The Lion Sleeps Tonight

So, today Donny finally went and bought a new lawn mower. I say "finally" a little unfairly because I have been telling him to just wait until after our vacation but it was really getting out of hand. The grass was almost 2 feet in some places, no lie. The starter cable on our previous mover broke the several weeks ago (and by several I mean a couple of weeks after we moved here) and while we talked about fixing it, that never really seamed to happen. So today we broke down, espcially since the dog went out to have a moment and we lost him in the lush jungle that was our yard (not really but when the dog would go out I would say "Hey, where is Luke?" and Donny would say "Hes right there" and I would say "Where?" He would say" Right there...haha, very funny"). Every time we would go outside together I would start to hum the Tokens. This morning started out the same as usual, with me being pissy as I often am in the morning, and Justin being restless, as usual. I decided to break the pool out early. We set it up and turned on the water, then went inside to change into a swimmy diaper. Well, I put on a swimsuit, Justin put on the swimmy. But not right away. While I was in his room getting his diaper and swimtrunks, he ran out and got in the pool. Naked as a jaybird. Is anyone seeing a pattern here (see Blog "Bad Day")? So Donny came home with our new mower, which had no idea the job that was in store for it. We gassed it up and oiled it and put that baby to work. After a minute Donny had to empty the bag...then he had to empty it again...then again, all in about a 5 minute span. After that he just left it off. Justin splashed around in his pool and I sat in a chair catching some rays and watched the action. Soon Donny got to the long stuff and the mower died. He backed it up and restarted it. Soon it died again. He quickly figured out that he couldnt just push the mower over the grass, he had to go back and forth in short sections, not unlike shaving your legs or face. He would mow a patch, then lift the mower to let all the grass fly out, then mow a patch, ect, ect. At one point he was going along and we heard a "THAWCK!" and a golf ball came flying out of the mower, going nintey to nothing toward the house. I screamed, Justin laughed and Donny got really freaked out because that could have hit one of us and done who knows what kind of damage. He stopped and we walked once again through the tall grasses looking for more golf balls. We didnt find any but he later ran over 3 more (thats how long the grass was), none of which sailed out like the first, thank heavens. He kept the back of the mower pointed toward the fence after that, so if another ball was under there it would not fly at Justin and I. He pushed and pulled and restarted and pulled the thing behind him. Your boy mowed that lawn in every which way possible. After a bit I got up and began to rake up the grass that was already cut. It was at this point, on one of the restarts, that the whole thing started to blow out this thick (thick) white smoke. I started hopping around and hollering "Turn it off! Turn it off!" I was convinced we had burned the motor up, basically lighting about $200 on fire, with a nice, fat patch of 2 foot grass left in the center of the yard. It was just some grass on the muffler though, and after a few minutes it cooled off. The yard was awfully smokey there for a minute, and Justin kept shouting "Fire!" Donny eventually got one half of the yard (the longer half) finished before we ran out of gas. The other half was all wet from the pool anyway. It looks like a real yard now and you can actually walk around (I'm serious, it was that long). Now the yard is clean, the pool is filled, the sprinkler is hooked up...and Justin is asleep on the couch. Thats how it goes, I guess. Oh well, it's almost 5 on a Saturday, time to crack open a cold one and think of some dinner. I'm still in my suit, I may go out and sit in the whale and catch some of those evening rays. I hear they are less harsh than the noon ones. Or is it the other way around?

A restless morning

Impaitent Swimmer Helping Daddy assemble the mower

Empty that bag, boy!

"Cheese!"

You can hardly see the wheels

The killer golfball

You-know-who

Is it a little hazy in here?

The (almost) finished product

Something Old, Something New

This weekend Donny and I did some shopping to prepare for our upcoming trip to Idaho for my brothers wedding. We fly out on Tuesday. We have convinced a good friend to take care of our house and pets while we are gone. Along with new clothes and such, we also made a trip out to Bourg to Louis Mohanna Furniture, even though we swore we would not purchase anything until after our trip. Well, of course that didn't work out. We found something really cute. It's a little more contemporary than I had planned on, but we really like it and it looks good in our house. The next day we spent the day at the mall and picked up a little for everyone. I finally used the Bath and Body Works gift card I got from my brother for Christmas. They were having a great special-buy 3 get 3 free. I was able to get just about everything they offered in the smell I chose. I skipped out on the bubble bath, since I take showers. I even got a candle that smells like me, which Justin wasted no time in picking up and spilling hot wax all over himself. he was a champ though, just came in whimpering, saying "Mommy, mess." It didn't even leave a mark. So now we get to start to pack, I've already started setting clothes aside in the front room instead of putting them away. We are looking forward to the trip but not the plane ride. Both Donny and I are not big fans of flying. In a bit I'll be heading out to pick up a few last minuite toiletries and things. Anyone know how to keep a 2-year-old busy on a plane for 6 hours?......

