gradumation time

it's that time of year, the grass is growing, the trees have leaft, the summer is almost here. and there are graduates everywhere.

my niece is included in that. does it make me feel old that my niece is graduated from high school? nah, not really. okay, maybe a bit. but in a good "i'm so very mature kind of way"

it was a fun ceremony. and in "fun" what i mean is long and boring. par for the course of graduating. since it has only been 12 years since i walked across the stage, it brought up a lot of silly memories. but that is another post for probably another day. a day i'm sure i will probably forget all about.

and to my niece...


there are a lot things and advice that people can give you, there are a lot of choices you get to make. in my experiences (take that for what it's worth) the best choices that i made, are the ones that i made with my heart and gut. don't let someone else think you into something, just because it might be "the best thing for you to do". don't be scared that you are going to make a wrong choice, because you will, it's just a matter of time. just make a decision. and then go with it. life has a way of working itself out.

i love you girl! you are the kid that i used to babysit, who would take the stools and move them so you could get the cookies on top of the fridge. you were that crazy kid that figured out the vcr so you could watch movies at ease. you were that silly kid who dressed up like jean luc picard and named us all the crew of the enterprise.

you are amazing, and can do anything! congratulations and good luck on the next phase of life!

hugs and kisses,
love,
auntie meemer

i gotta blog about this...

i said these words to big d yesterday. we were doing something, somewhere and there was a moment when i thought "HEY, somebody might enjoy reading this!"

but i didn't write it down, and it flew out of my head.

this happens to me about 10 times a day. honestly. i guess i'd have the coolest blog on the block if i could remember half the things i think to blog about. maybe i should carry a little notebook around with me and write my ideas as they pop into my head. but i would probably set it down somewhere and forget all about it. i do that too. just like i always loose my cell phone. i get a lot of calls on it, from myself, trying to find the damn thing. usually i just set it down somewhere and totally forget where.

anyway, tangent aside, i only blog when i got a spare minute or two. or when i have a sleepy, nursey baby in my arms. both of those things are becoming more rare. the nursey baby is not nursing so much, nor does he nap much anymore. and i've yet to find a spare minute where i couldn't be doing something more constructive, like laundry, dishes, or cleaning up the soda from the floor...

which reminds me of a story. fussy totally threw a can of root beer on the floor and it exploded. well, at least it started spraying soda out a little hole. he kinda freaked out. i kinda freaked out...do you know how hard it is to mop up sugary soda? it's a killer!

but that reminds me of what i originally was going to blog about. but i'm out of time, so i'll do it tomorrow....

tagged again.....

i hate being "it". i hated it when i was a kid, and now that i'm older and wiser and understand the psychology behind playground games, i still don't like. but the fact that i am older and wiser and nicer, means i'll still play along....

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
uh, playing house as a newlywed. 10 years ago i was blissfully unaware at how life can get complicated when you throw kids into the mix. i was also working at the library. i loved that job. we had just taken a trip to see some cousin of big d's get married. i really don't remember that much. we stayed up late, ate lots of bad food, drank kool-aid by the gallon, tried to stay cool in our lil' pip of a house. i loved those days!

5 things on my to do list:
run. run again. run more. run until i die. that is what all this training for wasatch back is. i wish i were running my ass off, but i am eating way more to compensate. which reminds me, i've gotta go get a run in while the baby is sleeping...
okay, maybe cleaning the house, playing with the boys. bury the last baby bird which died. making dinner for my ungrateful brood. finding a graduation gift for my niece....

5 favorite snacks/food:
we went to the health food store yesterday. we used to go all the time, but now, i just don't have time. anyway, we passed by the freeze dried fruit. and instead of saying "man that looks good, i ought to try it sometime!" i totally threw it in the cart. muy deliciouso! and anything else that is bad for me. including diet coke. dude. i'm so addicted.

