Friday, March 27, 2009

My ode to the ball sling...

For some, signs of spring include bright colored flowers, gardening, birds chirping, blue skies, flip flops, and sunshine....

for me, this is a tell-tale sign of spring....

The lower decker pecker checker.
Yes, spring is in the air!

Every spring this becomes a hot topic in our house.
Not every mom says, "Pick up your shoes and your cup on your way up the stairs!"
Not every mom has to pick up their son's cup to dust the dresser.
And, not every mom has to empty the jelly beans from it after removing it from their daughter's room.
Yes, one of the many things I love about baseball season.
Did you know you're not supposed to wear underwear under this? Yeah, this replaces underwear during baseball season! So your bum cheeks just hang out bare back slung up by those two little straps! (One game wearing that and we switched to jock underwear.) I just couldn't take the game serious knowing my son's bum was strung up in that sling. Did you also know that when shopping for "the cup" their sizes come in:
the hammer
the boss
the hog
MONGO
just interesting to note.

Anyway, I have been wrestling with these wretched things for the last 4 or 5 years but I think this season I have finally mastered the cup!
Let me share my ball sling history with you...
In my first experience, I put the cup in upside down. Halfway through the game Bryson came running off the field saying something's not right down under. So Lee took a lookie and apologized to the ump for my jock strap shortcomings as he readjusted the cup.

Even after getting it in the right way, my poor son still hated it. Honestly, he ran like he had a stick up his bum. So i made the executive decision that it only needed to be worn when he was out field. Each time before he went up to bat, I did the ultimate sacrifice that only a mother of sons can do and reached down into the unknown and pulled out his sweaty, ball cup, keeping it on the sidelines until he rounded his last base. (The cup was such a tight fit into his "ball sling" that he couldn't pull it out himself without completely undressing.) After he was done batting, I'd go to get his cup only to find his little sister sitting quite contently with his cup in her lap, filled with popcorn as she munched away and cheered for the boys to "score a goal!"

Now that they are plenty old enough to take care of their undercarriage situations on their own, as was made evident to me when unthinking, I grabbed my almost 12 year old's crouch as we walked out the door to make sure he had his cup in (he was less than happy about that), I relinquish my concerns and responsibilities for how and where it lies in their pants, to my sons....

So here is my ode to "the cup"

Oh nutty buddy!
You are the protector of my sons' goods
but oh how i wish you would stay where you should!
Twisting this way and that
in their underpant.
You've held their balls, popcorn and even some jelly beans,
I imagine you will get even more filled, as they reach their teens.
Your relationship is fickle as it is filled with love and hate,
in the end they are grateful, but not as much as their future mate!
Thanks to a job well done,
it can't be very fun.
For alas, it is you who ultimately holds the key
to whether or not I have any posterity.



Thursday, March 26, 2009

Not your traditional "lemonade stand"....

Most little girls set up lemonade stands and sell lemonade and cookies, not my little gem, she thinks outside the box....

she spent the afternoon with her cousin and friend catching all sorts of bugs (3 rolie polies, a gecko, a baby lizard, 1 grasshoper and a ladybug, to be exact) and set up a bug stand where they had two price sheets, one to hold the bugs, and one to purchase a bug....




Tuesday, March 24, 2009

All things must come to an end....

The last 2 1/2 weeks have been pure bliss! But, like everything else, it has come to an end.....

I love time off from school, quite possibly even more than my kids. (Is that possible?) I especially love our long spring break because the weather is so beautiful!! It's like a sneak peak into summer....no school, no homework, no responsibilities!

This past couple weeks included lots of fun with friends and family.....

at the drive in movies featuring Mall Cop and Pink Panther II.


Swimming....




making and launching rockets....


Picnics at the park....




sleepovers and games with grandma and grandpa....





A train ride and a little carousel riding....





Rock climbing.....



Sleep overs.....


Miniature golfing.....



lots of ramen noodles....
lots of bike rides and...
no laundry!
Oops! I forgot I wasn't on spring break too!
Time to play catch up.....

Singing dollar, dollar bill ya'll!

