Breakin' da rules

Rules were meant to be broken right? Well I'm pretty sure some rules are being broken here.

Here's the pictures of the kids from yesterday.

"I have just met you and I love you"

Last night we surprised the kids by picking them up and taking them to see UP at the movie theater. Now, you'd think they'd be thrilled about this but they were just an eensy bit disapointed because they couldn't go on the trampoline right after school. They got over it. The movie was so awesome. I really, really enjoyed it and so did the kids and Joel.

This morning I took the kids to get their pictures taken professionally. I was really impressed. I haven't had this done in almost 4 years. The pictures turned out so good I was actually a little choked up, I'll be honest with you. I paid to have them emailed to me so I can show them off. I can't wait...the email should be here within a day or two.

Today is a busy day. Dylan has a game and then we're having softball practice and then a taco feed for the softball players. Woot. It's the perfect weekend. It's hot and we have a new sprinkler and a trampoline!!! See what just happened here...I farted fairy dust I was so happy.

Tramp Fest

First of all, yesterday was Michelle's birthday and I forgot to mention it. I knew it because I sent her a text and a Facebook comment, so I didn't forget...I just forgot to put it here and if it's not here, it doesn't exist. Happy birthday Michelle!! I hope Vegas is treating you well :)

We picked up the trampoline last night (finally). After waiting in the Site to Store area forEVER for someone to come help us out with it (technically we didn't need help...yes it was 165 pounds, but they really just wanted an employee to escort us out with it since it was on their fancy dancy cart). Since the Site to Store area is right next to the toy section, I saw Papa over there and he offered to escort us out with it, so we did eventually get out of there. Wal Mart employees are very anxious to ASK you if you need help but few seem willing to actually help. So thank you Papa for helping us.

In past years and experiences, Joel and I don't do well with the "putting together" of things, which is why we try to do it when the kids aren't around. Things get thrown. Yelling occurs. Sometimes someone quits. The last few times we have had to put something together, it actually went rather well. We've developed a system of sorts. I read the directions and then direct him on what to do and he does it. This is the way it has always worked, the only difference between then and now (this is my theory anyway) is that he now listens to what I say. When I first read the directions it said that you needed "Three people in reasonably good shape." I said "Together we're barely one person in reasonably good shape." And yet, we did it anyway...

It took about 2.5 hours to get the trampoline and the net put up. We were pretty proud of it. I got to be the first jumper. My dad had the kids last night and they got home right as we were about to put the net up. Dylan ran over and got his friend Jessica to come jump too.

It's almost 8:00 in the morning and the kids are both out there already jumping. I'm going to get them a sprinkler today.

Dylan and Jessica jumping

Dylan showing off (haha)

Maddie found happiness in the boxes

She did eventually get her turn

This picture was taken a few days ago. She said it's a "family portrait"

This is the house Joel's building right now. It's quite a monster.

It's a good old fashion butt kicking

Yesterday I accompanied Maddie on her class field trip to the beach. It was a lot of fun. It was perfect weather - not too hot and not too cold. I didn't bring my camera because Joel brought it to work a few days ago and hasn't brought it back yet.

Last night Dylan had a game and he got hit in the back by a pitch. It left quite a bruise. Of course I don't have any pictures. He walked his second time up too. They lost 10-2, it was pretty brutal. There was some serious umpire drama that I was really glad to not be a part of. The umpire made a call, which from where we were sitting...he was correct. From where the other people family members from our team were sitting, they felt he was wrong. So there was a lot of yelling. One of the assistant coaches got kicked out. One of the moms was yelling at the moms from the other team. It was a fiasco. For the love of God, it's just baseball. That call didn't change the game even a little bit. We still would have lost. Dylan caught a fly ball in center field and was pretty pumped about that.

I started the 30-Day Shred with Jillian Michaels this week. She's kicking my ass big time. I figured I had about 30 days until softball starts and I'm literally in the worst shape of my life. I know people who have gotten good results from this and so I decided to give it a whirl. Dylan and Maddie are doing it too. It's a great workout and I feel really great doing it. Everytime I think about quitting or not doing it, Maddie says "you can do it mom". She's my own personal Jillian. Actually, she's more like Bob because Jillian would say "DO IT!"

