Special Cookies and Tequila

Lisa and Christina and I decided a surprise party was in order for Marc's birthday. Not that we need an excuse to get our party on, but one is sometimes nice.


Lisa and Dave were kind enough to host the party in their awesome party house.

Which was so kind considering the crazy cast of characters we have as friends, ourselves included.



Marc was totally and pleasantly surprised (I think)

We had Jamie the singer come and play for us
There was cake.....

The kids had fun....

All in all it was a very fun night. The party went very late and we all will be needing some time to recuperate. Well, at least 'til next weekend.....

Happy Birthday Marc!!!

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Happy Birthday Daddy. You're the best Dad. I love you. Don't forget it. Love, Saige and Chase

Cute, but Trouble

This is Chase and Ethan. They are sitting in Chase's go-kart. Yes, that's what I said, go-kart. I don't have the energy to go into it. Suffice it to say, it is a production. We have that, a racing suit, a helmet and the best part, a trailer on the side of our fence to haul said go-kart to the races. Yes, with complete certainty we will be getting a letter from the home owners association about that trailer, but really, until it comes I have all sorts of other things to worry about. So, I'll ignore it until then. Anyway, Marc (of course) got Chase the go-kart. They had to go have it especially made for him. He'll race it every Friday night. Etc, etc, etc. So the first day they bring it home Chase and Ethan are here playing. By Playing, I mean they are chasing each other around my house like wild beasts. So they decide to go out in the garage and "play" with it. It actually has this shell on it(pictured above) that they decided to move off of it themselves. Why? You ask. I don't know. I don't understand most of what they do. While moving it they crack it a little bit. Whoops. So, as I am outside taking their picture Marc comes out and sees the crack.He is of course not pleased and asking what they were thinking moving it when he specifically told them not to. I took this photo at the exact moment Chase was giving the, "I don't know why we did it, blah, blah, blah." It you look you will see Ethan has this faraway look in his eye like although this is slightly uncomfortable, it's nothing he hasn't heard in his own house, hopefully soon they'll be out of that trouble and can find some other kind of trouble to get into. These two are scary. There is a story I would love to put up here about a conversation they had but it is so completely inappropriate I would get in some sort of trouble. Lisa (Ethan's mom) said, "You know Amy, there is no way they can go to college together." I was just happy she was assuming college was in their future.

DuncanKirsten

Before you read this see previous post.........






I don't think there is really anyway I can really express how hard Kirsten can make me laugh. It's funny because this morning I am feeling tired, like I didn't get enough sleep. My knee hurts from over running it and from ignoring the fact that it has hurt for a week. I overslept. I had to rush the kids. I am finding it hard to get moving. So as I am checking my e mail I am delighted to see one from Kirsten. The exact e mail is as follows
Good Morning, my dear.
I didn't want to do this on
your blog...to public. Please know that what I'm
about to say is with great love and respect in my
heart - sometimes friends just need to call each other
out about stuff. No more enabling. I've kept still
while you called Duncan original, creative, inventive
- even while describing MY moves. OK, whatever. But
now, his look. Come on. Have you stopped to ask
yourself why you're so drawn to him? Hellooo!?!?

Namaste
DK At first, I didn't see the attachment she had included in the e mail and was laughing as I replied, "Of course, he's got your hair." She responded with, "Did you see the attachment? I think it's more than the hair." So I go back and see this picture she had attached. I mean come on, pure genius.
Thank you Kirsten, I feel better now. The twistedness(I know this isn't a word-deranged, is that better?)of your mind and John's (because I know he was taking the picture) literally brings me to my knees. I bow down to you. Sometimes it scares me that you are home schooling those kids. They are our future, remember that. Please listen to the song on the cd I gave you called Friends by Viv. A little verse here- "And I've, I've got good friends. That keep me live, when I feel dead." And then you might want to take a listen to the John Oszajca song. The first one on that cd. I'm not going to put the title here, I just don't have it in me to explain to the kids right now. And for anyone reading you must go to Itunes and check out John Oszajca, he's my new favorite.