5 things I would do if I was a billionaire:
buy lots of stuff.
have a freaking housekeeper.
beach vacation for me and all our family (on separate beaches)
pay off my van.
buy me a sweet motorhome
and some gas
to go in the motorhome so i could drive it to the beach for my vacation
visit my friend in alaska
go to europe

5 bad habits:
me? i have no bad habits!
maybe i can out belch anybody, but i don't consider it a bad habit.
i think i'm wonderful.
i think i smell like roses


5 places I have lived:
where i live now
the house i moved from
the house before that
NYC apartment 1 and 2
the house before that
and my parents house before that
and the house we moved from that had the heat vent that smelled like pee
then the house that i remember being first. which really was.
i haven't lived very many places, have i?

5 people I tag:
the dude from saudi arabia that totally reads my blog daily
my friend that lives in alaska (if only she could remember her password!)
my sister ( because she now blogs, and that is way cool)
my parents (wouldn't it be cool if you had your own blog?)
my big d. even though i know his answers, he hasn't blogged for, like, ever. i'm so bored with his last post (weekend update my foot!)

we lost one

one of our sweet little babies died last night. i have my suspicions that it was the one that kept trying to get out of the nest. the one we rescued several times. maybe she just wanted to grow up way too fast, maybe she just wasn't content to live in such a small nest. it makes me feel so sad for mr. and mrs. birdie. out of 4 eggs layed, only 2 hatched. and only one has survived so far.

when i told harry what had happened, he got a sad look on his face, and then he said...

"that is so sad mom. she died before she got the chance to fly"

just a little proud grandma update

look at these ugly babies! i lifted up the grill, and one almost fell out. good thing i was quick to shove her back in her nest. i've decided all my grandchildren are girls. so i've named these chloe and marta. my life is so boring, huh?

i'm a grandma or something...

okay, i'm not really sure if that is what i mean. remember the birdy eggs in our bbq grill? well, they hatched. i was so worried about them. i was wondering if they would ever hatch. i wondered if my rowdy boys had scared ma and pop away. well, i walked out there to get my lawn mower going, and i took a peek. i saw two naked and wriggling babies.

i will admit, i started to cry. where were the parents? these babies were just going to die without them. i was so upset i called my mom. then i called big d. then i went out in the front yard, away from the grill, hoping momma bird would come and feed her babies. when big d got home, i sent him out to get a picture, and to retrieve any dead bodies. to my surprise he came in with happy news. 2 babies were doing well!

and when i peeked in today, two hungry naked babies were squaking. is it bad that i love that?

tuesday, it's about the love.

i love tuesday. i really love it. and it isn't the fact that i get up with the kids, get harry ready for school. it isn't dropping him off and running crazy up to my parents house. well, not really. it isn't the 8 miles on torturous hills that i've been doing. that would be nuts. i really don't like those hills. and my parent's have some serious killer ones.

it's that i get to leave my kiddies, with grandma. for some reason, that little break on tuesday is really refreshing. i oft times feel pretty guilty. see, grandma not only has my little angel fussy, and my big crazy boy chilly, she also takes care of my niece too. the niece that is only 5 weeks younger than fussy. so it's like having twins. except they aren't used to each other. she is a serious saint for that. not that the babies are bad, or grumpy or anything. just that there are two. and i know the one keeps me going all day.

but i love the fact that i can let them off, go for a longish run, and grandma is there. grandma feeds them donuts and cookies and candy. grandma gives hugs and lets them do almost anything they want. i guess it helps me not feel so guilty. not only can i get that hilly run i need for my wb training, the kids don't get neglected, or feel like they are a burden. they love it at grandmas'.

and i love the break i get. even if i am dead tired. like i was today. my eight miles wasn't that great, but it was still worth when i got home to see my kids happy, content, and loving grandma's house.

i love tuesdays!

mothers' day

i've been racking my brain trying to figure out what to post about on mother's day. something sweet about how much fun, or rewarding, being a mother is. how much i appreciate my own mother. and every other woman who has thus inspired me in my own job as mommy...

but the time got away from me. saturday night was suddenly on me, and i didn't have time to take to write down my thoughts. instead, i was making sure the laundry got put away. that the boys were bathed. that the baby had clean diapers, and that we had the food for sunday.

