Quote of the Day

Actually yesterday...

Mark told me last night that Andrew got up during quiet time in his room yesterday afternoon and came downstairs because he was upset -

"Daddy, daddy, I saw a skeleton!"
"Andrew, where did you see a skeleton?"
"In my closet!"

he, he, he

More Nationals T-Ball

http://homepage.mac.com/jerry7/PhotoAlbum177.html

Check out #7 climbing the fence in one of the last photos...

Happy Memorial Day!

Weekend Project + Photos
So I really left you hanging on this one, just waiting to see what project I was starting now. Well, it's been in the planning for months. We are down to three rooms in the house that have not been painted, overhauled, etc. since we bought this house 5 years ago. Now we are down to two: Laundry Room, and FROG (front room over the garage). Keep in mind we were the 5th owner in 5 years (thanks to the FBI, Secret Service, etc.). Every time we tackle a room it means patching, sanding, painting, light fixtures, switch plate covers, blah, blah, blah. Enter Kids Bathroom. So we moved the TP holder next to the toilet instead of 4+' away, hung new towel hooks so the boys can hang their own towels, new shower curtain rod, new curtain, new shelf, pictures, and a new theme (as if there was an old theme) - Sailing!


I started Thursday night taking everything down and patching. Friday was sanding and I got the whole thing painted. Saturday was lighting, hanging things, and a half attempt at plumbing and today I finished the decor. Matthew was a huge helper getting tools for me and holding the lighting so I could connect it! Here are a few photos from the project - the in progress pictures don't really tell the story of where we started.

in progress...

after...

Matthew's Parent Teacher Conference

I went to Matthew's Parent Teacher Conference on Friday and Ms. McCullough said he is doing great and ready for 1st grade. The last month or two he has made great strides in reading and writing and she marked him as high as possible without saying he was reading/writing "above grade level". She told me in the fall her goal was to make sure the kids enjoyed school and to make it a positive experience and she accomplished that with Matthew. She made very positive comments on his report and told me she wished she had a whole room full of "Matthew's". Way to go Matthew!

White Chocolate Phone/Rhapsody/iTunes

So my new phone has taken some getting used to. The controls are all soft touch keys (no push buttons) so I have hit numerous wrong keys. My idea to use it as an MP3 player is working out well, but I didn't realize some of the tunes I have downloaded from Rhapsody are in .rax format (protected). I have decided to switch to iTunes to remedy that problem and hopefully in the next few weeks I will have all of my music loaded onto the phone!

Mark getting sick

So yesterday, Mark gets up and says he is not feeling well but decides he has to mow and trim the lawn. By 3 pm, he was in bed, slept in the basement last night, and has barely made it out of bed today. I think it is a bad head cold that went straight to his chest so he is coughing like crazy. Since Mark wasn't feeling well, I took the boys to see Shrek the Third - I highly recommend it. Lots of one-liners for the adults and music choices that are just hilarious.

Storm

After dinner last night we had a huge thunderstorm blow through. The boys were writing at the table when I suggested we ride bikes around the block before the rain started. Just in time, the rain was blowing sideways right after we got the bikes in the garage. It was still in the 80's, so I let the boys run around outside in the rain with their umbrellas. The wind was blowing so hard Andrew's umbrella turned inside out. The had a good time, hair all wet, shoes soaked, all boy! Right when I told them 5 minutes until we go inside, Drew ran off the porch and out close to the street. Our sidewalk gently curves to the street and his shoe hit it funny and he fell - right in line with the "gutter" where all the rain water was running. I have to say it was the funniest fall I have seen in awhile. I'm not sure how he managed to fall exactly parallel to the water flow. He cried more because his clothes were soaked than the scrapes on his elbow and knee. I brought them in the front door and got all their shoes and clothes off. Being naked on the first floor must have been quite a thrill as they laughed all the way to the tub.

