Bad Sportsmanship

Shauna had a softball game on Thursday night. As a reminder, she is 7 so she plays in an 8 and under division. The team we played against (well, not really the team - the parents/coaches) were nasty from the get-go. When our girls first got up to bat, they were yelling rude comments. The umpire had to tell them they couldn't do that. Really? You are an adult and you have to be told to not talk that way to little girls? That was just the start! At one point, our assistant coach went to the umpire to get a rule clarification (something that happens all the time). The other team's scorekeeper started talking trash the our assistant coach. He looked at her and said "I was not talking to you ma'am, but to the umpire". I thought it was done in a very nice tone. The coaches for the other team had been throwing around bad language all night. In what turned out to be the last inning, their 3rd base coach said something really nasty which had just made our coach hit his limit. He walked over and asked him to watch his mouth. The other coach yelled "shut the f*** up" and proceeded to assault our coach! Both coaches were evicted from the game. We tried to continue play, but the other coaches started trying to charge our assistant coach. At that point, the ump called the game and declared us the winners. The girls were all scared with about 1/2 of them crying. They'd never seen anything like that before. I told Shauna it was just an example of very bad adult behavior! Scary part, we were to play them the next Saturday.

So, Saturday roles around and good sportsmanship prevailed. We beat the team 12-11. We definitely feel like we rose about the dirt and were rewarded!

A couple pictures of my little angel playing catcher for the first time. The gear is SO big on her. She actually had to wear her batting helmet because the catcher's mask was huge on her.

Ethan is recovering nicely from his ACL reconstruction surgery. He's still on crutches and can't move it much but he's progressing. He starts physical therapy on Friday, which isn't soon enough for him. We head to Austin Friday night for the first round of the 3A football playoffs. Really? We couldn't have found something closer than 2+ hours away???

First Day of School

My lovely daugher is officially a 3rd grader now. Where has the time gone? Ethan is a junior - that's even harder to believe. I snapped a couple pictures of Shauna this morning. She's wearing the thumb gloves she just had to have. But, they lasted about 20 minutes and they were off. Just like I knew would happen. I'll be surprised if she ever wears them. These were taken with my camera phone, so the quality is not the best.

I think Shauna is wishing she wasn't growing up. The last two nights, she has requested that I read to her and sing her to sleep. I have to admit, it was great fun to be able to do that again. She usually reads herself every night, so I haven't been able to read to her in a long time. But, she made the request last night when we were already upstairs and I didn't have my reading glasses on me. Yes, she has an old mom! I told her I'd try. So, of course it starts off with her saying "Mommy, the book is too far back". Need it that way baby to try to see the letters! Then, I started reading and there were some pretty funny parts where I read it wrong from not seeing it right - such as saying "lay some eggs instead of buy some eggs". By the end, we were both laughing hysterically so I don't think I did much good in helpng her relax to get to sleep! She did say that my version was much better! Thanks baby!

Locks of Love

Shauna has been wanting to make a donation of her hair to Locks.Of.Love for some time. Her daddy was not to happy with the idea because he likes her long hair. The donation must be at least 10" long so once she reached that point, she started asking a lot about when she could do it. Daddy finally agreed when one day she told him "it will grow back daddy and I really want to help the kids with cancer". How can you argue with that? So, Charles relented and said it was okay. I made the appointment right away before daddy changed his mind!

Here Pam is putting the hair into two low ponytails.

Time to cut the first one off.

The finished product. I think it looks adorable!

Finished Product

Charles and I worked 9 hours on Saturday putting up the backsplash. Then on Sunday, we did the grout and caulking. Here are pictures of the final product. Everything is finished except for the shutters that will be in the breakfast room. We did the entire remodel without killing each other! ;-)

This picture shows off the cabinets that my dad built which enabled us to make the bar top bigger. I'm VERY pleased with the look of this and the extra storage we got out of the deal.

Now we get to rest on our weekends again!

Big news for Shauna is that Mommy and Daddy finally succumbed and let her get a fish. She's been asking for about 3 months now. Every time we'd go by Pets.Mart, she'd ask "is today a day I can get a fish". We bought her a betta because they are easy to care for. She named it King sine i is a crowntailed betta and she felt it needed a "royal" name.

