Crazy Schedules, Organizing, Dumping

I am still here. Had a very busy week last week. Seems my kids schools decided that since May is too busy, they would see if they could schedule every possible activity during the last week of April. So we had 2 parent/teacher conferences, a field trip to the zoo, field day, Father/Son Kickball game, and 2 school projects. We also had two basketball games (Arby), two baseball games (Kenz), and two soccer games (me), plus my best friend came in town and we have a talent show at school tomorrow. We are one tired crew!!!
When I wasn't at school, I was dumping junk and organizing my house. I am very much trying to accomplish my first retirement goal of a clean and organized house with "a place for everything and everything in its place".
Will post pictures of our crazy selves soon.

Garage Sale

Since my "retirement" (love saying that - it makes me laugh) I have been cleaning out rooms and organizing my house. So when our neighbors decided to have a garage/moving sale we decided to have one as well. The boys were so cute deciding what they wanted to sell and pricing all their stuff. Kenz was the ultimate salesman. As soon as someone showed any interest in one of his toys he would go over to them and talk all about it - good or bad :)
Arby was the money man. He was so in his element and he was so helpful. A bit surprising. The garage sale accomplished a few goals - motivation to clean out the unused, clearing space in our garage, and it taught the boys a few good life lessons. Plus it was a beautiful day

so beautiful in fact that my DH thought it would be a great day to drive downtown for a baseball game. I assumed he knew that our team had a home game. I really do know that I should Never Assume Anything. It would have been a great day for a baseball game though...
at least we got out of the house...

Just so you know - I still have A LOT of work to do on the house. Basically I only got the boys rooms cleaned out and the laundry room - then I just ran around the house collecting the things I knew I needed to toss. It will be several weeks before I feel like I have truly accomplished my goal of cleaning out and organizing the house.

Get the balloon.

Tonight I pulled up to a deli near my house. We have probably been to it about 5 times since it opened late January. We first visited this deli during their opening week and CiCi was given a balloon. Every visit since then she points to the balloons still decorating the inside of the deli. On our last visit she started saying the word - balloon. Tonight we pulled into the parking lot and she immediately starts saying, "balloon, balloon, balloon". I pull into the parking space and while pointing towards the restaurant she says her first ever three word sentence, "Get the balloon". I couldn't even believe that she had put together that a balloon would be inside the restaurant (I knew she would be excited about it once we walked in, but to recognize it beforehand took me by surprise) but when she said "get the balloon", I was floored. So was Kenz. I was glad he was in the car so that he could back up my story.

As a side note:
Earlier in the day we heard a train. We hear it all the time and CiCi always gets excited. So once again I say to her "Yes, you hear the train. Choo Choo." She looks at me, points outside, and very adamantly says, "Get it!". I start to laugh and tell her "I can't get the train for you". She again points outside and says, "Get it!!" This is very much her favorite phrase... and she truly expects everyone to jump at her command.

Eye Exam

Am I the only one that feels like I am taking an eye exam each time I write a comment on a blog and then have to type the letters in for verification. Do the letters all look blurry, and sideways, and similar to other letters to the rest of you??? Or do I truly need an eye exam???

Not exactly a house divided...

Growing up in Memphis I was always a Tigers basketball fan. My husband was, too. But then he went to Law School at UT and I married him and we lived in Knoxville for a while. I had no choice but to become a UT fan. But first I had to become a football fan. Believe it or not, it is much easier for me to be a UT fan than a fan of football. I loved sports growing up. Just not football. Under the pressure of DH and all his college friends, I learned the stupid game and even found myself swept up into the madness, wearing orange and cheering obnoxiously for UT. I now consider myself a UT fan. I am also still a Tigers fan. I decided many years ago that in head to head competition I would cheer for UT in football since I became a fan of football as a fan of UT, but I would cheer for Memphis in basketball. Years ago when Peyton was quarterback, UT played Memphis in football. We were living in Knoxville at the time and drove to Memphis for the game. I could not bring myself to wear orange, but I did want UT to win. Memphis won. I was happy for Memphis, but hated it for UT because they had a chance that year as a team to do well and Memphis did not. Earlier this year the Tigers played UT and I was very much for the Tigers. I knew UT had a great chance to win and I sure didn't want them to beat the Tigers winning streak, but they did. This time I was happy for UT, but I sure was sad for the Tigers. That day the boys were all decked out in orange (yes, the same boys that went to San Antonio to cheer for the Tigers), but I put CiCi in a Tigers sweatshirt with an orange bow for UT. The bow didn't last long.


