Almost here

It's the last week of school so summer is almost here. Only three more days of having to get the kids up, dressed, fed and out the door before eight. I can hardly wait for that part. As for the rest of summer, we have lots of baseball and swimming ahead of us. Toss in a few movies and sleep overs here and there and we will be enjoying ourselves in no time. I can hardly wait.

Our Lucky Day

Well since we were so unlucky with the rain on Saturday, I guess our luck was bound to turn. And it did on Sunday. The weather was beautiful and as I was finishing up all the planting in the front flower bed I decided we really should be at the Ranger game instead. We had bought some discounted ticket vouchers from one of the neighborhood boys and need to get started on using those passes. So without much trying, I was able to convince Hubs and the kids that it was the perfect day to be at the Ballpark. So we packed up and headed off.

We got there at the beginning of the 2nd inning and I got in line to get our tickets. A very long line (seems like everyone thought the same thing I did). While I was waiting Hoss looked down and saw where someone had dropped some money. So he picked it up and started asking who lost it. No one claimed it and finally everyone around us where it was dropped said he should keep it for himself since it was only $2. Hoss was off to a good start already. Hubs and the rest of the kids were sitting on the bench waiting for me when someone walked up to him and asked he if he wanted these 6 free tickets since he didn't need them and they were going to go to waste. Since it was 6 we needed, he said definitely and came and got me from the back of the line.

We got inside, got the kids their free t shirts they were giving away and headed off to buy some food and drinks before we got to the seats. More long lines, where they ran out of hot dogs (how is that even possible) but by the time we got to the front of the line, hot dogs were again ready. So we were once again lucky. We got to our seats only to discover they were in the shade. Our luck continues. So we sit down in our free shaded seats surrounded by lots of happy people right on the 3rd base line side to enjoy ourselves. We ate, we drank and we cheered. Then the people behind us decided that our kids were to cute and well behaved (they obviously don't know us that well) so they bought some Cotton Candy and gave it to the kids to share.

To top it off, our beloved Rangers beat the Angels again to sweep the series. So we headed off into the traffic to head home. Once we got to the car, I saw where people were leaving the parking lot without a long line so sent Hubs that way. We discovered it was a roped off exit but for a small $1 donation some entrepreneurial college boys would hold the rope up long enough for us to drive through it and be on our way. So we paid our money and headed home with a twenty minute shorter drive.

So yes, we had the bad luck of rain on Saturday, but Sunday with the great family day we had more than made up for it.

One more day

Normally there is nothing I like more than having it rain. Especially when I don't have to be out in it unless I choose to. The past few weeks here have seen a lot of rain. In fact we are now officially out of our drought again. Well until July and August, then I'm sure we will be back in our drought since that seems to be permanent thing. But anyway, back to this rain.

The rain has been a bit of a pain to me personally lately. Between all the cancelled and rescheduled baseball and softball games, I should be crazy enough. But it's never really that simple is it. You see about three weeks ago, Hubs and his good friend decided that the time was right to finally extend our patio. So since I've been begging for one since we moved in I was certainly not going to stop them once they got going.

So they started to dig. And then it rained. Then it dried up so they started to lay all the brick sand during which time it started to rain. I then had a 10x20 ankle deep muddy swimming pool off my patio. Then it dried up enough to add more sand. Then just for good measure, it rained again. Finally it dried up enough for the guys to lay and weld the re bar. That was on a Thursday and the cement truck was supposed to come that Saturday. Only Hubs came down with some really bad kind of chest infection so was out of commission for a few days. So we missed our window of dry sand,good weather and available volunteers. The next weekend was Mothers Day weekend which was harder to get volunteers for (rightfully so) and lots of makeup baseball games. Which now leaves us with this weekend. We have rescheduled the cement and volunteers again for this Saturday. I have run out and coverd the sand pit anytime the rain started this week just to keep it from flooding completely. But as I watched the weather last night and saw the 70% chance of rain for Saturday, well I just had to shake my head.

I'm not sure when we are going to finish this patio, but hopefully it will be before it gets to hot to actually enjoy it. Meanwhile, I just keep sweeping up the mess on the floors that having an open sandpit five feet from the door always leaves inside. So for Pete's sake save the rain for one more day, that's all we need, just one more day.

My Muffin Message

It was Muffins for Mom this morning at my daughter's preschool. And while the muffins were good, I love the things I get from my daughter even more. I have all sorts of cute things all around my counter tops right now.

