Social H

Social H

I captured a few screenshots from Snapchat and Facebook to add for my Social Media Princess, she's a Diva, for sure....love her to pieces

I

Field Day

Javelin, shot put, volleyball, 50 yard dash...yep, yesterday was Field Day for Matthew. It's his last Field Day...sob. 

Greg volunteered and I was a cheerleader. And it was hot. Matthew has a terrible sunburn even with lots of sunscreen. I cannot imagine what he would look like if he didn't have any sunscreen. The good/bad news is his freckles have come out of hibernation...it's cute but it does indicate sun damage...but they are cute...

I'm not sure how Matthew's class came in second since they won more events than Rainbow Elementary. Perhaps they figure in something besides winning??? Anyway, M used his $3 for a Kona Ice (fancy sno-cone, I remember selling those in 6th grade for .25, I must be really old because that's a lot of inflation). 

Today is a Weather Day (unused for weather, not that we have bad weather) and the kids are home. I like to call this chore day. We are getting all those chores done that have been left undone due to busy schedules. Matthew's chores will all be indoors due to that nasty sunburn. 

We will finish today up with some Stick and Puck and a skating lesson for Hannah. Because what would a Friday be without time at the Rink, right? 

Nashville Competition

A quick trip to Music City on Friday Night for Hannah's figure skating competition. The family piled into the IceMom mini van and headed to Centennial Rink. Well, after a stop at Maggiano's for some yummy Italian. (Hannah ate light bringing home some baked ziti for breakfast the next morning).

Roo was the hair and makeup artist and H looked stunning. She skated strong but had messed up her sit spin so she landed in 3rd. (no pun intended)

It was hard to pick one picture so I bought the memory stick to Greg's dismay. Some things never change...

Here is our little beauty...her skating coach posted a picture of the two of them on Facebook captioned "If her hockey coach could see her now."

Grits

M and I grabbed breakfast at Jack's after his doctor appointment before dropping him off to school. Grits were on the menu. He tried them. Decided they are not to his taste. Asked what they were made from. I googled and told him they are from hominy and eaten by Native Americans for thousands of years. M's response "Ew, I feel sorry for those Native Americans." Ha!!! I laughed. A big huge belly laugh. 

Tuesday

Not much new around here...we're winding the school year down and getting our ducks in a row for the upcoming school year. Hannah has turned in her registration...Matthew is testing today for placement...I'm so sad. This is the last year I will have a child in elementary school. Both kids are moving up to higher learning. M starts Junior High and H will begin High School. Worst of all, H will be eligible to get her learner's permit for driving. Excuse me while I grab a tissue to dab my tears. I'm not ready for this.

H will be a fabulous driver. I have no worries about her...I fear the other drivers on the road. The ones texting or chatting on their mobile while speeding down the road. Hannah driving will be a good thing and a sad thing. I will miss our chats while driving her about town. She is my talker. (Lauren once rode with me from Dayton to Boston and only spoke if she was hungry. I spent the entire drive through PA wondering what she was daydreaming about...and if you have never driven the West to East length of PA, it is a LONG drive.) I will miss Hannah telling me about her day/boy troubles/ and yes, even telling the Divergent plot line for the millionth time.

Matthew is almost as tall as me now...I give him a year before he will be looking down on me. I miss the days of hugging him before school with my chin rested on the top of his head. We are almost nose to nose now.

Both of the kids want to go to Aviation Challenge this Summer. Matthew has been saving his allowance. He is a good saver. I think I mentioned he saved for his PlayStation 4...once that was purchased, he started saving for Aviation Challenge. He has $40 so far. I hate to break it to him that he has $960 left to go. It is hard explaining that this Camp is simply out of our budget if he wants to play hockey. He has travel tryouts coming up...The cost of the pre-tryout clinics and the cost of being on the travel team has taken up the kids' extracurricular budget. I have a prayer request in with God for a magical $3000 to cover the Camps. I am really not expecting it though. I have no doubt God could drop it from heaven but I also know that He wants us to be content with what we have. And there is no doubt that we are a very blessed family. We are healthy. We have a roof over our head. He have food on our table. Really, that is all we need. So, if the money comes through for Camp, YAY!!! If it doesn't, we will just hang out at the neighborhood pool. Win/Win.

That's about all for now. Tonight is another night at the Rink. Surprised? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Commissary Shopping

Matthew: "We have 5 frozen pizzas!"

Me: "How do you know that?" was my response.

Matthew: "I looked."

I stood there for a second scratching my head...thinking...I was in the backyard working when he came home from school...he has been home 10 minutes, how does he know how many pizzas we have??? The three Red Barons that Greg and Matthew bought on sale at the local grocery store were in the house but the two (good) Screamin' Sicilians, were in the garage. I deduced that my growing boy had already scouted out the pantry and both refrigerators once he spotted the empty grocery bags in the garage.