This morning Maddie was mad at me about something stupid (shocker, I know). She said "You don't even know I'm talking about...did you even graduate high school?" I promptly pointed out that she hasn't even graduated kindergarten yet so maybe she should rethink who knows what.

Parenting Handbook

When find out you are going to have a baby you usually buy a few books like What to Expect When You're Expecting and maybe some books about how to take care of a baby. There are shelves and shelves of books at the bookstore about how to be a parent, but none of them are truly complete.

Here are some things I would like to see added to the Parenting Handbook. Things they don't tell you before you have kids.

• It is possible to tune out your own childs whining, but not another child. I think it's something passed through the umbilical cord.
  
• Your children will have the ability to break your heart without even saying anything at all.
  
• You should enjoy the days when you can buy clothes for your kids and they will wear them without complaint.
  
• Telling your child "Because I said so", although true, is very ineffective.
  
• Food sometimes is not just a necessity to live, it is also a cure for boredom.
• The people who tell you that you should never bribe your children have never actually had a child like mine. I hate those people.
• It is amazing that more boys don't survive to see their 12th birthdays because they use their mouths way more often than their brains.
  
• You will not listen to every word your child says. Nodding and saying "uh huh" will work wonders when sometimes, you just don't really care about Barbies for the 10th time that day.
  
• The glare from a 5-year-old is sometimes so sharp it hurts.
• What your child says they want may not actually be what they meant. You should clarify to avoid all sorts of arguments.
• The parents who feed their kids vegetables that I have never even heard of are not the best parents in the world...they're liars.
  
• The parents whose child is perfect and doesn't ever do anything wrong isn't raising a perfect child....they're smoking crack and on the verge of a mental breakdown.

New layout

I felt like getting rid of the old and getting something new and pretty. I love purple. I haven't added my blog list yet, but I will - Dylan is chewing at my heels to have some computer time and Maddie is whining that I haven't colored with her in like 4 seconds so I have to go.

Lost: Maddie's mom

Maddie is sick and she's tired. She isn't sleeping well and she got up at 5:00 this morning. I took her to the doctor first thing this morning to find out that there isn't anything wrong with her. Not infection-wise anyway. She has acute pharyngitis, which is a fancy way to say she has a really bad sore throat. I told her she should maybe stop talking for awhile and that would help. I'll let you know how that goes, but I'm sure you can imagine.

I made a snap decision today to go to Silverdale after Dylan went to school because Maddie is in desprate need for night gowns. The ones she has are 3T and 4T and my big girl wears at 7/8 so you can see her panties in everyone of those night gowns. It drives Joel batty. Wal Mart here in Poulsbo doesn't have crap for night gowns so I went to Target. I hit the jackpot there. I could have bought 10 of them but I limited myself to 3. I let Maddie sort of pick them out, but of course I had the final say so.

On the way home she was hungry even though she was literally eating Goldfish as I was driving so I stopped by McDonalds since it was lunch time after all. Considering she was already eating as I was ordering, I only ordered a 4 piece chicken nuggets. Holy mother of GOD what was I thinking. She cried in the backseat for 7 straight minutes because I didn't order a 10 piece. Did I mention she's been up since 5:00 a.m.? Did I mention she has a raspy throat? So instead of pulling over leaving her on the side of the road while I drove away screaming MOMMY'S FREE - I ignored her and turned up the music. I could hear her mumbling in the back seat. She was saying "I want my mommy".

So if you find this woman that she calls "mommy" let me know, because Maddie is looking for her.

Rainbow poop

Maddie is sick. It's a weird sick. When I sent her over to Mam's house on Thursday she had been complaining for about 2 days of a sore throat and a headache. I figured it was allergies. She came home Saturday and she was still complaining of it. Last night she started complaining of ear pain and her throat has been so sore that her voice is scratchy. She didn't sleep well last night and I got up to take her to the doctor this morning, but of course they're closed because of the holiday (duh).