But as well as that, I get a letter with fill in the blank spaces that my daughter answers all about me. In my letter, I am told my name and my age (I'm 20 by the way, boy do I love that girl). According to K. my favorite place to shop is at a "store". She knows how much I hate to shop so she can't even name a store apparently. My favorite thing to do while she is at school is "read a book". Yes, she's right that is my favorite thing to do. Sadly, though it doesn't seem to happen often enough. My favorite food is "vegetables". Have to laugh at that one because I really thought my favorite food was chocolate but we won't disillusion her just yet. And my favorite is, she loves her mom because I do so many nice things for her. Have to love how simple it all is my sweet daughter. And I definitely have to love my sweet daughter as well.

Riddle for ya..

What do you get when...


You mix days of heavy rain followed by a day of high winds?

You get all six of us in misery with allergies that are out of control.

There are not enough klenix and allergy medicine in this house right now to help us all. Just have to love days like these when you can't do anything accept sneeze and tear up everytime you walk outside.

Oh No He Didn't....(as my son says with attitude)

I'm a little ticked off today. Okay really a lot ticked off. I had a comment left on my FB page from someone I haven't talked to in 20 years. Instead of the normal hey, great to see you comment. It was something more offensive. Not to mention completely untrue. So I immediately deleted it after it had been up for about an hour. Then I sent a private email to the "friend" asking what gives? Now if this was just a joking around comment, it was in very poor taste. Especially since it's been so long and I've obviously lost my sense of humor. So I'm waiting to hear back, if I even will to find out what that was all about. Obviously this guy has forgotten that I am not one of those people to take rude comments like that and just ignore them. So yes, I'm ticked off and considering for the first time ever actually de friending someone. So me and my head bobbing self chanting Oh no he didn't...will calm down before I make a decision. Until then, if your on my FB page and you see any offensive posts, well I would just stand back and wait for the fireworks to begin.

Being Lazy

I feel lazy. I have been lazy in my blogging. I have been lazy in my walking. I have been lazy in my cleaning. And I've been lazy in my flower beds. By now I've already got new things planted. And it's not that I'm not busy doing things that take a lot of time, it's just that I've been lazy in delegating other things as well. So blame it on all the rain we've been having. So here I am on a Friday morning probably enjoying my last day with all the kids in school (I'm convinced schools will close here soon due to the Swine Flu paranoia). And guess what I'm feeling lazy. I need to go buy groceries so that will probably get done. But I'm reading this book right now which seems to be taking up a bit more time than it should and so I have a feeling that I'll continue to be a bit lazy a little longer.

S-P-A-N-K-E-D

We spent this past weekend in the lovely town of Ardmore,OK. Where the sun shines brightly and winds, well they blow...and they blow big time. No really, it was so darn windy. Why were we there? An out of town baseball tournament for Z. We decided that since we had a game Friday night, two on Saturday and one on Sunday to make it a weekend with the whole family.

We and the other players families all rented cabins and planned on a long and busy weekend. We get there Friday night ready for our first game. We went into this tournament knowing our team stinks compared to a lot of the teams that would be there. But we also had the bad luck of the draw. Our first team to play against was in what is called a major classification. It's the best there is when it comes to little league and in fact just returned from Florida where they competed and placed 5th in the nation. We did not realize this until we got to the game. Just to share our pain with you we only played about 45 minutes of the 90 minutes allowed. They called the game when we reached the mercy rule of being ahead of a team at any time by 20. Not only that, we only batted the first 6 players in our lineup, yep, that's right, 3 up 3 down each inning. We were glad to provide them with some batting practice. It stunk! But the other team was amazing.

Saturday we were hopeful for a better game. Z. was having a good game with his pitching when his worst fear was realized. He threw a ball and it ended up hitting the batter in the head. The batter ran to first to take his base and said he was okay. But then the first base coach noticed all the blood dripping down from his helmet. So they stopped the game to check him out. Turns out he was bleeding from his ear and at first they thought if was from inside the inner ear. Instead it turns out he had a defective helmet which cut int the cartilage of his ear. He was deemed okay by everyone and continued to finish his turn around the bases. ( I saw him the next day where he proudly showed me his war wound) We played better but still lost.

Second game was pretty similar but without the blood. So we finished up early and went back to the cabins to enjoy our down time. We had a cookout with everyone where pretty much everything had to be bolted down or it would blow away. Lots of playing around with lots of 10 year old boys and siblings was going on. And us parents, well we were busy supervising...well okay I admit it not much supervising going on. But we did get lots of talking done, and a little bit of cow tipping. Just kidding! No talking involved, it would have alerted the cows we were there. Then we all went back to sleep in our cabins with some of the biggest spiders ever seen.

