Confessions of an Insane Soccer Mom

Let's Cut to the Chase

2009-10-25T21:11:00.002-04:00

Last night there was about an hour's gap of time between when Steve left for work and when I arrived home to find GG freaking out. She and S3 had been fighting again. I thought I'd calmed the situation so I went upstairs to shower. I didn't even have the water turned on when GG pounded on the door freaking out about S3 again. I told her just to avoid him until I finished my shower and I'd deal with everyone then.

About twenty minutes later, I had everyone turn off the computers, play stations, and television and gather in the living room. Ty told me his version of events, S3 & Ev concurred and GG added a little more detail, but pretty much everyone told the same story.

For the next half hour or so, Ty, S3, GG and I discussed how things could have been done differently to avoid the arguing and crying and finally everyone was calm so I dismissed them all from the "meeting." Ev turns to me and says, "So basically I didn't really need to be here."

Boundaries

2009-10-08T11:49:00.004-04:00

I've been going through a lot of emotional turmoil lately and was told by a few people that I need to set up boundaries. Here is a very good article about boundaries. I am not good at this. For one thing, I don't really like conflict and I know if I suddenly start setting up boundaries, I'm going to be facing a lot of conflict. After all, I've spent nearly 33 years doing whatever everyone else wanted me to do.

For another thing, I have to have a clear idea of what my boundaries are. This is difficult because I am a people pleaser so I want everyone to be happy and I've been willing in the past to do things I absolutely did not want to do just to make someone else happy.

I told Rosemary today (yes, I know you don't know who Rosemary is, don't worry about it) that everyone wants me for something. My clients want me. My children want me. My husband wants me. My educators want me. My teen group wants me. Rosemary said somewhere in there I've lost myself. That's exactly how I feel. Lost.

So it's boundary time I guess. I am not looking forward to this at all.

Velda

2009-10-06T06:53:00.002-04:00

I don't know how this happened but my dear friend Velda has been diagnosed with brain cancer. I can't help but think, WTH? How does that work? Why don't bad people get brain cancer and decent, sweet, loyal friends live long and prosper?

Velda, if you read this, I've been thinking about you a lot lately. I'd like to make another trip up to see you. I'm sorry it's been so long since my last visit and I'm even sorrier that it took something as crappy as this to get my butt in gear. I love you, and I'm praying for you.

Gentle reader, if you are a member of facebook, please consider joining this group, Angels on Your Shoulder and helping out if you can.

I haven't blogged in forever

2009-08-24T22:22:00.002-04:00

That doesn't mean I've stopped telling the entire world every stupid thing that goes on in my life. Far from it. It just means I've found faster, easier mediums with which to fascinate every person I've ever met with what I've had for breakfast.

I've been meaning to come post here some long drivel about this super big decision I have to make sometime really soon (continue in medicine or open a bookstore) but instead I think I'll tell you about the guy who pierced my nose.

He changed his gloves a hundred million times. I'm only partially exaggerating.

Look, I wipe people's hineys for a living. I understand germs and gloves and PPEs but seriously, this guy was really trying hard to remain clean. He would draw the dot on my nose, change his gloves. Open a package, change his gloves. I appreciate it. I'm sure it reduces the chance that my piercing will get infected but... well... it was still kinda weird.

All in all, he was a nice guy and the piercing didn't hurt at all after the needle was thru. Well done Kevin! Thanks!

Psychology for the Hypochondriac

2009-04-02T08:05:00.003-04:00

I'm taking a psych course this semester and this week's chapter is on Psychological Disorders. I think at least a quarter of the chapter is on schizophrenia and the text defines one of the symptoms of schizophrenia being hallucinations, "often emerging as voices."

This morning after Steve had left for work, and the kids had left for school, I was getting ready for work, starting with a nice, hot shower in the peaceful quiet house. Suddenly, over the sound of the water pouring from the shower head, I heard a voice calling me. For a half a heart beat I thought, "Voices!"

Turns out I forgot I was babysitting my nieces and nephew this morning. The "voice" was my sister, hollering up the stairs to check and see if I was home or if I totally forgot them and left the house already. Yup, I have problems, but I don't think any of them are schizophrenia.

Nature or Nurture?

2009-03-02T16:57:00.002-05:00

My husband, for those who don't know him, is a very literal man. I call him Mr. Literal. It's really annoying. He says exactly what he means and he will do exactly what you ask him to do. We try not to say, "Throw that [fill in the blank] over here," unless you really want him to throw it at you.

A little while ago, I was in the basement folding laundry, and had the kids come down to bring their piles up to put away. I handed Ty his pile, which was rather large and had a pair of underpants on top. In order to balance his pile, he ended up using his face. I said, "Ty are you ok? 'Cuz you've got undies in your face..."

As he was walking away and up the stairs he said, "Well technically they're not IN my face. They're NEXT TO my face but not in my face. If they were in my face, that would be weird."

Mr. Literal, Jr.

Special Talents

2009-01-25T21:20:00.002-05:00

Tonight in the car, E asked me why we don't have a "family job." After some confusion, Ty translated that for me into, "Why doesn't our family own our own business?" I asked E what she thought we would do if we opened our own business. There were a lot of restaurant ideas coming from the back seat when S3 chimed in, "Let's see... What are our skill sets? Hmmm.... there's Tattling..."

English Composition is a Dried-Up Vagina Party

2008-12-09T15:32:00.003-05:00

Seriously, I'll bet you didn't know that did you?

My class was online and last night we had our last group chat for this group project that's due tomorrow. I don't know how this kid managed it, but he stumbled right into our chat. At first we just ignored him and he made stupid comments here and there, trying to be insulting I'm sure but I thought it was just moronically funny.

Finally he said, "So what grade are you all in?" and I laughed again. I said, "Honey, I'm 32, I have four kids and a mortgage." The rest of the group chimed in... there was a 30 year old but the others were 18/19 years old. Turns out this kid is 16 (for which I replied that my son is nearly fifteen so this guy might as well be in a chat room with his mother).

He then informed us it was like he was in a party for "dried up vag." I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time. What started out as a fairly boring chat about editing our final paper turned into a dried up vagina party.

So Isaac, wherever you are, whoever you are, thank you. That was the only thing from that entire class that I enjoyed.

Facebook Follies

2008-11-25T17:16:00.004-05:00

I love having a teen boy. We were having a "sit-up contest" that E started. S3 was on his laptop but I wasn't really paying much attention to him other than when E did her 30th sit-up I told her I bet S3 couldn't do 30. So he got down on the floor and did 50, easily, and then quit because he could go on forever and didn't want to bore us with his magnificence. He got back on his laptop and G laid down and quickly did seventy.

Well that wasn't going to fly so S3 gets up again, says, "What do I have to do, like twenty more?" and I said, "Noooo, you have to do seventy in a row." As he's working on beating G's record, I look over and see he's in a chat with a girl that he kinda knew through his best friend but mostly knows from facebook. They're chatting about Spanish class. E comes over and in a stage whisper she says, "Write, 'I love you very much'." So I did.

OMG the look on S3's face! He stops in the middle of a sit up and says, "WHAT?!?!" Crawls over to where we're sitting, sees what I've done and puts his hands in his face and says, "NOOOOOOO!!!!!!" I cried I laughed so hard. Of course he told the girl it was me and she totally got the joke but the look on his face at the time was priceless. I laughed so hard when I retold the story to Steve I started crying again.

Ah, I love being a mom.

Invasion

2008-11-13T11:26:00.004-05:00

I have the flu. This is not fun. Not fun at all.

FYI or maybe TMI

2008-11-03T10:32:00.004-05:00

I was doing a little looking around on the internet this morning and came across some interesting information. My grandmother died of breast cancer and I think it has made me a little paranoid when it comes to my own hooters. Every little abnormal thing is a reason to rush to the doctor. So when I had a continuation of pain from last night to this morning, I started to worry. Then I read this from Imaginis.com:

Cyclical breast pain accounts for nearly 75% of all breast complaints. Of all women who experience breast pain, two thirds experience cyclical breast pain. Physicians often have patients chart their pain to determine whether the pain is cyclical. Though cyclical breast pain is usually related to the menstrual cycle, stress may also affect hormone levels and influence breast pain. Physical activity, especially heavy lifting or prolonged use of the arms, has also been shown to increase breast pain (pectoral (chest) muscles may become sore from physical activity).

So I'm thinking maybe since I have PMS, I'm in college and I work in a nursing home, that might explain some of my problems.... The mental problems are another story.

WOOHOO!!!!

2008-10-29T22:06:00.005-04:00

Got Hemorrhoids?

2008-10-12T21:04:00.004-04:00

I was making a joke earlier in the evening about Preparation H and my kids were eavesdropping. We got in the car and S3 says to me, "Mom, what's that stuff you were talking about earlier?"

I said, "What? Preparation H? Do you know what hemorrhoids are?" He nods yes. "Well sometimes hemmorhoids itch and burn and hurt and so you put Preparation H in your anus to soothe them." And being the mature adult that I am, I started giggling, "Heh, heh, your anus - Uranus. Heh, heh."

So after some immature giggling we decided that Preparation H must come from Uranus. Ty says, "It must take a long time to get there."

And again being the mature adult that I am, I respond, "Yes and I hear it's very dark and stinky."

Ty says, "Yeah, and I hear to get there you have to go past the moons."

"My Penis Got Stuck in the Vacuum Cleaner"

2008-10-10T12:24:00.001-04:00

Craig talks about the US and voting. Starting around 6:20 on the video.

Favorite Artwork

2008-10-09T10:30:00.002-04:00

Girls' Weekend in DC

2008-10-09T10:01:00.005-04:00

For Melanie's and my birthday, we went to DC for the weekend with our mom. The goal was to relax, look at some good art and watch a soccer game. We definitely had success. I'm having a really hard time paring down the pics so bear with me here.

We arrive Friday night and try to figure out the timer on one of the two cameras we had with us. Hilarity ensued.

Gorgeous view while we ate breakfast.

Had to get the usual pics in the Metro.

and in the Mall

Now, I took a lot of pix of art and I'm going to post a second post of my favs, but here's some pics of us in the museum.

Outside for a quick snack before going on to the modern art museum.

So by this time we were pretty tired and I know my feet and back were hurting so we headed back to the hotel to get a quick bite and the tickets to the game. I met an awesome guy online who happened to be travelling to Alaska with his wife at the same time that we were coming down for the game so I bought his tickets from him. They were awesome seats. Here's some of my fav pix from the game.

Ok now look, it was a long day. None of us look our best but I think I look especially bad. Plus it's a self portrait LOL!

Just loved this guy.

My dad is a big Chivas USA fan and he has a love/hate relationship with Klejstan

The first goal was so pitiful, look at our goalie's reaction

This halftime thing was hysterical. I have no idea what they were doing. Pushing a giant inflated ball for some reason.

Yes, yes, we lost. It was horribly embarrassing.

We relaxed afterward in the hotel restaurant-bar with fondue, crab cakes and drinks.

Melanie's was a little full. I don't even know how the waitress got it over to her.

We couldn't get the hotel room open with her insurance card. Turns out only the hotel room key will work for that.

Something Else I Love

2008-09-29T12:13:00.005-04:00

So in chemistry, our last homevurks (my prof is German and has the best accent!) involved Lewis Dot Structures. I had to do one for HOCl and I was pretty sure I had it right but I wanted to double check. So I Googled it. Seriously, someone else out there drew a Lewis Dot Structure for HOCl and posted it on the web. How weird/cool is that?

