No soliciting please

I love this picture.  I took it about a year ago.  This was the parting gift the St. Elizabeth class of 2010 gave me.  I never thought I would have a beautiful statue of Our Lady to adorn my home.  They are quite pricey.  I was absolutely thrilled when they unveiled her to me. 

A little joke with Joe was that maybe she would keep the religious proselytizers away.  Well she hasn't. We got a few visits last summer and this morning some poor JW lady got me in my pajamas and also saw Ashley & Austin in their undies.  She didn't stay long, just wanted to invite us to their big event at the Dow Event center and gave us some literature.  These people are always so sweet and I would never dream of being rude to them, heck I've even prayed with them.  I'll always listen to their spiel and usually say thank you but no thank you I'm very solid in my Catholic Faith.  But I wish them well and they're usually on their way, no pressure. 

I do however find the commission salespeople particularly annoying.  Poor Joe had to deal with the book dude who finally tracked us down last Saturday morning.  The neighbors had warned us he lingered for about an hour when he talked with them earlier in the week.  Joe must have told the guy a nice "no and I'm about to have breakfast" three times before finally getting rude and pretty much slamming the door in his face.  And seriously couldn't the dude smell our bacon cooking? 

I guess the Lord does a good job of sending the religious people to me and the sales people to Joe. Maybe I should find a Jesus statue that has him holding a "no solicitors" sign.  Eh, that might be a bit tacky.  You can however buy this cute guy on Amazon. 

 

Me personally, I hate soliciting and just am not good at saying no or at being told no.  I could never be a salesperson or a Jehovah's Witness for that matter.  But to those who are a hearty good luck to you; it takes all types to make the world go round. 

And P.S. - I'll still buy your Boy Scout popcorn, Girl Scout cookies, pizza kits, etc.  So don't be afraid to send your kid my way even after the above rant. ;)

Aust-incredible

The kid's amazing.  Yearly the high school basketball team and coaches host a youth basketball camp and the boys decided to go.  They loved it!!  I was of course worried about Austin but he did wonderful.  It was a week long for an hour and a half.  They had lower hoops that Austin could do well on and had separated the kids into skill level.  I noticed the first day that Austin was in a group with all girls but he didn't care one bit.  I'm thankful there that he's pretty happy go lucky in that regard.  He seems to get along well with everyone.

They ended up giving out trophies to a few of the kids and I'll be darned Austin got one for being Camp Hustler.  Maybe being in that group with all the girls??  haha  I was pretty proud that he was picked; I know some of it is sympathy but I'll take it.

When Austin was finishing up Tommy's group would be arriving so we'd watch a bit and he always had a smile on his face.  I had Tommy video once and it's too long to post but it's awesome to hear Tommy & his gang cheering for him and one kid clearly said "Austin is so cool."  Kids are pretty awesome.  They don't scare from disabilities so much and I'm thankful.  Austin has a great gang of kids in his class that I know will look out for him forever, as long as Austin stays a nice kid I suppose anyway.

Back in school we had a pep assembly and everyone had to go around the gym with a bean bag on their head in a relay race.  Austin's team was last and Austin was the last kid to still go and all the kids started cheering him on, "AUSTIN, AUSTIN, AUSTIN" as he's going around the gym all by himself.  You should see the nervous smile he puts on for that.  Pretty near the same thing happened during another assembly when they played musical chairs only the older students were the chairs and the younger kids had to sit on their knees.  Once again it was Austin near the end and the chants were going again, "AUSTIN, AUSTIN, AUSTIN" and I'll be darn this time Austin won.  I think a little bit of help may have happened as I know the "chair" yanked Austin onto his knee at the end.  All that to say, I know people say kids these days are all jerks but I clearly know some kids who are not. 

Here is a video from Austin's first day of camp.  They're playing dribble tag and you can see he does pretty well.  I didn't notice until watching it that the girl who gets Austin out should have been out earlier as she clearly lost her dribble but she just picked up and kept going instead of going out.  Little Cheater Girl!  There I go picking on little 2nd graders; bad me!

