Suzanne Earley

Back to normal

Oh, we were SO ready to get back to a normal routine.  Well, what passes for normal anyway.

See — look how excited Joe was this morning.

Yeah, I didn’t believe that look either.

This looks more like it:

November 1

My sister’s blog shows pictures of unbearably cute Halloween cuteness, and I’ve got:

partially out of focus pictures of a cute kid, but wearing a last minute Halloween costume that wasn’t really his first choice because it’s not complete:  he doesn’t have shin guards.  (The part I thought was funny is that is t–shirt and hat are from the Minnesota Twins.  He was a  TWIN.  He didn’t find it is as funny as  I did.  Especially not when I kept telling people about how funny it was.)

I’ve also got:

a partially out of focus picture of another last minute costume, cobbled together from the Jawa Robe I made several years ago and the mask and gloves from their cousin’s skeleton costume from a previous year.  That robe touched the ground the first year it got worn.

Finally, I have:

a partially out of focus picture of Thing 1 and Thing 2 as Pillowcase Heads.  Aren’t they cute?

So, Halloween is over, time for the next holiday, right?  At least this year, most of the houses they went to gave out good candy.  You know:  chocolate….

Football 2009

Will plays Quarterback quite a bit.  He also does other stuff, but I can’t ever remember for sure what the position names are.

Joe is…a Defensive End? I think?  He really likes hitting people.  And I guess he’s pretty good at it.

They are 0 and 3. It’s pretty demoralizing to lose 53-0, and by the end of those kinds of games, most of the boys aren’t even really trying anymore.  The first two games were against the teams that are probably the best in their weight class.

The last game was only 8-6, so at least they are improving.

Mark is helping to coach, only one of the boys  (not ours) has informed Will and Joe that their Dad isn’t REALLY a coach.  He’s just a ball carrier.

This is the young man that then turned around and told Will that the only reason Will is playing QB is because his Dad is a coach.

In other words, he’s a real rocket scientist.

I have the boys’ football pics from last year taped to my monitor, I guess it’s time to replace them.  They look so much older now, but that might be the hair.  (Last year’s pics are HERE).

Gross, Mom.

The boys find me to be very annoying at times, and I do my best to be as annoying as possible. Often I will demand that they “pay” me in order to go away and leave them alone.

This afternoon, I was sitting with them on the couch, they were trying to do…something…and I kept asking questions and talking to them and generally being obnoxious. Finally I said “I suppose you’d like it if I went away, right?”

I got the “Duh, Mom” look.

“Well, the only way I’m leaving is if I get a kiss.”

They both rolled their eyes, but Will leaned over and obliged. I got up and sat on the arm of the couch, leaning over Joe. He didn’t seem to think he was obligated and tried to ignore me.

I told him he need to kiss me in order to practice for that day when he was 30 years old and wanted to kiss a GURL for the first time.

You should have heard him groan. “Yuck. I’m NEVER going to want to do THAT.”

p.s.  lest you get the wrong idea (and I’m sure no one did, but still, there are stupid people out there…), the kiss was a very quick peck on the mouth.

Inventive

The shop is not the most interesting place for the boys to hang out, but every so often they come up with an inventive way to pass the time:

(Their “ball” is a plastic wrapped ball of yarn, just the right size…)

Joe’s Creature

I showed the Pink Paisley Elephant to the boys last night, and as you can suspect, they were polite, but ultimately unimpressed.

Joe didn’t SAY anything, but my MommyGuilt kicked in and I could HEAR the accusation that was on the tip of his tongue after he asked how long it took me to make the elephant.

It goes something like this:

You can make a Pink Paisley Elephant from scratch in 3 hours, but you can’t finish the softie creature you started making me  YEARS ago?

I’m embarrassed to admit that finishing Joe’s Creature took approximately 20 minutes.  If that.  All it needed was to have the stuffing hole handstitched closed, and the eyes and mouth sewn on.

Joe originally wanted yellow buttons for eyes, but I talked him into the red felt circles.

Joe drew the creature for me.  I simplified it and turned it into this crazy thing.  The head is dotted minkee, the body is green fleece and the appendages are a red flannel.

I’m not sure if it has a name, if it does, I’ll let you know.

And now, I’m feeling my AuntieGuilt kicking in:  I need to finish covering the lampshade that matches Lucy’s quilt.  We were going to do it together, but the weather wasn’t right (I wanted to spray the adhesive outside…) and it’s been sitting ever since.  A year maybe?  Sheesh.  Another project I’ll probably be done with in 30 minutes, tops.

TTFN-

Suzanne

Moving on

As previously mentioned, today was the last day of school.  As you might expect, the boys are thrilled to e out of school for the summer, and are already looking forward to next year:

Our school starts band instrument instruction in the 5th grade, guess what Will is playing next year?  One of Mark’s coworkers had this (and a clarinet for Joe) hanging around that he was willing to part with for cheap.  Both need a trip to the instrument-doctor, the sax needs more work (repadded, a dent, something else…), but their soon-to-be band teacher looked at the instruments and thought they looked like decent instruments that would work well for them to get started on.  The best part is they won’t break the bank.

