blogging...yet again

If anyone is visiting from blogland, quick question? Do you only blog the good, happy stuff ... or do you blog the not so happy as well? Well, I have only blogged the happy stuff for the most part, but that is about to change. Not seriously awful, or anything, but with three children I find that things are not great everyday, the kids aren't perfect in school, or in life or at home ... and I want to blog about it so I can remind myself that the psycho behaviour that one of them is currently showing is simply normal "our kids" behaviour. SO, this is tricky for me because I tend to put a happy face on for friends and family, so baring my problem issues is not going to be east. However, as of lately, it means I will be blogging more since I cannot write about happy rainbows when the stormclouds have overtaken our home.

DON'T GET ME WRONG... I love my munchkins more than life itself, I would do anything and everything for them, but there are days I just want to hang up my "mommy badge" and crawl into a very quiet very isolated cave and sleep for days on end.

Hope you don't mind...

woo-hoo

the little things in life sometimes are truly the most satisfying ... tonight, due to a boatload of reasons beyond my control, I am still awake and functioning, many many hours after my regular bedtime to do LAUNDRY!! I just cannot get up tomorrow morning with a laundry room full of laundry. I have no idea when I am going to be home for more than two (non-sleeping) consecutive hours in the next four days. How do working moms do it? I respect and admire them so so much, because I truly don't know when they get everything done.

Anyway, this week is the "infamous" Secret Santa's Shop at our elementary school. Year number 4 for me to participate ... and this year, the chairperson has completely blown me away!! Single handedly (apparently with a bit of help from family) she managed purchase and wrapping of more that $10,000 worth of merchandise - every piece being worth less than $3 or $4. The shop, set up in a basement classroom of the school, is absolutely beautiful with all of the gifts, decorations and "christmassy atmosphere". Yet another Mother who has simply amazed me! I am so proud of her...

SWIM MEET #1

OK, can we discuss, Saturday ranks as one of those ultra-exciting days in the life of a SAHM! 6 hours of swimming each and every week, hours spent online looking at swimming videos, absurdly expensive swim suits, learning how to get our hair into a swimming cap ... SHE WAS AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!

She actually finished every race she was in (5), was only disqualified in one - not finishing with both hands on the wall for the butterfly and placed 2nd and 3rd in all of the rest. When you consider there were 42 other swimmers in her age bracket, she was AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!

More importantly, however, what a GREAT TIME we all had at the meet.  Nothing like 5 hours in a humid, hot natatorium to remind you how much you love swimming outside!  But it was just so much fun with all of the kids, trying to keep track of everyone over 87 races, and trying to guess times and split times.  The kids had a blast - can't wait until the next one!

well, I failed...

man do I suck!! Weekend one for me on NaBloPoMo, and honest to God I think I lost two days of my life!!! I SWEAR ... I cannot find them anywhere. Have you seen them? We got home from the swim meet - details forthcoming - and had dinner at my parents, went to bed, went to church, sunday school, Christmas Play practice, friends came over for the game, sleepover (up until 2 with 6 squealy, giggly kids), finish school project go to Toys R Us & Target to work on Christmas lists, swim practice, Daddy made dinner, bed ... the days just vanished!!!! I'll still be around, but knowing that I have failed in the mission.

the proof ...

... is in the pudding (or in the pool)!  This morning marks the arrival of (da da da dah) our FIRST SWIMMEET for beachgirl!  Our beloved 8 year old has been swimming an hour and a half 4 nights a week, coming home exhausted, eating dinner while falling asleep on her plate and getting up at 6 each morning to finish homework because she has fallen asleep right after dinner for TWO MONTHS!!!  All leading up this this day - and I cannot tell you about the butterflies in my stomach!!

