2018

01 - Believe it or not, we had two Sneaux Days all the way down here! The amount of snow we got was laughable and so was everyone's panic. The base was closed and there was no school. We also had one really good fishing day despite the kids claiming to be frozen solid.

02 - I have just one word...DISNEY!! We skipped town for Mardi Gras and went to Disney with Gramma and Grampa instead. It was the best!! We had the best time and made some great memories. Watching the kids enjoy the fireworks is something I'll never forget.

03 - Jackson turned six years old and Grampa came to visit. Jackson took treats to school for his birthday and Grampa came to Sector 6, a trampoline park, and Barataria Preserve to look for alligators. 

04 - We happened upon a "pick your own" blueberry farm. I was shocked to discover how many blueberries four people could eat in a week. We visited three times and picked about two gallons in total. Josh caught up with some highschool friends, Ashley and Seetal, when they came to New Orleans for a girls weekend. 

05 - Jackson lost his first tooth! Silas helped by pulling it out for him. We went to Ohio to see our friends Brian, Ashlee and Bailey Shields. My first concert was Alabama when I was in kindergarten. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do the same for the boys. We saw Alabama in Kentucky with our friends. 

06 - June was a busy month! Tball was in full swing. Josh was the coach of the Royals. Silas turned five and Gramma joined us on a road trip to the beach in Pensacola, Florida and Lambert's Cafe in Foley, Alabama to celebrate. Josh and I celebrated our 7th anniversary just after he got back from a fishing and bear hunting trip in Canada with my dad.

07 - My cousin Sara and her family came back down for the 2nd annual Manzer family vacation. The kids had a great time on the swamp tour and even got to hold a baby alligator. I snuck away for a girls weekend with my friend Ashley Nuss. We spent the day floating the lazy river at L'Auberge Casino in Lake Charles. 

08 - Back to school! Silas is in Ms. Chenevert's class for kindergarten and Jackson is in Ms. Vodopija's class for 1st grade at Belle Chasse Primary. Other than getting back to school, the biggest event in August was when a drunk driver drove through our favorite donut shop. The boys were so upset! Thankfully, nobody was hurt and dad was able to bring donuts home the next day.

09 - Another busy month! We took Josh out bow fishing for his 35th birthday. We didn't get any keepers, but we saw plenty of fish. Hurricane Gordon was scheduled to arrive but took a turn and left us high and dry (phew)! I made a trip back home for my dad's surprise 60th birthday party. Then, for Labor Day we took a road trip to West Monroe, Louisiana with Ashley Nuss and her family to see the Duck Dynasty warehouse, meet some duck men and enjoy their Faith, Family & Fireworks event. 

10 - Josh headed back to Iowa for a week of deer hunting. Surprisingly, he didn't shoot anything! Unsurprisingly, I ended up with pneumonia while he was away (something always happens when dad leaves town). Gramma came for her usual October visit but she wasn't here for Halloween this year. Jackson was Black Panther and SIlas was the blue Power Ranger. 

11 - The Price family came to visit for Thanksgiving. Over two weeks we managed to get everybody together. It was nice for Grandpa Mike to have all the grandkids together for the first time in a few years. Dan and Amanda were nice enough to take some family pictures for us too. 

12 - Whoa! I didn't know we could cram so much into one month. Our elf, Fredrick, came back the first of December. He took a field trip with us to Lafayette, Louisiana to see The Grinch with Ashley Nuss and her son Caden. I took off for a family girls trip to New York with my mom, Aunt Vicky, my cousin Amy, and Aunt Marilyn. I've always wanted to see New York at Christmas. The highlight of the trip was video chatting with the boys from the tree at Rockefeller Center. We wore matching shirts to the Rockettes and I drug everybody over to Grey's Papaya for a hotdog! I also got the chance to catch up with an old friend from high school, Mike Engstrom. My parents, brother Lucas and his wife Katey came for Christmas. My favorite part of their visit was visiting Global Wildlife Safari in Folsom, Louisiana. I laughed so hard watching the cows try to lick everybody! 

2018 - It's been a pretty great year! It's hard to believe we only have about six months left down here in New Orleans. We'll be headed to Josh's next duty station in Millington, Tennessee after school gets out in June. We're certainly looking forward to some new adventures and whatever comes next. It's crazy how fast the kids are growing and how quickly time flies. I have to say, it was a pretty great year.

Vomit

If you're queasy, please read with caution.