Before pictures - finally

So KimboSue has been nagging me about before pictures of my kitchen. So, I finally took a few this weekend. As mentioned in a prior post, my house was built in 1996, which is very obvious when you see the color scheme! We are keeping the cabinets because they are solid oak, custom built on site for my house.


The one other thing that doesn't have to be replaced is my cooktop. We replaced it with a bigger, stainless steel one about 18 months ago.

This is the bar that we have extended with new cabinets built by my dad. The barstools are gone - as is the water dispenser since our new fridge will have water/ice in the door.

Don't you love the wallpaper and diamond tiles? I HATE it but they were stylish in 1996!

We started trying to peel off the wallpaper and it didn't go so well. It was put directly on the sheetrock before so it is stuck REALLY well. We decided to just primer over it and paint it. So, next week had to sand the areaswhere we'd pulled it off. This is how it looked after our attempt at removing.

My dear hubby working on removing backsplash.

Can you believe that big hole? We didn't create it. When we removed the backsplash we saw it near the electrical outlet. Guess the builder missed their mark and left a big hole they just covered with tile!

This is how my kitchen looks right now. The backsplash didn't come off very easily because the builder used sheetrock instead of cement board. We have to do some sheetrock repair this week/weekend before we get the call for the countertops to be installed!

Moving along

We went to Home.Depot last night to finalize payment on our countertops since we've had the official measurement done. While there, I told that they'd only given us $300 off instead of the full 10%, which should have been $420. So, she made an adjustment but she left the $300 discount too! So, we got another $720 off in addition to the free sink and edging. I'm loving this.

We then went through the stressful decision of picking a backsplash. We changed on our mind on what we originally wanted because I was worried with the pourusness (is that even a word) of the stone. I was afraid it would stain in the kitchen. So, we ended up going with a slate/travertine combination. I love it because it has all the colors of our countertops. Before we adhere it to the wall, we will wait until the countertops are installed and just prop them up to make sure we still like it. Here is what we picked:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100669860

We spent almost 2 hours at Home.Depot - way too long for me. The whole time Ethan kept saying "we should go to Low.es"! We bought our new stainless vent hood and new knobs for the cabinets.

We've decided now to put shutters in the breakfast room because I've been wanting that forever. So, now I need to schedule an appoinment for that! It is getting crazy! But, I'm sure the end result is going to be worth it.

Kitchen Remodel to Begin

After putting it off for about 2 years, Charles and I have decided to take the plunge and remodel our kitchen. The house was built in 1996 and it just "screams" that year with the white corian countertops! I've known all along that I wanted to do Sile.stone countertops and a new french door refrigerator. That was about the extent of the decisions. About a year and a half ago, we had to replace our cooktop and went with stainless at that time in preparation for if we ever did the redo.

This past weekend, we bought the new fridge - although it won't be delivered until 7/20!! I want it now!! We ended up getting the titanium instead of stainless because of the cleaning issue. It looks just the same, but hopefully with less fingerprints. And, we got a fantastic deal - all the better!! Here's a link to our new fridge: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_04680066000P?vName=Appliances&cName=Refrigerators&sName=Bottom+Freezers

We also picked out our Sile.stone and made our initial payment. We are SO excited! The color is called "Mountain Mist" and it will look great with our oak cabinets. We aren't changing the cabinets because they are solid oak and were custome made for the house when I built it 13 years ago. The picture doesn't really show it's true colors, but here's a link: http://www.allcountertopsla.com/web---Mountain-Mist.gif

We've decided to take out all the countertops ourself to save a bit of money. Luckily, they are VERY easy to get out. We already tried with the island to see how big a task it would be. It popped right off, which is actually a little scary.

We'll be doing new backsplash and ripping out all the wallpaper to paint. The wallpaper will have to be taken down from the kitche, breakfast room and the little hall to the garage. I think that is going to be the biggest job of all! I will try to take before, progress, and final pictures as we go through the process.

Random Updates

My friend Kim told me that I was slacking by not updating my blog in over a month so I figured I'd throw some random updates out here. PaMac and Margie, I hope you are still reading this and haven't given up on me!

Shauna and I went blackberry picking at a lovely orchard this last weekend. My parents went along too. We had originally planned to go to a place where we could get both peaches and blackberries but we waited a little too long and the peaches were almost gone, so we chose a different spot. It was EXTREMELY hot, even though we got there at 9:00am.

