Well, Well, Well

....can we just pretend that I haven't been ignoring this blog?  I've honestly thought about not writing it anymore, but every time I click on "memories" and am awarded with pics of the boys and silly stories from the last ten years, I don't want to quit.  (SHUT UP....ten years???)  I know that I write mostly for myself, and my husband, mom and maybe a friend read, but really, it's just to preserve what I want to preserve:  time.

So anyway.....here goes.

1. I successfully said "no."  Mostly by non-action, but a "no" nonetheless!  I swiftly avoided the school fundraiser.  The kids came home from school all excited, saying "MOM!  We could win a Nintendo Switch!  We only have to sell like a million items in the fundraiser to win!"  Well bud, we have a small family and not a big need for cookies, wrapping paper and magazine subscriptions.  Mom does a great job ignoring the magazine subscriptions that she already has.  (Except the knitting ones, of course!)  So the deadline quietly slipped by and I triumphantly recycled the materials. 

2.  We're having a really weird Autumn.  No foliage, and warm temps.  I keep forgetting it's October.  Until yesterday, we were still using air conditioning.  Usually by now I'm bringing out the cooler weather clothes.  Not that this has stopped Sean from wearing long pants and a henley shirt every morning.  And no matter how many times I send him back to change, he's unhappy about it.  That boy is always freezing....he's the only person I know that needs a sweatshirt at the dinner table if the window is open.  My sweet, chilly boy. 

3.  Speaking of Sean, he had a great solution for being out of chip clips the other day.  He grabbed a toy wrench to keep a bag of frozen strawberries from rolling and spilling the other day.  Nice.

4.  In less than two weeks, I'm going to have a pre-teen.  That's right....Will's turning 11.  I wonder if he'll get a Hogwarts letter?  I'm prepared to be super jealous. 

And finally,

5.  I'm not knitting Christmas gifts this year.  Yes, you read that right.  I'm giving myself a gift of less stress at the holidays, and I'm knitting what I please instead.  Which turns out to be shawls for me actually, who knew? 

Maybe the next post will be about Halloween.  We shall see.

Roadblocks

I started this off by making a list of the things that have gotten in my way of finishing things at work today.  (missing info, not enough stamps, miscommunication, and finally, an epic fail in the "I forgot to order toner" dept.)  Instead, I'm going to go and pick up my younger boy at camp and spend some quality time with him.  And then I'm going to go to my knitting group, order my favorite salad and enjoy some time with friends and my knitting needles.  Tomorrow is another day!

WW: First Day of School!!

Summer is Here!

Last day of school today.  Bittersweet, as I no longer have a third grader and a kindergartner.  Here they are on their last day:

It's been a really great year for both boys.  Will had a great team helping him be the best that he could be and it looks like fourth grade will continue to be great!  Don't get me wrong, it'll still be hard sometimes.  It just feels so good to be supported.

And kindergarten....man, Sean hit the jackpot.  The teacher sent out an email yesterday to all the parents saying thanks for sharing your great kids with me, that it was a pleasure.  One thing that she mentioned is that this class really accepted each other for who they are, that everyone genuinely liked each other, was one of the most polite and respectful classes, etc.  One kid summed it up:  "There are lots of good friends with good hearts."  It warmed this mom's heart.

On to summer:  tonight is the boys' last karate class for at least two weeks.  Because they are headed to a fun-filled week with Grandmom and Grandpop on Saturday! And after that.....vacation with us!  Summer's full of fun plans--robotics camp, karate camp, trips to Six Flags, etc.  We'll make it a great one.

Thank-You Hell

Sean's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and we haven't sent out the thank you cards yet.

I have a love-hate relationship with thank you cards:

 I'm an overly polite person.  I think that taking a couple of minutes to write out a card to say thanks is sweet and respectful.  Wedding thank-yous are a must.  Showers, whether they're wedding or baby, must have thank you cards.

