merry-go-round

     I love having the boys here.  At the same time, I'm ready to move out and move some place that they can't find me.  They in turn amuse me and frustrate me.  Ice Cube- still working.  M-F.  He's getting used to it a bit.  That switching schedules has been horrible on him.  He doesn't get to spend much time with his new gf either.  I don't know how much of a problem that is but I know he's not fond of it.  


     I don't have much time this morn.  I have to go have a meeting with B's spanish teacher.  We dropped the 504 safety net for him this year.  Of course then he gets a new teacher that he didn't have last year and doesn't understand some of his eye issues.  The counselor and I are going to meet with the new teacher this year and try to explain to him something that I'm not real good at.  But I've muddled thru this before so here we go again.  Once we get the teachers to understand the processing issues, I've had good luck with them working with us.  The problem comes with new teachers who only see how quick he is and don't realize that he really is pretty smart to be able to do as well as he does with the processing issue.  For those of you who are new, B has an eye/brain issue.  The brain drops the connection between his two eyes so he sees on more of a wave when he's trying to read.  Compare it to a kid who has say - dyslexia.  Difference is - dyslexia is pretty well known and understood whereas this is mostly unheard of.  


    On the plus side.... my addiction is being fed most happily.  It's baseball playoffs.  I lovvvvvve baseball.  ESPN and the professional sports people were predicting the Yankees vs Phillies.  Guess what?  Yankees got eliminated in the first round.  Yes, the Yanks are a dynasty.  But there's proof that you can't buy a team.  Phillies are in the big elimination game tonight too.  So there's a chance that neither team might make it to even the 2nd round.  But my Rangers did and their 2nd round games start tomorrow.  I can't wait!  


     Well off here to continue cleaning.  It seems to be a never-ending merry-go-round when the boys are all here.  Hope everyone has a great 3 day weekend!  

grade card time

     It's the end of the first grading period already.  B is already bored with school.  There's a surprise.  Not.  But he's still working hard and doing well.  Current online grade report shows that his grades are within acceptable limits.  He tells me that 2 of the B's will be A's by tomorrow.  Since they're only off by a point or 2, I believe him.  


     He has an 85 in culinary arts.  Really?  He said told the teacher she should give him an A.  She told him he should give her straight answers on his resume and he would earn an A.  So this prompted questions as to what type of answers might not have been "straight".  He said they had to fill out a resume like they wanted to work at [nasty cheap chain restaurant].  For hourly salary requested - he asked for $100/hour.  For references he used sponge bob and Dora (or some other stupid character).  Requested money per week - a million.  Yeah- my kid the comedian.  He's getting a B in that class.  


    The dumb Yankees blew it yesterday.  They didn't pitch their closer (who happens to be the best in the game).  The Red Sox, who had the biggest meltdown in the history of the wild card, continued their streak of losing and lost themselves right out of the playoffs.  My Rangers - they did themselves right.  Took their final game and won home field advantage.  Of course, ESPN doesn't give credit to any team not in the East division so they barely got a mention.  ESPN already has the Rangers eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.  We'll see how that works out for them.  


Hope y'all have a great night.  I'm fighting serious allergy headaches.  Ones where it hurts to open my eyes.  Anyhow, I'm off here to bed.  Take care all!

1 ENGLISH II Teacher A 88   2 WORLD HISTORY b  97   3 GEOMETRY c 90   4 CHEMISTRY d  95   5 CULINARY ARTS e 85   6 ART I f  89   7 SPANISH II g 96   8 10 BOYS ATH h  100

randoms....

