What A Day

I started working today and boy am I tired. We only have one student registered at the moment, but that will change in the next couple of days. I don't know if people are just holding out and waiting to see what the economy is going to do. I know we kind of are.

Have a good day, I need to get some laundry done.

A Love To Read

I am not sure if I ever mentioned that my oldest Anthony has Dyslexia. He does wear glasses and that helps but reading will always be a struggle for him. Although he can read his football plays with no problem, go figure. To pass English he needs to earn 40 AR points. You earn AR points by reading books and taking the test on them. His theory was to pick a book that is worth a lot of points so all he would have to do is read 2 all semester. The book he chose is worth 25 points, is a long one and very small print. All things that are not necessarily good for him.

One of the things we do is work on the book together. There are a lot of benefits to this. He does love books and it gives him a chance to read books he might not be able to read on his own. I get to read books that I would not necessarily choose. Most important it gives him and I some one on one time that we don't get very often anymore.

Back to the book he choose. He knows that I have a love of GOOD horror books and movies. When I say good I mean, no slash em up types. I mean the good scare the pants off you like the Omens and movies like that. I am a huge fan of Stephen King. I don't read his books much anymore or see to many scary movies because my husband is gone a lot. I am just to old to stay up all night with all the house lights on and a baseball bat with me. I don't know how much a baseball bat would help me if that cute blond kid from "Pet Cemetery" stopped by to play WIFFFF me. You would understand if you saw the move. Major goose pimples on my arms. lol

Anyway..... The kid chose to read "The Shinning" by Stephen King. I have read the book along time ago and it lead to several weeks of not sleeping. I also own the movie that Steve and I watch at least once a year. We also watch all three "Omens" at Halloween time. Anthony thinks this is all too funny. Megan wants to read it with us and of course I said no way. "You are wwway to young." I was at least 11 (crap) when I read "Amityville Horror" and 12 when I saw "The Shinning" for the first time. Was I really that young when I started reading this stuff? My first Stephen King novel was the summer before I started 7th grade. Good Lord what where my parents thinking? HEHEHE

Again Anyway........I will keep you posted about how this book goes. Probably at 3:15 am in the morning when I can't sleep. Oh wait, not 3:15 NEVER that time. "Amityville Horror" anyone, the book not the movie.

Thanks MOM!!!!!

No Housework Done Here

There is no housework being done here. I can admit this because Steve never reads my blog. Instead I played with a picture of Anthony. I need to start working on some more of my picture taking skills and my photoshop skills. Or Gimp because I refuse to pay Photoshop prices.

Have a good day. And if you do read this Steve, I was just kidding. All I do is dishes, laundry and dream of you. :)

The Weekend Report

I know it's Tuesday but it's the first chance I had to sit down and blog. Well, I should really be doing something else. I am going to be spending most of today making various zucchini recipe's. Yummmmm, I love zucchini bread and bars and zucchini is about the only thing that did wll in my garden this year. It just never really warmed up enough. Oh well, next year I will have my green house up and working.

Lets start with Friday. I do believe that was the calm before the storm. I worked on laundry and unfortunately I didn't check Anthony's pants. He was really tired from Thursday nights game and just threw his jeans in the basket. I ended up washing both his cell phone (this is his third) and his Ipod. Both are dead and we are looking into fixing the Ipod. He saved money from his Philly trip to buy that and I feel terrible. We we are not to worked up about the phone it was on its way out.

Saturday we where off to WA for Megan's Soccer game which they won 8-0. Rushed back home to get ready for the birthday party sleep over. She put it off until school started so she could invite all her friends. We had to push it back a couple of weeks because of D. Speaking of D, I took the two of them for the last bit of birthday shopping I still had to do. The two of them together in a store are such a pain. It was sad to watch how well they get along, how well they know each other and knowing that this is coming to an end this weekend. Anyway back to the party. 9 girls may still have been to many. Megan at one point asked me "why is everyone yelling." Megan has two groups of friends. The ones that are just like her. They would rather be thinking up some crazy game and sleeping outside. The other group (who makes up a lot of her soccer team) are the plastic's (her words not mine). The ones who are into boys, hair is perfect and texting on their cells. Megan is friends with both groups but the groups don't mix very well. However, they did well and the party was fun. She got some very cool and unique gifts. She even got a very cool marshmallow stick with a bag of marshmallows.

