Bedtime With Little Man

Little Man is a talker. I mean, the child could talk passionately for 76 minutes on demand about a piece of lint. 

He especially likes to illustrate this talent at bedtime. Partly because he has the undivided attention of either myself or Super Husband and partly because it is a very effective delay tactic. 

Tonight's conversation: 

Little Man:  Mommy?

Me:  Yes?

LM:  Have you met The Grinch?

Me:  No, I haven't

LM:  Me either. He's a stranger. You should not talk to strangers. 

Me:  That's good advice. 

LM:  I would hug The Grinch

Me:  Really?

LM:  Yes. Does he see us?  Does he know what we are doing?

Me:  You mean like Santa?

LM:  Yes, like Santa. 

Me:  No, I don't think so. 

LM:  [while poking me in the right breast]  Do you know what this is?

Me:  Ummmm......what?

LM:  A horn!

I cannot help but laugh!

There are moments I am filled with sadness at the thought that one day our beautiful boys will suddenly realize that me and Super Husband are not the center of the universe after all. 

We Made It!

Holy Crap!  The last week has been a blur and all I can say is that my mission to post every day this month has been an EPIC fail. It was, however, somewhat out of my span of control. I quickly realized that the wireless Internet offered at the hotel was not of the same caliber as at home, work, Starbucks, or pretty much anywhere I've ever connected. Seriously. It actually took 5 solid minutes to load a page with local weather. So, I decided on day one to put my online life on hold for the week and simply enjoy my family and friends. And that is EXACTLY what I did :)

Now I just need to get myself out of vacation mode and gear up for work and timetables tomorrow...

Road Trip: Day 1

I know I missed my post yesterday. Yes, I also know it was only day two of my month long blogging challenge.

Moving on. 

Today in a nutshell:  lots of driving, nonstop interrogation by my inquisitive children, and interesting moments. 

We made it all the way from Toronto to Bridgewater, West Virginia. We are currently what I would consider the middle of nowhere. Except there is a lot of traffic. And rain. 

This place will forever be remembered by me as the place where I risked life and limb in the middle of a pelting rainstorm to save three puppies. 

I truly believe things happen for a reason...

So when Super Husband missed the turn for the K-Mart we were trying to infiltrate causing us to be essentially trapped on a highway, I thought, okay, we will turn around and go back. No problem. Two seconds later we see not one, not two, but three small dogs on the teeny tiny sliver of a median separating the highway lanes. Super Husband slams on the brakes, puts the hazards on and I jump out in an attempt to stop traffic. Which, by the way, is barrelling by. Super Husband jumps out and starts running towards the dogs to corral them. I'm screaming at cars to stop like a crazy woman. The dogs start running into traffic and my heart almost stopped. One of the dogs was within mere feet of being shucked by some oblivious (or uncaring) woman. Thank God my screaming and frantic waving worked and she slowed down at the last moment. 

In the end the dogs got across and ran down the mountain on the other side - away from cars. We have no idea where they came from or where they went but if it weren't for us stopping those dogs would almost certainly be dead. 

I'm so happy that we were there to help but sad that so few people care enough to go out of their way. I hope those puppies have found their way back to or into a loving home. 

Now onto our chuckle of the day. Super Husband could not contain his enthusiasm for the following sign we saw in Erie, Pennsylvania. Awesome. 

Repurposed

When Super Husband and I got married we decided to pool all our wedding gift money and purchase a really, really expensive hand crafted Mennonite dining room table. We love this table. Plus, frankly, it is worth more than anything we own excepting my engagement ring and, I suppose, our cars. We bought it with dreams of hosting beautiful dinner parties and gatherings.

Then we had kids. 

Now our table serves a different purpose. Often, it is my sewing station. Today....a packing depot.  This is what happens when you plan a road trip with children. For days on end I have been gathering necessities and squirrelling them on the table. Now we have 30 hours left before the rubber hits the road and we head to Myrtle Beach. 

I bet my table is looking forward to our departure. 

Enter Sandman

Yesterday I had a revelation. I was on my commute to work and wondering how time keeps alluding me and how damn long it's been since I've posted on here on a frequent, recurring basis.   I realized the only way this would improve is if I make a promise to myself. So, I have decided to devote the month of August to this blog. I will commit to publishing one post per day for the entire month of August. I have no idea how I will come up with daily material (especially considering we no longer have the Troll drama to lament about) but this is my commitment, nonetheless!

