Slumber Party

2-26-15

A night off? Yes please!

Tonight we don’t have practice tonight because Adams has their service awards night along with a Sock Hop after. Normally we would totally go to school functions, but quite honestly, none of us are feeling it. Instead, I can use the evening to go get things ready for Saturday’s party.

In all fairness, the week so far has been rather mellow. Despite the big birthday on Tuesday, truly we have been low key. Bobby enjoyed being sung to at practice and I know everyone enjoyed cupcakes. It also left enough for when we got home and were able to sing again.

I already did a fair amount on the house, but I am hoping that today I can sweep the floor and let Mo suck up the rest. Once that is done, perhaps I can work towards getting the floor polished. This afternoon after homework we will need to run to Costco, but I think we can get most things done pretty quickly.

As of last night, I have one confirmed yes for Saturday, which is awesome. It would be nice if at least one more can make it since that would be a good group of kids. I need to kid proof the living room, too, since knowing these kids, they will want to check out the PS4 at some point. Granted, Ken is setting up the network downstairs on the laptops, so hopefully the boys all understand the coolness of that.

I need to re-do all my pillows. In my attempts to get comfortable last night, I tweaked my other shoulder. My upper back is sore. I am not a happy camper this morning, especially since I forgot to put my cream in my purse.  I will be ok, but it is annoying.

I wonder if the kids would want to watch a movie. I wonder how late they will play before they all collapse. I wonder if I will need to make an end time. I do know that by the end of Sunday both of mine will be wiped out since they will have played soccer, had a slumber party, and then spent all of Sunday at Grammie’s, possibly swimming. I think an early bedtime on Sunday is in order.  

Happy birthday to my 10 year old!

2-24-15

My Darling Bobby,

When I was little, all I wanted to do was be a mom. Sure, there were other dreams like being a scientist or a veterinarian, but ultimately, I wanted to be able to raise and care for a child. I know that there was a brief time in which I thought that the ideal amount of children was 6. Thankfully I outgrew that crazy notion.

I was lucky to find the love of my life and we were ready to become a family. We made the decision to try to create a tiny extension of our home that could reside in my uterus for a while so I could strut around with my giant pregnant belly for all the world to see.

It took what seemed like forever for you to finally decide to come along. I remember the day so very well when Daddy actually got to tell me the news that I would finally be able to be called “Mom”. I had peed on the magic stick, sure that it would once again break my heart with only one line. I left it in the bathroom that morning, figuring I would come back in a bit to check on it. Daddy happened to go in there before I made it back in. Then he got to say the most beautiful words to me.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”

Ok, maybe not super poetic, but I was elated and couldn’t believe I would finally get to start this journey with my little Fetus Bob.

You were the most easy going baby, complete with smiles and giggles that always made me swoon. Every day was an adventure that has seemed to speed up with each day. It is the cliché that has been proven most true in being in your life. Time goes by so quickly and before you know it, your baby is all grown up.

10 years. You are 10 years old, which in some ways seems so young, but really, you have always been wise beyond your years. You have an old soul that shines through your gorgeous blue eyes that can see into anyone and just seem to know how they feel. Your insight to human emotion makes you one of my favorite people to have long philosophical conversation with.

I look forward to your future to be able to watch you grown and learn. I can’t say it doesn’t make me a little sad. I mean, I am your mom after all and we all know how quick to tears I am. But as much as I miss you as a precocious 2 year old, I am looking forward to you maturing into an incredible young man.

Thank you for being in my life. You are what I waited for all my life and the reality has surpassed the dream. I love you!!!

                                                                                Love, Mom

He is only 9 for one more day

2-23-15

My head hurts, which makes me wonder if it just senses the impending doom of Trusty being back in the office.

Of course, it could just be due to the long weekend of activities. Our Saturday of course started early as we headed to the soccer field for a morning of games. It was not too hot out so the boys alternated wearing the Playso costume. It was cool since there are little kids on the field for Spring League. It was really fun.

The game started strong, especially when Dax did an amazing free kick into the goal from a fair amount away. I had shouted out to him to put it in the net and afterwards he told me he did just what I asked of him. It was super charming. Sadly, when he was in goal they scored two goals that would have been really really hard to stop. It crushed him, especially since he had been practicing goalie all week. They ended up losing the game, which devastated Dax. I wish that poor kid could let some of it go.

Skate night was fun, and exhausting. It wasn’t nearly as crazy crowded as last year, which was nice since the rink itself then wasn’t wall to wall people. There was an incredibly sweet instructor lady there named Gina that was helping the kids out. She worked with Dax first, but then took a lot of time getting Bobby to feel comfortable skating. This woman was so great and even checked on them both later in the evening. I was so very glad she was there.

I was pleased that I know enough about who’s kids belong to which parents. At one point one boy, Nick, from Bobby’s class got hurt. Ken happened to be with him but needed his mom. So he texted me to find her. Thankfully I was able to locate her (she was actually looking pretty concerned at the time since she was searching for Nick on the ice). I felt so glad I could help. Nick seemed pretty pleased, too, which was super cute.

The kids from our team all made a point to come up and say hello to me, which warmed my heart. I didn’t skate too much, but in some ways I am glad because it meant the boys kind of skated more with their friends a bit, which in a lot of ways is super important. They did both skate up to the glass where I was a lot, though.

