Of course, they didn't agree. Blaine was so bummed and started begging us to let them stay that late. I told them that was four hours away, and there was NO way we were staying that late.
The guys
The kids
The girls
(I guess you've figured out by now that the 'front desk clerk' is Mari.)
Are we good or what? Not that it made me feel any better.
and then we moved into Skipbo and then Spoons. Mom Mom went and got wings for us to eat, and we watched some Olympics. I think Blaine was SSOO happy to be putting off punishment, and the rest of us had a great time, too.
reading to her brother to make him feel better. These are great kids, y'all, BOTH of them!
Did you play that game as a kid? You know, What if we were driving and ran into a ditch and everybody died?! What if I borrowed your hammer and DIDN'T leave it in the tree?!. What if I eat all the food on my plate and it makes me puke.?! What if a policeman pulled you over and he's NOT a NICE one?! We used to play ALL the time as kids, especially Kyle. It drove Dan NUTS! Now it drives ME nuts. I HATE it! But for the last few minutes, I've been sitting here playing it with myself. That's even worse. I'm not even annoying anybody with it. It's just going on in my own head.
What if I screw her up? What if I screw him up? What if I just suck as a mom?
The boys had t-ball tonight. Since my judge is gone and I've been able to pick the kids up from school and be home early, I decided I'd take Kylee to the movies while the boys were gone. A chick flick. Just us. Mom and me. But we didn't...as punishment. Ugh?!
What if I should have taken her anyway?! What if I should have TOTALLY handled that differently?!
Kylee is getting to that age. I know it's just beginning, but I want to nip as much as I can in the bud as soon as I can. When you tell her to do something, she does it when SHE feels like it. If you tell her again, she'll say, "Sorry! Sorry!" Move as long as you're watching. Turn your back, she's PROBABLY NOT doing what you told her.
As I was driving them home from school, I told them they had about 45 minutes to have a snack and rest and then we were getting started on homework. About 4:15, I said the them, "Ok. Let's do homework." Blaine went and got his backpack while he explained he didn't have very much. She ignored me. As I set Blaine up at the table to do his, I said, "Kylee, I said it's time to do your homework." She said, "Give me five minutes."
What if I had said no?! What if I had told her to do it now?!?
I didn't. I decided to keep my mouth shut and teach her a lesson. Blaine did started his homework, finished his homework, went to play. It's been WELL over five minutes at this point, and, of course, she's NOT doing her homework. So I say again, "Kylee, it's time to do your homework." "Mom, ten more minutes, PLEASE!"
What if I hadn't just walked away?! What if I had TOLD her we were going to the movies and THAT'S why she needed to get it done?!
I didn't answer. I walked away.
When Joey got home, he packed Blaine up to go to t-ball. Now the movie is in 10 minutes. No way for her to get her homework done. The boys leave. I say to her, "Go get your homework done right now." "Mom, I hate homework. I don't WANT to do my homework!"
What if I had said, "It's part of life, dear. Go get it done so we can go to the movies."?! What if I had just kept my mouth shut and not even TOLD her we were goign to the movies?!
I said, "Kylee, you need to get it done. I've been telling you for over an hour to start it, and you have been ignoring me. The reason I wanted you to start it an hour ago is because I was going to take you to the movies at 5:30. But you've ignored me, and I'm tired of you ignoring me. Go get your homework done." She flips. Cries. Screams. I say, "Go to your room and compose yourself before you not only don't get to go to the movies but you get your butt busted." She screams, "YOu should have TOLD me! I would have done it! You should have told me you were taking me to the movies!" I said, "You should have done as I asked WHEN I asked you..not because there were special priviledges, but because it's right and you know it's right."
She RUNS to her room, crying ... no SOBBING. I stuck to my guns. She's GOT to learn to do what she's told WHEN she's told......right?
What if I had MADE her do it like I normally do?! What if I had just said, "Go get it done becuase we're going to the movies!"? What if......
If any of you have gotten my button before today, it was broken. The link wouldn't work. It is fixed now, so please go and get the new code.
Thanks!
Well, the 2010 "Spring" season of baseball has officially begun, and I'm here to tell ya, my friends, there was NOTHING "spring" about what we sat through last night! It was 41 degrees, but with the wind chill, it HAD to be 30! I was there in my hoodie, jacket, stadium seat & blanket. This is not my first rodeo, and, I'm beginning to understand, it's not even close to my last.
The nice thing about my girl child, you see, is she likes to dance, play piano, and head the Student Council. These are all INDOOR activities. I'm comfortable in her setting. There's a thermostat that CONTROLS the temperature where she performs. But with my boy child, he wants to play baseball, and as far as I know, there are no INDOOR baseball leagues, so Mother Nature controls that temperature. Yeah, not so comfortable in that setting.
