The House

This year the girls and Spitz took over decorating the table we bought at the church Christmas dinner. All the tables at the dinner have a host or hostess that is given a list of items needed for the dinner (candles, salad tongs, etc) and told to gat the table ready at certain times. It makes for a beautiful fellowship hall, and the morning before the dinner, everyone tours looking at all the fabulous decorations. Each table is a work of art created by the individual hosts. Some go all out and have fancy china and little gifts, maybe place cards or candy. Others just buy paper plates and make sure all the necessary silverware is set on the table. But the combination of all the different approaches is wonderful.
For the last few years, I've decorated our table (some years we've sat with our Sunday school class and members volunteered to do the tables; recently we've invited enough family along that we needed our own table). Some years, I've gone all out, but the clean up at the end of the night is extensive when you are hauling home big glass pitchers and tons of china. So, other years, I've done simpler, but tried to still be creative on the decorating. This year, Spitz informed me it was his turn.
The trip to the party store was fraught with arguments. We should not have done it just before dinner; that's the worst time of day for moods. But we finally settled on a blue-green table cloth, red plates, clear cups, red candles, all covered with silver snowflakes. We found an extra touch in some streamer-like snowflake decorations to hang from the ceiling (never seen anyone else hang something from the ceiling - we had to stand out!). We also grabbed enough candy to decorate the centerpiece.
Now, Spitz doesn't do things like this halfway. They decided on a gingerbread house, but we didn't go buy one of those kits with the rock hard gingerbread walls already baked. No. Every inch of this house was homemade. He found recipes on the internet. He sought out powdered, pasteurized egg whites to make the icing hard enough to stand, but still edible. They used Andes mints to give the roof shingles (yummy!). Gum drops were supposed to look like lights. They even made some tree and people shaped cookies to set around the house. It was a work of art.
And at the end of the dinner, we ate it! (-:

Christmas Parties!

Ooops, went a week with no update! That's ... bad. d-:

I didn't get around to posting last week because we were just plumb busy. Had to clean the house to host a Christmas party Friday night for our Sunday school class. We ordered up some Cuban food from Havana Rumba for a change and heated some spiced cider. It was the first party where the kids outnumbered the adults - the basement playroom was a bit crazy. Okay, it was insane down there. We should have given the 2 babysitters hazard pay. Everyone seemed to enjoy the night. The white elephant gift exchange was fun. We ended up with a new toilet seat. Woot!

Oh, and another reason we were busy last week was my birthday. I turned 34 on Thursday. Spitz took the day off work to be with me; no alone time because we have an 11-month-old, but a nice day. We ended it with dinner at an Italian restaurant and a trip to Cold Stone Creamery, my favorite ice cream. It threw the girls for a loop that I had no cake with candles, but I don't really need leftover cake around the house anyway.

Sunday night, we had the annual Christmas dinner at church. I'll have to tell you all about our table tomorrow. I'm heading to bed now.

Simultaneous Oh!

Do other married people earn points in their marriage? (Ooooh, after my title, that sounds really bad! O.O ) My husband and I occasionally use the phrase, "Oh, you earned husband points .." for buying dark chocolate or "Do I get wife points for that?" when I have more socks clean just when he runs out. A good parenting move (diffusing a fight at just the right moment, etc.) also is said to earn "Daddy points" or "Mommy points."

Saturday, just after we'd put the kids to bed, Spitz came up behind me and announced, "You got serious wife points today!"

At first I had no idea what he was talking about. He had just been the one putting the older two girls to bed, and I couldn't think of what on earth I'd done.... Then he reminded me of the conversation I'd had with his mother at dinner. "You said 'simultaneous orgasm' to my mother; and I kind of trapped you into it!!"

I'm reading a Christian marriage book called Sexual Intimacy in Marriage. I borrowed it from a friend who bought a whole stack of books at a weekend marriage enrichment getaway. It's been written by a psychiatrist and family counselor and has some very interesting real-life stories of misconceptions about sex and common issues married couples have. Yada, yada, yada; this is not a racy kind of book at all. I was reading a list of common problems out of the book aloud to Spitz and one was talking about a false expectation a particular couple got from their premarital counseling that screwed them up (that's a technical term, of course) for years. My mother-in-law is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and mentioned that she was meeting someone for premarital counseling.

Spitz made some crack about being careful about what she told them about sex.... I can't even remember how it happened exactly, but all of a sudden, I was stuck telling my mother-in-law that some example couple in a book had gotten the inaccurate impression from their pastor that sex "should" involve simultaneous orgasm.

