How You Make Boys Happy

How you make boys happy...all in pictures.  

Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3.

Love that my boys both answer "your chicken pot pie" when I ask them what they want for dinner.  

And then ask if their friend can eat too.

But of course they can!  

I make two pies so they won't fight over it. 

We never have left overs.  

<3

What Was I Getting?

I sent Owen in the laundry room to get a trash can liner.

About two minutes later, I heard him say "oh yeah....a trash bag."

He came back into the kitchen with the bag and I asked him if he forgot what he was doing.

He said he did forget.  Oops.

That kinda makes me feel better about myself because I do that at least once a week.  Sometimes I will have to go in there multiple times before I remember what I was going for.

Either that was good for me or bad for Owen.  But at least I can't say it's just me getting old.

Woot! 

First World Problems

How many ear buds does my son own?

I really don't know the answer to that question.  I *am* sure it's at least 3 pair.

And do you know how I know this?  Because I just had to uncoil them all and wrap them up.

After I extracted them from the dryer that is.  

Meh.

Am I the only one who cleans out my pockets before I put my dirty clothes in the laundry basket?

Oh.  Wait.  The boys don't use the basket.  They just leave them laying on the floor.

Meh. 

Thanks daddy for teaching me how to coil wire.

I think I'm the only one who knows that trick.  Most of our technology is a big jumbled up ball of wire.  

Boys.  Sheesh.

I know.  First world problems, right?

:)

Not Nearly Enough

The best thing ever is to be woken up sweetly by your children at 6:30 in the morning to tell you that they just wanted to tell you bye and to have a great day.

Oh yeah.  That's the best.

Oh no.  Wait.   That's not the best.

The best is when said awesomely sweet child says that (still the best) and then shoves a piece of paper and pen in your sleepy face (in the dark) and tells you that he needs his interim signed.

Yeah.  THAT'S the best.  The very best!

Not.

It's not like he was doing it to hide that he was failing the class or anything.  He had an A.

He was just being lazy the night before and didn't bother to get himself or his stuff together before he went to bed.

Ahhhh.

Payback number, oh who cares.  My mother would say not nearly enough!

Making Her Dream A Reality

My BFF recently had surgery on her left wrist.  She loves to play tennis but, as a lefty, that's almost impossible right now.  As she also teaches tennis, that has slowed her down there too.

Unless your last name is Poppins and you see nothing but possibilities.  

And rainbows, unicorns and butterflies.

Yes.  Those help too.

So she declared that she would be the best righty ever.  And I begrudgedly humored her and, under protest, went out and (drilled) played with her so she could work on her right handed game.  (Because she's still in a cast and very impatient.)

Oh but then drilling wasn't good enough.  Oh no.  She wanted to play doubles. 

So again, I humored her and we decided which two friends to drag into the chaos.

The fun factor had to be high.

And so the smack talk began.

After we identified the opponents, we had to do it right.  And the smack talk began...via text...because this is 2013 you know.  Lol

Me:  Know what I believe?  I believe that L and I are going to kick your booty in doubles.  Lefties need not apply!  Woot!  

(Our friend is as good of a player as my BFF and she's also a lefty.  That meant that she had to play with her right hand to even the playing field.  We knew she would be game because there is a famous story that she beat H playing right handed.)

Of course, A wasn't going to back down.  She's probably as competitive as L.  And by "probably", I mean she is!   

A:   When we play...Better pack a lunch!

Me:  It's already packed...

H:  Pffffffft

BFF:  Are we playing during lunch time? 

I thought she was smack talking like the rest of us but come to find out, bless her heart, she didn't realize that A was talking smack and she really thought we were playing at lunch time.  :)

A challenge was then formally issued via text.

L and I are formally challenging you two to a doubles tennis match this Monday morning at 10:00 (til 11:30) at the YMCA.  The guest fees for you both will be handled and there is a nursery that E can go into.

The stipulation is that L and A both have to play right handed.  

The following is the beginning of the set of rules that will be in effect for the match.

