Junk Drawer Drama

I decided to organize my junk drawer today. It's full of coupons, lids, newspaper clippings and - oddly - my home organization notebook. As I was cleaning, I discovered a coupon for A FREE PACKAGE OF OREOS...AND IT WAS EXPIRED! I absolutely love Oreos, and I am still traumatized that I missed the opportunity to get a free package! As I was continuing my cleaning project, I also found a picture of Marcus from Halloween 3 years ago. He was dressed as a hippie, and when he came to the door (from his mom's house) I totally didn't recognize him. He came on into the house and started helping himself to the candy. I was so shocked that a complete stranger would do this, and stood there with my mouth wide open. I tried to escort him back outside, and then realized it was him. It was pretty funny. Here's the pic...


After a few more minutes of organizing, I got to thinking about that Oreo coupon, and decided to check out my personal stash. I keep a package of Oreos on a top shelf in the kitchen that only I know about. OK - Blake knows about it, but he's usually on a low carb diet, so I'm safe. Or so I thought. Today, when I opened the package I discovered that ALL of the cookies had been opened and the white filling was LICKED OUT! Left behind were about 12 chocolate cookie halves! I have no idea when this happened, and I'm still tracking down the culprit, though all clues point to the 4 year old! The only benefit to the ordeal was the bloggable moment. Here's the evidence...

Junk Drawer Drama

I decided to organize my junk drawer today. It's full of coupons, lids, newspaper clippings and - oddly - my home organization notebook. As I was cleaning, I discovered a coupon for A FREE PACKAGE OF OREOS...AND IT WAS EXPIRED! I absolutely love Oreos, and I am still traumatized that I missed the opportunity to get a free package! As I was continuing my cleaning project, I also found a picture of Marcus from Halloween 3 years ago. He was dressed as a hippie, and when he came to the door (from his mom's house) I totally didn't recognize him. He came on into the house and started helping himself to the candy. I was so shocked that a complete stranger would do this, and stood there with my mouth wide open. I tried to escort him back outside, and then realized it was him. It was pretty funny. Here's the pic...


After a few more minutes of organizing, I got to thinking about that Oreo coupon, and decided to check out my personal stash. I keep a package of Oreos on a top shelf in the kitchen that only I know about. OK - Blake knows about it, but he's usually on a low carb diet, so I'm safe. Or so I thought. Today, when I opened the package I discovered that ALL of the cookies had been opened and the white filling was LICKED OUT! Left behind were about 12 chocolate cookie halves! I have no idea when this happened, and I'm still tracking down the culprit, though all clues point to the 4 year old! The only benefit to the ordeal was the bloggable moment. Here's the evidence...

Mason and I went to the grocery store yesterday, and before going in I told him that he WAS NOT going to get a toy this time. Five minutes in and he was asking for a Limbo Dance Set. I sent him to put it back on the shelf, and he returned with Silly String. Again - a reminder of the agreement (though only one of us seemed to be agreeing) and a send off to return the Silly String to the shelf. In the van, on the way home, he was in the backseat saying, "No, No, No, No." I asked him what he was doing, and he said, "Practicing for when I'm an adult."

Another Crazy Day

A few days before school started, I asked Marcus to go to the basement and bring up some luau decorations. A friend wanted to borrow them for her office party, and I volunteered to drop them off. Marcus emerged from the basement sans luau decorations, but instead wearing my old grass skirt from my lifeguarding days. We had tons of errands to run, and I dared Marcus to wear the skirt for the entire day. He couldn't resist, and we had fun stopping at random places around town for some quick snaps. Enjoy...

Making a deposit at the bank. Note - that's the bank where his step-father is the president. He got some weird looks until the branch manager recognized him. It's funny to watch people be nice out of obligation to a teenager in a grass skirt!

Marcus at a bus stop. Mason kept shouting, "DON'T GET ON THE BUS, MARCUS!" from across the street.Self explanitoryMASON! Get back in the van!

Joining the picketers. Notice his sign, "No Luau - No Planes".

Thrown To The Wolves

Marcus has officially survived his first few days of high school...public high school no less! Andover isn't exactly inner city Chicago, but to a sheltered, private school kid - it felt pretty close. Here are some highlights from his first three days:

• A girl by the name of Shelby has started stalking Marcus. At first we thought she had ulterior motives (wanting to be nominated as a cheerleader for Trojan Night) - but now we think she officially has a crush on him. Unfortunately she demonstrates her desires by making strange shoulder movements and offering him Chex mix that she stores in bulk in her backpack.
  
• Marcus was asked by a new acquaintance who his father was (only at Andover) and he explained that his dad was Blake Baysinger - former owner of the cell phone store and current owner of eDrop. The boy replied, "Ahhh...your dad's a Pimp-&*%". Marcus whispered to another former CCA student, "Is that good or bad"? The other CCA boy said, "I have no idea". Marcus came home asking what a Pimp-&*% was. After I carefully outlined the job description and general wardrobe of a pimp, He decided the boy was, indeed, paying a compliment.
  
