Baseball and more baseball

It has started. The it is baseball season. The boys are on a Travel team, which gets a little more serious (and competitive) than the regular leagues. They played in a pre-season tournament this past weekend. Two games on Saturday and one on Sunday. I think these provide a lot of good practice for the kids.

It unfortunately was not a warm weekend. It was a bit chilly although the sun was shining and many people got sun from watching both games.


I am not sure why we have white uniforms. It will never look as nice as it did on the first day that is for sure. I do not have a picture of Jay because he was having major issues Saturday morning as we were getting him ready. Lots of crying. Sunday went much better after our talk. But on Sunday they were running late and I was not able to snap a photo.


EE pitched 3 innings at the game on Sunday and did extremely well. He really enjoys pitching.

Jay on third. He pitched a few inning at the second game on Saturday. He also pitches well.

Tee and I only made it to one game. I knew that Tee would not be able to make a day at the ball field. We went to the second game on Saturday.

No he is not a little ham or anything.

Both boys had some really great plays on Sunday that I missed.

Our normal season will be; a game on Wednesday evenings, practice on Friday and a game on Sundays.

Oh boys.....

Yesterday morning after the bus left, I was standing outside talking to my neighbor. Tee was playing waiting for me to be done. I see him walking down the side of our house towards our fence. Then he decides to pull down his pants and use the bathroom. He wet his clothes in the process. This weekend I was a little lazy and didn't want to bring him inside to use the restroom so I let him go outside. I guess maybe next time I should bring him inside. But I wish I had my camera because it would have been a really cute picture.

After going all winter with NO breathing treatments, we are back on them temporarily. Tee has been non-stop coughing for the last few days. The cough came on suddenly and hasn't let up. He is wheezing a bit also. Hopefully, we will be able to get rid of this soon.

A gorgeous weekend

The weekend was gorgeous. The temperature was in the 70’s and the sun was shining. It was a great weekend to be outside and that is where we were most of the weekend.

We cleaned out our messy garage on Saturday. We threw a lot of stuff away and are starting to get ready for the garage sale that the neighborhood is having in May. It is so nice to see a clean garage although I am sure it won’t stay clean for long.

Saturday night was a good night for smores. We started our fire in the fire pit and started roasting marshmallows. A few minutes after I sat down I see smoke coming from my back door neighbor’s garage. I then see the daughter running with a fire extinguisher. We immediately called the fire dept. Luckily, they were able to get the fire out with the extinguisher and no one was terribly hurt. I am not sure about the damage but I think it was mostly just in the garage. They may have had some smoke travel inside the house but I am not sure.

The neighbors had a deep fat fryer on in their garage which caught on fire. This is the 2nd time we have witnessed someone almost catching their house on fire with one of these. The first time was many years ago. The people were using it on their deck a little too close to the house. They were able to get the fire out but it did burn some of the siding on the back of the house. The one on Saturday was our 2nd time but our kids also witnessed this one.

Both of the older boys said their legs were shaking they were so scared. We talked a lot about fires and what do to if we have one in the house. We showed them how to open their windows if they can’t leave out the bedroom doors. We promised them we would purchase extinguishers for each level of our house. We talked more on Sunday.

EE looked at me this morning and said he couldn’t sleep because all he was thinking about was the fire. He had these really big bags under his eyes this morning before he left. He was up around 6am today. I am not sure what to say to make him feel more secure.

I am getting real

There comes a time when you have to get real (as Dr. Phil would say). This is my time. The neighbor I spoke about in the previous post called me on Wednesday and asked that I return the call. I did not return the call because I knew exactly what she would say. In fact, no matter what I would say she would have an excuse. Why bother.

I do not like confrontations. I am not very good at them. I always forget to mention the important facts.

Yesterday, the Mom walked to my house after the bus stop. She approached and said she wanted to talk about the email I sent her. She was so hurt by my email and wished that I would have called her to talk about the situation. She did not think I wanted the lesson. And she is hurt that I think she is the kind of person who would do something like this.

My response was that we had a conversation in which she almost insisted we take the lesson slot. Again she replied that she did not remember, but she did remember to change the lesson on Monday from 1 hour to ½ hour since the other kids were not going to be able to make it (forgot to mention that part).