Oh and btw, I had it right.

I'm In Love

2008-09-29T10:40:00.003-04:00

I've been watching the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson and I am in love. Not only is this guy cute but he's hysterical! It doesn't matter who his guests are nightly. He's such a great host, it could be my next door neighbor and I'd still enjoy the show. I haven't seen an episode yet that didn't have me laughing myself sick. He's Awesome!

He used to be Drew Carey's boss on the Drew Carey Show. I only tell you this detail because Steve didn't put two and two together and was surprised the other night when Drew was on Craig's show.

Go to the website and watch the episode with Ewan McGregor. Or look for him on YouTube. Or stay up late with the crazies. However you have to do it, watch his show.

I know!

As Deep Cries Out to Deep

2008-09-21T18:39:00.005-04:00

My sister wove this piece based on a song they sing at church. I don't remember all the details but this relates to the imagery in the song about a waterfall and deep crying out to deep. Although this took her only three months to weave, I am told typically a piece this size should take closer to a year to complete. She spent many, many weeks weaving twelve hours a day, every day. I wish I could tell you what kind of lace technique this is but alas, I am ignorant of the fibre arts. I suppose she will fill us in when I link her and she posts a comment (hint, hint Melanie).

I spent the afternoon yesterday trying to really capture the beauty of the piece and yet still I don't think I quite got it right. Anyway, here are the photos.

This one was my favorite shot of the piece:

Detail shot:

Direct shot of full piece:

I was looking for something to post today

2008-09-17T09:05:00.003-04:00

And lurking on Megan's blog, trying to catch up a little with what my friends have been doing while I've been not here. Anyway she had this posted a little while back and it looked like a good way to fill today's post ;) BTW, go check out Megan's photography. She's amazing.

So who reads my blog??

1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! And if we've never met in real life, leave me a comment of your favorite post I wrote and why it was your favorite.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually really funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Soccer Weekend

2008-09-15T10:21:00.003-04:00

Note: videos are less than 30 seconds long.

Did you guys get all that rain on Friday? It POURED it's brains out here. And since there was no lightning, all games were on! Ty's team went first and won 3 - 0. He's #20. Can you see all the rain? It was really pouring.

Look how wet G got:

I didn't grab any stills of S3 - just video. We were creaming the other team 7 - 1 before the half so the coach took out all his juniors and seniors and put in the freshmen. The other team got frustrated and started playing really rough. There was this huge guy - and I mean not just tall but big and bulky - who had it out for my kid. I got a clip of him (below) taking him out at the ankles but what I didn't catch was later in the game when S3 manuvered around him with the ball, the kid pulled S3 down by his shoulders and when he was on the ground this huge kid stomped S3 on the hip. He's still limping a little today.

But the best of the weekend was G. She had a game in Hockessin, DE. Watch the video. Bri sends the ball in to G who is in position to score. G flubbs and sends the ball back out to Bri who sends it in to G for a second chance to shoot on goal. G shoots and....

Y4T Presents: After the Rapture

2008-09-10T13:48:00.002-04:00

This video was made to demonstrate what it might be like for those who are "left behind" after the rapture occurs. Every Wednesday I make a quick video to help the teens in our youth group Y4T (Youth 4 Truth) understand the message they're being taught either by Pastor Eric or by Steve. You'll recognize the first kid. He belongs to me. The second section of teens stealing my car are Pastor Eric's kids. Hope you enjoy!

Catch a Fire

2008-09-09T07:16:00.004-04:00

Ok so for this online composition class I'm taking, the prof had this cartoon pirate that speaks with his voice. We're supposed to be editing and adding to our student pages and he suggested that might be something we could add. I fooled around with it for a bit and then realized I'd probably have to give it my voice. Well I hate the way my voice sounds when it's recorded. Vain, I know. So I trimmed a TobyMac song called WhoopsiDasy (CatchaFire) and the results are hysterical. Watch:

Get a Voki now!

BTW, thank you for the happy greetings in my last post. I missed you guys too. I'll tell you all about it sometime soon but basically I figured this'd be the last summer I'd have free for quite a few years so I decided to travel. And boy did I travel. Beckham bunny is doing great; time to trim him again soon. Hopefully I did a better job of taking care of his hair so Melanie will be able to use it for spinning.

Don't Tell My Mother

2008-09-03T18:52:00.003-04:00

Look what the kids came up with this time....

Just don't tell my mother I let them do that.

This Post Is Mostly For My Dad

2008-05-09T08:39:00.003-04:00

But you can read it too ;)

I was particularly keen on going to the DC United game last night because it's the only home game against Chicago Fire who has on their roster the man I LOVEloveLOVE to hate, Cuauhtemoc Blanco. He was a very popular Mexican player who, like Beckham, is getting older and is probably going to finish his career in the US. But the man is such an actor it's unreal. He's constantly rolling around on the ground trying to draw the foul. I love to hate him. I was super excited to be able to hate him in person.

Here's our first sighting of the hated man:

Check out the crowd...

AWW! Poor widdle Blanco got hurt!

Dang, he scored.

Eh, we totally lost. S-h-u-t-o-u-t. Bleh.

The hated man greets his hated fans:

One of the MANY reasons I like this sport... They tend to take their shirts off when the game is done. Hubba, hubba!

My two brats, after the game:

The Peanut is NOT a Wimp

2008-04-17T15:12:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I had to pick my sister's daughters up from school, Peanut and Eeyore. Since E only has a half day she came with me. We ran a couple of errands ending our running around with a trip to the grocery store. While we were in the produce section picking out an onion, Eeyore started picking on her little sister the way only big sisters can.

"Peanut is so wimpy, she can't even shut a door!"

Now Peanut is small but she's no wimp. However she is the baby and she is a lot like her Aunt Sara. She uses charm and her baby-of-the-family status to get out of having to do any strenuous work. I know this because it's exactly what I do, er, um, did. So I defended her and said, "Nah, women in this family aren't wimps. We're strong."

E chimed in by saying, "I'm strong. I can pick up a gallon of milk."

Peanut, silent no longer said, "I can pick up a gallon of milk too!"

Well a gallon of milk just happened to be on my list so we made our way to the dairy department where all three girls, striving to prove their non-wimpiness, each picked up a gallon of milk. "Er, ladies, I only need one gallon so two of you will have to put your gallon back," I said.

Immediately three voices called, "Not me!" They proceeded to play the "not me" game until finally Eeyore was the last to say it and she had to put her gallon back. We stood there for a little while longer while the two younger girls continued to shout out, "NOT ME! NOT ME! NOT ME!" in unison over and over until finally I said, "Ok we're obviously going to have to move on to Rock, Paper, Scissors."

I held both gallons of milk and stood there while the girls played the elimination game. E threw paper, Peanut threw scissors. Peanut was victorious and E had to put her gallon of milk back. Peanut was very happy with herself as you might imagine.

So as we go to walk away from the milk case, I look up finally and see there is a line of people waiting to get a gallon of milk. ROTFL! I blushed, apologized and we took off for the check-out.

We got around the corner and Peanut declared the milk was too heavy and I traded my onion for her gallon. LOL

The best part of the story though... I got home and was telling Steve about our adventures in the grocery store and once he got done laughing he said, "You do realize we have two other gallons of milk in the fridge downstairs, don't you?"

E Teaches Me About Joseph

2008-04-02T13:25:00.002-04:00

"First his dad bought him the most expensive coat he could afford. I think maybe it was like nine bucks and his brothers were jealous. Then later when the brothers threw Joef-es in the pit and put the sheep blood on his coat, they lied and told the dad that a monster ate Joef-es. At the very end, they had a party and Joef-es invited everyone."

Diva Party

2008-03-22T16:36:00.003-04:00

I'm going to post way too many pics. Sorry. I can't narrow them down. The girls got hair, makeup, and nails done and they got to make their own lip gloss to take home. Plus I had pizza and ice cream cake for them. Ty stayed and helped me clean up between activities (we'd leave the room and when we came back, he'd have all the dishes cleaned up from pizza, stuff like that). He also was in charge of the iPod so we called him the dj. He did a great job picking songs the girls loved and they all sang so loud I'm sure the patrons upstairs could hear them. It was by far the most fun, easiest party I've ever thrown. Plus the salon opened a bottle of sparkling wine so while the girls had soda, I got my drink on. One girl didn't rsvp and I didn't know if she was coming or not so since I already paid for five girls, E took her place. Also in one pic, G is blowing out a pretend candle on her cake. I forgot the candle.

Hannah Montana, eat your heart out!

Renovation Update

2008-03-16T14:16:00.003-04:00

Despite what you see in the pictures, I'm basically doing this alone so it's taken me two weeks to get the living room painted and the flooring ripped up. This week I'm starting in on the dining room. I really want to have this done by Steve and E's birthday (4/4). Here's my "befores" - sorry they're all just old pics. I didn't bother taking any before I started in on the painting.

E wanted to help SO badly. She sanded and helped paint primer. It wasn't until I got to the actual painting that she decided it wasn't that much fun anymore.

Wiping the ceiling down to get it ready to paint:

Pulling the staples out of the padding (there were like 3,000,000 of 'em)

Scrubbing up dirt and stuck-on carpet padding:

You can see what the floor looks like without carpeting. It needs refinished. We're hoping sometime this summer...

Happy Pi Day!

2008-03-14T15:15:00.004-04:00

S3 took a frozen pie to school for Pi day (today is 3-14, get it?). He wanted me to bake one but I just laughed at him.

He's really looking forward to Pi day in 2015. Yes I know my son is a geek. But he's a cute geek.

Links for ya:
Wikipedia's Pi Day
Official Pi Day Website
Pi Day Songs
How to Celebrate Pi Day

Coming Soon to a Living Room Near You

2008-03-04T08:00:00.002-05:00

Bring Out Your Dead! But I'm Not Dead Yet!

2008-02-29T09:37:00.004-05:00

Wow, talk about the plague. Between pink eye and the stomach flu, I don't think I'm ever going to get to leave this house ever again. So far E and G have been home with pink eye and the day after E went back to school from that, she came home with the stomach flu. Now Ty is home with it. Thankfully Steve came home from Missouri yesterday and I got to slip out to the library for a half an hour. I was running low on reading material.

Not much else to say here. It's been a heck of a week.

Learned Something New Today

2008-02-24T20:47:00.003-05:00

After church I needed groceries so the kids and I quickly changed and headed out to Sam's Club. We were all in a pretty good mood; our bellies were filled with cheeseburgers and iced tea and we were ready to shop.

As we walked in the front door we saw this cool game set up called Rock Band complete with two guitars, a drum set and a microphone. Steve is in Missouri and since we didn't have to rush through shopping and we didn't have anywhere we needed to be, I gave my go-ahead to the kids to check the game set up a little closer. Ty immediately sat down at the drums, G grabbed a guitar and E gravitated toward the microphone. I cajoled S3 into picking up the second guitar telling him it would be fun.

So it seems like Ty on the drums is in control of the selections - music and etc. - so he starts trying to figure out what pad to bang on to get the result he wants (the next screen) and every time he manages to figure it out, G would push a button on her guitar and send them all back to the main screen. Rinse and repeat about five times until finally I said, "G! Do NOT TOUCH another button on that guitar until I say so."

Ty gets to the next screen (finally!) and now the instruments have to pick their level of play. Two of them choose "easy" and S3 is trying to figure out how to be a bass instead of a guitar when G pressed that button again and sent them all back to the beginning. Rinse and repeat about five more times until finally I got Ty to just push everyone through that screen and the music finally started.

