Yay for my boys!!

First things first…. It’s taken me some time to get over the recent ‘incident’ with Ricky – and I swear I’m still not over it.  I had to drive her home from Jackson’s game on Monday night and I swear I was worried about the cooties my car was surely getting the whole drive home.

This is just a written congratulations to my two boys who both went undefeated in their respective baseball playoffs to win the championship!  Yay for them!  And especially for Teddy who truly loves baseball and has played with various versions of the same group of kids for 4 years now as they made their way up through the ranks to the ‘majors’ within this group and this was his last year with them.  He’ll move on to another division next year and a whole different team. 

So – come with me as I relive the end of Teddy’s game, will you?  It’s the top of the last inning and the other team needs 1 run to tie it.  If they don’t score then we win.  So we’re hoping to stop them!  We get to the point where there are two outs and they have a man on third.  The kid up to bat for them does not look like an athlete.  He looks a little awkward up there and we have our best pitcher on the mound so we’re all feeling pretty good.  Strike 1 – yay!  Strike 2 – yay!  Two outs, two strikes.  We only need one more pitch.  Then the batter looks over to his coach who is acting as the third base coach at the moment so he’s right next to where all our team’s parents are sitting in the bleachers.  So we all get a look at this kid.  He’s shaking.  The stress is too much for him.  He starts crying and he’s just looking at his coach begging for him to make all the pressure stop.  I’m crying.  All the mom’s in the stands are crying.  It was awful to see.  His coach was wonderful.  “You’re doing fine Johnny, just like we do in practice; just put the bat on the ball.  You can do it buddy.  You’re doing great.”  And that little scared kid who was shaking and crying put the bat on the ball and hit a single and scored the tying run.  I’m pretty sure our side of the stands was just as excited as their side of the stands.  We got the third out in short order and went into the bottom of the inning tied; only needing one run to score.

Guess who’s up first?  Yup..Teddy.  Ted’s not a bad hitter, he can usually be counted on for a single, but he can definitely let his mind screw him up at the plate so I was a little worried.  But he swung at the first pitch and crushed the ball with probably his best hit of the season high over the 2^nd baseman’s head into the gap in the outfield.  The other team got it in quickly and he settled for a long single.  The next batter is Adam and lately he’s been struggling at the plate.  We all love Adam but we’re a little worried.  But he got a solid single and moved Teddy to 2^nd. Then Teddy and Adam did a perfect double steal and they were both safe and now Teddy’s at third with no outs! Woo hoo!  The double steal was funny because while Adam is definitely very fast, Teddy is not.  Or really more accurately he does not run fast in baseball.  He makes his coaches absolutely nuts.  He’s just a cerebral kid – and he’ll be ready to steal 2^nd and will make a calculation – “I think I only need to run at 60% of my capacity and I will beat out the throw.”  So that’s what he’ll do – basically saunter to the base while all his coaches and the parents have little heart attacks in the stands.  I don’t think he’s ever been thrown out, but still – it makes us all crazy and he’s been yelled at for it for years.  But this time he ran with all his speed and was easily safe.  We were all feeling pretty good because the next batter, Jimmy, is a solid hitter.  Ball 1, ball 2.  Okay, this looks even better.  Strike 1.  Then the catcher couldn’t handle the next pitch and the ball got by him and Teddy used that little seen speed and stole home for the win.

He was so excited to be the hero of the game.  It was the absolutely perfect way for him to end his affiliation with the great group of kids.  And for it to be his speed was just comical for all involved.  (well except the other team). 

Jackson’s game was the next night and it wasn’t nearly as exciting as Teddy’s game that had gone back and forth all night long.  Jack’s team dominated from the beginning and won easily.  Woo Hoo.  They both got these huge trophies and are very, very excited. 

The only bad part about the whole deal is that in our little league all the teams  have real major league team names and this is Orioles country.  Unfortunately Teddy got drafted into the Yankee’s organization when he was 8 years old which meant Jackson got put there automatically when he decided to give baseball a try this year.  So for years we’ve had to root for the blasted Yankees and unfortunately I think Jack liked playing enough to want to continue so we’ve got a few more years ahead of us.  Really, I refuse to say “Go Yankees!”  I instead say “Go blue!"  I did finally buy a navy blue shirt to wear to games, but alas, I never got around to wearing it.  Oh well, maybe next year.

 This is Teddy's team and he's in the middle without a hat on.

This is Jack's team and he is front and center with gray pants and his trophy tilted to his right (our left) his friend Joe is next to him with his trophy tilted to his left so they form a V together.

*Those* dreams and a butt-cano....

1) Teddy is having wet dreams and the fact that I know this makes me want to kill myself.  He asked Brad about it - which of course I think is wonderful that he feels like he can.  But then Brad felt compelled to share it with me, the big 'ol meanie.  Seriously, I did not need that information.  I definitely could have gone the rest of my life without knowing that. 

2) Jackson just did a book report on a fantasy book and being Jackson he chose "The Day My Butt Went Psycho".   Part of the project was to depict a scene from the book and Jack chose to do that with clay.  He recreated the butt-cano.  (which naturally is a volcano that spits out butts - which in the book are trying to take over the world).  I thought you all needed to see an actual butt-cano.

That really big butt there... he's (somehow I am thinking of all the asses as male - is that wrong?) known as 'The Great White Butt'.  (as if you didn't already know that!)

This is how we spent our weekend - I bet you're all totally jealous.

be thankful for the opportunites dropped in your lap, Ricki, & Jackson

So I'm sitting here with Teddy (almost 13) and he's watching George Lopez while I'm reading blogs.  And the mom says to the 14 year old son on the show "Did that tramp steal your virginity?"  It was totally unexpected and both Teddy and I burst out laughing.  He looked up at me, still laughing, "Are you going to say that to me one day?"

Jackson: (age 10, doing homework yells in from the other room) Ted, record that for me so I can watch it later!  (he's the one I have to worry about)

Me: Ted, I need you to wait until you're 26 before you lose your virginity, okay?
(26 is my age for everything - you can get a tattoo when you're 26, you can ride a motorcycle when you're 26, you can drive a car when you're 26...)

Ted: I doubt that, I seriously doubt that.  (he's still kind of chuckling, not the least bit self conscious)

Me: Okay, maybe not 26.  (I paused and and thought - what the hell - take the gift dropped in your lap)  So you know you have to wear a condom every single time, no exceptions?

Ted: Yes mom.

Me: And you know you are WAAAAY too young right now, right?

Ted: (thankfully rolling his eyes) Yes mom.

Okay, so I stopped right there.  No harm, no foul.  No self consciousness, and a plug for condoms.  Not a bad deal for a Tuesday evening.


