Common Mom

Naaaaaahhh . . . just a little nickel-sized hail. OK, there was a lot of it! On my 15 minute drive home from work, I go up in elevation a bit. In that time, it went from 85 and sunny, to cloudy and rainy, to 57 and hail! There was so much hail on the road to my house that the car was getting pulled all over like it was a snowdrift! This is just our backyard a little while after the hail stopped. Not so much in the yard, but it’s weird how it accumulates in some places and not others!

We’re so excited . . . tomorrow, my Mom and Stepdad are coming to visit!

They are known as Noisy Grandma and Monster Grandpa to Princess and Dude. But shhhhhhh - don’t tell. Princess and Dude don’t know - it’s a surprise! AND, we’re being selfish . . . they kids have kid swap this Saturday at a friend’s house, so the adults are going to use the night out with a free sitter to get a nice dinner and chat and let G’ma and G’pa unwind from their long drive. Then on Sunday, let the games begin! They’re here for a full week, and I took the whole week off from work. We never get visitors for an entire week and we’re so excited! AND, I don’t think I’ve ever taken a week off of work and not had to pack 4 suitcases and stuff everything in the Jeep for many many many hours of driving and many days of living out of suitcases. So I’m extra excited about this! So far we’ve got the following planned . . . Rockies game, zoo (we have an awesome zoo!), day trip to the mountains, Jason’s baseball game . . . and we’ll leave a few days for hanging out and relaxing or heading to the pool.

We Can’t Wait!!!

No time to write . . . the office olympics are ending today! We’ve had wonderful events such as floppy discus toss, wastebasketball, paper airplane throw, yoga ball dribble, paperclip doubles, and marker archery. My team, Team Switzerland, has not done well so far But, today is a new day! I’m off to compete in the paper cup stacking and water relay and then to cheer my teammates on in the final event, chair rowing. Finally, the closing ceremonies and a potluck lunch. Fun fun fun!

Hope you’re all having a wonderful week!

What are you doing to gear up for the olympics?

Princess asked me to put “pail nolish” on her toes for the 4th of July - red and blue polish. So I obliged She somehow convinced Dude to do the “drying” duties . . . I guess it is technically a power tool since it plugs in. If he only knew that some day I’ll use this to blackmail him

I was in Wally World last weekend. Right up front, they have all the school supplies out. I just about freaked . . . wondering why they feel the need to put them out so friggin’ early! It’s only the middle of July! Summer is already short enough - then they have to go put the school supplies out so early.

Then I realized I only have 3 weeks in which to purchase said school supplies for Dude.

***Sigh***

There’s so much more I want to do yet this summer!!!

Dude went to a friend’s house for a sleepover last night and to hang out today, so Princess and I had the evening to ourselves. We went to Wally World to get her some more headbands, because you can just never have enough. Then I told her we could go wherever she wanted for dinner. She chose 3 Margaritas . . . a Mexican restaurant. I was a bit surprised. I asked her why she chose 3 Margaritas if she could go anywhere. The answer . . . “Because it’s fun to say! Three MargaRIIIIIIIItas!”

Hey - whatever the princess wants.

I ensured my entry in the running for the MOTY award again yesterday. It’s been a long week, Hubby left for a week of flying yesterday morning, and well, I was just plain tired. So when Princess asked me if she could have a snack, at 5:05 p.m., I said sure. When she picked up the bag of Fritos Scoops and gave me that “Well?” look, I said sure. “But share with Jason!” Oh come on . . . you’ve done it . . . the bad snack just before dinner . . . and besides, there weren’t that many left in the bag. I should know, because my face was in it just prior to Princess walking in the house.

So she heads outside, and I head down to my hobby room so I can scrapbook watch them out the ground level window, playing ever so nicely together in the backyard.

Dude is chasing Princess around the yard, trying to get a hold of a single Fritos Scoop. She’s refusing . . . and running amazingly fast for a girl in a dress and sparkly flipflops! She’s heading toward the trampoline . . . yelling something about “Putting it up high so Duma can’t get them because Mom said to do that!” Hey - at least she listened. She made it almost all the way to the trampoline . . . but that darn green discus swing thingy got in her way and slowed her down . . . just enough for Dude to catch her. He actually grabbed her hair - BAD move! I grab her hair every morning when I try to comb it and I fear for my life every. single. day. Anyhoo . . . she spins around with a look in her eye something akin to that of a possessed Linda Blair. They are eye to chest. She says “Don’t touch me Ja-SON!” He comes back with “I’m just trying to get a FRITO! MOM SAID YOU HAD TO SHARE AND I’M STARVING!”

