You're WHAT doesn't work?

Yesterday while I was cooking dinner, I heard Devon come out of the bedroom muttering to himself. Something was upsetting him, and I put everything down to see what was wrong. There he stood, tears in his eyes, face all distraught as he looked at me with the big sad eyes.

"My dick stopped working!" he wailed.

Biting my lip so I didn't burst out laughing, I knew what he meant to say, and I told him to go get his father. He went downstairs to tell his dad his woes, and Zachary came upstairs to help him. All of a sudden, Nicholas yelled "I fixed it, Momma! It's working now!"

What was the problem? The disk on his video game froze.

It's that time of year again!

We've been running out just about every night this week, with little or no time after school to get homework done and eat dinner. Yep - it's baseball season and little league is well under way.

Tomorrow Devon has his very first game. We have to be at the ballpark at 4:30 ready to go. What a feat that will be considering the bus drops them off at 4:00! Just enough time to grab a drink, change into his uniform and hit the door. I'll have to drop Devon off at the park, run Zachary over to pick up his new glasses and get back hopefully in time for the game to start.

I'm excited for tomorrow, too, because I am meeting a girl for lunch. I finally did the reach out and make friends thing here, and I chose a few people from a local message board that I thought would be fun to hang out with. Sad, isn't it, that I've been reduced to an almost stalker like act of asking people off a local message board to be my friend? We had a guy come over one evening for a few drinks and laughs, and now I have a lunch date tomorrow. It will be great to have another female to sit and talk with - lord knows I need a break from the testosterone crowd.

And in other exciting news, I was elected President of the local PTA. I have to laugh because I really wasn't very active this year, and we are so new to the school system. Jay was the one who really should have been named Pres, but he fed me to the wolves at the last minute. Oh well, time to make some changes, I guess. I am meeting with the former president on Monday (another lunch date - woohoo!) and getting the information I need. It should be a fun two years.

Walking, walking, walking

I got a call from Devon's teacher again. This time, he hasn't turned in an assignment due last week. She kept asking him about it, and his answer was always "I don't know!" Each day he had to walk 5 laps at recess. Each afternoon he came home all smiles, never mentioning his homework or his walking punishment. Once the teacher realized this wasn't working after 5 straight days of walking through recess, she gave him another paper and called me to give me the heads up.

I'm really not sure what to do with the kid. He's a good kid, he really is, but his lack of concern for things gets me. It just doesn't even phase him. He's done similar things over the year. Just like Valentine's Day, when he insisted that he never made Valentines and they were in his backpack all along. I don't think his teacher quite knows what to make of him, either.

McRaw Burgers

Last night we were busy with Devon's practice, a PTA meeting and the school Spring bookfair, so dinner was a last minute decision to run by McDonald's and grab a fast burger. Apparently, quite a few others had the same idea, and it was busy for a midweek evening in Smalltown America.

We ordered our food, and it slowly began to be placed on our tray. We sorted out who got what, and we began eating. Jay took a bite or two of his double cheeseburger and all of a sudden threw it back on the wrapping yelling "They are going to kill someone with this!" He immediately brought his half-cooked burger to the manager to show her. I began checking the boys' food and both Zachary and Devon had half-cooked burgers as well. With all of the Ecoli scares going around, that is not a little mistake.

Knowing that when they are busy they throw down as many as a dozen burgers at a time, I'm going to have to assume that there were a few other children that ate their entire meal half-cooked. I hope no one gets sick.

The manager brought us over fresh food - fully cooked this time - with an apology and a couple of apple pies. Nice - sorry we could have killed you. Here's a fifty cent apple pie to make it better. (For the record, I didn't want anything except cooked food and perhaps an incident report in case the kids get sick!)

Excitement in the Country

Well, we had our share of fun today. First off, we found a snake in our yard this morning. I am scared to death of snakes, and Jay isn't too fond of them, either. He was going to scoop the snake up and put it back in the field, when it lifted its head and open his mouth hissing at him. Then it ran under some rocks to hide. After digging him out with a piece of wood, the snake got really ticked and again did its attack stance. That's when Jay clubbed it. My hero!

Tonight, we had severe thunderstorm warnings, with tornado warnings to boot. Jay had to run out on call, and his advice when he left was if things got bad here to go down in his office (basement room with no windows) and cover the kids up with the futon mattress. Great advice. I didn't mention that by the time it would take to move that heavy sucker, the storm would be over. I got nervous - tornadoes aren't my thing! - and stuck by the computer checking weather alerts all night. The worst of it missed us, thankfully!

Now I've got to peel enough kids out of my bed to make room for myself. I'm tired - gotta hit the sack.

TGIF

What a week we've had! Between little league and Zachary being sick, we've been busy, busy, busy. Devon got his uniform yesterday and his game schedule, and Nicholas is getting his tonight. I can't wait to see how often we'll be at the ball park, between games and practices I am going to bet quite a lot.

I got a letter from school yesterday about my son's "irregular attendance." WTF - he missed a total of 10 days this year - three in November because he had 103 fever, two in December for the stomach bug going around, and then the times he had strep. Perhaps if they had rules in place where parents wouldnt feel threatened to keep their kids home, less illness would go around the school! I guess I've been going by our old school's policy - ensure that your child has been fever-free, with no vomiting or diahrrea for at least 24 hours before returning to school. The letter just ticked me off. UGH!

