Random Thoughts....

...because I can't think of anything real to say.

...yelling at my daughter for having troubles wearing her eye patch (of course, she never says WHAT'S wrong, just whines...) will not do any good....

...yelling at my daughter for the eye patch only ruined an otherwise great morning.

...the morning only went south from there....from bad traffic on the way in to work to having to take the stairs (not so shabby, but it's five floors up!) to not being able to make a freaking cup of coffee....

...to get myself through I shall revel in the fact that I won a sparring match last night against a girl half my age (well, a little over half my age, since she can drive...)...who's a BLACK BELT!

Girl Scout Cookie Time!

...at least for the Indiana area, it is. And I do have to reiterate how I think that an organization who puts out temptations such as this when we're sitting one week and one day before Lent is in direct alliance with the Antichrist.

...Speaking of the Antichrist, my new favorite Ozzy song is "Diary of a Madman". And further to my Ozzy obsession, I would like to say that Griffin has moved on from requesting "that first song on the cd, Mommy" (which, my dear readers, is none other than "Crazy Train"), to "the second song on the cd, Mommy", which is..... "Mr. Crowley"..... He still gets the wicked grin and wild look in his eyes when "Crazy Train" starts up, though.

...Last night found us at a Boy Scout event. Collin's first Court of Honor with his troop. I went with the twins and left around bed time. Aaron stayed with Collin for the whole thing. Next time we'll be switching places and I'll be bringing my camera. Aaron and Collin didn't get home until well after 9, so I thought I would save us all by removing the twins from the temptation of melting down in front of everyone.

A Restful Weekend

....doesn't happen too often around here. But it was restful. Friday night was calm. I went to karate. I went to both the brown belt class and the Black Belt Club class. I go periodically to the BBC class to remind myself why I shouldn't go. The bonus this go around is that there were adults to work out with. The downfall is that we talk mostly. We don't work on our material. We work at getting our kids to be upright citizens. Which is all fine and dandy when Collin's at class with me. But I was on my own and just wanting a REAL karate class. But it's always fun to see my workout partners, so all was not lost.

....Saturday was spent celebrating Stephenie's birthday. Steph has been a friend for a long time now, and is part of my quartet of girlfriends who get together and craft and hang out. It's fun. Steph also has this wicked-cool theater room that we all envy. So our birthdays of late have consisted of getting together for food, either take-away or eating out...and then settling in their theater room for a chick-flick. Lots of fun.

....Sunday was spent relaxing again. You must think I was a lazy bum all weekend. I did clean two of our two and a half bathrooms and did the multitude of laundry (Katie...OMG how do you do it with two more people in the house???) that seems to sneak up on me throughout the week. But I did fit in a lot of relaxation..... Steph and Paul came over with their daughter Maggie. We all played with our respective counterparts and had just a wonderful and relaxing time.

Here's to more of those weekends. Let me tell you, I'm storing up the rest to be able to use it for the rest of the week. It's going to be a busy one!

Movin' Out...Movin' On...

So, we went to see "Movin' Out" last night. I really wish someone would have warned me that it was a BALLET! The saving grace about it was that it wasn't a musical at all. They only had one guy singing, doing pretty good covers of tons of Billy Joel songs. And had I known that it was a ballet, I wouldn't have had the original reaction that I did for Aaron to see. You see, this WAS my Christmas present. And he feels like he's had a run of bad gifts. OK, so there have been some, but we've been together TWELVE years. Twelve. There is a lot of room for error. No one is perfect all the time. *winks*

It did prove to me that perhaps my son was right when he called me Mrs. Manly the other day. And you would think that it would get BETTER as time rolls by. But nope. I'm getting MORE AND MORE masculine as time rolls on. What girl wouldn't like to go see a ballet for Pete's sake? Bring on a Coors Light and some NFL (where the Colts and my boyfriend are doing their jobs!), and I'm a happy tomboy.

Billy Joel....

...so Aaron and I met in college. My freshman year, his sophomore. And we bonded over Billy Joel. For Christmas this year, Aaron got me tickets to "Movin' Out," which is a musical that's either supposed to be based on Billy Joel or just off of his music. We're going tonight. Am a bit excited about it, even though it's hard to think about busting a move to get to Muncie (about an hour's drive away) on a school night. We shall see and I'll let you know how it goes.

