I may have missed the boat

I'm late in getting the shopping done this year. I'm not sure why really. I know what we are going to get which is half the battle. But getting out and buying it has been the problem. So today I went to two stores to look for a present and they were out of them at both stores. Oops, I'm thinking I may have missed the boat on this. But then again, I'm really not that worried about it. If we are really supposed to have it for Christmas then I'll find one. If not, it will be bought eventually some day down the road. I'm really not that worried about it. There are lots of other things the kids would be excited and happy to have.

But in order to not miss the mailing packages deadline. Well, I still have to wrap presents first. And that's one huge process for me. My packages are likely to make it around Easter. No really, I won't let it wait that long...I hope.

I've also missed the deadline for me to send in money for the boys to have for their Christmas parties at school. Must remember to do that tomorrow no matter what. I just didn't have enough one dollar bills to do it today.

I'm a great mom, I know this really. You don't have to remind me. Okay, at least tell me that I'm not the only poor fool who is constantly late on doing things for the kids at school. Then at least I'll feel a bit better. Well until the next deadline comes and passes and I realize that darn it, I've missed the boat again.

No No and in case you didn't hear it...NO

Can you guess what has been said in the Juice Box household at least a million time in the last 24 hours. That would be the answer...NO! What surprises me is that it is not my youngest three who are asking the question (well at least not yet) but my oldest Z. He in turn is spurring the others to ask over and over in turn getting the same NO response.

What could possibly cause me to have to say No so much. It's not really what you think, it's not about Christmas presents at all. NO it's much worse than that. They want me to give in and allow them to get another PUPPY!

NO NO NO NO...no no no no!!! I do not want another puppy. We already have one overgrown dog who thinks she's a puppy, that I have to have underfoot. But a friend has just gotten a sweet new baby puppy Chihuahua and so the begging has commenced. No matter how much I let him go over and visit this still unnamed puppy, I will not cave on this issue.

I already have a husband, two boys, two girls and an overgrown Boxer. I certainly don't need to add to my nest with a partridge in a pear tree. So the answer is most definetely NO. But secretly I will admit to enjoying holding the puppy myself, especially since I don't have to deal with any of the rest of the work that goes with her.

Where or where are my pictures?

Some of you may have noticed my lack of pictures lately. It's not because I'm not taking them. I am, lots of them. It's because Hubs garage computer (yes he has one in the garage) has gotten so old that it won't run the programs or equipment he needs anymore. So he has taken my Desktop out of the office and put it in the garage. (By the way if your spouse requires a computer in the garage please tell me so I won't feel so alone in this)

So until I can find the software for my camera and photoshop, I can't download my pictures. At least not until I get the Desktop back in the office. Hubs solution is easy, lets buy another computer and he can keep the Desktop in the garage. I don't want to buy another computer. I want to be normal and not have to have a computer in the garage. But I'm not normal and I'm still not able to download pictures or music just yet. I guess I better find that software quick and put it on the laptop. Then I will feel normal again.

Land of the Infected

I'm living in the land of the infected and contaminated right now. We are busy fighting germs on every level. So far we have three wounded with two of them well on the road to recovery. The last one is still waiting to see if a recovery is in order yet. Hopefully we will all be healthy again soon.

How many days left

I am counting the days. Not for the reason you may think. I am counting days until school lets out for Christmas. I can hardly wait to have two weeks where I don't have to force my kids out of their warm beds. Then I won't have to hear complaints about how they are tired and don't want to go to school. Then I don't have to get out in the cold weather and drive the kids to school. I'm counting the days until I can enjoy my hot cup of coffee without interruptions. So yes I am as bad as the kids counting the days until Christmas, but it is for a different reason than thiers.

They Finally Found It

I am very excited to say the birds finally found it. What is it? It's the bird feeder that's been hanging outside my kitchen window for over a month now. Filled to the brim with wild bird seed. And yet up until this week, not a single bird was willing to brave it and try it out first. But I guess that one lone little brave sparrow who first tried it out sent the message back to his friends. Now most days I can look out and find little birds eating from the feeder. So far, it's not been the big birds like Cardinals or Blue Jays but I'm sure they will make it eventually. In the mean time, I'm just excited that the birds showed up. But really do you ever know of anyone or anything that turns down free food?

Recovered and well

I've recovered from our big party this weekend. In fact I didn't even realize I posted about it here on my blog until I checked in today. How's that for embarrassing. Oh well. Hubs is off this week and we are preparing to get ready for our trip. But first things first, I'm off to have lunch with Hubs. Have to love vacation time.

jWell Crud!

We had a Tech watching party at my house tonight, and Tech lost. That was the bad news. The good news is that we all had a lot of fun, and I have reaquainted myself with Capt, Morgan. I have thourourgly enjoyed him tonight. I hope I enjoy him in the morning....but not likely. But it was a fun party at my house anyways!!!!

