2 days until Christmas

I am amazed Christmas is almost here. I haven't posted much lately, because really nothing too exciting has been going on. Work, school, turned 41, etc.... Did I say turned 41, how the hell did I get so old? Just seems like yesterday I was 21.

In the last month this is what has happened with the boys:

Mason made the basketball team for KJH, they had two games and won both.

Tanner had a baseball tournament and has begun basketball practice with Katy Youth Basketball.

See nothing too exciting. I finally got our Christmas pictures taken last night. It is a record for me. I have never waited so long. Bad news is this means no Christmas cards will be sent this year. Today my plan is to go to the grocery store, bake, clean, and go see a friend that is in the hospital.

Brad is off this week. I am not used to him being home with me during my break. This has thrown me off a bit. He goes back to work on Monday. The boys are anxiously awaiting Christmas. I am anxiously awaiting it to be over. Just joking, I love Christmas. Merry Christmas to all!!

emotional basket cases

It has been a real long time since I posted anything. Football finally wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. Mason's team ended up doing pretty good finishing 3rd in the district. I think their end of the season record was 6 -1-1. He ended up loving football and is really looking forward to next year. He played quarterback on the c team and scored at least 4 touchdowns during the season. He kept wanting me to record him throwing the ball, but I never had the camera running when he did. It is hard to anticipate when the play is a throwing play and when it isn't.

Mason tried out for basketball last week. He said there were about 100 kids trying out for about 30 spots. He made the b team. He was very excited about that. Right now he is in fear of one of the coaches and isn't too happy about that. He has complained about this coach since football season started. He says all he does is yell and he can't stand him. He is scared of him. The last couple of days Mason has been home "sick". Monday I got a call from the nurse saying he threw up at school. He stayed home Tuesday and then this morning I got a call from the nurse saying he was sick. I went and picked him up and finally determined he isn't really sick. He is scared of the mean coach at practice. They are having to run the width of the gym 6 times in 30 seconds. He says he can barely make it in 30 seconds and they have moved the time down to 25 seconds. He was crying and yelling saying he couldn't do it and the coach is going to kill him. He will have to stay after practice and do it over and over until he gets it done. He doesn't want to be punished by this man. I brought him back up to school and told him to deal with it. I don't really know how to handle this. Why coaches have to be so mean sometimes I really don't understand. I know part of it is okay, but there is a line that I think some of them cross. What worries me is if Mason can't handle it, I don't know how Tanner will ever handle it.

I had Tanner's parent teacher conference and his teachers told me they are concerned because he cries a lot in class. He will be in Jr. High next year and they don't want him to be teased. Tan has complained all year about his teacher and how he doesn't like her. He says she yells all the time and he thinks she is stressed out. I couldn't get him out of bed one day because he was crying and saying he didn't want to go to school. This has never happened. He wasn't even the crying, clingy type of baby when I dropped him off at daycare.

Why are my boys so sensitive? I know I have always been sensitive, but I don't remember it interfering with my school or sports. How do you teach your kids not to let one person ruin things for them?

Fall Ball

Fall baseball has begun for both Mason and Tanner's teams. Mason played a couple of weeks ago with his new team. They played in an elite tournament and his team is a select team. We got beat all three games, but overall I think the boys didn't look too bad. This past weekend they played two games on Sunday in the open league. They won both games. I think Mason is happy he decided to change teams and is playing 13U.
Tanner's team was moved from the select level to the elite level this fall. They played their first elite tournament this weekend. Tanner got ejected from the game. His first ejection, and hopefully his last. He was running home to tie the game up and tried to run through the catcher. Apparently you are only allowed to do that in the pros. He was very upset, but I think he has learned from it. His big brother was very proud of him and wanted to know if he broke the kids arm. I don't know what I am going to do with him. We lost that game, but won all the others and ended up the champions of the tournament.

