Number 1,000

Yep, this is blog post number 1,000.  Nothing really special about it; no give away; no prize drawing; but I just wanted to acknowledge it.  Yippee! 

Now onward and to the next blog post...

Saturday Was a Special Day

But we didn't use it to get ready for Sunday.  Saturday was a Madsen play day.  Those of us locals plus my parents spent the afternoon together.  First we went to Lowe's Xtreme Air Sports which is a trampoline/foam pit/climbing wall place.  I decided to ignore the cesspool of germs everywhere and play.  My biggest accomplishment was climbing the rock wall then letting go and falling backwards into the foam pit.  Scared me to death; so I did it twice.  However, getting out of the foam pit proved to be quite challenging.  It was easy to get stuck and get nowhere while trying to make it to the edge.  I also jumped on the trampoline and landed in another foam pit.  Unfortunately, I landed bum first in the pit and that made it beyond hard to get out. As I made my way to the edge of the pit, I noticed 2 boys buried in the pit up to their necks.  One was happily picking his nose and wiping his snot on the foam blocks.  Once I saw that, I was done.  The kids loved swinging on the trapeze and falling into the foam, diving/flipping over soft barrier and landing in the foam, rock wall death falling, and trampolining into the foam pits.  Miles was even jumping into the foam pits from 4 feet up.

After our session was over, we went to Kiwanis Park for dinner.  Miles happily played at parks #22, #23, and #24 as we waited for dinner to arrive.

 And that was Saturday.

BFM Strikes Again

Bathroom Story Disclaimer...

That would be Big Fat Mouth, or BFM for short.  Whose BFM?  Mine.  Sometimes I amaze myself with the freedom that I allow my mouth to have.  This morning, shortly after store opening, I was in Ross with my parents and Miles.  My mom was trying something on, and, of course, Miles had to go to the bathroom.  I got him out of the cart and we found the restroom.  As we pushed open the door, we were hit in the face with a wall of poo smell.  Nasty!  I said aloud to Miles as we waded through the vapor, "Miles, it's not a good sign when this early in the day you get hit in the face with poo smell."  Then I realized that we weren't alone and someone was in one of the stalls having issues.  Embarrassing for both me and her (or whoever it was because we were out of there before that person emerged from the restroom).  Will I ever learn?  Probably not.

Nolan's Life

Pretty much, Nolan's life has been awesome lately.  First, he's got some hotties in his classes.  No details to share though.  Second, he's had some cool triumphs.  For homework in his tech class, he had to build an 8" tower out of200 linear inches of 1/8" thick balsa wood and watered down Elmer's glue that could support a minimum of 100 pounds. He drew his design and started building.  It was a real pain to get the glue to hold. 

When he was done building his tower, it looked like this.

He wasn't happy with his tower because not all the supports were aligned and the joints weren't perfectly mitered.  He turned in his tower 2 days early hoping that the extra credit would compensate for a premature tower failure.  Well, on "break the tower day" Nolan found out how good of a tower he'd built.  The silly tower broke exactly when 100 pounds were applied.  Success!  Full credit plus the extra credit.

Guess where we spent last Saturday? It's time for this again.

Nolan's team played well.  The highlight of the game for me was watching Nolan score an amazing looking goal  He said it was a panic shot, but the ball flew clear to the back for the goal.  He scored the first goal of the season for his team.  After a fairly cleanly played game, it ended with a 4-4 tie.

Quote from Nolan as I typed this... "Why are you writing about my miserable life?"

A Nice Boring Week

It's been one of those weeks... pretty much everything went according to schedule... nothing exciting or interesting to record.  It was one of those weeks that makes me wonder why I blog, but then I started thinking about how many people quit blogging or only record the big events, and then I return to the purpose of my blog.  Obviously my blog is not a money making endeavour, nor is it one that is out there to gain national notoriety.  My blog is for me; a place where I can record whatever I feel like (admittedly, what is recorded is very filtered at times).  I talk to myself through my blog.  I like seeing the pattern of life unfold as I look back at old posts.  I love finding my boys perusing past memories thanks to the blog.  My blog is the most consistent "journal" I have ever kept.  So onward, and hopefully there will be some more interesting-to-me things to record soon (like stuff happening later today and tomorrow?).

