This is what happens....

.... when I leave the boys at home with The Dude while I go to work.



By the time I got home from work 3 hours later, Daniel was tying his new shoes. 
All by himself.
I'm not sure who is the most proud here....Daniel for learning it, The Dude for teaching him, or me - just because he's my kid and I'm allowed to be proud of him.
Have I mentioned how incredibly wonderful The Dude is lately? Because if I haven't, this is a good time to remind everyone - including myself.

Basketball, laundry, and .... ghosts?

So Sarah had her first basketball games last night. This is the first year that she's actually playing on the school team and not on the rec league, so it's a little bit different, but she is still having a great time. 

The biggest challenge for me is trying to keep the boys occupied for 3 full basketball games - they started out great, but of course that didn't last very long. They can only sit still and amuse themselves for a certain period of time, and 3 1/2 hours far exceeded that last night.

They really do like each other -
sometimes.

Sarah did kick some serious butt during the first game. The game was pretty fast-paced and intense, and she got at least 2 baskets, including this one - I just wish that the picture would have come out a little bit clearer.

Getting some pointers from one of the coaches.

I love this picture.

So they won the first game, which was the 7th grade team. The 8th grade team played next, and they lost. The third game is a combination of 7th and 8th graders, and Sarah got quite a bit of playing time in that game too until she got hurt. We aren't sure what happened because it was over in a split second, but she was airborne and then she was on the floor. She ended up hurting her thumb, but it appears to just be sprained at this point - although of course she thinks that she's dying. Anyway, they ended up losing that game too.

So we came home, dealt with attitudes, and the kids went to bed. The Dude came over to hang out and we watched a movie and then crashed.

Today started out like a fairly typical day. I got the kids up and off to school and then came back home and crawled back into bed because I really wasn't feeling too hot. The Dude took off for work, and I slept for a couple more hours. Then I decided that I was going to strip my bed and wash the sheets and the mattress pad.

First mistake.

I've washed that mattress pad a dozen times before, and I've never had an issue with it. This time, however, it somehow worked its way up and out of the washer tub and part of it apparently got jammed between the tub and the shell of the washer, and caused water to go all over the floor in the laundry room. I started to clean that up, and then the next thing I knew I was rearranging stuff.

I hate when that happens.

In the process of moving things around in there, I attempted to move the chest freezer about 8" from where it was so that it would be against the wall to save some room. It wouldn't move. So I shoved it. Hard. And something popped from inside it. And then I realized that the reason that it wouldn't move was because the cord wasn't long enough. And then it shut off and wouldn't come back on again.

Seriously? Did I just kill my freezer?

Actually, it appears that I did not kill it. It did eventually come back on. And I did get it moved to where I wanted it to be - I just plugged it into a power strip to give me a little extra leeway for positioning.

So I'm not completely done organizing in there, but it definitely looks better. I have some stuff that needs to go out into the garage, but that won't happen until daytime - so for now it'll just get piled up on the porch. Realistically it'll probably sit on the porch until it annoys me enough for me to put it in the garage.

Now, I've mentioned my ghost a few times. I don't talk about him a whole lot, because, well, people might think that I'm crazy. But there is definitely something in this house. I noticed a bunch of really weird stuff today, but I didn't say anything to anyone about it, other than some friends online.

I was trying to get all of the kids to go to bed, and thought that I had succeeded when the girls came back out and started complaining to me that their room is really spooky. They couldn't tell me what specifically was bothering them - just that it was "creeping them out". I assured them that everything was fine and told them to go back to bed. They turned around and started heading for the hallway when they both yelped in fear...

....and then busted up laughing.

Yes, he was asleep. In the hallway. On the hardwood floor.

No, I did not leave him there. I put him in bed.

Rollin' on...

The Honor Roll, that is.

Both girls made the honor roll again. The school had an assembly this morning to recognize all of the students who made it, and so Daniel and I flew down there after I dropped Alex off at school so that we could see it.

