2013

2013 really happened...it's just that I was too busy to talk about it. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the year!

This pretty girl let Morrie and I stand with her in front of an old building.

Maria and I spent some totally spectacular days in San Diego.

Izzy...Izzy...Izzy....where has the time gone? I can't believe she is a junior and doing all kinds of fun high school things. She promised me she will live with me forever. When she was 5. I am holding her to it.

We bought lots of yellow and black shirts this year. Every time I turned around, "Mom, I need $10". For another black shirt.

We watched a lot of soccer. As in 3 or 4 times per week. And it was AWESOME.

This picture was taken shortly after it was announced that Dempsey was joining the Sounders. It was an epic moment in our house.

I found this picture on a website that I didn't even know existed. How does that even happen? Turns out lots of photographers go to highschool games!

Maria added to her collection of medals. By the time this girl leaves home, I think she will have  trunk full of them! Plus, she found her rhythm, and it was surprisingly in the back line. In the same position her sister plays. Who knew??

She also found a new home taking corner kicks. Last year she would have said that was something she would never ever ever ever do. Now, the only thing left on that list is taking a PK. I don't blame her though!

BOOM. Can you hear it? That is the sound that happened right after this picture was taken. Then the other girl fell over. Someone has referred to Maria's back line as the Legion of Boom (totally stolen from the Hawks), but completely appropriate.

 

Lots of other things happened in 2013 as well. Vegas happened. Pleasanton happened. Both were 107 degrees. It was crazy. Perhaps in a few years I will be very sad that I didn't document it all like I should have. But I was spending 98% of my time on soccer fields, and they are not a very good place to blog from. But those fields are the happiest places on earth, so it's ok.

Busy Life

Somehow I only have 2 kids, yet I feel frazzled, busy and stretched to my limits a lot. How does that happen, you might wonder? Maybe it has something to do with the 5 soccer practice a week, 2 play rehearsals, 2 volleyball practices and a mysterious number of school and volunteer meetings tossed in haphazardly. Where is my relaxation time??

Due to all of this coming and going, family dinners are rare. Sometimes Maria might be home only from 5:45-7:15pm while other days she gets home for dinner at 7:30pm. Isabelle can occasionally be spotted at the kitchen table eating dinner at 4:00 because she has soccer at 5:30. She lives in her room a lot working on Chemistry equations and French phrases, that I couldn't possibly understand.

No really, I could not possibly understand the stuff she is learning. It's true.

This is why we like to eat breakfast together. Birthdays and Valentine's Day are celebrated over pancakes and scrambled eggs. I have a deep love of breakfast foods.

Last night I dropped off Isabelle at practice at 5:30, and then had to find  Kinko's to get some player cards laminated. Morrie was simultaneously driving Maria to her practice, at a different field at 5:30. I then decided to go look for my friend who said she was going to Starbucks, but I must have missed her. Maybe it was the Starbucks down the street. Maybe it was the one on the other side of the parking lot. Why are there so many Starbucks??? It confuses me!!

 Morrie tipped me off that Maria's practice was looking good, so I headed over there with my Starbucks drink.

What? I HAD to get something while I was at Starbucks, it's just rude to walk in and not buy anything. My mother taught me that. Thank you Mom!

So I hung out for the next hour at Maria's practice and found myself actually relaxed and breathing normally. It's like my spiritual meditation- watching soccer. Plus Maria was killing it, so it was fun to watch.

It's the only time of day when I am not thinking of a million things that I haven't done but should be doing. It's the only time of day where I don't have to change the laundry, run the dishwasher, or respond to a work email. I don't worry about what's on the agenda for the next day. I think about soccer. I think about my kids who love soccer and my friends who love soccer. I think about having long conversations about soccer with anyone who will listen. I catch up on Twitter, where I only follow soccer players, soccer teams and soccer news. It's where I find happiness.

37 Things

     Many bloggers have been posting about the great things they are going to do in this wondrous new year of 2013. "35 Things I am going to do the year I turn 35" and they go on to list so many things that I get overwhelmed just reading it. It stresses me out and I don't even know them. "Hike this gorge, reorganize my bedroom, my kids bedrooms and my kitchen, read the most boring biography known to man, take a trip to NYC, record a CD, take 30 yoga classes in 30 days, rip my hamstring..."

     Because these people live the most perfect, satisfying, accomplished lives this side of the Mississippi? PULEASE. These posts seem like really really long lists of New Years Resolutions, and if I can't even do one of those, why would I do 37??

