Friday Night

I "slept in" until 7:30 this morning, and it felt great. I wish I could lay in bed and read my book, The Thirteenth Tale for book club, it is a good one. But alas I will go to the gym and hit a spinning class before the day really begins. If I don't get there first thing on a Saturday, it usually doesn't happen.

Oh the sleepovers on Friday. Hayden had been asking forever to have a sleepover and a couple of weeks ago he finally had his wish granted. His little friend from school invited him over and boy did that make his whole month. The only think is once you start them you can't turn back. After Hunter's baseball game last night the swarming began. "Can so and so sleepover? Can I sleepover at so and so's?" I'm down Hunter this morning and have an extra little girl. Hayden played ALL day at a friends so he was happy to come home and see his Mommy.

Friday night used to be date night or game night...not anymore. Friday night is sleepover night. Luckily there is still Saturday night for Mom and Dad. If I played it right, I'd get everybody sleeping over at somebody else's house on the same night. Hmmm... but then the next weekend would have the potential to be ugly.

I didn't sleepover at friend's houses until I was like 10. I'd have good intentions and plan on sleeping over, but then I'd get "that" feeling and call Mom to come and get me. She would just laugh and come on over. Let's just say my kids are a little more independent.

Field Day Memories

And speaking of Mother's Day...oh wait I wasn't talking about it I was thinking about it. This Momma went shopping yesterday and found a "little somethin" she'd like.

So I just got back from "field day" at Lakewood. It's really field hour and it was one muddy mess. Thank heavens I put on my flip flop crocs. I love those shoes. I got to thinking about field days at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School. We did events like broad jump and the 50 yard dash. Where you stayed outside all day, got totally pooped and you had actual winners. I don't think I won much it's been too long now, but I remember it being fun. I remember signing up for events and kind of moving around on my own, not with the whole class. Surely, that wouldn't fly now, right? Or am I remembering wrong?

I need to go grocery shopping today. I've got my menu planned and my shopping list ready. Costco comes first and then what I can't find there I move on to Wal-Fart. I am such a Wal-Mart slut. I don't like it, but I keep going back for more. I hear Hope...awake from her nap, the fun begins.

"This won't hurt Hopey"

Hayden loves this shirt camo and pirates!
This shirt is from Ms. Belinda (piano teacher) it is vintage 1980's.
Hannah Banana

Hunter ready to play some HEAT baseball!

I had JUST put Hope down for a minute in my bathroom to get dressed in my closet when I hear "this won't hurt Hopey". I immediately go out to rescue Hope. Hayden was trying to cram her little hand into a toy. I explain the obvious and hurry back to finish getting dressed for the gym. When I hear "now this really won't hurt Hopey not one little bit". Again I rush back out. This time he is trying to pick off some little scab. The joys of having a 5 year old brother.

It's amazing what you can get done when you stay at home for the morning. Laundry, picking up, balancing the checkbook and paying the bills. Feels good. I did it! I went paperless on bills. I have been paying online for several years and I love that, but I hadn't converted over to receiving my bills online. My bank has recently updated there online services and it is way more user friendly. I'll give it a go!

So, Scott read my blog last night and I hear him say "what are these purple bags?" They are nylon shopping bags I answer back. "Why do we need those?" I explain back how many grocery bags we go threw in a week and how bad that is for the environment. "How much do they cost?" They are only $5!! I say. "$5 for a GROCERY BAG when you can get them free at Wal-mart." Well some cost like 8 and 12 I say. "Oh what a great deal...I'm all for being earth friendly if it doesn't cost a lot." I was amused with the exchange.

I like Charlie Gibson and I like to watch him on the evening news. I don't know maybe I am getting old enjoying the evening news and all, but whatever. Last night in honor of the upcoming Mother's Day celebration, they had a feature about stay at home moms and our financial worth. Charlie said instead of flowers this year Mom might like a 6 figure paycheck instead. Heck yeah. Salary.com did a study, and took into account all (or some/most) of a stay at home mother's responsibilities and factored in overtime and came up with a salary of $138,000 a year. Interesting I thought.

Well, I'm off to the gym. I'm going to skip my favorite class total conditioning with Pamela today. I have REALLY been enjoying the running this week and I woke up with a back that was a little stiff. Oooops. My fault. Not bad...but it's talking to me and I will nip it in the bud. I don't want the dreaded "flat back" to return. The elliptical machine, weights and some gentle stretching should do the trick.

Heather Gore

Anybody that knows me, knows that I can be somewhat compulsive. So, about a year ago Oprah had Leonardo DiCaprio and this Dr. Oppenheimer on her show. To be honest, it was the first time I had REALLY payed attention to the whole global warming/protect the environment thing. I had heard of it, but I wasn't doing anything to help. So, I watched that show and I was very interested. Leo is cute and that doesn't hurt. But I listened and I even took notes. I EVEN made Scott watch.