     Amy is not a cat person.  I'm not.  I've always been more into dogs.  Cats get into things they're not supposed to.  They climb on counters and I seem to trip over mine 800 times a day.  Not necessarily a good thing for a woman who is already not in the best of health.  And when we got Jake and Eddie, they were supposed to end up outside.  Just as soon as they're big enough.  But Eddie isn't growing.  Jake is.  Jake is growing quickly and could probably become an outside kitty any time now.  But I can't put Jake outside without Eddie.  He'd be lonely.  They play together all the time.  And Eddie would really bug me if Jake weren't in here to play with.  They're not only really different in size.  They're really different in personality.  Eddie is a sweet little kitty that loves to be held.  He thinks that he has to be up on me or by me all the time.  He's curled up on my lap with his motor running as I type.  Jake is different.  He only wants to be petted on his terms.  And he has nasty little claws that he has no problems in unleashing if you try to invade his personal space without his permission.  Jake's curled up on top of the DVR.  He does that frequently and then he'll hit buttons. He doesn't like the water squirt bottle that comes when he starts doing that.  ;)


     I've been fairly busy.  Not only did I have some work to do cleaning up a mess from Little Man's party.  I've had some other things going.  B and one of his brothers were rough housing in his bedroom and rolled thru the wall.  Yep.  Thru it.  We went and got some dry wall and B helped me do a replacement.  It doesn't take much time to switch out the wall.  That wasn't hard.  It's mostly time consuming to take the trim down and cleaning up the mess.  The drywall is up now.  The 2nd coat of mud is drying.  Once it dries, it's just a short sand - maybe a 3rd coat of mud and by tomorrow, I should be able to paint.  I had a water leak in the back hall a bit ago.  I fixed the leak but I had to go replace the drywall in one section back there too.  That's totally done.  Wall up, trim up, and repainted.  As I get older, I think I get more OCD with the house.  The kids don't mind so we're all good right ;)


    Well, off here to see if my mud is dry so it can be sanded down.  I really just want this stuff done.  And if I can have it ready to paint, then B will help me do it later this evening.  That and I have dinner to make.  It's not like the monster won't come home from school starving.  He hasn't eaten all day.  I did get some sort of an explanation about the bringing food up to school.  It seems that if the kids get caught with take out food in the cafeteria, then the school loses their funding for the day.  I have no problem with not breaking said rule. Now, it's not that B can't have the subway/pizza/whatever for lunch- he's not allowed to take it into the cafeteria.  Since I get containers from Sams club, they thought his food from home was coming from the little cafe down the highway.  We cleared all that up.  B never eats/enters the cafeteria anyhow.  They have tables outside or a big concrete J that kids hang out at but B, Toni and some of their friends all sit on a concrete wall by the back door of the JR high.  Problems solved.  


    So is anyone else loving the season premieres on tv?  Between the final run to the play-offs for baseball and the season premieres, I'm loving it.  Well, off here to get moving again.... Hope everyone has a great night!

School

     School starts tomorrow.  I'm torn.  For one, I'm so happy to be back in a routine.  But then again, the routine gets old.  And in a few weeks, I'll be missing the lazy days of summer and the lack of routine.  I wish they'd break it up to like, Go to school for 6 weeks - get 2 weeks off.  That way we got a bit of a break more often and the kids would never have so much time off to get bored.  


     It's been a mostly lazy weekend here.  Nanny gave me a dresser and a bookshelf.  I spent today taking out an old desk that I hated and setting up what  she was kind enough to give me.  It makes a big difference in my guest bedroom.  I'm still working but it already looks really different.  I was able to unpack the bag of clothes that Hurricane leaves here and put them away.  Why does he leave clothes here?  He got a motorcycle.  Rather than bring clothes back and forth on the bike, I told him that it made more sense for him to just leave some things here.  He doesn't leave a lot here.  Just a few changes for visits.  


     Had a good visit with Jo today.  She is going to OK tomorrow to try and see her baby.  He told her that she could definitely see her baby.  Then the attorney told her attorney that she could get the baby.  Now his attorney won't answer the phone so she has no idea if she'll get to bring the baby home with her or not but she should hopefully get to at least see the baby.  Would it be bad of me to say that I wish Little Man still dated her?  He and his new gf just bicker back and forth so much.  Not that the new gf is a bad girl.  She's really very nice.  It's just that they mix like oil and water.  As a mom, that's so hard to watch.  