And, right now as I type this - Brad is at the airport picking up his mom.  I hope she'll be as blog rich as she was the last time she was here.


OH and one more thing...

Jackson just said... do you know what I've always wanted to do?

Me: nope

Jack: Fill a funnel with whipped cream and then figure out how to get it down the little pipe at the end and then shove the pipe inside a waffle and fill the waffle with whipped cream.

Me: (I just nodded my head - wondering if I should tell him about pastry bags)

Jack: Noooo, wait... syrup.  That would be even better.  Do we have a funnel?

Me: uh.. nope, not us.  No way.  No funnels here.

Jack: I know we do, where is it.

Me:  Hey look over there, it's a dead turtle, or a snake....

So, on the one hand - of course it's a genius idea my little guy has and no doubt it would be delish, but seriously - the boy is up before everyone else in the house every single day.  No way am I helping him destroy my kitchen before I'm even out of bed.  nuh uh,  no way, no how!



Okay speaking of Jackson - one more, more thing.

Remember his stitches?  You can see the before pictures here.  But look how well it's healing.  

bad parenting, the massacre, and us

More evidence of our parenting…

So – Jackson’s head is healing nicely and this is a good thing.  I’m wildly anal about making sure there is sunscreen on his scar at all times.  There are sticks of sunscreen in my purse, his backpack, his baseball bag, and both our cars in addition to the plentiful supply I have in the house.  On Saturday before Jackson had a football game followed by a golf outing with our friend Jamie and Brad and Teddy I put sunscreen on the scar and then headed out to take Teddy to his baseball game.  We met up for lunch between the games and golf and I reminded him and Brad to put more sunscreen on before they went golfing – okay all taken care of, right?  Yeah well.  His scar was white as a ghost at the end of the day but the rest of his face, a vee in his chest and his legs were, however, burnt to a crisp.  Oops.  Poor boy.

The mutant ninja massacre

Wow am I lucky or what?  All three boys went golfing on Saturday and I got to have the house to myself for several house.  It was bliss.  Okay, well… it was going to be bliss.  Seriously.  I even had a small mountain of laundry to do, and I was completely excited about cranking up the tunes and cranking it out while I had The.  House.  To.  Myself!!  Best laid plans and all…

So, there I am, first load in, tunes blaring away, I’m singing at the top of my lungs.  All is right with the world.  I’m wandering around cleaning this, putting that away, thinking of napping, thinking of reading.  You know how it is.  I decide I need some water; I’m suddenly not drinking enough water especially on the weekends.  I practically skip down the stairs and into the kitchen when something out of place catches my eye in the family room.  Our house is really open so you can basically see into all rooms at all times and there’s something scattered on the family room floor.

This isn’t the big surprise it should be.  Have you met my children?  Okay, well maybe not, but let me tell you they are messy little things.  And then there’s the dog – who I’m sure I’ve mentioned I don’t love.  If Bandit gets pissed he gets destructive.  It’s usually some poor hapless stuffed animal and we find tufts of stuffing flung around the house in little piles.  Based on what I’m seeing out of the corner of my eye, I’m thinking I’m going to have Bandit to thank for what I’m about to clean up.  Eh.. I’m alone, life it good.  Bandit can not ruin my mood.

Okay, I was wrong about that.  Big sigh, let’s go pick up whatever needs picking up and move on, shall we… Okay, not so fast.  My behated dog (that’s a new word and it’s maybe my new favorite) has systematically dismembered a turtle - and unfortunately not one of the stuffed persuasion - on the floor of my family room.  There were blood and guts and shell pieces all over the floor.  Every where I looked my horror increased.  It was the single most vile thing I’ve ever seen in my life – but a fair margin.

I am not a typical girl in most situations.  Generally I just roll up my sleeves and do what needs doing.  I’m here to tell you, I met my limit.  I was a total girl.  I started flapping my arms and saying; Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God.  I finally got enough of a hold of myself to get the dog locked outside and to keep from totally losing my cookies.  Then I did what any self respecting girl would do… I went upstairs and hid.  I called Brad and was not surprised to get his voice mail as they were golfing.  I waited a while and called him back and left a very simple, if extremely flat voiced message.  “I need you to call my at your earliest convenience.” 

Of course Brad didn’t get the message until he had pulled into the driveway, but upon hearing how I sounded he called immediately and sent the boys to play instead of letting them come inside.  I told him I’d be right down and once there apologized for being a complete girl (which is new) and explained how I needed him to be the man (which he has no problem with).  He did his best to calm the strange zombie like creature in front of him before he went inside.

He later described it as similar to cleaning a crime scene which I’m hopeful he only knows from watching TV and not from first hand experience, though we’re never ever going to speak of it again so I will never know.

Anyone want a used Jack Russell Terrier?  He’s really cute, I swear he is.

And finally... a family picture

Taken on Easter and not so good of me cuz I’m all leaned back on the slouchy couch – but aren’t my boys cutie-pies???

The ipad as crack, funky servers, and starvation recovery

I've been totally absent and that's never good for me.  Here's a few things to catch up.

The ipad as crack
It's an amazing thing.  I'm sure that's true, though I don't know this from first hand experience.  I got Brad one for his birthday.  It was a great present because he wanted one so badly and he thought I was goign to put up a real fight about it.  The problem is its crack-like properties.  It's only been in the house for a week and already all three males are completely addicted.  As an example Jackson comes into my room at 6am this morning.  Brad and I were still sleeping.  He marches over to my side of the bed (cuz he's nobody's fool and knows not to poke the sleeping bear on the other side of the bed) and immediately starts whining.
Jack: Mo-om, Teddy got up at 4 and has been playing the ipad the whole time don't you think it should be my turn now?
Me: uh... what?
Jack: It's not fair.  He set his alarm for 4 and he's been playing this whole time.  (let me break in here and say it normally takes an act of congress to get Teddy out of bed)
Me: I'm sleeping here, is it fair that you just came in and woke me because you want to play a video game?
He left with his tail between his legs because as I said - he's no fool.

But... this isn't the first time.  Clearly I am the fool as it's taken me this long to think about doing something about this powerful drug in our home.  Earlier this week, they both together slammed into my room looking for the damn thing (again this means that Teddy was up before anyone bodily pulled him from the bed) waking me before they slammed out again.  There's been constant whining and fighting about the need to get their fix - even Brad has gotten in on it. 

