The early bird gets the soccer ball

My son is starting an indoor soccer league. The first game is Saturday at 8:00AM. Yawn. It will be pretty cool at 9:00AM when the morning isn't even half over, and soccer is already done for the day.

On Friday, my son will attend at least two Halloween parties, and possibly as many as four. Yikes. We definitely get our money's worth on costumes.

My son is going to a party with a friend and the friend's family Saturday afternoon before coming home to trick or treat with us. This leaves hubby and I with 3 hours of free date time. What to do, what to do??? I have no idea what movies are out right now, or maybe we'll head to the casino for a couple hours and play some blackjack.

I have a fleece jacket with zipper issues. I dropped it off to the tailor the other day, and she asked for a deposit. I hadn't brought my purse in with me, so I said I'd be right back. She said "Wait - Will you come back for your coat when it's done?" I said yes, and she said "Then never mind the deposit. Some people never come back for their items." Um...okay. I could think of easier ways to get rid of my coat, but I'm glad she trusts me. Ha! Of course I want it back - It's not cold enough for a heavy jacket, but too chilly at night for my other lightweight coat.

Playing possum

Regarding my dog's pants, they are a rectangular piece of material that is flannel on the outside and vinyl on the inside. They fasten closed with velcro. Not all that pant-like at all.

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I'm a city mouse. I've always lived in cities, though mostly small cities. Zoos don't usually have opossums, so I had never seen an opossum in the flesh, except...ahem...in the road.

So, I was very surprised when hubby mentioned seeing an opossum walking around the parking lot at his work recently.

Speaking of the dog (nice segue), since all he wants to do when he is inside is sleep, we've started giving him his dinner outside on the deck. Two nights ago, the leftovers were mistakenly left outside. In the morning I saw that the leftovers were no longer there. Our backyard is essentially a fortress, thanks to the 6 foot wood privacy fence and rocks that are along the perimeter of the fence. We constructed this when this dog and the other beagle that we had at the time were much more spry and escape artists. They never escaped.

So, we figured the missing leftovers must have gone to a squirrel, though that seemed like a lot of food for a squirrel to eat.

Last night I looked out to see if the dog had eaten yet, and imagine my surprise when I looked across the deck and saw an opossum staring back at me! I got hubby, who came just in time to see the opossum before he scurried under the grill.

A half hour of hubby cautiously trying to remove the grill cover and coax the opossum off the deck ensued. Eventually the opossum disappeared, and we brought in the dog's leftovers.

We enjoy the rabbits in the yard, as well as the squirrels. I haven't completely made up my mind about how I feel about the resident opossum. Although, so far, all he has done is eat leftovers. :-)

Now can we discuss my dog?

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's common cup post. I think I'm particularly germ conscious these days. :-) Mandy made a (noted as sarcastic) comment that we all attend different churches for a reason. True enough, but then some of us are in the unique church-sharing situation that our family is in. We started out with Hubby going to his Catholic service at 7:30AM and meeting us at the Methodist one at 9:00AM. Then we all got a little lazy and didn't want to get up quite THAT early, so he started going to a Catholic one at 9:00 while we were at the Methodist one. It started to feel very separate, and somehow we've begun mostly alternating, but always going together, which seems to work best of all. Especially because when we go to the Catholic service, we usually go on Saturday evenings, which is a slightly more modern service.

Anyway, on to our dog. He is a 15 year old beagle. In the last few months, he has really aged. This summer my son and I took him on mile and a half walks on our "special days off". Now he gets tired by the time we're at the corner. He seems mostly content, but very tired. Some days he spends most of his time sleeping. He's not very interested in his food. Some days he hardly touches it, then the next day he'll eat two big meals. Hubby added some bits of chicken cooked in water to make "chicken juice" to add to his food. The dog loved it. I bought some chicken broth yesterday to add to his food. He lapped that up, ate a bit of the food, and was done. This morning he drank the broth, and ate more of the food.

The dog stopped recognizing that he was housetrained (for "number one" only) a few years ago, so he wears these "pants" that have an adult incontinence pad in them. Two nights this month he was so tired that we couldn't convince him to wake up to have dinner and go outside, so we just changed his pad.

When he is awake, he is happy. Eager to take a walk, though he doesn't make it far, and eager to follow my son around. Mostly, though, he sleeps. As long as he's still eating and still seems content, we will let him sleep as often as he wants.

