A Year of Change

Luckily I was excused from jury duty today as I have too much to do. It was cold yesterday but we were sparred the snow that was forecast. Mom had her teeth cleaned and I made a trip to Fed Ex with 20 some boxes of wine to ship around the country. I think I have about 40 more cases to go and then should be done. Gas is about $4 a gallon which means it’s now about $260 to fill up both cars, are you kidding me! We had the plumber here for his monthly visit to fix yet another leak and he left with another $150 of our money for about 45 minutes of work. we also have another hole in the drywall, this time in the laundry room. The misses says we’re going to have to install stereo speakers in all these holes around the house. The microwave handle finally broke off and the “wave” itself now only works about half the time. It’s getting pretty comical around here, the misses calls it the money pit. Don’t count on a new microwave anytime soon as there’s a lot of things ahead of that luxury on the list.

Our oldest boys latest thing when upset at me is to call me (indirectly through his mother) a jack wagon! It’s just too funny to get mad at him, the misses and I just laugh. Whenever I reprimand him for something, he’ll tell his mother, Dad’s such a jack wagon. At least he’s not using the other word! I’m willing to take one for the team as long as he does his chores or changes his behavior, I’ll go ahead and be a jack wagon. The youngest had a good day and got 10 out of 10 on his weekly spelling test and 3 out of 5 on his challenge words. (challenge words are optional and much tougher)

Mom works 10:30 to 7pm and I’m off to Boulder to the farm to meet with the man that supplies us with fresh vegetables from March to October. Being local and straight out of the ground, they sure are good. The oldest has soccer practice this afternoon (here we go again) unless they cancel due to poor field conditions. Bob the fish is still hanging in there. Both dogs are in and playing and it’s now time to start breakfast.

Mom’s grabbing for the computer and it’s time to get going. It doesn’t matter when we get up each morning, we always run short of time in the am. Hope all of you have a good day and are safe and happy.

After a pretty nice day, I awoke to a literal sheet of ice on everything from the grass to the windshields of both cars. We’re supposed to get snow later in the day and through the night. The timing couldn’t be worse (although I guess anything “could be” worse) as I need to ship about 30 or 40 cases of wine today.

The boys and I had a pretty good day except for a bit of “not listening” in the store which resulted in not being able to acquire their focus of the day, 2 cans of silly string. It seems Mom had promised it and I agreed IF they could show good behavior in 2 stores we had to visit. They made it through the first one ok but didn’t do as well as I had hoped in the second. I probably overreacted but it was one of those instances where I needed to make a stand on principal. I’m sure we’ll get some today.

Mom worked until 8pm and I managed to get the boys into bed and asleep before she arrived home. We had a dinner of tacos and frozen waffles with butter (I can see all your mouths watering now) which pleased the boys greatly. We played some football in the afternoon before the weather started to turn. We had a bit of neighborhood drama earlier in the day when one of the boys friends (who apparently was given too much Benadryl as a kid) got upset and began to pick on our youngest. Our oldest was quick to step in to defend him and within a few seconds, the neighbor boy was headed home crying and calling names as he sulked away dejected. A few minutes later he appeared at the front door asking me if I said whoever decided to watch a certain movie (which they all watched the night before) was in trouble as it was a PG13 film. (earlier I had reminded our boys that the comedy they watched was not really suitable) He was clearly trying to get our oldest in trouble saying it was him (with a pointed finger hoping for a gotcha moment) that made the life changing decision to watch Adam Sandler and David Spades latest comedy. I told him not to worry about it and that he needed to just go home now as we had to run some errands. I was abruptly interrupted by my oldest telling me “no Dad, I need to say something”. Well now that I have been put in my place he proceeded to tell the neighbor boy, and I quote, “Tom, we are not going to put up with your attitude anymore, if you want to play nice, you can play with us, otherwise you just need to go home”. Well, pretty profound words from a 9 year old. Most kids are screaming insults or he said, she said comments when confronted with conflict, but our 9 year old calmly assessed the situation and addressed the antagonist with words of wisdom. Perhaps he’ll be a lawyer or a politician. Anyhow, the kid headed home across the street much the same way he did the first time but this time was speechless as I don’t think he counted on his contemporary talking to him like an adult.