Here is Shauna showing off one of the blackberries. They had an excellent crop and we got some really sweet blackberries. I picked about 3 pounds because Shauna got tired and wanted to quit. My parents picked about 8 pounds!!

Shauna is showing off the loot, but she is not happy here. She said it is way too hot and she's too sweaty to smile for the picture. It looks a little deceiving but there really was 3 pounds there. I got home and froze about 1/2 of them and we've been munching on them the rest of the week. I like to just eat them fresh. My parents froze all theirs because they prefer to make blackberry cobbler with them.

We've had a busy first month of summer because Ethan is playing 7-on-7. I think it's the high school coaches way of making football last year round! We've been to a tournament and have had weekly league games hosted by Ethan's school. Last night's game was interesting because my son's team got kicked out of it's own league for the night for fighting. There's a team they've played before that is always trash talking and this got a little carried away. I'm proud of Ethan that he wasn't involved in the fight and thought the whole thing was stupid - the way the other guys were acting. He's a firm believer in proving your better by showing it on the field instead of trash talking.

We've had to put a lot of money into Ethan's car the last couple of weeks. He had two tires blow out, so we bought him two other new tires so now he's riding on all 4 new ones. We also bought him a new gas tank because the other one was rusting out and causing problems with the fuel line. Up to now, he's been paying for repairs himself, but he ran out of money. He didn't ask for the help but we didn't want him to be too stressed about it. He's working so hard at his job at Kro.ger and I felt sorry for him! At this point, I think everything mechanical on the car has just about been replaced so it should be good transportation for him now.

Shauna is doing great on her swimming now. We have some awesome neighbors that are letting us come over to swim whenever we want and Shauna's lessons have paid off. This is the 3rd year we've done lessons for the summer but the first she's had such an awesome teacher! I love our new neighbors. I've been in the house 13 years and never had these great of neighbors! The only downside is we may become winos because they like to drink wine so much!

Life goes on even with dear hubby recuperating from surgery. Shauna had her recorder band concert and I had to tape the entire thing since Charles couldn't attend. This Shauna's first year to play in the band. She gets to "feeling" the music more than playing sometimes I think!

Hope PaMac and Bopka get to see these videos!

Here is a clip of them playing Yankee Doodle:

Shauna had her last regular season softball game. Charles did make it to the game even though he was still extremely sore from the surgery. She started off the year hitting great but then had a bit of a slump, so the coaches started working with her. Poor thing, they've got her all confused now and she can't seem to hit anything until time to hit off the T. Here's a video of her hitting of the T. We have an end of season tournament in 2 weeks. Go Lil Rebels!!

Crazy Week #2

We started off the weekend with our normal Saturday activity of attending Shauna's softball games. During the 2nd game, Charles started not feeling well. (On a side note, I hadn't blogged about the fact that we had taken Charles to the emergency room at 3am Saturday morning of the previous weekend. He was in extreme abdominal pain. I was sure it was gallbladder issues, but they couldn't find anything and sent him home at 9am.) We went to lunch and he ate a bit but still wasn't feeling great. His stomach was bothering him again. We were scheduled to have my parents down to celebrate Mother's Day a day early and we went ahead with that. We bought a fabulous brisket that the Pattison Area Volunteer Fire Department cooks every year for a fundraiser. We had the brisket for dinner but Charles didn't feel like eating, so it was just me, my parents, and Shauna. I felt really bad about eating without him. About 7:30 Charles said we needed to go back to the hospital. So, pack clothes for Shauna and drop her off and at my parents for the night. Being a Saturday night, it was CRAZY at the emergency room. We waited about 2 1/2 hours before we got taken back to a room. We saw an amazing doctor this time who immediately asked if they hadn't done an ultrasound the previous week. We told her they didn't and she asked what time we'd been there. Well, apparently, there isn't an US tech there after 1am, so that's why we didn't get one! This time, that was the first thing she ordered, along with the order to not eat or drink anything in case emergency surgery was needed. At 12:30 the doctor came in and confirmed Charles had gallstones and would not be going home. They admitted him and he got a room about 2:00am. He sent me home to get some sleep. I headed back to the hospital bright and early on Sunday. About 2:00pm, the surgeon came to see Charles and said they would operate on Monday. I asked if that meant he could eat now since he hadn't eating since noon on Saturday. They allowed him to have just liquids, some broth (which Charles wouldn't eat), jello, and shaved ice. About 8:00pm, we were told they'd do the surgery at noon on Monday. Luckily, they kept Charles on mor.phine and Toro.idol so he didn't hurt anymore. On Monday, they ended up coming in to get him before 9:00am, so that was a pleasant surprise. The surgery usually takes 1 hour, but it took 2 1/2 hours. I was started to freak out a bit when the surgeon finally game out to talk to me. Turns out that the gallbladder was hemorr.ghagic and was huge - like the size of a baseball! Very lucky for Charles, we had an amazing surgeon who was patient enough that he worked on it before he gave up and just sliced him wide open. They were very worried about infection because of how bad it was. Charles had to stay that night in the hospital and was told he'd probably be staying two more nights because it was so bad. However, he did remarkably well (we did lots of walking around the hospital floor) and was able to go home on Tuesday evening. He still can't go to work or drive for the rest of the week, but he's recovering quite nicely. I am so lucky that I have my parents nearby because they were able to take care of Shauna for us. I took her to school each day, but they picked her up and she spent the night with them.