Princess takes one step forward, toe to toe with her brother, who is a good 2 inches taller. She stares him down with the intensity of a drill sargeant, smoke pouring out of her tiny little head. She hugs the Fritos to her chest and screams, “I AM IN CHARGE OF THE FRITOS JA-SON! YOU HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL I SAY YOU CAN HAVE ONE!”

Amazingly, my first thought was not to whip her in to shape and tell her that she is certainly not in charge, I am, and that I told her to share with her brother so she’d better give him the friggin’ Fritos this minute.

Instead, I was in awe. My first thought was “Wow - that’s impressive. She didn’t even consider backing down! Way to go Princess!”

I love her personality and passion. I’d have her no other way. Now if I can just teach her to tone it down a bit and use her powers to fight actual evil things, rather than her brother . . .

I’ve been putting this off for a long time. I wasn’t ready to give up my Summer Saturdays. But, the time has come . . . the time when every boy should start to play America’s favorite pasttime (and mine, too - baseball/softball is by FAR my favorite sport!). Here he is in all his glory at his first coach pitch game

This is Dude and his buddy of 7 years. I love this picture because they met when Buddy was just 11 months old and Dude was 8 weeks old. They went to daycare and preschool together until just last year. I love that they’re still friends!

He’s a natural! OK, maybe not. When you take a thousand pictures, you’re bound to get a couple good ones out of the bunch But he did have a great time.

Dude gets down and dirty to field the ball.

Dude got to play the pitcher position one inning. He did great! Here he is throwing the runner out at 3rd. Buddy was playing 3rd and they actually got the out! A pretty amazing fete if you’ve ever watched a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds try to play baseball

I had to put this one in here. Dude and I share a common “talent” - the ability to swing at a high pitch and foul it off in such a way that it completely misses your batting helmet and hits you in the face. Really, this is a very special talent that I’m sure can only be passed drown from parent to child. Dude was lucky and only hit himself in the nose . . . with a semi-squishy baseball. Me, not so lucky - smacked myself dead in the eye with a big softball - swollen shut for days! It was very pretty - I should find that picture and post it.

Overall, Dude did very well. He got on base every time and scored 4 runs. He did great in the field, as did his teammates. But most of all, his coaches are awesome and the boys had a ton of fun, which is what the game is all about - at any age. If you’re not havin’ fun playin’ baseball, then you’re not doin’ it right

So I get in the elevator to leave work last week and there are 3 guys from Boeing (they share our building) already in there. We do the obligatory hi, hello, blah blah blah. I notice one guy keeps looking at the ceiling. Kinda weird cuz he’s having a conversation with his 2 coworkers, but instead of looking at them, he keeps looking at the ceiling. They get out on the 1st floor and the obligatory have a good night, blah blah blahs are taken care of.

The doors close with me still in the elevator to head to the garage. I’m curious, so I look up at the ceiling. And what do I see? A mirror. And what do I see in that mirror? Cleavage. MY cleavage. I was wearing my “cleavage” shirt as Queen Taunya calls it. It’s a cute shirt, and totally appropriate for work - if you’re at eye level. If you are, however, looking at me from above, well, you apparently get a show.

Note to self - take the stairs when wearing cleavage shirt to work.

That was a total nightmare! Site got hacked . . . bad enough that it downloaded a virus when you accessed it . . . I sure hope none of you got infected! My home PC and everyone else who I talked to’s home PC blocked the virus. My other PC . . . not so lucky - had to be totally rebuilt - OOPS! I guess the Blog Gods were not with me that day

Anyway - I’m back, it’s back - except for the images. A big thanks to my friend for taking care of this and getting it all back up and running - with major security measures in place . . . heck, I even have a hard time getting logged in it’s so secure!!!

Hope you all played hard and had a great 4th!