Was a flop...out of everyone she invited (and I invited a few) only 1 person showed (the one being my co-worker - so the rule is true...only 1/10th of the people you invite will show up).
SO if you are feeling like doing some Christmas shopping (and I have a list of books made by someone with a Masters degree in Education for autistic, gifted, and delayed children) please visit my site and click on her name (Patsy Christian) to help her reach her $85 dollar goal so she can earn some free books. Even if you don't have kids, nieces, or nephews you could always donate your book to Toys for Tots or some other deserving charity for the holidays.
Surely you jest!! Nana Beachy held her Usborne Books at Home party tonight. So I thought a little science experiment was in order... I have the 100 Science Experiments book. So I decided to do the foaming monster - which is essentially the volcano trick but you use a water bottle and make a monster...except you know me - I had to take it a step farther.
I gave my monster a green tail and arms...googly eyes (because what is a monster without googly eyes?) I used Print Shop and found pictures of scared Japanese people, a scared rat, a Tokyo style building (with the word Tokyo underneath), and I put it all on a cookie sheet with Godzilla in the middle. I added red and yellow food coloring to the vinegar.
Of course, what's a good experiment if you don't add background music? Mr. Frosty had a copy of Blue Oyster Cult's Go! Go! Godzilla. So of course I had to play that during the entire experiment.
It went over really well - even if Nana Beachy thought I was twisted...
Frankly, I don’t know who is happier – the young princes or myself. It’s kind of a long story, but I’m behind on my word count and even though I said I wouldn’t pad….
So, Bry-onicle has always possessed this infatuation with baseball (he gets that from me – I love baseball). Sadly, the young prince has lousy fine motor skills. While he is smart as a whip, branded gifted and talented, and can write a story like nobody’s business – it takes a lot of hard work for him to catch on to a sport. So I figure off season ball is the best kind of baseball for him. He can learn the game, it isn’t as competitive, and he gets a cool uniform.
Alas! Monkey Butt feels left out because he missed soccer sign up (he is a speed demon on that field, I tell you what). So, I pay an extra $25 so he can play off season baseball too.
So – to try and keep up with the math…that’s now $50 and it is right around the first week of school, mmmkay? I’m cool with that. Bry-onicle is excited and Monkey Butt just loves any sport he gets involved in.
Bry-onicle is on a kid pitch team (meaning the kids pitch the ball) and Monkey Butt is on the coach pitch team (which is the step above tee ball). Good news! They have the same coach! Bad news – we were practically living out at the fields.
Okay, so I have to pay for a bat so now that is $28 dollars. They already have gloves and a ball. So now, keeping up with the math we are now up to $78. I’m still cool with it. You can use the bat for other forms of entertainment like bashing in knee caps of would be home invaders. It’s a family investment, right?
Next I have to buy pants and socks (so that is $10 per pair of pants and $5 per pair of socks so that is a total of $30). Keeping up with the math, we are now up to $108. Oh, and Bry-onicle has no cleats at all (Monkey Butt was allowed to wear his soccer cleats). So those cost me around $20 on sale. Keeping up with the math - $128.
Good news! Since both teams have the same coach they get the same name…The Yankees! For two shirts and two caps it was $75. So keeping up with the math we are now up to $203.
I have to pay a gate fee for every game - $2 per person for regular games and $3 per person for tournament games. Plus, you know – if you get hungry (which can happen) you go broke at the concession stand.
So games for the young princes are held on Monday night back to back. The stupid thing was since Monkey Butt’s team played first, they wanted to charge me not only the $2 gate fee for me (which I didn’t know about until like the first game) and $2 for Bry-onicle even though he is a player. I had to argue that one. Wasn’t like he was wearing his uniform for fun though I threatened them both with being ball players for Halloween. First game – Bry-onicle freezes his tail off and the coach’s wife gets mad at me because it is 9:30 PM, windy, the game isn’t over, and I say sorry but I am taking him home.