Ready to start a new week

This has been a rough week. It started off Sunday evening when I noticed the area around our septic looked a bit strange. So, dear hubby lifted the lid on the 2nd tank (not a fun task, by the way) and we noticed it was completely full! Okay, time to freak out a bit but we placed a call on Monday to the septic company, who couldn't get anyone out until Tuesday. That guy came out and pumped out the tanks, at a cost of $560 by the way. He said he thought our pump had gone bad but he didn't work on that part of the system. Apparently, as I've learned, the septic system is very specialized. We did get a recommendation from him and called that guy immediately. He said he'd be out Wednesday but to be careful with showers, don't do laundry, etc. HELLO, we are family of 4, that can't go on for long. Septic pump guy comes on Wednesday and says that it is the pump, but he doesn't have the right one! argh... he must come back the next day. This after I've already taken a day 1/2 off from work to deal with this. At least, we finally did get it fixed last night, at a cost of $679.

My mobile device decided to quit working for receiving email while I was home on Wednesday and it still isn't working right. Frustration because it only works when I'm home through our WiFi... kinda defeats the whole purpose of the "mobile" device. I need to be MOBILE!

On another note, I noticed that there was some mold/mildew on the wall of my closet. Of course, that always gets big attention so we noticed the carpet was wet. EEK! So, we had to tear out the sheetrock to see what was going on. Luckily, it didn't turn out to be a big deal, but we had to dry out the carpet and pad. Now that it's finally dry, we'll have to put in insulation and new sheetrock because we had to get rid of the old since it was moldy. I want my closet back!!

Then, yesterday afternoon when I picked Shauna up from school, she was sick with a stomach virus. It has continued today and she missed school. Hope she's better tomorrow because she has two softball games and a school carnival.

I'm definitely ready to get this week behind me! Next week has to be better.

Baby....

I had the pleasure today of meeting Kim's new little boy today. I just love babies! It was fun holding Miles because it's been 7 years since my little one was that small! Kim, you and Dean did good!!

Weekend Fun

We had a very busy weekend but it was lots of fun. First, Shauna had a softball game on Thursday and two on Saturday. She did fabulous! She plays for the Lil Rebels. At this age, they do coach pitch and get 3 chances to hit off the pitch. If they don't, they get to hit off a tee. Shauna was able to hit off the coach in all 3 games until the very last at bat, but she got a great hit off the tee then too! They also rotate positions, which she doesn't care for - she wants to be able to stick to 2nd base. She got to play short stop, 3rd base, 1st base and pitcher (although not really pitching) as well. I can tell she really loved it because she told her Grammy "I think I've found my calling. I LOVE softball". No idea where she heard the phrase "my calling" - very grown up coming from a little girl!

Here are a couple pictures. They aren't the best quality because the batteries died in my camera, so these were taken with my smart phone.

Shauna playing short-stop. She looks all ready!

Taking off to 1st after her hit.

As mentioned in the last post, here is a picture of Shauna showing off her PSIA medal and ribbon.

