Happy 15th Birthday, Connor!

Even though I know today wasn't the best day for you, I hope the year brings you many wonderful things.  I'm so proud of everything you have accomplished and what a fine young man you have grown into.  Luv you!

Bad Mommy Award

I totally forgot to wish Connor Happy Birthday before he left for school this morning.  How could a loving, caring mom do that to her just turned 15 year old boy??  I had thought about it early in the morning but by the time the boys got up, it had totally slipped my mind.  By the time it registered in my brain again he was already in school and I couldn't call him.  But to make matters worse, I talked to him twice after school and still forgot!  That's it...I should be replaced!  When I hung up the second time, it dawned on me what I hadn't done again so I called him back.  I started singing Happy Birthday when he answered but he was so not impressed.  I think I need to crawl back into my hole now.

Tomorrow will be a better day, right?

Busy Day Ends in Party

Today started off bright an early at 7am and is just now winding down.

Kenzie, Tyler and I headed to Laurel this morning to watch her softball team play in a tournament.  Even though she can't play, she wanted to be there to support her team.  I was a little worried that she'd be depressed sitting on the bench watching the other girls play but she seemed to handle it well and everyone seemed genuinely happy to see her.   We had to leave right before the end of 2nd game but her team had won the 1st game, was losing the 2nd and haven't heard how they did in the 3rd.

We ran home (okay, drove quickly) so we could meet family that was arriving at our house at 2 to celebrate Connor's 15th birthday.  My parents, sister, and my nephews were coming.  As a bonus we got my BIL.  I thought he had to work today but he was able to get off early enough that he made it over with the others.  What a nice surprise.  I think Connor was really surprised with the present from my parents....shown in the picture.  He was pretty speechless as he was opening the items associated with it.  I just hope he remembers that we celebrated his b'day today and doesn't expect something on Tuesday, which is his real b'day.  Hopefully he'll be too busy between baseball practice and piano practice that night that he won't remember.  Is that a bad mommy thought?  ;)

My youngest nephew decided he didn't like the cake and ice cream we served and decided to munch on an ink refill instead.  I should have snapped a pic of the nice ink blob on the floor.  It certainly didn't hurt it any...thankfully we have a hardwood laminate and things wipe up pretty easily on it.  But I have learned the trick of making a paste of baking soda and water and rubbing it on ink marks on good wood furniture.  I about had a heartattack when I saw the ink that covered our wooden chess table but that's a story for another time.  And speaking of ink being on things...my oldest son seems to have a fascination with leaving ink pens in his pants pockets and they are forever being run thru the washer/dryer.  Which is not good for them...or the clothes they come into contact with.  I found another instance of this yesterday.  The silver lining in this cloud was that I've learned to wash/dry his clothes all by themselves so if things get ruined it's only his clothes in that state...not the rest of the households.  As and added bonus, summer uniform starts at school tomorrow so that means that his last pair of pants that just came out of the dryer with ink marks on them are no longer needed.  Yeah, I'm looking for anything to make this better.  ;)

First Day of School

Today was Connor's first day of high school. Amazing that he is already at that stage in his life. He seemed to enjoy his first day...talked to a few of the kids that he had met during soccer practices the last couple of days. Today and tomorrow are half days...I think they are trying to ease the freshman into high school life. He was only annoyed with one teacher today because they got homework in that class. He made me laugh as he was telling me about it.

After 3 trips to school and 2 to Subway, Alex finally has his parking permit for this year. He almost didn't get it today because I almost missed that he needed a copy of his license (I was going to pick up the permit for him because he had to work) but it did require an extra trip to Subway to get said license so it could be copied.

Connor had soccer practice tonight where he scored his first goal. Yay!

Kenzie had soccer referee training tonight, which Connor was supposed to go as well. I'm actually not sure how it went because I forgot to ask her when she got home. Oops. I got distracted by her request to sleep over at a friends house. We then got into a discussion on why she couldn't...nothing bad on her part, will just need her help with the kiddos tomorrow.

Andy and Alex are driving to Pennsylvannia tomorrow to pick up a couple of church pews. We've talked forever about getting a church pew to use at our kitchen table but have never been able to. I happened to be searching online recently and found a couple for a great price...except they won't work at the table due to them being slightly curved instead of straight. But we are planning on using one in our living room to replace the sofa, that is currently being used as a wall...no railing at the stairs due to a remodeling project many moons ago where we took down the iron railing with the intention of putting up a wooden one. Somehow that has never happened. But the plans are tomorrow to move the sofa to the kids playroom to get rid of the junky chairs in there and put the pew where the sofa is and that will act as a wall at the stairs. Hopefully it will look okay. The pews we are getting are lovely and it's quite ironic that they are numbered 1 & 2 as when we go to church we almost always sit in the 1st or 2nd pew. This is a pic of what they look like. The gentleman we are purchasing them was so kind as to clean them off some and polish them with Murphy's Oil.

