Regionals

The whole family (kids, parents, grandparents) packed up and headed over to Greensboro Saturday morning to watch the kids from Katie's school at their Odyssey of the Mind regional competition.

Note to my husband: When I say I want to leave at 6:30 am and follow it with "Did you remember to set the alarm?" and you say, "Yes.", I am assuming that you set it for a reasonable time.

Reasonable, so that when the alarm goes off and you lay there, because you know I will get up and shower first, I do not then shower and dress and head out to the kitchen in search of coffee and glance at the clock and see that it is FIVE OH FREAKING FOUR in the morning. Although it was awesome to get up at 4:45, especially after a night of fitful sleep with a coughing baby. Thank you.

(And I do not need to hear "get your own alarm clock!", so shut it.)


I forgot the card table they needed for a prop. Luckily, my mom was an hour behind us and said she'd bring it, no problem. Except she forgot it, too. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it? Katie's coach brought an extra and so the day was saved. Briefly.

Katie's team problem was the Unhinged Structure, which is a wee little thing made of balsa wood that has to support x amount of weight. They team had to create a skit around it, involving additional folding structures, props and costumes. The awesome thing about OM is that there can be NO adult involvement. Everything is kid driven. Something needs a little piece of tape? Kid has to do it. Kid has to think about it. No adult help or suggestions or instruction.

So when something is wrong, like the structure is a little bit too short, the kids have to fix it. And the parents have to huddle around and bite their nails while the kids are doing it WRONG WRONG WRONG. The kids were stressing, the parents were stressing, and I had to walk away.


I was so impressed at how cool the kids stayed, how they focused in a worked hard to try to come up with a solution. Throughout this process, I've heard stories and seen examples of just how creative and resilient kids can be. Much more so than their parents, sometimes.

They did a great job on their performance and we went off to stuff ourselves silly with Five Guys and Frogurt and await the results. Both teams from her school ended up with third place trophies and we are all so incredibly proud. Katie was a little disappointed (she was already planning where we were going to stay for the World Competition. Forget State Finals, she was already at World!), but it was an awesome experience and she's already looking forward to next year.

All parents owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the parents and teachers who volunteer their time to coach after school programs. These programs take a lot of time and effort on the part of the adult volunteers, who have to deal with not only the kids, but the parents as well. THANK YOU a million times over to those who committed their time to Odyssey of the Mind this year; Katie loved every minute of it.

Things I Do on My Day Off

Publish 2 blog posts in a day! I've been home with only the baby since 9:30 this morning, and here is what I've accomplished:

1. Jack shit.

I'm expecting a delivery of our flooring to replace that lost in The Great Bedroom Flood of '11, which is supposed to be here between 1 and 5 p.m. It is now 4:22. If the guy arrives even one minute past 5, I will refuse delivery, scream at him, and kick him square in the balls! Actually, I will just say "Oh, thank you. You're wonderful." and bat my filthy eyelashes. Filthy because I haven't taken a shower because I'm afraid the guy will show up while I'm in the shower. I did, however, brush my teeth. I like to keep my standards low, that way I never disappoint myself.

Henry and I have had a lovely day together. We played race cars and peekaboo and read Superhero Me! 32 times. I ate 14 Girl Scout cookies for lunch. He barfed down the inside of my shirt. He had a poop that smelled like a perm and contained 3 silver sequins.

GLAMOUR, people. Envy me.

It has been a good day.

Pictures, and A Penny Earned

The grandparents are visiting from Arizona and the kids are having a wonderful time with them. Today, Katie is skipping school and they are having a day of fun with both girls. Julia is calling it her "Lucky Day"! They're going to Chuck E. Cheese and maybe a movie and all sorts of other fun stuff. Tonight, G&G are taking Katie to rehearsal, so they'll get to see a good bit of her performance in Annie (which opens in two weeks, gulp!).

We went to the park on the windiest day ever. No wonder no one else was there. Henry is wouldn't stay away from the sticks, so in between freaking out and yelling "YOU'RE GOING TO POKE YOUR EYE OUT!" I took a couple of pictures.

The ladies went to the annual Mother Daughter Tea at church.

And I am loving the extra hands around the house and good company and conversation. Most of all, I am loving watching my kids spend time with their grandparents.

You may have also noticed that my blog now contains ads for (really fantastic, high quality) products and services. Actually, they change and I don't control them. I think I'm able to add ads for local companies, so if you or your company is interested in reaching my 23 (really fantastic, high quality) followers, I'll try to figure it out. I'm really counting on this blog to be my ticket to financial freedom. So far, I've earned 45 cents. I am well on my way.

My Small Mind

I do not understand black holes. My husband is fascinated by all things sciency, whereas I am a complete moron. I can not comprehend things that happen off of good old terra firma and not only that - I don't care. I am sure that one day my childrens' childrens' children will be forced to abandon earth and take up residence on Venus and for that reason space exploration is vital to the survival of the human race, but, eh...not really interesting.

I do not understand how television works. Or the internet. Or radio or cell phones or anything where you put information in at Point A and it comes out at Point B. I prefer to refer to these all of these things by the most accurate name I could come up with - Magic Boxes. Do not speak to me of waves and frequencies and ethernet (wtf is an ethernet, anyway?). It is magic, and I thank the magicians for being smarter than me.

I do not understand how cars work. I like to think there are tiny elves stoking little fires in the engine that power the car. I'm not sure how the engine makes the wheels turn, so let's revise that theory. There are tiny elves who live inside the tires. Gas is Magic Juice that makes the elves run really really fast and turn the wheels. That makes a boatload more sense than pistons and carburetors (not that I know what either of those things are).

Sean likes to watch programs like How Things Work and Modern Marvels and How They Make Totally Boring Shit. I try, I really do, to sit there and absorb the knowledge being imparted. Instead, I end up zoning out and thinking about things like when did Charlie Sheen stop being a stone cold fox and start being a lunatic?

There are a few things I get. Fire. I kind of understand electricity, and I can lift the lid up off the toilet tank and kind of get the idea of what's going on there. I know that you can not take a power cord away from a baby without handing him something equally interesting. I know you can not tell a 10 year old girl that zebra print boots do not go with everything. I know that sometimes all a little kid needs is a hug and a cuddle to make everything okay. I know how to love and, in my line of work, that makes me a pretty smart cookie.

And black holes are stupid, so there.