"Why I can't make mom friends!"

I thought this was too funny not to share!
(turn off music volumn)

I think I've met that lady!

Go get 'em!

Last night was Delaneys 1st soccer practice.  She was a little shy since it was a new team and new friends but she had fun all the same. 
They even played a scrimmage which she loves.

We were driving home and she complained how the 'other team' would not share the ball and how was she going to get a goal if they would not share.  So I told her what any good competitive soccer mom would say.......

"Here is what you do Delaney.  Pretend that ball is yours.  Only yours.  And that team took it away. You want it back.  NOW!  You attack them!  You get that ball.  Kick it.  Push it from under their feet.  Trip them getting it!  But get it!  IT IS YOUR BALL!  And do not stop till you get that ball safe in your goal where they cannot touch it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Then mommy will take you for ice cream!"

Hey a mom has to do what a mom has to do!  If that means pulling out the ice cream deal....then so be it. 

And a few just for fun!

Puddle shoes filled with love

Yesterday we had to run to church and it was a bit wet out.  I told Delaney to grab her shoes so we could leave and she comes out with her beloved 'puddle shoes'.  She tells me she has to wear them cause it is raining and, even though they did not match her outfit, I said fine cause we had to get going. I doubt anyone cared that she was wearing a blue and purple plaid skirt and pink rain boots!  Or I hoped no one noticed anyway!

We are driving in the car and she is just chattering about her puddle shoes and how much she loves them.  To listen to her talk, they are the best shoes in the whole world! I tell her that I am so happy about her love for her shoes and boy I wish I had a pair!  Her comment was........

"Mommy I am going to buy you a pair of puddle shoes too.  Cause you need to jump in a puddle and not get your feet wet.  I am going to buy them for your birthday and wrap them in pretty paper and a bow and give them to you.  I will get you a cake too.  Do you want a candle?  Cause I will get that too.  Cause I LOVE YOU so much Mommy and I want you to have special shoes too!"

I think my heart just filled to the top with love at that moment! Knowing how much she loves those shoes told me how much she soooooooo loved me! 

I think the shoes might be winning though!

Quiet as a church mouse

Sunday was my day to sleep in.  But, being the morning person that I am, that amounted to about 7:30.  Gone are the days of laying in bed lazying around till 11am!  My body is on it's own alarm clock!  Someone just needs to install a snooze button!

So I arose and trudged out of bed to get ready for the day.  And even though I woke early, we still didn't make it to church on time.  Well it on time.  Real time.  Church starts at 10am and we walked in exactly at 10am.  The problem with that is that the clock in the church is set 10 min fast.  It was done to keep our old minister on track cause he too was always running late and then liked to talk ....a lot....which usually made service run over a good 20 minutes.  Not that setting the clock ahead helped cause he know it was set that way and started 10 min 'late' anyway!

Now we have a new minister.  Who likes to start on time it would seem.  Real time.  Which means that, going by our clock in the church, I arrived 10 minutes into the service.

So there came the Chapman family, greeting the welcome person at the door and grabbing our bulletins as 4 of us tip toe rather noisily through the church and drawing every eye there in our direction while the Pastor was chatting about upcoming events and beginning prayer.  And, if you noticed, I said four.  That was because Todd, who sings in the choir that was currently already seated on the altar, had to skootch in and try not to be anymore noticeable than me coming in with 3 kids!

I had to forewarn the minister.  It was not going to be the 1st time.  The Chapmans are and will be late.  And I apologised for any future disturbance our crew made.  He laughed and said sometimes people arrive late on purpose so they don't have to be social before service.  I assured him that was not the case here.  Sunday mornings in our house were more like........... "We have to leave!  We are going to be late! How many times do I have to tell you to put on your shoes? You are NOT wearing that to church? No you cannot sleep in! Where are your shoes?! We have to leave!!  Grab a jacket. Get out of the shower! Let's go! WHERE- ARE- YOUR- SHOES?!?!?!?"

Sadly there was no help for us and I just wanted him to know and expect it cause if he insisted on arising early and making it to church on time on a Sunday morning....we would not be sitting in the pew waiting.  And it was nothing personal! It just....well....is.

Perhaps he should keep to the clock!  It seemed to work for us!  But I doubt it will happen cause now he knows about the clock and plans to correct that problem. 

Now if only he can correct mine!

Attack of the stink!

At the beginning of the week we had lovely Indian summer weather.  It was sunny and hot and the kids were outside playing most of the day.  Who could ask for more this time of the year?  God has been good to me by allowing me some more hot summer days so I can bask in the last remains of summer memories.  Then it happened.....

