Lost

No, not the TV show. Me. I'm lost. Another weekend with no soccer & no plans. I need a plan, direction. As of now, my only plan for the weekend is this for dinner tonight.

I need to come up with a plan or I will sit here in my jams all day playing Zuma.

Not much...

Not much to report here. We somehow managed to get through a holiday weekend without soccer... well, not MUCH soccer anyway, we did end up having a team lunch/meeting with Jordan's team after the girls had a light practice on Saturday. The fam went to see Star Trek (we all enjoyed it, though none of us has seen more than a hand full of ST episodes) on Sunday, then we had my parents over to celebrate dad's bday. On Monday, my friend Kristen & her husband hosted a Guacamole Throwdown. I actually had never had guacamole before. Very yummy indeed!

The big excitement around here is that after washing all the damn gray out of my hair this morning, I plucked a gray hair out of my !@#$! eyebrows. How long has that been there?! Aargh!

I'm bringing Mom to IKEA this morning. YEAH! I love me some IKEA!

Oh! and I FINALLY heard back from that teacher about the 5th grade banquet stuff. Another parent volunteered to print of the invitations & memory books in color. So I'm off the hook. I wonder if she ended up using my designs or made some herself. I'll let you know... and I will TRY so hard not to be offended if she didn't use mine.

Catch!

I've been so neglectful of this blog lately. I was on a roll at the beginning of the month, then life caught up with me again. My thoughts & activities are scattered far & wide, so I think I'll utilize the bullet point...

• The new IKEA store opened here on May 6. I was going to try to stay away for a month or so, til the crowds died down a little bit, but I needed a bookshelf. So Megan & I spent two hours in HEAVEN last week! I have never been to an IKEA before & I have to say that I'm in love. I don't normally like the modern European style, but I really did love so much of it. Michael has always loved that style & I'm thinking that if I can get one of their wardrobes in our bedroom, I may even redo the whole room to match. Not that I would really have to "redo" anything, as our bedroom is full of mismatched hand-me-downs & clutter that doesn't fit anywhere else in our house, but still...

• School is winding down here. The kids get out on June 4. June 3 is the big 5th grade banquet. It is IMPOSSIBLE that Ben, my baby, will be in middle school next year!

• Speaking of the banquet... I've designed the invitations & memory book cover to match the (surprise) theme of the event. I'm really happy with the way they turned out. I sent them to the teacher who is organizing the event (thankfully she's not Ben's teacher) on March 24 & have been going back & forth with her since. Actually, I've been emailing her often & receiving input back rarely. She requested some (bogus) changes & I'm waiting for her final approval before I print them. I'm getting antsy. I want it done! I'm irked that the changes she wanted make them not nearly as cute as they were. I'll show you what I'm talking about when it's over...

• Ben has been taking speech therapy at the elementary school since he was 3. That's 8 years of speech! As of Wednesday, he is dismissed from the program. WOOHOO!!! When he first started, the school went through 3 speech therapists over the course of about 2 months. Ben's speech impediment at the time was pretty severe & we were really discouraged at the turn over. Then, in November 2001, along came Ms. Kelli. Oh Ms. Kelli! Pretty, young, perky Ms. Kelli. I think Ben purposely didn't graduated from speech so he could visit with Ms. Kelli 2-3 times a week. I have a feeling the speech therapist at the middle school wouldn't be quite so appealing, Ben probably had that feeling too. Michael was disappointed that he was was out of town Wednesday & couldn't go to the dismissal meeting. Ms. Kelli may be the thing both of my guys miss most about elementary school. I can't believe I don't have a picture of her... I'll make sure to remedy that at the banquet.

• Last weekend, we had Michael's brother & the grandparents over for a cookout to celebrate what we're now calling "Grandmother's Day" (the Sunday after Mother's Day). I had hoped to get some pictures of the kids with all of their grandparents, but unfortunately I forgot all about that after the first pitcher of margaritas. Bummer! I guess I'll shoot to get that done on "Grandfather's Day". Lack of picture taking aside, we had a great time & ate some yummy food (oh yeah! and enjoyed the margaritas...)

• We've been in a draught here in west-central Florida (actually, I think most, if not all of Florida) for about 3 years now. The past few months have been especially bad. The water restictions have been tight, the lawns have been parched and the ponds in our neighborhood have been drying up. It's been sad. Monday morning, the sky opened up & it's been raining pretty much for a week straight. The weather forcast is for more of the same all weekend. The lawns are happy. The ducks are happy.

• Jordan is sad. Her soccer practice has been canceled twice this week.

• The tournament her team is supposed to be playing in this weekend has also been canceled. Tragic.
  

Actually, it does put us in a kind of funny position. What does a family do on 3 day weekends when there isn't a soccer tournament? Hmmm....

Whatever you do, I hope you have a fun & safe Memorial Day Weekend!

Today's theDay!

Happy Birthday Daddio!

Let's talk about Mother's Day...

I feel remiss that I am just now getting around to posting this. My kids are awesome & I really intended to post this Sunday night... but then the wine kicked in & I fell asleep. Then the last two days have been crazy busy...



Late last week, I pointed this recipe out to the kids & told them that I wanted them to make that for Mother's Day. I didn't think they would really do it, but...THEY DID!!!



