Friday, September 25, 2009

Soccer Saturdays

And so the season began....

this year, Evan plays on an all-boy team and actually plays offense and/or defense.
and Ryan plays for the first time on a boy-girl team.


We spent 4 1/2 hours at the soccer field last Saturday but it was tons of fun.
Beautiful fall day, the kids were in pleasant moods....it was fun.

Evan played awesome defense.



Ryan fluctuated between following the pack behind the ball [typical 4 year old soccer] and standing out in the middle of the field wondering about life. Too funny!

And we get to do it all again tomorrow.....YEAH!!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

Backseat Banter


Spent a lot of time in the car this weekend between soccer games, a trip to Aberdeen to see the tank museum, and a housewarming party down in Delaware, so there were quite a few gems to be had. This one, however, made me laugh out loud. Clearly the winner of the weekend...


R: I want a treat.


Daddy: If you could have any treat in the world, what would you have?


R: Ice cream.


D: What kind of ice cream?


R: An ice cream cone.


D: What kind of cone?


R: A cone with ice cream...{pause for effect}...duh....


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Thursday, September 17, 2009

New Layout

Supplies: red & brown patterned paper, My Mind's Eye; green & blue patterned paper, Cosmo Cricket; yellow patterned paper, We R Memory Keepers; lined paper & diecut tag, Scenic Route; sticker, October Afternoon; letter stickers, American Crafts & Target; date stamp, Hero Arts; letter stamps, Stamp Craft

I completed this layout for the Scrap and Stamp Saturday challenge. All you had to do was follow the sketch and include a stamped image. I love Pamela Young's sketches and blog. I had this grand idea to use both sides of the MME paper, so I figured out a way to cut out the center, flip it over and sew it back together. It worked out o.k., but the sewing looks terrible....I think there's something wrong with the tension on my machine, but I don't know enough to fix it. [hint, hint, MOM! :)]

I still like the way it turned out ~ I love these photos of Evan from this summer :)

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Note to Self

Unclip work photo i.d.
from bottom of shirt
before going to the bathroom
to avoid said i.d.
falling in the toilet.


At least it happened
before I went...

Friday, September 11, 2009

Encouraged

Grief is a funny thing.

It resides just below the surface of your emotions most days and then it sneaks up on you when you least expect it. This happened to me on Wednesday evening at McDonald's of all places.

It was one of those nights.
Mark wasn't going to be home for dinner.
I had a meeting after work.
I didn't get the kids picked up from the sitter's until after 5:00.
Dinner was an afterthought, so I decided to take the boys to MickeyD's.

Of course it was crowded at the dinner hour.
Of course we had to wait for our order.
Of course Ryan spilled the ketchup all over the table and seat before we even got our food.
Of course Ryan had a fit when he decided he didn't have enough nuggets.
Of course everyone had to go to the bathroom.

Some of them twice.

In the midst of all this chaos, grief kept rearing its sneaky self at me in several different ways.

First, the only table in the entire restaurant that was available for us to sit and eat was the exact same table that we had sat in the last time we ate inside.
When Mark was away for work.
And my grandmom and pop-pop treated us to dinner.

Next, there was an older gentleman sitting at the table caddy-corner to ours with his grandson.
He wore a hat on his head just like my pop-pop used to: sitting up on top making you want to grab it and push it down. :)

This same gentleman turned himself around in his seat to face me as he was getting ready to leave and looking at my boys, said,
"I give you a lot of credit."
and "I don't know how you do it."

These were both exact word for word things that my pop-pop used to say to me every time I saw him. The only obvious omission was "hon" at the end of the sentence.

I wanted to give this strange sweet man a hug.

It was always such an encouragement when my pop-pop recognized how difficult the job of mom could be sometimes. And not only that he recognized it, but told me he noticed and that he was praying for me.

So, yeah, I sat there in the restaurant and tried to eat my french fries and chicken sandwich through my tears as I remembered my pop-pop.

Later that evening, when I was getting the kids' clothes ready for the next day, I was searching through Evan's sock drawer and of all things, found an M1 grand shell from the day of my pop-pop's funeral [he'd been given a 21 gun salute and my grandmom gave each of my boys a shell to remember].

Why was this keepsake stashed in Evan's sock drawer?
Why did this stranger speak the very same words my pop-pop spoke to me?
Why was the only available table the same one we had sat in together?

I don't know.
But I do know that I needed encouragement and God provided it.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Random Thought Thursday

why does my hubby insist on vacuuming out and washing the car
BEFORE we go to the beach?

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popcorn definitely smells better than it tastes.

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why do boys {men} pay no attention to things like proximity to others and set up all the beach paraphanalia BEHIND another family when there were clearly other empty spots on the sand to set up camp???

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why do we have a 4 bedroom house again?



Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Wordless Wednesday



I know I posted about this last year,

but can you read the name of the bus company?


Cracks me up every time I see Evan's bus.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Week of Firsts

Well, last week was a week of firsts for all of us.
My first day back to working fulltime in four years.
Evan's first day of first grade.
He rides the bus and has a snack and lunch at school everyday!
Ryan's first day of full day preschool.
When you ask him what he did in school,
he says, "I had two nacks and lunch. I went outside to play two times. I took a nap."
Nathan's first day at the babysitter without his older brothers.
Mark's first quiet day at home in the last four years! :) hahahaha!




Everyone seems to be adjusting well to the new routine. I'm still trying to figure out when I can have time to myself [what's that?!?] but we'll work it out. I've been craving some scrapbooking time, but haven't figured out when that will happen yet.
Nathan is the only one I'm slightly worried about. We went upstairs to go to bed Thursday night and this is what we found at the top of the steps:

Nathan had carried all his stuffed animals, his pillow, and his blankets out of his crib and plopped himself at the top of the stairs to sleep. We're not sure why he didn't come downstairs, but the poor kid almost got crushed by Mark's foot! He also climbed into our bed twice last week ~ something he's rarely done before....SO, he's feeling a little out of sorts. Hopefully, it will just get easier for him as this becomes our new routine.