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Monday, June 29, 2009

Spring Kickball is over

The Kick Busters Spring/Summer season came to an end on Thursday. What an end it was too. We had about 8 different teams participate in a cookout, not to mention beverage too. One team even had a bunch of pizzas delivered for their portion. Every one on this league was pretty fun. We won 2 games, tied 1, and lost 5. Which is MUCH better than the last two years we've been playing.

We lost our final game. Our game was the last game of the evening and every one was feeling pretty good. We decided for the fun of it that in the 5th inning the teams would run the bases backwards. After you kicked the ball, you had to run to 3rd base, then second, then first, then home. It's a bit confusing, but for some strange reason everyone did pretty good with it. We only did it for that one inning. We ended up losing our last game by a few runs.

Now, we just wait for the summer/fall league to start up again in August. There is a mini-golf league that I could join, but I think I'll pass on that one. I think I'm busy enough for now.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

California Trip Update

I got the hubby out of the cave and we took a trip to California. It was just the two of us. The kids went to spend the week with Grandma & Grandpa up on the lake.

Sunday we were busy packing, getting the kids packed and shipped out. My husband was packing like a girl. He was driving me nuts. I have three people to pack, he's on his own. He kept coming out in the living room with something on, asking my opinion, and if he should pack it. Then he'd go back to the room and few minutes later do the same thing all over again with a different outfit. I told him to just pack what ever he wanted. He explained he couldn't do that as I had the big suitcase. Of course I do, I have six pairs of shoes to bring, all my bathroom supplies, and several different outfits (at least 2 or 3 per day), so of course I need the big suitcase. So I told him, "yes, that looks fine, bring it and quit being such a girl."

I ended up staying up pretty late Sunday evening and into Monday morning. Between excitement of the trip and anxiety of flying and both of us being so far away from the kids for a whole week, I got very little sleep. I finally got to bed around 2:30 or 3:00 am. I had to wake up at 5:30 am to get to the airport on time. So I had a good nap.

Our flight left Monday morning at 8:00 am. The lines to check in and go through security were huge. It was a good thing we got there with plenty time. We had some time to grab breakfast and make our flight. Since I had gotten very little sleep the week before and that night, I slept really good on the airplane. We had a quick layover in Phoenix. Just enough time to get off the plane we were on and catch our connecting flight to California.

We made it to California and got our rental car, then headed to our hotel at Laguna Beach. Our hotel was pretty nice. It was on the Pacific Coast Highway, and we had to cross the street and go down a walkway and a bunch of steps to get to the beach, so the first thing we did was head to the beach. Ken hasn't been to a coastal beach in over 20 years, so he was really excited to be on the ocean. It was great. I was posing for a picture, when I got taken out by a gigantor wave. I totally did not see it coming. I was too busy posing and telling my husband to make sure to get a good picture. Yep, he got a good picture alright. A still shot of impending doom.


I couldn't figure out why he kept looking at me and shouting something. "Ugh, just take the picture would you?". The next thing I know, I'm being sucked out to sea and having pounds of sand invade my swimsuit. I managed to get out of the wave and get my bearings in time to get hit by a second wave. That wave took my beach hat out to sea. My sweet hubby went & got it. At first we didn't think we could get it, but it finally got swept back up to us. So the beach hat is saved!

After we were done getting beat up by the sea, we went back to the hotel to get out of our wet sand filled suits. I swear two pounds of sand and rocks came out of my swimsuit. I was picking sand out of my hair and my ears for the next day.

Tuesday we decided to head to Huntington Beach for the afternoon. We went out onto the pier, walked around, did some shopping, watched the fisherman and surfers, and then sat out on the beach and went swimming in the ocean. The waves at Huntington Beach were much nicer to us. The waves rolling in weren't as harsh coming into shore. We got some good sun and had lots of fun feeling like giddy kids.

We ate lunch at a nice restaurant near the pier overlooking the ocean. We ended up sitting at a table next to some Hollywood big wigs. They were talking about all the different projects they were working on. They sounded like a busy group of people. They really didn't seem to care that we could hear their conversation either.

We got back to Laguna Beach and we walked down the beach and just walked around and enjoyed the scenery. We didn't try to take on the waves. We'd had enough of that already. We saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I think I've ever seen in my life.

Wednesday we headed to Temecula, CA for my niece's wedding. We got there pretty early, so we made a stop at my sister's house since it was right on the way to where we were headed. We had a good visit and then headed to our hotel (Pechanga Resort & Casino which is also where the wedding was taking place). We got checked in and then I made sure that my mom and grandma got checked in OK as well. Once every one was settled, Ken & I headed to dinner. After dinner, I met up with my sister Patty and my baby brother Ed. We called my mom to come meet us in the casino, so we went gambling. I won $50 on the first nickle slot machine. I put $10 and whammy! Big money...show me the money! My sister Patty sat next to me and her nickle machine ate her $10 faster than you can say ten dollars.