Again, with the Yoga

This is my yoga teacher, well besides Kirsten. He is based in Shanghai and comes to the states a few times a year. When he does I usually go. Fortunately my family is very patient and understanding of my yoga obsession. My brother teases me as using yoga as an excuse to vacation. It is not my fault it is always held in fun places, like San Fran, South Beach and Mexico. If he taught in North Dakota I might go there too, but probably not. Anyway, he is coming soon to New York. I am very excited because some of my friends who have never practiced with him are going to for the first time. I have been talking about him for years. But for some weird reason, they think he looks scary. I don't get it.......

Uh oh

Mickey is a Pomeranian. Really, I have papers to prove it. When we got him I had visions of a cute little dog carrier and my very fancy little dog. All I had ever had were German Shepherds. Unfortunately I wasn't aware that there was a difference between a regular Pomeranian and a toy Pomeranian. He was the size of my hand when we got him. How was I to know? He's quite a scruffy little thing, likes to roll in the dirt. Growing up with German Shepherds didn't help matters. So, right now is shedding time. It puts me over the edge. Lucy, I have to chase around with a brush because she will not let anyone else touch her. Mickey has a great groomer that comes to my house. She is in high demand though this time of year. When I called her I found out I would have to wait almost a month. Well, that doesn't work for me. I made the appointment but decided to take matters into my own hands for now. My parents gave me a professional clipper. I thought that meant I was a professional. Not so much. It's so sad too, he sits there smiling at me while I am making him look like a mangy fox. He's so trusting. All I have to say is, "You're so handsome." You'd think he was a grown man. Meanwhile, it just isn't coming out like Sherri does it. I don't know why. Maybe cause I didn't go to dog grooming school, perhaps could have something to do with it. After a while he is sick of it and I am pretty much over it so he wants to be done. I just put him out for a while hoping it will start to grow back before the kids get home. So after school today Chase walks in and sees him. He just starts laughing at first. Laughing and laughing. Finally he composes himself and says, "Mom, can't you pay someone to do that?" This coming from my child who likes a mohawk. Of course it's not me giving him that mohawk, thank God.

Egg Huntin' and Yoga

We had the lovliest of Easter Sundays. It started off with a good old egg hunt inside. After Saige and Chase had found and dumped all the loot out of the little plastic eggs they refilled them with extra candy and money out of the money jar and hid them outside for their friends who were coming over. Lisa and Kirsten were coming over to do some Easter yoga as our little form of spirituality for the day. Lisa is Jewish so they don't do egg hunts so she brought Ethan and my buddy Ben and they had a great time hunting for them here. Remind me to tell about Ben and his great love for Kid Rock someday, he was my biggest song requester in the car. Meanwhile back in the yoga room we listened to music and did tricks. It was lots of fun. I am posting my song list for Kirsten. It's the only way I can be sure she will read.
Roll On- Kid Rock
When You Love Someone-Kid Rock
Silver Lining-Rilo Kiley
Rocky Took A Lover-BellX1
Kettle's On-The Feeling
Not An Addict-K's Choice
Hidden Agenda-Craig David
Walk This Way-Run DMC
Sweet Home Alabama-Lynyrd Skynyrd
Valerie-The Zutons
You Can't Count on Me-The Counting Crows
Never Be Lonely-The Feeling
Say-John Mayer
Sugar, We're Goin Down-Fall Out Boy
Won't Go Home Without You-Maroon 5

Happy Easter

This picture is taken by my friend Ralph who is an amazing photographer. He told me I could borrow (steal) his photos off flickr and put them up here if I wanted to. So I did. I love this one. He took it at Longwood Gardens just last weekend. It makes me happy. Like spring is coming. I got to see him and two of my very best friends from college, Kathy and Jami last Sunday for dinner. It was wonderful. It always makes me feel so fortunate to see my faraway friends. It is amazing how you fall right back into place with them, no matter how much time has gone by. I feel like I revert back to whoever I was when I was with them all the time. These two are extra special because I pledged with them. We shared six weeks of constant togetherness. Awake all night. Trying to make it through the day. So, if you guys are reading this, I had a great time seeing you. Love you, mean it. Happy Easter.
From what seems like a million years ago. You still have great hair Kath. Is that a tick I see?

