Sam's Birthday dinner

Samantha told me she wanted to eat at Sizzle Sticks since that is where the babysitter, Sarah, works. Nice little place in Northville. It is a Mongolian Style BBQ place. This is a great place for experimenting with different combinations or just following a recipe. My two kids are not real adventurous eaters. Sam had a cheese Quesada. Sarah could not talk her into adding chicken or shrimp. Sarah talked Jason into trying one of the printed recipes and putting it into a flour tortilla, like a soft taco. He loved it. I saw him add red pepper! He ate something that wasn’t a hot dog or nuggets! Sarah even picked Sam up a piece of cheesecake for her birthday. It was a neat place and worth checking out again. Sarah sat with us for a large part of the dinner and it was neat to talk with her as we ate. Maybe I can add to the kids culinary palate.

I keep telling them that nuggets aren’t food, just rocks.

It Figures

So after a week of total craziness I finally get a chance to sit. I started out just trying to keep up with Jason’s baseball practice. It was rained out a couple of times and the reschedule interfered with Jason visiting his cousin. On Tuesday the coach’s wife called me at work to let me know she could not get Sam at school (we swap kid duty in the morning and afternoon.) As it turns out the coach needed an emergency appendectomy. This threw another wrench into the practice schedule. (Yes he is doing fine, yes I did ask about him first before I asked about practice.) Wednesday wasn’t too bad and the kids were able to get some time in outside in the sun. Jason’s assistant coaches set up a practice for Thursday afternoon. Cool, I can do that. As I left work my right rear tire went flat as I entered the freeway. More fun. I was able to pull over on a not to hazardous portion of the freeway. My hats off to the monkey that gorillaed the lug nuts on with an air hammer. I bent the lug tool that comes with the van. I, however, did not lose to the lug nuts. 30 minutes later and I was speeding home. Ok not speeding as I had a doughnut tire that was crimping my style. I knew that the spare would only get me so far. I got home and Sam’s friend came over. Lucky for me she went to her friend’s house while I went to Belle Tire and put two new tires on the van. I was panicking the whole time hoping to get home before Jason had to be to his first practice. I wanted to meet the assistant coaches, sign paperwork etc. As it turned out I made it with 20 minutes to spare. Yeah me!

I hear practice was a good one.

I am a lazy blogger

Sorry, I am a lazy blogger. There hasn’t been a lot of good stuff to inform ya’ll on. Chris is up to Rhodes as far as or trip went. Check it out; there are some cool photos there. (http://momdeployed.blogspot.com/)

Work has been hectic since I got back. I have lots of projects and catch up work to keep me moving. I have caught up pretty well but the projects are keeping me busy.

I think I traumatized the dog. At first Abby wouldn’t leave me alone. I figured after a few days she would be back to her old run around and bark at everything self. I can’t go anywhere without her attached to me. I thought two weeks at Lucky Puppy and she would be in heaven. I was wrong. She will jump on the bed and lay on me or right next to me. I had to get up, pick her up and move her so I could roll over. Christine will have to re-establish her place in the pack when she returns.

I need to find a new drop in place for the kids. High Velocity Sports works really well for a couple of days but they are over it. Jason likes it way more than Sam. She isn’t really the soccer player. I need a craft and coloring daycare for her. She wanted me to take her to work with me. She could probably work as well as some of the folks I work with.

Man, this babysitting thing is tough! J

First Week Back

I survived the week back at work. I spent four hectic days putting out fires and trying to figure out what needed to be done, what got done and where my work priorities lay. I made it through the hundreds of e-mails I had and was able to start to make sense of it all. In between times I have been answering questions and telling people how cool the cruise was. Chris has more stuff on her blog so I will direct you there for the details.

I am trying to keep it together and make life as normal as possible for the kids so Jason went to Boy Scouts on Monday, Sam went to gymnastics on Tuesday, Abby went to lucky Puppy on Wednesday and I got to collapse on Thursday. I love the crock pot.

I think the dog is insecure. She hasn’t left my side since we came back. She is happy to see everyone when they come home but she drops in front of me so I can pet her for a couple of minutes. Cute, but a bit much for me.

I got the kids report cards and they are both doing fantastic. I was really pleased to see the marks they both were able to get. I hope they can keep it up as they get older. Next week is Spring Break for our kids. Not bad for them, two weeks in the Med, one week at school, one week off and then 8 weeks and the summer break hits! Next week they will spend time at High Velocity Sports. They have a drop in program that the kids like. We tried it once before and they really enjoyed it.

End of a long week.

Thursday I was able to go grocery shopping and refill the house with food.  I feel crappy and don’t want to cook any of it.  Yea me.  I was more tired than I thought I would be after the flight.  I think all of us are a bit in need of rest.  The kids will be in school Friday which will be good for them.  They can tell stories, catch up and get back to work on Monday.

Happily Sarah was here on Friday morning.  I got to go to work and have 8 hours kid free.  I love those two but I needed a break.  10 days on a boat and I was ready for some kid free time.  Of course I walked into a flurry of “Hey did you have fun? Great, this is broke!”  Oh well, it’s good to be needed.  I got through about half of my e-mails and decided that if it was important they would e-mail or call me again.  Several hundred e-mails are too much to sift through.  I ended up sorting them by name and dealing with just the important folks and then anything that looked urgent. 

Looks like it will be Sam and me for the weekend.  Roger called and wants Jason to come over and hang with Carter.  I figure it is good for the cousins to get to play once in awhile.  Jason’s 10 year old attitude could use folks his age for a couple of days.  He was pretty good on the cruise hanging out with us old folks.

I must be getting old when I am excited to go to bed.

Wednesday, April 6th

We just got back from an incredible vacation.  Christine is a logistics, and planning genius so she set us up with an incredible vacation for her R&R.  She was able to finagle a great room at an unbelievable deal with Royal Caribbean cruise lines.  We went to Rome, hung out for three days and then took off on a 10 day cruise in the Med.  She took detailed notes and wrote about the trip in great detail.  I will direct you to her blog for the trip update.  Hopefully it will be up there soon.

Somehow at 35,000 feet I got a head cold.  The last two hours into Dulles airport were pure hell.  I have not felt that bad in a very long time.  I had a massive headache and I was actually hoping to throw up.  As it turns out I did alright but there was no rest for the wicked.  When we landed I was faced with a massive line for customs, then another huge line for our baggage, then an equally impressive line for another quite unnecessary security screening.  I am telling you the terrorists have won.  Looking at the three empty security lines gave me renewed faith in Homeland Security efficiency.  After stripping, being herded through the x-ray machines, getting redressed and herding two jet lagged and tired kids on to the next flight was interesting.   I had 5 minutes to make the 10 minute walk to our next flight.  Of course our connection was not in this terminal.  It was a train ride away.  We were the last folks to board our flight.  The kind folks at United held the door open a bit longer for us.

As promised a friend of ours from scouting, (Boy and Girl Scouts) picked us up from the airport.  When we made it inside I let the kids have a lovely dinner of old nuggets and chips while I snuck off to Kroger for some milk, creamer and cold medicine.  The 6 hour time difference showed up the next morning when we were all up around 5 and 6 in the morning. 

It will get better.   They have to sleep sometime.