With some more cleaning and polishing, they are going to look awesome. I can't wait to see what they look like in person. I'm not quite sure what we are going to do with the second pew but for the price we just couldn't pass it up.

Alex actually had to work today. He almost never has to work during the day, always the evening shift but they asked him if he could help during the day today. Normally that would not be a problem except for it being Connor's first day of school and Alex needing his parking pass. Everything worked out but there was a lot of juggling going on today. He did have some excitement towards the end of his shift. Apparently the bank across the street from their store got robbed today. The cops went around to each of the businesses asking if they had seen anything. As Alex was leaving, he saw a guy getting arrested at one of the stores down the street. I have to assume that it was related to the robbery.

Work was crazy today...I wonder if it's a full moon, I know it's getting close. I feel like I was jumping between 10 different things today and didn't get a single one done. Bad thing is I'm not sure what they all were now so I'm not even sure I'll be able to finish them tomorrow.

The weather here has been lovely the last two days. Windy, cool..has actually been chilly enough to wear jeans in the morning and a light jacket outside while playing. It's great weather for staying in bed and snuggling under a blanket. Unfortunately, with these munchkins, there no chance of snuggling under covers for very long. LOL

Deja vu

I'm thinking as I looked at the clock at 3am this morning that I've been here before...and pretty recently. Only this time it was a little girl that was having trouble sleeping instead of the boy. Keari made her way downstairs to our room in the wee hours of the morning saying she was scared. Usually she climbs into her big sisters bed when she gets scared but Kenzie had a friend over last night and they were sleeping in a different room. Keari climbed into bed with us, snuggled into my shoulder and feel fast asleep. Now normally I'd carry her back to her own bed at this point but I was so tired from being up the night before and I only had a couple of hours left before I had to get up for work that I decided to just let her sleep with us. Hubby of course barely knew she was there. After talking with her this afternoon, it turns out that she was scared because she saw lightening. I'm not sure she really did or if it was just a car driving down our street but either way she didn't like it. Let's hope for an uneventful night tonight as I'm really tired. Of course, I should have been in bed a while ago but I've been playing with different templates for the blog. I've had the same template since I started back in 2006..not that I've done a very good job of keeping my posts updated during that time...but I thought it was time to change things up a little. Hopefully it's in fairly decent shape because I'm too tired to do anymore with it right now...any changes will have to wait til tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow...Connor has soccer tryouts for school. He's really excited about trying out for the team. Let's hope that the rain they are calling for holds off so they can get the tryouts in.

Fall at the Mall

Connor, Kenzie and Taylor had a piano recital at the Annapolis Mall on Saturday. When that was finished, we then had to run to the soccer field for Connor & Kenzie's soccer games. At least the schedules allowed them to do both events...I hate when they have to chose between the two.

If you are interested in hearing them play, click here...Andy has clips posted on his blog although I took the video as he so kindly pointed out. ;)

A Day Off

Since it was such a beautiful day today, Andy decided to let the kids have a day off of school. This picture shows how Connor spent some of his morning. LOL Actually, he was helping me out while I did a little work. After lunch, we all headed to Terrapin Beach and spent some time playing in the sand. What a gorgeous day to be outside! Hard to believe it's November and the temps are near 70 degrees.

We received Alex's first quarter report today. He did great...made 2nd Honors with 4 A's & 3 B's. It was touch and go for a while there with his Chemistry grade but he was able to squeak out a B. ;) Way to go Alex!

Snow Clouds?

or just normal rain clouds? Either way, it looks pretty ominous outside. I think it's going to be one chilly night to be playing soccer. Connor has a makeup game tonight for the game that got rained out on Saturday. Glad it's Andy taking him and not me. I really hate cold weather.

Piano Recital

Today was the last piano recital for this school year. It always ends with a recital that their teacher hosts where all his students play a song and then he does a summary of all the activities done over the past year. Students either get recognition or awards for performances done throughout the year. Kenzie was unable to attend this years recital but Taylor and Connor participated. It was a good thing too, since Connor received a number of awards this year. I didn't realize how many things he had participated in until his teacher kept calling his name.

Below is a picture of the awards he received. He received one for getting 3rd place (Honorable Mention) in the Solo Festival & Competition, one for have the highest score on the National Guild Auditions, one for highest average amongst his teachers students, one for playing in the Young Musician's Solo Festival, one for participating in the Chamber Music Festival and I can't remember what the others are for.
And here is a picture of Taylor's awards...he was nervous about performing this year so didn't participate in too many performances. His award was for particpating in the Young Musician's Solo Festival.
And these are Kenzie's awards. She also didn't participate in too many this year due to conflicts with softball games. I can't remember what her two awards were for.

