Welcome to My Life of Organized Chaos Where Crazy Eventually Catches up to you!

4/27/07

The Parrot has arrived

It's to the point now where I REALLY REALLY have to watch what I say....because Casey follows behind me in the house repeating just about everything I say.

The most fun has been that she's advancing to 3 syllable words...like her last name. It's kinda funny to hear her say her first, middle and then last name.

Here's a list of some new words she's learned in the last 2 weeks:

  • fip fops (flip-flops)
  • reedlickis (ridiculous)
  • hi-strecl (hysterical)
  • unbeeweebble (unbelievable)

The funniest thing is that I've really tried to stop saying shit or the F bomb... so I just say

UN-REAL

(a lot)

Because now when she can't reach something or she drops something..you hear in her tiny 2 yr old voice from the other room.

"UN-WEEL"

I am the greatest Mother in the world.

4/25/07

Odd One Out

Sometimes I feel like the only person that isn't getting the butt of all the jokes..(maybe because I am the joke, who knows?)

I can have a dry sense of humor..but I'm not as bad as Mr. Roper from "Three's Company" or anything. Jeez. Clue a girl in.

I had a conversation yesterday with one of our friends. Now this is a friend of Jeff's, he's the same age as we are and he has 2 boys that are 7 and 4.

The conversation usually goes something along the lines of :
  • How are you?
  • How are the kids?
  • What's new?
  • How's work?

All the typical pleasantries before I usually pass the phone off to Jeff and leave the room because honestly; I don't need to hear them compare the sizes of the private parts in terms of who is winning this week in FANTASY BASEBALL..no-really; not so much.

However, on this particular day Jeff wasn't home so our friend and I continued on past our normal pleasantries.

He began telling me he bought a season pass to the Milwaukee Zoo that he's going to share with his ex-wife, asking me about my time home, about the move, about Kyle and baseball and talking about a mutual friend that will be moving to Detroit at the end of the month.

Then the conversation turned a little defensive. (Now let me preface this with saying that this guy and I have butted heads several times over the years and I've learned to really just ignore half of what he says for the sake of his friendship with Jeff)

He goes on to say "You and Jeff should really find 2 days to come up to Milwaukee. We'll take the boys to the zoo, maybe go to a Brewers Game. Either a Sun/ Mon or Mon/Tues before August and then I'll come down with the boys in August after you move."

Now don't get me wrong...I don't care if our entire family invites themselves to our house..but when I said "Dave I just don't see how that is going to be possible. Jeff is requesting so many days to not work...because of graduation and stuff that I don't see him getting a request for another couple of days between now and July because July is just out of the question with baseball. July is when all the tournaments start."

His next response is what knocked me right over.

"Well you've left Kyle behind before, couldn't you come without Kyle."

"Dave-it's not about coming WITHOUT Kyle..it's about not seeing Kyle's games-TOURNAMENT games. I don't want to miss any of his games."

"Well Angie, your life can't revolve around Kyle's baseball games."

"Dave, you don't understand yet because your aren't playing sports. What will you do if they play sports?"

"I don't know but I can't imagine turning into that psycho that does nothing but cater to their kids."

CATER TO MY KIDS?

I don't cater to my kids. Ok...well maybe I do a little...but ya know what..Jeff and I look forward to baseball season EVERY year. We LOVE to watch him play, we love to hang out with the parents we've been playing with since the kids were 8----we LOVE baseball. I don't go to the games because I HAVE TO or SHOULD (I still don't get the parents that drop their kids off and drive away...what if they get hurt...sure they are 14 but really now) I go to baseball because I WANT TO. I LOVE to watch him play, I LOVE to be outside.

All of "our" friends and I say "our" because none of these are OUR friends..they're all Jeff's friends from college and their wives..but they all have kids 7 or younger and expect us to just jump up on a Thurs and come to their house for the weekend. We can't do it.

So I just feel like no one understands us and I wonder what we must look like to them. I hate that I care what they think..but I tried NOT to ya know...JUMP down Jeff's throat without a parachute when we got home from baseball last night. Funny that I would have this conversation on a day that Kyle actually had a game.

We get home and Jeff says "that was fun tonight." I said "Yes, it was..maybe you could explain that to Dave" and I proceeded to tell him about our conversation.

