First I want my favorite niece to know that Alex can't wait to see her in about 3 weeks! you hear me Sarah?!?!?!?! I just love reading about you kicking your parents out of the hospital room... makes me not feel so bad when Mahala (my 12 year old) acts like she does!! :) which is to say... when she doesn't want us around either....

My sister's blog is amazing... you have to read it : http://letsbecrystalclear.blogspot.com/



Wow. It took the whole weekend but I got the Ebay room done. We still need some improvements but we will get them one at a time. At least now we don't have crap thrown all over the house and we have our stuff halfway organized. And now we know we have 10 full tubs of clothes that we need to put up in our store. That will only take a couple of years probably!


We have been selling for a long time, but it was only once in a while before this. When my sister started selling she would ask me for advice on how to do things. She quickly passed me by and now she gets the messages asking how to do this or that or where to buy supplies. Thanks for all the help sis!

I was reading my sister's blog just a few minutes ago and there is where I found out I forgot my parents wedding anniversary. Their 48th anniversary. Needless to say I feel like crap. I guess since we are going to visit next weekend I could just say we were waiting til we saw them in person. Yeah, that'll work... until they read this...

Ok imagine being an assistant coach for a softball team... your daughter's of course. Now this is a minors team which mean the girls pitch for themselves (as opposed to the coach pitching). Now exactly ZERO of these girls have played in the minors before. Not only that but most of them are too young really to play this level. The only reason they do is because the little league association wants them to play up a level in the fall, so now we have a team full of 8 and 9 year olds playing against 10 and 11 year olds. At one game, I am not kidding, the smallest girl on the opposing team was bigger than our biggest girl. It really was funny looking. They were literally the giants playing aginst the midgets. It would be like if I played basketball against Bridget and was serious about winning. (or Tennis or any sport... haha) The girls played well but were just overmatched - those girls pitch way too fast for our little girls. The league says it is suppose to be good for them in the future because they will get used to it but at this level they don't really get to do anything. they watch the pitches go by and then in the outfield they just rin for the balls and hardly ever get anyone out. I really don't think that is the case. I think we will do coach pitch next year.



It's Halloween! We just got finished watching SCREAM (remember that movie?). I am sure the kids won't have nightmares (sure they won't). It was a nasty rainy Halloween but we went anyway and the kids cleaned up.
Even Alex got in on the act.

Keri (my 8 year old) told Bridget that she wasn't old - and that she wouldn't be until she hit 40. Well thanks a lot Keri. So I have about 6 months left...

Today was everyone's last fall game. Mahala's last soccer game and Keri's last Soccer and softball games were today. Her soccer team went undefeated and her softball team didn't win a game (Mahala's team won once). It all balances out I guess. Here are all the Halloween pics.

When I was 16 I had all the time in the world and nothing to do (well, I thought I had stuff to do but now I know – I didn’t have crap to do). Now I have too much to do and much less time to do it (at least it seems that way). Just why exactly does life work out that way? Sometimes I wonder why the hell we had another kid. Then of course there are times that the youngest is the easiest to deal with out of all of them. I want to take Keri and Mahala out and play softball and soccer but we can’t do it on the weekends cuz of the other kid. Just when I start feeling that way Mahala will come up with one of her “you don’t trust me” rants because I won’t let her hang out at the mall with her another 12 year old girl by themselves with 15 year old boys. Then, of course, I thank God I had another kid because I just know I am gonna have to put Mahala out of my misery one day. And then at least we have a backup kid I guess. Really though it’s not that bad and Mahala is making all A’s so far this year so I really have nothing to complain about. Keri has decided that even though she takes and hour or two to do her homework every night, she doesn’t need to turn that homework in to her teacher. Now go figure. What is that all about. I mean you do all the work but then don’t turn it in? I don’t get it at all. I’d call her lazy except that she gets it all done every day. I guess we need to figure out exactly how to get her to remember to turn it in. Well I finally followed in my sister’s footsteps (again) and opened a store in Ebay. Now that I have a blog like her and a store like her I am seriously going to think about trying to get along better with my spouse - which apparently she did. The store been doing pretty good. It’s just a ton of work to keep listing the items to keep stuff in it. We have plenty to list, though. Now all we have to do is convert our dining room into our Ebay room like we have been wanting to. I hope to get most of that done this weekend but I know better. Plus I have to ask my sis how she manages to go to yard sales without spending a ton of money every week. Between gas and lunch we spend way too much. If you want to check out the store go HERE. Then buy something!! Keri is playing softball for Northwest Forsyth County. It’s funny, she played the first few games and I didn’t really think she was enjoying herself. Then the same thing that happened to her in soccer seemed to happen in softball. It’s like one day a light came on in her head and she figured out what to do. The last game she fielded all the balls hit to her (she played Shortstop) and she even hit the ball her one time at bat. She was the only one to hit the opposing pitcher – she did get out though. And she also seemed to have a great time. Anyway, I hope it sticks because I love to see them play softball. Both of them are playing Fall soccer also so we got a busy Fall schedule going on right now. That's not a bad thing tho. We went to the Dizie Classic Fair yesterday. That was fun... for the kids at least. I really don't like it that much. We picked one of the only days they don;t sell unlimited ride bands so we used up all our tickets in about 2 1/2 hours. That was fine though cause I was ready to leave anyway. As I am now. Bye.

