I repeat: the eagle has landed. The eagle will remain grounded until April 11.
Eagle, wife, and eagle junior are all happy.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
I forgot to mention...
...that Jimmy comes homes tomorrow for a 2-week "spring break". We are excited at our house!!
"the cup", continued
I bought Mac's cup for baseball today and left it in the back seat so he'd see it when I picked him up after school. He looked at it and said he didn't know that's what a cup looked like and that he and his friends had seen one - a much larger one - on the playground (which borders the baseball field) at school.
Immediately, I asked "did you touch it?" A mother of a boy should never - NEVER - ask that question.
He said they picked it up and played with it some.
G.R.O.S.S.
He told me later that he thought it was a kneepad and another friend thought it was an elbow pad. At least nobody thought it was a chin guard.
YUCK, YUCK, YUCK.
(P.S. One of Mac's teammates got hit with a ball in the groin tonight at practice - without a cup on. All the parents were leaving practice to go straight to the sporting good stores to buy a cup. Finally, we're one step ahead.)
Immediately, I asked "did you touch it?" A mother of a boy should never - NEVER - ask that question.
He said they picked it up and played with it some.
G.R.O.S.S.
He told me later that he thought it was a kneepad and another friend thought it was an elbow pad. At least nobody thought it was a chin guard.
YUCK, YUCK, YUCK.
(P.S. One of Mac's teammates got hit with a ball in the groin tonight at practice - without a cup on. All the parents were leaving practice to go straight to the sporting good stores to buy a cup. Finally, we're one step ahead.)
I knew there was something I had in common with a supermodel
Do you remember who Isabeli Fontana is? You might not, but she's ingrained in my memory forever. She is the mother of one of the children Mac was in kindergarten with in Sao Paulo. She happens to be about 23 and she's a supermodel. She's young, beautiful, perfect skin, tall, skinny, etc. Which, of course, is intimidating to a middle-aged (sorry, Caroline) frumpy housewife who thinks clothes from Target border on haute couture.
Today I picked up the latest edition of my guilty reading pleasure, Vanity Fair magazine, and flipped through the first few pages where I saw this ad:
Clearly Isabeli and I could have been best friends because we both love Gap. Who knew?
Granted, I buy my jeans a little looser and I utilize a few more buttons on my shirt and I use undergarments that she might not bother with, but we clearly both have an affinity for denim. I even own some old Gap jeans that are vintage because of age and not because of the latest trend that have patches on them that I wear at the corn maze.
I'm sure Isabeli never sported a big bad perm in 1987. In fact, she might not have even been born in 1987. But we could girl talk about jeans and raising boys and her love of Argentine polo players and jetsetting to model shoots. Maybe I could give her some tips for cooking in her crockpot and using a toothbrush to clean grout. Really, the possibilities are endless for what we could bond over.
I think we might be kindred spirits.
Today I picked up the latest edition of my guilty reading pleasure, Vanity Fair magazine, and flipped through the first few pages where I saw this ad:
Clearly Isabeli and I could have been best friends because we both love Gap. Who knew?
Granted, I buy my jeans a little looser and I utilize a few more buttons on my shirt and I use undergarments that she might not bother with, but we clearly both have an affinity for denim. I even own some old Gap jeans that are vintage because of age and not because of the latest trend that have patches on them that I wear at the corn maze.
I'm sure Isabeli never sported a big bad perm in 1987. In fact, she might not have even been born in 1987. But we could girl talk about jeans and raising boys and her love of Argentine polo players and jetsetting to model shoots. Maybe I could give her some tips for cooking in her crockpot and using a toothbrush to clean grout. Really, the possibilities are endless for what we could bond over.
I think we might be kindred spirits.
random Wednesday musings
1. MIA Coach is back on the scene. Apparently he got the message that he was getting ready to get the boot so we all got a contrite email this morning, apologizing for his absence but he's ready "to get the season rolling." To which I want to tell him that the season is already rolling and that he better have fast shoes on to catch up with the momentum.
2. One of the team moms told me last night the scores of the last two games. I won't tell them to you here because they are shameful. We have so much work to do.
3. I come from a long line of devoted obituary readers. My grandfather used to say that he wanted to make sure he wasn't in there. I never really got into reading them until recently, but I'm hooked now. They are fascinating glimpses into people's lives or at least what the surviving loved ones think are the interesting bits of the deceased's life. I''m particularly drawn to the obituaries of people my age or younger because people my age or younger should not be dying. I read one last week of a young woman (in her 20s) whose obituary read that she was passionate about tanning. That struck me as really the saddest commentary. She hadn't lived long enough to even find a passion outside of personal vanity.