     Sorry for a short post but I still have to finish up a few things so that B can start school tomorrow.  And bed time needs to come early.  Hope y'all had a great weekend.  See y'all tomorrow!

have a laugh

So, would everyone like the big laugh for 2010? I have been doing the great debate about moving my blog. So, last night I went over to that other blogging site and started playing around. They have a couple of things that I really like about their site. One is that you can cross words out on their site. For whatever reason, even though other people (my daughter for one) get a word cross out option on here - I don't. I am thinking that this is because I am on a Mac computer. Bloody differences in operating system. The other thing I like about their site is that you can password protect certain posts. But here's what I didn't like. The other site won't let me play with the layouts like this one does. And I couldn't find a layout scheme that I liked in the least. Ok, that's not true. I found layouts that I liked but not in the colors that I cared for. Ok, so makes me anally picky. I think the biggest thing that I didn't care for was with my blog roll. I have this one site set to show who's updated. I want to know when my friends have posted. Its important to me. So, for now. I remain here. The privacy issue isn't as important to me as knowing when my friends post. And with satellite internet, I have to be careful as to my internet usage. Otherwise, my internet slows down to nothing. And this works for me. For now. So, I'll leave the other blog up for now but I'm going to stay here. So, you can get a good laugh out of me messing with the new site for hours last night while I cussed my computer and both sites. And all this started because I wanted to cross out a word. Because word crossing appeals to my sense of humor. Or lack there of. Go ahead. Laugh yourselves out at the vision of me sitting here madly going thru all this and trying to figure out how to rip the innards out of one or both of these blog sites.

In other news, I'm thinking about making a trip back to old town next week. Ice Cube is missing me and I'm missing the baby. And his birthday is coming up. I need to go down and spend his birthday with him (or at least some time around his birthday since I have a Dr's appointment the day after his birthday here). My kids have gotten too old and too cool to allow too many hugs. But the wee one hasn't gotten too big or cool yet to not want grandma to hold him. I can't take a very long trip back this time because Little Man has to work. I'm not comfortable leaving him here for all together too long by himself. Hurricane wanted to know about his friend (Tanner) and why his friend couldn't keep him company. That would be because he's not here. His mom came and picked him up yesterday for a visit. I'll pick him up and bring him back this way when I leave old town. Tanner was texting me last night. He was already feeling lonely. He said it was too quiet there. His mom didn't want to meet me. I can almost understand that. Almost. If my kid was living some place, I'd want to know where he was staying and who he was with. But, I'm funny like that. She didn't even want to come to the house. She wanted us to drop him off some place in town and she'd just pick him up there after I was gone. She said that she was afraid that I would "jump her". If I weren't so offended, I might have laughed myself silly. That ranks up there with one of the stupidest things that I've ever heard. She actually has asked Tanner to move back home. There are some issues with her new man. Tanner told her that at this time, although he wants to be able to visit and have a relationship with her, he's not ready to move back home yet. I would think that nothing but good can come from a renewal of any type of relationship between Tanner and his mom. This doesn't stop me from being offended with her unfounded paranoia.