Like any good mother would tell you, I really don't care how she does in the competition (no, really, for my sake, I don't)!!  But, for her sake, OMG, I have been praying, begging, pleading, and all around making tons of promises to the big man above to let her just finish all of her races and place within the top 10 on just one so she can bring home a ribbon!  Mind you, she has been stressing and won't let her grandparents come to her first meet because she is convinced she is going to be disqualified on every race she takes part in.   I, of course told her "no, honey, that won't happen, you are doing such a great job" about 2 seconds before Coach comes out and lets everyone know that probably most swimmers will be DQ'd at one race or another today for form and technique ... these refs are very particular and don't care that most of the swimmers have only been swimming for a couple of months.

WISH US LUCK!!!

I need to be paid to put up with this!

One of my "sideline businesses" is president of our elementary school PTO ... and it is becoming quite a nightmare. Don't get me wrong, our school is great and we have some great teachers, staff and administrators. I would say, 80 percent are great ... why do I keep having to deal with the self-centered, selfish (I don't care that they mean the same things), unrealistic and smarmy teachers? AND, why isn't the administration telling this particular teacher, No, you cannot request technology in your room and your room only when we just purchased mobile versions of your wish and every teacher in school would like to have one?!?!?

While I don't think anyone from our school even knows about this blog ... I will leave you with a crappy entry because this is probably something I shouldn't discuss on a blog...oops!

just how much time do I spend on the computer

...and exactly WHAT AM I DOING ON IT??? Every single stinking day I tell myself "no checking the computer until lunchtime, and then you can sit down with an icy-cold diet coke (my other obsession), a package of crackers and read to your hearts content!" ... and what do I do every single stinking day (well, ever since NoBloPoMo started and at other various times in my life)? I drop the kids off at their respective schools, come home, move a load of laundry and just take a "sec" to "check my email" ... THREE HOURS LATER I am still sitting here moving things around, posting comments here and there, FINDING NEW BLOGS TO READ, and now I have 40 minutes to get about 2 hours of housework done before picking beachdude up from school!

I think I need a lesson in self-control!!!

vacation catastrophie

There always has to be a major hiccup in every vacation (at least every one that I have had) and this year's is definitely the major camera disaster in the Pirates of the Caribbean. For a bit of background ... our 4 year old is mortally terrified of the dark, but loves, loves, loves Jack Sparrow (no, he hasn't seen the movie, but the brainwashers at Disney :-) managed to suck him in!!) So, the dilemma - do we stay (in the daylight) or do we go (to the darkside)...

Notice, I said "daylight" not "sunlight" ... the weather gods answered the question for us as the gloomy skies opened up and it started POURING just as we were entering Frontierland - so WE GO!!!

The little guy cried, laughed, giggled, cringed, screamed and wimpered through the whole ride. We got to the end and he was practically jumping out of the "boat" - I stood up to grab him, forgot my camera was sitting on my thigh, and heard "KER_PLUNK" as it fell straight over the side of the boat into the water - let's not discuss the size of my thighs!

Gone - my 3 year old awesome camera along with 427 pictures from our vacation. Probably stuck under the belts and in the water forever, or until the maintenance guys find it during cleaning some day.

Boo-hoo!

back from vaca ...

... and I actually missed the kids a TON today!!  We really did have a fabulous time with the Big Mouse and all of his cronies and for the first time since hubbie and I vacationed by ourselves I was really sad to see our vacation come to an end.  We "do" this particular trip every year at Halloween - the kids really don't know how to celebrate Halloween except at Disney World with a big party at our resort - this was our 7th year!  Mickey once again "delivered" their costumes - Elizabeth in the Orient for beachgirl, a "Colts Mascot" for beachdude & a doctor in scrubs for beachboy.  Mickey did a great job!