Old Furniture

New Furniture! Old Clothes

New Clothes!

Old Candle

New Candle!

Old Hair

New Hair!

Old Justin

New Justin! (Wait, is that right?)

Love Is In The Air

Mr. & Mrs. Nick Toben

Love is in the air (I thought something smelled funny)! Last night we went to my cousins wedding in Baton Rouge and it was very nice, as expected. We got so see some family, not the entire family 'cause it usually takes an act of God to get us all together, but enough. We left Justin with Donny's brother so we could actually enjoy the event and we did. The reception was way too short though, and the drink line way too long! There was lots of dancing and my aunts all got out there and cut a rug (except for Imelda who was injured). Donny and I did not dance; during the one couples only dance they had he was out looking for cigarettes. Oh well. I did have a groomsman hit on me at the afterparty, that was nice. He was totally wasted but its nice to pretend like you've still got it. Donny found out about a drink challenge the bartender had there and challenged him, but lost. It was a drink of various types of liquor and you had to drink it through a straw. Donny is more of a chugger. All and all, it was a good time. Those things usually are. Congratulations Nick and Lindsey! Have fun in the Bahamas!

A rare sight-Swampy O'Neals all dressed up

My tri-athlete aunt and her injury My uncle in his pimp suit and my grandpa My goofy aunts in the hummer limo before the wedding party came out My beautiful cousin and sister to the groom, Angie Her beautiful sister, Kathleen

This cake topper has been used since 1953-first at my grandparents wedding, then at most of the sisters and grandchildrens weddings. All the names and dates are written on the box.

The sisters, with Kathl standing in for her mother

A little bit (but not nearly all!) of the family

The family dancing

My cute mom

Donny losing the drink challenge

Are You Ready Kids?

Aye, Aye, Captain!

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Are you supposed to write in this thing every day? I don't think that is going to happen. My life is not nearly exciting enough for all that. We did have a fairly nice day today. Donny brother graduated this morning. Yea for the Assumption High School Class of 2009! I know his parents are happy. They have been raising kids for over 35 years, now their last child has adulthood on the horizion. The ceremony was nice. Taylor graduated #5 in his class, but can't keep his eyes open for a picture to save his life. And of course I wanted to cry. I'm such a weenie when it comes to things like that. Justin, of course, was terrible and Donny had to take him out.

When ever one attends events such as this it's quite normal to think back on your expirences. Of course I thought of my own graduation, or what I can remember of it anyway. That's not much. It's funny how the importance of an event that seamed so big at the time fades with time, just like everything else. I didn't really enjoy high school and don't really dwell on it too much. I did not attend our 10 year reunion and actually, don't know anyone who did. I keep in touch with quite a few folks from school now, thanks to modern technology, and no one I've spoken to really knows how it went either.

After a nice lunch with the families we got home just before the rain and just in time to watch the top 100 songs of the '90's on VH1. That turned out to be nicer than I though it would be. Some of those songs I had not thought about for a long time. Shows like that can really take you back and I've decided this afternoon that I am really glad I got to grow up in the '90's. The '90's had some pretty great things, hammer-pants aside. I guess anything pre-9/11 looks pretty innocent, but things did seam a little simpler. People actually called eachother and wrote letters. I remember the first time I saw a real email, at my boyfriends house. It was still on a black screen with green writing. Cellphones were for rich people and blackberries grew on bushes. Oh well. I guess change means progress or progress means change. Whatever. I enjoy reconnecting with people on these networking sites. I grew up in the military so I've gotten back in touch with folks that I would have not gotten back in touch otherwise. That is nice. I'm not too computer savvy, but I get around.

Anyway, between the graduation and the all '90's marathon it's been somewhat of a nostaglic afternoon. Congratulations Taylor! Open your eyes!