After skating, we walked home and ended up ordering a pizza and watched a movie. It was a late night, but a lot of fantastic family fun. It was especially nice that we didn’t have anywhere we needed to be in the morning, which allowed for sleep in time.

Sunday was mostly spent lounging. There was some cleanup involved and one quick errand, but ultimately it was lazy. My folks came by to give Bobby his birthday presents, which was a lot of fun. His first present was two potatoes. Most kids might get annoyed or upset, but this kid is such a kind soul that he smiled and laughed about it. It turned out they would work perfect with the potato guns he also got, but I don’t know that he would have cared since he just thought it was funny all around.

We watched the Oscars, which I know have been slammed by most critics as being boring and too long (they are ALWAYS too long). I loved NPH and some of the musical performances were deeply moving. Lady Gaga singing songs from Sound of Music and Tim McGraw singing this heartbreaking song by Glen Campbell about his Alzheimer’s were highlights. Of course, there was also Everything is Awesome which was one of the most fun parts of the night. I stayed up much later than hoped because the show went over by an hour. The boys watched the last hour or so with us. I know it was just an attempt to stay up, but I liked being able to point out certain celebrities to them so they knew who they were. John Travolta was there so I could point out to Dax that he was Bolt. It will be fun teaching them all the names of actors. They also blindly love NPH simply because I adore him so, which is super adorable.

Ahead of me is a mostly mellow week in terms of outings, but Bobby turns the big 10 tomorrow which is just shocking! We will take some cupcakes to his practice and let him pick dinner, which will be fun. I don’t know how many of the kids he invited to his sleep over will show up. I hope at least a couple.  

Pure Heart

2-20-15

If you are good and pure of heart you will be rewarded handsomely!

Karma is a beautiful thing and I feel I was rewarded wonderfully today. I found some old photos of friends from 20 years ago and posted them for the people. I made arrangements to send some old journals of Greg’s to Tanya since that is truly where they go. I bandaged a child yesterday at practice. I feel like I was good to the world and she has given me love!

Trusty and his evil sidekick have been delayed and will not be showing up at work today until AFTER I go home!

Praise Karma!

Seriously, when you find yourself happy dancing at 4:30 in the morning, you know all is gonna be ok and you should in fact embrace the happy!

So yes, I went through some old items yesterday. I was actually in search of something else when I noted a box of loose photos and other items. I opted to spend my afternoon going through that box. It was very productive! I wrote on the back of a few, I tossed out a bunch of crap and as mentioned, I am shipping some things to their rightful owner. It was awesome! I didn’t get them organized, but 2 hours would never have allowed that to take place. It did weed out trash and get the remaining pictures into zip lock bags so that as I do another pass, things can be put into like piles.

I also found myself really enjoying practice. I was showing some of the kids special tricky communication so as not to allow the other team to know where they were running to. I showed them also a little bit on not just throwing in the ball to the person, but in front of them so that they can smoothly get the ball down field. I felt all coach like, which was fun.

I of course did none of the errands I was to tend to. It means today will be filled with these outings once I get home from work. It works out ok, especially since I am not feeling as rushed on a day when there is no practice or homework.

Sadly, my darling Toph is in isolation. Sissy was set free in the house once another incident of pee happened while she was behind bars. I am not convinced she isn’t the source of other spots, but it looks as though Toph is angry with Ken. She was thrilled when I got home (which was before her incarceration) and spent about 30 minutes playing fetch with me. It broke my heart hearing her cry out in her hutch. I hate it when we need to segregate them for periods of time. Luckily, if this is Toph’s doing, I feel good that getting her spayed will most likely help things. We need to go get her vaccinations done and then I can make her the appointment to get cut open.

Does Neosporin expire? I have a cold sore that has scabbed off and turned into just what looks like a cut that I have been treating with Neosporin. I have not seen any significant change in the wound despite having used the tube I have for a couple days so it makes me wonder if perhaps the potency diminishes after time.

I have a desire for a raspberry margarita. Perhaps it is the party atmosphere in my heart right now. Ha!

bedding and burritos

2-19-15

One last glorious day.

I have enjoyed these last two days of work simply because I have not had to deal with the incompetency that comes with Trusty. In addition to this, you can feel the collective relaxing of the entire department since not only is Trusty away, so is his grumpy right hand man. It is almost a shame that my hallelujah day of Friday will be marred by their return.

Yesterday afternoon I got all kinds of ambitious. In addition to washing tons of bedding, I managed to clean the boys’ room quite a bit. As a side note, making a bunk bed that is really tall is not easy. Second side note would be to be careful when you try to navigate the giant pile of bedding on the floor lest you slip on it and smash your shoulder into the door frame.

While I waited for the laundry, I ended up making a batch of breakfast burritos which makes for easier mornings for me. Plus, there is enough that Ken and I should have some for today, tomorrow and even Saturday, which is awesome since it is always a bit chaotic on game day.

I also took the time to straighten the catio a bit. There are boxes in there, both empty and full, that should be gone through still, but at least it is a more inviting space for the cats. Sadly, the peeing bandit is still on the loose with someone peeing not once, but twice on Ken’s side of the bed. Yeah, we went to all this trouble to change the sheets in the afternoon only to be greeted to another wet spot when I crawled into bed. It means we will need to start closing our doors when not in there, and Sissy may end up in the hutch of shame for a period of time so we can figure out if she is the guilty party.