This was certainly beachgirl's year!  For the first time she went on every rollercoaster, ride and activity that was offered!  She has always been so afraid of roller coasters, any rides in the dark and anything she didn't "know" already that for many years we questioned our trips ... but this year there was no stopping her!!!!  She even rode the "Rock n Roller Coaster" by herself - waited in line by herself, got on the ride by herself & just loved, loved, loved it!  What a treat to be her mom and watch her come out of her shell.  AND, for the first time ever, she went to a fireworks show.  The little miss usually watches fireworks from our room under 3 or 4 pillows - not this year!!  She wanted to be right on the lagoon watching the whole production ... WOW

it's been a while

wow... it's been quite a while since I posted ... and while things are pretty tough around here financially lately, at least everyone is happy, healthy and having a great school year!  The kid's teachers are doing a great job with both of them this year, and the youngest guy is just loving his new school.  One more year and the little man will be in all-day Kindergarten and I am just going to FREAK OUT!  He is completely ready for all day school and I have no doubt he will love, love, love it - but I will miss him...

Oh, vacation starts in 2 days ... well a day and a half since we are getting on the road at 3am on Friday!  Woo-hoo!!!!

swim team

Beachgirl had swim evaluations for the swim team yesterday ... and blew me away! I don't like to brag, but for a child who dropped out of swimming lessons because she was wayyyyy too shy to deal with an actual swimming teacher ... the girl ROCKS!!! Well, she rocks at freestyle, anyway, which she taught herself watching swimming meets on television! Backstroke, breaststroke & butterfly need some work ... but come on, she is 8 and has been spending the last 4 years (since dropping out of swim class) perfecting the most amazing freestyle I have ever seen - ok, a little biased, but you didn't see her!!!!

This is the first year for swim team and I was looking forward to the 45 minutes on MWF ... but nooooooo, she has to be the "center" of our family and was bumped up to the next group where she practices 1 hour MTWT. In my mommy heart of hearts this is way too much of a commitment for an 8 year old (especially when you consider what is going to happen to her hair) and I am seriously concerned about her school work ... but now I have something to take away if she starts acting out. Always looking for the positive!

Wish us luck as we fit this into our lives (or fit our lives around swimming!)

4 days of school

beachbaby is in school four 1/2 days a week this year!!! WHAT A TREAT ... and even better, he loves it!!! MWF mornings and TU afternoons are ALL MINE!!! Well, all mine, and the PTO's as I decided 6 years ago that this year would be the year that I serve as President and after this year, I will simply be a classroom volunteer when beachbaby is in K. I am busier than I have ever been with school stuff, but am hoping that things ease up a bit as we get into school.

There are always bathrooms to clean if I get bored!

first week survived

We survived the first week of school - even better than survived ... we loved it!!! The kids are very happy with their teachers ... a rough 1/2 first day for beachboy as all of his friends are in other classes, but glowing after that!

Both kids have new teachers this year, which is a change for us since beachgirl usually has the same teacher that her older brother had the year before. Needless to say, she is thrilled while I am a little stressed about learning 2 new teachers at one time. Her teacher is WONDERFUL, however, so I think we will be absolutely fine!

The littlest one starts his final year of preschool at a new school on Monday ... I will have 4 half-=days completely to myself each week - what a TREAT!!! I am sure most of that time will be used up with PTO stuff, but hey, beggers can't be choosers ... at least that will leave me plenty of time to get my paperwork done!

I LOVE THE START OF SCHOOL ... although I really really miss the kids and summer!

friends

my best friend has been one of my best friends since I was in the 4th grade, moved to our new home, and she and her sisters came across the major highway to say “hello”. BF was the youngest of the three sisters and 2 years younger than I was, so I always considered her my baby sister, not really a friend … my friend was her older sister who was my age and we were in school together.

Over time, however, BF was by far my favorite soul, confidant and troublemaker. We drove to school together (even though her sisters were driving to the same school at the same time), and found we just loved to hang out together. After I met my future husband, she was the first to fall in love with him as much as I did: their first meeting, hubbie tackled her in a pick up football game - she won’t let him forget it!

Now that we have families of our own, although we live close to one another, there are times that we don’t get a chance to talk for a week or two at a time - AND THAT IS WHAT MAKES A BEST FRIEND … we never stress about why we haven’t been in touch, we just pick up where we left off!

is the blogging thing worth it?

