I am one heck of a confident mom!

Well, today was Briyanna's school trackmeet. This is a big deal to those kids who are into that kind of thing. But then you have the kids who just aren't and do it because they have to. You know those kids. The boy who wears the combat boots to run in. The girl who wears necklaces and dangling earrings. My mother and I were Briyanna's personal cheering section. We were 2 of 6 spectators. Normally there are several (maybe 30) parents there but not this year. Briyanna first race was the 4x100 relay. She had a pretty good team, and she was running the anchor leg. The first 2 legs did well, leading the whole race. Then the third leg took over.... they were down to last place when Briyanna got the baton. She brought the team back to 3rd place but only the first team advances to the city meet. As the girls all came back to sit down, I heard the 3rd leg girl say, "I might have done better if I hadn't of worn high heels today." WHAT???? My mom and I turned and looked at each other with our mouths wide open. Yeah, that does explain it! I told my mom, "Briyanna has been planning her outfit for this for months!" That really is NO exaggeration. She planned her shoes: her Addidas indoor soccer shoes. Her pants/ shorts: Under Armour leggings and loose basketball shorts. Her shirt(s): WHITE Under Armour and the school T-shirt (so you could see where one ended and the other began). This is serious stuff in our house! She even begged me to come down early and do a quick (15 minutes) baton hand-off tutorial since I did relays in high school. Funny girl! Well, I took my camera which takes video and I was planning on videoing her races. We had to sit and watch the WHOLE meet. She ran in the very first race and the very last. She ran the 200 yd. dash after the relay and we knew that this wasn't her strongest race, so I didn't video it. She came in 2nd in the 200. Top 2 finishers go the the city meet, so she was in. So as we're watching, I notice this one girl named Hannah and, crap, was she fast! I even turned to my mom and said, "That girl is going to be a track star someday." Each kid can run 3 races and I'm noticing this girl has one race left and it comes down to the last race, also Briyanna's last race, the race I was going to video. I made a decision (that I REALLY regret!) to not video the race because I realize Speedy-Hannah was going to be racing her. Briyanna won this one last year pretty easily and she was VERY sick. Like, sick enough I almost kept her home. So this year, I thought she would kill it, but with Speedy-Hannah... I wasn't sure! Alright.... I admit it... I had NO confidence that she could beat this girl! So I pull Bri aside and tell her, "Lead her or stay within no less than 10 feet behind her and use your kick to overtake her at the end." And that's exactly what she did. Stayed with her to the last 100 yards, AND HANNAH STOPPED RUNNING! Briyanna ended up beating her and everyone else by over 50 feet!! And I didn't tape it because I thought she would get beat... I'm such a bad mom. I could have always deleted it! Anyways, she qualified for the city meet in that one too obviously. So I will DEFINITELY be taping that one at the city meet (and deleting it if she gets her butt whooped!).

A Horrible Revelation....

Tonight we were out to eat at Applebees. It was kind of a slow night. The resturant was hopping. The service was not. But we were in no hurry so no worries. While sitting there, Rob and Brenna started arm wrestling and let me know Brenna was strong and that I needed to check it out for myself. Oh my.... I knew this would be a bad thing. I'm really quite a weakling. So I arm wrestled Brenna and won. Arm wrestled Ethan. I won. Arm wrestled Briyanna. I won. Then Briyanna had this brilliant idea... let's try left handed!! CRAP! was my first thought. And then, Maybe I can feign injury! No chance. My kids soon realized that their mother's weakness is her left arm! The look on Briyanna's face was priceless... like she had discovered the secret to life. It was a sad, sad day. So if anyone needs their spirits lifted by beating me, I'm here for ya!

Briyanna turns 11!

Today Briyanna turned 11! She asked me what time of the day she was born. Hmmm.... I can't remember actually. I know she was a quick labor but none of my labors lasted over 4 hours. I just can't remember. This is what happens when you have more than 2 kids and you age. So we settled with sometime today. She was one of my littler babies... 8 lbs 10 oz. and 2 weeks early.



What a celebration we had today! I let her go to soccer practice! Woot woot! Her team sang to her and they dog piled her. YaY??? Coach Brian let her get a 3 second head start. 2 minutes into the chase they still hadn't caught her so she stopped and just let them get her. She hurt her ribs and said she would have kept running if she had known how bad it was going to hurt!



She did get to pick her birthday dinner. We all knew what she was going to pick before I asked, but formalities are needed in this area! German Pancakes w/ buttermilk syrup and sausage it was!