Sunday was the first day I started helping at the Sunday school. I am just a helper this year not a teacher and that is fine by me. They decided to cancel 1st communion class for the 2nd graders. It was a teacher issue. Charlene never anticipated how upset these 7 year olds where going to be. My son included. So they found a new teacher and it looks like a go. Here is the funny part. We had a youth mass that night and Father Christopher brought all the youth up on the alter (my 3 included). He asked them questions about stuff you see in the mass. All the older kids new the answers but it was Jason who was doing all the answering. So at the end of this Father Christopher hugged Jason and said you will make a fine priest. Yesterday during a church meeting the subject of 1st Communion class came up. Father Christopher looked at me and said that he couldn't have his future priest not receive communion on time. lol

I think that is it for now. Anthony appears not to have damaged any more brain cells. Although sometimes it's hard to tell. Ahhh yes, the teenage years. I need to get moving and get my oven turned on. It dropped below freezing last night and was 53 during the game. My house is COLD.

Here are some pics from the party.

Jason the door greeter:

Her Cake, toooo much frosting:

Pizza time:

Bed time: Not the greatest picture

A Football Mom

Things I hate. Watching #84 take a hit to the head. Of course the referee didn't see it and the ball was no where near him. From the angle I was sitting I could not tell if the hit was to the shoulder or the head. I was not happy watching the coaches doing the "How many fingers do you see" test. He is doing OK tonight but I am keeping a close eye on him. I got a little concerned when he thought the score was 6-28 when it was actually 6-42. But I will admit, with the way they played tonight I wanted to forget the second half too.

How many more years of this do I have?

A Quick Picture

Here is a quick pic of Megan and D. We had just gotten back from doing some last minute birthday shopping. They decided to pick up matching hats at the dollar store. What goof balls. I will post more later. Off to a football game.

A Wrap Up

Ok, where to start. This week has been crazy and it will be like this through the weekend. Lets start the update with the D & K because they are always on my mind. Both kids are very loved if not by their families but their friends. The memorial service was Tuesday, none of their family was there (bums) but the dad had two close friends who where like brothers to him. They where there and did a wonderful job. One friend J grew up with the dad and was to emotional to do much talking. The other friend F met the dad in the army and had some great stories. Anyone who had something to say stood up and talked. Megan and I where the only friends of D's that where there. Every time I think I am done crying I am wrong. One thing that was obvious was that the dad's friends loved him and that is going to be very good for D & K. So many rumors about that night are going on around town and I am not sure how much the kids have heard. It is a good thing that the kids are hearing good stories about their Dad right now. Mine and Meg's biggest fear is that one of the family members would come and take the kids and we wouldn't hear from them again. We know that the family has had no contact with D & K for years and no one knows where the mother is. J is taking both kids to live with him and his family. In my opinon this is a good thing. It is obvious he loved the dad and he is going to love these kids. So, in two weeks they leave us and go to So. California. J has promised trips to Hollywood, Disneyland and all the other things that part of the state has to offer. We know this is a good thing for D, but we are going to miss him so much around here. He has been a part of our family for almost three years. It turly feels like someone is missing around here.

I need to move on with some thing else or I will never stop crying. Let's talk about Steve shall we. Did I mention he forgot Jason at the park yesterday? Poor Steve, he is never going to hear the end of this one. We where supper busy yesterday and on top of that we decide to lug our dresser outside to be redone. From 2:00 to 7pm last night it was totally out of control around here. Steve took Jason with him to pick the girls up from soccer. He was in a hurry to get back home to help and took off quick with the girls. In his rush, he forgot Jason. I get a call from the coach about what happened and called Steve to let him know. He gets back to a very angry Jason and a bunch of Moms laughing at him. At dinner last night, Jason would look at Steve with those big round brown eyes and say "I can't believe you forgot me." Steve feels terrible and I am sure he is going to hear it at Saturdays game.


That's it for now. I need to go and get my house put together, we have a sleep over this weekend.

A Picture

Here is a picture to tide you over until I have time to post. It's Crazy Crazy around here. By the way. The picture in my header is of Meg's soccer team. Can you guess which legs are hers?

Here is my favorite football player.



See you tomorrow!!!

Update Saturday

First an update on D & K. D seems to be doing really well. They have a family friend in town that took the kids out and spoiled them. I think it was good for them. Lots of rumors going on around town about that night, but nothing concrete. I talked to someone close to the case and there doesn't seem to be a motive. Probably just words exchanged that night. So very sad.

Today was soccer Saturday. Megan's team won 2-1 and she was sooooo very close to scoring a goal. The team played great together, they are really coming along. They won last week 5-0.

I wish I could say the same thing about Anthony's football team. They have only won 1 game out of 4. They played really well on Thursday but they still lost. Our team has a fairly new coaching staff and a lot of young new players, so it's going to take a little while to build up the team. Watch out for them Anthony's senior year. He is playing WR & DB. He made two really good tackles.

