Let's catch up.

Well not sure how much I have told you so just skip over the stuff you know...

We leave tomorrow to go camping in the Red Feather Lakes region. Randy plans to fish his brains out. Canoe is going.

Today was the last day of school for both kids. Matt insisted he is passing everything. He owes 10.00 for a lab fee so I have to go pay that tomorrow. The dreaded lists for the kids start tomorrow.

Yesterday was Kristen's field trip to Elitch's. She rode the one roller coaster 11 times. She was asleep by 8.

Matt and I saw Pirates on Memorial Day

Kristen got a cell phone for her birthday and then we went shopping. We made grilled shrimp for dinner.

Times have changed and my brain dead children

I bought Trivial pursuit poptarts at the store today. The perfect food. It educates while it fills my children with sugar.

Kristen bought yet another teen magazine(or I bought). Instead of the headline who Zac(from high school musical for those unaccustomed to the teen idol crowd) is dating, the headline is who Zac is texting.

Matt was putting groceries away and could not figure out how to put an oversize box of cheerios away. Kristen told him to turn it and he still could not figure it out. Scary.

Someone thought that the measuring spoons should now be kept with the oversize bowls. Their logic is definitely not my logic.

Kristen seems to have developed an itchy reaction to something. Randy thinks it is Sabrina(gulp). Time will tell.

What's Happening?

Hey it is me, Sabrina here.

I have not posted for about a year because I can never get computer time. Those kids are hogging it when Mom is not on it. Personally, I do not see the attraction. They should be spending time playing with me. In Kristen's defense, she does "play" with me. I prefer a good game of fetch;Kristen prefers grabbing me from behind and pulling me onto her lap and then reclining so I have no chance of getting away. They think I have a limited vocabulary so they often torment me with my favorite words. I am not making much progress with the reclamation of the furniture. It is soooooooo comfortable, I fall asleep instantly and do not get off before they get home. Yesterday morning, the evil one caught me on the love seat( perfect name since I do love it) and chased me off. Stinkin ratbastard.

Teenagers in the house means lots of yelling. Matt seems to do everything possible to irritate the evil one. Will Kristen never learn that rolling her eyes and not listening to Mom is really not the way to get what she wants. All she has to do is sit at Mom's feet and cry and moan? Mom hates whining and usually gives me what I want to shut me up.

Yesterday was exciting. The power was off so Mom had to open windows and a fly came in. The hunt was on. I trapped it in the blinds and I took me about 4 hours to rid the house of the pesky fly.

I am starving right now and trying to look my cutest. MOm says I can wait a minute. Can anyone tell me what a minute is? Anyone, anyone.

Kristen's confirmation day

The day Kristen has been dreading has arrived. She is being confirmed this morning. What this means to the rest of us is getting up earlier and being showered and dressed and to the church by 9:30. It also means no fishing for Randy. He will deal.

What it means for Kristen other than the obvious-confessing her faith in God, reaffirming her baptism, etc, is confronting one of her biggest fears. She has to read the essay she wrote based on a verse of scripture in front of the congregation. Despite the fact that she knows most of these people and none of them will judge her for any mistakes she makes, this is a huge terrifying ordeal for my little girl. I have tried to reason with her, pointed out to her that God won't give her anything she can not handle, pointed out that she has had much worse trauma(starting at TRMS for example). Nothing worked....until I resorted to bribery. We are going to Olive Garden for lunch(she was told she had to pick something other than McD), and promised her she could get that Chocolate Lasagne desert. She perked right up with that. Chocolate-the supreme motivator.

She has two momentous Sunday's in a row. IN 7 DAYS MY BABY TURNS 13. I can not deal.

Well Kristen now has two new pairs of shoes. They are very similar to each other, but far dressier than crocs and sneakers. Not as dressy as I would have liked, but I can not take any more shopping with her.

Really bad rain/t-storms/hail last night. We did not get the worst of it. The flash flooding was terrible in other parts of the front range. At least two people died- a 3 yr old and a teenager.