Sadly, the pee will require more bedding laundry for me today when I get home. Bedding takes for-freaking-ever. It doesn’t help that you can only wash maybe one thing at a time. I am hopeful that I can also finish out the boys’ laundry this afternoon so that the weekend is free from chores. It will be kind of nice to come home from the field on Saturday to know that nothing is pressing and the house isn’t too cluttered. It also will be nice to be able to have Sunday as a huge chill day.

I spent this morning cleaning my desk at work. It is funny how whenever I need a paperclip I can never find one, but clearly it isn’t that they disappear, they simply go into hiding in the far corners of every drawer. I swear, when I opened the drawer, letting in light, it was like watching bugs scatter back to their dark corners.

I am now angry with myself since I meant to bring the deposit bag so I could stop by Ralphs on the way home. I also need to hit up the pharmacy, so I was hoping to make it a super-efficient trip, but clearly I didn’t think it through. Oh well. I guess I will go this afternoon. Maybe if I am lucky, the boys will finish up homework kind of early so we can stop by on the way to practice. I may also just drop the boys off at practice and go take care of all of that.

I need to also get over to Dollar Tree since we have snacks on Saturday. I can most likely also take care of this at Ralphs, so maybe I am overthinking all of this? Ha!

The cantina is in full swing this morning and I am waiting for them all to get to the warehouse so I can go get a cup of coffee. I managed to get my water before they all showed up, but sometimes they really seem to be in a party mood in there. I wonder if their bosses are out, too.

 Even though I would like a chill day on Sunday, I feel as though I should make a point to go get mice for Hal. I also would really like to start work on cleaning the backyard. This would include the side of the house. Of course, none of this is needing to be done right away, so maybe I really should stop being such an overachiever.

Pissy Cat

2-18-15

My boobs are feeling quite pampered this morning.

My bra order showed up yesterday in the mail. It was a gloriously oversized bag that my mailman seemed confused by. In all fairness, he seems confused by a lot of things. I had not expected it to come until tomorrow, so there was a real excitement to have it early. It was the first time I think ever that I have purchased this many bras in one order! I actually have enough bras now that I could truly wear a different one each day of the week! Plus, I didn’t just order different ones. I got multiple of one that I adore, a couple of a slightly fancier version of the go to one, and I got one that is convertible from regular to halter to even strapless! I know, this doesn’t seem physically possible when one is so adorned, but I am rocking that bad boy today and I am gonna say, it is doing its job!

I am glad I took the time to do some of the house maintenance yesterday since it looks as though today is all about the laundry. One of the cats is pissed. More specifically, she is actually pissing. Someone peed on Bobby’s bed and blanket. Someone also peed on Ken’s spot on the bed. We have our prime suspect and we have even joked about giving her some dye so that we can see who is peeing when the pee shows up blue. Miss Sissy is the one we are looking at, especially since she is clearly on a rampage to be in charge of the household. She is quite delusional, but she is making a valid run at it. The problem is that in the process, she is angering both critters and people alike. This all means that today when I get home, I will be stripping the beds in the boys’ room to get everything washed. Thankfully I only have one minor outing and the boys get home later today due to sculpting class so I think I can get their bedding along with uniforms for this weekend done before they get home.

This coming Saturday night is the school’s skate night which should be awesome. I am glad we don’t have anything else that evening so we can hang out the whole time. Plus, knowing how crowded it got, we will be there super early. I can safely say that after a day of soccer and then ice skating; Sunday will be a wonderful sleep in morning.

I ordered a swim suit yesterday since I was pleased to find that the hotel we go to in March has a giant pool. The boys were super thrilled so it means we will get to spend much of Saturday afternoon splashing about. Yay!

It looks as though we will be spending Easter up at the Compound. I have an elaborate story planned in which I have already let the boys know that I sent word to the Bunny in charge to let him know our change of address for the day. I am hoping to get eggs for up there and I think I will also get some for Steve. The ones at Steve can be in a basket for when we return with a note indicating that the Easter Bunny wanted to make sure he had both places covered. This way Matt will be able to hide eggs for them at home, too. Yay! When I told the boys that I communicated with the Easter Bunny, they didn’t question it, but at the same time they didn’t seem surprised or anxious about any of it. I know they are at the age in which all of these carefully crafted stories will start to come into question. I know that if Spike knows before Dax he would never tell Dax. He would let that kid have the magic for as long as possible. That being said, I really then wonder when Dax will question it. Then again, I also have this feeling that both boys know how much all of this stuff means to me, so I could almost see them deciding to not call me out on it just so I have my fun.

It occurs to me that I should spend some time on the catio this afternoon as well. Ken is going to be picking up litter so if I get everything else all cleaned up, it removes that area as a factor in the nasty statements from which ever cat is being rude.

Have I mentioned I really need to win that lottery so I can just be a stay at home chick?

Mission Trip 2015

2-17-15

3 day weekends should be mandatory!

It truly was a magnificent weekend. It started strong since we of course got to watch some soccer with the boys. They had a great game that ended in a tie. We were holding back a bit, but I mentioned to Ken later that going forward we should not hold back like that so early in the match. We need to allow the kids to get a few goals and THEN we can maybe make changes.

