Hosting duties gone wild . . .

What a weekend!  I'm not sure I earned the title "Hostess with the Mostest," but I feel like a contender.

Friday night was the Spring Fling dance for the middle school.  For the 6th graders, it's their first dance.  They do their combined with the 7th graders. The 8th graders have a separate dance where they also serve dinner.  The only person in our family involved with the 8th grade dance was me, since I had to do decorations for the dinner.  Matt's closest pals were not going (soccer tournaments, etc.) so Matt decided he didn't want to go either.  Then Bassam got tickets to the Predators game and that sealed the deal.  The Preds lost, but they had a great time regardless. Plus, Matt had a brand new Pekka Rinne jersey that he was excited to wear!

Gracie, on the other hand, was not going to miss it.  The 6th graders were all a twitter about the dance.  Countless conversations and texts exchanged with  pictures of dresses shared (it's "dressy casual"), decisions about hair, and figuring out who was going with who (no dates, just groups of friends).

Gracie asked to be dropped off at her friend Natalie's house where she met up with another friend, Hope. They appear to have spent the next 40 minutes taking pictures.  I had to snag a few of them off her phone for myself.  

After the dance, these three girls, along with 7 others came back to our house for dinner.   When I suggested a post-dance dinner to Gracie initially, I thought it would be 3 or 4 friends.  But this mama hates the idea of anyone being left out, so 10 it was.   My friend Mandy helped me pick them all up (her daughter Anna was in the posse) and then hung out while the girls enjoyed a taco bar and s'mores.   There was a lot of screaming, giggling, looking at pictures on phones and loud storytelling.

And 90% of it took place on my back porch. Sorry, neighbors.  

Fast forward to Saturday, where after spending part of the afternoon (and a large chunk of change) buying Matt a new trumpet, we hosted Gracie's 12th birthday party.  After changing her mind on what she wanted to do and who she wanted to invite a thousand times, we finally landed on going back to Schakolad, a local chocolate place, for her party.  She's actually had a couple parties there in the past and it never disappoints.  They have a chocolate fountain at the start (Matt & Bassam stayed for this part and then wisely escaped the craziness!).  Then they dipped their own Oreos, marshmallows and other goodies (which they later decorated), they did a chocolate tasting (darkest chocolate through milk) and learned about where it comes from, and finished by building and decorating chocolate houses in teams, which they later took apart and took pieces home.   

Safe to say, a delicious time was had by all. 

I wrapped up hosting duties tonight by having our April Girl Scout meeting at the house. Bassam and Matt were relegated up to the bonus room with the dog (where they watched the Predators trounce the Avalanche 5-0) while the girls worked on their Science of Happiness badge.  Well, at least that's what we started out doing.  Sometimes the girls really want to talk about something else (although tonight it was somewhat related) and you just have to let the conversation flow.   There were clearly a lot of tween friend issues on their minds, so we let them share, offer each other advice and finished with a fun project of making a happiness jar full of notes and compliments from each other to read when they need a pick-me-up.  

But after three straight evenings of hosting 11 and 12 year old girls, I'm officially spent!  

Bridging . . . .

Today our Girl Scout troop bridged from Juniors to Cadettes.  Most of this troop has been together since they were in kindergarten, but those that weren't, joined us in 2nd grade, so this was really a special day.  Can't believe they will be in MIDDLE SCHOOL next year!

Our celebration was planned for outside in the KES Art Garden, but since it rained ALL  DAY LONG, we were forced to move our ceremony inside and I improvised a bridge using choir risers, weighted paint cans, dowel rods, and lots of rainbow tulle. 

Inside or out, it was a really fun afternoon, which is good because I have been stressing about it non-stop since Monday. There were silver key necklaces to be made, photo books that may or may not be delivered on time, a ceremony to finalize....all while the chance of rain creeped up from 60 to 100%.

Finally, the meteorologists got it right?!?  Hmmmph!

But more than bridging, we were also celebrating the completion of our Bronze Award, which was a cleanup and beautification project of the school's Art Garden.  It had been established in 2001, and received various levels of care over the last 16 years as staff changed.   When the girls identified it as their project in January, beds were overgrown in ivy, benches were falling apart, the swing was unsafe, the bridge and other metal garden items were rusty, and it generally needed some TLC and lots of clean up.  Plus it needed some new art!