We've let our son know that it will probably be time for the dog to go to heaven soon, and he understands, but it's still going to be very hard for everyone when that time comes.

Common cup

Flu is still going wild around here. Some schools are still closed today, Sunday school was canceled at the Methodist Church our family attends. Saturday evening we attended a service at the Catholic church our family also sometimes attends (but we choose one service per week, more or less alternating).

I do not partake in Catholic communion, as I am not Catholic. I will not get into my thoughts on the lack of open communion again. But, I must say, I have never understood the common cup thing. I would not ask 100 strangers if I can have a sip of their drink, even if I wiped the rim before and after. Churches I have attended have always used intinction (dipping the bread in the wine/juice) or had the little individual cups.

In this time of flu outbreak (at least locally), I really don't understand the common cup. When we got to church, I asked hubby if he was planning to drink from the cup. He looked at me as though I were crazy, and said yes. At communion, I noticed maybe one out of every dozen, at most, actually drank from it. Most just had the bread. Hubby did drink from it, but later said he would think about it next time, if the flu is still running wild.

I know at least a few Catholics read this, so what are your thought about the common cup? Particularly during a time of widespread illness?

The flu flew by

But thankfully not by us. Schools around here have been closing like wild due to large numbers of people out with the flu. Thankfully, our family is healthy and our school has not closed as of yet. My son and I had our flu shots (still undecided about getting H1N1 vaccine). Hubby waited too long, and now they're hard to find.

The antibacterial hand gel dispensers are popping up everywhere. They are mounted on the walls at school, on the counter at the bank and restaurants. Everywhere! I have been using my Avon Naturals Antibacterial Hand Gel (vanilla scented! so much better than the regular stuff! shameless plug - only 99 cents - free shipping!). If I thought I was a compulsive hand washer before, you should see me now.

With MS, I am considered to have a "weakened immune system". For that reason, I don't get Flu Mist; I get the shot. What's one more shot anyway, ha! But the funny thing is, for someone with a suppoesd weakened immune system, I (thankfully) seem to get sick less than most people I know.

Hope the flu stays out of your home!

In which I acknowledge that I will never be a cool kid

I just left a comment on a post that had nearly 70 comments. 70! I used to consistently get comments in the double digits, but looking back, my last double digit post was a giveaway post a couple weeks ago. That makes me feel...Um, generous?

Either I have become less interesting with time, people are more busy, doing less blog reading... Oh, I get how comments work. If you see something that interests you, you'll comment. If you don't, you won't. The lesson learned here is obviously MORE GIVEAWAYS!.

Ahem.

No giveaway today. Just me.

I can't stand when people lick their finger before turning a page. It drives me nuts. Yes, pages stick sometimes. Give it a couple tries, and you'll get it. If not, they do make a little page turning cream you can use. Please don't use your spit. Especially in this season of hand sanitizer on every counter or mounted on every wall.

We picked a peck of apples a couple weeks ago. Last night I made apple bread. It is identical to zucchini bread, except switch zucchini for apple. It's tasty...Tastes more like spice bread, though. No trace of apple flavor. Last week I made a breadmaker apple bread...Also no trace of apple by the time it was done. I make apples disappear in bread.

Burgh baby is in a contest in which the prize is $1,000. She plans to spend that $1,000 at Toys R Us for presents for needy kids. Can you imagine how many children would just feel so incredibly blessed to be on the receiving end of that? Please go vote for her here. You can even vote more than once, so if you feel inclined, click away!

Painted whiskers

It's Mm week in kindergarten, and to commemorate that, the teacher painted a black nose and whiskers on each child to make each one a mouse. I'm not sure what type of paint she used, but the whiskers would only wash off of my son about halfway before bed, though the nose washed off well. When he woke up this morning, the whiskers were gone, so I can only assume that his colorful Transformers pillowcase has unseen whisker paint on it.

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I had a dream two nights ago that involved seeing a friend who lives in Minnesota who I have not seen in over 5 years and who I only have email contact with about once a year. In the dream we were visiting her and she was renewing her vows with her husband and had an interesting contraption in her house that was a combination dishwasher and toaster. Because that wasn't weird enough, I emailed her yesterday and told her about it (and included the random update information that gets included in annual emails). She replied this morning. Apparently my mind reminded me to keep in touch with her via dishwasher/toaster combo.

