Access

9-30-14

Dammit!

For some reason I don’t have access to this screen I need in the database. I really don’t care that much, but I had been grooving on my reports and this was the last of them and now I am delayed. Grrr..

It was another productive day for me. I managed to clean house and do laundry. The boys even mentioned how good the place looked when they got home. I have enough visitors to my home that I really want to keep the mess to a minimum. Sure, there will be clutter days, but I think if we all work together it will be kept clean.

This week’s board meeting may in fact be something I will need to just suck it up and stay at with the boys in tow. There are a lot of folks who have been around a while who are just not pulling their weight. Now, I know this is a volunteer organization, but shoot, if you can’t handle it, resign. Right now they are acting very arrogant and not getting the job done, which results in lots of problems. Boss man is frustrated, and I don’t blame him one bit.

The boys FaceTimed Matt yesterday in what may have been the most amusingly awkward conversation of all time. I kept whispering to the boys what to say because they seemed unsure. Matt seemed pleased, thought, so that was cool.

I think I am supposed to do dinner with Sarah tonight. I may flake if only so I can handle some other things, and so I get to bed at a reasonable time.

I got the boys their own little address books. I know eventually they can use their phone, and really, they could put stuff in their iPads, but I figure they can take these to school and take down phone numbers of their friends since they keep trying to make time to play online with one of their friends.

Maybe I can get Sarah to come to me and we can go to Savers.

I really hate waiting for access here. I could probably restart my machine, but what a pain. In reality, I will most likely have to, so I don’t know why I don’t just do so.

Monday is purple

9-29-14

As much as I do mostly enjoy the whole soccer thing, it sure does eat up a weekend.

Finally, Dax seems to be on a winning team. We are 3 and 1, which isn’t too bad. It is also becoming rather apparent that Dax is one of, if not the fastest, kid in U10. He can run down kids twice his size, which is super amazing to watch.

Bobby is getting better and better, which is so cool. He gets aggressive when the ball is near him and he is passing and kicking the ball where it should go. He has improved so much over the past year. And he seems to enjoy it, which in itself is the best part.

Jerry and Ally came to hang with us at the field again, which was perfect for Dax and Ally since those two just can’t sit still for long periods of time. They were kicking the ball around pretty much any time the game wasn’t on. It was really cool. Plus, they seem to genuinely enjoy each other’s company, which I like.

It should be a standard week aside from Thursday which is all kinds of over-booked. We have practice, a board meeting and back to school night. I am pretty sure we will only be able to do part of these. With the back to school being at 7:15 and practice ending then and the board meeting starting at 7, there is so chaos. I am guessing practice will end early since 1 third of the team goes to Adams (and is in the same class). We will most likely hit up the board meeting on the way back (yay on everything being in 5 block radius).

I raided the Dollar Tree of their sparkly makeup selections. They had Wet and Wild Halloween sets that were all shimmer for fairy costumes and what not. I also found some great eyeliner. It is always a cool thing to be able to spend less than $10 and get all new makeup.

Ken played salon with me and did my hair and toes. Now I feel all pretty again. My hair was done with purple, so it is a purple and blue mix with more purple on top and deep blue under which looks cool. My toes are the cool charcoal again, which goes with everything.

Mother Nature seems to be confused by cursing me with either a really early light period or what would could be described as heavy spotting. I do not care for this one bit.

With it being October this week, I will take the time to decorate the house for Halloween. I know there are not always visitors in my home, but the decorations make me happy. I also need to go back to Savers and look at baby costumes for Leeroy.

Sigh, I know it’s so very cliché, but I really wish it wasn’t Monday. 

twitch

9-25-14

A late journal is still a journal.

I was dinking around online this morning, fueled by a post about a former Mira Costa student being released as a Somali pirate prisoner which took me into looking for his yearbook picture to then looking to see if teachers I remembered were still alive. Of course, all of this was in between doing some actual work. Sadly, there is not enough organization of information out there for my inquisitive mind.

Yesterday’s homework seemed to take forever. I know some of it was due to the newness of Dax having to deal with a Pilot of the Week letter, but ultimately, I think Mr. Chin assigns far too much homework. Sigh. Thankfully I know that Dax handles it well enough, and yesterday I had extra time. Early release along with not having to cook was all kinds of good.

