Photos of the Day

Courtesy of my friend Pete.

I love his teammates expressions in the background.

Nice job, Pete!  Great sequence shots.  :up:

Destructo Boys :/

 Boys are destructive.  Period.

Girls are drama.

But boys are destructive and will attempt to destroy everything in their path.

Including each other.

But that's a different post.  ;)

Instead, this post is about how truly destructive these two little monsters have been lately.

First, they came into the house the other day to confess that they were using matches to start fires.

:eek:

After I yelled at them for a good fifteen minutes, I asked them how they intended to stop a fire if they actually started one.

According to Shane, they had a can of air freshener to spray on it to extinguish the fire.

Really?  Seriously?

:rolleyes:

Gah.

The only reason that they confessed is because their friend's four year old sister saw them doing it and went and told on them to her mom.  And her mom was on her way over to tell me.

But the real question is why a four year old knew that was bad when they didn't? 

Then yesterday, Owen had two friends over playing football in the front yard.  I was cooking dinner and I heard a big thunk so I went outside to see what was going on.

They were throwing rocks at the house.  TRYING TO HIT THE WINDOWS.

:-|

Gah.

And that was a 10 minute lecture about WHY they shouldn't try and HIT my windows WITH ROCKS.

:-|

So the good news is that I won't have teenage girl drama.

:)

The bad news is that all of my stuff will be destroyed before they grow up and move out.

:-|

Boys.  Sheesh.

The "Look"

Do you know what a pre-teen go-to-h-e-double-hockey-sticks look actually looks like?  If you've been fortunate enough to escape it, good for you!

If not, please see below.  It's not pretty so you may wish to look away. 

I warned you that it wasn't pretty.  And I'm sure that *I* never had that look on *my* face.  And if I did, I'm super duper sorry.  :(  Please mom, lift the curse.  ;)

It's not a pretty look.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that I hate it. 

Kicking It Old School

Ken forwarded me this picture that he found from when the boys were younger.  We had taken a trip to Hershey Park.  Or Wishey Park as Shane called it.  :p

Check out Owen's shirt.  This was back when Thomas was cool.  ;)

I love this picture.  Shane is hugging and getting an autograph from a Peppermint Pattie.  :p

Cruisin the Grocery Store in Style

I usually go to the grocery store when the kids are in school because it's easier, cheaper and quicker for me to do so.  And as I zip through the aisles I secretly giggling at the moms struggling to push their kids in the stupid carts that have the cars attached to them.

I never let my kids ride in those car carts. Because I'm mean. And because I just can't push them. Well. I can but it usually ends up with me pushing them into something or someone.

I had to take Owen, Sheldon and Mary Mayken with me to the store the other day.  There was no avoiding it.  And, well, you can see where this is going. I just say couldn't say no to Mary Mayken's "please Aunt Kem" plea to ride in the car.

And then Owen got SO excited and was like "Yeeeessss! (with a fist pump and all) We get to ride in the car cart. " :rolleyes:

And then he proceeded to cram his 8 year old body into the car.

The view from behind.  Just in case you've never been privvy to steering one of these bad boys.  Or trying to as is the case with me.

Laying on the horn in traffic.  Oy vey.  They will both be aggressive drivers if the grocery store driving is any indication of how they will act behind the wheel.  

No trip to the grocery store is complete without cruising through the deli drive through for a slice of cheese.  :p  Owen's already a one handed driver. And someone forgot to tell Mary Mayken to put Annabelle in a car seat.  That's not very safe.  :p

Oh well.  At least they had fun.  :)

And secretly, I am happy that Owen still wants to ride in things like this.  Even if he really doesn't fit.  ;)

Flag Football Begins!

It's started!  It's finally here.

It's what Owen and his BFF Marcus have been practicing for every day since the last season ended.

They run drills every day to prepare for the all important football season.



Owen's team had their first flag football game this past Saturday.

He's so ready for it.  As soon as we got there, he started warming up with his teammates.

That's when I looked down and saw the shoes that he choose to wear.

Really?  :-|

Not much you can do at that point other than just shake your head and let it go.

And my friend's mom who witnessed Owen's striptease down to his PJ's at school a few days before (that's not a mistype) was also there to witness Owen's awesome shoe choice.

She was also at the practice last week (different day) when he announced that he didn't have on any underwear.

Really?  :-|

But that's beside the point.

The Little Dolphins had a great first game filled with weird moments. 

First, our blitzer went and took the football from the opposing quarterback and ran it back for a touch down.  Then Owen complained bitterly (complete with his arms flailing and hand motions) to the referee and his coach that the kid who was on him was illegally blocking him.

Which he was.  And he stopped.

Owen caught two flags and the extra point conversion after that weird touchdown.  (Or something like that.  It sounds good, eh?)

Owen had his own cheering section.  Mary Mayken, Sheldon and Annabelle came to watch his game.  They look like a rag-a-muffin bunch of kids, don't they?  ;)

First game down.  First game won.  Woot.  It's gonna be a great season!  :)

Pajamas: They're Not Just for Sleeping In Anymore

As I drove him to school, I noticed that he had red long john looking fabric under his jeans.

And I noticed this because his knees on his jeans are totally ripped. 

He's stylish. 

But whatever. That's ...not the point.

So doing what any good mom would do, I booted his butt out of the car at school (because I'm awesome like that!) and told him to take his jammies off once he got into class. 