They arrived. 

By Wednesday, my house was covered with bugs.  Stink bugs to be more precise.  They were on the sides of the house, on the doors, on the windows.  I went out to put something in the mailbox and felt like I was being transported to some horrible scene from a Hitchcock movie!  They hung on the eves of the house and flew through the air.  I decided that I was not going to even think about going back through that front door with them on there staring me down!  I walked to the back.  It wasn't much better!  But on that door I at least had a screen and could run in the house with some sort of barrier to keep them at bay.  Some. 

Now if you have followed this blog at all, you surely know that this is going to be the end of my demise!  If my dr was concerned about any stress in my life, he should be here while I am trying to usher three screaming kids in the house while being dive bombed overhead by hard covered stink bugs!  'Eliminate the stress' at this time is almost a joke.

They wait for you to open the door.  To give in cause you have no choice but to go to your car or let your kids in from school and then they make their move in.  I have spent three days flicking bugs back out. I can't even have the glory of smacking the hell out of them or they will reply by filling my house with an odor that even Fabreeze cannot cure!!  So I, the woman who is TERRIFIED OF BUGS, has to get a fly swatter and urge these things on it so I can open the door and flick them out before any of their army attack back in!  If I am having a good moment, it works.  If not, it usually ends in some sort of mad dance and screaming enough to probably make the neighbors wonder if something has happened over here!  And then I have to start all over again with the fly swatter and flicking. 

I walked outside in the morning yesterday to sweep my steps off cause mornings are our free time of them. I don't have a clue where they are but they aren't on my house!  So it is then I run to the mailbox, take out trash and sweep the steps.  I stood there listening in the morning air.  Quiet.  A mist filled the air this morning which just added to the effects.  I knew they were there.  Waiting. Watching. It resembled a moment in a movie when there is a lull and quiet, the scary music begins and you know something bad is going to happen and then some crazy man comes out from behind a tree with a chain saw in hand! Yep.  Just like that.  Only minus the music.  And the chain saw!

By 11am they come flying back.  Filling the house with sounds of their bodies thumping on the window and their shadows moving across the deck.  By 3pm you could not open a door without a fly swatter and being prepared to do some major flicking!

I sent Todd to the store for some chemicals.  I didn't care what.  Anything that would make these things either drop dead where they sat or at least fly to the neighbors house cause I am not sure how much longer I can hold out!

It looks like perhaps my lovely Indian summer days might be over way sooner that hoped!

You raise me up....

I have decided today that my boobs need some help! It simply cannot be overlooked anymore. Should I win the lottery I just might consider a special Christmas present for them all gift wrapped in silicone! They have decided to head south and since I have to work today and cannot travel with them, I really do not appreciate the abandonment!

I put on a nice top today. One of those kind with the gathering under the bra line. I spent a good 10 min trying to pull the girls up into that line. I was thinking it must be the bra. Maybe I need a new one. Maybe this one doesn't do its job properly. Maybe I just needed to adjust the straps more so the girls got a little lift in life.

As I spent time hiking those straps up and it not helping, it became obvious it was either the shirt or me. And I am thinking me. The shirt is not new. Course neither are the boobs. But today the mix was not working.

I still have the shirt on. I just won't raise my arms up in case the shirt rises over or the boobs come out the bottom of my bra! Neither would be very pretty! Should work if I am careful I guess and walk around like Lurch from the Adams family!

You know......20 years ago I never had this problem! Then again. Twenty years ago I also had no children! Which, come to think of it, is probably the cause of my current problem!

Dear Santa,
All I want for Christmas is my perky boobs back. Thank you and much appreciated, Kimberly

Is being stupid the new fad?

I love my older daughter. She is beautiful, kind, well mannered, bright and loving. There isn't much that I can say that gets on my nerves with her. Yet. I am sure it is coming as she balances on the brink of teenagehood.

In fact, if this weekend is any indication, it is closer than I had hoped!

One of the things that I have noticed that she does is being stupid in front of her friends. Now I am not talking about doing something silly and just I think it is stupid. No. I mean pretend that she is a stupid girl. That she should do nothing but giggle and act like she has no clue in her brain on what is going on. It irritates me to no end.

I know she is not stupid. Megan is a very bright and intelligent girl. She sails through school like she is simply walking down the road. She procrastinates till the last minute on homework, assignments and studying and still pulls off A's and B's. She is usually a responsible young woman....till her friends are around.

When her friends are near, she makes it clear that the 'in thing' is to be stupid. Her friends are stupid. Everyone tells her she is stupid. And she is proud of that she says. It is the new fad, I guess, like acid washed jeans and neon 80's plastic jewelry!

