Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Sandwiching

Every time I go into Owen's school, I learn a little bit more than I wish I did.

This time was no different. 

Well.  The only difference was that it was 7:45 in the morning and I still haven't had breakfast or coffee.

So just want you want to hear ALL about is sandwiching.

If you don't know what that is, and you don't want to (which I recommend), stop reading now.

If not, don't say that I didn't warn you.

Apparently, sandwiching is when a boy is peeing, two of his "friends" go up behind him and form a sandwich right beside him.  Like an oreo cookie.

It's nothing sexual.  It's just boys being boys and is meant to mess with your friends.

And if it's not bad enough that they told me about it, Owen and his BFF Ky also demonstrated how it worked.  With me being the "sandwiched" friend.  :/

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised tho.  It's not like it's my first rodeo or something

Ugh.  Boys.  Sheesh.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Butterflies, Unicorns and Rainbows Baby!

I love children's artwork.

I really, really do.

I have framed a lot of Shane and Owen's artwork and that's the art that hangs in my house. 

Owen's latest framed work is no exception.  It makes me smile.  Like a lot.

Just like *my* BFF, Owen sees in rainbows, unicorns and butterflies and he built his picture around that theme.


But unlike my friend, who truly does see in rainbows, unicorns and butterfies, Owen's take on them is a "little" different.  Here, his unicorn is pooping butterflies onto a person.  The person, surprisingly, doesn't look very happy about it.  I didn't ask him who the person is.  I didn't *really* want to know the answer.  LOL!


He made the unicorn's horn all rainbows.  But you know, he doesn't really see in rainbows.  This *is* Owen afterall so it's his version of rainbows.  It's destroying a building.


Come to think of it, maybe I should be a little concerned about Owen. 

But I still love children's artwork.  It's so....so...creative.  Yeah.  That's the word I'm looking for!

I guess that proves that two people can look at the same exact thing in a VERY different way. And that's okay. Neither are right. And neither are wrong. It is what it is.

But I do think that my friend's version of seeing in rainbows, unicorns and butterflies is WAY different than Owen's!  LOL! 

Animal Abuse

My sister isn't right.  Her poor animals.  LOL!



She *is* funny tho.  :D

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

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.

Monday, November 12, 2012

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.  :)

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Cha-Ching...Next Generation

Apparently Ken forgot to tell Shane the rules of mom doing laundry.


Cha-ching baby!  Woot!  Woot!

I only have two questions.  Where did he get all of that money?  And why is he carrying all of it in his wallet?

You know, Owen complained that Shane was stealing his money.  Maybe he was right.  :/

And yes.  He's rocking a duct tape wallet that he made for himself.  :D

But no.  I'm not going to take his money.  THIS TIME.  I will explain the rules of mom doing laundry and the next time, it's finders keepers, losers weepers.

And yes.  That's the cleanest wallet known to man kind.  That thing went though the wash just like Ken's does when he leaves it in his pocket.

I guess I should remind Shane about that little bonus of me doing laundry too.  I don't check pockets.  LOL!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Presidential Election 2012

By this time tomorrow, the votes will be counted and the current President of the United States of America Barack Obama will be moving into in his second term or his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, will be celebrating his victory in his first term.


Personally, I'll be glad to see this election end.  It's been nothing but negative ads and arguments between people that are normally cordial and friendly.  Not sure where civility went but I'll be glad to see it go bye bye.

And hope that it actually goes away tomorrow.  Because my bet is that it won't and there will be challenges to the voting.

Hope I'm wrong.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Striking It Off The List

As most of my friends who know me know that I am a list maker and a checker-offer of the old to-do list. 

Nothing gives  me more satisfaction than taking a pen and striking through a task.

Or adding something that wasn't originally on the list ONTO the list and then striking it off...just because I want credit.  And the satisfaction of striking it off.

But as most of us do, some things on the list just never get done. 

Or it drops to the bottom of the list, and continues revolving back through the order on the list until it actually gets done.

But sometimes I just drop it off the list completely accepting the fact that it's never going to get done.

And let me tell you that the apple don't fall far from the proverbial tree.  My mother is the same way.

