A Concert & a Talent Show

In the last week we've had a concert and then a talent show. I am unbelievably proud that my boy had the courage to dance on a stage in front of 200 people at the talent show. That takes some guts.

Memorial Weekend 2014

What a fantastic weekend. The weather was sunny and warm, we did lots of fun stuff and we got some things crossed off the "to do" list. The downside was that Leanne wasn't here to share this and I got a stinky head cold. But we will be booking a flight for Leanne asap so that's something to look forward to.

Here's our weekend in pictures...

Friday Night: A curry and The Book of Mormon play with the Brits

The Book of Mormon play was fantastic - very funny, but the meal at India Oven was crap. Craig makes a much better curry and they made us wait 1 1/2  hrs for our food, making us seriously late for the play.  If you get a chance, go and see this play, but be warned there's lots of swearing and risqué stuff and it is a satire about the Mormon religion so if that's not your thing don't go. Anyway, here's the trailer for the play:

On Saturday  we worked hard in the garden for several hours then I took Jack to his breakdance lesson. And wonders never cease - Daniel went too! Jack encouraged him, jollied him along and made him go. It was great.

Saturday night we went to a Columbus Crew game with VIP parking and fantastic game tickets from our neighbours (we have the best neighbours in the world). They won 2-0!  and I saw a girlfriend from Hartlepool that I haven't seen in 10 years.

Saturday: Columbus Crew game. They won!

Sunday AM:  Three hours gardening at Jack's school. Getting it ready for graduation parties this week. It was HOT (>80 and humid and just horrid)

Sunday PM: Swim time! The pool opened - ahhhhhh

Don't be fooled by how great that looks. The water was frigid. So cold we all went blue. But we persevered of course because we are English  and it must be done.

Sunday night a friend came over for a BBQ and I got sick. I have a head cold but thought it might be allergies so took some medicine but  then I was floored. I have never left a guest before but had to say, at 8pm, "I'm really sorry but I feel ill and have to lie down".  So I left . Feeling horribly guilty ever since.

Monday AM: Jack's Scout Troop participated in the Memorial Day parade

Sunday PM; Summer buzz cuts

Sunday later: Pool again then at 4pm I did laundry and housework for HOURS, until 10.30 pm. Housework is the bane of my life. 

Artstravanganza!

The art show at Jack's school was lovely. Each class put on a performance outside, so we sat in the sunshine and watched Jack and his classmates sing songs like "I'd like to teach the world to sing". The kids put their arms around each other when they sang and I got a big lump in my throat. I love everything about his school: his friends, their parents, the teachers and staff. We're so lucky.

Jack's space shuttle

Milestone: first time climbing a tree!

The 3 Musketeers

There's a Car in my Garden

An elderly neighbour crashed into our house today. It happened when we were both at work but Linda and our neighbors Pam and Dave dealt with it, then Craig came home immediately and saw to everything.

My neighbor is 87 and has no business driving. I've drawn a little diagram on Google Maps to show what he did. He got in his car and reversed and then instead of putting his foot on the brake he hit the gas. HARD. He floored that car, in reverse, as fast as it would go across my other neighbour's yard, clipping the corner of their house, then drove across their front lawn and crossed the road. He then came up into our yard, cut through flower beds and lawn, mounted the front steps, destroying the railings, and landed in front of the chimney. All the while still in reverse.

What scares me? That white building is my kid's elementary school. 

My immediate reaction when Craig called me was whether Danny and Linda were okay at home (yes, but scared to death) and then for them, my neighbours Tom & Marge, who I've known for 9 years and they are lovely people. I don't care about the house really - it's all things that can be mended.

But then I got to thinking about what would have happened if Tom had done this at 3.30 pm and not 1 pm. At 3.30pm kids leave the elementary school at the door of that parking lot next to my house. Dozens of children, including my son, would have been in his way. He could have killed them.

As it happened he nearly killed the mailman and would have hurt or maybe killed Linda as she was taking a package from the mailman on the front steps, just seconds before he crashed.

Anyway, I'm glad that everyone's ok and I have to stop thinking "what if". But tonight Tom told Craig that he's looking for another car. What???? I seriously hope that his insurance company and the BMV have other ideas.  If I see him driving again I'm going to lose it.

May is the New December

Yep. Me this morning. 

I love May but it's getting stupid ridiculous. I have a twitch in my eye because I'm so tired. And this morning when I had to get up at 6am for a school thing I told my friend Erika (who came with me) that when I woke up I was so bloody tired that I looked like Nick Nolte in that picture when he got arrested. I'm not kidding. And I've pulled the muscles under my bum (glutes?) gardening at the school yesterday. And poor Craig has had a packed weekend of moving a ton of rocks twice and camping in cold and rain. I wish we were the kind of people that said screw it and just didn't do any of these things. I'm lying of course, I love doing these things.

