To the Moon ...or just the farm

Josh and Andy were up early this morning. Today was the day the 5th graders left for their trip to Houston. They had to be at school by 6:15 in order to load the bus at 6:30 and hit the road by 6:45. Josh packed himself. I let him. I did, however, give him the old, "Okay, so you did remember, clean underwear, socks, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste. Right?" I got a hug in response and the typical, "Yes, Mooooooooooooom."

Even though I was sure he did pack them, sometimes you just have to ask. I guess you never stop being a mom, huh? He's only 11 for goodness sake but he's been packing (or mostly packing) himself for a couple years for his trips to Iowa to see his dad. So, he's well versed in how to pack (roll your stuff) and what to pack.

Drew had a big day today as well. Today was Mrs. Powell's class' operetta of The Little Red Hen. They did a fantastic job. I recorded the whole thing, of course, on video. Drew played the little dog that worked at the mill. The teacher would read the story and then they would sing parts (some solo, some as a group) to talk more about the story.

It made me laugh because when I turned my head briefly, the entire front and back row was nothing but camcorders and cameras. It was funny.

Ben didn't know what was going on. He just knew he was in a big room and there were lots of people. When Drew took his place on stage, Ben instantly recognized the voice and started waving his arms and making noises to say, "Hey, that's my brother, Drew, up there!" Everyone commented after it was over that that was so cute.

It was rather fun.

This morning went surprisingly smoothly. I actually was able to get up, make cinnamon rolls for Drew (his favorite), feed Ben his milk, cereal (he eats dry Honeycomb) and then give him a cinnamon roll, too. I even got my hair "did"! I didn't wear a baseball cap and pony tail. I don't think half the parents recognized me since that's typically my "mom uniform." And frankly, I hate having hairs in my face. I always seem to fix my hair when the dern wind is blowing. ANNOYING!

So, today, we sent one off to the moon and left the second one at the farm. The mornings starting out great!

Random Wednesday

The Agony of Defeat.
Drew's big game was last night. They went into this game 10-0 facing another undefeated team, The Bulls. The Bulls are this organization's big winner. They're a tough team. We saw why. Amazingly quick. The skills these kids have at the age they are is unbelievable! They were three shy of their roster, too. Did you know that some coaches tell kids to stay home on game days so that they don't have automatic outs on their rosters and can focus on just the "good kids" on their team? I sure hope that wasn't the case. They can hit, they can field, they can catch. Triple threat. We got beat. I say we because I know the parents wanted this for their kids just as much (if not more) than the kids did. Who DOESN'T want to beat THE BEST?

There were a few kids that were extremely upset but kept their composure together. They were just outplayed and frankly, that's just what happens in baseball. Sometimes you beat and sometimes you get beat.

I like the way Cliff put it on my Facebook page, "It's a good life lesson, just don't let it happen again."

Boxing Breakfast
This morning I'm boxin' it... that's right, we're doing cereal. After a late game, a later dinner (Jet's Pizza--yum!) I let the boys sleep 5 minutes late and have cereal. I knew they could finish quickly and lay back down before school if they wanted to. We're all tired. As I type that, I look over to see Ben asleep in his high chair. He never really woke up this morning... he's never slept in his high chair. Crazy.

Gnarly Knees
Today also brings a trip to the doctor for me. My knees are shredded. Literally. I have fluid on both. They're swollen. Who would have thought that exercise was BAD for you? If my knees are this bad from doing something GOOD for me... I can't imagine how the knees on people that are grava-portal from being morbidly obese feel. So, I'll call Dr. Green and see if he can get me in. Andy said it's a sign I'm getting older, that I should have worked my way into a running routine. I say, "Hogwash!" I like running. You get where you're going faster. I did have a dull ache on Saturday but I ran through it. I'm always telling Josh to run through the pain (of whatever) so who would I be if I didn't follow the same philosophy? So, I ran through the pain... and now, four days later my knees are STILL killing me. It hurts to lay, it hurts to walk, it hurts to sit, it hurts to get up, it hurts to do just about anything. They.Hurt. Waah!

Wishful thinking
I had another location set up on my phone for weather reports and the like -- Estes Park, Colorado. I received a weather alert last night while at the baseball game. They were under a winter weather advisory. Sigh. Can you imagine? In May, having a winter weather advisory? How simply divine. I miss Colorado.

Weight Watchers
I've lost a total of 17.4 pounds. Then I went back off the diet to enjoy Mother's Day weekend. And, I'm still not back on (you did read I ate pizza last night, right?) I'm sure I'll gain back some but I'll get back on it in a day or so. My goal is to weigh what I did almost 13 years ago... so I'm shooting for the 120s. They say when you dream, to dream big, so I am!

