They were here

The appliance fairies came! They sneaked in - even Cujo didn't hear them. They left wonderful and brand-new things and took the ewwy, old, and nasty things.

First, a group of young ones came sometime Sunday afternoon, and they left this.


Then, first thing this morning, more of them came, and they left this.


And they left this too.


I'm not sure quite what to do. I think I need to have my security system checked. Then again, maybe not...
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OH!

The anticipation is KILLING me!!! More later...

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Life in the fast lane

I did something sort of out of character last night. I went with a friend to a singles group function. It's meetup group (meetup.com) for single/divorced people. He goes to these all the time, but I've never really done it before. We met everyone at the 55º Wine Bar in Plano - there were about a dozen people including us. Most were around my age or a little older.

There were some interesting people: The group organizer was quite nice - she seemed to have her act together, and was friendly and talkative. That's probably why she got to be the group leader. There was one man who was obviously VERY intelligent, but didn't seem to have really great social skills. He didn't really know how to carry on a conversation without extreme silliness. I know, odd combination. Another guy was still fixated on trashing his ex. He didn't act mad, but he told story after story putting her in a bad light. Like the one about how she spent $20,000 on boob jobs, or the one how her tummy tuck messed up the hummingbird tattoo she had (it was drinking out her belly button before the surgery ), and then there were the requisite jabs about her current lovelife. There was one man who was quite overweight - seemed nice enough, but let's face it: all of us are superficial to some degree. Some of the conversation topics were: garage sales, British rock musicians, jewelry, yam oil, camping, lesbians, hitchhiking, bargain shopping...

One man struck up a conversation with me toward the end of the evening, went sort of like this: Him: "Hey, I know you." Me: "I've heard THAT one before!" Him: "I know you from that karate place." Me: "You mean Sidekicks?" Him: "yeah, my kids have gone there, but my ex isn't keeping up with the lessons. She won't take them, and I'm still paying for it." (could have predicted that turn of the conversation!) Anyway, he recognized me from a belt test back in the spring when his kids tested. (I have fans!) He then started trying to impress me with tales of when he was young and did Taekwondo and had patches all over his uniform from all the tournaments, and dropped names from jiu-jitsu (Machado) and started naming off MMA schools (trying to remember the names but couldn't). I'm about 3 inches taller than him. 'Nuf said.

You might get the idea from this that I didn't have a very good time - but I did. My friend was very nice - we had a few good conversations along the way - and just getting out of the house with other adults was good. For those of us who like people watching, it was a bonanza. The fact that it was a weekday wasn't all that great, but what the heck. The kids survived, and they can see that mom needs to have friends to hang out with too. I might even do it again sometime.

Finally

I'm starting the process of updating my house! I've been wanting to do many of these fixes, oh, since I moved in to this house 6 years ago. Back then I had no money. Not like I have tons now, but I finally got back the money that my ex-business partners "borrowed" for 2 years.

Today I ordered a kitchen sink! I have a nice cast iron one, but the finish on those just doesn't hold up - it always looks dirty, unless I've just cleaned it (in the last 5 minutes). I had thought about stainless steel, but it scratches too. There was a really nice, virtually indestructible granite sink that I could order in white to match my white kitchen, so I got it. My current faucet is yellow - used to be white - so I sprung for a new one.

The sink will be here in about 2 weeks. I'll pick it up, and my boys will learn how to install a sink, drains, faucets, garbage disposals, and make it all work without spewing water everywhere.

Well, I hope they will, anyway.
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News from sick bay

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Swine flu has invaded our house. Sammi had it a couple of weeks ago, then Brad came home with it Friday morning, and I caught it Sunday night. Nick thinks he may have avoided a bad case of it - he had a very sore throat last week that never did anything more. Drew hasn't had any symptoms yet (crosses fingers). It really hasn't been as bad as you might think. For Brad and I, it started as a sore throat, then went to fever. That hovered around 100-102 for a couple of days, and then broke, and that was it. I feel better today, but sort of sore - like I worked out too hard recently - but otherwise OK.

For treatment, we took massive quantities of Vitamin C (about 2000mg/hr) and lots of Vitamin D (D3). I also took a homeopathic "virex" starting Monday mid-day. I only took Tylenol once, and Brad did once. If you kill the fever, your body can't kill the virus, so within reason, you have to have the fever. Anyway, it can be recovered from with only a little pain and discomfort.