I have never wanted to do something so badly, but struggled so hard to "find my way"! I want to blog - just for the sake of blogging, working on my design skills, enjoying the writing process ... and just to do it! But, I have started, stopped, started over, stopped again because I thought I was being silly, started again but wasn't sure of who I would someday want my audience to be, started again but couldn't for the life of me come up with anything to talk about ... and so on and so on.

So, once I get to the point where I am writing on a fairly regular basis, there is a whole new world of questions for me as a blogger - who do I tell about my blog, how guarded should I be about the kids, what time of the day is best for me to blog, should I move my laptop to the kitchen since I spend a lot more time there than the office (oh, that has nothing to do with blogging, just the complete time-sucking the internet serves in my life)...

Can you tell I spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME THINKING ABOUT SILLY THINGS?

teenagerhood is wasted on teenagers!

Growing up, all I wanted to do was GROW UP!!  I was so frustrated by all of the "kind hearted folks" who kept telling me to take my time, enjoy life, don't rush growing up, on and on and on.  Now that we have three kids, mortgage, bills we can't pay and tons of stuff we want to do but need to put off here I go:

"WHY OH WHY DID I WANT TO GROW UP?!?!"

What I would give for just two days of laying around reading a book, listening to music, drinking iced tea and wandering down to the beach to be bored for the afternoon.  The days I just spent waiting to be seen by whomever would be seeing me and me pretending I didn't notice.  The rainy afternoons when I would mope and complain that there was "nothing to do" and "man, I want to get out of here!!!"  Oh, I was such a spoiled little one (until I was 23 and married that is) and I had no idea just how wonderful life was - I really thought life couldn't be worse than being a teenager in a beach town!

LESSONS LEARNED! 

out of the mouths ...

Last night Daddy was reading the bedtime story to the littlest one.  He was chewing on something rubbery (Daddy thought it was a balloon) but in actuality it was one of those rubbery bracelets.  Instead of taking it away, Daddy told BeachDude that he had to stop chewing it because he could swallow it, choke and die.

BeachDude:  "That's ok, Dad, I want to go see Mom-mom anyway"

Daddy ~ "It doesn't work that way, BeachDude, when you go visit Mom-mom you won't be able to come back and visit all of us"

BeachDude:  "Ummmmmm, ok"

Daddy took the bracelet away! 

First Meeting of the Year

I am off to my first official PTO meeting of the year with the executive council at the school - I need luck and patience as I am fairly certain they are going to try to tell me that everything is "JUST GREAT" when I know beyond any doubt things are not! 

question

While I realize going to a water park all day with our beloved children should fill my heart with unmitigated glee … why doesn’t it?  I feel fear & trepidation!

I have packed all the food we are "sneaking in" - the rules say "no coolers" ... and really, do you need a cooler for peanut butter on potato rolls and water?  NO ... so we are taking snacks to alleviate some of the pain of paying for snack food - although I am certain snack food will be purchased!!

I have packed my book - wishful, wishful thinking on my part.

We are off!

kidlet post

Tonight we spent dinner and playtime with a family from the Netherlands - and I am simply amazed by the kids ability to make anyone feel welcome and at home - and just have a lot of fun with them!  I think BeachGirl has three friends for life, and the littlest one has a darling 5 year old swooning over him because he reached out to hold her hand because all the rest of the girls were holding hands walking down the boardwalk and the two of them were left out.  Made my heart melt ... of course, I spent the entire awesome night without a camera so I just have to remember how awesome the three kids are. 

One other fact to keep in mind ... as with most awesome memories, this evening was completely spur of the moment with absolutely no thought on my part.   I couldn't have planned a more perfect time!

Sick, Sick & More Sick

Beachboy gets home from camp and the rest of the men and myself get sick, sick sick!  It has been absolutely miserable around here as we all try to recover from some form of bronchitis/lung gunk or just a virus that we can't seem to get over.  We have watched more "bad tv" and done more surfing than any family should do when the weather is absolutely beautiful outside and screaming for us to come visit the beach.

