A head above the rest

nice save by TJ

TJ had a basketball game today and someone broke the key in the lock that turns on the lights. They decided to play the game and use natural sun light...thank God it was a sunny day. The bright sun rays made wonderful light patterns around the gym. I kept my flash low because it can be very bright and I didn't want to blind the players. We lost, but TJ played really good defense. He is finally utilizing his God given gift of height, lots of high jumps, blocking and smacking the ball...I can see some new moves, possibly some new skills from volleyball? 

Can you say "Rebound?"

that blond kid was 4 inches taller than TJ and all over him. TJ held his own

Zooooom

Tonight was a gorgeous full moon and Mars was visible. When I left the house to drive Callahan to basketball at 5:30 I almost ran back in to get my camera. "Aaaaah, I'll bring it when I drive TJ to basketball and pick up Callahan..." Well, I forgot and again almost turned around and ran in for my camera. I figured the moon will still be there in a half hour. Well, by the time I got home the clouds rolled in. Darn-it, absolutely unbelievable. Oh well, I slapped on my zoom lens, shut off auto focus, upped the white balance and set the ISO to 3600. Not a bad picture, makes me wonder what I could have shot when it was lighter and cloudless...grumble grumble grumble

a

While I had the zoom lens on I snapped Patrick...so cute

and my 13 year old...check out his neck, he is filling out like nobody's business. Now that he is on the volleyball team he is discovering muscles he didn't know he had. I am discovering bags I didn't know I had. These 8 th graders practice 6 times a week. 3 early  6:15 am  cold, dark, gloomy morning practices, then 3 after school 3-6pm practices filled with conditioning. Today he finally was able to walk without groaning. He along with my other 2 are smack dab into basketball season...cause I love to drive. I seriously almost smacked my head on my desk today...I was so tired. A diet coke, 2 cups of tea and a Venti caramel Latte later...

Besides the latte, I did well on my low carb diet and lost 3 lbs in 3 days. Is it the diet or the 24/7 sleepless driving? Congratulations to TJ for getting a much needed 94% on his Social Studies test! He received a personal "Attaboy"  from his teacher/coach

Is honesty really the best policy?

So, I was sitting on my bed, the one with the new 5 inches of memory form. Karrick was laying down after having a complete breakdown. I took off my boots and stood up only to see an ENORMOUS crater that was my ass molded in this memory foam.

" OMG!" I scream 

"Is that really me?, Karrick is your mommy fat? Is my butt really that big? tell me, is mommy the fat mommy at school?"

"karricccccccccccccccccck...."

I look at Karrick as he busts out crying, slaps both hands on his head and wails

"I can't say that answer, I don't want you to get mad at me and then yell at me"

as he proceeds to just sob into my pillow

Ouch!

Damn kid, I was just kidding. So my 5 year thinks I'm fat. I'm just sayin, that was the 3rd 'Mary you're not as slim as you think you are" comment this week. The other comments I'll have to let slide, because one came from my husband and one from my boss. I may have brought up the question during conversation, but still.

I think I am suffering from reverse anorexia. Kinda like when a ginormous person looses weight and there is still that "fat person" inside, I think the skinny gal is still inside me, but only I can see it. WTF! total Buzz kill

So I have started the Atkins diet...yesterday. I did have a dunkin donut yesterday and a big blueberry muffin today.. and those were in the morning, other than that I was almost no-carbs. Progress, not perfection

On another note, I posted this picture of Karrick from this morning. He wanted to wear 2 coats, a hoodie and his parka. I started to battle the "No, the hoodie goes on first", then stopped myself and said "have it your way kid" and had a flash back to my older kids preschool days at "The Academy of Movement and Music" One boy wore a cape every day and one girl wore a sun-dress in the middle of Winter. Pick your battles

Notice Karricks eyes? Well, I now have Photo Shop! I have like 4 other photo editing programs, but I wanted the real McCoy! Let me tell you, it may as well be written in Japanese. It's a tough program, but I figured out "color replacement" WooHoo!

My photography teacher will help us 1 on 1 with photo shop if needed. I may schedule that, but I want to be somewhat familiar with it first.

Time to cook up a side of beef

Fun with memory foam

Tim and I bought a 5 in Memory foam mattress topper (actually two, 2 1/2 in toppers). That and a specially made to order Sleep Numbers pillow. Can you tell we are getting old? Well, my boys had a ball playing on it. Some creative lighting effects and we got what appears to be 3D photos.

Karrick's little tiny foot prints

TJ's fist

Volleyball

 He made the team!

At the urging of some friends TJ tried out for the 8th grade volleyball team. TJ has never picked up a volleyball outside of PE class in his life. He was absolutely glowing. It was a 2 day tryout, 3 hours each day. He came out after the first day and said he sucked. He came out today and I guess he blocked 4 spikes at the net and was serving up a storm. The coach told him he was amazed at how quickly TJ picked up the game. TJ does have the 2 main ingredients: height (3rd tallest out of 21 hopefuls)  and natural athletic ability, neither of which can be taught. 21 kids tried out and it broke my heart to see boys come out and give their parent a thumbs down.

