Friday, August 29, 2008

Phone conversation

I usually call home at around 10am every day to see what's going on. During the summer, all the kids were there as well, so I would get to talk to them (OK, really just Conor since the girls slept til at least noon) sometimes too.

One day I was talking to Jeff and he said Conor wanted to talk to me.

"Mom, could you get off the phone with dad, please?"

"Why? You need him to do something for you?"

"I'm tired of hearing him talk, he just keeps going on and on and on. So just say 'bye to him and get off the phone."

I cracked up laughing.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

First Day of Kindergarten

Conor has started Kindergarten! On the first day of school he wore our school colors, red and black. We all got ready and drove down to the bus stop (so we could follow along to the school) and waited. The bus is ALWAYS late on the first day of school, but no one would really believe me. So we got there about 20 minutes before it was supposed to come.

I spent that time taking pictures. And videos. They can be found at my dropshots site.

Me. And my shadow. You know you are singing it in your head right now.

Strike a pose.
Vogue
Then he got tired of posing for me.

And he went to sit in the truck to wait.

The bus finally came and he was off. No, I did NOT cry. I did feel a bit sad though. Worrying about him without his mommy there.

His classroom is VERY colorful. He sits at a little round table with two girls, and it did have one boy name as well, we just didn't see him.

The classroom was chaos. Parents taking pictures and video. Kids yelling that there was a new bus arriving, so MORE KIDS!!
Conor was quiet and he was excited. There was one kid crying for his mommy the whole time we were there. I didn't really want to leave him. But, we did.
After school, he goes to a day care on a different bus. It's the one Allie went to when she was in Kindergarten, too, and she loved it. They do all kinds of fun things there.
We went to pick him up around 4 pmish and boy was he tired.
It was a long day for him.
All the Kindergarten kids in this city go to the same school, and they are the only kids there. In this school, they have pictures of the graduating classes from around 1930 through 1965. I studied the pictures until I found my grandma and grandpa.
My grandpa (my dad's dad) graduated in 1933 and was the president of his class:
My grandma (my mom's mom) graduated in 1939:

It was fun to look at the different classes, the hair styles, and their clothes (some were full length shots). And it somehow made me feel better that their pictures were hanging in the halls of the school my baby was going to.
Oh, and by the way? The movies? I made two of the same thing because Jeff said I couldn't put one on here. Because I called him a name (tard). Yes, I know it's a bad habit! I picked it up from the girls! I never claimed to be a perfect parent! And then he told me I couldn't put the second one on either because I had him say his name. So, I'm putting both on there for you to see. Hey, the site is password protected, so it's not like everyone can just see it! :)

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Soccer Practice

I must say, I admire all the people who decide to coach young children in any sport. It takes a lot of patience for the coaches to deal with all these 4 and 5 year olds who are on the field and not listening half the time.

When they say "line up on this line" or "everyone get a place on the circle" and the kids all stand right on top of each other and won't move, it doesn't phase the coaches. They run on top of each other and run into each other all the time. They tell them to kick the ball around the field line, and they go no where near the lines.

It's so much easier to sit on the sidelines and crack up laughing at the little people trying to just play. Conor's soccer practices and recent scrimmage is the source of much amusement for us.

They had the kids get partners, and then one of the team was to cover their eyes and spread their legs, while their partner kicked the ball between their legs. There is just so many funny things about that. First of all, they are mostly girls. And I remember my PE teacher in JR High telling us NEVER to spread our legs... "keep your knees together and you'll be fine." Of course, she wasn't really talking about a sport... not that kind anyway.

And kicking balls between a boys legs? heehee, I know, I'm bad. Forgive me!

Wait. Whose turn is it to cover their eyes?!?!

It is so hard to keep a straight face while watching them, I don't know how the coaches do it.

But Conor loves it. He looks forward to practice every week.

He also, of course, thinks he's in love with one of his team mates. Of course it is the smallest girl who is the least likely to follow any of the coaches instructions. She just stands there.
Of course with all the young kids, a lot of them do this, not just the one little girl. She just does it almost every time, whereas the others are occational.

He always has been a little "ladies man" with all the girls he has been around. I'm not surprised that he likes one (or more, depending on the week) of the girls on his soccer team.

