Today we woke up to a cold chill of 7 degrees - that's right - it is only 7 degrees here in western Missouri. And the windchill is even lower.

After climbing out of our warm bed, I had to then step into the cold closet that sits above our garage to iron my clothes for the day's work. (Yes, another weird thing about me - I have a need to iron all my clothes before wearing them... don't even get me started.) Anyway, I digress... While ironing, I remembered that I needed gas. Man, I hate it when that happens.

So, I bundle up tight to get to work today, but I must stop at Costco to get gas. Wait, my husband is there at the gas pump too! He had arrived just before me after he dropped Perry off at school and he is sitting in his car waiting for his tank to fill. I pull up right behind him and wave to him to "fill 'er up." And what does he do - he shakes his head no - not once - but twice - shakes his head no!

So I climb out of my car, open the tank, pop in the credit card, and that is when his gas stops pumping and out he climbs from the warmth of his car.

With my evil eye and voice that only nagging upset wives are known for, I gave him the ol' one - two: "I'm SO writing about this on my blog today and you are going to not like how I talk about you."

I did see him again 5 minutes later at the local Starbucks. He was in line buying me my coffee.... trying to make nice. So I ask him... "what has happened to chivalry?" Good old-fashioned open the door for my lady, drop her off at the front door of the store, fill her gas tank to show my love common courtesy that my father to this day still indulges in for my mother? He kissed me, walked out of the door and smiled... that's all I got...

Guess he's not winning husband of the year today (for Rachael).

But here's hoping for the gallantry and polish that will someday be taught to our son.

I'm thinking that I'm going to need to call on my dad for the teaching of those ways.

Labels: family

I've seen this floating around blogville and I thought I could use a break and write something about myself instead of my son - even though he is a post in and of himself every day. I began to think about how I couldn't possibly think of six weird things about me (while my husband rolled his eyes). I know, I know, only six weird things... I guess I could come up with at least twice that. So, I'll just stick with the weirdest six.

1. I hate to use public restrooms - including the restroom on my floor at work. I'm there most every day so you'd think it would be like my own, but it's still a public bathroom, and people besides my own family use that bathroom every day. I have a constant fear that a person who comes in behind me will go into the the other stall and vomit. I don't know why, but when someone comes in while I'm in the stall, I will hurry as fast as I can so as not to have to hear or smell anything that is rotten.

2. I LOVE to parallel park. I would much rather find a parking space right in front of the store that requires parallel parking than go to a garage to park in a slanted parking space. One time a co-worker eyed a parking spot right in front of restaurant but refused to park there because she would have to parallel. I told her to get out of the car and I took over the driver's seat and parked that baby right there in front of the establishment. I wasn't going to walk any further if I didn't have to. I saw a car commercial a week ago that shows a new luxury car that will do the parallel parking for you with just the push of a button. I say "no way." That takes all the fun out of it.

3. I always wear socks to bed because my feet are just freezing as I'm getting ready for bed. But I can't sleep with the socks on. I must either take them off right before I drop off to sleep, or if I do happen to fall asleep with them on and I wake up and find that they are still on, then I must get them off my feet... in a big hurry. I hate how hot my feet feel in bed when my socks are on.

4. I read the obituaries every day in the local Kansas City paper. Every. day. Every single one. Living in the metro KC area my entire life, I will at least once a month, if not more, know someone who has died. Maybe I will only know them by a surviving relative listed in the obit, but I do tend to know a lot of people who have died. I am inspired when reading about how much a person is loved and what they accomplished during their life. I'm always sad when I see very short obituaries... with nothing listed but the date of the funeral. I have informed my husband that I better have a long obituary when I die. And I do sometimes think about how I would want my obituary to read.

5. I really don't enjoy shopping with other people. Especially clothes shopping. I tend to look very quickly - mainly at the clothes on the displays or the clothes on the endcaps right out in the open. If they look good, then I may decide to buy them, but I won't try them on either. I purchase them, take them home to try them on, and then return them if I don't like them - or sometimes I get lucky and they look great and I keep them. And I can't stand end of the season sales. I don't like to dig through the sales racks and maybe find a treasure of a bargain. When forced to look through sales racks, I always find something I like, but never in my size, because you know, it's on sale.

6. I LOVE football... but... I don't like Super Bowl parties. Every year we are invited to them or asked if we are giving one, but we always turn down invitations and hide out in our home to watch it uninterrupted. My husband and I love to watch the game AND the commercials. So if we have people over, or if we are over at other people's homes, then we can't enjoy one of our favorite tv times of the year. Working in the advertising business, I know that the commercials will be the only thing talked about the next day, and I like to be in the know on the highest profile night in advertising. Last year, we watched it at our friend's home, but they are like us - watch the game and no talking during the commercials. Our kids played together and it was very enjoyable. But we were home after halftime, not missing a thing since they only lived 2 blocks away!

7. I gag while brushing my teeth, but only in the mornings... Oh yeah... it's only supposed to be six things!

Don't even ask my husband to come up with any on me - I'm sure he could list at least six more.

If you are a reader of mine, and have not commented, please de-lurk yourselves in my comment section and list one weird thing about you so I don't feel so weird - all by myself. Thanks!

Well, it finally happened... Perry came home from school on Monday afternoon after I picked him up from a long day at work and informed me that Mrs. K told him that he was Star Student that week and he forgot his poster. So the conversation that followed went somewhat like this...

"Mom, I really am sorry to tell you this, but I am Star Student this week, and we need to make a poster about me."

"WHAT? You are what this week? And you forgot to tell me?"