During March Madness the Vols and Tigers kept playing on the same day so I started dressing CiCi like this:



And finally after UT lost I could, without guilt, dress CiCi without the orange (although you may notice, I found other strange combinations).










It has been a great basketball year for both of my teams. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them play (just not each other) and I am even sad that basketball has come to an end. But never fear we have moved on to cheering for the lovable Cubs........

So the Tigers Lost

and it will probably be forever before I get the pictures of the boys in San Antonio from my mom and by then who will really care???? So all I have is this picture my mom sent me of her and the boys at the game at some place where I guess you paid to have your picture taken with some fabricated backround (???) with their signs. They were very proud of their signs :)
My boys had a great time. They went to the Alamo, they loved the Riverwalk and they also played basketball for hours at some Final Four weekend event called Hoops City. I hate that our Tigers lost - especially since they so easily could-have-should-have won, but we are also so proud of them for the way they played their hearts out this season.

Our Smoothies

Tonight I thought it would be fun to make Smoothies using the new blender/food processor I got for Christmas (not much of a cook so I had not yet used it). My sons very excitedly gathered the ice cream, the ice, some strawberries, a pear, some acai juice and some Xango (we have lots of Xango in our house and we need to find more creative ways to get it into our bodies). I let them put in all the ingredients and then take turns pushing the various buttons to chop, puree, crush and stir our ingredients. We taste checked it and stirred it to make sure there were no lumps left in the mixture. I then unscrewed the container from the base of the blender and out poured our smoothies. From the bottom of the container. Onto the counter. And the floor. Apparently I just needed to pick up the container. When I unscrewed - I unscrewed the bottom portion of the container which should only be unscrewed to clean. I wish I had taken a picture of the mess and of the faces of my sweet boys. I felt so bad for them that I grabbed the cups and scooped what I could inside (literally sliding the smoothie off the counter and into the cup). So we still enjoyed our smoothies. :)

Did you know???

After taking away something from Arby for his bad attitude, he says (yells) to DH and me "you know kids are human, too. I don't think parents realize that."

Thanks, honey. We needed the laugh.

Retired

That's me. At least for a few years. I have always worked. I got a job as soon as I turned 16. I worked after school until I graduated from high school. Then I worked summers during college. I graduated from college in May, got married in July and started working in August. I am a teacher. I taught until my oldest was 2. Then I started working part-time doing payroll/HR for our family business. Some from home, plus two days a week in the office. Over time our company grew. My part-time job slowly became an after hours, from home, full-time job. Fortunately the amount of time and effort required for my job grew as my kids grew and entered school, so all was manageable. Then we added CiCi and my world has been ruled by chaos and very little sleep. So today I oversaw my last payroll. I still have a few loose ends and it is still my family business so I will always be involved, but I am free.

Free from that constant nagging feeling that I have work to do. Free from using every nap time to work. Free from having to be home from a vacation/trip/outing in order to do payroll. Free from a lot of stress and negativity.

It is an amazing feeling. I am already feeling lost from the lack of work e-mails. I have already purchased books to read, yarn to crochet and ribbon so that I can learn how to make hair bows. I have also promised myself that during naps I will start cleaning up and clearing out all the junk that has accumulated in my house. I am already thinking about the extra time that I will have to update my blog :)

Something monumental will have to happen for me to ever work for our business again but I know one day I will teach again. I look forward to it. But for now I am

Retired. Free. Happy.