Well they must have picked the hardest song ever to try to play and besides that, both the girls just stood there dumbfounded, not understanding the point of the game at all and very quickly they all four failed to perform and the game was done. All of this took about 15 minutes or so and it looked as though other people would like a chance to try to fail so I declared our time with the game to be at an end.

G and E cried and whined. Ty was just about pulling his hair out in frustration - over the game set-up, over failing at the game, and worst of all over his older brother who was having himself a FAN-tastic 13 year old pissy moment (silent mind you. It's all in the body language).

"So what did I learn today?" you may be asking. I learned why Steve always says, "No."

Totally Random

2008-02-20T22:57:00.004-05:00

In the car on the ride home tonight, out of nowhere E says, "Wouldn't it be funny to tape a duck?"

Desperate for Help

2008-02-19T09:31:00.004-05:00

S3 has a science fair project due next week. Of course he waited until the last possible second to work on it. His theory is: Which Wrigley's Gum Flavor Lasts The Longest?

Here's what I need help with (if you're willing). Wrigley's makes five flavors, Doublemint, Spearmint, Winterfresh, Big Red and Juicy Fruit. Can you please buy a pack of gum and chew a piece and time how long the flavor lasts? If you can talk your family into it, can you get your family to chew too? Even better would be if you'd be willing to chew all five flavors but I know that's asking a lot.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

G plus Trampoline equals

2008-02-14T11:34:00.004-05:00

At least they were a little loose before G knocked out her sister's teeth. The dentist says it's hard to knock out a tooth that's not ready to come out anyway. I say he doesn't know my little red head. E was just happy for the money the tooth fairy brought.

Cupcakes Anyone?

2008-02-13T11:56:00.006-05:00

G wanted a cupcake cake for her birthday party at school this year and she wanted it to look like a soccer ball. I had a hard time finding a place that would make one (yes, I was too lazy to make the kid some cupcakes) but finally I did and I ordered it for Monday morning.

Monday morning I drove to Sam's Club, walked back to the bakery, gave the girl my name and guess what? No cupcake cake. Well whatever the kid needed cupcakes for her birthday so I bought a Sam's club sized pack of 3,000,000 cupcakes. I paid, walked out to my van, buckled up and started to pull away when I suddenly realized....

.... I ordered the cake from the SuperWalMart next door.

{GULP} Happy Birthday?

2008-02-12T08:02:00.000-05:00

Saturday was G's 9th birthday and boy was she ever excited. She talked about her birthday every day from the moment the calendar page turned to February. On the Friday before the big day the kids and I were driving to a basketball game and once again G brought up her birthday the next day.

Ty, having had enough of the birthday reminders, decided to put G in her place by saying, "Technically your birthday was nine months ago."

{Gulp} Eh, er, um, oooookaaaaay.... I guess now we're going to have a family discussion about conception.

Hi. Didja Miss Me?

2008-02-07T13:08:00.001-05:00

Don't even ask where I've been. Lazy I guess. I just haven't blogged. I was surprised to see it's been since December 5th though. I thought I'd blogged at least once in January. I'll try to give you a quick update.

- Steve is still hard at work. They found some way to do a remote start-up with one of their factories so thank you God, he's been home these last two months and not in Korea.

- S3 is finishing up a looooong, boring basketball season. Basketball is not my favorite sport nor is he exceptionally good at it. He is athletic so he does well but it's not like watching him play soccer or baseball where he's usually one of the best players.

- Ty is a reading machine. I'd have never guessed he'd be my reader but let me just say I'm so glad we re-found the library. Does anyone know of any good youth stories about spies? Spy stories are his favorite.

- G is still playing soccer. She's finally on a team of girls her own age (rather than one and two years older!) and she's regaining her confidence. It's good to see. She's growing her hair back out so it's kinda scraggly right now but it grows fast.

- E cut her hair for LoL also (I don't think I ever told you guys that) and at first I was upset we'd cut off all her beautiful curls but it's so cute, it's ok. She's doing great in kindergarten and all my worries about her motion sickness and the school bus seem to be for naught, thank goodness.

- I am hunting for a new job. I've been working at the facility for 2.5 years now and I'm getting worn out. I wanted to be able to help and to give care and I feel like I'm so rushed and stretched now that I barely have time to do the minimum for my residents. I'm now looking for home health. I think I'll like the one-on-one much better and I'm hoping to time it right that I'll still be able to study and watch the kids' sports games.

I think that's about it. It's good to be back :)

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

2007-12-05T12:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry to interrupt the vacation post but I have important and very exciting news. I just received a phone call from Millersville University. They have accepted me into their Pre-Medicine program.

Disney In November (days 3 and 4)

2007-11-26T14:32:00.001-05:00

I keep trying to make this quick but it's hard because we do so much every day. Day three we went to Disney/MGM and had a blast. They even talked me into going on Rockin' Rollercoaster, which if you know me at all, you'll know I'm terrified of thrill rides. However I found to my surprise that I really, really enjoyed it. In fact one of these days we're here we are going to finish the stuff we missed at MGM and I'm going to ride it again.

Also for any of you who wonder why there are so many pics of the girls and not as many of the boys I'll tell you, it boils down to this: the boys are big enough that they want to do their thing and their thing does not include posing for their mama.

Disney In November (days 1 and 2)

2007-11-24T22:49:00.000-05:00

Yes, we're in Disney again. This time on our dime. We drove down to Florida on Turkey day, spent the night in Daytona Beach and then scooted on over to Disney. The ride wasn't bad at all. The kids kept pretty entertained and there was minimal traffic.

Here's where we stayed in Daytona. It was literally right on the beach.

MD and I went for a walk first thing in the morning. Her daughter A went jogging and then S3 and his bud C went for a swim in their shorts. The air was cool but the water was very warm.

We went to Epcot around lunch time and I think we managed to do all the rides in one half of the park. My feet sure think we did anyway.

Finding Nemo

Mickey plays peek-a-boo with Ty at the Garden Grill.

Today we headed to the Magic Kingdom where we rode nearly every ride there. Seriously. We kept hitting the lines just right so while we had to wait, it was never too long. E fell asleep on the bus ride back to the hotel. Random pics from today:

When we rode "It's a Small World" I tried to get a quick picture of Steve and the girls. Apparently Steve had other plans because it took us three tries before he stopped fooling around long enough to get a nice pic.

Ok, last picture for tonight; I'm beat. Sorry the quality is bad. It's from my phone. I think I'll probably be back to blog again on Monday. Good night!!!

Happy Veteran's Day

2007-11-12T08:17:00.000-05:00

Thank you to all who have served. From my family:

BIL Jer, Army
Pop, Army (Vietnam)
Gramps, Navy (WW2, Pacific)
Grandpop, Army (WW2, Europe)
Steve's Papaw, Army (Korea)

My dad

Gramps

Future Engineer

2007-10-24T07:54:00.001-04:00

Ty made this while he was waiting for the bus this morning. Right now only it's arms move but he told me his next goal is to get it's jaw to be mobile.

New MasterCard Commercial

2007-10-22T14:23:00.000-04:00

Oops, He Did It Again

2007-10-19T14:16:00.001-04:00

Remember when Ty was in first grade and he went camping with his grandparents? He fell off that piece of playground equipment and broke his left arm. My FIL captured it all on his camera.

Well as you may have guessed by the title of this post, he did it again. Similar piece of playground equipment but this time it was his right arm. Luckily for us they casted it very well and he's still able to write. And I paid the little bit extra to have the waterproof Gore-Tex in there this time so at least the five weeks of cast time won't be as painful as the last time.

Enough Already!

2007-10-10T20:17:00.000-04:00

Look, wasn't it enough that my BABY went to school? Did she have to go and lose teeth too??? What is with all this growing up stuff? A mom can only take so much here.

First one came out...

Then a second one. Now a third is loose.

"Mom, enough with the mouth pictures already."

First Day of School

2007-09-13T11:03:00.001-04:00

Forgive me, I not only haven't been around much but I also forgot to post pics from the first day of school.

Hot Rod Mama

2007-08-31T12:42:00.000-04:00

S3 has a plan. He is saving whatever money he makes babysitting for me and mowing grass and his birthday, Christmas and report card money and he is going to buy a car. Yes, my thirteen year old is already looking for a car. He figures he's got almost enough to buy an old junker and over the next three or four years slowly get it working and looking nice so that by the time he drives, he'll have a really nice car. I think it's a great idea for lots of reasons but I won't get into that because that's not what this post is about.

Yesterday he and I were daydreaming about his car. Sometimes we daydream about the make and model but yesterday we were discussing colors. I told him I thought he aught to paint his car a nice candy-apple red with black racing stripes. He said he didn't want a red car and when I asked him why he said, "Because the police look for red cars Mom."

I decided to tease him a little so I said, "Are you planning on breaking the law?"

He said, "No."

I said, "Then it shouldn't matter if you have a red car. They can look at your red car all they want as long as you're not doing anything wrong."

He looked at me and said, "Yeah, but what if you're driving it?"

Proud Mama Moment

2007-08-16T16:37:00.001-04:00

I think it was before school started last year when Steve took G to get her back -to -school hair cut and she saw a young girl getting her hair cut off to donate to Locks of Love. Since that day, G has told me she wanted to grow her hair long in order to also be able to donate her hair. I thought that was so touching and I was amazed by her generous heart so I told her I would start to grow my hair and donate it along with her. Yesterday we went to the hairdresser and had them cut away ten inches of ponytail on both of us.

Two Quick Stories

2007-07-17T10:06:00.000-04:00

I gotta run to a doctor's appointment in a minute but I have to tell you these two quick stories first.

Last night S3 had left for puppet practice (VBS this week at our church), the girls were at the table doing crafts and Ty was supposed to be doing some dishes in the kitchen. I was reading a book. At some point a hissing noise pierced my concentration on the book but it sounded to me like Ty was playing with the sink hose or something and I didn't think much of it. A few moments later G said, "What is that?!?" which completely pierced my concentration so I looked up. Oddly enough there was a flashing light accompanying the hissing noise in the kitchen. The girls and I went to investigate and found Ty quickly throwing a cup of water on something on the other side of the bar.

I looked down and there was a tiny blackened plastic cup and a huge puddle of water. I looked at Ty and said, "Ty did you set off a firework in my kitchen?"

Now mind you, the smoke in the kitchen is so thick I can hardly see him. The smell was overwhelming. There was a blackened cup sitting in a puddle of water on the counter and do you know what that child said to me?

"Sorta."

He sorta set off fireworks in my kitchen. Sorta.

-------------------------

Story two:
Last night after VBS the boys were really wound up so they were wrestling on my living room floor while E danced around them, giggling. At one point S3 had pinned Ty down and he called to E, "Give him a wedgie! Give him a wedgie!"

E turns to S3 and in a disgusted voice says, "Ewwww! I'm not touching his underwear!!!"

Summer is Kicking My Butt

2007-07-09T22:56:00.000-04:00

Where have I been? I honestly don't know. Maybe it'll get better for a little bit now that baseball is done. S3's team ended their season 1 and 21. Yes, you read that right. One win, twenty-one losses. It was a looooooooong season. I have to say that it was the first year Exeter had a Prep Legion team and it was the first year our coaches have ever coached and it was a fact that we were not provided with a field to practice on but really this was a little ridiculous.

At first I didn't really have a problem with the way things were going. I fully expected our boys to pull together and improve; after all they are some of the best players in the area. But there was a distinct lack of morale which I think can be directly blamed on the coaches.

