Saturday Ramblings

In an effort to recap the past week I decided to do a bullet list of what has happened lately. {Ideally one day I will utilize one of those cool sites and have my blog published into a book for my family}

• Simon and I went and saw How To Train Your Dragon last night. We loved it. Simon loved the fact that there were vikings and flying dragons and a "beautiful" girl. I loved that not everyone was perfect but were all still loved. It was a great movie.
• I bought my plane tickets for Florida! My sisters and I are taking my mom away for a week in April. There are some "issues" I'll say, with my step-dad. And we all just need to get away. It will be wonderful sitting on the beach all week soaking up the sun. It would be fine with me if we never left her condo.
• I love spring cleaning. Not the act of cleaning so much as the feeling you get afterwards seeing everything put away, and rearranged so it all fits together better. It is especially nice when Simon tells you that everything looks perfect...even if it was only the laundry room. I hadn't even attempted to straighten/organize that room in the 6+ years I've lived here.
• I am so excited about our new windows. Now on to the paint and new carpet. Joey makes fun of me but it will be nice to have this house feel more like my ownours. Even though we have gotten rid of most of the evidence of his ex-wife...I can still feel it sometimes. Especially when Joey complains about something that "she wanted".
  
• Speaking of the good ol' ex-wife...I can not understand how someone who does not have a job or anything to do during the day can not come pick their kids up until 8 p.m. on their weekend. Just saying. It was nice this week, however, to hear my husband say that he and the girls are very lucky that I am such a good momma to everybody, and that he loves me because of it.
  
• I'm reading a very good book right now. I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb. I don't know what it is about this book, but I love it. It's about twin brothers, one who is schizophrenic the other one not. Just a great book, if you haven't read it you should check it out.
• Can't wait for our dehumidifier to come. We were confused about the moisture in our house. I always assumed that during the winter when it is dryer outside and the furnace runs non-stop your house would need a humidifier. Guess not always the case, especially when you have a family of 7 who showers (almost) daily and does several loads of dishes and laundry per week. That all puts moisture into your air. With newer homes everything is made airtight, in the name of energy conservation, thus causing the everyday moisture nowhere to escape. After hearing our window guy talk about it I do notice how when you walk into the house it does feel like the middle of August. Plus the basement smells very musty. So bring on the heavy duty dehumidifier!
  
• Simon is sad his dad has to work AGAIN all weekend. It's nice to have the extra money but we all miss our daddy.

Well, guess that's it for today. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Summer can't come soon enough

I love this time of the year. The snow is gone. The sun is shinning later in the evening. Even though it's only 50 degrees, we feel like it's summertime. After the big chill for the past 5 months, 50 is a welcomed change.

I love watching the sun set in the afternoon sky. The anticipation of warm summer days is almost too much to handle. I can not wait for the day I can sit on my back patio with a cold glass of iced tea and a good book.

Listening to Simon run around, playing all of his goofy pretend games. Driving in his car to work, fighting off bad guys with sticks, tossing the dogs their toys...summer can't come soon enough for any of us. Alex spending all his time at the city pool, visiting his buddies in the neighborhood, driving us all crazy...summer can't come soon enough.

Camping is our favorite family activity. Our poor pop-up camper has been sitting so lonely like in the back corner of the yard, we can't wait until a nicer weekend so we can set it up and air it out after it's winter hibernation. The boys and I will undoubtedly spend that weekend sleeping in the camper, sprawled out wrapped up in our blankies.

Summer can't come soon enough.

Hi. My name is Heather and I'm addicted to Facebook.

Facebook really is my weakness. I blame Facebook for the lack of my blog posts. It's just so addicting. I can't help it.

It's not so much Facebook as it is the games I play. Farmville and Country Life are the worst at consuming my time. And now my son came up with the great idea for a competition on Farmville for us. Once you plant a certain number of crops on Farmville you get a Mastery Sign. We are competing to see who can get 3 the fastest. We have picked 3 crops that we had equal numbers planted and are going to town.

Pathetic I know, but this is our way to have fun together. I am totally going to smoke him.

Our first semester at school ended this week so we have a 3 day weekend and get to sleep in again tomorrow. I love it. Cinnamon rolls for breakfast! and coffee! I am almost looking forward to getting up.

Since the first of the year has rolled around I am trying to get all of my much needed medical appointments taken care of. I've been to our physician, dentist, had several visits with the chiropractor, and am going to the dermatologist this week. Simon will be visiting the dentist for the first time ever on Wednesday. I'm more nervous about taking him than I was going for my own check up. It's like I'm going to be tested on how well I've been brushing his teeth. We've been working on brushing better, so hopefully I get an "A".

As far as the 'goals' for the new year....eeehhh.....I was doing real well drinking water but something happen and now I just don't drink as much. I sewed a little this weekend, and have been reading. Yeah for me.

I've really missed blogger. I love reading blogs and getting inspired. Whether it be a quilt to make, a book to read, or a picture to take I love seeing what you all are doing. So even if I only post once a month, please keep blogging!

Since a couple of my loyal followers (I'm up to 5 now!) like, her and her (click on the hers and you can read their blogs), have complained about my not posting I thought I'd let them, and you know why I haven't. I've been beyond busy!