I hate the idea of writing thank you cards to Sean's entire kindergarten class. Finding time between work,  22 Thank you cards, 22 stamps, and what feels like 22 hours of me writing out "thanks for coming to my party, and thanks for the gift" and having (cajoling) Sean to sign them.  The task is daunting.  Plus, I know that the lollipop-shaped cards that Sean picked out at Target may go on someone's fridge for a day or two, and then get thrown away and forgotten about.  But not sending them would be rude.

I'm not a rude person.  So I will sit down and write them out this weekend.  Blerg.

Comedy of Birthday Errors

Sean's birthday is coming up, and it just hasn't been my week.  Anything concerning his birthday has been nothing short of disastrous.  

First up....for some reason Sean's birthday always sneaks up on me.  It's not that I don't know when his birthday is, I mean I was there when he was born!  It's just that Christmas has just passed, and that whole "I can finally relax" feeling sets in and I underestimate how many days there are between Christmas and Sean's birthday.  Poor kid.

He's going to be six this year (sniff) and we promised him a party outside of the house for his 6th birthday.  He chose a popular playplace nearby that has inflatables to play on.  I booked the party and they sent me the invitations in the mail.  A few days after Christmas, I settled into my comfy recliner with a Harry Potter Movie and the invitations and wrote them all out.  I invited all of the kids in his class, something like 23 of them.  I mailed them out almost two weeks in advance, and used my cellphone for the RSVP so people could call or text.  The first text I get:  "Charlie is very excited for Sean's party!  I'm confused though....you wrote Saturday the 10th and the 10th is a Sunday.  What day is the party?"  UGH, you see where this is going, right?  So far fifteen kids are coming and I've had to clarify fifteen times.  

Then last night, I realized after dinner that we were busy every other night this week so I needed to go birthday shopping.  I chose Walmart because it was something like 10 degrees out and that's not far from home.  I walked around for two hours, trying to settle on birthday presents from us and worrying about party favors.  I hate giving out party favors!!  I'm so not the mom that has it together in this category, and cannot possibly pull off party favors that are Pinterest-worthy.  I don't like giving a bag of junk that's going to end up in the junk drawer or at the bottom of a closet, broken and forgotten, either.  So after much hemming and hawing, each kid is getting a box of crayons and a little tub of play-doh.  (Hey, that's a lot better than some of the favors we've gotten, even) 

   I get through the register and start heading to the car.  As I was wheeling the cart towards the car I hit a bump, sending half of my purchases flying into the air.  I'm frantically scooping up crayons and birthday cards and toys, practically on my hands and knees.  Then a car comes near me and is making motions for me to get out of the way, they want to park there.  I finally scoop up the last box of crayons and wonder (out loud and with much cursing) why this guy can't park in one of the thirty other spots available.  Whatever.  I get to the car, only to find out that I can't get the back door open.  Nope....that door is staying shut come hell or high water.  This is when I melt down into something resembling a toddler throwing a tantrum.  It's freezing, my feet hurt, all of that crap fell out of my cart and what's worse, I've just spent TWO HOURS IN WALMART.  I wanna go home!!!  That's when I started throwing (literally) everything in the back seat and cursing like a sailor.  (Believe me, I know sailors)  I'm glad I didn't see anyone I know, I may have been unrecognizable.

So.....that's all done and I'm putting it behind me.  I'm ready for Sean to have a lovely 6th birthday.  As soon as I order the cake this afternoon, which I hope will go without a hitch.  Fingers crossed.

Wordless Wednesday: EarlyHoliday Pics

A Big Mashup Holiday Post

Yep.  I haven't posted once in December so let me sum up.

1.  I have a love-hate relationship with the month of December.  I love the holidays, but I hate the chaos.  Plus it's difficult to keep any sort of routine, so the kids suffer a bit.  This is Sean's first year having Christmas at school (they didn't celebrate holidays at his preschool) so the crazies are strong there.  Lots of frustration, stomping of feet, slamming of doors and remarks like "this is the worst Tuesday of my life" and my personal favorite:  "It's not even time to go to the bus yet and I. Already. Have. A. Frown. on. my. FACE!!!"  It was tough not to laugh, let me tell you.  Lots of extra snuggles and patience.  I'm great at the snuggles, but patience is not a strong suit for me.