I had a good chat with my old kids New Years Eve. I got a chance to talk to the sister as well as both the boys. Sister was feeling guilty with what's going on with her mom. She said that she feels like she "owes" her mom because she's her mom. Now, I know that this is going to be controversial and that there will be people out there that don't agree with me. Doesn't matter. I told her that she didn't "owe" her mom. That she had the right to be upset with her mom. She told me that it was good to be able to talk to someone that had been there thru it. So many people that the kids know now, they weren't around then. They didn't see what happened. Even if they knew the family back then, they weren't in the inner circle I guess you'd say. Or they're people who are related to her mom. She and I talked a bit about her sister. We talked about some conversations that her sister and I had had before her sister passed. And she was able to talk to me about some things that had been bugging her about what happened with her mom. Did I slam her mom? Of course not! But there's no sugar coating the stuff that her mom did either. There's no glossing over the fact that they lost their sister, their uncle and their dad all within the last 4 years. Facts are that mom hasn't tried to contact them since she came back and took the truck. That she hasn't bothered to maintain or work on a relationship with the kids. And the fact is that this "you don't love me if you don't agree with me" attitude that their mom has is childish or just plain garbage. And the truth is - your kids don't owe you anything. Ok, you can argue that your kids owe you respect. In a lot of cases, that might be true. And kids should at least show respect. But her mom owed her so much more than that. At least when she was younger. Her mom owed her a life that wasn't tainted by drug usage. Her mom owed it to her to set a good example and do right by her kids. The kids are adults now. The youngest boy is 21. And whatever choices they make, the kids have to make from what they know is right and wrong. They are old enough to accept responsibility for their choices. I don't much care for people who blame their childhood for the poor choices they make as an adult. At some time, those people need to stop trying to lay blame and accept responsibility. None of that is either here or there though. I still had a great chat with all 3 kids.

Well, I need to get some things done before I even begin thinking about a trip back to visit the kids. And despite the fact that it's Saturday, my kids are hard at work in their books. Christmas break, weekends, holidays - they don't much matter when it comes to schooling around here. So, back to the grind. Hope y'all enjoyed your laugh. Enjoy your weekend!

Christmas thoughts

I'm here and hope that everyone is doing well. Trying to get the boys in a routine for school. I feel that I am going to have to be mean and rude (more so than normal) to get people to understand that even though we home school, this does not mean that the kids are available to be bothered during our school hours. Under any circumstances. Yes, I love the flexibility that we have. But this flexibility does not mean that we can ignore my kids education for things that other people might consider important. I've been having a rough time making them understand that just because its home school doesn't mean its any less important.

With the 2 older boys not here to put their ornaments on the tree, it has taken away one of my favorite holiday traditions. Usually, the boys hang all their ornaments on the tree and I take pix and send them to my mom. We usually do this over Thanksgiving weekend. Well, as we went to Ruth's dad's for Thanksgiving and then the 2 older boys haven't been down since, their ornaments aren't on the tree. I don't know whether to put them on myself or just not bother this year. As the 2 younger boys aren't real into this decorating idea and can't figure out why we need a tree and decorations anyhow, they haven't been real into helping me out with this. I told them no tree= no presents. So, they have helped but not without some mumbles of complaint.

I will say this. I'm glad that I'm not amongst the number of people who are having ex troubles trying to work out holiday schedules. My ex ignores the kids at Christmas just as he does the other 364 days a year. They don't get a card or presents or a phone call to acknowledge their existence. So, its a double edged sword. While I'm glad that I'm not having to argue and fight for time and to arrange a schedule on the holidays, my kids have a whole half of their family that has essentially written them off as dead or never having been born or however you want to look at it. So, if you have to argue for time on the holidays- I'm sorry. However, please consider the hurt your child would be feeling if that other parent ignored the fact that they were alive. If your have the child and your ex wants time and you don't want to share- shame on you! Let your child know that they're loved by all on the holidays. There is extended family and friends for both sides that want to enjoy the kids. Every year my kids look for something that never comes. Watch for a call that never happens. Look for cards from anyone on that side. Nothing from aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, or their sperm donor. And they would never admit that they still look. They would never admit that they care. They're boys and teenagers - so god forbid they admit to having emotions at all. But I see them checking the mail. I watch. And over the years, the expectations have dimmed. Maybe one day they won't look at all any more. But I watch these selfish parents who don't want to "share" the kids on the holidays. Like they're a 5 year old playing with a favorite toy. And truthfully folks - it ticks me off. These are children! They're not toys. They're not possessions. How about we call a halt to hostilities over the holidays at least. Even the germans and the french forces called a truce over Christmas during World War 1. Garth Brooks sang about this in his song Belleau Wood. (absolutely beautiful song but I couldn't find a video of Garth singing it) You're telling me that what two armies managed to accomplish during a world war, 2 supposed adults can't manage for one day for the good of the child they profess to love?