Drew & Nick have told me that 1/4 - 1/3 of the band has been out sick this week, so it's going around school, and I don't think it's just MHS. I know that people are trying avoid it, but I almost see this the way our moms saw chicken pox when we were kids: When some kid in the neighborhood got it, you all go to their house to play so that you can get it over with as little kids. Since this is a new strain of flu, none of us have had it. The only way to develop immunity is to have exposure and develop antibodies. So you HAVE to get it. Apparently there was a similar strain going around about 50-60 years ago, and there's speculation that this is why older people aren't getting this one - they already have immunity from previous exposure.

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McKinney Football has swine flu

High school football around here has been ill for a while now (see earlier post). It appears that our middle school's football program has caught the bug as well. Faubion played Highland Park yesterday and lost 32-6. Now, I have to say that playing Highland Park is never pretty. They start by showing up in big tour buses. Apparently it's because the school system doesn't have buses - no need when you have $$, I guess. Anyway, our guys tried hard - well, many of them did - and they're now 0-5, just like the big boys.

Brad was fortunate enough to play nearly the entire game. He was starting offense, starting defense, and starting punt team. All he missed was being on the punt/kickoff return team. Needless to say, he was tired after the game! He was thrilled because his name was announced for making a big tackle (me too). I'm not necessarily complaining, but it's odd that he would play the ENTIRE game this week, but only 4 plays last week, when they lost just as badly.

He's still debating whether to play next year. They put all the 9th graders on the freshman team (they're SO much smaller than the MEN that are seniors!). The problem is that if he did football, he couldn't do marching band. He could still be in band, just not march. It's not a weird rule, it's logistics - they all practice at the same time. He can't learn a marching drill when he's only there half the time. The drills are constantly changing. He'll eventually have to make the decision himself - I'm only there to facilitate whatever he wants to do. I've suggested that he consider wrestling (Nick's sport) because there's almost no conflicts, and he has the same martial arts background as his brother. We'll see.

Meanwhile, MHS plays Frisco on Friday - it's Homecoming! I wonder if we'll take another loss to celebrate the occasion, or if this game will break our losing streak. ((crosses fingers))
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Odds & Ends

Well, our MHS Lions didn't do any better this week. They got crushed by Denison 75-37. It was ugly. No further comment.

Sammi's team, the Ding-a-Lings, played very well on Saturday, and tied 2-2. Go Dings!!!

Drew's team was fired up from last week's win, but it was not meant to be. They were rained out for Sunday's game. No word yet on when it's rescheduled for, but I'm sure there will be a conflict! :)

On a lighter note, tonight Drew was chasing Nick through the house with a shotgun. OK, it was actually a Nerf shotgun, but still. He fired, and Nick caught the bullets! I would have expected this more when they were 8 years old, but at 15? I guess they never really grow up, do they. At least they kept it to foam projectiles instead of the real thing!!

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MHS Homecoming 2009

This is Homecoming week at MHS, and we started the festivities on Saturday morning with a parade. It took a while for them to arrive, but Cujo waited patiently.



Finally, we heard the sirens!!


Then came the band...


And then the Marquettes...


And the football team...

Actually, this is the JV team - couldn't bring myself to take a picture of varsity.

...and the soccer team!

OK, just a few of them. There were more in the truck, some on the football float, some in the band, and probably some AWOL. It's OK, though, they're still in off-season.

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Excuse me, but...

...is it too much to ask for the MHS football team to have a defense to go with their awesome offense? So far this season we've scored LOTS - 181 pts. in just 4 games! The only problem is that we've allowed 246 pts. in those same 4 games. The closest we've come is tonight - final score 42-41. No, I don't play football, but I've watched enough in my life to know that a team averages 45+ pts/game has an offense that can win. The only possible explanation for the losing streak is that the defense isn't doing it's job. I'm glad I'm a band mom. ((steps down from soapbox))

Speaking of bands, ours did great tonight! The Frisco Wakeland band took a leisurely approach to their show, which lasted nearly 5 minutes past their allotted time and clocked in at almost 20 minutes. Had it been really amazing, we wouldn't have minded, but no one could figure out if they were marching holes, or if they just sucked. The Royal Pride Band then had a mere 12 minutes for the drill team to perform and the band to march. The football team was back on the field and warming up as they were attempting to finish their show.

