4th of July ALREADY?!?!?!?!

Is it just me or does it seem almost impossible that it is the 4th of July already?! I used to think summer went too fast as a kid but I find that as I get older it goes by like that super fast train in Europe! (sorry I don't know the name --hehe--probably going to fast to read the name on the side anyway!) My mom is usally the one who throws the big 4th bash but since she has moved to a smaller house I get to do it this year. The funny thing is that I live in a small trailer house on the outskirts of town (probably about the same size as hers) but I have a fenced in yard (to protect any little ones from the occasional rouge horseshoe) and a new big deck -- the 9th wonder of the world, as stated in a previous blog. We are very proud of our deck but, alas, it still is not quite finished. My husband keeps reminding me that the unfinished part is the "finishing" (staining) part which was agreed in the beginning to be my part. So, I guess I better wrap this up so I can mow the yard, do the laundry, clean the house, take care of the kids, clean out the abyss we call our van, make dinner and plan for the 4th of July party so that I can do my part and get the staining done! HOPE EVERYONE HAS A HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!! Until next time....

Wonder what 2nd place looks like?

2nd place looks pretty darn good if you ask me or any other parent of the girls on our softball team!! Our team went into the tournaments with a bye because we were in first place but we lost our first game which meant we had to claw our way back up to play for 1st and 2nd. Then we had to play 3 games on Saturday and come back early Sunday for another! I know she won't decide until the very last minute (like everything else) if she wants to play next year and I will be fine with whatever she decides, but I sort of hope that she will continue with her softball career. I think she saw things differently towards the end of the season, especially during the 3rd game of the day when we had a tie score and she slid into home for the win! Not too bad for a girl that was always too afraid to slide before!! Now that softball is over the girls are pretty excited to get down to real summer business -- swimming and sleepovers! It is hard to believe that a month ago they hated school and in a month they will be asking when it will start again!! My second oldest darling had to endure tournaments on her birthday so we are having her party tonight. Which reminds me....I better go get her cake baked for the party!! Until next time....

Is is June or December?

My oldest darling and I travelled to Livingston last night for one of her softball games. All day long I waited and waited for my phone to ring saying that it had been cancelled. I had good reason -- we had already suffered through a miserably rainy game IN Livingston the night before. Honestly, I would have taken the rain again over last night!!!! I am pretty sure that I saw snow on the way there. When we got there I waited in the car with a friend until the game started (or so we thought) and we decided that since neither of us had any of our other children with us that we would just sit in the bleachers this time -- the cold, hard, metal, small (barely big enough for a 6 year old butt to fit on) EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE ones!! I kept wishing I had brought my comfortable chair to sit on but it was all the way back at the car and the car was about 20 miles away. (Our girls get the great privilege of playing in the back forty)
I was dressed for June with a sweatshirt when really I should have been dressed for December in my winter clothes! Silly me....I never thought to bring my snowsuit! The game finally got going and after a while the sun did come out for a bit....long enough to thaw my nose out. I even had to do the one thing that I always get after my kids for doing.....pulling my sweatshirt down over my knees! (I hate the shirts stretching out) That almost turned into a trip to the emergency room for me when my foot slipped and I fell forward. Had I not caught myself I would have smashed my faced right into the lower bleacher! After my friend stopped laughing she said that had that really happened she would have at least waited until she got to the car before she laughed at me! Now that is a TRUE friend! LOL. By the time we got ready to go, nothing on my body worked. Except, of course, my nose which wouldn't stop running! I had started shivering uncontrollably and all of my extremities were numb. It was an interesting walk back to the car. Despite all of that the game actually turned out to be a good one....we won and everyone played well. I can't wait for the next game...anyone want to go with me?? Until next time....

Is that sunshine I see?

