Land of the over-achieving moms

All I can say is that some moms make me feel inadequate. Our preschool is bad enough in the parking lot - the land of the SUV - but these moms really go all out for the parties.

The candy corn cake was a big hit.

We have the marshmallow witches.

And, the vampire bat cookies.

She's not Fergie, but she makes a cute Black-eyed P.

Little Bit's best friend was hilarious. She would strike a pose whenever anyone flashed a camera in her direction. Her dad taught her that move. Bad idea, dad.

These kids were cracking me up.

They are too cute. My little girl has some narrow shoulders. Yikes.

They are too cute.

She cracks me up with that camera smile. We're going to have fun tonight.

Karate Kid

On Saturday, Pickle had his fifth karate tournament. Here he is waiting his turn to spar. The kid to the right of him, Rabeed, was his sparring partner for the karate match.

My son is such a goober. Here he is doing the Karate Kid move.
And, below, he is freaking out his opponent.

Then, the other kid got the first lick on him. But, he came back. They were tied 2-2 when Pickle got a good head strike to win the match. He has now won four out of five tournaments he's competed in.

The trophies were really cool this year, too, with a little spinning medallion in there.
We made a giant investment into karate buying him the full sparring gear. I think it will help his confidence when he is sparring in class. He had to spar purple belts in class, but I think it made him tougher. Only thing is these kids fight hard and he kept getting popped in the face. He wasn't digging that (in class, they don't have the face shield on the head gear, but with his own set, he'll have the face shield.) So, it is all good. He was pretty proud of himself. Karate has been good for his confidence.

Fall Festivals

The kids have enjoyed some spooky events starting with the Trunk or Treat at Texas Woman's University on Thursday. I took Pickle and Little Bit. It was great. The student organizations actually pulled their cars up and did a "trunk" or treat.

My son macking on the chicks, as usual.

And both kids snagging candy.

I just thought Cruella and the puppies were cute.

Then, I took Hot Rod and Stinkerbelle to a fall festival at a local church Sunday night.

Batman and Cinderella were having a blast. Little Bit's other costume was in the laundry, so we went with the princess gear.

We ran into one of Stinkerbelle's friends, who was dressed as a Doodle Bop. I don't know that show. From what her mom said, I'm lucky.

This one inflatable climbing house looked like a torture device to me. The kids had to shove themselves through these openings. Looked like the big blue bounce house was giving birth to me.

This boy is a danger boy.

They were having such a good time together.

If you can see through the curls, the look on Little Bit's face is a riot.

We have a "get together" at Hot Rod's school on Halloween. We can't call it a party. *rolling my eyes* Not sure what the deal is, but it will be fun. The kids are excited about trick or treating. I just have to figure out where I'm going to hide their candy.

Greetings and salutations

I can't say those three words without thinking of Happy Harry Hard-On from that Christian Slater movie "Pump Up the Volume" where he played the rogue high school radio DJ. Anyway, other than being as "horny as a 10-peckered owl," I'm stumped by how to refer to a source for a story I'm writing.

When you call to address someone, how do you refer to someone to him when he is listed as something like:

M. Howard Pierce

I mean, the easy way is to simply call him Mr. Pierce. But, do you say "Hi, M. Howard. I'm blah blah blah" or do you call him Howard? or M?

Mmmm, good

*chewing* WORDS. WORDS. WORDS. *chewing*

Yummy. Yes, I'm eating my words.

Tony Romo fired up the Cowboys and they got the job done. Ok, there, I said it. I was wrong.

You have learned much, young one

A long time ago in a suburb far, far away...

It is a dark time for the Rebellion. Although the trash has been destroyed, trash dumpsters remained at the curb, candy wrappers, meat containers and empty juiceboxes were driven from their surburan home with Trinity Waste pursuing them across the galaxy. Evading the dreaded trash dumpster, a group of freedom fighters led by Luke Skywalker has established a new secret base on the remote ice world of Minnesota. The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of the dump ...

The Sith Lord dispatches his secret weapon - the suburban household trash container.

There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you.

SPF: Hold them, Squeeze them, love them!!

It is that time for Kristine at Random and Odd to give us the weekly Stuff Portrait Friday assignment. Since it’s National Breast Cancer awareness month and Kristine has done nothing but fondle her own, she figured she should do something to honor the girls. YET, in a differen’t way…of course.

So, our SPF assignment:
1. Your Pot Holders (Oven Mits)
2. Your Pumpkins (or Melons)
3. Something Pink

Ok, I use the Christmas pot-holders my mother has bought for me over the years. I like my penguin ones the best.

I keep them in an old collander on the counter nestled between the toaster, my cookbooks and recipes that I clip out of magazines and the dish drainer. You'll love the Gatorade bottle we re-use with Kool-Aid.

My Pumpkins (or melons)

Hot Rod has claimed dibs on the pirate, Stinkerbelle has the witch and Pickle is the wizard. I just really like dressing these guys up. We may carve them a day or two before Halloween.

My real-life melons, which I squeeze at least once a month for a breast self-exam. I'm fond of my girls and don't want to see 'em disappear. And, no, that is not a real tattoo. I'm too big of a chicken for a real one. It's a temporary tattoo.

Finally, something pink.

I call this windblown girl in pink.

Some of the flowers in my aunt-in-law's garden in Becker, Minn.

And me (photo by Pickle). I was a walking bulletin board for Breast Cancer Awareness Month Thursday night.

So, did you play?

Soccer Saturdays

Saturdays for us mean sports, whether it is baseball, soccer or karate or whatever. We wrapped up baseball last Saturday. Now, we just have our older soccer team. Hot Rod will start back with soccer in a few weeks.

These are the boys during halftime. I just love the varied expressions while they're waiting for Coach to talk to them.