We headed to Rizzo’s a little before 6 (yes, that means almost 3 hours of homework time) and had decent timing with finding a table and ordering when there wasn’t a mile long line. It was nice to see so many people there! I am really curious to see how much we make off of this fundraiser. Hopefully a lot! It was busy the whole time I was there, and I was told it was busy all day, so yay! Nicole and Ally showed up while we were there, so we hung out with them. Jerry showed up a little later. Jimmy and Denise came later, and there were a fair amount of folks there we knew. It was awesome! Ken had to leave a little after 7, but the boys and I stayed till about 7:40.

I think I chipped a tooth or an old filling is loose or something. I know I had something caught in my teeth a couple days ago that I couldn’t get out till I got home to some floss. It hurt for the afternoon, but I didn’t think anything of it. Then the next day it still seemed to be tender. I flossed the hell out of it, and yet food kept getting caught odd in there. I even brought floss to work so I could clean it after each bit of food. Now this morning even chewing gum makes me nervous. It almost feels like something is going to pop off the tooth. Hopefully it is nothing, but now I have to keep an eye on it.

No more fish oil for me. I had been taking flax seed oil and I am pretty sure that is the miracle med that has made my cholesterol and sugar numbers so amazing. I ran out, so I snagged the bottle of fish oil we had. There isn’t much in it, but I figured I could use the rest of that before getting more flax seed. My first issue was when I tried taking as much as was with flax seed. Sadly, I had an afternoon of burping fish which was disgusting. So I tried to cut back. I still had the nasty emissions. I have decided to get some flax seed this weekend because I want to keep taking something that is helping me, but I don’t need fish breath.

My hand is especially twitchy today. Not sure what that is all about. Perhaps I have been going at 100 miles an hour again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGBLlFMn9X

Yay Wednesday!

9-24-14

How is it only Wednesday?

At least I can say I was mostly productive yesterday. While Ken helped the boys with homework, I worked on cleaning up the house a bit. We also had gone to Costco before the boys got home from school, so this allowed me to make some eggs for Bobby for breakfast each morning along with making breakfast burritos for Ken and I for the week. I also spent some time dealing with poo. With 9 critters, there is a large amount of poo to deal with.

I really would be having the boys do a lot of the chores I did yesterday, but to be perfectly honest, they just don’t have time during the week right now. With homework and practice twice a week, daily chores are not exactly easy to assign. Don’t get me wrong, I do have them do a lot. I just don’t make them do all of the things they do when soccer isn’t in full swing. On the weekends I can have them do more and not feel bad since they still have time to play.

Sarah asked me yesterday how I do everything I do. I know I have a lot on my plate, but at the same time, I feel like I am lazy a lot. I mean, while the boys were at practice, I was sitting on the couch talking to Sarah. Sure, part of the time I was on the phone I managed to make dinner and other things, but they all seem like standard things.

We were going to cancel game night this Saturday because some people couldn’t make it. However, enough are available so we will play this Wii game Chris is bringing over, which should be a lot of fun. Now I should figure out some food. I don’t want anything too fancy.

Wednesdays are good days for me because the boys get off school earlier. It means we can get homework done and it isn’t super late. I also don’t have to make dinner tonight because we are going to Rizzo’s for a soccer fundraiser. Yay! I am hoping to get some laundry going when I get home and to be able to vacuum downstairs before the boys make it home.

I have some kind of training this morning. It should be brief, but I hate those sort of things. I do better figuring out new systems on my own. I have some other training for something else in a couple weeks that is 2 hours, which seems like a complete waste of time.

Let’s just hope today goes quickly. 

Passing Notes

9-23-14

Leeroy is grouchy!

Ok, in all fairness, so am I. It is only work related, though, so I know it is temporary since around here work can be good and bad randomly. With that, I will simply try to be cheerful despite the annoyances.

Part of Bobby’s homework last night was to give Ken and I a spelling test. I was excited until I found out we had to do it in cursive! Seriously, the only thing I write in cursive is my name, and even that looks more like a scribble. I missed 1 word because I have forgotten how to write a z in cursive. Sheesh! The test was really fun, though. With every word we had Bobby use it in a sentence and we giggled a lot. Ken and I also passed notes, which both boys found endlessly amusing. Bobby said I was now benched. Ha!

I mostly let them do their own homework last night, trying to not interfere too much, hoping they would understand that the longer they took, the less time on the computer they would have. In reality, they would have lost all computer time but Jimmy and Denise came over so we shooed them off to go play.

Today the boys have practice, so I will have some down time. There is some laundry to work on, but the house is decently clean so I don’t need to bust my ass this afternoon. This is happy making. I may even watch a movie, what with Netflix adding several I have been wanting to watch.

