Last Day of Baseball

Today was the last day of baseball.

Even though this season was controlled chaos Chris still improved.

(This is just a helmet on backwards. I wish I had a picture of the kid that had Chris in a headlock during the game or all the kids piled up on each other every time a ball was hit)

Anyhow, just look at this swing!

I was so excited that I actually got Chris hitting a great ball. The ball flew in the air to the outfield. It was the best hit he has had thus far in his baseball career. When I returned to see the picture I realized that unfortunately I snapped the picture too quick.

I went back to get another picture his next time at bat. First I have to set the scene for you. The other team only had 5 people show up. When Chris got to bat the coach did the usual "This is the kid that can hit everyone back up."

He left the pitcher on the pictures mound and moved all the other kids into the outfield. (This is because in a previous game Chris hit the ball and the ball hit some kid in the stomach.) So Chris winds up, swings and...

hits the tee. The ball went right in the air and landed dead between home plate and the pitchers mound. It was funny because all the kids were waiting in the outfield for the ball.

All in all it turned out to be a fun season.

Playing

Last weekend Ken took the boys Trick or Treating at the local park and then let them play on the playground. He forgot to take any pictures of the boys trick or treating. Too bad because this was the only time Ryan wore his costume. He decided to wear his Pooh costume from last year every other time.

Chris's Funny Sayings

Since Chris was a baby I would tell him to raise his hand and say teacher. As soon as he would do it I would tickle his arm pit. We got into different sayings like "point to the ceiling." We have a blast.

The other night I was laying in his bed about to start reading books. We had been tickling each other and were just starting to relax. I looked at the wall and pointed to nothing asking him what was on his wall. Since he couldn't see anything I told him to touch it. When he did I tickled his arm pit. He started laughing and in between his laughs said "It was a tickle trap."

I just about died laughing because no one in our house has ever called our games a tickle trap.

Then this weekend the boys went trick or treating at the Agriculture Museum. On the way home they were trading candy. Chris has about 5 dum dum lollipops in his hand and one lollipop that was in a clear wrapper. He looks at his brother and says "I will trade you this bank lollipop for one of your lollipops."

Ken and I just looked at each other, shook our heads and laughed. It is true the banks often offer that kind of lollipop to the kids. However, I can count on one hand how many times we have actually stepped into a bank since we have moved to Delaware.

My Mother-in-Law

My MIL is a comedian. I bet most of you didn't know that! She also is *gasp* a fan of the football team I dislike the most. Anyhow, this is her latest stunt (and she even posted it on the internet):

Feel free to leave her comments here about how much we all love Philly teams but be easy on her at the same time...it is her birthday tomorrow.

So with that picture and a big GO PHILLY...Happy Birthday Karen!

Care Bears from Hell

With Halloween coming up I keep thinking about one of the best Halloween stories I have. This is a re-post so some of you have read it before and most of you have heard the story but I still think it is worth sharing again.

Chris and Eddie went out trick or treating together in 2006. Here they are:

Well, let me tell you that they may look cute but they really were the Care Bears from Hell.

At one house someone left candy on the porch in a bowl for the kids to take and all the candy was gone. Chris was running all around their front yard with the bowl on his head. No one could do anything because everyone was laughing so hard. Of course it only encouraged him so for about 5 minutes we had a Care Bear running like a mad man with someones bowl on his head.

At another house Chris decided to take a break in one of their lawn chairs. His buddy went to the house to get candy. When his buddy came back Chris asked him to share the candy and when his buddy wouldn't Chris walked up to the door, banged on it and screamed "I want some candy!"

One house had a blow up Winnie the Pooh in their yard. The boys used it as a punching bag. Along the same lines, a bunch of houses had graves with body parts sticking out of the ground. Yeah, my son pulled the decorations out of the ground.

Let's not forget, every Jack-o-Lantern Chris saw he tried to blow out the candle. He didn't want to get to close to the flame so he never succeeded. But he still tried at every house.