Lots to do today, the misses and I are starting a new extreme exercise program in addition to our normal workouts. (swim suit season’s only 3 months away!) Our trip to Red Rocks yesterday and the climbing of 70 rows of seats a few times has our legs feeling the burn this morning. Once again the boys bounded up the amphitheater effortlessly with the only thing limiting their speed being the length of their legs. Little old lady down the street has quite a bruise from her fall Saturday night. Apparently her whole face on one side is swollen and bruised. Her friend is going to take her to the doctor today, hope she’s alright.

Time to get the kids and Mom up and get breakfast going. Both dogs are outside with the lab refusing to come in as she thinks she’s going into the crate, and she’s probably right as her feet will be a bit muddy. Lots of bad weather on the news, in fact just lots of bad news in general. I’ve always said someone needs to start a news channel that just has good news on it, probably wouldn’t last though as people like to see tragedy for some reason.

Oh well, on to another day, hope everyone is well and God Bless you all!

D.I is finished for the year.  The children did a terrific job. They had to carry in and set the stage with the props they made. The set was a jungle that they painted on 3 panels of foam board.. ..complete with red jungle fruit, a giant grey rock with moss on top, a lovely jungle sky, a giant tree with hanging vines and a single banana. The narrator was a bee, “Big Bug”(The theme for all 1st graders was Big Bug’s Bad Day) was a Lady Bug…she sleep walks and wakes up lost in the jungle. Her first encounter is a frog that she asks to help her find her way home…the frog(a little girl in all green with a paper party blower)says “ribbit”and blows the party favour like a long frog tongue and hops off. Next Big Bug comes across Tortoise( a boy in green with a giant green back pack)she again asks for help getting home to which Tortoise replies that he can’t help her find her way home..he is too slow. Snake our little guy is up next..(wearing 1 and1/2yards of grey and black python fabric tucked under a backwards black baseball cap that has snake eyes attached to the sides of the cap)he slithers out and asks Big Bug..”SSS Hello Big Bug would you like to come to my house for dinner? B.B. replies..”You would like to have me for dinner”?Snake:”Yesssss, very much so”.They go off towards snakes and all the kids say “dun, dun dun. Then a Monkey comes out and says “Look, who would put a banana way up there”? When Snake looks up Monkey helps Big Bug escape. Snake:”Curses…foiled again”.  The End!!! Super cute especially since they had no parental help…I of course video taped it so we can watch it over and over again.Yea!!

The kids played all afternoon and Dad was on a call for part of the day. Our good friends called at about 4 to see what our plans were for the night and we all decided to grill over here. Dad and I made a mad dash to catch dog hair and dust bunnies before our friends got here. They brought the burgers, buns, hot dogs and french fries…We provided the salad and beverages. The kids were playing hide and go seek outside when the ambulance and fire trucks came screaming down our street to stop at Roxie’s across the street.  Her mom was just released from the hospital on Fri. she had some fluid in her lungs a reaction to the antibiotic she was given for the lung problem and blood loss that the docs can not find the source of. Dad asked if she was alright and it seemed to be non life threatening..Thank God.

My good friend, her daughter and I went down to give Bunkie his shot…..L.O.L.turned and moved too fast and her foot got caught on her oxygen hose.  She went down pretty hard and hit her head..It was very scary but could have been much worse.  We iced her head and shoulder and asked all the pertinent questions..the year, the president, her name. She answered well enough…President being a black man with two kids…later she remembered his name…We got her settled and headed home.  I went down a couple more times to take neosporin for a minor cut and check on her. I made her two cups of tea and visited with her until she was ready to go upstairs to bed. She was born in 1921 and has some amazing memories.

Back home for fun conversations with friends…the youngest crashed on the couch at about 9 and the festivities ended around 10. There was definitely too much excitement on our street last night!!