The biggest part of this project was building new benches.   Thanks to my amazing dad (who all the girls now call "Gus!"), who opened up his wood shop for some some 24 hours of bench prep and bench building work sessions, they were able to build four 8-foot long benches that will last for many years to come!  

We truly COULD NOT have done this project without him.  I wish that he been there for today's celebration, but he is out of town enjoying some R&R with my mom, Aunt Rosie and Uncle Ron  And let me tell you, 24+ hours spent with a gaggle of 12 giggling and somewhat unfocused girls earns you that R&R! 

Best.  Dad.  EVER!

Here are some other shots of the Art Garden taken last week, when the skies were a bit sunnier! So proud of my awesome troop and so glad to be finished with this project!

Weekend wrap up

The weekend is over and I, for one, am glad.

Didn't think I'd ever say that.  It's 9:15 as I'm typing this and I have vowed to be in bed by 9:30 with lights off, so I'll give you a quick recap AND explain my exhaustion.

On Friday night, Matt went to his first school dance.  He had the opportunity to go to one at the end of the school year, but skipped (as did 95% of his friends). But this fall, he and a number of his pals decided to go to the 7th/8th grade Back to School Dance and I must say I was super excited that he did.  This is out of his comfort zone, but when you and a bunch of your equally awkward pals go together, it's a little bit easier.    I had to laugh when Matt's ride pulled up and the boys jumped out for a quick picture (at the insistence of all their moms--not because they wanted to!)

Notice anything familiar among the boys?   Without a single word to each other, they all showed up in the exact same outfit.   The shoes are even the same color.  Hysterical!

They stayed for the whole dance, but Matt reported that it was just an "okay" time.  I noticed that his head was sweaty when he got home and he said that was from running around with friends.   Of course it was!  Although he did report that he danced a couple times, but just with a big group of people. 

On Saturday afternoon, Matt went to the Titans preseason game with his pal Parker (they lost!) and Gracie and I headed to the Nashville Zoo for our camp out with our Girl Scout troop.  Except it rained most of the day and the forecast for evening included a lot of rain . . . so it was a camp IN.   Since I'm all thumbs setting up the tent, I didn't mind too much, although sleeping on the hard tile floor in one of their education rooms was no walk in the park.   Thankfully, the rain broke just in time for a bonfire, so at least we got to have s'mores which feels like a camping essential!    However, between the hard floor, a roomful of restless, giggling girls and a loud air conditioner, it was a far from good night of sleep.  


I'm too old for this. 

We were up by 6:30 am (which is really late for me) and home by 8:30.  We took a quick shower and then headed to church, because we had a confirmation orientation meeting during Sunday School.

I can't believe I have a kid in confirmation.

The afternoon was spent doing laundry, a futile attempt at a nap and getting ready to have our friends Laura and Jimmy over for dinner.    As he typically does on weekends, Bassam did the cooking, so I just had to get the house cleaned up and table set.  We had a great time catching up with them and Bassam's brisket was delish!

By 8 pm, they were heading out, lunches were quickly made and I sent the kids off for showers and to bed.   And now it's 9:26 and I'm on my way!  G'night!

Cookie-mobile

CORRECTED

The redhead sold 300 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this year!

Let them eat Thin Mints! It's delivery time!

Crossing over . . .

Tonight we celebrated Matthew's "Crossing Over" in to Boy Scouts.   And I celebrated coordinating my last Blue and Gold banquet with my sweet friend, Dee Ann.

Also grateful to her for snapping pictures of my guy because in the midst of remembering programs, water, a cake, trophies and other odds and ends, I forgot my camera.  Aaaaaaaaand the memory on my phone was full.

Keep adding it to my application for "Mother of the Year!"

Congratulations to Matthew on his accomplishments in Cub Scouts.  And congratulations to Bassam on his retirement from being a scout leader! 

Camping and Easter part deux . . .

What the weekend lacked in sleep, it made up for in fun!

Right after school, Gracie and I trekked up to Camp Holloway in Millersville, TN for our Brownie campout.   What should have been an hour drive ended up closer to 2 and 1/2 hours due to construction, accidents and Friday traffic. 

Needless to say, by the time we got there I was already exhausted. 