The kid is still in shock saying "mom, I never would of even thought about trying out for the team if it weren't for so and so and so." The downfall for me, before and after school practices 6:15 am and 3 pm. YIKES

Congratulations my little man!

Is it time yet?

We are all ready for Baseball season

TJ 1 year ago, he's about 3 inches taller and 25 lbs heavier

My Eyes

This is how I used my time while waiting for Callahan at the dentist. Yes, I was the loon in the waiting room snapping pictures of my eye with my cell phone

My Irish Eyes

Bathroom phase 1

This is our master bath, it's a 3/4 bath in our bedroom. Everything in it is white except the tile in the shower.
Boring, boring, boring! On my list of upgrades are new sink, medicine cabinet,  lights, new exhaust fan, paint, possibly subway tile on walls (will decide if I'm up to that challenge) and some more storage. Thank God Tim is quite handy because he will have to do the plumbing, electrical work and hang the cabinets.

This morning I removed all the old seal from inside and outside of the shower. Put the industrial fan on it all day to dry. Tonight, I resealed the shower, scraped of some peeling paint and spackled...a lot! Now the industrial fan is drying it again.

that giant purple splotch near the ceiling was from a large hole I cut in the wall when the roof was leaking last year. I was concerned whether the drywall and insulation got wet, but it appeared dry. So we had a real pretty hole for quite some time

That nice white rim around the lower base of the shower is my handy work. Our house kinda leans so the shower is not flush with the walls halfway up. Every six months or so I have to reseal.

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Tim took the boys to see Avatar tonight and Karrick asked why he didn't go. I told him it was almost 3 hours long, that he probably wouldn't sit through it.
His reply:
"I probably would have gotten fat anyway sitting there for 3 hours"


"Did you learn that in PE?" I ask,


"No, more like from WALL-E" 
he said with a "whataya an idiot" tone


"Did WALL-E get fat in the movie from sitting too long?" I ask


"No  mom the humans did"  


with a look on his face that screamed
"like robots even get fat..duh"


Aren't I the town idiot


===================================================================

I'm  going to say that this weekend just kicked my ass...I must be getting old. First my boys had a four day weekend which is just wrong on every level so soon after Christmas break

I went to 3 different basketball practices, 2 different basketball games, baseball registration, had a wonderful lunch date with Tim at California pizza kitchen. Went butcher block shopping with Tim and had 2 extra boys overnight Friday, 1 boy overnight Sat and another overnight tonight (all different boys) and watched at least 4 movies. Not to mention the above mentioned bathroom project. I'm telling you right now I'm not upset about going to work tomorrow..Peace and Quiet, I say. Tim is taking the boys skiing for the day

The cute factor isn't lost

This morning Karrick started basketball, at 8:15 am I might add. Tim and I had some concerns that after 2 boys and over 8 years of competitive sports under our belt; the cute factor may of run it's course. To start all over again, especially at 8:15 am every Saturday morning might be a tad brutal. I am happy to report that it was as cute as cute can be. Karrick just loved it.

that boy can jump...

That would be my TJ way up there, at basketball practice

and that is my Callahan gettin tough at basketball practice.

How often does an Astronaut come to school?

Pleasant Lane Elementary had a PBIS Celebration (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) today. Students and faculty wore their Red Gotcha shirts. Lombard native Astronaut Dan Tani came to the school to talk about achieving dreams and setting goals. He also reminded the children how beautiful the earth is and brought in great pictures and stories from inside the space shuttle.

 Unfortunately Callahan still has the stomach flu so he had to miss today. He was fortunate enough to meet Mr Tani last year. My friend Karen W. took Callahan to her church one day to meet him. They talked about IMSA and NASA where Cal plans on working. Callahan got the above picture of the 2 of them and a signed picture of the space shuttle

I asked Karrick to tell me 1 thing he learned from Astronaut Dan Tani and he said

 "Everything floats in space"

A Snowman and a thick green booger

In class Karrick read a story called Snowballs, it had great ideas on how to build an interesting snow person. For homework he came home with 3 paper plates taped together and had to create his own interesting snow person. At school each student will tell the class how his snow person was made.

The finished product...Why a snowman car...of course. Look close and you can see little black wheels on the bottom. The blue triangular piece is the windows and the black tail on the back is actually the cars wing.

I will apologize now for the giant green booger hanging out of Karricks nose. He is on his way to a sinus infection->ear infection-> pneumonia or maybe this will be the year that green gunky boogers (that are the size of marbles that are only removed by my pinky finger shoved half way up the kids nose. You know the ones that you tug slowly on and the kids eyes start to water because the tip maybe hanging out, but the end is still stuck up in his sinus cavity) go away on their own w/o a 3 week drawn out production. Sorry I got graphic but I'm a little punchy...I'm on day 2 of a puker and I just bet you, that same as last night, the minute I get in bed Cal will come up saying he didn't make it to the toilet.

Cal and theThe Kmart ad...

