This N That...

I promise I haven't been slacking on the blogging thing. I've just been busy with different things and haven't had the time to sit down and think about something to write about in my blog. Since I don't have anything major going on, I'll just talk about some random stuff.

At the top of my annoyance list...Aidan's soccer coach from the Spring. I'm usually the type of person that gets annoyed pretty easily, but I try to show some patience when it comes to someone that volunteers their free time to coach kids. Elliot's done it and I know it's a sacrifice and I appreciate that. However, this guy is a piece of work. Let me start by saying that we really liked him at the beginning of the season and were happy to get away from the guy from the season before that had no clue what he was doing. But, I should've known I couldn't depend on the guy when he failed to let me - and only me - know that there wouldn't be a practice one night. He repeatedly showed up to the games 5 minutes before the whistle blew and didn't ask that the entire team be there a little early to warm up. There were many times that Aidan and I were the only 2 people standing on the sidelines as the other team was lining up on the field. It's these little things that really got to me and made me think he shouldn't be coaching kids, simply because he's a bad influence. Now to why I'm venting about this jerk...It's almost August. Our last game was played on May 30. Aidan still hasn't gotten his trophy!!! I sent the coach an e-mail the week after our last game asking him when we were going to get the trophy. Nothing. I sent his wife a message on facebook about a week later asking the same thing. Nothing. I sent the coach another e-mail on June 23 and asked if he could put the trophy in his mailbox and I would come by and get it and he replied that he would deliver them by the end of the week. Nothing. I have finally had it with this guy. I sent an e-mail to the Mansfield Soccer Association last week and asked if anyone could help me get my son's trophy and they of course have given me the "we'll look into it" speech. Ugh. Needless to say when I registered Aidan yesterday for soccer for the fall season, I requested he go back into the draft. I don't want to even think about him playing for this guy again. I mean a trophy means alot to an 8 year old boy. I'm determined to get the damn thing if it kills me...

It's project time around here. Elliot and I had been thinking of moving and trying to find a house with a pool. We've decided to stay here in our house for a while longer. We can save money here and we both love our house - not to mention the schools my kids are zoned in are the best in the district. We'd be stupid to leave. So, since we won't be moving anytime soon, we've decided to do some stuff around here. First on my list is getting the kids into separate bedrooms. They've shared a room for the last 6 years and it's time they have their own rooms. Liam will be 11 (OMG) next week and it's time that he has his own space to get away from everything. So...on Sunday the boys and I spent the entire day cleaning out their old room and getting as much done in there as we could so we could paint it for Aidan. Then, we moved some stuff into the "playroom" which will now be Liam's room. We have a ton of stuff to do, but it will be worth it when we're done. Liam is even going to get new bedroom furniture at some point. I can't wait to get it all done. I'm sure the boys are looking forward to having their own space.

Well, the laundry is threatening me again. I need to get to it. Have a great Wednesday everyone!!!

What the &*%#???

First off, let me start my saying - I got all the laundry done AND put away. Yay me!! I'm starting from scratch today - with new laundry. Now I just hope I can stay on top of it so it doesn't overwhelm me again.

So...Elliot and I spent most of the day Sunday weeding our flower beds. It was a nightmare. It took us about 8 hours from start to finish. Of course we took some breaks here and there, but it was a long day. Elliot managed to stab himself in the thumbnail with the weed poker. Fortunately we (I say "we"...I mean he) were able to save the nail and hopefully it won't completely fall off. I didn't do anything other than stand by with band aids and antibiotic ointment. While we were doing the flower beds, we noticed ant beds...everywhere. So, as any good homeowner, we put down ant killer and left it at that. Now, I don't know if the ants are mad at us for ruining their happy home or what, but they've invaded our house!!! I have freaking ants everywhere I look!!! I walked into my bathroom at about midnight a couple nights ago and they were all over the floor - big gigantic ants!!! So, I got out the ant spray and spent about 15 minutes killing ants and cleaning up the mess afterwards. For some reason, Liam is the only one in the house that is covered in ant bites. I looked at them this morning and they look horrible. He's got about 6 on his legs and they're all swollen, hot and nasty looking. So, I put some cream on them and gave him a Benedryl. I hope they go away. I'm spending my day on an ant hunt. I'm determined to get these little you know what's out of my house...Wish me luck!

I've also started back on my diet this week. The first few days are always the hardest, but I'm doing pretty good so far. It's amazing to me how different you feel when you eat better food. Of course, we ate whatever we wanted while we were on vacation and I felt horrible. I haven't gotten back into running outside yet just because my body clock was still set for vacation sleeping in time and I just have a mental block that I can't run outside after 9 am. Oh well. I've been on the treadmill and that's better than nothing - right?

