Add a little color to your life
“It gives me the Wobbles!”
Oh the things that come out of Blake’s mouth. So I had to ask which is worse, the wobbles or the shiver me timbers.
He said the shiver me timbers are the worst, by far.
Silly kid.
Have a great weekend.
I think there has been something going on every night this week. With Andy being gone and Cole being sick I am one tired girl.
But it’s Friday, and after Andy and Blake get done with soccer practice, Blake is going to a play with a friend, Austin is going to the circus with a friend, and if Cole feels up to it I am going to make Andy take us out to dinner. Cole has a fever that is coming and going, a nice productive cough, and lots of snot. Maybe we will order in.
Earlier this week I took a ball class with my friend Julie. I have been looking to try something new and it was actually a lot of fun. Especially since we spent 80% of the time laughing at each other for falling off the balls. I’m not the most graceful girl- that ball is hard to stay on! The instructor was a woman in her early 50’s (I think) and she looked fabulous. All muscle.
At on point I asked her if she looked so great from doing the ball class, she said “no, genetics.”
Julie and I looked at each other and made faces- clearly not the answer we wanted to hear.
And speaking of genetics…
Yes, my boys all have the same dad. One of our friends commented this week that my first two boys look absolutely nothing alike. They don’t. At all. And I hear this all the time, and yes people actually ask if they have the same dad. I have even been asked if I am the step-mom.
Austin has tons of freckles and blue eyes like me. We are also both pale.
Blake obviously looks exactly like Andy. Dark, dark,dark.
Cole is a cross- blonde with brown eyes and honey colored skin.
But when you see us all together it makes sense. Because while Austin looks like me, he has Andy’s body. Blake looks like Andy but is built more like me. Cole is the wild-card. Wild being the key word.
People say weird things- and when someone once asked me where Blake came from I said,”my womb”. Geesh. I had someone else tell me once that he looked “mixed”. Well he is, isn’t he? Aren’t we all? Really would it be any different if he came from some small town in Mexico?
Andy grew up in Texas and when they would vacation down by the Mexican border his sisters would tease him and tell him that they were going to come after them for stealing him. They made him duck down in the car. Sisters!
It really doesn’t bother me, I actually think it’s funny. I like my little rainbow family. 
My “live in his own world” middle child is one of the sweetest kids I know. But it doesn’t change the fact that he pretty much lives in his own world. It’s a happy place, and those that know him well call it “Blakey World” and we all make jokes about how it would be great place to live.
SO the other day when I gave him money to hit the book fair at school I knew I was taking a chance. I gave him $20, he came home with one $6 book. I didn’t even think to ask him about the rest of the money until a day or two later. He got a blank look on his face, he didn’t know. He says he put 74 cents in the change jar. Ok, so what about the other $13?
He offered up no info so I guessed that it fell out of his pocket. He didn’t agree or disagree. He asked for more money, I said no. AND I was mean and took the money that he lost out of his piggy bank.
Then yesterday (a week later) the truth comes out. He felt sorry for his friend Thomas because Thomas had no money and so he split his money with him. He said Thomas bought two books. I asked if Thomas was going to tell his parents- Blake said he didn’t think so, he was keeping the books at school.
I gave him a lecture on telling me the truth, he never really lied but he also obviously knew what happened to the money and didn’t tell me. He said he thought I would be mad. Honestly I didn’t really know how I felt about the whole thing.
The book fair is coming to an end so he asked if I would split the cost of one book with him, which would cost me $3. I gave it to him. He came home from school and said that one of his dollars fell out on the playground and he went over to pick up and some kid grabbed it. Blake told him that it was his and the kid pushed him and ran away. Since Blake is huge (and only a 2nd grader) I asked if he tried to get it back. He said no, the kid was small- looked like he was in kindergarten. He didn’t want to hurt him.
So today he went to school with more money, for the 3rd time. If he doesn’t come home with the book today that’s it. I am throwing in the towel.
Every Spring the Columbus Crew does this really cool thing with our soccer program. I’m not sure when it started but I know my boys have been going for the last 4 or 5 years.
Apparently Worthington has the largest soccer program of all the Columbus area school so we are the only school system (that I know of) that gets to do this.