The last quarter of the adventure Chris was not into getting candy anymore and just wanted to wrestle. So every few minutes you would see the Care Bears wrestling around or fighting on the ground. Inevitably my son wound up crying most of the time.

Now for the best activity of the night. Some poor people didn't know they were going to get a visit from the Care Bears From Hell and I feel a little bad for them. Anyone from Washington knows that we have lots and lots of very tall trees. That means raking in our lives is not a one time deal. Raking is a season in it's own. Anyhow, you get the point. So the people raked their ENTIRE yard into a giant pile and I am guessing that they ran out of room in their bin for the rest of the leaves. Well, the Care Bears got their candy and then proceeded to run and jump in the leaves. The leaves were successfully scattered everywhere!

The end. We came home and all I can do is laugh about the night. I have to say this had to be one of the best Halloweens ever.

Day #41

We made it! Ken arrived home around 7:45 tonight. The boys had their Halloween costumes on and scared him when he walked in the door. It was so cute. Chris jumped out from the corner screaming boo. Then he quickly took his mask off so his Dad would know that it was him and not a monster. Then Ryan ran out from the family room and said boo. He also took his hood off so his Dad would know it was him and not a monster. Ryan was very concerned about not scaring his Daddy.

Chris got to tell Daddy about his loose tooth and is excited to show Daddy how good he can hit the baseball tomorrow. Now lets just hope the ran holds out for the game.

Day #40

Ken returns home tomorrow. The boys are excited to see Ken and to see what presents he got for them.

The other big news of the day is that Chris has his first loose tooth. He didn't even know it. During dinner somehow we got into talking about it and I asked him to open his mouth. I could tell that he was getting ready to lose some teeth because his mouth is getting bigger and he has spaces in between his teeth. He asked me if any of his teeth were loose and I felt the bottom ones, since I know those fall out first, and sure enough it was loose. He was a good sport about it letting me wiggle his tooth and even letting Ryan stick his hand in to try and wiggle the tooth.

Well, the time has come and I have decided what pictures of Ryan to get. I decided on the one with the gray background. I really like his smile. Also I decided not to get an 8x10. I decided to go with the sheet that has the two 5x7's. I thought I could get a double picture frame and put both the boys school pictures in it.

Thank you to the people who clicked which picture they liked better. The gray background won out by 1 vote and it was also the picture that I decided I liked better too.

Day #38

Today was an emotional day. We found out that Chris's buddy and a friend of mine moved away without being able to say bye. When I told Chris he broke down. With all our moves and many of his friends moving away I didn't expect him to take it so hard. However, this was the first time he wasn't able to prepare and to say bye.

He did have an idea that his friend moved. His friend mentioned something to him beforehand and Chris asked someone in his friend's class what happened. I guess it really hit home though when I confirmed what had happened.

I feel so bad for Chris. However, his friend and family are in a much better place then they were here. We wish them nothing but the best and look forward to being Pen Pals.

Day #36

I knew today was going to be a hard day. Last night I got off the computer just before 10:00 and Chris was laying on the couch wide awake. I knew that also meant an early morning especially since today was Chris's day to play video games.

I have to say though I was impressed with Chris this morning. He couldn't beat a part of his video game and instead of getting frustrated he turned the game off and waited a little while before trying again. When he went back he still could not beat the same part so he turned it off again to try later. Awesome job by him because I usually hear a scream of frustration and then see him get upset.

Well, I had to go grocery shopping since we ran out of milk. I just realized today that I almost always do my grocery shopping the day we run out of milk! Isn't that funny? Two gallons usually last the three of us about one week. It works out fine.

After running an errand before grocery shopping the kids started asking about lunch. We headed to the mall to have Subway for lunch and pick up some shirts for Ryan. During the mall trip the kids were kids. Ryan ran off with Chris chasing him (read: encouraging him to run throughout the department store). After a few more incidents I took the TV away from Ryan and the video games away from Chris for the rest of the day. I knew it was going to be horrible while cooking dinner!

