Funny, Sweet Boy...

...so Griffin came up to me before his bath and gave me a hug and said "Mommy, I'd never trade you for anything." Oh, my goodness, did my heart just about burst with love for this child. What an awesome thing to say to your mother. After his bath, I told him again how awesome I thought he was and how I'd never trade him, either. And he said, "Well, it was for my homework." "What?" I asked him. "It was our homework from library today. We read a book about it."..... *pop*... that's the sound of my bubble being burst. Oh, well, he's still my snuggly boy.

...this morning, he comes up to me while I'm on the computer and crawls in my lap and snuggles and loves on me... all of a sudden... "pfft"....he FARTS on me... All that snuggly goodness and he FARTS on me? Sheesh!!

A Productive Weekend...

...cos we all like to pat ourselves on the back when we do a good job--- a bullet list of things I accomplished this weekend....

• filed six months' worth of paperwork (note... all the bills of the paperwork were paid---aside from the pesky internet bill that I'm unable to pay online. I don't get it, either).
• arranged to pay the bills (all checks written, all in envelopes with stamps!)
• bought frames for and hung our karate portraits (they're in the bottom of my stair-well and looking fine!)
• rearranged frames and hug the kids' Spring pictures (yep... you read it right... SPRING... better late than never, eh?)
• went to three soccer games (Griffin scored a goal! Purely by accident, but he scored one, nonetheless... Erin scored a goal! For the other team)
• cooked two of the three meals on Sunday (before you ask what the big deal is... I don't cook. Mainly for logistics' sake, but even on the weekends, Aaron tends to take over this job. I just took over yesterday. I would so pee on a stick if I would even dream that a baby were pending... but seeing as we took care of that, I'll settle for cuddling on my nephew last week as my excuse to nest)
• grocery shopped for the week
• watched the Colts beat the Cardinals
• sent way too many pieces of Flair in Facebook

Aren't you proud of me?

This and That...

...this week's been kind of crazy. Erin came down with a minor strep infection. No fever. Just some crazy nether-regions issues on Sunday and a weird rash today. She's on an antibiotic, but we've had some rearranging to do this week. It's all worked out ok. Aaron's not feeling well now, though, so I'm thinking that we're just going to stay at home and veg out tonight.

...another thing that has rearranged our schedules this week is the weather. Rain cancelled our soccer practices last night. Erin wouldn't have gone to hers anyway, but we were going to take Griff to his. And tonight the organization is having a seminar. But it's been steadily raining all day today, and it only recently let up. Not sure that soccer's a good idea tonight, but we'll see. If it's not raining and just wet, maybe we'll brave it. Who knows. I'm leaning more toward renting a movie and snuggling in.

...Today is one of my karate friend's birthday. As an impromptu celebration, I met them at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. They went to PF Chang's for lunch, so this was a progressive lunch of sorts. It was fun to see them outside the dojo.

...So this weekend, I hope to accomplish some things at home. I really want to organize my paperwork. It's long overdue. Also, I want to clean in the craft room a bit. If I have a bit of a clean space, I'm more likely to create stuff. I wonder if that has anything to do with being a Virgo?

Portraits...

...thought I'd pass along the information on the portraits. Victoria and her crew do an awesome job with what they do....and it's unique!

...Check her out!

In A Nutshell....

It's been a nutty few weeks Chez Byers. Between soccer practice and games, karate, scouts, school, work, family reunions, taking engagment pics for my sister-in-law, making cool desserts with Erin, and hanging out with friends, I've not really had a moment's time to just veg. There's a lot to be said for vegging out! Don't get me wrong, I'm loving every minute of it, but it's really starting to catch up with me. I'm exhausted!



I didn't mention it here, but I have a new nephew.... he's three weeks old tomorrow. And I got to meet him this weekend. He's just as cuddly and smooshy in person as he is in this pic....

And this is another cool thing. My friend does "paintography" and did our karate pics. And my narcissistic self ordered an 8x10 of the following pic... love it!

Ponderances as of Late....

• What part of "I will not work concessions during my kids' games is so difficult to understand? Instead of asking me for a schedule of said kids' soccer games, I got an email saying that they want me to work Sunday.... during Griffin's game. Nope. Sorry. Not going to do it.
• Chipotle Chicken sandwich from Panera? Yummy!
• I need to run kata every day. My balance sucks!
• My kids will always find something to whine about in the morning. Yesterday, it was because the butter on the toast melted and Erin didn't think she had butter on her toast because she couldn't see it. This morning it was that milk got spilled on Griff's favorite stuffed animals.
• Half a Chipotle Chicken sandwich from Panera? Not enough food, even coupled with a cup of vegetarian black bean soup and an apple....to the vending machine I go later...
• If I'm waiving health care coverage with my company, I find it to be cruel and unusal punishment as well as an invasion of my privacy to have to list my information beyond my name and checking the No box. Yet here I find myself filling out my third or so health care application this year.

