A Month?

Wow!! It's been a month since I wrote??? It has been an extremely busy month. Which is obvious from the fact that I've neglected this so much. Sadly, I'm sure there were things I thought should go here, but procrastinated and have now forgotten. Between working, planning W's birthday party (that's in 3 days!), planning the Fall Festival at out church and helping plan Fiesta at W's school September and October have been packed with activity.

W decided he wanted to be Elvis for Halloween. He needed a costume he felt could win a costume contest. There was one at our church and will be another at the skating rink - contest that is, not costume! So after convincing him to be "young Elvis," I set off on a search for a leather jacket that was not going to cost me an arm & a leg. I scoured all the second-hand and discount stores within a 50 mile radius. No luck. I tried to convince him to be something else, but he had his heart set on Elvis. Then he informed me that he didn't want to be "young Elvis." He wanted to be Elvis in the white suit. UGH. So we visited the costume shops in town. Yeah, can't get that costume in a youth size locally. Back to the drawing board. Finally, I found the leather jacket at Target! It was a little more than I wanted to spend - what with his birthday looming - but it is a nice jacket and he needed a new jacket to wear during the upcoming winter anyway.

He didn't win the costume contest at church, but he was so cute and so proud of his costume. He had a great time running around pretending to play "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Love Me Tender." It's funny to hear him sing, because he doesn't remember all the words and starts singing "blah, blah, blah." HaHa.

W also has his first official crush on an "older woman." We went to a local chicken eatery last weekend for dinner and he had a hard time looking the cashier in the eye. He wanted more ketchup, but refused to ask her. When I questioned him on it, he avoided eye contact with me. So, like all great moms, I said (loud enough for her to hear) "What's wrong? You can't ask her? Is it because you think she's cute?" As if I needed proof, he turned his back to her, folded his arms across his chest and cried, "Mo-o-o-om!"....yep, he thinks she's cute!

We are now in the throes of planning his very cool Pirate birthday party for this Saturday. Pictures and details will come Monday....

Who Knew?

Who knew roller skating was so much exercise? I expected to have sore legs. But I totally did NOT expect my upper arms to be sore. Or my stomach muscles. Or my glute muscles! OK, maybe, just maybe I can see why the glutes are sore. But the stomach and arms, too? So I asked P why he supposed that would be. His response, without batting an eye, "because of how tight you were holding the wall." Well, if holding the wall works the arms and the actual skating works the stomach, glutes and legs, I think I may have found the PERFECT exercise! It's fun, the whole family participates, it's relatively inexpensive and low-impact (except for the times I fall).

The major downside is that we can only make time to do it on Saturday afternoons. I'm pretty sure true exercise should be done more than once a week. Plus, if I'm at the roller skating rink every Saturday afternoon, I won't be home cleaning, sorting and organizing. And I was so tired that yesterday (Sunday) I did absolutely nothing.

Well, I guess that's not exactly true. I did go to church, the annual Fireman's BBQ and then our church's annual BBQ. The food was wonderful and it was great to just sit and visit with folks from church without really doing any church related work. And did I mention the food was really good? So much for all that exercise on Saturday...haha.

I'll have to figure out a better way of divying up the Saturday chores into the rest of the week because W has already asked me if I'll go again next week with him and P. I can see that I'll be losing a bit of sleep, staying up later and getting up earlier to get things accomplished. But in the end, when I'm spending some quality time with my family and making wonderful memories, it will all be worth it. They are the loves of my life and watching them have so much fun truly makes me joyous!

Saturday Skating

Last week was the first Cub Scouts Pack outing for the pack W is in. They went rollerskating. W didn't want to go. Said he'd never been skating and didn't know how to skate. We, P & I, told him he'd never learn if he didn't try. After some convincing, he decided to try it. He loved it! When we left after a little over two hours, he asked if we could go back the next day. No, we already have plans. Then how about the next day? No, we already have plans for then, too. Then when? I don't know, we'll have to see.

Since we'd been having trouble getting W to do his homework, P decided another skating trip would be a great reward/incentive. He told W that if he would do his homework every night for a week without any arguing or dawdling, he could go skating again on Saturday. IT WORKED! W sat every afternoon and did his homework without complaining.

So, this afternoon we all headed off to the roller skating rink. We got there around 2:00. He skated until 7:00. FIVE hours of skating. I only made it for about 2 1/2 hours before I said "enough!". P skated with him almost the same five hours. What a terrific dad! W has the bug and wants to go every weekend. They rent these PVC "trainers" for the kids (wish I'd had one). W used it last time and until about 5:00 today. Then he decided to try skating with out it. He did wonderfully! He's a natural. Got his dad's legs.

I guess we'll make this a regular family outing. Great exercise for P & me and not terrible expensive. Plus it will remain the reward/incentive for homework for a while.

What to do, what to do....

So I decided I wanted to start a blog. Why? Who knows, really. I've seen so many really good ones lately, and like always, I want to be a part of whatever is really good. But what specifically do I want for my blog? Crafts? Yeah, though I rarely have the time to do any crafts, I'd like to try some and post them. Cooking? Yeah, I love to cook. Again there is that time thing to contend with, but I think I'll try some new things and maybe post the ideas I come up with here. Random thoughts? Well, I have a TON of those.

My mind goes all the time and not usually on one topic. For example, as I type this right now, I'm thinking about the fact that it almost time for my 6-year old to get out of school. I hope he wrote his homework assignments in his homework planner (we've been struggling with that so far this year). I hope he sits down and does whatever homework he has for his dad before I get home. I am a bit under the weather and really don't want to do the homework dance tonight. Do you have to do the homework dance with your children? You say "do it." He says "I don't wanna." You say "do it." He says "I forgot what to do." You say "do it." ...you get the picture. It's the most exhausting dance I've had to do in a very long time. Our steps are so out of sync and we are apparently both dancing to a different beat. We've just got to find a way to "hear" the same "song."

Also, flitting around in my head, is the "what's for dinner" butterfly. I'm thinking that since I have to work late tonight, it's a good thing I remembered to make sure all the parts for the hot-dog cooker are clean. It hasn't been used in about a month and the dust would have made the dogs taste yucky. It's one of those Nostalgia cookers that rolls the hot dog over hot rollers (like you see in the convenience stores, but on a much smaller scale). We got it on sale last Christmas and what a lifesaver it has been. On nights like tonight, P & W just put a few dogs on the cooker and let them spin around until hot. Easy cooking for them, NO mess for me when I get home. LOVE it!

There are tons of other thoughts flitting around in my head, but as I'm at work, (shhh...don't tell anybody), I should really just post this one and get back to doing what I do.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll have something more creative to say. Hopefully. Or maybe this will just become the place I put all those random thoughts when I'm here at the office by myself and bored with keeping track of numbers. HaHa