Pool Time

We went to my dad's house to swim because Conor wanted to so badly, but it wasn't really, in my opinion, hot enough to swim. Conor can now touch the bottom of the pool, so swimmies were not needed. I sat in the sun for a while, trying to get hot enough to get in.

During that time, Conor was jumping into the pool, showing off the fact that he now could.

He was quite fearless.

Swimming around, begging us to get in.

I finally got in, and it was COLD. Shivers. GOOSE BUMPS I TELL YA!

I swam around, still, trying to warm up. Conor decided that we should race. There was only one rule - you (meaning ME) can't swim under water. That is cheating. But HE could grab my suit and hang on until we were close to the other side, then push off me to reach the side before me. THAT is not cheating. At all.

And the blue raft? That is for Toby. The dog. So he can get in and out of the pool whenever he wants. He wasn't swimming with us on this day, they felt it was too cold for him. Too cold for the dog, but fine for the people...

It was fun, though. :)

Summer Time!!

Although the date on the picture says 2008, I assure you that these were just taken this year! The date on my camera somehow needed reprogrammed, and I swear I picked 2009! Someone else had to have changed it when I wasn't looking.

We decided to use the water sprayer that the Easter Bunny left for Conor this past Easter. Well... I decided HE could use it while I brushed Teddy to try to minimize the shedding in the house. The dog hair is getting out of control.

Anyway, Conor had to wear a shirt because the neighbors might see him "nekkid" and we couldn't have that now, could we? He can be so strange sometimes. :)

He ran through a bit, then decided to see how far he could shoot the water. In my direction of course.

He did get me a few times, and he giggled every time I screamed as the cold water hit me unexpectedly.

Teddy was having none of that water. He gave it a wide berth when walking around the yard, and most of the time made sure I was between him and the water-shooting kid. Such a gentleman. heh.

Most of the time he studiously ignores me when I have a camera in my hands. If I hold it up to take his picture, he turns his head immediately. I have to be very fast.

I'm not looking at you.
You really can't make me. Could you please ask that boy to quit shooting water in this direction? I could drown, you know.

He's such a snob sometimes. Big chicken - afraid of a few water drops.

School Pictures

I posted Allie's pictures, but never posted Conor and Ceara's! For one reason, Ceara didn't get her disc with her pictures and I had to call for them to mail it to me, so I didn't get it for a while.

So, a lot late as these are from the beginning of the school year, but here they are! Once again, taken by Lifetouch.

Ceara 8th grade (and yes, she chose to wear that shirt for pictures...):





Conor Kindergarten:

For those of you with dry skin

I don't know how well this product works as it is intended, since I don't really use it as lotion in the shower... but my mom gave it to me and told me to put it on my feet before I go to bed each night. And it works magic on dry, calloused skin!

I have tried a lot of products on my dry skinned feet, I've used many stones, sand paper-like products, lotions, etc., and nothing works as well as this stuff does. I usually put it on after I get out of the shower, though. Not just when I go to bed.

I definitely recommend you try it!! :)

At the Circus

Well, I took my camera to the circus, but it didn't work when I tried to use it. So, I took a few shots with my phone, and they were REALLY dark. I tried to lighten them with photoshop, but this was the best I could get.

We got a bag of cotton candy and it came with a foam tiger hat, so I got all the kids with it on.

I have no idea what Allie is doing in this picture, she was TRYING to look weird, or so she says...

And then Allie took her own picture...

Just thought I'd share some pictures. :) We had fun.

Texting frustration

Text messaging is something that I've never really gotten into. On regular cell phones, you have to push 2 three times to get a "c" to display, and to create words like that was just... not my thing. So when we added the girls to our plan and added text messaging for them, I didn't expect to use it too often. When I went to get their phones, they had palm pilots that were free with the plan and they have mini keyboards on them. I got one for Jeff as well because his phone was breaking.