Anyway, last night the season started with a double hitter. {Yes, I know it's header, but MY baseball player calls it a double hitter.} Our boys did so well. I was so proud of them. They won the first game and tied the second. I really think we would have won the second had it not been so dadgum cold and had the boys not already played one game. I think this gonna be a good, good season!
Blaine is SO intense! All he wants is to please Coach and his Daddy. If you ask the other boys, Blaine's coach and his Daddy are one in the same. But in Blaine's mind, that's simply not true. You see when Blaine started playing ball two years (:-o) ago, his Daddy was just a spectator with the rest of us. As the season went on, Coach (not Daddy) needed some help, so he recruited Blaine's Daddy. So to Blaine,
Coach is on the left. Daddy is on the right. The next season, since Coach was so busy with all his team, Daddy BECAME Coach....except not to Blaine. So although Joey actually is the head coach of Blaine's team, he's still just Daddy. The OTHER one is "Coach".
Joey had his second oral surgery yesterday morning, so Coach was going to coach the double header last night. Of course, Joey is stubborn as all get out, so even though he wasn't coaching, he went. But Coach still coached. Clear as mud? Ok. On we go!
Blaine was so ready for this season to get on it's way! He was primed, ready, jumping around, talking to "Blue".....VERY! Derek Jeter. He would yell at Coach to give him the play, 'cause, you know, Daddy does. When Coach would tell him something, he'd nod his head and spit. You know, 'cause all good baseball players spit! And when Coach would yell at him -- because he DOES yell....at all of them -- he'd nod his head very seriously and make sure he did what he was asked. After his first out, he looked at Coach and grinned such an accomplished grin, I almost cried.
But then his Daddy couldn't stand it anymore. It was the last game, last inning, and we were tied. We only needed ONE run to win, last batter, bases loaded. Joey was as intense as his mini-me. As Blaine ran home, Joey yelled, "Slide, Son, slide!!" Blaine got to the dug out, yelled at me in the stands through the fence, tears streaming down his cold, red face. When I got down there and asked what was wrong, all he said was, "Daddy yelled loud at me!"
Y'all, Coach has yelled at this boy so much I can't even count the times or he occassions. All it does his make him determined to please. He doesn't cry. He doesn't even pout. He just sets his sights on getting it right. So I just figured he was tired and cold.
When I asked him why he doesn't cry when Coach yells at him, he turned with his Steve Taylor-pouty lip stuck out and said, "Because Coach isn't my Daddy."
Told you they weren't one in the same!
We had a conversation this morning at breakfast that I thought deserved it's own post. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm biased. Maybe I know it's true. Maybe I just want it to be true. Maybe, just maybe, I just think it's special enough to get it's OWN post!
We were talking about handicapped parking. Long story. Grandmommy's handicap sign was mentioned. I can't remember if I brought it up or if Joey brought it up. I said, "But she would NEVER abuse it." And Joey said, "Except if YOU wanted her to." hehe
ANYWAY...Joey went on to tell stories about Grandmommy. You know, running red lights, giving kids candy or money or toys behind the parents backs, staying up all hours of the night, her scanner, that kinda thing. All true. Then he said, "Well, if you really want to know Grandmommy, she's just a 75-year old version of Steph." And Shawn said, "Oh, yeah! That sounds JUST like Steph!" Lisa agreed.
I'm flattered. So here is me and a 75-year old version of me. Or am I a 34- year old version of her? Who cares. You pick. I'll take either. She's my fave!
We spent the weekend with the Hayes again. It wasn't intended. It just happened.
Jackson has joined the t-ball team. Shawn's really been wanting to get him into sports, but everything they've tried, Jack just isn't interested. His one last shot was to put him in with Blaine and see if Blaine could rub off on him. He's only been to two practices, but he LOVES it! The best part is...he wants to do EVERYTHING Coach Joey says....and corrects his dad if he's not doing it right.
Anyway, the boys had a t-ball scrimmage Saturday afternoon. Afterwards, we all decided to go eat. We knew the kids were going to start plotting as soon as we were there to go home together, and we weren't wrong. So they came home with us. Since they have just moved to their new house, Lisa had a lot to get done. I told her we had nothing, to let the kids come with us. Of course THEN they plotted to spend the night together. We caved.....kinda. Shawn said they could spend the night IF I cooked breakfast and they were invited. I agreed.
