Our non-winter

Family birthdays are done until the end of the year.  We made it through.  Now we just get to attend birthday parties.  We have a few on the calendar.

We have had lots going on in the last few weeks.  The husband invited himself on a friend's ski trip.  They went out west.  He was out there for 3 days of skiing and had a great time.  The boys missed a ski trip this year.  Next year we will make more of an effort to take them.

This winter has been such a non-winter.  It has been a really mild winter.  I am in no way complaining.  The weather can go from being really cold one day to 60 and sunny the next.  I do have to say that I am a little disappointed that we didn't have one big snow.  Maybe next winter.

I am working on a silent auction committee for my church.  I use the word committe loosely.  My neighbor who has run many a great auction was asked by someone that also attends my church to "help" her with an auction.  And then my neighbor roped me in.  It is really just her and I doing the work.  It is a lot of work, we will be very busy the next couple of months.

The basketball season ended this past weekend.  The last game is an all-star game.  Two players get picked from each team.  Jay was picked from our team along with another boy.  This boy ended up getting in trouble (at home) and he was not able to play.  So they put in E to take his place.  It is such a strange game.  The boys have never even practiced together.  There was no coaching going on for our team.  Our team was beat like 50-20 or something crazy like that.

Now it is time to focus on baseball.  The boys have two tournaments they are playing in this month.  Eight of the boys have come back from last year and they have added 3 other boys.  It will be very interesting to see them all play together. 

Wondering what the summer will be like this year given our non-winter.

Time

I have come to the realization that it is just so hard to keep up with everything, including this blog.  So much has happened in the last few months.  So many cute stories to share.  But short on time.  I personally just want to get it down so that I don't forget it. 

I have always been a huge PTA supporter.  I join and have held a position for the last 4 years.  This year I am the 2nd Secretary and Website Administrator.  Someone created the website for me and she showed me how to update.  This year I have had a change of heart.  There was an issue that happened at the end of the year that caused the President (my neighbor) to resign.  So the 1st VP stepped up and found someone to replace him. When he took over, he made a few remarks about the website and how I was not an expert.  So the 1st VP decided he was going to create a new website.

Really???  Who does that?  I had the website and was updating it.  Don't you think that it would have been better to sit with me and let me know what you would like to see?  No, he decided that he was taking it over.

I decided at this point I was not going to spend any time updating something that was going to be changed.  So I stopped updating it.  He has created a new layout and is in the process of trying to transfer the domain name.

I will keep my Secretary role for now but will not be signing up for anything next year.  I am sure I can find another organization that will appreciate what I have to offer.  Yes, I am a bit bitter.

So, I get extra time on my hands and what do I do?  Volunteer for something else.  I have been studying to be certified in food safety.  Not sure why I agreed.  In order for the scouts to serve a hot meal at a banquet that is held in February, there must be someone who is food safety certified.  The person who is certified can't make the banquet.  Yes, I should be studying now.    

Sadie has been a handful.  She certainly understands that Dad is top dog.  But she fails to realize that she is not second in charge.  We have a trainer who comes to the house to help us train her and work through any issues I am having.  We have moved from a cloth chock collar to a metal choke collar.  This has helped me a lot.  She still wants to "play" with me.  "Playing" entails her attacking my ankles or biting my clothes.  The she sits back and starts jumping around and barking.  It doesn't take long with the choke collar to get her under control. 

Last week, Tee got a stomach bug.  A lot of kids at his preschool had it so it was just a matter of time.  So I wasn't shocked when Jay got sick on Sunday.  He started throwing up on his way home from baseball practice, in someone else's car.  I still feel terrible about it.  He threw up the entire afternoon.  I felt terrible for him also.  What really surprised me was when E got sick around 10:30.  Of course, he got sick in his bed, made a trail to the bathroom and then didn't hit the toilet much.  Even the dog got sick this am in her kennel.  I am done with the vomit.

It made us think.  E already had a stomach bug during our holiday.  So we feel like they got food poisoning from out dinner out on Saturday.  They both had eggs.  Of course, we will never know for sure.  But one thing is for sure....they will be back to school tomorrow.  They had the day off today for a teacher work day.  Me?  I spent the day (my birthday) striping beds, doing a ton of laundry and making beds back up.

Short Lived

The most stressful part of jury duty is trying to make sure all your kids are taken care of for the day.  You don't know how long you will be gone.  I tried to google what to expect with jury duty, but didn't find much on the subject.  I am a planner and I like to know what to expect.