VH1's Top 100 Songs of the '90's

http://hubpages.com/hub/Top-100-Songs-of-the-90s

Bad Day

Boy, if I keep having days like this I'm going to have to start listening to "Sara" music. It started out alright; I've been sick all week and actually felt kinda good upon awakening. It was raining pretty hard but I like rain so even that was okay. Last week I made a decision to get rid of the litter box because our cats spend most of the day outside now, since we have the fence and all. They have done good. No accidents or mistakes, nothing. Well, this morning, because of the rain I guess, our older cat Grabby broke that record. I guess she didnt want to go out in the rain. I caught her in the act and when I yelled her name she turned her head, looked at me and I swear she scowled at me. At any rate, she did not stop what she was doing. So, I cleaned that up, we finished up the morning and when the sun came out I decided to go look for dresses for all the upcoming events we are to attend. As we were leaving, Justin decides its time to let Luke, our dog, out. The front door. Luke knows hes not supposed to go out that door, so when he saw it being held open for him he bolted. I was able to catch him with the help of a neighbor, who I had not met yet but got to meet this morning so I guess that was good. I carried him back home (hes not light either), wiped off the sweat, reapplied some makeup and we went out. I found some great steals; quite a successful trip. I decided to take Justin to Chick-fil-a because he was so good in the stores. We went in and Justin immediatly ran to the play area. I followed him, told him to remove his shoes and then went to order. Mind you, I've done this a hundered times with no problems at all. I placed my order and my card was declined. I could not understand this, since I had just purchased 2 dresses and 2 pairs of shoes and knew that the card worked. But it was a no go. I said fine, let me go to an ATM and went to go get Justin. When I entered the play area, all the children were up in the climbing area, looking out into the restaurant. I saw Justins clothes in a pile on the floor. I scooped them up and began to call for him but there was no answer. I asked the kids "Is he up there?" There was no reply. I called for him again and the door opened and there was a lady with Justin-wearing nothing but a diaper and a grin. She said "Looks like he got out!" I could have died. I quickly dressed him and left the restaurant with my head down. About this time Justin started crying for his chicken. I could not get out of there fast enough. Once I was in the car I phoned Donny in tears, telling him about the third place in town that we are now socially banned from. He tried to comfort me, but I knew that as soon as he hung up he and his buddies from work were going to have a pretty good laugh. I made it home and put Justin right to bed. He didnt even argue, it was as if he knew he had embarassed me in front of the entire Chick-fil-a dining area. When he woke he was as good as gold. I dont know why he cant be that way in public! We used to go to the library every Monday, but I removed us because he pushed the other kids. We used to go to gymnastics every Thursday but I removed him because he hit a little girl (that was strange, he used to love it then one day and from there on out he hated it). Now, Chick-fil-a. Thats a shame too, I really liked that place. I did find a nice dress for my brother-in-law's high school graduation tomorrow. It's red with black diamonds and squares all over it. Red and black are Assumptions colors, so that will be nice. And after Justin napped he was an angel, so I let him paint this time when he asked. Then I unknowingly stepped in some of it and tracked blue dots from the front room to the kitchen. Thank heavens it was watercolors. By 4:30 I decided it was time for a drink. Donny and I usually drink with friends on Friday, so I didnt see any problem with starting a bit early. I had a daiquri in the freezer left over from Mothers Day so I decided to drink that. But it was frozen solid. I decided to blend it, but the cup was frozen to the drink. So I peeled of the cup and dumped the whole thing in the blender, added a splash of margarita mix, OJ (always add a splash of OJ, it really tops it off) and the Cuervo of course and blended the perfect margarita. Perfect except for the little piece of styrafoam that got caught up in the mix. I tell you what, I drank that shit anyway.

To Blog or not to Blog?

That is the question. So, lotsa other folks i know "blog", ive never been one to do much of that; on myspace i used it more as a page update. Im not one to force my opinions on others, but I do live kinda far from home, so I guess this will be a good way friends and family not on myspace or facebook (do i even have any of those?) to keep up with ONeal happenings. So, here we go.

We are the ONeals. Donny, the electrician; Reyna, the SAHM; and Justin, the Terror. Donny and I met in Hattiesburg, MS in the year 2000 when we worked at the same eating establishment. We were married November 21, 2004 in Long Beach, MS at my aunts beach house, which was pretty bitchin'. We moved to Houma, LA for no reason at all, except we both needed to get out of Hattiesburg. Houma rocks and we really love it here. In October of 2006 we had a baby boy, Justin Patrick. This past March we bought our first house and things are good. We're settled in, comfortable, and happy. We have 2 cats and a dog, and a reicently deceased iguana in our backyard. In two weeks we will be taking a much needed vacation to Idaho to see my little brother marry his beautiful, awesome lady Cheri and become stepdad to the cutest little redhead on the planet, Julia.

When I was growing up my mom always wrote a lot, so I tried to do the same, 'cause thats what kids do. I never really enjoyed it, but felt like it was something I was supposed to do. I even failed a creative writing class in college, not because my work was crap but because my work was missing (i never turned in the last assignment. we were supposed to write a play and I was always terrible at that). But I am going to try now and hopefully it will turn out alright. I hope my readers will enjoy what we have to say, if I have any readers at all.