We left right after the game. The drive was nice and really a lot of fun. I was a little bummed that my voice was still recovering since it meant that I couldn’t belt out the songs blaring in the car. Instead, I opted to lip-sync everything dramatically, which was a decent compromise. It was also entertaining discussing the purchased playlist with Ken. I tend to be the one who downloads songs, and due to the recent song sharing awesomeness between my mom and I, there has been a distinct change in the style of music that is populating that list. Ken isn’t a huge fan of anything from the 50’s and 60’s like Buddy Holly or even the Beatles, so I felt like I tortured him a bit. That being said, I will instead refer to it as educating him on the wonder that was that song period.

One of the random things we did was pass the intersection in which James Dean died! I had always been under the impression it was more along the coast instead of so far inland. We didn’t even plan on this landmark as it just happened upon us. We were turning onto one of the highways when there was a gas station that had giant cutouts of Mr. Dean. It was random, so of course I looked it up. Turned out we were on one of the highways that had been since renamed James Dean Memorial Highway since it crossed with the other one that he died at. We also were heading right towards it. I was a little surprised at how little fanfare there was there. Only one small sign marked its presence and there wasn’t any kind of fan memorial, which was so strange.

We were able to meet up with Lyn for dinner since she lives so close to the mission. She lives in Salinas, which was only maybe 15 minutes from the hotel. It was perfect timing, really and it was cool to surprise her. It also allowed us to hit up an Applebee’s, which are always advertised yet don’t really exist near home. It’s like a mythical restaurant like Sonic’s.

The hotel was perfect for what we needed. The boys took advantage of the downtime that night and rocked a bath. We also were able to find that the second Harry Potter flick was on tv, so we watched that. I say we when in reality my ass passed out before Harry and Ron had even gone to the Gryffindor Common room.

Sunday morning we all got up pretty early. Let’s face it, no matter how great a hotel room is, their bed is never going to be as comfy as your own. It worked out ok, though, since it meant we got an early start. We also took advantage of the continental breakfast which was quite extensive. You could make your own waffles! Talk about a great and cheap meal!

We went and checked out the beach before heading to the mission. We were able to watch some sea otters play which was super cute. As if that wasn’t great enough, there were the sea lions lounging on a small dock. We watched them for a while when one seemed to be in the midst of hacking up a hair ball. We laughed and I said that that one was about to projectile vomit on his buddies. I was only joking when as luck would have it, my prediction came true. It was pretty epic, and I can tell you that two little boys will ALWAYS find that sort of thing hysterical.

If something ever happens (knock on wood) to our beautiful Steve, I found our new house. It was this large house that was up on risers because it was in water. Mind you, it was on dry land everywhere else! It was like a built in moat!! It was awesome. The place was for sale, and truly, it was really I think a restaurant space, but it was cool.  As if that wasn’t cool enough, it had an adorable little cemetery behind it! It was so cool!!

We got to the mission where they were holding mass, which was kind of fun to think of them as an active parish. We went into the gift shop/entrance where the super sweet people behind the counter asked the boys which one was in the 4^th grade. It was so cute! They had a little package for 4^th grade students including a little map and question book that was on a lanyard that allowed us to really look at the different sections of the mission. We purchased the additional package that had postcards and a magnet which was all fantastic. Bobby was quite thrilled at being there.

I have to say, I am impressed with how much the kid knew about the mission and Father Serra. He rattled off so many facts and stories while we explored the grounds. I was beaming with pride when he also corrected us on the pronunciation of some of the names. It was really incredible!

We were at the mission maybe 90 minutes, which was plenty of time to get some awesome photos of everything. Dax wanted to be in every photo with Bobby, which sadly frustrated Bobby. He wanted some with just him for the report. I had no problem with that and managed to take one with both of them and then one with just Bobby. I was just glad he was so patient overall with his little brother’s adoration.

We opted to take a more scenic route home by going along the 1. What we didn’t anticipate was the mobs of traffic! Leaving the town of Carmel was crazy since apparently not only was it a three day Valentine’s weekend, there was a giant golf tournament going on. It was crazy! Along the 1 seemed to be gobs of people, too, which also meant gobs of idiots. I am always shocked at how many people don’t understand that it doesn’t make them bad people to pull over when they are holding up traffic on one lane highways. It makes them idiots when they don’t. It was crazy how many people were going 15 miles per hour less than the speed limit and were holding up lines of cars. I started making up random funny comments about the cars which left our car in stitches. Gotta make the most of the bad situation, right?

As if the traffic wasn’t bad enough, we also hit a stretch of about 2 hours in which there was no signal for the internet. We were using Waze to navigate, and try to find better ways to avoid traffic, but sadly you can’t use the service if you can’t connect.

We then spent a couple of hours trying to locate food. At first, our hunt was a Burger King since I had promised the boys that we would stop there for lunch. We couldn’t even find other food, let alone a Burger King. Finally around 3 we found one and it was glorious!

We got home around 7, but overall even with the delays coming home, it was a lot of fun. I wonder what mission Dax will get next year. Hopefully it is a different one as it will be cool to rock a new location for a family adventure!

I ended up calling out on Monday since I was exhausted. I slept for like 10 hours straight. It was blissful! Ken, Stephanie and I ended up spending the morning watching the SNL special, which we enjoyed thoroughly. It also allowed the kids to play uninterrupted for several hours.

Ken and I had one outing to the cannabis doc to renew our prescriptions. We had a different doctor that highly (no pun intended) recommended I look into some of the other vaporizers that would use the actual plant instead of the pre-packaged ones I use now. He said since everything is not regulated that I am at risk for inhaling a large quantity of chemicals due to what they might use to extract the drugs from the plant. I am game to try these things so I will spend some time to look into it. Don’t get me wrong, I love my vapor pen since it works brilliantly, but it doesn’t hurt to explore.