Monday updates

I spoke to the administration building today at the schools.  It is an excused absence to keep the boys home.  They are still waiting on the test results for the other schools.  I sure wish that they would hurry up with the results.  I appreciate the input from everyone about keeping them home.  They are home today.  Little Man isn't thrilled with the idea.  He likes school.  Not because he likes to learn but because he's a social butterfly.  God forbid he not have a chance to socialize and irritate the teachers.  

We spent last night rearranging things and piling boxes and totes for the move in one room.  Before that point, I had boxes in every room.  I basically cleaned out the dining room and made it moving central.  I am so ready to be done and moved and start putting my house back together.  We just keep packing and disconnecting and trying to get things together.  And it seems that for every one thing that I pack, I find two more things that I forgot about.  

So, last night Little Man ran up to Walmart with Tom.  Yes, Tom returned all of Little Man's stuff.  He also called me and apologized for his behavior.  They are still best friends and Tom came down for the weekend to visit.  He was supposed to go back to his mom's house last night.  They went to the store last night with Tom's old girlfriend and another friend.  Apparently, Tom needed gas to get back to his mom's and his girlfriend wanted window paint.  While they were there, some other kid that they know from school, pulled up next to the 2 cars and started shooting at the kids with an airsoft rifle.  Tom was hit several times in the chest with no real injury.  He had some red marks but he had on a t-shirt and a sweat shirt so they didn't break skin.  Little Man was hit in the neck.  It broke skin and is all nasty.  He hit the 2 girls too.  The kids called the police and there was a report filed.  I am not happy about it all.  The police apparently told the kids that the child responsible for this would be charged with multiple counts of assault.  He should be.  I cannot even begin to tell you how mad I am with all this.  Just another reason that I'm glad we're moving.

Well, off to pack some more and get the rest of the totes out of the boys bedrooms.  I'll have to take a pix when I get them all stacked up so y'all can see this mess.  And they're moving the furniture.  It's hard to believe that we have this much junk.  B has been throwing all kinds of things away.  I think I'm with him.  Let's get rid of some of this clutter.  I can't believe we have accumulated so much stuff in the last 11 years.  When I moved here, I came with 5 kids aged 4-14 and a 24 foot uhaul.  Now, it seems like I'm moving more to move 2 kids with me than I had with the 5.  

Flu update

I'm not sure what to do with sending the boys to school on Monday. There are a few more "suspected cases" in the school district. One of the cases that was a "suspected"case has come back positive for H1N1 (swine flu). This is the child whose mother works in the lunch room at B's school. Additionally, that child's younger sibling has also shown signs of the flu. Both the elementary school and the middle school of these children have been closed for the next week. There are "suspected" cases in 3 other schools now. However, at this point, the school district is leaving the other schools open until they get confirmation as to whether or not the Type A flu that these children have been diagnosed with is the H1N1 virus. Personal opinion: This is stupid! While they're leaving the buildings open and operational, more and more kids are being exposed. Let me explain how....



The school district the boys are in right now covers over 200 square miles and 14 communities. We're country. All the kids around here are bussed in. The elementary kids go to school before the Jr and Sr high kids. I found this really weird when we moved in as I was used to it being the opposite way. Right now, with over 13,000 kids in this district and serving 14 communities, we have 1 high school. The 2nd one will open next fall with a 3rd one under construction. So, the buses pick up the kids for the elementary schools in the morning (the boys used to catch the elementary bus at 6:45 AM) and drop those kids off at the elementary schools. Immediately after dropping off the elementary kids off, those very same buses start running the route for the Jr/Sr high kids. The Jr high is across the street from the high school and they have 6-12Th grade on the same bus. There is absolutely no way that they are cleaning buses between routes. They only have an hour from the time they drop the elementary kids off to pick up their 6-12th graders and get them to the Jr and Sr high schools. And they Jr and Sr highs have a 10 min start and end time difference to allow time for the buses to drive across the road. The high school bus delivers kids home in this neighborhood just after 5 PM. Now, I will be the first to admit that my kids haven't been on the bus in over 2 years. I quit putting them on the bus after the boys ended up on a route with a bus with no AC. Now, for you folks that live up north- that might not sound too bad. But August in TX on a bus for over an hour with no AC is bad. And the idiots wouldn't let the kids open the windows or have drinks on the bus. Not even water. So, after the boys got off the bus one day puking from being over-heated, I started running them back and forth to school. It take me like 15 min one way and it's a whole lot easier to pick them up and be home by 4:15 when we have some place to be than to leave them on a bus till after 5 at night. Plus, I hate mornings. If I run them to school, we don't even have to get out of bed till 30 min after the bus has run thru here. All in all, it makes my life easier to not stick them on the bus. Plus, before Little Man killed his car- he just drove and dropped B off on his way and I didn't have to drive in the morning at all.

