Baseball and birthdays

It was a great opening day yesterday, despite the iffy weather. The sun played hide-and-seek for most of the day, but thankfully the rain held off until our last game was ending. Noah's team won its first game of the season 12-4; he played 3rd base and made some good catches, including one in which he made a throw to 1st to get someone out. His next game is this Thursday.

This picture is of Noah on 2nd base. The one I took just before this was of him rubbing his upper right arm, where he had taken a hit from a pitch a few moments before.




Joel's team had fun with their first game. This being our first time with coach-pitch, we are pretty new to how they do things.... it appears that there is no score-keeping with it. At any rate, Joel had a great time, especially since he was playing 1st base and caught several throws to tag kids out. Joel has to wait until Saturday for his next game.




This is Joel, just seconds before he caught a throw and tagged a player out.



Today was Brian's birthday... we celebrated by driving up to Sacramento to eat at California Pizza Kitchen, doing a little shopping at the mall there, and then grabbing some cheesecake to go from The Cheesecake Factory. Emily and I went grocery shopping after we got home, and then we all settled down for some homework. I helped Brian edit and proof some recommendation letters he needed done for tomorrow and Emily finished up her schoolwork for tomorrow.

This week is the last week of school before Spring Break.... and Emily will have her first driving lesson on Friday. I forgot to mention earlier that she passed her driver's test on Friday. Now we are 6 months away from having 3 drivers in the family!

Party on

I am uncharacteristically late to the party, but at last I have arrived! Loved last year's party and am looking forward to this year's.... just hope I have time to mix and mingle, what with all the goings-on around here. Forgive me if I have to step out for a bit, but I seem to have lost the remote control to life and cannot hit "pause" so that I can relax and enjoy the fun as much as I'd like.

For newbies here, I'll point you to my 100 things post, newly updated. As a quick intro, I'll let you know that I'm a full-time mom to 4 kids ages 7-16, plus 2 dogs, ages 11 months and almost 5 years. The beautiful face looking at you in the header is Rory, our Great Dane puppy. She is mentored by our spazztastic Wire Fox Terrier, Campbell. I've been married nearly 22 years to a great guy who is a nurse anesthetist in the US Air Force. I homeschool our 3 youngest kids, while the oldest is a sophomore at the local Christian high school.

Two big events coming up this week for us:

1. My 16yo is taking her driver's permit test on Friday.
   
2. Opening day for baseball here on base. The boys both have games, thankfully not at the same time (although that will happen a few times later this season).

Grab a Diet Mt. Dew and relax... I'll be back to check on you eventually (unless I fall asleep watching HGTV).

The week in review

Obviously I haven't had a lot of time on my hands this past week. It went fairly smoothly, even with all the running back and forth and here and there. Best part of the week was Brian coming home on Saturday. Everyone was very happy to have him back. He got home just in time to see the last half of a scrimmage baseball game between Noah's team and another team. Noah even got to pitch and didn't do half bad.

Today was a full day. Despite turning the clock forward, we went to early service rather than our usual late service (9am vs. 10:45). I had put a half-ham in the oven before we left, so that all I needed to do once we got home was make the mashed potatoes. We finished lunch just in time for me to run to a birthday party with Halle.

While I was gone, Brian and the boys did a LOT of yard work. The boys did the dirty work of cleaning up after the dogs... something that hadn't been done in a while since it is a nearly impossible thing to do during the rainy season. Our yard is slick and muddy when it is wet out, so there is no way to take care of the "stuff" they leave behind. Once they finished their job, Brian was able to mow the yard. They also cleaned out the front flowerbed. And when I say "cleaned out," I mean it. They removed everything. Not sure yet what we'll fill it back up with. It's a very sunny location, so we'll have to find something that does well in full sun.

I ended up going out again for various things... dog food for Rory, a CostCo run for stock-up items from the coupon sale that ended today, and to return movies to Blockbuster. Got home with enough sunlight left to play ball with Rory in the back yard.

Speaking of Rory, Brian said he took both dogs for walks while I was gone (separately), and said his walk with Rory took twice as long as the one with Campbell because of all the people who wanted to meet them. She does draw a lot of attention and gets many compliments because of her gentle temperament. People also notice how calmly she walks with us, rather than trying to take us for a walk.

Oh, one other cool thing from the week: Emily's select choir from school received a "command performance" at the music festival they attended this week. Only the groups that receive a superior rating from the adjudicator get to sing at the concert at the close of the festival. Emily text-messaged me to let me know and thought it was quite funny that I wasn't there to hear them sing (she had a descant duet with a tenor on their performance piece). Hopefully someone videotaped it and I will get to see/hear it.

What a weekend

This past weekend was no different than most of our weekends, plenty of things to keep us occupied. It began Friday afternoon with Noah's ball practice at 5 (for which he only stayed 40 minutes or so because of our regular Fri-night CR engagement that starts around 6), and ended with falling asleep to HGTV around 10:30 last night.