But, I admit, I could not bring myself to look at her when I said it. I probably lost a few points for that. (-;

Lost Monday

Yesterday, if it wasn't attached to me or screwed down, I lost it.

First, I opened a notice from the bank that said I'd made a deposit that was missing one of the checks listed. (I'd love to say I know without a doubt this was bank error, but I remember seeing Rose pull that deposit out of my purse and grabbing it back from her.)

Then I was preparing to go to the grocery store, had just had the list in my hand, but as I headed for the door discovered it was gone. A quick scouring of the house did successfully find it, but the coupons for Kroger did not turn up until dinner time last night.

When I got to the store, lugged the baby, the 4-year-old, and the re-usable grocery bags in, the list was no where to be found. It never did resurface that time.

Ruth 4.6 had worn in her coat and new pink gloves because it was freezing and snowing outside. Just inside the door, she stripped them off again. I told her to put the gloves into her pockets, but she shivered and decided to wear them. Five minutes later, she pulled them off and tossed them into the bottom of the cart. I moved them and tucked them into her coat as I filled the cart with food. We were almost through the store, just had produce left to go, when I realized that she was entertaining her baby sister (who was laughing uproariously!) by smacking herself in the face with her coat. It was so cute that I had not immediately realized that she'd dumped off the gloves by picking up the coat. One glove was danging just barely on the edge of the cart below Ruth's seat. The other was.... LOST. We walked all through that store searching for that glove. It's a bright pink glove; it should have been easy to spot, but we never did. I finally gave up because I was running short on time to pick May up from school.

As we went through the checkout line, I heard someone say, "I found it!" I looked around fully expecting to see the store employee approaching us with a bright pink glove (not a rational expectation as we hadn't told anyone we were looking for it *shrug*). But no, he was approaching me with a little white baby sock in his hand. He'd been walking around the store looking at baby feet. Rose had lost a sock, and I'd never even noticed it.

Food on the Brain

Continuing on with the spirit of her little Thanksgiving "poem," here is the list of everything we had yesterday.

turkey
gravy
stuffing
oyster stuffing
fruit salad
cole slaw
mashed potatoes
mashed sweet potatoes
sweet potatoes with marshmallows
4 kinds of cranberries (plus a 5th we forgot to get out of the fridge for the meal)
rolls
green bean casserole
pickles and olives
chips and crackers with Fiesta Party dip
apple pie
pumpkin pie
pecan pie
homemade vanilla ice cream
homemade cranberry sorbet
cool whip

Our turkey was a "fresh" turkey. What exactly is a "fresh" turkey? I didn't have to thaw it exactly; it wasn't frozen through. The insides (where the giblets and neck were stored) felt as cold as frozen - cold enough to hurt your fingers - so, how is that "fresh"? Also, it was big. We had 16 people over including 3 young kids (mine) and it was a 19 pound turkey. Lots of leftovers.

Oh, and one of our friends told Spitz the other day that she's never cooked a turkey, ever, because she's scared she'd mess it up. So every year, she orders a turkey from somewhere. I just want to say here and now, turkey is easy. Easy-peasy. The key is to use an oven bag (be sure to buy the really big, turkey-sized ones). You rub a little oil or butter on the bird; put it into the bag. Tie it shut and cut a few small vent holes (so it doesn't pop); set it in a roasting pan and cook. The result is a turkey that is not dry because the bag holds in the juices without having to baste at all. In addition, the cooking time is shorter (I'm pondering that one at the moment; I'm not sure what law of chemistry or physics causes that.). There's no labor involved other than sticking a thermometer in toward the end of the time to verify you've reached 170 degrees.
So, to sum that up: cook the turkey in a cooking bag. You get a yummy, not-dry turkey in less time with less labor.

For our meal, I took care of the turkey, house preparation (we hosted), and pie baking while Spitz made the ice cream and sorbet. It was his family we hosted and before I joined the family, all desserts at all family gatherings were store-bought. My only reaction to that is YUCK. I come from a family where everyone made dessert for gatherings. Usually all at once, so we had as much dessert as non-dessert food. (This is probably related to why many in my extended family are overweight. Hmmm) I cannot stand to purchase dessert when making it myself is so much fun and also tastes so much better. So, I insist on making desserts, especially birthday cakes. It's taken the family about a decade to get used to this. Spitz' mother bought him a birthday cake on his last birthday. I was incensed (not that I'm saying I was reasonable about it). Not only was it my job, not hers, to take care of my husband's birthday cake, she went and BOUGHT a cake! *deep breath* Okay, I'm better. I know that in the grand scheme of life, this is very insignificant. But, back to the point, I enjoy making dessert, so I made a bunch of pies. Wednesday night, Spitz thought up the ice cream idea and I ran out for the ingredients. As a result, we have tons of leftover dessert! What could be better?