A Full Moon and A Lucky Penny

These are what we keep finding in our travels and they seem to work for us. While we were waiting for our luggage in the Ft. Lauderdale airport we had some rental car issues that we thought we would have a problem with. Well, Lisa thought. I just kept saying, "Don't worry. It will be fine." I went in the bathroom and found a penny. I gave it to Lisa thinking, this will cheer her up. It did. Then, our luggage came right out. We went over to the rental place with our five kids with a lot of energy running around like crazy. I of course had a printed an old confirmation from Utah. Stupid me. Didn't matter. Marc had hooked us up good and they gave us exactly what we wanted. That penny was working. Lisa kept it and things went pretty well I think.
Last night she and I went to the Kid Rock concert. This might sound funny, but let me tell you, it was awesome. I have been to a ton of concerts and this is up there with one of my favorites. Before we left I wasn't feeling well, but as a friend of mine has instructed me, "Buck up little camper." I did. Bucked up. Sucked it up and went out. I got in Lisa's car and she said, "Did you eat?" "No," I said. She looks and me and says, "Good. I brought dinner." Then she handed me a mint. So, okay, I laughed. It was going to be fun. As we were driving down the turnpike there was a big huge moon. I feel like we've been seeing a lot of those. So I took that as another good sign. We get to the concert, which was in Reading. We go in. We have floor tickets. We make our way up to basically about four rows back. The crowd was surprising to me. I expected something different. It was a lot of men. A ton of tattoos. Country looking people. Lisa in another effort to make me laugh referred to them as, "Circus folk." During the show one very nice guy who had an armful of tattoos and a black kerchief with ying yang symbols said to Lisa, "You're short, can you see?" "No, can I get in front of you?" she said. "No, But you can get on my shoulders." She looked at me. I of course, as any good friend would do, egged her on. Some other woman hoisted her up there and I just laughed. It was really fun. Kid Rock was awesome. Apparently there were protesters outside because the name of his album is Rock and Roll Jesus so at the end he sang This Little Light of Mine. Which I found extremely amusing. It was all good. As we were walking out, I said to Lisa, "Does this make us circus folk too?" She said, "No, we're cirque de soleil people, that's a big step up." All righty. Works for me.

I Went to Florida and.......

all I got was this stupid henna tattoo.

So everybody parents differently. We kind of go with the idea that you plan good stuff but you don't tell until it's about to happen. That way, if something falls through there is no disappointment because no one knew it was going to happen anyway. My friend Lisa did not follow this ideal. She is from the school of blurt it out months in advance so you can be hassled until it hopefully happens. Which we all know, sometimes it just doesn't. Case and point, the dolphin swim. We had originally planned to go down to the keys for a couple days. At which point Lisa decided we should do the dolphin swim and told everyone. Well last week things changed around a bit and that was no longer our plan. So of course everyone is sad and feeling cheated so she comes up with another grand plan. This one is the alligator farm. She has been there and seems to know all about it. She gets everyone all revved up for it.She tells them about air boat rides and little alligators you can hold. She says they can eat dinner there. She makes it sound so great. We decide to go on our way home from South Beach because she says it's right in Miami. So, as we are leaving we decide directions might be helpful. She shows the guy the address and he says, "You're never gonna make it there this time of day. That's like an hour south of here." Uh oh. Disappointment number two. We are barely through telling them that this was not going to work out as she blurts out, "Well, maybe tomorrow (the day we fly out of there) we'll go to a waterpark." Waterpark? Are you crazy? I feel like yelling. First of all, um, we're leaving. Secondly, I don't know where a water park is and third, no. So, I shoot her a menacing look and then have to try and glaze over that. What do you think the first thing they asked this morning? "What time are we leaving for the water park?" Bitchy mom, that would be me at this point has to explain that I'm sorry. There is no water park. Todays activities will include the pool. That's a water park, right?

