Confessions of a Baseball Mom

Fun with Cousins

Another week gone... that is the story of my life.  While we were in San Antonio, Lance's sister came in to town with Ashley & Jessica.  Their vacation quickly turned into another vacation for us when we got back.  Every day we went somewhere (bowling, mini golfing, movies) and by the end of their trip, the boys were waking up asking what we were going to do next.  That's the problem with doing so much at home... the kids start to expect it.  And suddenly, playing video games or with Legos didn't sound like near as much fun.  Overall, they had a great time and the boys were sad to see their cousins go.  It's amazing how well they all get along.  And I was glad to see that Ashley is just as pouty as Jordan when things aren't going her way.  It was a competition to see who could be the worst poor sport.  While Jordan probably edged Ashley out in the end, it was a close race.  I can't say I am proud of that but that is my son.  He is a competitor in everything he does.  I guess I like the fact that he wants to be the best at everything.  Unfortunately, he needs to learn that he isn't always going to be the best and he needs channel that negative energy into something more productive.  I have been saying this since he was 6 years old. He is 9 now.  I have a feeling that's never going to change. 

Since their departure, we have been busy working around the house.  Lance's camping trailer was in our garage for the last 2 weeks which was driving me crazy.  Once things are out of place, you start putting stuff anywhere and everywhere because it no longer matters.  I finally told him that if he didn't get it out of there, I was going to sell it.  Remarkably, it was out the next day.  Unfortunately, what started as a minor cleaning project turned into a day long reorganizing effort.  We decided to move everything from one side of the garage to the other and park both of our cars in the double bay.  While it seemed like a good idea at the time, it quickly because less appealing as they day went by.  However, we got most of it finished and it looks pretty good.  We'll see how long it stays that way.

Now we are gearing up for a few trips.  In the next 3 weeks, we are planning to go to Las Vegas to see my family.  It's a fabulous 110 right now there.  Not sure why I thought going to Vegas in July was a good idea but it was pretty much the only time we could make it work.  Then we will be taking a quick trip to San Diego to visit Sea World and hopefully Legoland.  It is 80 degrees there and it will be nice to get some relief from this summer heat.  Then we will return to Las Vegas and leave the boys with my mom for 2 days.  Lance has a trip to San Francisco for work so I am going to hitch a ride with him.  We love San Francisco and we haven't been in 10 years!  To top it all off, I will be heading to Florida for 3 or 4 days to visit with my best friend, Karen and another friend, Ramona.  It's going to be a crazy few weeks but I am looking forward to it.

As soon as we get back from all of our travels, it will be time to start thinking about school and baseball again.  In fact, tryouts are the week after we get back.  I dread getting back into a routine but I am sure after the next 3 weeks, I will be changing my tune.  

On that note, I have some more things to work on around here before we head off.  But I wanted to share this page I did last night.  Our niece, Ashley, celebrated her 11th birthday while they were in town.  I had been begging Libby to make a birthday kit for me and who would have thought the colors she chose would be so perfect?  The kit is called "Forever Young" and it was released yesterday.  Go check it out and support her store!  I guess that's it for now.  Lots to do.... have a great day!

Happy Fourth of July! (one week late)

It is July 11 and I am really starting to freak out a little.  I know I keep saying this but I have no idea where this year has gone.  And the summer if flying by even quicker.  We are already halfway through summer vacation and it feels like we just started!

As usual, it's been busy around here.  I can't imagine what we would be doing right now if we were playing baseball, too!  Last week, we celebrated the Fourth of July with some of our friends and neighbors.  The kids went swimming and then shot off fireworks.  Fireworks are one of those things that you enjoy watching, but hate paying for.  Our friend, Larry, suggested handing the boys a $100 bill and letting them set it on fire... I thought that was funny.  Obviously, it took a little bit longer to light off the actual fireworks, but not THAT much longer.  However, the kids got a kick out of it because they are finally old enough to do it themselves and it's pretty much the only time that playing with fire is acceptable.  It was a really fun day. 