Of course here's the best part.... Teddy gets up at 4am this morning and discovers his eye all gunked up and uncomfortable, what does my very bright boy (who's now taller than me by the way) do???  He wipes it off and desparately makes his way to get his fix on.  Phew, that was close.  He gets his soccer game up and he's finally able to get the shakes under control, even if he can't completely see the screen.  Does he mention his eye problems to his parents this morning? No.  No he does not.  Does he think about possibly spreading whatever he's got that caused said gunk?  No he does not.  So he happily heads off to school high on the soccer game and hands over the ipad to his brother (who's not doing his homework by the way!!) who happily gets his shakes under control with Angry Birds.  Teddy gets to school and realizes his eye is really still bothering him.  So... now our brain trust tells his teacher - I think I've got pink eye.  He was home within the hour.  After Jackson got his fix on and Brad got his as well.  My hypocondriac husband immediately complained of eye problems. 

Our CFO is gone
He's in Ireland for two weeks where his son is studying abroad.  I'm so thrilled for him I can't stand it.  While he's gone, of course, I take care of whatever he might have handled.  This wouldn't be a problem if he wasn't also our IT Manager.  He just happens to have a personal affinity for it and we are lucky to have someone so capable of wearing two such distinct hats.  I've been the number two IT person for years and for the most part have the company fooled about my abilities.  I can talk a good game and know who to call who can walk me through whatever needs to be handled - but the reality is - I'm mostly freakin clueless.

Normally things run very smoothly and and I'm just making sure the back ups work properly.  No biggie.  Yeah, well in these two weeks we've had 4 seperate servers go down, been attacked by man eating viruses, had to shut part of or the whole system down multiple times, had two computers have to be taken out of the building to be repaired or rebuilt and about a million other things that I can't remember at the moment.  Any thought of doing any part of my job was killed very early last week.  I've met every single employee of our outside IT consultant firm; I'm hosting a happy hour tonight.

Oh and now the President has gone away for two days.  Yippee... Seriously.  And today is monthend.  What am I doing?  Am I doing one of the million things that I need to get done before I leave tonight??  Uh that would be a no - I'm blogging.  Cuz, as I've previously pointed out - I'm a fool.

Emerging from starvation
Dramatic much?  So - I couldn't eat for a week or so when I was overfilled.  And then miraculously I could eat.  And let me tell you I have been taking full advantage of that fact.  I have been eating like there is no tomorrow, with seemingly no ability to rein myself in.  For the first several days I swear it was like my band was wide opened.  I know it's all on me - but there was not the slightest peep out of that little thing.  I went from not being able to drink anything thicker than water most days to being able to eat truly anything that I tried.  I swear I could hear Gilly's voice in my head warning me not to eat more than 1 cup of anything and that is probably the only thing that saved my band from literally being blow right out of my body.  I can't say I always managed to follow that advice - but there's no doubt I at least took some breaks in my gluttony.  It took until last night for my brain to really kick in.  I was shopping and was able to fit into cute clothes and I even tried on a size 1X shirt because it was clingy and cute so I thought it might be good on me.  Uh.. it looked completely ridiculous - way, way too big, like a cute green potato sack.  It was a lovely thing to look so stupid in that size.

I hope all is well with everyone and I look forward to being more connected!!

A Ricky sighting, A Jack funny, and Chicago...

• So this email pops up to me at work from…. Duh duh duh.. "Rosemary Lastname".  Hey guys it’s Ricky!  (my MIL)  I'm so excited!!!  But wait – there’s no way in hell Ricky knows what email is, much less how to send one.  This has got to be a cruel joke.  I click on it, only to see that the address is actually Brad’s and the message is “I am having some google issues this morning.  What name comes through on this email?”

         So, you’re what?  Channeling your mom this morning???

• While going through last year’s school papers, Brad comes across a paper from Jackson from third grade.

         The question was: How would you cook a turkey?

         Jack’s answer: I’d tell him it was a tanning booth.

         My response: That’s my boy!

• I just (well really it was Brad) booked my tickets to Chicago – whoopee!!  I’m landing at Midway at 2:20pm on Thursday.  If anyone else is getting in around then, we could find each other and share a cab to the hotel.

Why is it my poor brain is screwed up??

Why is it that I'm so screwed up in the head?  I had my appointment last week and of coures he didn't want to give me a fill.  Now, really, I've been a little on the fence about that anyway.  I can certainly eat seemingly as much as I want to as long as I go slowly and chew well and it's not first thing in the morning.  And 4oz of the most solid protein in the world doesn't keep me full for more than a couple of hours at the most; which I believe is no change from my pre-band days, but... I do think I don't eat as much solid protein as I should.  I think I rely too heavily on things like cottage cheese and yogurt and maybe those things just prime the band really well? 

When I went to the appointment I happened to be in the middle of the worst 'def-com level four million; nuclear addition' cramps that I've experienced in quite some time (and hope to not have again for many, many moons) and my brain was so far at the other end of sharp that there were little pin wheels in my eyes and cute little blue birds circling above my head as I tried to follow the simple conversations going on around me.  As I can't take the big powerful drugs I have for just such occassions and still drive (or really function like a normal human) and the 50 million tylenol and advil weren't even thinking of touching what was going on inside me, I was left on my own and apparently I looked as bad as I felt as everyone I passed moved out of my way in case I was about to self destruct or something fun like that - or else I was just weaving and they figured I was drunk. 

Anyhoo - he has a new form that you have to fill out about what you're eating and how you're exercising, but at the end you have to check a box - 'I do want a fill' or 'I don't want a fill'.  Well even my adled brain knew checking the 'I do want a fill' box would seal my fate for not getting one as he's been nothing if not consistent in his saying black to my white every time we've ever spoken.  But my poor not-straight-thinking-pinwheel-producing brain could not think myself out of that little riddle and I checked the box anyway and added a comment "very, very tiny".  I'm not even going to go into the seriously stupid details of the ensuing conversation - probably because I can't remember 3/4 of them.  But in the end he said no fill but reluctantly decided he should have a look through the x-ray and see what's going on in there and then decide if I needed a fill.

So (and here's where the title comes in) I left there feeling like a failure.  I mean I knew I wasn't.  But that's not how I felt, you know?  And I didn't even have the frank 'can we work together or not' conversation I was thinking about.  I figured I shouldn't muddy the waters until the x-ray thing happened (and seriously I couldn't have thought my way out of a paper bag that day).  But I left there thinking I failed at getting a fill (which I wasn't even 100% sure I wanted) and failing to have the conversation (which I didn't think was a good idea given the circumstances).  And it took me a couple of days to shake that off.  I had a great rest of the week, eating wise.  I'm really trying to eat more solid protein and see what that does for me.  They didn't think they could schedule the x-ray thing until May 5th which is the day before I'm leaving for Jazz Fest where there is lots of  yummy crawfish to be eaten and while initially I said that was okay over the weekend I decided I was going to tell them I couldn't do it then.  I don't want to go to New Orleans and not be able to at least eat crawfish.  We'll just schedule it for after I get back and in the mean time I'll try to stay away from cottage cheese and yogurt and I already know I can't eat salads without then being able to (and wanting to) eat an entire cow - and we'll see what we see.  And then he'll see what he sees and it'll be a good thing to know what's going on inside there (not that I think anything at all is wrong) but still good to see.