She was off and on all day long, but I still am going to take her to the doctor tomorrow. It is probably allergies, but you never know. She hasn't had an ear infection in 4 years (yay) but it never hurts to double check. She hasn't had a runny nose or anything, but she has been sneezing and a little congested off and on.

Even though it's Memorial Day, I still had to work of course. When I logged on I got the "No Jobs Available" message. This is typical for a holiday, which sucks because we get paid time and a half. The policy is that you can either take the day off with or without pay (given you have vacation time), make the time up later or wait the day out and do the jobs as the come up. I decided to do the latter. It worked in my favor because probably most of the people who logged on today chose to take the day off so I ended up having no problem getting jobs all day long and had a very good line count, which will be nice on payday.

Joel BBQ'd chicken and burgers for dinner. We are really enjoying our new BBQ - me especially because I no longer have to cook every night.

The weather has been awesome. I really can't complain about that. I can't really complain about anything so I get to be one of those people. Life is fantastic. I love everyone and I poop rainbows. Cheers.

Over and out

The Casino wasn't generous to us on Friday night. Joel didn't gamble much, but he lost everything he did gamble. I gambled and didn't lose anything.

Yesterday we had my favorite family The Snelson's over for a BBQ. It was so much fun. Quinn is talking a lot now and he says the cutest things. He hurt Maddie and Rachel wanted him to say sorry, but he didn't. Later he walked up to her and said "Sorry now". It was so cute. It was my favorite moment of the day. Well, almost. After they went home, Rachel came back and picked me up and we had a LADIES NIGHT. It was so fun. We didn't do much. We went to the casino and listened to a not so great band play and dropped some money into slot machines and never saw it again and watched some ladies who were much too old for their outfits dancing like a couple of teenagers. We got carded by a 12-year-old security guard too. Okay, he wasn't really 12, but I was so excited about being carded I almost pinched his cheeks and tickled him.

I didn't get home until 12:30 and I'm pretty tired today, but it was totally worth it. Hanging out with Rachel is always the best, even if we're just doing nothing.

Random and Weird

Our anniversary was great last night. We went out to dinner and it was delicious and I didn't spill anything on my. We stopped by the gas station and bough each other scratch tickets and I won $30 and Joel won nothing. Then we went home and played cribbage and I skunked him big time. He had a softball game last night at 9:30 and they won, so at least he didn't feel like a total loser.

A few weeks ago I bought this. Joel always says I have "man feet". I figured I'd give it a try. What can go wrong other than shredding my feet to pieces? Well, it does work. My feet are still a long way from being womanly and beautiful, but at least they look better than a cave man's and wearing flip flops is about 10% less gross than before.

American Idol: YAY Kris!! I don't feel bad for Adam, he's probably in the studio today recording his first album. I was so weepy when David Cook was singing. How could you not be?

Allergies have take over Dylan again. He had a major bloody nose last night. He's been really good about taking his allergy medication every morning but I might have to find something for nighttime. Benadryl works, but it kind of dries him out, which doesn't help for the nosebleeds.

Dylan has a game tonight and after wards the kids are going to Mam's house until Saturday. They're excited. Maddie more than anyone. She wrote a note yesterday that said "I can't wait for tomorrow". She did it all on her own. She even spelled tomorrow almost completely correct, she just missed an "r".

The trampoline should be here soon, sometime between tomorrow and next Friday. I'm hoping for sooner than later.

I'm bummed that NBC cancelled My Name is Earl. It's one of our favorite shows. I was so upset that I had to run and check on my very favorite show, How I Met Your Mother, and it's renewed for another year...YAY.

