Summer is too short!

Today I came to the conclusion that this summer just is not long enough!  That’s pretty bad for the longest summer break we’ll have for quite some time.  After a great recital weekend dance is over for the year.  We still have two weeks of ball.   By the time that’s over, June will be almost over.  Last week we signed Donovan up to play football this fall.  He’s playing on a rocket football team in St. Louis.  His practices start in August.  That means our summer is basically July.  We got the calendar out tonight to plan some vacation time.  We have been waiting to schedule our trip to Virginia until the Canada fishing trip got scheduled.  We ended up tentatively deciding on a date for Virginia.  We’ll be gone for the 4th of July for almost a week if we can get someone to watch the dog that long.  We are having trouble getting time for camping figured out.  We’ll get a least a couple trips in, they’ll just be last minute type trips.   I don’t know how we’ll manage a trip to Higgins Lake.

The kids are thrilled to be on summer break now.  They slept until almost 9 today, which is pretty late for my kids.   I got them signed up for the summer reading program through the library and they are doing the reading challenge the school gives them every year.  We went to the library today and the girls both got 5 books.  Donovan doesn’t like anything, I found lots of sports books but he wasn’t interested.  We will also be working on some math to keep them on track for next year.  The girls have both set some dance related goals this summer too.  Paige is continuing to work on her splits.  She can’t quite get the one-leg-in-front splits yet so will work on those.  Tessa wants to learn to skip because that is a skill she will need next year.  Paige also wants to learn to do a cartwheel and a handstand and she’s still working on riding a two-wheeler.   Jon and I are losing patience with her on this so hopefully she gets it soon.  Donovan has no goals…that’s typical.  Oh, unless he has secretly set a goal to talk until we go crazy, he’s well on his way with that. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, considering that our plans were very up in the air for awhile, we ended up having a pretty nice weekend.  Our main problem was that Donovan’s coach was trying to schedule a make-up game for either Friday night or Saturday morning.  We couldn’t make any plans until we knew one way or another.   Since we hadn’t heard anything by Saturday morning we felt free to move on with our weekend.  It was very frustrating to not know what was going on.  Saturday we all went to Mark & Linda’s cottage.  The weather turned out so nice, the kids even went swimming!  After roasting a hot dog over the campfire I headed home to finish off my weekend with Daisy.

I feel bad that I enjoy my time here alone as much as I do.  I got up both days and went for a walk with Daisy.  I went shopping Sunday and then did some cleaning and yard work.  Monday I mowed the lawn and did some other things outside.  It was just so nice to do what I wanted, when I wanted and not worry about feeding kids and keeping them from killing each other.  When I cleaned, it stayed clean! 

It was nice to have them all home again today.  I do miss them when they are gone!

Donovan ended up having a low-key but nice birthday.  He was happy, and that alone feels like a  miracle these days.   I’m having a hard time believing that he’s nine.  It’s been a big year for him.  He seems to have overcome a lot of the struggles he’s had with reading.  He has all but stopped playing with toys and is only really interested in sports, sports cards and video games.  Does this mean that he’s a tween?  His personality has changed so much.  He has become pretty obnoxious, which we could live without.  He can be pretty darn funny too.  He’s been working on perfecting the fine art of sarcasm, which makes Jon and I very proud!  We definitely know he’s ours!   I can’t wait to see who he becomes in the coming years.

I’ve been neglectful!

Once again, it’s been a long time since I managed to get a post written!  I’ve been so busy and since I didn’t think anyone wanted to read “Today Donovan had a ball game”.  “Today Paige had dance and then we went to Tessa’s game and then Paige’s game” over and over I just didn’t bother.  Our entire family is exhausted all the time…it’s ridiculous.  The kids haven’t been to bed on time in weeks and once we get home from whichever ball game we’ve been to that night and get kids to bed Jon and I just collapse and are barely ambitious enough to change the channel when needed.  A long weekend is exactly what everyone needs.

The exhaustion has taken it’s toll on me.  Last Friday was the day Paige’s teacher said she could take in her birthday snack.  (Seriously, I would not be sad if they just ignored the summer birthdays!)  We had two ball games Thursday night and I didn’t want to stay up all night so I baked the cupcakes that morning.  After we got the kids to bed I started frosting.  As I’m frosting I start counting cupcakes.  Her teacher asked for 24 snacks so I baked 24 cupcakes.  So why the hell do I now only have 22?  I can’t even tell you how long I wandered around the house looking for those 2 cupcakes.  I assumed I had wandered off to do something with them in my hand and put them down somewhere.  Not that I ever do that!  Then I thought Jon & Tessa must have each had one when they came home from Paige’s game a little early.   Nope, I finally figure that the stupid-ass dog  must have stolen two.   I have cut down the amount of food she gets and she seems to be resentful.  I keep all food pushed way back on the counter but I must have left two on the edge.  Now, I am not proud of how I reacted.  Seriously, I cried.  Real crying.  It was freakin’ 10:30 and I needed two more damn cupcakes.  Jon took pity on me and mixed them up.  I cannot tell you how pissed I was that Paige brought home five of  those stupid cupcakes!