A Half A Brain Between Them

This is what my friend Lisa says about her son Ethan and Chase. They are really good buddies that are kind of crazy together. Ya know that one kid you had as a friend that when you got together you just couldn't help riling each other up and usually getting in trouble. That's them. I can actually feel the energy shift when they are together. We just spent the last four days with my friend Lisa and Ethan and her two other boys, Adam and Ben in Florida. We had a good time. It was a whole lotta craziness because it was just her and I and five kids. Everywhere we went people felt the need to comment. "Is this a class trip?" "No, we're just idiots." Lisa would reply. We laughed the whole time and called the whole trip blog fodder. We seemed to get in trouble as a group in many places. We actually took them to South Beach and stayed in this little hotel that I love staying in when I am down there for yoga. It hadn't occured to me when I suggested it that it probably wasn't a place for five kids. Everytime we walked through the lobby people would stare at us. I, being somewhat unfriendly at times usually just didn't look at anyone. Lisa, who is very friendly told me she would smile at people and they would just stare at her like she was crazy. No smiles. Nothing. The funny thing is to that we are so short that we kind of fit in with them and at times we just looked like seven kids with two of them being really bitchy and a little better dressed than the rest. So I'm thinking now, maybe it's not just Chase and Ethan with a half a brain between them. Maybe it's Lisa and I too.

Laughing in Yoga

Today Kirsten, Lisa and I went to a yoga workshop with one of my favorite teachers, Simon Park. As I have said before whenever I am with Kirsten and Lisa I tend to laugh a lot. There are times when, like a child, I can't even make eye contact with them because I know if I do I will not be able to stop laughing. Kirsten also has a tendency to whisper her observations which are always hilarious to me at any point of the class. She will also make faces, as does Lisa that just say everything. If they are not getting something they will look at me and I have to look away. So, it was getting towards the end of class and a man in shorts (do you see where this is going?) is doing a back bend and Simon is helping him somehow, I wasn't watching, but apparently Kirsten was and she leans over says, "That's asking a lot out of those shorts." So of course I had to look and then look away. At this point I already have that giggle feeling in me. So now it is time for savasana which is the ending of class where you lie still, usually for between five and ten minutes. So we are lying there. I am fine. Then this girl starts to make noises, they seem somewhat suspect at first. I am not sure what the hell to make of it, until it turns into a snore. A long drawn out snore. I swear, usually I can ignore this but for some reason it made me start to laugh, I am actually laughing now thinking about it. I could not stop laughing. I was shaking. Kirsten punched me. I tried to think of the most awful, sad things I could think of but it wouldn't stop. I guess Simon heard me because he started queuing everyone out of savasana. I had to turn on my side and put my head in my mat. Kirsten hits me again. I felt awful but it was so funny. As the class ended in five Om's I had my hair in front of my face and just silently shook with laughter. I think it was a good class. Or I am really five years old. Not sure which.

One Hour and Forty Minutes Of My Life Wasted

Last night Saige was at a sleepover (as usual) and we decided to take Chase to a movie. My friend Lisa and her husband Dave and their three boys went too. Now, I wanted to see Horton Hears A Who. I mean, who doesn't love a good old Dr. Seuss movie? And Jim Carey, come on. He's funny. But no, they wanted to see Be Kind Rewind. Now this movie was showcased at Sundance. I actually talked to a couple people while we in Utah who saw it and said how awesome it was. It never really looked that great to me but okay. So, last night Marc literally races home from work. We are in the car in the driveway waiting for him and we rush to the movie with Marc still in his suit.To add insult to injury it turns out that that popcorn and a humongous soda would be his breakfast, lunch and dinner. Poor thing. We are walking into the movie and I mention to Lisa that it had been at Sundance and a little look of fear sweeps across her face. Five minutes in I thinking, "This is gonna suck." I whisper to Lisa, "I hate this movie already." She nods. "It scared me when you said it was in Sundance." she said. Now that made me laugh. I say, "Let's go to the bathroom and rethink this plan." So she and I get up and walk out. We look around to see what else is playing around that time. There is one movie with Martin Lawrence that usually you would have to drag me to but at this point it looks wildly entertaining. We go back in to our big crew and no one seems to want to make a change. Fine. I do my normal shifting around. I whisper to Lisa. Discuss our upcoming vacation. I feel my phone vibrate. Oh good, a voicemail. I better go check it. That occupies me for ten minutes, checking it and calling back Kirsten. Okay only about 85 minutes left to go. When I get back to my seat I am playing with my phone and a txt message comes up. Yeah. It's Lisa's husband Dave. It says.. "I want to hang myself." This was funnier than the whole movie. We stuck it out though. I talked to anyone who would listen. I wished for my I Pod. My point is, don't waste your valuable time. Skip this one.