Just got back from giving Bunkie his shot and boy does our LOL have a shiner!  She also has a pretty big bruise on her knee and a sore shoulder. She agrees that it could have been much worse..a hip, an arm…Once again, Thank God it was not worse.

We are off to Red Rock’s this morning for some much needed exercise and fresh air.  I work at noon and the youngest has a birthday party at noon also. We’ll see if he goes as he’s kind of under the weather. Off to make breakfast for the crew, scrambled eggs covered with green chili I made yesterday.

Have a great day and God Bless,

LLF

Today is the day of our youngest child’s big play. This should be really fun. It’s a state wide competition with kids from schools all over participating. The kids had to come up with the story, their costumes, their lines, sets and props, all on their own. We’re excited to see the entire play all put together. Our child is a snake and he made his own costume and came up with his lines. I don’t know them all but in one scene (as Mom tells it) when the snake finds out that Big Bug won’t come over and “be” his dinner, he replies, “oh poop, foiled again!”. Ah, the words of a 7 year old. He also apparently was the one to conceptualize the entire play for our school. More on this tomorrow.

It was about 80 degrees in Phoenix yesterday and was good to see my Mom. We stayed home the night before (we were going to go out for dinner) and had some bbq. My little sis came over with her boyfriend and visited for a while, everyone seems well and looks good. I landed about 5pm and was home by 6. My brother had once again made dinner for us, (we’re getting spoiled) that was really appreciated and good. Mom has one more day off and then she’s back to work tomorrow. Not much kid news from me as I’ve been gone for the past few days but I’m sure we’ll have lots of news tomorrow after the play and day off today.

We need to do some grocery shopping today and I have a bit of work and then we’ll get to our daily house cleaning chores. More to come but right now, time is running out as we all need to shower and head out for the big competition in 45 minutes.

Oh and Bob the fish made it through another night, yeah

Have a great weekend!

Good Morning, the sun is coming up and the colors are spectacular! The sky is a deep turquoise adorned with puffs of clouds in orange, pink and violet. Truly breath taking.

Both boys had dentist appointments yesterday…oldest needs to brush more thoroughly as I am sure most 9yr olds do and the 7yr old has a tooth that came in with a minor cavity that needs to be filled. Bummer.The youngest wanted to play in the bath after the dentist gave him a cool squirting toy, so he did.  When we drained the bath….you guessed it….water came pouring from the ceiling once again over the washing machine. Ugg, with a few four letter words that I would like to shout from the rooftop.  I called my Man and Bob the plumber….again. Bob will be here today or tomorrow….can you say “Money Pit”?

The boys came with me to give Bunkie a.k.a.little old dog his shot last night and were so well behaved that Little Old Lady offered to watch them anytime that my husband and I wanted to go out for an early dinner. She said to just bring down some books and they would be fine.  So sweet, but as you all well know the books would only entertain them for 5 minutes….I’m not sure what she would do with them for the other hour and 55mins. Maybe they would surprise me and be the well behaved little boys that they were last night…don’t think I’ll chance it at the expense of L.o.L. Very thoughtful offer though.

Little man(our youngest finished his costume last night. I may be a bit bias but I think the costume is great! I found a yard and a half of python fabric and a baseball hat for him to work with….he cut out eyes and taped them to the sides of the cap and tucked the fabric under his cap an wrapped himself up.  He also colored a red split tong and cut it out to put in his mouth…toooo cute!

The dog only woke me once at 1a.m…..not so bad. She got into something that has her itching all over. My sweet four legged girl is allergic to almost everything and since I am positive she suffers form a doggie eating disorder(if she can find it and get to it she will eat it)she eats things that do not agree with her sensitive system. Anyway, she went out and rolled and rubbed and scratched for 30minutes. I put drops in her ears and a 1/4 tsp of benadryl and the two of us headed back to bed. By the way, an honorable “Thank You” to Aunt Blondie for getting the medicine from the Vet.   The boys never heard a thing!!