...The kids, the twins especially, are working to drive me crazy. Erin and Griffin take turns on who can whine the most. And sometimes, I. Just. Can't. Take. It. You know, I didn't get the choice on whether or not I was going to be a momma with Collin. It just happened. But I actively planned the pregnancy with the twins. Not actively planned twins. That was the joke on me. But sometimes, despite the fact that I would never, ever trade them in (not that anyone would take them anyway!), I wonder whose bright idea that pregnancy was. And that, my friends, is the naked truth. Not that I feel that way all the time. I'm just feeling that way now. And I know that they'll wind up doing something sweet later, but oh my....right now they're testing every last shred of patience I possess (or don't possess).

....It's not all bad. I don't know if I ever told the blogosphere, but we captured the all-elusive Wii over the holidays. Being the victim of motion sickness, I do not especially like the Wii, so up to now, I never made myself a Mii. Well, Sunday, Griffin helped me make one. I helped him choose some of the features, but he chose the best features of all. He made her the tallest and slimmest Mii he could make. So my Mii is a dead-sexy blonde girl that has blue sunglasses. Pretty funny stuff. And I love that Griffin thinks I'm tall and slim. hehe

Random Thoughts....

....international shipping is very expensive...
....hell on Earth can sometimes be comprised of two four-almost-five-year-olds and an eleven year old.
...i ate way too much for lunch, but it was so worth it to hang out with my girlie friend Renee for a bit.
...am way sad that I won't be going to sparring class tonight, but Aaron's going out with one of his best friends and my "friend" is visiting anyway, so maybe staying home is a fabby idea and I just need to accept it.
...I don't think I was ever made to be a voice-over girl.
...I'm going camping with the Boy Scouts in June.
....I'm doing a lot at work right now that I don't particularly enjoy. I've done all my "normal" work, though, so now I have to take the bitter, jagged pills and swallow them down.
....my friend Katie could really use some time off, it seems.
....my friend Rebecca needs good job-hunting vibes.
....my friend Judy does so many neat things with paper.

Happy Friday!

Nothing much to report around these parts today. I'm glad the weekend is upon me. Am hoping for some down time this weekend to veg and snuggle my ever-growing babies. It's tough to believe that they're going to be five in a few short weeks. What the hell?

Anyway, I wish you all a good weekend!

Mondays Suck...

...so I'm glad it's Tuesday. I pretty much ran from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. At least precious sleep isn't eluding me right now (the Sandman cometh not a lot Chez Byers at the moment!). The schedule pretty much went like this:

1. Get up and get the twins ready. We're running late because I slept in....oops. Get everyone out the door.
2. Get twins to daycare and me to work.
3. Work until just before five.
4. Pick twins up from daycare...they're good n' whiny!
5. Get home and quiz Collin about Science before supper.
6. Get Collin to Boy Scouts where I have a meeting about parental involvement with fundraising.
7. Get Collin home. Check his Math homework while he's showering.
8. Work for the next hour with Collin on the math homework as he's struggling.
9. It's 10 pm by now and I finally just go to bed.

Loverly.

Tonight's my night, though. I'm forcing Collin to stay with me after his black belt class so we can do the sparring class again. Since Aaron started adjusting and redeocrating rooms, my craft area is inaccessable, so karate provides my only entertainment these days. I'm ready to put some pads on and have at my opponent. This scares most people who know me. *winks*

Bummed....

...the only word for a day like today.

...the better news is that my 'rents came up this weekend. Was an awesome time just catching up with my dad and momma. Awesome to watch my kids interact with my parents. We don't enough of this, due to the three hour (plus) tour that is the trip between our doorsteps. And I enjoyed every minute of it. I actually got to take my momma out for lunch...just the two of us! (Courtesy of one of Aaron's students, as it was a gift card from Christmas....it's OK, folks, he doesn't like Panera Bread!)

...to finish off my obsession with Bob Sanders, I will have you know that I love the way Griffin is starting to interact with people. He has a big funny streak, and he's starting to really show it. Over the course of the ill-fated game yesterday, he was taunting me with things like "Peyton Manning's going to win and Bob Sanders is going to lose" and "Bob Sander's isn't YOUR boyfriend, Mom, he's MINE." Love that kid.