So when she came in and handed me a gift a few weeks ago when she was in town visiting, I coulddn't believe my eyes.

It was a quilt that she started for me about 20 years ago.

No.  That's not a typo.


Details.


My favorite square.


I was quite surprised.  And impressed.  And happy.

It's a beautiful quilt and a beautiful sentiment that she finished it for me.  One that I will cherish for sure.

All that being said, it doesn't mean that I didn't razz her about it taking 20 years to get it off of her to do list.  LOL!

That was a HUGE strike through off her list!  Woot!  Woot!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Keeping Us On Our Toes

Owen likes to keep us on our toes.

He's all about dressing up now. 



At least last week he was.  Who knows about this week.  LOL!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Done For The Day

Shane spent the night with a friend last night.

And as any good mom in the 21st century would do, I texted him and asked him if he could be ready to go by 8:30.

He said yes and he had had an amazing breakfast.  (This was at 8:00).

As I sat there eating my Lucky Charms, I was kinda jealous.

I responded that that was awesome because it meant that I was done for the day and I didn't have to feed him again today.

He replied that they had egg, a banana nut muffin, bacon and a homemade smoothie.

I asked if I could move to her house.

He said that he asked her that.

Know what I hate?  When an overachieving "good" mom pulls this kind of thing.  Now my kids know that there are moms out there who actually cook breakfast.  On a Saturday morning.  Before 8:00 am.

Know what I hate more?  That I was eating Lucky Charms and he was eating like a boss.  LOL

Lucky boy.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Any Day That Ends In -ay


Some things need to be documented just because they do.

And I wish that I could say that this was wacky day at school.  But sadly, it's not.  It's just Owen dressing himself in any day that ends in -ay.


I guess I really can't say anything though.  Those "are" my Cookie Monster socks that I play tennis in afterall.

LOL!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

What You Can Do Through The Intersweb

What did parents do before cell phones?  Seriously.  When I was a kid (I'm totally shaking my fist at you), when we left the house, we left the house.  There was no way to get in touch with us or for us to get in touch with our parents except for a pay phone or if we stopped by a friends house to use their phone.  It was both a good thing and a bad thing.  LOL!

So the other day, Shane texted me asking if he was a car rider.  I said no.  That we had that discussion and he better shake it to the bus. 

So he texted me from the bus and said that he made it (thank God because I was really tight on time) and he'd let me know when he got home.

Well, he called me from the house phone in a panic because he left his phone on the bus.

Of course he did.  I didn't have time to deal with this.  :/  LOL!

I told him that he lost his phone and he needed to figure out how to retrieve it.  I suggested that he call his school and have them notify the bus driver.  Then I asked him if his phone was locked.

He said no but he was going online to remotely lock it. 

I said okay.  And to let me know what happened.

He called back and said that he locked his phone and put a message on it with our home phone number and his name and to please call if someone found it.

And the bus driver called him like two minutes later.

He said that he then called the school and told the secretary what was going on and he and the bus driver had worked it out and he would pick his phone up at school.

He had worked it out all within 10 minutes of his first panicked phone call.

Awesome.

Technology FTW!

And I was super impressed with his ability to resolve the situation without my intervening.

Not that I could have intervened in that manner.  I had no idea that he could remotely do all that stuff via the intersweb.

Now get off my lawn.

LOL!

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Classroom Work

You'd think that Shane would spend his time in science paying attention in class.

But instead, he found something more interesting to work on.


He made all of these pretty origami birds.

Oh well.  I guess if he fails science, he can always sell his origami birds for a living.  Meh.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Kicking It Old School

My friend is driving her daughter's car while she's looking for a new car.  The other day when I was with her, she said she needed to make a phone call and reached into the console and picked up her car phone.


Check it out.  The phone has a cord.  LOL!


Talk about kicking it old school.  :D

The 1990's called and they want their cell phone back.  Teehee

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Goodbye Flag Football...Hello Baseball

Owen has taken a brief break from playing flag football.  He decided that he wanted to give baseball a try.  It was shocking really.  As much as he loved football but I'm really, really good with that!  Because I'm not thrilled about him playing football anyway.  Because I know where it's headed. 