Anyway they invite all the players (even the Soccer Tots- Cole’s group) down to have a “clinic” at the stadium. They break into groups (by age) and each group gets two Crew players to run drills with them out on the field. After each drill they rotate to 2 more players until they go through all of them (I think there were 6 different stations).
Blake with his group, listening to these guys
They said their station was the best- Sharks and Minnows
Funny how even pro players still love Sharks and Minnows.
Cole with his group. Andrew Peterson was one of the Crew players for his group. He was very nice to Cole, who wasn’t feeling 100%
Frankie is the captain of the Crew, all the young girls love him because of his hair.
After the drills, they get t-shirts and autographs of the players
Will Hesmer the Goalie
Frankie
Alejandro Moreno signing Blake’s jersey
Brian Carroll
Blake, Ted, Austin, Cole (wearing my shirt!), Nate, MaryBeth, and Meghan
Can’t forget the CrewCat
And then my favorite shot of the night, after he got his jersey signed by the players Blake went out on the field to kick the ball and no doubt pretend he was a Crew player
Cole passed out in a chair the moment we got home, when I went to pick him up he was burning up. Always picks when Andy is out of town to get sick on me!
I think I have mentioned before that I am somewhat of a magazine addict. And I was thinking the other day how interesting it is that the magazines that I have bought over the years change as I go through different phases of life.
Here are the ones I rememeber
It started with Horse magazines. I think it was called Horse Fancy or Horse Illustrated- something like that. Back when I was young, and had a horse. That was my life.
Then it was the fashion mags, like Glamour and Vogue
Next came the fitness phase- Shape
Babies were next- Mothering Magazine, Creating Keepsakes (for all those pictures of the babies)
Remodeling came next- a couple years of figuring out what to do with my house. This included all those Better Homes and Gardens that you can only buy at the store and are a whopping $7 per issue or something insane like that.
Also included- This Old House, Inspired House
Then there is the current list.
Cottage Living. My all time favorite magazine. This one is just perfect for me, I never get tired of looking at it.
My other favorite is Bark
this magazine gets the best writers, like Anna Quindlen and David Sedaris.
I also get a variety of other house magazines.
Then there are a few that come through the door for other family memebers
Newsweek
Nintendo Power
So there is my light topic for the day. With all the death and destruction that has happened in the last week I dread turning on the tv. Thoughts and prayers to everyone that has suffered a loss.
A couple of posts ago I talked a bit about trying to get organized. Here are a few pics of my early attempts at putting this room together.
It’s a tricky room, one wall is brick with a big fireplace. There are built-ins on one side of the fireplace but nothing on the other. So I decided to put the desk on that side.
The room used to look like this (this is the built-in side)
This is back at Christmas when we used it as a family room- during construction/remodel
I took the corner cabinet out and added the desk.
Slowly trying to turn the room into a study/library/den….whatever you want to call it. A place to organize school stuff, sit and read, homework, have some quiet time.
ok ignore the moving boxes on the floor. I tried to work with what I had, which was the wire bins on the left, bought a new desk top from The Container store- beech is on sale right now, $30 off or something like that. Bought the legs too.
Funky Chair is from Ikea.
A painting over the desk that Austin did in 1st grade that Andy had framed for me. There is one huge nail in the brick there- I got lucky it was right over the desk. Love the way the brick looks as a background.
Wall of stuff- magnetic board from Ikea(have a couple more of these and plan to put them up)
William Wegman calendar. My mother-in-law buys be one every year (for like the past 6 years at least- I save them and frame my faves)
cork board- lunch menu for school, preschool dates, etc
A blue jackets picture I found in Blake’s art folder yesterday.
Desk calendar from Container store, little metal bins from Targets $1 section- LOVE them. Mug made by Austin this year in art, seriously cool (it is glazed only on the inside). Bin of markers and colored pencils to draw on the calendar.
Oh and Mother’s Day card from Cole. In it his preschool teacher asked him all kinds of questions about me. Page one asked How old is your mom? He said 17. Love him.
So- early stages, nothing fancy but so far working out well.
More to come.
to all the mothers out there. My mother, my mother in-law, my three sister-in-laws, all my friends and cyber friends. Hope everyone has a fantastic day.