The boys both have performances at school this morning…Square Dancing and Tinikling . Tinikling is jumping over and through two long sticks that kids are holding at each end of the sticks  to the beat of music. It’s really cool. The eldest at 10:00a.m. and youngest at 12:15..we had no notice from the school, or if we did I missed it.  Dad will be missing both…he is bummed the boys are bummed and I heard all about how unfair it is that Dad won’t see the performance for most of the night… until my little protesters fell asleep.

I made my first vintage belt bling yesterday…it is simple and…hopefully it will catch on. We shall see.

Dad gets home about 5 tonight….maybe we will do game night.  We have to be at the High School at 8:30a.m. tomorrow for the Destination Imagination 1st grade competition. They will be done by 9:45 and then we wait to hear how they did. They also have an Instant Challenge with no coach involved…the Judges give the children a scenario and they come up with an instant play…good luck 1st graders!!! I am so excited, as is my 1st grader.

We need to get get moving..dressed..teeth brushed(well) etc.

Enjoy the day…God Bless.

LLF

Hard to believe it’s March. Spring is right around the corner. We had a busy day yesterday shipping wine samples around the country, running errands and lots of phone time. I’m off to Phoenix today at noon until tomorrow afternoon. Mom worked late (until 9:45) and now has 3 days off, thankfully!

The boys went to sleep right on schedule and had a good night. Our youngest sprained his ankle earlier in the afternoon stepping off a rock. You can tell when a kids faking or not as they’ll usually forget to stay in character for more than a few minutes. Adults are much better at it! I twisted something boxing 20 cases of wine yesterday am and had to get some Motrin during the night as I was in some bad pain. All better this morning, I bounce back pretty fast. Thank God I have the body of a 20 year old! (better confirm this one with my wife)

It’s supposed to get cooler this afternoon and rain a bit with more cold and wind tomorrow. Mom and our youngest will be working on his costume for his big Destination Imagination event Saturday morning. She just noticed that he also has a parade and awards banquet that night. This is a problem as we committed to dinner with my attorney turned judge (you might remember the Governor appointed him in January) and our other friends over a month ago. We’re now going to have to cancel and reschedule as this is a really big deal for our child. Thankfully the Judge is such a nice guy as when he called last night he said, no pressure, anytime is good, we just want to get together with you guys. They’re really nice good people and have done a lot for us over the years asking nothing in return. You can’t buy good friends!

Just heard gas is up 187% since Obama took office, enough said. The new cover of Time magazine is “America in Decline” wow! Ok, my wife is telling me that’s enough. Mom’s making taco’s for the boys tonight, glad she’s home for dinner as I’m usually still on the phone at that time and then have to throw something together really quick. Our eldest just bounded down the stairs asking if he can put on a kids show. We’re all trying to think of how the youngest can make a snake costume as this is who he is in his play but the catch is he needs to make the costume himself. If anyone has any suggestions, email this morning!

Time to run as I have a lot to do before heading to the airport in a few hours. At least it’s a short flight. Mom will be writing tomorrow so you all will be spared any political statements but lookout cause I’ll be back Saturday morning!

God Bless,

I landed about 5pm ast night from Washington D.C. (actually flew out of BWI airport as it’s easier, newer and tons cheaper) after a quick 27 hours on the east coast. What a historic city our nations Capital is. The boys are just about old enough to appreciate it so we’ll have to plan a family trip soon. Thankfully through connections, I stayed at a boutique hotel, 4 blocks from the Capital that was normally $500 a night, for $159. (plus they even upgraded me!) We had a great sushi dinner at Santen, one of the top restaurants in D.C. that should have cost $500 as well but were only charged $100. It’s nice to know people. Monday was cold and rainy in D.C. with yesterday clear, sunny and kind of cool. I took a quick drive around the National Mall which encompasses everything from the White House to the Capital and all sights in between. It’s quite a sight.