Love and Marriage

Today Joel and I are celebrating 9 years of marriage. Last night Maddie asked how many years and I said "9" and she said "Um, don't you mean 11?". She's too smart for her own good. Dylan needs to stop teaching her math. So I had to explain to her that sometimes people have babies before they get married. Tonight we will probably go out to dinner if my dad gets the kids but that is never a sure thing until the last minute. We're not truly celebrating until this weekend though. We're going to the casino on Friday night! WOO

Yesterday I tried out a new dinner on my family. It was meatloaf. I have a serious aversion to meatloaf, so I tried Turkey Mini-Loaves. Maddie actually really liked it. Dylan hated it with every fiber of his being. Joel and I were both indifferent. There wasn't a lot of flavor to it.

Of course we watched American Idol. Karla's vote went to........KRIS. I know I've been pretty vocal about loving Adam all season (and I still do) but I think Kris stepped up his game and showed that he really wants this. Adam is going to be a star no matter what. He's got what I like to call "The Daughtry Skills". For the first time ever, I think whoever wins really deserved it.

So we'll conclude this post with some old pictures. Our wedding. As Maddie reminds me daily, I am not a fancy girl. We got married "Karla Style". We both looked so young. Especially Joel. Not that he looks old now, he just looks so young there.

Rainy Games and Mondays

Dylan had his first game last night in 10 days. He missed one because of a Mariner game. 2 minutes after Maddie and I showed up to watch it started to rain. Then it started to POUR. Maddie and I were sitting on Joel's tailgate with Jay and we were soaked and miserable. So we left at the top of the 4th.

They ended up winning 8-0 and Dylan got a hit and tagged a kid out at 2nd base. I missed all of that :( Oh well, at least it happened, right?

It's raining again today and I just keep reminding myself that the rest of the week is going to be nice. Just get through the day and you'll be fantastic.

A One Time Concert Event

I have a lot to catch up on

I haven't blogged since Thursday and there are five very good explanations for this (yes, five)

1. Three days off (well, 2 3/4, you'll understand in a bit.)
2. Sunshine. It was a gorgeous weekend. If the rest of the summer was like this, I'd be a happy, happy woman.
3. Viking Fest. We technically only went down there once on Friday night but that does qualify as an excuse.
4. Hanging with an old friend.
5. Internet outage.

Let's start with number 5.

Sometime on Saturday while I was busy with number 4, my internet went down. It didn't come back up again until Sunday evening. Of course, I work from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Sundays. After several phone calls I was able to be excused from work for the day (like there was a choice). When my internet came back up just before 6:00 I worked the rest of my shift. Why would one do such a thing one asks? Well, because I had to move whatever hours I missed yesterday to Friday, which is one of my days off. The less hours worked that day, the better.

Now for number 4. Way back in the day I had a friend. We like peanut butter and jelly. Okay on their own, but spectacular together. As many people do, we grew apart and many years went by without any contact whatsoever. She is now married with 4 stepchildren and 1 very beautiful daughter named Madelyn (yea, that's right, same name). She and her husband and daughter were in town for Viking Fest. When you see someone again after all this time, it's very difficult to gauge how things will be...have you grown into two very different people? Well, the question was answered. It seemed as though we fit back into each others lives like there was never a gaping hole. Yes, we've both changed drastically in many ways, but this weekend was like putting on an old pair of jeans you'd forgotten about and realizing how comfortable they were. We spent quite a bit of time together this weekend and I got to know her daughter and her husband and I really enjoyed them as well. As you know, I don't like other people's children. Little Maddi (I call her that because I have Big Maddie, lol) is this tiny little ball of happiness and personality. I don't think I've ever seen so much personality in such a tiny little person.

Now for number 3...We took the kids to Viking Fest on Friday night and let them ride the rides. I took pictures and promise to post them soon. Don't ask me to define soon.

Number 1 and 2 are self-explanatory.

Now onto this week. It's a busy one. Dylan has two games. Maddie is now done with soccer. I'd thank everyone who came to her games to cheer her on, but I already thanked her.

All's well that ends well

So Dylan is back to normal. It was the weirdest illness I've ever seen. I've never seen him quite so sick and then he's fine. Just completely fine. I kept him home today anyway of course.