The kids did really well. I was so proud of them. The boys played so well together and got along
famously! This was Blaine's first sleepover with somebody not related. He slept at Jack's once and did well, and now Jack has slept at our house and done well. I have a feeling they will not let us go so long before doing it again.
is what I got. Then they squealed and covered themselves up, so this: 
is what I got. Then they uncovered again, but still squealing and wiggling, so another blurry 
is what I got. On this one, somebody actually kicked my hand, so the whole picture is blurry.
We were enjoying our lazy Saturday morning, all still in our pajamas. Joey and I were sitting at the dining room table. I was drinking coffee. He was playing online poker. Blaine was playing Winter Olympics on the computer. Kylee was upstairs in our bed watching TV, we thought.
All of a sudden, she comes FLYING into our newly redone dining room, beside herself. She's crying so hard, I thought she was seriously hurt. She throws her cell phone at me and wails, "Get them back! Hurry, Mommy! Get them back!!"
Of course, I have NO idea what she's talking about. "What is it, Bug? What's the matter?" She says, "I was trying to delete the pictures on my phone I didn't want. I THOUGHT you highlighted the ones you wanted to keep, but when I hit delete, it deleted the ones I wanted!!" Y'all, this girl is CRYING, shoulder-shaking sobbing!
I look helplessly at Joey. I think I KNEW we couldn't get them back, but he's better at retrieiving stuff like that than I am. So I said, "Well, can we get them back?" And he said, "No. Cell phones don't have a recycle bin. They're gone." Bless her heart. She f.l.i.p.p.e.d! Now she's SCREAMING, "Yes, you can! You can! I NEED my pictures. You CAN get them back!" He softly explains to her that there's just no way. She says, "I'm so mad! I'm mad at myself and I'm mad at my phone!" And she runs up the stairs.
I go upstairs to try to comfort her, but she is NOT having it. I hug her tight and ask her what I can do. By this time, she has cried so hard that she has the deep, staccatto-type breathing you get when you've cried too hard too long. She tells me there's NOTHING I can do but get her pictures back. There is nothing I can do to calm her down. Then she starts telling me, "My pictures are my everything! They're all I had that were JUST mine, and I can NEVER get them back. You don't understand!" {of course I don't understand. i'm the mother, remember!}
I ask her which pictures she's specifically concerned about, and she tells me her pictures of Stetson and Brodie. I told her we could get more pictures of them. Still sobbing and staccatto breathing, she says, "But not THOSE pictures! People sent them to me. You didn't TAKE them!" I said, "I know, Bug, but I got the same pictures of Brodie, and Kellie can send you the pictures she sent you the first time of Stetson." Her response to that was, "She can't! She lost that phone. She doesn't have them anymore!"
I have realized that nothing at this point is going to calm her down or help her feel better, so I just start sending my pictures to her phone through text messages. She won't even pick up her phone and look at what I'm sending her, though. Then Joey comes upstairs and tells her he understands she's upset but she's acting like the people IN the pictures were gone, not just the pictures. She then picks up her phone and starts looking at what I'm sending her. Then she realizes she SAVED the text message Kellie sent her of Stetson. When she realized that and as she starts receiving my pictures, some of which were ones she had had, she slowly calms down.
She's fine now, and all is well. She can even talk about it and tell people what happened without tears. We're so glad. But we also realize this is just a glimpse of what is to come with a teenage girl!
I've heard raising teenagers is like nailing jello to a tree. Pray for us.
Blaine just told me when I die, he's getting his OWN TV in his OWN room!
***********UPDATE**************
Kylee thought the Sympathy was extremely boring! She said when it was over, everybody was cheering REALLY loud but only because it was over. She was ssoo frustrated when the announcer said, "You've been such a great audience that we're going to play you a couple of more songs!" The symphony is not this girl's thing!
Blaine, on the other hand, had a blast! AND he got his color.
This WAS a B in the back of his head.
He would DEFINITELY go back!
**********************************
Both kids have a field trip today.
Kylee came home a couple of weeks ago and told me she was going to the "Sympathy" (symphony). Now every time she says it, it messes her up. She KNOWS what it is, but she gets tongue-tied every time.
Blaine is headed on, not a field trip, but a vacation. They are headed back to the cosmetology department at the high school. Last time, though, he did NOT want his hair touched because only the barber shop he goes to with his Daddy does that. So I signed the paper saying he had permission to go on the field trip but not have his hair touched. Once they got there and everybody was having stuff done, he was mad because he wanted his done, too. So this time, I signed that he could have a shampoo and style. He's SO excited! He thinks he's going to get blue hair. He says Derek did last time, but....we'll see!
I'll update later about their adventures of the vacation to the sympathy!
So...Sunday morning we got up and got started. Randa and I headed to Lowe's to get supplies. Since we over optimistically thought we were going to get to my bedroom and bathroom, we bought supplies for all three.