Meanwhile that night, while I was trying to frost those cupcakes I was fighting with Donovan.  He had a science test Friday and was not studying.  He was being a giant pain in the ass to be honest.  In the middle of all the studying he suddenly grabbed his face and started yelling and crying.  His eye hurt, it was really red and he couldn’t keep it open.  He had been playing on the school playground during Paige’s game so I figured he had sand in his eye.  We rinsed that eye out over and over and finally he decided he could go to bed.  The next morning he said it still hurt and it still felt like there was something in it.  I assumed he was trying to get out that science test.  I told him I would call the eye doctor but if he was lying he was going to look like a fool.  The doctor removed two pieces of sand from his eye that she said were stuck enough that they wouldn’t have come out on their own.  Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t blow him off!

We are all looking forward to the long weekend.  We’re all heading up to Big Lake tomorrow.   Jon and the kids will stay until Mon. but I’m coming back tomorrow night to stay with the dog.  I’m looking forward to my alone time.  Does that make me bad mom?  I hope not, I need a break. 

Ball Season

Well, ball season has started for Donovan and Paige. Tessa starts next week. This is what our calendar for this week looks like this:

Monday: Donovan-ball practice
Tuesday: Donovan and Paige-religion, Paige-ball practice
Wednesday: Donovan-ball practice
Thursday: Paige-dance, Paige-ball practice
Friday: Jon and I go to the Red Wings game!!!!

Guess which day I'm actually excited about!

The Monday thru Thursday schedule will pretty much be our life until the third week of June. We are thinking about celebrating ball being over by going to Alabama for Katie H.'s wedding. We haven't decided about that yet. We are planning a trip to Virginia this summer and can't decide if we want to take two big driving trips in two months.

Such a Nice Day

Today was such a great day,  the weather was beautiful!  We got some things done that needed to be done and did some fun stuff too!  This morning I took Paige shopping.  The child needed some clothes for summer.  I have been getting out summer clothes and going through everybody’s things to see what still fit and where we were lacking.  Donovan seems to be able to wear summer clothes forever so he’s not doing too bad.  The biggest issue with him is how picky he’s getting and his changing  “style”.  Tessa has so many clothes I’m not sure I’ll be able to fit them all in her drawer.    She’s pretty much set, although I always find things here and there that I have to have for her.  Paige had the most pathetic little stack of summer clothes I have ever seen.  She’s starting to have definite ideas about her clothes and is a little picky about how her clothes feel, plus I didn’t know what size she needed for sure so I needed her to go along.  She got quite a few adorable outfits, but mostly clearance and the “Jumping Beans” stuff from Kohl's so I didn’t have to spend a ton of money.  She was most excited about getting a new bathing suit and a pair of flip flops with frogs on them.  It was a nice “mother/daughter outing”.

When I got home I cleaned out the garage that had hardly been looked at since Tessa’s party.  I got tables set up for the garage sale and got all my tubs of garage sale stuff in the garage.  I’ll start pricing tomorrow. 

Tessa practiced hitting and Donovan played catch with Jon for a while.  Moving up a level is proving a little tricky for Donovan so Jon worked on a few specific things with him.  Donovan has practice again tomorrow and Paige has her first practice Tuesday.  We got a call from Tessa’s coach but there aren’t any practices scheduled yet.  Ball season is under way!

We got some yard work done, Jon and I played some basketball with Donovan (that’s quite a sight, I’m sure!) and the girls and I took the fat dog for a walk around “the loop”.  The fat dog has been exhausted ever since so that did it’s job.  She’s much less annoying when we’ve tired her out.

Now, the kids are all in bed and we just finished watching the Red Wings kick ass in the play-offs so it’s a good ending to a nice day!

Carnival Time

Well, I think we managed to pull off the carnival party pretty well.  Tessa and Leah seemed to think it was great fun to share a party and I think all the kids had fun.  Shelley had fun doing the face painting and she did such a great job!  And Nick and Eric ended up being pretty good carnies! 