Maddie had an accident at school. She fell off a chair and hit her head. Only a daughter of MINE could do something like that.

Nothing else special. Just another day in my world. Take it or leave it. I am looking forward to the upcoming days of sunshine. WOOT

Time to break out the Purell

Dylan is really sick. Like really sick. Like come home from school and fall asleep sick. He's been in bed since the minute he got home from school. He's been doing a combination of sleeping and moaning and then sleeping. He spent some time in the bathroom, too.

So say a prayer for Dylan. I'm a little concerned. He doesn't look good at all.

I know what you're thinking

and no I did not disappear of the face of the earth. I realize it is completely unlike me to go more than 1 day without blogging, but I've been busy. I swear. I just can't remember exactly what I was busy doing.

Last night we bought the kids a trampoline. We bought it online and it should be here within 7-10 days, which is like an eternity for the kids. We have been tossing around the idea for awhile. We've been looking at pools too. Not just kiddie pools but big pools you can put a filter in. That just seemed like such a waste of money. How often would they really use it??? Rarely. One of their favorite things to do when it is hot out is go to grandpa's house and jump on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath it. Every summer we take the kids somewhere - usually the ocean. This year we had decided to go to Seaside/Astoria/Cannon Beach. Well we told the kids that they could have the trampoline or the trip. They enthusiastically chose the trampoline. Duh. So that's what we did. We told them if they get good grades at the end of the year we'd go somewhere anywhere, probably just somewhere local like Seattle or something and stay in a hotel that has a cool pool. That's all they really care about anyway.

Last night we put Maddie to bed at 8:30, which is typical. Sometimes she doesn't go to bed until 9:00 but we can usually tell when she is tired. She seemed tired. We put her down at 8:30 and at 9:30 we find her sitting on the stairs watching TV with us. Nice. That was a whole hour she was not sleeping. So we got her back to bed and 10 minutes later she was up again. So we put her back to bed. She finally fell asleep. As you can imagine, she's pretty cranky today. She woke up at 7:45, which is typical for a regular day, not a day she went to bed at 10:00 p.m.

Mother Knows Best

Well first, happy mother's day to all the mothers I know. It's a weird day. It's almost like sharing a birthday with everyone you know.

I didn't honestly expect anything for Mother's Day. Of course, I knew I would get the typical handmade stuff from the kids from school, which I love. Dylan brought home a planter he made with a Marigold in it. The planter kind of fell apart on the bus so he and Joel replanted it in the backyard with the rest of the flowers. Maddie made me a flower thing at school with a poem that was so sweet.

This morning I woke up uncomfortably early. Maddie didn't sleep well from 4:00 a.m. on so I never really went back to sleep. Finally at 7:00 I just got up. Maddie came out of her room fully dressed at this point and was ready for the day. She and Joel went downstairs while I tore the sheets off the bed for laundry day (it's still just a regular day, no matter what Hallmark says...the sheets don't wash themselves).

When I got to the bottom of the stairs (with my arms full of sheets) the kids were standing there with a bag and a card smiling. How can you resist? The bag had my mother's ring in it. I had been given a mothers ring when Dylan was born. It was a two stone setting but of course it only had Dylan's birthstone in it. At the time I just laughed and said that it would be a lonely little stone because I'd never have another kid. HAHA, jokes on me. Well, after Maddie was born I stopped wearing the ring because it seemed weird since she wasn't in it, but I never really considered getting another stone for it. I mentioned it a few months back to Joel but didn't think much about it. He took it to the jewelers on his own and had Maddie's birthstone stuck into it. It's beautiful and is finally a complete ring.

Dylan sent out some "Happy Mother's Day" text messages on his phone this morning to special people. Well he accidentally sent one to his friend Jessica from school. It said "Happy Mother's Day. I love you. XXOOXXOOXX.

LMAO. We had such a laughing fit about this this morning. School will fun for him tomorrow. I bet he wished he could turn back time at that moment.