Update :

Here’s what we’ve been doing lately on ebay :

Sold 14 Nintendo DS games for $180 (paid more for them but the kids used them for a long time)

Bought a box of adapters for $4 and so far have sold one for $17.99

Sold 76 Piece clothes lot for $79 – paid about $25

Bought a Scene It Jr game for $1 and sold it for .99 (they can’t all be winners)

Found one yard sale that was giving stuff away for free and sold one flashlight for $30 and a spring compressor for $12 from that yard sale.

Bought a wireless dog fence and collars for $10 and sold them all for over $130

Bought a laptop for $5 (Celeron 2.2 Ghz) and it’s currently up to $60

There are plenty that didn’t sell that well or at all… but those are no fun to put on here.

Keri’s first softball practice is Labor Day weekend. Not sure what kind of sense that makes. Every other sport has no practice this weekend because of the holiday. I doubt there will be too many kids there.

Alex has this excited baby face she makes that makes me roll in the floor every time I see it. Here is a video of it

(if it works)

:

Mahala might be able to still eat off the 12 and under kids menu but her attitude is in FULL TEENAGER MODE. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGG!

Someone might need to pray for me that I don’t KILL HER before she actually becomes a teenager. Go ahead mom and dad, laugh your ass off. What comes around right? And I got 2 more to go after her…. I might not make it. And mom, the praying comment doesn’t mean I am going to church or start listening to boring religious music anytime soon… ok?

Keri is in the whine about everything phase. PLEASE let it be a phase. And now it’s the tattling on her big sister, which I think she might actually need to do sometimes with the way Mahala treats her. What do you do? We don’t want to encourage tattling but then again I don’t want Mahala to think she can get away with anything. I sure as hell don’t know.

Haven’t smoked for over 2 weeks. It’s a start. Cya.

Doctor, softball, soccer and (of course) yard sales.

We went to the doctor today.

Alex is in the 64^th percentile for height but only 4^th for weight yet she still has rolls of fat on her leg. Weird. She got her last hepatitis b shot (until she’s a year old anyway).

Mahala has a soccer game this weekend. Her coach is kinda strange. He wants them to memorize a playbook (like that will ever happen). And he talks… a LOT. I don’t think having homework at school AND soccer is going to fly with me. I mean it’s Optimist it’s not like it’s a serious we gotta win at all cost league. You know Penn and Teller? He reminds me of Penn a lot.

Looks and sounds like him.

Now it’s the next week. Mahala had their soccer game and they lost 3-1. Mahala played well. I got to meet their coach and he is fine. The “plays” he wanted them to memorize aren’t really plays. It's not as big a deal as I thought when MAHALA told me about it. I can;t imagine a 12 year old making something sound harder than it is to make you feel sorry for her. That would never happen right?

Keri tried out for softball this weekend also and did well. She has picked it up pretty fast. I, of course, got her a new bat and glove and a batting helmet. Had to order a face guard because they need them at this age (8 and under). I also have been picking up softbals at yard sales whenever I can. They are usually .25 as opposed to $4 or more at Target. I had no idea they had fast pitch softball for girls this young. It’s great! Do they do this everywhere or is it mostly slow pitch at 8 years old? Anyway I’m glad it’s fast pitch. Keri likes the faster pitching better anyway.Can’t wait for her first game. She finds out what team she’s on and schedule and all that this week.

Since most of our Saturday was taken up with sports (we did get a few yard sales in) we decided to try to go to a few yard sales Sunday. We found 2 and they were pretty good. Bridget found a bunch of clothes for .25 each and get this, I found a laptop computer for 5 bucks…. Seriously. Not a 20 year old crappy one either. It’s a DELL Intel Celeron Mobile 1.6 GHz with 512MB RAM And a DVD/ CD Writable drive. I think they sold it because it they couldn’t get it to start up but it seems to only need an operating system which is easy enough to do. 5 bucks…. Crazy…. Can you tell I like yard sales a little bit?

Sorry I didn’t call you back Mom. The baby was crazy tired and wouldn’t go to sleep .. and when she went to sleep so did I.

