Fresh Start

Another week begins and I have no idea what this week will bring for us. We don't have any real plans other than swimming and seeing some friends. Today the kids want m e to take them to play tennis at the park but it's really hot and muggy. We were supposed to get a big storm last night that would clear the air but it didn't happen so it's still really humid. Apparently there's a big storm system moving across from Ohio today and that should bring cooler air tomorrow. Maybe I can persuade the kids to wait until tomorrow.

One thing I do need to do today is cut the grass out the front event though it's not really the weather to do it. It's looking messy so I really should get out there and at least it's good hill walking exercise for me. The best thing about having the pool too is that you can jump right in when you finish mowing and it's a great way to cool off. Tonight Amy has Technical Training and I think it will be miserable in the heat (unless it ends up getting rained off!)

I got the Eat Clean Diet book from the library a few weeks ago and I sat down and read it cover to cover last night and this morning. It's really a common sense book about eating foods in their closest original form as possible and staying away from the highly processed stuff. Things we all know for sure but need to be reminded of now and again. I'm gonna try and introduce as many "clean foods" into my diet as I can and hopefully I won't go off the rails too quickly. This morning for breakfast I had a bowl of good old fashioned oatmeal sprinkled with fresh blueberries. I was going to go with the instant oatmeal until I read the ingredient list. It didn't seem clean enough and when I read my tub of old fashioned oats it simply had oats as the ingredients and that seemed exactly what I was looking for. It takes a little longer in the microwave but we're only talking a couple of minutes here. It was good and I was surprised at just how much there was but with the contrast of the fresh, almost crunchy blueberries it was really good. I'm not sure what is for dinner tonight but it will be something simple along the lines of grilled chicken and salad seeing as we have to be at soccer by 6pm.

I think that's about all I have for you today. I'm actually struggling to blog this morning. To finish, here's a pic I took of Amy on Friday after she'd had a haircut :)

Meet Alice

Meet Alice, my Mam and Dad's new puppy. Isn't she adorable? She's an English setter and they just got her last weekend.

Amy and Joe can't wait to meet her in October but of course by then, she'll be much bigger than she is now.

We had a fun day yesterday at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomon's. We have been here plenty of times before but each visit seems to turn up something a little different. This time we went along with Sarah from Amy's soccer team, her Mom and baby brother. Although they are natives of this area they had never been to the museum before! We started off at the ray and skate tank and the kids all had the guy working there earning his $$$ by asking him lots of questions. The Crocodile Hunter always comes up in this conversation :(

From there we headed into the Children's Discovery Room where there is lots of hands on stuff for the kids to do. First they looked in the sand box for shark teeth and they all found a favorite one to bring home. Our area beaches are teeming with shark teeth and lots of people go down there with that specific task in mind. Anyway, the kids played in this room for a good while, dressing up in the boat, in period clothing, doing puzzles, playing in a toy lighthouse etc.

There is also a big open tank in this room with different sea creatures in. The lady from the museum got some of the creatures out for the kids to see and touch. The first was a horseshoe crab - I hate these things! I was on the beach at North Beach one day and was sitting by the waters edge when one suddenly came up through the sand and scared the living daylights out of me.

Next we went over to the lighthouse for a quick tour. It was very crowded and there isn't a lot of room on those teeny cramped stairs so we didn't stay in there too long. We came back to the otters and then went back inside and looked around the rest of the museum. As we were walking by the fossil room we saw a lady scraping away at a big rock and removing turritella shells. She then surprised us by asking the kids if they'd like to come into the room and have a try! Wow, we've never been invited to do that before and the kids were VERY excited!

We left not long after this and went to Burger King for some lunch - the kids had really been looking forward to this. We then headed back North and on the way home stopped at the recycled playground at Calvert Cliffs. There was a lot of fun stuff here and Joe particularly liked the Tarzan swing though he told me it was more like an Indiana Jones swing! It was so hot and humid by now that we really didn't stay here too long - considering the girls had soccer practice last night we didn't want to wear them out too much. We eventually made it home and headed straight to the pool to cool off. It was so refreshing! Next came soccer practice and as soon as we got home from that we all headed straight for the pool once again. What a great way to end a great day!

Today we're heading to a friends house after lunch and we'll play there for a few hours. Before heading there Amy is getting a hair cut and I'm also hoping I can get my butt in great and mow some grass this morning as it's getting really long again with all of the storms we keep having. I'm not sure what we're doing this weekend. Shaun wants to get some of the retaining wall done out front so I can help with that however it's going to be really humid so we'll have to wait and see. I would like to take the kids to the movies tomorrow and see The Incredible Hulk and then maybe go out for dinner. Whatever it is I'm sure it will be fun (and hot!). I hope you have a fun weekend too!