So I'm all calm and feel good about the month or so ahead and good about my decisions about eating and the rescheduling of appointments and then his office calls today to tell me they scheduled extra time in the lab at the hospital so my appointment for the looksee is at 8am on Thursday. (the nurse had told me it was a possibility that they might try to schedule it earlier as he often doesn't like people to wait so long and he was going to be out of town in there somewhere and his next already scheduled lab time wasn't until May 5th - but I didn't think he'd classify me as a "we must get this done quickly" kind of patient so I didn't think it would really happen).  So - of course the upside is - he'll see whatever he sees and he'll give me or not give me a fill based on that and it's not right before I'm getting on a plane, but of coures my first reaction is ... OMG, I'm not ready!!!  I panic a little.  What the hell for.  There is no difference between going in last Wednesday and possibly getting a fill and going in on this Thursday and possibly getting a fill - right?  Why is it that my brain is so screwed up sometimes?

I really was going to make this a post full of bullets about "Why is it" things.  Like why is it they don't cancel kids' soccer games when it's 39 degrees with driving rain and a strong wind (the windchill was probably near freezing)??

Why is it that Jackson gets a sudden onset fever right before his baseball game so I have to miss Teddy's baseball game where he pitches 2 shut out innings and finally stays in the box and hits a couple of balls after being dead afraid of the ball this whole season?

Why is it that there is still underwear taped to Jackson's ceiling?  You'd think there'd be a concerned parent who might do something about that instead of chuckling every time she passed his room.

Why is it that I'm still getting a few spam emails a week since I took off my word verification thingy??

Girlfriend's Guide: Lesson 17

I am dumb.

It's hard to admit that.

Smart is the thing I could always cling to.

But no.  It's time to come clean.

I. Am. Dumb..... as rocks.

So... I was in CPR/first aid training all day today.  It was fun and I'm all certified again, so that's a good thing.  When we got there, there were bagels and muffins and just drank the chai latte (semi sweet) I'd brought and didn't have a one.  For lunch pizza was brought in.  I went across the street and got some chili from Wendy's.  As soon as class was over I had to hustle over to the dentist because a crown came out yesterday and they were good enough to fit me in today.  Then when I was done at the dentist it was just about time for Teddy to be picked up from chorus so I ran over there to pick up him, Matt, and Kevin.  I dropped Kevin off and brought the other two home.

The plan for the evening was for Brad to take Teddy to his 5:00 baseball practice while I shoved some food into Matt (our neighbor and friend) and then took him to his 5:30 soccer practice as his parents needed some help.  Then go back and pick Jack up from school and get him some food and then get him to his football practice at 6:30.  Then Brad will come swap with me at Jack's practice and I'll take Teddy home when they get there.

So... I get home with the boys at 4:46 and I'm hungry.  I had that chili at noon and now I. AM. HUNGRY.  But I only have a few minutes and first I have to make a sandwich for Teddy - because did Brad have food ready for Teddy to eat in those few precious minutes.... uh, that would be a no.  I get Ted some food, I get Matt some food.  And I'm still HUNGRY!!  What can I have that's fast and easy?

A protein shake?  Yes!  That's easy.  That's fast!!  protein shake... protein shake... protein shake... I keep those Special K shakes in my fridge for just such emergencies... Great idea!!

Uuuh no.  That never even crossed my mind.

I know...   I'll just inhale some more quiche since that went so well yesterday (not!).  Yeah.... that's what I'll do.  Quick, pull it out, throw some on a plate, get it in the nuking machine... quick quick.  Time's a wasting!  Chop chop (as my Grandma used to say).  Get it out, grab a fork and dig in.  The first few bites shoveled in go just fine.  I'm so much more smart today than I was yesterday - today, I'm really, really chewing.  I'll show you, Hilda.  Snarf snarf snarf... barf barf barf. 

And that's not the worst of it.  Jesus Christ.  I run to the bathroom.  I throw up a couple of times, shaking my head the whole time.  What the hell was I thinking... uh, that would be not a God damn thing.  But then..... I threw up again and guess what... it went right up my nose too.  Yup.  Now that was pleasant.  And there it stuck.  Seriously,  In.  My.  Nose.  I finally had to blow my nose to get it out.  Have any of you ever blown quiche out of your nose?  Well I have.  I bet you all want to be my friend now, don't you?!!  And of course - then I had to go to football practice and smell and taste quiche the whole time.  I am seriously the single coolest person I know.  I know you are all completely jealous.  I hope some of my vast awesomeness will rub off on all of you!

Holy Freakin' Sh#t!!

Holy freakin' shit.  That sums up last night for me.

I decided I could beat that demon apathy and got my ass on the treadmill.  I was building up a good head of steam at about the 20 minute mark when Teddy burst into the room.

Ted: Mom, come quick!  I think Jack needs stitches.
Me: Fuck!  (cuz you know Brad's out of town!!!  Things only happen when Brad's out of town.) 

Jack has a kitchen towel (thankfully he grabbed a clean one out of the drawer as I discovered when I went to get another one and found blood spatter in the drawer) pressed to his forehead and he's screaming.  I get him to show me and it's a 2.5 - 3 inch gash in the middle of his forehead - think Harry Potter only it's straight.

Sure enough Jack needed stitches.  They were playing frisbee and Jackson was running for the frisbee at top speed and his forehead collided with a metal mailbox.  Ted says his head shot back and his feet kept going, I'm damn glad I missed the visual of that.

While in the ER waiting room, my anxiety prone child spends a fair amount of time hunched over the toilet thinking he's going to throw up at just the prospect of stitches.  Eventually we make it back to the doctor (the nurse has already numbed the area with this cool topical paste) and she looks to see how deep it is and discovers it's straight through the muscle and down to the bone.  How delightful.  She wants a plastics consult - which I wanted as well - though our hospital doesn't have plastics on call.  It's affiliated with Johns Hopkins, but it isn't Hopkins.  She calls plastics and she has two little kids at home and her husband is out of town so she can't come.  We discuss transferring down to Hopkins to see plastics - while Brad is arranging via phone a plastics consult for the next morning with a friend of a friend.  Ultimately I decide more waiting would be just too much for Jackson as it had already been several hours by this point and get the pediatric ER doc to do it.  She was great.