The evening was spent doing activities with some older Scouts from our area, which was awesome.   They had planned some great science demonstrations and games that our girls loved. 

Afterwards, we headed to the camp fire for songs and s'mores!

Of course getting the girls to go to sleep afterward was no easy task.   I'm not going to lie, at some point, I pulled out my earbuds, turned on some music and tuned them out.  

Saturday was busy.  After breakfast, clean up and the flag ceremony, we embarked on a day full of letterboxing, kickball, hiking, scavenger hunting and an obstacle course.  

When 3:30 rolled around, we were were a wonderful combination of dirty, tired and happy.   We hit the road and enjoyed a much faster trip home. 

Today after church we headed to B's folks house to celebrate Orthodox Easter.  As always, Bassam's mom cooked up a storm.   All of my favorite dishes were on the table and some of my favorite people were around it.  In addition to my in-laws and B's two uncles, Siham invited my parents and Tammy to share the holiday with them.  

Plus the kids managed to score more Easter candy in the form of a foot-tall chocolate bunny.  At this rate we'll be eating chocolate and jelly beans until the 4th of July.   But you won't catch my kids complaining!  

Sunday already?

I remember writing about a relatively leisurely weekend, but it just didn't turn out that way. 

Shocker, right? 

I woke up Saturday with intentions of getting the house really clean and catching up on laundry, but it didn't quite work out that way.  Matt dove in to homework and Gracie in to a pile of Kumon corrections.  Since no one was very happy about that and there were lots of questions by both of them, I instead I got a couple rooms clean and 2 loads of laundry done.

Better than nothing.

On Saturday night, while Bassam and neighbors Warren and Barry scouted out a couple Nashville microbreweries, the kids and I went over to Tammy's to return her laptop, share a pizza and play with sweet puppy, Coco.   

Today I made no plans of housecleaning or laundry so the two loads I got done were a complete bonus.  After church, Gracie and I headed to Carnton Plantation for a Brownie outing.  The girls toured the house and took a manners class. 

Not because they are ill-mannered, of course, it was for a patch. We love patches! 

But hey . . .  who can't use improved manners?

Love this sweet girl!

The last race . . .

There are some weeks you are just glad to have end.

Tonight was Matt's last Pinewood Derby.   His car finished in the middle of his den, so he didn't place for the den or pack.   As he started to grump about that, I reminded that he couldn't have been less invested in finishing (or starting!) his car this year, so perhaps this wasn't something worth being upset about.

The best in design car looked like a gumball machine and the 2nd place finisher looked like a taco.   Amazing!   Since Matt did a basic wedge car painted metallic gold with the Vandy logo on it, we weren't design contenders either, although it did look cool.  It also ran straight, so we've learned a lot since his first year.

In a side note, as we left school tonight I looked up to the baseball lights at the high school (which is right next to our school)....there was snow falling.   I felt bad for those boys playing ball.  Brrrr!   Glad that we will be back to typical spring weather by Sunday.

The rest of the weekend will be in spent in golf lessons, birthday parties, church, doing homework (poor Matt!), cleaning the house (poor me!) and a Brownie outing.

Cookies, football and other musings for the start of 2015 . . .

Can't believe I haven't blogged since LAST YEAR!

There, the obligatory new year's joke is out of the way.  

We said goodbye to 2014 in a very quiet fashion.  I had a splitting headache on NYE and laid down shortly after dinner hoping the ibuprofen would kick in quickly.  It didn't, but luckily, I managed to fall asleep anyway. I woke up at 11 and heard Bassam tell the kids they were welcome to stay up until midnight, but they needed to do it in their rooms, as he was going to bed.

Do we know how to party or what?

Allegedly, both kids saw the clock strike 12, but quite frankly, there is a decent chance neither of them did but they don't want to let the other one know they fell asleep. 

Since I last wrote, I got the last of the Christmas decorations put away.  Despite multiple passes with the vacuum, there are still pine needles and glitter everywhere.    A little reminder to keep Christmas in our hearts perhaps?

