Raising My Kids a little too Seriously...

You know you've done something right (wrong?) when your kids react seriously to one of your hilarious childhood stories...

Case in Point?  Well, Story in point I guess...

I used to work at a Theatre.  Not a theater - you see, a theater is a place where you pay too much to see a movie that has been polished to perfection (or imperfection) and wash it down with popcorn and soda... a Theatre is someplace where you pay 4 times as much for the ticket, starve until intermission then chug down your $3 water bottle, and have about a 50% chance that there will be an actor who is having an off day...

I was a higher class usher...

But one week I had sprained my ankle and could not handle taking patrons (yeah, at the theater you're just a customer... but Theatre has "patrons") to their seats.  My boss decided we'd do something a little different and sat me on a chair where I greeted each patron with a winning smile, tore off their ticket stub and then handed the ticket to the next in a line of about 4 ushers, introducing them with "and Shawn will take you to your seat..."  His name really was Shawn...  and all was going really well until I looked at the end of the line and realized that (although I had met her... and worked with her earlier that week) I had completely blanked on the new girl's name.  Completely.

Rather than admitting defeat I proceeded through the line... "and Tim here will now show you to your seats" (with the winning smile... always the winning smile!)

Shawn looked at me... glanced over his shoulder... looked at me again...

"Tim? their seats please..." (as I force the tickets into Shawn's hand)

and so on and so forth throughout the next 1/2 hour... making up different names each time... hoping I guess to eventually hit on the right name?

It was hi-freakin'-larious... and rather ingenious if I must say so myself.

And apparently - I do have to say so myself... because when I told the Veggie-Teen my story... he just looked at me with a blank stare and asked why on earth I didn't just own up and ask her name...

Yeah... right... that requires a certain maturity that even now I don't have.

Given the same situation - I'd do exactly the same thing today...

Except instead of starting with "Tim" - Shawn would have been called "Donatello"...

They keep getting bigger!

my son T grew about 6 inches this year - and hit his official teenager-hood - and being the person I am (read as SHORT) this means that he passed me up in height.

Yikes....  I am taking this well... sort of.  The good thing is that I have learned a wonderful parenting lesson - and stay with me here, it's a deep one :)

You can't See Eye to Eye

If You insist on going Toe to Toe...

of course, since most of you don't need 4 inch heels to look in your kids' eyes, that may not apply in the same physical way :)

(and if anyone notices that this photo is pre-my latest haircut... it took me awhile to decide to post photos of myself on here... I didn't mind everyone thinking I looked like Audrey Hepburn!)

*with special thanks to my teenage neighbor for the hand-me-down huge shoes and my sweet grandmother for fixing that skirt after it sat in my closet for close to two years with a broken zipper*

Our week...

It's been a hectic one around here - and I kept saying "at the end of this week, we're all going to take a day off..."  we'll get to the day off part later...

We'll begin with last Thursday - W's baseball game was around 5:15 and I had been invited to something or other I was trying to avoid... so when W left his Bat Bag in the car I decided to drag the kids up to the field and stay for the first 30 minutes of his game (Q was meeting us there)... Well, M promptly got herself hit in the

 stomach by a playground ball (with the help of P's foot) and proceeded to pass out on me - Needless to say I left the game and the doctors were unable to determine if it was a seizure or just a simple passing out because of stress (stress?  she's got no school, no bills... I don't get it!)  Anyway, Thursday ended on that note - and the girl is fine.

Friday was a jumble of running around, including my children's museum meeting - to which I took M just in case she repeated her performance, this did not go well, and M's birthday party - which lasted only an hour (the ideal time frame) because of P's baseball game and W's baseball practice and T's friends' birthday party which all began at 5:00.  One was early, one was on time and one was late - what can you do?  M stayed put in her seat this game and played with her new doll "Sophia Kate" until the game was over (P's team lost, but they are 3 and 1 for the season thus far)

Saturday... hmmm... oh yeah, the older boys had a scout pow-wow thing - we began and

 completed W's entire science project - and Q had a 4-wheelin' adventure with the EQ...  so I stayed home and cleaned.

Sunday - T got sick - but the rest of us enjoyed church... choir books came and we finally sang something other than a hymn (not that they're bad, but something else occasionally is nice)

Monday - T still sick - M's birthday boola-boola went well - we squeezed in Wendy's and her Tinkerbell cake between two baseball games - P's before the dinner went well but W's afterward began at 8:00 and went downhill from there.  The other team's pitcher has a golden arm.  The wind was also blowing something awful and despite my warm "cozy" blanket many of us moms were freezing while trying to cheer for a losing team.  The snack shack quickly ran out of hot chocolate (not that it was going to help me) and nobody complained when the game ended at 9:50.

Tuesday - Now T, W, and Mom woke up sick, I can't tell much about this day because we all slept through it... gratefully no pictures for you of this day!  Weston felt bad enough that he passed out 3 times when he got up to run to the bathroom... a huge knot on his forehead is from hitting the bathroom stool on the way down - the stool where Maryn 

happened to be sitting after her own bout with the flu bug...  The scouting pow-wow finished up Tuesday night and the boys' didn't end up going... big waste of all that work 'eh?

Wednesday - it's just beginning...  W is back at school getting his science fair project set up, T is back at school. P and H and M are all home with me...  I've consumed a total of 3 saltine crackers and 3 oz. of water - M is throwing a fit because she can't play with the neighbor and I didn't let her go to preschool - what a mean Mommy I am :(

We will all survive - and we'll be disinfecting the house greatly before company arrives this weekend!!!  Bring on the Lysol :)