So we did, visit the beach ... for a whopping 20 minutes before beach-toddler started whining and complaining, beachboy started rolling around in the sand and beachgirl started begging for someone to play in the ocean with her.  Beachdude and I both were sporting fevers, so we really had no desire to entertain (we're bad that way) and I bolted to sit in traffic for an hour to go to the grocery store to pick out dinner.  We (I) decided on boneless country ribs that we grilled and enjoyed Tanqueray and Tonic while waiting for them to finish cooking.  Squash sautee & roasted potatoes rounded out the meal - and it is almost bedtime...woo-hoo.  Tomorrow is another day & I am hoping it is an awesome one - I owe the kids! 

Do you think I missed him much - the final camp email for 2007

WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO!  In 6 short (no, actually verrrryyyyy looooonnnnnggggg hours) I will get to embarass the dickens out of you because i get to PICK YOU UP ANDBRING YOU HOME!!! Of course we hope you had a great time and want to goagain next year (let me know if you want to and I will go ahead andsign you up today!), but it has been a really long week without youhere at home harassing your brother and sister, obsessing over gameboy,watching every cartoon known to man, swimming like a dolphin and myever favorite - "do I have to?" I can't wait to see you this afternoonand and bring home that huge duffle bag of dirty laundry!

We can head somewhere for a bite of dinner - and maybe we will beable to stop at Daddy's work to say "hi" when we drive through Dover.Let's find somewhere fun to eat and talk about all the coooollll stuffyou did this week!

See you in a few hours - love ya

mom 

sleepless

The last 18 months have been stressful.  I am sure the months previous to those were stressful as well, but I have not been handling stress well AT ALL in the last year or so and the worst part is that I am not sleeping.  I cannot really say the last time I slept the whole night through in my bed.  My usual night includes falling asleep in bed, getting up sometime between 12 & 2 am and moving to the sofa...sometimes napping on the sofa until morning - but more often than not, tossing and turning and watching Nick at Night (thank God that is on ... The Fresh Prince has become my new show!).  I am not loving this new lifestyle, and hubbie is certainly not loving it - amazing how waking in separate places affects our relationship!

R E S P E C T

My husband is a terrific dad - sometimes I truly believe he is a better Dad than I am a Mom simply because almost everything he does is methodical, organized and thought out.  He has such a strong set of values and morals - and when he disciplines he always does so through the filter of RESPECT. 

The most important quality for a child to exhibit is respect toward others - elders, friends, authority figures, politicians, school, government - you name it, everyone and everything deserves respect.  Misbehaving on the part of the kids is a sign of disrespect toward us as parents.  Physically fighting with one another is disrespect toward you siblings.  Not cutting your hair and letting it hang across your face is disrespect toward yourself and your family because you appear as though you don't care about anything but yourself (not to mention disrespect against God, because how can you possibly worship with hair hanging in your eyes...).  The list goes on and on - and on.  The lessons of respect have certainly been ingrained in the thought processes of the kids - and often it only takes the words "Show some respect" and the older two immediately straighten up and fly right.  The younger understands the tone of voice better than the words but he is getting there.

I have learned so much from my children's father - the amount of respect I hold for him grows by the years.  Of course, he really isn't all that interested in my respect!

banking banking banking

Here it is a Wednesday morning, Beachboy is at camp, Beachgirl is having an awesome playdate at the local waterpark (yes, I am a bit jealous), Beachdude is at his grandparents for the day (a pale comparison to the other two, but as far as his world goes ... AWESOME) and I am sitting at my messy, messy desk.  Why am I not at the beach, by the pool, shopping for birthday gifts, lunching with the girls - because I have to get my desk clean, the rest of the bills paid and some organization to my "paper life".  I am hoping that the investment today (after the massive time investment last week) I can get my overactive imagination (which is negative, by the way) under control.  If I can stop stressing, will I be a nicer mother, daughter, wife and friend?  I SURE HOPE SO!!!

I DID IT!!!!!