Bobby and I spent some time in the afternoon on his report and we put it together. He had to type up some paragraphs on Father Serra, and I was so impressed that he barely needed the book or internet. The only things we needed to look up were actual dates. Otherwise that kid knew so much! I formatted his paper and added pictures to the actual text which looked cool. The folder we picked out had little slots that you could put things in, so in addition to the report itself, we put in the postcards and other paperwork we got from the mission. We knew Mrs. Van Wie would enjoy all of it. It occurs to me that we didn’t put his name on his report. Of course, everyone will know it is his since his picture is on it. Ha!

Now I am back at work, basking in the glory that will be three days sans Trusty. YAY! It makes for stress free awesome work days, which I am thrilled about.

I also now have a new plan for a new blog. As I sat with Stephanie and Ken I was shocked at how not up to date both of them are when it comes to pop culture. I joked that I need to put a little blurb in my regular blog if some celebrity couple splits so that they know. This evolved into the idea of me doing my own “entertainment” blog that is just things I find interesting. I will be putting this together over the next couple days because it will be a lot of fun, but I want to do it right. I may do it as a weekly report since even though, yes, a lot goes on daily, not enough would be happening for me to make it interesting daily. I can however, truly rock a weekly column in which I discuss random things that is not filled with the evils that are Kardashians or Kanyes.

Now I should probably get my butt to work!

How do I cheer with no voice???

2-13-15

I suppose it’s good I tend to communicate solely with typing in some way.

My voice is toast. I am still benefiting from the NyQuil I think because my congestion seems to be held at some kind of wall. I can feel them firing on the barrier, but for now, the forces have not broken through. Sadly, my throat not only is scratchy, but it feels like someone tried to strangle me, which I am pretty sure didn’t happen so I am not happy with the effects of it.

I am sleepy, but I do know that there was sleep last night. It wasn’t perfect or deep, but it was sleep, which is more than I had the night before. I am planning on another early night tonight so that I can get some good snoozing in before tomorrow’s big day. Luckily I can also get home today and just pack and relax until the boys get home.

Bobby has a couple of paragraphs left, which shouldn’t take too long. I may have him power through them this afternoon so that he has Monday to relax. Of course, I say so he can relax, but in reality it is me that will reap the benefit from this decision.

I had ordered a couple dragon items for game time, but sadly I just checked the tracking information and they will not arrive until Tuesday. Oh well. I did dig out my red dragon hat and I have a necklace so it will just have to do for tomorrow.

Yesterday I had planned on taking a nap when I got home, but I ended up watching the first two episodes of Better Call Saul. As expected, it was brilliant. There also was a release date listed for the final episodes of Mad Men. AMC is a wonderful network.

It is becoming evident that I need to really get cracking on putting my old home videos on to the computer. The song my mom sent me today, April Love, brought back memories in the form of me dancing around and lip-syncing to this song in my bedroom in high school. It is cheese-tastic at its best, but it needs to be dusted off and shared for sure.

Practice was fun last night as we ended up including one of the other teams since their coach had a family emergency to attend to. Lots of kids, but there was something intoxicating about the energy from all the kids. They were all just having a lot of fun, which was great to be a part of.

If all goes well, I am hoping we can leave the field a little early tomorrow so that we can get on the road as soon as possible. Either way, since we don’t have a deadline for getting to the hotel, it will be nice to be able to mostly go leisurely. It will be a fun family weekend! 

Evil Congestion

2-12-15

I want to go back to bed.

Then again, that was a place of hell last night. My congestion from either allergies or a new strain of cold was attacking me hard last night. I was able to fall asleep quickly, but around 11:30 I woke up coughing and stuffy and it was in an epic battle with my exhaustion. It was not fun to be that battlefield. I considered taking some NyQuil, but this was at 12:30 and I didn’t think that it would be good to use it so close to getting up. Tonight I am going to be proactive and prep better with the NyQuil, my Vicks and whatever else keeps me sound asleep.

I had a crappy day at work yesterday. The president of the company, a gentleman I respected greatly and liked a lot, was fired unceremoniously yesterday. An email went out after hours on Tuesday so it was the first thing most of us saw when we came in on Wednesday. It’s a real shame the company opted to eliminate his position/him, but knowing him, he will be ok. He is a smart cookie, and honestly, one of the nicest executives I have had the pleasure of knowing. He was always very receptive to input and he was always super friendly to me, which I have to admit made me a little cocky. Either way, it was quite the bummer.

The rest of the day proceeded with sales reps being grouchy and Trusty being ignorant. Once again, my countdown clock is on for next Tuesday. Trusty and his faithful sidekick in the department are out of the office for 3 days to tend to our banking issues for processing our incoming checks. It will be three glorious days of not having to deal with either of them.

I needed to de-stress when I got home so I had some pot and got to cleaning. I did a whole lot, including some Cinderelly style scrubbing on the kitchen floor. I was even done with all that I worked on (laundry put away, kitchen cleaned, downstairs clean, boys’ room cleaned) before the boys arrived. Boy, you need a miracle cleaning product, I am telling you, marijuana is the way to go.

I had considered postponing my Target run until after practice tonight. I am so glad I didn’t delay. It would have been a pain in the tush to have to go get those Valentine cards tonight and then to make them address them after practice in order to bring them in to class tomorrow.