Tuesday morning was an early morning.  I had to get up, showered, breakfast and lunches made. As I was in the kitchen, Jay asked my about what I was doing.  I had explained to them the day prior what I was doing.  Our conversation went something like this:

Jay:  I am going to ask my teacher to turn on the tv. 
Me: (puzzled)Why would you ask your teacher to turn on the tv? 
Jay: So that they could watch me.
Me: (even more puzzled) How would you watch me on tv. 
Jay:  You going to be on Judge Judy. 
Me: (laughing) No, not judge Judy....Jury Duty.  No offense Judge Judy I would be happy to be on your show anytime as long as I am not the one being sued.  He just had it wrong.
That made my morning.

 I delivered the older boys next door and Tee down the street with my preschool carpooler.  I then made my way to the courthouse.  We are fortunate that the courthouse is not downtown where parking would be an issue.  The courthouse is very close to my house.

I arrived a little prior to my assigned time.  I had to walk through the metal detector, which went off but the officer told me it was as it was the buckle on my shoes.  We were shuffled up the steps around a few corners into a room.  The room was standing room only.  They did bring out a few chairs.  We waited for a while as people continued to show up.  It was so crowded that people were sitting on the steps. 

The man who was standing outside the room as prospective jurors showed up went up to the front of the room.  He said that many years back jury duty consisted of about 200 people a month.  Back then you had to be available for an entire month.  They now call about 200 jurors a week.  Yes, that means lots of trial juries.  The man also mentioned that sometime cases will be settled as they are walking into court or if there is evidence missing the trial must be postponed.

After his spiel, he had us all sign in and paid us our $15 for showing up.  It took a while to get everyone signed in.  He said his next job was to get things moving in the courts so that he could get us in or out. 

When I got up to sign in, someone ended up taking my chair.  So I then was stuck sitting on a step.  A very uncomfortable step.  I read a magazine and talked a little bit to the lady sitting next to me.  Of course, I people watched also.  Many people were on their phones or were reading.  One lady was knitting.  The lady next to me was working on a crossword puzzle.

They say the jury summons are random but I just don't know if I believe that.  I looked around, there seemed to be the same number of women and men and then a breakout of young, younger and older.  I guess I will put me in the young category.

Then the good news came.  It was announced there would be no jury trials and we could all leave.  We were done for the week and could not be called back for at least 3 years.  I guess I made $15 for sitting 1 1/2 hours.

I know....civic duty

I was originally summoned for Jury duty in August during the time we would be on vacation.  As the directions stated, I immediately sent a letter stating that I would be out of town and need to be reassigned.  What I wasn't expecting is a letter a few weeks later giving me another week.  That week just happens to be this week. 

As I mentioned, I called on Friday and my group number 42 was not called.  Groups 1-19 were to report.  My thought was that Tuesday groups would probably be 20-39.  That would make sense to me.

I called today around 4:30 to listen to the message for today.  The guy on the system started with the group numbers to report.  Group number 20, 21......then he got to 39 but kept going and then 40, 41 and you guessed it 42.  All groups are to report at 8:30.

After my 5 minutes of panic, I had to start thinking about what to do with my kids.  The two older ones are not the problem, it of course, is Tee who has preschool for just 3 1/2 hours.  I ended up getting it all taken care of.  It is times like this when I wished we lived closer to family.

I am fortunate that the courthouse is close by and parking will not be a problem.  I do dread the fact that the majority of what I will be doing is just sitting and waiting.  I have a stack of magazines and some other things to do while I am doing my civic duty.  I am just glad that this civic duty will go away for at least 3 years.  Stayed tuned as I am sure I will have some good stories.

It has been a while.....

I had trouble logging into my account this evening.  Yes, it has been a long time since I have been here.  I think about it many times but wait until it gets too late.  Many things have gone on in our house in the last month, some good and some not so good. 

The boys are growing up (literally also).  We are all back into the routine of school and activities.  Tee cracks us up a lot these days.  I love it when he says something followed by "I trust you Mom".  I keep trying to tell him it is "trust me". 

There are a few things that I have noticed lately that I just don't understand.  I have to say that I am with the majority of people who wish the FB format would remain unchanged.  It now lets you see what your friends comment on even if you are not friends with those people.  The only way to stop it is to ask your friends to create that privacy.  Doesn't that not seem wrong to anyone else?  Well, one of my boys was sitting next to me telling me that his friend has a FB page.  I looked him up and he certainly had one and then I found several other 4th grade students who had a FB page.  Some of the kids had no privacy settings and their walls were open for viewing.  Are you kidding me?  What are these parents thinking?  They need to watch a few episodes of Dr. Phil and the dangers of kids being on-line.