Tanner started playing baseball with the local pony league because his tournament team isn't playing or practicing much this fall. We went to the first practice and I realized we had made a big mistake. He was the oldest kid on the team. None of these kids have ever played kid pitch baseball. They were calling Tanner the "Little League Professional" by the end of practice. His coach came up to me and said he didn't really know what he could teach him. Not a real good sign. He played his first and last game with the Rangers yesterday. It was painful to watch. I didn't realize Tanner would be so much more advanced. I figured he would at least be on a team with kids that had played kid pitch before. Tanner threw the ball from short stop to first base and the first base mans glove flew off when Tanner threw the ball to him. Tanner was very frustrated, so we decided to hang up our hat. It was supposed to be fun and Tanner was getting upset with these boys that couldn't help that they didn't have the experience he has.
Mason played his second Jr. high football game. It was really kind of comical. The O line couldn't block to save their lives. Mason is playing quarterback and that isn't really good for him. They didn't get a first down the entire game. We did win because the defense intercepted a ball. Mason said the coach changed the whole offensive line, so hopefully they will do better tomorrow.

Jr. High Football

The first picture is before the game. Notice his number. He picked number 12 for Colt McCoy. His favorite football player. The bottom picture is the first play of the game. Mason is behind number 24 getting ready to throw the football.

Today was Mason's very first Jr. high football game. I don't know who was more nervous, me or him. Mason is starting quarter back for the C team. We played a bunch of kids and friends from when I taught at Williams and we all sat together. When we went to sit down we looked at each other and asked if we should sit together or not. We decided we could sit together until high school football. That is when the real rivalry begins. LOL

I am so proud of Mason. He did such a good job. He passed the ball at least 5 times and the receivers did great and caught them. The first quarter we had the ball the entire time, but didn't score. We only have 7 minute quarters. The second half they had it for about half the time and then we had it and we were about on the 20 when time expired. The third quarter started and we held them again and had just gotten the ball back when it began to thunder and lightning, so they delayed the game. They ended up calling the game. We were very disappointed. The boys did great! I am looking forward for next Monday.

Back to School

We started school on Monday. Mason is beginning the 7th grade and Tanner is the top dog being a 5th grader this year. We went to Safari Night at the KJH to get Mason's schedule and locker set up the Wednesday before school started. When we got Mason's schedule we immediately went to try his locker. We tried and tried and couldn't get it open. That left us carrying around all his supplies as we went around to his classes. We began comparing schedules with his friends and I noticed he was missing a class. They hadn't assigned him a reading class. Mason was really excited about this. Unfortunately, I had to burst his bubble and let the counselor know. He had to go to school on the first day with all his supplies, saxophone, football helmet, cleats, and lunchbox. He was a bit nervous and unsure about what to do with an incomplete schedule, no working locker, and having his first day of Jr. high football practice. It all worked out in the end and he said he had fun at practice.

Tanner ended up getting a teacher Mason had in 5th grade and we really didn't like. Mason still talks about her and blames his struggles in math last year on her. He says she didn't teach them anything and would just yell at them. I am hoping Tanner has a better year with her. I think he already has 5th grade fever. Everyday this week I have asked him how school was and he has replied he hates it. You know school sucks. He didn't end up with any of his friends in his class either. Yesterday he came home a little excited. He is finally a safety patrol. It is official, he got his vest yesterday. He was bubbling with excitement because he got to get a kid in trouble. I think he is going to end up being a cop. He likes busting people. I hope having all this power doesn't go to his head.

Quiet Life

Things have been rather quiet around her the last month. Baseball has been over for a couple of weeks. I have entertained myself by reading. I started reading the Janet Evanovich series that begins with One for the Money and I think ends as of right now on 17. I am on 14. The boys haven't been too excited about my reading. They think reading is a waste of time. I hate that! The boys have been entertained by watching TV, playing video games, building with legos, playing outside, riding their little motorcycle, playing with friends, swimming, and fighting with each other making their mother crazy. Pretty typical things for kids. We went to San Antonio and stayed with my dear friend Susie for a couple of days. We got to visit with my brother and mom. It was a lot of fun.