"MOOOMMM - I didn't know. But she told me today." Oh that makes it so much better...

"Okey-dokey, let's get a move on this. You're going to have do most of this. I'm not going to do it all for you."

So off we went to the closest store to buy posterboard and new markers... as if new crayola markers were going to somehow make this poster-making all that much easier. But hey, if it gets the boy motivated, so be the spending of an extra $2.99 for the new markers.

Thankfully, I'm a scrapbooker and have MANY pictures always on hand... ones that I usually don't need, but keep because I have a weird issue of throwing pictures away. (Anybody else have a problem with this?) So I begin to dig through my stash... searching for anything that shows his hobbies, sports, family, friends... all subjects of interest that were to be included on this poster.

So we start working on it, pasting pictures, labeling them, and writing a list of favorites. Favorite food, favorite sport, favorite song... an hour and a half later I think we actually rigged up a pretty darn good Star Student poster.

And then it occurred to me... we still need to get his Students As Teachers subject ready for this month. So I say to Perry... "how about we do your Students as Teachers presentation on "How To Make a Star Student Poster" and then you can also present your poster that you worked so hard on?" He could talk about his sports and friends and all the favorites he listed.

Wow - I must be brilliant!!

Thankfully Perry also had the same thought - no, not about the presentation - but that I was brilliant! He hugged me and told me he loved my idea and then we proceeded to work on his production - I mean presentation. By george, I think he's got it.

And it worked out wonderfully. He came home the next day and told me that his teacher thought it was great.

I hope this is the last of the one night notices, but I have a feeling it won't be... I know better than that! I'm the mother of a boy.

Labels: family

Since hubs is out of town this week and will more than likely check my blog, I decided to post this great picture of him with Perry taken at Donuts with Dad at his school.



We miss you Daddy and can't wait for you to be home!

Labels: family

We woke up this morning to a beautiful blanket of snow - approximately 5 inches out our way. As soon as Phil told Perry it was time to go out and shovel, Perry scrambled up the stairs to get dressed, giggling like a little school girl. His best friend and next door neighbor Blake came outside with his brother Payton and they all started working on building their snow friend. Forget shoveling now, it's time to play! (Notice that their snow guy is listening to an ipod - kids are so hip and technical these days.)

Labels: fun

In my last post, I talked about Perry playing basketball this winter - one of the many sports that he loves. In our home, we are all sports, all the time... that's what can happen in a home with two boys... yes, that's right I did say boys.

So tonight Perry has basketball practice and we are trading carpool duties with Perry's good friend Joshua. Tonight was Joshua's dad turn to drive home. He pulls up into our drive, so I head out to the drive to thank Matt, and he gets out and asks me a strange question. His statement asked with no expression in his face...

On Saturday, Perry began his season of basketball. He plays on an Upward league in our community, and this is his third year of participation in the league.

He loves playing basketball. He's been practicing this past fall for basketball season. Whether it's at our own goal, or the indoor one at our gym, he and his dad have been working on skills that will make him feel comfortable on the court. All four foot nine of his eight year old body looks like he is made for basketball. He just loves to get out and run up and down that court.

So when it was time to play his first game on Saturday, I was excited to see how well that practicing had paid off. I know he was too. He was in the first rotation. He finally gets the ball, dribbles down, passes it off, rebounds it and sinks it. His first goal of the season - only a few minutes into the game. And then my heart beams with joy and pride - not because of the basket he made, but because of what happened after he made the basket...

He turned around, ran down the court, and acted like he'd been there before.

That's one of my husband's favorite sayings as he watches sports. "Act like you've been there before." Humble yourself, don't make it a big deal, it's what you get paid for.

Last year, it took many games for Perry to finally make a basket. And when he did, he yelped and cheered for himself. Raised his arms in the air like a champion. He was so excited. We laughed and cheered for him too - mainly at the way he was cheering for himself. It was quite the funniest thing to watch his excitement for finally making a basket.

But this year, he made that basket and kept on playing. And he even made another one later in the game. He earned the blue star for this game - "Best Effort." It was a great day in basketball.

Four points made, blue star earned and a slice of humble pie.

Boy, these past 2 weeks just flew by... I'm going to write about Christmas soon. I'll be back later to do that. But for now, I would like to talk about the dreaded New Year's Resolutions. I should call them goals, dreams, wishes, meditations - anything else but resolutions. But really, that's what they are.

My Resolutions for the New Year:

Spend more time with family. I'm soon to be an aunt again - in April. My goal is to be aunt who gets to spend time with the new baby. A lot. And keeps in touch with her sister-in-law making sure she doesn't ever feel tired, scared, overwhelmed or alone. Those feelings in the first few months can be the worst.

Make new friends - not a lot of them - maybe only one. But try harder to make friends. I once read that "A new friendship is like an unripened fruit - it may become either an orange or a lemon." That is so very true - but I'm hoping for new oranges in 2007... or maybe just one deep orange.

Weight loss goals are always so hard to keep, but I have lost 42 lbs at WW and must lose 30 more. I resolve to lose those 30 lbs. no matter how hard it is. Besides... my housekeeper just took all my fat clothes away from me - 2 out of the 3 bins she took fit her so if I gain my weight back, I will have nothing to wear. Nothing.

Exercise 3 times per week (at least). I can do that much - and it won't kill me!

Get better involved in church. We attend a church. We go to Sunday School. But that's all. I want to do more. I need to do more.

That's it for now. No need to add more pressure to myself... after all, I have 361 days to question or add on to these.