The Saga of the Backpack

It's a bittersweet moment for our family.

The last weekend of summer vacation before the kids go back to school.

Bitter for them.  Sweet for me baby!  LOL!

We have gotten school supplies, been assigned teachers and visited the kids schools to meet those teachers.  Time to get the backpacks ready for the first day of class.

Well.  Time to think about getting the kids backpacks ready for school.  I'm quite certain that even though I have the best of intentions, I will put it off until Monday night to do it.

Because I stink.  LOL!

But at least I'm keeping it real.

So I go to find Owen's backpack.  It was right where he left it the last day of school.  On his floor beside his bed.

Still packed with everything from school.  Including his caped Superman socks.  As you can imagine, they were smelly.  Meh.

I did bring the backpack downstairs though.  So that's something.  I'm so on top of things!

As you can see tho, it's still not unpacked.  Little tiny baby steps, people!

Shane's backpack, of course, was still packed as well and was laying beside his desk...right where he left it on the last day of school.

But his is now unpacked AND cleaned out.  Because I had a come to Jesus meeting with him and Owen on Thursday about taking responsibility for their things and chores.  And it must have sunk in because when I got up on Friday at 8 am, he was showered and dressed and was cleaning out his school instrument.  And his backpack.

And if you're impressed with him, he was just scared.  LOL!

But before you send him a congratulations note, please observe that his backpack is still sitting on the sofa where he cleaned it out...two days later.  

Little tiny baby steps, people.

And the few readers of my blog may remember the battle that I had with Shane over cleaning out his backpack after last school year.  Unfortunately, the backpack struggle isn't a new one for our family.

But I thought that I won that battle.

Thought.

Until I looked in his very messy closet and saw the offending backpack that is apparently still not cleaned out.  FROM JUNE 17, 2011.

And ironically enough, that pink bag that it sits upon is from our trip to Pawleys Island this summer.  Still packed.  And since it's sitting on top of that pink bag, I KNOW that he has seen and touched the backpack.  He had to in order to put it on top of the pink bag.  Otherwise, that pink bag would be on top of the backpack.

Little stinker.

You know.  I'm not going to clean it out.  Ha.  I win!

On the day of his graduation from high school, and probably college, you're going to read a blog post with a new picture of that stupid backpack...still packed up.

And so the saga of the backpack continues.  And I have a feeling that this won't be the last time you read about a stupid backpack.  Meh.

Boys.  Sheesh.

The Uglier Side of Kids Sports

In my blogging absence, I totally missed Owen's flag football season.  It's too bad too because I got some great shots.  When I photograph an event, I take tons of pictures.  Of the surroundings.  If it's a sporting event, I try to capture the entire event...not just my child playing.

Because you just never know what you're going to get.

But when I saw this scene go down, I picked up my camera because I was so blown away by the entire scene.  It broke my heart.  This child make a mistake and the coach totally yelled at him.

Look at the child's sad little face.  It totally breaks my heart.

The coach/ass was completely oblivious to me snapping his picture.  I'm quite certain that he would have been embarrassed by his behavior towards this child. 

And he should have.

Totally and completely.

This is the uglier side of kids sports.  And one that I would not want my child involved in.  Ever.

Picture of the Day

Time for a new picture of the day.

Woot!  Woot!

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!