You know what is coming. I know you do. I do. My list of 37 GREAT Momentous FABULOUS things I am going to do in the year 2013 which I turn 37.

1. Take a Nap (as it should be everyone's first priority)
2. Take my girls to the wrong field for practice (you know it will happen eventually, so why not make it seem like an accomplishment?)
3. Read Jim Gaffigan's newest book (I believe the title is "Dad is Fat").
4. Maybe just get it on CD so I don't have to actually do any reading
5. Watch Baby Mama (for the 4th time) and laugh even harder than the first time
6. Watch the Proposal (for the 4th time) because Ryan Reynolds is HOT
7. Try to remember the name of that movie with the other hot guy with "photo shopped abs"
8. Vacuum. At least once
9. Try mopping
10. When weekly grocery shopping, buy all junk food that only I like
11. Spend at least one night a week eating a family dinner while discussing the MLS season, the players, the refs and the media's responses to last weeks games
12. Maybe just think about mopping, and put off actually doing it
13. Take more pictures of the kids. Perhaps actually print some.
14. Blog more. The world needs more sarcasm anyway. Especially in November when people go on and ON about how thankful they are for everything.
15. Go on vacation. Or just leave for the day. By myself.
16. Put up curtains in the kitchen so I don't have to look at our fence that is falling over.
17. Publish something. Anything. Or think about it. Or just make a FB post telling everyone that I am thinking about it.
18. Draw more. And color.
19. Figure out how to really REALLY use my new phone
20. Freak out about my 20 year high school reunion.
21. Get stronger. Even if it just means flossing more so my gums are stronger.
22. Cry about how much I miss having my babies be actually babies
23. Stay in bed for a whole day, and eat the junk food I bought while grocery shopping
24. Spam my brother's phone with random texts
25. Breathe into a bag every night the week before Izzy gets her license and pretend she is nowhere near old enough to do this
26. Enjoy some soccer in the sun (this is the best item yet!)
27. Blog about my best day of high school (since I covered The Worst Day already).
28. Make a list of potential "Best Days" since nothing comes to mind
29. Listen to Maria's essay on my great grandmother, Elsie, and pretend I am 1/8th as capable as she was
30. Go on a date with Morrie (or just walk around the block, or eat together while both kids are at soccer, or just take a second to look at him as we pass each other in the night in this crazy thing we call our life)
31. Go upstairs and completely forget why I am up there (oh wait, did this already!)
32. Wear dark shades and pretend I am not crying as Maria and her class make the leap from 7th grade to their final year in her K-8 school.
33. Decide what I am going to wear to said High school Reunion, then change my mind no less than 83 times. Take an asprin to ward off heart attack brought on by thinking of seeing everyone
34. Remind the kids to put on sunscreen, in front of their team, while I am rubbing more on their face for them.
35. Exchange witty emails dripping with dry humor with my friend, Mrs. Mouthy
36. Watch ridiculous tv that has no educational, historical, or learning value. Such as Guliana and Bill, Million Dollar Properties, Married to Jonas, True Life, or anything on Bravo.
37. Post something on FB that gets more than 25 likes. It may be necessary to blog about my second worst day of high school to accomplish this. People love to read about my embarrassment.

38. KICK MORRIE for reminding me that I am not turning 37, but 38. DAMN HIM.

My People!!

The girls and I were reminiscing about the tv shows they watched when they were little. I was loving the conversation as it brought me back to when they were small. As everyone knows, I love thinking about my girls when they were running around in onesies and holding sippy cups and saying silly things

All of the sudden Isabelle says "Bear in the Big Blue House!". I gasped and said "Oh yeah!". Maria had a blank look on her face. So I pulled up the show on You Tube and we watched.

All of the sudden, Maria shouts "THOSE ARE MY PEOPLE!".

Now before you go and start thinking that my kids had no friends besides the ones that visited us every afternoon through the television, this is what she is referring to:

 She had 5 figurines and a little replica of the set, or their "house", and she played with the people alllllll the time.  I laughed as I watched her remembering. The figurines were small and traveled easily, so I frequently would pack them up when we went to Grandma's for the weekend.

We had a good time remembering: Oswald, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, PB & J Otter, Dragon Tails, Arthur, Sesame Street, Max & Ruby, Little Bill, Out of the Box, Zaboomafoo, Sagwa, The Magic School Bus, Stanley, Blues Clues, Clifford, Cyberchase, Zoom, Franklin......

I wish I could remember what I used to watch and who My People were!