And then we had to pose for a lovely family picture. Wow.... we are a lively group tonight! I'm not sure what is wrong with any of us, but we normally look a little better than that, but only just a little!
What birthday is complete without a cake? Okay, I admit. We've had birthdays in this house that didn't get a cake, but I do try to get at least ice cream. But I saw the cake with the fruit and knew I had to have it. And I knew Briyanna, the fanatical fruit-eater, would LOVE it! I could hardly keep her fingers off the fruit!

Black Bean Recipe for Sillya

1 Tbl veg oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp ground cumin
1 can cof corn
3/4 cup Old El Paso Thick n Chunky medium salsa
1 can (15oz) Progresso black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (8oz)
10 corn tortillas (6")
1 can (10oz) Old El Paso enchilada sauce
*Chopped avaocado, black olives, sour cream and cilantro, if desired
Directions
heat oven to 350F. Spray 11x7" baking dish with cooking spray. in 10" skillet, heat oil over med heat. add onion and cumin; cook and stir 4-5 minutes or until onion is tender. stir in corn, salsa, beans and 1 cup of the cheese. remove from heat.
on microwavable plate, stack tortillas and cover with paper towel; microwave on high 1 min to soften. place 1/4 cup bean mixture along center of each tortilla. roll up tightly, and place seam sides down in baking dish; spoon remaining bean mixture on top. pour enchilada sauce over enchiladas, spreading to coat all tortillas. sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese.
bake covered 25-30 min or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly around edges. garnish with remaining ingredients.



By the way, we've decided L is CrAzY!!! Hope he has fun with his running! You might find me running my stairs but I stay away from the hills!

Sunday Dinner

I have been STRUGGLING to find new things to try for dinner. So after searching high and low for something new, easy and good, I found a new recipe that everyone in my family liked. So for those of us who will actually eat black beans, here is my black bean enchiladas. Wow! They were GREAT! I'm sitting here at 12:45 am and eating another plate of them!

A complete stranger just made my day!

So I ordered one of these tonight at Outback Steakhouse:

A Mai Tai for the non-drinkers... and I got carded!!! Oh that made my day! Mmmmmm, it was yummy! And I ran into a really good friend that I was a children's leader with at BSF. I hadn't seen her since I left so that was very nice. Then we went to the movies and watched this:

I liked it. Rob thought the acting was bad. Who cares? Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck were in it. :) I saw previews for a movie called PUBLIC ENEMIES starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale about John Dillinger that I want to see. It comes out in July I think. I'm putting it here, so I don't forget! I'll need to blog again later. Lots to tell, but I'm tired.

Taxes are done... now what??

I've have worked on my taxes for hours. When I say hours, I mean like 50 hours! It was insane. So I finally finished today, 45 minutes before April 15. Officially they were done before the due date, right? Here's the deal. We kind of had big plans for our return. Last year, we got back like $6000 for federal and owed like $400 to state. I file this year. My income is way up, BUT my expenses are way down. I'm wondering if I did some figures wrong. I'm going to go through my receipts and notebooks and see if I missed something somewhere. Not tomorrow. Probably not in the next week even. But sometime. So for the first time EVER, we owe federal taxes. $684 to be exact. But we're getting a state refund- $692. Woohoo.. we made $8. Score. I think I'll go buy... hmmm... not much I can buy with $8. To make things a little worse, I file with Turbo Tax and because of the type of business I have and my write offs, I have to use their business program. And something about filing my state taxes cost me extra... so just to file cost me about $140. Since I wasn't planning on owing (Why do I just assume things anymore? It never works out!), it was a shock to my system that I had to come up with roughly $830 in 45 minutes. Fun times. Thank goodness I had the good sense not go on a huge shopping spree this morning.

Now that my taxes are done, I can actually breathe again. I have been consumed by them for weeks, if not months. I haven't cleaned like I should have. My laundry has fallen to the wayside. It's clean, not folded! I will have to take a picture of dryer vomit and post in a few days. Unless I actually get it folded and put away now that I have my evenings free. Kind of... but that's another post! Now that I have a little extra time, the kids and I are going to spend a little time in the evening reading. We like to go through book series. We did The Little House on the Prairie books last winter. We aren't going to do a series this time. I tried the Narnia books, but.... oh man, I hate to admit this... I really don't like C.S. Lewis books. Maybe I just haven't gotten into them, but I can't do it! I've tried and if I get enough hate mail, maybe I'll try one more time. I thought they were brutal. This time we are reading STOUT-HEARTED SEVEN by Neta Lohnes Frazier. It is about the 7 Sager children that were orphaned on their way out west on the Oregon in 1844 and were later involved in the Whitman Massacre in Washington. These kids were my Grandfather's 2nd cousins. My mother was a Sager and our family cherishes their heritage so I was told it was time to pass it down to my kids. So we'll be reading the book and maybe I'll take the kids to the Whitman Mission this summer to visit.