2.  Have I mentioned that I am the BIGGEST HYPOCRITE EVER??  Yes, I am.  Sean was so sad that there's no Elf on the Shelf at his house that I caved and bought one last week at the mall.  Will's been so sweet to his younger brother, helping him name the Elf (Chippy) and coming up with ideas.  So we have an Elf, but I said that Chippy is a trainee, having shown up the week before Christmas.  Brian and I don't believe in the whole "The elf is reporting back to Santa" thing so it's just a fun thing in our house.  As soon as the kids go to bed at night one of us moves him. Brian watched me set up a Connect Four game between Chippy and Will's favorite Pokemon, Oshawott last night.  He remarked that I seemed to be enjoying it, and honestly, I was.  I love whimsical things.  I also will NOT be putting up a daily photo on Facebook about what Chippy's up to.  If Chippy wants to be on FB he can get his own account.

3.  You saw that Will is helping with Chippy, huh....  Well, Will pulled me aside at Thanksgiving and said "I have a suspicion that Santa Claus is really you and Dad.  I really need you to tell me that's not true."  I can't lie, it breaks my heart a little bit that he no longer believes.  But now he's excited about the magic of it and is encouraging his brother's belief in Santa instead of telling him.  It's sweet to watch.

4.  We had two Holiday concerts this year, Will's was last week at night at the high school and Sean's was this morning.  Both boys were adorable!  Now we have karate graduation tonight and I think that's all the obligations.  Wait no.....both boys have holiday parties in class tomorrow and I need to buy donut holes for one of them, I just can't remember which kid.  Hopefully I figure that out by tomorrow morning!

5.  Two things that have gone WELL this year....the holiday knitting is DONE and I won't be spending all day Christmas Eve wrapping gifts for my extended family.  However, I need to learn my lesson and weave in ends and block finished items sooner.  And next year, I think that I'm going to do the same item for all knit gift recipients, like an infinity scarf for everyone.

Well, that's pretty much all that is going in our world.  Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!!

Literary Character Day

We got a notice from Sean's school that November 9th was "Dress Like Your Favorite Literary Character Day."  Sean was completely apathetic over the whole thing, stating that he wasn't interested and didn't want to dress up.  And I was on board with that, I wasn't going to make him put on a costume and be miserable for the day.

 Then we see a picture of his best friend on Facebook.  Best friend is dressed as Skippyjon Jones.  Suddenly, Sean is very interested.  Naturally, it's  5pm on Sunday (the day before the event) and after I had been at the New England Fiber Festival for the day, So, since he doesn't really have a "favorite" character and I have no time to shop and am too tired to be really creative, he went as MY favorite literary character....Harry Potter!  The one caveat--Sean doesn't really LIKE HP.  He's a little scared by it, which I can understand because of his age.

Dress-up was a snap, using Will's old Halloween costume.  The morning of the event, Sean's too scared of makeup application to let me draw a scar on his forehead with eyeliner, so I left him alone.  He boarded the bus in his Hogwarts Robe and the scarf that I had knit, and was surprisingly cool about the whole thing.

And for the kid that didn't want to participate?  He was still wearing the costume at the afterschool program, running around and playing in the gym.  He told me that him and his friends were coming up with their own spells that didn't need wands, since I didn't give him a wand to take to school.

The Harry Potter fangirl inside of me is smiling and jumping for joy.  Perhaps there's hope for Sean to be a fan after all!

And I Didn't Cry....Much

The big yellow bus came today and took my boys to school.  My younger one for the first time.  And I didn't cry.  He was a bit apprehensive and needed a "Go ahead!  You've got this."  for encouragement.   He was excited right up til that point.  The big kid, well....he was anxious to start a new school but was taking solace in the fact that it's a new school for EVERY kid there because last year it was a middle school and not elementary.

 Here they are, and yes, if Big Bro is wearing a Minecraft shirt then you can be sure the Little Bro is wearing one as well!