May 7.3's Ode to Thanksgiving

turkey. pumpkin pie, stuffing, cookies, beef, mashed potatoes, pie, cherry pie, apple pie, ice cream, corn bread, chicken, pancakes, beans, and turkey

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

We will remember, we will remember
We will remember the works of Your hands
We will stop and give you praise
For great is Thy faithfulness*

When I try to stop and think of all I'm thankful for, I immediately start singing. Whatever song lyrics my mind pulls up, doesn't seem to matter much, thinking of all I have, all I've been blessed by God, makes me want to sing. And I've always felt that singing and crying are just a step apart. When I was pregnant and had that extra dose of hormones running around inside me, I always had trouble singing without crying. I'd be in church trying to sing the hymns as part of the service and doing my best to keep those around me from noticing that tears were running down my face.

3 beautiful little girls
a loving husband
2 cats that are no trouble at all
(<--- I just can't say here that I'm thankful for the dog. Maybe if she learns not to pee on my carpets by next year, she can be on this list.)
a close friend in Cin
the home and other resources we have
Mrs. I, who really loves May and is the best teacher we've had yet

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.**

my health
the improvement in Spitz' back since the spring
seeing Rose pull up to standing
the birth of a new baby cousin
Ruth's question, "What does this say?" as she holds out a page upon which she has carefully written a long line of letters which reads ABCDEFIqitSKITkmR my ABc'SS
hearing May tell a joke
the cry of a waking baby

Well, that cry signals the end of this list. But that's just as well, because I have to stop crying now. And truthfully, the list doesn't have a real end.

* from Tommy Walker's song "We Will Remember"
** from "In Christ Alone" by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

Surprise visit from Grandparents

We visited Columbus, OH this weekend to visit my family. It was a good weekend. We got some babysitting time from Grandma and a chance to go shopping just us grownups. Anyone without kids might not understand how HUGE that is. Spitz and I wandered a mall for about 2 hours and went clothing and shoe shopping for OURSELVES! We had some serious needs. My tennis shoes (that I live in, by the way. I am all for comfy shoes. No gorgeous, but painful shoes for me.) were completely shot; by that I mean they squeaked even when I walked across carpet. Spitz was in dire need of new dress shirts to wear to work. (He'd be in dire need of dress pants, too, but I've found the best way to get those is to order from Lands' End online and get the exact measurements he needs. He's so slender, it's hard to find his size.)
And to top it off, we got smoothies. That solidified that what we were really on was a date. You have to take them when you can get them when you have 3 kids!

Then we came home yesterday and my parents came too - a last minute plan to our happy surprise. My mother and I made pie crusts to freeze in preparation for Thanksgiving. Homemade crusts are sooooo much better than store-bought ones. May and Ruth had a great time mixing the left over bits with sugar and cinnamon which we'll bake in the morning for their breakfast. That part is a new experiment; hope they are edible!!

25 Times the Love

I have 9 daughters named May (one of them is named Emily) and 7 daughters named Ruth. They tell me now that we have 8 puppies named Peanut.

Yes, my girls have built a duplicator. It was simple really. All it took was a big empty box, some crayons, scissors, paper and glue. And let me tell you, the efforts they undertook to duplicate the dog were quite entertaining. At one point, Ruth 4.6 was luring the dog closer by dangling a ribbon out in front of her and then trying to toss the box on top of her before she escaped. And the box is bigger than Ruth is. Spitz was hiding his face as he lost his composure and laughed at her.

Seriously, for the last few days, May periodically disappears and returns in a bit in a different outfit and says that she is Duplicate Number 4 and asks "What was May working on before she left?" She's come up with all their names (one is Liandra). They each have a number.

And now we have more dogs than we know what to do with!

