Deja vu

I'm thinking as I looked at the clock at 3am this morning that I've been here before...and pretty recently. Only this time it was a little girl that was having trouble sleeping instead of the boy. Keari made her way downstairs to our room in the wee hours of the morning saying she was scared. Usually she climbs into her big sisters bed when she gets scared but Kenzie had a friend over last night and they were sleeping in a different room. Keari climbed into bed with us, snuggled into my shoulder and feel fast asleep. Now normally I'd carry her back to her own bed at this point but I was so tired from being up the night before and I only had a couple of hours left before I had to get up for work that I decided to just let her sleep with us. Hubby of course barely knew she was there. After talking with her this afternoon, it turns out that she was scared because she saw lightening. I'm not sure she really did or if it was just a car driving down our street but either way she didn't like it. Let's hope for an uneventful night tonight as I'm really tired. Of course, I should have been in bed a while ago but I've been playing with different templates for the blog. I've had the same template since I started back in 2006..not that I've done a very good job of keeping my posts updated during that time...but I thought it was time to change things up a little. Hopefully it's in fairly decent shape because I'm too tired to do anymore with it right now...any changes will have to wait til tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow...Connor has soccer tryouts for school. He's really excited about trying out for the team. Let's hope that the rain they are calling for holds off so they can get the tryouts in.

Family Time

The day started with soccer practice for Bekah. More of her teammates showed up for this practice so it was better than last weeks. And what a gorgeous morning for practice...nicet temp and no humidity. Afterwards, we came home to eat lunch although I got distracted by all the mess on the floor which set me off. Ever have one of those days where just the littlest thing can send you over the edge? Mine today was seeing paper on the hallway floor that kids had been stepping over for a week. It drives me nuts and I can't figure out how to get them to understand that if they kept things picked up as they went along, keeping the house clean would not be a big production. After much lecturing...or more aptly ranting, everyone finished lunch and then everyone headed their separate ways...mainly I think to escape having to listen to me complaining at them more. Alex headed outside to cut the grass while most of the others kids headed out to wash the cars. I went down to fold clothes, a nice quiet by myself task...which lead to putting my clothes away...which lead to cleaning out my drawers because I couldn't get everything to fit...which lead to cleaning out our closet to enable the drawer spillover to have a place to reside...which lead to straightening up the entire bedroom. Sheeze, how did one small task of folding laundry mushroom into something bigger?

After dinner, since it was still so nice out, we decided to talk a walk around Ferry Point Park. The kids have been before but this was my first time. It's really pretty there, a nice oyster shell trail along the water with benches and picnic tables scattered along the way. I told Andy we'd have to come back and bring a lunch next time. Below are some pics of our walk...

Connor acting goofy ;)

Trying to decide which path to take, right or left. Kenzie wants to go left because it's shorter...Connor's heading right to the longer path. We ended up going right.

Connor enjoying the view

Andy and the kids going off path around the point

Brotherly love

Watching the sun go down as we wait for the others to return from their off path adventure

Awesome view of the Narrows from a tower that is adjacent to the parking lot where we'd parked the van

Quiet

That's how I thought today was going to be. I didn't think we had anything planned for today so thought it would be a pretty laid back, lazy kind of day which for the most part it was. It turns out that Bekah had her first soccer practice of the year this morning. Since it was a beautiful morning, not sweltering likes it's been most morning, we all decided to go to the field to hang out while she practiced. I can't say it was much of a practice when only one of her teammates showed up but that tends to be how things are at this time of year, especially for the 4-5yr old age group. When they were done practicing, we came home, ate lunch, made some banana bread...yum.