Girl's Weekend
Christie and I booked our cabin for Oklahoma last Friday. It's an awesome two-bedroom cabin in the middle of no where with a hot tub and we're going to enjoy the solitude. I'm going to take some books, my laptop (a girl's gotta blog), my camera... I hope to fish, and hike and eat good food. It's always nice to go away with another woman because then the cooking AND clean up duties are shared. What a concept, huh?

Random Piles
If you were to walk in my house right now, that's what you'd see. I need to get photos of stuff and get it up on Craig's List and/or e-bay. I didn't participate in the neighborhood garage sale because I got up at 6am to see who else was setting up and NO ONE was. I didn't want to be the only one to do it so I'm considering doing the fall sale instead. Nevermind that we have NEVER been able to do anything in the fall because of sports. It's a noble thought though, right? I am just ready to get rid of all the maternity clothes and now all the baby clothes from birth to 12 months and all the other various items that have been placed in the garage sale piles taht seem to be growing in every corner of my house. I'm wondering if the tax write-off would be a better use of my time? Hee hee hee

That's the news for now. Carry on.

Stereotypical gender color assignments

Pink is for girls. Blue is for boys. It's just the ways of the world, right? I truly believe that for the most part. Girls can obviously wear whatever color they want to. The same holds true for boys. I mean, Drew wore a pink shirt on Easter a year or so ago. Furthermore, I remember very clearly in the 80s when every guy had a pink shirt in his closet. But, shouldn't those kids be given a choice if they want to wear such a TYPICAL gender-specific colored shirt?

I'm a mom of boys. Three of them. Two are in a private school. A private school that likes to make a new t-shirt for everything. Field Day was no exception. Pay $5 and your child can have their Field Day t-shirt and wear it on Field Day and it's so exciting. I'm thinking... a cardinal red t-shirt that says something like "FWC Field Day" on it. But it was something different altogether. Each teacher was able to select the color of said Field Day t-shirt and Josh's teacher. Yeah, she selected FUCHSIA!?! He saw the t-shirt and was mortified. These are young men... who are starting to develop a sense of style and of their own identity. They have to conform to uniform regulation day in and day out. This teacher is in a class in which the majority of her students are BOYS and she chooses FUCHSIA?!! I just think it's wrong. My son was mortified. Yeah, it's just a shirt color but if you're choosing something for an entire classroom -- there are so many other colors under the rainbow she could have chosen and different hues of each that's it's just... pathetic, at best... to force such a GIRLIE color upon these boys.

Flash forward to this morning. I went to a parent's meeting about a school trip for the 5th grade class. They leave in their red uniform shirt and then during the day one day, they're to wear their Field Day t-shirts. This trip went from awesome, to something he's simply going tolerate now. He hates pink THAT much.

And frankly, I don't blame him. I do, too.

We skipped Field Day the first grade year because the t-shirts were LAVENDER tie-dye. Seriously, people.... I'm sure that 95% of elementary teachers are women but just because they're estrogen factories sportin' mammaries, doesn't mean that 95% of students share the same anatomy. Do you students a favor.... pick something a little less GIRL.

I'm annoyed, so I wrote a note to the principal. I'm sure my kids will be blacklisted now but I've never been one to sit idly by when I see an injustice.

Falling off the wagon....

... yeah, that's me. I fell off the bloggin' wagon again. It's a difficult thing to do when you have a toddler attached to you at night. So, I'm enjoying those moments rather than saving them for posterity.

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there. We had a very low-key, no-stress kind of day (my favorite). I got up and went to get the boys some donuts. Drew went with me. He loves the fact that it has a drive through so he can go in his underwear. Oh the simple joys of being a kid. Ben polished off 1 1/2 glazed donuts. Drew gave me his gift since he was up first. At school, they made a tote bag (smaller one, not full sized) and it has thumb prints on it that were made into butterflies and flowers. It's very cute. He also did a little book where he wrote and colored pictures for me. I'll share it when I find it.

I hollered up at Josh (because I'm all classy like that) and frankly, if I'm getting up to get you donuts, the least you can do is get up to eat them with everyone. He came draggin' bootie down the stairs and then he and Drew brought in a huge vase of flowers for me... (again, pictures are forth coming - I have no computer right now capable of reading the flash cards).

Then I took the little guy to go lay down for a nap (it's important to nap after eating donuts, you know?)

