Month: May 2008 (Page 2 of 2)

Last Thursday, there was a knock on the door while I was finishing up my lunch. I went to the door while chewing my carrot, and lo and behold, it’s an old friend and roommate from BYU who now lives far away. She just said “Hi”, and it took me a minute to even realize who it was. “Lisa! Hi! Hello! What are you doing here?” She told me that she was in town for a wedding, and although she didn’t have my phone number, she remembered the name of my street, and put that into the GPS and found our house. She came in and had a wonderful time chatting about our kids, life and all the craziness that that entails. It was such a wonderful surprise!

I’m glad I was home (although she said she came by earlier and no one answered, so I’m especially glad she came by AGAIN) and that I had time to chat with her. It was wonderful to catch up. Someday I’ll go out and visit her and be an annoying house guest–I can only hope!

So, here’s a badly taken picture of the two of us, just to prove that she really did come and visit.

That’s a really bad angle of a picture for me, but she looks goo–the little petite thing! So, if any friends are ever in the area and just feel like dropping by for a visit, please do! I love surprises!

I went to Megan’s softball game last night. I picked up 8 girls at the church and took them from Young Women’s to softball. They were all singing and laughing and talking in the car. It was kind of fun to be at the ball field with friends and neighbors, although WAY too cold to start a softball game at 8:00 pm. Our girls did well, but ended up losing 8 to 9. On the way home, however, I found out the real details of the game. It turns out that the “MEAN girl” from basketball, the one who badmouthed and namecalled through the entire basketball game, is now playing softball. And she isn’t any nicer. She called them all names, and when standing at the base, was rude and mean the whole time. She called one of our girls “Pinky” because she was wearing pink capri pants. “I’m never wearing these pants again!” she said on the way home. I tried to explain to the girls that this mean girl probably doesn’t have very many friends, and maybe she doesn’t know how to behave properly. I also tried to give them a few tips of things they could say back to her if they meet up again. Since she wasn’t yelling these rude comments, none of the parents (or the umpire) heard them, but ALL of the girls knew what she was up to.

It makes me mad that this little snot thinks she can just bad mouth and be rude to our girls and get away with it. I wish I knew her name and could report her to the coach or the umpire or the officials or something. I wish we could get her banned from girls sports for her unsportsmanlike conduct. But, in reality, there are mean girls around, and our girls are going to have to deal with it. Hopefully they will learn to do that in a way that they aren’t being just as mean and shallow.

So last night I dreamed a dream inspired by mean girl. In my dream I was back in high school. Melinda was my locker partner. And there was a mean girl who would always say rude things to me. Not quietly, but loud, so everyone could hear. (Now before you start feeling all sorry for me and my poor friendless childhood, I really can’t think of anyone who tortured me through school like that, and I had a lot of really good friends.) When I walked by this mean girl (in my dream), she said something very rude and snotty to me, and I just laughed it off (dream Paige has very high self-esteem, I guess). Then I went up to her and put her arm around her and said, “Oh, sweetie, what would I do without you in my life? I honestly don’t know.” She looked at me totally shocked, and just walked away with her jaw hanging open. And in my dream, she stopped being rude to me and was nice to me forever more.

Don’t you wish all uncomfortable situations could be handled so easily?

Warning: This post is all about my kids, so if that bores you to tears, click away right now.

We’re in high gear here. May is like December–it’s full of wonderful things, but there are just. too. many of them. Last week was so terribly hectic that I was in a state of panic for the whole week. What with my rehearsals, concerts, and women’s conference and soccer tournament and softball starting up, I felt like the family was held together by phone calls and sticky notes. And thanks to Ryan for taking care of everybody while I was gone. I just thought, if I can get through this week, next week will be better. Well, this week IS better, but it’s still terribly over-scheduled.

