Happy birthday!

To Mom Joy and to Mega-Joker-Eggo.....

Joy's is today and Megan's is this weekend...

So happy birthday to both of you!!!

I love this bar...

It's my kind of place
Just walkin' through the front door
Puts a big smile on my face...

I interrupt this blog to bring you THIS important message!
Welcome Corrinne Elizabeth!!! Born to our dear sweet Tigger yesterday afternoon. She arrives at 6 pounds 13 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long and a full head of long black hair.

We now continue with our regularly scheduled blog...
So the weekend found me relaxing. RELAXING, people. Can you believe it?? Friday night my house was empty - no kids, no hubby, no nuthin. Just a house. A quiet, fairly clean house. And I had nowhere to go! I thought about buzzing over to Laura's because cousin David was coming over to jam, and it was tempting, but I worked late, patched some servers, approved some workstation patches, stopped at the liquor store, picked up some wine, made a return at Costco and went home. I had a date. A date with some buttery garlic pasta, some wine and my book. Hooray books!

It was like a little slice of heaven, sitting there in my living room with nothing but the sound of the washing machine...oh, and Jul calling me to see if I was "in the area" so I could stop by Flan's and have a beer...HA! Almost was, Jul - almost was!

Saturday it rained, rained, rained - so Kev-head and I had a lazy morning. Doing laundry, picking up, sleeping on and off, reading my book, eating, sleeping, doing more laundry. At one point Kevin was in the living room soaking his sore foot and reading his bike mag, Alex was there with his laptop playing WoW, I was there reading my book. We were having family cocktail hour with no cocktails!! It was quite nice.

Saturday night was GNO (Girls Night Out) with my Roselawn mamas. We went to Abuelo's for yummy food and kick-your-ass marguaritas. Then we went to see Knocked Up. I highly recommend this - and it's not a chick-flick, either....boys will find it funny, too. There were parts where I thought I would shoot popcorn straight out of my nose. Hilarious. We didn't know where to go after that. It was 10:00 - and we were out for the evening. We didn't want to go home, and we didn't want to go to a bar full of 20-somethings, either. So we went to a dive bar. I love dive bars. Some of the best nights I've ever had have been in small rinky-dink scary looking dive bars. Hell, Flan's and the Village are dive bars and they are my favorite! We go to this bar no bigger than my office and people are bringing us stools so we have enough seats. There was karaoke and I gotta tell ya - this guy? Best selection I've ever seen. There was another table full of girls there also out for GNO, there were a lot of girls singing and having a good time. We ended up staying until 1am!

Sunday we had the end of the year party for little league and it was a great day. The kids had a blast, I got to eat good food and play games in the yard. By Sunday night I was exhausted, but it was still a great weekend.


Booooo little league games every night! Hooray GNO!! (and beer)

Here comes the sun...doo-n-doo-doo...

Here comes the sun...
And I say
It's all right...

Well, it's over. The regular season is over. I don't have to worry about a game for 2 full weeks. We ended the season 15-3. We lost two this week - there were some bad things happening since we had 3 games in a row. Last night we pitched 3 kids who had never been in the infield, let alone on the mound. We had to. We got screwed having 3 games in a row with pitch counts, etc, and the ump on Tuesday didn't help either. It was the worst.umped.game.ever. Let me put it to you this way - in the 3rd inning, Coach Kevin told the kids to stop swinging the bat. We scored 5 runs that inning. That is a poorly umped game, my friends - plus it took us 2.5 hours to play 6 innings. Yeah, ummmm, no. That's bad. It was another home team we were playing - the other coaches were just as ticked. They didn't want to win that way. Not that we played well - I think we still might have lost based on the way the kids were playing...but it was very frustrating, let me tell ya.

But you know what? Putting those kids on the mound last night - that was so fun to watch. One of them only allowed one run, struck someone out and caught an infield fly. He will never forget that. He wasn't much of a ball player when he came to us, not because he didn't have skill, but because he lacked confidence. The change in him this season - he hit 3 inside the park home runs this season. We've known this family for a long time, and it's just nice to see him with his head up. And for not having our usual pitchers on the mound? We lost 22-16 last night. And the kids had fun, they were hitting, Owen had an inside the park home run in the first inning. That was awesome.