With the boys’ game at 10:30, I have a bit of a morning on Saturday. Of course, knowing me, we will still go down to the field early.

I really need to touch up my hair. I have not decided if I will just use the rest of the blue or go to purple. The boys seem to be done with the blue. Both said purple would be good, so I may just need to do that. Maybe I can get Ken to put the color in my hair before they go to practice and I can leave it in until they get back.

I could smell the smoke from the harbor this morning when I left for work. That had to have been a crazy fire.

So much Soccer

9-22-14

AYSO truly does mean All Your Saturdays Occupied.

That being said, it could be AYWO since my whole weekend was soccer this time. Mind you, it wasn’t bad (unless of course you ask the boys who were bored much of Sunday). Saturday was actually fantastic! The game was amazing. It was back and forth on scoring but we came out ahead. It was 6-5 by the end. Poor Dax went down what seemed like a million times. Yes, there were minor injuries, but ultimately it was that he was so frustrated and intense in the game he just would explode with emotions when he would go down. The kid is a trooper, though.

I did have to step in with how long Bobby was playing. Normally it doesn’t make any difference to me if he only plays half a game. Much of this is because he doesn’t care. However, on Saturday the game time didn’t add up. He was out first quarter, but came in for one of the players who I guess was hurt (he just randomly left the field, so Bobby went in. Then he was out 2^nd quarter, and 3^rd quarter, and then come 4^th quarter he was out and I was annoyed. Bobby was, too. In a first, the kid really wanted to play. I asked Lou and he got a little snippy. Ken didn’t catch the error, either. Once it was explained, though, Bobby played the 4^th quarter. He also almost scored a goal! Thankfully Lou told me he would be playing Bobby 3 quarters this coming game, so this is all good.

Even though the game is only an hour, we are there at the field early to set up. I lined a field, but luckily I had company since Jerry ended up hanging out with me while I did. Then after the game, Ken, Jerry and I hung out to monitor the fields. The boys end up kicking the ball around, playing their iPads and just sitting. We tend to get out of there by around 1:30 or so. This isn’t too bad, really.

We also went to Alli’s game on Saturday afternoon. Ken reffed while I hung out with Nicole and got to cheer on Alli. It was a lot of fun! I liked watching some older kids playing. It was such a difference. That being said, you could see that there still were similar errors being made.

All of Sunday was spent at Torrance El for picture day. Much of that day was sitting around, but it was not too bad. We made a lot of money selling t-shirts and other merchandise, which is awesome! We also took our team picture, which will be awesome this year since Ken, myself and the boys are in it. A family soccer pic! We also took the board member picture, and Bobby was in it, too, since he dressed up as Playso for the picture. I am so happy my boys are becoming part of our little soccer family.

Friday night was my only non soccer night, but it was still awesome since I got to hang out with Stephanie! She and I went to Savers, which was incredibly entertaining. They have so much Halloween stuff, so we got to rummage through all of that. We did confuse and concern this one clerk there who made the foolish mistake to tell us, “If you have any questions about Halloween, just ask!” This of course meant that we asked her for her favorite custom, which she understood as costume. She proceeded to tell us how she has never liked Halloween since her birthday is on it. She turns 18 this Halloween so we spent some time trying to convince her to own it as her very own holiday. She looked a little nervous, but I suppose anyone might be when you have two strange girls in top hats and holding random Halloween stuff badgering you on random things.

It looks to be a less chaotic week, which is good. Wednesday we do have a fundraiser night at Rizzo’s for the region, which should be fun. Other than that, the week is standard with homework and soccer. I am looking forward to some routine.

Whirlwind of Awesome

9-18-14

So much done!

I got home yesterday and set to work on my house. I set loose the Roomba, I mopped, I laundered, I kicked ass. The boys got home and I continued a lot of my whirlwind of awesome. I helped explain a math concept to Bobby, and we were quite successful. Dax had done all of his homework for the rest of the week in class yesterday, so really, this kid was set.

I kicked the boys out of the house and told them to go into the pool. At this point I continued to clean all of the laundry in the house. I tried to relax and watch some Friends, but sadly something is wrong with our Tivo and it can’t seem to connect to the bedroom cable box or something like that. The point is, no shows, live or recorded, were available to me in the living room. This was super freaking lame.

I made dinner and opted to throw in Frozen and the boys were lured into the living room with me and we ate and enjoyed the flick. It had been far too long since I had seen it.