Right after the kids got on the bus and we walked home, Hubby grabbed his bags and headed for a work conference in Texas.  There may have been a couple of tears.  And they MAY have been that I don't have my own ticket on the plane, and am running the show this week.  Nah....I'll miss him.  That's the first reason.  The second is jealousy of his nice hotel room all on his own.  I had my turn in Vermont last May, though.

So it's "Friday Night Fun Club:  The Extended Edition" until (you guessed it) Friday.  There will be lots of pasta, school fundraiser, karate class, etc etc.  Oh, and that pesky thing called Work.

Our Two Ninjas

Saturday was summer graduation for karate school.  This graduation was a big one, because A. it was Sean's first and B.  Will did his black dragon testing!!

We are so incredibly proud of Will and Sean!  Sean learned so much this summer and he looks like he's having a lot of fun out there.  I'm still a bit surprised how much he learned in eight weeks of camp, but he had it down.

And Will....ridiculously proud.  He's kind of a perfectionist and one of the things that the Dragons had to work on this cycle was accepting criticism.  NOT one of his strong suits.  If you watch the video though, in his second form he started doing the wrong one.  He was corrected and quickly jumped into the correct form, without a fuss.  This is something that he worked really hard on, practicing his forms EVERYWHERE:  our bathroom, in the yard, at Target, at a birthday party.....everywhere.  His dedication is admirable.

Now Will moves up into an older group of kids and has three or four buddies moving up with him.  You've got this, Buddy!

"The Gaga Pit"

 The karate school that the boys go to is next door to a used car dealership.  The parking lot can be pretty hairy, especially in the winter.  So the school has a little space blocked off with boards shaped into an octogon.  The boys tell me that this is called the Gaga Pit, where they play lots of ball games like Snake in the Garden and  (what else) Gaga.  (Will explained the rules of Gaga to me once and I got lost.)

Poor Seanie.  He's a tough dude, but even tough dudes get hurt sometimes.  He's tripped over this Gaga Pit a couple of times and beat the heck outta those knees.  It's me that picks them up most nights and if Sean comes over with a huge band-aid on his knee and a grin, I always say "Uh-oh....did the Gaga Pit strike again?"  "yeah."  "Well....gotta be careful buddy, use the GATE on one side instead of trying to jump over."  The third and (hopefully) last time he also scratched his arm and got a couple of dings on his chin.  "Mom, I didn't cry the first two times but today I cried."

Will told me that another kid came over to him that last time and said "Your brother tripped over the gaga pit!"  Will's response:  "Typical Sean."  "But Will, he's bleeding!"  "Yeah....that's kind of typical too....I'm coming over now."

So now we have a new phrase in our house:  "Beware the Gaga Pit!" I plan on using it for years to come.  On the way to midterms in high school...."Beware the Gaga Pit!"  Dropping Sean off at college "Beware the Gaga Pit!"  Getting married and having kids....watch out for that Gaga Pit, Sean!

My Two Ninjas

Look out World....there's a new karate student in town!

Sean is enrolled in Karate camp with his big brother this summer.  So far he loves it!  The only drawback is that it feels like his growing up has hit warp-speed.  I think it comes with hanging out with all the older kids.  He's the youngest in camp, and kids kind of fawn all over him.  And who can blame them, this kid is adorable.  (And I'm not just saying that because he's mine!)  Will's been happy to have someone at home to practice with, and even play "instructor."  

We're past the halfway mark on Summer, and soon the next karate graduation.  Will's going to try for Black Dragon, which is a special designation.  We're very proud of him!  

Thursday Ramble

I've been wanting to post and have been busy!  So Let's just settle into a random ramble for this Lovely Thursday....

1.  I misplaced a sneaker.  Yes, the ones that I just bought a couple of months ago to replace the old, crappy, unsupportive ones.  I'd gotten more serious about exercising and losing weight in the last six months or so and this is part of what's derailed me in the last couple of weeks.  Anyway, I figure the best way to find a sneaker is to buy a new pair.  I brought home a new pair from Kohl's last night and now we wait....