Last night, while eating his dinner, my dirty faced little boy declared he was done eating after one bite. I said, "Oh, that's too bad, I was hoping you could have ice cream with me. If you'll eat your dinner all gone, you can have some ice cream!" He looked at me with the cutest sideways glance he always gives and said, "How about a dollar?"


When did ice cream stop motivating 3 year olds?

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Proof!

Our oldest, Bryson babysits for us now and it seems to work out well for everyone.....except Kendall. (She really wants us to go back to hiring fun 13 year girls who just sit and play barbies with her.)
It's time like these that it becomes painfully obvious that she is flying solo in this household of brothers.
So, often we receive phone calls from her while we're out on a date in tears about how unfairly she is being treated by Bryson or how bored she is or just how unfair life in general is.
Anyway, when we got home the other night, in an effort to convince us that Bryson is not fit to babysit her, she got my camera and said, "Look mom! Here's proof that Bryson tortures us when you're gone! I took pictures of everything!"




(In reality, it's Bryson playing with CJ, swinging him around....nice try Kendall!)

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Me as a mom......from my kids' perspective

1. What is something your mom always says to you?
Camdon (age 3) - "brush your teeth"
Kendall (age 6) - "I love you!"
Carson (age 9) - "do your chores"
Bryson (age 11) - "put on your seatbelt"

2. What makes your mom happy?
Camdon (age 3) - "Her teeth"
Kendall (age 6) - "when I'm being kind"
Carson (age 9) - "having a clean house"
Bryson (age 11) - "seeing my dad happy"

3. What makes your mom sad?
Camdon (age 3) - "When she cries like a baby"
Kendall (age 6) - "When I'm mean"
Carson (age 9) - "having a messy house"
Bryson (age 11) - "seeing the house dirty"

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Camdon (age 3) - "When mom's a dork."
Kendall (age 6) - "she tickles me"
Carson (age 9) - "she's goofy and dresses up in funny things and tries to sing"
Bryson (age 11) - "her actions, she does ridiculous things."
Camdon age 3
5. What was your mom like as a child?
Camdon (age 3) - "a crybaby"
Kendall (age 6) - "She was cute"
Carson (age 9) - "crazy! I've heard a lot of stories...."
Bryson (age 11) "a punk!"

6. How old is your mom?
Camdon (age 3) - 2
Kendall (age 6) - 32
Carson (age 9) - 32
Bryson (age 11) - "31"

7. How tall is your mom?
Camdon (age 3) - 2
Kendall (age 6) - "12 feet tall"
Carson (age 9) - 5'4
Bryson (age 11) - "5'3"

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Camdon (age 3) - "Work on daddy." - (no idea what he meant by that one!)
Kendall (age 6) - "clean the house and play with her sisters"
Carson (age 9) - "play with us"
Bryson (age 11) - "going on dates with dad"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Camdon (age 3) - "She goes to the park"
Kendall (age 6) - "cleans and runs errands"
Carson (age 9) - "chores or folding laundry"
Bryson (age 11) - "cleans the house"

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Camdon (age 3) - "Dance"
Kendall (age 6) - "she would be a rock star or maybe Hannah Montana"
Carson (age 9) - "singing"
Bryson (age 11) - "dancing"

Kendall age 6
11. What is your mom really good at?
Camdon (age 3) - "playing games"
Kendall (age 6) - "volleyball"
Carson (age 9) - "keeping our family together"
Bryson (age 11) - "singing and dancing...she does it enough!"

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Camdon (age 3) - "Playing when she's laughing"
Kendall (age 6) - "playing basketball"
Carson (age 9) - "football"
Bryson (age 11) - "lying"

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Camdon (age 3) - "the computer"
Kendall (age 6) - "goes to the gym"
Carson (age 9) - "nothing. Her job is taking care of us."
Bryson (age 11) - "she teaches cooking classes?"

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Camdon (age 3) - "Sandwich"
Kendall (age 6) - "Basketti" aka: spaghetti
Carson (age 9) - "yogurt parfait"
Bryson (age 11) - "pasta salad?"