Ken had two games last night, with them starting an hour later than normal. I did manage to fall asleep after he left, but due to the crazy wind, I was pretty sure that someone was in the house ready to chop me up into little pieces. This was annoying since I was so dang tired I would fall asleep in spite of the clear and present danger. This would cause me to wake up in a panic. I knew that if Stabby Joe was in my house my dogs would bark, but then again, these are not the brightest canines.

I woke up this morning feeling rather groggy, and I still feel this way. I had vivid dreams again that were wacky. Not as good as the night before, but clearly the cable channels my subconscious has  subscribed to has upgraded significantly.

The boys have practice tonight, but during practice, Ken and I will be meeting with Mr. Chin. He can’t be at the school on the normal Back to School Night, so he arranged two other nights for parents. This was pretty cool of him. Luckily, we mostly know the drill with his class, but this being a combo class, there will be some info we didn’t have. Should be interesting to see how they handle the handful of 3^rd graders in the mostly 4^th grade class.

Happy birthday AYSO

9-15-14

The sick fog has finally started to lift!

I ended up going home early on Friday and crawled into bed. It was around 7. I woke up around noon and was quite confused at the lack of human occupation at the house. The cats all certainly seemed amused and happy at my presence. I didn’t realize Ken had a class. The good news was I was able to just hang out since the boys wouldn’t be home for 3 hours. Yay rest!

Saturday was hot. Our game wasn’t until noon, and aside from some chores I wanted to accomplish, I felt no need to stay in the house when it was hotter in there than on the field. Ken had to go at 7, but the boys and I headed over around 9:30 or so. It was nice under the pop up and the breeze was pleasant.

Sadly the game didn’t go great. A good chunk of the team looked sluggish and confused during much of the game. They were walking when they should be running and no one seemed to be challenging the opposite team for the ball. I should correct that statement. Two players were doing this consistently. Dax and Isaiah were kicking ass on Saturday. They both were playing quite hard. Even Bobby was busting his ass as best he could. I don’t know if it was heat related for the few who didn’t seem as with it or if they were just having an off day.

The problem with this was how frustrated Lou gets. He yelled at the team, wanting them all to run. He did tell them while playing that they would all be running at practice. Now, yeah, this isn’t exactly the best form of coaching. It is still coaching. And really, I think Lou was pretty reserved for him. He has called a team meeting about his behavior.

What wasn’t cool was a parent (and I know her, and wasn’t super shocked by her behavior) on the other team yelling out to Lou after his running threat. She yelled out, “Why don’t you run, fatty!”

Sigh.

Look, Lou may be out of line using running as a punishment. He wasn’t using positive coaching, which is a staple of AYSO. That being said, this was just as bad. In reality, this outburst is grounds for removal from the game. That parent could have been told to leave. She wasn’t because it was all worked out, but still. I was shocked at how fast word spread about the incident. I am also glad that I was the one there to give a better account of what took place. I will tell you, my soccer role is never boring. LOL!

The afternoon was spent in the pool and then later we went to dinner at Red Lobster. There was a special of all you can eat shrimp that sounded nummy. It was quite nummy, but it isn’t a place we will most likely go again anytime soon. The wait was insane and it was more costly than we would normally do. It was still an adventure, so it was ok.

We stopped by Rite Aid on the way home and got to have some Thrifty’s Ice Cream, which is always a yay moment. We ended up bumping into a coach and family for one of our U8 teams. I am enjoying this whole being a face of our region thing.

Sunday was much more mellow. Stephanie came over in the morning and we hung out for a while, getting to chat about things I don’t feel I should put in the blog since it could be used against her in some way. One never knows.

The rest of the day was also pool time. I swam with the boys while Ken was reffing a game. It was actually a little chilly, which surprised me. It was refreshing, though. It is coming down to the last few weeks of pool time.

We got some plants for the front of the house. We have not planted them yet. I am hoping maybe this afternoon. We need to do it soon since it looks like somebody was messing with them at some point since they were all tipped over when I left this morning. I really hate the people from the trailer park down the way. They park in front of the house, and one of the days I was even boxed in! I would venture a guess they were not the people involved with my plant stuff, but I know we get a lot of foot traffic and many of them are not nice folks. I think it is getting more and more apparent that we will need to build a fence  along with the porch.

I will be walking up to meet the boys today from school. I need to go get volunteer forms. I am liking the boys walking home on their own since the independence is good for them. But I do kind of miss seeing them come out of the school.

I am rocking my AYSO board shirt today along with an AYSO hat in honor of AYSO’s 50^th birthday. I feel proud. I also am not a big fan of my board shirt, so AYSO must really be important to me.

eff this sick

9-12-14

1 o’clock can’t come fast enough.