He said no because he would be embarrassed to bring them out of the bathroom. 

Fast forward to time to pick him up at the after-school enrichment class that he's in and I could see that he's still wearing the jammy bottoms through the knee hole in his jeans. 

I was chatting with a friend's mom and we were giggling about it and she said she would grab him out of class and bring him to me.  (I was helping at another area.)

Keeping an eye out for him, he comes running down the hallway (with my friend's mom right behind him laughing her booty off) WEARING HIS SUPER MARIO LONG JOHN JAMMY BOTTOMS ONLY sans jeans. 

Apparently he had stripped off his jeans IN THE CLASS to save time for football practice.  She said that there was nothing that she could do because he did it in the middle of the cafeteria.  With all of the kids and other parents watching.  :-|

I'm pretty sure that my friends mom thinks that I'm nuts and is worried about her grandchildren being friends with him.

You should also note that Owen's stylish ensemble includes his black and white checkered Vans. 
:-|

He said he was ready for football practice.  :rolleyes:

Boys.  Sheesh.

The Eggcelent Project!

 Owen is a winner.

A science fair winner.  And that's because he had an eggcelent project!  (Title courtesy of Ken.  ;))

His project was to find out if apple vinegar dissolved an egg shell faster or at the same rate as regular vinegar.  He and Shane got the idea to do the project from watching Steve Spangler's experiment on TV.

He found that the eggshell dissolved off of the egg at the same rate in both types of vinegar.

He thought he didn't win because the principal introduced the first place winner by saying "and the first place prize goes to the world's biggest Steelers fan!"  tee-hee.   He hates the Steelers.  :D

Owen and some of his classmates after the awards ceremony.

I talked with one of the moms who judged his class and she said that he rocked his interview with the judges and that's what put him over the top.  She said he really knew his project and they couldn't stump him.  :up:

But the best par of the whole projectt?  I paid Shane to help him do his project.  :cool:

Yes.  I'm brilliant. Now you're asking yourself why you didn't think to do that with your kids projects!

Circumventing the Rules

Owen's best friend Marcus isn't allowed to play outside while his parents are not at home.

So they circumvent the rule and stand in the doorway and talk.

And talk.  And talk.  And talk.

But he's not playing outside with them so he didn't break any rules.  :p

But I have a feeling that this isn't the last time we'll see those two circumventing the rules.  Meh.

Which Flags Should They Use?

Owen had flag football practice today.

His coach huddled the kids and said that he was trying to decide which flags to use this season.  Then he said that he was leaning towards using the red ones instead of the yellow ones because they stick to the velcro better.

Owen said "Don't forget to dip them in oil while you're at it."

Haha.   That's good stuff! 

The Most Hated Intersection

 I hate this intersection.

It's the intersection at the kids school that leads from the main road to a side road to get into the school.  It's also the main road leading to a larger light a few miles away so you have lots of people using it to get to work.

And the reason that I hate it is not because of the intersection itself.

It's because of the stupid people that try to go left from the intersection during the rush hour.

While they're talking on their cell phones.

And it backs up traffic in every single direction.

The problem is that they have two other option to get out of the area that would be much easier and cause a lot less congestion.

But no.  They sit at the stop sign, trying to turn left (and usually with no break in sight because that road is busy during the hour that school is going into session) with traffic backing up in every single direction.

WHILE THEY ARE TALKING ON THEIR PHONES.  And smoking and drinking coffee.  :-|

And then they give you dirty looks when you won't let them out.

Even though you legally have the right away and you would have had to have stopped to have let them out.

Gah.  I hate that intersection.

The Most Hated Chore. Evar.

There are few chores that I hate more than matching socks.

I'm not crazy about changing the sheets or doing the laundry either.

But matching socks is the absolute worst. 

Which is probably why I wait so long to wash them and then it ends up taking twice as long to match them up. 

So yeah.  I hate matching socks.  I wish I were Samantha Stevens and I could just wiggle my cute nose and have them magically matched.

So what's your least favorite chore?

Mine is matching socks in case you didn't know.  Meh.

A Real WTF Moment

Shane and Owen are both home sick from school today so I took the opportunity to straighten up the house.  And one of the biggest chores (and unknowns) is the boys basement.  I never know what I'm going up against, or what I'm going to find, when I go downstairs.

So I almost made it through cleaning the basement without any major surprises.  Just the usual messes that a mom with two boys (three if you count Ken) would find.

I thought I was done.  Until I turned around and saw a coffee cup sitting on top of a cabinet that needs to be moved.

I picked it up and looked into it.

And it looked like pee.

And it smelled like pee.

That's because it was pee.

A.  Cup.  Of.  Pee.

Wow.  What we have here folks is a true, bonafide WTF moment.

Although my mom hates that word, I think that even she would have said it had she have found a coffee cup with pee in it sitting on top of a cabinet.

The guilty party confessed straight away.  But mostly because his brother cracked up laughing.  Apparently the guilty party was on top of the cabinet when it hit him that he had to pee.

So instead of getting down and going to the bathroom (another WTF?), he had his brother get him a cup to pee in.

Because he had no time to get down.  :rolleyes:

And then they both left it down there for three days.

For the housekeeper to clean up.  :-|

So yeah.  A real, true WTF moment.  And that's all I got to say about that.

Well.  That.  And.  Boys.  Sheesh.