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Camdon (age 3) - "she's happy"
Kendall (age 6) - "she does nice things"
Carson (age 9) - "when she helps in my classroom and goes on fieldtrips or does junior achievement"
Bryson (age 11) - "she's funny"

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Camdon (age 3) - "Madagaskar 2"
Kendall (age 6) - "Giselle from Enchanted" - I'm just as clumsy!
Carson (age 9) - "Fiona from shrek because she like to be outside"
Bryson (age 11) - "Dori from Finding Nemo... i know she's my mom's inspiration."

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Camdon (age 3) - "play baseball and soccer"
Kendall (age 6) - "go to the mall" ???
Carson (age 9) - "i love to go on dates with her, just the two of us like when we went to Mind over Splatter and painted a four wheeler or when we go get ice cream or go to dinner."
Bryson (age 11) - "we play cards and go on dates together"

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Camdon (age 3) - "we'll both never fall in the volcano."
Kendall (age 6) - "our hair is kinda the same and we have the same eyes"
Carson (age 9) - "we can both burp super loud"
Bryson (age 11) - "we're both dorks and we both love the beach. And i don't think either of our school teachers like us."

Bryson age 11

19. How are you and your mom different?
Camdon (age 3) - "i don't know, i work?"
Kendall (age 6) - "we talk different and she wears makeup on her eyes"
Carson (age 9) - "i'm a boy and she's a girl"
Bryson (age 11) - "she likes to go shoping, I don't"

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Camdon (age 3) - "cuz she's my best friend"
Kendall (age 6) - "because I'm so cute"
Carson (age 9) - "because she takes good care of me and she does nice things"
Bryson (age 11) - "she does my chores sometimes and when I'm bored she plays with me and she goes to all my baseball games."

Carson age 9

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Camdon (age 3) - "his jokes"
Kendall (age 6) - "he's so handsome"
Carson (age 9) - "his personality. He's nice to her and he protects her."
Bryson (age 11) - "his looks and that she knows he loves her"

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Camdon (age 3) - "the store"
Kendall (age 6) - "the mall"
Carson (age 9) - "the beach"
Bryson (age 11) - "to restaraunts, that's where she goes a lot with friends, at least."

Monday, March 02, 2009

Relationships

Relationships take work. I'm realizing that more now than ever as my life seems too be busier than ever and time seems to be just beyond my grasp. Sometimes I forget.
My friendships need to be nurtured, and even family relationships need to be nurtured. They'll always be family but how close we are depends on how much we put into the relationship.
And, sometimes when there are miles that separate you and work loads and children's activities and the many responsibilities that turn our days into weeks and our weeks into years, it takes effort. You have to make time, actually create time to nurture those relationships.
I've been feeling like I need to reconnect with my family and my kids need to reconnect with their cousins but dang it if every weekend we try to make it back home, there are multiple things in our schedules that keep us from it. And I thought, "Welcome to the rest of your life! Helloooooo! Your life is not going to get any less busy if that's what your waiting for!" And that's when I realized that while I thought I was doing good to try and simplify my life and leave time for us to spend more time together as a family, there is always something that swallows that ever so precious free time up. And that if I was ever going to find the time, I had to create it!

Life is busy. Life happens. And then one day you turn around and your children are almost teenagers with schedules and ideas of their own on how their time should be spent. I hope I can teach them that beyond school, sports, and friends, is family. And when it's all said and done, we will look back and probably not remember the score of the basketball tournament we missed, or the tips we learned in 1 or 2 missed baseball practices. Friends will come and go, but cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents are timeless and the deposit's we make into our memory banks with them are priceless.
"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."
This weekend we left it all behind, including Lee (who was unfortunately in Chicago on business) and went to nurture those relationships. I forget how much fun that nurturing can be!
Sunday after church me, Nonni, and aunt Brooke and aunt Rachel took all the kiddos 5 minutes from my parents house to Big Toe at the base of the mountain. (When I was in high school, a bunch of friends and I would come here and for some reason, we named it 'Big Toe' and that's what it's been ever since!)

Tough guys!

All 11 of them!
Void of all their wet clothes and shivering from swimming in the melted streams of snow on the mountain!

The polar bear club!
These crazies got in over their heads (literally) in the freezing water!




