Another summer week

Nothing like spending a few weeks on a 1000 piece puzzle only to get to the very end and realize you have lost a piece. The boys and I spent so much time doing this really hard puzzle. We had fun and are looking forward to the next one that I purchased.


Well, this week started off with Tee getting into a fight at a birthday party. This really caught me off guard. The kids were playing in the yard. She had a big water slide, there was a playground and a little playhouse. It ended up that the birthday boy and his cousin were throwing toys at Tee. He ended up trying to fight the cousin.

I did make Tee apologize and explained that the best thing to do is to walk away. The birthday boy came over the next day to say he was sorry for throwing things at him.

The boys had fun at golf camp but I wasn’t extremely happy with the camp. I am not sure that they were really taught much. I feel like there was a lot of messing around vs. instruction. The boys seem to like the golf pro but I personally don’t think he has much personality. I am going to try to find a different golf program for them next year.

We did go up to the gym pool this week also. It is a big pool with a zero entry area and a few big slides. I kept trying to get the boys to go down the slide and they did not want to. I then realized that Tee could go down the slide. I asked him and he jumped on the offer. He spent a lot of our time there going down the slide and loved it. Then the boys finally started going down the slide.

It has been so incredibly hot here. I feel like a hermit. We have everyone one of our blinds closed and all fans going. Friday made me realize that we needed to close up a little bit because it got way too hot in the house.

We are fortunate enough to have the pool and we have definitely used it this weekend. We have all been emerged in the water the entire time.

This week is a quiet week. We are done with camps so I will have to make sure to find things to do to keep us busy.

Randomness

The husband got tickets to the O’s baseball game today so he took the boys and I get some time alone. The boys were excited. They get to sit behind home plate.


The boys finished vacation bible school on Friday. They had a nice time but I noticed it didn’t seem as great as it was last year. There was a different leader this year and I think it made a big difference.

Our afternoons are typically spent outside in the pool. It is effective in wearing the kids out. We have had lots of friends over too.

Tee has such an imagination. He is constantly telling me stories and they don’t make much sense. For example, what if our house filled with water. Yes, crazy situations. Yesterday we were outside and Tee got stung by a wasp in his head of all places. He eventually calmed down. Later on, he said Mom, I hit the fence by accident and a daddy or mommy wasp came out and saw that I did it and stung me. It is funny how his mind works.

We have decided to have the boys tutored this summer. She comes one time a week and works with them individually. I don’t know specifics but I do know that during the summer kids lose so much of what they learned in school. It has worked out really well. The tutor is a teacher and she has worked on both fluency and math facts.

The boys and I went to see the Cars2 movie one rainy Friday afternoon. They enjoyed it!

E is an avid reader. He started reading this series called Warriors. The books are 300 pages (small print) plus. There are several series and he was read through the first 3, each series had 6 books.

My garden has done really well this year. I have a bunch of zucchini and cucumbers. I have made a batch of zucchini bread and plan to make many more. Green beans have also come in well. I do enjoy having the extra vegetables during the summer.

Next week, the older boys have golf camp. It is just a few hours for 3 days. They did this same camp last year and had fun. Tee is done for camps for the summer.

Low key

Last weekend, it was 3 cookouts in 3 days and 2 of those were at our house.  We went to a friend's house on Saturday evening.  I ended up making a cake batter and baked in ice cream cones.  Then I frosted them.  I got the idea out of a Rachel Ray magazine.  They turned out really cute, but transportation was an issue.

On Sunday, we had a party for the boys' baseball team.  The boys typically only see each other on the field so it was nice to socialize a little off the field.  We had over 40 people here, that is a lot of people.  The party turned out really nice, even though a storm moved in during the middle of it.  I am talking a wind blowing storm.  Our lounge chairs ended up at the bottom of the pool kind of storm.  We were all stuffed into the basement but the kids managed to find things to do.  After it settled down, the boys went swimming again and the party didn't end until 8:45. 

I decided on Monday, July 4th, that we needed to get rid of some of our leftovers.  So we invited a few friends over for swimming and food.  It was a nice evening and definitely not 40 people here.

We had nothing last week but the week went by fairly quickly.  Rain came in on Friday and I decided to take the boys to see the Cars 2 movie.  They all really enjoyed it.

This past weekend was really low key.  We spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool.  Saturday evening we spent with our neighbors, swimming and hanging out. 

Yes, I don't know what we would do without our pool.  It does provide us a lot of entertainment.  The boys had friends over on Sunday and they played out there for a good few hours.  And we spend time out there just about everyday. 

This week, all the boys have vacation bible school at our church.  Today at pickup Jay says wow that was short.  Well, compared to their all day scout camp I am the 3 hours felt like no time at all.  They had a great time. 

How to get things done.

In April, we decided to make a change.  I don't particularly like change.  I like to keep things the same for the most part.  But my husband finally convinced me that we needed to switch cable companies. 