So I was all excited to be a better citizen and to help protect our earth. I ran out and bought compact fluorescent light bulbs. I started by replacing 5 lights like they suggested. Then I bought more... and as my light bulbs burn out they get replaced with the compact fluorescent ones. Yes, even the ceiling fans now look oh so pretty. Our neighborhood doesn't recycle. I started calling around to recycling places. The closest recycling place was in Magnolia like 15 miles away, not around the corner. At the time I was drinking water out of plastic water bottles almost exclusively and I felt guilty to see the amount of plastic I was generating. Do you know what, all the places I called don't even recycle plastic. "There isn't a demand". I was shocked and decided I would write my state representative asking why can't I recycle plastic? I got a very generic form letter telling me I need to contact Waste Management for all my recycling needs. The person missed the point.

So fast forward a year and I'm still thinking about this issue. I have watched An Inconvenient Truth. That is when Scott started, oh so lovingly, to call me "Heather Gore" or "Heather Green". Changes have been slow. I still drive my suburban (it's almost paid for and Leo doesn't have to drag 4 kids around). I decided I can't be perfect with recycling but I can recycle paper. I bought some fun REI water bottles that don't leak and I drink Brita filtered water again. A little arsenic never hurt anybody. Hannah came up with an idea about collecting paper for a few neighbors. I want to plant a garden for the fall. My back was out for spring planting and I think I'm going to have to take the lead on this one. I checked into a CSA (localharvest.com) but they had us eating some very exotic foods. Notice collard greens and fava beans are not on Scott's menu plan. I have printed (thanks Hayley) a Going Green Checklist and I try to be more aware of what I'm doing. All I know is we can do better. I don't want to hear about anymore dead polar bears.

With all that being said...I woke up to an old man dog accident on the tile. I smelled it before I saw it. You better believe I was reaching for something toxic then. None of this vinegar and water thing. I wanted to burn off the top layer of tile.

Nothing says happy like a clean toilet.

Ahh, so the house is clean at least for 6 more hours until the kids get home. Six hours is probably being generous since Hayden doesn't have school today. It is such a beautiful thing to involve everybody in the cleaning up process. In about an hour we got it all done...Hunter on sweeping and mopping, Hannah on vacuuming, Hayden on cleaning the game room and dusting and Mom on bathrooms. It was our abbreviated Saturday jobs done on Monday. Scott got home right at the end to rescue Hope and feed her applesauce and sweet potatoes. We even got it done without too much complaining. I bought a job chart last week, but I haven't organized it yet. Will it just become yet another thing for me to do and to remind to the kids to look at? Oh what the heck we will give it a try.

I ran again yesterday, the second time since I had Hope! I know shocking right? I have been dreading the itchy legs that come when I haven't run for awhile. Don't worry I have been working out. I still love to lift weights, do classes and cardio, yoga and Pilate's, but running wasn't calling to me. Hunter ran in a race the weekend before last and I started to cry when the race started. It was a mixture of feelings. I was happy he was running, but I also got that "rush". I knew then that I missed "it".

"We are having a BIG day"

Saturday was just one of those busy Saturdays that we all have. The thing was Scott was gone and I was on my own. We were going to be gone from 7:45 am to 12:00 am the next morning! We had the car so packed up Hunter asked if we were going to sleep in a hotel that night. The day started with a baseball game for Hayden @8:00am. He got two hits and even knew where to run. At his first game a few weeks ago it was a different story! Hunter was mortified when he ran to third base after he hit the ball. Oh well. Pretty cute seeing him run with all his might to first base. On the way to Hayden's game Hunter asked why Hope's ear was bleeding. Oh lovely I think just what I need. So, after the game we made a quick stop to FM 1960 Pediatrics. Don't worry Hope's ear is okay, those little nails can be sharp and she got it good. Plus, the kids were happy because NOW there was no time to do "jobs". Then we were off to the Fine Arts Festival in Tomball. Hannah performed with the entire 2nd grade a few ethnic dances. She was happy we were early and she found Skylar to partner with. She also had art work displayed there; it was a foil creation. Hannah is quite the artist and now enjoys creating fashion designs. She keeps a book of dresses and swim suits she has created. Who knows what we have on our hands! Then we were off to Sugarland for a baseball tournament for the rest of the day. Hunter had 2 great games. He hit one triple and an OVER THE FENCE HOME RUN. He even made a running/diving catch. My friend Michelle asked if I got a picture of it and of course the answer was no. You'll just have to take my word for it. The games just couldn't be right after each other so we went to Red Robin for dinner, Sonic for some ice cream Blasts and watched some other games. Luckily, we don't have church until late so we got to rest up yesterday. We had a busy but a really fun day. Hayden kept saying "we are having a big day today Mom". He was just happy because I had a cooler full of drinks and snacks. Oh yeah.

I'm back

Well, it's been like 9 months and I decided to try this again. I need to go fix up my blog...more later.

I have no idea what I'm doing...

I really have no idea what I'm doing, but I wanted to give this a try. I've got some extra time tonight. Scott is having a guy thing and the kids are up watching The Brady Bunch. I know if I tried to read my book right now I'd fall asleep. "The Coma" is back. Plus, there are no Oprah's or Grey's Anatomy on the hard drive to watch...I'm all caught up. Bummer.