So picture this my good friends...  I've gotten them to give Jack some medicine to relax him so he's a little less freaked out and now she goes to clean the already numbed wound.  Only - I guess the numbing paste stuff didn't penetrate all the way into the deep recesses of the wound because as she starts gently squirting it with whatever she was squirting it with - he starts screaming!  MOMMY! IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS, MOMMY!!! MAKE HER STOP!!!  It was really fun.  She stopped and got Lidocaine to numb it further.  But as you know, Lidocaine stings like the holy fires of hell for a minute or two - so the entire time she was v.e.r.y.  t.h.o.r.o.u.g.h.l.y. applying Lidocaine to the entire area and for a minute or two more, he was screaming bloody murder.  IT STINGS IT STINGS MOMMY MAKE IT STOP, MOOOOOMMMMMYYYYYY. Sobbing and sobbing.  I swear to god I almost passed out.  I'm not the least little bit squeamish so I was watching what she was doing, waiting for the stuff to fully take effect, willing it to happen faster.  So I don't know if it was that I became squeamish because he is mine - or if it was just the helplessness of having him squeeze my fingers until the bones were rubbing together while he begged me to make it stop or a combination of both - but I started to get all sweaty and the room got a little wavy, and I became all kinds of nauseated, and I was completely afraid I was going to pass out.  I could reach with my leg a little stool on rollers and I got it under me and sat down.  I just knew if Mommy passed out, Jackson would die - so I somehow managed to get myself the fuck over it by concentrating on a picture across the room and mentally leaving for a few minutes - but holy fucking shit that was close.  I am so not a fainter.  I think I've fainted once in my life and that was due to extreme pain.

We're driving home from the hospital and....

Jack: will this be a scar I have for the rest of my life?
Me: It sure will.  We'll have to come up with a good story.
Jack: Well... Teddy's already used the "knife fight" one.
Me: yeah, well I think you could still use it if you wanted to - or, how about Harry Potter's apprentice?
Jack: Hmmm? Yeah.  I haven't earned the rest of the lightening bolt shape, I'll need a few more knives for the zig-zags. 

Apparently he was fine by that point.  (Uh, Jack... Mommy needs a little more time and a lot of alcohol to be able to switch gears back to fine - I'll have to get back to you when I'm there)

Anyway - he ended up with two stitches inside for the muscles (I was surprised it was only two, but it was just such a straight thing she said it went together perfectly) - and 12 stitches outside.  Frankenstein in the making.  I've talked to the most delightful plastic surgeon this morning who completely reassured me and gave me all kinds of wonderful advice for after care and wants to see him in a week to remove the stitches.  And I'm pretty sure that by the time I wake up tomorrow I'll be able to relax some of my muscles.

Before and after pictures - don't look if you get squeamish!

 

 

Some randomness...

Complete Apathy
First of all can I just say that TOM is visiting (totally still love that acronym) and he has sucked the very life right on out of me.  I'm hoping this click click clicking I'm doing with my fingers right now is going to be the single most strenuous thing I ever have to do for the rest of my life.  My head knows this lackluster, blah, I don't wanna, attitude has to be an extra special gift from my good buddy TOM this month, but seriously, if I could just sit here forever and a day, I'd be one happy camper.

My optimistic husband... (not)
So... Brad and I are watching True Blood last night.  (we got the series a million years ago but never got around to watching it until I finally got around to starting the books which I passed on to him and now we're both enjoying the books and have enjoyed the first several episodes of...)  At some point we hear some noises outside.  It sounded like fire crackers - like you hear all night long on the 4th of July - but it was odd, of course, since it was the 6th of March.  But... eh.  We've got 300ish kids in our neighborhood and who knows what someone might be doing at any given time.  We made note of it and kept watching.  A little while later we see flashing lights reflected on the TV and get up to be nosy see if we can lend any assistance and discover a fire truck and an ambulance making their way slowly and silently up our street and then down the side street opposite our driveway.

Brad: Oh great.  That was gunfire.  (not that it isn't possible, but we live in la la land suburbia where the only gunfire we hear is when they do scheduled deer population reducing hunts in the state park behind our house).  Had to have been at Gene's house.  (um seriously?  Gene's house?  I haven't seen hide nor hair of this neighbor two houses down from us in... well all winter).

Me: The slow and silent ambulance and firetruck have tapped into your super powers so you know those pops we heard earlier was gunfire at Gene's house?  Okay, I'll bite, how do you get from A to B in this story?

Brad: Jamie (another neighbor) told me there have been some domestic disputes between Gene and his wife who left a while ago.

Me: Don't you think a cop might show up if they thought there was gunfire?

(meanwhile the 2 pieces of emergency equipment make their way to the end of the cul-de-sac and slowly turn around and come back towards our house, stopping across the street from Gene's house.)

Brad: See!  I told you so!  They're going to Gene's house.  I knew it.

Me: uh... I'm thinking they're going to the house across the street - you know, since that's where they parked.  I'm pretty sure they'd stay on the correct side of the road and pull up right in front of Gene's if that's where they were going.  And I'm thinking it's not a serious emergency as they're not speeding or even sort of hurrying.  And I really think the absence of a cop car make the gunfire choice really unlikely.

Brad: No, watch them, they're getting out of the trucks - they're going to go into Gene's.

They went into Tony's house across the street. Where they'd parked.  They left about 15 minutes later.  I patted Brad's arm and drug him back to the TV.

Spring sports insanity
I completely get I'm not alone here and I also know I've already whined about this before - but that in no way means I'm not going to whine about it again.  All the initial sports emails have started to circulate and it got me a little worried so I wrote down what our sports weeks are going to look like when everything is in full swing and holy fucking shit.  In each seven day period, in addition to the grownups' full time jobs and the kids' school and homework we have.
1 soccer practice - 1 hour each
1 flag football practice - 1 hour each
2 baseball practices - 1 hour each
2 batting cage practices - 1 hour each
1 soccer game - 1 1/2 hours each
1 flag football game - 1 hour each
4 baseball games - 2 1/2-3 hours each
That's 19.5 hours of stuff.  And that doesn't include any driving time to and from those things or the waiting time that inevitably happens because an earlier game went long.  We've done four things before, but we've never done two time sucking America's past-time baseball's at the same time and one of the four was always something like swimming lessons - so it was just an hour a week for that.  We only have two kids!!  How did this happen?  And how in God's name do you all manage it when you've got more than two?

Trapped!