After the fourth of July festivities concluded, we decided to take a quick trip to San Antonio to visit Shamu and his friends.  We wanted to buy season passes for our trip to San Diego in a few weeks.   Oddly enough, it is cheaper to stay in a hotel room in San Antonio for 2 days and buy the tickets there, than it is to get them in California.  Notwithstanding the sweltering 105 high temps, it was fun.  The boys are finally old enough to go to the water park and they had a blast.  They loved all of the slides and the  wave pool.  And when we finished there, we went to watch some of the shows.  They all decided to sit up front and get splashed by Shamu.  I decided that I had to protect my camera from the water, so I chose to sit outside of the splash zone (that had nothing to do with not wanting to be splashed by ice cold water that smells like fish).  They thought it was awesome and loved Shamu Rocks Texas, where there is a LOT of splashing involved.

Now we are back home for a few weeks before we head off to Vegas and San Diego for a little R&R.  I have been working on staying on top of my photos and my new project is getting them put into photo books.  I am in love with 8x8 Shutterfly books and my goal is to make one with all of the pictures I take throughout the year.  I am venturing into digital scrapbooking to add some fun elements to the pages.  Fortunately, my super awesome friend, Libby Weifenbach, is a digital designer and she is kind enough to share her products with me.  Here is a link to her store.  I am keeping the pages simple because my goal is to get all of the pictures on there.  But I like that it combines some scrapbooking elements at the same time.

I am hoping to do a page a day (because I have 6 years of digital pictures to work with).  So, if I can keep up, I will start sharing the pages here.  I am starting on 2009 and then I will work my way back.  That being said, I guess I need to get going.  Got lots to do today to make up for the 3 days we were out of town.  I attached the page I did with our Fourth of july pictures with Libby's "American Pie" kit.   I hope to have Sea World pictures soon.  Have a good one! 

Happy Campers

 

Last week, Lance decided to take the boys camping at Medina Lake with our neighbors, Gary & Michelle.  When asked if I wanted to join them, the answer was an unequivocal "NO THANKS".  I am not a camper, nor do I pretend to be.  In fact, I am more of a complainer when it comes to sleeping anywhere other than my own bed, particularly in a room 1/5 the size of a standard hotel room with limited air conditioning and bathroom facilities.  I think everyone was happy with that decision.  

So, on Tuesday, Lance and the boys headed off and left me here to fend for myself.  I had the house cleaners here by 11:00 and went off to do a little shopping.  When I got home, the house was spotless (and remained that way for 3 whole days!).  I decided to sit down and finish a project I started over a year ago... editing and saving my photos.  It might sound like an uneventful way to spend my min-vacation but I can't think of a better way to spend my time.  This has been a project that has weighed on me for quite awhile and I hate feeling so overwhelmed by it.  Now, I am hoping to stay on top of my pictures and I am even hoping to get some scrapbooking done.  It doesn't do much good to have all of those photos stored and organized on my computer where no one can see them!

Back to camping.... Lance and the boys rolled back into town Friday afternoon.  While they had fun, they were happy to be home.  Lance didn't want to come out and say it but he eluded to the fact that my obsessive cleaning and organizing would have been helpful.  And Jared told me that he was anxious to sleep in his warm, comfortable bed.  I thought that was an interesting observation coming from a 5 year old.... then again, he is his mother's son.  Joseph told me all about feeding the deer and how he liked sleeping in the "camping trailer".  Jordan was nowhere to be found because as soon as they pulled into the driveway, he went to Paul's house to play.  (Some things never change.)  Their favorite part of the weekend was feeding the deer.  There are dozens of deer at the campground and they come right up to you and eat out of your hand.  Thanks to Lance's camera phone, he was able to send me some pictures which I thought was pretty cool.  It was like being there with them without having to be there.  :)  I know that Michelle will be coming home with a lot of good pictures for me, as well.  But I will share a few that Lance sent.

It's funny how things get back to normal so quickly.  We are back to watching Transformers at least once a day and now that todays' showing is over, the boys are donning Buzz and Woody costumes with our neighbor Katelyn who is sporting her best "Jesse" look.  I was going to take them to the pool but no one seemed too excited about that which is fine by me.  It is so hot outside that I don't even want to think about going out there. Instead, I am going to finish catching up on email and blogs and enjoy the quiet while I can.

I guess that's about it for now.  Hope you are having a great weekend!