Baseball starts today for Mason. He is going to be playing on a 13U team as an extra player and fill in when needed. He will continue playing with the Krushers 12U team for the fall. We have struggled on what to do with him. His birthday falls in June and that makes him play with kids that are a grade level younger unless they have summer birthdays like him. This means if he only plays with the Krushers he will never play on a 14U team before he tries out for the high school team. I am not sure if this is a big deal or not. The field gets bigger each year, so it seems to me it would be at his advantage to play on a team that is his grade level team. Things are so competitive around here. It wouldn't be a big deal to just change teams, but we are so close to the kids and parents on the Krushers it would be like leaving family. We will see how it goes this fall and then make a decision in January as to what team Mason will play with.

School starts for me tomorrow and in a week for the boys. They are so excited about starting, NOT! Honestly I am not either. How am I going to keep reading like I was?

Mason with Braces

We decided on getting the clear brackets. It cost a little more, but you can hardly see that he has braces. He did really well getting them on and pretty good the first day. The second day, if he could cuss, he would have. He was telling me all dentist should be shot. He doesn't need braces. This is stupid and so on....... Since then he has gotten used to them and is doing much better. I think they make him look a little more grown up. A couple of days after he got them he was batting and got hit in the face with a baseball. He hit the ball and it hit the plate and bounced up and hit him. I immediately said, "Oh no, not his teeth." Luckily it missed his mouth and hit his cheek bone. You could see the stitch marks. Hopefully, he won't be like my brother and get his teeth knocked out after spending all this money to make them look good.

World Series 2010

I have spent the last 7 days watching 14 baseball games between Mason and Tanner. Mason's team played Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Tanner's team had opening ceremonies on Sunday and played two games every day Monday - Thursday and one on Friday. Both boys did very well and made their mama proud.

The End of an Era

Mason has played baseball with this man since he was 8 years old. It all began when Mason was asked to tryout for the all-star team at the end of his 8U season. Brad and I weren't really sure we wanted to do this because we knew once we started playing tournament ball our lives were going to really change and we would begin to eat, sleep, and breath baseball. How right we were and that was when we only had one child playing. We decided to let him try out secretly hoping he wouldn't make it. They let each kid field some infield balls, outfield balls, and hit. He did fine with the fielding and then it was his turn to bat. Mason ended up hitting a homerun over the left field fence. He has never done that since, possibly devine intervention. Of course he made the team and that is were all the fun began. Joe was one of our coaches and we have played together since then. He is so knowledgeable about baseball and developmentally where the boys are and where they need to go next to continue growing as a baseball player. His wife became one of my best friends and his son became one of Mason's best friends. The boys ended up playing football together too. We have spent so many hours together and have had so much fun. In the fall we learned Joe was being transferred to San Antonio. He moved in January, but continued to come in for the weekend tournaments and planned on continuing with the team through the summer. It has been a long goodbye, but finally the final game has been played. This weekend we played a tournament that if we had won the whole thing we would have moved on to Dallas. Joe was with us Saturday and Sunday and Harrison was with us Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Mason understood that if we lost last night it was over and he would never play with Harrison again or have Joe be his coach. I saw a fire in him I hadn't seen in a long time. He wanted to win so bad, so that it wouldn't have to end. We lost. Mason came off the field sobbing and cried almost the whole way home. It is truly amazing when you find a family that can touch your family the way they have done. I pray that God places another coach and friend that can touch our lives the way Joe has done. O course we will all continue to be friends and hope to see each other often, but we know it will never be the same.

Mason turns 12

I can't believe Mason is 12. I can't believe he is growing up so fast. He is still passionate about sports. He loves playing baseball, football, and basketball. He wants to be a professional athlete when he grows up. I think he would be a great sports broadcaster if going pro doesn't work out for him. He knows every athlete and stats on teams and players. He is always asking me questions about players and can't believe I don't know the answers to his questions. He isn't in to girls yet. Many of his friends are already "going out" with girls. Mason doesn't seem interested, thank God.

