I'll Be Back!

I'm taking a short break while I get some things together and prepare for some exciting stuff going on in my life! I'll be back soon, promise.


P.S. That last post wasn't supposed to publish, but it was actually my three year blogiversary, thanks for the comments! I'll celebrate properly when I return. =)

Sickness, Soccer, & Serendipity

That's what this week has been all about!

Sickness: Elayna's, mine, now John's. She generously passed her germies around.
She's fine now, I'm on the mend, and John just got sick last night.




Soccer: Andrew started soccer this week and he LOVES it. I don't know anything about the finer points of the game, but from what I can tell, he's doing great so far! His first game is tomorrow (already!!). I'm totally digging the soccer mom thing!



Serendipity: At soccer practice, I struck up a conversation with another soccer mom.
Now, this right here is out of character for me, especially at only the second practice. I'm not outgoing. I'm not rude, I just keep to myself, especially in the beginning. I usually take a while to crawl out of my shell (see why I like turtles?).
Anyway, I just went up and started talking to this particular mom, and I am so glad I did. I can't say a lot right now, but she is currently doing something that I am VERY interested in doing, and she gave me a ton of information and helpful tips. I am super excited! And the fact that I happened to talk to her, of all the people there, out of the blue....it was definitely not coincidence.

Oh...and one more bonus "S"....Starbucks, the fuel of soccer moms everywhere!

(they spelled my name right, I had to get a pic!)

Go visit Mrs 4444s for more Friday Fragments, and have a great weekend!

Ketchup - Wordful Wednesday

We had a busy weekend and it's been a busy week. Elayna has been sick, and soccer practice started for Andrew. So I'm just now getting back online, for a few moments!
Saturday was Andrew's birthday party and I made the Dinosaur Dig Cake. I thought it turned out great! It was a big hit.

The kids all had a blast.

I can't believe he's eleven years old!

On Sunday, Shelbie had an Acteens recognition ceremony. It was very nice.

Shelbie with one of her best friends....

Shelbie with a few more good friends....she spent time with all of these girls over the weekend.

On Tuesday, Andrew had his first soccer practice and he loved it! I think he'll have a great season.

And that's all for now! I hope to catch up with y'all soon.

We're gonna party like he was born in 1999. (because he was.)

I feel like this week has chewed me up and spit me out. It's been really busy, and physically & emotionally exhausting.
As usual, Andrew's birthday went by without so much as a phone call from his egg donor, which he didn't even seem to notice, but it still bugs me. Selfishly, I'm glad she's out of the picture, but I just.don't.get.it.
However, she is SO not worth my time so I'm not even going to say another thing about it!

No drama!

Tomorrow we're having Andrew's real-deal birthday party. There will be swimming, pizza, snacks, and fun. I'm going to attempt to make this cake. It looks really easy and Andrew will LOVE it.
Especially since the dog ate the cake we had for his birthday dinner on Monday.
I thought I put it out of her reach, but obviously, I underestimated her.
Woops.
I told Andrew "hey, if it makes you feel any better, she ate my birthday cake, too."



I have to tell you about one of the gifts we got for Andrew. We gave it to him on his actual birthday. It's a nightlight that projects a scene onto the wall or ceiling, and it is seriously awesome. We got it at Walmart and I am not being compensated in any way for posting this, it's just a really cool product that I want you to know about! We got him the space scene, but the others look pretty awesome too. It really does work as well as the pictures show. Very cool!


Another reason I've described this week as emotionally exhausting is, besides some home drama, there's been sad news from my bloggy friends this week. I am so worried for Unknown Mami right now. Several of my bloggy friends are going through divorces, and I know firsthand how hard that is. Others are trying to patch up marriages after some very rocky times. And then of course, there are my friends who are hurting so deeply from experiencing devastating losses. I just hurt for them so much. I hope they all know how much their bloggy friends care for them.
And then of course there's work....it can be really sad at times, working in an intensive care unit.
And that's all I have to say about that.



I do have some good news! One of our cats, who kind of ran away months ago, is now home! He ran away before we moved to our new house (long story), and we kept going through the old neighborhood looking for him but either couldn't find him or he'd panic and run away. This was Elayna's cat, Charlie, and she was SO upset. But finally today, we saw him, and he let Elayna pick him up! And now he's home, so our feline family feels complete again.



ETA one more thing:
If the statement below speaks to you like it did to me, you need to click the link. Seriously, you need to.

"I'm currently making some changes in my life. If you don't hear from me, you're one of them."



Alright my friends. So much to do, so little time. But make sure you visit Mrs 4444s for more Friday Fragments!

I am Officially a Soccer Mom.

