The Slippery Slope:

Hair Today..Gone Tomorrow

 October is in the air and the Phillies are heading to post season baseball!!! Woot Woot!  I've got to say that they've put me through the ringer these past two weeks, Chris has had to admonish me a couple of time about my yelling and waking up the kids and scaring them and what not, but they pulled it out tonight.  I can breath easier and relax for a couple of days. Maybe the children will sleep easier now!

I've recently taken my rather large rear end back to the gym.  We're planning a spring time getaway to a far away destination, and let's just say that I need to get things back in shape.  I started back at the Body Pump classes, and oh lordy, lordy I'm in pain.  I used to go quite regularly, but then life got in the way, and then I just stopped.  I went on Monday and by Monday evening, my legs were sore.  By sore, I mean excruciating, muscle searing, eye watering pain.  By Tuesday, it hurt to move anywhere.  Getting up  or sitting back down was just agonizing.  I got back on the treadmill to just stretch them out a bit, but it didn't seem to help.  This morning was only slightly better, but I went back to class.  No pain, no gain and all that, you know.  So tonight, I'm rather useless. It hurts to much to get up but when I do, it hurts to much to sit back down.  Here's hoping tomorrow is better.  I think I'll take a day off from the gym.

I know some of you have seen this on FB, book this will be a big surprise to others.  On Saturday, Jill apparently had enough of bangs falling in her eyes, so she took that matter into her own hands. Well, she took scissors into her own hands.   Unfortunately, she decided to cut the hair from the side of her head instead of her bangs. 

In this picture, you can see where she cut around her ear.  This hair was just above her shoulder.

In this one, you can see the chunk she cut from the back.

 

So she cried and cried when she realized what she did, but we didn't get upset.  It's only hair and I think all kids do it at some time or another.  Katherine cut her bangs down to her scalp when she was three, and Thomas cut his hair when he was four.  At the time, he adamantly blamed it on the Boogie Man.  I'm still laughing about that one.  In fact, in the wake of Jill's hair fiasco, he finally admitted that he was the culprit who had cut his hair and was just afraid that I would yell at him.  I strike fear in the hearts of four year olds!

We had to do something about the obvious unevenness, so I took her out to S*uper C*ts, and they fixed her all up.  It's short, think Demi Moore in Ghost, but it's quite cute.  Isn't she a sweetie?  Hey, look on the table, that my book.  The new Jamie and Claire story has arrived.  I've already shed a couple of tears, but it's a long book with several story lines, so it's taking me a while to get through.  Will let you know what I think when I'm done.

 

Yes, I suck.  I know it.  The blogging mojo just hasn't come back.  Damn you, Facebook!  Anyway, things have changed mightily since I've last posted.  Foremost, the husband is home!  Yes, he's been home for awhile.  In fact, he was only gone about 2.5 weeks.  Hardly a blink of the eye.  Easy Peasy.  He called me just before I was headed up the mountains before Labor Day and said that they've reorganized the detail and he'd been reorganized to home.  So I headed headed up the mountains with the kids and then surprised them with Daddy upon our return.

Our trip to the mountains was absolutely fantastic.  It's my new favorite place. Well, there aren't any elk but it's so beautiful I can hardly stand it.  Our cabin was very nice and there was plenty of room for my crew and for my sister's family who came up to share it with us.  Jill was so much better behaved then on our last trip, it made life so much more refreshing.  She didn't once ask "for her regular house" which was her unending cry during our family vacation.  It helped that there were tons of cousins there for her to play with.  She got along great with cousins and loved splashing in the icy, icy cold water.  How those kids played in that water, I'll never know.

Here's Katherine just dipping her feet in the water.

Here's a partial view from the beach:

This is a view from the Canyon Vista Overlook:

Here are my lovely boys:

And here's Sam trying to throw Tom off the mountain:

 (never fear, it just a joke!)

And this is a partial group shot of many of the kids on our last day right before we left:(I heart prepositional phrases)  

  It was too hard to get a non-goofy pose.