I have a friend in my neighborhood who has 5 kids the same ages as my kids. Her oldest is a girl, which doesn’t help me any, but her other four kids are the same sex as my kids. It’s nice to have a full family of friends for my kids so close. Well, she’s also a bit of a sports enthusiast, and she rounded up teams for all of our girls to play on. She’s even coaching one of the teams, so she’s really ambitious. But with three girls on three different softball teams, that’s 3x practices and games each week. Luckily, since we have a whole bunch of neighborhood kids on each teams, we can carpool or even just send them with their friends, like I did with Megan this week. This is why softball really shouldn’t begin until school is out, right? Because spending a lazy summer evening at the ball field is what summer is about, right? Not running from one activity to the next and sitting there freezing at your 7 year old’s game like I did last night.

So besides the softball starting up, this week has also been band concert week. That meant that two of the kids had to be at school by 7:00 each morning, and then had to be at the school for the concert by 5:30 last night. I went to the 2:00 school assembly concert, and it was very good. I’m proud of my kids! They’ve learned so much through the school band program, and I’m grateful that our school does a band and orchestra. Even Natalie’s beginning strings group did a fine job. The principal announced that this was the 21st annual band concert at our elementary school, and I think that’s awesome. Megan did a percussion number where they did their drumming on garbage cans, and it was the hit of the program. I’m sure she’ll be one of the coolest kids in school for the next few days as everyone wants to be a drummer just like her.

It is also the week of the dance recital. So, they’ve had an extra practice last night, and picture days for both girls. Tonight we will get to see Jenna and Natalie dance their little hearts out wearing their costumes that I paid way too much for (and did I mention that I had a tights emergency and had to go to four different stores before I found a pair of “tan footless tights”?) and they will wear approximately once. It’s one of a mother’s proudest moments. Hopefully we will not forget the camera.

Tuesday night Ryan went to the marching band parents’ meeting with Cole. It’s a good thing that I didn’t go, because I *might* just have FREAKED OUT a bit when I saw the schedule of practices and event. Because I was already so overwhelmed with getting all the other kids activities on the calendar and then there’s this whole new set of activities to factor in, and then where is my babysitter? I wouldn’t want to do something like that in front of a whole new group of parents. I really don’t know if my son can keep his grades up with this kind of schedule, but I’m hoping it’s a motivator to use his time wisely. We’ll just have to see how it goes, and how we like being band parents. And how we’re going to afford this. Oh, and he also brought me his brand new fancy flute this week and said, “Mom, I broke a spring”. As if I somehow could magically wave my hand and fix it. Hmmm. This whole growing up and acting like a high school student is also scary to me. I need to get a handle on it.

Kids are like plants. They grow so fast when you aren’t looking.

I even went to a class at women’s conference about over-scheduling your kids and simplifying. It was a good class and I learned some things about letting my kids make the decision about the extra-curricular activities they attend. Besides piano (which is mandatory), all of these things are optional at our house. They also pointed out that sports and activities are good for your kids, and there’s even been a study done that points out that girls who played on high school teams were 40 times more likely to finish college! Being on a team helps kids develop not only sports skills, but self-esteem and confidence as well. They also learn to work together and feel like they belong, as well as having that many more adults and kids their own age that care about them. And I don’t think it’s that they have too many activities, it’s just that we have too many kids.

While we’re on the sports subject, I just wanted to mention how proud I am of Megan and her soccer team. Last week they started tournament play, and did very well on Monday night’s game. I think it was 6-0. Friday night I didn’t go to the game, but she told me they lost 3-0 to a very good team. Saturday morning we went to the game and finally enjoyed some nice weather, which has been rare this spring. But we did not enjoy some nice soccer. The team they played was playing ugly, and really trounced on our girls. One girl came out crying because she had been wacked in the face, then the other team stole the ball and a goal was made. No foul or penalty was called. Another or our girls took a ball to the back of the head at high speeds, and she was down and out on the sidelines for a while, too (I’m not saying that was intentional, it was just unfortunate). Other girls were getting kicked when the ball wasn’t even around. These girls were just really playing Rough, and unfair. We lost 6-0. Yes, they are a better team, and our girls probably would have lost, even if they had been playing fairly. But to be beaten so badly was very hard on the girls, especially when they felt like they were treated unfairly. The refs are 14-15 year old kids, and they can’t possibly see everything, but some of these offenses were so obvious, we just wondered why nothing was called. When it was over, the girls were all in tears. They did not expect to be out of the tournament so quickly, especially when last year they were the division champions in their age group.