"We all got up to dance,
Oh, but we never got the chance!
`cause the players tried to take the field;
The marching band refused to yield."
- Don McLean American Pie

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Block Party!!

This afternoon, we had a block party on our street! It was fun. Our HOA pres. and his next door neighbor organized the whole thing - actually it's been in the works to some degree for almost 10 years. Mr. Jeff brought his grill and was cooking dogs and burgers for everyone, all the neighbors brought a side dish or appetizer.

We all sat around, yapping and eating for almost 3 hours. (It sort of broke up with the Cowboy game started) The kids were racing around - Mr. Fred made a bean bag toss game that even some adults were having fun with. Ms. Lisa had 3 trash bags full of balloons and some kid games lined up. Lisa also brought water balloons!! It was fun to meet and re-meet everyone, chat and realize that we have common friends that we didn't know about, and just sit around.

One weird thing (there always is): a woman showed up with 2 chubby little kids and was selling cookie dough for their school. It was some school none of us had heard of, but whatever. Well, as things progressed, it came out that they didn't even live in our area. One of the kids said, "We like to come sell stuff over here because it's safer than our neighborhood." Later, she commented to someone that her parents lived nearby - but not our street. So, she and the kids came by, ate big, hung out, chatted us up, played games, sold cookie dough at our block party - and they don't even live there!! They crashed our block party. I suppose if it was that important, then whatever - I wouldn't want the kids to go hungry, not that it looked like they had recently. The part that bothered me was when the HOA pres. was discussing the new crime watch program, and asking for volunteers. This woman was all gung-h0, and said how she would love to help out with something like that. So, she crashes our party, volunteers for our crime watch - what if she was just scoping us out to rob us later? Probably not, but you never know - stranger things have happened.

Anyhow, it was fun, and I hope that the tradition continues. Sometimes it's hard to get to know neighbors that you may have nothing in common with. You see each other as you drive by (or they do) or when you're working in the yard and you wave, but you have no common ground! There's nothing to talk about. Now there is!

Fighting like cats and dog

My dog is officially freaked out. Cujo had made friends with one of the cats, Balán, but the other cat, Rosco, never could get over it and be nice. He would just hang back and not participate. Cujo and Balán regularly roll around the house and play chase with each other and have a great time. Not this morning.

Since it was a little chilly (for the dog, not me) I decided that Cujo needed a sweater today. Just to try it out and let him get used to it. I chose the Dings-colored sweater (baby blue), and he was fine with it. Balán wasn't. Cujo pranced up to him, ready to play, and the cat puffed up to twice his normal size (tail too) and hissed. He then proceeded to chase and stalk the poor little dog through the entire house, eventually cornering him in the kitchen. Cujo was in a panic and screeching. I rescued him and fussed at the cats. They still haven't gotten over it. Cujo refuses to be on the ground - he's too afraid of the big evil cats. The big evil cats are still puffed up and looking for a fight, even though I took the sweater off the dog.

This sort of presents a problem. A Chihuahua needs to have something in the winter to keep him warm. It's not a fashion thing, it's a warmth thing. Hence the homemade sweaters. But, if the cats attack him every time he puts on his clothes... Which is worse: to be cold or attacked by cats?

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Mom & apple pie

Nick asked me yesterday afternoon, "Can I make an apple pie?" We had fresh, made from scratch apple pie for dessert. He even cleaned up. Oh yeah.

McKinney is weird too

It's raining again today. From two posts in the last month about rain, you'd think that it rained all the time around here. Not hardly.

Today's rain is the kind we really have needed. It's slow and steady - constant and plentiful. Not the kind we usually have - fire and brimstone, thunder and lightning crashing, run for cover, pull in the plants, tie everything down, hail, and tornado warnings. I guess that's OK if it's your only choice. I remember when we moved to Mexico City and within a couple of days it rained. I called my mom and was shouting about how weird it was - coming straight down, no light-show and all. She reminded me that it only rains sideways in Texas.