Show Me The Money

As I was finishing up yet another load of laundry this morning, I looked on the window sill at a pile of "junk" that I have been collecting over the last few weeks.  It is amazing what you find in a little boy's pocket.  Of course, I have not learned to find it PRIOR to putting it in the wash so it usually turns up in the dryer. This leads me to my thought of the day... 

I have long heard tales of moms finding $20 bills and other items of value in the laundry.  Sadly, the only money I have managed to find in the last month totaled a whopping 63 cents!  In fact, I found more "fake" money than "real" money (if you don't count the Chuck E. Cheese's tokens).  And the only time I have ever actually found a dollar bill... it belonged to me, which made me glad that I am the one doing the laundry.  The only solace I have right now is the knowledge that my boys are young and really don't carry much money with them.  So maybe one day my pay day will come.  Until then, I will continue to collect, rocks, legos, bubble gum and bolts, along with the occasional ice cream ticket or watch. 

So we have another hot day on tap here in the great state of Texas.  The boys are doing VBS this week which is nice because I have a few hours of quiet before the "I'm bored's" strike again.  I actually did a little "Turbo Jam" this morning which felt good (when I finished).  Now I am waiting for the boys to get home so we can hit the pool.  That's about all of the excitement I can stand for one day.  I am sure we will return home for another viewing of Transformers as the countdown to the sequel continues.... 7 more days if you are wondering.  

While I am thinking about laundry, here is a picture of my cute laundry room (since I pretty much slacked on the whole Home Improvement week thing).  A few years ago, I got my front loaders and decided that it was time to "girl up" the room a little bit.  It goes without saying that in a house full of boys, I am surrounded by blue.  So I went with my favorite color.... pink.  And it is pink in every sense of the word.  I can honestly say that I hate doing laundry, but it does make me smile every time I look at that room.  One day, I would like to change the cabinets to white and have some cabinets with laundry bins put on the opposite wall so that I can have someplace to put all of my folded clothes.  It's on the list...

Well, that's it for now.  Have a great day!

  

Let Summer Begin

As I sit here for the first time in months trying to decide what to do, I can't help but wonder how it is already June 11?  It seems like it's only been a few weeks since I declared my resolutions for the new year and my optimism for for all of the things I wanted to accomplish.  Unfortunately, my optimism was quickly rendered useless against reality.  With 3 boys in school and playing baseball and my dugout sign "business", there is not enough time in the day to do all of the things I want to do.  I haven't cooked more than one meal a week in months, my blog has been updated even less than that, I haven't seen the gym since October and I am still months behind on editing and saving my photographs.  I did successfully get rid of 3 bicycles, but that was only because a donation truck pulled up to the front of our house and hauled them off. 

In any case, I am starting to feel a little better about things.  Summer vacation officially started last Thursday, which was also the last day of our baseball.  I have never been so happy to be finished with school and baseball.  I feel like I have months of sleep I need to catch up on and so many little projects around the house that I would like to complete.  But first and foremost, I want to get back to the basics.  I have been trying to cook more and I found the bottom of my desk which I haven't seen in months.  I still haven't made it to the gym but I am shooting for next week on that one.... baby steps.  I am also thinking of all kinds of great blog topics so that I can have something new and exciting to talk about.  I wouldn't say they are "great" in the literal sense.  But they are things I have been thinking about.  And I am sure that anyone who is reading is anxious to hear about anything other than Snuggies.  :)

Here is a quick rundown of what has happened over the last 3 months:

Joseph & Jordan successfully completed their school years and did great.  Joseph will be moving on to second grade and Jordan will be in 4th.  Jordan took his TAKS tests for the first time this year (standardized tests for TX).  He was commended on both tests, missing only one on the reading and he received a perfect score on his math test.  It's a shame his grades do not reflect that kind of intelligence.  At least I know it's there...... deep down.

Jared graduated from preschool on May 20 and we are now tuition free.  Hallelujah!  It was a little sad considering we have had kids at that school for the last 6 years.  But it will be nice to save the money and to have all of the kids at the same school next year.

Baseball went really well.  

Jared's team started off good but they hit a bit of a slump.  They finished in 6h place out of 15 teams so that's not too bad.  Jared had fun and he loved playing catcher.  As a side note, the catcher in 6U really does not do anything but stand there so his role was somewhat limited.  But he enjoyed it and looked really cute in all of his gear.  