I've been a Baseball Mom, a Tumbling Mom, a Volleyball Mom, and a Softball Mom.
But now, for the first time, I am officially a Soccer Mom.
I reckon this means I've moved up to the Big Leagues!

Today I signed Andrew up for soccer, and Elayna for volleyball.
I have no idea how I'm going to manage both of them playing sports at the same time, especially since John works in the evenings, when most games and practices are held.

But hey, I'm a Soccer Mom. I can do this!

This is a big deal for Andrew. He has anxiety, and has always been very reluctant to play sports. But on the advice of his physicians, we decided to make it a non-optional thing. He got to choose the sport, but he had to choose something. So, he chose soccer. We talked about it at the end of last school year, and now the season is finally starting. We've mentioned it a few times casually and he seemed okay with it.
So today when I actually signed him up, I wasn't sure how he would react.
He was SO happy! He couldn't wait to call his Nana and tell her, and he announced it as if he were saying he had just won the candy lottery!
"Nana, GUESS what Mama just did? She signed me up for SOCCER!!!"
I think this will be very good for him.



And Elayna had planned to play softball again this fall, but she has also been interested in volleyball ever since Shelbie played last year. So at the last minute (literally, I had started filling out the softball form), she changed her mind and decided to give volleyball a try. I think she'll enjoy it.

Me on the other hand....well, hey! It's fall, at least I can have Pumpkin Spice Lattes to keep me going!

Trick or Treat?

John and I don't often dress up for Halloween.
Although one year I did make him a Cereal Killer costume, which was AWESOME.

image stolen from google, my husband isn't a girl.
not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just sayin'.

But this year I thought it would be fun if he and I dressed up. The kids won't be with us for Halloween this year, so I don't get the fun of dressing them up. So I've racked my brains to come up with a cool costume idea, and finally, it hit me. The absolutely perfect costume for us. It fits us to a "T".

Visit Angie for more Wordful Wednesday posts!

The Big One-One

When I met Andrew, he was four years old. I can't believe how the time has flown!
He is eleven years old today, and still as goofy as ever!



Birthday celebrations in the Dysfunctional House tend to last at least a week. He celebrated with the in-laws & his friends who live over there this weekend. John is taking a small cake to school today for him to share with his class. Tonight we're having his birthday dinner, and John took the day off so that he can be there (he's usually working at that time), & my son Tim is coming over for dinner (he's usually at his dad's on Mondays).
My kids always choose the menu for their birthday dinner, and Andrew chose chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, & green peas. I found dinosaur-shaped nuggets at Sam's Club (he loves dinosaurs & that's the theme for his party). He'll also get one of his gifts from us tonight, a pair of hermit crabs.
And then Saturday is the big pool party with all of his friends! It will be a fun week.

Sundays in My Home-Away-from-Home City

We made a quick trip to St Augustine this weekend, and I played tourist so that I could share a few pictures of this beautiful town with you.

This is the city gate, which is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a little girl. They say the police frequently get calls around 2 - 3 a.m. by alarmed passersby, who say they saw a little girl playing by the city gate all alone in the middle of the night.

This just makes the kid in me giggle.

St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the United States. It is rich in history (and ghost stories). It also boasts the Oldest Wood School House in the USA.

In our county, all fourth graders make a field trip to St Augustine and visit, among other things, the Oldest School House.

The school house and this sign made me think of my teacher bloggy friends, like Mrs 4444s.

This sign briefly explains the history of the earliest St Augustine settlers.
(click to see it full-size)

I hope you enjoyed the peek into St Augustine,
and I hope you had a wonderful Sunday in YOUR city!
Visit Unknown Mami for more Sundays in my City posts.

Putting the Fun In Friday Fragments

It's time again for fragging! That means we get to stick our random thoughts in one post, stick a cute Friday Fragments stamp on it, and call it a day!

So, Terry Jones, the nutjob who planned to burn the Qurans on Saturday in my town, is now waffling on his position. He announced Thursday afternoon that he had canceled his plans, but later said that he may do it after all. Clearly, he's unstable and can't be trusted, so who knows what will end up happening. Your continued prayers are appreciated.



I had a Bad Mommy Moment this past week. I skipped my little kids' Open House at school. It's the first time I've ever done that, but I was utterly exhausted and having 'female issues'. I just could not drag myself up there! I already met their teachers before school started, so I figured I get Mommy Points for that. I even posted on Facebook "How bad of a Mom am I if I skip this Open House?" and was reassured by dear friends, one of whom is a teacher, that it wasn't such a horrible thing. I told the kids they could eat popcorn and watch a movie instead, and everyone was happy!