...and the other funny of the day was Erin's version of a rally cap....Hawaiian flowers on a clip on one side of my head and a small butterfly clip on the other. It was either that, or the fact that Aaron went to watch the game at a bar, thus making it the only game we didn't watch together, that made the game go so far south..... *winks*

"Bob Sanders is my Boyfriend"

So it's no secret that I have a thing for Bob Sanders. Not so much of a sexual attraction as an awed admiration for his scary-good defensive football capabilities...seriously, the man comes in out of nowhere to get a tackle in! So I wear my jersey proudly on Fridays at work and on Sundays/Mondays/Thursdays. Well, for Christmas, Santa brought Griffin a Peyton Manning jersey. He LOVES it. Erin has one, too, but she's just not into football like Griffin, proving herself more girlie than her momma. So this morning, I went into Griffin's room to get him dressed, and told him that today was Blue Friday and that he was going to wear his Manning jersey today. He promptly told me "Mommy, you have to wear your Bob Sanders jersey, too, OK?" To which I promptly reply "Of course I will, honey, because Bob Sanders is my boyfriend, after all." He says "Yep, and Peyton Manning is my boyfriend." Haha! Griffin's got a boy crush on Peytong Manning.

So, I got the best forward yesterday. It's about none other than my boyfriend. You all DID know that he was voted Defensive Player of the Year, right?


- 70% of the Earth is covered by water....the rest is covered by Bob Sanders.
- Bob Sanders can tackle himself...FROM BEHIND.
- Indy's Defense is called the Cover 2 because the team is only responsible for covering 2 people...Bob Sanders covers the rest.
- Bob Sanders is not only a noun but also a verb.
- Years ago when a global threat emerged the President's first questionwas "Where are our carriers?" Now he just asks "Where is Bob Sanders?"
- Bob Sanders makes onions cry
- Bob Sanders can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.
- Bob Sanders invented black. In fact, he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Tom Brady invented pink
- If you say "Bob Sanders" three times while looking in a mirror, you'll feel pretty stupid. Then Bob Sanders will rush through the door and tackle you for a four yard loss.
- When Justin Timberlake brought SexyBack, Bob Sanders was already there, and he hit Justin so hard he now goes by the name Kevin Federline.
- It was once thought Bob Sanders lost a fight to a Bear. But that was a lie created by Bob Sanders himself to lure more Bears to him.
- Bob Sanders doesn't read offenses. He just stares them down until they give up the information he wants.
- They once renamed a street after Bob Sanders, but they had to change it back. Too many pedestrians died crossing it.
- You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Bob Sanders only misses 25%of them.
- When Casius Clay changed his name he was going to use Bob Sanders but realized...he just wasn't that good.
- They were going to release a Bob Sanders edition of Clue, but the answer always turns out to be "Bob Sanders / In the secondary / with a spear tackle"
- Bob Sanders pities Mr. T.
- Newtons 1st law of motion is actually an object in motion will stay in motion until hit by Bob Sanders
- Bob Sanders can tackle a tree stump.
- Bigfoot takes pictures of Bob Sanders
- Bob Sanders is 1/8th Cherokee. This has nothing to do with ancestry; the man ate the Chiefs.
- When Bob Sanders executes a push up, he does not push himself up, but pushes the earth down.
- LaDanian Tomlinson wears a tinted visor so that he will never have to look Bob Sanders in the eyes.
- Bob Sanders frequently donates blood to the Red Cross. Just never his own

Random Thoughts....

....so for whatever reason we got new laundry soap. It was probably on sale. But it makes my clothes smell like they just came out of a cedar chest. Am debating on whether I like it or not....

....Had my first karate sparring class on Tuesday. Was so much fucking fun. There are no other words to describe. It makes up for the lackluster classes we've had for a while. I went to my regular adult class last night and we warmed up by getting on the balls of our feet and jumping around, boxer-style. My legs hurt today. Especially since I didn't really sleep last night. Again.

Foxy....

....oh, boy. Foxy. Foxy is a little stuffed fox that Erin has and is the "stuffed animal of the moment." Right now Foxy goes to school with Erin. This morning, however, was conversation surrounding Foxy....

E: Foxy wants to go to work with you today. Foxy loves you and wants to sleep with you!