I spent a large chunk of New Year's Day selling Girl Scout cookies with Gracie.  Sales kick off on January 1st in these parts, which kind of stinks since people are high on their New Year's resolutions to eat better and lose weight. I figure by the time they come in at Valentine's Day, those will be shot so why not just order the Thin Mint?  You'll be glad you did!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (otherwise know as our house!) there was massive amounts of football being watched on television.   As a Big 10 transplant living in SEC country, it was nice to see Michigan State, Wisconsin and Ohio State pull out the wins yesterday.   Would it be nicer to see Illinois do it?  Sure, but I have to stay rooted in reality.  Cheering for Ohio State does not come easy for me, but I did it anyway.   As I drove home from boot camp earlier this morning I chuckled to hear the local sports talk idiots break down the games and still couldn't find a nice thing to say about the Big 10.

Stay classy.

Stop Hunger Now!

The kids and I, along with 200 other volunteers from around Nashville (many from Matthew's scout pack) participated in an awesome event tonight called  Stop Hunger Now!   In less than 2 hours, we made 25,056 meal packages, each that will feed 6 people.   Volunteers worked at small tables, each with it's own 6 person assembly line, measuring and adding dehydrated ingredients in a special bag.  Once a box of 6 bags are completed, they move to a second station where the bag is weighed, and if necessary, is adjusted with more or less ingredients.  Then the bags to go to a sealing station before going to the counting and boxing station.  Every time another 1,000 meals were completed, someone sounded a gong!

Hairnets, gloves and a gong.   Does it get any better than that?

The dehydrated meals are nutritionally sound and fortified with vitamins and minerals.   The coordinators talked about how depending on where they go, the people who receive them add additional spices to what was already included to give them a "local flavor." They even made samples of the food packages.  They smelled delicious.  I didn't get to taste it, but Gracie did and said it was delicious. High praise from my picky eater!

On the way home, the kids talked non-stop about the different jobs they had (they rotated around) and how much fun they had helping others. In short, a great evening of service!

We don't need no stinkin' patches . . . or do we?

It turns out I may be losing it, but I haven't lost it. 

Or lost them, as the case may be.

Two weeks ago, I trekked over to the Girl Scout Council shop to pick up some patches for our troop. Our last meeting was actually a "painting party" at one of those places where they walk you through a painting project.  The girls used a portion of their cookie money to pay for it and it was super fun.

As it turns out, we didn't have all our patches for the year, because the cookie rewards (fancy word for "patches") from the Middle Tennessee Council weren't in yet, even though we had delivered cookies 2 and 1/2 months earlier.

Whatever.   Promptness is apparently not part of the Girl Scout law.  Clearly, getting all the patches distributed wasn't going to happen.

Fast forward a week when our I finally did get the cookie rewards.   I decided I would put all the patches in an envelope with a picture I had taken of the troop at the painting party and distribute to the girls.  But when I went to do it, I couldn't find the patches I had bought at the Girl Scout Store.   

Anywhere.

I tore up the house.  I tore up my car.   I searched desk drawers, dresser drawers, as well as nooks and crannies I hadn't been in for 3 months.  Then I searched them all again.

Last night, I gave up.  I gave in.  I was not going to find the missing patches.   So this morning, I drove back to the Girl Scout Store (which by the way, is pretty much one of the most annoying places ever!) and bought replacement patches . . . . to the tune of $27.

I put them all in the envelopes, dropped then at school and congratulated myself on a job well finally done.

And then this afternoon my friend Christie called.   She asked why Amelia got a second set of the patches that I handed out at our May meeting.

That I what???!

That I HANDED OUT AT OUR MAY MEETING!!  Those same missing patches that I tore up my house, car, desk drawers, dresser drawers and other assorted nooks and crannies looking for this week.  Yes, THOSE PATCHES.   Apparently I put them in baggies and handed them out 2 weeks ago at the end of the painting party.

*completely mortified*

I wonder . . . is there patch for that?

Blue and Gold

Matthew is officially a Webelos II!  

Tonight was the Blue and Gold banquet and I feel confident in saying a good time was had by all!   The theme for the event was "Everything is Awesome in Scouting" (based on the Lego Movie and it's theme song that you can't ever quite get out of your head!).  The decorations were cute (Regrettably, in the rush to get things ready, I didn't take a picture of them!   According to the kids, the best part was we scattered Legos on each table which looked great and followed the theme, but also gave them something to play with when they were done eating!).  The food was from Amerigo (our Cubmaster owns it, so we get a sweet deal!), the DJ was rocking and the rain almost held off through the entire Cross-Over for Webelos 2 ceremony, which we do outside.   Plus, we started a cool new painted-face ceremony as part of the awards.   It was only supposed to be for the Tigers, Wolf, Bear and Webelos, but the Webelos II kids (5th graders) thought it was so cool, we had to improvise a design for them!