The other exciting news is that the KIDS ARE BACK IN SCHOOL!!! So far, everything is going well enough.  One child has already forgotten to bring home homework items two nights in a row, but I'm not naming any names.  Another child gave me a 3 page form asking for detailed information about child's learning styles to fill out 7 minutes before the bus was to arrive.  Again, no names, but I wrote that said child needs to work on her responsibility issues.  Sam has moved onto Junior High which has been smooth sailing so far.  Tomorrow night is back to school night for him and Chris and I are going together so we can get a first hand look at whats going on over there.  And our little Jilly will be starting 3 year old preschool on Friday.  Ahh, is that silence I hear?

Hey, did you notice that fancy book widget over there on the sidebar??  Yes, it's the books!  My favorite series of all time!  I've pre ordered and it should arrive next week. Don't expect to hear from me once that hits my doorstep.  Actually, nobody should expect anything from me--no dinners, no stories, no nothing.  Once I dive into these books, I don't come back up until I'm done.  Sorry dear, looks like you'll be doing the single Dad thing until I'm done :-)

Contused

Oh, the long dog days of summer are upon us and that spring-like temps have been forgotten.  I'm ready to wrap-up August, in all it's hazy, hot, and humid glory, and just throw it away.  This month seems endless right now and I'd really like for it to just be over.  Bring on Fall already!

If I seem a little dreary, it's because I'm hot, tired and just a tad cranky.  I'm so ready for school to begin and to get these children out of my hair for just a little while.  It seems as if all the children in our neighborhood have magically evaporated and my kids have nobody to hang out with.  So that leaves me as the 24 hour entertainment director.  Which, as I've told them countless times, I am not.  We haven't hit the pool much lately because honestly, I hate humidity and I don't want to be out in it.  I do have a valid excuse though; the humidity causes my headaches, so I like to retreat into the A.C.  So they hang in the house, watch TV, fight, play board games, fight, and occasionally do the summer reading I'm forcing them to do and then fight some more.  I bought them some math books, too.  Yeah, I'm that much fun!

Another major reason for my crankiness is because my husband has been detailed out for a special work program to the lovely confines of Roswell, New Mexico for two months.  TWO WHOLE MONTHS!  I realize that this is nothing compared to what military families experience, and believe me, this echoes in my mind constantly.  But two months is a loonnngg time.  With four kids.  In the summer.

It's no picnic for him either.  Roswell is a pit.  The pit of despair.  Forgive me readers in Roswell, wait I have no readers from Roswell, so yeah, it's a pit.  There is nothing there---nothing.  Even the aliens have up and left.  HE HAS NO CELL PHONE SERVICE!  If that's not bad enough, the phones in his "mobile command unit," a $5 million mobile outfit paid for by you the tax payers, don't work.  It's making communication very difficult since we can't just call each other during the day.  We have to wait until he's back in his hotel room and call out using an expensive calling card.  Oy.

On the day he left, I took the kids to one of our favorite play places.  It's a 3 story play land in a church community center and it's a great place to go when you can't think of anything to do (*see above.)  And it's free-- The best kind of entertainment.  It's also mass mayhem and chaos.  Three stories of play land goodness holds tons of little kids-screaming, frenzied, hyped up toddlers through tweens running amok.  Somehow in the midst of all this activity, Jill wound up on the bottom of a five kid pile up on the twisty tunnel slide.  I heard her screaming from my table where I was trying to read my book in peace and went running to her.  It's amazing how mom's can pick out their kids screams among all the screaming in the play land.  When I found her, her arm was hanging kind of oddly and she was inconsolable.  So we quickly packed up and I assessed the situation.  After she didn't move her arm for over an hour and wouldn't allow me to move it, I decided it was time to head off to the ER.  We were seen pretty quickly, which was nice since that was one frightening waiting room.  After x-rays, it was determined that nothing was broken, but she has a bone contusion on her elbow.  She was bandaged up and sent on her way.  It took a couple of days, but her elbow is all better now and she's not in anymore pain.  Hopefully that will be the worst we have to face for awhile.

I'm really not as miserable as this post sounds.  I'm just having one of those days, complete with a raging toddler tantrum that lasted a good 30 minutes, and it will pass.  I'll return to happier posts soon :-)

We're Back...we'll we've been back

but I just haven't gotten around to blogging about it yet!  Vacation was a success even if it was quieter than normal.  This was our first vacation without any family joining in on the fun.  Last year we had three cabins of family, this year it was just us.  I think it's fair to say that I had my fill of "family time" by the end of the week.  Without the distractions of cousins or television, and being couped up in the cabin during the many periods of rain, these kids got just a bit, well, annoying.  I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because there certainly good times had, but I was more than ready to head home at the end of the week.