Ok, this is VERY WIERD!!!  I was working on a website for someone else and wanted to use my flickr badge as a place holder so I "cut and paste" ed the code into my FP site (I know, very old fashioned ... but that's me).  After I input the code and the badge worked ... I did another cut and paste into my blog and LO AND BEHOLD ... it worked!  Wowza, I am excited. 

The boys went to the doctor yesterday and we found out that not only does the youngest now have some form of allergies ... but the eldest's allergies have now led to the onset of wheezing (I am not saying the A word) and he is now using a nebulizer twice a day with two meds each time.  I am just a little freaked as I was not expecting the doc to say anything other than a virus was causing the problem -- I mean, that is what he ALWAYS SAYS!!!  Hopefully a full week of treatments and beachboy will be just fine until the next allergy season rolls around!

2 days and counting to the big birthday bash for beachgirl!  I think we have all of the non-food supplies - I just have to get cranking on cupcakes and ordering dinner for a late pickup on thursday! 

and it's official ...

I feel like I have reached a milestone - I am finally commenting on other sites with my spiffy new blog address!!!  Woo-hoo.  This blog feels different to me than the last one that I had (and the zillions that I have tried) and certainly is a LOT MORE FUN than the work-blogs (their work, not mine) that I have managed to keep up and running.  I am liking the "KISS" theme that I am sporting - let us call is "minimalist", shall we. 

I constantly find myself trying to add to the sidebars and such, but either my better judgment gets the best of me and I remove the links, the blogrolls, the books, etc ... OR the "great internet queen" makes that decision for me and does not allow me to do what I want to do - ie: put up my flickr badge ... by the way, if you want to see the munchkins, you can visit ...this spot and I think you will be able to see them (with my luck regarding this recent project, probably not!)

So, just in case anyone other than my BFF's visit - WELCOME and ENJOY ... let me know how you like the minimalism and if you have a solution for the inibility to cut and paste the flickr badge code onto my site ... let me know!!!  The sun is shining and we are heading out!

hot & humid

today was just one of those days when I thank the good Lord above for allowing air conditioning to be invented!  I have little or no patience when the temperature is above 95 (well, let's be honest - when it is above, below or even around 95 degrees).  I can't believe how the "littlest" things set me off even when I start my mornings with the promise that I am going to "have a good day" and not spend the day angry.  That is not working very well right now - my patience is thin and my temper chooses to flare quite often.  No one really likes to be around someone who is angry all the time ... I consider myself very fortunate that the kids will love me no matter what - at least until they get a lot older!

flickr frustration

I so badly want to add a flickr badge to this blog, but boy, thanks to the massive security measures of the scarey internet, I can't figure out how to incorporate the code into my site.  I am so unbelievably frustrated because I am finally so close, yet so far from being able to do what I want to do!!!  SSSSCCCCCRRRRREEEEEAAAAAMMMMM!

Happy 4th of July

There is nothing like having your parents live in "Mayberry East"!  Honestly, next year I am making a banner for the festivities.  After sitting on a freezing cold beach first thing in the morning for junior lifeguards, we headed over to my parents neighborhood for a few hours of "Old Fashioned 4th of July Fun!"  And, in spite of my sarcasm, it was actually a lot of fun.  The kids participated in various races for an hour or so - 3-legged, sack, potato races.  Prizes were the new presidential dollars and silver dollars.  Then the ultimate bike parade around the neighborhood - beachgirl was taken out by a little terror on a yellow bike who never even stopped.  Finally more games like Plinko, ring tosses, rubber duckies, popcorn and shaved ice.  It was a really fun way to socialize with the community (they are only 3 blocks away) and enjoy the holiday.  We had everyone over here for dinner - once again, way too much food and then the older two and beachdad headed down to the beach for the fireworks show.  The littlest one chickened out .... fine with me because...