Oh and I'm still working on posting some pics on here, but I just haven't had a chance to sit down and play with the website yet. Once I have it figured out, I'll be posting pics too. I hope everyone has a great Friday - it's almost 5:00 and we all know what that means - Daiquiris!!!

Ugh...Laundry...

One of the things I hate most about vacation is coming home and having to do all the laundry. Oh the laundry. I've made this joke before, but I'm going to have to use it again. You know the Geico commercial where the set of eyes is sitting on top of a pile of money and the song "Somebody's Watching Me" plays in the background? Well, my laundry is just glaring at me from across the room and everytime I look at the mounds of laundry, I think of that commercial and hear that song. I don't know if that's funny or sad, but either way - the laundry won't go away. I thought I had put that laundry monster to bed over the weekend, but it's creeping back up. I am one of those people that likes to do all the laundry THEN put it away. Well, I've done all the vacation laundry and it's just sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be put in it's place. Now, I've got weekend laundry and almost 3 days of week day laundry piling up. I can't win. I guess instead of sitting here blogging on the computer I could be making progress, but like I've said before, my priorities seem to be out of whack sometimes.

Here's a little funny that happened on our trip that might make y'all smile...Aidan and I were sitting on the patio one day - enjoying the scenery. I guess he noticed that he had a little freckle on one of his fingers and this conversation followed:

Aidan: "Mommy, what's this?"
Me: "That's a freckle."
Aidan: "What does it do?"
Me: "Nothing. It's just a part of your skin that turns a different color."
Aidan: "Wait...I'm turning brown?"
Me: "No honey. You're not turning brown."
Aidan: "Hmm. I like brown people."
Me: "Me too Aidan."

And that's Aidan. Gotta love him. Now, I'm determined to get this laundry done. Until tomorrow...

I'm baaack...

Oh my! It seems like it's been forever since I've gotten to sit down at the computer and do whatever I want. It's amazing to me how dependent I've become to my computer. But...I guess it was nice to put it away for a week and have some family time. Don't get me wrong, if it would've been possible, I would've been on the computer every day in the condo but the condo didn't have wireless, so I was forced to go without. I did kind of cheat and used the limited internet access on my phone, but it's just not the same. So...I've got alot to talk about in my blogs, but I won't blow it all in this one. I'll save it all up for those days when I'm short on ideas.

So, our vacation was awesome. We went to Galveston and stayed at this really cool resort out by Jamaica Beach. If you have never been to that part of Galveston, I highly recommend it. We were close to a subdivision called Kahala Beach and it was beautiful there. The beach was amazing...the best I've seen in Texas. The sand was thick and it wasn't very crowded at all. The houses on the beach were amazing as well. We're going to look into something like that for our next beach vacation. Our first night at the resort was kind of disappointing. We had an awesome room on the 2nd floor (which was actually the 3rd floor because of the stilts) and it was super clean and cute...but it smelled REALLY bad. It smelled like it had been smoked in for years and years and years. None of us slept really well that first night because of the stench. So...very politely I called down to the concierge on Saturday morning and asked if there was any way we could be moved. The resort staff was so awesome and they found us another room within the hour. Our second room wasn't quite as cute, but it was closer to the action (putt putt, the pool, the activity center and volleyball), it was on the first floor and the most important part - it didn't smell!

We had so much fun all week. We spent almost every day at the resort's pool and the biggest news from the week was....AIDAN FINALLY LEARNED TO SWIM!!! Okay...not so much swim, but we got him to put his entire head under water, without holding his nose, for long amounts of time. By the end of the week, he was jumping in off the side of the pool and going under. We weren't there long enough to get him comfortable actually laying flat in the water and kicking his legs, but we made progress I never thought we would make on this trip. With all of his ear problems, I never thought Aidan would be much of a swimmer, but he did it last week and we were all so proud of him. He even got a new nickname - CUDA - as in BARRACUDA.

Liam took advantage of the resort's daily contests. One day he entered the basketball shootout and got 3rd place. Elliot & the boys entered the scavenger hunt and won a free pizza and soft drinks and Liam even entered the hula hoop contest and won 1st (although he was the only one that entered...he's a darn good hula hooper though). After our 3rd day at the resort we started referring to it as "Kellermans" from Dirty Dancing. We had a blast and my Mom & Elliot got to eat lots of awesome food. My food was good too, but it's food I can get anywhere since I'm not much of a seafood eater...so...