Jackson had been suffering from the squirts for a while, which may have had a little something to do with the incident. However, he's also a notorious over eater (we're working on that) and that might have been the real instigator.

We went to Banana Blossom, a Thai restaurant, for dinner. Jackson ate a very large bowl of ramen noodles followed by two scoops of pistachio ice cream. It all caught up to him when we got home.

Vomit. Vomit like I have never seen. Green. Nickelodeon slime. The volume and projection completely slimed the entire bathroom and it even flowed into the hall. We were trapped inside, surrounded. He yacked on my feet. The rug. The door. An ocean of pistachio noodle soup.

The smell filled the house. Josh threw me a beach towel that we used as a bridge to cross over the vomit river. I had to clean it up but I didn't know where to start!! Do I clean my way back into the bathroom or do I clean my way out? How do you scoop it up? Should I just throw away the rug?

I tried wiping it up with toilet paper and throwing it in the bowl. I tried to used the beach towel to pool it up. I tried paper towels. It was so overwhelming, I took off my pink rubber gloves and called Aunt Laurie.

It was one of those laughs where she thought I was crying.
"Are you busy?"
"Oh my god. What's wrong? Are you ok?"
"I don't know what to do."
"What happened? Amy, what's wrong?"
"Jackson threw up everywhere!!! I've tried everything. There's too much. I don't know what to do. I already threw away the rug. It's so sticky! It's like somebody spilled a pot of chewed up spaghetti. I keep trying to wipe it up but the noodles are just rolling around on the floor!"

I really got the giggles when I looked under the vanity and saw that the force behind his stream of spew was strong enough for the slime to ricochet off the rug and splash vomit up under the vanity and across the base boards. I had to stand on my head to clean that!

More than an hour later, it was finally cleaned up. I closed the door and decided to disinfect and mop in the morning. Do you know that the next day when I was mopping, a dried up ramen noodle fell off the door jam?

Nose Hairs

I know my Grandma Mann loved me, but she still had a real knack for embarrassing me. I know she didn't mean to. For her, it just happened naturally.

During a back to school shopping event at Younkers she came into the women's bathroom and loudly checked on my well being. "Amy, are you ok? You've been in here a while." Yes grandma, I'm fine. It's hard to poop quickly in a public restroom!

She always insisted on giving me underwear for Christmas. Since she knew unwrapping a package of underpants in front of my whole family would embarrass me, she'd take me to the back bedroom after dinner and let me open my package of drawers privately. Because I guess not buying me underwear for Christmas wasn't an option?

The most cringeworthy moment was in the US Savings Bank drive thru lane. Right there, in broad daylight, she reached into her purse and pulled out the tiniest pair of scissors I have ever seen. She proceeded to trim her nose hairs in the rearview mirror. She even said, "I'm sorry, but the lighting is just perfect." I wanted to slide down the front seat of that Buick and ride home on the floor. 

It's a pocket mirror with a light. Perfect!

Deviled Eggs

My mom's pretty much famous for her deviled eggs. And since I learned from the best, I've got a bit of a deviled egg reputation myself. One of Josh's co-workers brought deviled eggs to my house for a get together and my friend Ashlee took one look at his deviled eggs and said, "Who brought deviled eggs to Amy's house?"

On June 20, 2013 I spent the afternoon at the hospital. I was pregnant with Silas and I hadn't felt him move all day. I went to get checked out and they reassured me that everything was fine and since I wasn't due until July 9, they sent me home.

Josh had a command picnic the next day so I stayed up late making four dozen deviled eggs, per their request. As I stood over the sink, like a T-Rex peeling eggs, I said to Josh, "So help me, if I have this baby and these deviled eggs don't make it to the picnic, I'm going to be so mad!"

And what do you know? The next morning my water broke before I even got out of bed. Josh rushed home from work and we packed up. We dropped the two most important things off at Marissa's house, Jackson and the deviled eggs. I got my baby and everybody else got their deviled eggs. Win, win!

You'd probably like to have the recipe for these famous deviled eggs:

Boil eggs, slice in half, separate yolks from whites.
Use a mixer to break up the yolks.
Mix in a few big blobs of Miracle Whip and a couple little squirts of mustard.
Shake in some salt and a tiny bit of pepper (I think pepper is kind of yucky).
Here's the most important part!! They have to look pretty. A spoon is unacceptable. Use a pastry bag or even a ziplock bag with the corner cut off to fill the whites. No ugly deviled eggs allowed.
Shake a little paprika on top for an extra pretty.