Honorable Mention

Connor played in a piano competition this weekend. It was for middle school students so this was Connor's first year competing in this particular competition. When I asked how he thought he did (I wasn't able to hear him play since I had Keari, Bekah, Tay & Ty with me) he commented that he had messed up on one note in one of his songs. He thought he did okay with the second song. As it turns out, he did great! Out of 7 kids competing, all of which were older than him, he came in third, getting an Honorable Mention. 1st & 2nd place got money but you can't complain about a third place finish his first time out. Way to go!

Happy 12th Birthday!

Today is Connor's 12th birthday. It's amazing how much he has grown during those years. His abilities continually astound me. To think he's gone from someone who could barely get through playing one piano song at his first piano recital to someone who actually competes in piano competitions. I'm very proud of all the accomplishments you've made so far and I know there are many more to come in the future. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Sickies #7 & 8

Today it's on to Tyler and Connor. Andy is the only one left that hasn't gotten it. Think it'll bypass him?

Gorgeous Weather

The beginning of this week has been sooo beautiful! It was down right hot on Monday and Tuesday which has made the kids evening baseball games delightful to attend. Connor and Alex both had games on Monday and Kenzie had practice. Kearsyn and Bekah were really good at the boys games considering that we had to be there for a few hours. It was fun watching the boys play although both their teams lost. Connor had and awesome hit his first time up to bat, first pitch of the game. I did come to the conclusion that Connor's team really needs some lessons on how to slide into a base after he basically rolled head of heels during his attempt and another kid did a face during his. Luckily neither one were hurt and it was quite comical to watch. LOL Then there was a whole series of errors strung together that was hilarious. At one point, they had two kids on 2nd base. After a lot of back and forth between first, second, third, first, third, home...the play finally ended with the kid getting tagged out at home. Alex's team didn't fair much better but he looked pretty good at catcher. His brace seems to be working out pretty well as he didn't have any complaints about his ankle after the game.

Bridge Over Troubled Water...

Okay, well maybe the water wasn't so troubled the other night but I did have to travel across the bridge more times than I wanted to Friday night. The first time was to get Alex's CT scan done. It was originally scheduled for Monday evening but he has a baseball game so I thought I'd check and see if there were any cancellations Friday evening and there was as after getting my temporary crown work done, we headed across the bridge for his appt. We came home with lots of pictures of his ankle...none of which mean a thing to me. I'm sure when we get back in to see his dr we will find out that the CT scan doesn't show anything wrong either. The good news is that the brace really seems to be helping. He hasn't complained about his ankle since getting it on Thursday.

Upon returning home from that appt, I was met with Connor complaining about his ears. He's has a cold for about a week, ran a fever for a day or so early on and then settled into his throat and ears aching/feeling stuffy. I figured since there was no way I'd be able to get him in to a dr on Saturday with all the craziness going on that I'd better call and have him seen at urgent care Friday night. Thus the second trip across the bridge in as many hours. Turns out it was a good decision as he has an ear infection in both ears. Poor guy! We got him some meds so hopefully it will clear up quickly for him.

Busy Day

Andy took Alex to the Gunston Open House. Alex really liked it...they both said the place was beautiful. Too bad it costs $18,000 to go there for a year. Yikes! I don't see that happening but we are going to go ahead and fill out the financial aid form just to see what we might get. Can't hurt any.

Bekah had her speech evaluation appt today. I was very impressed with how the ladies did the evaluation. They even taught Bekah how to sign "more" which she still remembers. That's so amazing to me that she can be shown the sign a couple of times and she is still retaining it. Makes me want to learn more signs that can be taught to her. They were totally impressed with her motor skills...she's actually doing a number of things above age level. She is delayed in her speech area so she does qualify for the program. The next steps are for them to write up their report to figure out exactly where she falls, then we'll get together to discuss the findings. During that meeting, we'll decide on how best to proceed with getting her additional speech help. The good news is...actually there are two...1) it's free and 2) they'll come to the house to everything so that will make things easier on us.

Kenzie's softball practices have started back up again. They are only optional at this point but do you think my girl would miss any kind of practice?? No way! LOL So Andy and she made the trek to Trappe to the indoor facility for the practice tonight.

Connor is impatiently waiting for the Ravens game to start. This child loves football!

I've seen so many beautiful pictures of sunrises and sunsets lately...Velda's and Andy's...I thought I would post one that I took tonight as I went out to turn on our outside Christmas lights. I realize now after looking at the picture that I should have walked out farther on the deck so our rain spout and satellite wires weren't in it. Oops! LOL