Nags don't get props for their baked goods

I think I've mentioned on here hubby's world class ability to hold a grudge. Yesterday morning I may or may not have complained a few too many times about something that hubby did that could have legitimately warranted a single complaint. I exceeded that number by about three. Hubby became annoyed. An otherwise lovely day with hubby and our son came after that incident, but hubby remained subtly, if not passive-aggressively, annoyed (and still is this morning - overkill, anyone?).

Yesterday I peeled and sliced apples, and after our son went to bed, baked an apple crisp. I offered hubby a dish of it warm, with vanilla ice cream on top. He ate it without comment. If I were one to hold grudges, I would be upset about that and blogging about it today (heh). Even when you're mad at someone, if you're going to choose to enjoy baked goods that they've prepared, a complimentary comment is in order. I had a dish of it myself, and it was delicious!

Actually, I guess I've just complimented myself. Okay, I'm over it.

Winter boots and a giveaway winner

Fun stuff first - Per random.org, the winner of my Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters giveaway is comment 18, Julie. Congratulations!

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When it comes to footwear for our son, we splurge. I have no problem buying him the $4 sweatpants at Target, but for shoes, we want something of great quality from a reputable company. Seriously, his shoes cost about the same as a pair of mine and a pair of hubby's combined (though hubby and I get pretty inexpensive shoes). We always buy his shoes at this great local store that specializes in Stride Rite shoes and offers a fit guarantee. If they are outgrown in the first month, they're replaced for free, in two months, you get a certain percentage off a new pair, in 3 months, you get 20% off a new pair. We've only used this guarantee once, and it's less likely that we'll use it in the future since his feet aren't growing as quickly as they were when he was younger, but it's a great guarantee just the same.

His winter boots are almost identical every year. The boy's boots offered are always navy blue or black. Needless to say, he has never gotten particularly excited about his winter boots. This year they had a pair that has a dinosaur print on them, with several types of dinosaurs on them, including his favorite, a stegosaurus. Wouldn't you know, it wasn't offered in his size. Since he liked them so much, I decided to track them down on the internet, because you can find anything there, right?

Yeah. Anything but those dinosaur boots, apparently. The only store that had them online was out of them in his size. I can't even find a link for the company, which is out of Canada.

I called our shoe store and asked them to special order them. They said that they special orders are such that you never know if they will actually get them until their shipment arrives. They suggested that I purchase a different pair, and have them hold onto them until their shipment arrives to make sure they wouldn't run out of the other style in his size.

So, I purchased a pair of boots, asked them to hold them, and they placed the order.

Yesterday afternoon they called me and said they didn't know if the boots would come or not yet, as the supplier said they were "in very low quantities". But, they had someone who wanted to buy the boots we had on hold, as they were the last in that size, and would that be okay?

Um...No? They're telling me the boots we special ordered might not come, but they want to give away the ones we paid for? The math is a little complicated, but I believe that leaves us potentially bootless.

I hope he gets his dinosaur boots, and I hope the amount he likes them is proportional to the effort put into tracking them down. :-)

Phil 'er up

I'm all for catchy campaign slogans, but one for a local candidate has me shaking my head. The man's name is Phil, and there are yard signs peppering the local neighborhoods that proudly suggest that we "Phil the V oid".

Okay, there are two ways to look at this, obviously. The one that I'm sure they have in mind is: "Something's missing in our community! There's a void! Only Phil can fill that void. Hey...Fill...Phil...Phil the V oid! That's awesome! Put it on 500 signs!"

The second interpretation, and one that would have prevented me from ever printing such signs in the first place is this: "Phil...Dude's kind of goofy. Lights are on but no one's home if you know what I'm sayin'. Heh...Phil the v oid. Hey, did you hear he's running for office? Print some signs!"

I don't know Phil. One thing I can say I know, just based on those signs, is that he certainly has a sense of humor. I'm sure he's intelligent and well spoken and my above "lights are on no one home" comments are in no way a reflection on him...Just making an example of two ways something can be interpreted. I'm sure he would do a great job if elected and I'll have to find out a little more about him before I decide how I'm voting.

But tell me this...If your name were Phil, and someone suggested that slogan, would you use it?

The key to successfully postponing bedtime

Yesterday we made our annual trip to the apple orchard/pumpkin patch place that has many activities for kids. We have brought our son there every year since he was born. The first year, when he was 4 months old, I remember having to stop pushing the stroller around the corn maze so we could give him a bottle.

Between daycare, school, soccer and church, my son knows a lot of people. The odds of not running into people we know at a place like that are pretty slim.