Ryan at the duck pond

 

Shelley painting faces

Tessa opening Barbie Thumbelina

Nick making Maddie hold his beer

I’ve got more pictures on my Facebook page if you’re interested.

It's been a while!

I know, I know, I haven't written anything in a long time. Not for any real reason either. Sure, I've been busy but just with basic, everyday stuff. I just haven't been very motivated. I still don't have much to say but I can let you know what's been going on with us.

Paige went to the doctor a week ago and he was pleased with how her arm is healing. She goes back next Monday and he seemed optimistic that her cast would come off then. Now if we could get her mood fixed we'd be all set. She's always been dramatic but lately, holy cow! Last Thursday she cried all the way to dance because she didn't have a snack to eat in the car. Not that she didn't have a snack, that she didn't have one in the car. Because the girl ate from the time she came home until it was time to leave. She got herself so worked up that when we got there she refused to go into ballet. Miss Jillian (the owner) came over to talk to her and wanted to sign her cast and Paige wouldn't let her. I finally opened the studio door and PUT her in class. She sat next to the door the entire time and would not dance. I was MAD. She did join in during tap class and acted like nothing ever happened. She is sooo stubborn! We had a big talk about how she has a responsibility to the girls in her class to do her best and how each class is important because they are learning their dance for recital and blah, blah, blah. We are also going to figure out how much that class cost us and make her work off that amount. We want her to understand that this is not cheap and she needs to take it seriously. Who knows if that will work.

Donovan had try-outs for summer ball. He is trying to move up from where he is supposed to be (based on age) so he can play with his classmates. The cut-off date is May 1 so he misses it by three weeks. Every other year is one level behind his class. Most of the rest of his class will be playing with the 9-10 year olds so he thought he'd try out for that level. Unfortunately they have more boys than usual signed up. They decided to add a team so that's good news. The bad news is that he got really nervous and didn't do as well as he could have. Jon also heard somebody say they don't have enough kids for the level he is supposed to play at. Jon said there were a lot of kids better than him and a lot of kids worse than him. If those kids that were worse than him are actually 9 or 10, I would imagine they would get the spots before him. I guess we just wait and see. Right now he says he's not playing if he can't move up, again we'll have to wait and see.

Tessa has continued on her quest to try and get the kids taken away from us. After her encounter with the deer antler she has run into a wall (damn thing jumped right out in front of her!) and fallen off our bed onto the wood floor resulting in a goose-egg and then lovely bruise on her forehead. She also seems to have decided that it wasn't good enough to carry the Terrible 2's through the 3's, it appears she is gearing up to barrel straight on into the 4's. She has just been a stinker lately. The problems seem to mostly involve food. She thinks she needs to eat all. the. time. Her favorite meal? Corn. Seriously, I ask her what she wants for lunch, she tells me "A can of corn". Fortunately for her, she is freaking hilarious. She is so funny, she has us all laughing all the time.

The big thing we're gearing up for is her birthday party that she's sharing with Leah. The carnival theme is a lot of fun to work with. All the kids (and Leah, who's here so much she feels like one of ours) are sooo excited about it. They are full of helpful suggestions about games and prizes. And they keep offering lots of motivation to get things done. Donovan told me the other day that if I didn't go work on the ticket booth right now we were not having a party. Nice. It's good to see that he does hear me when I talk. He can spit back exactly what I would say to them, it's too bad he never listens to me. So he's hearing but not listening. Still better than Jon who doesn't even hear me when I talk.

I've been trying to figure out something we can do for spring break. Donovan is the only one with any suggestions. His were Virginia, Chicago or Georgia. We're going to Virginia this summer, I'm not ready to do Chicago with the kids again yet (it's only been 16 months since the last time, talk to me in 3 years) and Georgia? He doesn't know of anything to do in Georgia, he just wants to go there. I wanted to go to Columbus to go to COSI but apparently I am a big science geek and nobody else thinks that would be fun. That was Jon's take on it. He has no ideas so he is not helpful.

Jon has been trying to figure out how to work 60 hours a week and also go ice fishing on a regular basis. He is failing on both counts. He only works 50 -57 hours an week and has only been fishing twice in the last two weeks. Pretty soon I'll have to get him an anti-depressant to deal with this failure. Oh, and he has also been dealing with me while I prepare for the birthday party and while I nag him daily about ordering the laptop he promised me for my birthday. So I guess he earned some credit there. He lost it when I discovered that he managed to order waders for himself but still has not ordered my laptop, or the ceiling tiles for the landing that he was going to order two months ago.

