School Days

Well, hello there! Yes, it's been nearly two months since my last post. I wouldn't want to be accused of being an overzealous blogger.

Would I be considered overzealous if I blog once a week? No? Good, 'cuz that's what I'm hoping to do now that my boys are IN SCHOOL.

Can I get an 'amen' for school?

Let's begin with the obligatory first day of school photos.

Garrett and Jackson are now first graders, and Liam is a third grader.
(Please excuse the ugly flowerbed behind them. The relentless heat has gone and done something ugly to our plants and our moods.)

I asked them, "Hey, boys, show me what you think about my making you wear collared shirts today." This is what I got:
Actually, two of the boys chose collared shirts on their own. The third boy had to be talked out of a faded, shrunken Mario t-shirt and black basketball shorts. "Sorry, son, but I think a good first impression is important."

Garrett hit the jackpot this year with receiving the most smiley teacher on campus. PLUS, his BFF, Will, is in his class. It can't get much better than that!
Jackson just might have a crush on his teacher. He typically likes the tall gals.
Liam has a teacher who fills her room with TONS o' books, so the two of them should get along just fine.
He was completely embarrassed that I walked him to his class, but a mom has to have a picture of her kid and his teacher! He's lucky I didn't give him a big smooch right there in front of God and everyone.

Later that evening, he informed us he would no longer be holding our hands in public. "Cuz it's not cool, man," he said.

But it was cool two days prior to third grade. I really didn't expect this year to be such a pivotal moment of moving from little boy to grown man. Should I expect facial hair and voice crackling tomorrow?

Things That Make Me Go "Hmm"

If you've ever had young kids, you know how often they open the door to tell you all kinds of nonsense while they play in the backyard.

The door opens and I hear, "So and so hit me with the ball." The door closes, only to be reopened every 2.9 seconds for comments and questions such as these: "So and so threw the ball at the dog." "Are we allowed to dig in the garden?" "I hit a home run and the ball went over the fence! Can I go get it?" "Mom, do you like grub worms?" "Marshall's eating from the garden." "What are we doing today?" "What are we eating for lunch?" And two seconds later, "What are we eating for dinner tonight?"

Admittedly, I'll sometimes lock the door to stop the nonsense. Or I'll throw out the threat, "If you open that door again, you're coming in for a nap!" That one works like a charm.

Anyway, as I was cleaning my bedroom this morning, the boys and dogs were playing in the backyard. I believe they opened the door 52 times before I heard a new statement. Jackson yelled, "MARSHALL LOST A TOOTH AND I FOUND IT!"

"Okay, great. Yep, he's teething. SHUT THE DOOR," I yelled back. (I should always say 'Slam that door', since that's what they do.)

Jackson went back to play, and I didn't give Marshall's tooth another thought, until I walked through the kitchen 30 minutes later to find the lost-and-found tooth in a baggie on the kitchen counter.

I carried the tooth to Jackson and asked if he thought the tooth fairy should visit the pup. He laughed and said "No! I thought we could make a collection of his teeth."

Oh. Hmm.

Raising boys often leaves me scratching my head.

Decluttering

The blogging portion of my brain feels cluttered. So many pictures to post. So many events have come and gone without even a sentence granted on the blog. When I get this far behind in my writing, I feel overwhelmed and simply want to give up. But then I remember that I don't scrapbook for my family, nor do I simply print our photos, so if I don't blog, what do we have to show for our lives?

In an effort to declutter my foggy blog brain, here's a post of random photos.

Garrett finished out his t-ball career by being chosen as one of four from his team to advance to the All Star tournament.
His kindergarten teacher came to his final All Star game.
Mrs. Whitsell is one of a kind, and Garrett was sure to show off some of his best baseball skills in front of her. This is where I should rattle off all of his amazing defensive stats, but I simply can't remember one. Suffice it to say, he played well, very well. And he's more than ready to move on to coach pitch in the fall.