Both of the elementary schools that have "suspected" cases that are still waiting on confirmation feed into the Jr high that B goes to. Now, where I don't have to worry about him catching anything from the nasty germ mobile because he doesn't ride it- but the other kids going to his school do. All of his friends from our neighborhood to be more specific. I know that they say that this flu isn't near as bad as they originally thought. But we're back to the already compromised immune system he has at that point. Flu-- B--Bad. Doesn't much matter what variety it is. Now, don't think I'm a paranoid type person. Take a look at the videos of what my kids do for fun if you think I might be. I've been known to use butterfly band aids and liquid band aid on things that might well have qualified for stitches before. If it isn't broke, I don't want to hear about it is my general motto. We've had broken bones, stitches, staples, and surgeries. Little Man has had meningitis, both Little Man and Hurricane have had emergency appendectomies. I have boys. They're constantly wrestling and rough housing. But I don't know how B will react to an unknown flu bug with his breathing. And as I've discussed before- Blue is not his color. Breathing is a good thing.

So, I'm debating keeping them home Monday to see what the health departments verdict is. If the other cases aren't H1N1 and are just a random virus, well that's still bad but better than the alternative. If the other 2 schools do have positive cases of the swine flu.... well, then what they're doing is shutting down the districts. Every district that borders ours has already been shut down. Or do I send them to school and trust that the lunch lady doesn't show up and they've actually disinfected things. In a school that's averaging over 30 kids per class. Yeah- right. Schools are germ factories to start with. And we all know that teens are so good at following directions and precautions right? Am I wrong to hope that the health dept will shut things down tomorrow and then I won't have to worry about it?

Multiplying towels and other random musings

School.  A blessing and a curse around here.  There are some days that I just can't wait to push them out the door to torture someone else for a while.  There are some days that I wish we didn't have to go thru all the madness involved dragging teens out of bed to send them off.  And while Little Man is usually fairly easy to get up and out the door, B is another story.  Not that Little Man is all into the learning idea- well, of course not!  He's all into his friends and the girls.  They are way more important than listening to any old teacher right?  Of course- NOT.  B is pretty straight forward.  He hates school.  Every single thing about it.  He has never liked it.  From pre-K when the teacher used to have to hold him kicking and screaming because he didn't want to be there.  He had it down to an art there for a while till we caught on.  He would scream till he'd make himself sick and get sent home for throwing up.  I never said he was stupid.  He just hates school.  And he's not a social type kid.  Maybe I should be worried.  He does very little socializing.  The teachers say that he has friends at school.  He's had to sign the book a time or 2 for talking so he isn't totally antisocial.  But as for going to birthday parties or inviting kids over or going anywhere to spend the night- he doesn't do it.  He's quite happy here with his brothers playing basketball or dragging me out to throw with him or even just going out to shoot hoops by himself.  And if he can't get outside, the xbox works fine for him.  He has all his old baseball buddies on his friends list for live chat and they all get on and play together.  And it's not like kids don't like him.  The kids from his team used to invite him to hang out all the time.  If I didn't make him go- he wouldn't.  He is quite happy to be a stay home solitary sole.  Sometimes I wonder if I should be more worried....