1.  There will be no left handed forehands allowed on the court.

2.  A tie break will be determined by singles between L and A.  

3.  If either L or A plays with your left hand, that team loses a point.

4.  Smack talk will result in a penalty and a singles point being played between L and A.

5.  The offender MUST play the penalty point.  The offendee may phone a friend to sub in for her for that point from either her partner or someone in the gallery or on another court.

6.  If a patron walks by and says "wth?", a point is awarded to the team that caused them to say that.

7.  The chair ump may call a penalty point at any time and force a singles point to be played.

8.  If you hit a winner, you may do a victory dance.  

9.  The chair ump will keep score and has the authority to dole out penalties and punishments as she sees fit.

10.  If anyone walks onto the court and asks us to tone it down, match over and we ALL win! 

I have asked another friend to attend our match as chair ump.  I'm awaiting her response.

If you should have an addition to the rules or request a change, now is the time to do it.  

The winning team shall walk away from battle with these shiny trophies and first place ribbon.  The second place team gets a consolation ribbon.  

If you should say yes, I guarantee you the fun factor will be high!

We await your response.

Woot!  Woot!

Of course, as with all games, there were rules.

Ours just had a twist of sarcasm and fun in them.  Because it was all about the fun!

They accepted the challenge and then it was game on!

There's no way for me to even describe the match.  

H may have called me an asshole for getting a drop volley winner on her.

Then I may have taunted her for having to run it down.

And if that happened, she may have retaliated by throwing some water in my direction.  

And if all that were to happen, I *may* have to do some retaliation myself.  In about 6 months that is.  Once she thinks I forgot.  Oh.  But those that know me know that I *never* forget anything.  Ever.  lol

I mean.  If something like that happened.

The one thing I *can* confirm is that there was a lot of smack talk and even more laughs.

There were also trophies and first place ribbons (that they had to sign) presented to the winners from the second place team.

And second place ribbons presented to the second place winners.

There were no losers that day.

My BFF sent me this quote later and I think it best fits that day.

"May your memories be greater than your dreams!" 

L worried that she wouldn't be able to play tennis again after her wrist surgery.  She dreamed (and hoped) that she would.  

And the memories we made that day was definitely greater and better than she could ever dream.  

And the four people on the court that day have something to remember and laugh about for years to come.  

I have the best friends ever!  They are more than I deserve.  Love, love, love!

You Never Know What You're Going To Get

I love fortune cookies.

You just never know what you're going to get.  Sometimes they're stupid and sometimes they're spot on.  But the fact is,  you never know what you're getting until you open it.

My BSF (best snarky friend) stopped by to see me on my birthday where I was watching Shane play tennis.  She brought me a few birthday presents.

One was a Care Bear "mystery" package where you don't know which Care Bear "collectble" figurine you're going to get until you opened up the package.  Note that it's for ages 3+.  :D

I was sure I was going to get "Grumpy Bear" because I definitely woke up on the wrong side of the birthday bed that morning.

But no. 

It was something better!

It was Birthday Care Bear!

I'm not even kidding you.

Just like a fortune cookie.  You never know what you're going to get.

And sometimes it's just PERFECT!

So, we sat there and watched Shane play (because birthdays aren't the same when you have kids!), drinking the "juice" that BSF also brought. 

In the best birthday cups ever!

Feeling The Love

From my Facebook status update:

I woke up on the wrong side of the birthday bed...not looking forward to it at all. The day got better after a morning of tennis with my ever so patient friends (I didn't cry in my beer...I drank it...lol...you know who you are and thank you!), followed up with some time with the best BFF that a girl could ask for who always seems to know what to say and how to say it and knows how to make a friend feel way more special than they deserve. Thinking that my day couldn't get any better, I get a surprise visit from my favorite Asian friend (lol) who brought the absolute best present in the whole world (you know who you are and what it was) and ended the evening at one of my favorite restaurants (Sunken Well Tavern) with my favorite hubby and kids who I am now speaking to again (after last night...which should explain which side of the bed I woke up on) who gave me the sweetest cards and best present ever. (I was always speaking to Ken ....just for clarification. lol.)