• After noticing a leggy blond in too short shorts bending over in the parking lot, Marcus said, "Well...you'd never see that at CCA!"
• He's trying to figure out how to respond to a certain "pose" that his new friends assume when they are greeting each other. He has come to the unfortunate conclusion, through trial and error, that slapping the lower, rear facing hand is NOT the correct response.
• And my favorite so far...Tonight Marcus commented to me, "Some of the girls at Andover are full blown women!"

Thank God For Near Disasters

Because I live in a house with 3 boys, I consider it a blessing straight from the Lord when we have a near disaster. There are plenty of disasters, believe you me. So near disasters are a welcome relief! A few days ago, Mason took a box that held Max's new high chair and turned it into a little house. Blake helped him cut a door in the front and he's been playing in it ever since. Yesterday, I saw him walk through the house with a big water pitcher. When I asked him what he was doing, he had the most suspicious look on his face. Upon further investigation, I discovered that he was en route to the bathroom to fill up the pitcher with water. He planned to use that water to fill up the cardboard box and make a dunk tank! Yes - Thank you Lord for that NEAR disaster.

Last night we attended the State Convention at our church. Afterward there was an ice cream social, and we were sitting with a couple from Melvern. Mason (naturally) struck up conversation with them, and the husband asked Mason how old he was. It went like this:
Man: How old are you?
Mason: I'm four. How old are you?
Man: (chuckling)
Wife: He's 58.
Mason: MAN...THAT'S OOOOLLLLDDDD!
Blake: Jennifer - why are you hiding under the table? (OK - that part didn't really happen, but as I replay the scene in my mind - that's what happens).
Fortunately, the couple has lots of grandkids that live far away and they miss them terribly. They proceeded to tell embarrasing stories about things their grandkids have said, and we all felt better. I told my friend, Kris, the above story on the way out and she shared this exchange between her nephew, Jacob, and a woman at a wedding:
Jacob: I know you're older than my aunt.
Woman: Really...how?
Jacob: By all those wrinkles on your neck.
Now that's a disaster...nothing "near" about it!

Marcus Being Marcus

A few days ago I asked Marcus to go to the basement and retrieve our grass table skirts, as a friend needed them for a luau office party. He came up without the table skirts, but was instead wearing my old grass skirt from my lifeguarding days. He also had a couple of leis around his neck. Somehow we came up with the idea to drive around town and photograph him doing various things in the outfit. It was so much fun. Here's how it went...

Random Tidbits

I haven't blogged in forever, and I know my readers have been suffering withdrawal symptoms as they reload my page time and time again with no updates! In all honesty I wonder if anyone other than Blake actually reads what I post - and he just reads it to make sure I'm not humiliating our family any worse than we do on our own. Anyway - here is a random list of updates from the Baysingers.

• Max is babbling up a storm now! He says dada, bubba, baba, bye bye and even poo poo...but not mama. I'm so sad. In my upset state I did successfully get him to say "dada poo poo." I realize he's just mimicking what we say, but I'm still convinced he's a genius!
• Marcus enrolled at Andover this week. It's his first venture outside the private school sector. We always used to threaten him with public school...we shouldn't have done that. He'll do great. It's just that his first and last encounter with the public school system was when I took him to visit my mom while she was at work at my hometown elementary school. When we pulled up to the school, a 6th grade boy was running across the playground with two dodge balls stuffed up his t-shirt pretending to be a woman. Marcus' eyes were wide as saucers and he looked at me and asked, "Is THIS public school?" I didn't even bother to tell him that the boy was the mayor's son!
• Marcus was recently reminding me about the time a few months ago that Mason ran a rope across our street and set up a "toll booth". He had traffic backed up about three cars deep before we discovered his little operation. I don't think he collected any money, but I'm certain one of the neighbors considered calling SRS.
• The toll booth wasn't his last entrepreneurial effort. A few weeks after that, he drug a bunch of stuff out of the house and put it on the front lawn and tried to sell it to people walking by. Honestly - it's not like I don't keep an eye on him. I simply didn't realize what he was doing. And as far as the toll booth incident goes - I was tending to Max (he was still a newborn then) and Mason works incredibly fast!
• Max can crawl now...well - almost. He just goes in reverse! He can get anywhere he needs to go - as long as it's located behind him!
• I'm serving as Women's Ministries Director at our church again. I took a break after having Max, and I'm so excited to be involved there again. It's where God intends for me to serve, and I absolutely love it!
• Blake is still the reigning karaoke champion at our house. His performance of Honky Tonk Badonkadonk is stellar! Unfortunately - Mason picked up a few of the lyrics and sang them to a woman in Gordman's. Nothing like having your 4 year old son tell a stranger to "work her moneymaker". I really need to find that 101 Sunday School Favorites CD.
• Mason will be the ring bearer in his uncle Jason's wedding in September. He's been practicing, and tried to get Marcus to be the flower girl...to no avail. I did have to break the news that he won't be the ring "bear" but the ring "bearer". He was upset because he'd been practicing growling. I'm not convinced that he won't try to work the growl in somewhere during the ceremony anyway.