We are expecting lots of rain here tomorrow- so I am planning to send Andy to the lax games tomorrow while I lay low. Today (Saturday) was beautiful so I pretended that it was mother’s day and I planted flowers- my favorite mothers day activity.
I also broke down and gave my baby an early birthday gift, a cool horse swing made from old tires. I had been hiding it in the back of my car and today I decided to go ahead and let him have it after his soccer game (which he only came off the field to give me dandelions twice- a record!).
We hung it from our very tall locus tree. He got on and said “yee-haw cowboy” like Woody from Toy Story. And was on it all day long. A perfect Mother’s Day for me- seeing that smiling face.
Which is actually a good thing as this has been the worst week for my allergies. I am hoping they all washed away with all of this rain. I have tried so many different meds this week- rx and otc. I’m not sure any of them worked all that well but I finally got a goods night sleep last night. First time this week.
Also I have finally decided, in pure Elisa style (waiting until there is only a few weeks left of school) to get organized. I went through a big phase right after we finished the house (well finished is a loose term) where I didn’t want anything to do with house stuff. Now it is slowly coming back. We are unloading the storage building, trying to edit what we bring back into the house.
I hit The Container Store yesterday for a new desk, calendar, and other basic things to put my life back together. I filled in the days on the desk-top calendar with all the up-coming events, deadlines, practices, etc - using each boys favorite color so they can see their schedule at a glance. I hung a magnetic board and tacked up a couple of pictures. It looked so nice and peaceful. And clean.
But then they came home. They were so excited about the new spot. All of a sudden all kinds of things were put on the calendar, big doodles of this and that. Things were tacked up on my nice neat board. But I guess that’s what it is for, and it was a nice 20 minutes of clean “non-boyness”.
Apparently we still aren’t organized because by 8:30 I already had my first call from the school- Austin left is SS folder by the basement computer.
I forgot to check the lunch menu before they left for school and it’s not something they like so looks like I will be stopping by Subway on my way to the school to drop off Austin’s folder.
Of course that will be after I hit the ATM so I can also drop off money for the book fair. I will do anything (including giving them cash and letting them buy what they want) to avoid taking Cole into that book fair. The kid is like a tornado.
So, it’s raining. And the dogs are having a big romper room session on the floor- One giant wrestling match.
Here are a few of my favorite dogs from flickr- make sure to click on the links below because some of these need to be seen bigger- you will laugh out loud.
1. BOO!, 2. Vader’s Alter Ego, 3. Dusty, 4. the things i endure
5. Air intakes open!, 6. Alien Jed., 7. Super Mad Teeth ™, 8. Obsession over Fuzziee,
9. Envergonhado, 10. Twist and Shout, 11. flappin’ gums, 12. Surprise!,
13. Sleepy cuddle, 14. full tilt, 15. Springing Springer, 16. Spring forward
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
I have been trying to figure out what kind of porch swing I want for my screened porch. I have seen ones like this before and I love love love them.
I just got this Lowes Creative Ideas magazine in the mail with this on the cover. I haven’t even opened it yet but I am hoping it lists the supplies and a how to. Looks pretty simple to make.
I also love the blinds-
wow, I can’t believe that it’s May. I mean I knew it was May, but then when a friend asked if I wanted to make an Ikea trip before the kids get out of school, and we started looking at the days left….well there just aren’t that many!
This is always a crazy time of year. The weather is so nice and it is light out when it used to be dark. Bedtimes get pushed later, it’s hard to get them to come inside. Lots of soccer and lax games. Lots of flowers to plant.
There is an excitement in the air, summer is almost here. Birthdays are almost here (all three of my boys were born in June). School gets less crazy with homework and more crazy with the tie-dying of t-shirts in preparation for Super Games, plans for end of year parties.
On top of that the boys are excitedly planning their birthday parties, which it looks like all three are going to get one this year. Cole has never had one with friends- I know, poor third child. Blake’s birthday is first, then Coles, and then Austin. Usually our Texas beach trip falls right in the middle of the birthdays but I think this year we leave the day after the last one. Which means that the sleepover that Austin is planning isn’t going to happen on his actual birthday.
So needless to say it is a crazy time of year.
Some pretties from the backyard. Taking time to slow down during this crazy time to enjoy the little things.