Matthew getting sick

Ok, so we are still on the same day (Sunday). I have everything settled down and all are in bed, except me. 10:50 pm, I hear coughing. First I think it is Mark, then I realize it is Matthew. Oh no (as I jet up the stairs), another one time puke! Oh my goodness, where does it all come from??? I got up there and he is standing on his bed trying to get away from the mess. Not to be gross, but it covered his bed pad, ran down the side of the mattress, on the inside of the bedrail, puddled on the floor, then round two must have gone straight to the floor. It splattered beyond the end of his bed and past his nightstand. Ok Robin, 11 pm, the Big Green Machine (steam cleaner) is in the basement where Mark is sleeping, carpet is covered, what do you do? Peel everything off the bed, peel everything off Matt, reapply, soak up everything you can on the floor, place towel on floor, place large trash can next to bed, and deal with it in the morning. Normally we get the steam cleaner out but I was afraid to wake Mark (turns out he was awake anyway). Carpet and Matthew are fine today. Reason for such a large post on this topic? We are tracking how and when Matthew gets sick - last time was Tax Day. We are trying to figure out what makes him get sick so we can avoid it...too hot?, nightmares?, food? We had pizza and lemonade for dinner last night then we ran around outside. Hmmmm...

Dinner

So I made a nice dinner tonight and we had 7 strawberries off the deck. Before dinner, Andrew was watching Star Wars VI, the reason I bring this up is that normally the kids are polite and ask to get down from the table, tonight was no different, except, it had a soundtrack... "Please may...can I get down... from my chair" (sung to the Star Wars Main Theme). Mark and I nearly busted out laughing it was sooooo funny. Mark is so right...Andrew's life has a soundtrack. He is always humming, singing, talking, etc.

Ant Invasion?

Oh, and did I mention we are under attack? It has taken us a week to figure out where the ants are coming from. The dishwasher!!! This is so strange - I can't figure out where they are getting in from. We have made a point to keep the dishwasher door closed and no more ants on the counters - that's because they are all in the dishwasher!!! Whatever! Tonight was a game of "How Quickly Can Robin Load the Dishwasher?" Nothing a little Cascade won't cure.

Light Sabers

This is how it begins.............then you get too many light sabers.................

and this is what happens. Luckily the boys didn't have their cameras out so you could see "Princess Leia" battle Obi Wan and Darth!

And the coolest photo of them all..."May the Force be with you!"

It's birthday week here, I'm going to need it!

Weekend Activities

Busy weekend here, lots of catching up to do. Saturday morning was spent at the baseball fields until around 11:15 am. Then we checked on painting supplies and hardware (see future post), watered plants, got lunch, I did some work work, then we went to Carraba's for dinner and watched the Preakness. After dinner, I went to Home Depot to pick out faucets, lighting, and accessories (I'm building this one up).

We have decided every other Sunday morning is the best time to clean the house. Now that we have help, 2 1/2 hours gets everything done except the bathrooms (which get done during the week). Matthew is great at emptying the trash (whooshing the new trash bags open is the best part) and he also vacuums the entire upstairs. I suppose we are facing child labor law violations in some country, but he is really very helpful and he wants to do it (take it while you can get it mom!). Drew helps for about 15 minutes and then decides to play 3 minutes for every 1 minute of pick up. Not quite there yet.

We stopped at Friendly's for lunch thinking it would be quick and spent 1:40 minutes, ugh. Off to the party store for all of the Star Wars paraphernalia for Andrew's birthday party. 1/2 hour and $180 later, we are out the door. Good thing we don't do parties every year. Afternoon was spent writing party invitations and trying to burn photo CD's to send to the grandparents. I am having the worst time since I moved off the Sony PC. The new Roxio software on my Dell leaves a lot to be desired and that project is still not done tonight (sorry dad).

I did find time to order a new cell phone yesterday. A lady called Saturday morning from Verizon and tried to convince me that I had to upgrade and renew my contract immediately. After checking the account, it needs to be renewed in July - ghee, worried you are going to lose my business? I told her I was picky about my phones and she convinced me the new model would cover all of my needs. I hate it when other people insist they know what I need, grrr.... (now she should be really worried she is going to lose my business) So, here is the new (free) phone on the way tonight, White Chocolate....
http://estore.vzwshop.com/chocolate/ And now I know that she was trying to get me to buy a phone over the telephone so I wouldn't get the internet discount. Double grrr...

I have another reason for wanting to get this phone/MP3 player. I have an oddball idea of putting an inexpensive (working) radio/CD player in Little Red Car that has an MP3 connection in the front. I think this would help with the vibration issue and CD's skipping (which I have heard from MGB websites. So I am thinking to use the phone (MP3) as the input device and then I can disconnect and run into the store taking my music with me so no one feels the urge to take anything. I'm sure someone will tell my why this isn't going to work, but it sounds good to me.

