Big burger night

The hub came home early this afternoon. His back is acting up in a new way, so I am trying not to worry and feel that old familiar dread creep back into my tummy. Let's all pray that he just over-soccered this weekend and his back is giving him a talking to today. The oldest and I made a trip to the grocery store to find the makings for dinner. With all of my lovely allergy drainage(TMI, I know), my stomach didn't want food anymore than it does 1.2 seconds after i've taken one too many forkfuls of Thanksgiving dinner. I wasn't feeling stuffed, just like I had no desire to ever see food. So I had S call her dad and ask what he wanted for dinner. He wasn't a whole lot of help, so I decided to just get some burgers since I was standing in front of the butcher's counter. I was lazy and got some premade patties. I didn't really look to hard at how big they were until I got home and then I realized that I had made an error in judgement. These burgers could have been cut in half, like one would safely cut a bagel, and still be huge. It was taken in stride and the burgers were grilled low and slow. Since I have never been a person in need of having my beef cooked all that much, my burger seemed fine as did the children's share as well. Unfortunately after another time on the grill, the hub could not finish his since the earlier rareness proved too much for his tummy to forget. Lesson learned. I will always let him form the burgers himself...though he did an excellent job on all of ours. I may have to make him a second dinner here later on tonight.

Thus ends the tedious minutae that fills my days. I'm getting a shower and going to bed. Night all.


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Doc day makes cleaning easier

So I heard lots and lots and LOTS of buzz about a documentary that had been shown at Sundance last year and premiered on HBO last night. Titled "Going Clear", it was an expose' about the Church of Scientology and its founder. I will not give my complete opinion about this particular organization, but it was a riveting movie. It sure made cleaning the basement easier. Instead of whistling while I work, I "doc" while I work.

On a sad note, I would like to express my sadness upon hearing of the passing of Dr. Paul Torgersen. He was the President Emeritus at Virginia Tech, a highly respected scholar in the field of engineering, the sitting president when my graduation was conferred and a longtime family friend. The hub had him for a class and they were invited to The Grove, the president's house, for a reception and to wander around. He and his wife gave him a picture of my mother riding on a camel when they were on an overseas trip together. He was held in high esteem by so many and the Hokie Nation is poorer with his loss. Godspeed and rest in peace, Dr. T.

Night all.


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Well, it can hopefully only improve from here

Hosannas were shouted all over church this morning from the children waving their palm branches and the choirs singing it in beautiful verse and melody. We are entering into a heavy week and anticipating the joy of the Resurrection next Sunday. But for today, the mood was exciting. I was in a fog. The choice to take cold meds was not a great one and I found myself running into walls and forgetting people's names. Great impression given to parents by the person in charge of child care.

After I left work, I changed clothes and went to watch the youngers play soccer while the hub watched the oldest play. The boy was a little sluggish to start, but woke up soon enough. He scored on an indirect kick and it was quite lovely. G's game was not so happy. It stinks in this club soccer atmosphere when other teams substitute players and try to pass them off as the same age as the rest of the team. G's team was pure U-11 today. The other team looked to be U-Driver's License. It was a yucky loss, but also their first game. G made some mistakes, but also had several situations out of her control as did all of our girls. They can only improve from here I think.

I am going to take some good cold meds and luckily not have to be around other humans, other than family, for a bit. That will be a blessing to all involved.


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Simple and sleek

So today was another busy day, but a successful one again. After two extra cruddy days at school, the boy's spirits were low, very low, and he needed some drops in his bucket for sure. Between hitting his head a combined two day total of at least 8 times, one of which required a call from his teacher, not getting any awards on awards day, having a classmate drink his milk AGAIN, overthinking his classwork and issues on the playground, he was done. So when we got up this morning to ready ourselves for his very first Pinewood Derby, I was worried. I told the hub that I just prayed he did at least kind of okay. Oftentimes this event can be one of frustration if parents get over involved and you find your child's car(that he did everything on except use the table saw) and someone else's car (with a hand carved spoiler and a paint and poly job worthy of display in the Louvre) up against each other and you worry. But the boy had a plan and he knew what he wanted. Thank God for a husband who is a wonderful carpenter and who was able to decipher the boy's rather phallic drawings into a paper design that got the boy's stamp of approval. He helped him use the tools that would cause amputation and instructed him in the proper way to trim down the size, add weight, paint it and add the wheels(and put the messy graphite on in the yard). It was one color, no stickers or embellishments. Just simple and sleek. Race time came and we found ourselves trying to get him to set his expectations low and be surprised if the outcome was different. Shame on us. The first race he ran? Second place. He was THRILLED. Each car got to run in four races in their den group so they could try out all four lanes. He hept being consistently second and sometimes first. How 'bout that? By the end, he was in the finals and wound up third place overall out of maybe 26 cars. Shame on me for worrying his car wasn't flashy or goopy enough. Shame on me. I will say he needs to name his next one. My two favorite names today were "Kermit" and the "Black Death". The boy his riding high on Derby success. It was wonderful to see. He is the cutest darn thing and loves being a scout!