Baseballs sometimes come in large buckets. Our team had two such baseball buckets upon which our coaches perched through the entire game. Toward the end of the season the parental grumbling got louder and louder and I heard the phrases, "Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dumb" and "Frogs on Lilly Pads" and my personal favorite, "The Bucket Boys." We were informed about a fall league and I heard parents say their sons would not be playing if the same guys were going to be coaching. It was bad.

Anyway, Steve was home for a week and now he's gone again. I think he'll be home every other week now through August. I miss him but I'll be glad to hog all the pillows to myself. He had the most amazing compliment from one of the head-honchos at the place where he's been working. I would share more but I don't know how much is sensitive (large corporations can get touchy sometimes) but you gotta trust me on this one. I don't know that he's ever received such a compliment and he's gotten a lot of accolades over the years.

S3 went to camp two weeks ago and last week Ty and G went for a week. It was the first time any of them spent more than a night or two apart from me. Funny enough, I didn't really miss them too much and I don't think they missed me at all. They had a blast and they're looking forward to going again next year. I think that's a good sign.

Steve's grandmother's family had a reunion this past weekend. Although I've been married to this man for nearly 14 years and although I mail out Christmas cards to these folks semi-regularly, I've never actually met most of them. It was interesting. They were all very nice (it's obvious if you know Steve's grandmother at all that her family would be wonderful) but still I hid in the side yard with the kids and my BIL most of the day. I'm not as good in a crowd as I used to be.

What else have we done this summer? Hmmm. Well my BIL has nearly finished fixing up my back yard for me and I must say it looks gorgeous. He put in a teared veggie garden, did some major flower bed reconstruction, tore down my old fencing and put new up, made a bunny pen, mulched and even mowed a couple of times. He's wonderful. I've had Steve's sister and her family over for a few barbeque's to enjoy all their hard work but I don't think I'll ever be able to convey my gratitude properly. It's such a relief to have a beautiful haven in my back yard.

Speaking of bunnies, soon it'll be bunny shaving time. My sister's friend has angora clippers and she's said she'd come over and help me de-hair the hare. Being crazy spinner/weaver types they're both excited for the fiber. Mel had me laughing one of the last times she was over. Beck had shed a big clump of hair on my shirt and she was all excited about how well it {insert spinning/weaving term that I can't remember here} and then she started to twist and show me how strong the fibers are. We've decided she'll spin me some yarn and I'll crochet a scarf. Then I can really be the crazy bunny lady.

Ok I've babbled enough. Maybe I'll manage to post again but sooner than a month from now.

It's Official

2007-06-23T23:25:00.000-04:00

On this very day, thirteen years ago, a little boy was placed in my arms for the very first time and I became a mother.

On this very day my baby takes his first big step into the teenaged years.

Thank you God for blessing us with thirteen years of joy. Here's to 100 more.

PS His baseball team won their first game today 7 - 6!!!

Day 5

2007-06-22T22:33:00.000-04:00

Our last day to enjoy the parks... The kids wanted to go to Downtown Disney one last time so we did that in the morning. Steve spoiled them with fudge and chocolate covered marshmallows.

And then we skipped back over to MGM. This time we got a better hang of how to manage the crowds and use the fast pass to our greatest advantage and we got to see a couple of cool stunt shows and a couple of 3D shows.

I thought this was the coolest illusion. The buildings in the background are just painted.

Herbie was there!

We all got in line for a quick ride before we saw the car stunt show and just as we were getting ready to get on, E decided nature was calling and she couldn't ignore the phone so she and I skipped out to find a bathroom. When she discovered everyone had gotten on the ride without her, she bawled. She was inconsolable.

Steve and the kids got off the ride and met us for the stunt show and E promptly did this:

That explained all the crying. Poor Steve had to carry her up a million stairs... really, I wish I'd taken a picture of the stands. It was a lot to climb with an extra 50 lbs to carry. He was understandably a little hot by the time we got to our seats.

Maybe you can tell how high up it was by looking at the stage we were watching:

Anyway, after MGM we went back to the hotel for one last swim and to pack up. The next morning we headed out early for the airport. I think we all needed a week of sleep to catch up with all the sleep we gave up to play while we were there.

Hope you enjoyed our vacation! I know I sure did LOL!

Day 4

2007-06-21T11:23:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry for the long delay between days. We got home and Steve left right away again and I'd been uploading pics to his laptop.

Friday we started out in MGM trying to take advantage of the EMH (extra magic hours) in the morning but other than the Tower of Terror, a Star Wars Parade and the High School Musical pep rally, we didn't get much done. It was hot and it was crowded. I think it was the hardest morning of our vacation.

We had reservations for lunch in Epcot with the Princesses so the girls got all dolled up and ready for their date.

Then it was off to MGM for a few hours. Now you might think I'm nuts for letting my baby ride the Tower of Terror but she did really well on Big Thunder Mountain and she really wanted to ride it so she did. Steve said she was fine when they dropped her the first time but then the ride goes back up and opens the doors so you can look out over all of MGM. He said she looked out those doors and it was like, "Ok, this is serious!" She cried when the ride was over and the entire rest of the vacation if anyone said, "Tower of Terror" she would go, "I don't want to ride the Tower of Terror! It was really scary!"

It was Star Wars Weekend in MGM so we were treated to a lot of Star Wars stuff, including a parade with storm troopers and Jedi Micki. Steve is a big Star Wars fan so he was thrilled.

This picture is for my sister. She knows why.

This was the worst moment of the vacation. I'm sure the girls loved it but it was HOT and it was PACKED with people. I didn't wear much makeup on vacation but by the end of this show what little bit I had on, melted off my face. Literally. It was HOT.

They invited the kids up to dance with the cast and I think E was the first one out of her seat.
Our Princess lunch was in Epcot so we gave up on MGM and hopped a bus on over there.

I don't remember what E was pouting about but I've titled this picture, "The saddest little princess in the land."

We had some time before lunch so we hit a few countries. The boys are watching a glass blower in Mexico.

We parted ways - the boys were off to find more adventurous rides - and sat down to wait for our lunch. They were running about a half hour behind in their reservations and while we waited, E fell asleep sitting completely upright. I pulled her down on my lap and she slept until our name was called.
At the table, waiting for the princesses to appear.

All the princesses were there. We saw Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Aurora, Cinderella and Snow White. I won't bore you with all the pics we took but Cinderella is our favorite and Snow White was the best Snow White I've ever seen. She even sounded like the girl in the movie.

After that we went to the hotel for a couple of hours and then hit Magic Kingdom to take advantage of the EMH there. We saw the electric light parade and the fireworks and then we rode a bunch of rides until about two in the morning. Yes, you read that right. Two A.M. It was awesome because during the day you'd stand in lines and even with the fast passes you'd maybe only get three or four rides in but at night the crowds are down by probably 3/4 of what they were during the day and there isn't a single thing we waited longer than ten or twenty minutes to ride.

Day 3

2007-06-15T19:28:00.000-04:00

This one has to be fast because I don't want to miss the fireworks tonight.

We went to Magic Kingdom yesterday which was fantastic. Because we're staying on Disney property we can take advantage of extra Magic hours. MK was open early and Epcot was open late and we took advantage of the lack of crowds to do most of our riding then with a short break in between for naps and a dip at the resort pool. Here're the pics:

Ok, wait, I gotta tell you this story. We went to Ariel's Grotto to see Ariel and get her autograph which the boys were not all that crazy about doing. In fact, look at Ty's face in this pic. He SO didn't want to sit there and I made it worse by asking Ariel if she'd kiss him. LOL!

Anyway, while we were standing in line there were these little water things the kids could play with and E, G, Ty and Steve (to chaperone) ran off to mess around. S3 stayed behind in line with me and made snide comments about the little kids and about his brother being this little kid. After about 10 minutes of watching them play, he said to me, "I'm going to go over to Dad." I watched him. He didn't end up anywere near his father.

Some things you just gotta do. For us it was the Tea Cups, the Pirates of the Caribbean and eating Mouse ice cream.

Met Jasmine, Aladdin and the Genie.

I think Ty's highlight of the day was watching this bird catch and eat this little frog.

E went on her first rollercoaster (I'll edit the pic when I get home so you can see the family better)

And her reaction???

We hopped over to Epcot to do the extra magic hours and ended up riding different rides until Midnight. They tricked me into riding Test Track which now, a day later, I can admit was pretty cool although I'll never ride it again but last night... well let's just say I didn't react to my ride on a quasi coaster quite as well as E reacted to her full coaster.

Day 2

2007-06-13T22:31:00.000-04:00

Today Steve had to attend a conference so the kids and I headed to Downtown Disney and did some shopping.

Ty is filling a bucket of Legos from a wall of Legos. It was like heaven on earth for him. Oh and don't you love his Goofy Pirate hat?

They have these really cool bouncing fountains. The girls decided to run through them causing me to have one of the biggest laughs I had all day.

We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe (and if you've never been there, try to find a way to get to one. They're cool) and then came back to the resort to rent some boats and do some swimming. It seemed unfortunate that a rainstorm came up while we were out on the lake but in reality it was a total blessing. We took out two boats that should have cost us $41 per half hour but eight minutes before our half hour was up, the lifeguard closed the lake and I only had to pay $11.

Yes, they actually let S3 take out a motorized boat with out an adult on board! Yikes!

The kids were thrilled we got to boat and we talked Steve into bagging the conference early and going back to Downtown Disney. We had ice cream at Ghirardelli's for dinner and then came back to the resort to swim in the dark. As we were walking back to the room from the pool one of the girls said, "This is like paradise!"

Wish You Were Here

2007-06-12T23:23:00.001-04:00

Today was our first day of our first big vacation as a whole family. We were blessed with this opportunity thanks to Steve's work. He's been gone for a few months and as a "reward" they have paid for us to fly to Florida, paid for a rental, paid for two rooms at the Coronado Springs resort and paid for three days of Disney park hopper passes for all six of us.

Here we are in Philly getting ready to board the plane:

G and T on the plane:

Check out the rental!

At the Coronado Springs:

There is a really awesome pool at the resort. The kids are allowed on the steps of this Mayan temple but they're not supposed to go higher than the first set of branches. You can see it's quite high up.

By the time G and E started climbing over the second set of branches I was saying, "Steve! Steve! Do something!" He whistled his really loud whistle and got not only the girls' attention but the lifeguard's attention as well. Between them they managed to stop the girls after they'd gotten a little more than half way up.

Dinner with Pluto:

See you tomorrow!

Crazy Bunny Lady

2007-06-06T15:20:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure anymore which nick-name fits me better... Insane Soccer Mom or Crazy Bunny Lady. Oh well, if I have to give my children something to tell their therapist it might as well be that their mother loved the rabbit more than them.

Here's some of my favorite pics from this week:

Peek....

A Boo!!!

Streeeeetch...... Just a little mooooore.....

AH! Got it!

Wash, wash, wash.

And don't forget behind the ears!

Taking 5 for safety.

I swear laying in the dirt is Beck's favorite thing to do.

Eeek it's a scary hay monster!

Oh, it's just you, Beckham.

This is his, "You're going to try to catch me and make me go night-nights, aren't you?" pose.

Hello Summer

2007-06-06T12:26:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. We've been busy with soccer, baseball and summer! On Memorial Day S3 ended up marching in a parade with the American Legion which was pretty cool.