#84 Rocks

Catching Our Breath

That is exactly what we are doing yesterday and today. It has been fairly calm but I know that will change in the next couple of days. They have found some family members but it is unclear weather or not the kids will be going with them. D thinks that they will be in this foster home for a while. I worked at the church yesterday and normally it is a good thing for me. Not yesterday. There are a couple of kids there that knew the shooter and was telling me what a nice guy he is. At first I thought it was sad for both the victims and the 18 year old shooter until I have read about his criminal record. He has a very violent past, including the 18 months he just finished serving for a 3rd degree assault charge. This is not very christian of me to say but I will say it anyway. I will let the church pray for the shooter who is an adult and made his decision that day. I am going to spend my time praying for the kids that had no say and now have no idea what life will hold for them. Sorry, I don't think this was a nice guy.

Another thing that has been going on in our lives. Our church is starting a preschool this year. I told them that if they need an aide I would love to do that job. So today I was offered and accepted a job as an assistant preschool teacher. It is only part time so I will still be home after school and have my summers off. With a little help from the zoo here, it should work out fine. There is a downside that everyone here isn't crazy about. I start at 7:30am....... But all three schools are within 3 blocks of the church so the kids can go with me then walk the rest of the way. During the warmer months they can ride their bikes from home.

So that is all I have for now. Please continue to Pray for D & K, they really need it.

A Good Day

For Megan. DHS got in contact with me yesterday so that we could get the two kids together. His friends are important to him and DHS felt he really needed to see us. So I picked them up from school so he and Megan could hang out for a couple of hours. It was so good to see him and Megan really needed it. Today Steve and I are going to try and see what we can do about getting his bike back. His Dad bought him a brand new expensive bike a couple of weeks ago, and he was very proud of it. Unfortunately his bike got left on his front lawn during this whole nightmare and it was stolen. This poor kid has no luck. We are going to see what we can do about getting him another one. Sometime in the next couple of days (when I stop crying) I will post about what happened that night. Just not right now.

Update

Just a quick update. Megan talked to her friend last night and she feels a little better. He is in emergency foster care until they can find family members. He sounds like he is doing good under the circumstances. I am going to stalk the school until I can see and hug him today. Megan already warned him that I might do that. This boy has been hanging around our house for the last 3 years and he truly feels like one of my own kids. Please keep up the prayers, he and his sister really need them.

Prayers Prayers and More Prayers Please

Please pray for two very special kids. Megan's best friends father was murdered this weekend. This is such a horrible tragedy and has our whole town on edge. The poor kids have gone through a lot in their lives and I don't want to think about their future right now. We are not sure if there is any other family or what is going to happen. Poor Megan is afraid she will never see this boy again who honestly is part of our family. He is only 10 and his sister is 13.

I Love Sundays

I am just finishing up baking cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow morning. I wish I can say that I have been baking and cooking today, but I haven't been. In fact, I need to make sure I have clean cloths for the kids and school tomorrow. I have however finished a book that I have been working on. It was recommended to me by a friend of ours teenage daughter. She was right it was good. The last 50 pages I couldn't put the book down. I have started an audio book that is coming out as a movie. It's called "Twilight" and so far I am liking it.

Megan's soccer team won yesterday 5-0 and Anthony's football team lost 56-12. The second week of school and it is going to be busy. I have back to school nights, practices, meetings and a bunch of other things. Not really looking forward to it either. Oh well, I will be back into the swing of things before you know it.

Have a good Sunday.;

First Day Of School

Here are some pics from the first day of school. The outfit that Megan has on is not the same one she ended up wearing to school. She ended up wearing jeans instead of the checkered pants. The pictures aren't my best but we where cold and getting close to being late. It's now in the 40's in the morning here.



The kids are back in school, I am back at working in the church and after a couple of days off Steve is back at work. Thank goodness, the man is making me nuts. He has decided that we need a new car. I agree that we do and I agree with the kind of car he is looking at, however I don't want to do this right now. There is just to much else going on. He maintains that he is just looking. Every couple of hours he shows up with a new one for me to test drive. The dealers here let you take home the vehicles to drive for a couple of hours. I finally convinced him, to just wait a little bit. The one we want they don't even have on the lot and we can wait just one short month. However, we have a good friend that owns a dealership, that just happened to call last night. Do I really need to say more? I really expect to walk out the door and see a new car in our drive way. If you don't think he would do that, ask him about the "ant spray" sometime.

Last Day

It's the last day of summer vacation and I can't believe it is over. I can't believe that I have a high schooler. I have a middle schooler, and my baby is in 2nd grade. Tonight to celebrate I am making a wonderful dinner. It is a terrible for you, but oh so yummy, lasagna. I got the recipe from a great website but I am not going to say where because I am going to play this off as my own. I am also making a good for you salad. So that should compensate for the lasagna right??? Well, in my mind that's what I am going to believe.