4. At Monday night's game, I noticed a man watching our team from a wheelchair. I didn't know who he was or who he was there to watch play. Last night I learned the story. This man is the father of one of our players. He's in his mid-30s and when his wife (one of our devoted team mothers) was pregnant about 6 years ago, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He's had treatments but it's incurable. He's undergoing another type of chemo now and it seems to be working in terms of retarding tumor growth, but in the last 3 weeks, he's gone from normal functioning, walking and talking to a wheelchair with Alzheimers-like behavior. The wife wasn't at practice yesterday because the boy on our team had an ear infection and her other son had the tummy bug. In the last 3 weeks since he went downhill, her house has been full of his and her extended family. How much can a woman take? It's stories like these that put my life in perspective. From where I'm sitting, things are pretty much perfect in my world.
5. Last week I was asked by a classmate of Mac's why I didn't work. I explained that I had this opportunity to spend the year doing things with and for Mac and our family. He then asked if I didn't like money. I tried to explain that there was more to life than money, that no amount of money can buy health or happiness and that those were the most important things to me. I'm sure that team mom would give up every penny she had to have a healthy husband.
6. One of our church's mission projects is to stock a food pantry at the high school where church services are conducted. This high school is brand new and caters to some wealthy neighborhoods, but also to some poor areas as well. I'm not sure how many students attend the school (there are only 3 grades so far as they build up to the 4 grades), but there are some 300 students who are on the free- and reduced-lunch program, some of whom don't eat from the time they leave school until they come back the next morning. The school sent home a letter to those 300 kids to tell them that a food pantry was being stocked if they needed some provisions to get through the weekends or nights. Of those 300, 80 children showed up last Friday to get some food. The big concern is that with Spring Break coming up, these students won't have sufficient food for over a week. So our church is having a food drive to stock up the pantry.
This has been a powerful teachable moment for Mac. I went to Sam's the other day and bought some stuff for us and some stuff for the food bank. Mac saw the groceries in the trunk and asked what they were for. I explained that some students don't get to come home and eat snacks after school or dinner at night, that their families don't have money to buy food. He asked why they don't just go to the ATM and get money out. I explained that if you don't have money in the bank, you can't just "get money out". Clearly this talk was long overdue.
The whole point of sharing this today is that I do feel profound gratitude for the blessings in my life and those do include financial blessings. We may not be rich by certain standards, but we can eat when we're hungry, we have a roof over our heads, and we most certainly enjoy good health.
Can a girl ask for anything more?
2. One of the team moms told me last night the scores of the last two games. I won't tell them to you here because they are shameful. We have so much work to do.
3. I come from a long line of devoted obituary readers. My grandfather used to say that he wanted to make sure he wasn't in there. I never really got into reading them until recently, but I'm hooked now. They are fascinating glimpses into people's lives or at least what the surviving loved ones think are the interesting bits of the deceased's life. I''m particularly drawn to the obituaries of people my age or younger because people my age or younger should not be dying. I read one last week of a young woman (in her 20s) whose obituary read that she was passionate about tanning. That struck me as really the saddest commentary. She hadn't lived long enough to even find a passion outside of personal vanity.
4. At Monday night's game, I noticed a man watching our team from a wheelchair. I didn't know who he was or who he was there to watch play. Last night I learned the story. This man is the father of one of our players. He's in his mid-30s and when his wife (one of our devoted team mothers) was pregnant about 6 years ago, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He's had treatments but it's incurable. He's undergoing another type of chemo now and it seems to be working in terms of retarding tumor growth, but in the last 3 weeks, he's gone from normal functioning, walking and talking to a wheelchair with Alzheimers-like behavior. The wife wasn't at practice yesterday because the boy on our team had an ear infection and her other son had the tummy bug. In the last 3 weeks since he went downhill, her house has been full of his and her extended family. How much can a woman take? It's stories like these that put my life in perspective. From where I'm sitting, things are pretty much perfect in my world.
5. Last week I was asked by a classmate of Mac's why I didn't work. I explained that I had this opportunity to spend the year doing things with and for Mac and our family. He then asked if I didn't like money. I tried to explain that there was more to life than money, that no amount of money can buy health or happiness and that those were the most important things to me. I'm sure that team mom would give up every penny she had to have a healthy husband.
6. One of our church's mission projects is to stock a food pantry at the high school where church services are conducted. This high school is brand new and caters to some wealthy neighborhoods, but also to some poor areas as well. I'm not sure how many students attend the school (there are only 3 grades so far as they build up to the 4 grades), but there are some 300 students who are on the free- and reduced-lunch program, some of whom don't eat from the time they leave school until they come back the next morning. The school sent home a letter to those 300 kids to tell them that a food pantry was being stocked if they needed some provisions to get through the weekends or nights. Of those 300, 80 children showed up last Friday to get some food. The big concern is that with Spring Break coming up, these students won't have sufficient food for over a week. So our church is having a food drive to stock up the pantry.
