Flashback Friday...

This have always been one of my favorite pictures. Cathy took it in October 2002.

Jack showing some muscle.

Did you hear about that lady in California that had octuplets....

My first thought, of course, is how amazing that all of those babies survived and are doing so well.

My next thought is what a wacko! I can't wait to hear the truth about how this happened, because the rumors that I have been hearing are NUTS!!

And, my final thought is that I wonder Kate Gosselin is worried about losing her gig on TLC to a single mom of 14 kids, under the age of 7, and lives with her PARENTS!! I mean, now that Kate has an organic cook, an assistant, a nanny, someone to do laundry and iron her kids clothes, a new car, a HUGE new house and *only* 8 kids, what will people tune in to hear her complain about...maybe that there isn't anyone to cut all of that grass, or clean the pool. (BTW...I'm not a huge "Kate" fan, if you couldn't guess. ;) )

The world is crazy.....Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who would have known???

We live in a house full of toys. When you have 3 boys the same age and a lot of generous family and friends, you end up with every boy toy imaginable. Charlie even makes out better than his big brothers. He gets all of their hand-me-downs AND a fresh supply of new toys for Christmas and his birthday. He has so much stuff to play with, it is unreal.

It has always struck me how random their "favorite" toys are. They are never the toys that *I* was convinced they were going to love. It is never consistent with the "toy awards" in magazine and more money does not equal a more loved toy...it just seems to be random. To me anyway.

Currently, these are Charlie's favorite toys. His "doggie car" and his "nice hat". He drags them upstairs, downstairs and into the basement. I drew the line when he wanted to bring them in the car the other day. Ok, I let him bring the hat, but the doggie car had to stay home. He plays with them all the time!
So, if you ask me what Charlie wants for his next birthday and I get a dumb look on my face...this is why. I have no idea. Your guess is as good as mine. :)

Not Me! Monday

I have NOT vowed to wear long-johns every day until Spring. That would be kind of woosie for a girl that grew up in this horrible climate.

I did NOT super glue my index finger to my thumb last week. Only careless, stupid people super glue themselves together. And, I am neither careless nor stupid...just ask me.

However, if I had super-glued myself together, I would NOT have had to google with my left hand to learn how to unstick myself. Furthermore, after googling the information, I would NOT have soaked my already dry, cracked hand in a concotion of peanut butter, anti-bacterial wash and NAIL POLISH REMOVER because that would really hurt!!

And, after having an uncomfortable experience like that, I would NOT have taken my 4 kids to the Park District for Ben's soccer class...with my fingers STILL STUCK TOGETHER...stupid nail polish remover/anti-bacterial wash/peanut butter soup that DOESN'T WORK!!

I am NOT still finding sparkly "snow" from this craft project that Rick and Elaine brought the boys before Christmas. At the time, Elaine did NOT suggest that the "snow" part of this project might not be a good idea. But, if she had, she would NOT have been really RIGHT!! That Elaine is NOT really smart.

When one of my children discovered, in the car, on the way to school, that he forgot his "optional" snowpants, I did NOT offer to pay this child 50 cents if he did not get upset at school about it.

And, one of my other children did NOT purposely "forget" to wear his snowpants to recess so that his brother would not be sad about forgetting his. That would have been too nice and not something a brother would think to do...especially with all of that fun snow out there. And, it definitely would NOT have been sweet BEN that was looking out for his brother. And, that little move of Ben's did NOT cost me 50 cents. ;)

What didn't you do last week???

Real Boys Race Cars...

Today was the Pinewood Derby for the boys' Cub Scout Pack. Spencer and the boys have been working on the cars all month. Ben, especially, has been talking about the race A LOT!! Since the night that he got his car kit, Ben has asked Spencer pretty much every night if they could work on his car. He was very excited about making his own car and racing it.

The "planning phase", late December

Ben took it very seriously

Drew, not so much.

Nice...ummmm...zoo glasses Drew?!?!