So that's what's been going on around here. I've got a ton to do to get ready for the birthday party so I probably won't be back before then but I'll post some pics afterwards.


Edited to add: I guess I was wrong about not having much to say!

Qoute of the Day

"Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit."

I got this from my sister-in-law Cindi. I find it to be very true. Except for maybe the groceries part, for me anyway. If you give me groceries you may well end up with crap. At the very least, you'll end up with a pissed off Lisa, because you all know-- I don't cook!

The Downside of Not Getting Sick Very Often

So I've been sick for about 3 1/2 weeks now. Mostly chest congestion and coughing... a lot of coughing. Yesterday something started going on with my sinuses. Needless to say there has been a lot of mucus involved. I had thought about going to the doctor, it would get a little better so I would put it off. I don't have time to go to the doctor anyway. Today I had had enough. So I called good ol' Dr. Buchweitz. I hate making the drive to Lansing but I still haven't gotten around to finding a doctor around here. I've only had six years, I'll get to it! I know it's been awhile since I've gone to see her. Apparantly it's been longer than I thought. Like 6 1/2 years. So I am no longer a patient there. After about three years they drop you. (They did offer to try and get me in as a new patient with one of the OTHER doctors there. Not even with our doctor. I declined.) Even if I knew which doctor I wanted to go to we all know it takes a while to get the insurance stuff switched over to a new doctor. So now I actually want to go to a doctor and don't have one to go to. I called PHP to see what they thought I should do, I wouldn't want to break some rule I don't know about and end up having to pay more money than I should. They tell me to go to Urgent Care since it has the same co-pay as an office visit anyway and I can go to any one I want. We've always gone to the Urgent Care at the hospital in Mt. Pleasant. I've never been all that thrilled with our experience there. I've heard ads on the radio about a new Urgent Care in Alma so I decide to try that out. It was so nice! All new and shiny! And there was nobody there. I felt like an idiot telling them I was there because I had been sick for over three weeks and now it was URGENT! But everybody was very nice and I was in and out in less than an hour. I am now armed with Zithromax and an inhaler so hopefully I'll be all better soon. (I have bronchitis and a sinus infection.) I'm hoping I'm better in time to go see Nolan when he decides to show up!

Future Shepherd Pom Girl?

This past Saturday Paige spent the morning at the Pom Clinic that our varsity Pom team does as a fundraiser every year. They spend about three hours learning a routine and then they get to perform at a basketball game. Last night she got to do her routine (to a song from High School Musical) during half-time of the Shepherd vs. Hemlock boy's varsity game. She did great, I was really impressed! We forgot to take the camera but it wasn't too big of a loss. We took pictures last year when she did it and between being too far away, bad lighting and her moving the pictures weren't that great. I did take a picture of her afterward though, she was so proud of herself.

Funny Update

Sorry I've been gone so long, I've been sick. But that's not the funny update. The update is about Rocket, the dog from across the street.

This happened last Wednesday, the same day I posted the story about Rocket. That afternoon the doorbell rings and it's the woman who owns Rocket. She has some potted bulbs (hyacinths, my favorite!) and a thank-you card. She was so grateful that I took care of Rocket and just went on and on. They really are very nice people. Because the door had been opened, Daisy was just sure she had to go out. So I made Donovan take her out. All of a sudden the door slams open, Donovan literally falls through it and he is just sobbing. He's yelling, "Rocket's here, there's a dog fight!" I can't hear anything over him so it obviously can't be that bad, right? I can see he's still hanging on to the leash so I tell him to just bring Daisy in and then it will be over. He pulls as hard as he can and nothing happens, so I have to go out to help him. I haul Daisy in and Rocket follows her up the steps. This all happens right after school gets out so I don't want to just leave Rocket out there, the high schoolers drive like maniacs. I need to just clip a leash on Rocket and take her back home, easy enough right? Except that I'm wearing my green flannel pants with the reindeer on them and they have a hole in the knee. No way am I going out in those. So what to do with Rocket? Since it's me, and I'm slightly crazy, I let her in the house. Yup, two dogs that don't know each other that well and four kids (Leah was here that day) running around like idiots because something new and exciting is happening. I ran upstairs, changed into jeans and took Rocket home. I think they've learned because Rocket isn't being left out in the backyard alone anymore! I thought it was absolutely hilarious Rocket was back over not five minutes after her owner was over about the last incident.

