Unplugged 2010

So, I started this thing in 2008 that I intended to be an annual thing.  But then last year, I forgot.  So maybe it's a semi-bi-annual thing (I get those two things mixed up).

It's going unplugged.  For an entire week.  That means no TV, no computers, no video games, no iPod touches, etc.

Here's my updates from 2008 (here, here, and here).

For 2010, our unplugged week was last week. I picked one of the hottest weeks of the year.  Nice.  Which meant there was not a lot of playing outside in lieu of the plugged-in stuff.

We did have some exceptions to the unplugged rules this year.  If Don and I chose it, we could watch an episode or two of Silver Spoons as a family right before bed.  We did utilize this exception a few times.  Also, if we chose to watch a movie as a family, we could.  Don and the kids were home on Saturday afternoon and chose that option.  The last exception was one I didn't plan ahead of time, but maybe should've.

Exception #3:  If a little brother is stuck in a fitting room with his mom & older sister while said older sister tries on loads and loads and loads of clothes for school, said little brother can play on his mom's phone (but not get on YouTube).

Exception #3 saved me (and Bub) last Friday!

So, a quick rundown of our unplugged week.

Monday night started Bub's football practice (3 nights a week!), so Sis and I spent some time at practice with him til Don could come relieve us.  Then Sis helped me cook a huge, healthy meal of sauteed mushrooms, grilled zucchini, grilled shrimp, and quinoa (a new thing for us).  During the day with the babysitter, they swam, worked on a puzzle, went to the library, read, drew...

Tuesday:  The library again (Sis read 3 books on Monday!), more swimming, more reading.  Football practice again... it was 104 degrees at 6:00 on our way to practice!  So, Bub got out of practice early, but then he & Don played catch with the football for about 45 minutes when they got home.  So Sis & I stayed outside with them and enjoyed some family time.

Wednesday:  Spent the day with the normal babysitter's younger sister.  They went for a walk (HOT!), read some books/magazines, and SWAM!  Then when I picked them up, we went to a swim party with our Young Family's group from church.  They slept GREAT that night!

Thursday:  Believe it or not, Sis didn't want to swim!  But Bub still did.  So, Sis stayed in the house and read while Bub and M swam... again!  Football practice (got his practice helmet and pads!  *gulp*), a little Silver Spoons and all was good.

Friday:  I took a vacation day to take the kids school clothes shopping.  It actually turned out to be more fun than I expected (it helps I was expecting it to be terrible!  ha).  It tore me up a little, though, that most of Sis's clothes were bought from "grown up" (well, at least teenager-style) stores instead of kids' stores.  She was so happy, though...  And I made her try EVERYTHING on to make sure nothing was too grown-up (ie. floozy-ish) for a 10-year-old (that's a whole 'nother soap box I could rant on and on about...).  That evening, Don and I went to the Mayor's dinner auction for charity.

Saturday:  In the morning, Don and his friend B, rode their bikes for a mere 50 miles (!!!) while I stayed home with the kids.  Then as soon as he got home, I went shopping with C (B's wife).  I got home just in time to leave for dinner with Don and the kids (and some friends) before we went to see Footloose at the Muny, our outdoor musical theater.  Loved the 80's music, but some of the language was kinda sketchy.  :-/

All in all, it really wasn't that bad... in fact, I liked it!

So, much to the kids' chagrin, it's definitely something we'll make a semi- bi- annual thing.

Twi-WHAT?

So, after I picked Bub up from football camp a few weeks ago, he was wiping the sweat off his face, and messing with his hair...

Sis:  Oh, mom!  Hand me the phone really quickly!  Bub looks just like Edward Cullen!

Me:  What???

Bub:  Hurry, take the picture... I want to see!

Bub:  Oh, wow!  I really DO, don't I?

For the record, my kids have never read Twilight or seen the movies.  Pop culture osmosis at its finest, I guess!

Why?

So, I've been feeling some sort of weird writer's block (which is funny, since I'm not actually a writer) when it comes to my blog.  Then I get all freaked out about losing readers (which is also funny, since I just have a few readers).

So, I decided to revisit WHY I blog...

So, why do I?

It's not to gain readers (hi, mom!).
Or to hone my writing skills (although I think that is a natural by-product of blogging).

But it's to remember.

My kids aren't as little anymore, and they aren't saying funny things minute by minute...
But they still are hour by hour... or day by day.

And to remember things that were important to me and/or my family at any given time.

Sometimes it's what I'm wearing (because I LOVE me some clothes!)
Or what the kids look like
Or what big or small event is going on in our lives

And THAT'S why I'll keep blogging instead of fading into complete oblivion.

I may not blog all the time, but I'll start blogging more snippets of our lives, instead of waiting for just the right words to come to me.

Because I'm not so wordy sometimes.  Isn't that ironical?

These are a few of my favorite things

(image via Google Images)

I took the kids to see The Sound of Music tonight at our wonderful

big-city outdoor theater.

It was wonderful!  We met my two sisters, one aunt, and one cousin and her husband.

And we sat in the FREE seats!  The bottles of water, however, were $4... NOT free.

I decided to blog tonight, rather than chancing I would forget some of the things I loved about tonight...

Here are a few of my favorite things...