I am a little frustrated with the preschool.  I am almost glad that this will be our last year, but I don't want my baby to grow so quickly.  The preschool hired a new director, they had an interim director (who was awesome by the way) up through the end of the summer.  Oh yes, the director decided to start the week school started.  So she knows absolutely nothing and she has little personality.  I have tried to speak with her a few times and had to hold my tongue.  Everything is difficult with her.  All I tend to hear is I can't.  I am not alone as there are many parents who agree.  I have to say I don't love the teachers Tee has this year.  He seems to like them and has a great time at school, but I had just hoped for a little more. 

I love it when we do clean up around here.  I cleaned out toys a few weekends ago but had to get my husband to help me.  I tend to look at the toys and get really sentimental and end up keeping junk.  I have a few large bags full to donate.  We are also working on the man cave in our basement.  Hoping to have it completed in the next couple of weeks.  I love to get organized.....but for some reason I have a hard time getting into my office. 

I am all over the place tonight.  I hope to get it back together and write more.

We interrupt this show.......

We had an earthquake today.  I have only been in Md for almost 4 years and we have had 2 earthquakes.  It is 2 too many for me.
The first one was a long while ago, it was early in the morning like 5:30, mild and quick.  It basically was over before we figured out it was an earthquake.  The kids were asleep and didn't feel a thing.

Today, E had an orthodontist appointment (this was before all the boys' dental appointment which is all in the same place).  E is sitting in the chair.  We feel a little tremble and the hygenist looked at me and asked me if I felt the movement.  Then we looked at each other and said that was an earthquake.  We all went outside.  The kids were really shaken up.  E said his knees were shaking. 

We waited outside for a little while and then went back inside to carry on with our appointments.

The husband works in Baltimore and definitely felt it in his building.  They all evacuated.  Very scary.

When I got home the boys came into the house first.  They came running to the door and told me we had some things fall.  I had a mirror just sitting on the mantle above the fireplace.  It slid off, hit the floor and shattered.  I cleaned up all the glass and have vacuumed.  Glass was everywhere.  Every once in a while I look and see a glimmer on the floor. 

I am glad that is over.  Now if we can just get a miss this weekend of the winds and rain we could get.

Hazy

There are times when you wish you had a certain profession in the family.  Like when you need a lawyer or a doctor.  Me, I have a few civil engineers, a computer geek guru and insurance experts.  But right now I could use someone who specializes in teeth.

When I was younger, I had a lot of work done in my mouth.  I think one of my first visits to the dentist and I had 7 cavities.  As I got older, I had to have 4 teeth pulled because my pallet was small and my teeth were crowded.  Then it was on to braces.  My teeth were straight.  This was huge based on how crooked my teeth were to begin with.

Several years ago, I had to have 4 crowns done as my fillings were so deep.  I also have receding gums.  How much worse could it get?   

I finally decided it was time to get my gums looked at.  It doesn't seem to be getting worse but it is time to get it taken care of.  So I make a visit to the periodontist.  After getting pictures of every angle of my teeth and doing a mold, he tels me his thoughts.  He would like me to get my teeth straightened again so that he can do gum surgery.  He feels that gum surgery would not be as effective as long as my teeth are crowded and not at a perfect arc. 

From what I understand gum surgery is NOT fun and is lots painful.  So I don't really want to chance doing surgery that doesn't stick. 

I am in the process of getting ready for invisalign.  The first thing I had to do was to get root scaling on some of my teeth.  I decided I just could not sit through this type of cleaning and asked for sedation.  It is conscious sedation but you are at a point where you just don't care. 

I tried hard to go to sleep as he was working in my mouth but it never happened.  I guess the oxygen and nitrous gas keeps you awake.  I think back to the day and I asked my husband if I was awake when we drove home.  He said I slept the entire way home.  Not only that, I slept the entire day away.  I woke up to eat dinner and then was asleep for the night.  I guess it wasn't so bad.....I got the day off.

Conversation for another day.....E has to get some work done in his mouth also just as Jay got his braces/expander out.  Also, wondering what if any issues we will cause for our kids putting the expanders in their mouths.