The Final Four

We won!!!! We won!!! We won, we won, we won!!!!!!!
......Go Tigers G0!!!!!!!!!!!!
So excited!!!
Will post much more about this later - especially after we win the championship and my boys return with all their pictures. Yep. You heard me. My crazy parents took my sons to San Antonio to see the games. They drove. A long way. With my two sons that don't ever shut up. When they get home they (my parents) will be exhausted. But right now they won and the trip is already so worth it!!!!!
Don't know much yet, but I do know that they were supposed to meet someone to get tickets a few hours before the game. The guy didn't show up. Twenty minutes before game time, my parents and sons still didn't have tickets. Somehow right before the game started they ended up with incredible seats in the end zone, nine rows up. I can tell you my boys are loving life right now!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh- and they are staying for the championship. Hoping for some more awesome tickets to fall in their lap. Hopefully some sad UCLA or UNC fans will sell them to my crew.

What She's Saying Now........

I know I posted a list earlier, but I can't find it so I'll do a repeat plus the new stuff.

Words She Signs :
milk, more, eat, night night, bye
She seems to have forgotten how to sign Mommy.
Still puts her finger in her nose when she doesn't like what you say, but not as often.

Words She Says:

Milk - she says this while signing it with a strong emphasis on the K. And she heads for the refrigerator.

Socks - loves to say socks, always points out socks, always wants to put on and take off socks and then tell you to get socks so that she can put them on and take them off and say socks again about 10 more times.

Night - said while also signing and walking towards her bedroom. She knows exactly what it means and always seems eager to go to bed although often does not seem so eager to stay in bed.

eyes, ears - said while pointing to part. Will point to nose, but does not say it.

Hi, Bye

Daddy and both of her brothers' names. Maybe Mimi for my mom (not positive on this one), she still won't say Mommy

Want that
What's that?
Get That!!!! - says this one while pointing ALL THE TIME!!!

says Touchdown while putting hands up in the air - this is said whenever she sees football, baseball, or basketball on the TV (so this a very used word :) )

five - as in "give me five"... and she loves to give five

Hot
Balloon

poo poo and diaper - she will tell me when she poo poos and then tell me "diaper" and heads towards the changing table. I guess we will start working on potty training soon.

Yucky - Usually said while placing something into the toilet or taking something out of the trash. If only she understood what the word meant!!!

Thank you - and she holds that "you" out for a long time. Very cute!!

Good - our favorite word. She actually says goodgoodgoodgoodgoodgoodgood really fast. Usually said when talking about a food she likes, but also if she likes what she is doing. If I knew how to post a video of this I would. It is the funniest thing ever!!!

Uh huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - said in desperation. Usually when I have finally asked her the question needed for her to tell me what she wants. She sounds so pathetic when she says this.

Boo - said while playing one of her favorite games, Peek-a-boo


If you grab your keys or if you say something that has anything to do with leaving she heads for the garage.

She doesn't say "kisses", but she loves to give them and I love being on the receiving end. :)



I am sure I will add more to this list as I remember. I can definitely say that Little Miss CiCi makes my day.

Easter Morning

Wiped out from the full day of Easter activity on Saturday both boys fell asleep on the couch.



Easter morning baskets before church.









I wish I had taken a picture of my boys. I told my oldest what to wear and asked my DH to go upstairs and help Kenz. The boys then went to church to make sure we got seats while I finished getting myself and CiCi ready. I did not see Kenz until I got to church. He was wearing BLACK jeans (not pants) and a red, blue and green striped thick sweater. It looked like he was dressed for a Christmas party. The sad thing is that my DH actually did help pick this out. HELLOOOOOOOOO!!!
Anyway at least CiCi and Arby looked liked they knew what holiday we were celebrating.