At his last at bat, I yelled out that I'd pay him $20 if he "hit dad's truck" - my son? turns around and says "do I hear $75??" That got a lot of laughs. He ended up striking out, which saved me money so that was good. :) It's a good team, we had a good season...

Now it's time for all-stars. I have no idea what to expect. It's one of those situations where deep down, in places I don't want to talk about...I hope they lose and lose early. I want my summer to start. I want just a couple of weeks where I don't have to worry about what kid needs to be where. I just want a break.

But we all know I want them to win. Right?

I don't know how I feel about this issue...

There is a large issue that was vetoed again by Dubya - stem cell research. I will be the first to admit that I don't know where I stand on this issue. I waffle back and forth, reading up, taking into consideration all aspects, and I still don't know how I feel about it.

If it were my kids, my parents, suffering from some disease that could be eased or even cured by stem cell research - the position changes. It's so personal, it's so hard to find that line between playing God and succeeding in medicine and science. A wise person once said to me that God gave us the ability to discover the science. God also gave us the ability to build the atom bomb, but I don't think His intent was Nagasaki and Hiroshima. So this, this is where I struggle.

But the position I would not take is Dubya's. This man is an ass of the highest order. And I know this is the second post in as many days about political issues, and I know the readers I have prefer it when the blog is light-hearted and funny, but I can't let this stuff pass...

"If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers would for the first time in our history be compelled to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos," Bush said. "Crossing that line would be a grave mistake. For that reason, I will veto the bill passed today."

"Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical, and it is not the only option before us."

So let me get this straight. Destroying human life to save human life = unethical. What about the 655,000 Iraqi civilians who have died for this war that means...oh wait...we don't know what it means. What does it mean??? Why are we there? And so help me if you say the "war on terror" I will drive to where you are and shake you until you stop saying that.

According to Dubya, we can't do embryonic stem cell research, even with the potential to SAVE hundreds of thousands of people from horrific suffering with debilitating diseases and afflictions. But we can kill 655,000 (or MORE, that's just an estimate) in this "war" that no one, not even the soldiers fighting it, can explain to me.

And this from a man who comes in as a governor from a state that engages in capital punishment, btw.

The hypocrisy of it all.
*Edited to correct my number of Iraqi citizens who have lost their lives to this war.

I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me...

You don't have to approve of gay marriage to know that this is just wrong, wrong, wrong...read the whole thing, please, and consider what family means to you, and who you consider your family. If someone close to me were dying, should blood or a piece of paper matter in letting me hold that person's hand as they breathe their last? And apparently, even though they had legal medical standing, some people are so biased in their opinion on gay relationships that they still can't do what's right.

OLYMPIA — Four months ago, Lacey resident Janice Langbehn, her partner Lisa Pond and their children Katie, David and Danielle, ages 10 to 13, were set for a relaxing cruise from Miami to the Bahamas.

But Pond, Langbehn’s partner for nearly 18 years, was stricken in Miami with a brain aneurysm and died. The family says the way they were treated by hospital staff compounded their shock and grief.

Langbehn, a social worker, said officials at the University of Miami, Jackson Memorial Hospital did not recognize her or their jointly adopted children as part of Pond’s family. They were not allowed to be with her in the emergency room, and Langbehn’s authority to make decisions for Pond was not recognized.

“We never set out to change the world or change how others accept gay families,” Langbehn told the crowd at the Capital City Pride on Sunday. “We just wanted to be allowed to live equally and raise our children by giving them all the same opportunities their peers have.”

While Washington is one of a half-dozen states to recognize same-sex partnerships in some fashion, Florida is not.

Compelled to speak out

Langbehn said that the pain from losing Pond is still fresh, but she spoke at the gay pride event Sunday because the issue of legal recognition of homosexual families was too important to let go.

“I want people to be able to hold their partner’s hand in their moment of death,” she said.

