D-Backs Game and a Funny Homeless Man

A friend and I braved a Diamondbacks game with 7 boys yesterday and we lived to blog about it! The boys had a great time getting autographs before the game and hoping for a foul ball to come their way during the game. They even managed to talk one of the stadium camera guys into putting them up on the screen between innings. The picture is blurry but RJ is the one holding the giant red finger in the front of the picture.

The idea behind taking the boys to the game was to get them out of the house away from the video games that seem to take over summers in our hot climate...that mission failed and we had to drag them away from this to see start of the game!

They are a really great group of boys that has a lot of fun together.

And now to the funny homeless man story. As we were leaving the stadium there was a homeless man sitting with a cardboard sign that read: Ninjas killed my family - I need money for Kung Fu lessons to avenge their deaths. LOL - who knew homeless people could be so funny.

Happy 11th Birthday G-Man!

Happy Birthday to our G-Man. Your dad and I are so proud of the nice young man that you are. You have an amazingly big heart and kind soul. You are seriously competitive (don't know where you got that!) and strive to be the best at all that you do. I love your raspy voice and the fact that you will still hug your mother and even hold my hand in public! May all your dreams come true throughout your life. Today, just for you, some inspirational sports quotes:

Vince Lombardi - It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up.

Tommy Lasorda - The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination.

Dick Vermeil - If you don't invest very much, then defeat doesn't hurt very much and winning is not very exciting.

Walter Payton - I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field.

Dream big and work hard G-Man and you can do anything. We love you!

Motor Vehicle Department/Opthalmologist???

When I took D a couple of weeks ago to get his driving permit, he failed the eye exam!!! The examiner kept asking him to read the line over and over so I knew that couldn't be a good sign. The boy had been having trouble seeing from the back of a classroom for at least a couple of months and didn't feel it was important to share this information with either of his parents. The nice lady at the MVD let him take the written exam as long as I promised to get him some glasses before he really started driving too much. An eye exam and a bit of cash later - here is the final result...

Oh yeah - consider your self officially warned - he is on the road now!

Monkeyball Live

RJ has discovered our exercise ball - good thing someone is using it! He and G Man run up and down the house endlessly playing some form of the video game Monkeyball. Their feet pounding on the wood floors and the shrieking is enough to make a mom crazy but it is so sweet to hear them playing so nicely together that I have to overlook the noise (usually). RJ is sometimes forced to play this game alone when his big bro is at school or on a sleepover. This past weekend G Man slept over at a friend's house and RJ came to dad and told him that, "We have a problem, we need to go get G Man cuz I miss him and he's my friend." How sweet is that?


Here are some pics of RJ playing single player Monkey Ball!

G is for Awesome!

Last night we attended the Golden Scholars awards ceremony with D. Our school district rewards kids who have a 3.8 GPA or higher through this point in the year with some recognition at this ceremony. D's school had 625 out of the 3000 students at his school qualify for this honor - that seems pretty good to me. D has a 4.3 GPA due to some weighted AP classes this year. He will need to continue with this GPA to be able to get into his 1st choice for college - MIT. He is a pretty brainy kid and this is why we lovingly refer to him as "our retirement plan"! In Jr. High and Grade School the kids got medals at this ceremony but in High School they give you a letter! There was lots of excitement about this and we had to laugh because they include in the bag with the letter an ad to have it framed for the low price of $39.95! It was a really nice evening topped off with our traditional post award ceremony stop for ice cream on the way home.

D - you continue to impress us with your work ethic when it comes to your enormous load of homework! Your father and I know that you did not get this from us :). We are so proud of the young man you have become and are excited to see what the future brings for you. We know that you will be able to do anything you set your very imaginative mind to. May the coming years bring you MIT and a Mythbuster's career - dare to dream! Love you bud!

More RJ Wisdom

Can you guess what he is doing with the most awesome fries on the planet?

RJ is an official french fry inspector! We noticed the other day that he was rolling each fry through his fingers before deciding to eat it. So I asked him what he was doing and he told me that he only likes the "squishy" fries. I favor the squishy fries too but refrain from using RJ's method to find them. Note to all who might one day share a large basket of community fries with RJ - DON'T!