This past weekend Joey, myself and another guy (who actually seemed to somehow do very little and by very little, I mean all he did was hold a chair down all weekend) ran a youth basketball tournament. We had 50 some teams made up of 3rd-6th grade boys and girls. And let me tell you some of these kids and parents and coaches really get into it. Alex's team of 5th grade boys tied for 1st place so they received a huge plaque (and by received, I mean the other guy didn't order enough so he is supposed to order one for the boys) and huge metals. They were all so excited.

The games started at 7:30 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday and ran until 8:30 p.m. on Saturday and 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. My job was to make sure all the teams scheduled had their rosters turned in, mark the wins and losses for every game, make sure there was someone running the scoreboard and keeping the stats, babysit a bunch of brats who thought it was necessary to run and play hide and seek in our school, keep parents of the workers happy by making sure everyone was paid equally and fairly, clean up after and during the games, and check on Simon at home.

Joey's job was to help run the antique scoreboard. He is the oldest so I just thought it seemed right. Definitely fair.

Last week I had to fill in for 2 daytime runs (which meant I wasn't home at all during the day) take 3 sports teams to ball games...2 of these games were on the same days I was filling in for the above listed runs. Friday night Taylor had a basketball game at home. Last night, another ball game bus run. Tomorrow, another. Thursday Taylor ball game at home. Friday night is homecoming a.k.a. Miss Terrier and Taylor is a rep for the freshman class! Eye appointments for me and 2 kids Friday morning...which by the way thank God we don't have school Friday.

But our weekend is FREE!! Joey said we might even try to go out to eat since it's Valentine's Day, and I didn't even have to remind him several hundred times. What a great man he is.

So Staci and Julie.....get off my back!

p.s. I'm acutally glad I have 2 followers who miss me. Sorry I don't have any pictures of Simon, I've just not had the time to spend with the camera. But I will leave you with this.....

This one has always been one of my favorites. I just love his smile.

And how can you not love blue eyes?

The end!

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Well #10 came and went without much fanfare this year. Just a little get together at our house with Alex's grandparents and cousin. He has a party planned for next weekend...bowling and a sleep over with a few friends. He's almost half way to his laptop, $$ wise, that he's been dying for.

Remember you never know when your picture might be blogged about, so always be sure to show your best side! He was making fun of how his sister smiles...now we have proof that he looks just as goofy.

Of course I'm running to get the batteries when the funniest thing of the day happened. Simon just walked up to the cake and blew out the candles. This is the shot I did get, of him waiting patiently to help brother blow them out.

I'm a dork...I know...but I just thought the sprinkles looked so lovely on the cake.

This is some brotherly fun after the festivities were over. Simon was singing Spongebob Squarepants, and the Umpa song from Willy Wonka, but of course again the camera wasn't ready. Story of my life.

My middle school girls played their 1st game last night. I only have 6/7 girls depending on the night so it was a double header for us. We defeated our opponents 7th grade team in 2 games, and was beat by their 8th grade team is 2 games. Our first match against the 8th graders was 24-25...it was just all down hill from there. But the girls did an awesome job. Everyone said we looked really well.

The father of my least {and when I say least, I mean least. Hubby thought I might have been over exaggerating, but said I was right with her skill level...or lack there of} talented player commented to me that he was surprised that his daughter even went out for the team. And said she doesn't have an aggressive bone in her body...he's right on there. They have a son who runs cross country for our high school and he said he'll be going to those meets from now on and won't be at many volleyball games. I could truly care less where he is, but I do feel sorry for the player on my team. How can a parent choose 1 child's sport over another? The son is a very talented athlete but I can't imagine not rotating back and forth between the two or something. This kind of stinks for me because I could use this mom and dad's help at games...keeping our score book and running the score board.

I've been feeling lately like the weight of the world is on my shoulders. Literally. I've came home from my morning bus run with a headache the past 2 days now, and snuck in a nap while Simon was watching movies. Between 3 teenage-ish step-daughters, 1 son who is becoming a 5th grade snot, kids on the bus, volleyball practice and games, trying to keep up with the house during the day so hubby doesn't have to do anything at night, never having enough money, the mother-in-law....I'm overstressed! But Simon just knows how to say the sweetest things and make me feel better. We worked outside a little this morning cleaning up the dying flowers and plants from the summer {fall is definitely just around the corner}, came in a took a bath and then I fixed his requested potatoes. After he was done eating and Dora was over...without even being told he got up and put his dirty fork back in the drawer {lol} and his plate and glass {and I do mean glass glass} into the sink. I could tell by the sound it broke, but hey no biggie. I just simply said, "Uh-oh sounds like you broke it." Got up to clean it up and showed him that yep it's broke, and he said, "Sorry, Mom." With a smile on his face like, OOps guess I broke it now what? What a dear. Yesterday we were attempting to play catch with a tennis ball and baseball gloves which of course didn't work too well. But Simon kept saying, "Come on, Mom." When I wouldn't hit his glove right on so it would go in. Then he would say, "Nice try" or "Good try." He is just a ball to be at home with. With all the money problems and stresses, I'm much rather be at home with him than freaking out stuck in an office. I'm glad I'm able to stay at home and raise this one. Maybe I'm more sentimental about it because he's the last one...and just so darn cute.

I really am lucky.