AND, Jill is officially the world's worst traveler.  She had multiple melt downs in the car on the way there, and then continued to have melt downs everyday where she complained quite verbally, that she wanted to go home to her regular house.  Every day.  Several times a day. 

On a happier note, the elk didn't disappoint.  They were out again in full force this year.  As Thomas would happily tell you, I'm just crazy about these elk for some reason.  I think that it must be that we got dragged around the middle of the state as children for hours on end looking for them but never found a single one.  Now, they're everywhere!  I think the back story behind the is fascinating too.  The original eastern elk herd was hunted out of existence in the 1800's but sometime in the early 1900's, the government transported Rocky Mountain elk and re-introduced them throughout the state.  This herd, in Elk County, is the only surviving heard.

Can you spot the antler in the above shot?

This bull was hanging out next to the sign.  Pretty sure the locals pay him to hang out there.

Morning elking with the kids.  They were all over the road and I had to drive very slowly to avoid any accidents.

And the kids were there too!  Here they are hanging out on the dam rocks (the rocks just below the spillway.)

After our quiet mountain get-away, we came home for a couple of days and then crashed my brother's vacation house in Fenwick Island, Delaware.  I'm not sure they bargained on all the noise our crew would bring along, but they were so gracious to host us for two nights.  Thanks, guys!  Their house was lovely and the beach was too.  It made us realize how much our kids want a beach vacation next year and they're absolute fish when it comes to the ocean.  So a great vacation summit will be held soon and we can get our acts together and come up with a plan for next year.

We have one more camping trip planned for Labor Day weekend.  I booked and payed for this cabin last year and then basically forgot about it.  I'm not sure we'll stay for the four nights since it's so close to the beginning of the school year, but I'm cautiously looking forward to it.   It's at a beautiful park and I do love a road trip.  If only the young one would stop her tantrums....

As an aside, I've been receiving phone calls from a man named Ralph Isreal for about a month now.  He's an automated message man who leaves 5 minute messages about events for singles in the Philly area.  I have no idea how he got our number or why he needs to call us every. stinking. day.  I dread checking my messages because  we have to listen to the entire thing before we can delete it.  His messages go on and on and on and his voice sounds like he's got a clothespin on his nose.  I finally looked up his outfit on the good ol' Internet and sent them a nasty email to get me off the calling list.  And to do it NOW!!!  I just received a very apologetic email back from them and they assure me my number will be removed.  We shall see.

On a final note, Sam had a surprise visit today from his 5th grade teacher.  She came to the door when I was in the shower, so I have no idea what condition she found the living room in.  All I can say is that I'm glad Jill actually had real clothes on; see, she likes to tie receiving blankets around herself like a sarong, usually paired with lovely plastic high heeled Cinderella shoes.  She gets quite testy if we try to persuade her to put something real on.  His former teacher wanted him to know that she still thinks of him and wants to wish him luck in the junior high.  She remembers him as a happy, helpful student.  She had two books that she thought he might like, so she  typed him up a lovely note and dropped them off.  How nice is that?  It makes me feel so happy to know that there are teachers out there who take a sincere interest in our children and care about their futures especially since sixth grade was such a miserable experience for both Sam and myself.  I so wish he could have had a teacher like the 5th grade one.

Wow, that got long!  Signing off for now...

Outta Here!

So I never got around to downloading those pictures, sorry.  Just a short note to say we're on our way for vacation.  Let's hope for good weather and very few toddler melt downs.  It's a long drive and we're taking two cars.  I'll have all the kids in the minivan with the DVD player and Chris will have the little Subaru with all our crap stuff.  A melt down free drive, both toddler and mine,  would be appreciated.  Good thoughts, m'kay?