And Bassam made it another year as a leader without a uniform.  Well-played.   Dee Ann joked that she was going to have patches sewn on to a golf shirt for him next year.  Somehow I think the true Scout-y types might take exception to that!   The fact that he doesn't wear one is slightly ironic, since he is one of the few leaders at our school who is an Eagle scout.      

In the end, I'm glad it's over.  Even though I agreed to do the banquet some time ago, too much of the work was done in the last two weeks.   Maybe next year we'll do it differently.

Or not.

It's door installation day. Hooray?

Crappy day.

Big time.

Today was the long awaited door installation day.  Hooray!  It was supposed to be yesterday, but they had to postpone until today.  Not ideal, but . . . . it's door installation day.  Hooray!  And it's not like they put it in and it's done.  It still has to be painted which apparently will take 4 trips by the painter because of the marine-grade paint we will be using.  But still, it's door installation day.  Hooray!  And we discovered the main door hardware wasn't here.   But I'm told it might arrive this afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon at the latest.  I'm not super happy about this, but . . . it's door installation day.  Hooray!

By 9:00 am this morning, my beautiful solid mahogany door and wood storm door (yes, when everyone else is getting rid of theirs, I'm getting a new one--and it's fabulous!!) have been unloaded on to my front lawn.  The doors are custom made, not because they are super fancy but because they aren't quite standard sized.

By 9:30 am there is a huge hole in the front of my house.

Did I mention it was really cold out today?

At 10:40 am, I had to leave for a follow up appointment with my oral surgeon.  Our sweet designer, Ronda (who helped me select the doors) came over to peruse the progress and stayed while I was gone.

At 11:20 a.m. I returned home to find the door dudes re-installing my old door.

Whaaaaaat?

It seems my custom-sized door was not actually custom -sized.  It was supposed to be ONE STINKIN' INCH SHORTER than a standard door.    How hard could that possibly be?  Had to be the easiest custom order EV-AH.

But apparently not so much.

And of course, some of the trim got destroyed when they pulled out the old door, so they had to put in new trim, which of course is not painted or primed and therefore looks WEIRD.

All I could do was laugh.  Because what else could I do?    They'll make it right.  And it will completely disrupt my life again (in what better be the very near future!).    Of course, we had to reschedule the painters, too.   He was none-to pleased and the later we go, the colder it gets.  And if it's too cold, he can't paint.  

Seriously?  It's door installation day.  Except it's not.   Freakin' hooray.

In other news, I was reminded at our Brownie meeting this afternoon that we have a Brownie event tomorrow night.  And Gracie need to bring 20 "swaps" to trade.

This day just keeps getting better.  We got home at 5:15, I had dinner in the oven by 5:30.  Gracie and I scoured the craft/crap room while it baked.   We ate at 6:00.   I dropped Matthew and a pal at their Scout pack meeting at 6:25 and by 7:30, Gracie and I had whipped up 20 dragonfly clips.

We have several burned finger tips from hot glue and there are likely googly eyes scattered on the kitchen floor, but they are done and they are cute to boot!

Hooray.

Blue and Gold, Over and Out

Tonight was the Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet.   Up until 2 days ago, I thought my only involvement in the it would be making a cake for the mother/son cake decorating contest with Matthew.

But less than 48 hours ago, when it was clear that other than arranging for the food and reserving the space (the school cafeteria), it didn't seem that much been done, that all changed.

There were no decorations.   No volunteers to set up or tear down.   No trophies for the cake decorating contest.  

Which doesn't make it much of  banquet.  It's just dinner (instead of lunch) in the cafeteria.  But it was a good dinner.  One of our pack leaders owns a bunch of restaurants, including Amerigo, so they provided all the food.

Yummo!

Anyway, my friend Dee Ann and I sprung into action  and pulled together table decorations, a slide show, awards and helped make it an even better night for the scouts.   It absorbed all of day and most of yesterday, but it was definitely worth it.