I woke up this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see an actual blue sky with no clouds and a ball of sun in it. Until I looked out the other side of the house and found the clouds! All in all it is still, by far, the best start to a day we have had in a while. They say (and by they I mean the people who seem to think they know how to predict the weather) that it is suppose to be nice without rain this weekend (I will believe it when I see it) so hopefully we will be getting the deck done! (I will post a pic of the 9th wonder of the world when it is finished!)
Besides the deck, we have another new addition to the household....my teenage bottomless pit -I mean step son - has come to live with us for the summer. I have 2 boys of my own, but they are still little and they aren't capable of consuming A LOT of whatever they eat....YET!!! I guess it is good practice for when they get older!! I guess, in a way, my 15 month old is practicing for the future -- you can open anything with a wrapper a good mile away and he will be at your side begging in nothing flat!! He really doesn't care what it is either....however, I don't think he will be begging for those jalapeno chip again anytime soon!! I better go.....something just crashed to the floor -- gotta see what it was and survey the damage -- I am guessing that the "invisible kid" named "NOT ME" did it!! Hopefully one of these days I will catch that darn kid in the act!! Until next time....

Rain, Rain are you gonna go away?

Don't get me wrong, I know we need the rain and I personally like the rain but couldn't Mother Nature be kind and spread it out a little? I would be happy to endure a few 100 degree days if it meant actually getting some rain in July and August. Really the only inconvenience it poses to me is baseball. We are suppose to end the season toward the end of June but we will be lucky to finish by the time school starts after we makeup all of the games that got rained out!!!! LOL We are supposed to have a game tonight but we won't know for sure until this afternoon....hmmmm! All the "unseasonably cool" weather does not deter my kids from the pool, though!! The only day they haven't gone so far is one when it rained all day! Trust me, they would have gone if they could have. My oldest lovely asked the other day if she could go to the pool and I said I didn't think it was nice enough. She told me, "Mom, they don't close the pool for wind just thunder!" It's a good thing they don't or our pool would never be open! You can certainly pick out the pint size swimmers in the community......you know the ones - they have chlorine green or bleached out hair and, what I call, swimmers' face -- the shiny red eyes and the burnt skin from the chlorine. My kids hate the fact that I make them wear sunscreen all the time but I am trying to save them from repeating mistakes I made as a kid and I am still big enough to tell them what to do!! LOL Well, my lovelies will be up soon and I need to go find them something to do so that there will be at 10 minutes without fighting today -- that is another bad side effect of rain...."the trapped children in the house that like to pick on each other for fun until mom can't take it anymore and then we get into trouble" syndrome!! Oh sweet sunshine, where have you gone and will you ever come back? I want to use my swamp cooler!!!! Until next time....

Ever wonder what stress looks like??

In case any of you haven't experienced extreme stress in a while, you should try building a wedding cake! Even when I have a good feeling in the beginning that all will go well, I am usually frazzled by the end of the day. (as is my husband -- he puts in just as much work as I do!) My last endeavor (this past weekend) was none the different. I had my cakes baked ahead of time and had all the things that I needed to get it done. I thought I was going right on time and then I had a fight with the frosting. I had one cake once where I had gotten so upset that I ended up throwing it and the frosting across the room. (it was one my first attempts before I knew a few trade secrets) Luckily, this time wasn't quite that drastic!! The funny thing is that every time I agree to do a wedding cake I swear that it will be my last......until next time. The other funny thing is that I am always thinking how great it would be to own a cake shop -- you would think that 4 kids and husband would be stressful enough, but I guess a girl can dream!! Also every time I do one I think that I haven't really done that many but then I always pull out the pictures and reminisce and realize that I have done my fair share. I know that the artist is always the most critical of their work (THAT WOULD BE ME) but I guess I must not do to bad of a job or people would stop asking me, right?! LOL! I guess it is a good sign that they still ask -- when they stop asking I will know that it is time to hang up the apron!

I have to say, I feel a little guilty about my son's third birthday -- it was actually on the day of the wedding so we celebrated his birthday a day later. I feel guilty because I have always made all of my kids' birthday cakes and I was not super-mom enough to do it this year. I just so happened to kill two birds with one stone by asking Miss Dairy Queen to fill in for me......."cake" and ice cream all in one -- ingenious!!!! Luckily for me he is only 3 and a boy so I think I may have been more effected by it than he. LOL!! Anyways, hope you enjoy the pictures (the one on the left is the one I did this weekend -- the one on the right is just one that I thought turned out pretty good!) Until next time....