Building bears

My best friend's daughter turned 4 today and the little boys and I went to her party. We had dinner, rode the carousel and built "bears". A month ago, Carter asked me if I knew where Build A Bear was and could we go get him a penguin, pretty please? Today, he was elated to make Chili (like the spicy pepper, Mom! aka Chili's restaurant) and Jake made Charlie, a little puppy. They had a blast and played with them joyfully until way past bedtime. It's hard to believe that little Myah is already 4.

My affair with Behr

We are having 25 people to dinner on Thursday. I have food to buy and quite a bit of housekeeping to do. Sounds like a perfect time to start huge time consuming projects!


My kids'/guest bath is now Behr, 400B-4 Citron. Yes, the room glows. I've decided to install a hook in the hall by the bathroom door. We'll hang sunglasses there for people to use while they potty.



The foyer, living room, kitchen and the length of the hallway are now/will be 320F-4 Desert Camel. The sample here looks very brown. In the hallway it looks sagey, in the kitchen it looks yellow and in the living room it looks almost off white - or does it? Maybe it's just the fumes getting to me.

I've got ruffles on my...oops!

The preschool sent a note home on Tuesday. Among other things was the following request:

2. Dresses-skirts - if your daughter wears a dress/skirt, please put shorts underneath - we like to show our panties!

And I thought they were just learning the days of the week!

My Girl

Last year, in 3rd grade, my daughter had to choose a person she admired and do a intensive report on that person. Kate chose Rosa Parks. When there weren't many books in the school library about her, the teacher tried suggesting some other people she would have an easier time researching. She wouldn't budge and I was fine with that. Our home library now has 4 great books about Ms. Parks. This past week, her class was talking about quotes and she had to find an example of a quote. This is her choice:

"Darkness can not drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate can not drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Doh!

It's nice to know that public sector things happen to celebs too -


Hilary Swank Injured on Movie Set
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 03, 2006 11:00PM EST
By Julie Jordan
Hilary Swank Photo by: mitch gerber / starmaxinc.com
Hilary Swank was injured Thursday on the set of her new film, P.S. I Love You in New York. During a scene with costar Gerard Butler, in which the actor performs a striptease for Swank, Butler's suspenders became snagged and hit the actress on her forehead, a source tells PEOPLE. Swank received medical treatment, which included sutures for the cut, and filming was halted. Per the source, Swank is recovering and in good spirits, and production will resume on Monday.

Keeping It Interesting

Jacob's tip of the day: My parents thought they'd gotten all wise to me and stuff. Like leaving the case of the vcr permanently unscrewed so they could get my treasures out easier really required that much thought. I decided that it was time to knock them down a notch or two. They didn't catch on at first. They kept pouring all those bottles of goo down my dad's sink and scratching their heads. Finally, this afternoon, my mom caught me with toothpaste on my ear and went to investigate. Now my treasures have been confiscated - my mom's "missing" toothbrush, 2 quarters, a Chuck E. Cheese token, the top to the toothpaste tube, the presser foot to my mom's sewing machine and the head to my dad's razor. I know this is supposed to be a tip - I'll get back to you on my new hiding place.

All I Want For Christmas

My 4 year old has his heart set on what he wants for Christmas. He will not be distracted or dissauded. While I think this usually a good thing, I'm not sure that I'll be indulging his longing for a Disney Princess Ariel's Ocean Salon.

Jacob's tip of the day: For a good time, get a dump truck out of the sandbox. When no one is looking, bring it in the house and fill up the bed of the truck with Elmer's glue. Then, drive it through the kitchen and living room being careful to stop every few feet to make lakes especially on any areas that are carpeted. When you get done, be sure to rub a generous handful in your hair and then lay in the best lake you can find and mush it all around. If you are brave, you might want to have a little sip as well. That's what I do.

Election Day

When I was in elementary school - I think it was 6th grade - we had a mock election. I voted for Ronald Reagan. I knew that the election was only within our school and that I was too young to vote, but secretly, I felt like I'd helped his cause with my vote.

I remember clearly the day that Bill Clinton was elected president. It was the day that my nephew died. My divorce separated me from that family, but he and his mother had and will always have a special place in my heart. His life was too short and too hard.

Presidential elections are easy to remember because they are the big ones, but I remember the governor's race between Ann Richards and the good ol' boy, Clayton Williams. I remember that although I consider myself a republican, I was pulling for Ann to win. Clayton didn't stand a chance against her sharp wit. Not to mention the times he shot himself in the foot (ie, when he compared rape to bad weather - "as long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it"). Ann once made fun of then V.P. Bush saying, "Poor George, he can't help it...he was born with a silver foot in his mouth." I didn't agree with everything that she did. Instituting the lottery that was supposed to help fund public schools - something I'm morally opposed to and I'm disappointed in how much of this money has actually found it's way to the school system. Robin Hood school funding - having "rich" schools funnel money into "poor" schools - while I can appreciate what she was trying to accomplish, it was a policy that worked better on paper than in practice. I don't agree with dumbing down as a solution. She did, however, do a lot of good in the prison system which badly needed help. She was human in a world of plastic politicians. Ann died this summer from cancer. Molly Ivins wrote a good piece about her.