I FEEL LIKE CRAPOLA!  and spent the entire night struggling against a fever the the achy-achies!  Every joint, muscle and bone in my body hurts right now and I honestly have no clue what is going on.  I really, really don't want to go to the doctor to deal with this, but I have not heard of any flu that is going around right now.  Hopefully this too will pass as I am supposed to go see beachgirl ride for the first time today and I really don't want to miss it! 

tickets tickets everywhere!

After some awesome kidlet behaviour today - actually completing some pretty tough chores & helping each other out when things got tough, I finally instituted our "HOME PBS SYSTEM" aka, the "TICKETS TICKETS EVERYWHERE" PROGRAM!  The kids have an awesome PBS (positive behaviour system) at school which they love and talk about constantly - so I decided to start our own here at home with one addition: I CAN TAKE AWAY TICKETS AS WELL AS GI VE THEM OUT!!  This is our first shot at the system, but the kids and I started the basic outline and guidelines ... thought I would share:

 

• Tickets awarded (2) when chores are completed  properly with no arguments or stalling
  
• Tickets awarded for "special behaviors"
  
• Tickets awarded (2) for every 100 pages read
  
• Tickets revoked from BOTH BEACHGIRL & BEACHBOY for arguing
  
• Tickets revoked for not doing daily 30 min of reading - min. 7 pages - Sunday through Thursday
  
• Tickets revoked for arguments when doing summer work
  
• Mommy and Daddy can give and take tickets as they choose!

 

IDEAS FOR USE OF TICKETS:

• 10 tickets - decision for activity of next day
• 50 tickets - new lacrosse gloves
• 40 tickets - Jungle Jim's
• 40 tickets - nintendo game
• 40 tickets - new webkins
• 20 tickets - white water mountain

beachboy's passion

for three years, our son has become a "sports guy"!  This is such an absolute shock to his mother because the most sweating I ever did as a kid was from fear at the bottom of the pyramid as a football cheerleader!  Back then, cheer was not a sport, it was more of a social class!  But beachboy has taken to lacrosse like a fish to water - although it has been fascinating, heartbreaking and awe-inspiring to watch how he works at growing in this sport.  Tonight, for example, he and his dad spent an hour after dinner with a dinner bowl, shaker jar of parmesian cheese and a ceramic carafe figuring out how to best "work the angles" when defending the goal with a long pole!  Please don't ask me what that actually means - I just sat at the table with a huge smile and watched my beloved son entranced with new knowledge and try to integrate the new skills with what he already knows - I am so proud of him for just being such an awesome kid!

 

got out the shovel ...

finally at 4pm yesterday afternoon I started the "big dig" and officially at 6pm this afternoon I have paid all I can pay, filed all I can file (well, almost ... but I am so close I can taste it), balanced the checkbooks, sent out the invoices, figured out all that needs to be taken care of when the assessments for the community and the next paycheck comes in, overcome my fears about money & PROMISED MYSELF THAT I WILL NOT GET MYSELF IN THIS POSITION AGAIN!!!  The financial front is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination - I was actually googling "easy budgets" because I think we need a better method of knowing where our moohlah is going and whether it is coming in.  Somehow I have a hard time accepting that by watching the cash (which doesn't really exist) like a hawk will ease our money problems ... but this method is not working!!

maybe, just maybe I will actually sleep tonight without waking up in a cold sweat.  Friday I should be able to take care of the rest of our personal stuff and then I am staying on top of it - I am, I swear I am ... the last few months have been rather hellish for me in terms of my stress level and I have no doubt that is solely because of cash flow.  My method recently of dealing with our cash issues is to ignore it and pretend that I don't have to pay bills or monitor our spending.  Considering that finances are my responsibility ... things are not cool!  But with a boatload of prayers before, during and after and a concentrated effort, at least a dent has been made and a start is better than where I was.

Oh, and beachboy does get to go to camp! 