Brrrr

I was right. It was FREEZING. Really, the timing was very unfortunate because last weekend was sooooo beautiful; we could have really raked in the cash last weekend. But yesterday, I was having trouble making change for people buying tickets because my fingers were so stiff from cold. No one wanted to hang out in bouncies (with no shoes on!), although the kids seemed to mind it much less than the adults. No one wanted to get tattoos because they didn't want to expose skin! Fortunately, the chili and the craft booths were inside, but overall attendance was undoubtedly poor compared to a warmer day.

I've just now finished thawing out! I came home and helped put kids to bed. Then I couldn't keep my eyes open and went to bed at 9:30.

Busy Little Bees

This weekend is a fall festival for both May and Ruth's schools. They go to different schools, by the way. May 7.2 goes to a private Christian elementary school, while Ruth 4.6 attends a Montessori school for preschool. May also attended a Montessori school for preschool and kindergarten before switching to her current school.
The Montessori method is really awesome. Instead of leaving your child to play with toys, color with crayons and learn silly little songs, your child can spend her morning learning to wash dishes, sweep, read, manipulate objects with mathematics implications they don't even realize they are learning. The children are given responsibility to find their own work, practice their own work, clean up their own work, and even teach other children how to perform the work. Multiple ages are in each room (3-5 year olds, for example) so that they can learn from each other. And I use the word "work," which is also the term the teachers use, but the children love it. It's not a burden at all. They take a tray to a table or set it out on a rug on the floor and move colored water from one container to the next using a little dropper (teaches proper pencil grip). They use beads or little round plastic circles to lay out a pattern that ultimately teaches what odd and even numbers are. They taste test foods that preschool-age children rarely eat. They learn songs (yes, of course, some fun little silly ones because they are kids after all) both fun and with lyrics that teach them the names of continents. They learn the sounds letters make and have fun tracing them in sand. They polish rocks or wood, learning how to remember and follow sets of instructions to complete a task. Basically, the room is full of little activities, books, projects, that are all fun for a child to do, but secretly teach something interesting.
Ruth is constantly (and May did this too) popping out sentences that you would never hear come out of a non-Montessori trained child. None of which I can think of at the moment, but this is an ongoing blog which will undoubtedly have many posts about so-and-so "saying something hilarious today!"
So, why is May in a Christian school rather than Montessori (because, yes, the Montessori school goes up to 8th grade and the learning and projects completed at elementary levels are just as impressive - more like a younger version of college with all it's independent work/research/presentations)? At the end of her kindergarten year (a time when she'd face transition anyway out of the 3-5 room and into the 1st-3rd grade room), we opted to move her to a Christian school. She is incredibly bright and will learn anywhere, and so we decided that in the grand scheme of life, having an education based in God's word and surrounded by staff that love God and model that love to our daughter was more important than all the benefits (or maybe a better word is differences) a Montessori school offered over the Christian one.
Back to my original intent for this post. We have a festival today with inflatables, concessions, silent auction, craft bazaar, games, face painting, etc. Then tomorrow we have another festival with inflatables, games, tattoos, chili supper, craft booths, etc. And, after a week of 70 degree weather, these 2 days have a high of 50 degrees. Brrr! I'm volunteering for an hour today and for about 5 hours tomorrow.
I predict a stress headache on Monday.

All of Us

Ok, I had to find one that included Spitz. (-:

Halloween

Well, we had a busy weekend starting with Halloween. I'll see if I can't dig up a picture for this. May and Ruth were dressed as the co-stars of the newest Barbie movie, The Diamond Castle. They were in fancy dresses, tiaras, and heart necklaces; Princess Liana and Princess Alexa deserved no less. Oh, and Spitz was dressed as one of the male counterparts from the movie, Jeremy. (He looked like he was wearing a pirate costume less all the pirate-y parts like the weapons and eye-patch -- which he was.)
Rose 0.10 was a cute little pink bunny rabbit; the costume was worn by May 7.2 back when she was just 1.2. I decided to match her by finding an adult bunny costume. Fortunately, I was just looking for ears, not a full costume, because the adult bunny costumes (and they are plentiful) are not PG. In fact, there are very few female adult costumes that aren't a bit scandalous, not to mention sized for skinny women. Anyway, I did find a set of ears, tail and gloves. When the gloves turned out to have about 2-inch fingers, I pitched them, but the ears and the little pin-on puff-ball tail were just perfect.
The night was beautiful, near 70 degrees, perfect for lots of neighbors to be out and sociable. Ruth didn't make it too far before the bag was too heavy for her and she wanted to come home, so Rose and I walked back with her while Spitz and May continued on. Grandma and Grandpa were holding down the fort at home, handing out the candy.
May and Ruth were allowed to eat to their hearts' content until bedtime. Spitz and I topped off the night with the Heroes season 3 opener which we had DVR'd and just gotten up to (finally finished season 2). [Total side note: O.O what were they thinking with this season? Ack! ]

Edit: Added the photo - It's Ruth, May, Rose & I and also Spitz' sister (the gypsy).

