toothpaste

It happened.  True story.  I had toothpaste on my face and no one told me.
It was Saturday morning at 9 a.m. and 3 moms and a couple of girls from cheer came over to make hair bows.  I woke up late and barely had time to make breakfast for the boys before my friends came over. I made bows with them for 2 and a half hours.  We talked about how none of us were very creative and how the girls were better at this than the moms.  We ate muffins, drank OJ, and munched on some bacon.  NO ONE SAID A THING.

You see...
Friday night, Travis took the girls to the Daddy / Daughter camp out.  I went to bed at 11:30 p.m. after cleaning the kitchen and mopping the floor in preparation for the bow making party in the morning.  I was sweaty, so I showered and put toothpaste on the side of my face where a zit was starting to form.  It is a myth that I have heard before to help prevent zits if you catch them early.  It might not help, but I thought I would try it that night.  I had no one to impress in bed, so why not. 

I took a shower late Friday night, so why shower in the morning, right?  WRONG!  Lesson learned.  Shower just in case there is toothpaste on your face.  DANG!  I can't believe no one told me.   So embarrassing. 

Wailing and knashing of teeth

it's out now and we are all happy

So,  I don't know if you remember, but back in early August when we went to the beach and RHM had a loose tooth.  I told him not to wiggle it.  I was vain and only thinking about his baptism pictures.  I didn't want the hole for the pictures.  Weird.  I know.  Well, that tooth has been barely hanging on for weeks.  His baptism was 3 weeks ago and the beach was 7 weeks ago.  He needed to pull the tooth.

He refused to pull the tooth.  Strange kid. 

Finally I told him he had 3 days to pull it on his own, or at 8 p.m. on Sunday - it would be my tooth to pull.  Sunday night.  I pulled the tooth in 2 tugs.  It was a dramatic build up with 20 minutes of crying and 5 minutes of prying open his mouth, but the tooth ended up falling out of my fingers onto his tongue.  We are glad he didn't swallow it.  This is a night we will always remember.  The night he was afraid to lose a tooth.   Advice for the future :  pull teeth while they are sleeping - less drama. 

Catch her if you can

We attend games and lose our 4 year old, often.  She runs away from us.  She thinks it is a game.

 But once Dad catches her, she is in a little trouble.

 Someday she will be so big and even more willful that it will be impossible to catch her.  Our job as parents is to catch her now, while she is young and try our best to teach her while we can.  I am so glad that she is our baby and youngest.  I don't think all children are THIS strong willed.  She is my daily challenge and at night she is Travis' challenge. 

I thought you would like to see a piece of normal life and not the photo edited positive spin on life.  Enjoy!

You had to be there

 This is one of those stories that I think was funny if you saw it, but I will try my best to re-tell this story and capture the humor of it all.

 My little guy in 3rd grade had his first "MINOR" league practice last night.  He got the talk by his coach about wearing a cup during practice and games.  It was a step up in the baseball league and a big step in a little boys life. 

 My little red head came home and got "the talk" and instructions on how to wear a cup by good ole Dad.  Thank goodness for men in my life. 

I knew all of this was going on, but I didn't think twice about it.  It was just another day to me and I was proud of my big baseball playing son.

The next morning - that would be TODAY - the big kids went to band early and I drove RHM and Sweetie to school around 7:35 a.m.  When we got there a little past 7:45 a.m., RHM ran to the play ground to play with his friends who are in Coyote Club and get out to the play ground first.  He loves to "beat" his friends to the playground so he was a little miffed at me for being past 7:45 a.m.  The bell rings at 8 a.m., so they only get 15 minutes to play. 

My boy immediately ran up to his friend and stood like this:

 And then he KNOCKED, two times on his "cup".  I guess this "cup wearing thing" was a new enough event that our little boy decided to wear it to school and show all of his friends.  Luckily I saw the whole thing and told him to go to the nurse and take that thing off.  I laughed behind his back, but pretended to be mad to his face. 

My little boy is cute. 

AZ EXTREME - girls' softball rocks

 Princess had a game this past Friday night that I missed because of Great Skate.  But I hear good things and that we won! 