• Listening to Sis sing The Star Spangled Banner with the crowd before the show started
• When Bub saw the first scene in the Abbey, he told Aunt E "I didn't know this was a Christian musical!"
• During the wedding scene, when all the nuns were lined up, Sis said:  "I have never in my life seen so many of them in one place before!"
• Bub sang his latest Weird Al song he's memorized to anyone and everyone... loudly.  Before the show, during the intermission, and after the show
• Stephanie sang another Weird Al song back to Bub
• Did I mention the seats were free?
• Hanging with my family
• After the show, we saw a shuttle bus for a retirement home, and Sis told me to hurry or I'd miss my bus

So now the kids are asleep... hopefully dreaming about Edelweiss!

Movie Night

Once a month in the summer, our church puts on a community bike ride and movie night.  The bike ride is for all ages and it's only about 1.5 miles long (so even little guys can do it), then if the weather's good, we have a movie outdoors.

Last weekend, we had the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which we saw at the theater (but the kids were excited to see again!).

Once all the sound equipment, popcorn/soda, and chairs were set up, we just had to wait for it to get dark enough to see the movie.

Which is easy to do if you have snacks, drinks, and friends around!

Did I mention the popcorn?

Mmmmmmm....

And about the time one got tired of one's mom taking their photo...

It was FINALLY time for the movie!

You can go here to read my friend Bethany's account of the evening...  her night required her to be a little more of a good sport!

Together, you and I

Our family has been revisiting the '80's in the last few nights.  We've discovered that SILVER SPOONS, the awesome TV show from the 80's, is on hulu.com.

For the last 2 nights, we've watched 2 episodes with the kids.

Last night, Mr. T was the guest star.  The kids could NOT stop laughing!

Their favorite part (that's not in the clip below):

Teacher:  What's your last name?

Mr. T:  T

Teacher:  And your first name?

Mr. T:  First name, Mister

Middle name, that little period

Last name, T

They giggled and giggled.

Enjoy the blast from the past!

Just another week: Summertime week in review

So, how was your weekend/week?  Mine was a typical-ish summertime week.  So, I thought I'd review the week, so years later, I can remember what a typical-ish week was all about.

In an effort to make my life easier and/or cuter, I decided to get my hair cut into layers.  I was tired of the mom-looking growing-out triangle of hair sitting atop my head (not that there's anything wrong with being a mom... I love being a mom... I just don't always wanna LOOK like a mom!).  

So, yeah, I still think it was a good idea (as compared to cutting it all off again, which was what I almost did), but my hair takes a lot more work now (to be honest, my "before" style consisted of blow-drying my bangs straight, then letting the rest air-dry unless I had an early-morning meeting, so really ANYTHING would have been more work).  The one day I decided to let it go completely curly, I was less than thrilled with the final look.

I felt like it looked like a boyish-mulletlike do.  I wasn't loving it at all.  So, now I have to actually blow-dry it. Wahhhh... poor me!  :)

So, there's that.

Then, Bub decided that playing seventeen million sports a year wasn't enough...  he wanted to play football, too!  So, we made him give up fall soccer and he went to a football camp this last week every evening to make sure he loved football as much as he thought he would.  

The verdict is in... he LOVES it.  I'll be honest in that I was hoping he'd not like it...  no momma wants her boy hurt playing sports, right?  The first night, they had drills to assess the kids' skill levels, and Bub did the most push-ups out of the whole camp (as he says, "that includes even 6th graders!").  So, on the last HOT night, they had mock football games, and then gave out awards.  For his grade level, Bub got most push-ups AND fastest 20-yard sprint.  

You give him a sport he loves AND give him a couple awards?  There's no stopping him from playing now!

Friday night, Sis and Don's mom made us a lovely dinner and dessert.  I just sat back and listened to my mother-in-law give instructions and actually let Sis cook!  I am only likely to let the kids do small tasks while I'm cooking (because I figure I'll have to clean the mess...), so it was fun to listen to her actually get to DO the tasks.  And it was delicious!

On Saturday morning, Don and I got up super early (well, for me... on a Saturday!) and went bike-riding.  Ever since my adventure last weekend, I've decided that I want to get in better biking shape, because it's FUN!

Later that morning, we went to my parents' house for brunch.  ALL of us...  all my sisters and their families (all 2 of them), and all my brothers (well, there's just one).  It seems like it had been FOREVER since all of us had spent any time ALL together.

And we stayed and stayed and stayed... for 11 hours!  Talk about overstaying one's welcome!

Here are some shots of our day:

Little Buddy getting ready for work. (my nephew)

Big Sissy, ridin' 'em, Cowgirl!  (my niece)

Sis riding dual with Big Sissy.

All the grandkids (except Bub), having a pillow fight with Papa.

What a fun day!

Finally, on Sunday, after church, I crashed and napped for about 2.5 hours!!!!  Then I purged my closet (a little bit... I need to do it more!), then headed back to church, where my cousin, Z, stole my phone and did a self-portrait of us.

I didn't know it was gonna be an open-mouth pose...  I messed THAT all up!  :)

Then headed out for pizza with friends (except without pizza for me... still can't have dairy), then headed home with my family.

This week, we substitute football camp with Bub for Photoshop camp with Sis...  but we're planning on another fun, typical, summertime week!