Meanwhile, Liam's Dirtbags were winning a semi-finals game the same night, and they advanced to the Championship. Garrett and I were able to make it to the final game, where the Dirtbags defeated the Giants. This win was a huge victory, because the Giants had only lost something like 3 games in two years!
Trophies all around for the Dirtbags!
On a non-baseball note, (Imagine that...something in our lives that doesn't relate to baseball!) Jackson and Garrett graduated from Kindergarten. I would love to show you some fantastic photos of my babies' graduation, but a certain someone, who will remain nameless, deleted many, and I mean MANY, pictures from my camera. So we're left with mediocrity, such as a blurred picture of Jackson receiving his congratulatory hug from his teacher, Mrs. Woods.
He blew her off like he'd blow a spider off his arm.

But Garrett paused for a sweet moment with his girlfriend, I mean teacher.
Yes, I must admit I teared up when I saw my babies walk across the stage. Not because they're graduating from kindergarten, but because I couldn't help but flash forward to twelfth grade in my mind. Be still my heart, what will I do when my kids all finish high school?!

After the 50,000,000 kindergarteners walked across the stage, they sang songs such as "New York, New York". How does Frank Sinatra's famous song qualify as a graduation song, you ask? The words were changed to something like this:

Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I'm gonna be apart of it
first grade, first grade
It was cute, and, of course, hand signals had to be incorporated.

I'm not sure who was most excited about the last day of school, the boys or me. But let me tell you, when the dismissal bell rang, we hightailed it outta there without a glance back. Woohoo, summer!

One of our first summer days was spent riding horses. I have wanted to introduce my boys to horseback riding for quite some time, and a perfect situation came up. A good friend of ours recently inherited two horses from his dad, and he invited us to meet him at the corral.

This is where I'd love to post pictures of my boys riding their first horse, but that nameless person deleted about 100 pictures of our horseback riding experience. About all I have to show you is Liam brushing Alley.
Alley happens to be the horse that also bucked Liam off. The horse decided he didn't want to be ridden and threw my boy off within two minutes. Thankfully, Liam didn't have any serious injuries, but he was sore for a few days. But he was brave and got onto another horse with me within a few minutes of his fall.

Liam tried out and made it onto the summer All Star team again. They've gone to championship level all but one tournament thus far, placing second twice and even first place recently. Summer baseball is hotter than hades, but when the boys win, it's worth the sweat.
Another big event of our summer has been Garrett pulling his own tooth.
He was so proud of himself for pulling it on his own. And I cried, because I'm simply not ready for my baby to grow up.

In other news, Marshall had his manhood and dewclaws removed a few days ago. He came home looking pretty pitiful.
Yes, we've had a grand ol' time trying to keep him from chewing his bandages. A neighbor asked why Marshall has casts on his paws. Garrett said, "We had his claws removed so he won't run away and make babies." He kind of got my explanation confused.

Now that summer is in full swing, we're enjoying a relaxed schedule. Staying up late, sleeping in until 7, no homework, play dates, swimming, etc.

We're also hitting the batting cages frequently.
Just call them the Bad Bat Boys.
And on that note, these bad boys are ready to go burn off some energy, so I better run before something gets broken.

I can't promise when I'll be back, but I hope it's before summer's end.

Life is Good

"Life is good when you have another baseball game," is what I read in Liam's journal the other day.

He'll be disappointed to know tonight's game is canceled due to rain. But he'll be happy when he realizes he has a tournament of 3-4 games next week.

Yes, I read his journal. I'm nosey that way.

And I just love that my boy's journal is full of nothing but baseball talk. Pure, innocent fun.

He's Growing on Us

Marshall, the pup, has been home for about 6 weeks now, and he only has one post on the blog? That's just not right. A good mommy brags about ALL of her children equally.

Here he is today at 3 1/2 months:
He's almost tripled in weight since we got him, and he's taller than Winston now.

How does Winston feel about it all? This look tells all:
Poor Winston! I keep telling him that he's still my #1 dog, but he remains very bitter about sharing his mommy. I can't blame him with all the nasty stunts that Marshall pulls. He won't let Winston get any of my love without jumping right in the middle of us. The brown boy likes to sneak up behind W and bite his legs at any given moment. Marshall also likes to nip at his jowls and steal his favorite toy. They go round and ROUND, even if I'm sure to give them both the exact same chew toy.