On our way home I didn't feel like going shopping at the Commissary so I figured I would hit Acme and just get the essentials until Tuesday. (The Commissary is closed on Mondays.) Of course, I forgot the milk!

Anyhow we got home and instead of the kids going crazy, like normal, Chris asks to put the Halloween decorations up. I get them for him and let him go to town. He put a ghost decoration in the food pantry and told me that the ghosts like to hide so they can't be in places that people can see.

What surprised me most about the night is that after Chris put up the decorations instead of going crazy he sat at the table and made his own Halloween ghosts. Ryan, of course followed suit. It made for a wonderful and peaceful night (that was of course after the boys were rolling on the ground fighting over a Mario figurine and Chris bloodied Ryan's nose.) But hey, if that is all that happened and the kids were calm it was a great night in my house!

Day #35

Last night I went upstairs to check on the boys. I previously heard a lot of noises and doors closing. Earlier this week I found Ryan sleeping in our guest bedroom so I figured it was him deciding where to sleep since I left him on the floor of my room in a sleeping bag. So went I went up stairs this is what I found in MY bed!

The lens on my camera didn't open all the way and I thought it was a cool picture. Notice that Chris is sleeping with a kickball under his arm. He won it last night at the Family Fun Night we went to. I had to take another picture though because the way Ryan was sleeping was pretty funny.

This morning Ryan slept until 8:15 and I had to wake Chris up around 8:45 because he had a concert this morning for Caesar Rodney Pride Day. It was a little annoying because I didn't know anything about this concert until I got a phone call on Thursday from school! Can you believe that? Then I asked Chris if he knew the words to the songs they were singing and he didn't. He told me that it wasn't like The Little School where they went over the songs and made sure everyone knew them, they only sang the songs a couple times. He even told me that they never sang "America the Beautiful." That was one of the songs they were supposed to sing too!

Anyhow, the kids basically stood on stage and didn't know the words to the songs. It was a bit upsetting. All the parents said "what do you expect from 5 and 6 year olds?" However, I have been to two chorus concerts and I saw kids much younger sounding much better.

Well, Chris was nervous the entire time up there...which is strange. He usually loves this stuff. He played with the buttons on his shirt the entire time and only sang the parts he knew of The Alma Mater.

 

By the way...Chris is the one in the white shirt right under his name.

Day #34

Ryan got his school pictures back today. I am torn on which one I should buy. See, since we are not made of money I am only buying one 8x10. They want $12.50 for each sheet of pictures! There were three different poses but the third pose he is not even looking at the camera so that one is not in the running. So I am asking for help to determine which one to get. I put a poll on the side of my blog. Click the one that you like better.

Here are the pictures. Picture #1 (the line down the side is from my scanner)

Picture #2

So click on the poll on the side. Don't be afraid. I know about 5 people check my blog regularly...so I will be looking for 5 votes!

On a different note Chris comes home everyday with a book to read from school. Sometimes it is the same book as the day before and sometimes it is different. This week he has brought home a different book each day. I wanted to see how much Chris could actually read and how much he was just memorizing the books so I wrote down a few sentences and he read them all correctly without a problem.
1. I see my cat.
2. I like my cat.
3. I see the cat.
4. I see a cat.
5. We can see a cat.
6. I like my mom.

I have to say that I was impressed.

Day #33

Today was cold and rainy all day. I don't think it stopped raining at all! Last thing I wanted was to be sitting in the house all day.

So Ryan and I had an eventful day. I picked him up from school and took him to get his hair cut. He was so excited because they always give him lollipops. There were about 4 people waiting in front of us and by the time the women was ready for Ryan he had decided he no longer wanted to get his hair cut. Crazy kid. So I did what every mother would do...picked him up and plopped him right in the seat. He was mad at me for a brief second but forgave me quickly and let the women cut his hair, especially since she promised him a lollipop.