The kind of fun thing is that Bry-onicle was number 11 (his favorite number) and his best friend (also on his team) was number 7 so every time they would get together they would sing the 7-11 theme song. Back to the story though…
Games are Mondays, Tuesdays were set aside for practice for Monkey Butt, Wednesdays was set aside for practice for Bry-onicle, Thursdays back to Monkey Butt, and Fridays (until football started) back to Bry-onicle. I told you – we practically lived on that field. When my new semester started, I told them we wouldn’t be able to live on the field. I had class on Tuesdays and Wednedays. Apparently other parents were complaining besides me because practice was cut back to Tuesdays and Wednesdays and then the Tuesday was moved to Thursday (which we have church on Thursday).
So for several weeks, I am either finding someone to pick them up for practice or what have you….and then I got sick with a sinus infection and Bry-onicle’s best friend’s mama came and picked him up to play on Monkey Butt’s team because they were short. The coach’s wife again got angry when I said that Bry-onicle could not stay through his game (because for the most part is for him to learn better coordination and because he just wanted to try it out). By this point in time, Monkey Butt cries because it is time to go to practice and I can tell that Bry-onicle is wearing thin.
Monkey Butt did finish his tournament (and in soccer, that means the end of the season but apparently not for baseball). Bry-onicle gets bronchitis and pretty much if we had waited any longer he would have ended up with pneumonia. I am sure the cold night air did not favors, but I didn’t let him play any games or go to practice when he started coughing all the time. I thought it was probably allergies, but it just kept getting worse and worse. Poor kid was sick over the entire fall break.
I found out last night through Bry-onicle’s best friend’s mother that the season is officially over. He breathed a huge sigh of relief. He said it was really stressful on him to have to come home and rush around every day to get ready for practice and that he doesn’t want to play next year. I told him that was just fine…now on to the fun stuff: the other parents.
My young princes played a total of about 10 games (so there’s $20 + $3 for the tournament so keeping up with the math we are now up to $226….not counting Monkey Butt’s tournament) and I’ve come up with a few things about those parents:
If you are so big that Omar the Tentmaker would have to fashion your baseball britches, you have no business yelling at a kid who ran for the base instead of sliding (he was still safe either way). I know I've told yall that before...
If you have four children (two of which have lingering defects), you need to quit trying for that girl. You lament and lament (yes I am talking about the coach’s wife) about how sick your kids are / was (one is partially deaf, one is a little person, the baby may be hard of hearing, and your oldest is the only one that is physiologically normal), it is time to quit. Who cares that your husband’s favorite slogan is “I’ve still got two more seats in the Suburban!” Get a hobby besides baby making. Might I suggest crochet? Look, if your kids came out okay and did not have defects (or you didn’t whine and complain about the defects and just loved them for them) have as many as you can afford to support. Don’t have them because you want a girl. I think I read a statistic some time ago that said every time you have more than one child (in a row) of the same sex, you more than double your chances for the next one being the same sex.
Don’t go out and party because your National Guard husband is deployed. Look, you seemed like a nice mom and a good mom. You kept your girls under control, they were polite, and well behaved. They seemed like model young ladies – so why on earth are you out partying? What I really want to know is who you have baby sitting them and instilling morals into them (maybe while dad is home he rubs off on them)?
Don’t be so quick to judge someone based upon the fact they want their kids in church or won’t live on the baseball field. My kids have other interests…both are fantastic readers (and love reading), involved in church, and have numerous friends and a nana with a swimming pool and swing set. Baseball is a fun hobby – it isn’t life.
The kids on the team, though, were all very good and sweet kids as far as I could tell. One was truly gifted at the game and he took up for Bry-onicle (from players on other teams) several times because it was his first season and because he would often strike out (he could catch a mean pop fly though). He would pat him and tell him what a great job he did and he would even help correct his stance or just anything he could do for help. That boy may go far in baseball, but I sure hope he goes to college too.