She mentioned several times how she was hurt by my email waiting for me to apologize. The apology never came. I feel like my email stated the facts and left out the other information I found out, some of it I believe to be false.

We went back and forth a few times and never really got anywhere. She was looking for an apology and I don’t know that I really wanted anything out of it.

I wish that I cared a little more but don’t for many reasons. She is the type of person who targets people that are needy, for lack of a better word. She likes to help people out but only so that she can brag about her ability to be superwoman. I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard of her having 20 kids over to play and then serving them lunch and dinner. Or she will take neighborhood kids to the movies and dinner (to nice restaurants, not fast food). She always has kids sleep over. And it really just goes on and on.

Not only does she brag about all of her kind acts but she also likes to talk about people. She doesn’t like one of her neighbors and has mentioned it to me several times. She talks about kids that she does not like her child to have as a play mate. I really could write a novel but I will not bore you with more.

This will put an end of her trying to wrap me up in something that she will not follow through with as has happened in the past. She is a neighbor and I will most certainly be cordial to her. That will be the extent. It will make for an interesting baseball season.

Ridiculous is all I can say

I have a neighbor which I have written about some. She is the one who got my boys on her son’s basketball team. She is not happy with the public school we attend. She was mentioned in the Liars I wrote about recently. When I speak with her I never know if everything she says is BS or only part. I have gotten along with her fine until today.

Our kids are on the same baseball team. We have been practicing for the last 6 weeks. She has been taking her child to an indoor facility for additional lessons.

She mentioned that she thought it would be nice to have all 3 boys take a lesson together. I was ok with that as it would not hurt my kids to get a little more practice in before the season starts.

We spoke at the end of last month and she had 2 dates set. She thought I would send one of my kids for each lesson while her child would attend both lessons. I told her that I wanted to take both of my kids, not split them up. After a little hesitation, her response was that it should work. I gave her many opportunities to back out; including that of calling the coach first to ensure it was ok. She said that she had already spoken with him and that it was ok.

A few days prior to the lesson she calls me and says the coach said that 3 kids were too much. It would be better for me to take my 2 alone. She wanted me to take my kids to the first date but I ended up having a few conflicts. She insisted I use the second date and she would have our names put on this list.

Well, today is the day that I am supposed to take my boys for their lesson. I decided to call and verify the time. The lady at the facility knows my neighbor. She told me, my neighbor called on Monday to change the lesson to ½ hour as the other kids (that would be us) were not going to be able to make it.

I am so glad I called, because I would have been really HOT (more so than I am now) had I rushed my kids through their afternoon to get them down to the facility (30 plus minutes) only to turn around and come home.

A phone call would have been nice. I really don’t care about the lesson. It is a beautiful afternoon and now we will be able to enjoy some outside time after school.

I have emailed my neighbor regarding the situation. I decided calling her at the time was not a good idea. A few other lies were mentioned in the conversation I had with the lady at the facility. I know that she will make up some story about how she forgot or misunderstood or something. I can’t wait to hear what she has to say. I am sure it will make for another good blog post.

30 Seconds

My friend mentioned a St. Patty’s day 5K (March 14th) that she and her husband were going to do. When I mentioned I was going to run, my husband said he would run also. Cute! The 4 of us would run.

A few weeks ago when we were all together I started talking schmack. Oh, how I love talking schmack. Of the 4 of us, I am the one who routinely works out and runs. My friend challenged her husband so I felt compelled to challenge mine.

A week prior to the race I started regretting my schmack talking just a little. I haven’t had many opportunities to run outside (thanks to the weather) but do run on the treadmill. The problem is that running outside is so much different (harder) than running on the treadmill. So last Tuesday, after preschool drop off I came home and ran 3.2 miles. It hurt a bit as we have huge hills in our neighborhood. My time was not where I wanted it to be either. I was still thinking I had a slight chance; my husband has not been working out or running. My friend’s husband ended up backing out because he got sick and was put on medication. Whatever!

It rained on Friday right through Saturday. We all agreed that we do not run in the rain, so we kept track of the forecast for Sunday. Sunday at around 11:30 am we decided we were a go. The race started at 1:15.