We took a family trip to run some errands to Wal Mart and Central Market. While we were at the store we saw a woman Joel and I both know. She asked about what our Mother's Day plans were and I said I have to work. She looked shocked and said "work where?" I said "at home". She looked at Joel with such venom in her eyes as if Joel was making me work at home. We both laughed and explained why I was working and what I was doing.

The rest of the day was good. The kids went to the park with Joel while I worked (which I'm still doing. Not at this very second of course...). He made me a steak and baked potato dinner.

About 45 minutes before dinner Maddie came up to me and said "mom, I don't feel good. I think I might be dying. I haven't eaten in like an hour."

Oh the insanity.

Edited to add the picture. It's a different picture than I posted on facebook. It's very awkward to take a picture with your left hand. When you're right handed anyway.

Adventureland

Today I went on a field trip with Dylan's class. It was fun. It was a learning experience for sure. It's so interesting to observe the interpersonal dynamics of kids at this age.

I have to say I was extremely flattered because Dylan spent the entire time glued to my side. I guess it's at huge testament to your parenting skills when your kid would rather hang with you than his friends. The other kids who brought their parents were hanging out with their friends and leaving their parents alone, but my kid was right there with me the whole time. He even ate lunch with me. How cool is that?

So I had so much fun, I decided to accompany Maddie on her field trip later this month. I'm going to have to take the day off, but that's okay. It will be fun.

I had a real weird surprise today. I went to the ATM to check on my bank balance before I went to the grocery store and apparently my paycheck was deposited 3 days early. How weird is that?? I've worked there for well over a year now and in all the time I've had direct deposit it's ALWAYS been like clockwork: midnight the night before....definitely not 3 days before. I'm certainly not complaining, it was just weird and unexpected.

Have a great weekend. We're pretty busy this weekend so I am not sure if I'll get a chance to post again before Monday, but who knows. I may surprise ya. :)

This was a true Karla Moment

I walked Maddie to the bus. She was wearing a sleeveless dress with a white t-shirt underneath. It is picture day. I noticed she had a bit of lunch at the very top edge of her white shirt. Shit. That sucks. I checked my watch and we still had 5 minutes until the bus usually comes. So I unbuttoned her dress and pulled it down to her waist (we don't want to expose her panties in public) and was in the process of turning her shirt around very carefully as to not expose our tata's in public when I hear the bus coming down the road. It was four minutes early. Are you freaking kidding me???? She's never early. So Maddie starts panicking that the boys on the bus are going to see her with her dress down and shirt up (even though nothing was visible, it was just very awkward.) So I'm frantically getting everything back in place and buttoned up properly before the bus gets too close while she's trying to be helpful all the while being very UNhelpful.

We made it but unfortunately she has to have her picture taken with her shirt on backwards. Hopefully it's not too noticeable.

Just giving a big fat O-M-G

I just have a quick link to post. Mom will understand the significance of this more than anyone.

I'm totally getting one of those.

Anyone who grew up outside of Kitsap County will be scratching their heads in confusion. This is how I got my fortunately-no-longer-used-nickname as a child.

I canNOT wait to wear it.

Against the wind

We fully expected to not go to Dylan's game last night. It was rainy and windy for most of the day and then the last 3 hours of the day it was sunny enough to make a game of it. Joel and I deliberated for quite some time about whether or not to let Dylan play with his "frostbitten" foot and in the end we both agreed that it would be best for him to get out there and play on it. He did fine and wasn't even limping.

The game was a disaster. They lost by a really big amount. Dylan's team is like a firework, they started out with a bang and seem to be fizzling out. It was pretty while it lasted. Dylan didn't get a hit last night. It's not 100% his fault though because when the catcher has to dive to catch the ball, I don't expect him to swing at it even if the umpire does call it a strike.

It was so windy at the game that I couldn't stand it. Maddie and I only stayed 2 innings and then we were out of there. I figured she was going to pitch a fit because her friend Olivia was there and she is Maddie's "best friend" of the moment, so I bribed her. Yea, that's right I did it. I told her that if she didn't whine and cry when we left that I would stop and get her a video. It worked. That's all that matters.