I cannot wait until November 16. Why, you ask? Because that is Statehood Day and I, as a public servant, get the day OFF. To double the fun - The Cop Magnet has to work and the kids have school! So my plan is as follows:
Tonight at 7:00 PM CST I am having a chat about Usborne Books at Home. You can come by using the Enter my Chatroom link here on the right of this blog. The hostess is Sis. Janine Lee and when you visit my site, please click on her name to help her earn FREE books!
I just had my psychology professor tell me that I should go to grad school for psychology. Did I mention that psychology isn't even my major?
I've been considering a change for about four months now. The big problem was that my university didn't offer a BA in Psych. So I was looking at Regent. The big problem there is that I couldn't start until Spring 2008. Then I'd have to worry about the credits transferring.
So I've been praying about it. I know my call is in the ministry (kind of like an apostolic version of Dr. Laura), but I just didn't know how to get there without throwing away practically all of my credits and thousands of dollars (because I am half way finished with a BS in paralegal studies). I told God to make the way. Regent didn't get back with me after I started asking the tough questions on credits.
When the prof told me to consider graduate school I told him that it was a nice dream, but I was going to have to change colleges to pursue a BA in Psychology. He said no I didn't. Kaplan University is bringing in the program at the first of the year!! On top of that, they plan to offer a graduate's program in it too!
If that's not God's work, then I don't know what is. I am just so glad that I serve a prayer answering (and fleece wetting) God!
Oh, and I know how proud yall will be of me... I am the official class troublemaker.
Today is Bry-onicle's ninth birthday. I remember the night I brought him home - he cried all night...literally. I remember wishing that he would hurry and grow up. Now I am starting to regret that wish - even though I know that it is not possible to stop a kid from growing up. So I am going to put up some pictures for you all.
This was the day I brought him home. He wore this blanket out. When he turned five I made it into a teddy bear because you couldn't see Pooh on it anymore.
Here he is at 6 months with my grandmother. He loved that wheel chair.
Here he is at his first birthday party. He hated the cake. To this day, he isn't crazy about cake or ice cream. His treat of choice is Smarties...or Sweet Tarts.
Here he is at three. This is right after we moved to Little Rock AFB.
First day of kindergarten...yes, they wore uniforms...and yes, that is Monkey Butt with him.
Here he is at almost six with his new and improved Pooh blanket..this was the summer after kindergarten.
Here he is at 7...and this better be the ONLY time I ever see him in the back of a Cop car.
Guess what, boys and girls? Okay, so mostly girls. LOL I heard from one of the jobs at 8:15 this morning. They offered me the job and I jumped on it! Then I started feeling remorse - what if the law school calls? Well they did....to inform me that they gave the job to someone else. So either way it looks like I made the right decision. Thank God - He answered my prayer from last night...let the job that I am supposed to have be offered to me first.
Now to come up with a flashy title...sure, Staff Assistant III sounds nice, but being the Hi-Empress of White Trash, I need something more fitting. Essentially I will be talking to employers to bring in more positions to the CSO for students and alums. Technically I'll just be an administrative assistant, but by next summer I'll be finished with my degree. I plan on staying in the job, though. Now, who wants to give me a lofty title? Something with the word specialist in it...
We had Kids' Day today at the church. It was a ton of fun and we had some inflatables. My little friends (my kids were off running with their buddies) Hannah and Seth decided that I should bounce with them in the moon bounce. They are two and four. So I jumped and I jumped and I jumped and I jumped and I jumped and I jumped and I jumped and I jumped...and then I was ready to fall over from a heart attack.
Then we decided to go climb the obstacle course. I went mostly because I was afraid some of the older kids that weren't from our church might knock one of the little ones down. It was such a work out and after you climb the wall - it is a huge drop to the bottom. Around the fifth time, I climbed up there and just sat down. I didn't move until it was almost time to go.