As soon as I landed I rushed to my car to go get the boys from my brother and his wife. Upon arrival they had taco’s prepared for us for dinner, thanks! Aunt Blondie commented that she doesn’t know how we do it, referring to raising the boys. It seems about 5 hours over two days was enough for her. I guess when you’re the parents you somewhat get used to it. What I mean is they will always find something to fight over as that’s what 7 and 9 year old brothers do. Point is, whatever it is, it’ll pass in a few minutes as they have a short attention span. You just need to ride it out.

I’m off to Phoenix tomorrow and back Friday and then done for a few weeks, I think. I was almost pulled into a San Francisco trip next Tuesday but have jury duty. Maybe I’ll get lucky and get some cool case involving Charlie Sheen! Mom got home around 8:15 and I had both boys already asleep. Today she works from 3 until 9:45pm so we won’t see each other much as I have a busy day. She’s then off Thursday, Friday and Saturday but I’m gone the first two of those. At least we’ll be together Saturday. It’s almost 6am and everyone will be waking soon so I need to get some work done before the morning party starts. I’ll let Mom post tomorrow as she writes so well and I’m sure is a welcome change from my thoughts. Hope everyone is well and happy, take care,

Good morning… if you can call it that.  The sky is pitch black dotted with sparkling stars and the dog is barking to go out. It is a little after 4a.m. I tried to go back to bed, but my horizontal brain kicked in. For those of you that don’t have this issue, I’ll fill you in.  As soon as you lie down your brain kicks into overdrive..wheels turning on every subject under the sun. All the things you need to get done..all the things you feel you should have done and everything you should be doing. Of course none of it really matters, but you can never go back to sleep, so here I am…4:36a.m. I am looking forward to the sunrise this morning…if it is anything like yesterday it will be spectacular!!!

Yesterday went very well.  Dad headed off to the airport at 6:40a.m. The boys were up to wish him a safe and successful trip. They polished off two or three breakfasts, got dressed without too much fuss and we headed off to little old ladies to administer little old dog’s shot…then off to school.  We were a bit early, so I went in to the P.E. teachers room to fill him in on the “Head butting” situation. He had not been informed. He asked our littlest one to please tell him if anything problematic ever comes up in the future and he assured me that this behavior would be stopped. I hope so.  He is a great teacher…all of our kids teachers have been amazing thus far. He has been at the school for 30 years…so cool…and his programs are great. The kids have cross country, track and field, soccer, square dancing(not my favorite)rope climbing, peg boards …a plethora of varied physical activity. Don’t Ever Vote For Education Funding Cuts…the future of our children can’t afford it!!

Off to work I went.

Uncle T and Aunt Blondie picked the boys up from school.  The parking lot parent patrol scolded uncle T for leaving his car unattended. Sorry Uncle T. The boys of course had a blast…after their homework they played ping pong, played outside, ate 2 grilled cheese sandwiches each plus an assortment of accompaniments and set reminders to tape t.v. shows to watch today….Good times!!! Thank you guys!! The boys are looking forward to another day with their Aunt and Uncle. Another honorable mention…Uncle T brought up yummy fried chicken last night. You rock Uncle T!

The boys and I went trough their Monday folders together. A “Monday Folder” comes home…you guessed it..every Monday filled with work they completed the previous week and info on the week to come. Parents are required to sign and date the folder to insure they hopefully went trough it. Our oldest has another CSAP test this morning on writing. He is a little nervous about punctuation, but is confident he will do well.  I assured him that his best is all he can do. The school sent home a reminder to ask that the children get a good nights sleep and a healthy breakfast…so far the sleep part is on track and I will for sure make a healthy breakfast. One more test tomorrow and then two next week and we will be done with CSAP.

I work 12-8 today and Dad should be picking the kiddos up around 6:15-6:30 on his way home from the airport. I’ll have to remind him to get our oldest to bed early.

The youngest has his last Destination Imagination meeting today and a dress rehearsal Friday. The big competition is Saturday morning….I better get the dvd recorder charged!!

Have another lovely day!!!

God Bless,

LLF

It’s late on the night of the 27th and the Oscars are winding down, we sure want to see True Grit. I’m headed to D.C. in the morning and the wife/mom will have her hands full. See she needs to give Bunkie his shot at 7:30, get the boys ready and to school by 8 (10 minutes early) so she can get to work at 8:15.