Everything was going well until early afternoon when Adam decided to fall head first off Keari's tricycle. He ended up scraping his chin and cut two gashes, inside and out, with his teeth just below his lip line. Poor thing...and he sure didn't want the dr looking inside his mouth to see if he had bit all the way through. I took him to the urgent care center (which btw has terrible hours for being an urgent care center...I got there at 4:45pm which was 15 minutes before they closed) because I couldn't tell whether he had bit all the way through and whether the gash on the outside needed stitches...it's small but it keeps separating whenever he draws his lip into his mouth. The dr said that he'll have a scar there, that it doesn't need stitches and that he doesn't think he bit all the way through. He going to look pretty rough for awhile, though. He handled things pretty well until it was time to go to bed...daddy usually does that job but tonight he wanted mom...funny how kids want their mom when they aren't feeling well. Andy was able to finally take him but Adam sure wasn't happy about it. I think he settled down fairly quickly after he couldn't see me anymore. Let's hope he sleeps all night...we did give him some tylenol for the pain since we could it was swelling and starting to bruise. Poor thing.

Snow Clouds?

or just normal rain clouds? Either way, it looks pretty ominous outside. I think it's going to be one chilly night to be playing soccer. Connor has a makeup game tonight for the game that got rained out on Saturday. Glad it's Andy taking him and not me. I really hate cold weather.

Busy Day

Whew, nothing like running around all day. I know Andy is going to say that he had the roughest day because he had to be out of the house by 7am to get Kenzie to her softball tournament...she had 4 games today...but at least once he got to the field, he was there to stay for the day. I, on the other hand, spent the day running back and forth to the fields to get Taylor and Alex to their soccer games, running to the shopping plaza to meet Connor's coach so he could get a ride to his soccer game, then running the boys back and forth to church to serve tonight. Talk about totally disrupting Adam's eating/sleeping schedule, not to mention Keari's naptime. And I still need to get the girls to bed without disrupting Adam too much since Andy won't be home til late.

So far, Tay and Alex's teams lost their games today, Connor's team won and Kenzie's team tied their first game and won their next two. Haven't heard about the last one yet.

Well, they won their last game so the got their first 1st place trophy of the new season. Way to go Riviera Beach girls!

Hot, Hot, Hot

It is only the beginning of June, right? The temps the last 3 days have been incredibly hot for this time of year...95 degrees with a heat index over 100. Was a good weekend to stay inside in the air conditioning. Unfortunately, that was not be the case on Saturday. The day started off with Andy and Kenzie leaving to go to Laurel for a tournament that was to last all day. They ended up playing 6 games...well 5 and the start of a 6th which ended up getting called due to a nasty storm that came through. Kenzie's team was ahead 1 - 0 so they ended up as Champions. Yay Lightning!

My day started with having to get Connor to a Wade-In where he was volunteering. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication on where the Wade-In was being held but I managed to finally get him there, albeit a tad later than we'd said. This is an annual event that is held at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center. The objective of the wade in is to see how far you can walk into the water before you can't see your shoes anymore and then to measure the depth. The hope is that each year you can walk in a little further which would mean that the bay is getting cleaner. Connor ended up being the kid from his youth group that showed up to volunteer which was disappointing but they were very thankful that he came.

The twins had a baseball game at 3 and boy was it hot and there wasn't a hint of a breeze. It took over 1 1/2 hrs to play 2 innings at which point the other coach asked his team if they wanted to play another inning or quit then (games have a 2 hr time limit) and I was very thankful that they all voted to stop them. Of course, the twins coach wasn't happy about the decision...he wanted to keep playing...but I could have cared less at that point. Everyone else wanted to go home. Taylor got to pitch in the first inning for the first time and he did a great job...got two strike outs, walked a couple, and had a few hit off of him. Tyler ended up making the third out of the inning which I thought was pretty cool. Then in the second inning, Tyler made an awesome throw from third base all the way to first base and ended up hitting the running on the helmet as he stepped on the bag. It was pretty funny! and just goes to show you why you wear helmets during the game.

Ending the game early worked out well since I had to get Tay, Ty and Connor to the high school for select soccer tryouts. We were able to go home and get changed without having to rush around like chickens with out heads cut off.

After I dropped the boys off, I decided to walk across the field to where my parents were participating in the Relay for Life. I chatted with them for about an hour before it got too hot for me and I had to leave...ended up back there an hour later when I came back to pick the boys up from tryouts. They enjoyed having a short chat with their grandparents. The relay ended up getting cut short at about 11pm due to some pretty nasty storms that came through the area.