It's freakin' pouring on Sunday!!!  Like seriously.. it's time to build a new ark.  But our first little league practices for both of them (at the same time thank you Jesus!!) is scheduled for 4:30.  Will they cancel it thinking the dogs and cats falling from the sky might hit one of the cute little kids up side their heads?  Nope - we'll still get together and talk and pass out uniforms yadda, yadda, yadda.  All four of us go so I can go with Ted and Brad can go with Jack.  We get there and the three boys fly out of the car while I am putting on my rain coat and readying my umbrella.  I tell them I'll be right behind them and they leave.  And then a minute or two later... I hear it.  The dreaded sound.  The car's being locked with the remote.  Brad's forgotten I'm in the car.  (We have a very strong relationship)  I get myself ready and debate what to do.  I know good and well, the second I open the car door the alarm is going to go off and everyone in the park (oh did I mention that of all the baseball organizations in our league - only ours is at the park - the rest of them were smart enough to leave the hurricane to mother nature).   I call him, does he answer?  Nope.  I think the thunderous rain probably drowned (lol) out the sound of his phone.  So... out I go to a cacophony of horns and beeps and the strobe of flashing lights.  It's all very exciting!!  Is all this fuss about little 'ol me?  You shouldn't have.... seriously!

I just love love love to have lots of people looking at me (NOT!!!)  Is one of those people my husband?  Nope.  How about one of my cute little kids?  Not a chance.  Where are they, you might ask.  Who the fuck knows, I might answer.  I have to get out of and walk away from the flashing and beeping car.  People are pointing and laughing - man she sure is an idiot - how can she just walk away from all that racket.  Poor, pitiful thing, must not know how to turn all those lights and noises off.  Should we tell her to just hit the button on the remote, or should we just keep laughing???  I'm searching high and low for a random member of my family.  Hell, by this point I'd settle for a mechanic who could disable the damn thing.  Finally I spot Brad happily reconnecting with his fellow coaches from last year.  HEY BRADFORD!!!!! (I didn't say - 'you fucking idiot') THAT'S YOUR (God forsaken fucking) VAN!!!  YOU (fucking) LOCKED ME IN THE (fucking) CAR!!   Again - did I mention loving being the center of attention? Jackson looks up at him - I told you that sounded like your car, dad!

My beautiful little boy...

When Brad’s in town he handles the kids in the mornings.  It helps him get up and going as he works from home when not traveling which he does about 1/3 of the time.  Brad’s gone through Wednesday so the annoying, suck-the-life-out-of-me delightful, best-things-in-my-life kids are all mine (again I can’t stress enough how in awe I am with single parents).  When it’s me in the morning I get Ted out of the house to the bus by about 7:25ish and then usually Jack is chomping at the bit to leave right behind him because he LOVES morning care at his school.  This is great for me as I’m out of the mom business quickly I’m not only always on time to work when Brad’s out of town, but I’m usually early – Bonus!

This morning for the first time ever, I attempted to get on the treadmill in the morning while I have morning kid duty.  I usually do it in the afternoons if Brad’s away, but I thought I’d give it a try, with at least a quick trip on the treadmill this morning.  (and I’m planning on trying my zumba discs tonight with the kids, I’m thinking it’ll be fun, I’ll get some more exercise and hopefully it’ll keep me from killing them.)

Anyway – I’m up and on the treadmill by 6 which was cutting it a little close, but I figured I’d do 36 minutes (my current session minimum – it increases by 1 minute each week, though I almost always do more than the minimum) and all would be well.  It worked out fine, though it was seriously hard to even get through that much for some reason this morning – but it is what it is.  Got Ted, who never met a morning he didn’t despise which is extra special given his burgeoning teenage hormones, up and out with little issues.  Was running a little behind, but no real problems.  Just going to throw some makeup on my face then pack my lunch and we’re off.  Jackson comes into my bathroom at about 7:45.

Jack: Mom, I need a picture of Ben Roethlisberger.

Me: Um… now?

J: yeah.

M: It’s too late now, you should have told me earlier.

J: But I have to have it

M: (putting on mascara and silently cursing the gods) Why do you need it?

J: For my hero paper

M: (Oh Jesus Fucking Christ! Deep breath, smile openly at my young son.)  You picked Ben Roethlisberger as your hero for a paper?

J: yeah (My baby of such eloquence)

M: Honey, Ben is not the right guy to be your hero.  He’s not a good enough man.  He’s a great football player, but definitely not hero material. (no way are we having a discussion about sexual assault before 8am on a Tuesday).

J: (near tears) But I’ve already written the paper and I need a picture.

C: (showing considerable restraint) Babe, we are usually gone by now and you pick this moment to tell me you need a picture?  You should have told me last night.

J: (eyes now spilling over) I keeeeeep fooooorrrgeetttiing.

C: (Oh dear God, seriously, we’re going to have crying over fucking idiot boy Roethlisberger).  Before we leave, I’ve got to make my lunch, finish getting the house ready for the cleaners, pull out the sheets and get your lunch ready and finish putting my makeup on (which was really done, but still, I was annoyed) and now you want me to add finding and printing an appropriate picture to the list in the next 7 minutes?

J: I could find the picture

C: No, you can go make sure there’s nothing on the ground the cleaners might suck up in the vacuum.

Picture found and printed, house readied, lunches made – grab the picture off the downstairs printer…. And it only printed the top fifth of the picture.  Fuck fuck fuckity fuck.  Do not yell at the boy, the printer problem is not his fault.  (The printer(s) and my Mac have never been friends and have caused many a gray hair – but Brad assured me it was all fixed before he left.)  Just then as I’m running back upstairs to the laptop to see what the problem was Brad called.  Seriously honey – I don’t have time for you now – the printer stopped and Jack needs a fucking picture.  I dispense with Brad and wheel around to run upstairs to try printing again and my cute little boy, sensing his mommy’s frustration says.  Well, I don’t really need it today.

Me: (I’m not sure why he thought this would lower my stress level) Uh.. .WHAT?!?  I’ve been running around looking for, finding, then fighting with the printer about a picture you don’t really need, and now you mention you don’t need it?  Seriously?

J: Well I don’t think I have to bring it in today?

M: (with a fake, plastic smile on my face which is what kept me from lunging at him) When might it be due?

J: I’m not sure, but most everybody else already brought theirs in.

M: (said in the sing-song voice used by those who inhabit insane asylums for long periods of time) It’s okay dear, I’ll just get that printer working and we’ll get  you your picture and we’ll be off.  Is that okay dear?  Oh and PICK UP THE PAPER AND THE LEASH. (smiling again) Okay, I’ll be right back sweetie. 

A busy Saturday and the roarin' 20s

We had a very full Saturday!  It started with everyone's favorite - household chores including the dreaded laundry.  Then we moved on to the first round of basketball playoffs for Teddy.  He's 12 and this is probably the 2nd year where everyone on the court actually knows how to play the game and so it's usually fun to watch the games for the sport of it.  His team is pretty good, but not amazing.  They work very well together as a team, but don't have any really stand out players.  It's their passing and other fundamentals which have gotten them this far - which if you're a sport's fan is fun to watch.  Anyway their game was an extremely stressful nail-biter from start to finish.  The kids on both teams played aggressively on both sides of the ball and there were a lot of fouls on both sides not called - which is not a good thing at this age, I think.  They eventually won by 3 points, but not without first causing quite a few gray hairs in the parents of both teams.