Me: Oh, she does, does she? (thinking: has Foxy gotten kinky on us?)

E: She does. She loves you.

I promptly go up to Aaron to tell him that I've been propositioned by a lesbian fox. He responds that Foxy wanted to sleep with him last night.....


....Kinky Foxy....

If I Only Had a Day....

...OK, so between my step-grandpa's and a friend's uncle's deaths recently, it's morbid, but it makes me think of my own mortality. Life's short. And at this point it would be nice to live one day without any abandon. What would you do if you only had a day?

Feeling Old...

...OK, so I'm feeling a bit old lately. Friday I went to karate and wound up being the only adult in the last class of the day. The result? Having to work out with the dreaded six grader (who had previously beaten me at grappling). She's a nice girl. She's just one of those goofy sixth graders. And she's mean. OK, she's not mean, but she's like a freaking bull in a china shop. When trying new things in karate, the trick is to try them out slowly. So we do a few take-downs. OK, no big deal, right? Wrong. For the first take down, she nearly breaks my wrist getting me to the floor. Why? Because she just jerks my wrist instead of slowly taking me where she wants me to go. When it was my turn to practice on her, she whines, saying that she has a low tolerance for pain and to go easy on her. What?! I am in so much pain I feel like taking her ass out. But, being the old lady, I am gentle. After I've done my turn, however, I promptly tell her that she needs to do things more slowly or I will not be her partner any more. So we do another take down with out any incident. But, alas, there are three take downs of the day. The last one spills the person on their back. OK, no big deal. But she spills me on my back, on top of her foot.

....I felt like an old crippled person until about Saturday night. *sigh*

Eyeglasses....

....so I nearly forgot to tell this story while basking in the lack of motivation that I've got going on right now. Erin took this picture this fall. Notice the cute little specs she's wearing? Did I ever tell you all that she picked them out because they're nearly identical to mine? This makes my heart burst as a mommy. My girlie is MY girlie. Given the history with my own, this is especially moving for me.

....I did lose a lens in my glasses. I think it's out in the snow someplace. Erin asked me where my glasses were, and I told her that I broke them and would probably have to get new ones. She burst into crocodile tears and told me that I HAD to get the same pair so that we'd still have the same glasses. July is going to suck for me, folks, because that's when I'm due to get new frames and I get a different pair!

Ready For Weekend...

Because I lack in any motivation to do much of anything right now, here's a picture of Collin at last month's Black Belt Extravaganza. The younger man to the left of Collin is our Sensei. The man to the right is the style head and the recipient of all the money shelled out to attend said event.

Griffin has a fever right now. Poor little boo. The good part for him is that he has had control over what movies are being watched right now. We've watched every version of Sthpiderman (he's losing the lisp for the most part, but some words are still lingering on with the lisp. It's too cute).

Have a good weekend all!

Ack....

....lost a lens in my glasses. Am hoping it's at home. Bah! Good job I can still see without them. Am just hoping I didn't lose it last night after karate.....

Happy 2008!

It's amazing that another year is gone. It's amazing the perspective of living a year when you're five and when you're thirty. Everything takes FOREVER when you're five. But time has sped by so quickly lately....

So my New Year's Resolutions for the year....I'm not sure what they should be. There are so many things I'd like to do. Like scrapbook more. Get my finances under control. Take better care of myself. That kind of thing. We'll see, eh?

So I fared better on New Year's Eve than last Friday. I drank LOTS of Coors Light, but had LOTS of good food in me and spaced out the fun. So no puking for me. Yay! The funniest part of it all is that I really didn't manage to keep my clothes on..... it was a PJ party. So I was scantily clad in a nightie that Aaron had brought along as a joke. Wish I had less of a gut, but my arms and legs are looking very nice from all the karate. ;)

New Year's Day found me at Wal-Mart, buying the two CD's I've been wanting for a while....they're both greatest hits collections. Ozzy and Def Leppard. And I'm happy about it. Go ahead...make fun. But these two artists make me happy, and when I've had a long, crazy day at work and a commute where I nearly get killed, having something that makes me happy on the way home is only better for my family. Go ahead. Ask them.

Anyway, continuing on with the Ozzy theme.... go read the lyrics to I Don't Want To Change the World.....it shall be my new theme song....