We had a little meeting afterwards, to discuss the team’s plans for the upcoming year, and try to lift the girls’ spirits a bit. But when we left, I had one sad, disappointed girl. We had to run a few errands, and we talked along the way, reassuring her that I was very proud of her and proud of her team for not playing dirty, just because the other team was. I even let her pick her choice for lunch, and we stopped at a garage sale or two. By the time we got home, she was feeling a little better, but hated to have to tell the rest of the family that they had lost and were out of the competition. This was a hard experience for her, but one that builds character. So, even though I complain about the schedules and the practices and the time away from the family for sports, I do believe it helps kids. They have to learn to be good winners AND good losers. And isn’t that something we all need to learn? Better to learn it in sports when you are little than to learn it later in life.

I heard this song on “Showtunes Saturday night” late Saturday when I was coming home from a concert. I pulled into the garage but didn’t turn off the radio, because I just had to hear the end of the song! When I looked it up on You Tube, there were all these other people’s videos of them singing this song, so I’m guessing it’s been out there for a while. But since I just discovered it, I’m sharing it with you. I love it so much it makes me want to run out and buy Kristin Chenoweth’s CD (maybe for Mother’s Day).

Last night I dreamed I was out perusing the garage sales with a friend, and we happened upon Tom Cruise’s house. He was, indeed, having a garage sale. I guess baby Suri is growing up and they were getting rid of some of her designer baby things. We met and talked with him as we were picking over his stuff, and then I asked if I we could take a picture with him. “Sure!” he enthusiastically replied.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera, but my friend said she had one, but it was just one of those disposable cameras. But we figured it’s better than nothing, (what, Tom Cruise doesn’t have a good camera around? No paparazzi at his garage sale? I guess not) so we took the pictures with Tom Cruise with a crappy disposable cameras.
After we had taken the pictures, I said, “Here’s one for the blog.” I don’t think I said it very loud, but Tom Cruise heard me, and said, “Oh, yeah, I love your blog! I laughed so hard at that one about the sandals! Oh, are those the shoes you were talking about?” and he pointed at my sandals.
I laughed, and said that yes, they were, and was a little shocked that Tom Cruise would read my blog.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, DeEtte pointed it out to me, and I love it. Keep it up!”

Now, DeEtte is a friend of mine, who I’m pretty sure doesn’t read my blog, and I really don’t think she knows Tom Cruise (but I guess it’s possible; I’ll have to ask her), and I wish I knew what blog post “about the sandals” he was talking about. If Tom Cruise liked it, it must have been good, right? I wonder if Katie reads the blog, too?

So when I was rudely awakened this morning by Natalie telling me it was ten minutes to seven, and didn’t I remember that they had to be to school at 7:00, it was really a shock to me. I was in that “just woke up fog” wondering if I had really met Tom Cruise, and did I buy any of their cute designer baby things?

Back in reality, I’m pretty sure there are no famous celebrities reading my blog. I did find out recently that a few of my friends have been reading my blog, and my neighbor told me that once she found it, she stayed up until one in the morning reading through all the back entries. But did she post a comment? No.

So, I’m asking you to just leave me a comment every once in a while so I’ll know you’re out there. If you’re new here and have never left a comment, just say hi and let me know who you are, and if you’re Tom Cruise (or if you know Tom Cruise), WELCOME! (and maybe you could tell me that story about the sandals, because I’m sure it’s a good one).