Needless to say, I'm a wee bit proud of both of them...

The gloves have been donated!

I really don't think that Alex could be any happier than he was after school today.

We didn't get a chance to drop the gloves off before school for a couple of reasons - one might have had something to do with the fact that I hadn't showered yet...so I dumped him at the door and went back home.

I had gotten the oil changed in the van this afternoon, so The Dude was hanging out with me and we went to pick Alex up from school together. When we got there we went down to Alex's room to get him and to return a book that his teacher needed, and I handed him the bag of gloves.

He took them up to the office, and he was thrilled when the school secretary told him that he could put them on the tree himself.

Of course, after he did that, we had to search the Lost & Found for his own missing glove (only one, mind you) and then wander down to the cafeteria to find his lost sweatshirt. That kid would forget his head if he wasn't attached - not sure if that's genetic, but forgetting things seems to be a familiar trait for some reason....

Still, forgetful or not, I'm so proud of him. I don't know that he completely understands what making a donation like this means, but I know from personal experience that it will be appreciated by the person on the receiving end. Over the past several years especially, my kids and I would not have had anything for Christmas several times had it not been for the generosity of strangers.

Seriously, there was one Christmas where I did not have the money to get my kids anything. ANYTHING. I could barely keep the utilities connected, and only had food through the food stamp program. I was working, but I just couldn't keep up with everything.

Did my choices lead me to that point? Yep. So don't even bother lecturing me on that one.

The point is that my kids had one of the best Christmases ever thanks to the generosity of strangers. They got more that year than probably any other year of their lives. It was incredible. The donor was anonymous, so I had no way to thank him or her or them, other than an (also) anonymous letter to the editor in the newspaper.

Things are still tight for us, money-wise. But nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I can keep the utilities on and the van payment current and the roof over our head - and we are no longer on food stamps. We have a little bit left over most months - sometimes less than I would like - but we are so much better off than we were even a year ago.

I know that buying a few inexpensive pairs of gloves does not even begin to pay forward what we have received in the past - but knowing that my kids want to do things like this makes me one proud mom. They don't know the full details of how bleak our finances were, but they know that we had help. Someday, I'll explain it to them when they are old enough to understand. Right now, I'm just happy that they want to help someone else that might need it.

Proud mommy

It was a beautiful, although COLD day here today. I finally broke down and turned the heat on in the house once it dropped to 60 degrees in here. But, I did only turn it on to 65 - I just can't stand the idea of turning the heat on this early, but I also can't stand freezing when I'm inside. So, the chill has gone from inside the house, and it's at least comfortable in here tonight.

I had to go to the older three kids' parent/teacher conferences tonight. I guess I shouldn't really say that I "had" to go, but I really hate going to them in the evening. I'd much rather go during the day, but whatever. I go when I'm told to be there. There was some confusion in the scheduling but we got that straightened out, so I got to go and sit through 3 conferences with Ex1 *gritting teeth* and his wife *gritting teeth more* but it could have been worse.

We got their report cards, and as you can see - I have reason to be proud! Out of 19 subjects that were graded, there were 17 A's. 17!!! Only one B and one C!

Their teachers couldn't say enough good things about the kids, which made me feel really good. They had no issues whatsoever, and the one B and one C can easily be improved with a little bit of extra work. The teachers are not concerned at all.

*proud mommy*

By the time we left the conferences, it was just about dark. I tried to get a picture of the amazing sunset, but it was hard to do while on the move. Hopefully you can at least get the idea....

Alex and Daniel and I came home and grabbed something to eat, and then they went straight to bed. Alex really wants to ride his bike to school in the morning, but since the low temperature tonight is supposed to be 35 degrees, I'm not sure that's going to be feasible. But we'll see what happens.

But for now, I'm going to sit back with a little bit of Leno, and maybe try to get some sleep tonight. ;)