Well, I guess that's it for the day. I need to get busy doing some stuff around the house and getting things back to normal around here. I hope everyone has a great week and I'll be posting again soon. Toodles!

Pack, Pack, Pack...

I spent well over 8 hours today packing and getting ready for our vacation. Ugh...I hate packing. But, at least it's almost done. As usual, I've packed way too much stuff, but I'd rather have too much than not enough. I'm pretty sure it will all fit in the car too without too much leg room being lost. So now I get to relax for the rest of the evening and wait for our departure tomorrow.

Now on to more important stuff. My favorite show on the planet starts tonight. Big Brother!!! Woo Hoo!!! I love it more than any other show out there and trust me - I've done my reading up on all the new houseguests and I'm ready to get the show started. for the next 3 months, my life is completely dedicated to this show and I'm not ashamed of it. Elliot thinks I'm a big loser and I don't care. It makes me giddy.

Well, I guess that's all I've got today. I'm a little brain dead from all the packing and don't really have much to blog about. I'm hoping I'll be able to blog while I'm on vacation, but there's a chance I may not be able to. Just think of all the stuff I'll have to talk about then! I hope everyone's had a great week. Tomorrow's Friday, which is always a good thing. Much love, xoxo

What a day...

So yesterday was such an emotional day. I knew I was going to watch the Michael Jackson Memorial, but I hadn't really been listening to all the hype and for sure wasn't quite sure what to expect. I don't know if I've said this before, but I was a huge MJ fan growing up...Watching that memorial yesterday was so overwhelming. I cried and cried and cried. Like a baby. But...it was a good cry and I am not ashamed of it! Elliot had a good time poking fun at me, but what else is new...

I can't believe Wednesday is already here. We leave for our vacation in 2 days and I haven't even begun to pack. I sat down this morning and made my list and I am determined to get some packing done today. Yet, here I sit on the computer. My priorities can be a little off sometimes.

Oh...other news. The kids went for a sleepover at their friends' house last night. It was Aidan's first sleepover - EVER. I mean, he's spent the night with his Grammy & MiMi & PaPa, but he's never spent the night at a friend's house. I guess it was asking too much for him to be a little sentimental about it. He couldn't have cared less. I went to drop them off thinking he would hang on my leg as I left or even call me last night to tell me goodnight...NOPE. NOTHING. He left me in the dust. Oh well, I guess my little baby is growing up. *sigh*

I was kind of excited about both of the boys being gone at the same time. I was thinking I would take advantage of the quiet time and get some stuff done. I even went as far as to kind of get excited about Elliot & I having dinner - maybe even at a restaurant. But...this is what happened instead. Elliot had to go for an MRI on a nagging hip injury at 6:15. So...I'm thinking, oh, he'll be home by 7:30, we'll go out to eat, come home, watch some tv and have a nice relaxing night. Reality was that Elliot didn't even get home until 9:20. So, my nice fun dinner was a fettuccine alfredo lean cuisine. YUM. I mean, I guess I should feel bad for him. He's the one that had to lay still for 2 hours and 45 minutes, but I was going crazy not knowing where he was or what was going on. I think I called his phone like 5 times. Apparently the people at the MRI place felt sorry for him too and gave him one of those multi restaurant gift cards for being such a trooper. So, if you want to look at it positively, we got a free dinner out last night, we just didn't get to eat it...

Well, that's all for now. I really do need to get some packing done. Have a wonderful day everyone. Until tomorrow...

Manic Monday...

Whew...What a weekend! I love holidays and especially when they fall on the weekend. For some reason it just makes it a little bit more fun. I'm glad it's over though - because it just means we're only a few days away from our summer vacation. So, I'm determined to spend my day readying everything for the chore of...PACKING. Definitely not the funnest part of going on vacation, but it has to be done. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I'm an organized vacationer. I make a list of everything I need to pack or get done before I leave. I'm also one of those sick people that has to have a clean house before I go out of town too. So, needless to say, I've got a lot to do this week. However, I've enlisted my messy children and they're busy cleaning their rooms as we speak. Let's see if they will stay that way until we leave :)
We're going to Galveston this year for our "beach trip". I'm not sure how much time we will actually spend at the beach, but we will definitely make use of the resorts pool and activities. Not to mention, we'll do the tourist thing in Galveston as well. Elliot's looking forward to eating all the seafood he can - me not so much. I hope wherever we go has great grilled chicken...
The kids are excited too. This trip is going to be kind of bittersweet though. We went to Crystal Beach last summer and planned on making it a yearly thing for our entire family. But...Hurricane Ike had different plans. Most of Crystal Beach was wiped off the map and they've only begun the rebuilding process. So...Elliot and my Mom want to go see what it looks like, but I would rather remember it the way it was. I don't know. I'm sure I'll be overruled.
Well, I've got lots to get done today, so I better get started. Have a great Monday everyone!