Pond suffered the aneurysm just before the R Family Vacations cruise ship left Miami for the Bahamas in February, Langbehn said. After Pond was taken to the emergency room, Langbehn said she was informed by a social worker that they were in an “anti-gay state” and that they needed legal paperwork before Langbehn could see Pond.

Even after a friend in Olympia faxed the legal documents that showed that Pond had authorized Langbehn to make medical decisions for her, Langbehn said she wasn’t invited to be with her partner or told anything about her condition.

She said she wasn’t allowed to see Pond again until a priest arrived to give Pond the Anointing of the Sick, also commonly known as Last Rites.

“I was shocked. It never would have been on my radar that we wouldn’t be allowed to say goodbye,” Langbehn said. “When I was an emergency room social worker at Mary Bridge (Children’s Hospital and Health Center in Tacoma), if someone had said they were an aunt or a partner, I would have let them say their last goodbyes.”

Langbehn says she still has not been given Pond’s medical records from the hospital nor her death certificate directly from the county or the state, which affected their children’s Social Security benefits.

But she has received support from the local community and from former talk show host Rosie O’Donnell, who has e-mailed her to offer support and said she was angry over the way the family was treated. O’Donnell’s partner, Kelli O’Donnell, is a co-founder of R Family Vacations.

Capital City Pride co-chair Anna Schlecht said that Langbehn’s story drives home the reason why gays and lesbians continue to lobby for national legal recognition of their partnerships and families.

“When Janice told me the story over the phone, I started crying,” she said. “Death is hard enough. I can’t imagine having my children barred from me in the last moments of my life.”

Langbehn said attitudes changed when doctors in charge of organ donation recognized Langbehn and Pond as a couple. They accepted Langbehn’s signature on the consent forms, she said. They also allowed the children to visit with their mother, who was kept on life support while organ matches were found.

Pond, who was a volunteer with her church and with the Girl Scouts, as well as a foster mother, wished to donate her organs because she wanted to continue to give to people after her death, Langbehn said.

“I heard from the heart recipient last week,” she said. “Now he’s able to play with his grandkids again and he definitely would like to meet our family.”

I guess you're just what I needed...

I needed someone to feed....

Last night was pitch perfect. Booooo busy evenings, hooray lazy nights! The boys did a bunch of chores for me yesterday, so the house was in pretty good shape when I got home. I thought Kevin was going to have the boys on tractors when I got there, but he decided to take the night off. Hooray!

So I got home, popped a bottle of red, got out the goat cheese, some crackers and some grapes and sat down with my book. I got to READ, people...READ!!! I purchased some cedar planks at the Costco and decided to give them a whirl. I snacked and read while they were soaking, the boys jumped in the pool. We actually all relaxed quite nicely. The weather was perfect, there was a breeze keeping away any early evening mosquitoes. This is the good stuff.

After dinner (the pork chops turned out pretty good on the cedar planks!) we had a post-dinner cocktail hour on the deck, with Alex, Owen and I all reading our books of choice. Alex has started a new series and Owen picked up the Dangerous Book for Boys. If you have kids, not just boys, but kids, you should own this book. It's so fun! Julie turned me onto it and I bought it for Kev-head and the boys for Father's Day. Owen decided he wanted to learn how to make a water bomb out of a piece of paper, but couldn't figure it out on his own. So there we were, on the deck with the tiki torches going, folding a piece of paper into a water bomb. And when it actually worked? We were hooked. Alex in typical teenage fashion feigned apathy, but I think the boys will be making more of them today. Then Owen was on to coin tricks. Which then prompted us to get the magic kit out of the closet. Owen worked on magic tricks for the next two hours at least. "Owen the Magnificent" is born. And I, of course, am his lovely assistant.

A good evening was had by all - and I learned a couple of coin tricks myself.

The lazy days of summer...

Oh who am I kidding...there's no such thing. It IS summer, right? Yes - so the thermometer tells me. But seriously, lazy? No. I thought this was going to be a good weekend, a relaxing weekend. Notsomuch.