Waiting for the parade to start:

Here they come:

School let out at the end of May and besides all the sports, we've been hanging out with Beckham, gardening (pics of both coming soon) and swimming at the pool. The water is freezing and I don't how the kids can stand it but they do.

Look at the look of pure evil on S3's face. Splashing his brother.

Holy Sports Weekend Batman

2007-05-21T07:12:00.000-04:00

I must be nuts. That's the only reason I can come up with for why I would say yes to two kids playing soccer and two kids playing baseball all in the same weekend. Here's how my weekend looked:

Friday 6 PM Ty had baseball at our home field
Saturday 7 AM Ty had soccer 30 minutes away
11:20 AM Ty had another game - same field
1:30 G had soccer 1.5 hrs away - 1.5 hrs back to...
4:20 Ty had another soccer game - same field as before.
Sunday 7 AM S3 had baseball 1.5 hrs away.
12:30 PM Coaches for S3's team decide to play a double header
5:30 PM Ty had another soccer game 2 hrs away.

I put somewhere around 250 miles on my minivan iin two days. That was a lot of running, even for me. And now onto the pictures...

Ty is the one with orange sleeves and black socks.

I'd forgotten how much I like to watch him play. He really focuses on the game and plays hard and even though they usually lose, he's always in a good mood afterward.

Waiting to sub in.

She hasn't been terribly aggressive with the bigger girls but when the ball comes near her, she wins it every time.

I've decided I must need to invest in some catcher's equipment because look who else decided to give the position a try...

Honestly at first I was a little disappointed because he's so good in the 2nd base/short stop position plus I really felt like it was cool that Ty had something kinda special by being catcher but once I saw S3 play I stopped being disappointed. He was fantastic.

It must be genetic. My dad was a catcher too.

Poor E. Doesn't she look totally worn out by all the sports?

The girls were driving me crazy by the end of the day so I let them play with my camera so they'd let me watch the soccer game. G accidentally caught a generational pic. It's not a great pic of any of us but I thought it was kinda cool.

So that was my crazy weekend. Now I'm going to go crash. If you need me, I'll be in bed.

Rage Home Opener

2007-05-16T23:11:00.000-04:00

It was youth night at the Rage home opener so G put on her uniform and we went to watch the game. She got a free season pass and my ticket was only $7 so it was a cheap date! They had the really little kids and the U-10 girls make an alley on the field when they announced the starting line-up. G looked so small out there. Rage ended up beating the Virginia team 2-1 so it was a good way to start the season. Some pics from tonight (the mascot is a bull btw):

Who Is That Masked Man?

2007-05-16T07:17:00.000-04:00

Ty's baseball season has officially started. They had their fourth game last night and Ty seems to have fallen somewhat naturally into the catcher's position. It's really nice to see him trying something different from his brother. I don't remember ever seeing S3 in the catcher's position.

He needs some work; he's still not sure what to do with his other hand while he's catching but last night he caught more than he dropped and he really seems to enjoy it. It's so awesome to see him really get into the game.

Ty has been an every-other year player since the first time he picked up a bat and glove. Every other year he says, "Oh, I don't want to play baseball this year" and then we'll go watch his brother play and he'll say, "Oh I wish I had signed up for baseball!" This year is an on year and I think it might break the every-other pattern.

It's funny, neither of my boys are very strong batters but they're both above average fielders. I'm not sure why that would be other than maybe it's easier for them to practice catching than it is batting. Ty had some batting instruction on Saturday but he still looked a little awkward at the game last night. I know he will improve as the season progresses.

I'm late in blogging this but I didn't actually miss the event. Ty turned ten years old on May 4th. We went with my grandfather out to eat at Friendly's and Steve (who pushed to get home for the special day) took him to the driving range. We let him pick out his own birthday gift at ToysRUs and he chose a Nerf semi-automatic dart gun. I think having his dad home for those couple of days was the best gift though. It never fails to amaze me (no matter how good I think I'm doing) how much a boy needs his dad. No pictures. I accidentally deleted them when I was taking pictures of Beckham on his first day home. {blush}

Happy First Decade Ty!

Ty Makes Life Interesting

2007-05-10T07:14:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure what got into him this morning but after he got dressed for school and ate breakfast and packed his lunch he started cleaning out the refrigerator. Do not ask me why because I really don't know. He had the water filter out and filling up and he was asking me, "What should I do with this salad dressing that's dated from three years ago?"

Finally I said, "Ty the bus will be here any minute. You need to stop worrying about that and get your shoes on.

He said, "Ok but what should I do with this cream cheese that's dated last week?"

I said, "Ty I am not kidding with you. Put the cream cheese down."

At just that moment G (our lookout of the day) yelled, "BUS!" G and S3 took off but Ty ran around, panicked like a headless chicken, still with the cream cheese in his hand. So I came and helped him calm down and grab his things but he was running so far behind he had to carry his shoes. I saw Eileen the bus driver laughing when he got on the bus.

You can't say it wasn't an interesting morning. And at least I have a half clean fridge now. And a box of outdated cream cheese sitting on my couch by the front door.

I've Been Tagged (twice)!

2007-05-09T09:33:00.000-04:00

Both Margaret and V have tagged me with 7 Things About Me.

Here are the rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they have been tagged and to read your blog!

So, here it is:

1. When I was younger I didn't want to be a mom. I don't like kids and I didn't want to be tied down.

2. Since I now have four kids, people tell Steve he should have been a salesman.

3. There's nothing I like better than being a soccer mom. I love running my kids to games and practices even when it's really stressful trying to get them all to different places at the same time. It's still absolutely my most favorite thing to do.

4. I really wish someone would submit my mini-van on "Overhaulin'" or "Pimp My Ride" because if I have to drive a mini-van, shouldn't it be cool? But I'd have a hard time choosing between Chip Foose's classic style and getting to meet Xzibit. I would hope that my van would end up some combination of pink and orange.

5. My best and worst quality are the same. I have a terrible memory.

6. It's my best quality because I don't remember to stay mad or hold grudges and I don't remember what you did or even that I was hurt. I don't remember any of the bad stuff. I don't remember a lot of the happy stuff either but I tend to assume most everything thing so far in life has been happy. It makes me easy-going and forgiving.

7. However it's my worst quality because I miss important dates and appointments. I forget my anniversary and what time of day my kids were born or how much they weighed. I forget that my SIL had major surgery and I never call to see how she's doing. I don't remember to check up on my friends or to send sympathy cards. I think it makes me seem uncaring.

I'm going to tag....
Vicki, Deb Hannicks, Miss C, Emmie, Jer, Chris (who I don't think has time to play but I hope she does anyway) and the next person who comes up when I click the "Next Blog" link at the top: M.W.

Even MORE Baseball Drama

2007-05-09T09:15:00.000-04:00

So I told you about S3 and the school team and S3 and the City-County team right? Well the Jr. Legion guy called and said he also really wanted S3. I said thanks but we've already accepted another offer. That's when he started telling me how Ex. has instituted a "no tolerance policy for those who leave the league."

I was like

So he goes on to tell me that if S3 leaves Ex. to play city-county, he can't come back and play for Ex. ever again. Freaked me out. Maybe I misunderstood but I don't think it matters because no matter what he said, that's what I heard.

So I called one of S3's old coaches who I knew had older boys that had gone thru the program and I said, "What the heck?" because I signed up with Ex., S3 had try outs with Ex. and the C/C coach got S3's name from the Ex. signs and trys so how are we leaving the league?

The ex-coach explained it all so that a first-time mom could understand and long story short for a number of really valid reasons (one of them being I have FOUR children in different activities every night of the week and the practices were close enough for S3 to walk) we decided to stick with C/C and called the Jr. Legion guy and declined the position.

The next day the C/C coach called and said he was really very sorry but they couldn't field a team this year. Really. Veeerrrrysorry. Really.

I went to bed and cried for an hour. That's the truth. I couldn't do anything but lay there and cry I was so stressed out. I just can't believe all the politics and headaches that are going along with my child playing Little League. I mean COME ON PEOPLE! What's with that? He isn't 30 and playing for a million and half dollar contract; he's 13 and I have to pay a million and half dollars for him to play.

So here we were, turned down from or turning down four different teams in one season. Everyone wanted him and noone wanted him all at the same time. OMG how does that happen?

I called that poor Jr. Legion guy about 100,000,000 times and finally he called back four days later and said S3 still had a spot on his team if he wanted it. So I'm saying this very quietly because until I see the uniform on my kid, I don't think I'll believe it but S3 is playing Jr. Legion this year.

Whatevah.

David Beckham Has Come to Our House

2007-05-06T19:26:00.000-04:00

"David Beckham?" you say, disbelieving.

Yes. David Beckham was pooping on my kitchen floor just hours ago. I swear it's true.

What? You still don't believe me? Well see for yourself.

Meet Beckham, the newest addition to our family. We picked him up yesterday at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. He is a German Angora Hybrid in the color "chestnut agouti." We debated the whole way home between Beckham, Donovan and Hartman (my favorite goalie) and then because he's German we threw in Barrack but the kids all thought he looked most like a Beckham so Beckham he is.

He doesn't seem so very happy to be part of our family just yet but I'm told it can take a while for a rabbit to get used to a new home. He's a lot bigger than I expected but at almost a year of age, I'm told he won't grow any larger. When I first held him (the first bunny I ever held!) he winked at me and then kissed my nose. I knew he had to come home with us.

I know this probably seems sudden to you all but I have actually been preparing for more than two months and getting an angora was the reason we went to the festival. I'll leave you with a few more pictures of my baby.

Look at his adorable big feet!

10 Things I Learned Today

2007-05-01T21:07:00.000-04:00

1. When the moon is full, it will rain the minute you step out of the car to change a flat and stop raining the minute you are at the repair shop. Also it will be the one day of the month that instead of wearing your typical black, you will be wearing white and powder blue.

2. Monroe doesn't put the lug nuts on so tight that a girl can't get them off.

3. Dummy tires don't have a label on them that says, "This side toward car," but there really is only one way they'll go on.

4. Camera phones and email come in real handy when you can't figure out how to lower a jack and your dad is and hour away but sitting in front of his computer.

5. When you lower the car, do it slowly or you might startle yourself and the kid strapped in her carseat inside the car.

6. My husband (it's his car) is a slob. Or a pack rat. Or maybe both. Either way, there was a lot of junk in that trunk. On top of the spare.

7. I realized if I ever planned to murder someone, I couldn't risk putting their dead body in the trunk of the car.

8. Tires are heavy.

9. If you are wearing eye make up and changing a tire in the rain, you have to look carefully at all your fingers to decide which is the cleanest one before you can lick it and clean the mascara from your cheeks so that the repair shop guys don't think you were crying.

10. After 15 years (half my lifetime) I can still change a flat tire.

Now That's What I Call BASEBALL Baby!

2007-04-30T22:13:00.000-04:00

I know we had some issues with S3 and our school league but the fact is, S3 had intended to play two leagues this year and so it was frustrating but no big loss to step away from the one. Saturday S3 had tryouts for three teams. When we signed up way back in January what they told me was this:

Lowest level: Senior's league
Mid level: Junior Legion (about 10 boys from this township would make this team)
Highest level: City-County (about 4 boys from this township would make this team)

So I figured, sure S3's pretty good. He has a good shot at Junior Legion. No way is he going to make the City-County because the odds are against him, right? Tonight I came home to a message on my answering machine.

My son is on the City-County team.

I swear this is one of the proudest moments I've ever had as a mother. And I can't help but feel a great deal of satisfaction that for one lousy month the school team could have had a player of his caliber. Ha.

