Fish and firepit

I have some photos (had) to go with this post but my card reader is broken. We blew off a Sunday of yard work for a last minute fishing expedition-and it was wonderful. The lake was calm, the weather warm but not hot and no wind! The boys caught 10 trout-1 we gave to the family next to us who wasnt' catching anything (another post on that later) and 15 perch-needless to say I will be making fish tonight. We stayed way longer than expected but just couldn't stand to leave. We then came home and completed the fire pit, after I had chosen sand (my thought was soft white sand like a beach bonfire), it looked terrible so we went back and got a dark red mulch. Yes mulch is burnable but we are close to a hose:) Now I just need lots of friends to come with their camping chairs and join me in celebrating!

Best thing...

The best thing about boot camp...

The green tea frapppacino after boot camp...

Yummyyyyy

what's that smell?

We have been encouraging our oldest to use deodarant-not because he smells but we know he will soon. I come home from work and he has very definite deodarant smell. I say "you smell good" and he says he remebered to put it on-it was pretty strong-I am hoping he didn't rub it all over his body:)

Do you see the steam from my ears????

You know what really, really annoys me?? When my eldest who can be tempermental and moody, has a great day-does his chores, homework, music practice, nice to his brother and all around respectful THEN does something stupid that totally irks me. LIKE taking quarters out of a ziploc bag in my desk without asking to get ice cream from the first visit by the ice cream man-he and Q had used all their allowance already after 1 DAY and were left with nothing when the hypnotic music came down the street and he impulsively and frantically grabbed money. I was calm, I know kids screw up, but he has been reminded about this before ASK FIRST-that is all we ask......He was asked to solve it, he gave up the extra money he had earned for restitution. The whole trust factor is what I want him to figure out though-as he encroaches teenhood I just want to be able to trust him-Now I am stuck with thinking I should take him to work with me tomorrow (Which of course is the day this week I had planned to stay late and have 2 meetings) and inconveniences me more than him........I sometimes feel I am great at everything but the mom thing, trying not to nag this kid to death and give more positives than negatives and hoping I am making some kind of dent

baseball dvd

Last year I had this brilliant idea to make a photoshow dvd for each family on Q's baseball team. I love taking the pictures and love to share and do enjoy making the DVD. I decide to do the same thing this year, forgetting how much work it really is. Do you realize that 10 boys in the SAME shirt, SAME batting helmet-that covers most of their face by the way, and pretty much all the same size are hard to distinguish when it comes time to pick pictures? I sit in front of my computer going through around 100+ pictures of all these kiddos making sure I DON'T leave anyone out or have TOO many of my son (who of course takes the best pics) and put them to music. I am glassy eyed and ready for a break-so here I am am on a blogging break.

Officially...

Ok, so as of 6:30 tonight after board approval I am the newly appointed principal at Rapid Valley Elementary. Home of 60+ staff and about 530 students. The following thoughts could apply:

Whoooooohooooo

wow

what were they thinking

Oh my gosh

I hope I don't suck

Eeeeeeeek

I have a lot to learn and do, a lot

I hope my family doesn't hate sharing me

All right, game on

Just a few more...

Excuse the 4:00 AM hair:)

Not.early.enough

Note to self, leaving Rapid at 4:00 AM does not get you to the badlands in time for sunrise. It does make one more than ready for a nap. We had a perfect day in the badlands-a few moments of fatigue induced crabbiness (for all 3 of us) but who the heck wouldn't. I took a gazillion pictures and had a hard time choosing. There is the one shot that got away. For those of you who have traveled I-90 numerous times, you know where the tiny little dot called Wasta is. That is where we were when the sunrise was at its best. It WAS amazing. The river runs through those old gray and dead trees and this morning there was mist coming off the river and around them as the sky just started to turn a purple color, the trees were perfect black silouhettes (I messed up the spelling I am sure) against the sky. The sun came up and glowed on the hills which are very green and created a crazy glowing lime color. I was SO close to stopping, it was like something out of a movie-I didn't, oh well next time I will. Enjoy some pics from the desert of South Dakota.

Summer..... where are you?

It is still cloudy here, we just get a glimps of sun and heat and then boom here come the clouds. I know it is coming I just feel it!

I was actually feeling sorry for Karen the other day with her early, early morning swimming meet until yesterday and oldest son and I start planning our trip to the badlands tomorrow. He comes up with the brilliant idea (I was proud) to go at SUNRISE to take pictures-"It will be beautiful" he says. I tell him to do some research such as when does the park open and what time IS sunrise. He dutifully looks it up and is a little dissappointed, open hours start at 7:00 AM and sunrise happens to be at 5:00. He is bummed so I call the park office (secretly pleased I won't be getting up at 3:30 in the morning) when they cheerily tell me the park is open 24 hours. Oh, umm great I say, and tell oldest. Of course the ear to ear grin means I will be packing a cooler this evening and setting the alarm early, really early.