Friday found me doing laundry and trying to make my kitchen not look as if a tornado had just passed through. I am still recovering from Alex's party the weekend before. Odds and ends of colored napkins, plasticware, coffee pots tucked out of the way but not anywhere close to where they belong. Heaps of flowers not yet planted needed to find a permanent home in the ground. And yet, we decided to go and check out the Sandbur festival in Lake Village. Julie got to drive through beautiful "downtown" LV with me when we went to Owen's game a few weeks ago. And you have to laugh, because the downtown is more like a glorified neighborhood with some houses converted into a restaurant, a furniture store and the post office. And that's basically it. If I hadn't told her this was "downtown" - she wouldn't have known. Smalltown America at it's finest.

I was excited because we all know how I feel about my food from a booth, and this would be the official start of my festival season. My expectations were low - but this? This was beyond low. This wasn't even fair food. This was pitiful. Pit.i.ful. I did get some fried veggies - and they weren't horrible - but they weren't Lake County Fair quality, which is where my bar is set. You know it's bad if the highlight of my food experience was a snow cone.

This week is the last of the regular season games - tomorrow, Weds and Thurs. I won't be going to the one on Wednesday - that's the Freshman welcome picnic for Andrean. I'm already sweating what to wear. We'll save that discussion for when I'm thoroughly freaking out about it tomorrow. Oy.

Saturday found us at a ball game, selling tickets for little league at the aforementioned fair and then going to two graduation open houses.

Sunday found me melting in my garden, catching up on laundry and then driving to Lafayette to pick up the fair-haired boy. After that we had a soccer party and then home, finally to find that it had actually rained. HOORAY!! No watering the garden for me last night.

This weekend isn't looking any less busy - but the events are enjoyable...Saturday night is girls night out and Sunday is our end of the year party for baseball. Can I really have two parties with no rain? Stay tuned...

It sucks having an addictive personality...

Yeah, ummmmmm...I'm a whack job. For those of you who didn't realize this already - I truly am. Whack.job. I can get addicted to things so easily.

Chris and Julie were at the house for Alex's party - wanna know what Chris got me hooked on. Are you ready?

NASA TV.

Yeah, that's right...NASA...on television. Oh, and you can stream it on your computer as well. You can see them gearing up for their space walk right now...it's so cool. Earlier I heard them chatting it up with the Russians about the computer malfunction. It's geeky and I don't care. I'm totally sucked in.

My other new addiction? Entourage. I went to see my sister and she had the first two seasons on DVD and the third season recorded. It was like the new crack cocaine for me. I brought the first season home, and I gotta tell ya, my house is a disaster and all I wanna do is watch Jeremy Piven and the boys.

My other unhealthy obsession? Goat cheese. Don't ask - but I love the stuff and I haven't been able to find anything good around here. Well I found it at the farmer's market on Wednesday. mmmmmmmm....goat cheese. Happy little goats from right here in Indiana. It's way more expensive online than what I paid, but what's a girl to do? I have to have my fix.

Any of you sparking up any unhealthy addictions lately?

Summer reading...

Can you see the light??? Can you??? It's almost here. 4 more games! 4 more games! We're currently 13-1 which is a pretty nice place to be. So I'm looking forward, to a time when I might actually have more time and wondering, what should I read?? I'm still reading the series that Julie gave me for Christmas, and I'm confident that I'll have that finished pretty quickly. What are you reading? What do you suggest?

Even if you've already told me, tell me again - I'm going to B&N Friday, I think....suggestions!

And I don't understand why I sleep all day...

And I start to complain that there's no rain...

NO RAIN! Do you hear me? No.rain...this is the second party I have given where it hasn't rained. The first one was last Memorial Day weekend. I let Owen have a big slumber party for his birthday and I just started telling parents to stay since the weather was nice and we could all cook out. It didn't rain then, either. I started thinking that maybe it was because I kept it small and spur of the moment that I had nice weather.

This party was awesome....it was well planned, well executed...the house and the yard looked great, the food was good...I didn't have too much or too little of anything. BRILLIANT. The fireworks got a little challenging - the mortars kept blowing our tubes - that was a problem as we basically launched a couple in the direction of our party guests. Whoops.