Happy Birthday BA!!!!

Happy Birthday BA! I love you. Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear BA, Elizabeth, Auntie Boozer, happy birthday to you. Just so you know, which you do, I have been singing that song to you for a little tiny bit over three decades. I cannot wait to lie in the sun in Kas. It's good to have fancy friends. Love you to pieces. ~Amy

So Close In Age

First let me apologize for the poor quality of this picture. There's something whacky going on with my camera. Jami, I hope if you are reading this you can rectify it for me when I see you on Sunday. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Having children close in age pros and cons. Fifteen months close in age. Well, the biggest con was that first year, that was a killer. Something I would never repeat. After that though, things are pretty good. There's always someone to play with. They can do all the same activities. I guess if they were the same sex there would be even more. Same sports team. Same friends. Sharing clothes. Wait. It doesn't matter if there not the same sex. They can still share clothes. All you need is one rainy winter day, two friends, and a little time to kill. It's scary what they will do when boredom creeps in. I'm sure in a few years it will be even scarier, let's not think about that now. Let's take a look at what an absolutely beautiful girl Chase's friend Ethan makes. Really. He's hot. Chase, on the other hand is not quite as pretty. He was obsessed with those tissue paper inserts though. Every picture I have from this day is him fixing them. I think if he reads this, which really, the chances are slim to none, he will kill me. Maybe not. Chase doesn't care so much. He get's that from me.

Just Make Me Laugh

I have to say in complete honesty that most of my friends are really funny. Funny in that way that when I am around them I laugh so hard that my stomach starts to hurt and I have tears streaming down my face and I feel like I'm ten and soon someones mom is going to shush me. I like it though. I think that's why they are my friends, I just like funny people. As I have stated before I like to be entertained. My friends have been amusing for as long as I can remember. Each one of them, in their own way makes me want to be around them. So many of them live far away, Florida, California, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Chicago and even Istanbul. You all know who you are. You who left me. It's okay, I just like to visit you. When I am not doing that I am busy being entertained by these strange but funny people who do live near me. One such person, pictured here is interesting. She comes off as really sweet and kind. Uh, no. Well, of course she is sweet and kind but she does have a biting wit. A real take no prisoners, I have zero tolerance for your nonsense wit. She can also obviously (as pictured) get me to do just about anything. She says, "jump," I say, "How high?" Which is funny because as Jen and Rachel can attest to, I am little mouse or brain. I make the plan. You guys just shut up and follow along. Isn't that how it supposed to work? Kirsten has her own set of rules. She thinks we can do something and it has to be tested out now. I, like big dumb mouse or pinky (from pinky and the brain- one is stupid the other's insane) just follow along. It is kind of fun though. Especially today. Everyone got here for yoga and I was in no mood to teach. Just having one of those days. I called Kirsten and said, "Pack up your music, you've got to teach today. And make it good. Don't bore me." (I still have that little mouse tendency). So like the good friend she is, she did. She banged out a killer class with Duncan moves and all. At the end was when I was instructed to climb up her like a jungle gym, wrap a foot around her neck and try to balance. Alright. Whatever. At that point I had gotten out of my bad mood. So thanks Kirsten. And thanks Lisa, who made me laugh so hard at lunch that people were staring at us. I think one of those moms did shush us. Who cares.