The cable company decided to change to digital and every TV needed a box.  We figured it out after the fact.  Yes, we had received a letter but it didn't make much sense to us as our TVs are digital.  So we get all the boxes and put them on our TVs.  We had trouble with the one in our bedroom.  We, my husband, made several phone calls that made him incredibly frustrated.  As a side note, I am usually the one who handles these types of phone calls, but he took this one on.

He was transferred to an area that was closed on one particular day, on one call the rep was yawning on the phone and no one really offered much help.  We wanted someone to come fix the the problem, but there was a question on whether we would be charged.  After many calls, my husband finally escalated it to a manager who said it would not be a problem to get someone out the next week.

After thinking about it for a few hours, we he, decided that it was to move to fios.  In addition to this situation, we had problems with our phone.  During conversation, people would say that I was coming in and out. 

Our transition was great.  As soon as fios was installed, we returned and disconnected the other cable company. 

I ended up receiving an invoice in May with a credit balance.  I thought that I would be receiving a check.  I wasn't shocked when I received an invoice again the next month with a small credit balance.  I decided to make a phone call.

I spent the next 2 plus hours on the phone.  The first time I called, I was transferred and on hold for over 30 minutes.  I called back and although the rep was very nice and held with me for the next 30 plus minutes he ended up disconnecting me.  During the conversation, he told me I had to be taken care of by this other area.  It appeared they must have been having problem with the phones.  Yes, they are a cable, Internet and phone company.  My third call back is when I decided that I would no longer be nice.  I immediately asked for a manager.  I went over the situation and explained that I was done with the company.  It needed to be handled, I was not going to be transferred and did not need to speak with anyone else.

The next week I did end up getting 3 phone calls from corporate.  Why do they need to talk to me?  I returned my equipment and canceled my service.  They had a total fail of closing out the account. 

Well, just yesterday I ended up getting an invoice for an amount due.  I was beyond angry.  They are charging me for Internet and Cable that I have not had.  I decided that I was going to send a letter to corporate outlining the situation.

I did a little research trying to find an email address to corporate.  I found this website that an executive carpet bomb.  Not sure why it is called this.  But people determine format of the email (@whatever) then take the executive and make a list of all emails.  

Oh yes I did.  I wrote a letter and thought about it a little and re-wrote some of it.  I copied every single email address and hit send.  Out of the 100 emails, I had less than 30 not deliverable. 

Today I had a message on my machine from corp (maybe the same person who called me several weeks ago).  She stated that she had closed my account and is expediting the shut off outside our house.  I have a credit balance of $138 that will be sent to me once the shut off is completed.

It makes me sad but that is how you get it done.

Instinct

Many people have told me that Tee is every one's friend.  The Moms tell me the girls in his preschool class all talk about him.  In May I had a conference with the preschool teachers, they mentioned that he gets along with everyone.  They also said that everyone fights to sit next to him.  As a parent, that makes me feel really good.

I did probe a little more into the kids fighting to sit next to him.  Tee said that he wanted to sit next to two certain friends but a boy named C wanted to sit next to him all the time.  This was very frustrating to him.  This boy was also on his T-ball team and he never had any interaction with him.  This is just not like Tee. 

The boy's Mom emailed me last week to see if Tee could come over for a play date.  I have not asked him yet but I know his answer will be NO.  I just don't know what to say.

I mentioned this to one of my friends who has older children.  She told me to trust his instincts.  You can't and should not force friendships.  She did this with her daughter when she was young and then found out that the other girl was not very nice.

I don't want to ignore the email although I have so far.  I also don't want to say that my child wants nothing to do with hers.  We have been very busy as of late but we obviously won't be busy all summer.  I was thinking that I would have them come here for a little swimming so I can see the interaction.  I need to figure this out quickly because I really need to say something soon.

The first week of Summer

E and Jay are exhausted.  The boys are doing a Scouts camp this week.  The boys are up and out of the house by a little after 7am and don't get home until around 5:30.  The camp is about a 30 minute drive.  Talk about a long day.

They are having fun and doing so many requirements of their next rank.  But needless to say they are so tired.  They wished it wasn't all day.  Honestly, I wished it wasn't all day too.  The good news is that there are only 3 more days left.  

I also put Tee into Nature Camp this week.  It is only 3 hours a day and he has had a blast.  One of his friends is going also.  They take hikes everyday which he loves.  I was a little worried about the camp at first since it is outside and I wasn't sure how many kids or who was running it.  But it has all worked out.

The husband is on vacation this week also.  Well, not much of a vacation for him.  We got 12 yards of mulch delivered today.  So he spent much of the day transporting to the backyard.  I was only able to help a little today.  Still lots more to move.

I am hoping we can accomplish lots this week. 

They did it!

That is right, NUMBER 1.

The boys' baseball team improved greatly this year.  There was some inconsistency throughout the season.  Sometimes they were on and other times we weren't sure what they were doing.  But as the year continued they did start to put it all together.  

A few weekends ago the regular season ended with a league tournament.  The boys ended up losing 2 games on Saturday so they did not move onto the finals.  It was definitely disappointing. 