Stupid Blogger!

I was so mad yesterday morning. I typed up a huge post and when I went to upload it "poof" it was gone! Not a problem I thought it auto saved every few minutes as I'm typing but when I went into the entry only the first few sentences were there. I was too peed off to start again ;-)

So, to back track to where I last left off. Thursday last week was a quiet day and we just hung out at home and didn't really do anything. On Friday morning we kicked it up a notch and headed to Watkins Regional Park about 25 minutes from here. I used to visit this park fairly regularly at one time but haven't been for a few years. It was so long in fact that the kids had no idea where we were going. Once we got there Amy remembered some bits of it but Joe didn't recall any of it as he was just a toddler back then. I went to take our first photo when we hopped onto the mini train only to find that there was no memory card in the camera! After a few deep breaths I got over it and just challenged myself to enjoy it and store the memories in my empty head! lol The train was cool - the kids loved it and we rode through the woods around the park and down to the petting farm area and then back again. After that we ventured to the carousel where the kids rode and I watched. Amy hopped onto a kangaroo and Joe rode on a reindeer. They were so happy and had huge smiles on their faces that t was just really nice to watch them. The simplest things in life are often the sweetest :)

From there we were off to Old Maryland Farm which is the petting farm. We saw the cows, horses, donkey (so cute!), llamas (yuck!), ducks, pigs, peacocks, chickens and rabbits. Phew! It was actually pretty smelly so we didn't hang around there too long. Next we played mini golf and Joe was declared the winner. After that was the part the kids were excited about most - the cool playground and a picnic! We ate lunch and Amy and Joe played for about 40 mins in the playground before we headed out. It was a really fun trip and we'll certainly go back there before the summer is over - WITH A CAMERA!

On Saturday Amy's team were playing in the McSoccer Fest Tournament in Columbia MD. We headed up there around 11am and met the other team mates there. It was a fun afternoon but very hot. We won 1 game and lost 2 so we didn't advance into the play offs but it was a good experience and it was a fun day out though tiring. We left there around 5.15pm and a group of us all headed to The Greene Turtle as we were starving. You would think if you were going to a tournament sponsored by McD's that you'd at least be able to get a decent burger and some yummy fries but oh no, the food was crappy pretzels and nasty hot dogs. Never mind, we had a good feed for dinner. The kids all sat together and the grown ups had their own space. The kids get along so well and Joe and his friend Ryan had a blast and Joe almost made himself sick from laughing so hard!!!

Sunday was Shaun's birthday and we decided to have an easy day and just hang out and swim. It was a nice hot day and the pool felt good. We did venture out for a short trip to Greenstreet Gardens but it wasn't very exciting and we didn't get much. We swam for a couple of hours and then Shaun headed out to play soccer. While he was there the kids and I ran to the grocery store to pick up an ice cream cake and then we went to pick up Chinese food. As we were driving back home we met a storm and the heavens opened. Shaun called to say he was on his way back home and by the time he got here the storm was in full force. It continued for a few hours and the lightning was quite spectacular. So, all in all a nice day was had by all.

Yesterday we had a fairly lazy day once again and our only trip out was to the library. I had a couple of books on hold and needed to pick them up and Amy wanted to exchange a couple of her books that she'd already read. When we got home we went out to swim and by dinner time another storm was rolling in but not before we had a chance to eat our steaks by the pool.

Hopefully this novel will make it onto my blog this time and then it won' have to be so long next time! What are you up to?

Back to Basics

Today I'm trying to get myself a little more organized and in control in relation to what I'm eating and how I shop/ plan meals. Actually, I don't plan meals which is my biggest problem. I tend to just decide that day what we'll eat for dinner and then if I don't have the ingredients I'll run to the store. I know the kids will get very bored of that so I am going to plan my menu at least for a week and see if I can cut down on the runs to the store. I'm sure it'll be a work in progress but I will at least try.

I'm also going to go back to my breakfast smoothies and see if I can get into that routine again. This morning I'm enjoying a banana, blueberry and strawberry yogurt smoothie and it is delish! I also added a heaped tablespoon of flax seed. Here's a pic - and yes, I'd already drank half when I remembered to take a pic!

I have been battling a horrible sinus infection for the last few days and I finally gave in and went to the Drs office yesterday. I got a 10 day supply of antibiotics and I can tell they are already making a difference after only 2 doses. I'm still really congested and nauseous but not quite as bad as I have been and my throat no longer hurts. Hopefully it will improve some more as the day goes on as I'm ready to be done with it.