Today was kindergarten orientation for Andrew. He had a good time and is very excited to be in the big boy school with his brother. Today was also "Try 1st Grade" for Matthew. There are enough first grade classes that Matthew and Philip got to go to one classroom by themselves and they had a good time. Last week Matthew got to try out the cafeteria, go through the line, and sit with the class. He had pizza, oranges, and a milk - sounded like he had a good time. We were talking at dinner tonight that Matthew and Andrew will be gone all day starting in September and that they would come home on the bus together. "I'm going to miss my mommy and daddy, when will I see you?" - Drew. Ahhhhhhhhh.... :-(

Ok, that's all I can muster tonight. Have a great week. I have a parent-teacher conference with Matthew's kindergarten teacher on Friday so she can tell me he is going on to the first grade. Then we will start on the weekend project!

Concert Listing

Here goes the list of concerts I have been meaning to write down... (don't laugh, I bet you have a few in your past too!)

The Romantics (Hoch Auditorium - Lawrence - KS)
The Cars (Kemper Arena - Kansas City)
Men at Work (Kemper Arena - Kansas City)
UB40 (Kansas City)

Since Mark...
INXS w/Michael Hutchence (Oakland Coliseum & The Warfield - San Francisco)
U2 (Oakland Stadium)
EMF (The Warfield - San Francisco) *This is the concert Mark and I realized we were getting old.
Tears for Fears (The Warfield - San Francisco)
The Beach Boys x 2 (Concord Pavilion - CA)
Toad the Wet Sprocket (Hawaii)
Depeche Mode (Hawaii)
The Righteous Brothers (Circle Star - San Jose, CA)
B-52's (Shoreline Amphitheater - Mountain View, CA)
Harry Connick, JR (Berkeley, CA & Universal Studios Amphitheater - CA)
Phil Collins (San Jose Arena)
INXS w/JD Fortune (Warner Theater - Washington, DC and Naval Academy Alumni Hall - Annapolis)

I think there are a few more, but I'll have to dig deep into the brain cells for those.

Nationals Photos

Andrew's baseball team (Nationals) has it's own team photographer and he has a digital SLR camera (hmmm....Christmas, Birthday, Anniversary, and Valentine's day gift combined!) with a monster lens. Here is a link to his web page and the photos he took on Saturday morning at practice.

http://homepage.mac.com/jerry7/PhotoAlbum175.html

Andrew is in 13, 20, 29, 45, 50, 66, 67, 68, and 80. Click on each photo to enlarge - fabulous!!!

Oh, and my BUGS entry did not win a prize in the National Scrapbook Day Layout Contest - beat out by some log cabin in the woods - bummer. I'll try again next time.

Andrew's Birthday

For the longest time, Andrew has been talking up the idea of having a pool party at the golf club for his birthday. Granted, the pool opens one week prior and it would probably be a bit chilly, but it would still be a lot of fun.

Then, it happened. Matthew attended a party a few weeks ago at http://www.xtremebouncezone.net/. Once Andrew heard about all of the fun, the pool idea evaporated and we are now signed up at Xtreme Bounce Zone. The only problem is that the only time available around Andrew's birthday is Wednesday, June 6th at 5:30 pm. It may work out ok, but I know we have enough trouble coordinating our schedules around dinner time and I am sure other parents do too. The invitations need to go out soon, so I guess that will be item #1 on our list for the week. We need an updated list of kids from his class as some have left and some new ones have arrived. Oh yeah, Andrew can't decide between Star Wars and Spiderman for his party theme (still better than Princess or Barbie) so item #2 on the list for the week is party decor.

Mexican Hat Dance

This one is sooooo funny it deserves it's own post. So the gift that my parents sent was wrapped in bubble wrap. This is like gold to the boys. In past attempts, they quickly figured out that snapping the bubbles one by one was boring and not their style. So they put it on the floor and started pouncing on it. From the hammock photo in the previous post, you can see that Matthew asked for his birthday sombrero from Chevy's. He asked right after the bubble wrap came out. Not exactly your traditional Mexican Hat Dance, but it yielded hysterical results...




I have to figure out how to add video to this post. There will be a new dance craze sweeping the nation as soon as I post it. Andrew has invented a new dance - the "Jiggly Wiggly Bottom" and no, you really don't want to see it.

Update: You Tube to the rescue. Try this link to Andrew's new Dance Craze (Audio is worth turning up)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeHStCKBWgs

I'll have what they're having!

What a fantasic Mother's Day here in Maryland! (70 degrees and no clouds).