Then we had a gap where we got to do more chores (woo hoo) before heading to Jack's playoff game.  Jackson's team was undefeated for the first half of the season and then they got their first loss - and they've never won again.  This is the first team I've ever seen that seems to have gotten worse as the season progresses.  We think they won the beginning games on their natural athletic ability and by the middle of the season the rest of the teams had learned more about the game and had plays and strategies and whatnot to more than counteract any random group of 9 and 10 year olds.  Anyway - it was the ass kicking to end all ass kicking.  They went into the 4th quarter losing 1 to 16, and that 1 point had been scored very early in the 1st quarter.  Finally Jack scored and then 2 of his team mates scored and it ended up 7 to 18, but man - there were plenty of tears.


And the damn games before his had run really late so Jack's game was more than an hour late in getting started - the event we were going to started at seven and we didn't get home until about quarter of seven.  So mad dash to get ready and then off to a Roarin' 20s themed fundraiser for the library.  Several of our friends we play fantasy football with were there and we had a great time playing with them there followed by some fun at a local bar.


Here's a picture, though I've ruined the deceptively simple lines of the dress by lifting it high enough to show you the gun on my garter - isn't it cute!!

And man, I swear my kitchen walls are not THAT yellow in real life!!


And in not good news - Ricky has been admitted to the hospital with congestive heart failure and pneumonia.  Hopefully she'll be released with some new medicine very soon, but any good thoughts or prayers would be much appreciated.  

Twas the Night Before Christmas

As is our tradition, we read the book right before bedtime on Christmas Eve.  Brad directed us to look like we were completely absorbed in the book for a silly picture.  And Jack being Jack went his own way and decided to check out how clean his nails were.  So very typical Jackson.

A quick Disney recap - I'm totally missing all of you!!

We had an absolute ball!!!  It wasn’t too short or too long – just perfect.  We hit every park at least twice and also did one of their water parks and Universal too.  The weather was completely perfect.  It was roughly 80 degrees and sunny the whole week.  There was a very quick shower a couple of times, but when it’s 80 degrees who cares!  And we got a beautiful rainbow out of it too!  (if you look closely you can see it’s even a double rainbow)

I’ve decided I’m not doing enough pictures on this blog and that just has to stop right now!  Though because I’m still wildly crazed getting ready for the party (In. Two. More. Days.) I’m only going to post a few I took with my phone as I have them right here with me at work.

Oh, and on the last day as we were driving out of the Wilderness Lodge on our way to Epcot an honest to goodness bald eagle swooped down and landed right by the side of the road near us and then flew up and landed on a nearby tree branch.  I’ve never ever seen one in the wild before and I totally took it as a good omen of things to come!!  On the eating front, I ate far too much ice cream and a whole lot of really good salmon.  I gained a few pounds but there’s no doubt the majority of it was water weight as I’m back down below my last weigh in as of this morning.

I only had a couple of pictures of Ted from the whole week on my phone – he’s way, way, too cool for school these days but here’s one that he and Jack staged of Jack pushing him into a big fountain.

Here’s another of the two of them coming out of English phone booth while in the middle of a totally and completely cool Kim Possible scavenger hunt where various inanimate objects interact with you at the press of your super secret decoder receiver.  I think they’d just been given a golf ball by the phone booth here, though that may have been later.

We spent Thanksgiving dinner with Mickey and friends at Mickey’s back yard bar-b-q and this is Jackson dancing up a storm with Goofy.  This is now one of my all time favorites of him!

This next one is Brad being a good sport and a good dad participating in a little competition with another dad from the audience.  Both men had just had these cute little frilly aprons put on them and come back from back stage and Jackson had just yelled out to the world in general “Work that Apron!!!”  As you can see, both Brad and the host are laughing hilariously at it.  It was seriously funny!

I’ll leave you with a picture of the stunning castle all lit up for Christmas.  It was truly amazing.  So, so beautiful!

 

As soon as the party’s over I’ll really be back and will have time to catch up and everything!  At this moment, I’m spending every lunch hour at a store buying stuff and every evening decorating or staging stuff for the party.  It’s coming along and tonight, I’ll really be putting stuff; chaffing dishes, wine glasses, serving platters, etc out where they belong and we’ll just have to live around them for the next day and a half.

I hope everyone is having a great couple of weeks and I truly look forward to catching up!

I am thankful for.....

• My beautiful Teddy - though he constantly challenges me with his teenage attitude he never ceases to amaze me with his thoughtful curiosity and beautifully gentle ways (when he forgets to hide those parts from us).  
• My amazing Jackson - his witty, dry, humor keeps us laughing even while he's creating the mischief only his warped brain can find.
• My husband Brad - I'm not sure what the future holds for us, but I know confidently I'm a better person for having his kindness and love and support in my life and my children are truly blessed for having such a big kid as such a loving protector.
• My life that allows me to be writing this from the Wilderness Lodge in the happiest place on earth while my husband and kids are wrapping up an early morning trip to the Magic Kingdom (letting mommy sleep in a bit) before we all head over to Blizzard Beach for an afternoon frolicking in the water before coming back to have a Thanksgiving Day bar-b-q with Mikey and friends before heading out on a pirate ship to watch the fireworks - who does this?  So much fun and we are so blessed to be able to do it!!!
• My friend Camille who knows every part of me; the good, the bad, the perverted and warped, the goofy and deranged, the kinky, the scared, the hopeful and the doubtful and loves me for (not despite) all of it.
• This blogging community that's been so delightfully supportive in so many fun and serious ways.

And so many, many other things I can't begin to single out - I am truly blessed and hope to take more time this year to appreciate every bit of it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Just some randomness...

An NSV
So... (why do I start so many sentences with so or okay?) I got this email coupon a couple of weeks ago from Lee.com for 50% off everything for one day plus free shpping.  First of all I now feel like a heel for not posting that information and promise I will next time I learn of something like that.  But anyway, Lee jeans and pants fit my curves particularly well.  I have an hourglass shape and their pants do a nice job of not gapping at the waist and they're flattering too.  Anyway... I thought it would be stupid not to take advantage of this deal as my size 18Ws are getting way too baggy even right out of the dryer.  So I spent just over $100 and got 5 pairs of pants in varying sizes.  I got 2 16Ws (one jean and one black pant I could wear on a casual day to work) thinking I could wear those right now, an 18 regular (a 2nd pair of jeans) thinking I could also probably wear those right now and 2 regular 16s (one jean and one pant I could wear to work) thinking I'd have some wardrobe basics available to me in (hopefully) the not too distant future.  Well... today I put on the 16W black pants thinking they'd probably still be a touch too tight and I'd still have to wait another week or two... but no.  They fit fine.  I happily got dressed and headed to work.  AND in just the couple of hours I've had them on, they've really stretched out (not in a bad way, just in the way pants do) and OMG, they're a tad baggy.  They're certainly fine to wear, but it's really not going to be for long.  I'm definitely going to have to go home and try on the regular 16s which I haven't done, I think if I'm too close to fitting into them, I may try to exchange them for 14s so I have a longer term goal to achieve.... hmmmm, but yay!