I Made A Ring

2007-04-30T08:39:00.000-04:00

Successfully this time! Sunday my mom and I took a "Making A Ring" class at the Jewelry Arts Expo held this year at the very nice Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, DE. The man running the class is apparently someone well known in jewelry circles but since I don't tend to run in jewelry circles I didn't realize it at the time. His name is Alan Revere and he founded the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts. He was a very good instructor and I think that was the most successful class I've ever taken.

Somewhere around lunch time we were to have our rings soldered at the seam and this being my first attempt at jewelry soldering, I was a nervous wreck. It came out beautifully, it was a heck of a lot easier than I thought and frankly when I look at the inside of my band, I can't even see where I joined the ends of the ring together. After hours of filing and sanding (and I mean that literally!) I used the narrow end of a cross peen hammer to make the textured outer edge of the ring. My mom, after hours of filing and sanding, took the wide end of the hammer to make a hammered edge. We laughed about all the work we'd done to make it smooth only to mark it all up again with a hammer!

We took the rings home and put them in the polisher but I think it could still stand to have a little hand polish done. When Alan polished his in class with some rouge and a felt stick, it really shined!

So without further ado, here is how my ring started:

And here is the final result:

I am so proud of myself!

Cute But Evil

2007-04-24T20:47:00.000-04:00

I bought E a new shirt last week that says, "Cute but Evil" and she's spent the last week proving it true. We were at Friendly's for dinner on Saturday night and Ty started up a game of hangman while we waited for our food. Ty picked the first word then I picked a word and finally E wanted to pick a word. Well E doesn't really know how to read or spell and the last time we played hangman she spelled her name.

She made her hangman's gallows and then started drawing lines for the letters. I was spelling along in my head as she was drawing the lines, "E-V-E-L-Y....." but she stopped at five dashes. Not enough spaces for her name. Hmmm. I thought, "Well it's probably going to end up just being some random letters because she can't read and she can't spell."

We guessed a few wrong letters and finally she said, "Here, let me give you a hint" and she drew the letter "L" in the first space. I was still thinking she'd probably just made up a word of random letters that wouldn't actually make sense but G perked right up when she saw that "L."

"OH! I know what it is! I know what it is," she called across the table. "How about the letter 'O'?" E put the letter "O" in the next space. G said, "How about 'S'?" and E put the letter "S" in the next space. G said, "I know what it is! I know what it is!"

She can't read and she can't spell but she knows the word "loser." That's enough to make any mama proud.

Oh My Aching Back!

2007-04-21T16:40:00.000-04:00

Today the kids and I got up and did our Saturday morning clean routine. It is mandatory; no matter what else is going on in our lives we all must clean on a Saturday morning. Why must we clean on a Saturday morning? Because if we don't clean on Saturday then I have to do it alone on Monday.

Anyway after that my nephew, "the boy" came over to help with a project we had to get done today. I'll explain that in a minute. See this great big huge trailer that belongs to my BIL John?

Well being the wonderful man that he is, he went and picked up two cubic yards of mulch for me on Friday night. However, his dad needed the trailer tonight so we had to spread two cubic yards of mulch by dinner time. Which is why it's now empty. And why my back hurts. I was in charge of shoveling the mulch out of the trailer and into the wheelbarrow. S3 was in charge of wheeling the wheelbarrow to the garden and Ty and The Boy were in charge of spreading. G and E got us drinks and tissues as needed and generally were cute and entertaining.

But what really amazes me about this whole project? Two cubic yards didn't cover my whole front bed. I still need probably another cubic yard to finish just the front. The back yard is a whole 'nuther back ache waiting to happen.

So now I'm just sitting in my rocker, quietly moaning to myself and playing with my jewelry stuff. The kids went to the park for a while and I think when they get back and get cleaned up we'll go visit my grandfather in the hospital and have some dinner. I just wish it would be this beautiful outside all year long.

I've Been Framed

2007-04-20T15:18:00.000-04:00

AC Moore has a 60% off custom framing sale going on so I pulled out a couple of my finished xs pieces and went for a drive. I didn't have much faith in the girl at the counter after we played a fun game of "How many different ways can I say, 'I don't like the brown mat on my Enchanted Alphabet?" Finally I just took it back and nervously let her handle my Fairy Tales (click here for beading details).

We had some trouble with that one too and soon there was a line formed at the counter. Between the line and E wiggling around the counter doing her version of the pee-pee dance, I was ready to cry uncle and go home. I took E to the potty and browsed around the mats and frames and when I came back, she had laid out the perfect frame to go with the insides that I'd chosen earlier. She quoted it and I silently thanked God that it was 60% off. It should be done around May 11 and I can't wait to show it off. It's going to look amazing.

In the mean time, for a mere $16 I framed this older piece myself. It still gives me a giggle when I see that silly cat.

Being A Single Mom Is For The Birds

2007-04-19T17:58:00.000-04:00

My weekend is all screwed up. I need so much help it makes me feel sick. I hate asking for help.

Next Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the bead show in Wilmington, DE. I paid a big chunk of change for a "Making a Ring" class on Sunday that lasts all day. I also want to do some shopping which usually takes a whole day. It's most convenient for my mom, sister and best friend to go on Saturday.

On Saturday at 3 G has a soccer game. She can't miss it; they don't have a sub and I just sent out a huge check to pay her dues.

And then I got a letter in the mail for S3. Jr. Legion and City-County team tryouts are Saturday and Sunday from 3 - 4:30.

There's no way I can go to the bead show to shop on Saturday which means I have to convince at least my girlfriend to go on Friday or go alone which really sucks. My mom works so I don't think she'll be able to go.

No matter what I can't miss my ring class on Sunday but it's all day so there's no shopping that day. That means I have to have help getting S3 to tryouts on Sunday.

And I need help getting either G to her game or S3 to his tryouts on Saturday.

It's too complicated. Too many people are involved. Something is going to go wrong. I am so stressed. How do single moms do this???

Don't Ask Me

2007-04-18T21:28:00.000-04:00

I have no idea why they do these things. I think they get it from their father.

Video Games Are Good For You?

2007-04-17T09:47:00.000-04:00

About a month ago one of Ty's friends introduced him to an online RPG. Ty enjoyed being able to join up with his school friends in this fantasy world and I thought it was cute to hear him and his friend discussing when they could get back online and play together next. Ty introduced S3 to the game and suddenly things started changing around here.

I wouldn't say to you that my boys exactly hate each other but they have different interests, different personalities and different goals. They do fight, sometimes a lot. But lately I've noticed an amazing phenomenon. S3 helps Ty study. Ty helps S3 with his chores. They want to sit near each other at the dinner table. They both fight to get the back seat of the van so they can sit together. Why?

So they can get back to the game.

When Ty has homework, S3 cheers him on so he'll get done faster and they can play online together. When S3 has chores to complete, Ty helps him so he'll get done faster and they can play online together. They want to sit together so they can plan out their strategies for the next time they're playing. They're cooperating. They're agreeing. They're not fighting!

Of course I can see down sides to this too. Ty let it slip this morning that they'd gotten up at 2AM and snuck downstairs to the computer. They are rather obsessive at the moment but I know that like all other obsessions we've experienced, this one is just as fleeting. I'll keep an eye on them and make sure they see the sunlight every once in a while but for now I'm going to enjoy the peace.

Maybe You Had To Be There

2007-04-12T21:09:00.000-04:00

I love nights like tonight. I had such a good time with my kids. We just laughed and enjoyed each other's company and it makes me wonder why moments like that are so rare. After the girls went to bed the boys and I played a card game my grandfather taught us called Kings in the Corner (we play it slightly different) and Ty told us a story that had S3 and I falling off our chairs laughing.

Today at school when Ty was finished using the lavatory he rounded the corner to wash his hands at the sink. A much older boy (Ty said some 10th grader but he didn't know who it was) was standing there already and he jumped out at Ty and "kinda made a roar like noise." Ty jumped a little and said to the guy, "What the heck?" The guy replied, "Shut up!" and Ty said, "Why don't you shut up?"

I had to ask a couple of questions to clear up a few things because it really seemed kinda odd at first. Ty said the kid wasn't in the bathroom to use the facility; he was just standing there at the sink. At this point I started laughing because I realized he was waiting in the bathroom just to scare a poor little fourth grader. I wanted to know what the guy said when Ty told him to shut up. Ty says the guy stopped talking and quietly left the bathroom. He looked at S3 and I with a tremendous look of satisfaction and said, "I guess I schooled him!" That's the point where I had to put my head down on the table because I was laughing so hard.

We settled down and S3 started quizzing Ty on who the guy might be. Finally after talking about the number on his jersey S3 comes to the conclusion that it was so-and-so waiting in the bathroom to pull off this silly joke. S3 says with a horrified look on his face, "Ty that guy isn't a 10th grader, he's a senior," as if being a senior practically guarantees deity.

Ty shruggs and says, "Huh," and that's the point when I fell off my chair laughing. I'm sure that encounter did not go quite the way that kid had thought it might. Schooled a senior indeed.

25¢ of Pure Snotty Joy

2007-04-11T07:27:00.000-04:00

You know those 25¢ machines they have in the grocery store that contain gum, tattoos, rings and plastic containers of gooey snot? Every once in a while I indulge my children and I allow them to buy something from the machine as we leave the store. The other day I had them all out on the porch cleaning up their mess (that's where we have their lockers for their bookbags and cleats and etc.) and E found a plastic container of snot. And to keep it safe while she finished cleaning up her shoes and Awana material, she tucked it in her pocket.

A little while later E was running through the dining room when she came to a sudden and unexpected stop and exclaimed, "OH NO!" She said it with such despair and immediately started crying so that I was really worried something bad had happened and I ran over to make sure she was ok. In between her sobs, she managed to tell me exactly what her predicament was.

And hey, apparently when plastic containers of snot burst in your pants pocket, the resulting slime that oozes down your leg is rather chilly. Also snot does not wash off hands and pants pockets all that easily but it does come off.

KCEAA Jr. High Competition

2007-04-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

I emailed my family but I totally forgot to blog this event... S3 participated in both the choir and the hand bells for the KCEAA Jr. High Competition last week. His school took first place in both events. I'm not surprised. They have an amazing new music director and even though I usually dread the different concerts, this time I found myself curious to hear what this guy would come up with next.

Check out my boy in his tux. The girl with him is my friend Amy the Pampered Chef Lady's daughter.

Below are two minute clips of the four songs they performed. I don't remember the names of all of them but one they sang was Amazing Grace. S3 was all excited for me to come listen because during a section of the song, they sing a cappella and he thought it sounded really cool.

Personally I was most impressed with the handbells. I was at the completely wrong angle to see S3 but he's on the right hand corner of the "U"

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Follow Up On the Baseball Drama

2007-04-10T09:46:00.000-04:00

I was really proud of S3; although he was really scared to do it, he talked to one of the coaches from the juniors about getting a spot on the team despite his birthdate. We heard back last night finally that S3 was not the only one who had to be cut because of his birthday and therefore they couldn't let him on the team. While we understand, we are both also disappointed. There are rumors that next year they may actually hold tryouts and cut based on skill rather than age. That would be nice but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway I am glad that S3 worked up the nerve to say something. If nothing else I think he's walking away having learned that he didn't die just because he asked a question and the answer was no.

And in the mean time the refunded sports fee we'll be getting happens to be almost exactly what we need to buy his metal cleats for the other team. That seems like a win to me.

What Excuse Can I Give?