She made a fantastic dinner of shrimp and grits. Sounds plain but she made a spicy sweet green chile sauce for the grits and broiled the shrimp in lemon, garlic and oil, the boys even ate everything, with a little prodding on the grits. We played some basketball today (all 4 of us), and did some grocery shopping. Laundry of course is a daily chore so no need to really mention it. The boys obviously have much better days when they get exercise outside, thankfully it was a pretty nice day, a bit cold in the morning but then warmed up. My wife is tired, she’s been working really really hard. She works for the next 3 days and then gets 3 off but I’ll be in AZ for 2 of them so not so much of a break. She’s getting back into running which makes her feel much better. We both thought of having a drink tonight but passed realizing we feel so much better without alcohol. Funny as we have over 2000 bottles of wine sitting in our kitchen and don’t want any. We were even going to have some friends over last night but knew we’d end up drinking because that’s what you do when you get together. Well we’re breaking the chain, swim suit season is coming fast. (just kidding) You see all we really care about is the calories, not that we’re that vain, we just feel better in general when we’re in shape. Ever notice how it’s so much harder to stay in shape the older you get?

The misses/wife/mom will be writing on March 1st. I just wanted to help her out a bit tonight as she’ll be very busy in the am. Hope everyone is doing well, keep your gas tanks at least half full at all times (don’t ask why, just do it), and have a good week.

Tonight is the Oscars, not really a big deal to me but the misses is excited about it. I think she likes seeing all the dresses more than the actual event. Oh well, at least it’s good for a post title.

Got all the wine unloaded and moved into the house yesterday. The basement and upstairs breakfast nook are each filled with about 90 cases of wine. A few bottles were broke so some of the boxes have that “barrel smell” that reminds you of a vineyards cellar. While the littlest one was at his birthday party, my brother and wife took me, our oldest and his friend out for pizza. They also made chili for us for dinner last night which helps out as I can then focus on laundry and house cleaning. When we picked up our youngest at his party, he used his Chuck e Cheese “points” to buy him, his brother and their friend some prizes. Quite an unselfish act for a 7 year old hyped up on cake and ice cream! We all came home and played a bit outside before heading in to clean up before dinner.

Tomorrow I fly to D.C. (actually into Baltimore as it’s about half price) at 9am. With Mom working at 8:15 the boys will need to be dropped off a few minutes early. It’s supposed to be raining on the east coast when I land but all I really need to do is head to dinner in D.C.

Since I haven’t gone off on any political or world view rants lately, I thought I’d share some of the latest news with you all today. Gas is almost $4 a gallon here, going up an unprecedented 25 cents a gallon in less than 2 days! This is reminiscent of the 1970’s for those of us old enough to remember. On a local level, the kids neighborhood summer pool tuition has gone from $465 to $520 (which doesn’t seem like a lot but is about 12%) and they want you to pay by March 15th. The pool doesn’t open until Memorial Day so they now want to be paid 10 weeks early I guess for the interest they’ll make on the fees they collect. Our close friends told me yesterday they’re going to have to pass this year. I’m not sure what we’ll do as with Mom working we’re going to need some kind of activity for the kids when they’re not in school, plus they do go about every day and it’s good exercise. Anyhow I’ll leave the rant at that, (see that wasn’t so bad) as I’m sure (or hope) that most of you are aware of what’s going on out there. I know lots of people that are actually selling things they don’t need to pay bills or buy extra food. Funny how the things they’re now selling were “must haves” just a few years ago. The misses even sees it at work as she tells of people stocking up on various items coming through her lines. She’ll be writing the blog tomorrow and Tuesday and maybe will elaborate. Ok, I’ll stop.

We’re all headed to the gym in a half hour or so, (use it or lose it), and will then come home to more laundry and cleaning on our day off. Hope everyone is well, give us a call to say hi. Take care, stay safe and healthy.

God Bless,