Sunday's game was good, we had them and our boys were playing well. But a few bad calls by refs and some good hits by the other team and well we were packing it up and heading home.

All in all, we were S-P-A-N-K-E-D this weekend in baseball. But the boys enjoyed themselves and the parents enjoyed themselves. And now I'm home and trying to wash out half the state of OK. out of my laundry. There is sand everywhere but at least I'm not out in it anymore.

All things mermaid

I am surrounded by all things mermaid lately. I have made it through the first three children without the mermaid fascination. But my youngest A., has other ideas.

She plays mermaid in the tub.
She plays mermaid on the rug.
She plays mermaid on the stairs.
She plays mermaid with her hair.

You get the idea, it's all mermaid all the time. And silly mom that I am dug out the Little Mermaid dvd to see if she would like it. She does, so it's on constantly. At this time, my A. would very possibly answer to the name of Ariel. I should try it out and see what happens. I didn't expect this latest craze and it's been pretty fun to watch and enjoy so far. Well except for the constant DVD running on the TV. It just goes to show you how even after four kids, you can still be surprised by the little things if you notice them.

Very Disappointed

I'm very disappointed in my kids school today. My oldest came home and told me something his teacher told the class which I didn't agree with. It's not the first time I have had issues with this teacher this year. Normally I email her and get it resolved. This time I've actually scheduled a conference about it for next Monday. This teacher is not my son's homeroom teacher but has him for two classes through out the day. She has been through an unimaginable year which resulted in her losing her husband to cancer. She has a lot to deal with, and I understand this and have tried to empathize with this. In the best of times, I have heard that she is a good teacher but prefers girls. Now in the worst of times, well lets just say it hasn't been easy for my oldest son.

But the thing that has me the most upset is that his teacher has told the class on two separate occasions that they are her least favorite class ever and that she hates them. Yes, she actually said hate. Now my first reaction was to make sure I heard it right. Z. said that what she said the first time was that she disliked them more than any other class she has ever had. But on Tuesday she said she hated them more than any other class she ever had. I decided to call a friend who has a son in the same class to see if he heard the same thing my son heard. And it was confirmed that yes, she did say she hates them.

So I decided to talk with the assistant principal about this. Not only for my child and the other students who should never hear from a teacher that she hates them. But for the teacher herself. It may be that she needs to take a bit more time off or something, I don't know. But they need to be aware of this. While the assistant principal listened to me, I don't feel like she felt all that concerned about what is being said to these students. She seemed much more concerned about all the teacher is going through. Which I agree is awful, but still my child does not need to be taking the brunt of her emotions. My friends husband was going to also talk to the assistant principal today, maybe since he's also an assistant principal in the district she will listen a bit more to what out kids are being subjected to.

Meanwhile, I am also intending to bring this up during our conference, it's one of the few things I want to discuss. I hate that I have to do it, but I have a son who up until this year loved school and now doesn't. Yet he still makes the honor roll every six weeks. I have a son who is being told both verbally and in the actions displayed to him that he is not worthy. And I do not agree with it. I am my son's only voice and unfortunately I am now being forced to use it. I'm very disappointed in this entire situation. Up until this year, I've never had a serious complaint, but now I can not say that. I'm mad, I sympathize with his teacher but I'm still mad.

Poor planning

I suffered from some seriously poor planning this morning. What's that saying, you know the one, the road is paved with good intentions or something like that. Anyways, I thought I would wake up early and get my treadmill torture out of the way early this morning before the boys had to be taken to school. But instead, I woke up at my regular time. Then I thought, that's okay I will still have torture time after I drop the boys off but before I had to get K. to pre school. Only I got distracted by GMA talking about the singing sensation Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent. I totally love stories like these by the way so if you get the chance then click on over.