Not so funny is that when Donovan took Daisy out he decided to wear my tennis shoes because he is too lazy to put his boots on. When Rocket came running over, he started running across the yard and lost both my shoes in the process. I didn't know this until he said something about having cold, wet feet. I went out to look for my shoes and found one, half buried in the snow. I've looked and looked and still have not found my other damn shoe!

P.S. I just realized I am wearing the green reindeer pants again, let's hope nobody comes to the door!

Neighborhood Gentle Giant

Our neighbors across the street have a St. Bernard named Rocket. To be honest, this dog used to freak me out! She barked a lot and, while she stayed in her yard, seemed very interested in Daisy. I never really understood how a three-foot picket fence kept this giant dog in. Every so often I would see Rocket walking with her owner and Daisy and Rocket did not seem to like each other very much. I figured Daisy knew this was that annoying dog who always barked at her when she was trying to poop. I wouldn't like her either! One day the kids told me Rocket had jumped the fence when some people were walking their dogs past her yard. After that I was really on guard when Daisy had to go out. Not too long ago, my fears were realized (okay, I almost had to change my pants) when I took Daisy out and all of a sudden I see Rocket running across the street straight at us. When Rocket got to us there was a little growling and a lot of butt sniffing but then they both calmed down. Now I had to figure out how to get this huge dog home. I figured my best bet was to just walk over to the neighbors and hope the dog would follow Daisy. This worked better than I had even hoped. Rocket followed me right up onto her porch and waited while I waited for someone to answer the door. Once she realized her owners wanted her to come in and stop playing she took off. They chased her all over and had a heck of a time catching her.
Yesterday, the kids and I were coming home and we see Rocket in the street. She was apparently trying to help two women walk their dogs. I knew Rocket's owners weren't home because I had just seen them at the eye doctor 10 minutes ago(what a coincidence!), but couldn't figure out why she was wandering around. They never leave her in the yard when they leave. When I let the kids in the house I grabbed our extra leash and went out to see what I could do. Rocket was so interested in the other dogs that she wasn't hard to catch at all. I ended up taking her home and tying her up in the backyard. And started watching for her owners to come home. I stayed with her for awhile and she is just a giant furry baby. What a nice dog. I think she was confused and a little scared. It felt like forever but after two hours Donovan saw the neighbors pull in their driveway. I ran out, grabbed Rocket and headed across the street. You should have seen the kids' faces when they saw me coming across the street with their dog! It turns out they had the appointment at the eye doctor and then the son started hockey and the Dad was trying to get everybody and everything out of the house and totally forgot to let the dog back in. I bet this wouldn't have happened if Mom had been there! There was a lot of traffic last night because there was a home basketball game and things could have really ended badly. I'm glad I helped their dog and I got to know a big lovable ball of fur a little bit better. But I still wish she would stay in her own yard!

It's Been Awhile

Man, I haven't gotten to this in awhile. I've had a few different posts written in my head but I never got here to post them. After a few days they didn't really seem relevant so they never made it here.

I guess I can sum up the last couple weeks.

Christmas was great. Everybody got a ton of stuff and everyone was happy with what they got. It's always very irritating when you see them sitting there surrounded by all these presents and they are upset because they didn't get that one thing. This year when all the commercials started and the kids started their "I want....." I usually would just tell them, "No, you can't have it." Usually followed by a "Fine, I'll just ask Santa." I started telling them we could contact Santa and tell him they couldn't have certain things. I don't know if they believed me but Paige was not upset when she did not get Biscuit the giant, expensive dog. I don't even know why she wanted it. Hello, real dog sitting right in front of you!

New Year's was low-key but fun. Shelley seemed to enjoy herself quite a bit! The Strawberry Daiquiris were yummy. She even got into her "Touche" mood which always makes me laugh!

Tessa got her stitches out Monday(1/5). She was kind of scared to go and I don't blame her. The last time she went it hurt! But she did great and is happy that her "strings" are out and she can take baths again.

Donovan and Paige were not excited to go back to school but seem to be adjusting back to the schedule pretty well. It's too bad we don't even have any three-day-weekends coming up to look forward to. Tessa was thrilled to be back at school. She loves every minute she is there!

Paige did already get a day off though. She woke up Wednesday with a weird rash. Since I didn't know what it was I kept her home and called the doctor. Of course they wanted to see her so off I went to Lansing. (I really need to switch to a doctor up here.) The doctor thought it looked like Scarlet Fever but they haven't called and said the strep test was positive so it might have just been viral. Oh well, I'm just going to keep her on the anti-biotic anyway. She had a cough she couldn't shake and maybe that will go away.

That's a (not so) quick recap of the last couple weeks. Hopefully I'll be better about updating this.