My son Tim brought home a new pet for me this weekend. He drove by a turtle in the road, and picked it up and brought it home. His girlfriend said "Why did you do that??" and he sort of grinned and said "I didn't want it to get killed!" He knows I love turtles. Henry Fred is now living in our bathtub until I get him a real habitat set up. He seems quite content!



I got the little kids these cute erasers from the hospital gift shop last week. Elayna promptly lost hers at school; she said she left it somewhere and when she got back, it was gone. I debated getting her another one; I spoil her rotten and I'm trying to curb that a little, but I ended up getting another one today (they're only a dollar, it's just the principal of it.) Anyway, when I gave it to her tonight, she was SO unbelievably excited, and kept saying "Thank you SO MUCH, Mommy!" The fact that she was so appreciative made me think I did the right thing. I was thinking, "yep, THIS is why I do it." =)

Hers is just like this, except pink instead of blue.

This weekend, John and I will be visiting our home-away-from-home, St Augustine. It's just a quick trip to do some shopping for Andrew's birthday, and to get away for a very short while. This time I'm hoping to find some thrift shops; I've never thrifted in St Augustine and I want to check it out!

And in closing, I leave you with a picture of two of my pets. One, a cat who clearly is sane, and the other, a dog who apparently thinks she's a cat.

I hope you all have a great weekend!
Don't forget to visit Mrs 4444 for more Friday Fragging Fun.

Don't Judge Us All by the Actions of One.

William Boe, Vietnam Veteran, Gainesville resident

By now, I'm sure nearly all of you have heard about Terry Jones, the Florida pastor of Dove World Outreach Center, who will be burning copies of the Quran this weekend on the anniversary of 9/11.

I am so saddened to say, that this 'church' is in my town. (We actually live in a small town just outside of Gainesville, but we work in Gainesville, shop in Gainesville, grew up in Gainesville, etc.)

Many of my friends have expressed concern over this horrible occurrence giving our town a bad name. So I feel the need to let my readers know that this is NOT representative of our town. This is a very small church, with a congregation of about 50. To quote our local paper, The Gainesville Sun, "Dove World pastor Terry Jones is not the face of Gainesville." There are many other quotes on that site that represent the true feelings of Gainesville residents, and they say it far better than I can. They are appalled by what this man is planning. We are a liberal college town and generally very accepting of differences of any kind. When you walk down the street in Gainesville, especially near campus, you will see people of every color, culture, and walk of life, and we embrace it. We do NOT embrace hate.

Some people have blamed local officials for not stopping this from happening, but the fact is that they tried, but they can't. Terry Jones is not breaking the law. They will be closely watching the event and I feel certain that they will quickly stop any illegal activity. But burning a religion's holy book is not against the law. They have no legal basis to stop him.

Whenever I think about this situation, I am overwhelmed with sadness. I can't imagine why this man would want to do such a hateful, hurtful, and disrespectful thing. This nation was founded on religious freedom, and I don't understand why, in the year 2010, we are still judging others' religious beliefs. Who does this man think he is, to determine that Islam is of the devil, and his way is the only way?

Our town is filling with news trucks, and helicopters. Security will be high.

John and I will be leaving town for the weekend. My kids will be with their dad, and I hope they stay far away from Gainesville.

Please pray for the safety of the Gainesville residents....to whatever being you choose to pray to.

The Snail Mail Project Update

As many of you know, back in May I started The Snail Mail Project. Anyone who is interested emails me, and I match them to a pen pal, or Snail Mail Partner. Then the two of you exchange real letters, you know, the paper kind? Via the Post Office. Remember that place?

Anyway, I am really enjoying the Snail Mail Project. I have two partners, one in California and one in England. I feel like exchanging letters has brought us closer and given us a different look into each others' lives. I've sent little tiny token gifts, postcards, cards, and of course, letters. I've received the same thing.

{a post box keychain from my England SMP} ~



My England Snail Mail Partner has a daughter the same age as my oldest daughter, and they have exchanged letters as well.

{a panda keychain from Shelbie's SMP} ~


And Elayna, my youngest daughter, has two Snail Mail Partners. They exchange letters and Silly Bandz, and she absolutely LOVES it!

I love to get updates on what's going on with all of the participants, and if they're enjoying their SMP experience. Also, if your SMP isn't participating, I'm happy to find a new one for you.

This is an ongoing project, so if you would like to join in, leave me a comment or email me directly at puttingthefunindysfunctional(at)gmail(dot)com.

If you blogged about your Snail Mail experience, please link up here so we can all visit you and see what you have been up to!

Thanks again to all Snail Mail Project Participants.

xoxoxo