To me, it is stupid to say you are stupid. So maybe she might be right!

She does things that she knows are not ok with me and then has the nerve to tell me she does them because she is stupid. Like I would EVER accept that one!

This past weekend she went to a friends house for a sleepover. Saturday she asked to stay another night cause her cousin was coming over too. Ok. I like the girl and know the mother and if it was ok with them then it was ok with me. It had been a while since Megan was on a sleepover anyway.

Sunday I call her to ask when I should pick her up and she tells me she doesn't know. So I decide and tell her 5pm. This gives her time to come home, clean her room, unpack, eat dinner and get ready for the school day tomorrow. 4:45 she calls me to ask if it can be 5:30. I tell her no. 5pm. Done. That is my final word and it will not change. This resulted in her whining and asking to stay to 6pm! (yeah it is getting later!). One thing lead to another and it turns out that she is NOT with her girlfriends mother. She is NOT at the girlfriends house. Megan, her cousin and the friend are in another town with the girls cousin at some park! The friends mother is at home!

Now Megan has my cell. It wasn't like she couldn't call me to ask if it were ok for a change in plans. She choose not too! She also choose not to give me details either.

All this accumulated into her being told to get her butt to the friends house ASAP and I was on my way there to talk with the mother! Lets just say that Dad and I were a little HOT! Livid was more the word I think! When I drop my child off someplace, I expect them to be there. Not running all over the state with someone who I do not know and never gave permission to!

Turned out the cousin was a 30 something year old who took them to her sons soccer game at the park. And Megan told them she had called us and we said ok. When I pointed out that I got no such call, Megan stands there with her friends as they all laugh about how 'stupid' Megan is cause she says she thought she called. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!

We wiped the laugh off all their faces when we put each and everyone of them in place! This was NOT a laughing matter. It wasn't about being STUPID. And it certainly wasn't funny! It was about being irresponsible! It was about being considerate enough to call their parents and tell them where they were and ASK for permission on plan changes. It was about following rules and be respectful! It was about being truthful. This was NO joke!

Then we made each and everyone of those girls say sorry to the mother who they lied too and the cousin who they lied too as well! And Megan came home not a happy camper!

Lordy, if being stupid is the' in thing'.......I am so not 'IN'!

I can only hope that, like those acid jeans, this will fade into a long forgotten memory cause being stupid is soooooooooo not working for me!

Stress? Stress?! WHO HAS STRESS?????!!!!!

My dr asked me last week if I am having any changes in my life that would be considered stressful. I thought about this and mentioned that my kids were back at school. He put his pen down and laughed and said that should be LESS stress.

Silly, silly man! Obviously he has no clue!

SO I told him that considering a week ago I was laying on a floatie in a pool with nothing to do but eat my cherry icepop in my hand and now it was all about back to school nights, dr appointments, soccer games, PTA meetings, choir practices, etc etc etc.......yeah September would be a little bit more stressful that my summer was!

Add in things that irritate you like the bagger at the grocery store who puts your bread in with the canned goods or the driver in front of you doing 30 in a 50 mph zone no passing zone and you are late for your next appointment or the school nurse that calls you 10 times a day to tell you that you need a dr note for medications that haven't been in her office since last spring or bills or laundry or the many school fundraisers coming in daily that they expect you to sell by next week .......... yeah life would be considered more stressful.

Then to add to my fun, I have decided I no longer love my kitchen. Or the paint to be more precise. It has been a hidden disappointment that I have tried to ignore but no longer can due to new curtains.

I am sure you are asking what one has to do with another and I will gladly tell you cause I wouldn't want you losing any sleep over it trying to contemplate the who's and how's.

This weekend, I picked up some curtains which I have needed since last Christmas when we began the painting of the kitchen and familyroom. If you remember, it was a big ordeal full of paint chips taped to the wall and asking anyone who would stop and listen which color they liked best in a kitchen. Or better yet, which color they liked best in my kitchen that would roll up two different colored greens and burgundy all in one area! What worked in the kitchen did not fit the family room and visa versa. I might want to note for those that don't know that my diningroom, kitchen and familyroom are all one. It was long moments at night of me staring at the walls and trying to decide what to do.

In the end we picked a gold for the kitchen and diningroom. As it went up I loved it. But the gold did not work in the family room. And it was mentioned, I think more in joke, that we do it burgundy. Todd and I were unsure but flung caution to the wind and did it. It was only paint after all. I LOVED it. I loved it even more once I got the wallpaper boarder up with it. I loved it so much I was dancing happily in my lovely burgundy familyroom.