Update

We did go to Cookie Cutters this afternoon because her teacher agreed with me this morning that it really did need cut in the back. Both her teacher and my sister-in-law used the word "mullet" without my mentioning it. That convinced me something had to be done!

Now, she really does look cute. But the 12-inch corkscrew honey-blond curls were beautiful.

*Sob*

It was so soft. Honey colored and soft. I held it in my hand and fought tears as I slowly dropped it into the kitchen trash. Four and a half years it took to grow, and my husband found it in a pile next to my daughter Ruth when he got home from work. She was holding the scissors and looking guilty.

I knew something was wrong the way he looked around the corner of the door at me as I nursed baby Rose up in her bedroom. He looked almost fearful. Seeing what I was doing, he started to close the door over, but I quickly assured him that Rose wasn't going to sleep. She'd just wanted to cuddle a bit. His first words were, "She's already in time out for it...."

I rushed down stairs, and saw her. What was left of her. All the beautiful, 12-inch-long curls gone from both sides of her head. I was so appalled. "Daddy already talked to me about it!"

Cookie Cutters was still open, but completely booked for the night. We went to Fantastic Sam's. Ruth had been crying for the last hour before we got there because she was so upset that we had to cut more and that she would no longer be able to wear a ponytail. (I thought of the first French braid I'd put in it just last Saturday and the excitement with which I'd been looking forward to doing it again, only better with practice.) Somehow the lady at Fantastic Sam's convinced us that we could leave the long back, just feather the sides and even it all up. I was less than pleased with the results. Mullet, I just keep thinking. We'll probably be going to Cookie Cutters soon to fix it.

*sob*

Start Your Engines!

Yesterday, Rose 0.9 crawled for the first time! For the last month, we've been telling people, "she's about to crawl. She is sooo close!" For the last week, I've seen her periodically getting in the correct position, up on hands and knees, but then after a few seconds of seeming like she wasn't sure what happens next, she would collapse. Then for the last couple of days, she would find that position and rock forward and back just the tiniest bit.
We were at ballet yesterday, waiting while May danced. Another sibling of a dancer was running a fancy white toy car around and Rose wanted it. So, she pushed herself up and with 4 cheering moms watching, crawled about a foot and a half. One mother, who was more prepared than I, dove into her purse and grabbed a digital camera. She said she thought she'd caught a little bit of it and will hopefully email it to me.
By the end of last night, Rose was going a few feet here and there, still looking shaky and uncertain and slow, but accomplishing the task anyway. By the weekend, I bet she'll look as if she's been crawling for months (if she isn't pulling up or cruising!).

DDR is Life!

Give the crowd some eye candy!
I love DDR. (Nope the picture here has NOTHING to do with the post. I'm just experimenting and having fun. This was Rose about 3 months ago. She looks a lot older now at 9 months. But she is still a cutie.)
So, like I said, I love Dance Dance Revolution. I'm getting pretty good at it. Super Samurai is crushing me, but I try it two or three times every morning, and I've gotten it down to 20 Boos. Yay! Then I switch to workout mode and songs that I can handle pretty well.
It's pretty good exercise, too. That's another big reason why I do it, since baby weight always seems to come off of different places than it went on. (I'm back to my pre-Rose-pregnancy weight, but still have more of a tummy than I used to. Where did it come from? Ack!)
Spitz played DDR with me for a while. But since he found out about his herniated discs, he's supposed to stay away from impact activities. So I dance all alone with an infant audience until she gets tired of watching and demands attention. Actually, there's usually a middle stage in there where I add a slow song and dance with her in my arms. Then we both decide it's time to stop.
Spitz and I have taken dancing lessons in the past and really enjoyed it. Nothing like DDR; we've done a bunch of ballroom dancing. In fact, I think we both intend to take it up again once Rose is old enough to leave with babysitters/child care rooms easily. Last night we ran into our old ballroom dancing instructor, Phil. He was an awesome instructor, a bit intimidating, but cute (of course, that's a very important trait in someone you end up dancing over and over with! lol) We were at Target, and he came up and said hi. We talked long enough to find out he gave up dance instruction (after like 20 years of it) because he wanted a more steady paycheck. Now he's a mall security guard. Something about that is so, so very sad.