I couldn’t sleep well last night what with the combo of my throat and nose not cooperating. When I finally settled, I think I only got a couple of hours of decent rest. I am a zombie right now.

When I got home from work I was feeling ambitious. With my music blaring in my ears, I set to work on chores around the house. I got a ton done and subsequently exhausted myself. Thank goodness the homework was minor.

It is frustrating to have to tell the boys they can’t tell me tales of their school adventures. They choose to do this when they are stalling on homework and I just can’t allow it. Especially when the homework was so crazy simplistic. Bobby had accidently done last night’s homework on Wednesday so all he had to do was write spelling words. Dax had done much of his math homework in class, leaving only a simple sheet of rounding numbers to the nearest 10 or 100. He would whiz through it and then just decide to stop and play with a cat. It was maddening.

In addition to this, I have discovered that both boys don’t learn when I help them with a question. They assume I will say the answer enough times that they can copy my words verbatim. I came up with a plan last night while trying to sleep. When we discuss a problem that they can’t solve without help, I am going to make them repeat back to me the answer. Perhaps then it will start to sink in. What is the worst part, though, is most of the time they know the answer and understand it, but they want the way I explain it as their answer.

It is supposed to be super-hot tomorrow which will suck for the game. Our game time is High Noon. I am hoping there is a bit of a breeze.

I am trying to drink some tea this morning but it is making me very hot. I just turned my fan up. I may have to just skip that and go with straight water. I like the tea because it soothes my throat. Oh well.

The boys both want to take this sculpting class on Wednesdays after school. Even though it is a bit pricey ($87 each for 6 weeks), I am thinking it would be cool. It is the day they get out early so they would just stay at the school for the class and come home after. There is no practice on Wednesdays so it might be fun.

Hopefully this afternoon is mellow. I really need to go up to the school to get volunteer forms. I may stop by the school on the way home from work and pick a couple up in the office. I need one for me and my mom. Ken probably needs one, too.

Ok, I need to wake up. 

doc

9-11-14

Turns out I am doing something right.

My cholesterol is way down and my A1C’s look great! My doc was quite pleased. It also is fun to see her since it feels like a coffee date with a friend. She told me how she got engaged to the boy she had been seeing for a couple years. We talked about all of that and different things. She’s like a physician and a therapist all in one. Plus she’s my age which makes it all the easier to relate.

My cold has reached the final leg, which is good because I should be better soon. The problem is the last part of my colds means my throat is sore and I cough all dang day. It is quite exhausting. Hopefully it will go quickly.

I really hope Miss Van Wie keeps with this small amount of homework agenda. It is so much easier to deal with Bobby dinking when you know he doesn’t have 6 more pages of math to do.

Dax kept beating himself up yesterday about his homework. He had cursive to do, which is only his second day of practice. He has very good penmanship and he takes his time with the cursive. He was all upset that his ‘k’s looked like crap. In fact, they looked amazing! The cutest part of his fear, though, was when Bobby called him over to look at Dax’s work. Bobby told Dax, which incredible sincerity, how the k’s looked fantastic and how he was never able to make them look that good. He is such an amazing big brother.

I am really going to have to concentrate on not falling asleep. It is crazy how much sick wears you out. Thankfully when I get home I don’t have anything pressing. The boys also have practice, which I should go to since I need to give some money for the banner. I may just have Ken handle it for me. I should rest.

Dumb People and Soulful Books

9-10-14

I sometimes really hate people.

There is a hallway here at work that isn’t dark. It is pretty well lit even without the light on. It also isn’t super long or something you need to light up. This is why I don’t turn on the light in the mornings when I get here. I also have an issue with leaving lights on when you don’t need them.

I just said good morning to my coworker, the gentleman who is a manager (not mine) in the department. He asked me, rather rudely, why it is that I don’t turn on the light. I told him it was one of those conserving electricity things and that I don’t see the need for it to be on. He said he always turns it on, which is fine. It makes no difference to me. He snipped about how we don’t pay the electricity here so we shouldn’t care. Sigh. He was such a dick about it and I just didn’t understand his hostility. I just shook my head and walked away. It isn’t like I kept the department in the dark. It was such a random fight to pick.

Seriously, the people here worry me. They are getting dumber.

I was out sick yesterday. I still am super congested and achy, but I needed to come to work. I slept till about 9 yesterday and then lounged all day. My foot still hurt like hell, so it was nice to be able to sit around and let that rest, too. It is a shame it was so damn hot.