Joseph's team ended up doing much better than expected.  They finished 3rd out of 6 teams.  His team was the epitomy of disfunction but for some reason it worked.  Joseph had a lot of fun making new friends and he was probably the best hitter on the team.  At the beginning of the season, I was sure he would never want to play baseball again but he might be more inclined to play again next season after all.  We shall see.

Jordan's team won their division.  They came in first place with a record of 12-2.  He played with an awesome group of kids and he was by far the best pitcher in the league, which didn't hurt.  They played in two tournaments and did pretty good, as well.  The first tournament, they came in 3rd place.  Then they played in the state championship and came in second place.  Those kids worked so hard and were amazing out there.  It's hard to imagine 9 year olds with that much composure.  At the end of the season, their record was 16-5 and they walked away with a first place and a second place trophy. Can't complain about that.  Lance is probably going to coach Jordan again next season.  It's hard to pass up the opportunity to coach when you have the best pitcher in the league and you get to take him in the 3rd round of the draft.

Last but not least, my dugout sign business did pretty well.  In the fall, I did 9 teams.... in the spring, I did 29!  I am hopeful that I will have a lot of return customers next season.  I even branched out to 3 other leagues in the area so I am hoping to get more business from them next time around.  The process is time consuming and I don't make a lot of money but I did make enough to pay my housekeeper for the rest of the year and I was able to get some random household things we have been wanting such as a new bat for Joseph.  Well, that wasn't really something "we" wanted but you know what I mean.  Bats are expensive so it's nice to be able to buy things like that and not feel so guilty about it.

Well, it looks like it's time for me to run. We have had a busy day of baseball camp, basketball camp and swimming.  I am going to head off to bed and tomorrow, I will plan to share some of the pictures I took during baseball season.  Until then, have a good one and thanks for sticking around.  :)

Resolutions are meant to be broken... aren't they?

As you may have noticed, home improvement week has come to a screeching halt and has suddenly turned into home improvement month.  The last few weeks have been really busy with preparation for the Valentine parties this Friday and with Joseph's Disneyland birthday celebration last weekend that was followed by 4 birthday parties for other friends in the last 7 days!  As much as I love birthdays, I won't complain if we don't get invited to another party for awhile.  

Anyway, most of our time has been spent with busy-ness but nothing too exciting (notwithstanding Disneyland, of course).  The worst part is, I have successfully broken every new Year's resolution I made before the second week of February.  I haven't even managed to get rid of the bikes in my garage.  But that is on my list of things to do, along with cooking more (again) and keeping my blog updated.  Seriously, when they say you need a vacation when you get home from vacation... it's so true.  I spend more time catching up and getting back to normal than anything else.

So last week Joseph celebrated his 7th birthday.  That is almost impossible for me to believe.  For his birthday, he wanted to go to Disneyland so that he could go to the Lego store.  For some reason, I think it would have been cheaper to find a Lego store in Texas but I am never one to pass up one more trip to Disney, especially since our season passes expire this month.  Lucky for us, we fly for free and we got an awesome deal on Priceline for our hotel rooms and rental car so it was probably a wash (and way more fun).  We also brought Jordan's friend, Elijah along with us.  He has never been to Disney and it seemed like a good opportunity.  Of course, the boys were thrilled to bring him along because he is like a brother to them.  I think he was pretty overwhelmed by the entire experience... his first ride on an airplane, his first trip to Disney and he even got to meet Brad Ausmus (the catcher for the Houston Astros.... what are the odds of that?).  It was really an awesome trip.  Joseph couldn't have been more excited, either.  He got a birthday button at City Hall so every time a Disney cast member would see him, they would wish him happy birthday.  He was king for a weekend and he loved it!  Now I have a ton of pictures to format but I have a few finished so I will share them.  I'll post more later.

 

Well, I need to get back to formatting pictures and catching up on blogs.  Home improvement week returns tomorrow.  Have a good one!