As always, you can find more pictures and a few videos on my dropbox site. Password - my last name, all lower case.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Know Your Friend 2008

**Disclaimer** I reserve the right to change my mind about any given answer at any point in my life. I might like Sapphires more someday. They are pretty, too!

Yeah, I know I have pictures to post, and things to write about... but since I just spend a lot of time answering this questionnaire I got in an email, I thought I'd just post it. So.. here you go. 65 or, uh... 63 things about me. Hey, I can make this blog all about me if I want to. You don't have to read it. ;)

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!

1. What time do you get up? My alarm goes off at 6:00am and I have to get up out of bed and walk over to it to press snooze, does that count?

2.Sapphires or Emeralds? Emeralds

3.What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Wanted

4. What are your favorite TV shows? I don't watch TV - I spend TV time playing a computer game. ;)

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? 2 cups of coffee and oatmeal

6. What is your maiden name? Moore

7. What foods do you dislike? Bananas, spinach

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I have to pick ONE CD? The two I am listening to atm are Kid Rock and Three Doors Down. I bought them at the same time and am alternating listening to them.

9. What kind of car do you wish you drove? Jeep - topless (the jeep, not me smarties)

10. Favorite sandwich? Turkey and Cheese

11. What characteristic do you despise? liars - one saying I heard a lot when I was growing up was "I hate a liar worse than anything." and it kinda stuck with me.

12. Favorite item of clothing? I don't know if I have a favorite..

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? Italy

14. Last time you bought clothing? For myself? Jeez, I don't remember. For the girls? Last weekend clothes shopping for school.

15. Where would you retire to? I don't think much about retirement... so, I'm not sure.

16. What was your most impressive birthday? Well I wish I could come up with an answer for this one, but none particularly stand out in my mind. Can I skip this one? Or, uh... say "they're all spectacular!" But, I don't really care much about my birthday - I enjoy spending it with my family. They have all been good - I have no complaints.

17. Favorite sport to watch? Professional - NFL; otherwise, whatever sport my kids are playing - soccer and volleyball atm

18. Farthest place you are sending this? Canada (this was for the email version)

19. Person you expect to send it back first? N/A - this is a website!

20. How old will you be on your next birthday? That's a rather personal question, isn't it? You're not supposed to ask women how old they are! Oh, OK... 36, but that is a year away!

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? I'm a night person - mornings? ACK!

22. What is your shoe size? another one of those questions that no one really needs to know the answer to. Are any of you thinking of surprising me with a pair of shoes on my next birthday? I thought not. So, you don't need to know. That is just between me and my socks.

23.Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Conor is starting Kindergarten this year. In just 4 days from the day I write this...

25. What did you want to be when you were little? Psychiatrist

26. As an adult, did you become what you wanted to be when you were little? Nope - 14 more years of school? No thanks. I didn't like the first 12 THAT much to commit to 14 more. (Which is what I was told it would take to become a psychiatrist when I was graduating high school.)

27. believe in Heaven? Yes

28 Tuna casserole, yes or no? Eeeewwww! NO!

29. Favorite tree? Oak

30. What is your nickname? Kit-kat; Kate; Katy-did

31. What are you listening to right now? The sound of sales people talking endlessly on the phone with some helpless person on the other end...

32. What was the last thing you ate? Ham and Cheese sandwich

33. Do you wish on stars? Occasionally

34. If you were a crayon what color would you be? One of those multi-colored ones

35. How is the weather right now? Hot & sunny

36. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Allie - hey it's Friday and she wants to do something... *shocker*

37. Favorite soft drink? Not so much into sodas right now - Red Mountain Dew if I have to name one, but I haven't had one of those for months.

38. Favorite restaurant? Outback Steakhouse

39. What color is your hair? At the moment it is light brown with blond and red highlights

40. What was your favorite toy as a child? You think my memory is THAT good? OK, well.. I guess I could say my teddy bear, Cubby. I STILL HAVE HIM!

41. Favorite Season and Why? Fall - changing color of the leaves, absolutely love that. Beautiful.

42. Hugs or kisses? What you have to choose ONE? Hugs from the majority of the people, but kisses from some...

43. Apples or Oranges? Oranges

44. Coffee or tea? Coffee - like tea is really a choice?!?!

45. Do you want your friends to email you back? N/A - I enjoy reading things like this about my friends, but this doesn't apply because it is a blog post. :)

46. When was the last time you cried? Psht, I don't cry. Crying is for sissies! Anyone really believe that? OK, well.. then.. I cried last weekend watching My Girl with the girls. Ceara had never seen it and Allie and I were all WHAT?!? And promptly rented it after hours of shopping. And even though I've seen it about 100 times, yes I still cried!!