Click on the picture for a closer look

As it happens, our  cake won second place in the mother-son cake decorating contest.   Once again, we incorporated an LED candle into it.  It was loaded down with frosting, sprinkles and Swedish fish.  The pine tree was an ice cream cone decorated with green frosting.

Matthew and I were pretty pleased with how it turned out, but I'm the first to say that the 1st place cake was definitely the best one there.

But I guarantee the kid had NOTHING to do with making it.  It was fabulous and looked like something you would get in a bakery. 

Actually, I was handing out ballots to the kids when they came up to vote (conflict of interest?), the grandma who made the winning cake had a bit of a snit because she wasn't allowed to vote.  I tried to explain it was kids' vote only---Scouts and siblings.   She gave me a big, "Seriously?????" and then rolled her eyes when I said yes.

Whatever. 

The third place case was equally amazing as it looked like a giant s'more.    Super creative. 

Anyhoo, Matthew was excited to add another trophy to his collection and I was glad for the night to be over.   Honestly, I will probably volunteer to chair the event next year.  But only so it's done right---and with a little advance planning!

Harlem Legends!

A fun night for the Cub Scouts tonight.  The Harlem Legends were at Woodland Middle School for a fundraiser.   My pal Dee Ann (who is on the PTO at Woodland) arranged for our den to work at the event as hosts, ticket takers, etc. as a service project.  In exchange, the boys got to attend the meet-n-greet with the players beforehand and got seats in the VIP section, which just happened to be in the front row!

I don't know about you, but we never miss the Globetrotters when they are in town and you should do the same for the Legends.   Not only do you get to see all the tricks the Globetrotters are famous for (and these guys still have game!), but they raise money for non-profits and do motivational speaking about succeeding in the game of life.  Plus it tends to be in smaller venues so you get to see them close up!

As it happens, it might have been a little too close up for some.  Just ask Bassam who was brought out on to the floor in the middle of the game to dance.  

Safe to say Michael Douglas (leader of the Legends, not the actor!) had faaaaaar better moves than my husband. 

Regardless, everyone had a great time, plus the Legends beat the Williamson County All-Stars (a team of teachers, firefighters, police officers, etc) 89-40.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday --check!

I guess I was on "blog hiatus" the last few days.   It wasn't really a planned hiatus, but maybe the break will give me more to write about.

Not necessarily more interesting, but sometimes you have to take what you can get. 

On Wednesday things started for the fall book fair.  We set up that morning  and started doing "preview" on  Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday.  Basically, each class comes in for 15 minutes and can look around.  They can choose to make a wish list for when they come back or simply browse.  Often it helps us guess what will be big sellers and get a head start on the reorder process. 

It is also that special time of year when I wear things like this to "advertise" for book fair.

In other news . . .

Matthew logged two football practices this week.  The playoffs started tonight and I'm excited to report that the 49'ers beat the Eagles 34 to 6.   Yay!   Matthew was so excited!  He had a couple great tackles tonight and will play again next Friday.

Meanwhile, Bassam and Gracie were off to the Girl Scout Father/Daughter Sock Hop.   While Bassam did not dress for the theme, Gracie was excited to get another wear out of her poodle skirt.  We skipped the cardigan ("dancing makes you sooo sweaty, Mommy!") and the glasses and added a polka dot blouse and scarf for tonight, because it's always best to change up your look, no? 

Charlie insisted in being in all the pre-dance pictures.  I think he felt some kind of "oneness" with the poodle on G's skirt.

And in addition to all of the excitement with book fair, football and dances, there's all this excitement to report on my house.

Except there's not.

The electrician wrapped up the wiring (or at least the wiring for this stage of the porch project) on Wednesday morning.   As soon as the electrical inspector from the city came by, they'd go ahead and start working on the tongue and groove ceiling inside the porch.

Except he didn't come Wednesday afternoon (which quite frankly, I didn't expect).

And he didn't come Thursday. 

And guess what?    Yep, you guessed it.  He didn't come today.   

But I am told that he is coming Monday.  But I'll believe THAT when I see it.