If you look a little closer at Marshall's nose, you'll see that he hasn't learned to back off.
We should have named him Scarface.

Although the two dogs still haven't figured out how to live peacefully under one roof, Marshall has otherwise settled into our family quite well. The boys love playing with him, and I enjoy training him. I'm taking him to a manners class once a week, and his trainer is very impressed with how calm he is for his age and breed.

I don't tell her that I drug him every day. I wouldn't want to give her any reason to call PETA on me.

Truthfully, the only time I drug him is when he's about to get more shots, in which case, I must give him Benadryl so that his lips and eyes don't triple in size due to another reaction. I'm not sure why, but I always end up with the high-maintenance animals.

But we love our new addition, and he is here to stay, right Daddy?

Mother's Day Recap

My boys had been talking about their Mother's Day gifts for weeks. I love how their teachers took a great deal of time (2-3 weeks) to build up the day as very special. Liam and Jackson came home with gift bags similar to Garrett's, so I had three hand-made gifts to open on Sunday.
Liam made me a fan, complete with his cute mug shot, as well as a new plant. When I asked him what kind of plant it is, he said, "I dunno. It's pink or purple." I plan to replant it to see for myself.

Jackson and Garrett each made a recipe holder.
I'm not sure how well you can tell from the photos, but each little boy made a flower out of a styrofoam cup. After painting the flower, they added their photo and a clothes pin. What a cute idea! Since I use a recipe binder instead of index cards, I plan to use mine for Bible verses.

Jman and GB also made cards with questionnaires about me, which were a hoot. Jackson doesn't call me "Moma", but I think it's funny that he added it to his card.
His questionnaire reads as follows:
My mommy's name is Ami. (Check.)

She is 51 years old. (When I asked him if he really thinks I'm that old, he said, "I can't reMEMBER how old you are, so Mrs. Woods said that I should say 50-something." Thank you, Mrs. Woods.)

Her favorite thing to do is watch tv all by herself. (It's not exactly my favorite pastime, but I do enjoy it.)

She does not like to clean. (Amen!)

My mommy's favorite food is cabbage. (It is?!)

My mommy's favorite color is rainbows. (He's pretty close, because I always say that I like a lot of colors.)

My mommy is really good at cleaning. (Somebody has to be.)

My mommy loves to watch news on tv. (I do?)

I love my mommy because she is special. (Thank you!)

My middle man taught me some things about myself.

Garrett's questionnaire was in the form of a book. The first page asked how he makes me happy and he said, "When I do the dishes." (Can I get another 'amen'?)

The second page asked him what he likes me to wear, and he said "red" and then drew a picture of me wearing a red Lil Ron t-shirt that we had made with Liam's photo on it. He's also got my hair in pigtails, which I have done once for the fun of it, and all 3 of my boys think it's my best hair style.

His favorite way to spend time with me is when "gowig to the ragrs gam." (going to the Rangers game)

Finally, the last page has a list of my favorite things according to GB:
Food: ckigi pot pi (chicken pot pie)

Color: bran (brown, which I do love, especially on skin)

Movie: segutreyen (Secretariat)

Place to eat: Mexucun (Yet another 'amen' needed!)

Flower: rozess (What girl doesn't love them?)

Place to shop: wolmrt (WalMart...I think I have done an EXCELLENT job of shopping there without complaining in front of him!)

Hobby: wrc (Any guesses?)

Sport: volebol (What about baseball?)

Rick rounded out the day with some kitchen gadgets, an iTunes gift card, and dinner OUT!

I sure do love my men, and I'm grateful for the special day.

Mother's Day

I have been instructed to not touch until Sunday.
I will obey.

Garrett (6) came home from school with that beautiful gift yesterday. I can't wait to see what is inside!

His teacher also assigned this journal entry earlier this week: Write a sentence about why your mother is so special.

Garrett's response: My mom is speshel because my mom tegis (teaches) me the wrd (word) uv God.

At least I am trying to do so. But when he tackles me and brings me to my knees in a fit of giggles, I believe I might be failing in the "Honor your Mother" department.

Happy Mother's Day!