After the hair cut we decided to go bowling. Ryan and I were defiantly not on top of our game today. I didn't break 100 and Ryan was about 20 points behind me. Most frames Ryan only knocked 1 or 2 pins down. That shows how low our scores were!

So after having some fun at the bowling alley I took Ryan over to get his flu shot. He was such a brave little boy and didn't even cry. Chris was the same way with shots until he got his school age shots. Every since then he freaks out thinking about getting shots.

We came home, picked up Chris and then had fun watching ourselves on the internet. Here you go...click here

Day #32

Wish there was much to report...however laundry and recovering from camping is not interesting.

Chris did have baseball today. The coaches wife asked me while the kids were in the field if Chris ever stopped moving....I looked her straight in the eyes and told her "no."

However I thought about the question a little bit when I came home. Chris is the model student when he is in school. In the two years and a few months that he has a red light program he has never come home with anything other then a green day. He prides himself on this and strives for a green day every day.

That leaves me with all the energy he has kept inside to deal with his energy after school....fine. I have realized this and dealt with his pent up energy.

Thinking about the question more I realized that when Chris has his braces on he is less active. The minute his braces are off he his bouncing off the walls. So he has the best of both worlds at baseball....he is being active while having his braces off. It really makes me think about leaving his braces on most of the day as we have been. I really don't want him to loose any of his activity level even if there are more hectic days then good days at home. I want him active.

What to do, what to do....I know the correct decision will eventually come.

Day #30

We packed up and left the campsite this morning. We had one last picture taken before we left.

I was amazed because not once while camping did I feel the least bit tired. Not even a little yawn during the day. However, about 45 minutes into the car ride home when I started warming up a bit I felt exhausted. I wound up falling asleep at my parents house for about 2 hours. I figured that I was going to be awake all night because I didn't get up from the nap until 5:00. I was wrong...I was still exhausted when I got home and had no problem falling right asleep.

Camping really wore me out, but I enjoyed every minute of it and can't wait to go again.

Day #29

We started this day wanting to visit the prison where the Molly Maguire hangings took place.

The prison is the last building on the right. What you don't see in this picture is the crowd. There was a festival going on and we had to park about a mile and a half away.

The jail is most famous because Alexander Campbell was found guilty of accessory to murder. He proclaimed his innocence. The day of his hanging he put his hand in the mud and said that his hand print will forever stay on the wall to let everyone know of his innocence. They have painted the wall and re plastered the wall but the hand print continues to return....according to the legend.

After the prison we did a little shopping in the town of Jim Thorpe and then got a bite to eat. Upon our walk back to our car we found this incredible slide. It was so much fun!

 

It was a prefect end to our day.

Day #28

We decided to go to Number 9 coal mine.After a very senic tour of Jim Thorpe (thanks to turning the wrong way when leaving our campsite and the GPS taking us all over) we arrived at the mine. We didn't really know what to expect but thought it sounded pretty cool. Here are the boys waiting to get on the train

to take us into the actual mine.

Since the boys didn't get much sleep the night before I didn't hear much of what the tour guide was saying. Chris was quietly crying 75% of the time asking to leave and Ryan was begging for me to carry him every time I put him down for a second. Once we got out of the mine though Chris felt better. The tour guide let each of the boys take home a piece of coal.

We then headed back to the campsite and after a few minutes of relaxing

we headed to the park.

That ended our night. We put the boys to bed around 7 and they did not complain and basically went right to bed. They slept about 12 hours too!

Day #27

We arrived at our camping grounds. It was actually pretty cool. Anita and I wanted to arrive at the same time but we were both running late. So I just left when I was ready. As it turns out we arrived about 3 minutes apart from each other.

We got our cabin and headed to unload all our stuff.

Unlocking the door to the cabin for the first time.

A view of our cabin from the front door.