I know Austin will never win any basketball games all by himself but I'm thankful he gets to play ball with his friends and have fun doing so.  During the scrimmage he was kind of like a monkey in the middle.  He'd run down to the end of the court and the ball would already be coming back the other way, so he'd run that way, and you get my drift right?  I never saw him touch the ball during the scrimmage.  However, he never seemed to tire and seems to be running very well.  I guess that Camp Hustler trophy was legit.

Can't sleep again!!

Dang it this is not cool! Especially as it's Father's Day and I definitely have to be the one that's up early with the Monster.  Hopefully she'll at least sleep past 7:30. 

We had the Reese Knights of Columbus 25th Anniversary Mass and Dinner Party tonight.  Wow it was a nice time.  Those old dudes sure know how to throw a party.  It was pretty near a full far but I just hit the wine and hit it hard.  The room was a spinning tonight and now I can't sleep.  Allergies aren't helping; maybe I need to take a nip of Ashley's Claritan?  But that and motrin plus nothing to eat since the party might send me over the edge and I'd end up praying to the porcelain god.  Something I'm proud to say has never happened to me. And yeah, I'm a jerk about that.  Last fall one of the hockey Mom's overdid it and she was still ralphing the next afternoon and I was in the bathroom with her and another Mom and she was feeling so embarassed and the other Mom says "oh honey, don't feel bad we've all been there done that" and I replied "actually I haven't."  And I wonder where Tommy sometimes gets his lack of tact.

Anyhoo, I'd never hear the end of it if it was a K of C event that I finally brought me to my knees.  After all, most of the guests there are probably drawing social security.  Thankfully Joe got me out of there pretty early.  9:30 lol.  And I'm seriously going to be fine but darn it why can't I fall back asleep.

Another badness about being up is I'm such a chicken.  Every little noise freaks me out.  And of course I have lights on and figure there's somebody out the window spying on me.  Oh such a nerd.  If Joe ever keels over or ends up leaving me I'm buying a big dog or heck maybe I'll just move in with my Mom or Dad.  They'll protect me. :)  For right now, I'm certain there is someone prowling around in the basement and there's definitely a monster in the freezer.  It's probably just the ice maker but why make ice at 3:53 in the morning?

And for now, I guess I'll try to head back to bed or maybe it's time to eat something. Grandma made meatball subs tonight for the kids and there's sure to be leftovers.  Maybe I should add heartburn and indigestion to my night?  eh maybe not. I never understood why drunk people always want to go to Taco Bell to sober up.  Seems like you'd really be making a bomb in your stomach then.

And P.S.
Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's and Grandpa's out there! I'm Blessed to have such a great Dad and to be married to such a wonderful husband who is also a very good Dad!  We are off in the morning to Ann Arbor for Austin's hockey banquet with his team.  It'll be nice to see everyone again. 

A Boy and His Phone

Look at me, another post in one week. Seems kind of early in the summer vacation season to have my middle of the night can't sleep post. It's Ashley's fault.  She woke up at 2:15 to go potty and has been off and on up since then too.  I think she finally just settled down but I'm not tired.  It's hot out too.  Weren't we supposed to get storms? 

We finally caved and bought Tommy a cell phone recently.  And of course it had to be a an IPhone.  Mind you it's an Iphone 3 but there is still part of me thinking why on earth spend $25 a month on such a luxury?  Well I'll tell you why.  My husbands a nerd and that's just what we do.  ;)  We finally got one because he started riding his bike to school.  He's also been staying home alone more often and it's just nice to be able to check in with a text message.  I know all of us survived without one back in the day but now that we don't need to why would we try and ignore technology?  Same with helmets.  I'm still a nut about the kids, "you don't wear it, you don't ride."  And thankfully they don't balk, and I don't believe they are given any crap about it at school either. As for the Iphone, Tommy was quickly trumped when a girl in his class was given an Iphone 4 soon after he got his.  I can't believe my "gotta keep up with Jones' in geek speak husband" did not go right out and upgrade him.