sunday morning came, and i thought i could spend a few minutes to blog. but i ended up finding shoes for my almost 8 year old. i also took the time to snuggle with my baby. then i had to talk to my older boys about innapropriate behavior, which led to a discussion on lots of other things. then it was a mad rush to get of the door to church.

then while at church, fussy puked all over himself, and all over me. and i though "this is perfect on mother's day". so came home to change him. he figured out he was tired, and fell asleep in my arms.

and now that i'm here, i've totally forgot what i was going to say.

but what is a post without pictures? well, kind of boring. so here's some pictures of mothers. doing what mom's do. thank goodness for mommies!

happy mother's day!

fussy climbing the couch

just look how proud he is to make it all the way up. he did this like 8-9 times that night. he hasn't done it since!

2 things

1) baseball season has started. i wonder why they take the names from the current major league for the names of the kids' teams. in soccer, they let the kids make up their own names, but in baseball, you kind of are at the mercy of whoever your coach chooses.

i was running late to get chilly to his game, and was wandering around the itty bitty fields, asking who was the coach to all the different teams. as soon as i saw the team on the shirt, i knew that was the team my kid was going to be on. yup. chilly is a red sox. have i ever mentioned how big of yankee fan's we are? that comes from living in new york in 1998. best season ever.

so, my kid gets the uniform. a t-shirt emblazoned with those words "red sox" and a hat with a big b for boston.

2)chilly decided that today, he was going to wear his baseball shirt and hat to preschool. i told him no. i didn't want him to get his shirt dirty for his game tomorrow. nor did i want him to loose his hat. i explained that to him. we went to school. all was fine.

i picked him up from school, and what is he wearing? his red sox shirt. he totally sneaked out of the house wearing it under his other shirt. he gets in the van and we head home and i ask him if he also sneaked out his hat. which he immediately tells me he forgot at school. i told him too bad, that i wasn't going back. he gets to live with that consequence, and miss his hat for his game tomorrow.

so? what if i am a soccer mom?

i am a soccer mom. although this week is the last week of that. next week i get to be a baseball mom. baseball mom doesn't sound as good as soccer mom. but it will be more true. anyway, to prove that my kiddies play soccer, here's pictures.

chilly' team...well most of the team. obviously the picture guys didn't want to include the retake that had MORE of the team. whatever. either my kid stinks or the kid next to him is invisible. does the picture guy see that?

apparently the coach this year was once a professional soccer player. like in europe or something. that's pretty professional right? he was an awesome coach, he kept taking out my kid (which i don't mind) and putting in the kids that actually paid attention. what do you expect with a bunch of 4-5 year olds, right? anyway, i don't think we've won a game yet. i don't know if we've even scored a goal...


look at this kid. he's a ham. and not the good mia hamm kind. no, he's a regular chatty mcchat. notice the one glove on his hand? that is because it was so freaking cold. i think we've had one game about 40 degrees. yeah, spring soccer sucks.

and again, what's with these pictures. did they actually have the kids take them. can you say LAME? i'm so not impressed.

harry's team. all 4 of them. not really, he actually has a pretty decent team. in fact they have won most of their games. and harry is pretty darn good. as long as he doesn't try to drop kick/ballet the ball. he then just gets really embarrassed and won't play.

yeah, so what is up with this? well, we had pictures at 4 pm. yeah. how many kids made it? that's pretty much it. it sucks because can't they just retake the picture like AFTER the game? whatever.

oh and notice the cheery expression on my son's face. that is because he totally lost his socks and was wearing one yellow and one gray. i told them you wouldn't be able to see it. he didn't believe me and was really grumpy. totally ruined the whole dang game. what a turd.

and again, who was taking the pictures? were they blind? did you not notice that my son was pirate winking? couldn't you take another one? geesh. i'm glad i have this picture that i can save for his kids. again, he's really grumpy, but still, is that my kid? it doesn't even look like him.

i'm so over paying money for pictures. i guess i should bring my own camera next time. maybe i could sell my pictures to the other mom's who are sick of this kind of half assed picture taking.