We unloaded the cars, started a campfire,

cooked dinner and just let the boys play until bedtime that night.

Gone Camping!

Day #25

Bye Bye fleas. I am looking forward to you leaving my house and not returning. As Ken would say "Don't let the door hit you where the good lord spit you." Maybe in this case I should change the saying to "Make sure the door hits you where the good lord spit you because you are no longer welcome in my house."

Never ever again do I want to spend so many hours cleaning for guests that were not invited.

Stress for this camping trip is starting to set in. I have tons of laundry to do since yesterday I only washed all our bedding (again) and all the towels. Can you believe that took 6 hours?

Time is not on my side today. We have to be out of the house for 3 hours today, then I have to vacuum the entire house. Chris has a baseball game which means a late dinner and bedtime.

Good thing Top Chef is on tonight because that means I will stay up late doing laundry and have something to at least watch on TV.

Day #23

Screw my plans from yesterday.

1. Called Frontline...I can give the dog the medicine. I am going to give him the last Capstar in a few minutes and then let him start the healing process.

2. Called my exterminator and they are coming out to take care of my fleas!!!! It is covered in my contract! I am also going to have them make sure all the traps are full of poison and placed in ideal spots for the mice!

YEAH...I am feeling so much better about this situation right now. I am not going to have to think about fleas again!

Now, I just have to figure out what Ryan and I are going to do today since he is already sitting in front of the TV watching his movie.

Day #22

My new plan of attack for tomorrow.

1. Call Frontline and see if I can give the dog treatment early.
2. Call the vet and get another one of those pills so I can give one to the dog tomorrow and then another one before we get to my parents house on Thursday (just in case.)
3. Rent a steam cleaner.
4. Steam clean the entire house while the dog is flea free.
5. Drink a beer when it is all done and enjoy a flea free house that I don't have to vacuum before I go to bed.
6. Prepare myself to wake up the next three days knowing I have to vacuum the entire house each day and also prepare for camping.

Come Friday I am going to take a vacation from thinking about fleas until Monday. I am also going to believe that all this is going to work and I won't have to think about fleas ever again in my house.

Only if this were the end of my problems....I am just waiting for the mice to enter. We have a ton of new houses being built in the area so hopefully those houses are easier to enter then ours.

Day #21

Are we already half way to seeing Ken again? I hope the next three weeks go by even quicker then the first three. However, being through numerous deployments before (this isn't even considered a deployment) I know the last half is the hardest.

Today was boring, boring, boring. Chris had a baseball game this morning. That is all we did today.

Since we have a flea problem any other activity was out of the question. The house needed cleaning.

At this point all my efforts seem completely useless. The dog has fleas and I can't do anything about it for 5 days. It sucks.

I vacuumed the downstairs twice today. I feel like a crazy women. Every time I see the dog anywhere on the rug I take the vacuum over to clean up after him. Every time I see him shake I am moving my way to that area with the vacuum. I just don't want the fleas to take over my house.

Day #20

These animals have fleas!

 

So not happy about this. I bought some stuff for the carpet but I am going to try and sprinkle salt first and see if that helps at all..

I am mad at myself for buying the cheap flea medication for the dog two weeks ago. I have to now wait another week before I can put some Frontline Plus on him. At least the cat has Frontline Plus.

Day #19

Ryan is so funny.

During dinner today I was practicing the letter flashcards with the boys. Chris has to do this every night for school. It seems a bit ridiculous to me but we do it anyhow. I have been including Ryan in this so maybe he will start to learn his letters too. Both times the letter S came up Ryan would say "I like to ssssing with ssssnakes." (We have a Leap Frog book that has little sayings for all the letters that Ryan likes to read.)

We continued with the cards and suddenly Ryan looks at Chris and says "Jesus loves you." Then he looks at me and says "Jesus loves you too. Jesus loves Chaser too. And Jesus loves me too."

All you can do is shake your head and laugh. I wonder what reminds the kid of these things at the most random times.