Mark and I were getting cleaned up this morning and Matthew came to tell me that he dusted the top shelf of his bookshelf. Hmmm...my first thought is the bookshelf in his room which is 6 ft. tall. Then I realized he was talking about the 3 ft. bookshelf in the family room where they keep their toys. Wow, Good job Matthew!

Matthew says something about wanting to clean the floor, so Dad offers that Matthew can get out the little vacuum if he wants to clean up. Wow, what's happening here? Next thing I hear is both vacuums running in the family room and neither Mark or I are involved. By 11 am, they had the entire family room vacuumed! I thought they just had grape juice and cereal for breakfast! Here's proof...

So, as a reward, I took the little red car to McDonald's for lunch so they could get their Shrek toys. We had lunch on the deck and apparently while I was out, they got all of their Mother's Day gifts together.

So after lunch we opened cards and gifts - one surprise after another. Andrew went first. He made a hand print card with a terrific message about how quickly the hand prints on the walls disappear as he gets bigger and I should enjoy them while I can. He also made a handpainted pot at school and put a pack of Marigold seeds in it. Matthew made a teapot cut out with a tea bag on the inside and also a small heart shaped clear magnet with a butterfly inside that he had drawn. Mom and Dad sent a nice card and beautiful hand blown glass bracelet and ring - I will wear this to work tomorrow as it will add nice color to my boring suits. Doris sent a beautiful card with a very sweet message inside. Mark got me a DVD Recorder so we can transfer all of our video to DVD (which he will be doing while I am lounging in my new....) and a portable hammock for the deck! (You can see how much I will get to use this - hopefully the "newness" will wear off soon!)

Here are a few other photos from the day. Thanks everyone - I hope this day doesn't end!

Happy Mother's Day!

Clematis in the back yard is blooming!

Teacher Appreciation Week

I forgot to mention in my post last night that last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. So Matthew's Kindergarten teacher got a hand made card on one day, then we gave her favorite snacks - Diet Coke, Cashews & Raisins Mix, Dark Chocolate, and some M&M Stickers.

We have been so happy with the boys Pre-School that Mark made beef tacos with all the fixins' and took it in on Friday for their Teacher Appreciation Lunch - nice job dad!

This morning went well with photos and baseball. This afternoon I assembled the planters and got everything planted except beets (supposed to soak the seeds overnight). When I went to get dirt to fill the planters, I also found a Roma tomato plant - my favorite! Here's a photo of the deck.

Out for pizza and picked up a Tom & Jerry movie on the way home tonight.

On another note, I have been caffeine free all week, but I broke down today and had a Diet Coke. After running around all morning and it was 80 degrees here but felt like 90, I just had to get rid of the daze in my head. I usually only have one caffeinated soda at lunch every day, so it's not too bad to begin with, but I did it while I was pregnant, so I can do it again. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Recap and Weekend Plans

Happy Friday all!

Loooooonnnnnnggggg week! Andrew had baseball practice on Tuesday night. It was fun watching the little ones run around. They also have a base that squeaks (as demonstrated by Andrew in photo #1) - which is a great idea to get the kids to drop the bat and run to first. The photos didn't turn out so well because it was getting dark...

#1

Notice that Andrew is not wearing his Nationals jersey but last summer's Thomas the Train shirt. We were rushing to get out the door and his jersey was hiding in a laundry basket of clean laundry. I'm sure it won't be the last time, but we now have a specially designated uniform drawer so they know where to look and we try to get it out ahead of time.

Here is another photo from practice, Drew is hitting the ball pretty good as he is the oldest on his team.

Matthew's coaches got in trouble with the baseball commissioner as they are not supposed to "coach pitch" until the last game or so. They have now agreed 2 innings of "tee" ball and 1 inning of coach pitch if there is time.

So I had a significant presentation due on Wednesday, another this morning. A team of us managed to get our Executive Council to approve additional funding and staffing for our Oncology Program (including Cancer Registry which is in my department). $125K is a pretty good haul and it ended the week on a high note. Another proposal due on Tuesday and a major one on Friday next week (too many VP's involved, so they have it at 7 am so no one has a choice but to show up).

Tomorrow morning is busy, baseball photos at 9 for Matt, baseball photos at 9:15 for Drew, Matt's game at 10 am, Drew's practice at 10 am (luckily we can travel together as we are all going to the same place)!