I'm feeling the need....

The need to share an Easter story. Before I share it, I want to say that I have become very annoyed by Easter only because of how it has been exploited, misused and over-all misrepresented since I can remember. I'm not one to push my religion on anyone and I won't do it often, but it's Easter and I'm feeling a bit fiesty! So I'm on Facebook and a girl I was raised with in a baptist church writes for her status.... "I just love the Easter bunny and all the wonderful magic it brings on this day!!!!" Is that for real??? Seriously! Did we not grow up in the same church?? Now, this is coming from me, a person who has never spoke the words, "When the easter bunny comes.... " or "What do you want from Santa..." I've never pushed any of that on my kids nor have any of them ever remotely believed in either. We have Christmas stockings and easter baskets (normally, but not this year). I'm okay with people doing either/ both... I just don't because I can not bring myself to do it. What is Easter? Here is my Easter Egg Story that brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it::


It's a true story, courtesy of Ida Mae Kempel. Jeremy was 12 years old but he was only in the second grade, seemingly unable to learn. His body was twisted... his mind was slow... and his teacher, Doris Miller, often became exasperated with his squirming and his grunting noises. But at other times, he spoke pretty clearly and distinctly, as if a spot of light had penetrated the darkness in his brain. No one could have guessed that Jeremy would end up teaching his whole class -- and his teacher.

Doris Miller finally became so exasperated with Jeremy that she asked his parents to come to St. Theresa's for a consultation. When she explained that it would be better for Jeremy and the other students if he were in a special school, his mother begged for Jeremy to stay where he felt safe.

After they left, the teacher struggled with what to do. She wanted to sympathize with the parents -- after all, their only child had a terminal illness. But what about the other students? Well, God did something in her heart that day. She ended up praying for the patience to be what Jeremy needed. From that day on, she tried to ignore his noises and blank stares.

As Easter approached, Doris told her students the story of Jesus, and she emphasized the idea of new life. Then she gave each child a large plastic egg and assigned them to bring it back the next day with something inside the egg that showed new life. The children were all excited -- except for Jeremy. Doris saw no signs that he understood. She was going to call his parents that night to explain the assignment -- she forgot.

The next morning, 19 children came to school, laughing and talking as they placed their eggs in this large wicker basket on Miss Miller's desk. Then came the time to open their eggs. One had a flower in her egg, another a plastic butterfly, still another had a rock with moss on it - all symbols of new life. When Doris opened the fourth egg, she just quietly gasped. The egg was empty! It must be Jeremy's. She was going to quickly set it aside when Jeremy suddenly spoke up. "Miss Miller, aren't you going to talk about my egg?" Doris said, "But your egg is empty, Jeremy!" He looked into her eyes and said softly, "Yes, but Jesus' tomb was empty, too! Jesus was killed, but His Father raised Him up!" The recess bell rang... the children ran out to play... and a teacher cried.

Three months later, Jeremy died. Those who paid their respects at the funeral home were surprised by what they saw there. On top of Jeremy's casket, there were 19 eggs - all of them empty.



The tomb is empty. He is not here. If only we have the courage to walk the way of his cross, then we will rise with him.

Just call me Nancy!

Who knew I would grow up to be just like my childhood hero, Nancy Drew?? Yesterday, I was discussing with a dear friend of mine how my cool pens and pencils would disappear into thin air. You would really think that rule of "DON'T TOUCH IT IF IT IS ON MY DESK, WORK AREA, BASKET, IRONING BOARD OR IF IT EVEN LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT BELONG TO MOM!!!" would be effective. It is NOT! Yesterday morning, I found myself, once again, without any pens which are kind of needed for me to mark my fabric. So I made the dreaded trek to Walmart for pens and also missing masking tape. I also was getting low on ever-sharp pencils but I knew I had one left so decided not to buy anymore of those. I found some cool pens... the ones that SCREAM at my children, "Steal me! Sneak me off this desk. She'll never know!!" They come five to a packet- a green, a blue, a red, a black and a purple. And I picked up 2 rolls of tape. I left for a while last night and didn't do a whole lot of checking up on my desk when I got home. But this morning, I realized all but the green pen is missing and one roll of tape!! After I got the girls to school... and with my fabulous morning coffee in hand... I decided to do some sleuthing. The obvious suspects... do I really need to tell you?? Don't let those innocent faces fool you! Let me introduce you starting at the bottom left and going clockwise: I don't know, Not me, It was Berlyn, and LIAR!
And then there is my oblivious suspect. He's holding a fish to throw you off!

