I don't get off work until 8pm, by the time I leave the house it is usually after 8:30. The drive to my brother's is an hour and 40 minutes which makes plenty of time to collect my thoughts, make a phone call or turn up the music and sing my heart out. I had a very important question to ask a friend who was working at Taggarts last night. Shortly after she answered the phone was passed to a "grumpy old Marine who keeps going on and on about you." I knew exactly who it was!! A former Marine who is good friends with my Dad. After I talked with him and his wife it had me thinking..... I wonder how the rest of our regular customers have been?

  I think about the little boy who would come in with his Grandparents. He would hide his DS from me so I wouldn't shut it while he was winning a level in the game he was playing.
  I think of my Sunday people, hoping that the waitress gave them all of their sauces, someone got their pickle spear, and if that baby banana split was a baby size.
  I think of the Lehman group who come in on Wednesday and wonder if the same person is going to be late again this week.
  I think of Paul and Marie, wondering how they are doing.
  I think of the customers who live in Akron who found Taggarts to be on their way home from EVERYWHERE!
   I think of the guy who is daring enough to make a sundae out of whatever sorbet we have.
   I think of the family who invited me on a few of their vacations. Oh and the couple who always asks if I will marry their son.
  I think of all the customers who know my parents, or were shocked to find out they knew my parents after waiting on them for so many.
  I think of Terry and Mark and their laughter. Actually, I think of all of the customers who I would sit down with as other tables would give me the evil eye!



 There are little things every day that triggers my brain to think of Taggarts. It truly is so sweet when I talk to my friends from work and they tell me a customer asked about me. Because we aren't good with names, it is enjoyable when they describe the customer to me "you know, the guy with the hat. His wife always orders her Bittner with coconut."

Buzz Buzzzzz

Last week on my day off, I sat on the deck enjoying an adult beverage when something bigger than a normal fly started buzzing around my head. I didn't swat at anything but once I realized what exactly it was, I was a tad bit scared for my life. It was the biggest bumble bee I have ever seen in my life!!!!! ENORMOUS I tell ya! You could hear this thing buzzing miles away.

No joke, it was the size of a quarter

Imagine this thing buzzing around your head

I did my best to take a picture so people didn't think I was crazy when I say bumble bees in the south are on steroids. I sent it to some friends, to which one informed me that it is a carpenter bee. HOLY MOLY I have never see anything like it!! Oh and another friend who lives in the area tried telling me it was a fly that looks like a bee. Nice try! 

Day Light Savings

 The boys are in 4 different class each week. Tuesday is gymboree, Wednesday morning is art, Wednesday afternoon is swim lessons, and Thursday is music. Some days they participate, others not so much. KP leans more on the "not so much" side. At music he likes to sit and watch everyone act like fools. Swim lessons he screams as soon as he wakes up from his nap until he gets in the water. It is a good 35 minutes of "I am not swimming. I am not getting in the pool." HB on the other hands loves all of it. At 2 and a half, the swim instructor pushes him under the water to dive down and get whatever toy is on the pool floor, he pops up wide eyed with a smile on his face.

  Last week with the time change, KP is a whole new kid! He has participated in all the classes and we only had 3 minutes of crying. The other nanny and I talked about what could possibly be going on with him, to which we decided it was the time change. Think what you want, we are not crazy!


I was lucky enough to not have to deal with the boys loosing an hour of sleep. However, the other nanny did wake them up 30 minutes early in the morning and from their afternoon nap so they would adjust well.

Call Me Crazy

Hair in NC: bouncy and soft

Here is me proving a point that South Carolina and my precious curls can not and will not be friends! There is something in the water here that is not allowing me to have pretty curls. I know, I know....  "you have beautiful hair. What I would do for just an ounce of your curls. I can't believe it is natural." But I have become somewhat self conscious of my curls. When I have a bad hair day it adds a little stress to my day. And of course, there has been 2 or 3 curls that choose to frizz instead of "be one of the cool kids" if you will. Annoying!!