Ok, I'm off to plan my menus and get my coupons together and make an attempt at being a savvy shopper. Have any of you tried The Grocery Game before? If you haven't then take a look at the website and if you are in the US then it's definitely worth a shot. You get a free trial for $1 for the first month and then it's $10 for 8 weeks after that. Basically the site monitors the grocery store prices, sales and coupons and tells you when to buy certain items so that you always buy them when they are at their rock bottom price. You need to buy the Sunday paper to get the coupons from the inserts and you need to be prepared to clip coupons but you can save a huge amount and with the way things are going here at the moment, any saving helps. If only they had gas coupons!

Fun with Friends!

Today Amy had some of her school friends over to swim. She was really excited and kept thanking me all morning for having this party for her. It's not unusual for her to be playing with friends but it is unusual for her to have friends outside of our "usual" group. The weather was perfect for a swim date and the girls were all ready to jump in as soon as they got down to the pool. We had Amy and Joe and 5 girls from school plus one of their brothers. Emma, Sophie's Mom, stayed the whole time and Hannah's Mom stayed for an hour or so and then left with Hannah's brother who kept annoying her:) The girls were all great together and there was no arguing, disagreements or anything - they just had plain old fun. Sydney's Mom came to get her at 1pm but we asked if she could stay longer as she was not ready to go home. Everyone ended up leaving around 4pm

Just as everyone was coming and going I got a call from our babysitter next door asking if she could send her brother and his girlfriend over to our house until their Mom got home. She had to go out to work and her brother and girlfriend couldn't be trusted to be left alone in the house together! So, I also had two 16yr olds to watch for a little while - too funny!

A big storm came over and refilled our pool so that was nice and it was later in the afternoon so it didn't spoil our outdoor fun. The rain lasted a few hours but now it looks beautiful and sunny outside once again. My weeds are growing though so I must get out there in the morning and mow them. Temperatures are supposed to be nice tomorrow so it'll be a good day for it.

Tomorrow we are going to the library in the morning. Amy is very excited as books are just her favorite thing. I'll sign them both up for the Summer Reading program and they will have fun with that. There is at least one book I want to get and I've placed it on hold. It's Jodi Picoult "The Tenth Circle". It's on TV next week so I want to try and read it before then - the movies are never quite as good as the book. We also have a few errands to run tomorrow but it will be a fairly relaxing day. We don't have soccer practice tomorrow night either so it will be our first Tuesday night without that for a long time - what will we do with ourselves?

Ok, that's it from me for tonight. Hope you all had a good day!

School's Out and all that!

School is finally out and we're ready to enjoy our summer. I'm so glad of the break and some nice lazy mornings to come:) We haven't had any lazy mornings yet but I know we will this coming week. This has been a busy week as usual with school not finishing until Thursday afternoon. We have managed to swim everyday after school and it's been very hot and humid so the pool has been really nice and warm which is great. It's so warm at times it almost like getting into the bath which isn't really refreshing but it's still nice to be in the water.

Amy's class party was on Wednesday afternoon and I was invited along by her teacher to help out. They were having ice cream sundaes and the Moms (and Joe) got the job of dishing out all the ice cream scoops and toppings. The kids loved it. They also all brought their yearbooks to school that day and they were allowed to roam through all of the second grade classrooms to get the signatures they wanted. I even had my own table for book signings which was cute.

Even Joe had celebrity status!

We gave Mrs Miller her class gift and she loved it. I collected money from parents and we raised $125 and bought a $100 gas card and a $25 Macy's gift card. Mrs M likes nothing more than to drive to visit her grandchildren so we thought the gas card would help out with that. She said she'd be off to use the gas card on Friday before heading to her grandchildren's house for the weekend so I'm glad she has a gift that she can really use. Here's a picture of it. She loves anything to do with pineapples so I bought a fresh one to stick all of the picks in :)

On Thursday we headed to Maggie Moos for ice cream once school let out at 1.30pm. We then went to Walmart for a few things before heading home. We swam for an hour and ate dinner by the pool before heading to soccer. It was very hot again but not as hot as Tuesday's practice where the girls were dropping like flies! Yesterday the kids and I went up to Bowie to shop for Father's Day. We got some goodies for Shaun and also did some shopping for ourselves at Hallmark, Target, Michael's, and Wal-mart. We also had lunch at Chik-fil-A which is always a treat and the kids had time to play there for a few minutes while I decompressed. I had a cake to start and finish before this morning so I did some of that before doing a quick clean up and getting ready to go out on a date with Shaun. We were heading to the movies in Annapolis to go and see The Happening. This was our night out to celebrate our 15th anniversary which was the day before. 15 years - can you believe that????? It really doesn't seem that long but yet when I think back it seems like we've accomplished a lot together in all of that time. Here is a pic of us on our wedding day in 1993 when I was 23 and Shaun was 25.