P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N

today's this week's  THIS MONTH'S word of the day is PROCRASTINATION!!  I am the queen procrastinator ... have always been and while I would love to overcome this major malfunction, I have a sneaky suspicion it is my demon to battle with forever.  This time around it has to do with finances and I am afraid it might get me into just a wee bit of trouble in just about every area of my life.  While I am way too embarassed to divulge all of my dirty ugly secrets, I have allowed the difficulty of paying bills this month (yes, there is money in the bank, I am just concerned that there is not quite enough) to allow my desk to resemble the ashy remains of a volcanic eruption, to jeapardize my son's chances of going to camp (which he is not certain that he wants to), to prevent the sending of community dues invoices (yes, that one will come back to bite me in about a month) .... the list is endless, and continues to grow.  Am I resolving this crisis - NO, I am sitting at my computer making nice comments on every blog I read and promising myself that my "next clik" will be to my financial spreadsheet to get started!

another thing to remember

if your family is not "loaded" DO NOT TAKE YOUR DAUGHTER WHO HAS HAD TWO HORSEBACK RIDING LESSONS TO WATCH A GROUP CLASS OF FIELD JUMPING!

OMG, it was so AWESOME watching 6 beautiful horses and riders sail over barrels & wagons, over and into water jumps.  Beachgirl was in absolute heaven and I know her dreams were filled with visions of stallions last night! 

creepy, creepy

Last night I went to a school board meeting - woohoo fun for a summer evening!  They were discussing the upcoming years budget and since our school is going to be cutting staff I wanted to know what the specifics were.  The meeting was relatively uneventful - but afterwords I was approached by a local radio talk-show personality who MADE ME FEEL LIKE I NEEDED A SHOWER AFTER TALKING TO HER!!! 

She was trying to get me to come on her show or at least send her my complaints about the direction of the school board so she could "rake them over the coals" on her radio program and "get something done through the media".  I declined, at first politely, and then more forcefully.

I held my temper in check as she told me I was not doing my civic duty using her program to get the story out to the public (THERE IS NO STORY YET!!!) ...  "MARIA, I AM MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE TALKING TO THE BOARD MEMBERS PERSONALLY AND FEEL I AM MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE THAT WAY"  Her response, " oh, well I don't like talking directly to the members, I would rather bypass them and make them respond to the radio..." 

So, the moral of the story - don't listen to radio personalities as they rant on their personal issues as they obviously have no clue what they are talking about!!! 

Shower, shower please! 

VBS

i was psyched ... i was dropping the kids off at our "new" church (ok, we have been going there for a little more than two years, but it is still new!!) for the ultimate mom luxury - vacation bible school.  2.5 hours of songs, crafts, stories, games that mom could never come up with ... and since it is 30 minutes from home I was going to luxurate in all the resort shops for 5 WHOLE DAYS!!!  But no, I was conned into helping out - and the the precious faces and bad attitudes of the 4th & 5th graders has just kept me there!  So, goodbye week 2 of summer vacation - maybe by week 3 I will get some of the "summer stuff" done!

new world

"it's a whole new world" ... and a whole new start for my blog.  My life is just going by so quickly and I am shocked at all of the things that I forget or probably never even stuck in my "memory" portion of my brain.  The kids are now 9, 7 & 4 and oh, how I wish, I had a cohesive journal so that I could remember all of the amazing changes they have already been through.  So, a few guidelines ...

1.    no stressing of what goes down here

2.    if you don't agree with what I am doing with regards to the kids, don't tell me - I can't stand the bickering that goes on because of ugly or unnecessary comments

3.    the characters in my story are beachboy, beachgirl & beachdude (chronological order - see above) ... and now for the ultimate in creativity ... beachbabe & beachdad. 

4.    i have lots of favorite blogs and will reference them often - there are so many cool people in the blogworld who have the ability to say things much better than I ... however, I do not advertise anything or anyone ... so any reference is simply because I think it is cool or I just learned how to link to sites or blogs and I think it is fun to do so ...

We're off and running - short post, long post or any post at all - I hope to post once a day - and the coolest is that little trick of scheduling a post so you all will not know whether I am keeping up daily or just "faking it"!