Guilty on all accounts!

Any family outing that involves 14 to 17 people can cause plans to change 100 times before something is set in stone. There was no exception this weekend for Momma Colson’s Birthday. What started out as a Sunday morning breakfast idea, turned into a 7:30am cracker barrel breakfast idea, that it turned into a Perry cracker barrel lunch, that turned into a warner robins cracker barrel breakfast lunch that turned into the final destination of IHOP. What was the reasoning behind the changes? Mostly because cracker barrel takes too long with their service. We thought ihop would be different. So after sitting in the lobby for 45 minutes with 300 kids, the hostess came out with crayons and paper. I knew then it was going to be a looooong wait. Getting seated finally happened sometime after my third gray hair grew. Another 45 minutes later food came out, but I was already too weak, my end was near. My final resting place was going to be ihop on Watson blvd. I do have to say though, the food and service was great, so kudos there.

Once I regained my strength again, we celebrated and made as much noise as one would expect from an army of Colson spin offs. Soon, we owned the place. we put the HOP back in I again. Enjoy some photos from this fun filled event!

1. Bob and Danyelle debate what is better, Pancake or Waffle?
2. Ivy thinks they are both ridiculous.
3. Clearly she believes whip cream beats all.
4. Can you feel the love from these kids?
5. When asked to sit like a lady, she did the best she could.
6. Still waiting…

Dear Desmond,

your daddy was born in Ireland, and moved here to America when we was a small boy. Here is the story of how it all happened.

18 years ago today when I was a weee lad, my family packed our bags and set sail for the new world leaving Ireland behind us. We sold all our belongings. Mamo sold her favorite teapot, Pop’s sold his favorite fishing rod and potato, your Auntie Jenn sold her favorite Barbie Ferrari and Kylie Minogue cassette tape, and your Daddy sold his favorite Star Wars everything! and his favorite goat, I loved that goat.

We made our way to the docks, where our ship awaited. Her name was the Crytanic, they named her this, because everyone that ever boarded cried as they left their home land. It was handcrafted by many a drunk irishman, and glued together with mashed potatoes and peas. She was a beauty. As we left the port of Shannon, we could hear the sounds of Leprechauns, Fairies and Nana crying because the Hogans were leaving Ireland, we waved and hugged each other as we sailed off through a sea of shamrocks and into the sunset.

The trip was a long one, we ate spuds and soda bread for days on end. It was a good thing they had hot tea, or we all would have died on that ship. The seas were rough, I lost my spuds a few good times, but we held on, for America was close, and soon we could eat some McDonald’s, because this was our reason for leaving Ireland. It was all about the BigMac. I have moved on to Whoppers now, because whoppers are for big boys. One day you will understand. Little did I know that also one day I would marry the American Girl of my dreams, but she would frown upon my American Dream of BigMac’s and Fries. Your mom is a strange American woman, she does not eat meat. But one day when you are older, you will understand the power of love and what you are willing to do for it. (Don’t worry me and  you will eat whoppers).

Anyway, I am getting off track. When the Crytanic landed in Warner Robins, GA (don’t ask me what port, I think its closed now) we were so excited! But Desmond, the excitement faded when I realized that American’s had no sense of color for the outside. Everything was brown and dead. The color green did not seem to exist! I had never seen brown grass before. I cried, and ran back to the boat, I wanted to go home, but it had already sailed away down the I-75 river. I was stuck here in the land of the brown. I missed my goat.

Ohh but don’t worry Desmond, things changed and got better. I made new friends, sure they were not leprechauns or fairies (ok some where, but a different kind). I met your mom, I had my family. Today America is now home for us, 18 years is a long time, but it feels like yesterday. One day I will take you to Ireland, and we will hunt for treasure, dig for gold, find a leprechaun, and chase a goat. I will show you what I left behind so that I could find your mom, and also find you. You see Desmond, your my little Ireland, your my little leprechaun, and you are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

And that is how and why we moved to America! :)
The End.

There was a few times this last week where I thought, “if I just get in this car and drive, I can drive away and no one will find me! I can hide, and escape everything!” But no that was not what I did. You see my car has no A/C and I do not like to drive in it very long. I hate sweating. Plus I would not have got very far because Desmond can chase me down now! It is official, the boy can crawl. He is all over the place. I am not safe anywhere. Tonight I was trying to set my camera up on my tripod to take a photo of the moon. Wherever I moved in the living room, he was after me on all fours, before I knew it he was eating my ankles swinging from the tripod. He thought it was a giant new toy! So we had some fun and took some photos. I seem to remember a time when it was much easier to take photos of him. I would just plop him down on the floor and snap away. Now I plop him down, get in position, and he is gone! Or he is chasing me down. So all the photos are of him crawling as fast as he can towards me! My subject is now a moving target, and has a mind of his own! He wants to tackle me, or the camera. Ohh and he loves cables. All kinds, as long as its long, and attached to something expensive like a laptop or plasma tv, or xbox, or lamp, or cordless phone…….hahaa just seeing if you were paying attention. Nothing is safe anymore. I gave him some network cable this weekend, he was thrilled to be able to chew on some CAT5. Here are some photos from today.

As a side note. This has been an eventful blog posting. I started writing this post at 10pm, its now after midnight. I have been up and down back and forth from the computer. You see Desmond has a tummy bug. So far its been three cribsheet changes, three outfit changes, and some time in the dry bathtub together so he could throw up freely without concern for surrondings. It is going to be a long night. Jackie is with him now. She is such a good mom. He is not upset, just tired, and confused as to why he cant keep his dinner down.

I would never run away from what life throws my way. Even if I did have a car with A/C. You see I have a little boy who needs me, and a wife who loves me. No amount of bad days can take that away. Love for each other keeps us going. I hope everyone has a great week! Ohh and Wednesday I will have some video of him crawling!

This weekend, was supposed to be our family get away vacation. Jackie and I would be taking our dear son Desmond to the beach! He would enjoy some sand, and some water, life would be grand! Ok, so there was some holes in our plan.

1. Jackie forgot her bathing suit.
2. My swimming trunks would not stay on me.
3. The beach was in Atlanta?
4. Desmond had started teething again this weekend.

Ok so reason #4 was the kicker. How could we spend over $40 to try and force our child to have mandatory fun at a fake beach in the middle of Atlanta? So being as cheap as I am, ( I like to call it frugally creative, but people just call me cheap anyway, even to my face! you know who you are) I did the next best thing. Sucking up and pooling (no pun intended) all the resources of the Rutledge family household. I filled up two kiddy pools, threw in some balls (but not these balls as Benjamin might say. But actually yeah I did) and then turned on a sprinkler, bringing the beach to their front yard! You see, when you mix a little Irish in with a little GA redneck, you make for some good ole’ fashion fun times! Thank you Rutledge’s for making our summer beach vacation come true!

Ohh and if you cant tell from these pictures, Desmond LOVES water. Loves, Loves, Loves it!! So enjoy some splish splash photos from this weekend. Danny also had a blast, they interacted a lot more this weekend. That was fun to watch.

One Day, Yes One Day I will have my own…..