Labor Day 2012

One word- yippee!  You can read all the sarcasm you want into that, or take it at face value.  It was a day.  It should have been a "sleeping-in" day, but my boys had other plans.  Jonathan and Nolan decided on a whim to run a 5K this morning.  The THS Cross Country Team was sponsoring a fundraiser and Jonathan decided to support it, and Nolan decided it sounded like fun.  We were up at 6 to get ready because someone wanted to be there "early".  Neither of my boys had ever raced a 5 K before; neither has been training for one either.  Their training consisted of a summer of riding a bike to work 20 miles round trip (Jonathan), and lacrosse practice (Nolan).  I was expecting them to run about at about a 10 min/mile pace, so I was really surprised that they both ran a sub-25 min 5K.  Nolan finished just steps in front of Jonathan.   They had a great time.

Most of the remainder of the day was with mundane tasks... putting stuff away, organizing the computer room, repairing the vacuum (I did it!), vacuuming, bathrooms, hanging canvases, dishes, homework, tower building project, etc. (This was the sarcastic "yippee" part of the day)

This evening we went to a "S'moreBQ" and wienie roast.  Playing with fire is always fun.  Miles liked roasting hotdogs,

but instead of eating it, he carried it around with him for the rest of the evening.  I bought some huge marshmallows that were fun to roast (and eat).

Jonathan preferred the role of fire marshal and was happiest when it was time to extinguish the fire and go home.

And now?  Miles is in bed, Jonathan is reading some stuff for one of his 3 science classes, and Nolan is back at the tower building project.  Later in the week, I'll report on how that turns out.

Busy Saturday

I've been busy today, but looking at my house, you'd never know it.  I attacked several desperately needed to be done things, but they weren't things that are readily noticeable.  First, I cleaned the refrigerator (which stopped making the gurgle/growling sounds and didn't die).  Then I cleaned the front porch- it was looking far too Halloween-au-natural.  Then I began the Great Toy Purge of 2012.  I threw out a white kitchen garbage bag and a medium size packing box full of Miles' (former) treasures.  I took a bunch of toys downstairs that are hopefully headed to DI, but I need to see if he's going to miss any of them first.  I've swept the kitchen floor twice, done the dishes, picked up the produce order, pulled weeds, and checked the garden.  I bathed Miles, the bread is rising.  See, I did a lot, but I didn't do the daily pick-up, so the house looks bad.  That's what Monday is for. 

Miles has had many "difficult" moments lately.  Impressive tantrums and rages that go on and on, just like the one I posted the video of earlier this week.  Tonight he raged because I wouldn't let him pick all the Jack-Be-Little pumpkins; I thought 12 was enough, but not in his mind.  In the past, patterns of rages have preceded a big developmental achievement.  I'm hoping that is what is going on; waiting and watching...

Last night, while Jonathan was at the THS football game, we convinced Nolan to go get Indian food with us.  We went to Kohinoor because it's close by. Of the 3 Indian restaurants we go to in the valley, this one is my last favorite.  Nolan was a good sport, but didn't really like his dinner.  I asked him if he wanted to stop for a bacon cheeseburger on the way home, but he turned me down.  My food was okay.  It was fiery hot which is to say it was too hot for me to enjoy.  There were lots of leftovers to take home.  Well, the food burned going in and exiting.  Dang!  For dinner tonight, I decided to have leftovers.  Somehow the heat level was even higher tonight compared to yesterday.  I thought I was going to die.  I was lips were burning; I was sweating (including my eyelids); I had to take a break from my dinner because it was too hot to eat.  Well, I finished my dinner, but I'm wondering if that was a good idea... tomorrow could be interesting.