In the early afternoon I went into panic mode since the registrar from AYSO sent me a crap ton of invoices and refund requests. The RC also sent a text about some refund check that was mailed and the parent never got it. So I scrambled and made sure everything was ready for signatures. No one came to sign. Sigh.

Jimmy did come by, though, to deliver a printer. Ken and the boys were at practice, so Jimmy and I ended up talking for a couple hours, which was awesome. We talked about soccer and about a bunch of spiritual stuff, which was super fascinating and fun. I was exhausted, but I was glad he hung out.

I have my doctor’s appointment today. The boys were going to be walking home all latch-key style today, but my folks offered to be at the house for them, which is nice because it alleviates my stress.

Homework started ok yesterday, but Dax got overwhelmed with the math. He gets frustrated when it doesn’t come quickly to him. I understand because I do the same thing. He also knew he needed to finish before practice. Sadly, Mr. Chin has still not improved when it comes to instructions on homework. I am tempted to mention it at Back to School night.

I am all pleased that the book I suggested Bobby read has become his favorite book. He is reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I figured it was perfect for him. Sure enough, he loves it! I feel such happiness when the boys (or anyone for that matter) enjoys a book I suggest. It is like they are approving a part of my soul.

Another weekend

9-8-14

I just wish I knew if it was allergies or a cold I am dealing with right now.

The sleepless night certainly didn’t help. Sure, the heat was awful, but really I was afraid to get into a deep sleep due to Bobby. Last night in the midst of dinner he said he felt ill and decided to go to bed. It was a later dinner, and we had a long and active weekend so I just assumed he was overly tired. Sadly, he did feel like throwing up, which came about 30 minutes after he went to lie down. Luckily, in true Bobby fashion, he was laughing after he barfed. He commented on how light and empty he felt after, which he said made him feel much better. It was sweet considering he wasn’t 100%.

Since Dax had a similar sick a couple weeks ago, I worried that there would be another session in the bathroom. Luckily he slept just fine, but unfortunately I did not. Every sound signaled the alert in me and I practically jumped up. I know I am going to pay for this in the course of today.

It was the capper to a crappy evening. I managed to burn my arm making dinner and I stepped on a rock while running outside to get something for Ken. I also was committed to the dinner I was making when I noted I was lacking in the key ingredient. It wasn’t going well.

The worst thing that occurred was when we got home from a couple of errands, one of which was to get mice for Hal. Since Breezer in particular has always appreciated smelling the mice before we give them to Hal, I thought I would show Toph a mouse, not really thinking much since she is pretty mellow.

The mouse was her on switch.

She snagged the mouse from my hand with lighting quick speed and it started me. Dax was in the kitchen with me when this was going on. I tried to pull the mouse away from Toph which resulted in a horrific scene out of some kind of critter horror movie. Toph’s pulling and my trying to remove the mouse resulted in the skinning of the live mouse in my kitchen. I screamed, Dax cried, Bobby ran up, fascinated. Thankfully Hal didn’t reject the mouse, and if anything seemed to kill it quicker and did eat him. The damage was already done, though, with both Dax and I beyond traumatized. He calmed down pretty quickly, but it was all around awful.

Note to self: Toph doesn’t mess around when it comes to prey.

On a happier note, Dax did get to experience his first real win in soccer. Yay! Their team did amazing on Saturday, scoring 5 goals to their 0. Dax played his heart out, like always. Bobby did really good, too! I saw him hustle a lot and really get in there. I don’t expect a season of all wins, having seen a couple of the other teams, but I do anticipate a good season all around. I was just happy to have them together on a good team.

The boys and I went over to Levy after the game and they took turns walking around in the costume, posing for pictures with kids and waving to everyone. It was really fun! I am hoping to do this again in the coming weeks, but I don’t know that this weekend will be one of them. I am anxious to use a mostly free weekend to work on the house.

We bought an ornamental plum yesterday and planted it in the front. It looks cool there! Ken is going to work on the sprinklers next, but we are hoping to get some more of the landscaping worked on. We have picked out the plants we like, so now we just need to prep for them.

We went out for my dad’s birthday on Saturday evening. It was a nice evening of yummy comfort food in the form of a Moon’s Over My Hammy and watching my mom in heaven as she hung out with her favorite kids in the whole world. Even BoyCat hung out with us a bit, which meant we got to watch my dad in heaven as he hung out with his favorite critter in the world.

Today starts real school, complete with homework which will most likely start tonight. Dax is worried there will be a lot. I am worried, too, but I know we will manage, as we have up to now.