I have to wish Susan Eckhardt-reed a very happy birthday! I know that yours was not as fun as mine (to say the least) but I hope that you found some joy in it. You are one of the strongest women I know and I hope that the next year is a positive year filled with good news and love! 

Thank you fb friends for all of the birthday wishes. I feel the love and I thank you for it!

Just A Reminder

Every spring and fall, I clean out the kids closets. 

(Okay.  It's usually summer and winter by the time I *actually* get around to it.  But I still get it done!)

I move the clothes that are too small for Shane over to Owen and the clothes that are too small for Owen go to Good Will.

I usually feel thrilled and accomplished to get this chore done. 

Usually.

But this spring, I felt a little sad.

A little weird.

And a little nostalgic.

Because no one in my family can use the little kids hangers anymore. 

The little hangers that held all of my boys cute little overalls and cute little outfits.  Now they can't be used because the boys clothes are too big and they just fall off of the hangers.  :( 

They're just another reminder that my children are growing up fast.

As you can see, these groups of hangers are sitting underneath the Thomas the Train comforter set that the boys are now too grown up for.  I just can not part with them either.  We may have a house full of people at some point and need extra blankets.  Right?

I did give the hangers to Good Will.  I figure someone somewhere can use them. 

I can't hang on to everything. 

Including their childhood.  They are growing way too fast.

Which makes me both sad and happy.  Every stage has it's good points.  Or at least, hopefully I'll remember it that way.

Just like when I look at the hangers and think of their sweet baby clothes, I forget about the sleep deprivation of babies.

On Top Of Things...Not

So I've been traveling so much lately that I missed Owen's parent/teacher conferences.  So I emailed his teacher yesterday and apologized for missing conferences (but  I told him that I had been traveling a lot and blamed it on Ken and told him at least my children were alive...lol) and told him I still needed to speak with him. He said that he still had 5:15-5:30 tonight available. I emailed him back that I felt bad that he had to stay late and I was available whenever.

He never responded so I dumped Owen (with Shane as the chaperone) over at the college for tennis and raced to the school hoping he was still there. I was kinda pissed that he didn't confirm with me but i took a chance that he would still be there. So I pulled up to the school and there were a ton of cars. At 5:15 pm. Weird right? I was hoping that the doors weren't locked. They weren't.

When I went through the front doors, there was a sign up that you didn't need to sign in at the office if you were here for conferences. I thought it was left over from when I missed the conferences. As I walked down the lower hall, I noted that one teacher was talking to a parent. I still didn't clue in that it was actually conferences. Not even when I passed the cafeteria and there was PTA stuff going on. It finally hit me when I rounded the 5th grade hallway and saw his teacher sitting in his room with another parent, with his door closed, and tons of other parents all over the hallway, that I had actually not missed the conferences.

You know, I thought that the 5:15-5:30 time that he gave me was a little weird. I apologized for being irritated with him for not emailing me back because obviously he was preparing for conferences. I confessed to him my blonde moment.

 

Then I decided to be the good mom, and support the kids school at the same time, and take my kids to the McDonald's spirit night.

 

Unfortunately, it was one day early.

 

I guess I should have actually read that piece of paper that the PTA sent home.  You know...the one that I made Shane go back inside and get so that the school would get credit for us going.

In my defense, Owen told me it was spirit night.  I suppose that I should have verified that he was right.

 

I am so totally on top of things.

 

God have mercy, I rock.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me!

A month and a half later, thanks to the US Postal Service

It looked like a lovely birthday card.  :)

Exactly the Same...but Not So Much

Owen and I are alike in so many ways.

We are both stubborn, quick tempered, quick to identify someone's bs and call them out on it and both very laser focused when we get on something.  Sometimes it's a good thing.  Many times tho, it's not.  Especially if you're the target.  :p

The one thing that we really are alike on is that we don't care what anyone thinks.  And if someone doesn't like something that we are doing, it's pretty much game on.  We both love to wear ridiculous long socks and crazy outfits.

And although we both love to wear outfits that make people go hum, he takes it to the next level.