Josh and Drew went swimming across the street. And what were my last words? "WEAR SUNSCREEN" and I told him where it was. Now, it's a day later and GUESS who is FRIED?! Yeah, that'd be Josh. And the dip$hit has a sun shirt. I bought him a white one to wear so he didn't get burned on the shoulders. I know that's mean but... Um... you kind of have it coming if you don't listen to mom, right?

I drove to meet my friend, Manny, who was going to attempt to fix the computer and then came home. I was intending to go try on some sandals as I have NO sandals. I wish I still had my Borns. I loved those shoes. Andy's old dog, Thor, peed all over them... and you can't just wash out the porous soles of the sandals so they were pitched. I was so pissed (no pun intended). So, until I get some sandals it's flip flops or not much else. Honestly, even though I didn't have a baby in tow, I wasn't in the mood to shop (shocker, huh?) so I just came home.

Andy's mom came by for about 10 minutes it seemed and then left.

We went to Fuddruckers (at my request) for lunch.

Exciting thing (I suppose) is that the Dallas Maverick's sweeped the LA Lakers. That's about all the current news I have. I guess sometimes watching TV would be a good thing, huh? I can honestly say that I haven't missed it one iota.

Saturday Drew's team went 10-0 and remains undefeated... Joshs' team held an undefeated team to the last inning and gave up 6 runs. It's sometimes so painful to watch. He's got another game tonight. Hopefully they'll have their A-game. I guess they all can't be winners. At least he's having fun, right? Ha!

I took Mom to eat at Red Lobster today for Mother's Day. Benji did great. I mean, he tossed every single thing he could get his hands on in the floor, but he did great. I love that he's much more portable now. Things are getting better.

My best friend, Christie, is finally getting rid of her parasite of a boyfriend and has moved onto greener pastures.... and for that, I am TRULY thankful. I hope that her ex's face winds up on the side of a milk box... he won't be missed.

We're into the final weeks of MOPS, school, Mom's League and baseball. Then, it's onto summer summer summertime! Wonder what kind of crazy trouble we can get into this summer?! :)

Stay tuned to find out.

You know you're unlucky....

.... when the ONE day that you (and Ben, for that matter) can sleep in.... is ruined by a 6 year old who loudly opens your door and then forcibly closes it not once, not twice but three times (obviously, waking Ben up) asking you in the loudest whisper known to man,

"Mom, how do you spell 'republic?'"

Seriously... seriously... kid?

UGH.

Happy Friday.

When it rains...

There are lots of cliches for the seasons and experiences you go through in life. For instance, the title to this post "When it rains... it pours." I'm living proof of that right now.


These last two weeks have been just about all I can stand... and to quote Popeye, "... and I can't stands no more!"

What's happened?

Well, you start out with one kid waking you up on Monday with an ear ache so bad he's in tears. Knowing what a high pain tolerance Drew has, I knew it was bad. Ben had been running a fever and started pulling at one ear so I suspected he had one working as well.


Dr. Knapp said that on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being a ruptured ear drum, Drew was an 8 1/2. Ben about a 4. Ben had a double ear infection. Drew was just the one ear. C'est la vie.


However, whatever was going on with Ben was more than his ears. I was having to carry him everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE. It really became exhausting. I couldn't even eat lunch without him SCREAMING and CRYING while tugging on my pant legs at the table.


And frankly, I don't know about you but if I'm going to have a meal, I'd like to do so in some peaceful, quiet, enjoyable manner... or while accomplishing something.


So, what's a mom of a screaming toddler to do?


I ate out, of course.

EVERY.

SINGLE.

DAY!


The only way I was able to eat lunch was during Ben's "happy time."


When was his happy time? It was a) when he was asleep, b) when he was being carried, or c) when he was in the car. That's it. That's when he was quiet and so that's what I did. You just do what you gotta do.

So, that's not so bad, right? Couple sick kids. No problem.


Come to find out on Friday night someone had stolen our Visa debit card number and had lovingly charged up $2400 at Lowes... in Louisiana. Thankfully we got that taken care of. I feel badly for the stores that have that happen to them. It really makes me angry for people that are so dishonest and those that steal. I'd like to kick them in the shin... for starters.... while wearing steel-toed boots.


And the whole refrigerator saga. Our side-by-side hasn't been fully functional for a while. I mean, it freezes and it refrigerates (or it did) but the water dispenser wasn't working. We had a repair guy come out and he told us that this particular model, the only way to fix it was to empty the unit, unplug it and keep the doors open so that it'd thaw out. Um.. yeah, not happening.