The Alder crazies!


The Varney crazies!


and The Bingham crazies!


Our "Tom Sawyer" ready to go home!

Monday, February 23, 2009

I love Carson's creativity! This was his pinewood derby car this year. It's a boat with water coming out the back, pulling a wakeboarder.
I think that's you, Scott! :)


Great job Carson!

Biz Town

I had the opportunity to accompany the fifth graders to BizTown. What a great experience it was! Right in the heart of Tempe is this building that looks pretty plain and when you walk in, there's an entire little town created just for older kids to experience "life in the real world" as adults. There were several businesses that the children themselves ran. Weeks before the kids got there, the kids interviewed and applied for the various jobs they wanted. So the day of the field trip, they all knew where they were working and what their responsibilities would be. My job was to oversee the Newspaper. What a great learning opportunity for these kids! Bryson worked in the shop next to me at Cox 7 news station.


This is where Bryson "worked" as a field reporter for the Cox 7 news station. He interviewed several business "owners". The news reports were played on t.v.'s in all the business's throughout the day.

Bryson and co-worker going over stories to report on during the day...


working hard for the money baby!


Bryson came and found me to have lunch with him, isn't that sweet!

Bryson depositing his first paycheck of the day and the completely kid ran Wells Fargo Bank.



Quitin' time!
Bryson and his buddies met after work at Papa Johns for some chillaxin!
Jase was a DJ for the local radio station and Aaron was the CFO of Best Buy.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

A bit of back posting......

Valentines Day!
The night before v-day, I leave a trail of hearts all different sizes and colors, leading from their bedrooms down the hall, down the stairs and to the kitchen where a valentines breakfast and little goodies await them.

Valentines breakfast!
Pink Waffle and heart shaped pancake bar.....


This is the snazzy hat Kendall surprised me with for Valentines day (wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper). It was recycled from her dress up box!

Friday, February 06, 2009

Hookie

Today I kept Kendall home from school and we played hookie. I miss her being gone all day and so does Camdon. This whole full day kindergarten thing is hard, there wasn't ever the half day transition that I enjoyed with my boys.
So, today we went to Bounce Jungle and jumped and bounced our little hearts out!



Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Got Milk?



Milk. It's a finicky substance I tell you. Not everyone knows how handle milk, it is a beverage in a class all it's own and as such has different guidelines and rules.

Bear with me now as I help educate the world, one milk drinker at a time.

1. Always check the expiration and smell the milk.
2. it's gotta be ice cold.
3. no bubbles, no drink. Little bubbles around the edge of the glass are a sign that it's a fresh glass of milk.
4. once a glass has had milk in it, no other beverage can be consumed from that glass until it has been through the dishwasher and sanitized.
5. it's okay to share a coke or a glass of water, but you can never share a glass of milk! (It makes me shutter just thinking about it.)
6. Absolutely NO drinking from the carton.
7. milk should never be poured over a glass of ice.
8. milk is NOT the beverage you drink after a long run or after playing a hot game of basketball.
9. if the milk jug is already sitting on the counter when you go to pour a glass of milk, it's not as cold as it can possibly be. Return it back to the fridge and wait 15-30 minutes before you pour a glass or open a fresh jug.
10. milk and cardboard containers don't go together. Plastic containers seem to keep the milk colder.
11. only drink milk at your own house. Drinking milk at another person's house is the ultimate sign of trust. It's way too intimate to do just anywhere, you never know what other people's milk rules are.
12. once milk has been poured out, it NEVER goes back into the original container.
13. if one jug of milk is almost empty and another one has been opened (due to rule #9) it is NOT okay to combine the two into one jug.
14. you don't shake milk before pouring it. When your wife says there has to be bubbles, let it happen naturally. Nobody likes artificial bubbles....too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing.
15. Really, milk should only be drank accompanied by chocolate....or vice versa.
And 16. Seriously, Sheryl Crow, the milk mustache thing, it's not sexy. People, there is nothing more homely than a dried milk mustache above your upper lip or in the corners of your mouth. I check my kids every morning before school for signs of the milk mustache. It is not becoming.