Another bit of RJ wisdom from this morning while fixing his hair. I always have him cover his eyes before the hairspray so today he asked why. I told him the the spray might hurt his eyes if it gets in them. Then he said, "Oh yeah, that would give me spicy eyes". RJ is an expert on anything spicy - toothpaste, salsa, any food he doesn't want and now apparently eyes!

Easter

Our Easter Sunday started at the crack of dawn with a very excited RJ bursting into our room to tell us that the Easter Bunny had brought him a shirt! After the obligatory pictures with the Easter baskets for mom, the egg hunting started. D and G Man were running around the back yard passing up all of the "real" eggs and looking desperately for the plastic eggs that the Easter Bunny usually puts some spendable green in! Once I figured out what they were up to I put a 4 egg per person limit on the plastic eggs. That rule was met with groans from the older set - I'm so mean. RJ's egg hunt consisted of him trying to find all of the eggs that he had personally colored the night before. If he found an egg that didn't look familiar he would just put it back into place and walk away! We were trying to convince him that it didn't matter who colored the eggs because we were sharing but he wasn't having any of that. It was killing his brothers that he wasn't picking up the remaining plastic eggs. Here is a picture of the older two RUNNING for the plastic eggs.

By the way - the cash in the eggs totaled $8 for each kid so they were not searching for $50's or $100's! But you would have thought they were by the way they were moving.

Here are a couple of pics from the egg coloring party on Saturday night. D and G Man were trying to be very artistic and RJ was death to most eggs that he touched. One of the eggs he dropped on the floor and the other he just plain squished as he was trying to reposition himself at the table - with the egg under his hand. In the picture he is pretending that he is crying - what a ham.

After church we had a BBQ with friends and family. We watched golf, talked, laughed and the kids hid and re-hid Easter eggs for each other all afternoon. What a privilege to be able to celebrate that Jesus is alive by going to church and then spending the day with our loved ones. God bless America!

Consider Yourself Warned

If you see this kid driving around town you might wanna give him some space for now! D and I did his first driving lesson yesterday. The little kids were still in school and the high school had gotten out early after AIMS testing. I figured there was no time like the present. So we went for a short spin around the neighborhood.

We were in hysterics before he even fully backed out of the driveway! I wish I had the fore site to bring a video camera because it was priceless. There was lots of jerking going on - so much that I had to slurp down more of my half full glass of water or one of us was gonna get a bath! By the way this was not a even stick shift and I don't even want to imagine what that would have been like. We laughed our way through the neighborhood with D even confessing at one point that his dad and I make it look really easy! I was thinking about it this morning and decided that I am grateful to have that fun memory with D - there is only one first time driving and I got to be there. It occurred to me that as your children grow into teenagers they make less memories with you and more with their friends so I am going to cherish this one. We haven't laughed like that together for a while. Thanks D!

By the way - G - you will be taking over the driving lessons from here as I remember the N-O doctor telling us the other day that I should avoid any activities that cause a jarring motion of my neck or head! :)

Today's Giggle and More

First - today's giggle. I felt the need for a little pampering (and some callous removal) so I went for a mani/pedi this morning. I was listening to all of the chatter around me that I did not understand when I looked up from my manicure to see the manicurist's state license hanging close to me and then I saw it - her name was... En My Quach! I almost started laughing out loud. I started thinking that this lady was really lucky that she (probably) did not grow up in our country and go to grade school here! I am fairly certain that the pronunciation does not even come close to what went through my brain when I glanced at her name but it still made me smile.

On another note I have been meaning to post some cute pictures of D and me at the Rock and Worship Roadshow concert that we went to last Friday night. I was essentially his ride since the girls from his youth group didn't have room in their car for him but all of the kids were great to me and even tried to include me in their card games. The show was general admission - only $10 - so we stood in line for a few hours so we could get good seats. To pass the time the kids played card games I had never heard of and raced each other at sudoku puzzles. We had a great time and the music was incredible. I loved Addison Road and D's favorite was Hawk Nelson but 10th Avenue North, Jeremy Camp and Mercy Me weren't too shabby either!

Here we are!


Passing time playing cards.


Sudoku races!


More fun and the line.