There were so many people cramped into the street. A lot of people were sporting their lucky green. Me I had on my lucky pink. We had placed ourselves kind of in the middle of the pack. The horn finally blew and people started taking off. Shortly after I crossed the starting point, I tripped on something and fell. My first thought was I was going to be trampled by a bunch of people. Luckily, my husband saw and reached back to help me up. Not a great start.

My husband ended up taking off ahead of me and I did not see him until the turn around point. He was not that far ahead of me but far enough that I knew I wasn’t going to catch him. It seems like I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to maneuver around people during the run.

Well, my husband beat me by 30 seconds. 30 freaking seconds. A good wife probably would have shaken his hand and said nice job especially because he has not prepared at all. Not me! I will find another race. No, me competitive, not one bit.

A funny or two

When EE and Jay were young, I kept a journal for them. I tried to do the journal monthly to each of them. I decided separate journals were too much to keep up with so I wrote in just one to both. Life got busy and I stopped but then I created this blog. I will keep this for them so they know what I was thinking and what they were doing. I think in the future it will be a nice thing to look back on.

I have been trying to clean up my computer lately (my husband tells me I have too much stuff on here that is making it go slow). I found a file of the journals I kept that dated back to January 2006 and this is what I wrote with name modifications:

The boys (all three of EE, Jay and Dad) were outside while I was cleaning the house, specifically the kitchen floors. E came to the back door and said he needed to go potty. I told him he needed to go outside (boys are good this way) as the floors were wet and I didn’t want him coming in at that time. So he is outside takes his pants down and tries to get in position to go poop. The husband catches him and asks him what he is doing. E tells his Dad he has to go poop but I won’t let him in the house. I could not stop laughing when they came to the front door to be let in.

There must have not been much going on that month for this to have been the highlight.
*************************************************************************************
Jay was so excited the other day and showed me a worksheet he had completed in Media.

I am not sure if you can read that well. He had to describe what he did in the past and compare with what he does now. The first item, he peed on Mom when he was a baby but now he pees on the toilet. Such wonderful illustrations to do with it also. The nicest thing is that his brother was and still is his best friend.
*************************************************************************************

My husband went on a day trip the other day. After dinner, he took a box out of his bag and said he had brought something home for me. And this is what it was:

Two pens. And he was a little disappointed when I did not jump up and down from excitement. How do I break it to him that 2 really nice pens just won't do it for me?

Will the time change help?

Boy oh boy or more like boys oh boys! I am not sure what is going on in this household lately.

My tantrum throwing toddler, Tee, has been up between 5 and 5:30 for the last week or so. Doesn’t he know his Momma needs more sleep than that? The tantrums are mostly ridiculous (but I guess normal for a 3 year old). Some of the time, if I laugh, his tantrum will go away. But other times I am the one who goes away.

Jay has been waking up early also. He is also up at least one time during the night to go to the bathroom. Yes, good that he can wake up to go to the bathroom but at some point shouldn’t he be able to hold it?

EE is the best sleeper of the bunch but many times get woken by his brothers.

All this sleeplessness is making getting along a bit difficult. There is a lot of bickering going on between the three of them. Yes, they will argue with the 3 year old. I by no means think the 3 year old should get what he wants but some arguments are unbelievable. The early mornings provide more time for arguments. Aren’t I lucky!

A rule in this house is that NO DS will be played until after all homework is complete. We do allow the boys to play DS on weekend morning. As Tee was going back and forth from my room to where the boys were, I asked him what his brothers were doing. He told me EE was playing DS while Jay watched. This did not sit well with me. The household rule is very clear and has been broken by both EE and Jay.

The punishment was no game playing (DS or WII) today. But the more I think about it the more I think he should be without for several days. This is not his first offense. And should his brother be punished for watching him? He knows the rules. He might as well been playing.

The DS has been removed from EE’s room until I can gain trust once again. And based on my previous post about lying, trust is not something you can gain back easily.

Maybe this time change will allow my guys to sleep in a little later, be well rested and shorten the time in the morning prior to school.

Liar.....Liar.....pants on fire

I have found myself explaining the difference between the truth and a lie to my 3 year old. What happens is that I will see him do something he is not supposed to be doing and tell him to stop what ever it is. Then he says “mommy I not doing anything”. Well, obviously he did do something or I would not have said anything to him. Oh, I hope one day it will sink in.