busy

so life is crazy busy right now... i've decided that there is no way i could be a rockstar. the next few weeks will leave me with no real time off to just veg. don't get me wrong. is my own fault. but oy! between soccer games, cage fights, going out, i've not had enough sleep. oh! throw in bouts of insomnia, and i'm living the dream.

but it's been fun. life's too short not to have fun and spend time with people who you can laugh with and be stupid with. i'm so very blessed to have a plethora of them in my life.

life's also too short to grow up... am feeling like a college kid with the hours am keeping lately... *winks*

A Busy Past Few Weeks....

...My past few days/weeks have been consumed with karate, celebrating my birthday, and the start of soccer for the twins....

...we'll start with soccer for the twins. I'm excited for them to start soccer because THEY'RE excited. In a moment where I felt a little bad that I didn't do things the same for Collin as I did for the twins, Aaron reminded me that Collin didn't WANT to join soccer. Which then reminded me of a long-ago conversation in our kitchen, telling Collin that he really needed to do something active. What did he want to do? And then I remembered his tearful answer. "I don't want to do anything but stay and hang out with you guys." So we signed his grudging butt up for a season of soccer. He didn't really like it much, but put up with it. Fast forward seven years, and I ask the twins if they want to play soccer. They wholeheartedly and excitedly say yes, and proceed to ask me every day afterward if I've signed them up yet. Then, they ask constantly when their practices and games will be. OK, so now I don't feel as guilty that I've kitted them out with balls and shoes and shin guards. The shoes were like five bucks extra if I bought the ball and shin guards, too, which makes me not feel so badly about kitting them out when we didn't get shoes for Collin and borrowed shin guards. Erin has had her first practice, and LOVED it. She got in the fray and didn't act like she'd never played before. And she told EVERYONE she met what she'd just done and how excited she was to be playing. Griffin's first practice in on Thursday. They practice at the same time, but it turns out that their schedules are polar opposite. So, aside from one weekend that we're going to miss the games for a family reunion, we're going to be stuck in Westfield until the end of October.

...My birthday weekend (I'm 32 now... when the heck did I get this old?? Oh, yeah.. I've been busy being a karate-chopping momma. Time flies....) was largely spent at the big tournament in Indy. I didn't compete, though it turns out that I should have. It would have been fun. But I went to the awards banquet and snagged my awards. Sunday was spent with a fellow karate-ka from my dojo watching the tournament. She wants to compete and it was nice to show her the tournament and what it was all about. Instead of freaking her out, it made her want to sign up and compete. Which makes me excited for the tournaments again. We'll see how that goes.

....Anyway, life is plowing ahead full steam. It's not passing me by, by any means. But boy, am I struggling to keep up sometimes. With the kids involved in as many things as they are (which will calm down after soccer season), I've had to give up some of the things I want to do. The plight of being a momma. *grins* Mostly the thing I have to give up is my karate slot. It keeps happening. But I'm making quite a few classes, and have even been teaching some as the need arises. It's fun, and it gives me a chance to get a brush-up on some of the things that I've forgotten or am not strong in.

....good times. Busy times!

Life As a Zombie...

... the bouts of fitful sleep are not doing my body good. For whatever reason, each night this week (save last night, when I had a drug-induced coma) has been full of restless sleep. I'd sleep for half an hour, only to wake up and toss for another half an hour. In the morning, I'd get up feeling like I hadn't slept at all. For those of you who know me in real life, this is so not good! Thankfully, I was able to catch a good night's sleep last night.

... soccer started this week for Erin. I still haven't heard from Griffin's coach on when his practices and games are. We were supposed to have heard by now. Nope. ANYWAY, we sat our tushies on the sidelines at Habig field and watched Erin with her first practice. She did really well! If there is something she's interested in, she'll go after it whole-heartedly (wonder where she got THAT from?). She got in the fray of girls running after the ball and really did well with it. I was pretty impressed. She was so excited that she went around last night telling everyone. And then she kept asking us when she would go back to soccer. That's a very good sign, indeed!

... we went straight from soccer practice to get our pictures done at karate. Our pictures this year will be like nothing we've ever done before. One of our own karate-ka has her own business in doing "paintography". If you go to her site and page through the photos, there will be one of a boy punching with some kanji on the side. That is what our photos will look like. I'm pretty excited to get them back. I got a picture of all four of us, and then one of each of us separately. Victoria was so excited to take pictures of the adults. She got both another girl and me with our awesome kicks. Hopefully it turns out well!