens?

Getting ready to leave for the Stadium!

Blazer fans were there to greet the players as we got off the bus.

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium- where Tyson's dad played.

Another view of the stadium.

The wives and I were on "craziest Florida fan" lookout...this guy was definitely a winner in his orange and blue striped overalls with no shirt underneath. He even made the jumbo-tron during the game. I will say, though, I didn't see any jean shorts-mullet combos. :(

I assume this alligator statue is important since everyone wanted to get a picture with it, so Kesha and I got a picture with it.

My cousin Trey and his girlfriend, Holly, came to the game!

Tyson is in the box this year, so there won't be many action photos of him this year. I did manage to get a few of him during warm-ups. That's Tyson in the white hat doing the drills with the safeties.

Ok, so Kesha and I got a little photo happy at the game. ;)

Tyson's dad's twin sister, Aunt Ann and me

Again. Love her!

The husband again.

And again.

"This is The Swamp"

Albert

Jake would have been in Heaven! Those Florida mascots loved our fans!

The captains heading out to the coin toss.

Here come the Blazers!!!!

Remember #11? My BFF? Had to get a pic of him...even if it was of his backside on the sideline! ;)

That's Coach Muschamp in the middle. I felt lame taking his pic, but I had one of Fulmer when we played Tennessee that I ended up deleting and never posting and I wish I hadn't. This is for you, Dad. Oh, and if I had a new zoom lens for my Nikon, this picture would have been even better...hint, hint.

Mary Ann's brother, Tommy, and his daughters, Brittany and Melissa, and his niece on the far right.

Tyson with Aunt Ann, Uncle Ward, and their granddaughters, Jayde and Marika

Tyson with his dad's first cousin, Donna, and her husband Adam

Mary Ann's college roomie, Susan

Tyson and I got back early this morning from our trip to Florida to watch UAB take on the Florida Gators. The score of the game will go unmentioned, but we (I) had the best time despite the outcome!

As I mentioned in a previous post, this trip was the wives trip, which we means we get to travel with the team. I started out with every intention to document the whole trip so y'all could see what it was like to travel with a college football team, but I quickly realized that I was embarrassing my husband, so I put the camera away. :) I will break it down for you guys anyways because I always want to remember what it's like.

First, the wives/boosters/support staff/cheerleaders all load up onto bus #3 (offense is bus #1 and defense is #2) and get a head start to the airport ahead of the players and coaches. Everywhere we get bused, we get a police escort, which is awesome. What's also awesome is how quickly we get through the airport- we go through our own security, our baggage is handled for us, and then we take our own plane. Everyone pretty much has their game face on (mainly the coaches and players) the whole time; the players all have on their "Dr. Dre" headphones and are in a zone. There is little to no talking, and if you do talk, you do so quietly...I always have a hard time with this. ;) I talked to my newest favorite player, Calvin Jones, almost the whole trip there, though. Tyson was favorite smart in seating Calvin next to me...it definitely took some pressure off of Tyson to entertain me.

After we arrive, there are buses literally waiting for us on the runway. Again, the wives load up onto bus #3 (where we are allowed to cut loose a little and actually talk), and we head towards the hotel. We usually stay about an hour or so away from the stadium, so it's a little hike to get there. Once we arrive at the hotel, the guys start meetings and the wives go to dinner. So much fun! In the five years that I've gone on these wives' trips, I have never failed to have a good time.

At the end of the night once we get back from dinner, we meet up with the guys and hit the hospitality room. The night ends pretty early and we hit the bed for our big day.

On game day, we usually "sleep in" (even though my hubs got up at 6am to watch film) and the girls hang out while the guys meet. We basically plan our day around eating and watching football and more eating. It's the perfect day in my opinion. ;)

We usually get bused to the game about 2 hours before kickoff, so we kiss our hubbies good-bye and start tailgating. For the most part, the opposing teams' fans are generally pretty nice to us, but we do get heckled a good bit, too. It's all in good fun, though.

Okay, I'm tired of giving the details, so I know you must, too. The ride home isn't much different, but it's definitely a lot more quiet (almost silent) after a loss. :(

This game was a lot bigger to us, though, than just a "W" or a "L." Tyson's dad played at Florida, and this was Tyson's first time coaching on the very field where his dad played. A reporter for the Gainesville Sun did a little write-up about it, so check it out if you haven't already seen it. It's an amazing article. I'm pretty sure there were some teary-eyed folks in the stadium that day, myself included. I know Tyson's dad would be so proud of him! I sure am! Love you, babe! We'll get 'em next time!