Once again, my rain barrels are overflowing and my plants are happy. My children are feeling a little house-bound though - Sammi's soccer practice today was cancelled, and Drew's game tomorrow has already been cancelled. Nick had a scout project tomorrow afternoon, but it involves painting, so that was cancelled too. All of a sudden we have an entire weekend ahead of us, and NOTHING to fill it. Sort of like today's rain - it's not what we're used to, but I bet we can still enjoy it.

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Fall sports

Austin was fun - the boys didn't win the tournament, but they played very well, and against teams ranked much higher than they are. Drew said that the other teams were D1 or D2. I asked what level his team was, and he said, "Um, D-nothing?" So there.

The best news I've had all week is that NONE of Drew's games this fall are on Saturdays. All Sunday, except for a couple of mid-week ones. That means that there are NO band conflicts! Yay band! You see, the entire month of October we have every Saturday booked with a marching competition. Last year we did OK - he didn't miss any of the competitions, but we did fly through Plano doing about 150mph a couple of times, trying to get from Russell Creek to Clark Stadium in time for warm-up. That leaves Saturdays for marching and Sammi soccer, and Sunday for Manchester soccer. And Tuesday for Faubion football, and Friday from MHS football, Monday for scouts...Wednesday and Thursday? Anyone? Oh wait, I forgot about soccer practice! Silly me.

In the world of Faubion football: the football jamboree was on Tuesday. All 5 middle schools in town showed up to do a round-robin of 20 minute scrimmages against each other. Brad did pretty well, from what I could tell. He's playing nose guard, linebacker, and right or left guard on offense. He doesn't know yet whether he's on A or B team - I suppose we'll know soon, since the first game is next Tuesday! He's really had a great time with it - the only problem has been trying to coordinate football games/practices with band rehearsals. It stinks when you're forced to specialize at 13.

Speaking of band, Sammi is really enjoying playing her clarinet. They have progressed to the point of putting the entire instrument together, and she can play a few notes in succession. Cool thing is that she isn't squeaking, as beginner clarinets are prone to do.

First halftime show in full uniform is tomorrow!!! Can't wait...

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Austin IS weird

Yes, there has been a drought in central/south Texas for, oh, most of the summer. Apparently that's due to end this weekend. Also this weekend, is the Austin soccer tournament that Drew's Manchester team has been looking forward to since last year when we were here. Hmm. Rain + soccer = bummer. Hopefully it will hold off - at least the lightning part during the game times. We don't care about rain - only that it makes the ball wet and the ground slippery and the mamas fussy. Otherwise, I've been told that playing soccer in the rain is FUN, mom.

All 5 of us are in a room here at the Comfort Suites in Georgetown. There's mandatory bed-sharing going on, Brad is on a air mattress on the floor, and seems to be snoring! He is definitely his father's son. More later.

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Thursday Night Lights

Weather can sometimes really mess things up. My big boys had the first football game of the season last night, and it was almost rained out. It first was delayed for 30 minutes, then after about 5 minutes of play, it started POURING rain, with lightning. The band dove for cover in the school to wait it out and save the instruments. They delayed the game another hour, but the band finally got to go home. Maybe the football team should have gone home too - they lost 56-26. Granted, it was against a 5A team and we're only 4A, but still. One of the few plays we saw - the defensive line opened up (think parting of the Red Sea) and the guy with the ball had no one within 15 feet of him, all the way to the goal line.

The band did have fun - they were in their "sexy shorts" and band shirts, not regular uniforms. The shorts are Dockers - SO not the right style for high school, so they make fun of them. But, it was sort of a run-through for all the freshmen. I have high hopes for next week's game. Home against Denton Ryan. We may not win that one either, but the band will march and play, and the band mamas will go home happy. And dry.

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Changing gears

I'm officially in baby mode. No, don't get all excited. I found out last week that my cousin and his wife are expecting soon. They are having no. 7!! Wow. They are great parents, and the existing 6 (Margaret, Randle, Patrick, Clare, Daniel, Elizabeth) are really sweet. If there is anyone I know who can handle a bazillion kids, they are at the top of the list (right next to you, Jodi!). This time it will be a little girl. How does this directly affect me (since they live in Beaumont), you ask? Well, for the last week I've been madly knitting. I've completed the baby blanket, and now I'm working on a tiny little cardigan to go with it.