It was a rather successful outing in terms of finding multiple things we needed for reports, holidays and shoes. Both the boys were quite thrilled I remembered to get them new shoelaces that were neither too long nor frayed at the ends.

Sadly, both of them were super active in the store, which was incredibly frustrating. I could let some of their running around go, but the constant arguing was mind numbingly frustrating.

If I could skip practice tonight, I would certainly consider it. That being said, I don’t see that as an option, so I will hopefully get the boys motivated enough to finish homework by 5 so we can head to the park.

I have to pack for our trip still. Not that an overnight bag is a big deal, but I have 3 of them to plan (Ken is on his own). Thankfully it looks as though my tomorrow evening is quiet so I can get everything in place for a weekend away from home.

I am hoping today is less annoying while I am on the clock and that the evening is smooth with our afternoon activities. 

Mean Girls

2-12-15

I got Mean Girled.

As I hung out at practice last night, I chatted with one of the moms that I have gotten to know over the past couple years. She is super nice and because of soccer and school, I have seen her around for years. Turns out she also lives very close to Eydie. As we swapped mom stories and other fun things, Mega Bitch came up to us. Her boys were practicing across the field.

Mega Bitch and Eydie mom are both part of the Adams click. The click has many of the PTA moms that all have been volunteers at the school since their kids were in kindergarten, which means many have known each other for at least 4 years. I got to know many of them, and for the most part, they are all very nice ladies. I befriended the PTA president early on since she was still sort of new to the school. I also ended up being friendly with moms of kids the boys were friends with. That being said, I am not really one of the school moms. I don’t go to the school enough to make an impact on all of the students and I don’t get to be in classrooms or do special events as much as I would like. 

However, due to the time I have spent there, and my high profile soccer presence, many do know me.

As you may have known, Mega Bitch has hated me since day one. When her kids were on the Creepers she seemed cold towards me and the whole school year her kids would say hello to me but she would blatantly ignore me. During the Christmas program, her kids and the boys were playing together before things got started and I got the distinct impression that she felt like her boys were slumming it by hanging out with my boys.

So when she came up to talk with Eydie mom, I thought this would be a perfect way to hopefully make it less tension filled.

She walked up and didn’t make eye contact with me. She knows who I am. She could have looked at me and smiled or nodded some kind of greeting. Instead, she very blatantly ignored me. Eydie mom tried to mostly include me in the conversation, but even with that, I knew I was an outsider in so many ways.

I made small talk when I could, but she was never friendly at all. It was crazy! I didn’t think that as a 39 year old woman that I would still need to deal with such childish behavior from other grown women? Look, I shouldn’t be surprised when this is a woman who loves the Raiders, but petty jabs aside, I don’t get why she would be so awful to me. She is clearly a very dedicated and devoted mother. She always dresses up for Halloween and she is very active in helping her one son with his diabetes. So why would you reject a fellow mother who is just as good?

Ken still thinks that this is an Alpha war, which I suppose would make sense if I was somehow trying to take her spot somewhere. But being that most of the women in PTA are Alphas, why in the world would I be a threat?

Ultimately, I know that I am also not one of the kind of moms most of the women are at the school. I am not just talking about my purple locks or my robust figure, either. I am the mom who doesn’t mind her child dropping F-Bombs at home. I am the mom that makes her kids go to bed at a reasonable time. I am the mom who isn’t going to freak out if her third grader loves Hunger Games. I am the mom who will talk openly about my children about current events, both in the world and what is going on with people they know. I don’t sugar coat most things, and because of this stance, I know my boys are more rounded than most kids their age. Perhaps this is really what the threat is.

I will continue to be nice. I have considered the overly friendly approach that I have sometimes taken on to just mess with someone. I did this with an old boss of mine once and she ended up being a lovely lady who wasn’t as mean as I thought she was. Perhaps that is the treatment Mega needs. Then again, do I really need to take her on as a project?

I hold my head up high knowing that her issues are not mine and in so many ways I feel sorry for someone so petty. I don’t have to worry about not fitting into a click I have no need to be a part of, and ultimately it makes for entertaining interactions. Who knows, she may end up the basis for a novel I write some day and she is the villain. Hell, it worked for Tina Fey!

Ninja Bus

2-9-15

Is it bad when getting to work means I actually get to relax a bit?

It has been a crazy last three days. Not bad, but jam packed with activity. I knew it would be, but you don’t realize the toll it will take on your body. I feel like there is a little bit of cold coming back into my head and I am not thrilled about this. It just means I need to rock some NyQuil at night for a couple nights so I can get good sleep.

Thursday I got to meet our new team. It was an incredibly great group of kids and I was charmed by all of them. Of course I had my couple of Firefoxes there, but it was also cool to have some John Adams kids that the boys knew. There were also two kids who had never played in an organized fashion before. I could tell they certainly had some skills.

Even though it was girls and boys together, you would have never known this. The girls held their own and all of them seemed to work really well together. We had the kids play a game of freeze tag that involved making it that two people had to tag a frozen person to free them. It was a team building exercise that they loved. Then they did a scrimmage. It was a lot of fun.

We took a couple of color suggestions and had them vote. Then they came up with team names. The result is the Blue Water Dragons! I almost considered doing my hair blue for them. Instead, I have a couple of dragon hats in my Amazon cart that will hopefully be ordered this week.