For some other reason, the ice dispenser kept having a build up which would jam the plastic thingy (it's an industry term) that spins and pulls the ice forward and down into the shoot. Well, it got so jammed, it broke so now the ice maker didn't dispense. No biggie, I can live with opening the freezer to get ice. Whoopie.

However, those are two extra features that aren't necessary. They're nice to have and frankly, who wants to spend money to fix an old fridge just for "fluffy" reasons? Not me, I'm cheap. So when I go to make breakfast and every.single.egg is frozen. That's a problem. All my produce? Yeah, it's frozen too. My milk? It's a block of ice. The refrigerator is freezing all my fresh food. I draw the line there.

I call the repairman. We're scheduled. HE calls me to talk about it and it'll be a $300 piece. So that means in the last 3 years, we would have sunk nearly $800 into a fridge that STILL won't do all it's DESIGNED to do. We'd had enough and so we started looking. That's SO ... so... not fun.

I found one... Andy found one. Everyone said to look at Lowe's. They had a great sale. We got a GE Profile French Door fridge ORDERED.... Yeah, so it's ordered. Has been for a couple weeks. It's not here. Doesn't do a lot of good, huh? Supposedly it's going to be delivered in the next week. Who knows. But there's another ka-ching that we didn't expect. But we did get an excellent deal on it. And now it has a warranty.

Monday, before Drew's baseball practice, Josh needs help on math so I start flipping through his workbook to see where he needed help... LAWDY the grades in there were NOT making me happy. He's making LESS than stellar math grades -- OVER STUFF WE LEARNED LAST YEAR!

OK, "we" didn't learn it. I taught, he learned. He was making 100's when I taught this stuff...he said he "liked" math and that it was his favorite subject and now he's back to saying, "I can't do this" and he "hates math" and the self-esteem thing... yeah, kaput in the math department. I jumped his tail about the attitude. Grrrrr... (and the grades!)

So, he doesn't get finished with his math homework before we have to leave for Drew's baseball practice. Josh has a game starting at 7:45 p.m. (on a school night -- they're stupid -- the planners...that's crazy late for these kids!)

Drew and I get home from his practice. Andy and Josh are at Josh's game. I go to tuck Drew in upstairs and he looks at his alarm clock (it has an internal temperature reader on it). "Mom, it's 90 degrees in here." I was like -- you know, it IS really warm. I go to check. THE FREAKIN AIR CONDITIONER WON'T EVEN TURN ON.

SHOOT ME NOW.

I just tell him to grab his pillow and he can sleep on the couch. It's a major treat for him. I lock up the dogs, put Drew on the couch and I'm just freakin DONE with the day.

I KNEW our bedroom AC has to be replaced ($4200) and I certainly don't want the upstairs to do the same.... can you see all the ka-ching ka-ching ka-chings happening in my life? STRESS MUCH?

But wait, there's more...

Ben is swinging yesterday and I hear the computer fan making a weird noise so I go shut it down before it wakes him up. No biggie, right?

Only to find out later in the day, when I try to turn it back on, it's dead. Oh yeah, you guessed it. NOTHING. This is my tower. My tower with EVERYTHING ON IT! I'm nearly in tears.

Oh, it gets better...

While I'm over there figuring that out, I hear a loud crash and stuff breaking. The stupid dog was jacking around or got tangled up in the electrical cord for my SCENTSY WARMER that was TURNED ON and he got hot cinnamon wax all over the (newly painted) wall and trim and floor and Josh's new Dallas Cowboys shirt and the 5T ski bibs that were going to go in the attic and... yeah..

We had to leave for baseball practice and if I had to go over there to start cleaning it up, I would have burst into tears. My little world is falling apart all around me I fear (it's my pity party... I know that's not true but when everything seems to happen in such a short time span it really, truly, completely sucks.)

I pull out of the drive way and head down the road.

"What's that white stuff?" asks Josh.

"What white stuff?" I ask.

"That stuff on the ground," he says.

I see nothing.

Drew pipes in, "Those are raindrops on the windshield. DUH!" (Sarcasm is genetic.)

I honestly agree with Drew, however.

Then I saw it. One.... then two... then three...

Yeah, hail. I'm thinking... you know.... lets take cover. I pull over into a car wash stall and sit there... and then it hits. Marble sized hail just starts to POUR!

Wouldn't that have just been the stellar ending to this whirlpool of Murphy's Law that I'm drowning in? It stops, I pull out... and think better of it and back in again. Round two comes down harder.

"Smart move, Mom," Josh gives me.

We start for the fields. Andy calls to say we should wait because it's bad over the fields right now. We go to Sonic and get the kids something to eat. The storm passes, it's nice and sticky humid. Head to the feels. Practice is canceled. Ugh!