The cabin is equipped with nothing, so we have to bring it all--pots, pans, coffee pot, plates, cups, etc, etc, etc.  So needless to say, we're packed to the gills on this trip.  We're buying all of our food once we get there, so we've freed up a little elbow room this year.  I know I won't feel like food shopping once we finally get there, but I'm sure it'll get done at some point.  We'll need chocolate for the s'mores, you know. 

The most notable difference this week, besides the log cabin and bears, will be the lack of Internet!  Yes, it's my week to unplug and decompress.  No wifi in the woods, people.  While it seems daunting, I remember how good it felt last year to unplug for awhile.  It's very refreshing actually. 

Well, that's all I got.  Gonna head to be so we can get an early start.  I promise to write once I get back :-)

 

 

Hey Everyone, we're still here.  All is fine and well and we're just enjoying a very busy summer.  It's hard to believe, but I've just as busy running the kids around from place to place this summer as I was at the end of the school year.  I'm not complaining because it would be so boring to just sit around the house all day. 

So, where to start?  Actually, I need to download some pictures and that will help me remember.  I'll save that for later and it will remind me to come back and blog!

We leave for vacation on Friday and I'm so excited to get out of town.  We're going camping again to the same place we went last year, which happens to be the same place I went so many times during my childhood.  The kids are looking forward to staying in the "cabinet" as Jill calls it.  It's actually a rustic cabin with no frills, no fuss.  They haven't even  moaned about not having television for the week.  They're just excited to hop on their  bikes and head to the fishing lake.  Sounds like Mayberry, doesn't it?  I hope the weather stays nice, but who doesn't!  We're also planning a road trip up to Lake Erie while we're out there.  The kids have never been that far north in PA, so it will be an adventure.  I, for one, can't wait to see the elk again.  Oh, how I loved elk watching.  Sam, on the other hand, loves the secret breakfast trip that awaits those who wake up early with me to catch the elk at sunrise!

In preparation for the trip, we've  had to drop $900 in various car repairs this week.  Fun, huh?  I hope we weren't planning on actually spending any money during vacation. 

In other less interesting news, both Chris and I have become mostly addicted to the Bejeweled Blitz game on Facebook.  So much so that when I close my eyes to go to sleep, I see brightly colored jewels floating behind my eyelids.  So if you get tire of me not posting, come on over there and harass me!  I'll convert all you non-facebookers if it's the last thing I do !!

It's Cool to Flash a Silver Smile!

I'll have to find a copy of that Snoopy poster wearing braces...used to be one of my favorites.  As promised, Sam celebrated most of his 12th birthday in the orthodontist chair.  He was excited, so seeing him enthused about something made me happy.  I know it will wear off after the first monthly tightening, but I'll take it for now.

I planned to make him a big homemade breakfast this morning figuring he'd be too sore to eat much lunch or dinner.  Problem is, I grossly overslept.  I'm lucky I have the luxury to oversleep,  I still have no idea how or why Jill didn't come running in and jump on me, but I hate it when it happens.  My whole day is disrupted and I feel like I'm running in circles all day.  So, I had about 40 minutes to make a king size breakfast and then get everyone, including myself, ready and out the door.  Of course I knocked myself out trying to get there and then we wound up waiting 30 minutes in waiting room.  Doctors.. grrr.

I did remember to snap a quick picture before we left:

I came back 2 hours later to pick him up and guess what?  We waited another 35 minutes before he appeared.  As he dazzled me with his shiny new smile, I noticed the bottom teeth were still bare.  The ortho came out and said that they were running too late and that since it was lunch time, he'd have to come back next week and get the bottoms on.  Huh?  Is this standard or are we being jerked around? 

Afterward, we tried to jam in a quick trip to the pool before going home and getting the house ready for his b-day celebration.  When we got home, he lay down on the sofa and get this...he took a nap.  This boy hasn't taken a nap since he was three unless he's down with the flu, swine or otherwise.  It worried me a little but he wasn't feverish.  I guess he was just tired. 

While he slept, I cleaned up and baked the cake which promptly broke apart as I tried to get it out of the pan.  I still served it, it just didn't look that pretty.  Later on, it was off to BK for his traditional dinner-- he's been looking forward to his Wh*pper meal.  But by this point, his mouth was really sore and he couldn't even finish it.  Poor kid. 

 

Later on, it was cake and ice cream with the cousins and family.  He perked up considerably and had a great time.