The kids love when I go Commissary shopping. I only go once a month...I rarely buy frozen pizza (maybe once a year and this would be my once...and only because Greg had purchased the Red Barons, that...well, let's be honest, aren't that great) These past few years, on the days the kids buy lunch at school, they come home and eat everything in sight...in copious amounts...why? Because the First Lady's implementation of controlled "healthy" food and portions means if my kids ate...they didn't get enough and if they didn't eat the unsalted and unseasoned food...their stomachs are empty. The other day Matthew bought lunch without checking the menu first...he traded his cod nuggets for someone's peanut butter and jelly.

In the past (before it was uncool for mom to have lunch with the kids, I would watch as all those greens and sweet potatoes went straight from the tray and into the trash. Schools would save a lot of waste if they seasoned the food with some salt...and most importantly, they would save teachers from hungry grumpy kids who didn't eat the school lunch.

My kids have finally started taking their lunch. It took them awhile to figure out they could eat more healthy and not be hungry if they brought their own food...Yay!

At the moment, Matthew and Hannah are growing. I am amazed at how much they can eat. It reminds me of the scene in The Breakfast Club when Emilo Estevez' character pulls out his lunch to eat, he just kept pulling more food out of his brown bag.

On hockey/skating nights...the kids come home famished and are not interested in the fruit and yogurt that Greg and I are shoving in front of them...so those frozen pizzas I abhor for lack of taste and too much preservatives...are a life saver.

Call Me "Mrs. Oblivious"

When I was young, I was aware of everything going on around me...now...not so much. I do remember things in detail when I see it...but most of the time...I don't see it. I saw this white board drawing at the gym and thought "Hey, that's me!" Well, last Friday night, my intense focus on the music at the concert left me oblivious to who was around me. When the last group played, I suddenly became aware of the guy playing guitar on stage was the same guy standing in front of me all night...and hey, isn't that 3 members of Jesus Culture sitting to my left and so it went,...I finally realized how many of the performers were hanging around my section of seats all night. Call me "Mrs. Oblivious."

This is me

Jesus Culture Members about 8 people down

Two members of our church RIGHT in front of me, I did not see them until Hannah pointed them out..Oh dear.

This little area in front of me is where the performers were standing when they weren't playing...I didn't even notice until the night was about over...

First Paycheck

Hannah received her first paycheck this past week. I am so excited for her. I pray she will discover her purpose, find something she loves to do and be paid for it...Like they say "Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life." I think she is on the right track.

Career Choice

Mapping the Country...Matthew saw the Google Map car putzing around town and thinks this would be a great way to see the World. Thankfully, after pondering the amount of time it would take to drive all the roads around this little world...he realized he might miss his family. I love this little guy. 

Girls's Night Outcry

H and I did the final celebration of her birthday...she wanted tickets to The Outcry Tour for her birthday and last night was the concert. I fit in much better here with my floral and fauna style of dressing, I never did black, metal, ripped, and angry hair, even when I was young. I am still scarred from the experience I had from my youthful travels to England when I ran into a youth with his face tattooed...Now tattoos are ubiquitous and I still don't get why people do that to themselves...I digress.

Hannah and I had so much fun last night, we both have gravelly voices from our loud singing...it's a good thing it is loud because no one wants to hear me sing. It's a fact.

A few pics and maybe a video from last night.

I add this picture to show how oblivious I am...7 rows down, one of the bands of the evening were sitting when not playing...I am so oblivious

Gift Shopping

Love. Hate...that is my relationship with my phone. I hate it. I love it. It's kind of like pulling the petals off a daisy...She loves me, she loves me not.

I don't like my phone because I feel like I have to answer as soon as it rings, dings, or, chimes. I don't know why. At home, I let the machine get it and more often than not, I ignore the emails on the computer...it's the noise that makes me feel like I need to respond ASAP...which is why I probably forget to turn the ringer on most of the time.

However, yesterday, my phone's camera and texting capability saved me. Hannah needed a birthday gift for a friend. I texted options to choose from...I liked this capability. It saved me from buying something and only having to return it because it was a cool gift for a new 15 year old.

Here is a peek into my mass picture texting...Or not, apparently, the upload I just did didn't work. I suppose the computer is punishing me for not paying as much attention to it as I do my phone.

I'll try this later. You have to see the pictures of gifts I found for my wine drinking friends. Hysterical.

The Cost of Freedom

The greatest gift I received in College was the friendship of the Nelson family. Bill and Jackie Daniel were taken by young men with AK47s to be Sadam Hussein's "guests" in Baghdad. Their beautiful and talented granddaughter did a beautiful short film about their experience.


https://vimeo.com/109387972