Scarlet is back again!

Scarlet as in Scarlet fever. Zachary broke out in a rash and that's what it was diagnosed as. Great - just what we need in the house. A round of strep. Ick!

Jay held his first teeball practice tonight and I had to be there because I am officially the "team mom" now. Yes, I worked hard to earn that title. Jay went to the coach's meeting, heard he needed a team mom, and well, I was the only mom he knew. "You've got to go to the meeting tomorrow night" is something of the way he asked me. Nice, huh?

I've spent the last six months sitting on my ass, and it is getting a little too comfortable. Maybe I need to take on some things to not be so lazy. Who knows.

Horray! Tee-ball!!

Tomorrow the two little ones have tee-ball tryouts. I can't believe that they actually do try-outs and drafting for the little ones, but they do. I can't wait - I'll have to have the cameras all ready.

Jay is coaching again, so he'll get to pick his team. He is excited to get names and start the season. And the season starts quickly - Devon will have his first game next weekend!

At this point we are preparing for the big storm predicted for the weekend. We can get just rain, two feet of snow or any combination in between. I've got my fingers crossed for rain only. I'll be protesting the snow with my bathing suit and tanning lotion!

Nicholasisms

Nicholas is the child that has us rolling on the floor the most often. The things he comes out with are just hysterical. Tonight was no exception.

In school, Devon is learning about fractions. He is quite proud of all that he learns and he tries to implement it all in daily life. So, as he was eating his dinner tonight, he happily exclaimed, "Look, Mom! I ate one quarter of my food!"

Nicholas, without missing a beat, screamed, "I ate a dollar of mine!"

Easter and other things

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter. I certainly did! My brother and his wife and their boys came to visit, and so did my parents, so we had a full house. We made some beautiful baskets for the boys, and they were quite pleased with them! And then we had an egg hunt (indoors, unfortunately, because the weather out there sucks!) and the boys had a great time with that, also.

We cooked a nice dinner and Jay and I found out that with both leaves in the table, we can seat 11 rather comfortably. This is the first time we actually had a large number of people around the table for a holiday. Usually, we just sat whereever, buffet style. I like the sit down thing.

My brother and his family left yesterday morning, but my parents are still here visiting. It's been a nice visit, although short. The boys have been really enjoying themselves.

Speaking of the boys, they all got their hair cut this weekend, and bought some new sneakers. They are feeling good about themselves - all Devon does is stare at himself in the mirror. LOL

What happened to spring?

Last night Jay and I walked the dogs in shorts and a tee shirt. We had all the windows open in the house, the ceiling fans on and were still warm. We had the windows open in the cars, and I was enjoying the moonroof being open. We noticed flowers blooming, leaves budding on the trees and we were laughing that the lawn needs to be mowed.

Now, it's snowing out there. WTF? I want the warmth! I want spring!

Tomorrow my parents, and my brother and his family are coming to visit. I had dreams of an egg hunt outside on our green lawn, kids running around in shorts. Now, with the horrible forecast we are seeing, I think the egg hunt will have to be indoors. BOOO!

Good News and Bad News

Don't you hate it when a doctor tells you that he has good news and bad news? He then asked what I wanted first.

The good news of course, which is that I don't have an infection. YAY! I was worried that I had strep or a sinus infection or any other numerous things wrong.

So, now it's time for the bad news.

"It's not an infection!" he cheerily replied. That's the bad news? You said that was the good news! Well, an infection would be easier to treat and probably wouldn't come back. I have allergies. Allergies that has everything all swollen and red and malfunctioning. No wonder I've been sick so long.

My ears aren't properly draining, my nose is swollen and red, my throat is extremely swollen and dry, my neck is tender and swollen. UGHH!

And to top it all off, my asthma is kicking in big time. I had to have a nebulizer treatment in the office, and then go and fill all of my perscriptions for meds. Hopefully it will put things into overdrive and I'll be able to do normal things like sleep and smell again soon. Of course, with the amount of albuterol running through my body at this time, sleep might not happen tonight.

I actually left the doc's office feeling a buzz. Wooohoo! Hopefully tomorrow I have enough energy to grocery shop and clean. We've got lots of company coming on Thursday!

April Fool's Day!!

Last year I tried to play an April Fool's joke on my oldest son. He was invited to a birthday party that day, and I told him the party was canceled because the birthday boy was really sick. Zach got all disappointed, and then laughed when he realized I was only fooling with him.

Two hours later, the birthday boy's mother called. Her son had come down with chicken pox and they had to cancel the party. No joke this time, but it took a lot of convincing for Zach to believe me.

This year we were thinking of a joke to play on the boys, when my thoughts wandered to the four brand new boxes of cereal we bought. Knowing that the first thing the boys reach for when they wake up is cereal, this one would be classic!

We switched all the bags of cereals into new boxes - so the Rice Crispies had the Rasin Bran, etc. The kids got up in the morning and sure enough went to open their cereal. All of a sudden you hear laughter, and Nicholas burst into my room yelling "Mommy! We got cheated! We got cheated!" I got up and went into the kitchen where the other two were busy laughing, saying how messed up everything was.

That's when I yelled "April Fool's!"

And went back to bed.