I guess I have been on a little sabbatical from blogging.  No real reason other than time or lack there of.  I have been a little busy and now I am gearing up for the end of the school year. 

A few weekends ago, my MIL came for a visit.  We ended up going to the beach for a long weekend as the boys were out of school.  The weather didn't exactly cooperate with us but we managed to have a nice weekend.  The beach was a bit cold but the boys had a great time digging holes and playing baseball.  It is early in the season so people were very scarce.  It was a nice little get-a-way.  We are fortunate to be fairly close to the shore.

Baseball is consuming much of our time although we have had several rain outs.  The boys are participating in a tournament this weekend.  Well, actually it is a tournament that we are putting on so that means lots of work for the parents on the team.  Should be an interesting weekend.

I have been helping out at the boys' school.  This year the boys did biographies for their books.  They have written books each year here.  It is really neat.  They write then it gets typed.  The typed pages are cut and pasted in a book and then they draw pictures.  Then there is a tea where the kids get to read their books to parents.  Such a cool program.  But I can't tell you how many books I assembled.  I was doing them in the evenings at home.  Glad that is over with.

I am planning the end of the year picnic for 3rd grade.  I am feeling just a little pressure to make sure everything gets done.  Lots to do between now and June 10th.

The weather has been really lousy lately.  Rain Rain and more Rain.  Usually it would not be a bid deal.  But it has caused pool issues for us.  The pool needs a little work done.  In order to get the work done it needs to be dry for a few days straight.  The pool has to be drained in order to get resurfaced and needs a day to dry.  It is memorial day weekend.....time for swimming.  And our pool may not be done this week.  ugh!

We did go out with some friends this past weekend to an annual event called Wine in the Wo@ds.  You were able to do many wine tastings and have lots of food.  They also had lots of crafty items to purchase.  We brought some seats and just hung out for a bit did a little wine tasting and ate a bit.  It was a fun event but next time we would plan much differently. 

So all is well and I will be happy when things slow down a bit.

Ouch!

There are some things that you just wish you could make go away for your children. But you know that you need to move forward and take care of it to ensure there are no future issues.

A few months ago, we were at the orthodontics place when the Dr. was baffled as to why Jay's front teeth had separated. So instead of making a mold for a retainer, he sent us to an oral surgeon. Apparently, his Frenulum on the upper lip was too tight. Leaving this as is would mean that it would wedge between his two front teeth leaving a gap. I asked the Dr. to look under his tongue and he felt he was tongue tied.

The oral surgeon agreed with the ortho. He also said if we did not take care of under the tongue, it would eventually start pulling at his gums, thus causing receding. So we decided he needed to have a frenectomy on upper and under the tongue.

Surgery day was this morning. What was interesting, Jay had a classmate and friend who also had to have oral surgery and was done right before Jay's.

I got Jay there at 7:30 but they didn't call him back until closer to 8. This was nice as Dad was able to join us before they knocked Jay out. We were able to stay in the room as they gave Jay laughing gas and then started his IV. Once they got it in we left so they could finish putting him under to start the procedure.

It seemed to go quickly. They called us back to recovery. Jay was definitely groggy. We talked about his friend being there. It was Dad's little joke with him. Every few minutes, he would say, Jay did we tell you we saw your friend. And Jay would go no.

We left and I stopped to get him a shake. I got him home and set him up on the couch. He got very emotional. He started crying because it hurt. He wanted his Daddy. Yes, he is definitely a Daddy's boy(Dad stopped by before going to work). I was finally able to calm him down enough to get him to let me put some shake in his mouth so that he could swallow it. Once he was able to get some food in his stomach I was able to give him pain med.

He spent the day on the couch watching tv. I tried to keep him on his pain med. for the majority of the day. One of his friend's came over this afternoon and they built one of his Lego sets. I think that was a nice distraction.

Dad made him an omelet for dinner which he had a hard time eating but eventually ate it all. I am hoping he is able to sleep through the night with no pain. I can't say I was the very best with keeping him iced down. Although he did have a few popsicles and some other cold foods.

It is really hard to see your child in pain. We know it was the right decision but it is heartbreaking.

One of my friends took Tee home from preschool with her daughter. I actually didn't see him until she brought him home at 5pm. I missed him.

We will see how he sleeps tonight and how he is in the morning.

It can't be December 12th

Wow, hard to believe that Christmas is 13 days away. I am in no way ready and I am not sure where the first 12 days of December went. Well, actually I do know what we have been doing but just seems like it is going too fast.