Today also marks the first day for them to walk home by themselves. Dax will wait for Bobby and they will walk home together. We will be home, so it will not be a big deal. That being said, on Wednesday we will not. I have a doctor’s appointment at 2. I should be home not long after them, but it will be a milestone all around. I know they will be fine.

Alright, it is time to get something done. 

Back to school!

9-5-14

Back to school and regular routines.

I was once again quite accomplished in my day, starting at 5:00 am. I went down to LabCorp to get my blood work done. I went super early, but I was glad I did because when I was done at about 6:30, the place was packed. I was the first person there so I was able to get done quickly. My arm is bruised, which hasn’t happened in a while, but I don’t care since it doesn’t hurt and it is now done.

I was also able to get home in time to make breakfast for the boys. Bobby requested scrambled eggs and Dax wanted oatmeal. I didn’t mind one bit. I was all happy to be able to be home for their morning stuff. I got to make them their lunches and walk up to the school, which was awesome.

Bobby is in Mrs. Van Wie’s class. Mind you, I don’t know if I spelled that right. I think I have spelled it 5 different ways since yesterday. I will remember the name, though, since apparently she told the class the way to remember her name is to think of a van driving down a hill yelling WHEEEEE!!!! I love that. Bobby adores her. He likes how laid back she is. He said she is one of those teachers that likes to be friends with her students and called her an “oh brother” teacher. This is what Mrs. Fashe was like, and Bobby said that this teacher is now his favorite.

Dax is in a 3^rd/4^th combo class. I am looking at this as compliment. They said that when they were choosing combo kids they needed people who worked well independently and were bright. This means Dax is one of those kids. We even talked to Mrs. Senechal about is and she agreed that Dax will have such a tremendous opportunity because he will be very exposed to 4^th grade topics, too, giving him an edge for next year. As if all of this wasn’t fantastic news, he has Mr. Chin! Yay! It allows me to know what to expect and it meant Dax was a tiny bit less nervous being that he knows Mr. Chin well because of Bobby.

Both the boys seemed nervous. Dax, who would normally polish off 2 heaping bowls of oatmeal barely touched the one bowl of it. When we walked them to class they each were clearing working hard at not crying. I didn’t linger since I knew they would be better off with me not there. I knew Bobby would be fine in his class what with there being all of the kids on the soccer team this year that go to Adams are in his class. Plus, kids from last year’s team are in there. He knows lots of kids and told me after he was quite pleased. Dax knows the kids from last year, but the ones he was closest with are not in his class, which was a bummer. I hope he feels comfortable soon.

After we dropped them off, Ken and I went and did a ton of errands including Costco. I had to get snacks for the game tomorrow and we needed things for lunches. When I got home I started working on the soccer financial stuff only to discover a huge error in which many of the transactions I had entered were coded to the wrong bank account. I was not happy. That of course is a huge understatement. I needed to make the financial report for the board meeting but sadly I could not because I didn’t have the time to fix everything before the meeting. I was quite upset.

We went and picked up the kids and this meant homework. Not homework for the kids, but for me! So much paperwork involved at the beginning of each year, and you would think that I could just check a box that says nothing changed. Sigh. Not a big deal, but man, what a pain in the ass!

Ken took the boys to practice and I worked on some more stuff before heading up to the board meeting. I thankfully didn’t have to be there super long. I was also glad that Jerry was there since I was able to chit chat with him. Ken and the boys came around 7:30 and I walked home with the kids and Ken stayed. I am hoping that this whole routine thing comes back. LOL! I hate how chaotic things are at times.

Thankfully this evening I can mostly relax. I have some light chores to work on and I need to prep the juice and snacks for tomorrow. I already prepped most of them. I am a little concerned that I will be the uncool mom, though, since the snacks for after the game include grapes, carrots, apples and pretzels. They had these little packs at Costco for rather cheap. I did include some candy, too, that way they can’t hate me too much for being such a square.

I have found my costume and now just need to order it. I am all excited! Dax is talking about being Star Lord, which would be really fun. Bobby is still planning on being Mad Eye from Harry Potter. We need to get him a trench coat and a staff. Not too big a deal. If Dax is Star Lord I need to order a Walkman for him, too.

This day will hopefully be done soon. I want to crawl back into bed. It is so comfy there. 

Labor Day weekend 2014

9-2-14

I don’t like that I feel like I can’t vent.

It was a nice long weekend and I feel accomplished in both domestic chores and family bonding. I even got some good old fashioned relaxation in! Go me!

