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Marilyn DeBry is a master mother and crafter. Check out her quilling. Yes, quilling. It's amazing!

Mothering 101

Tonight as I talked with my husband, I was expressing my concern for a friend who just had her third baby.

I asked LeGrand, "What can I do to help her transition?" I really want to try and alleviate some of her adjustment pain.

"Should I call the Relief Society and set up meals and babysitting?" LeGrand with his infinite wisdom says, "Yeah, you could do that, but why prolong the inevitable nervous breakdown."

And, here is the telling rest of the paragraph. I hate to nark on myself here, but it is just too funny not to share. Here is what came straight from my hubby's mouth.

LG: "Alice, she has to figure it out on her own. She'll have the nervous breakdown, just like you did, and she'll then figure stuff out on her own."

Me: "Stuff, like what?"

LG: "Like, she'll quit bathing her kids every day, and she'll get a hobby, and she'll let them sit in front of the TV, wash her dishes once a week, and get behind on her laundry."

With LG's raving review of my mothering skills, don't you think I should call my friend right now and impart all my knowledge? And, also, don't ya'll think I deserve a really GREAT BIG Mother's Day gift for learning every Motherhood survival technique known to womankind?

Soccer Skills

After posting about Sophia's eight goals, I have been feeling guilty for not showing Bella out on the field. To tell the truth, I had picked out some pictures the other night, but I just got sick of waiting on upload time.

Here are a few of my fav's of Bella. I guess I will have to get to Abigail later.

While Abigail plays offense and defense, Sophia is our offensive player. But, Bella , well she is most definitely our defensive player. We have been bragging on her abilities to "get that ball out of there" for the past couple of weeks. She never runs as fast as she does when she is trying to beat the opponent to the net.

At the last game, LG and I laughed so hard when we realized Bella's motivation for getting to the net. I know she likes to stop the goals, but we figured out that she really loves to fish the ball out and hand it to the ref. Really we think that she only runs THAT hard to put herself to good use. She is such a good helper. She is such a hard worker. She loves to be useful. She is so much like her mom it is pathetic. Should we start her in therapy now or later?

So much to celebrate

We have been really watching our eat out budget lately. I have to say that I have been impressed with my ability to live by a shoe string budget. LG is a budget nazi!!

So, as many of you know, we are taking on this great new adventure in our lives. LG is starting his own law practice. I guess the shoe string budget will stay in place for a while. I finally convinced LG to quit working as a clerk and start helping me find a commercial location for lease.

This morning, after getting the kids off to school, we were waiting for Bella to get up (she likes to sleep like her mom) and for Brayden to get up from his nap. We snuck back to bed for a good nap. (really, just a nap) We laid there and talked about all the life decisions that seem to be put on the back burner repeatedly.

I, at one point, wanted to give LG the chance to truly celebrate his first day as a self-employed man. I said, "So, it's your first day not working for the man, you're finally free, what do you want to do?" I thought he may say, "let's take those two minutes." (if you know what I mean)

I guess that extra hour of sleep and his skipped breakfast had gotten to his head and stomach. Without one second for a thought, he replied, "Let's celebrate Siesta de Mayo and go to Taco Bell for lunch." I don't think we will have any problem with the man's newly acquired "white collar" career going to his head, will we?

And, celebrate, we did. We ate out for a whoppin' ten bucks today. Where? Taco Bell of course. We couldn't let Siesta de Mayo go by unnoticed, could we?

P.S. I just realized that LG was using the wrong Spanish word for six....Six is not siesta (which means nap and may fit in the story in a round about way since we were lying in bed) but six is seis. LG's bad Spanish is even funnier if you've read this previous post keeping in mind that LG is a TN Native. And I am laughing even harder that it took me a whole 12 hours, writing out a blog post, and reading someone's comment about "seis de mayo" to realize what LG really meant this morning when he misused siesta in place of seis.

Non-twirly coach

LG expressed the sentiment today that he really misses coaching the girls in soccer. We suckered Clint into the coaching gig this season. Because our lives have been so hectic, we thought we deserved a little break. Clint was so gracious to embrace his new responsibility and he has been a great coach.

But, he is a non-twirly coach...in fact, he is an anti-twirly coach. What is a non-twirly coach, you ask? It's the kind of coach that picks his team players up one by one and twirls them around in the air every time a player scores.

Now any of you that are "real" athletes know how ridiculous this is. Clint is an "athlete". What does he do when the girls score? What any real athletic coach should do. And, look, how happy the girls are to join in the ritual. Forget this twirly thing!!! We all could live a lot happier with a good old fashioned Hi-five from time to time.

See, I do pay attention

Let's just say I get a little excited when watching my girls play soccer.

Let's just say I get a LITTLE excited and leave it at that.

LG accused me today of only watching Abigail's team and ignoring Sophia and Bella's.

He seems to think that the competition with the little ones

just isn't fierce enough for me.

LG accused me wrongly!

I have pictures to prove it.

Here's one goal:

Here's two:

Here's three:

And, if I showed any more, that would just be bragging!

P.S. "LG, you should be glad that I don't get overly excited for both age groups.

I am already trying to round up some valium for Abigail's future games."

What could possibly...

...tear such a devoted mother from watching two (yeah, count it, two at the same time) of her daughter's play in soccer game?

Pick your favorite.

You'd think they'd be glad to have a break from mom's camera in their face?

But, even though they complain about my camera and my blogging,

I am convinced that they really do love it! (secretly, of course)

But just in case they are serious with their detest,

I choose to take pictures of things that are a lot less interesting.

It's a bird, it's a plane..

...it's the reason that I prefer to take pictures and not have them taken.

Can you believe that this body really walks 2-3 miles 4 times a week?

Oh, and isn't it funny how easily a blogger can get distracted at a soccer game.

Wow, Sophia did score about 8 times this game, but surely she didn't kick the ball that high!

What softball taught me...

I have played softball almost my whole life...I would like to start playing on a rec. league, especially after reading this story. Thanks to my former coach and brother Adam for the e-mail forward.