Hair in SC: Heavy, flat and frizzy

 Here are pictures to prove that my hair in South Carolina is awful. It is so heavy and frizzy. Yes, I have changed my hair products, how often its washed, the way I dry it. Nothing has worked, HOWEVER when I go to my brother's in Charlotte on my days off, my hair is amazing!

Nanny Diet

What I thought was only offered in South Carolina apparently is also offered in Connecticut. (where a friend is also a nanny)
 
  The last 4 months I have lost a few pounds, enough that I have bought 3 pairs of new jeans which are a size smaller. (Before I moved I bought 2 pairs) Everyone keeps saying that losing weight is a good thing sure whatever.  But not when you live in jeans daily and spend over $40 on them. With the daily schedule of the boys, I eat when they do. They don't snack throughout the day which makes it impossible for me to. Dinner is at 6pm, bath at 7:20 and bed at 8. My bedtime isn't far behind theirs. I am sure daily stress of things have added to the weight loss, but I am just going with I don't eat after 8pm and constantly snacking on fresh fruit.

   I suppose this is all a good thing and should justify my shopping because things don't fit, and my mom would only want me to look presentable. Right Mom?!?
 
  Ironically enough though when I head to Charlotte, NC to spend my days off with my brother and his wife, I binge on ice cream and cookies. I can not get enough chocolate!! When I had ice cream before dinner one night he responded "You are eating more ice cream?!" And actually I had more for breakfast the next morning. I know, I know! This is all going to catch up with me sooner or later.

Twins: twice as nice? NOT!

  These boys are truly something else! They are doing a great job with potty training. Maybe one accident a day for me, but not for the other nanny (she's just so perfect.) Their vocabulary expands more every day. From working at Taggarts for some time, I am a sucker for kids with manors. Anymore manors are a must! I am constantly on them about Yes Please, No Thank You, Can I Please Have, etc. They are getting the hang of it more so with each other than with others. When KP steals a toy from HB hands, and HB wants it back "No thank you Bubba" KP will tell him. KP, today alone, has been saying the funniest things. "That was not very nice Dave" when his dad shut the car door after getting frozen yogurt. "I am not going potty." Actually everything is "I'm not" which I really enjoy. Like I have told each of my 8 little loves "In the world of you VS me, I always win. You don't win until you are 18... if you are lucky."

  Their personalities are so different, but so are their looks. KP is blonde with blue eyes, HB has dark hair with hazel eyes. I can tell KP to stop doing something he shouldn't be doing and he will. HB will test my nerves until I have to raise my voice. Then he cries. Little does he know I have no sympathy. KP loves cars. He will lay down on the ground watching the wheels and just how it all works. HB will do silly things to make you laugh, which he succeeds at. HB is very stubborn. Trying to get him to go potty some days is shaving days off my life. He things as long as he sits on the toilet for 5 seconds it is the same as actually going potty. DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA! KP on the other hand will sit, go potty and be done.

  OH MY GOODNESS! HA! KP on occasion will take his pajamas off in the morning before I go in to get him. Well he figured out how to take his diaper off so we started putting duct tape (or "dream tape" as i tell them) around his waist. My last night of work a few weeks ago things were so crazy at bedtime I completely forgot to get the dream tape. The other nanny walked in to a messy smelly disaster. I felt horrible because I am sure she was swearing my name left and right. However I will defend myself: the parents were helping at bath time.

Adding a kid touch to my bathroom. No thanks!

  My bedroom is right next to the boys room. They have a bathroom in their room, but it has become daily routine when they get up in the morning and from nap they use my bathroom to go potty. They always put their hands and faces all over my shower doors and I tell them "When you become a big boy you can take showers too". Well tonight they took their first every shower in my huge shower.... AND LOVED IT! They each brought 2 cars to drive all over the walls. Mom and Dad both popped in and laughed over how much fun the boys were having. This will be a TREAT, not a nightly thing.