It's Frursday (or is it Thriday???)...

I really should be watching TV with my family right now, but I'm just not interested. Elliot made me record a show called River Monsters on The Discovery Channel. Ugh. Don't bother - unless you like to see stories about scary animals in fresh water. Me - not much of a fan, but if you like that kind of thing - more power to ya. I'm not much of a fan of marine life - fresh water or salt water. Never have been. Deep water especially creeps me out and if you can't see in the water - forget about it. This is all kind of funny considering I grew up spending every summer and holiday at my grandparents house on Cedar Creek Lake. I mean - I was water skiing at the ripe old age of 5. Maybe the fears come from my subconscious. When I was 9 and learning how to slalom ski, my grandpa kept telling me and my cousin that we were gator bait and alligators really liked the color of our life jackets. He did this to try to get us to get up on our ski, but maybe it instilled some kind of fear - who knows. Anywho, maybe all of this explains why I can't eat seafood either. Don't even get me started on seafood. Trust me, I've heard for years how weird I am for not wanting to eat it, but it's just not all that appealing to me and why is it that people try to get me to try something I don't have any interest in eating? I mean - I don't try to make people eat my grilled chicken or my steak. I don't like seafood, there's nothing wrong with that. Elliot made me try orange roughy about 3 months ago. It was ok, but not something I will request. I've eaten it a couple of other times since then and like I said, it's ok, but I can live without it too.
One funny I'd like to share from today. I took the boys for their haircuts. When the lady was cutting Liam's hair she looked back at me and asked if I wanted her to keep his sideburns or take them off. I told her to do whatever she thought looked best. So she took them off. Right after she did it, Liam goes "do sideburns turn into a beard?" and she said "yes, sometimes". Then Liam said, "well, next time don't take them off because I want to have a beard when I'm 18". He's so funny. Hard to believe he's only 10. He wants to grow up so fast and I just have to sit back and chuckle when he says cute things like that.
While we were waiting for their haircuts, Aidan was playing with the Magna-Doodle they had there. The boys had one of those years ago and of course never played with it, so it got tossed at some point. Well, Aidan couldn't put this thing down. He was having so much fun writing different words. I'm seriously thinking about getting him one this weekend at Target. I figure it could help him practice his writing skills and maybe even help with his spelling. Anything I can do to help the little guy.
Elliot doesn't have to work tomorrow, but of course he's got to spend the morning training, which means he'll be riding his bike. He's got a 4 hour ride tomorrow morning. Hopefully he can get done before it gets too hot. We don't need another repeat performance of heat stroke like last Saturday.
Well, that's all I've got folks. I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July!

A Whole Lotta Nothing...

Well hellooooo...I didn't blog yesterday, even though I wanted to. My life was just that uninteresting. It's not even interesting today, but I felt like I couldn't go another day without getting thoughts out of my head :) Anyway, there's nothing new going on around here, which is usually a good thing.
I can't believe June is already over. We leave for our summer vacation next week, which means summer is halfway over...Wow. It's going quick. Which, with the way the weather was last week, that's a good thing. I can do without the 100 degree temps thank you. I much prefer the weather we had this past Monday and Tuesday. Now that's summer weather I can get in to. Cloudy, 80's, wind...it was nice. Today - not so much. It's hot again and the sun is shining - YUCK. I could easily live in Oregon or Washington. Give me clouds, cool weather and rain any day. Elliot and I dream of moving there if we ever win the lottery. Some people think I'm crazy, but if you've ever had a hot flash, then you know why I feel that way.
Oh, one exciting thing that happened today. I got the report from Aidan's speech therapist so I can take it to an orthodontist and try to get him fitted for a mouth appliance to help with his speech - it's called an obturator. His general dentist didn't seem to think it would help with his speech and hypernasality, but he may have just said that because he didn't want to mess with it. So, I'm taking the initiative here and doing it on my own. I figure it can't hurt to take him to an orthodontist and see if they can do anything for him - right? I mean - he's getting older, which means the peers get meaner, so I want to make sure he can talk and be understood. Not to mention, it may help with some of his evaluation scores as well. So, that's my next project, but I think I'll do the vacation thing first.
Well, that's all I've got people. I hope you all have a good Wednesday! Hopefully I'll have something interesting to write about tomorrow :)