47. What is under your bed? I'm very proud to say NOTHING! (Cuz it's all shoved into closets)

48. What did you do last night? Played sand volleyball at JD Legends. :) Fun times.

49. What are you afraid of? Losing the people I love.

50. Chips or Chocolate? You're kidding, right? CHOCOLATE! (OK, this is Julie's answer and I agree, so I'm leaving it - even though I said I'm not really into chocolate? It's still a better choice over chips.)

51. How many keys on your key ring? 3 on one; 7ish on another that I carry in my purse

52. How many years at your current job? WAY TOO MANY, thus the reason I get bored at work. OK, 8 years.

53. Favorite day of the week? Monday. Isn't that every one's favorite?

I'M KIDDING!!! The "week" includes weekends right? If that's the case, then ... Saturday. If not, and it has to be a technical "week day" then... Friday.

54. How many towns have you lived in? 2 - Franklin and Middletown - which really shouldn't count as 2 because they are so close together. Wow I'm boring, I need to try out a different town.

55. Do you make friends easily? Kinda - but maybe not. I'm kinda selective on who I trust as a friend.

56. How many people will you send this to? Oh, hell, I won't know till I look at my address book, I haven't decided who yet. At least one - Julie - since she sent it to me. (OK, I decided to just post it on my blog, so... HA!)

57. How many will respond? Probably, maybe.. ummm.. none?

58. How many pets do you have? One dog - Teddy

60. brothers and sisters? One of each

61. Children? 3 (OK, I only gave birth to 2 of them, but I still call Ceara my kid)

62. Grandchildren? Not for a while! 3 years left of high school and then at least 5 years after that for school!!!

63. Someone your the most proud of? I don't know that I can pick just one person. The "most" - I am proud of a lot of people for different things, but I don't have it in a degree of proud-ness. I'm proud of all my kids (all 3 of them) - when they are not getting on my nerves anyway. And I'm proud of my family and friends. I have reasons for them, too, but that would take way too long to type up. I might write a book one day about it! ;)
64. Someone that has really hurt you? I'm an emotional person, I get hurt all the time. Nothing to write home about. ;)

There were 2 more questions, but I didn't want to answer them, so I just erased them. Deal with it, I'm a rebel.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Chocolate

I've never been a huge chocolate person (not to be confused with chocolate bunnies - I mean it in terms of eating it - not in terms of having a statue of myself made out of chocolate...); However, I do like it occasionally (read: once a month). When I've spent four hours sitting in the hot sun, roasting - chocolate is the LAST thing on earth I would want to eat. So, when having our garage sale a few weeks ago, Jeff came up with every excuse in the world to leave.

He had to go home for something he forgot about an hour after we started. He was gone for about 1.5 - 2 hours. Then, about 30 minutes after he got back, he suggested that he go and get some lunch for us. As hot as it was, I wasn't much in the mood to eat anything, just wanted some ice cold drinks. We did settle on Subway though. So he left to go get us some sandwiches.

When he returned, he had a couple of candy bars as well. He handed me one.

"What is this? I can't eat chocolate, it's too hot outside."

"WHAT?!?! Are you an alien? That statement just does not compute with me. There is NEVER a time to NOT eat chocolate."

This is not the first time I have said that it is too hot for chocolate. It's amazing that after 8 years he doesn't remember me ever saying it before. lol

Monday, August 18, 2008

Soccer Mom

First thing. I am NOT giving up blogging, I was just taking a break and I thought I would let you know. Now... the post:

I'm a soccer mom again! And no, I'm not the typical mini-van driving soccer mom with the little stickers on the windows with their kids names. Allie used to play soccer, and I loved going out there and watching her play. She quit playing soccer and has moved on to volley ball.

Now Conor is playing. We signed him up for the Candy League (ages 4-5) and in this age group, they put the boys and girls on the same teams. It's more about learning how to work the ball than actual scores anyway. Conor ended up being the ONLY boy on his team. He is surrounded by little girls.