Alex made some good money - he'll be getting his laptop soon. I told him we'd talk this week about what kind to get, how much Kevin and I will be contributing, etc. I guess this means I'd better get my wireless up and running in the house again. A task I've been putting off for months. Whoops. I have to get Owen's room up and functional as well. Part of me doesn't want to make this happen, because I like that they have to surf from the office where I can see them. BUT - part of me wants to really trust my kids. I've seen most of what they're looking at and I think they know what they can and cannot do. But then I worry that I'll see my family on "To catch a predator" and oy. Alex will be fine - it's that overly friendly Owen that I'm more concerned about. Alex wants to play WoW - Owen wants to be friends with the world. I don't know where he gets it.

Phew - it's almost over...

OMG - I guess it's because I'm doing Kathy's job over here (not well, mind you - but I am getting it done) - I'm channeling the young Kathy going into my weekend. I have lists. Multiple lists. What I'm getting at the store - written in the order of the aisles...seriously. I have a list of everything I must get done tonight. I have a list of everything I must get done in the morning. With target times. TARGET TIMES. I think I've actually one-upped my listmaking friend on that one. I'm insane. These people are riding my ass like a show pony over here and I have had a scant few minutes to organize my thoughts on getting stuff done.

I am almost done with the pity party that is me beating myself up over planning this party for this weekend. I had to sacrifice Stevie Nicks/Chris Isaak tickets, I have a meeting and a ball game in the morning. I have another party to go to in the afternoon. Alex has a party tonight.

OH MY GOD. I didn't factor that in. I have to spend 2 hours on the road tonight driving Alex to and from this party. Lovely

I'm screwed. So much for my cheery outlook...I'll let you know how it goes.

Revelling in my good fortune

First - today is Carol's last chemo treatment. Boooooo losing eyebrows and eyelashes, hooray end of chemo. She has really been a trooper through the whole thing. I'll be so glad when this is over and she gets her hair back.

These past couple of weeks have been rough - scheduling wise, work-wise, everything. And it's in these past couple of weeks that I am so grateful to be blessed with the people in my life. I have such wonderful friends and family everywhere who have helped me, have listened to me bitch and complain and just generally been around.

Like Tuesday, when Kevin and I had to miss Owen's game to go to Alex's graduation. Another coach came in and helped coach the team for us. I had not one, not two, but four different people willing to take Owen home from the ball field that night. I had two different parents, one calling Kevin's phone, one calling my phone to give us updates on the game. The family that did take Owen home that night fed him and made sure he had everything he needed.

Kevin has friends who are coming to help us set up the party on Friday night. My mom is planning on spending the day at our house on Saturday probably planting my containers and doing whatever I need to make sure the house is ready to go. My Roselawn wife is loaning me coolers to make sure I'm all set.

One of Alex's friends is having her graduation party on the Spirit of Chicago on Sunday. All I have to do is get Alex to the church on Sunday morning, and I have 3 different parents who are willing to drive him there and bring him back.

When you're a working mom, hell, even when you're not, even when you're just a busy mom with multiple kids running in multiple directions - it truly does take a village. I am truly blessed and fortunate that I have such a strong village - a fun village - sometimes a crazy village. Thank you villagers - I know some of you are out there. Have you thanked your village today?

In the thick of it now...

Okay, so I've got graduation out of the way. PHEW! What a bawl-fest THAT was. I was fine with it, I truly was. Until Alex's teacher read a children's story that left every mother/grandmother/aunt/caregiver/guardian in the place wondering why they bothered with mascara. I must own this book now. The jist of it? You never know when you're witnessing your child's last. We all take pictures and mark the firsts - they're very exciting. But do we remember the lasts? Last snuggle up and read a book, last time running through the grass barefoot, last time they look at you with wonderment about everything - would you have paid more attention? If you knew it was the last? If you knew it was the last butterfly kiss or PB&J with the crusts cut off? Would you have taken a picture if you knew it was the last mud pie or the last dress-up? The last time they wore a cape to the grocery store? Seriously - I'm welling up just telling you about it. Anyway, it was gut-wrenching and awful, but the ceremony was nice overall. Very proud of my boy.