Meanwhile, the kitchen is actually quite spiffy.   I'm really trying to hold off posting pictures until my dining table arrives, which is on November 10th.    My window treatments were hung on Wednesday.  They look so lovely and put such a nice finishing touch on things.   Alas, there are still a couple random electrical projects (2 more cabinet lights, outlet covers, etc), replacing a rogue cabinet pull and finishing up my cork board above the desk (which originally was supposed to be a magnet board), but I have faith (no really --I have faith!) it will be done soon.  Like really done.  And hopefully really soon.

Who's with me?

In the meantime, I'm hoping to catch up on sleep this weekend.   Bassam is on call, but hopefully it won't interfere with plans to carve jack-o-lanterns, go to Pumpkinfest in Franklin and cheering on Vandy tomorrow night --although it's going to be COLD!

Bundle up!  Go Dores!

 

End of camp

Matthew wrapped up Cub Scout camp today.   Safe to say, he had a ball!   Today's highlights were making s'mores in the solar power "oven" they made with a Dominos pizza box,  finishing their woodworking project (they built tables) and of course, a visit from the fire department. 

Parents were invited to join up with their scouts for the last 2 hours of camp, so of course I went.   I should point out that a very small percentage of parents did.  

Mental note for next year.  

Anyway, after the firefighters did their whole safety speech, they pulled out the hoses and sprayed the kids.    They screamed.  They hollered.  The chased the water flow.  The turned the muddy puddles into slip 'n slides.

And my kid was right there in the middle of the muddy, wet, screaming mess. 

As for me, I'm just pleased that nightly appointment with the washing machine has been cancelled since the boys had to wear the same t-shirt all 5 days of camp.   

Cake Boss!

On Tuesday of this week, we got an email reminding us about the Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet to be held tonight.  It mentioned the menu for the dinner and said dessert would be provided by the entries to the Mother-Son cake decorating contest.

The what?

Although it had apparently been announced at the last pack meeting, Bassam had never  mentioned that little nugget of information.  To be fair, entering was optional, but if you know Matthew, you know that it was really required.

The problem?  I am not much of a baker.    And even less am I a cake decorator.  

But guess what?   Our cake won FIRST PLACE tonight!   There were far more beautiful cakes than ours there.     Someone built Pinewood Derby track with two cars on it.  It was huge and could have easily fed every scout and parent there tonight.   Another built a large Pinewood Derby car with chocolate donuts as wheels.   Phenomenal! 

Our cake was easily the smallest, since I split my batter in to two 8 inch cakes.   Some people would make 2 smaller cakes so they could layer them. I did it so I would have one to mess up on.  

But what our cake had was a gimmick.    And when the voters are kids under the age of 12, a gimmick is important.

We built the stack of logs with those tube-shaped chocolate wafer cookies and filled the base of the fire pit with crushed up Oreos and orange, red and yellow sprinkles to look like embers.   Then we put flames coming out of logs which were made from hard candies that I had melted in the oven and broken in to jagged strips.  

The gimmick was we put a battery operated tea-light candle under the logs so our fire glowed. 

I'm not sure the pictures capture the flickering fire, but it looked pretty cool.

Having said that, I was shocked when they announced that cake #8 won first prize.   Matthew screamed, "I WON!!!" and ran up to claim his trophy.  I thought we had an outside chance for third place or maybe second---but certainly not first.    Regardless, my son has erased any memory of this being a mother-son contest and has claimed our prize as his own.

And that's fine with me.

TGIF

So glad the weekend is here, aren't you?

Even though for us it means a call weekend for B and an always-present list of things to do . . . it's still the weekend and that's something!

In a cruel twist of fate, I think I'm getting sick again.   Funny since I just got over being sick AND the last bought lasted just shy of 4 weeks.   Still, the sinus pain has returned along with the congestion.  I'm not 100% convinced it's not allergies, but according to my-medical-practice-has-nothing-to-do-with-allergies husband, he is sure it isn't.   Regardless,   I've decided I'm going to channel my inner 5 year old and say IT'S NOT FAIR!

Speaking of 5 year olds, this is how Gracie came down dressed to go to Cub Scouts last night.  

What else can I say?  Bless her heart!