We read the Berenstain Bear’s book about the truth often. Believe it or not he picks it out. By the way, the Berenstain books are really good; they typically have a very good moral lesson. That Momma bear is so smart. I can relate to her. Ha!Ha!

Anyway, in the book about the truth, the young bears break Momma’s favorite lamp but blame it on a bird. The lying does not go so well and they confess. Tee thinks the point of the story is that they are not supposed to play soccer in the house (instead of lying to their parents). The bears do feel really bad and they help Momma fix the lamp.

When I think of lying, I think of kids lying to their parents, friends or teachers. But recently, I have determined that so many adults lie. Adult liars are not good ones. I think the brain is a little more fried and they forget what they tell you and it goes on to another lie.

At baseball, the last 2 Monday I have sat with the same Mom. On both Mondays, I heard the same story about the previous weekend. It was about her son having someone stay the night with him and then she finds out the child had lice or could have had lice. Ok, bad that I wasn’t really listening to the story and I did hear it 2 times. A few of the details changed, like the second time she didn’t mention having someone in to clean her carpets. Unfortunately, I tend not to believe much of what this Mom says. I have found her to be the type of person who always needs to be praised for how much she does. I think she tells half truths.

The other story that blows my mind is about our neighbors. I heard from the wife that her husband wants to go somewhere over spring break. She went on to tell me everywhere he suggested and how she doesn’t want to go there for one reason or another. We spoke to her husband this weekend and he said he was looking for somewhere to go because his wife thought they needed to go somewhere. He would prefer to just stay home during the break. What?

These are just 2 examples. I have witnessed many others.

Does anyone tell the truth any more? What is it with people? Is it more fun to make up stuff than tell the truth? Does it help them to make someone else look bad? Or is it just blabber to fill the conversation?

I am going to give this more thought. I hope I am not telling lies. Hmm……

I heart preschool

Tee loves his preschool. I am sure that he still plays mostly on his own but is good for him to be around other kids his age. He talks a lot about his friends at school especially if they misbehave.



Plus I get cute artwork like the picture above. He told his Dad this was for his Mommy.



I have secured a spot for Tee in preschool for the next school year at our Church. Last year, the church moved from a rented spot to a church they built. Funds ran low and the preschool wing was put on hold. Well, the preschool wing is now complete and will be ready for the pitter pat of little feet in the fall. I am very happy with placing him in this program.

The program will run from 9:15-11:45 but extended until 12:45 for lunch bunch. He will go 3 days a week. This will be a nice program for him and will give me some time to do what I need and want to get done.

I will miss his current preschool but after the fundraising form I received the other day I am not sure I will miss it that much. I was given a catalog of food such as pizza, breads, pretzels, cookie doe and a few other items. The form that came home with the catalog gave a suggested family sale total of 15 items. Um, I don’t think so. I don’t like selling these types of items (really anything) to others. I realize the school needs to raise money to function but maybe they should look at a different fundraiser.

Oddly enough, today I received a call from the other preschool I applied for but have not returned the call. I was 7th on the wait list so I can’t imagine they would have a spot for him. I am not considering the program any more because of the cost.

Got to love cake

February is our month of celebrations. Early in the month we celebrated EE and Jay's birthday. My eight year olds are getting close to my eye level. It is hard to believe that my little guys have grown so much.

Brotherly love!

I did manage to get pictures of them blowing out their candles but not any others. They both wanted a dirt cake instead of a store bought one. I think the kids really liked it.

Tee was lucky to get 2 celebrations for his 3rd birthday. On his birthday, we woke up and opened gifts he had received from family. Any time someone said Happy Birthday, Tee would break out in song and sing to himself. It was very cute.

On Sunday evening, we had a few neighbors over for dinner. I don't know one of our neighbors well but they have a young child around Tee's age. I meant to email her all week about whether my meal choice (lasagna with meat sauce) was ok for her and the children but kept forgetting. When she got here I asked her if they would eat what I had made and then she goes on to tell me that they are vegetarian. Hmm....maybe I should have know that but not really. Last year, when we attended her daughter's birthday they did serve chicken. Oh boy, I spent the entire night feeling horrible but she assured me is was ok as they had been eating all day at other events.

I think Tee had a great time on his birthday!