Not ready

Holy Cow, it's the week before Thanksgiving and I'm not ready for the busyness that seems to come along with the holidays.

I've not got a shopping list ready for either the Thanksgiving dinner (which I'm not really responsible for this year) or for Christmas presents. I'm not ready to get out and go to all the different classroom parties and celebrations. I'm not ready to get out the decorations yet. I'm not ready to fuss for my youngest to leave the tree alone. I'm not ready to do any of the serious heavy baking the kids have come to love having. I'm not ready to deal with all the extra people in the stores (including the grocery store). I'm not ready to deal with all the extra excitement and energy the holidays bring out in the kids.

I'm just not ready. Does that make me a scrooge? I am ready for my kids to be home on breaks from school though. Even if there is more fighting, I miss having them around. But I'm just not ready for the rest of it yet.

Over the fence

Z. was a guest player for another select baseball team this weekend. They were in need of players who could hit the ball well for a tournament they entered. They happened to see him at batting practice last week and invited him to play. So Hubs said yes, even though I was glad to finally have a baseball free weekend. Then Hubs decided that I should get to take him on my own so I could watch him play on Saturday. The fact that it was below freezing and that we had to leave the house by 6 am just to get to FT Worth in time for his game wasn't the reason ( or so he claims ). So I went and froze along with all the other players and parents. They didn't do so bad the first game and won it. They fell apart the second game and got spanked big time.

But Sunday was a new day and a warmer day. So we all went down to watch him play. Z. was having a good game. He got up to bat and got on base each time. But at his last bat he hit a foul ball over the left field fence, but since it was obviously a foul he had to bat again. So at a 3-2 count, he was able to straighten it out a bit and knocked another one out over the fence again over left field. It went over the fence and landed in the grassy median of an four land road (very lucky it didn't hit a car). So he finished his run around the bases only to be greeted by all his teammates who did their best to carry him off the field. He was psyched. He was responsible for three of the four runs yesterday. So even though their team lost 5-4 it was a good game for him.

Nothing like a home run to bring the spirits of everyone up.

More alike than I realized

Out of all my kids Hoss and A. are more alike than I realized. They both love being outside regardless of the weather. They both play with the dog more than any of the others. They both can't seem to stay away from water or puddles no matter how much they are told. They both have very selective hearing when they want to. They both have a stubborn streak you would never guess was there. They both challenge me more than the others did. They both have a hard time staying in their beds at night. And they both surprise me on a daily basis with what they can come up with. Yes, these two are more alike than I ever realized. It's not a bad thing, it's just funny how two little people so different in so many ways can be so alike in so many others.

Thankful

Things I am thankful for right now:

-friends
-family
-a clean house
-most of my kids are on the road to being healthy again
-the dog who isn't throwing up for now
-Diet Dr. Pepper

Wordless Wednesday

Look Ma, NO HANDS!



For other WW participants click here.

Go Vote

The following is a non politically paid advertisement. It's free. How many things in life are free. Not many. So take it for what it's worth.


Go Vote today if you haven't already.

Put these last very long two years of campaigning behind me. And while your voting, vote the same way I did, just to make me happy. What is that you ask, how did I vote? I'm from Texas,you figure it out. You have a fifty fifty chance at getting it right.

Not that I'm a huge football fan or anything

But this weekend's game of Texas Tech playing UT was fun to watch. Since we had both Tech and Longhorn fans in our house it didn't matter to me who won. What did matter was all the fun we had watching it. If only I had managed to record the last 25 seconds for Z. he would have seen it all. But I didn't realize it had stopped recording so I didn't extend it. I just had to console him with the fact that he didn't want to see his beloved Longhorns in such a state. But he was still miffed.

Time has caught up with me

It hit me this morning, Halloween is tommorow. I knew it was coming and have somewhat prepared for it. I have no less than a million bags of candy. So much in fact that I could probably feed a third world nation for a month if it actually had any nutrional value to it. The kids all have their costumes and only one has decided to change her mind. But since she already has a princess costume in her closet it isn't that big a deal.

So how did time catch up to me? I just realized that I don't have a pumpkin for the kids to carve. I really am tired of the whole pumpkin carving thing. It's very overrated...and more importantly Messy. And it never fails that I or Hubs end up doing all the work since it's so gross. The kids love the end effect of a Jack O Lantern but don't like the work involved. So I guess tonight we will be making a Jack O Lantern. After all, I'm a sucker for getting my kids something as easy as that to make them happy. But I can honestly say that I'm really not all that excited about it. Except for the pumpkin seeds, I love roasted pumpkin seeds. But can't I just go buy a bag of those at the store and save myself all the work?