We went and saw Toy Story 3 a couple of weeks ago. It made me cry. It brought back so many memories of Mason when he was three and loved Toy Story. He wanted me to call him Woody and insisted on wearing cowboy boots everywhere. He loved his little Woody dolls and played with them all the time. Seems like it was yesterday.

I let Mason invite a couple of friends to the movies and to lunch. I think he had a good time. They got in the hurricane wind machine, ate candy, pizza, and laughed at the movie. It was a good day.

The Beach

We went to Galveston for the day this week. My sister rented a condo for the week and asked us to come and see them. Unfortunately, it could only be a few hours. We have had a lot of dentist/doctor appointments on our calendar. We spent about an hour at the beach and then went back to the condo and hung out at the pool. Later that evening the boys went putt putt golfing and Mason and Zach asked if they could do this bungie sling shot ride. We let them. I hadn't seen anyone ride it before the boys, so I wasn't sure what to expect. This ride shot them into the air and they turned upside down and up and down over and over again. When I look back on it, it was kind of stupid to pay some guy to sling your baby high in the air and hope they survive. They did survive and of course loved it. When they took off I tried to video it, but they flew up so fast I couldn't get it all. Mason's face when they shot up was priceless and I laughed the entire time they were riding.

A Weekend of Champions

Both boys played baseball tournaments in Boerne, Texas this past weekend. It was nice that both boys played in the same tournament and I didn't have to run around town to get each of them to their games. It did mean we were at the fields almost the entire day both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday they each played two games. Mason's team went undefeated and Tanner's team went 1 and 1. Tanner's team had a horrible umpire. It was so bad that coaches from other teams were commenting to us on this guys calls. This was bad news for Tanner, because he has a hard time getting over bad calls. He gets upset and has trouble getting over that. Sunday Tanner's team played 3 games winning the first two and losing in the championship. Tanner hit a ball almost over the centerfield fence, probably the best hit he has ever had, but then got thrown out at second. He came off the field crying really hard and had to be benched the next inning until he could control himself. I am not sure how to get him to stop getting so upset. Mason's team won the championship. Overall it was a great, hot weekend and the kids had fun. Nana even got to come and watch the boys play a game on Sunday.


Mason is showing off his Championship shirt and medal. Tanner is waiting for his 2nd place medal with the look of defeat.

Tanner's Big Week

Tanner had an amazing week the week he turned 10. On his birthday I asked him where he wanted to eat, anywhere he wanted. He said, "Mmmm....not McDonald's, you know that other place." There are only a billion restaurants in Katy. But I am very smart and asked if he was thinking about Mooyah Burgers and Fries and I was right. We went and ate there. It was very good. Everyone was happy with Tanner's choice and I could tell he was growing up because he didn't pick McDonald's.
That Friday night he had his skating party. Lots of his friends came and he had a great time. He even got to go into the money machine. What could be better?
That weekend his baseball team had a tournament. Tanner played the best he has ever played. He played pitcher, catcher, and second base and you could tell he put his all into it. He hit the ball hard and came very close a couple of times to hitting it over the fence. His team went 5 and 0 and he won the MVP for the tournament. He was on top of the world. It looks like 10 is going to be Tanner's year.
I love this kid!

Last day to be 9

So excited to be turning 10!!!


Tomorrow Tanner turns 10. I decided to take a few pictures to document his last day to be 9. It is hard to imagine this big boy used to be my "lots to love" baby. He was such a chunky monkey and so squishy and adorable. I think he is still adorable, but in a different way. He has developed a cute personality. He has a great sense of humor. He is very tender hearted and so passionate about the things he loves. He keeps life interesting and makes me a proud mama!

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted. What have we been up to? You guessed it....baseball and a few other things. Here are some pictures of our events. We visited friends at a home at the top of a hill in Canyon City. They had this incredible view and pool for the kids to swim in. Brad and I want to move now.
Mason's baseball team played a baseball tournament in Austin. My mom met us there for the weekend to watch Mason play. Mason ended up running a fever and didn't play.




Tanner's team won the 9U open league championship.



We went camping and fishing at Canyon Lake.