 

Another very busy day tomorrow.  It may prove to be very stressful but let's hope it all goes well.  I'll fill you in later...

Reunion!

I guess if someone has ever had a case of writer's block, I have it bad.  I just can't seem to get my act together to write down my thoughts.  Actually, I've been so busy since school let out, busier in fact than when school was still in session.  I'm really looking forward to vacation at the end of July; I mean really, really looking forward to it.  I just want to be in the woods with nothing to do!  Maybe see some elk or a bear or something.  I don't want to get close to a bear--just maybe see one at a distance again.

This weekend, we made a trip down to Washington, DC to have a reunion with our Chinese adoption group.  We weren't able to attend  last year, so I was really eager to go and see everyone.  We got there late on Friday night and ran smack dab into everyone in the lobby--very convenient actually because I was worried about tracking everyone down.

The girls were having a blast running around the lobby, giggling and playing.  They all seemed so comfortable with each other; Jill was slow to warm up to them but was much more comfortable by Saturday night.  She had a couple of melt down moments, but was quickly calmed down with bribes of milk shakes and onion rings. All the girls are just as cute as can be and it's so wonderful to see how well everyone is doing.

I've snagged some of my friends' photos because we have some really talented photographers in the group.  Go on up and check the links on the left for Tina and Dawn. Their photos are amazing, kind of makes me want to run out and buy a new camera.

Here are the girls back in 2007 in  Guangzhou, China on the infamous red couch at the White Swan Hotel.  They were all so tiny and not very cooperative.

Here they are two years later.  So Big!  Can you match the faces up?  We were all amazed at how little their faces have changed, they've all stayed the same, only stretched out a bit!

On Saturday, we all headed out to the National Zoo to see the Pandas.  It was incredibly hot, but we trooped along and the Pandas came out to see us.  Jill was still being pretty uncooperative, but we did manage a couple of pictures with Courtney Mei.

Speaking of uncooperative, have you any experience traveling with a pre-teen boy?  M.I.S.E.R.A.B.L.E.  Throw in tons of walking in the hot sun....M.I.S.E.R.A.B.L.E  Seriously, it was all I could do not to send him home alone on the train.  After a firm talking to, he perked up mildly for Sunday's adventure to the Air and Space Museum and touring of the National Mall.  I was feeling really upset and anxious over his behavior, but this morning I caught the beginning segment of Regis & Kelly.  Kelly and Mark were sharing pictures from their family vacation and all they could talk about was how miserable their 12 year old son was.  They showed a bunch of pictures and he's scowling in every one.  Oddly, this cheered me up immensely!  I guess we're not the only ones going through this.

This same child turns 12 tomorrow!  My little boy isn't so little anymore and I only have a couple of inches left until he catches up with me.  And as our gift to him, he gets his braces on tomorrow!  Wow, that could be the worst present ever.  I'll call it payback for his attitude on the trip.  He's excited though.  He won't be so happy the next day when the pain sets in.

Ack, that was a side trip down puberty lane...now back to the trip:

 

Group shot in Du Pont Circle taken by Dawn.  I wasn't sure why Chris was acting like he just won the World Series, but he finally figured out that he was just trying to put his arm around Sam.

 

The kids had such a blast hanging out by the fountain.  We let them splash their feet in there, but it was inevitable that somebody would go for a swim.  Little Libby, Jill's former roommate, fell in but was quickly scooped out!

 

 

Well, that's it for me tonight.  I'll be back next time with more pictures of the trip.

Wow, so I see another long break has occurred without conscious thought on my part.  It's just so hard to find time to blog these days; come on, there's Scramble to play!

Lots and lots been happening round here.  First off, it's was our 2 year "Family Day" anniversary with our Little Jilly last week.  Hard to believe it's only been 2 years--seems much more like forever if you ask me.  She's a trip and so ridiculously smart.  She never stops talking and has recently started spouting off some really embarrassing things.  I won't share the most embarrassing one, because I would be implicated in teaching her less-than-appropriate words.  I just have to remember that she hears everything (and I mean everything) and will spout it back at the most inopportune times.