I'm distracted

I'm very distracted from blogging lately. Lots been going on with studying and kids. But the main distraction is that I finally signed up with Facebook. I can't believe how late to the party I am. Lots of old friends out there,some even as crazy as me.

Weekend Update

Well since I've been bad at posting, I thought I'd bore you with some of our weekend.

1. Saturday was my birthday. I'm twenty five....again.

2. Saturday was the day that Z. had a baseball tournament that lasted ALL day long. I had the three youngest running around and filthy in no time. Not really all that much fun.

3. Hubs flew in from Finland late Saturday afternoon. He went straight to the baseball fields to become my knight in shining armour and save me from all these kids and baseball.

4. Hubs took me out for Mexican after the last baseball game and then we went home and ate birthday cake that K. made for me.

5. Mom and Dad gave me a beautiful, very big antique crucifix with a water font on it. It came from an antique store outside of Pairs (the real one, not the one in TX)

6. I love my crucifix because now all that teasing my Hubs about needing a water font by our front door can now be turned into reality. And this one is much nicer than a plain water font.

7. Z. wrote me the sweetest poem for my bithday. It was written the way only a 10 year old boy can do when he is trying to make his mom feel good when he realizes that he doesn't have a present for mom.

8. Sunday we had more baseball games. Then we were finally defeated and it was all over. So I made Hubs take me out to buy me a present. I'm sublte like that.

9. Of all the things he offered me, the only thing I wanted was a new bird feeder outside the kitchen window. So that's what I got. Now I can see all the Blue Jays fighting over the seed in the morning.

10. Then I talked my way into another birthday dinner since I really didn't feel like cooking.

11. I am so glad that Hubs is home. I missed him. And more importantly, he brought me my favorite chocolate ever.

So there you have it. Our weekend. Baseball, Birthday Cake, Crucifix with water fonts, Bird Feeders and dinner out. The weekend doesn't sound so bad after all.

Our first cold snap

We have had our first cold snap. And I am enjoying it. At least I was until it came time to get the kids out in it this morning. I had to really convince them that they couldn't just run out without jackets or sweaters. Then I had to get those same jackets and sweaters on them. Much grumbling was heard and it wasn't only the kids doing it. Tell me why it seems every fall my kids have seemed to have forgotten how to put on a long sleeve shirt or sweater? Please, I beg of you why do they forget such a simple task. And then once we get them all ready to go, we always have to stop for a bathroom break.

It is times like this that I am grateful that we live in Texas. I don't have to deal with the snowsuits and the mittens. It is times like this that I am grateful that when we did live in Finland and we did require snowsuits and mittens that I only had one child. I don't know if I would have the patience to deal with four kids and snowsuits these days.

But since it is Texas, I am grateful that this cold snap won't last long and my kids will soon be out of their long sleeves and sweaters. Probably by late afternoon, at which point I can only hope that they all make it home again with all those jackets.

The Mother of All Days

Wow today was hard. Hubs had to be on a plane to Finland for a business trip by noon. Hoss had his last football game in one town at 11:45 where the girls would be with me. And Z. had a baseball tournament in a town about 45 minutes away that started at 11 and didn't end until 8:30. I was lucky enough that one of his team mates was able to get him to that tournament so that I only missed 1 and 1/2 of his 3 games he played.

But I made it through and so did the kids. Hoss kept his football record as a perfect score of 0 wins but had fun anyways. K. had one scrapped knee to show for this game and was quite upset about it. A. survived football okay.

Now for baseball, well that's another story. At some point before I got there Z. lost a tooth of his while he was at bat. And he was pretty upset that it never was found. He was so upset he hit a heck of a triple and brought in quite a few runs. By the time we got there to watch him he was on a roll. He had some great hits, some amazing slides where he was safe (and a scraped up arm also). But he was definitely on fire when he was the last pitcher of the game. He finished out the inning getting us 3 quick outs with his speed that they just couldn't hit. He plays on a 10U select team and they have been playing all fall in a league against 12U boys. They've lost a bunch but won a few here and there. But it was obvious today when they were playing against kids their own age that they have improved a lot.

So K, Hoss and A. got completely filthy at the baseball fields playing in the woods, dirt and with all those nasty horse apple thingies. (I wish I knew what they were really called) And Z. left alot of sweat, blood and body parts (teeth) on the field for all eternity. But he still made out pretty good. His coach gave him 3 bucks for his tooth which is more than the tooth fairy ever left him before. And on top of that they came in 1st place in their first ever tournament.

Now I am exhausted and ready to go to bed. And tomorrow for the first time in weeks we don't have a game on a Sunday afternoon. Can I tell you how excited I am for that?