The good news from the soccer tryouts is that Connor got picked up by one of the teams. It's a team that he had actually practiced with a little last fall and the coach has decided to officially pick him up for the coming season. That's great news except it means we have to travel to Centreville for practices every Wednesday night. Maybe my parents will feed me dinner since they only live a few miles down the road from where they will be practicing.

We finally made it back home and jumped in the pool just in time for it to start lightening. Grr! That's the only sure way to get the kids out of the pool fast...usually you have to forceably drag them out. I did have a little time with Keari in the pool before the lightening started and she loved it. I think she's going to be another little fish.

Today, most everyone except me, Alex and Keari, went kayaking on the river....even some neighbor kids came along. From what I hear, everyone had a great time kayaking and swimming. They all came back and jumped in the pool for awhile.

I felt kind of bad for Alex...he spent the entire weekend studying for his finals which start tomorrow. He had to write two essays and a timeline for history which took him forever to do, the it was on to Biology. Those will be over with tomorrow, then it will be gym (which is a paper that he's already done) and Religion on Tuesday, Spanish and English on Wednesday and Math on Thursday. Hopefully Thursday will be a nice day because his class is getting together for an end of year party after the last exam.

Finally!

Yes, Alex and Sara finally got together to go skating this afternoon. No problems getting into the rink this time. Andy did think that they were mad at each other, though, when Alex called an hour after being dropped off to say that they were done. Turns out they were both just tired. Guess they don't understand the value of getting the most for your money yet...they lost out on an hours worth of skating that they'd paid for. Oh to be young and so carefree. LOL They then went to Dairy Queen to have ice cream before heading home.

In addition to that going on, Kenzie had softball practice in the morning, Connor had select baseball tryouts in the afternoon, Kenzie and I went to 5pm mass where she abandoned me to go help a friend serve, then Alex got dropped off to youth group while the rest of us went to watch Connor play indoor soccer, then afterwards Connor got dropped off at youth group. Then Andy picked them both up and headed over to Alex and his indoor soccer game...Connor went along to watch. Whew, we did alot of driving around and crossing over each other but it was a good day.

Another Busy Day

Started with Sunday school for the kids. I then went to 9am mass by myself as I opted to stay home with Bekah and Kearsyn last night...after being in the car the majority of the day yesterday, I knew there was no way they would be able to make it through mass quietly last night. By the time I got home, Andy had breakfast ready. Alex then headed off to school to help with the open house. While he was there, Andy went shopping for the twins birthday presents. I headed to the fields...first stop was to drop of Connor, Kenzie and Taylor for select soccer tryouts...second was to take Tyler to his last football game. Boy was it chilly by the time we left the field. They ended up losing but Ty had a good time. It was then time to head back to the other field to collect the rest of the kiddos. Now I'm home and tired and not at all ready to start the work week. Blech!

This week is going to be all out of sync cause Bekah's speech class is moved to Wednesday again due to her teacher being at a conference Thursday & Friday. Bekah then has a hearing test in the middle of the day Thursday. Then I'm meeting Alex's math teacher Friday afternoon to discuss what we can do to help improve his math test grades. Guess I'll get some work done in there sometime.

And then the following week is Thanksgiving. How in the world did that happen?

Two More Losses

Taylor had his last soccer game of the season this morning. I offered to take him and boy what a mistake that was as it was freezing out on the field @ 8:30. Brr! They didn't play too badly but ended up losing the game in the last 20 secs. Bummer!

We left the field, ran home to pick up everyone else and then headed to Westminster to watch Kenzie play a select soccer game...everyone except Connor & Alex, Connor was going with friends to watch the high school soccer game and Alex stayed home to do some schoolwork. It was another chilly game and the girls ended up losing 3 - 0. Kenzie ended up letting 1 ball go by her to score...but it did take a funny bounce so it was hard to save. And she didn't have any opportunity to get near the goal to make any scores. Next week is their last select game and then the season is over til spring. Yay!