School ends in 10 days!!! We are going to Lake Charles for a baseball tournament with Mason's team. That should be fun. Maybe I will be a good mom and bring my camera, so I can take pictures.

Parenting

Tonight I sit in a pretty quiet living room watching TV and trying to enjoy the peace, but a little boy keeps coming down and bugging me. Rewind 2 hours ago and Mason, Tanner and a friend were outside playing tennis in the driveway. I kept hearing them outside and finally I heard Brad yelling and then Mason runs in crying. Apparently, Tanner got mad at Mason and threw his tennis racket at him, hitting him on the leg and leaving a pretty good bruise. We are really tired of the boys fighting. They don't do this with other kids just each other. It is hard to determine who is at fault. I always seem to miss the beginning of the disagreement. I can totally see why Tanner gets so mad at Mason. Mason is always trying to one up his little brother. He makes sure to always let Tanner know how much older, smarter, or better at what ever activity they are doing. This makes me mad, because I try to explain to Mason he is older than Tanner and should be better at most things than him. That does not mean he should rub it in to his little brother. Tanner has a short fuse and when Mason pushes his buttons Tanner loses his mind and usually just screams at Mason. It occasionally results in violence like tonight. Tanner doesn't like to lose at anything and needs to learn to control his competitive nature and not lose his mind when he thinks he is losing or about to lose. I have banished both boys to their rooms for the rest of the night. I took Tanner's game controllers, but not Masons. I think since Tanner hurt Mason his punishment should be a little bit worse. You would think I was killing Tanner. He has come out of his room at least 10 times. Within 5 minutes he was declaring he was dying of thirst. He says he is getting all stuffy being closed in his room. He is hungry. He is sorry. Can he please just apologize to Mason, etc.... On the other hand I haven't heard from Mason at all.

I don't know how to get them to get along better. Tanner has such a sweet side. While we were at the rodeo carnival Mason kept trying to win a basketball by shooting a ball into the hoop. He wasted many tickets trying to win. Tanner finally tried it and made it on his first shot. Then he told Mason he would try again to win him a ball. Unfortunately he missed. The rest of the night Mason kept trying to steal the ball from Tanner and Tanner kept yelling at Mason to leave his ball alone. That was fun! Then when we got home Mason just had to use Tanner's new ball even though we have at least 3 other basketballs. Tanner would yell to me to make Mason stop using his ball. I hate for Tanner to be selfish, but it is his ball. Where do you draw the line?

Oh well, I don't really know how to handle this, but hopefully being punished for the night will work. On another note here is a cute picture of Tanner's cat. The other picture is of Tanner luring the ducks from the pond with bread into our driveway. It was funny watching all these ducks following him down the street.

spring break 2010

This spring break has been pretty good so far. We did not have a big trip planned, but had a few small things to do. We spent one day at the zoo, went to see a Rice and UT baseball game, and spent a day at the carnival and rodeo. This weekend both boys have baseball tournaments and tomorrow we are planning on having a garage sale. I haven't ever had a garage sale while living in this house. I hope people will come and we make at least a little bit of money.

Basketball and black sock update

Today is the first Saturday since January that we have not had anything to do. Basketball season ended this week. This was a horrible season for Mason. His black socks continued to bring them bad luck. They did not win one game. They usually got beaten by at least 15 points. I am hoping Mason learned something from this. When we signed up to play ball you have to decide whether you want to play in the regular league or be drafted. If you want to go the drafted route you go to a try out and hopefully you get picked by a coach to be on a little more competitive team. If you don't make it at try outs then you get put back in the regular league and they are supposed to form the remaining teams into neighborhood school teams. We have never done the draft in the past because with two kids playing I always wanted them to play in the neighborhood schools so we wouldn't have to drive across town to practices. This year Mason told me he wanted to do the draft because it was his last year to play and it would help him prepare for Jr. High basketball. I thought that was a very mature decision and agreed. The day of try outs I told Mason it was time to go and he said he had changed his mind. He thought if he went to tryouts he would be on a team and possibly be on the B team and if he did the regular league he would be A team point guard and be the best on the team. He doesn't have a problem with self esteem. LOL That is what we did and guess what? He was point guard and the best on the team. The problem was the other kids didn't know what they were doing and you can't play basketball with one player. Mason would get so mad and I tell me those kids shouldn't even be playing. I tried to explain to him that those kids were in the right place. He was the one that chose to take the easy way and was in the wrong place. I also tried to tell him that in order to get better at something you need to push yourself and do something that is challenging. I am hoping he learned that.