Thursday morning after breakfast, my sister Patty, Ed, and I decided to try our luck again. I didn't have such good luck and lost $35 of the $50 I won the night before. Patty won $83 and Ed won $20. Oh well, we all ended up winning something, so that was fun. We just hung out at the casino and visited and had some good family time. My 101 year old grandma was there too, so we got a good visit with her too.

Thursday afternoon, we all parted ways and got ready for the wedding. While the siblings were gambling, Ken, and Patty's daughter and her friend all went and enjoyed the pool. I never did make it to the pool. I made it to the pool bar, but not the actual pool. I guess I was too busy visiting and gambling.

My sister Mary and her husband and two littlest girls showed up to our hotel room to get dressed for the wedding. They didn't stay at the hotel, so we let them invade our room to get ready for the wedding. The wedding was taking place on the outdoor waterfall patio at the casino. All the guests gathered in the lobby area and then we were seated outside.

The wedding was very beautiful. My niece Katie was such a gorgeous bride. The ceremony went as if they'd planned it for a long time when in fact they planned it in three months. The wedding was short, sweet, and to the point. They had photos taken after the ceremony. The wedding dinner and reception was held on the resorts top floor. It was really pretty up there and they had lots of big wall length windows that overlooked the mountains in the area. Dinner was really good, and so was dessert. The dance was pretty fun too. My 3 year old niece (the fwower goya as she told everyone) danced all night long.

Friday we all parted our separated ways. My mom, grandma, and brother headed home. My sister Patty, her daughter, and her daughter's friend went to Sea World ( where the girls got to swim with the dolphins. I can't wait to see those pictures.) Ken & I headed back to Laguna Beach.

On our way back to Laguna Beach, Ken & I stopped at San Juan Capistrano and we toured the old mission. It was very beautiful and serene in there. We also went to the new cathedral that they built outside of the mission. The alter is completely made of gold. It was such a beautiful place.

Our last night at Laguna Beach we went to the downtown area by the seashore and did some shopping. We bought souvenirs for the kids and I bought a really pretty painting from a local artist. Then we went and ate dinner at The Beach House and had some fresh seafood. Yummmy! It was really delicious. After dinner we walked along the shoreline back to our car.

That evening there was no sunset as it was too cloudy. So Ken & I grabbed a couple of towels and we walked down to the beach near our hotel and just sat on the beach and watched the waves roll in. We were sad that we had to leave the next day. But we were missing the kids, so we had a good reason to come home, even though we tried to think of ways to miss our flight and spend an extra day or two.

Saturday morning we packed up our things and headed back to the airport. Boo Hoo, we had to leave beautiful Southern California. We flew from Sana Ana California to Phoenix. We had enough time in Phoenix to eat lunch, since we never got breakfast before we left California. We got on the plane in Phoenix to come home. About 10 minutes of waiting to take off, the pilot came on the speaker system saying there was a computer malfunction and the computer had to be replaced, it would take about an hour to fix. We were instructed to stay on the plane. I put in my mp3 player headphones and took a nap.

Our flight home was the noisiest flight I've ever been on in my life. Lots of crying babies and grumpy old men. I seriously thought a fight was going to break out between one of the grumpy old men and one of the mom's of two of the crying kids. He told her very loudly not to bring children on a plane if they couldn't behave. She yelled back at him something and then they bantered back and forth for a while. Then she tried to get sympathy from the people and said really loud "can you believe this guy is for real?!" A little while later her kids started crying again. She got up to walk them around and said "Let's walk this way and stay away from the grumpy old man!" Nothing better than plane drama. Everyone on board was so glad we landed in MN.

Sunday the kids came home. It was pretty good to see them. I think they even grew.

The kids had a really good week with grandma and grandpa. They got to go fishing with grandpa and they helped grandma out too. So everyone had a great vacation!

Here are some pictures from the vacation and the wedding.
California Trip

Schumacher-Dwyer wedding

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Guilty of Blog Neglect

My poor little blog has been neglected so. My last post was June 8th. I didn't fall off the face of the world, I just got busy. The week of June 8-14 I was busy. I did a photo shoot on Monday, Tuesday eve I got a call from the school nurse that I had to go get Kevin from field trip camp because he was running a fever and not feeling well. That sure made a long night! I had to drive about 2 hours away to get him. I got lost on the way up to the Audobon Center as it was dark and foggy. The signs for the place were not lit and off on the sides of the road. So I missed a turn or two. Good thing for cell service! I arrived home with the little darling at 12:30 am. Ugh! Sure made for a short night when I had to get up at 6 am that day. That late night messed up the rest of my week.