We had AWANA pinewood derby on Saturday (saw some very cool and original designs... Halle is already thinking of hers for next year), followed by a quick lunch at Wendy's. We got home around 3 and around 30 minutes later were reminded by neighbors of their daughter's birthday party at 4 at one of the local "jump houses" (for those not familiar with the term, they are large rooms filled with inflatable bounce houses/slides/mazes). Thankfully, we did already have a present and wrapping paper, so we were able to get ready to go and were on time for the festivities. All the families on our street with children under 13 were there, plus a few extra. I was able to get in a little visiting with the other moms, something I really don't do very often. We got home in time to put dinner in the oven.... Paula Deen's Baked French Toast. Joel said he gave it an "A." Guess that means I'll need to make it again. Watched Mr. Bean's Holiday with the kids and Brian before bedtime (it was as much torture for me the second time as the first) and ended the evening falling asleep while watching Two Weeks with Brian. The fact that I fell asleep had *nothing* to do with the movie; I was just too tired by that time to stay awake. I was up early enough yesterday morning to finish watching it before getting out of bed.

I cannot say enough about Two Weeks. I can not imagine a person who could watch it and not be affected by it. It is amazing the range of emotions one movie can provoke. The basic storyline surrounds four adult siblings whose mother is dying of ovarian cancer and what happens when they come together in her home for what they believe will be her last few days (turning into two weeks... thus the title). There are moments that will make you laugh, cry, feel like slapping someone... and make you think. Watch it. Let me know how it affected you.

Yesterday we went to church and then out for lunch at Tahoe Joe's. Brian and I split a ribeye (really, should anyone eat a 14 oz. steak?). Halle and Noah both ordered the kids' steak, which has always been very good in the past. Unfortunately, the same could not be said yesterday. Apparently they changed the cut of meat they use for it and instead of a small sirloin, it was a big thick unidentifiable chunk of meat. Halle's was so tough I couldn't cut it, and Noah's was so tasteless, he barely ate 1/4 of it. Our server disappeared on us after serving the food so that we couldn't even tell her to take it back.... we had to ask the hostess to tell our server about it. Saw her do that, but the server never came back to the table (she even walked right past us to start chatting up a new table full of guys). Everyone else finished eating, and we finally asked to talk to the manager. We politely and calmly explained our dissatisfaction with the food and service (Brian's glass sat empty for 20 minutes). The manager wound up comping us the entire meal, plus gave us a card good for 3 free kids' meals on our next visit. We *will* go back, mostly because yesterday was quite atypical for that restaurant, and also because of the way the manager responded. There have been times we have had issues or questions in a restaurant and the managerial staff has responded defensively or made excuses; he did neither of those, but just apologized and asked for a chance to make it right. I appreciated that.

Came home and finished making this week's menu/shopping list, then headed to the commissary. Came home, put away groceries, then folded a couple of loads of laundry while watching the Oscars. There will be MUCH more laundry to do today. Brian helped the boys clean their room while I was shopping (and after I got back... and they still aren't done) and discovered a huge amount of clothing that hadn't been making its way to the laundry.

On the agenda this week in the evenings:

• a ball practice every evening from 5-6ish Mon-Fri, plus at least one on Saturday morning.
• Easter choir rehearsal for me tonight
  
• play rehearsals for Emily after school a couple days (not sure which)
• Tuesday night AWANA for Halle, growth group meeting for me and Brian
• Brian's regular Wed. evening group meeting
• Fri. night CR
  

Thursdays are happy nights; only Joel's ball practice to worry about (unless I have praise choir rehearsal...)

Stop the insanity

This week has been crazier than crazy. I don't think I can even begin to remember everything about the week that made it so. It was full of the usual commitments and appointments, although we did miss our Tuesday night small group; Brian and I were both coughing a bit and didn't want to subject anyone to it. I'm not sure it was something contagious, though. Mine seemed to be that usual sinus/allergy thing I do every fall/winter, where I wind up losing my voice. My voice was gone on Wednesday and started coming back on Thursday. I'm still not back to normal yet and not sure when I will be. Hopefully I will have enough of a voice to at least sing tenor on Sunday if I'm not 100%.

Because of the coughing crud, we decided to reschedule Halle's sleepover for another night. To celebrate her birthday today, we went to the movies in the afternoon and then to Outback for dinner. Her movie choice was The Game Plan, and it was so much better than I was expecting. I really liked it. I thought "The Rock" did a great job with his role. It looked like he had fun with it. The little girl playing his daughter (she plays the President's daughter on Disney Channel's Cory in the House) was fun to watch. And despite the predictability of some of the plot points, there were enough unexpected moments to make up for it.

After dinner, we went to see the football game at Emily's school the football game at Emily's school so that we could hear her sing the National Anthem. Her choir director (I'll call her Miss S) is in charge of providing the talent for this and had asked for those choir members who were interested to sign up. As Emily was leaving class that day, Miss S asked her if she had signed up. When Emily responded in the negative, she was told, "Well, do it!" Tonight was originally intended to be a duet, but the other girl could not learn the harmony part quick enough, so Emily did it solo (and a cappella). She did a very nice job. I hope she'll get a chance to do it again, although I don't think she would say the same!