Home Improvement Week - Day 3

Back by popular demand (or Karen's demand) here is home improvement day 3.  I wasn't going to post these pictures of our living room because I haven't done anything with it in a few years, but we were just having a discussion about cheap painters and I wanted to show a picture of what I was talking about.  A few years ago, our neighbor recommended a painter to do all of the common areas in our house, along with our living room, loft, kitchen and dining room.  We have 18 foot ceilings in our living room and he charged us $600 for the whole job.  It was something to watch because he was standing on a telescoping ladder that was perched up against the wall as he painted the top, flawlessly, without even taping off or touching the crown moulding.  I can tell you, this guy has skills.  He has done a lot of work for us since and we have been happy to recommend him to others.  So, if you are interested in moving to Houston (Ramona) I'll be sure to give you his number.  :)  (BTW, I don't know why all of my pictures have a yellowish tint to them.)

This is our kitchen.  It is screaming for granite counter tops and stainless appliances.  Unfortunately, it is going to be awhile before that happens.  I am holding out for the Electrolux cooktop because I can't think of many things more awesome than the ability to boil water in 90 seconds.  And I would love to change a few things so that I could put in a built-in refrigerator.  A girl can dream, can't she?

So we had a pretty good weekend.  The boys enjoyed their extra day off and I couldn't really complain.  Two of them managed to get invited to go out with friends and Jared hung around the house with me.  I was relieved because Joe wanted me to help him build a Lego ship, and while I enjoy helping him out, I was not prepared to spend 4 hours searching through a bucket of Legos looking for missing pieces.  However, I was the only person to think that his play date meant a reprieve for me.  When I went to pick him up, the first thing he asked was if I finished the ship.  For some reason, he assumed that even though he was not home, I was going to work on it anyway.  I don't know where he got that idea.

Today, I made it back to the gym for the second time this year.  Last week, I went and I was so out of shape that I could barely walk or move my arms for 4 days (not even exaggerating here).  I decided to take it a little easier today so that I can actually try to get back at least one more time this week.  And because the use of my extremities is helpful.  

I guess that's it for now.  I wish I had a more exciting story to tell.  In the event you are bored and looking for something more entertaining, I was browsing through my archives looking for a post about when I first joined the gym and I came across this entry.  I would like to say those were good times but really, I do not wish to ever endure the punishment of another personal trainer ever again.  At least I lived to tell about it.  Off to catch up on blogs now.  Have a good one!

It's a Glamorous Life

As I dropped of the boys at school today, I couldn't help but be excited that, for the first time in weeks, I had a day to myself with no kids, no husband and nothing important to do.  Funny how quickly things change.  After I took Jared to school, I thought I would come home and spend some quality time with my computer catching up on emails, etc.  But then I thought to myself, "why not price some items for the third grade friendship party, instead?"  

I should know better than to "price" things because then I ask myself, "if I'm pricing stuff, shouldn't I just buy it so I don't have to come back and do it later?"  Obviously, I decide to just pick up a few things so I will have less to do on another day.  

Then, I think to myself, "well, if I just buy it all today, then I will have it finished and I can get everything sorted out in my own time".  So, four hours later, I am finished.  However, I still did not get two of the things I need so I have to go back out another day, anyway.  In any case, here is how my day went:

Sam's club

Party City

Wal-Mart

Specs

Dollar Tree

99.9 Cent only Store

HEB Grocery

Home

In case  you are wondering what I am talking about, I am lead room mom for 3rd grade.  All classes for each grade level have to have the same exact party so I get together with all of the room moms and we plan the party.  Then I buy all of the supplies and sort them out for each of the moms to take to their party.  The plus is I don't actually have to host the party, but the minus is I have to buy and store everything until I am ready for them to pick it  all up.  I am not a pack rat and I hate having random stuff around the house so this is hard for me.

3 other notable events of the day....

* I bought 275 straws at the 99.9 Cent Only store so I no longer have to steal straws from McDonald's when we go there to eat.

* I cut some poop out of my dog's rear end (I couldn't figure out why he smelled like poop all week.  I suppose I should have looked sooner but I think I already knew the answer and was hoping Lance would get home and take care of it.)

* While at Sam's Club, I had an opportunity to reflect on my life as I was waiting in line to check out behind a couple of senior citizens were disputing the price of a bottle of champagne.  It was advertised at $5.63 and they were charged $5.92.  I seriously couldn't help but wonder if my life will ever get so boring that the most exciting part of my day is holding up a line at Sam's Club to save $.29 on a $5 bottle of champagne.  Believe me, I am all about saving money out of principle, but some things just aren't worth my time.