LOL! Just kidding about Drew. He and Jack did not take it as seriously as Ben, but all of the boys worked very hard. Spencer did the cutting, but the boys did all of the planning, sanding and painting of the cars.

The finished products.

(Jack, Drew, Ben)

So, as I said, today with the big day! Spencer was a bit nervous, but the boys were convinced that they were going to win. I have to admit that the entire thing was really cool. It was a huge set up. We were there for almost 4 hours and everyone had a really good time. There was lots of food, music, racing, raffles and lots and lots of trophies.

51 race cars!!

Each car raced 4 times and each Cub Scout got a turn pushing the button to start the race.

Charlie also enjoyed the Pinewood Derby.

Coloring pages, pizza and CARS that go "Wheeesh".

What could be cooler than that for a 2 year old boy!!

And, now for the results. They set it up so that every scout that was a "good sport" would get a trophy. Of course, in my adult mind, I heard everyone is getting a trophy. Jack though, was paying very close attention and probably asked me 15 times if I saw that he was being a "good sport". He finally confided in me that he heard the Cubmaster say that only Cub Scouts that were "good sports" would get a trophy. I loved that!! Jack is very competitive and often has to fight to keep his composure when he doesn't win.

And, NOW for the results...in our den, Ben received 5th place, Jack received 2nd place and Drew received 1st place!! I have never seen such a big smile on Drew's face as when he went up to get his 1st place trophy. It was so COOL!! I think he was in shock and was just so thrilled. Drew is so easy going and not usually very competitive, but it was really neat to see that he was so excited about winning. Jack and Ben were also very pleased with their trophies. Of course, we were a little concerned that Ben would be disappointed about losing to his brothers, but he was quite proud of his trophy and was happy to be the first of the brothers with 2 trophies!! Jack was also very proud of his 2nd place trophy.

Drew...look at that happy boy!!

Jack

Ben

Overall, they scored 24th, 25th and 35th. Not too bad for a bunch of Rookie Tiger Cubs and their actuary dad. Next year should be interesting, the boys were all eye-ing the other cool cars and getting some BIG ideas!! Should be fun. Spencer better start researching this stuff now. :)

Flashback Friday

August 2003

Scattered....

That's me!! I don't know what is going on, but my thoughts have been so scattered this week that I cannot even put together 2 thoughts for an interesting post.

It seems like I go through a funk every January. I don't know if it is the pressure of start of the new year; the cold, miserable, lousy weather; the fact that Spencer is always really busy at work in January, or what. But, in January, everything just seems more tedious and boring...and "fun" just isn't as much "fun" as it is in other months....even if it is the same "fun"(?). It also seems that in January, I start thinking about and questioning "who I am", and "what I to be", and what I need to do to get "who I am" to "who I want to be"....makes my head hurt.

Overall, I guess that this January funk that I go through probably has a positive effect on my life. I do think it is good to think about these things and re-evaluate life. Maybe it is kind of like an internal, annual review....it kind of sucks to be in the middle of it, but if you do a good job, things will be better than they were before.

So, am I the only one that goes through this every January....not really being upset about anything in particular, but kind of blah-ey? I know that I could use some self-improving....better nutrition, less procrastination, more (some) exercise, less emailing/internetting, more cleaning, more interesting reading/less reading of junk. But, all of that wears me out to think about. I think I need a project...one project....to make me feel better/useful/interested/interesting. Two January's ago, I thought I needed a project. My "project" idea was to remove the "wallpaper" from our powder room. That was a HUGE mistake of a project...the "wallpaper" turned out to be TISSUE PAPER! that the previous owner glued on the wall and then painted over!! I was totally over my January funk by the end of January, but unfortunately, the project wasn't even close to being done. Two Januarys later, after hours spent scraping, and then finally hiring someone to re-drywall the bathroom, painting the bathroom and then finally having Cathy come LAST WEEK! to patch and paint the trim, the project is finally DONE. I definitely don't need another January project like that.