I have a ton of housework and laundry to catch up on this weekend. Truthfully, I think I'd rather sleep. (Anyone who knows me IRL knows that is a totally out-of-character statement, so it just speaks to how tired I really feel!)

Mac mama

I know... where have I been? It has been crazier than usual around here. The end of last week was fairly busy, what with Emily gone to her school retreat from Wednesday till Friday. Then Brian and I had the Celebrate Recovery kickoff at church on Friday night. We got there early to help set up, so we were basically there about 4 1/2- 5 hours.

Saturday was Joel's 7th birthday. We had a great time at the base bowling alley with a few of the neighbor kids, a couple of friends from church, and a couple of kids from our "backyard neighbor" family from the first house we lived in out here. Joel said it was the "best birthday ever." He even rated it higher than the one he spent at Disney World!

In news almost as big as Joel's birthday.... my IMac arrived yesterday! It is up and running with no trouble at all and I've managed to get my bookmarks and email addresses all transferred quite easily (thank goodness for Plaxo). I kinda miss my "right-click," but have begun learning the Mac way of doing things. I have so much more space on my desk now. Hopefully I can keep it uncluttered.

Monday night, Halle and I both went up to the church for rehearsals for the Christmas program for church. She is going to be part of the kids' musical and I will be singing in the adult Christmas choir. I missed the first rehearsal last week, but it won't be difficult to catch up. Thankfully, I don't have to learn it all by ear; we all have songbooks with musical notation. That certainly makes it easier for me, especially since I sing alto.

Tonight, Halle attended her first AWANA meeting while Brian and I attended a "growth group" from church. Our group is made up of about 6 couples... not too big and not too small. I'm looking forward to getting to know people better. Halle had a blast at AWANA and is busy working on learning her memory verses so she can get her first book and t-shirt. She has several "checkpoints" to complete, each with 2 verses to learn.

Tomorrow is hump day and means we will be on the downswing.... Brian has a meeting tomorrow night, though. Thursday will be Emily's early-out day at school (1:45), I may be attending worship team rehearsal that night, and then it will be Friday and time for Celebrate Recovery again. Oh yeah... no shortage of things to do here. Hopefully I won't put off blogging for another week!

Oh, I just remembered more news... Emily was chosen for Daybreak, the select choir at her school! Yay, Emily!

Duplex

As soon as Brian gives the folks at the base housing office the word tomorrow, we will officially have a house waiting for us on base in July. As the post title might suggest, it is a duplex. If you're the type who is interested in floor plans, you can see the first floor here. The second floor looks like this. It will be a big change.... We'll be downsizing from around 3400 sq. ft. to somewhere around 1400 sq. ft. Ay caramba!

In other news, Joel has his first loose tooth. He's been working on it for about 3 or 4 days now. I have a feeling he'll have it out within the next day or two.

I was cleaning up some dry beans that had spilled next to my desk earlier (they came from a miniature clay flower pot that had been fashioned into a pen/pencil holder) and had an uncontrollable urge to nurture my inner 2nd-grader. So now Halle and Joel know both versions of the "Beans, beans" poem. My dad would be so proud (and wonder why it took me this long to teach it to them!).

4 kids, 4 days, one mom

Today begins another single-parent weekend for me. Brian flew back to MO on the redeye flight last night to be with his family. He is taking care of some more financial stuff for his mom and making sure that things in the nursing facility are being managed well, plus just spending time with his family. He won't be back until late Monday night.

His mom is doing as well as as can be expected. They have stopped therapy on her legs, so our instincts about the recovery in that area were pretty spot-on. She will need a custom wheelchair now... and thankfully it appears that the cost will be covered by Medicare/Medicaid. She does seem to be showing some improvement in her arm that was affected by the stroke; I'm not sure if she has regained fine motor skills yet, though. The kids still haven't talked with her about the possibility that she may not be able to live apart from a care facility. At this point, it is important for her to feel that there is something to work towards. And depending on the availability of at-home assistance during the times when she would be alone (daughter/son at work), the possibility of her moving in with one of her St. Louis-area kids may be a viable alternative somewhere down the road. I think there are a lot of resources out there that they haven't availed themselves of up to this point, and I'm hoping they will. There is just a lot to deal with at this point, including stuff not even related to her MS and stroke, like...

the other situation with Brian's father; the prosecutor's office isn't doing anything about it at this point. They are waiting until February, when their "expert" will be back in the office to handle it. I don't know if that means they will prosecute or not. But it is frustrating for me... I want the man locked up, and just don't understand why and how they can be so laid back about this case.

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In other news, Noah and Halle started piano lessons this week. We have a very sweet girl who comes here to us to teach them. They both hit it off with her and she seems to have a gift for relating to the kids. I'm looking forward to hearing them progress. It will be nice to have someone learning to play the piano in the house again. I love being able to see and hear how they grow from simple finger exercises to playing melodies with 2 hands.