We also had a great time at Shauna's birthday party. She turns 7 on the 8th and we had a gymnastics party. The kids all seemed to have a great time and as usual, I loved visiting with all the parents.

Shauna and I leave on Friday for a trip to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents. It will be a very quick weekend trip but we haven't seen them in long time. Shauna might go back this summer with my parents for a longer trip. It's important for her to get to spend time with her great-grandparents while they are still with us.

Proud Mom

This past Saturday was the district PSIA (Private School Interscholastic Association) competition. It's like UIL, but for private school and the kids compete in various academic competitions. Shauna was picked to represent her school in Storytelling and Creative Writing. Creative Writing was first at 9:00am. It was pretty chaotic at school where the competition was held because of so many kids being there. There were 10 private schools represented in this district and it was for 1st graders through middle school. That equals tons of active kids!

Shauna felt really good about her Creative Writing work but we had to wait 3 hours for the results. Only one bad thing in the day was when Shauna lined up to go to her Storytelling competition, a girl from another school yelled at her and made her cry. Really bad timing - but I tried to be cheerful and tell her not to let it ruin her day but I think it did affect her a bit. (Is it bad that the protective Mom side of me wanted to smack that little girl?) I got to watch the Storytelling competition and thought all the kids did great. Shauna received a qualifier ribbon for her effort in Storytelling.

When they gave the awards for Creative Writing, they started with the qualifier ribbons. When all those were given out, it dawned on Shauna that it meant she was going to be receiving a medal! The look on her face was priceless as they awarded medals and her name was yet to be called. Her best friend, Katya, took 3rd place in Creative Writing and Shauna took 2nd place! We are so proud of both girls! Unfortunately, in this competition only the 1st place finisher gets to go to state, unlike the other areas where the top 2 go. Shauna was disappointed in that, but we told her she did great to finish 2nd among all those students! I need to post a picture of Shauna with her medal but forgot the camera at home today.

While we were at competition, our Furbaby #2 (Holly), had a major injury on her leg. We think she got caught in a barbed wire fence. Hubby was home doing homework but had to change plans to rush her to the vet. The cut was so bad (bone exposed - sorry if TMI) that they had to knock her out to fix it surgically. She's doing okay now but I feel so sorry for her wearing that lampshade thing on her head so she doesn't pull out the stiches and staples.

Vacation

We had a lovely vacation in Florida. We spent 7 days at Disney World and 3 days with Charles' family in the Tampa area. I must say, 7 days at Disney is a bit much, but we had a fabulous time! We even squeezed in a day at Universal Studios. The weather was perfect. We had a great time with the family also. We got to see Charles' grandmother, who will be 94 next month and is constantly on the go. The kids had a great time with their cousins, Mallory and Eryn. We even got to see a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game. Shauna says she wants to move to Florida now!

I want to thank my travel agent (Papa AJ) for helping put together a great trip!

Here are a few pictures to share:

Shauna is thrilled to finally have arrived at Magic Kingdom!

We could have literally touched this giraffe because he was so close to the jeep!

Shauna meets Mary Poppins. She asked Shauna about her "badges" and Shauna corrected her, telling her they are called "pins".

Shauna after having her face painted by Disney Hollywood Studios special effects artists.

Shauna meets Pinnochio.

Can you believe the size of that Rice Krispie Treat that Ethan got? It was HUGE!!

Mommy and Shauna after picking strawberries with Charles' cousins in Florida. We had a great time and you can tell, she loved to eat them!

** Edited to add pictures of Charles and Ethan to prove we were all on vacation together!

Here's most of the family (without Ethan) posing with Mickey!

This is the picture I "snuck" taking of Ethan. It's tough to get a picture of a teenage boy!

Charles got to "act" in the Disaster ride/movie. He played an evil scientist!

Courtesy People!!