2007-04-09T09:13:00.000-04:00

I love DC United. I think they're as close to a home team as I'm gonna get when it comes to MLS - at least until Philly gets their acts together and forms a pro team. At the end of June, when David Beckham's contract is up with Real Madrid he is coming to the States to play for LA Galaxy.

In August Galaxy is coming to RFK Stadium to play United.

Tickets don't go on sale until July 2 and even then everyone is assuming it will sell out quickly. I found an auction on eBay selling tix now. What excuse can I give for buying them? My birthday is out - there's too much else I've already attributed to being my birthday present. How about Earth Day? Is $200 too much to spend for Mother's Day? Cinco de Mayo? Memorial Day? Help me out here people!

Happy Fifth Birthday Evelyn!

2007-04-05T09:19:00.001-04:00

And Happy Thirty-third Birthday Steve!

The actual day of birth for Steve and E was yesterday but we were having too much fun at Chuck E. Cheese to bother to come post on the blog. It was just Mel's kids and I kept my kids home from school. We ate pizza and cake, danced and played arcade games all afternoon. G's soccer practice was cancelled and Steve made it home by 7 PM so we took him out to Austin's Restaurant & Bar for dinner. Unfortunately we were all too stuffed to have a piece of his chocolate peanut butter birthday cake so we decided to save it for tonight.

Gifts: E got the movie Barbie Fairytopia: Magic of the Rainbow and a Magic of the Rainbow doll that also is the dvd controller for an interactive dvd game. Steve got tickets to see Bill Cosby live in June and I sent a balloon bouquet and a box of choclates to him at work. He was in meetings with a customer all morning and when he came out he said he couldn't figure out how everyone knew it was his birthday - at least not until he got to his desk and saw the balloons.

Because I know your day won't be complete with out it, here are some pics from CEC:

Introducing A Fantastic New Magician

2007-04-05T09:18:00.001-04:00

This amazing new magician is too incredible not to share with you all.

Review: Meet the Robinsons

2007-04-03T08:01:00.000-04:00

I took Ty and E to see Meet the Robinsons this weekend in Digital 3D. It was AWESOME!!! The story revolves around a twelve-year-old boy named Lewis. He is an orphan and an inventor. His latest invention is a mind scanner to show memories that might have been otherwise forgotten. Lewis is hoping he will be able to use the scanner to find his birth mother and become a family.

Unfortunately the Bowler-Hat Man shows up and destroys everything, leaving Lewis to believe that he is incapable of actually inventing something that works. Wilbur Robinson appears to whisk Lewis away to the future where Lewis meets Wilbur's unique family. While in the future they search for the Bowler-Hat Man and discover the secrets of the Robinson family.

My mother says you get two chances at having a family. The first family is the one you're born into and it is what it is. The second family is the one you make and it is what you want it to be. I think that is the overwhelming message in this movie. And unlike most kids movies these days, there were no adult innuendos that your children will innocently repeat to your embarrassment. There are two mildly scary scenes - one tempered by humor the other by a happy result - but both Ty and E were ok. Neither one of them jumped in my lap.

I highly recommend if possible that you see this movie in the Digital 3D. I know it'll still be a good story either way but the extra $2 you'll pay for the experience is totally worthwhile. Not to mention your kids will look too cute wearing them. Look around on Google - type "movie: movies [your zip code here]" in the box and see if it's playing in 3D in your area. Out of four local theaters, only one here had it in Digital 3D.

G the Step-Mom

2007-04-01T16:03:00.000-04:00

On Friday I sent G and E up to clean up their bedroom. They played a lot, argued a little and got next to nothing done. I was not surprised. After a while my parents came to take G overnight for her special "birthday" day with them. After she left, I had this conversation with E.

E: Today when G and I were in our room, G was being divabiclte.
Me: She was being what?
E: Diffabaculate
Me: She was being difficult?
E: Yeah!
Me: Why do you say that she was being difficult?
E: Because she was being bossss... She was being like the maaaa... She was like a mean maaaa.... She was like a Step-Mom!

I think someone has watched Cinderella a few too many times.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

2007-03-28T11:37:00.000-04:00

My sister and I like to get our kids' pictures taken for our mother's birthday. We don't make it every year but we try to make it fairly often. Here are the results from this years' efforts. I also had the photographer take individual pictures of my kids for my living room.

Click for the full size.

Baseball Drama

2007-03-28T07:30:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to decide if drama just follows me where ever I go or if I somehow unconsciously cause all this drama in my life. Either way, here's the latest installment...

Tuesday afternoon I had a phone message from a couple I know from school and baseball. Turns out the husband part of this couple is going to be coaching baseball this year and they're having a last-minute practice Tuesday night. They'd like to know if S3 is going to make it.

I started thinking about this couple and their children and I became very confused. See, they have three sons. One child is a good year or two younger than S3. Their next son is Ty's age and the youngest is somewhere around G's age. I thought S3 had just barely made the age limit for the older group - the "junior" team - so I couldn't figure out how the oldest son of this couple could possibly be on the same team as S3. I assumed they actually had Ty on their roster and just misspoke for the message. I prepared both boys for practice just in case.

Once there I quickly found out that they did indeed mean S3. Instead of putting him on the "junior" team, they'd put him down a level on the "A" team. I spoke to the head of the summer baseball and he said it was because of S3's birthdate. The cutoff is May. His birthday is June. So they bumped him down.

Here's why this is ridiculous:
1. Every single one of the boys on the "junior" team are classmates of S3. All the boys on the "A" team are at least one to two years (and grades) younger. So all his classmates bumped up but he did not.
2. It's ONE month people, not a year, not even a half a year. ONE month.
3. S3 is one of the best players in their league. If they're going to bump someone down, bump down a worse player, not one of your best.

Frankly I think the guy who is in charge of the league saw that the "A" team would only have 10 players if he didn't keep S3 down. You need nine on a field so that only gives them one substitute. If more than one kid is unable to make a game, they'd have to forfeit (ok technically I think they can play one man down but you get the idea). I think that guy is using this as a way to fill the roster. Steve says I always want to think the worst of people I don't like and maybe that's what I'm doing but I think this guy is being foolish and unreasonable no matter what. And frankly no matter what the outcome is, he's ruined the beginning of the season for us. This is supposed to be fun and instead I'm so mad I could spit.

I talked to S3 and now he's waffling over whether or not he wants to play for HP this year at all. It's not that he won't play baseball; he's signed up for a much more serious league that starts it's season later in the year. This was supposed to be his secondary league, the fun league, the league where he can hang out with his buddies from school and have fun. He's not only not with his buddies but he's playing on a team that (and this is going to be mean so take a big gasp of breath now before you read it) is going to lose because the roster is full of kids who either can't play or who have never played before at all. And he's my kid so he's also mad about the whole one stinkin' month conspiracy.

He's weighing that against the fact that he will be, hands down, the best player on that "A" team. He will absolutely get playing time and probably in any position he wants. Yes they're probably going to lose every single game but at least he'll be playing. It would keep him warmed up for his more serious team. Also he does feel bad for them that they've only got 10 kids if he backs out. And I'm trying to encourage him that he shouldn't step out of the program just because he's mad at the head of the league, although I'm having trouble with that one because I'm feeling like yanking him out for exactly that reason.

So anyway, he slept on it and he's going to talk to his buddies - you know, the guys on the "junior" team - and see what they think and I guess he'll make his decision later. He's a softie. I wouldn't be surprised to see him play anyway, even though he's mad.

Oh the drama.

Happy Fifty Years!

2007-03-26T08:09:00.000-04:00

My husband's mother celebrated her fiftieth year of life this weekend. Her actual birth date was Friday and we (by we I mean Steve, his sister Stacey and his father. BIL John and I stayed out of it LOL) planned a surprise party for her on Saturday. Steve's dad hired a caterer, I bought decorations, Steve picked up the drinks and Stacey gathered old photos and made awesome collages. All of MIL's sisters and brothers showed up and she was well and truly surprised.

Unfortunately there was a mix up with the caterer. He was supposed to be there at 4. Guests were due to arrive at 4:30 and MIL was coming at 5. By quarter of five there was still no sign of the caterer and no one was answering the phone. Steve started calling local grocery stores to see if they had some hot food in the deli and Stacey and I were trying to think of where we could get some veggies for a tray or what else we could buy, prepare and serve in a very short amount of time. MIL pulled up to the building and about thirty seconds after that the caterer showed up. My FIL was happily moving around the kitchen saying, "Right on time" and because I was irritated with the caterer and feeling a little snarky I mumbled, "Yeah right on time... an hour later." I guess I mumbled it a little louder than I thought because as we were hustling to get the food set out the caterer said something about a 5PM delivery time. That's the point where my FIL admitted he'd been the one to mix up the timing. I guess he kept thinking MIL would be there at five and that's what came out of his mouth when he called. Oh well, it worked, we had food and very fresh, hot food at that.

For Christmas I had given MIL some earrings with a leverback finding. I didn't realize how much she likes that kind of finding but since I gave her the earrings she's mentioned it almost every time I see her. So I knew I had to get some more leverbacks and make more earrings for her.

These were S3's favorite of the bunch. He thought they suited his grandmother the most. They're made with brass beads, vermeil findings and faceted smoky quartz coins.

These are Swarovski crystals - a rondell with clear and 4mm Pacific Opal AB bicones. Findings and round beads are sterling.

These are blue goldstone (imitation) and 4mm Swarovski Shadow Crystal AB bicones. The findings and round beads are sterling. I wish you could see the depth to the blue goldstone. It's impossible to photograph but if you look closely at the left earring or you click here you can get somewhat of a feel for the sparkle.

These last pair are my favorites. I've had the pink faceted teardrops since the very first beadshow I attended all those years ago so I'm not sure exactly what they are. I paired them with 4mm Swarovski pink bicones and sterling round beads. The findings are all sterling as well. I didn't want to give her this pair LOL!

Uniforms, Laundry and Prepubescence

2007-03-26T07:59:00.000-04:00

G came downstairs in her bathrobe this morning looking for clean clothes in the laundry. I do the wash on Mondays so the only clothes in the laundry right now are dirty. I said to Steve as she passed, "I wonder what she thinks she's going to find down there?" Sure enough a few minutes later she came up with her hands empty and in a very snotty tone of voice she said, "I don't have any clean uniforms because you didn't do the wash!"

Now I know for a fact:
(1) I have been doing laundry every Monday for the past six months or more.
(2) She has enough uniforms to last her nearly three weeks without me doing the laundry.

For her to say that she has zero clean uniforms because I didn't do the wash yet means she either hasn't been bringing me her dirty uniforms to be washed or she can't find where she put all the rest of her clean uniforms. But the tone of voice she used with me... I told Steve he needed to deal with her. He didn't handle her quite the way I wanted him to handle her so I went upstairs and I pulled open her drawer. It was stuffed with clean uniforms. I pulled one out and I told her to put it on and I came back downstairs. About ten minutes later she followed, wearing the uniform and bawling her eyes out. The uniform I picked out is brown and nobody in her class likes the brown uniforms. She and another girl have a contest to see who can be the prettiest every week and now she's going to lose because she looks awful.

I had to leave the room. I don't want her to feel bad about the way she looks and if she'd approached me in a different way, I'd have done whatever I could to make sure she had a blue uniform to wear but I'm not going to tolerate this finger-pointing, you-never-do-anything-for-me attitude. I told her I'm not doing her wash this week. She can do it herself or she can wear the brown uniforms in her drawer.

So much for school uniforms taking the drama out of getting dressed in the morning.