Because if you know me, you know that I am a freak out colors matching.  When I play tennis, my hair bow always matches my outfit.  (Except that ONE time that I was wearing a blue outfit and had a matching blue bow in and then changed to a pink outfit and forgot to change my bow.  My so called BFF doesn't let me live it down to this day because, unfortunately, she saw it.

But Owen definitely doesn't care about colors matching.

 Yes folks.  Those are pink knee high socks with robots on them.  And Superhero high tops.  Because the pink socks weren't enough on their own!

 Goofball.  I'm glad that he finally stopped making this adorable face.  Please no one remind him of it!

For the love of all that is Holy...where did this child come from?  I never ordered up a Crayola box for a dresser.  I cringe every time he goes out but I just let him do his thing.

And hope that one day he will want to color coordinate.

And if not, I guess that's his future wife's problem.  LOL!

Catching Up

Shame, Shame, Shame on me!

My complete and total apologies to my two readers for not keeping up with my blog lately.  I have no good excuse except for it's been a busy summer, I have children who seem to need to go here and there and everywhere and a new iPad that doesn't work with pictures, which is where I usually blog to.

But my dear sweet husband is going to fix that and get me a new laptop so that I can use my blog again.

As I said, it has been a busy summer.  We started off the summer with a month long trip to Pawleys Island, SC. 

Typical Owen.

Typical Shane

The big news of the summer was Shane got contacts.  He's super happy with them!

The bigger news is that he turned 13.  :eek:

Another biggie, Owen finally won his battle for guinea pigs as we welcomed Peace and Harmony into our family.  And by "welcome", I mean I agreed most unwilllingly...kicking and screaming the whole way!  (Owen got Ken to agree to the guinea pigs by naming them Peace and Harmony.  Sucka.)

Peace.

 

Harmony on my iPad.  You know...the iPad that I can't blog on.  :p

 

We took the boys to see the Washington Nationals.  They're having an awesome season.  They are in the lead in all of baseball right now!  Woot!  Woot!

How the boys and I spend our time in between innings.  LOL!

And finally, Ken took the boys to see a Redskins preseason game vs. the Colts.  RGIII's debut as well as Andrew Luck.

So, in short, that's our summer in a nutshell. 

And my excuse for not blogging. 

But I promise I will get better mom!  I don't want the wrath of the Ginny on me.  I'm already struggling with the payback of the Ginny.  And I have a feeling that it's only going to get worse so I better not add on to it.

And get back to blogging!

Scheduling A.D.D.

While I'm usually fairly on top of things, I do have the occasional "scheduling A.D.D." moment where I just can't keep up with what is going on.  Usually it's something that is a short term class that one of the kids has that is thrown in the middle of my already hectic cab service.

And I get into the groove of the normal day and forget the extra added bonus shuttle trip of moving  kids and a husband to and from various locations.

And usually I catch myself before one of the other kids...or worse yet...another adult...notices that I'm not quite as together as I appear to be.

And I hate that.

Especially when I've done the same thing two weeks in a row.  And if I *did* something like that, it would probably include sitting in a car rider line for 30 minutes and holding up the line waiting for Owen to get into the car.  And then having the monitoring teacher knock on my window and tell me that Owen was in robotics until 5.  And then having the same scenario happen the next week.

Not that something like that would ever happen.

Again.

This week that is!

Doh.

/go scheduling A.D.D.  :p

You Don't Understand?

I am so blonde.

There.  I said it.

But this should be nothing new to either of my two readers.

But the bad thing is that I've done this same exact thing before.

I told Owen that he needed to be a bus rider.

I forgot to write him a note so I dropped the prince off in the car rider line and pulled around to the front office entrance and ran in to write a note to leave for the teacher.

Hey.  At least I didn't scribble it on a napkin in the car rider line as he was jumping out the door.  Not that I've ever done that before.  Nope.  Not me.

Feeling all proud of myself that I actually remembered that Owen needed to be a car rider, and wrote the note instead of calling in like I usually would, I went on about my merry way.

About two minutes from the school, my cell phone rang and it was the school secretary saying that she was confused by my note because it said that Owen should be a car rider on bus #*&^.

Doh.

Oops.  I am so awesome.  I mean I can't understand how she didn't understand what he was suppose to do.  Owen and I did!