I must ask, why is it that most normal people turn into crazy, raging, idiotic, rude people when they get behind a car? So working in Houston, I sit in terrible traffic quite often and encounter all kinds. Really, if someone is trying to get out of a parking lot somewhere, is it really going to get you to where you are going faster if you purposely block them in? I think there are some courtesy rules that we need to help:

1 - When you are leaving a sporting event, concert, etc where there are a TON of cars, please use the one from each side processes (you know, I go, you go, person behind me goes, person behind you goes, etc.) It really makes the whole parking lot empty much faster.
2 - Driving a car at 80mph down the freeway is not the time to be putting on makeup, reading a newspaper or book, etc.
3 - Just because you turn on that blinker doesn't mean you get to immediately move over into my lane! Wait until there is some space!
4 - Lay off the horn, it just irritates people more, and sometimes just down right scares the crap out of that bad driver making them do something more stupid!
5 - The HOV lanes are for cares with more than ONE person in them!! Quit crossing the double white lines to dash in and out of those lanes at your will! (And, why does there never seem to be a police officer around to catch these idiots?)
6 - You are not to drive just 55 mph in the fast lane on the freeway. The fast lane for those who don't know is the far left lane, or the passing lane.
7 - When you see a sign that a lane is giong to end, begin merging as soon as you can. Do NOT wait and try to drive down to the very last minute and force yourself in. In TX, you might get shot for something like that!

I'm sure this list could be about 50 items long, but I just needed to vent a bit! Thanks for reading! Comment and share some of your driving pet peeves and suggestions!

Cookies, Cookies, Everywhere

Last Thursday was the date to pick up the Girl Scout Cookies. Since I am the cookie manager for 2 troops (don't ask how I get myself into these things!), it was a lot of cookies to pick up. Luckily, these troops are pretty small or it would have been worse! My sweet parents (thanks Mom and Dad) offered to help me sort the cookies when I got home. Yes, this event requires a vacation day to handle! My 2nd garage was bombarded with cookies so that Charles couldn't get his truck anywhere near it. I warned him not to touch my stacks of cookies! Luckily, that night the other troops Mom's came by and picked up there cookies. We've delivered almost all of the cookies Shauna sold and are working on selling our extras. My dining room is being used to store the cookies Shauna sold and our extras. It looks like Girl Scouts threw up cookies in it!

As you know, I'm new to the bloggy world, but I will make somewhat of an attempt to abide by Kimbo's challenge.

The Meme (what DOES that word MEAN?): 10 Quirks About You
This is a twist on the Honest Scrap Award as you can see by the yes, you guessed it, More Rules:
From Momma Val - "Instead of saying where you live, what state your hair is in, etc. you will share bizarre little things about yourself. Maybe you have some guilty pleasures, maybe you have some OCD that you desperately try to hide, whatever the case may be this is your chance to spill it. Let's all remember to be honest, not to judge, and to have some fun being able to embrace our oddities and laugh at ourselves. Thought this might be a nice mid-week tension reliever.So please, if you are tagged, copy and paste this entire post. Then replace my quirks with your own and tag up to ten people, unless you have A LOT of quirky friends then tag em all!!! Have fun!"

The 10 bloggers I would to tag for the 10 Quirks About You Meme are: LaRay, AJsMom, AJSDad (I don't know anymore to do so I'm cheating with 3.)

In the spirit of fun, I will be a good sport and share 10 quirks about me.
1. I must have my spices in alphabetical order in my pantry.
2. I can wiggle my ears. This used to be a fun talent my parents made me show off when I was a kid!
3. I MUST read every night before I go to sleep or I just can't sleep!
4. My favorite chocolates are Dove Promises and I must SAVOR them, taking exactly 3 bites of each. There's a routine to eating them.
5. When I eat a Dove Promise, I must fold up the foil wrapper in a specific manner until it is a little square. Gosh, that sounds weird!
6. I eat my sandwiches in a circle - eat all the crust first followed by the insides.
7. I still talk to my parents almost every day (sometimes more than once a day).
8. I can't stand green beans - I mean to the point of gagging if I even smell them!
9. I do not like my food to touch each other on my plate.
10. When I drink milk it must be ice cold, so I put it in the freezer for a few minutes first.

(Okay, so what was up with all the food quirks???)

I Can See!!

Had a follow-up at the eye doctor yesterday afternoon to see if I could change the multifocal contact lense because my reading still wasn't where I'd want it. I tried reading for the tech with the old contact. At this point, she looks at me really funny and says "how old are you?". I guess I was pulling my arms too far out to read! I kind of quietly said "44". She said "You are WAY too young to have these kinds of problems".. Whew... at least that was kind of a compliment!! So, we tried a bit stronger contact. Then, tried a contact in both eyes but that messed up my distance vision. We went with one stronger contact in the right eye and I LOVE IT!!! I can see my computer monitor and read without glasses!! Now, it won't be obvious to strangers I have the "over 40" eyes! I'm sure AJSDAD will have a snide comment about that last statement!