No word on a job for Matt yet.

Happy Mother's Day

Randy gave me a pink fishing rod(told him that was the only way I would go fishing) and earbuds with comfortable ear pieces for my ipod. We will be grilling burgers and having homemade potato salad for dinner. This was my choice. Any decent restaurant around here has lines and noise and screaming children. I can listen to screaming children virtually any time. Since I have been so negative about motherhood in general lately, I decided to list what I love about each of mine.

Matthew

1. his creativity- I helped him make a Who Shot JFK version of CLUE for a class project
2. his " i don't care what you think" attitude-this may help him avoid the whole drug/alcohol scene.
3. his charm-he can always make me laugh even if I am so angry I do not want to laugh
4. his fun loving attitude-if it isn't fun, why do it? (There ARE reasons Matt!)

Kristen

1. her tender heart-she feels deeply her friends pain(her brother is not included in this)
2. her childlike innocence-she is growing up before my eyes, but I love the fact that she still will play with sidewalk chalk and playdoh
3. her desire to succeed in school-I love the fact that for the most part, I do not have to think about her homework. I am grateful God blessed me with Matt, but also that he only gave me one like him!
4. her fun-loving attitude-she also likes to have fun but in a more physical way than Matt.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Last night

After Kristen's dental appointment, she and I went shopping. Yes, this is the beginning of the dreaded confirmation shopping. She also needed band concert clothes. She found white pin stripe pants after rejecting virtually every other pair of pants,skirts, etc in the store. She also found a pair of black pants for the concert. She rejected every black shirt in the store and tried a few white shirt combinations, but even most of those were rejected. I want function and cheapness. She wants Paris Hiltonesque style. Finally we left with only the two pairs of pants. What I really want to know is when does shopping with your teenage daughter become fun again? Anyone, anyone out there in internet land please answer this sanity saving question. This morning she comes down wearing a black shirt. GRRRR. Amazing what happens when you clean your room. Speaking of rooms, they both have until the weekend and then I clean with trashbags. My new motto for room cleaning will be show no mercy. I wonder how much it costs to rent a dumpster.

Mom, I mailed your mother's day card and it is the best card ever. I think you will agree.

Matt, Matt, Matt

Matt has this obsession with knives. He has always been fascinated by sword fights,etc. Today Randy find a like new letter-opener in his bed. Matt of course states he found this on the way home. Could not have happened. So of course they get into it over dinner. Matt accuses Randy of stealing his stuff(bad move Matt). Randy tells Matt he owes him 4.00 for his spaghetti dinner and Matt will not get behind the wheel until he loses the attitude, gets the room somewhat cleaned up and gets a job. Matt stormed out and slammed the door(headed to church to run the soundboard). Randy went after him and made him shut it nicely. When he comes home, he will be applying for a job at Kmart online. They are hiring. And to think I said I had a boring weekend. Thanks for making my life exciting in a not so good way, Matt.

Now onto the financial woes: The federal govt issued a check to us for over $17,000.00. Unfortunately it is wrong. I got my paperwork for repayment of the student loan. It says with interest I will owe over 45,000.00. I do not think that number is correct. Will have to double check on that. Payments start 8/16. I have to mail them to Wilkes barre.

I found out today that a second middle school in my district is cutting the media clerk position(assistant). This is a very disturbing trend. I do not feel I can take this lying down. I feel as though I need to address the school board. C, get ready to prepare B for this.

$1000.00 poorer

Last weekend was the TV and this week was a canoe. Quite dicey getting it home from Bass Pro shops. We also now have digital cable so we can take advantage of the High definition TV. Matt showed me how to use the remote to change channels. A few new channels(two new cartoon channels. Just what we need). It is a shame the weather was not nice enough to take out the canoe. BTW, we now have 1 bass in the freezer and 12 trout. I need to find a new recipe. Getting tired of the lemon/butter baked version. Kristen and Matt both worked on projects and Randy fished. My life is just a little boring today.