Basketball season has started. The boys have one practice and one game a week. The games are held on Saturday morning. The boys are playing on a 7/8 league so they are the older and much taller boys on the team. This past Saturday both E and Jay made most of the baskets. They have played very well this year.

We did manage to get our tree and decorate for Christmas this first weekend of the month. We got a beautiful tree around 9 ft tall for a really good price. Pictures will follow. I think it would be fun to go to a farm to cut our own tree but we just didn't have time this year and the weather may have played a little part in our decision.

The weather here has been so incredibly cold. It is actually the wind that is so brutal. And it has been windy here.

Every year our church holds a walk to Bethlehem and this is the first year we attended. We have been to something like this before but it in no way compares. The event was really nice and walked us through the story of the birth of Jesus. It was amazing and really cold since part of it was outside.

That evening we went out to dinner with some friends. I met the Mom a few times at different places before I actually put it all together. I met her at the elementary school right before school started at a function. I then met her again at the preschool. So she has a boy in 3rd grade and a girl in preschool with Tee and she also has an older daughter. They are such a nice family and we hope to be able to hang out with them more often.

I am finally done with one of the fundraisers and I am still working on wrapping up another. I will be glad to have all of this behind me.

I am gearing up for yet another busy week!

A funeral, a date and some other stuff

What to start with. Well, I guess I will start with the other stuff. Saturday evening we decided to have takeout from a well know chain. We got the kids meals set up first. I ordered a salad as did my husband. I opened my salad and saw a bug crawling on the lid of my dressing. My husband got rid of the bug as I sit there wondering what to do. He sits down and opens his salad. What does he find? A hair in his salad. Definitely not our night and no we did not pay for any of our meal.

We had to make up for our bad meal on Saturday so the husband and I had a date night on Sunday. We had a fabulous meal at PF Changs. We had not been there in a very long time. It is nice to be able to go out and not have to get a child's menu.

We get home and gave E a hard time for leaving his bedroom light on. He has a very bad habit of leaving lights on. The penalty, sentence writing. I have gotten very tired of repeating myself, so instead I give sentences to write. The bathroom light was on also and we decided it was Tee that left it on. So I told Tee that he was getting 10 sentences. He looks at me and says "Mom do I look like I am 8". You just never know what is going to come out of his mouth.

I guess I end with a sad story. My neighbor's father passed away on Friday. He had gotten a kidney transplant last year and seemed to do well for a while until he was diagnosed with cancer. The last few weeks have been really difficult for him. My neighbors are Indian. My friend and I next door decided to attend the funeral. We thought we would make an appearance. That is not how things are done.

As we entered the funeral home we stood in a line that we found out was to sign the guest book. As we approached the entrance we noticed that there were so many people there. We ended up tucking ourselves into a corner on the other side and had to stand. And there we stood for one and a half hours. The first part was ceremonious. Then our neighbor and his sister gave a eulogy. Then there were about 7 or 8 others who went up to speak about him. Interesting that the family of the person giving the eulogy stood up at the podium also.

Once the eulogy was done it was time to pay your respect to the dead by placing a rose bud in the casket and then walking around the casket. We decided we were going to make our way out of there and pay our respects to the family. Definitely an interesting experience.

Where were we.....

Oh yeah, the lack of time to get much done and me just getting more to do. I have a few things that I need and have to get off my plate this week. I am trying to complete the end of one fundraiser as we started another one. The next one should not be as difficult. You either want to order cookie dough or not with nothing to return. I am still missing so many coupon books.

I am running the fundraiser at Tee's preschool but that one won't start until November 10th, so I should have some time to rest.
_______________________________________________________

Seems like bullying is a hot subject these days. I have heard there is a situation in our school of bullying. It doesn't seem like it has been handled correctly from what I understand. Each year our principal holds a coffee and conversation for the parents, which was held earlier this month. We as parents send in questions and she get to answer them. It appears that the 5th grade class this year has been a little difficult to handle. In addition to the above mentioned bullying, it appears there are many who have a lack of respect for authority. The principal made mention of kids blatantly laughing at her while she was talking with them about their behavior. I think the saddest part of it all was when she called a parent at work to discuss their child's behavior and they said don't ever call me at work about this again. You handle it. WOW! It all starts at home doesn't it?

We try to let our kids know as often as we can that they need to be kind and considerate to others and show respect for others. I think that is lacking greatly in current times.