Speaking of Scouts (Don't you love how these completely unrelated stories flow together today!??!), the boys had their final pack meeting of the year last night.   Every month, they sell raffle tickets for a $1 each (all the money goes to charity--I think they chose Second Harvest) and if your ticket is drawn, you get to choose a prize.  The prizes are brought by the Scouts who won the month before.   The prizes vary from toys to boxes of Oatmeal Cream Pies.    There are usually several prizes brought each month (5 or 6 maybe) and the first ticket drawn chooses a prize first and so on.  Well,  Matthew hasn't won a raffle prize all year and if you know his competitive spirit, you know this bothers him.   He mentioned it again before the meeting last night.    I reminded him that it was just for fun, plus a way to raise money for charity . . . and oh by the way, it was Dad's money anyway.   

Yeah, yeah.

As it happened, Bassam only had a $5 bill in his wallet last night, so he bought 5 raffle tickets.  And guess what?  Matthew won 3 PRIZES!     Talk about good luck.  He came home with a bean bag toss game, a design your own Hot Wheels kit and a box of brownie bites (which there were only a couple left, because he shared them at the meeting last night).  Safe to say, he was over the moon.   

Now I just need to remember that I need to send 3 raffle prizes to the first pack meeting next year.

Sickos and Scouts

It was an exciting interesting day yesterday.   The kids finally got to race their Pinewood Derby cars last night.  And yesterday afternoon, I officially fell out of contention for Mother of the Year.

Really the fact that I was still in the running until mid-February is pretty amazing.

So the story goes like this.    About 2 1/2 weeks ago, Matthew picked up a cough.   First it was that dry, hacking cough that keeps you up at night.  Over time, it got more "productive."  And by "over time" I mean about a week later.   It lingered on for another 5 days beyond that.   Although the Delsym bottle says do not take more than 1 week without consulting a doctor, I knew it was getting better, so didn't worry about it. Plus, when I asked B if I should take him to the doc he looked at me and said, "Nah, it'll be fine."

Typical doctor's family.   We know doctors, but we rarely go and see them in any official capacity.

The cough finally gave up after 12 or 13 days.  Then the congestion set in . . . big time.  Poor little munchkin had a headful of snot.  Treated him with cold medicine for a couple days and switched over to Zyrtec after realizing that it might be allergies (from which he suffers terribly.).     By Thursday morning, it was clear the Zyrtec wasn't helping and we needed some bigger guns (read:  a prescription allergy medication).   I called the doctor and asked for an appointment the next day, because the kids got out of school yesterday at noon.  They offered me a Thursday appointment, but Matthew didn't want to miss school and I didn't want to take him out of school, so I assured them we would be fine to wait until the next day.

Friday afternoon we scored the first appointment after lunch.  While doing the intake, the nurse asked about his symptoms.  Then she asked if he had been wheezing to which I promptly answered, "no."

See, it turns out the correct answer to this question was YES.   Dr. Moss determined that within 2 seconds of putting the stethoscope on M's chest.  

My bad.  

The problem was he couldn't tell what was causing the wheezing.   He wanted to do a chest x-ray do determine if it was pneumonia, bronchitis or situational asthma.  

Okay, can I tell you how bad I felt about now?  But, in my defense, Matthew is not a complainer, other than fussing when I ask him to blow his nose.   I had no idea.

The answer was asthma, probably brought on by a cold virus, and before I knew it,  M was hooked up to a nebulizer for a breathing treatment.   It helped a lot and an hour after our appointment started, we were sent home with a loaner machine and two prescriptions. 

On a muuuuuch lighter note, last night was also the Pinewood Derby.   Hooray!   They run it as a double elimination, so each kid gets to run his car at least twice,  more if they continue to win.  Last year Matthew's car ran just twice.  And it came in last of 4 both times.  Not good.    It did make this year's goal (doing better than last year) a reasonably sure thing. 

Gracie's car ran first in the sibling division.  She won her first trial and came in second in the next run.    She got one more run where she came in third, so she didn't make it the championship.  She was disappointed, but happy for her pal, Amelia, who ended up winning the sibs division. 

Matthew's car had a similar run.   He got second place in his first race and first place for the second trial.    His third run determined whether he would make it to the championship and unfortunately, his opponent was the kid who won for his entire den.  Bad luck on that one.    He was really so bummed.  I'm always amazed by the speed at which my kids' moods can swing.  And by amazed, I really mean thoroughly confused.

Still we had a great evening.   No one from Matthew's den won any of the Pack trophies, but you can be sure the wheels are already turning (no pun intended) on how we'll make next year's car even faster!