Butterflies and Chihuly

The boys and I went to the Desert Botanical Garden on the first official day of their Spring Break. I addition to the butterfly exhibit that we were planning on seeing there was an exhibit of Dale Chihuly glass. It was really amazing and to my surprise, the boys enjoyed the glass exhibit as much as the butterflies!

Field Trip!

The next time I mention to you that I am going to chaperon a field trip please give me the V-8 bop on the noggin!

It was mostly fun if you don't count the school bus ride with loud children and a strict bus driver that felt the need to pull over every time it got noisy on the bus. Ummm - you really need another line of work if you can't handle the sound of an excited bus full of 5th graders on a field trip. It was still mostly fun unless you count the large amount of kids that have not been raised to respect adults (or even teachers) so they talk back to pretty much every adult that asks them to do anything. It was still mostly fun unless you count having to listen to the 5th graders in the back of the bus have a suggestive conversation with each other in front of you until you tell them that they need a new subject to discuss! It WAS downright funny when a 5th grade girl ended up educating all of the others about when a girl "gets her period and blood comes out" during our discussion about how much blood your heart pumps. She then went on to inform all of us that she had "gotten her period"! WOW - I decided that 5th grade ain't like it used to be in the 70's when we were all reading "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret?"

I really did have fun with G Man. It is always nice to see how the kids are interacting with the teachers and other students. G Man is a nice young man with pretty good manners when he remembers. I am still waiting for him to ask me what a period is but I am hoping he wasn't paying attention for that moment of TMI. We were highly entertained by our 78 year old tour guide especially when she led all of us in our 6 minutes of exercise. No one was more shocked than her when the little girl started talking about periods!


G Man and Me!


G Man's teacher - Miss P rolling down the big hill with the kids!

Opening Day of Baseball

What an exciting day it was! It started around 7:30 with pictures and opening ceremonies for G Man and ended when RJ's game was over around 1:00. A great time was had by all. Grandma and Grandpa W came from Flagstaff and Mr. J a close family friend was there for all of the festivities as well.

G Man's game was exciting immediately as he was the lead off batter and on the second pitch he hit a home run. We are trying to keep his ego in check by telling him that it should have really been a double - but it did go to the fence he will let you know. G Man pitched well and without pain which was a relief since he hasn't pitched for about a year because of a couple of broken bones last year. After the game the coach awarded the game ball to G Man for setting the tone of the game with his lead off home run. The Mets (us) won 11-2.

RJ's game was fun! Fun is a nice word to use in connection to baseball anymore. When they get to G Man's level it is more intense than fun - so fun was very nice. You gotta love T-ball with rules like - no outs, everyone bats and everyone plays. RJ was the last batter in the first inning so that meant he was the home run hitter. He was excited to have a home run just like G Man. It was T-ball so everyone won the game! The kids were most excited to get snacks and RJ is already talking about his trophy.

As a fun side note to RJ's T-ball team - turns out a childhood friend of mine from Flag lives in the neighborhood next to mine and her daughter is on our T-ball team! We went to school together from Kindergarten all the way to graduation and haven't seen each other since. It really is a small world sometimes.

Here is a slide show from opening day. Love this service (Slide) since sometimes you want to post more than one picture from an event but you don't want your blog post to be a mile long!

T-Ball Dress Rehersal

RJ is starting his first season of T-Ball. They passed out uniforms at the last practice so of course we had to try it on. On the way home from practice RJ explained to us that he wanted to be #3 but someone "stole" it. When we asked him why he wanted to be that number he told us that Babe Ruth is #3 and he wants to "be like that guy". Never underestimate the power of animated movies like Everybody's Hero where your child can learn about Babe Ruth. At least they only show the G rated parts of The Babe's life! RJ never ceases to amaze us with his retention ability. Not much gets past him mentally - the baseball field is another story. So far every ball that rolls his direction goes right between his legs! We are grateful that he doesn't cry every play that he doesn't get to touch the ball like D used to when he was 5. When D played T-Ball we actually pretended not to know who's kid he was because he would throw himself down and cry after every play when he didn't get the ball. Sorry to rat you out D but that is the purpose of blogging - memories!