Jeff wasn't thrilled with the phone and didn't want it, so I gave him mine and I took it. Since it is a little bit easier than a number pad, I have used it a bit, but not a whole lot. Mostly just with Allie, sometimes with Ceara (though not nearly as much), and some other friends as well. I usually keep my responses short, I am not about to type a book on a mini keyboard, and if it takes more responses than a few, I usually will just say, "Call me, I don't want to type!" There are a few exceptions to this, like when Allie is texting me in between classes at school. I know she can't call me. (Side note, apparently "texting" is not a word recognized by spell check.)

A few of Allie's friends text me as well - most of them call me mom anyway, so they just send me messages occasionally. Alex is one of them. His dad lives in our neighborhood, and he spends a bit of time at our house when he is visiting his dad.

I like Alex, he is a good kid and I don't mind him hanging around. He started texting me one day, just random stuff... "Hi" "how's your day?" - or telling me about stuff going on with him in school, or whatever.

So yesterday, he sent me a message. The whole thing frustrated me. Here is the conversation:

Alex: Do you care if Alli comes to my soccer game Saturday?

Me: What time and how? (like did she need a ride, or would his dad be taking them... I didn't want to type all that!)

Alex: Saturday and idk (I don't know) time.

Me: U already said the day... I mean are u coming to ur dad's this weekend, would she need a ride? Where is the game? (YES!!! I abbreviate!!! It is not that I don't know how to spell "you," it's that I want to limit the typing on the little keyboard where one finger can press 6 different keys! I don't abbreviate as much as I could, but I do some! DON'T JUDGE ME!)

Alex: Next

At that point I just stopped responding. I figured I would just tell Allie to communicate whatever it was to me when she found out. When I got home from work, I showed Allie the conversation and told her to work it out and let me know.

So, it was particularly frustrating for me to have a similar conversation with Allie today. Here is that one:

Alli: Do you care if I go to Mik's after school? To work on french makeup work?

Alli: And will you pick me up from her house and take me to volleyball after work?

Alli: Mommmyyyyy!

(It's not like I keep my phone right next to me during work - it is usually in my purse on vibrate. I check it periodically.)

Me: Idc (I don't care) but I don't know where she lives

Alli: she lives on blah blah but her house caught on fire so she's in a apt i think... N Mik's dad loves chrissy.

(Twinge of irritation... I start responding and she sends another message before I was done.)

Alli: mik said to make her a eye apt today

Me: What does that have to do with anything? That her dad loves chrissy? And why would I make her an appt?

Me: just give me an address.

Alli: Chrissy's address?

(if she were in front of me at that moment I would have choked her. not really, but... FRUSTRATED!)

Me: OMG! you did NOT say chrissy. Reread ur msgs Alex. (yes that was a dig because I had told her how much it irritated me that Alex didn't answer the questions I was asking...) You said "can I go to mik's after school" ...

Alli: sorry I was textin mik's mom too n I got confused. She lives on blah blah

Me: ... get an address pls. (HOW HARD IS THAT!)

I think I'm going to have to start typing random things in response when they start doing this to me. At least then I can laugh at them and enjoy their frustration! See how they like it.

Easter Pictures

Yes, I know they are about a month late! I just uploaded them from my camera and thought I would share. I'm not going to write a lot about it... they are self explanatory, I think.

Easter Morning, Conor got a basket and the Easter bunny left one big basket for the girls and Jeff to share. Too bad Ceara wasn't here and Jeff pretty much ate all the chocolate out of the basket before she came over the following weekend...

The race out the door to find the eggs! This was at Grandma's house, after breakfast. It's an Easter tradition to eat breakfast (the best breakfast ever, imo!) at Grandma's house.

Someone brought eggs that were filled with confetti and the kids had a blast breaking them over each other's heads.

There was one egg that we could not find and everyone got in on the search. It was a green egg that was hidden in these flowers...

And then we went next door to my mom's house and hunted more eggs! But at Mom's it's more of a scavenger hunt - each kid has to find a certain amount of each color.

And for some reason unknown to me, I only took the ONE picture at my mom's house. I think it's because I was busy hunting eggs. :)