SD goes to court again this week.  Wonder if they'll actually have a hearing this time?  For someone caught dealing drugs to a police officer, he's sure been able to avoid going to court or taking a plea bargain for a long time.  It's been like 2 years.  The funny thing is, there are so many people that he used to hang out with that I've seen their names in the paper since hes been out on bond.  All his old friends are ending up in jail.  Turned in to the police for drugs.  Including his brother-in-law.  And so many of those that got arrested after him have already gone to trial, plea bargain, jail.  It so makes me wonder how he's managing to stay out.  Speaking of the SD's family....  I got several wonderful hate emails from the 2 nieces.  The younger of the 2 definitely needs some major help.  She has a mouth worse than any truck driver I've ever heard.  Pretty scary.  From what I've been able to find out, they are under investigation by the state agency.  It would have surprised me to have not found that with mom out on bond over the baby's death.  That whole family is messed up.  Almost - yes almost- makes me glad that the SD has had no contact with the kids.  Ice Cube has said that he doesn't want SD around his child.  Ever.  I will probably have to change my myspace or get rid of anyone on there that knows SD before he will allow me to post pix of his son. 

American Idol tonight!  Good luck to Danny and Kris tonight!  

On the off chance that Nolan Ryan or Tom Hicks or any of their staff stumble across my blog....

You wasted your money re-signing CJ Wilson to a contract for this year.  I'm not thrilled with Padilla at this point either.  How can the Rangers have the best offense in the league and not manage to win games that they score 9 runs in?  Because you need to do something about pitching!!!   Kevin Millwood canNOT carry the team on his back thru a 160 game season.  Somebody over there needs to wake up and smell the coffee!  If management would get off their lazy duffs and get some decent pitching - then maybe the Rangers wouldn't be so discouraging to watch.  UGH  The Rangers have some serious control issues with their pitching.  Maybe who needs to go at this point is Ron Washington, the manager.  It was sure a manager mistake to leave CJ Wilson in the other day to blow a 4 run lead.  

Well, back to the laundry grind.  Does anyone else out there have the trouble with multiplying towels?  I cannot for the life of me figure out how the boys can end up with 9 dirty towels in 2 days between 3 of them.  That's not counting wash cloths or hand towels either.  That's 9 large bath towels.  They don't shower more than once a day - well, unless they're mowing and that requires coming straight in to the shower in B's case as he's allergic to grass - but still....  I think the things multiply and have baby towels while in the dirty clothes basket.  That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.  ;)

another day

It's been a while.  I'm just not used to being gone from my house so much.  And the people.  Oh the people.  Why is it the few that are weird that stick in your memory?  The ones that try to convince us that their vitamins MUST have given them the cocaine line.  Or it was the muffins that they ate for breakfast giving them the positive marijuana strips.  I would say that B has gotten a definite eyeful being up at the office with us.  He went out on the Midway last Sunday and blew $20 on the games.  He came back with a 2 foot tall dog and a basketball.  Apparently, he has quite the luck with the games.  He won the basketball on his first shot.  It took him a few shots to knock all 3 cup things down with one ball to win the dog.  So now I have a HUGE dog hanging on my bedroom wall.  

Little Man finally got his license.  Another headache for momma.  More stuff to worry about.  Another kid out on the roads.  Beware all drivers!  ;)  Cousin B finished his car today and I took it to get inspected and dropped it off at his work.  He's so very happy.  If he doesn't change his ways- he'll have his license shorter than any kid in history.  His mouth has been over-loading the rest of his anatomy lately and I'm not one to put up with it.  He's 16 so of course he knows EVERYTHING and can solve all the problems in the world with his infinite wisdom.  Yeah- right.