Friday morning arrived and I was all excited. I made lunches for the boys and myself. I labeled Bobby’s paper sack and then mine which read “Mama Brenan”. My mom showed up around 8:30 and we drove up to the school where we parked behind the bus ready to follow it down to San Luis Obispo.

The drive was really fun since my mom and I got to chat the whole time without kid interruptions. It was also an adventure in itself what with the Ninja Bus! We had been following it close behind and at one point it was in the incredibly crowded lane going to the 710. Our directions indicated that we would take the 405 to the 5. So instead of staying in the trafficy lane, we went around the bus. We knew that even if they had some kind of secret route, we would meet up with them at the Mission itself, so we were not too concerned. We didn’t expect for the bus to randomly materialize in front of us not too far from our destination. It was surreal!

My mom and I were put in charge of 17 kids. They were all kids from Mrs. Brewer’s class and Bobby. Luckily we knew a couple of the kids since they are good friends of Bobby’s. Plus, the rest were really nice. Sadly, our tour guide was a crotchety old bird that was clearly not accustomed to dealing with kids. As we followed her on the tour, she snipped at the kids several times. I would understand if they were being awful, but at one point she told this group of fourth graders that they needed to stop moving around so much because it was distracting. The only moving around they were doing was to look at all of the things in the small room we were in. She wanted them to only pay attention to her. It was crazy.

Sadly, there is never enough time on a field trip to see everything. We only had maybe 90 minutes to see things. The chapel was gorgeous and I would have loved to look at more things. It was ok, though, especially since this Sunday I get to go to a different mission and we can take our time.

After I arrived home, Ken and I drove up to pick up both boys from the school. At that point we headed over to Hull where we needed to finish the measuring of the fields for Spring League. It wasn’t a hard task, but it is exhausting and tedious. We were there for about 3 hours but it was done and ready for the morning.

Saturday came quickly and we were back at Hull by 7:30. There was field set up along with the 150 soccer balls that needed to be inflated. I sat at an outlet by the gym and using the air compressor filled maybe two thirds of the balls with help from Bobby and Dax. When we were done, we were under the region tent for only a little while before we were heading over to our field for the game.

And what a game it was!

The Water Dragons won 5 to 2. They all played together so incredibly well that Ken was actually a little concerned we were too good. In fact, both their goals were offsides that Ken just let through because he didn’t want a blow-out. The best part of the game, though, was the incredible goal Dax scored. It was an amazing play and a gorgeous shot. I loved watching him run back down the field in victory. Of course, this was nothing compared to his grin and sprint to me at half time to jump up into my arms. Pride beamed off me!

My folks took the boys after the game and they got to go to Mulligans and not have to deal with a 4 hour AYSO planning meeting. In all fairness, the meeting was filled with a lot of laughs and a lot of work was done. I ended up leading about an hour of it with budget talks. It was actually much smoother than expected and we were able to come up with some really good numbers. I will go through them this week, if not today, and send out the almost final draft.

Right before we left the meeting, Aaron called Ken asking when we were coming to the party. We had not planned on it until 8 since this was when the invite said. Instead, we were encouraged to come over as soon as we could so that Aaron could sing. You see, the party was dubbed Sing Club and it was karaoke which was AWESOME. Everyone was expected to sing and we all had so much fun! It was loud and my throat was toast afterwards, but totally worth every second. I think we ended up leaving around 11, but I know there were people there until well after 3 am.

Thankfully Sunday was mostly a day of rest. Sure, some laundry was worked on and I helped Bobby with his mission report, but over all I know I spent a lot of time on the couch watching How I Met Your Mother, which was awesome since I got to introduce Stephanie to the show that I adore so much. Even with all of this down time, I was beat so I crawled into bed around 6:30 in order to be at least a little functional today.

Today the boys have no school, but they are most likely going with Ken to at least one class this morning. Ken also is going to help Bobby through a couple of paragraphs of his report. I am planning on working on getting the house back in order. It isn’t bad, but with 4 days of neglect it could use a little sprucing. Plus, it will make me feel good, which is reason enough.

Now I will spend some time making this work day go quickly. 

Another trip

2-5-15

It’s my Friday!!

I am so excited that tomorrow is the field trip. I know it is going to be a lot of fun. I also am looking forward to the drive with my mom since it is going to be nice to have bonding time without interruption. I also get the added benefit of sleeping in a bit! It’s all around going to be a great day!

Tonight is practice. Ken said that when he was at the school yesterday putting money on the boys’ lunch cards, he had like 3 girls come up to him all excited that they were on his team. Yay! I love that the kids know him and that they are looking forward to playing. I am excited to meet them all tonight! I am also thankful that I don’t have to work tomorrow since I know tonight may be a little chaotic!

Today when I get home I need to make sure I can find the boys’ shin guards and all their soccer stuff. We got new cleats for Dax on Tuesday, but I want to make sure everything is in their soccer bags so that it is one less thing to worry about during homework.

Ok, I just made reservations for the AYSO Expo in March. Ken is going to some classes on Friday, but he will drive back up and we will all head down on the 28^th. Ken and I have a CVPA class in the morning, and we will most likely wander the Expo in the afternoon. Then on Sunday, we have decided we will take the boys to Legoland. Yay free kids tickets at Denny’s! It should be a fun weekend!

The Cats Away....

2-4-15.

I am quite delayed today.