The sitter came around 7pm and Shaun and I left shortly after. I was tired on the drive and I've been having an awful week with allergies so I wasn't the best company unfortunately. The movie was ok but not as good as M Night Shayamalan usually is. I had said to Shaun when we first saw it advertised that I thought it looked a bit silly and that's exactly what I thought after watching it. It was ok but nothing I'd greatly recommend. Mark Wahlberg is usually such a strong character but I found his character in this movie to be pretty weak and unconvincing. Never mind, it was a night out all the same:) After getting home around 11pm I did a little more work on my cake and then headed to bed around midnight. I was up again at 7am to finish the cake as I'd said I'd call the lady at 9am to arrange delivery. I got it finished by 8.59am so I was able to keep my promise. Here's the finished article.

After delivering that Shaun went off to play soccer and Amy and I put together a gift package for a friends birthday she was attending at noon. It was a pool party and it was a lovely day for it. We stayed there for a little over 3hrs while Joe stayed home with Shaun to swim in our pool (he was home from soccer in time for us to leave). After getting home from there we headed straight for our own pool - it's like coming home - it's always nice to be back in your own place! LOL

Tomorrow we are having some friends over to swim and celebrate Fathers Day - yay Gina! I haven't seen Gina for a while so it will be good to catch up. Hope you all have a great weekend and to all the dad's out there - Happy Fathers Day!

Busy Days!

This past week has been a busy one - although when is it not busy around here? Thankfully Joe's soccer practices have now finished so at least that's one activity to cross off the list and it has really helped to cut down on the craziness.

We have had some whacky weather of late and it started with a huge storm on Wednesday afternoon that brought a number of tornadoes through our area. It was really strange. The kids and I were at our pool when we heard thunder way in the distance. I was really hot so I jumped in the pool, swam one length and got out only to hear thunder again (still sounding miles away). We went inside and by the time we got up to the living room all hell had broken loose and there was just the most horrible storm ever. It was so incredibly windy and leaves and everything were in the air that you just couldn't see anything when you looked out of the windows. Then came the hail and then the torrential rain that lasted a good while. Another set of storms came through a little later and more tornadoes with that so we all stayed down in the basement until it had passed. The kids were really scared - me too! We were lucky and didn't have any damage but others weren't so lucky.

Last week Amy had field day at her school and she had a great time. She loves sports so much so this is right up her alley. All the 2nd Graders were together but broken into groups of about 20 to move around the different stations. Amy won all of the races she ran in :)

The last few days here have been unbearably hot and humid. The heat index has been around 110F and it is just too hot to do anything outside other than be in the pool. So, that's all we've done this weekend:) On Saturday we had Joe's soccer team over for a pool party and yesterday we had Amy's team. Both parties were a lot of fun. For Joe's team we bought soccer picture frames and I printed out an action shot of each child to put in them. We swam for about 5hours, ate hot dogs, burgers and sides and then had cake for dessert. Joe's team is called The Green Dragons so of course I made a green dragon. There were 10 adults and 11 kids present.

For Amy's team party yesterday we had a total of 36 people - 20 of which were kids! It sounds crazy but it was a lot of fun. We have a great group on this team and the parents and kids all get along really well. A good time was had by all. Seeing as the girls didn't win anything this season we chose to buy them medals just as recognition for all of their hard work. The girls were all thrilled with them. Shaun and I also got a nice gift from the team - a gift certificate which we will use to eat out. I forgot to say that on Saturday night I was starting to make the cake for the party on Sunday afternoon. Our team is called The Sharks so I of course made a shark cake. I had already baked the cakes but hadn't started the decorating and because I was so tired from entertaining all afternoon (no to mentioned all of the cleaning beforehand!) I didn't get started again until about 9.30pm. I was just about to start putting the fondant over the cake when an almighty storm erupted and our power went out! It was off until after midnight so I had to get up early on Sunday morning and finish the cake then just in time for our guests arriving.

Kid soup!