I Love My Chiropractor

A while back I mentioned how Saige had been having some problems with her leg. Her regular pediatrician, who I do really like, told me there were a couple possibilities, one being surgery with pins in her hip, another being a tumor. Turns out it wasn't either of those friendly choices. What was really wrong was she had been jerked around on a ride at Hershey Park, it had thrown something out of whack in her back and three times to the chiropractor completely fixed her. Now, I know there are a lot of people out there that don't believe in chiropractors. Usually when I hear that I do the same thing I do when someone tells me they voted for Bush, I shake my head and secretly feel sorry and embarrassed for them. Now I am long past caring what other people think about politics. Makes no difference to me. I also don't care what anyone thinks of my opinion. If you know me even the slightest bit, you know where I stand. I don't need to tell you. I don't need to try and make you believe what I do. But now I do feel it is my obligation for the betterment of everyone to tell you how awesome my chiropractor is. My doctor has fixed Chase from chronic stomach problems that regular doctors kept telling me were milk allergy's. In reality his sacrum was moving. All better now. I have pushed out a rib doing yoga. Yes, some serious yoga people. My doctor popped that baby right back in. Today I went in because I could tell there was something seriously wrong with my hip. Somehow I had done something that had moved it down and forward. It was making my sciatic nerve pinch and sending pain shooting down through my leg to me knee. Guess what? All gone. That's all I have to say today. I love my chiropractor.

Saige, Chase and Santa

Thursday after school I pick up the kids and Chase's friend Jack to take them to their trainer. I'm on the phone with Lisa trying to talk and Saige and Chase are in the backseat fighting. They do that a lot these days. I know my mom is probably smirking to herself right now thinking of how Chris and I used to fight. Let me be the first to admit, it is beyond irritating. It drives me crazy. What drives them crazy is how little I care about what they are fighting about. Really, it's sad but I just don't care. I don't care who started it. I don't care what it's about. All I want is for them to stop picking on one another. I am not a yeller either, I can totally get on a bitchy voice, but screaming is not my thing. That would just give me a bigger headache. They don't really care about the bitchy voice either, I am apparently not that threatening. That is until I lie and say, "Fine, keep fighting. You won't be allowed to go to Daddy's work." It's a lie because, come on, if they're invited. They're going. There is always the stipulation with that too from Marc, "They can come if they don't fight." "Of course, they won't fight." I say, "They have been angels." But really, this is what makes them stop. The allure of going to the car dealership is so great that they might just knock it off for a few minutes. So they finally stop. Now I'm happy. Music, no fighting, it's all good. For a minute. It is at this point, right now, that Saige decides to demand the truth from me. "Is there a Santa Claus Mom?" Really? Are you kidding? I give my standard answer to any question I don't feel like answering, "I can't hear you the music is to loud." "Please turn it down then," Saige says. Damn. That usually works. So she asks again. Now Chase is trying to help out by saying, "Of course there's no Santa Saige. Come on." Chase can obviously sense my discomfort and as usual is trying to protect me from it. "I want to hear Mommy say it," she says. She's a tough nut man. For some reason, this is really hard for me to come clean with. I don't know. You'd think by this point she would just be a non believer cause all her friends are but she has held tight. I don't want to be the one to crush that. I also don't want to be the one to lie to her. Luckily Chase's trainer is txting me some inane question and I can avoid for another minute of two. Not for long. She is not giving up. She says,"Come on. All you have to say is true or false." That's all she wants out of me, one simple truthful word. So I say, "False." She said, "Thank you,"and then just looked out the window. At this point, her arch enemy, her little brother with no animosity just compassion, says, "Well Saige, maybe there is a Santa but it's not who you think it is. Maybe it's just a guy who's nice to other people but doesn't have enough presents for everyone." That sounds good to me.