The dining room, though, completely changed plans. Our original plans were to buy these 
ceiling tiles that look like punched tin for the whole bottom of the wall, then put a black chair rail on top of them, and then paint the top barn red. The only problem was that these 2x2 ceiling tiles were almost 20 dollars a piece. We were going to need like 20 of them. So Randa had to quickly redo her plan in her mind. After reevaluating several options, and much to my chagrin, she took me to wall paper. Ugh! I so didn't want wallpaper.
Well, we headed over there, and Randa found this wallpaper that was in rolls and raised. It was white, and I wasn't convinced, but I trusted her. Plus, it was $16 a roll. We only needed TWO! I trusted her. We bought those and a new chandalier and new light and wall plug faceplates and baseboards and chair rails and headed back to the house.
We painted walls 
and chair rails and baseboards. Then we started putting this wallpaper up. It was crazy! We had to measure where to cut to get around the window. I had to put the glue on with my hand because the roll brush wasn't working, but we got it up. Then came the part I was REALLY nervous about, painting the wall paper. Y'all, it's BEA.TI.FUL!! I think it's better than the punch tin would have been.
I also have to give props to Joey. He put up our painted baseboards and chair rail, AND he painted my green hutch black and put the punched tin tiles we WANTED to use on the wall in the inserts. It's AMAZING! 
He also put up my chandalier and put up with me and Randa. We were so excited to get the chandalier up that while he was working on it, we were checking out the bulbs and covers and stuff. 
hehe! He was a little frustrated with us, and we thought we were hysterical!
Are you ready for the reveal? Here's a little teaser for fun.
Ok. Now for before and after pictures. (Be sure and notice the green hutch, since I didn't specifically take a before picutre of it)
Before:
And now...drumroll, please...datadada.....AFTER!
I'm so pleased with it!
I guess all that's left to say is: Welcome home, Onick Family, welcome home!
Thank you, Randa, thank you!
Saturday morning when I woke Kylee up, she was so tired. Bless her heart. But she handled it like the young lady she is growing up to be. She got up, got dressed, brushed her teeth and hair while every body else was in bed, and she did not complain. I took her to the school to do her presidential duties.
After we dropped her off, Blaine and I headed back to the house to start priming my ugly forest green dining room for the amazing transformation that was to take place the next day.
He was great help, as long as his name was on the wall. When I painted over it, he was done. LOL!
I picked Kylee up about 12:30, and she had had such a great time. Between her 2nd grade and 3rd grade year, our school district did some "redistricting" as to which school our address should attend. We could have kept Kylee where she was, but we couldn't have gotten Blaine in that school with her, so she transferred from Loma Verde to Sierra Vista. While she was hosting, some of the kids from Loma Verde that were in her kindergarten class were competing in the UIL. She was so excited! She said it was like a "Kinder-Union" (kindergarten reunion). One of the girls (that she was always competing with, btw), Crystal, was there. She text me and told me Crystal didn't recognize her. But then when I picked her up, she said when she had talked to Crystal, Crystal said she was too embarrassed to talk to Kylee because she wasn't sure she would remember her. They are excited that they will be back together next year in middle school. (Middle school???!!! I just threw up a little in my mouth!)
I finished priming the dining room (and part of the bedroom we overzealously and ridiculously thought we would get to) and got in the shower. Randa wanted to go to P.F. Changs while she was here, so I killed two birds with one stone. Kylee's valentine, Colton, and his mom were meeting us there, too, for their "date".
Can I just tell you what a sweetheart Colton is? He brought Kylee a flower and a box of chocolates.
He was also so sweet with Blaine. Blaine wanted to sit by him, too! Colton showed him how to use chopsticks and even listened to him when he was telling him something. Blaine felt REALLY big when Colton ordered a pina coloda after seeing Blaine's!
During dinner, Kylee was so shy. When we first got there, she wouldn't even LOOK at him. I really did feel sorry for her! I know that feeling, and she is so young. At one point during dinner, she texted me that she needed to go to the bathroom. She was too embarrased to even say that in front of him. So shy. She wasn't the ONLY one texting me during dinner. Randa was texting me how cute he was. LOL! We're so bad.
As the dinner went on, she warmed up a LITTLE bit. By that, I mean she could glance in his direction. She even leaned towards him a little so I could take their picture, 
and the three kids did a toast with their desserts.
Colton was so sweet, though, and totally understood.
This is all of us at dinner.
Shelly and I were being silly because we had the EXACT same purse!!
and I was SO happy to finally have Randa in town. 
I didn't know at that point, though, what the NEXT day actually held. Stay tuned for that...