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Coming out of the shadow

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit puffed up today. Today is one of those days that moms and dads replay in their minds over and over and never cease to get a little teary each time they do. Being a middle child is hard, so I hear. I am the youngest of two, so I have never felt it myself, but I have seen it with family and friends...and my own daughter. As the mom of three children, naturally I think they are all the tops and, like Beverly Goldberg, often have my mom goggles on with things they do...barely suppressing the raging desire to stand up and scream "That's MY baby!!!". G has lived in a unique position most of her life. She is the sister of an amazing big sister S and an equally amazing little brother, F. Through the years, she has been kind of, well, just G. Overlooked and in the shadow of her siblings. Not a new story to anyone and probably one of a million out there AND not the worst place one could be, sandwiched between two people who love her so very much. But she's ours and we think she's incredible. So when she had difficulties and was eventually diagnosed with dyslexia, she bucked up and took every bit of tutoring like a champ. Oftentimes there were weeks where the weekends were her only off evenings from tutoring. She sacrificed a lot to learn how to learn and read in a way that made sense to her beautifully wired brain. Through all of this, she remained quiet and refused to tell her friends, only her very closest one from birth knew. We let her know it was nothing to be ashamed of and her brain was wired to do incredible things that regular ones couldn't, but still she guarded her "secret" and we respected her wishes, though we shared with our friends and family from time to time. So as her fifth grade year began, we entered it with severe apprehensions and realized that this was her last year in a somewhat protective educational bubble before she was thrown to the hounds in middle school. As always we told her, "We don't care aout grades. Just as long as you do your best." So far, she has pulled straight A's all year. No, it's not about the grades, but those A's really pump up self esteem. Her teacher has not allowed her to give up or claim inadequacy in an area. She has forced her to work through and perservere. She has thrived. It has been exciting and scary to watch.

So, let me get to the meat and potatoes of today. Our school has an award/scholarship called "Hamilton's Heroes" that has the safety patrols write an essay on the six pillars of character diiscussed at school and how they use those in their lives and their jobs as safeties. The essays are then blind judged and scored on a Rubric. The winner gets their Patrol Trip to Washington DC paid for and their name goes on a plaque in the school hall. Today, after being in the shadows, G stepped out and accepted the award for being a Hamilton's Hero. The look of shock and pure joy on her face was devastatingly beautiful. Then suddenly I was filled with dread: she has to read her essay in front of her classmates. Her reading might halt; her dyslexia secret would be out to her friends. Shame on me. SHe held her head high and spoke out with every word. Sure she was nervous, but she allowed her classmates to hear about her life and her closely protected secret. It was wonderful. The little boy that she is in charge of getting to class every morning ran to her afterwards and hugged her so very tight and she hugged him right back. The teachers and principal commented about how good she was with him and how he listened to her instructions. That said it all to everyone watching.

All my children are heroes to me. Today I am proud that a great girl, often overlooked, received recognition and a prize that fit her to a tee. Love you, Grace the Ace.



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Soggy soccer kids

The monsoons came this evening after a fairly lovely day. Shoulda, coulda, woulda, I know, but I should have mowed the lawn. Oh well, it will still be there...just a little bit longer. Thursdays are long nights at the fields since G is doing keeper training, which is an hour before the boy's practice which is an hour before G and S's regular practice. Confused yet? I am. Anyway, we got through keeper training and then, whabang, the rain came. It was cold and miserable, so we all fled to our cars. No, practice wasn't cancelled; we had to wait it out. About 5 minutes later, the coach started calling and I sent my girls out in pouring rain and wind to practice. Needless to say they were soaked and frozen an hour later. We cranked the heat and drove a steaming car home.

I am going to benadryl up and hopefully conk out soon. Night all.


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Ants and Allergies

I woke up this morning heavy headed and sounding like one of Marge Simpson's sisters. All the mucinex and allegra in the world did no good in battling any of the symptoms. I did manage to crash after school drop off this morning and catch a little nap. As I expected, it was a pretty big mistake and I walked around feeling as though my head had been filled with a bicycle pump full of lead. I staggered around the kitchen looking for effective meds and noticed that the counter seemed to be moving. I really didn't thing that the allegra was that strong, but maybe it was making me think the counter was moving. Nope, the counter was moving...with the spring breaking ants that had arrived to take over. They were vacationing on top of the apples and I saw a pack of them carrying a crumb of toast up the wall through a grout path. Thankfully the hub called our bug guy and he arrived later on in the afternoon. I must have looked rough because Kevin, our sweet bug guy, asked if I was okay. "You look upset!". I explained that I had allergy eyes and my day was much better now that he had come to send the vacationers packing.

The weather is beautiful, but I will gladly say "Adios" to the pollen and ants that come with it in the Spring. Night all.


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