San Francisco or Bust...literally!

Evan and Eric took off on the 4th grade field trip today to head to Mission Dolores and Pier 39.  They left home at 6 a.m. and were supposed to be on a bus rolling towards the bay at 6:30.

I got a text from the teacher at 6:33 saying the bus hadn't shown up!  Yikes!  In a strange twist of fate, Hudson's godfather is the head mechanic of this bus company.  I called Nina (his wife) and Eric called Grampy (what we call him).  The bus rolled in about 20 minutes late.  Not sure what the problem was other than completely FREAKING out the 4th grade teacher!  There's nothing worse than 25 kids and 10 parents all looking at you to fix the problem.

We thought things were fine.  But no.  The bus broke down in Gilroy.  Who knew that Chuck E. Cheese opens at 9 a.m?  That's where the group headed...for 2 hours while waiting for a new bus to pick them up!  I'm very grateful that they broke down in a populated area with access to a fun place for the kids to hang out.  It would have been miserable to keep 4th graders entertained for two hours in a random parking lot or on the side of the road.  Thankful for small blessings!

Evan and his buddies walking across the street to eat pizza and play games at 9 a.m!

Yay!  More crap to throw away at a later date.

Grampy jumped in a bus, flew up to Gilroy, and rescued the group!  He got a big hug from Evan, and the group was on their way to the mission.

Evan at the mission.  I want to go visit.  I've never been to this one. Apparently, the docent who was supposed to guide them around the mission had to leave.  They got to explore on their own.

 After leaving the mission, the group headed to Pier 39.  Gorgeous day at the bay.

Oh, how I want to be there gazing at the water.  I love the ocean.  Instead, I get to see this...

I mean, come on!  Who wouldn't rather hang in a junior high classroom with papers to grade instead of being on the coast?

Tired boy grabbing a bite to eat at Pier 39.

They won't be leaving San Francisco until 5ish, so I don't expect them home much before 9.  I'm going to have two tired boys on my hands tomorrow!

Chicken Butt Holes

The other day I found a recipe on Pinterest for Chicken Bundles.  For recipe, click HERE.  When I mentioned to my family the name of the recipe, they thought I said "Chicken Butt Holes!"  That has been the running joke for a few days that we'd be having chicken butt holes.  Mmmmh.  Sounds good.

Eric and the boys were at soccer tonight, so I put the recipe together to be ready when they got home.

 Cook and cut up the chicken.  Mix the cream cheese, butter, milk, salt, pepper and chicken together.

 Put mixture on croissants pinched together to form a rectangle.

Fold over.  Crimp edges with a fork.  I didn't do this because I simply don't care whether or not they look pretty.

 Fresh out of the oven.

Tasty enough.  I don't know if I'll make them again.

Honestly, I snuck a few bites of the chicken/cream cheese mixture before wrapping them in the croissants. That was tastier than the butt hole itself!  Sort of like a chicken salad mixture.

I'm on the fence about this one.  Not bad.  Not great. Back to Pinterest I go!

The Daily Struggle

I hate homework.  I detest it.  I loathe it.  I can't stand it.  Especially when it comes in the form of Hudson having to complete it.

Homework with Evan was and is usually pretty easy.  Evan strives to please and is terrified of getting in trouble at school.  Hudson doesn't give a rat's butt.

Even the lure of "Fun Friday" isn't enough to get Hudson to willingly complete the assignments.  (I do have to laugh at what Fun Friday consists of: math games.  Maybe if Fun Friday was more fun, Hudson would be tempted to finish his homework with less struggle!)

As a teacher, I completely understand the concept of homework.  As a parent, I do not.  As a teacher, I try to not give too much for kids to complete at home.  In junior high, homework is typically the work they didn't finish during the day.

In Hudson's teacher's defense, the amount of homework she gives is perfectly fine.  There is reading, math, and spelling each day.  If he would DO it, he'd be done in less than 15 minutes.  The homework even comes home each Friday as a packet that can be done over the weekend for those parents who have their crap together.  That wouldn't be me.

As we sit here on a Monday evening, Eric and Evan have gone to soccer practice, and Hudson is busy "looking" for a pencil, because apparently I like to hide them from him for sport.  Once the pencil is found, there are thirst issues to deal with.  Then we must pretend that we don't know how to add numbers.  Then we go to the bathroom.  And it doesn't end.  Usually there are tears.

I know people always say enjoy your kids because they grow up so fast.  However, I can be 99.999% certain that the daily struggle of homework with Hudson is not going to be something I will long for in the future.  Watching him play soccer on Saturday mornings is something I'll miss.  Homework...not so much.

Heather

P.S.  I finally gave up and told him to go watch tv in my bedroom.  Is it bedtime yet?  No?  Another hour and eleven minutes to go?  Super.

Soccer Sunday

Today was all day soccer.  All day.  We left the house at 8:30 this morning and just got home at 3:30.  I don't mind watching soccer all day, but it doesn't leave me in the mood to accomplish things such as grocery shopping and laundry.