Here, Coach is telling them about the things they did right and wrong.

Hot Rod likes to get in on the action.

I can't remember what he was telling them here. But, they're actually listening. Wild, huh? We won this game 3-0.

Gees, I make cute kids. Is she adorable or what?

Mmm, orange slice.

Yuck!

It was a blustery day in the 100 acre soccer park.

The kid in red played for us for several years before going select. He came back to watch us play. Pickle misses soccer occasionally, but the moments are fleeting and brief.

He's not a bad player, though.

Here is my evidence for Child Protective Services. I actually have a very nice pic of Pickle and Uzz, but this one was funnier.

The way we were

I went to my high school homecoming Friday night. I got to see some friends I haven't seen in forever. I got to see some people I haven't missed, too. ;) I also found out a classmate died a few years ago. I felt like an ass. I asked her little sister how she was doing. She gave me a blank look and said "she's dead." Gees. Open mouth, insert foot.

I was amazed at the hoochie attire as well as how despite the fashions being a little different (not a lot, mind you, as many girls were wearing retro styles from the 80s) the kids are pretty much the same. There were the beautiful girls, the jocks, the dorks, the alternative crowd, etc. It was fun. And, just like in high school, my group of friends was sitting at the very top of the bleachers talking and paying very little attention to the game. We won like 35 to 0, I think.

There are the girls from my childhood and graduation class. I'm sitting by KR, who is a friggin GRANDMA and she's still hot. Bitch. That is her hubby next to her. In the front row are KD, who I think was a year ahead of me, and CM, who I started to force feed a sandwich. Bitch got prettier after she graduated. It just isn't right. KR and CM played softball with me as a little girl, so I've known them pretty much since we were nobby-kneed little girls. They both blossomed into beautiful women.

Unfortunately, I didn't get enough time hanging out with them before I moved on to the next crowd.

Two of my best friends. LD (on the left) is one of those friends whom I don't talk to all that often, but we'd walk through fire for each other. TS, of course, on the right, is my best friend in the world. The three of us have known each other since we were fetuses. My mom coached their moms in basketball. ;)

Before homecoming, I went to the home of my skinny mini friend. I need to feed her more. I have lost 19 pounds now since July. Too many more left to go, but I'll get there. I helped her get the mum on her daughter before the game. I love the look she's giving her mom while trying to get it pinned on.

Then mom and her girls.

She doesn't look old enough to have daughters this old. The eldest is almost 16 and the younger one is 13.

Oh, and these are the girls who graduated a year behind me. My high school boyfriend was in their graduating class. First thing they had to tell me when they saw me was that RR had gotten divorced and now lives in McKinney. I guess they were dying to tell me that. Everyone (including my parents) thought he and I were going to get married. In fact, they were shocked when I left to go to school at Baylor. No one thought I'd do it. Guess I showed them, huh?

Anyway. It was fun. Lots of memories. One of my best friends from high school is now the high school principal, which was weird to me. Found out my cousin was robbed at gunpoint at the pizza place she manages. She didn't tell me. Bad guy then stole her car and set it on fire. Lovely, huh? Saw the children of people I knew and that made me feel really old. My friends and I went to our old stomping grounds and had some drinks and stayed till we closed the place down. It was good. I sort of miss the old school. It will be 20 years next May since I left that place. Damn, I'm old.

UPDATE: My yankee-born sister-in-law posed a good question to me tonight after reading my blog. She emailed: I wanted to know what those big ribbon/flower looking things your friend's daughters were wearing are all about. Is that some southern thing?
*Taking a deep breath*
Getting a mum for your date is a BIG tradition down here. The bigger and tackier, the more street creds you get. Seriously. If your boyfriend only gets you a single mum (with one flower) he only sort of likes you, but if you get a double, triple or heart-shaped mum, you're loved. ;) My funniest mum memory was when I was in the 9th grade. My boyfriend just moved here from Michigan and he asked me to homecoming. I asked him if he wanted me to help him pick out a mum and he looked at me like I had bugs crawling out of my eyes. I had to explain what a mum was and how I had to have one or I would be the laughingstock of the school to have a date, yet had no mum. So, that is what the flower ribbon thingees are.

Vanilla or Rocky Road?

For you vanilla folks, fetishism may not be your thing. I still find it all very fascinating. I just want to go and be a voyeur. Hmm *scratching chin* maybe I'm Banana Nut? ;) I'm still looking for my first furry convention to attend.

It figures

Ben Folds is coming to Fort Worth for concert next week. Why does he have to be performing on Halloween?

Can't you see/hear it now? Hey kids, mom won't be taking you trick-or-treating this year because I'm going to see Ben Folds. You don't mind now, do you?

Ha. I can hear the wailing now.

My Golden Glove

In honor of the World Series, I thought a baseball hunk was in order and who better than one of my all-time favorite players: Jim Edmonds. He had already left Midland by the time I moved there, but his legacy lived on. We came the year after Tim Salmon, JT Snow and Jim Edmonds were in Midland. Bummer.

Jim's catch on my honey's birthday in 1997 in Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City (where we saw the Twins play this summer) is considered one of the best EVER. Top of the fifth inning, two men on, tie score. David Howard at the plate. Edmonds, in center field for Anaheim, was playing shallow. Howard lined a shot to straightaway center. Edmonds turned his back and took off running, then dove, fully extending his body horizontal to the ground, and caught the ball over his shoulder. He landed on the warning track, a few feet from the wall. This isn't the catch below, but another great one he made another time. He has many of them.

He has mad skills in the field. He has won the NL Golden Glove every year since 2000. He won it two years for the Angels in the AL.

He isn't too shabby with a bat either.

He makes scruffy look good.

Enjoy ladies.