So instead of my torture time on the treadmill I drank another cup of coffee and took K. to school. When we got home I was faced with another dilemma, treadmill torture or a really nice brisk walk around the lake. So naturally I chose the walk around the lake. (Now what am I going to tell Hubs who has been sworn to keep me going on treadmill)

Then after our walk I came home to see my neighbor out planting flowers. So naturally I had to stop and talk flowers with her and catch up with all that was going on. Then another neighbor joined us and we had us a good visit. Finally I realized I really needed to come in and get showered. It was then I realized the time. I had both the lawn company and the exterminator coming to the house at the same time. Crud, I realized that the inside was a mess. Now I know the exterminator is no reason to clean up but I just have issues with strangers seeing my house with no beds made and a dirty kitchen. Plus, I didn't want him to say that any bugs found, were probably there because it was so messy (not dirty...messy. Well except for the kitchen, that was dirty with all the breakfast dishes) So instead of a slow shower, I ran a marathon and got the house in order just as the lawn company was finishing up. Then within five minutes the exterminator was there. But at least the crumbs and mess were all gone.

So now I'm finally on track again. Well except for the treadmill torture. But I promise tomorrow to get up early and get back on it and cry some more. At least that's what I'm planning.

Cereal-iously

Ok, I know that's not really a word, ceral-iously, but it could be. It's morning, and I'm faced with the day to day dilemma of what to feed myself and my kids for breakfast. The boys are easy and choose to have egg burritos at school, the girls aren't to bad either. They pick cereal, Berry Crunch to be exact.

So that leaves me. I decide to join the cereal bandwagon and join in the crunching going on. So I wander off to the pantry to see what kinds of mom cereal there is in there. I see three boxes sitting there to choose from. I have my Crunchy Go Lean, I have my Fiber One and I have bran flakes. Ooohh, what to choose. I finally decide on Fiber One and go to put it in my bowl. Only to discover that there is hardly any left, not enough to even count as half a bowl. So I decide to move onto my Crunchy go Lean (this is really not one I like that much but I decide to eat it just to get rid of it) and discover that this to is hardly worth putting in the bowl. About this time, I'm wondering what is going on here, I am the only one who eats mom cereal how did this happen. Then I remember, we had company this past week and mom has to watch her sugar levels so she probably had some at some time or another.

So I am faced with the decision of do I just go for a bowl of Bran flakes on there own or do I mix all the cereals together to make a hodgepodge breakfast mix. Or I could just have two small separate bowls of cereal but that doesn't sound so good. But now that I know these essentially empty big cereal boxes are taking up some high dollar pantry shelf space I want them out of there. But do I want to be wasteful and toss them, it seems such a shame to be like that. I am trying to cut down on the grocery budget and this just doesn't seem to fit into it at all. I decide to just get over it and mix the cereals together. I was really a bit disappointed, I mean if I like them by themselves, then surely mixed together they would be equally as good, but they weren't. I guess I like my cereal in it's purest form and mixing them just doesn't do it for me.

But on the bright side, I now have more shelf space in my pantry and was not wasteful. Just doing my part to save money for the family budget. Well unless you count those really great tops I bought at the store the other day, but cereal-iously that's not the same thing at all.

Facing the facts

I can't deny it any longer. Swimsuit season is almost here. I'm being reminded of this from every direction. Time to refocus and start walking again on a daily basis. It's hard to do this time of year with all the practices that are going on but I just need to give up a TV show or two and it should all work out. Hopefully by the time I actually have to force myself into the swimsuit, it won't be as bad as it would be now.

I may say that just a bit to much

I hear myself in my children. What I tell them, usually comes back to me sooner or later. Sometimes it's not so bad, other times I'm embarrassed and then other times I just have to laugh.

I've been listening to A. quite a bit lately. And I must say, she is definitely repeating things that she hears me say. But in my defense it's not the embarrassing phrase of darn it (only it really wasn't darn). Instead it seems that everything she is seeing or noticing for the first time requires a very loud and enthusiastic Holy Cow! (Mental congratulations to myself that it was not anything worse than that) So since this doesn't fall into what I consider the offensive category, I'm enjoying her Holy Cows. Everything from a new roll of toilet paper being put on the roll, to a dead bug in a window sill gets a big HOLY COW.

So I've decided that I may just actually verbalize my thoughts a bit more than I should. I must try to keep things where I really am thinking Holy Cow inside my head, instead of verbalizing them. But Holy Cow, it's harder than I thought it would be. So maybe I will just give it up and be glad that at least it's not quite as offensive as Bugger, which I've been know to say a time or two. But if we aren't actually in England is it still offensive? Just something to wonder about.

It's that time again...baseball season

Baseball season has started up for us again. We now officially have three kids we have to shuttle back and forth to practices and games. So for my friends that I see on a regular basis, I'll see you around June sometime. But contrary to what you may think, I love it. It's fun to watch the kids as they grow and get better at sports. You can really see a difference in them from season to season.