2.  Oh yeah, I guess I did brush by that quickly.  Have I told you that I've lost sixteen pounds?  I have!  Before you ask "How did you do it" I'll tell you:  I eat less, and move more.  It seems to work, and I don't deprive myself of the occasional ice cream or whatever.  I'm wearing jeans a size smaller, and today I'm wearing a summer skirt that was tight on me last year.  It's the most progress I've made in a very long time and I couldn't be happier.

3.  School's out for summer!  Last day of second grade was on Friday.  It's really hard to believe that next year I'll have a third grader and a kindergartner.  The boys are in Pennsylvania right now, having a great week with the grandparents.

4.  And despite having to work....we're having a great week with just Brian and I.  So far we've gone out for sushi, stayed up late watching movies, laughed and talked a lot and just enjoyed being together alone.  It's good to rediscover "us" once in a while.

5.  That being said, the house is eerily quiet and it feels a little like the Twilight Zone occasionally.  Kind of like this is an alternate universe.  I will say this though:  it's much easier to clean a kids bedroom and get rid of stuff when they are out of the house!

Wanna Get Away?

It's a tradition of ours to go to Pennsylvania to visit Brian's family for Memorial Day Weekend.  In our seventeen years together, we only ever missed it once.  (Brian went away with some friends for golf in SC)  This year, we decided last-minute to stay home, since we're going down twice in June.  The idea of not driving 200+ miles one way for a weekend, with kids and gas prices etc etc, it sounded like a good idea.  And it was!  We didn't do much of anything on Saturday, and it was a nice change of pace with how BUSY things have been lately.  We cleaned, we chilled.  I got tomatoes planted, as well as zucchini, green beans and cucumbers.  All was well.  We took the kids back to Six Flags on Sunday and had a VERY chilly day at the waterpark.  A pretty good weekend.

Yeah. All good things eventually must end.  Sean brought me my cellphone on Monday morning at 7:20am to tell me that it had been ringing.  ("It sounds like a haunted house, Mom!"  It's actually theme music from the Harry Potter movie)  Lo and behold, it's the answering service at work.  Their main location had a flood and they didn't have access to all of their phones and needed to have everyone forward their lines to their main number.  Yawwwnnnn.....throwing on some clothes to go to the office.  Finished in 20 minutes then went home to get a "better" start to the day."  Only to have my cell ring again at 1:20 and it's the on-call maintenance guy.  Now there's a flood IN MY OFFICE from the toilet in the apartment above.  Having just made lunch, I said I'd be there in 20 minutes to check out the damage.  Holy crap, the damage.  Ceiling tiles destroyed, and everything on top of my filing cabinet was trash:  My framed photos of the boys, invoices, work orders.....gone, gone, gone.  I'm more frustrated about the work order reports than the photos...I have copies and more frames at home.  Those reports take forever to write up!

I spent a big chunk of the rest of the day hoping that there wouldn't be a third call.  And there wasn't.  I can't decide though....was it better that we were home so I could go over right away instead of walking into this horror show first thing Tuesday morning?  I think so....but I'm looking forward to being away at this time next year!

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet n Silly

I haven't had a Wordless Wednesday in ages!!

Fun Stuff!

Big things this week.

First--this guy went to kindergarten screening.  In his own words when I picked him up from preschool, "Mom, I'm half excited and half terrified."  Poor kid was worried they were going to ask him things that he didn't know.  It went well, and it still amazes me how two kids with the same parents can be so completely different.  No anxiety, just "OK, let's go!" when the teacher came to take him to the classroom.  This is really bittersweet, sending the "baby" to kindergarten.  Which is surprising as well, considering I dreaded sending the big kid.  This just feels natural.

And then last night was "date night with this handsome fella.  The school puts on a "Boys night" every year, this year was a dance and a comedy show.  We grabbed a quick dinner at the Golden Arches and headed over.  The dance was what one would expect with a bunch of boys ranging in age from kindergarten to fifth grade:  little kids dancing with their moms, middle kids hanging around with their friends, and the bigger kids causing a ruckus.  Still, we had a good night and I love this time with Will.