Yesterday we saw: A member of his soccer team, someone who used to be in his class at daycare, someone who is currently in his class at daycare, his soccer coach and his son, a first grade teacher from his elementary school who we seem to see everywhere we go, and a former neighbor.

We picked a peck of apples. We go through at least a 3 pound bag of apples a week just eating them. I'm hoping to make some pie, apple crisp and/or apple dumplings.

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Today is my day to volunteer at my son's school. Nothing to boost the old ego like this comment: "I see you're dressed up because you're helping at my school today." :-) I'm not dressing any differently than any other work day, but a sweet compliment just the same.

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My son has a variety of ways to postpone bedtime. He does not employ them on a regular basis, but he will use them as needed when he is not interested in sleep. These methods include calling me in after bedtime for the following reasons:

Asking for a snack. He has a snack with his bedtime story, and then he brushes his teeth, after which there is a strict "No snack after teeth are brushed" rule. This method never succeeds.

Telling me about something that happened at school that he forgot to mention earlier

Telling me what he would like for breakfast

Telling me that he had fun today

...and the list goes on.

Last night he discovered a method that is hard for me to resist. He was looking at a framed print in the hallway, and called me over to ask what the caption said. He has been very interested in reading lately, and when he sees a word he doesn't know, he has great interest in learning it. I also have great interest in him learning new words, so it's hard to resist when he finds one he wants to know, even when he should be headed to bed. Hopefully he won't realize what great success this method has, or we may find ourselves up all night reading the dictionary. :-)

I don't think she knows how many corndogs he eats

I've mentioned my son's very close friend, who is the girl that he and two of his friends have all at one point said they are going to marry.

Her mom doesn't know how exactly she became the "girl to marry", but she is frequently the only girl invited to the boys' birthday parties. She's not a tomboy by any means - She wears dresses almost daily and is all about princesses.

The most recent boy to want to marry this girl brings his lunch to school everyday. Every day it is a corn dog. Apparently the class microwave malfunctioned this week while the teacher was heating the boy's corndog, and the corn dog "blew up". The microwave no longer works, so I think everyone is lucky that it didn't blow up.

Anyway, the girl no longer goes to my son's daycare, but we see her outside of school. My son was excited to tell her the story of the corndog. The story of his plans to tell her about the corndog was my favorite part:

"I don't know why boy thinks girl is going to marry him. I'm going to tell girl about boy's corndog blowing up. I don't think she knows how many corndogs he eats. But girl was at another boy's party, and she ate her whole corndog...So maybe she likes corndogs, too."

I don't know why, but I think my new favorite phrase ever is "I don't think she knows how many corndogs he eats." :-)

I always considered myself more of a couchperson

On the first day of school, the efficient kindergarten teacher hnad sign up sheets for parent helpers for every party for the whole school year. My son eagerly suggested that I sign up to help with the Halloween party, so I did.

This week the teacher sent me a note asking if I would be the chairperson for the party. Kindergarten parties have chairpeople? Who knew? I read the note out loud and explained what a chairperson was to my son, and he eagerly said "Do it!"

Not one to disappoint my son, I am now the chairperson of the Halloween party. Apparently I will be getting a list of all the other parents who signed up, and I will be pestering them to help with supplies and activity planning.

I can't imagine how I got picked for that honor...I wasn't even the first person on the party sign up sheet. Maybe she figured that since I have no problem pestering her with various questions that I would have no idea perstering the other parents as well...Or that at the very least, it would keep me out of her hair for a while.

Where's my chair?

GIVEAWAY: Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters

There are two items that we eat a lot of at our house: Nuts and granola bars. The nuts are mostly my husband, as he eats a ridiculous amount of peanut on a regular basis. My husband, son and I each eat a granola bar almost daily. So, when I was given the opportunity to receive and review Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters from MyBlogSpark and Nature Valley, I was thrilled. I was even more thrilled when I tasted them.

Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters are a bite size blend of 100% natural ingredients that include select roasted nuts, whole grain oats and a touch of honey - a wholesome and delicious pick-me-up any time of the day. If you love nuts, you´ll enjoy this flavorful little snack featuring the perfect combination of sweet & salty flavors paired with a crunchy texture that you can see and taste. And with the first unique cluster-shaped granola packaged in a handy re-sealable pouch, it´s perfect for sharing on the trails or in your living room!

New Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters come in four easy-to-crave flavors: Nut Lovers, Roasted Almond, Roasted Cashew and Honey Roasted Peanut.