Here's the HOMEMADE crust they made...




I didn't really take too much time reading the recipe when I suggested it, but it called for the crust to be mixed in a food processor. (Ooops! I've been meaning to buy one of those.) But they figured it out on their own. The crust was all done by the time I made my way out to the kitchen.

Here are my kids cooking in my kitchen. Look at them!!! (not the messy, cluttered kitchen) Aren't they beautiful?! (look away from the kitchen!) Honestly, neither Michael nor I helped at all. (Actually, Ben didn't help much either, but he did crack a few eggs as a photo op).

But looky-looky! The quiche was BEAUTIFUL...

And delicious!

The kids also made dinner, but I forgot to take pictures of that. Oh wait! Maybe I was napping when that was going on. Or playing a game on the internet. Whatev! I wasn't cooking, or cleaning. Nor was I emptying the litter box.... Michael had already done that. ALLELUIA!

Oh and my son started the day looking like this.

and thanks to Jordan taking him to the hairdresser, he ended the day looking like this...

I think he looks good either way, but his sisters were pretty insistent that he get a haircut. :)

Next Sunday we are hosting a cookout here to honor our moms. They don't need to share Mother's Day with everyone else's mothers. We are giving them their own day (that they have to share with each other). I'm really looking forward to it... but unfortunately, this house isn't going to declutter itself before then...

Hope you all had a great day & are having an even greater week.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all moms everywhere...especially ours!

Soccer Peeps

From Megan's U11 soccer season through to her U15 year, both Megan & Jordan played for the 2 sisters, Vickie & Kasey & their friend, Andy. Any given year, one of them was head coach of one of the girls & the others were assistants. These coaches were young (just out of college) & enthusiastic & turned out to be great role-models for ALL of my kids and great friends to our whole family. Along with Megan's teammate, Kayte & her mom, Sue, we were somewhat of a "soccer posse". We hung out at the hotel pool during tournaments, had 4am pajama parties (with nachos!) to watch the World Cup in China, celebrated each others milestone birthdays, cheered on the Buc's Superbowl win and most importantly, once a week, after practice a whole group of us would grab a bite out together. Great memories! Here's "the gang" out in 2003, celebrating , Kayte's 14th birthday, notice how young Ben is. (Don't bother to look for me, as usual, I was the one taking the picture)

After Megan's U15 year, both Vickie & Kasey moved away and started lives of their own. Vickie is in Colorado now, coaching a new group of little girls & enjoying the mountains, snow & her boyfriend, Billy. Kasey married her British soulmate, Paul & they landed in Virginia.

Jordan continued to be coached by Andy (with Michael taking over assistant coaching duties) for 2 more years. Those were the beginnings of the true soccer obsession in our house. During that time, Andy fell in love with THE BEST GIRL, Tammy & she became part of "the gang" too.

Last Wednesday, we had dinner with "the gang" that is still around. (Again, I'm not in the picture) What's changed? Michael lives at home again (he was in W. Palm most of those early soccer days), Ben can stay awake throughout the whole meal now (he used to ALWAYS fall asleep), Jordan is (still) soccer-obsessed, Kayte & Megan are college girls, Andy & Tammy are homeowners, and of course, we all miss Vickie & Kasey. What's stayed the same? I love these people!

Weekend Update

I had a wonderful birthday. We headed to the east coast & I soaked in some sun while I watched Jordan's ODP tryouts. I got to watch & catch up on the latest soccer gossip with some moms I only see a few times a year (Let me tell you, soccer moms can TALK!) while Michael, Megan & Ben ran some errands. They picked us up after the morning session & we headed over to a nice little riverfront park for a nice picnic lunch. Then Jordan & I headed back to the fields while the others went to see the Wolverine movie.

We had dinner at Pizzeria Uno, not too fancy, but yummy! We don't have one near us, so whenever we head out that way, we make it a point of stopping in. After dinner, we headed to the hotel to relax by the pool. Except there wasn't a pool. Never thought to check that out while making reservations, I just ASSUMED that all chain hotels in a beach community would have a pool. I guess I should know what happens when you assume anything. But, they did have a nice little gazebo with a wooden swing, so we hung out there for a bit before I headed back to the room, checked my email & crashed.

The tryout session this morning started bright & early at 8:30. Michael dropped Jordan & I off while the the other kiddos slept. They joined us just before the selections were announced (Yeah! She made it!) then we stopped for a quick bite at Subway before heading home. Exhausted. I wasn't even in the sun, I had an umbrella the whole time. Why would sitting in the fresh air watching OTHER people exercise be exhausting?! Old age perhaps?

Anyway, Michael starts his new job tomorrow. YEAH!!! He'll be meeting with his boss at his boss' home office. Tuesday will mark the beginning of his time with my folks. Should be interesting.

Stay tuned...

Today's the day...

What do David Beckham, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson & I all have in common? Besides the obvious fact that we're all ridiculously good looking, of course?

It's our birthday today! Happy Birthday to us good looking people!

Growing up, this is the only famous guy I shared a birthday with...


Because, as Michael was so sweet to point out, those hot guys were born AFTER me. .. ugh.

In 20 minutes...

I'm leaving to pick this guy up at the airport. He starts his new job Monday! :)

Happy Weekend, ya'll!