Thursday I had kickball. We got our butt's kicked! It was fun, but man did we get clobbered! I quit keeping score after they were up by 15 runs. We did manage to score one run, so it wasn't a total shut out.

Friday night I was in bed early, as I had to get up at 6 am on Saturday for my work's 75th Anniversary Party and Contractor (Truck Driver) Appreciation Day. The kids got up early and came with me on Saturday. We didn't get home until almost 2 pm, so that sure made for a long day.

Sunday, we packed and Ken's parents drove down to pick our kids up for the week, as Ken & I were headed to Sunny Southern California!

All of that sure made for a busy week. A very blog neglected week.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Mundane Monday...Nothing really Mundane about it.

This weekend was a cold rainy one. Which enabled me to get lots done around the house. Kevin wanted to go to a D-Day Anniversary celebration, but none were happening except 2 1/2 hours away. We'll have to plan that one better next year. Who knew an 11 year old kid would want D-Day as a National Holiday. So instead he stayed home out of the rain (unlike the soldiers on D-Day) and watched the D-Day Marathon on the Military Channel. Then he drew some maps of the beaches of Normandy. We also watched the movie "Saving Private Ryan". I told him that we would watch it together and I figured it was on TMC that it would have been edited. Nope. I told Kevin that it would contain lots of swear words and the battle scenes might be a bit too bloody for him. "Ah, it's OK Mom, I've seen this movie before. I can handle it". Apparently he watched it in segments on the internet. He claimed he didn't know it was rated R. Uh, huh sure. I should expect this of him. He did really like the movie Jaws as a youngster. When the shark blows up at the end, he would always say "Kaboomy!" One time I hid my eyes from the movie Jaws and he said in his little voice "You can look mom, it's only a movie. It's not real." Yep, that's my boy!

Sam pretty much enjoyed staying in. He played with his cats and laid in bed and watched cartoons. He just had a nice lounging weekend.

I cleaned and cleaned. I didn't get the whole house done, but I did get quite a bit done. I finished cleaning out the spare room and getting it reorganized into a photo studio. Yep, I'm turning into my father. Only an updated version. A digital camera, with backgrounds, and props. Which is a step up from a wool blanket taped to the wall like my dad used to do. I think Dear Ol' Dad would be proud. He probably thought I wasn't paying attention when he was teaching me photography as a kid. Little did he know, he's created a monster. I figured I enjoy it so much, and I've had people compliment me on it, and even a couple people ask me to take photos for them, that I decided to turn it into a side gig. Why not? So this summer I have people lined up to build my portfolio that I will have something to show the people who want to pay me for my photo services. Why not make some extra cash doing something that I love. It will keep me from sitting around being bored when I'm not writing or playing kickball.

Today Kevin took off on the school bus for a 3 day, 2 night field trip. Wow, what a way to end the school year. His 5th grade class went to the Audubon Center in Sandstone, MN. He'll be back on Wed. I can't wait to hear all about it. I didn't let him take his digital camera, as I didn't want it getting lost or stolen. Plus I want him to just have fun & not worry about taking photos. The weather didn't look too promising there for the next three days. When he gets home, he'll have three days worth of talking to do, so that will keep me busy all night. It will sure be quiet around here with out him that is for sure!

Friday, June 5, 2009

I Caught You Ice Cream Man!

Tonight Kevin came running in the door, slamming it behind him in a big hurry. He raced up the stairs and dug into the change vase for a handful of quarters. "The Ice Cream Man is here!!" I quickly followed suit and grabbed a couple of dollar bills out of my wallet. No time to dig for change. "Hurry up Mom!" Kevin said as he raced back to the cul-de-sac. Sure enough it was the Ice Cream Man. There were lots of kids in line. Sam got a Pink Panther ice cream thing on a stick. Kevin got a popsicle called Lickity Lick. A popsicle of flavor explosion. I got the ever desired Jolly Rancher popsicle. Yummmmmmy!!!