Friday afternoon we went out to Griffith Park to check out the abandoned old zoo. It was really quite cool how so much was still there. It was also a little bit of a bummer that there was so much in the way of graffiti and broken glass. I was a little worried about the dogs, but thankfully no injuries took place.

It also is pretty clear this is a spot in which teens go to drink and smoke out. We came across a group while we were there and we opted to not go much closer to them lest they get pissy what with them also doing some tagging. It was ok, though, since they were up in the hills enough we didn’t need to deal with them.

After the park, we drove towards the Hollywood sign, which was super touristy and awesome. We even got someone to take a picture of all of us in front of the sign, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Dax wanted his own picture in front of the sign, too. We drove around the hills a bit which was just a fun adventure all around.

Saturday I went to the mall with Sarah while the boys went and helped Ken at a birthday party. I like how they enjoy working with Ken. They loved it during the summer and they jumped at the chance to do the party. I know the money helps since they do get paid, but I also think they enjoy being helpers.

Saturday night we went to Wilson Park to see Bolt. I had started to consider not going since I was afraid it would be a huge production. I am so glad we went! It was a lot of fun. I love that movie, and the set up was really cozy. Ken got to help set up the inflatable screen (of course we knew people setting up. We are becoming quite well known in Torrance). I am kind of bummed I didn’t look into these flicks sooner. I am hoping to get the flyer for next summer as soon as possible so we can put it on the calendar.

Sunday was spent relaxing. We watched movies and didn’t do much of anything. It was well deserved rest, and it was pretty damn hot out. We all went in the pool for a while, which was great fun. That being said, I am going to be happy when the summer heat is gone. I love the pool, but I need some rain.

Monday morning we went to breakfast because I thought it would be a nice family time what with school starting in a couple days. It is about to get all kinds of hectic in our house what with soccer and school. Thank goodness it is only the one team!

We cleaned the house Monday after breakfast and then collapsed from the heat. It was awful. But we got a ton done, which is all I cared. We caught up on Legend of Korra, which I gotta say is getting better and better, which I didn’t think was possible. It is so wonderful! I am anxious to watch more episodes.

I did run out to the store because I wanted some sweet chili sauce for the chicken I was making. I ended up going in my cleaning clothing, which meant I looked all tattered and torn. I figured how bad could it be for a quick visit, right? Yeah, ok, that would be the one time people decided to talk to me.

I managed to shatter a bottle of the sauce, which meant dealing with the store cleaning crew. Then, as I was walking with two bags of mozzarella cheese and the sauce, some random guy was staring at me. I was sure he was looking at the giant hole on my shirt. He noted I was looking back at him concerned when he then explained quickly that he was curious as to what I was buying. He proceeds to ask me what the cheese was. I told him, and then he asked me what I was making with it. After I told him he says, “so when and where?” It was cute, but still odd. Then at the register, the lady looked concerned that I might be making something with cheese and sweet chili sauce. She asked, and I explained these were for two totally different meals. I am telling you, I was in some kind of crazy bubble of people look at me!

Now I am at work, trying not to fire of a nasty email to my boss who totally screwed up one of my accounts. He also sent me an email asking me for two reports that were reports I had done and that he attached in the email. I am sure he didn’t see them. Sigh. He really drives me nuts. I honestly believe he is dealing with some form of dementia or something because he is really getting worse. I am not even trying to be funny, here. I have heard rumors that I am not the only one who thinks this and that higher ups are concerned.

We have practice tonight and it is up at Adams which is kind of fun. I will most likely drop in, but I do want to do some walking with the dogs tonight. We shall see. I am anxious for Thursday because I really want to meet their teachers. I am not looking forward to the stress of homework, but I am hoping this year to be less crazed about it. These boys need to be the ones who are thinking about it, not me.

We also have a board meeting Thursday. I will most likely only stop by. The boys have practice so I will let Ken take them and on his way home he can bring me the kids and they can go home with me at that point. We also found out Katie won’t be able to watch the boys on board meeting nights, so either once a month I will bring them along, which isn’t too big a deal since it is not that often and they can play their game, or, well, I don’t know another option. Ha!

Papa Brenan’s 80^th birthday is in November which means there are plans to get all of us up for a celebration. Currently the plan is for us to go up after the game on the 22^nd. Not sure if we will then come back Monday since I need to do reports on Tuesday. If Andy and Scott are going to do Thanksgiving up there, then we are considering staying through the holiday. Not sure, though.

Sigh, I suppose I should get some work done today.