But, anyway, it's Owen's fault for not reminding me!

That's What She Said

Shane is such a 12 year old boy.

He finds potty humor in everything.

And when he does, he always says "that's what she said".

And then Ken, being a 12 year old boy himself, usually giggles and occasionally high fives him and says "good one".

Owen, being a typical 9 year old, doesn't usually get the humor. Thank goodness really.

But he's getting really frustrated by Shane's constant use of the phrase and his not understanding it.

And he usually says in a really exasperated tone...WHO IS SHE AND WHAT'S SO FUNNY ABOUT WHAT SHE SAID!?!?!?

Of course, this sends Shane into hysterics.

And Ken just smirks.

And I'm left there rolling my eyes at Shane and Ken.

And poor Owen still hasn't figured out who "she" is and why what she said was so funny.

Nailed It!

A few months ago (okay, almost five months...but whose counting?), I went out of town for a tennis tournament.  It also happened to be the weekend before my birthday.

When I got back, I found a plate of cupcakes that the boys and Ken had made for me for my birthday.

So sweet!

I never saw what the original version was that they were trying to model the cupcakes after.  But they totally NAILED IT!

I love them!

Both the cupcakes AND especially my family

Christmas blog

Test blog. What do you think? Merry Christmas, Baby!

I Hid It R.E.A.L. Good! Not.

This month has been a whirlwind of activity.  Seriously.  In between of all of the Christmas stuff going on, Ken decided that he wanted to get away.  So we did.  To Key West for several days.

Being the organized and on-top-of things person that I am, I decided to go ahead and wrap some of the Christmas presents before I left. 

So on the Eve of Christmas, otherwise known as Christmas Eve, I decided that I can't put it off any longer and had to wrap the rest of them.

Before I left, I had wrapped Owen's present from  Santa and set it aside. 

But I couldn't find it this morning.  Cause apparently I hid it from both him and myself R.E.A.L. good. 

In a panic, I went downstairs to inform Ken that we'd (and by "we" I mean "Ken") would have to go to the store today to replace the present.

And then I looked under the Christmas tree.

And there it sat. 

Right there in plain view.

God I rock.


Could I be any blonder? 

Merry Christmas! 

Nailed It!

I had a few friends over to make cookies.  We made some really cute ones!

I'm sure that Leslie didn't mind decorating the cookies since she's decorates cakes for a living. Yes I took your picture.  So there!

Hula girl!

Natalie is such a free spirit.  She made the candy cane cookies as directed for about two minutes and then did her own thing.  :p

So my friends are a little warped.  That's why I love them.  ;)

It wasn't all about cookies though.  Donna is an excellent baker and makes the best peanut butter brittle.  Using fresh "row" peanuts from her mom's recipe.  :p  (Her mother is Asian and wrote "row" instead of "raw" on the recipe.  I love that!

And she's trying to teach her daughter Natalie how to make it.

Leslie's cookie.  A smile, of course!  :)

Leslie's daughter Nicole got busy making the marshmellow snowmen cookies.

This is what we were going for.  Nailed it, don't you think?  :p

Proud of their Asian heritage.  LOL!

What are you going to do with leftover Santa dough?  Make mice.  And their mice poopies, of course.  (I did say that my friends are a little off, right?!)

I guess Leslie was tired of the chitter chatter because she didn't give this one a mouth.  Shut your pie hole!

While the girls were busy making cookies, the boys, along with Leslie's 14 year old son Tony, decided to jump on the trampoline.  Being the good boy that he is, Tony took his shoes off before he got on.

His very, very large shoes, I might add!  I was thinking that he probably didn't need to get red ones.  They kinda stand out all on their own.  Teehee

It was such a fun day of cookie decorating with my friends.  :)

It Must Match!

I love comics.

And when I saw this one, I giggled and had to cut it out.

When Ken saw me giggling and cutting out a comic strip, he asked if I was cutting out Baby Blues because he almost sent it to me.

Because I wear pony tails a lot and the rubber and or bow must match my outfit perfectly. Or it drives me nuts.

Perfect!