Lots has been going on in the last month....I will update as I can.......

Life.......

Life has just seemed not to slow down since the start of school. I am running a few positions on the PTA which have kept me very busy. Sports have kicked in plus I am having to run Tee back and forth to preschool.

I thought I would have more time but it seems like my time keeps diminishing.

I am co-chairing the fundraising committee for the PTA. We have a coupon book that is out right now and it has bombed. We are kicking ourselves for not backing out of this. The coupons really suck, to say it nicely. This year we have decided to try something different. Instead of hounding people to sell, we are asking for a direct donation. Many school PTA's do this so I am praying that we are successful. However, it would have been nice to be able to sell a good amount of something just in case.

I am also trying to get a website up for the group. Well, I am not creating the website, my FIL's wife is creating. She will then teach me how to update. I am excited about learning something new. But again probably will be a time sucker.

The boys have baseball 4 times a week. They practice 2 times a week for the Spring Travel league and then they practice 1 time a week for the fall league with one game on Sundays. If that wasn't enough, they are in an after school basketball club for the next 4 weeks. I am sure I can add more to their plate, just give me time.

Tee does like going to preschool. He loves ordering his lunch from me in the morning. He especially loves it when he gets a nice little treat.

I am at my time quota off to something different. I do hope to find time to update soon.

And so the week ends.....

It has been a very busy hectic week for me. I am not sure that I have had a moment to relax at all this week. I am extremely tired and looking forward to a little relaxation tonight.

Last weekend I put seeds in my garden. I am going to try to grow green beans, zucchini and cucumbers. I ended up getting an earth box to grow a strawberry bush. I may eventually move the bush, if it grows, somewhere in my yard. I was told I had to have 2 berry plants for cross pollination. I am hoping my garden does as well as it did last year. I may have a big problem though. My husband saw rascally rabbits eying my garden. I am thinking I may need a fence around the bed. Hint! Hint!

It has been 7 straight nights in a row that I have had to battle the evil bus that keeps entering my house in the middle of the night for Tee. Come on already….go visit someone else. I am tired. Last night was the first night that he did not wake up however I woke up at 4 am probably out of habit.

Speaking of Tee, he had a really bad day this past week. He peed on my office chair 2 times in one day. Yuck!

The older boys are now practicing 2 days during the week and have 2 games (one weeknight and one on Sunday) a week. It is hard having the boys go to sleep late on so many school nights. They get tired and cranky. A tired and cranky boy mixed with a tired and cranky Mom is not good, believe me on this one.

Tee and I were excited to take in Lemonade and Hot chocolate to E’s class this past week. We offered to help the teacher out and she was so thankful for our help. Doesn’t sound like a good combo to me but the kids loved it. They were extremely hyped up on sugar. Next time, I may try to find a reduced sugar drink. I made 12 cups of each drink and it was basically all gone by 17 kids. Yikes.

The person who bought our old house in NC is friends with my on FB. I am not sure why I accepted but I did. She emailed me a few days ago to ask me a question about the playset in the back yard. I really have not had a chance to respond to her. I have barely had a chance to be on my computer period. This is her 3rd or 4th question to me about the house. I take it that was the reason she probably befriended me in the first place. As I was walking out the door on Friday, I just happened to check my phone and had a voicemail and 2 text messages from a friend of mine who lives down the street from the current home owner. The home owner asked my friend for my phone number because she needed an answer right away. Thank you friend for not giving her my number and I am sorry I have not called you back. I checked it while I was dropping the kids off at baseball then had to run to the grocery store and then had to get pizza. Pizza for some very hungry guys, read on.

My husband had 4 of his college buddies come in town this weekend. They all stayed at our house last night. Yes, that means I had to clean the house and get the beds/sheets ready. Tonight they are going to a baseball game and staying downtown for the evening.

I tried to get breakfast items ready the night before because this morning was garage sale day. I made blueberry soda bread that I did not cook long enough and the middle was all doughy. I got together an egg and sausage frittata but it didn’t cook that well this morning. I was going to make biscuits in the morning but realized I didn’t have self rising flour and didn’t want to go on the internet to find out how to make my own. What a disaster.

But at least my garage sale went well. I got rid of a lot of stuff and made $100 while I was at it. My husband thought I sold things to inexpensively but it is out of the house which was my goal. My friend who is moving to Seattle sold some of her stuff also. It was fun!