In all fairness, I was working. Ok, not on work work, but it was still something that needed to be done. I was making my packet for Saturday’s AYSO planning meeting. Of course, I most likely went into crazy overkill mode, but I am introducing new procedures along with going over budget requirements. Thankfully my overview was approved by Boss Man and Chief so it will be good to go come Saturday. Much of the pride in my work is due to ruffling some feathers of one board member. It is especially gratifying since my side will be the one that wins out since, well, I am the money keeper!

Trusty finally just left the office, heading out to World of Concrete in Vegas. He won’t be back until tomorrow afternoon, well after I have already left for the day. I also have Friday scheduled off so I don’t have to deal with his cheesy small talk for 5 days! As you can imagine, I am beyond thrilled.

We spent much of yesterday evening working on planning out the fields for the Spring League. Ken measured while I helped. Jimmy, Jim and Max all lined the fields. I got to paint a bit, but I would have liked to do more of that aspect. I will get my wish on Friday and most likely Saturday since I will be painting them again.

I booked a room for the family on Feb 14. We are not doing some Valentine’s trip. We are actually going to go up to the mission Bobby is writing about in his report for his class. It is the Carmel Mission, so it isn’t super far. Sure, a few hours, but it will be awesome! I made reservations at some basic hotel and we will drive up after the game on Saturday. Then we can go to the mission on Sunday and drive home after. Bobby then will have pictures of the mission he is working on, including pictures of him at the mission. When I told him we could go, he was so excited! This makes it an all-around worthwhile trip.

I can actually feel the department collectively relaxing because all of the managers are not here.

Life is Busy

2-3-15

Reports for school are not fun.

Bobby has a report to do on missions. Dax has a report to do on basketball. It isn’t bad enough that we have to get through regular homework, but now we have to work on a special project. Last night we went to the library where we picked up books I had put on hold for Bobby, and we got a couple books on basketball for Dax’s paper. The real issue is that Dax’s paper is being written in class, but it is being done on the computer. He is saving it in the Google Drive with his TUSD email, but for whatever reason it is not able to be accessed at home and it seems to disappear even at school. I have no idea what is going on. It means I will have to help Dax write the whole paper I think tonight and I will email it to Mr. Chin. That way it is done and not lost. Bobby’s report is not due until the 17^th, so I am sure some weekend time will be spent, but it looks like it will be a rather long paper, so I will need to get him to do a little bit each night. Tonight we will cover the introduction. He will also be able to type it, which will hopefully make it easier if only for reading purposes.

The spring team has been formed and our first game is this weekend. I think the time of the first game is 10. It will be interesting to see how this goes. The boys didn’t know that it was a co-ed team, so that was fun to see their reaction. I don’t know if they think it is good or bad, but they didn’t seem upset. They just were surprised.

What surprised me was that Bobby told me yesterday that he plans on playing soccer next year. He asked me if he would be on U12, and I told him he would. I told him for spring he is still considered U10, but if he played next season he would be U12. He said he was going to play next year and was quite jazzed. I am very pleased!

Stephanie kicked some major ass on the bathrooms at Steve. She cleaned like crazy and now they both shine! It rocked because it meant I didn’t have to. Ha! I did straighten up the downstairs and did some minor cleanup yesterday. Hopefully today before the boys get home I can start to tackle the closet shelves. I got bins in order to truly organize things and it will make it so much nicer in there.

Hopefully Sunday we can work on some garage items since truly during the week I don’t see a lot of time. Practices start up this week. We only have practice on Thursday this week, but going forward we will have them twice a week. I am not on any real schedule to get things organized, so I don’t have to stress about getting things done, so that is nice. I need to keep my mind realizing this so I don’t stress. Hell, with us most likely staying out rather late this coming Saturday, perhaps Sunday should be spent watching movies.

Stephanie and I both noted that we had not seen Cleopatra so we are planning on watching that. I need to ask my mom about another Elizabeth Taylor flick she showed me when I was a kid since I can’t remember the title. I feel like it had to do with Paris, but I can’t be sure.

I have several customers groveling to me this morning, so I will get to them. 

Was there a game on this weekend?

2-2-15

Happy Groundhog Day!

It was a rather uneventful weekend at Steve. I know I should have probably worked on some project, but ultimately I was incredibly unmotivated across the board.

Bobby has a report coming about one of the missions that is due on the 17^th. We worked on it a little bit on Saturday, but truly I am going to need him to work on it a little bit each day so that we are not bogged down by it. I placed on hold some books at the library so hopefully we will have those available in a couple days. I recognize the internet is a good resource, but I want to show that we also used the good old fashioned way of gathering data.

Saturday is soccer day. We have the first game of Spring League and then we head over to the National Office for our planning meeting/board meeting all afternoon. Thankfully the boys don’t have to deal with it and can hang out at my folks’ house.

Ken downloaded Super Mario Brothers 3 for the Wii so we played a bit of that yesterday. It was actually quite a bit of fun and I know we will end up playing more of it. It was novel especially since I don’t tend to play the video games with everyone. I will have to make a point of playing since I know how much the household enjoys seeing me play.

We “watched” the Super Bowl yesterday. I was shocked at how many incredibly sobering commercials there were. Lots of “dadvertising” as it has been dubbed by the media. There was one ad that didn’t air in most markets that I saw online this morning which was super depressing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPF-Juks2N0 

Now to make it through the next two days of work. It will be a Trusty-free work place on Wednesday and Thursday with my own freedom on Friday. It looks to be a great week!