Stuck in the Middle

My Matthew. In our family, he is smack in the middle. In his father's family, he was the baby for 7 years and was then displaced by a baby brother (and will be pushed to the "middle" spot there as well in March). Life isn't easy for him in the middle. The babies need more attention and at 8, he's fairly self-sufficient. Then, there is the shadow at the other end. He has an older brother and sister that seem to be able to master any new challenge with ease. Top of their class without having to study kinda stuff. Things don't come as easily for Matthew. There are certainly blessings that come from having to work hard to taste success, but for his ego's sake, I really wanted there to be something that came naturally to him.

I think we've found it! Matthew kicks butt at tackle football. Soccer was too much chaos. Baseball was too hard to stay focused. Flag was too many kids all running around like chickens. But tackle is like magic. Because of his size (he resembles a brick wall) and ability to plant himself when needed, he plays the line on both sides of the ball. This was his first season of tackle and, as I expected, he immediately took to the hitting aspect of the game. I thought that if he could just have his assignment - hit the guy in front of you and don't let him get away - that tackle would be something he could be good at. After the second game, one of the coaches came to me to tell me how happy they were with Matthew's abilities. Not only could he plow down his man, but he has a feel for the ball. For knowing where it is and where it is going. Combine the 2 and he is making sacks and multiple tackles consistantly.

This season, his team was 7 & 3 but more importantly, Matthew is proud of himself.

Jacob's tip of the day: Fraycheck will also prevent your hair from "fraying". If you put straight pins in your mouth, it will make your mom scream in a very scary way.

Football

Andrew's first season was hard. The boys were young and most hadn't ever played before. They gave it their all but it wasn't very pretty. We had a major celebration when we finally scored our first touchdown. In the end, the boys had fun and that was all that mattered. At the end of the next year, change was in the air. The league is divided up in 2 year blocks: 1st&2nd grade, 3rd&4th and 5th&6th. At the end of 4th, there were coaching changes as some coaches moved up and some left to coach younger sons. We ended up splitting off from our old Royal team and the Black team was formed. There was tension as egos were slightly bruised and we found ourselves facing former teammates at the line. In the end, the boys had fun and that was all that mattered. Last weekend was Andrew's final game of his final year playing pee-wee. Predictably, I found myself mulling over the last 4 years and a little misty-eyed at the end of this stage of my son's life. When he started playing in 3rd grade, there were several nights that he and Michael would come home from practice with Michael frazzled and Andrew pouting because Andrew felt like he was being pushed too hard. He wanted special treatment because his dad was a coach. He didn't understand why he couldn't always have things HIS way. About midway through this last season, another parent approached me just before kick-off. She'd been down with the boy's during their pre-game warm up. The head coach had started in on his pep talk when Andrew just chimed in and took over. He was pumped up and seized the opportunity to step in and lead his team. I am so proud of the person he is becoming. The first season, we had to pay him to actually chase down the ball carrier. If he missed his tackle, he'd just shrug and get ready for the next play - before that play was even over! We ended up paying him $5 every time he chased a player for more than 10 yards. I'll just say, he didn't make much. Over and over this season I heard my son's name being announced for a tackle, a sack, stripping the ball and even a fumble recovery that he ran for about 10 yards. He had initiative. He had confidence. He found that by letting go of his selfishness, he was paid back in friendships and the fruits of hard work. We ended the season with a 6-4 record. During our 3rd game, one of our key players broke his arm and you could just see the team deflate and it took us another week to recover. We lost the next game as well. Fortunately, the boys were able to pull together and we only lost one other regular season game. We won our first play-off game to a rival team in double overtime. That victory was very, very sweet. Our final game was lost on the 3 yard line with a score of 18-20. It was a hard, hard loss. Last night, our head coach shared this story with me. After our game was over, he and defensive coach were in the announcer's box calling Matthew's game. They were feeling the same unshakable anger, frustration and disappointment that many of the parents had having lost a game that we should have won. At one point they noticed that a big handful of the 5th/6th boys had gathered in an open grassy area and they were playing a pick-up game. For them, the loss had already been forgotten. It was disappointing to lose that way, but we had a great year. In the end, the boys had fun and that was all that mattered.


Jacob's tip of the day: If you bite a cd hard enough, it will form braille-like marks on both sides.