I guess this is the age because a few hockey friends have got phones now too.  They are all about texting him but Tommy doesn't seem to be too into that.  Oh to be always connected.  I think when I was his age I was always on the phone.  And blasted those days of long distance charges.  My dad would get so mad when we'd get the phone bill.   At least with Tommy we shouldn't get any crazy extra charges, until the day he goes bugs in the app store. 

Wow 2 months off the blog

I didn't think it was that long but geesh! What can I say it was a busy spring but thank the Lord I've made it to summer vacation! Ah bliss. I did have thoughts of just letting the blog die a slow death, but being I'm on vaca maybe I can breathe a bit of life into it and see if I really want to keep it going. It is going on about 4 years old now.

So to catch up on life here is what we were up to in Happy's & Crappy's format.

Happy - School is out!!

Crappy - Tommy got 3 stitches in his head after horsing around at school. Man that sucker bled, and bled, and bled. On the outside I was amazingly calm, on the inside I was freaking out thinking please don't die, please don't die like this. I know, a bit melodramatic.

Happy - Austin made his 1st Holy Communion. It was a very special day for our very special boy. I still get nervous with him going up there but so far there have been no disasters. I'll probably be nervous forever.

Happy - Dad's 60th surprise birthday party to the Detroit Tiger game. He thought only 7 of us were going but we surprised him with 26 guests. He loved it! The 15 passenger van was a real hoot.

Happy - Adam & Katy's wedding; such a great night!

Happy - Both boys are doing well in baseball and are finishing up their seasons. Ashley continues to do well at Honeybees.

Crappy -We all battled some crappy illness that lingered for over a week, hit our throats, eyes, just crappy, crap, crap.  I think we are finally all mended.  

Happy - Joe & I went with Tommy and his class to Mackinaw for 3 days. Bless the Muylle's for keeping our younger two for us. Fun times. For Mike & Jill - remember the deuce. I probably should've have made that a crappy bahaha.

Crappy - I haven't taken time to plant flowers yet.

Happy - Tommy got Citizenship award for the year in his class, and a 3.94 GPA. He was also the 2nd highest AR point getter in the whole school with over 500 points.

Happy - Austin did okay in school. We had him tested for Special Ed. just to see how he was measuring up and he is borderline/low average. No SPED for Austin; we'll just keep working with him. The psychologist said he's a great kid and could tell he has a lot of support. We start the Papesh Summer School program today for all the kids. :)

Crappy - Haven't been to the cemetery very recently.

Happy - I celebrated my 33rd birthday and don't feel older than 30 most days. ;)

Happy - My hockey team won the championship and I ended my almost year long scoring drought with at least one, maybe two goals in that game.

Happy - Austin finished his hockey season.  Such a little pro.  We have his banquet on Sunday.

Crappy - Austin continues to have dental issues.  We're already being prepped at the prospect of braces but a bigger fear is him losing his bottom two middle permanent teeth.  He gums are rescinding bad due to bacteria and we gotta do better about brushing numerous times a day and chewing sugar free gum.  I'm praying he can keep those teeth.  Pretty significant crappy I know.

Happy - Coed Softball has started up again. We are 1-1.

Happy - We have Cedar Point/Michigan Adventure Platinum passes! Yeah! Anyone wanna go?

Happy - I graduated another group of fine 8th graders. I was given a beautiful yellow rosebush with an awesome hand painted pot from them. I love all my students.

Crappy - My house is always a disorganized mess. Am really hoping to remedy this soon.

Happy - The boys started basketball camp at the public school today.  Austin already had his session and LOVED it!  I am always nervous about him with his bad wing but he did fine! Tommy is at his session right now. 

Crappy - My beloved former teacher and now coworker Mrs. Bremer is retiring. I'm so happy she waited until Austin made it to 3rd grade. She is such a special lady and just did so much for both boys but especially Austin.

I think that is it! Ashley is two and is quite the pistol.  She's decided she doesn't want to nap or go to bed lately so we've had some bedtime battles.  I'm loving her longer hair and am hoping to not cut it for a long time but even with a pony you can see it can look a bit moppish. And Austin is just being Austin. :)

  

So life is good.  As you can see the happy's are outweighing the crappy's which is always a great sign.  It was fun to write this; I'll be back and hopefully sooner than 2 months.