The big day has finally arrived. Remember this blog WWE Seriously!?. Callahan's WWE ad came out today and you know what? It is pretty darn cute, not to mention almost a full page ad. He received his check a few weeks ago plus SC Johnson renewed his contract for the 4th year in a row for his OFF ad. That money was  included on the check which totally made it all good in Cal's book. It appeared that he made a crap load of money for a less than enjoyable day. 99% of all jobs are fun, I'm not dogging the business at all. The entire 8 year experience has been very kind to my kids, not to mention their bank accounts.

Today started basketball season! WooHoo! TJ had a 12:30 game which they lost in the 4 th quarter. I was thrilled to find out that Jamie W (TJ's travel baseball team mate) was on the team. Which means my favorite "Peace mom" Karen W. will be at all the games. I tease Karen because she proudly holds the title as "Lombard's only Liberal" and is all peace, love and granola. She loves swimming in this sea of Republicans.

This year TJ, Callahan and Karrick are playing basketball...Wow! The only draw back is all Karrick's games are at 8:30 am every Saturday morning...OUCH. He is just thrilled to finally be on a team with uniforms and

"everyone will come just to watch me?"

"Yes, honey"

Tim and I went to York Town Mall today, boy do we have some fun shopping together. We found 2 pieces of art that matched our living room perfectly. After many years we finally put up something other than our kids portraits

Our day out

Tim and I had a day out. First we headed to the theater to catch the 12:10 showing of  Brothers. What a fantastic movie, very real I thought. At times I teared up and at times I was shocked. You walk out of the movie thinking "would you do it or not?" I went with "would not".

Straight from there we headed over to Sams club and loaded up.

After heading home we fed the boys, showered and dressed for dinner. We went to what may be my favorite restaurant.

Redstone in Oak Brook is just wonderful. I love the atmosphere and we have never had anything less than superb.

I was able to wear my diamond bling

Outdoor fire pit

Must have flat bread original as an appetizer. Super thin crunchy flat bread with Mozzarella, tomato and basil.

I also had a lump crab cake. Tim had a steak while I had Shrimp Gamelle . Somehow after all that we were able to finish not one, but two desserts

Hot chocolate chip cookie with ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce covered with pralines

super chocolate cake

Finally we headed to our local Blockbuster for some more movies before going home and calling it a day night

Sleigh ride

Thinking it would be fun I suggested to Karrick we travel to school by sled. I was a little shocked by his reply
 "great, I just know I'm going to get a tardy slip"

He plopped himself on the sled and off we went. I pulled him down the block as he squealed with delight. No tardy slip, in fact we were 15 minutes early. It was adorable to watch him and his buddies take turns pulling each other around the playground . As the bell rung Karrick says
"Mom, can you pick me up in the sled"

"sure will"  I replied

Glenbard East Class of 2014...OM"fing"G!

My heart is racing and I feel an anxiety attack coming on...NO JOKE! I knew this day was coming and I thought I prepared for it, it wasn't suppose to come now. Last week TJ's tentative high school class list came in the mail for Freshman year. It's barely January, for the love of God! Slow down, everyone just needs to slow the F*** down. Today TJ came home with the above booklet and all kids of sheets...too many sheets. Graduation requirements for High school, driver ed, electives and College entrance requirements.COLLEGE FREAKIN ENTRANCE... STOP! PLEASE can we please finish 8th grade. My head is spinning...college requirements already...he just turned 13! Wednesday is Freshman orientation which Tim has to take TJ because my long awaited photography classes start Wednesday and I have to take this first class to take the next 7 weeks or wait until May. January 21st is HS registration and meet with the HS guidance counselors to choose regular or honor classes based on teacher recommendations and EXPLORE test scores.

This seriously may be mentally harder on me than Kindergarten

Alpine Valley Ski trip

Just love this picture of Callahan

We spent 3 days at Alpine Valley skiing. This is our 3rd straight year heading to WI after Christmas for some family time and skiing. We had a wonderful time together. WI is a great place for practice skiing before we head out to Keystone in Feb. Tim's parent have a home there. Callahan has taken to skiing like a duck to water. He was bombing the black diamond runs and jumping, hence Tim getting him a helmet asap. Must protect that brain.

This was my first time to Alpine, Tim went there often as a child. The hotel was cute nothing fancy, but the skiing was outside the door. Convenient. You can see the mountain lit up in the background.

My big boys

Tim and TJ. TJ hasn't been on skis since he was about 3 years old. The last 3 years he has snowboarded, but a wipe out on the first day hurt his left wrist (not the pitching arm thank God) It was near ZERO and icy so he flipped to skis.

Cal and Tim above and Cals jump below

This is the jump Cal went over, the 2 guys in the foreground are adults so you can see the height of the jump and how far you have to go to land. Callahan wiped out, but he was the only one that would try it. God Bless him for trying

Cal

Grandpa came up for a day and helped karrick get comfortable. Grandpa started Tim and his brothers out sking by age 3 or 4. Tim was competing and winning at 4.

Daddy and Karrick on the beginner hill

Karrick and TJ...best buds

daddy and Karrick reading before bed

A bunch of kids had rooms next to ours, so we all kept our doors open so they could run in between rooms

Who is that cute snow bunny?

No ice? Use an icicle

lots o swimming and night skiing

A great way to end Winter break.