Jeff tried to play Devil's advocate saying "Dave just wants to spend time with us, he doesn't think before he says some things."

"and ya know what ...that's fine..but to call me a psycho that caters to her children... as if I'm supposed to dump MY son to go up there and spend time with HIS kids?? How does that make sense? We're the only ones with a teenager...he has ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE how fast his boys are gonna grow up, how fast it goes, HOW much you should grab onto this time when the kids are playing ball and how you can be a part of that. I will NOT apologize for enjoying watching Kyle play ball, nor will I apologize enjoying sitting around with the other Moms and Dads talking about graduation, teacher issues, directions to games, umpires from last week or the difficulty in planning a graduation party with our crazy schedules..because ya know what....THEY get it, They understand, they love it as much as we do. Most of them know exactly how long before it's all over and how precious it is. I am NOT going to explain myself to Dave."

Jeff just shook his head and apologized for what...I'm not sure.

I just feel very sad because 3 other sets of friends will get together and do things on weekends and most of the time we can't go...so I feel like MY son, is tying Jeff down and keeping him from hanging with his friends...and when I said that to Jeff....he got up with tears in his eyes and left the room.

I'm not sure if those tears were because I was RIGHT or I was VERY WRONG...but he went to bed..and again..I sat there in the living room by myself...feeling like the Odd One Out.

4/24/07

My Checkbook is gonna bounce across the street

Well NOT REALLY but it feels that way lately.

In the last couple of weeks with 8th grade graduation around the corner....my son has cost me a small fortune.

We've spent:
  • $145 for regular baseball
  • $195 for Travel baseball
  • $237 at Dick's sporting goods for equipment
  • $18 at another sporting goods store for his baseball socks
  • $10 for a field trip
  • $10 for a Class Shirt
  • $20 for Cap and Gown
  • $20 spending money for the Cubs Game Ticket he won
  • $60 for Six Flags Great America Class Trip Ticket
  • $30 spending money for food at Six Flag
  • $179 on graduation clothes and shoes

GRAND TOTAL: $954

All that was spent IN THE LAST 4 WEEKS

Yes.....my checkbook and ATM cards...are not happy.

(oh and Kellie is going to cry) but thank GOODNESS Jeff won those "Recognizing You" awards at work..because I went and spent an additional $356 at TARGET yesterday. The only difference was $325 of that was FREE money from Verizon. When I showed the girl I had two gift cards, one for $300 and the other for $25 she nearly passed out.

But yeah..I went in to Target on a mission to get summer clothes for the kids.

I spent about $170 on Kyle, about $120 on Casey and another $60 on stuff for around the house. Talk about sticker shock..then I remembered that only $26 of that was actually MY money.

I'm broke and exhausted.

Kids are expensive.

4/23/07

Can I make it up to you?

I know, I know. I get this great new look and then I go off and don't post for a few days. Can I make it up to you with some photos of the childfolk in my house?

Thursday was a day of fun. Jeff had the day off so we took advantage of being home together and ran some errands and were gone in the gorgeous 70 degree weather most of the day. We had to return some clothes, do a supply run and then..we did this...
Casey got her first haircut at a place called "Little Locks" where they cater to kids under 10 with cars for seats and DVDs to watch and toys...and balloons. She looks much more grown up now.
Here she's not really sure what is going to happen.



After it was over she was very excited to drive.


This was Friday morning when Mommy did her hair.



Friday I ran around helping out with my sister that had her treatment on Thurs and wasn't home either.
This weekend...NOTHING but baseball, which is really funny...considering 2 weeks ago we weren't sure how well Kyle was going to do after he took that baseball hit RIGHT IN THE EYE (remember when I mentioned that??) yeah..pretty ugly to see but they won all 3 games they played this weekend so it was a good weekend.
The night he got hit

The next night

This was about 4 days later.


Lastly, as I'm sifting through my recent camera download...I find pictures like this that just make my freaking day.
Happy Monday Everyone!
This was Casey on Easter morning.
Casey and Kyle on Easter
Kyle terrorizing Casey's easter bucket
Then we have Casey in her own hat.
Then I have some of my favorite pictures of the kids ever.
Casey loves when Daddy reads to her