Sports Banquet

Alex is off to his first sports banquet tonigh. Hopefully he and Andy will have a good time. Here they are all dressed up and ready to go.

Ice Skating

Alex came home stating that his school was having a free skate at the ice rink. Of course free skate doesn't mean that it was free. ;) LOL So we ended up making the trek to Easton to drop him off so he could spend a couple of hours with his friends. A handful of kids showed up and he seemed to have a good time. Meanwhile, Connor and Kenzie had their last soccer training class til next year although I think there is still one more makeup game for Kenzie's soccer team on 11/17.

Busy, Chilly Weekend

Of all weekends for it to turn chilly, it would be this weekend. Andy and the kids had two soccer parties scheduled for this weekend and of course they are outdoor parties because they always do a parents/kids soccer game. The chilly weather didn't deter them and they had a great time at both parties. Connor & Kenzie's party was on Saturday and Alex's party was today.




Saturday was also pick up day for our family pictures and they turned out great, if I do say so myself. They always do such a good job both with the group shots and with the individual pictures. Getting 9 people to look at the camera at the same time and keep their eyes open is not small feat. Here is our Christmas picture for this year.





On Friday, Connor, Kenzie & Tyler got to play a little bit at one of the stores in the area. There piano teacher was providing background music for the evening and had invited his students to stop by and play a few songs. It was fun for the kids even though there are alot of distractions playing in that type of environment.



Today is the first day of Advent and Tyler got to do the honors of lighting the first candle.






And here's picture of Kearsyn smiling. =) She has her two month check up tomorrow and she's due to get lots of shots so I don't expect alot of smiling tomorrow. Poor baby.

Soccer Results

Andy got his wish. All the kids lost today so they were home by 11. On a good note, Kenzie ended up scoring the only 2 goals for her team today. To bad she let two balls get by her as goalie and they ended up losing 2 - 4. Connor scored the only goal on his but unfortunately they lost 1 - 2. Only 2 more games to go...1 for Alex and 1 for the twins....and soccer season will be over.

So Far, So Good

After an extremely sleepless night thanks to my newest daughter (luv ya sweetie!!), I was actually able to get Alex, the twins, Bekah and Kearsyn all over to the park by 7:45 so Alex made it to his game on time. Yay! After dropping Alex off, I then came home so Bekah could eat breakfast and to feed Kearsyn before having to head back to the field for the twins 11am game. Things were going well until I get a frantic phone call from Alex at 9:30 saying that I needed to bring his stopwatch and whistle over to the field so he could ref his game. Grr! Now you tell me why a child that knows he's going to be ref'ing games all day couldn't remember to stick those two important items in his backpack when we left this morning. So that meant I had to pack everybody back into the van and head back to the park...luckily it's only a 10 minute drive but it's still a pita to have to load everyone in, just to come home again, unload then and then load them back up less than an hour later to head back to the field. Oh well, what are you gonna do? Even after making the unexpected extra trip, I still managed to get the twins to their game on time...then Bekah, Kearsyn and I hung out for the hour that they played. It's a beautiful day but a little chilly so I kept Kearsyn in the van while Bekah ran back and forth between the van and the volleyball courts (located right next to the field that the twins were playing on). We're back home and now I'm waiting for Kearsyn to wake up so I can feed her...hope she gets up soon cause it's starting to get a bit painful...and waiting for Alex to call to say he's done ref'ing for the day. With my luck he'll call when I'm in the middle of feeding Kearsyn. Well, turns out I was close...I was just getting ready to wake Kearsyn up to feed her when Alex called to say he was done.

Kenzie, Connor and Andy are in Salisbury now and Kenzie's second game should be starting right about now. They didn't do so well in their first game but they are a young team so it'll take some time. Final outcome of the games is 2 losses, 1 win. I haven't heard all the details yet but Kenzie did let me know that she stole home in the third game. Yay!