They are crunchy and sweet - but not too sweet. The only negative? They're a little easy to get carried away eating. Hubby and I sat with the bag of Roasted Cashew while watching a movie...and let's just say there wasn't much left in the bag by the time we stopped eating it. :-)

The Honey Roasted Peanut is my favorite, but they're just all so delicious!

Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters are a great grab and go snack, and would be a great compact trail mix type item to take on a nice fall hike. :-)

Guess what? You could win the same great Nature Valley Granola Nut Cluster prize pack that I received which includes a bag of each of the four varieties of Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters, a sling backpack, stainless steel water bottle, flashlight and binoculars.

To enter this giveaway, tell me your favorite thing about nature in the fall.

For a bonus entry, you can follow me on Twitter, tweet about this giveaway and leave me another comment telling me that you tweeted about it.

The contest will run until Friday, October 16th at 8:00AM EST. I will randomly choose a winner and notify that person. They will have 48 hours to respond, or another winner will be chosen. US entries only.

Good luck!

Preference

Since my son was invited to a "kids only playdate" with this boy, which he did not go to, he has gone to several birthday parties alone, including one at that boy's house. None of the invitations to any of the parties said "kids only". Parents used, as they should, their discretion in deciding whether or not to drop off their kids. At most events, some kids are dropped off, and some aren't.

This morning my son got a Halloween party invitation from this same child. On the invitation was a phrase I had never seen on an invitation before: "Dropoffs preferred". As I said, over the last year, my son and most of his friends have been dropped off at several parties - But always at the parents' discretion, not at the hosts suggestion.

The lack of supervision at that house continues to be an issue for us. At the birthday party, there were grandparents and aunts from out of town to help out.

Another issue is that in conjunction with the lack of supervision, I'm not really excited about seeing his costume (which is mostly white) get fruit punch and pizza and whatever else the kids are running around with on it before Halloween even comes. Also, most of the kids costumes require a little help getting on/taking off, and if anyone needs to use the restroom, I'm not really interested in the mom or her husband helping my son with that.

So, looks like we've got a couple choices. He goes, gets "dropped off", as the hosts so courteously suggested, and his costume possibly gets messed up before we make it to Halloween and who knows what goes on at that house.

He goes, and I stay, in violation of the hosts' preference.

He doesn't go, and we find something even more fun to do.

Lest you think I'm some sort of Halloween scrooge, my son generally gets several opportunities to wear his costume: School, a Halloween event at the zoo, a Halloween event at the mall, a Halloween party at my neighbor's house and Halloween itself.

Random and vague does not a blog post make

I am stressing over a decision that I may or may not even have to make.

I may have inadvertantly caused a rumor about myself to begin blossoming at work. Luckily it is not the rumor I thought I may have caused to begin.

The grocery store had a special on day old muffins, so I bought one. Who glazes a banana nut muffin?

Our dog had an accident during the night which my husband discovered by stepping on it when he got up to turn off the alarm this morning. It takes a special sort of man to not even say anything negative (out loud) upon doing this, and during the subsequent clean up, and to still be cheerful first thing in the morning. The dog, in turn, decided to sleep in.

We went to eat dinner with some friends at their house last night. We brought macaroni salad and melon. My son disliked the look of the macaroni salad so much that he bargained eating extra melon to avoid eating a single noodle. Little did he know, that was a good trade for everyone. Melon is better for him. Booyah.

Trace it

Volunteering at my son's kindergarten was fun. I got to read a book to the class, and the remainder of my time was spent tracing about 125 shapes for an upcoming project. The best part was just being in the class, and seeing what they do, and watching my son interact with this mostly new group of kids.



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My son's school has begun its first, and supposedly only, fundraiser of the year. They aren't selling anything - They're doing a walkathon on the playground for donations. He is excited. He has told me if he raises $50, he gets a rubber band. (?) I guess if he doesn't raise $50, we can still give him a rubber band. I get the feeling they're talking about something else, but my son is actually thrilled about the prospect of a plain old rubber band. Easy to please, my son.



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In the "really cryptic" category, can you think of a time when you thought you wanted something to happen, then when it happened, you realized you maybe didn't want it to happen so much after all and were not in the least looking forward to the event? Sorry I can't get more into detail right now, but lest anyone get any very negative impressions, I can tell you that it does not, in any way, have to do with additions of any new members to our family, human or otherwise. :-)