This has been a powerful teachable moment for Mac. I went to Sam's the other day and bought some stuff for us and some stuff for the food bank. Mac saw the groceries in the trunk and asked what they were for. I explained that some students don't get to come home and eat snacks after school or dinner at night, that their families don't have money to buy food. He asked why they don't just go to the ATM and get money out. I explained that if you don't have money in the bank, you can't just "get money out". Clearly this talk was long overdue.
The whole point of sharing this today is that I do feel profound gratitude for the blessings in my life and those do include financial blessings. We may not be rich by certain standards, but we can eat when we're hungry, we have a roof over our heads, and we most certainly enjoy good health.
Can a girl ask for anything more?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
little league might just kill me
1. We were told tonight that we had to buy a cup for our sons per Little League rules. I will admit that my first inclination was to think they meant a water bottle because "cups" are not part of my existence. Before I embarrassed myself, I realized what sort of cup they were talking about. So tomorrow will be a trip to the sports store to buy my first cup. I feel like such a man.
2. The coach remains MIA. The little league president called him today and couldn't get him, so he gets one more day before he gets the coaching boot. Remember the woman I told you about at Saturday's game? Her husband is going to be the coach if MIA Coach doesn't show up. Mac will be ready for MLB sooner rather than later. Seriously, this guy coached tonight and was very, very good and patient. He has decades of experience in Little League and is going to be great for our team.
3. They've added a Sunday practice. That means we'll have been at that ballfield last Saturday, Monday (yesterday), Tuesday (today), Wednesday (tomorrow), Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before - hopefully - there's a break. Do these people not have a life??? I might not have that much of a life either, but I'd like the option to eat dinner out once in awhile. I have too many other decisions to make so good for me that the options have been reduced to Friday.
2. The coach remains MIA. The little league president called him today and couldn't get him, so he gets one more day before he gets the coaching boot. Remember the woman I told you about at Saturday's game? Her husband is going to be the coach if MIA Coach doesn't show up. Mac will be ready for MLB sooner rather than later. Seriously, this guy coached tonight and was very, very good and patient. He has decades of experience in Little League and is going to be great for our team.
3. They've added a Sunday practice. That means we'll have been at that ballfield last Saturday, Monday (yesterday), Tuesday (today), Wednesday (tomorrow), Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before - hopefully - there's a break. Do these people not have a life??? I might not have that much of a life either, but I'd like the option to eat dinner out once in awhile. I have too many other decisions to make so good for me that the options have been reduced to Friday.
WARNING! the photo below may burn your eyes
Last week I had lunch with my mom, my aunt and my aunt's friend. My aunt produced a photo that my cousin had found at her house not too long ago. The photo was taken at the Charleston airport in August 1987 on the day that I left to be an exchange student in Australia. The photo obviously dates me. Don't laugh - I don't need you to tell me I had the big, bad perm that a lot of people were sporting in small-town USA in the 80s. Trust me: I know now that it looked awful.
(my cousin Brad, me, Jimmy, Stephen, Todd, and Dara)
Anyway, I showed the picture to Mac yesterday and asked him if he recognized anybody in the photo. He had no idea. (He shouldn't feel bad, I guess, because my own mother insisted that could not be me in the photo.) When I told him that was me in the front, he laughed and told me I looked ridiculous. He told me my hair looked awful and asked if this picture was taken in the 60s. I should put him on talking restriction.
Then I pointed out Jimmy in the photo, who, let's admit, looks a little ridiculous too, right? Mac continues to suffer from hero worship for his father and he loved everything about Jimmy in the photo. He loved how long Jimmy's legs looked, he commented favorably on those plaid shorts, he thought the long hair was cool. You get the picture.
I asked him if he recognized anybody else and he immediately pointed out Jimmy's oldest and dearest friend Stephen, which obviously validates Stephen being named "Least Changed" at our 20th class reunion last summer.
Stephen might be thankful for the "Least Changed" vote, but I, for one, will gladly go for "Most Changed" if the look in this photo is what I'm getting away from!
(my cousin Brad, me, Jimmy, Stephen, Todd, and Dara)Anyway, I showed the picture to Mac yesterday and asked him if he recognized anybody in the photo. He had no idea. (He shouldn't feel bad, I guess, because my own mother insisted that could not be me in the photo.) When I told him that was me in the front, he laughed and told me I looked ridiculous. He told me my hair looked awful and asked if this picture was taken in the 60s. I should put him on talking restriction.
Then I pointed out Jimmy in the photo, who, let's admit, looks a little ridiculous too, right? Mac continues to suffer from hero worship for his father and he loved everything about Jimmy in the photo. He loved how long Jimmy's legs looked, he commented favorably on those plaid shorts, he thought the long hair was cool. You get the picture.
I asked him if he recognized anybody else and he immediately pointed out Jimmy's oldest and dearest friend Stephen, which obviously validates Stephen being named "Least Changed" at our 20th class reunion last summer.
Stephen might be thankful for the "Least Changed" vote, but I, for one, will gladly go for "Most Changed" if the look in this photo is what I'm getting away from!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)