Can I have some Peace??

What a crazy week already!! Monday night my dear hubbie started back to school and just so happened on the same evening, Ethan's car broke down. So, between me and my dad we worked on it and ended up towing it home. It needs a new starter, which we ordered yesterday. It's always something when you own a classic!

Last night while we were upstairs helping Charles with homework, Furbaby #2 (Holly), got a casserole dish that we'd cooked meatloaf in off the counter, where it was waiting for Ethan to wash it. When she got it off the counter, it broke into pieces. I came downstairs to find blood EVERYWHERE!!! She apparently had decided to still try to lick the yummy stuff out of the broken casserole and had cut up her tongue and mouth. It scared me to death! it looked like a major crime had occurred in my kitchen. Of course, I don't think she understood at all why Mommy was freaking out! Thank God though, she is okay and had just limited herself to my kitchen, where it was easy to clean. But, let me just share that the tongue in a dog sure does bleed A LOT!!! Ethan learned a lesson that he has to do dishes right away with her around! Yes, my teenage son does dishes! In our house, whoever cooks doesn't do dishes. Many nights he'll choose to cook instead of having to do the dishes. He will make someone a great husband one day!

Charles is back in class again tonight and I hope it's a much calmer evening!

On a side note, I am so proud of Shauna. She got selected by her school to represent them at PSIA competition in the categories of Storytelling and Creative Writing. The competition is next month!

Beautiful Creature

For the twelve years I've lived in my house, we've had a hawk who makes his home in one of our trees. He used to have a mate, but we haven't seen it in a while. The other day I happened to look out the window and saw it perched on S's playground. I called for S to come see while I went to get my camera. I was able to snap a picture of this beautiful creature! He sat there for about 10 minutes just looking around. I assume looking for something he could hunt! I could have sat for hours just watching him. He's so majestic.

Eyes and Age!

Okay, so 10 years ago, I had LASIK surgery on my right eye. At the time, I was told by doing one eye it would delay the need for reading glasses. Fast forward and it was like the light switched off two years ago at age 42! I needed reading glasses for everything. At work, I wear them about 75% of the time because I need them to see my monitor!! Yesterday, I left my glasses at home (down to one pair because Furbaby #2 ate my other pair!) and I couldn't see anything all day. Today I go back to my favorite eye doctor, Dr. Y. Shock of shocks, my left eye has become dominant and completely corrected itself for distance vision!! My right eye, which had the LASIK, now needs a little distance correction. I told Dr. Y I'm SICK of glasses all the time, so we are going to try one multi-focal contact in my right eye. Unfortunately, my strength was not in stock, so it is on order. I can't wait to try this and hopefully alleviate my need for reading glasses. Maybe I can just go to one on my bedside table for that nighttime reading I love so much! But the lesson in all this is that is SUCKS getting old!

So, it seems like all of my friends are into the blogging thing, so I've jumped on the bandwagon. I am LaRay, wife to Charles, Mom to Shauna and full-time Stepmom to Ethan. However, in our house there is no distinction between Mom and StepMom!! I stay very busy with the kids activities, so my life is full of athletic events, Brownies, etc. I've been team mom for every activity the kids have taken part in and am very active in Shauna's Brownie troop. In fact, I'm the Cookie Manager so that means right now I'm VERY busy as it's cookie time again!

In May 2007, I started a serious weight loss journey and have lost 83 pounds. It's been several months since I've actually lost any weight, but I have gotten healthier by morning work outs 5 days a week. I'd like to lose 20-30 more pounds, and I need to get serious about it again!

I'll have crazy stories to share along my path of blogging - some my kids would probably be happier I didn't share! I hope distant family and friends can stay up on our happenings this way!

I'm so proud to be an American right now with the election of our new president!
**Updated -- My friend told me the way I worded that sounded like I was never a proud American before. Those who know me, know that I've always been a proud American. I'm just especially proud of what our country has overcome to get to this point! There ya go, AJsDad!