I've done a bit of stitching over the last couple of days. I'm currently working on PS Winter Seasons although it's not holding much appeal for me at the moment. I might switch to something else although after looking over my other wip's nothing is catching my attention right now so I guess I'll just stick with the PS one until Holly's mini rr arrives. That one should be a quick a stitch...the theme is superheros...and then it will be on it's way home. What a quick rr this one was. And for all you enablers reading out there...I'm not starting any new projects at the moment so don't even try to talk me in to one. LOL

Test Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be my first attempt to see if I can get everyone where they need to be on time since having the baby. Andy has to leave with Kenzie at 5:30am tomorrow to get her to her softball tournament in Salisbury. As you can probably guess, they have a ridiculously early first game. As a result, that leaves me home with the rest of the kiddos and their soccer games. First soccer game is at 8am for Alex. Ugh! I'm usually somewhat awake at that point but not in any shape to be up and out of the house and at a field by then. The next one is at 11am (I think) for the twins. And in between, I believe Alex has a couple of games to ref. Connor's game got cancelled, thank goodness. Now what are the chances that everyone knows where their soccer uniforms, socks, cleats, shin guards and water jugs are. Let's just pray that Kearsyn and Bekah are good girls tomorrow and that I'm able to pass the test. =)

Today is my sister's birthday. Happy birthday, sis! She's one of 4 family b'days this month. First there's Bekah, then Kearsyn, then Von and finally mine at the end of the month. And they're all very easy to remember...5th, 10th, 20th & 30th. I can see that October will not be a good dieting month. LOL

A Change in Plans

Due to all the rain we've had last night and today everything scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed...no soccer games, no soccer pictures and no softball tournament. So we all get to stay at home and just relax. My inlaws will be coming over since they haven't seen Bekah for her birthday yet. I'm hoping to get some sleep tonight so I won't be quite as grumpy tomorrow...was up pretty much around the clock last night and that makes for a very long night and a long day.

Soccer and Stitching

Not done at the same time this weekend, though. =) All the kids had soccer games this weekend, 2 of which were at 8am which is just too darn early for me on a weekend so I missed those two, but I did make it to the 10 and 11am games. All the kids had great games even though it was a drizzly cool day. Maybe it should rain on them all the time...seemed to really motivate them. Alex also ref'd two games this weekend so he was happy. I did find out that walking back and forth across the fields a number of times is getting harder and harder for me. Doesn't seem to take much effort on my part to make me really tired or my back and legs hurt.

Stitchingwise, I was able to finish up my part on a Finisher's Too piece. I stitched the Inn pictured here although it was touch and go there for a while on whether I would actually get it finished or toss it out the window because the frog would not leave me alone. I can't remember the last time I had this much trouble stitching on a piece. Hmm, maybe I should have feed that froggie to the baby turtle that Kenzie found Saturday. Next up to work on is Quaker Mystery Sampler. Hopefully I'll be able to finish up Part 5 before my next obligation stitching pieces show up. =) Somehow, I seemed to have formed a rotation without really trying to but I'm not going to question it as it seems to be working. I rotate between Mother's Bliss and Quaker Mystery Sampler and then throw in the Mini rr and Finisher's Too pieces when they arrive. I have other WIP's but I'm only concentrating on two right now with the hopes that I can actually get them finished here soon. When one gets done, I'll add another WIP in it's place.

Whew, it's going to be a long 5 wks. That's how much time is left before the little arrives and I'm starting to get very cranky and I have absolutely no patience. Baby is poking under my ribs and my hips really hurt so it's hard to get up and down which makes it near impossible to keep up with Bekah as she won't stay in any one place for more than a few seconds. Soon enough it'll all be over and we'll have little Kearsyn home with us...let's just hope my family survives me til that time. ;) I added a pic of what I look like now to my last appt post.

On a humorous note, Andy was laughing at me today and saying that I was really getting into being a pioneer woman. He was referring to the hanging of clothes outside on the clothes line. This morning when I did it, I hung them on the end of the line where the sun was hitting...by the afternoon when I went out to hang some more, the sun was on the opposite end of the line, so that's where I hung the clothes. Made sense to me...if they are in the sun, they'll dry quicker, right? He seemed to find it quite funny, though.