Last week, another boy joined the team so now there are 2 boys. He has practice every Monday and Wednesday and he loves it. I have pictures, but I don't have them on this computer, so I will post them later.

Allie didn't start playing Soccer until she was older than Conor is now, she was never on a co-ed team. So this will be a first for me as well - they don't keep score or anything, so I will have to save my lunatic yelling from the sidelines for when he is older. =\

Friday, August 08, 2008

Just in case someone other than me reads this (not likely judging from the lack of feedback), wanted to let you know that I am taking a break from blogging. Writing to invisible people isn't very fun right now.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Cooking

I have always enjoyed cooking, but I haven't been really cooking as much. My grill hasn't even been used at all this year. Or last year either, come to think of it. There are a lot of things that have contributed to my not wanting to spend hours cooking in the kitchen. I went for the simple meals. Something I could pop in the oven, pull it out and it was ready.

Another reason is that Jeff has been home - so he has done the grocery shopping and the majority of the cooking. Also, I have picky kids. There are not many meals that everyone in my house likes, there is always someone wanting something different than what I fixed.

So, last night was a pleasant surprise when everyone loved everything I made. I made Lemon Pepper (marinade) grilled chicken breasts (on my George Foreman grill), crash hot potatoes (wonderful, btw), corn, and beer bread (yeah, I used a mix!). Allie doesn't usually like potatoes, but I asked her to try them before she rejected them. She ended up loving them. Conor likes potatoes - mashed - so I had to talk him into trying them as well. He loved them too.

Allie tried the chicken and said, "Mom, this chicken is AMAZING!"

So, everyone in my house (Ceara was at her mom's and didn't get to try it, bit I know she would have loved it as well!!) liked dinner last night. It was a pretty darn good feeling not to have to hear "ewwww, I don't want that!" Everyone was a member of the clean plate club last night. heehee

I wonder how long it will take for another wrinkled up nose or "gross!" "ewwww!" and whatever other exclamations were uttered while I was cooking. With 3 kids, probably not long - but for now I'm still on cloud nine because they didn't just eat their food, they all THANKED me and loved it.

Friday, August 01, 2008

Random Stuff

Last night, after volley ball, Allie walked out to the car ahead of me. I was delayed saying bye to my friends and giving them all hugs, so she got there first. I had my keys in my left hand and was pushing the button so she could go ahead and get in the car. But... I was pushing the lock button. So, every time I pushed it, she could hear the click and she would attempt to open the door. After a few attempts, she was frustrated.

"MOM! You're pushing the lock button. UN-lock the car!"

I laughed - at myself for pushing the wrong button, and at Allie for attempting to get in each time.

On the way home Allie called my sister, Molly, because she had called both our cell phones while we were at the volley ball court. She got off the phone with her and told me that Molly had some apples that her neighbor had given her, but she didn't know how to make an apple pie so she wanted to give them to me to make one. (She obviously does not read my blog, or she would know how!)

Allie repeated some of the conversation to me:

"Molly said, 'I have some apples - you know, the kind you make pies with.' And I wanted to say, 'What other kind of apples are there?'"

So we stopped by Molly's house to pick up the apples. When we got out of the car she asked if we wanted some peppers and cucumbers. I thought maybe her neighbors had given her some of those as well, but she started walking out to her back ...uh, yard? Field? Not really a field, but yard does not describe the land she has behind her house. Anyway, she has a small garden!

I was a bit shocked. Allie looked at me and said, "I didn't know Molly had a garden."

"Yeah, me either. She just doesn't seem the type to plant a garden." Hey, people surprise me all the time. Especially my sister.

So, we got a couple of cucumbers and a green pepper. She also has banana peppers and tomatoes, but they aren't ready yet. She told me that I needed to let her know when I made the pie - since she didn't get any of my last one.

I went home and had the house to myself for a bit and I watched some of my Alias DVDs (I've been re-watching all the seasons lately.)

Conor and Jeff came in a bit later and Jeff went straight to bed and said he didn't feel well. It was later in the evening, so Conor and I went to bed not much later.

This morning I told Jeff about the apples and that Molly had given me a couple of cucumbers and a green pepper from her garden.

"Molly has a garden? Really?"

"I know, right? I was a bit shocked too. But yeah, she does."

See? You know someone for 30some years and they can still surprise you.