It better be a darn.good.sunset.

pics and racing

This weekend was a big weekend for racing here in the hills. Younger son and I went to a mud fest on Friday night for him to race, he didn't really want to get but the competitive side got the better of him (and me-more on that later). He got 2nd and was excited. We spent the next day on the track all day. Of course it was sticky and muddy still and older son was not interested. He has been racing for 3 years and has only won 2 race.s He can be fast when he wants to be, especially when mountain biking but is tentative on the track and just backs off when other bikes are near him. He is always a good sport but the beginning of this day was an exception. He started off with saying he wasn't racing, to muddy, too hard, etc.... I did not have one of my proudest mom moments about the whole thing, walked him to the car, chewing him out the whole way. I remember the words "quitter" and "selling the bike" coming out of my mouth. Of course in front of people as we were walking-I know I sounded like one of the icky sports moms I despise. ANYWAY-he decided to race, we head back. As we walk he tells me how it isn't fun and he fakes having fun, but always being last is getting him down-and he is right he usually is last. I of course feel awful. I ask him just to try this one day and then we will decide from there. The kid just has this pattern of finding something that really interests him and wanting to be good at it but just hasn't made the connection of the effort equals the result. It doesn't help that he has to put a lot more effort than most-the athletic and coordination genes aren't very strong there. The end of the story ends happily though...

He gets out there and DOES NOT come in last AND makes the main event, gets a medal. You could not wipe the smile off his face for anything, he was the proudest kid ever-for now, we will see what the weekend brings.

bumpaphobic

You all know my secret addiction to hair magazines, now I have another confession to make I am a bumpaphobic. As you know I can obsess over my health quite a bit when the mood strikes me and I have nasty habit of obssessing over my children's also. I am especially leary of lumps. My youngest has these neck lymph nodes that are constantly overreacting all winter long, and scare the heck out of me when I touch his neck and there it is. I have of course taken him in before and the PA and DR just look and say "OH he is a nodey boy" meaning he has super sensitive nodes. I of course hear this, I go home a little placated and forget until they pop up again. This phobia is bad, it consumes internet googling time, touching them all the time-and I hate to admit measuring it!!! Youngest son actually shys away from when I touch his head and says "Don't touch them" and in the next breath asks "Are they bad?" Uggg I am creating a future bumpaphobic. Thankfully I made annual physicals for next week so I can be reassured once again and the obssessive probing and prodding will end-until next time

Wow three posts in 15 minutes that must be a record

Fear and failure

So as you know I have details of big news to share next week. It is painful not being able to share exciting news with people I love but it is the ethical side of my new adventure-my first test I suppose.
Along with new adventures come new fears, for me it is always fear of failure. Fear of not pleasing, fear of not doing something well. Fear of struggling, not knowing answers and being pulled between home/work/self. Then other fears snowball, like ok, something really good has happened, now will something bad happen? It is just the silly pattern my brain takes sometimes and it is down right annoying. I fear the loss of time-already-the things I had planned for the summer that now I am afraid to plan for or take time to do. I already look at the calendar and think of how quickly these next few weeks will go... and how can I cram all the usual fun in that we normally do. Ultimately I know it is not quantity but quality-just keep reminding myself that.

I do so love the adventures and journeys but sometimes the fear just creeps in there somehow:<

Things about summer I forgot

The things about summer I forgot:

The lovely feeling of sleeping in
The even lovelier feeling of a warm little body cuddling in beside me and sleeping in
Taking my time to make french toast and real breakfast for boys in underwear
Being able to get groceries and run errands during the day
The increased cost of groceries to feed two hungry kids lunch at home and gazillion snacks
The cleaning up of extra meals and snacks-I can't even count how many times I have wiped off the breakfast bar
Trying new recipes
Sitting on the patio with wine
Not having to do the bedtime rush
The grassy smell-boys out in the grass all day long
The weird smell in the boys' bathroom-it oddly smells like the boy's restroom at my school-must be from the increased daytime use-ick
I know there will be countless others to relish and take in, I can't wait

Here we go...

Ok, big news in the forecast can't write about it yet.....

Must be summer vacation...

It has been raining the last 3 days
It is cold and windy outside
We have cancelled our first summer vacation adventure NOT due to weater but due to backtalk and arguing-

Yes, it must be summer vacation indeed!

Deal of the day

This yucky, rainy weather along with end of the year stress and future interview stress has put me into a shopping frenzy for things I really don't need but sure are cute. I went to get a shirt for under the "interview" suit and came back with a shirt and purse. Went to get shoes to go with said suit and came back with 3 pairs! The best part about the shoes is they were buy one get one free. So I got one on clearance then 2 Sketcher sandals-the cool athletic kind . All 3 of these for 50 bucks Whooooo. Think I will go out and wear them in the rain right now

A personal addiction

I have come to the realization that I have an addiction. Not a bad one of course but kind of weird just the same, and one very confusing to hubby. I am addicted to hair magazines. Everytime I have a hair cut appt I pull out the big pile of hair magazines I have previously bought and comb through them carefully looking for the oh-so perfect hair cut. Eventually I look through those and don't really find the perfect picture so the compulsion to go out and buy a new magazine overwhelms me. I stand at the magazine and look for the ideal magazine to take home, there are so many to choose from. I find one, bring one home and the looking process starts again....one day I will find it:)

Whew, catching up on blogging

I don't have summer vacation being here as an excuse for fewer blogs just crazy busy days. The end of the school year is 1.5 days in sight! Here is a short summary what's going on list.

On Monday I have a for-real interview for a principal job-for the building I work in now, I think it is a long shot but very excited to even be considered
We had hoped to go the Crazy Horse Volksmarch tomorrow but the weather is not cooperating AT ALL and I am bummed.
One possibly, two baseball games, and bmx races rained out
A weekend of working on the basement, in preparation for my mom's visit this summer she doesn't have to sleep in a bunk bed.

Not a very exciting list, but that's ok