I’m moving along quite nicely on a sock:

What?  You didn’t know I was making this sock?  Yeah, well, I haven’t been posting much lately, have I?  I actually started this way back before I went to New Hampshire, but then I got stuck on the heel.  It’s a toe-up sock (which I love, I actually ripped out the blue socks I was making and will start over on those, toe-up….but after the red pair is done…maybe…I’m so fickle…).  Turns out that I was making the heel much harder than it needed to be.  The fact that I tried to do it late at night in a hotel room when I was overly tired might have something to do with the problems I was having…

Speaking of making sock heels, I finally put on my big girl panties and tried working on a heel on the circular sock machine.  I ran out of time (I had to get home), but I’m part way through, and while I have a long way to go before I actually make a sock on that crazy machine, I’m “getting it” and I may even have something to show soon.  Or not.

I’ve only got about an inch of the cuff left of that sock, I’m debating about staying up and finishing it…

TTFN-

Suzanne

Look! Green grass!

Oh, and a cute kid plus a dog, too.

Last weekend, Mark got to babysit Wrigley, his sister’s dog.  Does that make him our nephew?

Wrigley got to come over to our yard for several hours and the boys had a blast playing with him.  They were really thrilled that he let them lay down on top of them, and I think that I heard that it was even funnier when he was laying on top of them.  (Katie pretty much ignores the boys and wants nothing to do with them.  Unless one of them is are sitting on the couch, and then she’ll decide that he is her new best friend and jump up to sit on the couch with them…)

Will took this picture.  I have a whole bunch of pictures that the 2 boys took of Wrigley.  Unfortunately, many of them are of Wrigley’s backside, as we was walking away from the camera.

And we won’t even talk about the series of photos in which the poor dog’s privacy was invaded while he was, um, answering the call of nature…

Mark’s been keeping his eye on the swap sheet, looking for just the right dog that needs a good new home.  I’ve given the 3 boys my blessing, but I’m trying to stay out of it.  I’ve told them to go ahead, but they shouldn’t

expect me to fall in love with a new dog.

Yeah, I don’t believe me, either.

Post April Fools

The boys were watching Tom & Jerry cartoons for awhile before going to bed.

While I was trying to take their picture, Katie was whining at me, wanting to jump up into my lap.  By chance I caught her tongue:

Did you have a nice April Fools Day?  I tried to be pretty careful baout what I read online yesterday, I got caught by one blog post on a digiscrapping blog I read.

After school:

Joe: I got 3 marks today.

Me: YOU GOT THREE MARKS IN ONE DAY?!?!?!?!?!

Joe: April Fools!

(They get marks for forgetting things, not turning in homework, etc.  One is bad, 2 is dire and 3 in one week  means a trip to the principal, lunch with the principal, and they don’t participate in the quarterly “responsibility” party….)

He got his Dad too.  I couldn’t watch (my face would have given it away) but I could FEEL the anger emanating from Mark as he got wound up…it was pretty funny.

My evil sister-in-law got me too.  She works at the bank and called me yesterday afternoon.

Evil SIL: Hey, I’m working on overdraft notices and I’ve got one for one of your accounts.

Me: WHAT??!?!?!?!?!?

Evil SIL: Or maybe it’s just April Fools.

I swear, my blood pressure went up about 20 points.

Mark is already contemplating ways in which to get her back.  She should be very afraid.

I finished appliqueing the words on the Life, Liberty & Happiness quilt, I’d show it to you, but it looks just the same as the last picture, just sewn down.  I feel a bit of a let down when I finish a quilt top lately, I don’t know for sure when I’ll get to quilt it (I’m a little bit behind right now) and I really just want to throw it on and get it quilted!

Hairy monsters no more

Saturday morning the boys went from this:

And this:

To this:

And this:

What a relief. (For those of us that have to look at them anyway.)  This was a compromise between the shaggy they want and the buzz-cut Mom and Dad would prefer.  This can BE messy on top, but look cute (handsome?), because it’s SUPPOSED to be that way.

I’m sure Will and Joe don’t think it was a compromise.   I’m sure they think they lost.

One of these days I know I’m going to completely lose the battle for hair length, but apparently I’m more of a controlling Mom than I thought I was.  I told them that if I was paying for the haircut, and since *I* have to look at them, it was this or a buzzcut. (Bumblebee cut as Colin (age 3) said the other day).

What is it with the really shaggy look right now, anyway?  I think the main reason the boys want theirs long and shaggy is because their cousin’s is long and shaggy.  Don’t get me wrong, their cousin is a good kid, but I wish my boys would have their own opinions, and not always do stuff because Ben does.

They annoyance was assuaged a little bit by the fact that we then took them to a basketball game at Iowa State and shelled out $$ for some basketball jerseys for them.

(And thankfully, the Cyclones WON the game…)

TTFN-

Suzanne