WIP: Basket of Poppies & Bookmark (pt.2)

2007-03-21T08:54:00.000-04:00

I got my hands on the DMC Perle 8 and Perle 12 that I needed to finish this project and so other than using the fabric stiffener on it, it is complete. I stitched it on an opalacent fabric because the patterns calls for beads which adds bling but since I was planning to make it into a bookmark, I thought the beads might pose a problem. I wish you could see it shimmer. My kids were impressed with the "holes" I made LOL!

Now this WIP pic was one I meant to post last week. I haven't had a chance to work on it since last week so this is what I managed to do after only one week's worth of stitching. I've taken to wearing magnifying glasses while I'm working on this piece. Steve laughs on the days that I don't put my contacts in. He calls me "Six Eyes."

The Man My Sister Married

2007-03-21T08:02:00.000-04:00

Jer has been torturing my sister for nearly 12 (I think) years but this time he filmed the entire thing and posted it on YouTube for our enjoyment. I laughed so hard I cried. I'm so glad I get to call him brother. BTW, his mom is just as fantastic (after all she did raise Jer!) and she has a blog too.

Mass Movie Review 4

2007-03-19T16:48:00.000-04:00

Finally I picked a bunch of winners in one weekend!

Kinky Boots
I thought this movie was fantastic! It was laugh out loud funny in places and left me feeling so happy afterward. The premise is this: A shoe factory has been in the Price family for generations. Charlie Price does not want to run the factory but when his father unexpectedly dies he finds himself in the position of having to save it from financial ruin. He finds an unexpected ally in drag queen and cabaret singer, Lola. Lola designs shoes and boots for other drag queens and clubbers all the while fighting to change the prejudices of the conservative staff at Price Shoe Factory among other things. Throw in a little romance for Charlie (not Lola!) and a Milan fashion show and you have all the makings for a silly, fun movie!

Starring: Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Sarah-Jane Potts

Gridiron Gang

Here's another feel-good movie if that's what you're in the mood for. It was very predictable but it didn't lessen the story's emotional impact. Sean Porter (played by The Rock) is a counselor at a juvenile detention center in California where gang activity is high. He sees the teens coming and going and with a reincarceration rate of 75% he feels there is more that can be done to rehabilitate the teens. He and another counselor, Malcolm Moore (played by Xzibit) put together a football team. The boys must then decide whether the football team is their new "gang" or whether they will hang onto their original gang affiliations. I believe this is based on a true story and it is very inspirational. I have a bad memory so don't quote me on this but I think the first year of running the football program had only two or three boys return to their original gang affiliations while the rest went on to have jobs and families and finish school. Highly recommend this one and while it deals with some really heavy subjects (abusive boyfriends, murder, gang wars, etc.) and there is some language, I thought it was ok for my boys to watch with me. The overwhelming message was one of hope and rehabilitation.

Starring: The Rock and Xzibit

The Relic

This movie is based on the novel bearing the same title by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child which I devoured in a day but was then afraid to go in my creepy basement to do the laundry. I'm only slightly kidding. It is one of the Pendergast novels - in fact it is the first Pendergast novel - but Pendergast does not appear in the movie. I was really skeptical about watching the movie because frankly, how do you have the same story and yet cut out the main character? Some of the movie's other characters, Vincent D'Agosta and Margo Green, took some of the characteristics and actions of the novel's Pendergast and it was ok. I would have liked to have seen Pendergast but the movie version of the story was still pretty good. Now I didn't think it was all that scary but I did know most of what was coming. I felt Steve jump a couple of times but he'd never admit it if you asked him. It was very gory.

Here's the movie's premise: A scientist (don't ask me his name because I can't remember) goes into the jungle to study a tribe. He collects a relic and some plant material and sends it back to the States. In the movie you see him get onto the ship with the cargo he's sent and the next scene has the ship, empty of all crew and the professor. Eventually D'Agosta (the police lt. in charge) opens the bilge and finds a bunch of corpses with their heads and brains removed. The crates are shipped onto the original destination - the museum - where similar murders begin occurring. It turns out that there is a fungus or spore or something on that plant material that has a lot of the same characteristics as the human hypothalamus located in the brain and the beast that has followed the crates uses that as its food. It's up to Margo Green and Lt. D'Agosta to figure out what the beast is and how to stop it from killing.

Starring: Penelope Ann Miller and Tom Sizemore

Never Say Never

2007-03-19T07:19:00.000-04:00

You would have thought by the ripe age of 30 that I would have learned this lesson. Apparently not. I said my child would not be one of those annoying tweens with a cell phone pasted to his (or her) ear. I shoulda kept my mouth shut. The very moment I say, "No way Josè," is the very moment that my son is out at some math thing at school, ready and needing to be picked up and yet I'm sitting in a doctor's office waiting to get a cast removed and with no way to communicate with the kid. Add that to a long list of similar moments involving soccer games and basketball practices and the knowledge that baseball season is starting soon and the result is....

One annoying tween with a cell phone pasted to his ear.

Big News About Miss G

2007-03-14T13:49:00.000-04:00

First of all her cast came off yesterday. What a hullabaloo that was. I picked up G from school and ran her to the doc and we were even early. Then we sat for 40 minutes. Finally at about 3:30 and I knew Ty was going to be getting off the bus at any minute and S3 had stayed out at the school for a math thing and needed to be picked up at 4:00. It takes a half hour to get out to the school so I needed to leave the office right then. So I went up to the front desk and even though I was really upset I managed to hold it together and explain my problem. The girl at the desk said, "Oh well she's next but we're waiting for a cast room and there's no way to tell how long it'll be. Besides they want to re-xray the thumb after the cast comes off." Between us, we decided I'd better reschedule. I was disappointed because G had soccer later and it's a pain in the rear to wrap up that cast for every game. I knew G was ready to get rid of the dumb thing anyway and I wasn't looking forward to that pout either.

So she pulls open her scheduling thing on the computer and asks me how next Tuesday works for me. I squeaked, "A WHOLE WEEK???" That was their first opening. I couldn't put G through another week of this dreadful thing on her arm but I couldn't think of what to do so I stood there and stared at the wall for a good thirty seconds trying to make my brain work. Finally I decided I'd see if Mel was around and if she could pick S3 up (I figured Ty would be ok for a half an hour or so. He is going to be ten in a couple of months). Mel didn't answer so I called my friend J who lives near the school. She didn't answer so finally I called Amy the Pampered Chef Lady. It turns out her daughter was out at the math thing too - she's in S3's class - and her friend was going to be bringing the kids home. She quick called with her other phone and S3 had a ride to Amy's house. Phew, crisis averted.

In the mean time the doctor's office really pulled for me. While I was frantically making phone calls, the front desk girl got a regular exam room set up with a saw and G got her cast cut off. We jumped right into the xray room and then right back to the exam room. The doc didn't take two minutes to come in and go over everything and we were out the door. They really hustled for us and I couldn't have appreciated it more.

So if you have an orthopedic problem I can highly recommend Commonwealth Orthopedic Associates. No doubt they're busy but they gave excellent service.

Onto big news number two.... G has been asked to play on a premier team! And not just a premier team but up a level on a U10 team! The coach of G's U9 indoor team said his daughter is playing and they were looking for two more. Of all the girls on the team, they felt there were only three who had the motivation and drive to be in the league and one of them was my Gracie. It's pricey and they travel and it's during baseball season (of which we have two kids on three teams) and since it's up a level she'll be playing with 9 and 10 year olds even though she just turned 8 so I know it's crazy but how could I say no? She loves to play and I love to watch her play. The coach's wife said if we had a big conflict with baseball schedules she would be able to cart G back and forth to games or whatever and while it's more expensive than club soccer it's not out of our reach. We're going to a practice on Sunday to see if this is really something we want to do but I already talked to the coach of the premier team and she wants G for sure. Even if we decide this is not for us right now, I'm extraordinarily proud that my girl was even asked. Being a girl rocks!

Dear Canadian Friends,

2007-03-13T08:04:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wondered what those of us in Pennsylvania think about Canadians? Well you know I think the milk in a bag thing is, um... interesting... but if you were curious about what other Pennsylvanians think click here.

And before some random person comes reading my blog and gets their panties in a twist, the milk thing is an inside joke with my Canadaian friends.

It's a Spiegel Crock Pot!

2007-03-13T07:37:00.000-04:00

(Bonus points if you got the title of this post)

The rest of my week is going to be crazy. I'm running here and there and I'm working on top of everything else. Weeks like this I like to pull out my crock pot and let someone else do the cooking for me. To that end, this morning I was Googling some chicken recipes and came across a fantastic site. It's called "That's My Home" and besides having sections on conversions and substitutions, they have a big section of recipes. Tonight we're going to have Crock Pot Chicken Italian and Potatoes. I'll let you know how it goes.

Crock Pot Italian Chicken and Potatoes

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 C. Italian salad dressing

2 t. Italian seasoning

1 C. grated parmesan cheese

5 to 6 potatoes; peeled, cut into wedges

Place chicken in bottom of crock pot. Sprinkle with half Italian dressing, spices, and the grated cheese. Place potatoes over chicken. Sprinkle with remaining ingredients.

Cover; cook on low 6-8 hours.

The Little Mermaid

2007-03-09T17:14:00.000-05:00

We finally made it over to the pottery place to pick up G's mermaid. Never mind that it's been a month since it's been fired. I was totally impressed with the way it came out. I know I've glazed some pottery in my day but it never came out this nicely. Ty says he's going to teach her calligraphy since she's an artist now. Apparently she needs to learn how to sign her name prettier. Gotta love Bullwinkle.

That Apple Sure Didn't Fall Far

2007-03-08T23:27:00.000-05:00

Tonight S3 handed me a paper he'd had to write for his comp. class about our family's Christmas traditions. He wrote a really nice little essay about waking up and having a fantastic breakfast at a beautifully decorated table before opening gifts and then traveling on to grandparents' homes to continue the festivities. He wrote it in such a way that it sounds magical, wonderful and oh so very Martha Stewart-ish. It's all made up.

I asked him if it was supposed to be a story or if it was supposed to be factual. He said, "Well the teacher said it's supposed to be our real traditions but how is she going to know?"

That's my boy!

The Way In the Wilderness

2007-03-07T12:25:00.000-05:00

Ty had his fourth grade Chapel program today and I managed to not sleep through it this time (poor Grace). They did a little skit of Moses being placed in the Nile as a baby and then they did a second skit of Moses after he'd led the Israelites out of Egypt. Ty was in the second skit as an Israelite. I did film the entire second skit and it is available to watch - all seven minutes of it - on YouTube.com and it is rather funny at times but I clipped just a small piece of it for you guys.

First a couple of pictures. The pillar of fire was awesome; it glowed from within. Ty is off to the far right.

Afterward I took a pic of Ty (left) and two of his buddies. When I looked closer at the pic I had to laugh at the kid in the background beating the papier-mâché rock the minute the show was over.

Ok, ok so here's the video.

WIP: Basket of Poppies & Bookmark

2007-03-07T11:37:00.000-05:00

I am making this hardanger freebie pattern into a bookmark but I don't have all the required threads so while I wait for those to make an appearance, I started a petit point by Gitta's that I bought at the Hershey CATS show last autumn. It's on 40 count silk gauze and although it's hard to tell from a photograph on the internet, the total fabric size is only 5x7. The piece I have stitched is about the size of a half-dollar.

When complete, it'll look like the picture on the right. My work-in-progress (WIP) pictures are below.