On another note, Mason was the only kid that wore the high black socks the entire season. I took the boys to a high school game one night and when we walked in Mason said, "Look Mom!" and pointed to the players. Every one of them had the same socks on as Mason. I guess he does know what he is talking about.

Tanner's team didn't do very well either. They won 2 games, but they were at least pretty close. He and another kid on the team pretty much took charge. Tanner would bring the ball down pass it or shoot it and somehow get back to the other end of the court before anyone else. He is so fast.

To nark or not to nark

My 6th grader was put in a situation this week that really opened my eyes about a few things. He came home from school and told me he saw a fellow student with a bag of marijuana. The kid is a 6th grader at this school. I am so proud he told me about it. We talked it over and decided it would be best to report it to the school. We were very concerned it would be kept confidential and the principal assured me he wouldn't even need to talk to Mason. He would investigate things the next morning. I had only been at work a few minutes when the principal called me and said they had found the bag on the boy and the police wanted to get a statement from Mason. This is not what we had expected at all. I asked if he had to give a statement and if he did could I please be present when he talked to the police. He said he would call me back and let me know, but he had heard them talking about testimony and he wasn't sure the amount found was enough for the case to proceed. When he called me back he said he had spoken to the DA and they determined there wasn't enough in the bag to follow up with the police, but the school would take the appropriate action. Thank God!! Mason would have been so nervous if he had talked to the police and I don't think I am ready for any of the consequences that would come from any of this. I am still concerned about anything happening if someone finds out we told. I would hate for some retaliation against my son.

I didn't think we would be dealing with any of this for a couple of more years. Mason is only 11. I started second guessing our decision to tell, but I had a friend reassure me that we did the right thing. This could be the same kid that offers my kids drugs in the future. I can just pray that we did the right thing and be thankful that my son feels comfortable enough with me to tell me these things.

Secret to a healthy you...

Do you want to be thin, be able to climb trees like a monkey, be the fastest 9 year old in town? Well, Tanner has the secret. Today he got a cupcake as an after school snack. As he was eating the snack he was doing sit ups. So, it is not what you eat, it is what you do while you eat. Who would have guessed!

Oh, Tanner!

Tanner keeps life interesting. Last night as we were driving home from practice he informed me he knew where babies came from. I said, "Oh?" He told me they come from a very gross place. "You know, the same place on a girl that balls are on a boy." Always great conversation in the Holmberg house.


This has been a crazy couple of weeks. The boys are both playing basketball and baseball has started up again. Someone has a practice or a game everyday of the week. I feel like all I do is drive kids around. Brad has also been working a lot the last week and was called out 3 nights this week, so he wasn't even home. I finally got the boys into bed and sat down to relax before bed, when Tanner came down and told me he had thrown up. I asked where and he said on the carpet. I should have known that. Then it occurred to me that Tanner had Hawaiian punch at dinner. Of course he did!! He then got that, "I'm going to throw up look," and I yelled at him to go to the restroom. He ran in there and threw up in the sink. I guess I should be happy he hit the sink, but the toilet would have been so much better. I then spent the next hour cleaning up the, ide of his bed, the carpet, the remote controls, the game boxes, a baseball hat, and a sink. His bedroom now has two red stains on the carpet. He keeps saying he wants wood floors in his room and I am thinking that might not be a bad idea. Oh the joys of motherhood!!