And tonight I get to vegetate and watch whatever I want. And if you are still reading this post, God bless you.

The errands, the house work etc

The last few weeks have been non-stop around our household. It has been a stream of appointments, errands, baseball, housework, yard work and much more. There is not really an end that I see right now just more of all of the above.

Our neighbors ended up ordering too much mulch this past weekend and let us buy it. Yes, getting mulch into all of our beds in on our list of to dos. I am waiting to see if it is really going to rain this weekend before I place my very large order. The mulch was sitting in my neighbor’s driveway and we knew he wanted moved as soon as possible. Tee and I worked on it Monday and got a lot of it moved. I moved more on Tuesday and my husband had a few wheel barrels full to finish it up. Mental note, we really need a new wheel barrel because ours has seen better days.

I am trying to get ready for a garage sale also. That is not coming along so well. Our storage area really needs a clean out.

It is raining today so there is a possibility of our baseball game getting canceled this evening. My husband is helping to coach the team this year. I think he got roped into it a little but is really enjoying helping out. The head coach is very good with the kids and very organized.

My fingers are crossed just a little for the game to be canceled. I could use the extra time today to finish all of my house chores. Speaking of house chores….off I go.

It's our Friday

Today is the last day of school before the start of Spring Break. At least the weather is cooperating for now; it has stopped raining and is somewhat warm. We have no plans for the break. The husband will probably be working a lot next week so it will just be me and the kids. What to do? What to do?

The boys have now been invited to their 3rd birthday slumber party this year. Once again I will be explaining that my children don’t do overnights but would love to be able to attend for a few hours. It must be the thing to do in second grade.

I think I have won the best Mom in the world award today, actually this week. Tee’s preschool class had an Easter party today. The kids were having an egg hunt at 11:40 and parents were invited. I really tried to get there on time. I needed to run and shower. I got there at 11:47 and the hunt was done. Tee was sitting on the grass with one of his teachers opening his eggs. Yes, all other parents were there.

This past weekend, Tee would not get dressed. He was walking around the house naked. I asked him several times to get clothes on and he did not. I did resort to yelling at him, forcing him to wash his hands and get dressed. He then went to his room and kept crying. I finally asked him why he was crying and his response “because you yelled at me”. Oh boy!

I have taught Tee how to use the mouse on the computer. He plays on a website where he can learn his letters and sounds. He clicks on a letter which brings up the letter (both lower and upper case) and says the sound. To move to the next screen he clicks the green arrow. There are usually a few screens which have pictures/words that begin with the letter. I really didn’t think he would get it so fast but he did. Now he spends a little time on the computer (without me) and he has learned a lot of letters.

Well, in about 20 minutes, Sprink Break officially begins. I need to get back to that vacuum.

A connection in Blogging

I was first introduced into the world of blogging by a fraternity friend of my husband. He shared the exciting news of their Russian adoption and provided a link to their blog. The blog detailed their process from the beginning. The moment I started reading I was hooked. In the process, I ended up getting hooked on other blogs and some of those I still read. This was about 4 years ago.

I met my husband’s friend’s wife (I will call her CJ) at their wedding. As you can imagine, weddings tend to be filled with lots of people so we were introduced to her but did not get a chance to talk with her the remainder of the evening. They did not live in our city and our paths did not cross.

They had two daughters when they brought their special little boy home from Russia.
She continued to blog for a while then took a little break. After a while, she started a blog about her weight loss challenge (she did not keep up with this one) which then led to her last blog (mainly about her health and life lessons).

She had been having health problems for well over 2 years now. She was in the hospital about 1 time a month over the last few years. Every time she was in the Drs. told her she was “too complicated” and basically threw up their hands. There were always a multitude of issues and no one doctor could figure out how to “fix” her. She was able to go to a specialty hospital that treated her so well and they were able to start working on some of the issues.

She tried very hard to keep her blogs lively but it wasn’t always possible. Some days it broke my heart to think that one person had to endure so much. But every time she came back to her faith and new there was a plan for her.

She had such a strong passion for life, her children and writing. And it was evident in every post she wrote. And even though I only met her once, I feel like she has been a good friend of mine for years.

She unexpectedly lost her life this past Monday and it makes me so sad. Her last FB post was “On a jet plane…..Here is to a healthier life. Missing the hubby and kids already! Love to you all”. That to me says it all.

I am certainly going to miss reading her posts or looking at her FB page but I am so glad that she is no longer in agonizing pain.