Plus, I hate the day before going back to work off of a long vacation.  Sigh.

Evan's team had a game at 10, and then Hudson played at 11:15.  That's Hudson in the photo above right in the middle.

After a quick run to Subway for sandwiches, Evan's team played Pumas who traveled from Los Angeles for a friendly exhibition.  We are in the process of changing over from Argentina to become a Pumas academy. I'm going to miss our bright blue jerseys, but the Pumas navy and yellow isn't too bad.

I was very proud of Evan's team because Pumas scored first, but Argentina boys never gave up and ended up scoring off a corner kick with only minutes to go in the 2nd half!  We were yelling and screaming like it was a championship game!

The game ended in a tie, and afterwards, we took pictures with both teams and representatives from Pumas.

Here's to a new era in soccer.  Should be interesting.

And now I need to get groceries, finish laundry, and prepare for heading back to work tomorrow.

I almost forgot, Hudson lost a tooth last night.  It was the perfect way to end our anniversary...a kid spitting blood into my bathroom sink!

That isn't blood on his mouth, it's red popsicle.  Missing tooth top right.

11th Annniversary: sickness and soccer

My goodness it's been a long time since I've written anything!  Life just caught up to me.  Or I spent too much time watching tv and reading other people's blogs to actually keep up with my own.

However, reading other people's blogs today got me thinking that I really need a record of our life.  Something that explains what we did.  Something to look back on someday and realize that the days were busy and crazy and hectic and slow paced and healthy and sick.

I want to be able to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon when I'm 70 reading about MY life...not someone else's life!

No promises on keeping up with this blog again, but it's just for me.  Anyone that happens to stumble upon my little world...welcome!

Let's catch up a bit, shall we?

Today is our 11th anniversary.  We weren't planning to do anything super special, but we did get a babysitter lined up so that we could at least go out to dinner sans kids.

And then Evan woke up in the middle of the night puking.  He ended up in our bed, then on the floor by our bed, and home all day.  We were supposed to all be up and at 'em for multiple soccer games.  I ended up staying home with Evan, and Eric took Hudson to his soccer game.  They won!  Yay!  Evan threw up at least once more.  I canceled the babysitter.

I did several loads of laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, watched episodes of Mixology, stalked a bunch of blogs, found a day/life planner I really want, and am trying to work up the motivation to get on the treadmill. As far as the planner goes, here is the one I want: PLANNER.  I have dreams that if I just get myself a planner, I'll be the organized, stylish, and ever calm mom that I'm always hoping to be.  Yeah, I know...you actually have to do the things that you write IN the planner to achieve all those things.  Still, I'm going to save up for the planner so I can get one in July that runs through Dec. 2015.  Need to find a picture for the front!

As for the rest of the day, well, Eric is taking a nap because he was the one up with Evan last night.  Hudson is in the game room.  Evan is resting on the couch.  Exciting stuff.  I wouldn't have figured this would be the 11th anniversary game plan, but I also know that this is what life is: soccer and sickness, sleepless nights and naps, crappy cartoons and netflix.  Besides, Eric and I had a wonderful lunch date a few weeks ago when I took a day off work.  We can call that the anniversary dinner.  I do plan to go to the store for some steaks later.  I should probably take a shower as well!

And here is a peek at Evan in the corner of the couch getting better.  He needs to get better.  We have soccer tomorrow.  We always have soccer.

Just for fun, here are a couple more pictures from the past few days:

I had a follow up doctor appointment on Monday.  Hudson came in to the room with me and we took funny pictures to send to Eric.  His response, "Why are you eating our child?"  And for some reason, that just cracked me up to no end!  Oh, and during that appointment, I found out that I have lungs of an 82-year-old. I'll share that story another day when I can't think of anything to say.

Coloring eggs at Grandma's house.

Miniature golfing at Blackbeard's during Easter Vacation.  Love our vacation because public kids go back to school and we have the week after Easter to ourselves wherever we go!

Lastly, a short update on us all.

Eric: 45, IT manager in Hanford for 4 years, manager of both Evan and Hudson's soccer teams, soccer club treasurer, all around great man.

Heather: 39 (yikes), teacher for 14 years, lives at school, going a little crazy each day, loves wine, follows family around to soccer events.

Evan: 9, 4th grade, made the PDP team for soccer, got MVP for basketball at school, honor roll, likes learning Spanish, amazing kid.

Hudson: 6, 1st grade, funny, great reader, plays soccer, can keep with his brother, little gamer, can roll his R's like a boss, knows what kind of wine his mom likes, super kid.

Hopefully I'll keep this up.  It actually makes me happy.

Heather

P.S. I am sort of sad that it is as if 2013 didn't exist.  It did.  I swear.  We were busy doing all sorts of stuff. We went on a fantastic vacation to Sea World, we traveled to many soccer tournaments, we got together with friends, we grew, we learned, we saved money, we laughed.  There really was a 2013.