Patio Pictures

I have been very lazy in downloading pictures lately. So the other day when I finally did get around to downloading my camera, I had a lot. In fact I forgot that I even took these pictures until I saw them.

When we bought the house, it had a small patio and I've always wanted to extend it a bit. Well our friend Janne came back from Finland and heard about it. So he lit a fire under Hubs and before I knew what was happening they were digging out the dirt to extend my patio. No way was I going to slow that train down. So I let them.

After they dug the dirt out and framed it, they arranged for a cement truck to deliver the cement. So all we needed was lots of friends and wheel barrows and good weather. We struck out on the good weather for three weekends but on the fourth we got lucky and here is what was going on in my back yard.


The cement truck would fill up each wheel barrow and the guys would take off to pour it out.

But first they had to make it up this monster incline with a very full and heavy wheel barrow. I think I may have actually heard a swear word or two while I was standing here.

Once at the patio they would pour it in and someone would spread it out. This went on for a very short time.

Then finally all the cement was delivered and it was time for more spreading and leveling off.

This is where the guys who were still capable of standing would stand and eat the breakfast burritos we paid them with and catch their breath. Meanwhile Janne and another Finn were busy finishing off the leveling.

As you can see, lots of help from the friends and kids and lots of work. I wish I could say that I've gone decorated my new patio and got it looking all nice now, but I can't. It got way to hot to be out working in the yard shortly after we finished the patio. So now I will wait for fall.

Janne and Hubs are now talking about renting a bobcat or excavator or whatever it is they need to level out our backyard and build a retaining wall. All so that they can put up a batting cage in our back yard. Me, all I want is some new flower beds. Guess we will see which gets done first.

Wordless Wednesday

Sand Diva!

For other WW participants click here.

Fun at the lake

I took the kids to the lake yesterday. They had been begging to go for days now. So I made them help me with all the chores around the house that needed to be done and promised them a fun reward for afterward. After a quick lunch and a stocked ice chest we headed out for a fun afternoon.

The kids liked swimming and wading into the lake but as always it's the sand and mud that attract my kids so that's where they spent most the time. I pretty much let them have free reign with what they wanted to do. Since the swimming area that we were in was only to my shoulders at the deepest part, the boys could go where they wanted but the girls were fine with wearing their floaties the entire time. So after swimming for a bit, some serious sand castle making and burying the kids in the sand followed.


Everyone had to get buried but since we started with Z. the biggest, everyone else just sort of fit in his leftover space and then we recovered them.




It was a lot of fun and they are already asking when they can go back. With school starting in a few short weeks, I'm hoping to get back there at least once more.

Is it to early for military school?

It has been a bit crazy in our house lately. The kids are running free and doing pretty much what they want. And because of that the behaviour of my kids has gotten pretty rotten. It's to the point that I wonder how soon I could ship them off to military school. At the very least I am anxious for school to start so that the routine will start back up. And I will be honest, I'm ready for them to be in school when they are running around the way they have been today. Structure does wonders for them and I've been sorely lacking in that department. My own fault I know. I have to own up to my part in their bad behaviour. But in the meantime, I have been given the suggestion by Hubs to make my own military school.

Yes, that's right I can be my own drill sargent. I can make these kids get up early, make their beds, do their chores and send them off to run sprints. All before 8 AM. Then I need to take my children out in public and hope they misbehave so I can fix the problem immediately and make an example.

Have to love my Hubs sense of humor. I was all over everything he said, right until he mentioned the part about being up before 8 in the summer. Once he said that, I just checked out and started checking the prices at New Mexico Military Institute. It's really not so bad, I could sell everything we own and then we'd be set.

Darn the bulls eye

I did it again. I went to that darn bulls eye store with the intent of buying a short list of things for the kids. Instead I walked out much lighter in the wallet. But a lot of the clothes for the girls and some for the boys are now taken care of. Not to mention that backpacks have now been chosen by all but Z. Why do I go to that store...why oh why???

End of Season party

We had Z.'s end of season party yesterday. Lots of boating, inner tubing, swimming and eating. The kids all had a great time and so did the parents. We are very fortunate to have a team where the parents all like each other enough to want to spend time at these parties as well as the kids. The kids all like each other and are on a constant rotating basis of sleepovers at other players houses. Every house seems to have at least one piece of clothing that belongs to another player. So now all the parents just ask if they have clothes as their house instead of going home to pack a bag. Kind of convenient in one way and difficult to keep up with at the same time.

The team ended up losing more games than winning this year. But they somehow managed to come in 3rd place in AAYBA Little League World Series for their division. So that was a good way to end the year. So now things will settle down a bit for the next month and we can enjoy some more summer for a while longer.

Dawg Days

We have been busy this week. Z. was competing in the Little League World Series tournament this week. Seven games in six days in hot Tx. weather makes for a long week. But it was fun and our boys ended up in third place for thier division. So we are proud of the effort.

Just to finish the day off, we went to the water park for a few hours this evening. And it was fun. It's the first time in years where I haven't been afraid the entire time that one of my children was on the verge of drowning at a moments notice. The boys are old enough and swim well enough that I didn't see to much of them. They took off and enjoyed the park and periodically came back to spray water on me. The girls and I hung out in the shallow play area and the lazy river. It was fun. Fun to know that we are finally getting to the point with our kids that we can do things like this and not have to worry about every little thing. They are getting bigger and older and are easier (at times).

So while I realize that time is fleeting and they are growing way to fast. It's fun to be able to do some of the "big kid" stuff with all the kids.

Tap Tap Tap...Hello anyone still there?

Okay I have been gong a very long time. It was proven to me this morning when I typed in my blogger password and had forgotten it. Once I thought for a minute and retyped it, life was good again.

So since I've last blogged I have been busy with summer life. I now officially have all my kids potty trained. Never thought the day would arrive but it's here and boy am I excited.

We have been going to summer reading tutoring for Hoss the last few weeks. He's doing better but it's almost over and I will be glad. It's at a bad time for me. One in the afternoon, right in the middle of everything so it's been hard to get there and still do anything before or after that feels like fun summer stuff for the kids.

We have seen more movies and eaten more popcorn than should be legally allowed, but now that the kids are all old enough to sit through a movie we are finally getting to do it.

And lets not forget swimming. K. is determined to be in the big pool without floaties this summer. So we spend lots of time at the pool trying to get her swimming like a big girl. The boys are fine in the pool and A. is usually close by with her floaties. Won't be long until I have four little swimmers on their own.

I wish I could say that I've been a dedicated walker and exerciser lately. But I haven't, it's been sporadic at best but I do seem to get in at least three or four days of some kind of exercise. Not the greatest but at least it's still something.

June was crazy, we had an anniversary and two birthday's to celebrate. So now that July is here, we are back to sanity for a while at least. Hopefully I will not be as infrequent a poster now. But it seems to be a standard thing for me to say lately so we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Dare I say it?

I am afraid to say it out loud. So maybe if I just type it I won't jinx myself. I'm sure by now you have guessed it. My youngest and most stubborn daughter, A. has been in big girl panties for over a week now with out an accident. I can hardly believe it's finally happened. I think I now officially have all my children potty trained. Considering I have been changing someone's diaper non stop for the last six years and eight months (but whose counting)I think I have a right to be excited.

Can you feel my excitement!! Can you really?? Because I am.

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.