 But Saturday night, they played again and I was there to see another great win!  We had a different pitcher, Kayla, and she did great!

 There is my #5.  Great tall girl, but she isn't the tallest on the team this year.  She is rocking the singing in the dugout with the whole team.  Princess loved to chant and cheer for the teammates while they bat and so do most of the girls on this team.  TOO CUTE.  You never hear stuff like this a baseball games.  SONGS get stuck in your head for days.  (Go! Go, go.  Go ya mighty Extreme.  Fight!  Fight, fight.  Fight ya mighty Extreme.  Win!  Win, win.  Win ya mighty Extreme.  Go, fight, let's win!)  You would think these girls were cheer leaders, but don't tell them that.  They are SOFTBALL PLAYERS!

 Sweetie has a group of friends she plays with during the game.  This is Brandon and she loves to "mother" him as much as possible.

Princess takes her turn sitting out. 

 She has made friends and enjoys her new team.

 LOVE the out field, especially when you get to back up first base and save the day!

 Great infielders.  GO EXTREME!

 Good win girls!

Nothing like a little snack on the way home.

life changes in a moment

 after the game...the boys from both teams helped move the soccer goal back to its home in the end zone.

 One of the boys from the other team, fell and broke his foot.  It was a gross compound fracture that Agent J saw.  He was worried.

 911 was called and the Mesa fire department came.

 There were at least 6 firemen around this poor boy.

 You can see the soccer goal and 2 Mesa firemen walk towards the boy.  The boy was pulling at the front of the goal post and most of the others football players were pushing along the sides and back.  He fell and broke his leg and the boys in the back kept pushing the soccer goal.  I saw the whole thing.  Agent J was one of the boys "helping".  Accidents happen all the time.  But this really put life in perspective for our family and our team.

 The boy was crying loud and hard.  I felt so bad.  That could have happened to any of the boys over there.  Now the simple act of helping move a goal was going to effect this football player for months or even years to come. 

 They worked on him for close to 30 minutes on the field. 

 Everyone who was still there on his team, took a knee.

 His teammates were showing the deepest of respect.  It was a humbling site.

 When they finally got the boy on a bed and lifted him up, his whole team clapped.  When they moved him towards the ambulance, the team came and gave him knuckles and fives all around.

 I was moved watching this scene.  This team was really together in their hopes and thoughts for their teammate.

I don't know how the story ends, but this day at this moment I was moved.  Moved to think about life and how lucky I was to watch this special team.  I feel so sorry for the boy, his family and the future healing that will take time and patience.  I hope and pray for that boy's speedy recovery.  I hope and pray everyday that playing tackle football was the right decision for Agent J.  I see him having fun, but I know how quickly life changes and how easily people get hurt.  I know that football was not the cause of this boy's accident, but football is reason I pray even harder on Saturdays!

Game day - Go INVADERS!

 4th game of the season

 #70 made weight easily - He was 2 pounds over!

 He played and had fun and the team even won.

 Dad and RHM walked up and down the sidelines with the game.

 This was just a cool shot of the kicker marking off his steps.

 End of the game.

 Good game guys.

Even though we had a lot of calls against our team, we prevailed.  I would say that it was quite the event.  2 boys (one from each team) was ejected for fighting.  But all in all, we battled back and won.  It was a hot day in Mesa, but a great game to watch.

GREAT SKATE

Teacher and her students saying HI!

Barbara and Leann

Leann and ME

friends of RHM

two more lovely teachers!

great 8th grade parents!

teacher and cheer coach

Mr. Math teacher and his awesome dance partner!  So cool they came to Great Skate!

my carpool girl and her friend

RHM playing a game

RHM getting his prizes

my friends who help with everything on campus!

VAPO President and her youngest, a kindergarten student

THANK YOU to all who came and supported GREAT SKATE!  The 8th grade committee thanks you.  This was a wonderful fundraiser and a great time to have a community par-tay!  Glad a lot of people came and so happy to be a part of this school!  I am not sure how I feel about having an 8th grader.  Can we go back to kindergarten with Mrs. Leach?  Please!

Agent J and his "friends"  ;)