The team entered a tournament this past weekend about 1 hour from our home.  This is the absolute last game for them until next spring.  The boys played 2 games on Saturday and lost both.  They were seeded number 7 out of 8 teams. 

I was totally surprised when the husband called me Sunday morning to tell me the boys won. So Tee and I packed up and drove to see the next game.  We were ecstatic when they won that game and moved on to the championship game.  I thought at one point my husband was going to faint.  Oh yeah, my husband was head coach on Sunday.  The regular head coach was not able to make the tournament. 

The 3rd game of the day was played right after the 2nd.  The boys were totally pumped up for the game.  I am sure I will get the stat wrong, but we were losing up though the 5th inning.  The boys put it together and ended up scoring several runs.....more than the other team.  In the bottom of the 6th inning, it was just a matter of getting 3 outs quickly for them to not score.  We ended up winning 10-4.  I can not describe the excitement of the boys.  This was such an awesome way for them to end the season.

Now for the drama, you know there has to be some.  The team has 13 players.  That means each inning 4 kids sit out.  13 is a lot of kids to have on a team, but if we are out that takes 2 players from the team.  Detailed stats are kept, believe me they are detailed.  One of the items tracked is how many times you are sitting on the bench.  There are some kids, mine included that have sat out the most. 

At the game on Saturday, one of the parents got really upset that their child was sitting on the bench too  much.  They thought he sat out a lot although in reality he had not.  The Mom came over during the 2nd game on Saturday and told her child they were leaving.  The coaches tried to calm her down and it ended up that she stormed away and left but her child remained with his Dad. 

The coach approached the Dad to find out what the issue was and he let in on the coach.  No one was sure where this all came from.  So the coach reviewed the file with the detailed info. and it turns out that this child has sat out the least.  The coach did contact the parents that evening and the conversation did not go well.  They ended up quitting prior to the game on Sunday.  I find the situation incredibly sad.  What are they teaching that child about being on a team.  I do have to tell you that it was nice to have the big win without him.

The Dad did eventually send a note apologizing but I think it was too late.

I grew up in a pretty strict household.  I remember my Mom sitting us kids down and making us listen to a tape of someone speaking about how rock music was devil music.  If you played the lyrics backwards there were satanic messages.  I was always a top 40 music listener, rock was not my thing but I am not sure if my Mom understood that.  So I sat in the room not listening much.  You did get that it was on a tape recorder.

Concerts were always out of the question.  My first concert was in college with one of my good guy friends.  I was into more alternative music in college.  We went to see The Cure.  It was a good concert but lots of freakishly dressed people.  It was in a coliseum so pretty mellow.

My next concert date was my husband, boyfriend at the time.  We went to Pearl Jam.  I like their music but I so much enjoyed people watching.  I wondered what the strange smell was that took over our space.  Yes, I did not hang out with people who smoked pot so I did not know the smell.  I also remember a guy in front of our space who was selling shirts or something.  He took his pants down and stuck money in his special underwear.  Interesting to say the least.

Luckily, my next concert was very mellow.  I loved the Lilith Fair.  Lots of great female singers.  Would love to see it again sometime.

That is the extent of my concert going until the other nights.  My husband mentioned that he entered his name in a drawing at work to win 2 tickets to the suite.  You had to answer all the questions correctly.  I got a text the next day stating he had won 2 tickets to U2.  He is very lucky, maybe he should start playing the lottery.

There was a lot of juggling taking place on Wednesday.  I had a friend who asked if I could watch her child because they were going to the concert as well.  I had a teenager sit with the kids for a while until my niece got off work.  

I was able to catch a ride with some friends fairly early.  We went to a dinner at a nice restaurant before catching a cab to the stadium. 

As soon as we got to the stadium, the others told us we missed Bono by 15 minutes.  He was having dinner in the suite right next to ours.  Many of them got pictures of  him leaving the suite.  How cool would that have been. 

The stage was amazing.  It was a great concert.  We had a great time.

After the concert we walked all the way back to my husband's parking space.  It was a 45 minute walk.  Drenched in sweat we were.

They all do it at one time or another

It seems inevitable that at one point or another a child will pick up scissors and do a little cutting.  Yes, they like to cut papers, sometimes important ones.  But what I am talking about it cutting your hair.  Tee took a little chunk out of his head.  It appears it will be a buzz cut for him this weekend.  See for yourself.

The last month in our house has been a very challenging one.  I am frustrated beyond belief and something has to change soon.  The boys argue all the time.  They will start playing together and then it ends in an argument.  It is all three boys.

The attitude of those in this house is just terrible.  Lots of eye rolling, stomping, door slamming and sighing.  Ok, the sighing may be coming from me because how much can a Mom take. 

Friends tell me the same thing is going on in their house as well.  I guess it could be the transition to summer.  Speaking of summer, we only have 1 week left of school.  And next week it is only 3 half days.  I am definitely ready to be free from the daily routine.  It is time for a break.  And time to get rid of the attitude and fighting.