While standing in line I asked the Ice Cream Man if he had a set scheduled route. He said yes. I asked him what it was and he showed me the cable inside the truck that makes the truck make music. No, no, no...what is your schedule? When and what time do you come to this cul-de-sac. He finally got the jist of what I was saying and told me every Friday night. I asked him if he came any other night besides Friday. He said "No, just Friday night, I come here." I said "No, that's not good enough. You need to come more often." He looked at me puzzled. I bet he thought he was working for himself and had no boss. Ha! Boy was he suprised. I said "You need to come every Tuesday and Friday around 7 pm. " He said "I do?" I said "Yes, you do. These kids wait for you, you need to come Tuesday and Friday at 7 pm." He said "Ok, I come Tuesday and Friday at 7 pm." Wow...I sure have learned a lot from my grandmother!!

Hopefully, he'll follow my command and drive his happy truck down our cul-de-sac on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

haircuts, missing child, ice cream man, and kickball

That has been my week thus far.

What was seeming like a relatively calm Monday, didn't turn out as such. The boys were in dire need for hair cuts, so I decided that since I've watched Fantastic Sam's and Kids Hair do it so many times, I could probably muddle my way through just this once. I did a good job! No patches, no bald spots, no chopped off ears, and it's not lopsided. I no longer have my electric clippers, so I did it with hair cutting scissors. The kids are old enough to stand still for me and not cry anymore.

After dinner Sam decided he'd go outside and wait for the ice cream man. Sam is really good at sticking to the cul-de-sac and following the rules of being outside. At 7:10 pm I went outside to call him inside as I had to go get my hair cut.

I walked outside and no sight of Sam. Hmmm... so I came inside, no shoes by the door. I checked the backyard. No sight of Sam. I went through the house searching for him. No Sam. Hmmmm....His bike was in the garage, his shoes are gone, where could he be? So I walked down the street...No sights of Sam. I crossed the street and looked in the other cul-de-sac. I asked a couple people if they saw him. Nope, no sight of Sam. Mommy panic button starts to go off. I have my cell phone in hand trying to call my hubby as he was not home from work yet. He doesn't answer his phone. I am headed home to get my van to search the neighborhood even further and call 911 to report a missing child. When who drives around the corner? My husband! I nervously ask him if he has Sam in the car. Sam is sitting in his car with a big fat smile on his face holding a Jolly Rancher popsicle. My husband said "Yeah, I have Sam. What's wrong? I took him to chase down the ice cream truck." So I said a few dirty words to him and told him that he scared the hell out of me." His reply "I'm sorry honey, I thought you'd be able to tell that I had him because my work shirt was by the door."

Ok...let me get this straight. You got out of your car, put your work shirt by the door, but didn't bother to tell me that you were taking Sam to go chase an ice cream truck? According to him, he didn't think I'd notice. Again...more dirty words out of my mouth. No, a mom would never notice that her child was missing and then start to panic. Nope, not me...Just call me Mrs. Non Caring Calm Mom. Missing child...eh, no big deal, he'll show up eventually. WRONG!

I heard on the radio the next moring, that someone did a study to test how men and women become stupider after talking to an attractive person of the opposite sex. Men & women were first given a battery of tests, then they had to converse with attractive people, then they retook the test. Of course the men failed miserabley on the second test. No surprise there. Women didn't do much worse than the first test they took. They also said the more attractive the person the worse the men did on the second test. So I'd like to know what sexy woman my husband was talking to before he took my child with out letting me know. I'd also like to know if he understands why mama bears tear animals or people apart who mess with their cubs. Yeah, don't mess with this mama bear's cubs!

After the ice cream man debacle, I jumped in my van to go to my hair cut appointment. Who do I see driving down my cul-de-sac while I'm leaving? The damn ice cream man! Oh, I hate that guy!!!

Tuesday night was much better. Sam waited for the ice cream man, like he does on a daily basis. I told him that even if he goes with his daddy somewhere, he needs to check in with me before leaving.

After dinner, I left the boys in the hands of their father and I walked to the Middle School for EAA sports face to face registration. Not many people showed up. 98% of the people that showed up were there for football. Those kids had to get weighed and measured for equipment. I had one kid sign up for kickball and the rest were K-3 signing up for soccer or basketball. Kickball isn't offered for K-3 in the first year. The EAA lady told me not to worry, the face to face registrations get smaller and smaller each year, because the online registration is pretty slick now. Registration is open and goes until July 8th, so I have another month to get kids to sign up.

Today Kevin got his braces adjusted. He said it didn't hurt to bad, and the adjustments were minor. This time around he picked out Navy Blue and Black bands. Not really much difference between the two colors, but that's what he picked. Then he told me it was because it was in honor of the Navy for D-Day. Wow. OK...that's cool. What other 11 year old would think of that?

Tonight was relaxing. Nothing going on. Sam & Kevin of course waited for an ice cream man who again did not show up. Then the boys ended up playing outside all day.

I have a busy Thursday tomorrow, but it should be fun.