Nerd Alert

I am not a fashion diva. I know that probably comes as a surprise to most of you, but fashion is not my thing. I am comfortable in jeans and tennis shoes for the most part. I don't think I need to be put on that show What Not to Wear, but I could dress a little better at times. I do spend the majority of my time at my kids sporting events and these aren't exactly black tie affairs. I don't think I look bad and do know how to match my clothes.

I try very hard to make sure my kids look good. They always match even if they are just wearing basketball shorts and t-shirts. It drives me crazy when I see a kid that is wearing mix-matched clothes. Tanner has a good friend that always comes over wearing green shorts and an orange shirt or some other crazy combination. One day I was taking them to the movies and I made him go home and change into something that matched. I feel the same way about character shoes. You know like Bob the Builder or whatever cartoon character is in at the time. I guess teaching in some low income schools I would see the mix matched clothes, cheap character shoes, and uncombed hair and it isn't the look I want for my kids.

That brings me to today. Mason had a basketball game and before we left he told me he needed new socks. He has been wearing the no show socks and he wanted some that came up a little bit higher. We went to Academy and he picked out the ones he wanted. They are black and come up about mid calf. I told him I refused to buy him black socks to wear with shorts. He insisted that everyone wears them. I finally gave in and bought them and he changed in the car and was very proud of his "new look". All I could think of was an old man mowing his yard with shorts and black socks. The kind of person we always made fun of. We made it to his game and he ran out on the court. He was the only one with high black socks. After the game I asked him about no one else sporting this new look. He explained to me once again that all the kids at school wear them. I am trying not to sweat the small stuff, but it is hard. I also think the socks brought him bad luck. This is the first game in a couple of years that he hasn't scored a basket. His team lost 30-8. I let him know what I thought, but he said it wasn't the socks. At least I tried to help him. Maybe someone should call What not to Wear and we could do an intervention.

Not a jail bird after all...

I spent one entire day of my Christmas vacation taking a defensive drivers course to clear one of my tickets. I ordered my driving record and assumed it would be here in time for my court date today. I got a little nervous when it didn't arrive by Saturday. I haven't dealt much with the law and wasn't real sure what would happen if I showed up to court without my driving record. I told the boys I would call them if I needed to be bailed out of jail. I got to court about 45 minutes early and while sitting in the car waiting I decided to go through the paperwork. Oops I had missed getting a notary to sign one of the forms. I zipped out of the parking lot and was on the look out for a bank. Thank goodness I found one quickly and got my form notarized and got back with still 25 minutes until court. I didn't know where to go, but finally figured out. Wouldn't you know I was not the only person that didn't have all their paperwork. They have a process for idiots like me. I got a 10 day extension. Surely my driving record will arrive before then.

Today I was looking through some old pictures and found another picture of evidence I was a law breaker. The first picture is of me in my high school graduation gown. And yes that is a bottle of alcohol I am holding. I believe my mother was taking that picture and the alcohol was given to me by an adult cousin. Mom, how could you condone such bad behavior? It is a wonder I turned out to be such a productive citizen and not a wino under the bridge. I kind of remember that night. I believe I drank the majority of that bottle by myself and had my first hangover the next day. It was not pretty. Notice I said my first hangover. I am not a fast learner and have had a few more since then.

Happy 2010

This year was a little more low key than last year. We were invited to a couple of parties, but with Brad's new work schedule we decided not to go. Brad changed jobs in November and he now works in Texas City. He has to be at work at 6:30 and it takes him an hour and 15 minutes to get there and two hours to get home. He leaves the house by 5 and gets up at 4. His used to stay up late every night. Now he is in bed before me. The boys were invited to go to Time Square Entertainment with some neighbors. That left Brad and I alone. I don't think we have been alone on New Years in 11 years. We went to eat at Los Cucos. Had a couple of margaritas and really enjoyed each others company. Brad went to sleep around 9. I stayed up waiting for the boys. They were supposed to get home at one, but at 11:50 they were knocking on the door. I was glad to see them. We got to bring in the new year together. 2009 wasn't a bad year, but it could have been better. We hope 2010 is a wonderful year! Happy New Year!