The Kid's Idea of a Good Breakfast

That's what I get for 1 - forgetting to lock the snack cabinet; and 2 - watching last night's "Jon and Kate Plus 8" on DVR and not paying attention to what the children were doing so quietly on the floor together.

This is how I spent my birthday yesterday....

And this is what I got....

Taylor has a friend who is always in need of a ride to and from where ever. She is not a good friend, but more of a group friend, and fellow cheerleader. When the group of kids plan an evening out, her parents never offer to drive. In fact, I have never met her parents. They are never at the sporting events, and have never been to our house to pick up their daughter. She always gets a ride from another parent.



This week was the start of a week long cheerleading clinic, which will be followed by tryouts on Saturday morning. Taylor takes a gymnastics class on Friday nights, and they offer an open gym class on Tuesday nights for anyone who wants to come. Taylor and her friends decided that they all wanted to go to the open gym class on Tuesday so that they could have as much practice before the tryouts as possible. Cheerleading practice ended at 6:30 and open gym started at 8:00. Of course this one friend in particular did not have a ride home from practice or a ride to gymnastics at 8:00. I told Taylor that her friend could come home with Taylor and eat dinner here before going to gymnastics. Another parent was going to pick up both girls at our house and drive them all to gymnastics.



Yesterday morning before school Taylor advised me that this girl was a vegetarian and to keep that in mind while I was cooking dinner. I asked if she was a vegetarian for health or religious reasons, and Taylor said that she just didn't like meat. Okay, whatever. I planned a meal specifically for this kid. I made a pasta dish with cut up asparagus cooked in a garlic and Parmesan cheese sauce, and I also made a ceasar salad. On our way home from practice, I asked Taylor's friend if she liked asparagus. I assumed that a "vegetarian" liked most vegetables, especially asparagus. She answered "I don't know." When we got home, I discovered that she does not like salad and she picked at her dinner, which eventually she did finish. I asked her what she normally eats for dinner, and she said cookies, candy, chips and milkshakes. Taylor looked at her like she had 2 heads and said - "But what do you eat to stay healthy?" The girl said "Nothing".

Where are this girls parents??? They are never around to watch her at her school activities, and they are obviously never around to cook her dinner, so she is left to fend for herself at 15 and chooses to eat cookies and chips for dinner every night. I was appalled! What is wrong with people? In 3 years, this girl is going to hopefully go off to college and her parents are going to be alone in a quiet house and wonder how they missed so much of their kids lives. Or maybe they won't, and that is really sad.

Those Darn Wildlife Creatures!

I just recently put out my hummingbird feeder and the humming birds have been swarming it. Much more so than last summer. This morning I looked out the window and the feeder was gone. I found it in the yard, empty and covered with dirt. All the flowers were chewed off and no where near the feeder. I finally found them under the deck, but one is still missing. I was able to pop them back into the feeder, got it all cleaned up and we are back in business.

Nick always tells me that "hate" is a strong word, so I will use dislike. I really dislike raccoons and squirrels. They are obnoxious and gluttonous. We have two bird feeders hanging from our trees, and after one day, they are empty from the squirrels eating all the seed. At $15 a bag, it's getting on my nerves. The girls bought me a finch feeder 2 summers ago, and it went missing last summer. I just recently found it in the woods while walking with Isabella and the sides are completely chewed and destroyed.

Anyone have any tips on how to get these animals to leave the feeders alone?

Mother's Day

Sunday morning we had brunch at Windows On The River, downtown. This is the 5th or 6th year that we have gone there and we really love it. The food is outstanding, and it also means that my Mom, my sister and I do not have to cook on Mother's Day.

After brunch, we came home and were able to relax and spend some time together before we headed out to Joe and Heidi's house to celebrate the day with Nick's family.

We also celebrated Joseph's birthday since he just recently turned 7.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Yesterday I commented on how nothing profound has been happening that warranted a post on my blog. Well that changed last night. Right before bedtime, Isabella and I were sitting on the couch and she jumped from the arm of the couch onto me and both her knees went into my side. Of course they crashed into the squishy area that was not surrounded by any bones to protect my organs. After I got my breath back a few minutes later it wasn't hurting much anymore. But within an hour, I was doubled over in pain. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but this was no joke. All the kids were sleeping so Nick called my parents and asked them to come over so that we could head to the emergency room.

After 3 1/2 hours and a CAT Scan, they revealed that I was not bleeding internally and just had a bruised kidney and/or spleen, and sent me packing.

I think my kids are trying to kill me. They have been wearing me down psychologically all week and when they realized they weren't getting anywhere, they decided to up the torture. They probably have side bets going as to who can cause the most damage. I'm on to you kids!