Owen had a game last night. They won again! 11-0, baby! OMG...it's unbelievable. We have games on Thursday, Saturday and Monday. Then we get rest. REST. Post grad party rest. Post baseball game hell rest. Nothing to do. Which means my husband will probably schedule practice. But nothing for ME to do. Can you see it? The light at the end of the tunnel? It's getting brighter. Today I will be very together. Today I will order the cake and the chicken and the other food. Today I will go to the store at lunch and get all of my tablecloths and napkins. After work I will go to Costco and get everything else I need. Tonight I will get out the Christmas lights that will light up the tent. Tomorrow I will buy fireworks. I will throw the bestest party ever. EVER. (I'm really saying this more to convince myself...)

My busy schedule is now robbing me of the funny...

Holy fatigue, batman! It's almost over, it's almost over, it's almost over, it's almost over....it's my life, it's my mantra...it's all I can do to keep afloat. 100 people at my house on Saturday, and I haven't done anything. ANYTHING. No cake, no decorations, no ordering food...NOTHING. I'm pitiful. I've been so busy here at work I haven't had time to think. Luckily we already bought a big canopy tent, and before any of YOU say it...SAVE it. It's not going to rain. It's in God's hands. Seriously. It will be fine.

So between now and Saturday I have to use lunch hours and Wednesday after work to buy decorations, plates, napkins, utensils, booze, side dishes, fireworks; order cake and food, coordinate with my husband to get everything picked up and set up.

And we have graduation tonight.
And a game Thursday night.
And a game Saturday morning.
And a meeting with the church people on Saturday morning.

And it's supposed to rain all week so we can't cut the grass.

BUT - the seeds I planted in my new vegetable garden? You should see the size of the plants I have already! It's so exciting. My green beans, peas and sunflowers are all inches above the ground. It is the most wonderful thing to come home to, let me tell ya.

Wish me luck - I need it...before I pull my hair out. Once I get through this weekend I SWEAR the blog will get better and I will be funny again...promise. (That's if, of course you thought I was funny to begin with. If not, get off my blog.)

Am I ... too involved?

So I've noticed some things recently.

Women in our area will say that our PTA is a "click." Interesting. But I think we are this way because the very people that call us that have made us this way. We are the only people who show up for anything. Need volunteers for a sock hop? 10 women show up. Little league concession stand? Same women. Cub scouts, girl scouts, classroom helpers, graduation helpers, people who attend school board meetings and pta meetings...SAME WOMEN. We post and we beg and we invite all sorts of people to come, to please come, get involved, take a turn. Trust me...we would be MORE than happy to have you.

But they don't come, even when some of them express interest or say they will. We never see them.

So how can they not expect that the 10 or so of us - the women who are always there - will not become friends? Maybe socialize a bit. That makes us a click. We're perfectly nice people. Well, some of us aren't...I'm not blind...but most of us are nice people. We genuinely want your help and your ideas, and you just sit there and do nothing and then bash us for what we've done. Thanks.

And I've noticed that actually LESS parents are even coming to events. More parents are becoming "drop and run" parents. Now, not on my baseball team, but others I've seen, some in Roselawn, some elsewhere, we'll play teams where one or two parents are there. Twelve kids on a team and 2 adults are there. What? We had 6th grade graduation for 75 kids the other night. I think half of them had parents there. Huh? My dad was at the game the other night. My girlfriends, the moms of the other kids, were screaming for their kids, laughing, joking, generally having a good time. His response? "And to think I used to be so mad at my parents for never seeing my games." Oh Harry.

I know people have stuff to do, shift work, other kids in other activities. Hey, I get it. I do this. I divide and conquer. But really when I talk to people, they really don't have reasons for not attending their kids' stuff. They just drop and run. Can't they make an effort? Why aren't they? So the question is, is this generation of parents, the generation x-ers I think they are, just so apathetic as left over from the 90's, or am I too involved?