The only bad thing is that he's playing for the Phillies.  But we can look past that.  :)

Practice batting.


Stretching...
 
 
And fielding...
 
 
Batter up.
 


I don't think that they had practice on taking one for the team.  :(
 
 

He made it home.  Though I'm not certain it was necessary to slide and dirty his pants up.  LOL!


I asked my friend what this sign meant.  She said it means you aren't allowed to throw husbands against the fence softly!:-) It has to be done hard!  :-)


Sucka.  I  mean Ken is always willing to lend a helping hand.  :) 


And probably my favorite picture of all.  Owen and his friend getting instrution from their coach.  :)
 
 
I'm looking forward to a great season with the Phillies (little league team that is!) and am hoping that Owen likes baseball so he will forget about playing football because I'm tired of telling him that he is not playing tackle football. 
 
Go baseball!

Monday, September 17, 2012

Where's Waldo?

Finding Waldo is usually a much easier task than finding Owen's glasses.

Seriously.

Every.  Single.  Day.  the orning starts out like this.

Owen:  Mom, do you know where my glasses are?

Me:  Um.  No.  It's 8:40.  We have to leave.

Owen:  I can't find my glasses.

Me:  Do you remember when you had them on last?

Owen:  Um.  If I knew that, I'd know where they are.

Me:  Sigh.  Gotta love a smart ass.  Not.

Then we spend the next 10 minutes searching for his glasses.

We usually find them.

But yet we usually find waldo too.

Just in less time that it takes us to find Owen's glasses.

Friday, September 7, 2012

First Week Recap

The boys have been in school for exactly one week.

And in this time, Owen has had to run 8 laps (because I didn't sign something that he needed signed) and he now owes his teacher 11 more.  Actually, the whole class does.

Apparently, everyone else talks but Owen.  :o

And Shane has already forgotten to do and turn in a homework assignment for Geometry.  Meh.

Really?  I guess he didn't learn last year.

Apparently he wants me to come to his classroom this year instead of the cafeteria.

Ugh.  I guess I'm going to have to go into mean mom mode earlier than I anticipated.

And that does NOT make me happy!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Loves to Bake...Not


I made brownies for my friend a while back and she recently returned the container to me.  With Oreo cookies in it.


I asked her what the deal was with the Oreo cookies.

She responded that she didn't want to return the container empty and she doesn't bake (emphasis on DOESN'T) and she loves Oreos so that's what I was getting.  LOL!

Then I asked if they were double stuffed.

She said no.  Single.

Like who would ever choose a single stuffed Oreo over a double stuffed Oreo?  That's crazy talk!

She's weird.

But she's funny.

And I will keep her!

The Oreos were gone in less than 24 hours so I guess she was right about single stuffed Oreos but please don 't tell her that she was right about that.

I don't want to listen to it.  LOL!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Obligatory First Day of School Post

First day of school always requires the obligatory first day of school pictures.

 And the obligatory blog post about that first day of school.


Shane is entering his last year in middle school...8th grade and he's now the big man on campus.  Shane is also busing over to the high school to take German.  Not sure how I feel about that but he has friends on the high school bus and it *will* make that transition easier to high school next year.  At least that's the way I'm looking at it!


Owen is also the big man on campus going into his last year of elementary school...fifth grade.  He went back and forth on whether he should wear a jersey every day this year.  I guess he made his decision.  Which means that he will probably *never* wear a jersey this year.  LOL!


Some moms cry when their kids go back to school.  :D


Shane, as usual, was low key about the day.  He said it was fine.

Owen came home and had a different view.  He said his teacher was awesome but he wasn't taking any toys to school because he didn't want them to get put in the "June box".  You know...the box that all toys go into until June when they reappear on the last day and go back to their sad owner.  :p

Owen also said that he had to introduce himself to the class and tell one thing about himself. So he told them: "My name is Owen and I'm AWESOME."

Me: Seriously son? You said that?

Owen: You knows it. You can't argue with solid logic mom.

LOL!!!


Hope this year will be a great year for both boys!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

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.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

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.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Picture of the Day

Time for a new picture of the day.



Woot!  Woot!

Monday, August 27, 2012

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!

Sunday, August 26, 2012

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!