Hmmmm...any thoughts or ideas??? No nice-nice thoughts....I'm fine. I want REAL thoughts and ideas to make a plan...I need a plan of action!!! Anybody got a plan of action that they want to share with me? Please!!

Not Me! Monday

I'm back for a second edition of "Not Me! Monday". I'm still not sure if it is something that I am going to continue.

Spencer said that he liked it, but he might have just figured that by saying he liked it, he would get a quick "out" of a long conversation about my blog, in which he would have received the 3rd degree about what exactly he didn't like about it.

My friend, Cathy said she liked it, but then followed it up with "so, did you go to the museum or not?". So, she might have "liked it", but I'm not sure that she "got it". ;)

I did go back to Spencer to follow-up about whether or not it was too confusing. He said that he was not confused when he read it....but, then he reminded me that he was physically present for all of the things that I talked about. Hmmmm....I guess I'll have to throw out his opinion about whether it is, or isn't too confusing.

Jen said she didn't like it. Sisters are brutally honest that way. I ended up telling her that she was wrong, it was good, and she just needed to get used to it. So there! :)

So, I'm doing it again. In case you find the post confusing, I've put in a "secret" code. I've put all of the fake "not"s in CAPITALS. If I get carried away, or you just can't keep up, ignore the big NOTS. :)

Here goes...


I did NOT tell my very loving, very caring, very hard working husband, that got up to shovel at 5am, that I did not realize that he had shoveled because I had just assumed that the snow had just blown off the driveway. Ooops, not cool.


When we lost most of our tv channels last week, my husband did NOT say that we would have to wait until it thawed out because he was not going to get up on our roof, when it was -41 degrees with wind chill, to chip it out....because that would be crazy...ummmm.....unless it still wasn't working on Sunday when the Eagles game would be on.


I did NOT open Charlie's bedroom window when it was -41 degrees because he had a really stinky diaper that stunk up just about the entire house.


I did NOT find myself on expedia.com many times in the last week hoping to find a really, REALLY good deal to some place warm...for 6 people. They're not (notice no capitalization) :( I might have to start NOT looking for real estate, down south, instead.

We did NOT, not require our kids to wear hats and mittens to church on Sunday, because it felt warmer out. Yeah, ummmm...the car thermometer did NOT register at 11 degrees on the way to church that day. Oops.

And, finally, I did NOT laugh really loud when I saw this....




and, I definitely did not tell my sister that I am glad to be done with that stage....that would have been kinda rude.

That's it...is there anything that you did NOT do last week?!?!?!

Happy Monday. ;)

The "Poor" Eagles...

We were all prepared to celebrate an Eagles victory in the NFC Championship game today.

We even had a little party with the cousins...
complete, with our first ever "kids' table".
But, it wasn't meant to be. :(

The poor Eagles lost to the Arizona Cardinals.

Some of us handled the Eagle's loss better than others.

But, it was still a nice afternoon.

Children of the new millenium...

Jack and Drew have recently started watching American Idol. In the car, today, they were talking about the hosts/judges of the show and talking about their favorites.

There was:

"Simon"

"Paula"

"Kara"


and, they couldn't remember Randy's name so, they just called him "the guy that had glasses".

Nice.

An ancient flashback...

May 28 or 29, 2002...

Ben

Jack

Drew

June 2002...

Ben, Drew and Me

Jack

July 6, 2006

Later that day...Hi Charlie!!!

For the Florida Snow Birds to enjoy...

It is 20 degrees below zero today...they say that with the wind chill, it feels like -41. They cancelled school today because it is "too dangerous" to go out. So, here is what 41 degrees below zero looks like from my windows...look at that pretty blue sky...grrrr. You can even see the tippy-top of my mailbox that almost got completely buried. Have I mentioned that I HATE winter?!?!?!?!

This is what -41 degrees looks like on the inside....pj's still on at 10:30am. I need a plan or this 5 day weekend is going to be sooooo long.