You might think after all that that I'd be happy to have a really quiet week and not have anyone over but I have invited Joe's class friends over tomorrow at 11am. I want to try and get them over here before the public schools get out and then all of the older siblings etc have to come too. Thursday is Amy's last day of school and they have early dismissal so I've told her she can invite some friends over then to celebrate the start of summer. Should be fun! I really don't mind having people over a lot when it's warm enough to swim - it's easy entertaining. We may have friends over on Sunday too for Father's Day - depending on the weather for that day.

Ok, enough is enough. I must go and do something before having to run and get Amy. We will be coming straight home as it's too hot to do anything outside. We'll hit the pool and grill steaks for dinner - yum! Stay cool!!!

Buzz Cuts!

Joe decided he liked the idea of a buzz cut after all and we decided we'd do it today and both he and Daddy would both have haircuts together. When we first suggested shaving his hair following his "striping with the scissors" he cried but the more he rubbed his fingers over that stubbly part the more he liked it. So, I buzzed them both tonight after dinner and here is how they turned out.

You can still see where Joe cut his own hair but it's not quite so severe looking as it was. Give it another week and I'm sure it won't be very noticeable at all (hopefully!)

We had a good weekend. Did you? Joe's team were playing in their tournament this weekend and their first game was on Saturday afternoon. We knew this would be our hardest game as the team we were playing were second in the league (we were first) and we hadn't played them yet. We'd heard rumours that they had a "wonder kid" who was phenomenal but we weren't too worried as we have several good players. We took the lead and were leading 1-0 at half time - only 16 minutes to hold on for the win. Joe was our goal scorer! Unfortunately Wonder Boy was then placed up front and he just went berserk and scored. He was truly a great player and had fantastic footwork for a 6yr old. They won and went on to win the tournament. We however, got to play in a consolation game the following day for 3rd place.

As we were leaving the park on Saturday afternoon there were some ominous looking clouds. There was a big storm forecast and we heard the officials say that the storm was approximately 30 minutes away. They started clearing fields and postponing games and asking people to remain in their cars til the storm had passed. We were heading home and I got a phone call from a friend to ask where we were. She told us to take shelter as the storm was really terrible by our home. We couldn't believe that as we were only a few minutes south and it wasn't even raining. As we got further north I got another call from another friend who said the same thing and that the storm was really bad. We then met the rain and by the time we got home it was pouring but the really bad stuff with the tornadoes had passed over. A lot of people were saying that they thought we got the edge of the tornado that was passing through PG county as the winds were unbelievable, trees were falling, cars crashed and 2" hail fell - all at the same time.

We had power which was the main thing. We ran inside and sat in the kitchen for an ice cream sundae to cool off from soccer - it was really humid. The thunder and lightning started and it was pretty scary at times. There was one huge crack of thunder that made a really loud popping sound right above our house and that scared us all! The kids went and hid in the bathroom where there aren't any windows. They played in there until the storm quietened down. It eventually passed and then the sun came out and it was beautiful once again. Crazy!

On Sunday I went out and mowed the grass early before we headed to Joe's game at 2pm. Shaun was already down at the park for a meeting and then he was helping out. It was humid once again - something we weren't expecting after the storm. The team we were playing was a team we had beaten well once before so we were confident of victory. It turned out pretty much as we expected and we won comfortably. Joe had tons of chances to score and kept missing by inches but eventually one went in and he was pleased with himself. We won the consolation trophy and the kids were very excited as their trophies were nice and big!

It was so hot once again and I couldn't wait to get out of the park and go home to jump in the pool. The water was 80F so it was pretty nice and it really did the trick. The sun was shining for a while and then the clouds rolled in and it went really dark. We didn't get any rain where we were but Shaun said there was a big storm at the park once again and a lot of the games were called at half time.

Today Joe and I have been at home for the most part. We decided it was time to really go through the playroom and clean it as well as decide what should stay and what should go. We've done quite well and organized most things and we have a box of stuff to pass on either to friends or the thrift store - whichever comes first! The one big item we have to give away is the tool table which we bought when Joe was 2. He really wants to keep it but he never plays with it. A lot of the time it gets used to put stuff on or he climbs on it and uses it as a step stool so I think it's best it goes and it frees up some much needed space. Tomorrow Joe has a party in the morning at a friends house and I'll be dropping him off as I have the Volunteers Luncheon at Amy's school. Once that is done I'll head back to the party and hang out with my preschool friends for a little while. Tomorrow night we have soccer but it won't be as crazy anymore as Joe's practices and games are now over and we don't have to be at Amy's until 6pm - yippee!

Well, I need to go and pick up the last few items in the playroom and then I can vacuum and dust everything tomorrow and move on to another room. Oh to be clutter free!