Tea At The White House

This year on Feburary 20th, G and I were invited to Tea at the White House! We were treated to a performance by the 5th graders at G Man's school. They were dressed like past Presidents and First Ladies. We all said the Pledge of Allegiance and the kids sang patriotic songs paying tribute to God, The United States and the all of the Military branches. It was refreshing to hear the kids singing about God and our country and the ACLU didn't even show up! Our G Man was quite a cute Thomas Jefferson.

Just Like Riding A Bike!

Where to start after all this time! We are feeling a bit more back to "normal" since our worst ever December. G Man is playing basketball on a team with some buddies and having a great time. They had their closest game since the beginning of the season last Saturday with a final score of 52-24! Their team name is the Crushers and so far that is proving to be true. These boys are not afraid to shoot the ball. Here is a couple of pics from their first game. G Man is #33 and in the first picture he is the one taking the ball in.

The biggest news in our house since the first of the year is that RJ has learned to ride his bike on two tires as he would put it. He just decided one day that he wanted to have the training wheels off and he pretty much has been on two wheels since then. Here is a little video of his first ride!

The biggest news for D is in the second semester he has continued on with his straight A's (even in the weighted classes) so he still has his 4.60 GPA! Great job bud!!! Sorry no pics of D at high school working hard - he has strictly forbidden me from causing any embarrassing moments for him at school.

A New Christmas Song

RJ has come up with his very own Christmas song (sung to We Wish You a Merry Christmas). Really, I think he doesn't know the words so here is his version of happy happy happy happy...

He sings this song with all his might several times a day. On this particular morning, RJ didn't know I was video taping him (or he would have turned into a giant ham!). Notice he is laying on the floor under his ever present dollar store umbrella :-)

A Visit With You Know Who!

Last week we went to see Santa. RJ was a little shy at first but warmed right up when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas. RJ wants a SpongeBob fishing pole - sweet - $11.89 at Target! Next G Man - he wants a XBox 360 - HA good luck with that one! I think I would rather eat during the month of December than fill that wish. Next D - he wants - ummmmmm....this boy has always clammed up and blanked out for Santa. Even though he is 15, he was unable to come up with a single item to help the old guy out! I told him we would mail a letter and let him know. We only have one believer left in our house so I am trying to treasure these visits to Santa while they last. Do you think I could get the boys to come home from college and sit on Santa's lap???

Bad Dreams and the Dollar Store

In the past few months, RJ has been having a lot of bad dreams. These bad dreams end up being the family's worst nightmares, as RJ ends up in either D's or our bed for the rest of the night and he is the only one that gets any sleep. As a parent, I have always said that I am not above bribery - it seemed to work for potty training, trying new foods and other childhood obstacles so why not for sleeping in your own bed?! So last night I offered RJ a trip to one of his favorite places if he slept in his own bed all night. This morning he came bounding out of his room and triumphantly announced that I owed him a trip to the Dollar store today! That was the promised reward - the Dollar store. After seeing the other brothers off to school we made our way to the dollar store, where, after much deliberation over all of the available treasures, we ended up with this...

Exactly what every child living in a warm, sunny place needs! It was about 74 degrees today - December 2nd!!! In his defense, it did rain last week and the little umbrella does have his favorite color (green) on it so I am sure it seemed like a great purchase to him. At least he can always use it to shade himself from the 110 degree sun in the summer!

Thanksgiving Wisdom from RJ

After taking a look at the raw Thanksgiving turkey, RJ asked, "After you cook it, does it turn into a Chicken?"...hmmm

All meats in our house turn into chicken once they are placed onto RJ's plate - he is convinced that chicken is the only meat he likes. The entire family can be eating steak for dinner and his looks just like ours but we call it chicken. Whatever works!

Treasure Island

D auditioned for some one act plays at school and was chosen to be in Treasure Island. He was Ben Gunn - the crazy island hermit. The video is not the best, but not too shabby for a digital camera that fits in my purse! Take a look at our crazy island hermit...

After two nights of pirate plays, RJ was transformed into a wee little pirate we eventually became annoyed with. He must have sung "yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" about 500 times that night! The first version being - T, you will love this - "yo ho ho and a bottom of bung"! We have tried to work with him to help him learn the correct words and here is the latest version...