This past weekend we watched my oldest son Z. play in a weekend tournament. He is with a new team this spring. And we decided on this team not for their winning records (which they didn't really have) but for the coaches and parents of the other boys out there playing. We are really enjoying being on this new team. Since we've joined them, the boys have finally started to click and they are finally playing pretty good. They finally finished a tournament and got a bit of hardware (ie. trophies, medals, rings) to show for it. They didn't win this tournament so they didn't get the championship rings (which I'm still laughing over) but they were all so excited to have done so well. Hoss my youngest son is now the official bat boy for this team and even he received a medal. Talk about an excited 6 yr old.

So if you start to hear more and more talk about baseball than you really want to, I'm sorry. But that's pretty much all I'm going to be doing for the next 3 months so I won't have much else to talk about.

So pull up a chair, grab some sunflower seeds and start spitting, it's baseball season.

It's Spring Break

We are on spring break this week. I have high hopes for everyone getting and staying healthy this week. So far it looks like it may actually happen. Z. is fine and at baseball camp this week every morning. Hoss and K. and A. are all better and for the most part seem to be better as well. So that leaves me to plan a few things to do this week. I'm planning but it's a bit hard to do the long all day activities when I have Z. at camp until noon. After being physical and on the go all morning he does get a bit tired. But I'm sure I can get him to go on an extra long all day outing if it were worth his while.

So that leaves me with a lot of free mornings to fill this week. And what seems to be filling it? One of my all time favorite TV shows as a child. My son Hoss has discovered Little House on the Prarie. He likes it because of the horses. I just like it. I can honestly say I've seen every episode ever made. And I can name and place every episode within 60 seconds of sitting down to watch it. I was a bit obsessed as child I think. But I can't deny that I still love this show. Who knows, if I'm lucky I'll get to watch it more than once this week on spring break. It is my kids putting it on to watch, not me. And I will indulge them on this one.

Sick and Tired of Being Sick

I have to say it has been a hard winter for us. For the last two months straight, we have had one person after another in our family getting sick. And it continues to rage on. We have never had it this bad before and I hope to never see a winter like this again. It all started at the end of January when Hubs came home sick from a business trip. Hoss then caught it and developed pneumonia. Then K., A. and I decided to get the flu and spread the love to my parents who were visiting. We finally get through that then Z. comes home with strep throat. Now we are battling the dreaded stomach virus for a second time this winter. Both K and Hoss are fighting this one right now. It's just not seeming to end.

I must say, that I am so tired of being sick and caring for sick children. They've been great but it's just been really hard. I'm hoping that the kids will soon recover and get over all these viruses soon. That should leave us healthy to deal with all the allergies that are about to hit and the asthma problems that go with it. I am hoping that we can spend spring break next week home and healthy. So now you know why I've been gone so much lately.

Birthdays are in the air

We are starting our next round of family birthdays. Today is Hubs birthday. He is now 41. It's really not that upsetting to him so that's a good thing. So what does Hubs want for his birthday? Who knows. He doesn't have anything that he really wants and doesn't really need anything. So we are just going to go out and let the kids pick him something that they think he would like. It's always fun to see what they come up with. One year he got a bag of marbles, Z. really felt that he needed those. And of course he felt he had to play with Hubs in the process. I've already been requested to make his favorite birthday cake. So of course I will do that, what flavor you may wonder. It's almost embarrassing to say it but he really likes pink strawberry cakes. So that's what he gets, even though the girls have told daddy that it's a girl cake. He doesn't care though and still wants a pink cake. I guess he never believed that whole boys don't like pink theory.

So Happy Birthday Hubs, we love you very much. Enough to eat pink cake and play marbles with you. May your upcoming year be filled with as much love and joy as you give all of us on a daily basis.

Sick Again

We are sick again. The girls and I are suffering from the flu. Hoss has recovered for the most part from his pnuemonia so that is a bright spot. Z. and Hubs seem to have dodged the bullet so far. But my poor parents who came up to visit, they went home with the flu. Courtesy of us of course. I feel so bad about that. They always seem to catch something when they come to see us. I am amazed that they continue to risk it but they love thier grandkids and can't be kept from them. But hopefully we will all be well soon. Because I have to tell you, this being sick with the flu is for the birds. I must remember this next year and get a flu shot.

Can you see anything

The last few times I've logged into blogger I can't see anything. I was just wondering if it's happening to anyone else or if it's a user error. Will you leave me a comment either way letting me know if you can or can not see my posts.