My new trough planters (http://www.gardeners.com/Terrazza-Trough-Planters/default/16027.prd) arrived yesterday after being on back order for 3 weeks. They are a bit expensive, but the tomato planter has worked so well it is worth the up front cost for less hassle all year. They last forever and you don't have to water so often. I had grand ideas of putting them together tonight, but I opened the box and out rolled about 100 parts. Decided my brain was not up for that tonight so tomorrow after the game/practice we will get some dirt and come home and plant the veggie garden. Here is the list...

Lettuce, Broccoli, Red and Orange Peppers, Peas, and Green Beans. The Sweet 100 tomato went in the planter on Wednesday night. We probably have 40 or so strawberries set on - note to self for weekend - buy netting so the birds don't get them first.

I'm hoping to chill on Sunday, we'll see how that plan works out.

Happy Mother's Day all!

Flamingos and Baseball

What do they have in common? Matthew's first game. What a riot! The coaches decided at the beginning of the game to skip the tee and try coach pitch. It worked - the kids hit some out to the outfield. The coaches were impressed with Matthew's stance at the plate (yes, he's a lefty and does everything else right handed). Mom and Dad were less impressed with his attentiveness in the field (see photo #2).

NSD

One more thing happened on May 5th - National Scrapbooking Day (NSD)! I didn't realize it until I got an email from one of the digi scrapbook websites and they were having a contest. The only rules were that you had to use a kit from their website and it had to fit into one of three categories:

1. Digital layout

2. Hybrid (digital and paper)

3. Card (mostly digital)

I decided to enter for the first time ever. All of the other entries were photos of kids, adults, etc. so I went with something completely different...BUGS! I had two photos from last summer of a great butterfly in the yard and a huge praying mantis on the deck. It took me awhile to enlarge the head of the bug to fit in the magnifying glass so it looked like the head and body were still attached to each other. The contest ends at midnight tonight and at the moment there are 15 other entries. Here's my finished product.

Baseball Photo

Here are the boys in their very first baseball uniforms! Just in case you couldn't answer the quiz in the previous post.

Oh, and those are our strawberries in the foreground. Looks like we won't have to split one berry into four sections this year :-)

On the way to the parade today.

Armed Forces Day Parade

Happy Cinco de Mayo all! No mexican food tonight, rats. Although they did have taco salad in the cafeteria yesterday. Not sure if that counts.

So this morning we took the boys in their baseball uniforms to march in the Armed Forces Day Parade. It was a great time and they got to see their favorite Rescue Squad Truck and the Chick-Fil-A cow. The Chick-Fil-A cow really gets around in our town - maybe there is more than one cow, otherwise, someone has a full time job going to all the events.

Guess which ham...er...I mean cow this is??? You have a 50/50 shot!

The Boys Social Schedule

What is it about Saturday, May 5th? Here is our schedule as of now....

10:30 am Andrew's T-Ball Practice (canceled to attend Parade)
10:45 am Armed Forces Day Parade (both boys teams invited)
1:30 pm Birthday party for Matt's friend
4:00 pm Matt's baseball game (Matt is skipping game to attend both b-day parties)
4:30 pm Birthday party for Matt's friend
4:30 pm Neighborhood Kentucky Derby Party (doubt we will make it)
?:?? pm Pick up Prius car from "car hospital" where it is getting an oil change

And no one has even bothered to mention that it is my favorite holiday....Cinco de Mayo! Which means all of my favorite restaurants will be too packed to get in. At least it looks like the weather will be good this weekend.

TGTF (thank goodness tomorrow's friday) but I'm not looking forward to Saturday!

Allergies

The only places I have ever had allergies are Hawaii and Maryland. I took the day off work to recover from yesterday when I had to be there. Nearly lost my voice by the end of the day. I just looked out the back door and it is raining pollen off the Live Oak tree and blossoms from the Cherry tree. Looks like Mark will get out of mowing the yard today as the lawn is covered with the stringy things off the tree - no point mowing until it ends. I feel like the house is my cocoon today.

Therefore, I am continuing my pursuit of using some of my digital scrapbook pages to fill the empty walls in the craft room. I found some inexpensive 12 x 12 front-loading frames at Michael's several weeks ago. I always print my digital pages 8 x 8 square and then I use background paper and mattes to fill the frames. I have finished 9 of them so far. Here is a photo of the frames on the wall. Trying to make sure I give equal billing to each of the kids so I did a baby page for Matthew today.