What I now didn't love was the kitchen.

I have held it in for a good year now. I was hoping it would grow on me. That I would walk in my kitchen and just want to dance in there too. It hasn't. The gold that looked so lovely in HomeDepot just does not look the same on my wall with my wallpaper boarder up. It was the wallpaper board, I am thinking, that did it in. It doesn't seem to match. It isn't' clicking. And it is beginning to rub on me much like the bagger with the bread at the grocery store! The gold had disappointed me.

The issue with that is that I have a boarder already up. I know the ramifications of this dislike of the gold. I have been trying to ignore it but then I bought new curtains. (I told it would tie in somewhere!) I love the new curtains in my lovely burgundy familyroom. What I do not love is my curtains in my diningroom. It reminds me of McDonalds. You know...the whole gold and burgundy thing going on. I keep waiting for Ronald to come bursting through and singing a happy hamburger song! The curtains just make me dislike the gold more. To the point that I simply can no longer ignore it.

So now what do I do? Sit and stare at it in the darkness of night and silently stress over the color as it calls to me!? Or remove the stress in my life? I think I have voted for removal. My dr says I should!!

I just haven't told Todd yet. Cause he is soooooooooo not going to be happy.

This undertaking will involve a ton of painters tape, a steady hand and probably a lot of paint chips taped to the wall again. In all honesty, I am thinking Todd is going to give me a dirty look and I will be doing this one alone which I am happy to do cause I cannot take the disappointment any longer!

So............should it be more a warm and cozy toast color or should I throw caution to the wind and do it burgundy too?

Oh the stressfulness of decisions!

To think that this time last month.....

This weekend went from nothing really exciting going on to a rather interesting weekend.

My quiet, boring, no where to go two days slowly grew!

On Saturday morning I woke and ran to get some blood work done for my dr. I tried to go midweek but ran into two issues. One being that my dr forgot to tell me I had to fast. And I was told the Dr. Pepper I just inhaled on the way there might have some sort of set back! Add in that they decided to change their lab hours to inhuman hours that no one could possible get to if they tried should they work! I ran in after my dr appointment in hopes of kicking it out while I was there but walked in to dirty stares. The fact that the office was empty midafternoon should have been my clue something was up. They were closing in 10 min and were very happy to inform me that my Dr. Pepper attack was not going to be allowed, handed me back my script and shut the door behind me!

So off I headed way too early for a Saturday morn back to the lab! Then after I was poked, I ran next door to my mammogram. Oh the joys of having ones boobs squeezed on an early Saturday morning and it wasn't even from a man! I didn't even get dinner out of it!

Then I made a dash to the store that I have just vacated the night before cause it would not be ME should I actually remember everything on my list that I had written down and was caring in my hand the night before!!

I drove home and was about to sit down and my son informs me that he has a lump on the top of a foot he injured during soccer about a week and 1/2 ago! It is still sore. Slightly swollen. And now has a lump. I am thinking this isn't a good thing and call the dr. only to have missed them by 10 minutes before they locked up shop! Needless to say that we are off today for xrays that must be squeezed in between a swim class and another dr appointment!

There is so much more to my boring weekend including a dr visit on a Sunday morning and a teenage incident that could have been labled on the news "Mom strangles daughter for daughter being just plain stupid" but I wouldn't want to put you to sleep. Basically my days were filled with moments of thinking I could sit and relax and, instead, I ended up having to go in an entirely different direction! So much for a quiet weekend! So much for the movies I rented on Friday for my quiet, no where to go weekend!

I do want to thank Steven for the fairy info. I jumped on the computer Sunday morning to do the tooth fairy shot before a little girl got up and printed one off for Delaney to see when she woke. I handed it to her and told her that I saw the fairy and ran and got my camera! She stood there for the longest time looking at that shot. Then looked at me and said......"Why didn't you tell her to get off me?!" Ok....It wasn't exactly the reaction I was thinking I would get but I went with it all the same and then told her to show Daddy the picture. She did. Then informed him that should HE ever find that toothfairy sitting on her again he was to flick her off like a bug! I am thinking she did not appreciate some little fairy sitting on her while she slept! She then handed me the picture and told me she did not like purple dresses! The toothfairy should really wear blue!

Since when did she become a clothing critic?


And I just had to share these pictures cause it makes me laugh. Delaney likes to grab my camera now and then and it makes my day on the shots she gets............




Oh yes and I picked up her Halloween costume. It was not the pink and silver batgirl she wanted cause I simply could not find it in the store but rather a pink and silver supergirl. She checked it out and said it would do. She has worn it all weekend long! I am thinking she likes it more than she lets on! She has been taking on the world in her room for the last two days!