Now I have to run to baseball practice so I don't have time to post house pictures, but I will do it tonight... I promise. 

First Lesson In Time Management

Do not spend 4 hours updating blog colors.

I am certain I have about 3 million other things I should be doing right now but I guess after 3 years, it was time to give my blog a facelift and make it look a little more appropriate to the title.  Of course, I should blame Karen for inspiring me in the first place.  I also want to give a shout out to my friend, Libby, who designed the red paper and the cute flower (I had to "girl" it up a little bit).  If you are looking for digital elements, check out her blog because she designs some cool stuff and she can link you up to her store.

With that being said, I am going to work on more important things.  Have a good one!

Oh, and I am aware that two posts in the same day do not count towards my 3/week.  So don't think I am trying to cheat (at least not yet).  Have a great weekend!

Got Bikes?

I am sure you were tuning in to read another exciting tale about how I spent my New year's Eve.  Sadly, I have no great tale to tell.  Lance had to work and that really took the festive mood right out of me.  We have never been big on celebrating New Year's, anyway.  I am sure the "mean lady" who lives across the street was happy because we have hosted our fair share of block parties in our driveway over the past year and since she hates everyone (particularly us when we have parties), I am sure it came as a great relief to her that there was no happiness or celebrating going on within a 100 yard radius of her house.  Another neighbor was kind enough to invite us to her house but I opted for staying home and watching a movie with the boys instead.  Of course, they were all passed out 10 minutes into it, leaving me on my own and in bed by 11:00.  I did manage to watch a few minutes of the celebration in New York and once I was satisfied that I had celebrated enough for this year, I went to sleep. That lasted for about 45 minutes... until the fireworks started.  We did not do fireworks in Las Vegas so when we moved out here, that was an eye opening experience.  It sounds like a war zone with fireworks blasting one after the other.  And the people out here spare no expense.  Most of the fireworks here are illegal in Las Vegas so they are great to watch (when you aren't trying to sleep) but it just seems like such a waste of money.  As long as I am not paying for them, I don't complain.

So, my big new year's project has been organizing.  I threw away a TON of junk from two of my hall closets and I did some major organizing in the garage.  I never thought I would complain that a 3-car garage is too small.  But when you count the 10 bicycles (3 are not pictured here), 2 scooters, Ripstik and 4 bat bags, it fills up quickly.  This is when you insert the obvious question... "why do we have 10 bicycles?"  The answer is, "I don't really know".  It's almost like it's become an experiment, similar to "how many clowns can you fit into a Volkswagen Bug?"  It's nice because when we have friends come over to play, we have a bike for everyone (and then some).  But it is quite a process to fit everything back into the garage once they have been taken out.  Now that the garage is organized and clean, I would like it to stay that way so I really want to stay on top of that.

Now it's a new year and it's time to make some resolutions.  I am pretty sure I have never kept a resolution past the second week of January, but I am optimistic this year.  So here we go...

1.  The ever predictable get back to the gym.  I need to either stop eating junk or start exercising.  If I did both, it would be even better.  The boys go back to school on Tuesday, so I might as well accept the fact that I will not start before then.  Besides, that gives all of the other slackers 6 days to quit going before I start.  You know how I hate crowds.

2.  Keep up on this blog.  I want to post at least 3 times/week.  That shouldn't be too difficult.  I just need to remember that all blog entries to do not need pictures, nor do they need to be a thesis on how I spent my day.

3.  Keep  up on my pictures.  I love taking photos but I am terrible about formatting and saving them.  I have so many pictures from this year that I haven't even looked at.  If I had better time management skills, this would not be a problem.  So I am going to work on that, too.

4.  Cook dinner at least 3 days/week.  I know I could say 5 days/week but I am trying to be realistic here.  I need to start planning for the week and stick with it.  This one may be harder than getting to the gym.  Perhaps I will schedule  my cooking days for the days I do not blog?

5.  Get rid of at least 3 bikes (and not acquire any more).  This one is thrown in there for guaranteed success because I have no problem with getting rid of stuff.  I just have to do it when Lance is on a trip.

Well, there you have it.  We'll see how it goes.  Happy New Year!!!!