But May SUCKS ASS. May marks the end of the school year for both boys so there's art shows, music shows, PTA appreciation breakfasts, yard sales, teacher appreciation week, school trips, graduation parties, picnics and carnivals. I have to sign Danny up for kindergarten, sign them both up for latchkey, get their medical records and birth certificates.

Oh and a "blizzard bag".  A blizzard bag is a 28-page book of "homework" (let's call them what they are - "lessons") that got sent home because the kids had 8 days off this winter due to crappy weather and the school system doesn't have the money to extend the school days into the summer holidays. So on top of all the aforementioned events I had to teach Jack when I got home from a full day at work. If I didn't do the blizzard bag, I was warned, he'd get marked down for 3 days of unexcused absences and it might affect his grade.  I'm fit to burn about it. But who to blame? Not the school or the teachers as it's not their decision. But the idiot who came up with this does not have children! And I'm not saying working mums have it harder because I have a stay-at-home mum friend with 3 kids  and she has over 100 pages of this crap to do.

Moving on. Sorry for whining (now I know where my kids get it from)

We got to meet Leanne on FaceTime last Wednesday and we are all completely smitten with her. She's lovely. It was so strange to hear her northern accent. I'm sure she thought we sounded a bit American. I really wished we could have snatched her and brought her through the iPad though. Craig has been looking at flights and she has applied for her passport so hopefully she'll be coming soon. We can't wait to meet her. And I'm looking forward to seeing her again this Wednesday.

And a Name Change

Well since there's a girl in the family now then the blog name had to change.  We've gone from "Life with our Lads" to "Life with 2 Lads and a Lass". I like it.

A Daughter

There's very exciting news from our camp as we found out we have a new family member. Craig has a daughter, Leanne, who lives in England. She's 17 (nearly 18) and hopefully will be coming here very soon for a visit.

The ins and outs of it all are obviously private but with everybody happy about it and all close family members told it's a good time to make a little announcement and get things out in the open.

The boys are very happy. Daniel doesn't really understand so he's laid back about it all but Jack is beyond excited. He's texting her all the time and writing letters and wants to talk about her all the time. I have to admit that I'm excited too and we text a lot. Craig does too. Tomorrow we'll meet via FaceTime for the first time.

Leanne

At her prom - spitting image of her dad

Jack made this to slide into his school work folder

Mother's Day in Pictures

Yesterday was Mother's Day (it seems like everywhere in the world has the same date, except the Uk!) I had a fabulous day. They brought me breakfast in bed (a bacon butty) and got me licorice and a record player! They took me to a second hand album shop to look for LPs then to the Garden Center where I spent far too much money on plants. Then I came home and gardened for a few hours, it was lovely. And Craig made me pork pies. And pork and pickle pies. I love that man. I finished with a glass of wine and Game of Thrones. Perfect!

Here's my cards and a little book from Daniel:

Daniel's thumb prints

Jack's thumb prints

19? Woohoo!


And Daniel's Book (thank you Linda) 

A Danny Day

It was a fabulous day for Daniel last Friday. He had his first dentist visit (yes yes I'm a terribly lax mother) and he did not freak out. No tears or odd behavior just a calm boy getting it done. I was very proud. Afterwards we took him and Jack for Jeni's ice cream.

He is just a few days away from finishing pre-school now and I got these pictures from his teacher. I'm going to miss his pre-school but I'm really looking forward to him going to Jack's school. That will cut my faffing about each morning down by 50%!

I'm Going Hamster Mad Myself

Luke the hamster is going mad. I caught him shaking the door to his cage tonight making an ungodly racket of "let me out" like a prison inmate might. His little hands were clasped around the bars and he was stood up (I'm not kidding) looking at me with desperation. I promised him that I'll help tomorrow but not tonight. Tonight I'm DONE.  It was a bloody long week.

Craig is 50% better. Dropped a lot of weight (don't you just hate men's ability to do that) and being good. I've known him for 19 years and never known him eat salad and tonight he asked me to get a bag of spinach from Krogers. I think it's scared him into a more healthy lifestyle. I wish I could get in that mode! But anyway. He's doing ok. No need to worry.

We started watching The Vikings tonight, which is great. But I don't have too much else to report. Kids are great and all is well. Poor Luke is doing his Alcatraz thing again though so I may just have to put him in his ball for a while.