Caffeine and Me

I really like caffeine. I used to be a huge diet coke drinker, years ago. I think I put some diet coke heirs through school. Then after one to many migraine headaches I gave up all caffeine cold turkey. I remember the day I did, my friend Jen came over and saw me lying on the couch, hair a mess, no make-up on, a virtual wreck. She begged me to just drink a little for Gods sake, she wanted to do something and I wasn't moving. Jump ahead about seven+ years and here we are today. I'm back on. It started very innocently when we went away for a month together as a family. Everyday I would take a little sip of Marc's coffee. Then his Mom gave him this coffee machine for at home and he would make it in the morning but it would overfill the to- go cup, so really to be a help I would drink the extra. Then when Rachel would come to visit she always showed up with a huge Dunkin Donut cup of it and would share and I could always feel the difference in myself after just a little. She could see it and it entertains her to no end. So now I just have my own every morning. It helps me when I've been up since 5 a.m. especially. So I was dragging tonight and decided it couldn't hurt. It didn't, in fact it made me want to bang out a few handstands. So the kids and I went in the yoga room and practiced while listening to the loudest music I could get out of my speakers. Chase only almost broke his neck once and Saige did a kickass forearm balance. So that was good. When I finally started coming down off my caffeine induced high I just lay down on my mat. Saige got a phone call and disappeared. Chase lied down next to me on his mat and held my hand and we listened to Jeff Buckleys Hallelujah and a James Blunt song. The only thing he said the whole time was, "Mom, what's the best thing that ever happened to you." So simple. "You and Saige."

Psycho Mom, Me or Her?

Did you ever see that movie The Hand That Rocks the Cradle? You know, the one where Rebecca DeMornay is crazy but she takes care of the kids and some kid bully's the kid she takes care of and she goes up to him on the playground and in no uncertain terms tells him to back off? Well, this is who I feel like sometimes. Really, there is a lot I will put up with but screwing with my kids is not one of them. That being said, the other day was the spring fair at my kids school. We were there for a while and then I left because they were each going home with friends. I was home like a half an hour and I get this call. This woman tells me that Chase and her son got in a fight and Chase pulled a button off her stupid kids shirt and the reason they got in the fight was cause Chase was picking on someone and her son tried to defend the other kid. OK. Yeah right. Chase is the kid who is always picked to show the new kids around. I'm sorry but Chase is not a bully. She has taken me by surprise though, I tell her I will of course pay for the shirt and talk to Chase. I call Saige's cell phone. She doesn't answer. I txt her to call me. I call Marc. The first thing he says is, "Did he win?" I don't know. Marc assures me that that is not Chase's nature and not to worry about it. Then Saige calls me back. She is very upset. She tells me that the other kid is a huge bully. He is older and doesn't like Chase because of some soccer thing at recess. He pushed Chase first and then exaggerated the story to his Mom. Then the Mom who Saige described as looking like one of those Chinese wrestlers (um, sumo, you mean?) except she is a girl, made Saige give her my cell phone number and then scared Chase. Now I'm mad. I call the woman back and literally get in a pissing match with her. I tell her, her son is apparently a huge bully. Chase did nothing wrong. She can forget about the dry cleaning money. So yesterday Chase tells me that the mom called the school and now he has to go see the principle. I am just waiting to call the office and find out what time. My poor baby.

Teach Your Children Well

Sometimes I used to feel like I was ruining some poor girls future life because of the way I do everything for Chase. I am trying to not do so much for him because I don't want him to be one of "those" guys. Those who don't know how to put a dish in the dishwasher or pick up their clothes off the floor or find the littlest thing. There was a long time I did all these things for him, you know, because he's Chase, but lately I have really been trying to make him do things for himself. He can be really lazy. He also has the habit of not being able to complete the entire task by himself, for instance, if I ask him to go get his socks and shoes on, he will say, "Okay, can you get socks for me?" Um, no. That's part of the whole deal. You get the socks, you get the shoes, you put them on. No part of that involves me. So anyway, he's doing okay with it. He still tries to get me to do whatever he can get away with but he does pretty well. So, last night he went with his buddies Ethan and Jack and Ethan's dad Dr. Dave to the Philadelphia Soul game. Marc stayed home and I went out with my friends. At 11:30 Chase calls my cell phone. "Mom." he says, "I still didn't have dinner and I am hungry." I say, "Tell Daddy honey." "Daddy's sleeping and I don't want to wake him up." So I try and give him suggestions, a banana, some grapes, a cheese stick. No. No. No. He wants dinner. So he opens the freezer and says,"How about cream chipped beef?" Hmm? I think he's up to it. So I tell him to get it out and poke some holes in it. He microwaves it. He makes the toast. He did a really good job. You know what he didn't do? Put the dish in the sink, but I'm okay with that. I was very proud of him.