Thursday, April 26, 2018
Black belt test, part 2
Posted by Val at 10:01 AM 0 comments
Labels: #AdorableRichardses, attack, black belt tests, Damon, graduation, karate, kicks, Krav Maga, punches, self defense, sharks, skills
Something for everyone
Hotel pool time
Care Bear and the art show
Posted by Val at 9:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: art show, Carrie, drawings, high school, jewelry, kid art, paintings, pencil, sculptures
Friday, March 16, 2018
That girl.
A Normal Person post
I'm channeling my mother today. I'm at our local Panera, watching the guy across the street at Ace Hardware wiping down his windows, Panera customers coming in and out, an occasional (crazy- my car said it's 24 degrees out) jogger, just eating my fresh orange scone and having hot (amazing) coffee. My mother calls this Something Normal People Do.
Yes, I have coffee at home, and I am capable of making scones, though mine would be chocolate themed as I have lemons but no oranges or blueberries at home. However, I had have a million errands to run since I've been home with a sick-ish kid for the past two days. I've already dropped off a scrip but need to claim two prescriptions at pick up, hit Walmart and perhaps Aldi, and even though I went back into the house twice before I left for good, I still don't have the mail I intended to send from town. Grrrr.
But there is laundry which has made its way into the dryer already, all the kids made it onto the bus at their appointed times, the dog has been fed and run and played with, Liam's six month med check has been scheduled, and I am actually wearing makeup and earrings. I call it a win.
Hence the coffee and scone out while I blog because our home wifi "is being a big poopyhead" to quote our longtime friend Todd. I have next to no technical knowhow so it's beyond me as to how to fix it. The guy standing next to my tech guy in my brain muttered, "Panera has wifi" and the tech guy perked up to add, "and coffee!" Someone smarter than both of them slyly added, "and yummy baked goods, and never mind that you already ate three cookies after breakfast. Get one anyway. How often to you go into Panera?" Sneaky little devil. So here I am. I just made a tactical error. I closed my eyes to absorb some of the steam from my coffee (who knew coffee could steam? Doesn't everyone heat theirs 4 times in the microwave and still forget to finish it?) and realized, I could nap here...
Posted by Val at 9:29 AM 0 comments
Labels: #AhhhCoffee, errands, hot coffee, mother, Normal Person, Panera, poopyhead, scones, Todd, wifi
What a difference 24 hours makes
Black belt test, part 1
Posted by Val at 8:47 AM 0 comments
Labels: #AdorableRichardses, #hardworkpaysoff, attackers, black belt tests, Carrie, Damon, graduation, Jonathan, karate, katas, Nina, sharks
Friday, March 02, 2018
Seuss Day 2018
The second graders have been learning about money, the coin denominations, how to add and subtract it, that sort of thing. Last night as I tucked that tuckered out kid into bed, I told him to uncover his head so he could breathe. He pipes up from where he was burrowed, "y'know how coins have heads? I'm a Damon cent!"
This morning, while attempting to snuggle the little stinkwad, he informed me, "I already said 'I love you.' Now please shoo."
He's Thing 3, all right... and a happy heavenly birthday to my Gramps, whom I'm convinced is the guardian angel for this crew...
Posted by Val at 8:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: #BosleyBomb, covers, Damon cent, Dr. Seuss, Gramps, Grandmama, money, second grade, snuggle, stinkwad, Thing 3
In Mawch...
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
The unfairness of it all
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Balls
We have a small "pond" out front, one that really is supposed to be there. It was added to the landscaping on purpose before we bought the house. It has hosted fish and frogs but every autumn it begins to host leaves. Lots and lots of leaves.
Last fall, we thought, "we are intelligent people. Let's drain the pond and cover it lest it fill up with leaves. And more water. And ice."
Well.
Carrie and her friend Isaac, whom she didn't know spectacularly well yet but who was a great sport anyway filled bucket after bucket and figured out a way to use the hose to drain the pond into the creek ditch out back. Dada used our two exercise balls (the kind you sit on for balancing or ab work- heck, we weren't using them) to toss into the pond and then found plastic sheeting to cover everything up. The idea was that the balls were taller than the pond was deep and the rain and leaves would then fall onto the plastic and cascade off.
Yay for gravity, right?
Except physics works in strange ways sometimes. The balls decided it'd be less work to just float over to the edge and hide out among the rocks rather than stay in the middle and hold up the plastic. The pond is now a plastic covered, water filled, leaf filled, leaf and water covered mess.
So Liam, who went out to feed the birds, decided he'd liberate the ball which, turns out, he had been using as a seat at the poker table where he keeps his Legos.
"Can I bring this back down to where I play Legos?"
"Tell me you did to bring that disgusting ball from the pond into the house."
"It wasn't IN the pond. It was OUTSIDE the pond, on the edge."
"And tell me you wiped it off with something to clean it off."
"I did. I wiped it off with..."
Dada and I trade glances and mouth, "hands."
"...my pants."
Dada makes a valiant attempt, but still erupts into chuckles and remarks, "you better hope you can run faster than Mama, Liam..."
Eh. I wrote this episode. Which is why it's here. Happy Springish Slop, everyone!