So,  stay tuned :)

In the meantime I would like to share the lovely surprise I had waiting for me after draining the tub one night last week. To clarify....this wasn't after MY bath.

Identity Crisis

Well I can hardly contain my excitement now that we are finally moving towards summer!  Now, if only the weather would cooperate.  Anyhow, with the onset of (quazi) summer comes outdoor soccer season.  This is the first year we have both boys enrolled.  Buddy is in the U5 division and Little Man un the U4.  This means being committed to spending Monday AND Thursday evenings on the soccer field.  Rain or shine.

Now, I know that organizing hunderds of children and their overbearing parents must be a really, really painful task.  This is exactly the reason why I do not offer my services for these things (sad but true).  BUT......you knew there would be a BUT in here......what the hell is the issue with people?  We signed up the kids months ago.  Like in February.  And waited for eons before finally getting some communication in the form of a very convoluted email message.  Despite the fact that we had signed up for Mondays and Wednesdays we were expected to join the "opening weekend" festivities which, conveniently, coincided with Super Husband's Grandmothers 90th birthday celebration.  Hmmmppph.  Needless to say we could not make it.  This meant we forefeited meeting the coach and team lead as well as getting their uniforms in advance. 

So here we find ourselves Monday night rushing to the field for Buddy's first game.  This was after reading the details no less than THREE times with BOTH myself and Super Husband trying to figure out who they were playing against and what the format was.   Apparently it really didn't matter after all because we ended up on the opposite side of the field that it indicated on the map but hey....that's okay.  So we arrive 10 minutes early all set to go because we wanted to be able to meet the team lead and of course get his uniform all squared away, however, when we get there we are advised that the uniforms are with the team lead and ours has yet to show up.  It became clear as time went on that the team lead had no intentions of showing up so while the other kids ran around in their red and purple uniforms, Buddy sported his street clothing.  I felt so bad for him but in all honesty he didn't mind and had fun.  Once the game ended, I marched over to the coordinators and the conversation went something like this:

Me:  Hello.  Excuse me.  My son is on the Red Team and.....
Girl:  [interrupting] Oh.  Yes.  The RED Team.  We are having issues with that.
Me:  Apparently
Girl:  Sorry.  We have been trying to get in touch with that person.  We will figure something out for next week.
Me:  Ummmmm....okay.

So that was that.

Next up:  Thursday night with Little Man.

This was even more fun.  Showed up in pouring rain.  Confirmed that surprise upon surprise his team lead decided not to come.  Fantastic.  What the hell is wrong with these people?  You sign up to be a parent volunteer as a team lead and then pick and choose when it is convenient to you????  Not cool!  Did any of us enjoy the cold or wet?  Nope.  But we dragged our butts there anyway for the kids.  And I didn't have anyone else's kids depending on me!! 

GRRRRRR!

The talk of the evening was that one of the two other kids that actually showed up from Little Man's team has the same name as Buddy.  Which is unusual as it is not a common name.  The mom asked me what Buddy's middle name is and guess what....same also.  I felt like they had violated us in some mysterious way.  For the record, Buddy is a full year older than their son.  So he's the original :)  The funny thing is though.....as bad as I feel admitting this.....the kid was super annoying.  More specifically the parents were super annoying.  We are now going to have to work hard for the rest of the season to avoid the Buddy #2 (or Buddy Imposter as we like to refer to him).

Hopefully next week we will actually make some headway on uniforms.

I'm Still Here

Oh dear.....I officially suck at updates. 

Anyway, I was taking a look at our finances (yes, again) and made a happy revelation. 

In less than 2 years (21 months, to be exact), we have:

Paid off more than $46,000 in debt and increased our assets by $24,000....which means we are $70,000 richer now than we were then.

I am very proud of our accomplishments.  Looking at it this way is motivating and shows how every little bit counts.  I am trying to stay focused on the positive because the reality is....we still have about $20,000 in debts.  Sigh. 

What else is new, you ask?

Hmmmmm.  Buddy is awesome and almost done JK.  Meanwhile, Little Man is getting himself beyond excited to start JK in September.  He asks each and every day.  Is it time?  I respond no and he immediately launches himself into tantrum mode yelling, pumping his fists and lamenting, "But s takes a looooong tiiiiime"!  I try to stifle my laughter but I love his enthusiasm.  We will see how excited he is when he has to eat packed lunches........