Fortunately, when the sweater is done, I don't have to stop. You see, my step-daughter, Missy, is also expecting! For her and Mike, this is only no. 3. We already have Maddie (3) and Lily (1), and next April we'll have another! So, not only do I get to knit blanket/sweater/etc. for #3, but I'm thinking that big sister sweaters might be in order for Christmas. Assuming that I can find a decent pattern, of course.

I love baby yarn. I'm so glad I know people that will keep having babies that I can knit for so I don't have to have them!

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That's better

All better now, and these helped.

They're Oatmeal Craisin Pecan cookies, and they're amazing. I can't eat too many of them though, because I'm allergic to cookies - they make my butt big.

I'm glad - now I feel like I really accomplished something today.

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Survival of the fittest?

Well, we've almost made it through the first week of school. Some things I knew were going to happen, others, well, not so much. I only had to make 5 trips to various schools to take forgotten items, but 4 of those trips were for one kid. I won't say which one, but you know who you are. At least it was spread over a few days, right? Fortunately, the kid in question knows that he/she is on thin ice in that department and appears to be trying to remember everything.

I had quite high hopes for myself this week too. As the summer dragged on, I kept adding to my mental to-do list. There were SO many things I would do, and when the kids all got back in school would be the perfect time. The thing is, it's hard to concentrate on a project when everyone is running around...no one wants to wait that long at THAT store while I decide which one we need...it will be much easier to get THIS taken care of by myself...who can accomplish ANYTHING with 4 kids in the house...is this starting to sound familiar? Well, so far this week I've 1) walked every morning, 2) finally got the 2 big kids new mattresses, 3) got everyone out of the house on time, 4) got everyone picked up on time, 5) signed 4 copies of each and every one of the papers that came home from school and subsequently developed hand cramps, 6) listened to everyone's tales about how amazing/rotten their day was, 7) um, surely there was something else... The only thing on my to-do-list that I got done was the mattresses. HEY, that only leaves 4,623 more things to do this week! Woo hoo - I'm almost there!

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RAIN!!!!

I love it. Got LOTS of it last night - and lots of light and noise to go with it. Got so much that my doggie-bowl rain gauges are full (that translates to about 2 inches). The rain barrels are overflowing again, the yard is happy, the plants are happy, and the dogs are confused. I'm also happy because I chose NOT to run the sprinklers yesterday (one of our designated outside watering days). Other reasons to be happy today: LAST day of summer band practice, school starts Monday, today is haircut day, half of my children are still asleep, the sun is out, the sidewalks are clean, we get another day to try to get things right.

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Family...

...Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em. Why is it that certain people just suck the life out of you? Sometimes it's total strangers, or it might be your family, other times it's your in-laws. Today it was a certain in-law of mine - the negative energy coming from the man was absolutely staggering, and unfortunately, this is NOT a new thing. I hate that my kids have had to see their adults behave so badly.

Now that I think about it, are they even still my in-laws? When one is widowed, wouldn't "in-laws" sort of become an optional title? Hmmm. They're still my kids relatives, but do I still have to claim ALL of them as mine?

(deep breath.....)

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Long time, no see!

OK, it's been about 8 months since my last post. Odd that I should finally revisit this blog and the most recent post was about that hot new external drive. You see, a couple of weeks ago, my laptop hard drive DIED. Yes, doornail dead. Apple was sweet enough to replace the drive, keyboard, and screen edge for FREE (woo hoo!) and even without any extended warranty. I don't buy them, and the computer is over 2 years old, so there was no warranty of any kind. Not like I'm complaining... Anyhoo - I had nearly everything backed up on that lovely external drive - iTunes, bookmarks, 10 years worth of family photos - everything. Well, I did lose a couple of bookmarks and a few minor documents, but nothing I've missed yet. Timing is so weird, huh?



The big boys did their annual march-a-thon this weekend! It was good - the kids did a great job. They marched about 5 miles in the sun, playing songs along the way, and stopping at Tom Thumb and Market Street for concerts, as well as a couple of neighborhoods along the way.

This is Drew and some of the Euphonium section.

Nick and his horn section - he made section leader this year!

Yay band!