We go home. I'm done with life for the day. I want to check out.

So, instead of having a diet dinner last night and staying "on plan" I had a pb&j for dinner ... and a big ole piece of chocolate chip cookie pie for dessert after getting home from about an hour at the FWC varsity baseball game.

Habit

Amazing how it's a habit. When you're in the habit of doing it, it's no big deal at all. When you're out of the habit it's like... almost a chore to get back in the habit of doing it. BUT, my crappy memory doesn't serve me well and if I want my memories then, by golly, I've got to get in the habit of doing it! Consider this post one of me being back in the habit! :) As I do this friendly little reminder containing snippits of my day, I'm hearing the lullaby of the electric Fisher-Price swing to and fro and a little whiney, double-ear-infected baby giving a big "MMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmm" moan because he's irritated at being in there. However, this small respite for me is much needed. You see, when he is ill, he wants to be held. ALL.THE.TIME. My arms are SO tired and my patience is SO thin. Today was much better, mind you, but seriously, Mama needs a little break. Today, I was domestic. I:

• cleaned the playroom. This was much needed since everything that seemed to be out belonged in some type of receptacle and those were scattered about on the floor which meant that there were pieces parts everywhere (those of you that even caught that 80s commercial reference... I'm lovin' ya!)


• vacuumed the playroom (isn't it amazing how filthy carpet can get when you've turned a carpeted room into a playroom? I'm contemplating getting it cleaned next week.


• purged more in the refrigerator (see below)


• vacuumed my wonderful new carpet in my bedroom (finally, after two years... we have carpet in the bedroom. It's shag carpet. Funny, they call shag carpet "frieze" to make it sound fancy. However, anyone that grew up in the 70's knows carpet that isn't Berber or "regular" is "shag.")


• cleaned my bedroom (this involves removing everything the children haul in on a daily basis that apparently needs to stay there after they leave (grrr))


• showered before noon (shocker, yes, I know since us stay at home moms tend to do absolutely nothing but watch soaps and eat bon-bons) What exactly is a bon-bon, anyway?


• planned on making an entirely home-cooked comfort meal (chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and biscuits... is your mouth watering yet?) That was, however, until Andy came home and said he'd go pick up dinner because he was taking the boys for a haircut. Truth is, they need it BADLY. They look "shaggy" just like my carpet!


• I lost a friend today. He didn't die. He just decided he couldn't be my friend. C'est la vie.


• I made two new friends today! Does that make me "even Steven" like on Seinfeld?


• I filled out my paperwork for Northwood MOPS for next year!


• I picked out two summer camps for Drew to attend.


• I filled out Josh's summer camp paperwork.


• I reserved the clubhouse for an end-of-school swimming party for the K classes.


• I did more "stuff" but nothing else totally noteworthy.

About the refrigerator... we have this great side-by-side refrigerator. It is black. It works fine AS A REFRIGERATOR and a FREEZER. The ice maker works but the dispenser that is on the door does not. The water dispenser on the door is FROZEN so in order for THAT to work, we'd need to empty the unit, unplug it, let it stand 8+ hours so that it would UNfreeze. That still won't fix the ice dispenser -- it's shot! We've already sunk over $500 into this unit on various repairs so when my milk... eggs... produce and what not started to FREEZE ... in the REFRIGERATOR side, I'd had enough.

It was going to be another $300 to get it repaired this time and we just said NO WAY! That was far more than this hunka junk was worth so we were soon on the hunt for a new fridge (last week).

I spent about 20.6 minutes and realized how NOT FUN this process was. I e-mailed Andy and said that I'd rather have my pubic hairs plucked out one by one while being forced to listen to Nancy Pelosi speeches while eating chocolate covered piees of dog crap.... before I spend another minute of my life looking for a fridge. He could do it OR I'd just use the extra fridge in the garage. He started his search. He is looking at the higher end ones (french doors, etc.) I found one for $800 that was pretty much a duplicate of what we currently have. He said no. We found our new GE Profile at Lowes and got a SWEET deal on it so... supposedly it will be here sometime before the end of the month.

As it stands, in the meantime, I'm just trying to use up all the food in it so that I can stock it with fresh, new and improved food! Ha!

Well, I guess Captain Pampers is done singing me songs with his MMM MMM MMM (I hate that MMM MMM MMM song by the Crash Test Dummies, don't you? "ONCE there was this boy who...") it's official whines, now. Got to go.

Hey blog-o-mine, lets make this a habit now? Kay?