Frostbitten

Dylan had what appeared to be a wart on the bottom of his foot for the last few weeks. He called it a blister. He said he had a rock in it. He said lots of things, but Joel and I were pretty sure it was a wart.

It was starting to hinder his walking and running so I figured I'd better take him to the doctor. I didn't exactly tell him the treatment for warts. A little piece of information left out. I was glad I did because when the doctor told him how they take the warts off, his face became white as a ghost.

He did shockingly well for someone whose exact words were "No, I don't want to. Let's just go home. I'll be fine." in a very panicky voice. He actually had two of them that were removed.

I let him stay home today from school. He never misses school, but he totally deserved it for being so brave. If they don't fall off on their own in 2 weeks we have to go do it again. When I told him that he was quiet for a minute and then said "That's okay, it really didn't hurt that bad". He keeps telling people he has "frostbite", which technically is true.

I'm guessing he's thinking he'll get another day off of school for doing it :P

The absolute funniest part of the morning was watching Maddie's face when Dylan was getting his wart frozen off. It was like Christmas and her birthday all rolled into one. She's such a sadist. She definitely was enjoying Dylan's discomfort.

Kick Me

This is the Maddie equivolent of a "Kick-Me" sign.

Those are a series of unhappy faces drawn and taped to the back of my computer chair. Clearly, she was unhappy with me about something.

Round 2

I finished Breaking Dawn (the 4th and final book of the Twilight saga). I'll admit to have been dragging it out for the past week or so because I couldn't bear the fact that it was over. I had already decided to start the series over again, although somewhat begrudgingly because I really hate reading books more than once.

Mom has my Twilight book so I decided to start with book 2, New Moon again. I'm 1/4 of the way through it and I can't put it down. Seriously, it's like I never read it before. So much of what happens in the books is a build-up to things that happen later so reading it for the 2nd time is a completely different experience. Now I can't wait to read Eclipse and Breaking Dawn again.

Yes, I am a nerd.

What a night

First...baseball...Dylan got a double yesterday at the game. I was screaming like crazy. The deal is that every game he hits the ball, he gets a blizzard afterwards. We ended up just having dinner there.

On Friday night Maddie slept poorly (understatement), which means I slept poorly, which means Joel slept poorly. Dylan spent the night at a friends house, which means he slept poorly too.

We had dinner and dessert at DQ and were home by 4:30 (I call that a senior citizen dinner, lol). Maddie was clearly exhausted from playing soccer in the morning and running around with Marin and Olivia all afternoon on top of barely 4 hours of sleep. She immedietely went upstiars, put on her pajamas, crawled in her favorite chair and turned on Fairly Oddparents and fell fast asleep. I was confused about what to do in this situation. Do I wake her up and let her be completely and totally cranky for the rest of the night? Do I let her sleep and then have her be up until 11:00 at night and ruin what was supposed to be an early bedtime for everyone?????

I let her sleep. I couldn't help it. She woke up around 6:15 and was still cranky. In fact, she remained so for about an hour and then all of a sudden it was like something snapped and she was fine. Not just fine, but bouncing off the walls. Super. We played a family game of Princess Yahtzee and bugged me incessantly for a long time. Finally it was like 9:30 and Dylan was already in bed and Joel and I reallllllly wanted to go to sleep so we talked her into going to bed and she agreed. I didn't think she'd fall asleep so quickly, but I went and brushed my teeth and went to check on her and she was snoring. Relief. Then she proceeded to sleep until almost 8:30 this morning. Thank the good lord for that.

Why

Why did it have to be 74 degrees and sunny yesterday and 50 degrees and rainy today?

Why did Maddie wake up at 2:00 a.m. and every 15 minutes afterward for the rest of the night?

Why did she get up at 6:00 a.m., get dressed and announce that it was time to get up because she has a "very busy day ahead of her"?

Why must we play soccer in the rain?

Why must I start my weekend like this???????