The One-Upper

I'm such an overachiever.  Apparently, when my family gets sick, I feel the need to trump whatever they've had.  I started to feel crappy after the Superbowl, and then woke up with a fever and burning in my chest.  And here comes another Snow Day.  (Mondays are shot up here in New England.  We've had something like 75 inches of snow in a two-week time period, it's crazy.)  It was my turn to stay home with the kids and I was sick besides.  Then another snow day for the little kid the following day.  I finally rouse myself out of my bedroom around lunchtime and decide:  it's time to go to the doctor.  So off we go to the urgent care place in town where I get a big, unpleasant surprise.....THE FLU.    Awesomesauce.

So that's a week's worth of missed work, snowed in and feeling like death.  Good times for everyone.  I don't wish it on anyone, it's pretty damn awful.  I'm getting myself back on track, and hoping that it stops snowing long enough to get some normalcy back in our lives.

In other news, the only place I was able to drag myself out to last week (once I wasn't contagious) was to register Sean for kindergarten.  That's right, the "baby" is heading to Big Boy School in September!  I feel like I just did this with Will and I guess in a way, I have.  But the difference this time is that I'm looking forward to it.  I'm thrilled with the idea of both boys being in the same town and going on the same bus, albeit to different schools.  And man, this kid is READY.  He's bored with preschool and can't wait for the next thing.

So that's how life goes in our house.  Hopefully soon we'll all be healthy again!  I'm really looking forward to it.

The Candyland Chronicles

Hubby is at (another) birthday party with Will, and Sean and I are doing Christmas stuff.  As in, wrapping Daddy's gifts while he is out of the house!  After a couple of gifts Sean says "Mom?  I want you to play a game with me."  I suggest Candyland and he scampers downstairs to get it.  I'm kind of relieved for Candyland being the game of choice because Sean's at that stage where he throws fits when he loses.  And I'm a ConnectFour SAVANT.  I played this game for hours with my brother growing up and I kicked ass and took names.  It's hard to shut that off with a four-year old, and they've got to learn that it's impossible to win every time.

This is the same Candyland we all grew up with and loved, but with one major improvement:  no more cards.  Instead, they've replaced it with a spinwheel, so every parent rejoices over not having to search for missing cards all over the playroom.  (What, you don't mix up all YOUR gamepieces and playing cards into a big mashup?  That's how we roll around here.)  Sure, we're already missing one of the gamepieces but what of it.....it's still completely playable.  So we play our three games and at the first one, Sean is crying over the fact that "he didn't get blue to go over the peppermint bridge." .  We win, we lose and at the end, we only remember that we had fun.  Half an hour of Mom and Sean time.  Thirty five minutes if you allow for the tantrum.

Draggin'

Still not feeling 100% after the surgery.

Still have a stent, which will be removed on October 20th.  That's in six days.  Yes, I'm counting.

But I'm draggin' along, trying hard not to do too much.  I'm kind of a stranger to this "resting" thing.  I found out the hard way over the weekend that it's necessary though, because if you do too much you feel like crap the next day.  The goal is to continue to improve.

All that being said, I'm getting a lot of knitting done.

This here is the "Who?" hat.  Made it in about 24 hours.  Will loves it, especially the cabled owls. The first picture doesn't do it justice, so I included another of the "in-progress" so you can see the owls more clearly.

Since the New England weather was getting downright chilly (heat's already been turned on a couple of mornings!) I decided that Sean needed a new hat, too.  This hat is called "Barley" from the Tincanknits "Simple" collection.  Also done in an evening and an afternoon.  I originally thought it would be too slouchy but Sean loves it.  He immediately put it on and wore it all day.

I also finished my Halloween Swap item for my knitting group's event next week.  Can't show you till later, but it's great!

Will's birthday is a week from today and I have a wallaby sweater on the needles for him.  I started it in June, while binge-watching season 2 of "Orange is the New Black."  I honestly thought it would be done by now, but I got intimidated by the front pocket.  Too bad....it actually worked up like a dream.  I hate it when I second-guess my knitting skills.  I'm not sure if I'm delusional, but am hoping to have this done in time!