And so that concludes my exciting weekend full of.....well....really nothing much but a ton of things all at the same time!


And to think this time last month I was on my way to Florida! Oh to dream.........

The toothfairy is very busy lately!

Learning time

They are dropping like flies!

I woke to another cool fall morning.

I have noticed that even the bees are protesting. They are moving slower. And each morning I see them clinging to the doors, house and windows like a last, begging plea for help! A pitiful attempt to get warm!


Although I completely understand!
I don't think they like the cooler weather either.

This morning also was a mad dash to the bed to see if the Tooth Fairy came. Delaney was not happy about experiencing her important moment with everyone. It took some tickling, joking and a bit of pleading on my part, to get the shots.

I think they say it all............

And another one bites the dust!

Pretty soon she will be able to eat without opening her mouth!

Homeschooling Delaney

As you can see, last week, the older kids started their 1st day of school. And Delaney started her 1st week of homeschooled kindergarten. She was sick but all in all, I thought it went rather well. Only being homeschooled could she be in her jammies and still complete the work that she would otherwise have missed due to being sick!

There was no fighting or tears and for me that is good! Delaney on the other hand handled it rather well!

Delaney is one of my best students. She gobbles up the information like a sponge and then asks for more. I can only hope my luck will continue to hold out and the rest of the year will be as good!

The only issue we had was that she did not seem to click with the Hooked on Phonics program I got her. Compared to her excitement over the other activities, reading stood out like a sore thumb. I figured it probably had to do more with learn style and set out to find something more interesting for her.

Oddly, that same day, while I sat in the dr. office, I found an ad for a phonics program online. There was a 5 day free trail so I ripped it out and stuffed it in my purse before anyone saw me.

On a good note.....Delaney only had a virus that cleared up in two days. And she LOVES the phonics program! And mom gets it for 5 weeks FREE!

Our day does not revolve around alarm clocks and running for a bus while inhaling a poptart and long days spent listening to a teacher and tests and...........

Delaney wakes and runs outside to play with her friends. Then we have some learning time spent with the daycare children (most who are only a few months behind her). Circle time. Stories. Arts and crafts. More play time. Lunch and then while the kids are taking naps, Delaney and I spend more one on one learning with her workbooks, games or her new fun and totally exciting phonics program!

It exactly what I wanted for her right now and seems to be working.
Course, it has only been a week. Get back to us in three months and I will let you know how it goes!

I suspect, though, she will still be running barefoot with her friends and loving it!

It's offical!

NJ drivers BEWARE!

I am officially a mom of a teenage driver!
Yesterday Ryan passed his driving test and got his license.
Say a prayer for him...........and for me!



And this is Delaney's thoughts on the matter..........


I totally agree!

1st Day of School

(Don't they look happy?)

The big yellow school bus

For those that don't know, I decided to homeschool Delaney for kindergarten this year. It was a choice done in frustration over the overly late school hours, lack of buses to get the kids and the addition of another town blending into our already overcrowded school system. When the school board members could not answer my many questions, I decided to keep Delaney home. There is more into this story but that is the rounded up smaller version in a nut shell!

But one of the things that was making me feel bad was that I was taking away Delaney's big yellow school bus. School, to her was all about that bus. What happened once that bus stopped at the end of the ride was not on her mind. Being 5 was all about getting a new backpack and getting on the bus. She didn't care about anything else. Even though I had spent the summer explaining to her about staying home this year, which is was ok with, she still focused on the new backpack and on that bus.

We fixed the problem with the backpack by getting her one and putting all her learning books in that. She happily grabbed that, threw everything in there and found a special spot in her room.

The bus was another story!

This past weekend we were having dinner at a friends house and one of the guests drives a bus. He heard the story and offered to come over and give her a ride. So yesterday we told her that there was a surprise waiting for her in the evening.

The bus pulls up and she opens the door and yells, "Sean's bus is here!!" (Sean is one of my school age daycare children)
Which is funny in itself cause #1 it was a holiday and there were no buses
#2 Sean wasn't here!

Todd tells her that the bus was here for her and a round of "not'ahs" ensued! We had also called one of her friends to come over for the ride too and Morgan waited outside as well.

It had to be the best surprise ever. She was mixed with excitement and embarrassment but happily hopped on that bus like it was the best thing ever!

So, I just want to send a special THANK YOU out to Mr. and Mrs. Hall for really making Delaney's day!

Of course, she is asking when they will come back to give her another ride!

We will have to talk about that one!