He Gone!

I took the boys to get their flu shots today. They're normal kids so, of course, they freak out when they hear 'shot.' I promised cake and ice cream if the didn't cry BEFORE the shot. I understand that it hurts and crying is acceptable during the shot. But I'm not ok with crying for 15 minutes on the drive there.

I thought that if I got my flu shot first, they would see that it was no big deal. So, I rolled up my sleeve and took it like a champ. The look of horror on their faces! There was a flaw in my plan. Now they knew exactly what they were in for.

Since Jackson was practically hyperventilating, I had him go next. I figured it'd be best to get the difficult one over with. And difficult it was. Keep in mind, we go to a military medical clinic. Big guys in military uniform are handing out these shots. I held Jackson's arms and bear hugged him into submission while Joe Navy gave him the shot.

By the time Jackson was done, I was sweating and my ears were ringing. While the Navy nurse man was getting ready for Silas' turn, he looks at me and say's "Where is he?" He starts looking under the chairs and behind the storage cabinet for my other kid.

Silas had escaped. He was so afraid of getting a flu shot that he ran away. The corpsman went down the hall one way and I went the other. At the end of the hall there were three guys in uniform looking at each other like 'What do we do?' while Silas hugged the wall, crying and repeating, "I don't want a shot. I don't want a shot."

I felt terrible. They almost called a Code Pink. He was shaking like a leaf. But I also couldn't stop laughing. He's usually my brave one. I never expected him to bolt! He gone!

I Saved You Some

On the 100th day of school Jackson made a 100 piece snack. It was a trail mix of many delights. When he got into the car after school that day, I'd guess he still had 75 pieces left in a bag.

Like every other day, he was excited to share his remaining snack with Silas. On the way to pick-up his brother, Jackson told me all about his wonderful snack, while eating it.

There's Fruit Loops, crunch, crunch. And Marshmallows. And pretzels, crunch, crunch. He was just as excited about how they made it as he was about eating it. I looked back and saw that he was down to about 50 pieces. So I said, "Hey, I thought you were saving some of that for Silas?" And he said, "I am!"

Jackson continued to tell me about his day and munch on his snack all the way to daycare to pick-up Silas. It's not a super long drive, but I was starting to wonder if any of the snack would be left when we got there. Crunch, crunch...

Jackson starts telling Silas all about the 100th day snack the second we walk into the classroom. And he told Silas that he saved him some. Such a nice brother!

By the time I get the boys in their car seats, Jackson opens up the bag of the remaining snack and there was only one piece of Chex cereal left. One square. Jackson spared him a square! And too my disbelief, Jackson says, "Here Silas," and he bites the single piece of Chex cereal in half and gives him the rest. HALF A PIECE OF CEREAL!! Out of exactly 100 pieces of trail mix! And Silas says, "Mmm, thanks Jackson!"

Walk of Shame

I try not to eat fast food. Like, ever (except when traveling). It's unhealthy. It's expensive. And there's some debate as to whether or not it's actually food at all. But sometimes you're in a hurry and you start to think about eating your own arm.

So, today, against my better judgment, I went through the drive thru at Taco Bell. As I approached the menu I realized I was driving Olive (2005 Suzuki Forenza that's holding on for dear life) and things were about to get tricky. The driver window doesn't roll down anymore. So I opened the door and placed my order. This is first wave of shame.

Nothing tops off a fast food order like a giant diet soda! A wee bit more shame.

I pull up to the pick-up window and I realize paying and receiving my brown bag of shame will be even more tricky than ordering. So, I open my door to pay and I scraped the bottom of my door on a freakishly high curb. I scared the poor woman inside and she looked at me like, "Don't try to act like you've never been through a Taco Bell drive thru before..." I smiled and waved like a big dummy and reached out with my money as my car started to roll away. I'm rolling because I can't put Olive in park anymore. Instead, you have to put the car in neutral and use the emergency brake; and I forgot to do so. So now I'm rolling away with money and my arm hanging out the door. I can feel the shame for sure.

On my way to my appointment I spent a solid 10 minutes at a stand still in traffic when I came across an urban high school that had just let out and there were no sidewalks. Teenagers everywhere! Between cars, down the middle of the road. Down both sides of the road. One poor guy was trying to direct traffic and pedestrians. So since I couldn't go anywhere, I decided to eat my burrito. And that's when I ended up wearing my shame.