We didn't make a big deal of  anniversary, but we did go out for ice cream after dinner.  She wanted a chocolate cone, and that's what she got.  She ate every drop and managed to make a fine mess of it. 

Hmm, let's see what else has been going on?  School is almost out!!  I'm very excited for this and will be thrilled when we can just take a couple of days to chill out and relax. Sam will be graduating from elementary school and heading to the Junior High, and this makes me oh-so-apprehensive; but, I'm so eager for his 6th grade experience to be over, I'll just deal with the nerves.  Did 6th grade just suck for everyone?  I know my 6th grade year was horrendous, so I think it just must be so across the board.   To be honest, I don't think Sam has disliked this year, I'm just not a big fan of his teacher or a couple of his classmates.  My boy has learned some very interesting things from those boys this year; most notably, a wide range of curse words, and vast array of "yo momma" jokes and a misinterpretation of what Erectile Dysfunction means.  I wish these kids would just shut up already.

I'm sure I'll be sick of the kids complaining that they're bored after a day or two, but I always enjoy those lazy early days of summer.  I still have to get our pool memberships renewed, but I'm sure we'll be spending tons of time there.

Softball and baseball season is starting to wrap up.  We've been so unbelievably busy running from field to field to get the kids to different games that all start at the same time, it's almost dizzying.  We've had to employ the grandparents on a couple of occasions to help us out---Thanks, Gram! 

Tom's season came to a sad end yesterday as they were eliminated in the 1st round of the playoffs.  Tom had a very, very slow start to his season and was just starting to find his groove in the last couple of games.  He had some good, solid contact yesterday, but it just wasn't enough.  Tears all around.

Softball is quite ridiculous.  At Diggy's level, it's just one step above t-ball.  They girls get about 15 pitches and nobody ever strikes out.  It's a comedy of errors on the field as they randomly throw balls around and very occasionally, and I really mean occasionally, make a play.  I realize they are young and it's all about learning, but her coach has held about 3 practices all year and has recently missed a game completely.  I'll be very happy when here season is done.  I'm ready for her to move up to the next level and actually learn how to play.

Sam's team, coached by the dear husband, is still going strong.  Playoffs started today and they won their 1st game.  It's a double elimination system, so they get to keep going even if they loose.  Sam had 2 base hits tonight, which may have been his best game this year.  They play again tomorrow night, but I'll miss most of it as I have to take Digs to her game and supply the snacks. What fun.

It was a beautiful weekend all around and I hope you got to enjoy it!

Irish Night

Last night was Irish Heritage Night at the Phillies Game.  We were going to skip it this year, but Katherine really wanted to do it, so we changed our mind and went.  Thanks to brother Dennis, we were hooked up with some really great tickets.  We were smack dab behind home plate in the 200 level Hall of Fame Club.  Now this is the way to see the game!  Nice clean bathrooms, air conditioned concessions, and just general friendliness.  We even ran into our dear friend Maureen and Uncle Steve as they worked their ball park jobs.

Our seats were in prime foul ball territory.  A man just 6 seats down from Katherine caught a foul and the whole place cheered for him.  Then a man in the next section over dropped a foul and in typical Philly fashion, the whole place booed him.  This got Katherine so worried.  She was so nervous about a foul coming her way and what would happen if she dropped it. No worries needed though, nothing came directly at us.

The dancers danced out on the warning track during the pregame festivities.  The camera man would scan over them and feature the groups up on the giant Phan-a-Vision screen.  He seemed more focused on other groups and hardly put her dance school up there.  Whenever they did get on there, I snapped a picture and hoped I could catch one with her in it.  I only managed to get one, and here it is.  Sadly, it's nothing special but if you squint real hard, you just might see her.

 

When they were done dancing, I put the camera away and walked over to the area where we were supposed to meet them.  She got separated from me last year, and I really didn't want that to happened again.  I wanted to be right up front and center at pick up time.  Little did I know, they were staying on the field for the National Anthem.  I didn't even realize the singing was happening but then I turned around to watch the screen just as the song was ending.  And much to my surprise, I see a larger-than-life Katherine up on the big screen waving to the crowd all by herself!!  It was her big moment of fame and I couldn't get my camera out fast enough.  I was more than a little sad about this.  Oh well, at least I saw it in person.