Then of course, on top of everything else- the heathen children I have to claim have been so kind as to infest me with some awful type germs they brought home from the germ palace that our district calls a school.  B and I can both be healthy All. Summer. Long.  But no! The state insists that I send them to that colony of infestation filled with snot nosed, germ filled, bodies with no concept of personal hygiene and I end up feeling like my body has been taken over by aliens armed with tiny hammers.  It's enough to make home schooling sound like a good idea.  ;)  

To all my online friends- I miss you.  I am keeping up with your blogs even if I haven't been able to comment as much as I'd like.  

Congrats to my wonderful Red Sox for their win last night in their first game.  I saw a GREAT picture of Papelbon today from the win last night.  Unfortunately, thanks to the nasty germs I was infested with- I missed the end of the game.  :-(

I survived!

I survived another summer and the monkeys are back to the school cage.  B is longing to escape already.  He was not amused when I pointed out that he was 1/2 way home and only had another 9 years to go.  Ha.  

Our rebate check came in from his old ball team.  It was better than nothing but I still don't understand the motive behind sending checks to kids who only played with the team for 1 week and didn't have any money invested in the team?  Makes no sense to me but I don't care enough to bother calling and asking about it either.  It's just time to move on and be done with that chapter in our lives.  I didn't count on getting any money back when season ended anyhow so  it was a nice bonus.  B enjoyed picking up a few things he needed for this season last night.  We went to our most favorite place to shop, Kelley baseball, and he picked up the new catchers gear bag that he needed and a new pair of sliding shorts and then an unnecessary purchase of small armbands.  Mike and Toby Kelley are father and son and they are really great guys.  I knew we were running late and they closed at 6 so I called Toby and they waited for me to get there so B could pick up those few things he needed/wanted.    I still need to go pick him up a batting helmet to go into high school and a few other odds and ends that he will need but... that gear bag was the big one.  

Well, off to enjoy my peace and quiet while the monsters are off and torturing their teachers and not me.  ;)

Enjoy your week everyone!

how I learned

     I received some comments from my last post about how nice it was for me to enjoy the same things the boys are interested in.  Let's go back about 15 years.  Hurricane was old enough to start t-ball and some friends of ours were signing up their son.  Ex and I were still married way back when and I was pregnant with B.  Ex wanted no part of signing up a kid for sports.  He had way more important things to do with his time.  But H was really interested in trying this and the fields were close to the house - across the street so I went to register him.  As I'm filling out the paperwork, it has all the stuff I'm used to like name, birthday, age, address and then I get to a section that says:

bats _______

hits________

   Well, I'm a little bit puzzled but I think well, as far as I know he can hit and bat so I put yes in both blanks.  Silly silly me.  They wanted to know if he was right or left handed.  And I had no idea.  So far I've come in those 15 years.  4 boys and 15 years of ball later, I know more about stats and baseball than most people care to know.  I've done the score books for the boys for the last 5 years.  Another learning experience for mom when the coach handed me the books and asked me to keep them.  I had no idea what all those little boxes were for!  What I did find over the years was:  The more I knew about the game, the more I enjoyed it.  I started out watching my boys play and just enjoying watching THEM.  But now, I can appreciate exactly how hard they've had to work to do what they do.  I can say that B carried a 1.3 ERA (earned run average) while pitching and know what that means (that for every time he comes in to pitch you can expect him to give up 1.3 runs for the time that he's in-  for a started usually 4 innings so about 1 run for every 3 innings pitched).   I did find over the years that knowing what was going on made the game less "boring" than some of the other mom's found it.  

Little Man is a BIG Indianapolis Colts fan.  So, my next challenge will be to live thru another football season.  I suppose I'm going to have to learn about that next to make it thru Sunday football playing on my TV all fall.  At least they don't ask for the football channels.  I deal with MLB extra innings all spring, summer, and fall.  They only watch football if the Colts or the Cowboys are playing.  There are some things that should be a dad's responsibility to do with their sons.  Football and oil changes to name a few.  ;)  

2 weeks till school starts.  Jr High and High School registration this week to pick up schedules, pictures, etc.  And LM starts his first job this week.  So many new things getting ready to happen in their lives.  

Enjoy!