Naming Convention

Ok, I've decided on names for my family. They come from various places (no, Karya is not my real name) to protect my family's anonymity. The other naming convention you might notice is the version number that will sometimes accompany a child's name. It means years.months of life.
At the moment, I have May 7.2, Ruth 4.6 and Rose 0.9. I won't use the numbers after the adults. Who really cares how old we are anyway?

In case you wondered about the nicknames I mentioned earlier (Recheetah and Stickapod), I'll have to tell you where those came from, too. Maybe later today. But right now, the whirlwind morning is about to start, and if I don't go get in the shower immediately, I'll have to live without it until about noon. Off to the races!

Paperbackswap.com

Someone told me of this site just a few weeks ago and I'm really enjoying it. You can create an account, list all the books you have that you are willing and interested in trading to other folks, and request books that other people have listed. It is entirely free to join (right now - they warn that they may have to charge a fee in the future, but they guarantee any new member at least 12 months free at the moment). Once you list 10 books you are willing to swap, the system grants you 2 credits for free just for joining. Then you browse the approximately 2.5 million books that are posted on the site and pick what you want. The individual who listed the book is then contacted to send it off to you via US Post Office media mail. (about $2.23 on average) Once you report receiving that book, the sender gets a credit to order another book from someone else.
The only money you pay out is the postage to send books that someone requests from you. When that happens, you earn a credit to order a book from someone else.
This is a great system of sharing books around with other people and finding books you want at a really reasonable cost. Granted, the books you post need to be desirable or no one will ever order books from you. (If no one orders books from you, your account never earns credits to order other books.) Oh, and if you care to use cash, credits can be purchased for $3.45 each as well.
Since this whole system requires participation, I'm telling my friends! I've actually seen the number of books posted in the system grow in the last 4 weeks that I've been using it, so the word must be getting around.
(Oh, and they have related sites for trading DVDs and other stuff. The credits can be used on any of the sites, I believe.) (-:

Before I go

One last brief comment.
Now that I'm posting here again, I feel like I ought to ask people to read it. I mean, why spend time writing if no one will read and give comments, right?
Can I get up my nerve to let others know it exists? Would that change what I write - knowing I'd have an audience?
Hmmmm.

Runaround Saturday

Every Saturday has felt like a race recently. How can so many people have given birth in the month of October? We've been to so many birthday parties recently! Oh, and throw in 2 soccer games each Saturday and a Halloween party last week. Saturdays have been completely eaten up.
As a result, our house and yard look the pits, and our puppy has had several accidents in her crate because she just can't last the lengths of time we've had to crate her. Poor girl. And poor me because I've gotten to clean up dog pee twice today. (The perks of having a puppy! Woot!) *sigh*
But, I'm happy to say that the soccer season ended today. That in itself is a joy because our girls have a track record of always getting placed on YMCA soccer teams that will be creamed, crushed annihilated every week. (I know we aren't supposed to keep score, but it's hard to miss that we've lost when our team only makes one goal the whole season!) And I know it may not seem that their mother is a reliable source for this kind of assurance, but I assure you it's not because of their playing. They aren't too bad, and are definitely learning and improving each season. Somehow we are always on the team with several underage kids, or several completely non-athletic kids, or something.
R was actually one of the 2 best players on her team this season. I think she was maybe one of only 2 seven-yr-olds on her 6-7 year old team. That may have had something to do with all the losses. The team really needed an aggressive 7-yr-old to take the ball down the field. The 2 best players this season (including R 7.2) were both awesome defenders.

Ok, now that I've totally rambled, I have to go get ready for tomorrow's Sunday School lesson that I'm helping to teach!

LOL Archiving Failure

Well, I sure have been a failure at keeping this up to date. I am going to revive this blog. Again. There are 3 little girls now, so I have some doubt about my ability to do find the time. But I have diaries on a shelf from my entire life. It feels wrong not to be keeping a record of the things I live through so that some point in the future, I can read it and laugh. Or cry.

I'm a bit more concerned with anonymity now than I was, so I won't use real names. I'm trying to come up with nicknames for the girls since that would be nicer than just using initials. All I can think of right now is Recheetah, Stickapod and Boo, but those are sort of long. I'll ponder that.

I might have a first real post later today, but since we have 2 soccer games (the last of the season) and a birthday party to attend....