A Happy Surprise

 

I have been feeling guilty that the girls haven't had their pictures taken, professionally, for quite some time. Those feelings gnaw at my sense of motherhood, eating it away and screaming about how horrible I am.

 

I have found a cure to this ailment. I didn't even know it was happening, it just appeared before my eyes! Izzy will be taking a digital photography class this fall and wanted to test out my camera before hand. I said sure, handed it to her and she took off. I didn't explain anything about what metering, shutter spead or f-stop meant. Nadda.

 

She took off with her sister and came back some time later asking how to download the pictures. I was pleassantly surpirsed. I guess she was born with some sense of SLR knowledge. Is there a strand of DNA for this?

 

Thanks Izzy for catching these moments of your sister at 12 years old. Your mom is suddenly not so sad that her girls are getting older. Teach me everything you learn at school. Please and thank you.

First Week of School

 

Most of the pictures I have seen on facebook about the first week include captions about families that will miss the beach, vacations and camping trips. I am just plain sad that my kids are getting so old. As a matter of fact, I think I need a weekend vacation to the beach, just to mull it over.

 

Isabelle gets up and leaves way too early for these kinds of pictures now. Humph...10th graders! But Maria is still a good kid and lets us squeeze her as hard as we want to.

 

 

 

 

 Izzy had her first week of school as well as her first 2 high school soccer games. Very exciting for this mom to be able to attend. Last year I missed all but one of her 9th grade games. She not only won her games but actually seriously got to score a goal against one of the rival schools.

 

Every fall, her club team members scatter to the various schools in our area and we get to bump into them during the high school season. They love eachother an awful lot and even though they wear different uniforms in the fall, they still squeal and scream when they see one another. (It's only been 3 weeks since they all practiced together, but evidently it feels like a lifetime)

 

 

 

* I feel the need to point out that I took their picture on the bleachers, and they are really all the same height. My camera can't actually make those kinds of adjustments.

 

 

 

Pinterest- An Epic Craft Journey

 

I love Pinterest. I don't love thinking a certain project will be a breeze and then finding out it is much more of a hassle than I originally thought. Take melting crayons for example. I have done it once before and thought we could step it up a little the second time around- instead of using a hair dryer, we were going to dry glue gun melting. Looked very cool. We decided to make a birthday present for someone. This story is based on actual events and unfortunately, all TRUE.

 

Step 1) Place duck tape along outer edge of canvas. Easy enough.

 

 

Step 2) Place large letter stickers on canvas. Realize that the letter stickers you purchased are not sticking to the canvas AT ALL. Substitute much smaller letter stickers instead. Ponder if anyone will notice.

 

 

 

 

Step 3) Unwrap crayons for melting. Use xacto knife. Poke yourself 3 times and conclude that your 12 year old is doing a much better job of unwrapping crayons than you are. Hold paper towel on thumb while daughter finishes up the rest.

 

 

Step 4) Create staging area for melting with drop cloth. Unwrap BRAND NEW mini glue gun- all the blogs say to use a mini glue gun for this project. Turn on glue gun. Try to place first crayon in mini glue gun and realize that crayon is TOO BIG. Try to think of alternative. Get out regular glue gun, and conclude that it will not work. Try mini glue gun again. Still not working. Sigh heavily.

 

 

 

 

Step 5) Scrap mini glue gun idea. Decide to use hair dryer. Create newer and larger staging area for melting. Glue crayons to scrap peice of cardboard. Realize that you don't have enough and throw on extra crayons. Do not unwrap extra crayons for fear of more holes poked in fingers from xacto knife. 

 

Step 6) Hold carboard of crayons over cranvas while daughter melts crayons. Realize this is causing huge mess. Realize wrapped crayons do not melt as quickly as unwrapped crayons. Calm 12 year old as she gets upset that the yellow and green are merging into a gross color. Start ripping crayons off of cardboard and hold over canvas to melt one by one, thus filling in blank areas and remedy the yellow-green color debacle.

 

 

Step 7) Let artwork dry and harden. Get excited about removing stickers. Use xacto knife to carefully cut around stickers and remove. Realize that melted crayon has seeped under stickers and created a peice of work that looks nothing like Pinterest. Calm upset 12 year old. Again.

 

 

Step 8) Spend 2 hours gently scraping off colored wax where stickers were, in hopes that you save the project for the birthdya party the next day. Upon reaching the hour of midnight, decide that it is as good as it is going to get. Cross fingers.

 

Step 9) Show 12 year old the next morning and sigh in relief as she exclaims how awesome it is.

Step 10) Remember to never do this project again.