The 'crazy' legacy continues
I swear to God my younger son is me in cute little boy form.  Of course I'm my mom in chubby middle aged woman form so it shouldn't be that surprising.  But he is just the goofiest thing I've ever known.  He will randomly throw out totally nonsensical things for no particular reason.  Last night I was putting him to bed and he kept saying things like... "12 small cokes" or "hello gov'ner" (in a snappy little english accent).  Sometimes at bed time we'll just have these stupid conversations... him: small flies, me:orange mist, him: butterfly, me: cookies, him: target practice... we keep going until one of us has to pause and think about it before we answer.  We've never discussed the rules of this game - it just started one day and we both knew how to play, and when it's over we know who won and just move on.  Or he'll just walk up and randomly poke you while he says "poke" in a quiet flat voice (of course I do the same thing to my husband - it's his favorite, really it is).  Unfortuantely he's also the most stuborn human alive (though my husband swears on all that's Holy that he's only the second most stubborn human alive (can you all guess who he thinks is number 1?))  So sometimes he'll dig in his heels and keep doing what he shouldn't or refuse to do what he should for way, way longer than anyone else I know... poke poke poke poke poke.  Should I be proud or horrified that the crazy continues?

Teddy's thumb
It was his thumb that the dog bit the other day.  Bandit's top teeth were on his thumb nail and his bottom teeth were on the side of his thumb.  The side where the real cut is, is healing nicely, though he'll definitely have a scar.  He's on antibiotics and antibiotic cream since it's his right hand and it touches everything so he'll be fine.  BUT OMG his thumb nail has this crack right through it about a quarter of an inch from the bottom.  You know how if you have longish nails and you do something and your nail breaks really low and it's horrifying because it hurts and you just know if it comes off the rest of the way it's going to hurt WAY worse.  Well this isn't hurting him like that yet, but it hurts me to look at it.  The whole nail bed is slowly turning purple, I'm assuming on it's way to black, and I just don't want to even think about what could be coming for him.  He has no frame of reference for that pain so he's fine with it and I'm hoping that the body will create a protective undercoat before the nail falls off, but it's seriously hard for me to even look at it when I'm putting the cream on.

A little oogie and a little NSV

oogie
On Friday night Teddy had a soccer game and my sister and her family came out to watch as well as my mom and step dad.   My mom and step dad come to at least one game per grandchild per sport season and they have 7 grand kids most of whom are active so that's a lot of running around, but it was the first time my sister has ever come to see one of the boys play.  There are a variety of cynical reasons running around in my brain, but I'm trying really hard to just be grateful that she came as Teddy absolutely LOVED that his whole family was on the sidelines cheering him on and it's always delightful to see my nieces.

But for the oogieness.... Jackson and I walked up to a spot where Lara (sister) and family could see us so we could direct them to the correct field and as Lara got up to me she was totally giving me the long hairy eyeball.  A long slow sweep from toe to neck - totally checking to see if I look like I've lost any weight.  I completely felt like a piece of meat - much like a virgin in a biker bar (shudder).  Once she got her eye full she gave herself a quick nod and then started walking towards the field and started in on some innocuous small talk.  "so, what's up? how're they doing?"  She didn't say a word to me about whatever she saw and that was the end.  It totally made me feel all icky, clearly I still regret having told her about the band.

NSV

Today at Jackson's flag football game Teddy brought a soccer ball and asked me to kick it around with him which I did.  There wasn't anything particularly strenuous about what we were doing, just kicking a ball back and forth - or trying to kick it over the other one's head, but....  6 months ago, hell 4 months ago, I wouldn't have done that.  Or maybe I would have, but only for a couple of minutes.  Whereas today, I just had fun with my 12 year old son, kicking the ball, running to retrieve it, blocking his harder ones, etc.  I was up and playing during the entire game.  We stopped when Jackson was in the game; offense or defense, and the play was going on, but beyond that we played.  And while I was out there, I knew that it was because I'd gotten the band that I was up playing with my kid and that was a beautiful thing!!!

Meet the kids

First we have Teddy, he's 12.  He's a carbon copy of my husband in every way except looks.  He looks like me only way cuter, but he is so completely and utterly my husband it's hilarious.  He plays soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball and soccer in the spring and he swims in the summer.  Despite all these sports he's the laziest human alive.  (Okay my husband is neither an athlete nor remotely lazy - it's his personality not his habits that are Brad's)  He's too smart for his own good and has yet to be challenged in school so it's easy for him to slack off.  He's working on that.  He's thoughtful and empathetic and kind (except to his brother).  Adults love him as he's a 40 year old in a 12 year old's body and he listens carefully and asks thoughtful questions.  He loves to read so much so that every single night since he could first honestly read a book on his own we have had to go back into his room after putting him to bed to take the book he turned his light back on to read away from him.  The books have changed but the nightly ritual has not.  This is not a good picture of him, but it's the best recent one I have.

 

And then there's Jackson.  He's almost 10 and insane.  He's very cute and has a very infectious personality.  He's extremely witty and fully understands sarcasm and irony.  He makes us laugh every single day.  He'll just drop a very dry one liner quietly into a conversastion and have us all laughing till we're wiping away the tears.  He too plays sports all year long; flag football, basketball, flag football and we're going to try baseball this spring too, and swimming in the summer.  He's really the true athlete of the family, but he has anxiety issues so it's hard for him to try.  But usually once he does he likes it.  He idolizes his brother, though claims to hate him.  They're at fun ages - not.  He regularly checks with me to ask if it's okay if he goes jogging around the neighborhood.  Who does that at age 9?  (or 8 for that matter) - crazy kid.  He frequently speaks with an accent or in a made up language - which my mother is known for as well. Currently he's walking around saying "flergin flagger" in a bad Swiss accent.  No idea where this came from, but it's oh so Jackson. Oh I didn't say, he's me.  Completely and utterly me.  Very practical, tons of common sense, and a little crazy. Me as an apple didn't fall far from my mom's tree and Jackson is sitting right on my feet roots.