After going through the 2 kid's bedrooms and Rob's desk (mostly the girl's room), this is what I came up with:

I came up with 2 of my new pens and one of my new tapes. The other is still missing but I did find the other roll that went MIA a few days ago. I also found 1 dice (or die, if you want me to be correct), both of my staplers, fingernail polish, a package of bellybutton studs, a pair of fingernail clippers, 4 pairs of sewing scissors (thread trimmers), 3 Sharpies (Oh, happy day! Permanent markers and nothing horrible happened this time!), my scrapbooking pen, 6 safety pens, lead for my missing pencils (and I did find 2 more of those in my purse, but 7 are still missing!), my yellow highlighter, my eraser, 10 misc. pencils, 21 pens, 1 orange marker, my sewing machine screw driver and one of my seam rippers.... That's right! A seam ripper! What does a small child want with a seam ripper?? That's actually kind of freightening.

Another gross blog...

I'm sorry people... it's all I have!!! So Ethan, my dear 12 year-old son, stepped on a nail at my mom's house during spring break. He had to choose the most disgusting nail on the farm to step on. It was from an old (50 year +) cow barn... therefore rust, manure and general boy germs. I took him in last Sunday and he got his tetnus shot and it was at a raging infection point so he was prescribed cipro... the drug for Anthrax. He complains of a stomach ache everytime he takes the stuff, and today, he showed up at home at his regular time... meaning he skipped track again... cuz his stomach was hurting. I kind of got on him about this. I really thought he was faking it. I'm sitting here sewing, he's watching Curious George on the couch and this UNHUMAN sound comes from his direction. You know those sound effect CDs you can buy with gross sounds? Specifically fart noises! This was WORSE than those. Non-stop for 1 1/2 hours! At first it was kind of funny, but then it just got gross. I finally looked at Rob for some direction here. He was looking at Ethan with his mouth wide open and finally said... "I'm not sure if I should be mad or impressed."

Yep...I had lost the battle.

I have my work cut out for me today....

This is what I woke up to in my kitchen this morning. I spent all day long yesterday out in the sun watching/ coaching soccer. I ended up with a sunburn and an AWFUL headache that I still have this morning... most likely due to not drinking anything other than a rootbeer on the way to Briyanna's game.
I'm going to use this moment to do a soccer game update. Brenna's team won, by alot. We don't really take score (I don't at least) but it had to be like 20-0. It was alot. Brenna made the first 2 goals and the coach pulled her out. I had told the kids anyone who makes a goal earns $1. So when she made her first goal in the first 30 seconds of the game... I was a little scared. But she ended up w/ only the 2 goals. Ethan's game was next. His team is the team I coach (unwillingly) this spring. I'm glad I picked GREAT goalies! They were getting drilled and only one goal made it past. The other team had good forwards, I had great defenders! I finally moved Ethan up to a midfielder and he made the first goal of the game. We ended up winning 2-1. We need LOTS of work. Briyanna had the last game. We played the #1 team in the state, fully expecting to loose, and expecting to loose by ALOT. But we only lost 5-0 so really, that wasn't a bad game for us. The team that beat us on Wednesday 8-2 got beat by this team 6-0. So, I guess we just played really bad on Wednesday?? Yesterday's game was actually the best I've ever seen them play.
So my kitchen... I slept all evening and Rob made dinner. I woke up long enough to eat and catch a few SNL skits. And this is what I get to do today!

My kid says the darndest things... in public!

My daughter is a silly, silly girl. And embarrassing! We go to Applebee's every Wednesday night for kid's night. So here we sit, eating, drinking, being merry, and Berlyn pipes up and says something. Now, I wasn't sure what she said, and I thought that maybe what she said was mildly inappropriate, but I wasn't sure so I asked to repeat herself. No, I heard her right the first time, or so I thought. So I repeated the phrase back to her. And she replies in a VERY loud voice that I'm pretty sure the entire resturant heard, "NO!!! HOT, ROUND BUTTOCKS!!!!" I was informed this is off of Shrek. The shows I let my kids watch. Anyhow, I did laugh entirely too loud at the 'hot, round buttocks' phrase. I just have no idea where the heck it came from. What is going through a 5 year-old's mind when they say something like that?