We got good yard sales this weekend cuz it’s a holiday and there will be no practices or games. Might be the last time we get to go this year all day. We better find some good stuff!

10 days and counting. Chantix seems to be working. I wonder how much of it is mental and how much is the pills actually doing something?

Drinking so much you can't see straight

I like that title. I haven't done it in about 15 years but I like it anyway. Time for school again. Bridget is busy getting school supplies and clothes for the kids of course. Dad (or Paw Paw - he answers to both when he's not watching tv) bought the kids new backpacks yesterday. He is visiting but leaving this morning. We all love that he comes down to visit so much. And of course the kids love it.

fast forward a week or so.....

Soccer is starting up also. Mahala is playing in the Optimist league and Keri is playing for the YMCA so it'll be another year of going to 2 different fields for games on Saturday. I was kinda hoping they would both do one or the other but they didn't want to.

Yesterday was our 15th Anniversary. Who woulda thunk it. We might even start sleeping in the same room again to celebrate! Nah...

I really need to call my mother.

We went to Myrtle Beach a couple weeks ago. Fun fun fun. Roller Coasters, swimming and a

really cool magic show. Never seen a big time magic show before. Keri now wants to be a magician. Imagine that.

School starts today. Keri has Mahala's 3rd grade teacher. We were hoping that would happen. She's really good. Her name is Mrs. Schneider.

It has not been a good technology couple of weeks for me. First I accidentally shut my van door on my Blackberry Pearl and screwed up the screen. So I bought a Blackberry Curve off ebay. Awesome phone. Not so awesome when you accidentally drop it outside immediately following a 30 minute downpour BECAUSE, let me tell you, the chances are good that it will land in a PUDDLE OF WATER. Now phones hate water apparently cause it decided to stop working also. Sunday I turned on my Playstation 3 and it will not read any discs at all. I read on the internet that a LOT of people have this problem but since it is out of warranty I am out of luck. So that is almost $600 worth of electronics down the tubes. How nice....

One the plus I let the Curve dry out for a few days and it seems to be working. Yipee....

Mahala got mad and hung up on me the other day.... that was the wrong thing to do... she's stuck in the house until this weekend. I should have taken her phone too...

I love the show True Blood. Don't you?

I have my computer hooked to my LCD TV and every episode of Scrubs is loaded on it so I have my own 24 hour Scrubs network. Isn't that interesting?

Bridget is thinking about doing this Navy Seal training workout. Better her than me. It looks like suicide to me.

Baby Alex can stand up on just about anything. I found that out in the garage when she was in the wagon. It took her about a millisecond to stand up and do a flip onto the cold hard ground below. Well, I had a towel bunched up right where she landed so she's ok and everything. But she is a mess. Oh and as you can see she can't decide if she likes to eat sand or not.

Keri is now wanting to play softball so we are practicing so she can play next spring.

Yard sale finds the last few weeks :

We got a couch for our library (it's really a living rom but Bridget calls it a library... so I guess it's a library). It cost $25. Not bad.

From the same yard sale we bought all the clothes for $35.00. There are at least 8 or 10 huge lots of clothes to sell on Ebay.

A Videonow player with 20 video discs for $3.00 and it sold for $52.

2 Arcade Dance Platforms for the kids dance games. They were $5 a piece. They sell for like $75 or more new so I thought that was a good deal.

We found a lot of little toys for Alex (play cell phones, keyboards ect...). a lot of them were a quarter a piece. Her favorite thing is a stand up toy that is supposed to make noise. It doesn't work but she just loves standing up and pushing it around the room.

I found a bunch of regular and softer practice softballs for me and Keri to practice with for .25 each. I didn't realize how much those damn things cost in the store.

That's all for now ... cya..

suweeee

Get along lil doggy we are ready to go to THE Myrtle Beach. That's like THE Ohio State Pukeaversity or THE worst univeristy in the history of the universe (that would be va tech for anyone keeping score). Anyway, we thought we had everything set. We got one of those luggage things to put on top of the van. Bridget picked it up and asked TWO of the sales people if they were sure that was all she needed. They both said it was all she nedded. Of course it wasn't and we needed crossbars for the top of the van. Now this was Friday, 3 days ago. We went back this morning and the guy says "sorry, we sold the last 2 yesterday." Oh well, they gave us our money back and luckily looked at every side of the box except the one with the BIG LONG scrape on it that I put there dragging it into the garage. The kicker was that the box was $200 and the rails were gonna be another $200 effectively doubling our cost. Hell, we might as well go to the Honda dealer for that price. Well everyone is trying to get ready and since we want to leave at 10 I am sure we will get out of here by at least 2. And now since we don't have a luggave box we will have to pack the van so full the kids might sufficate. Oh well, you if your gonna make an omelette you gotta break some eggs right? Well, baby is now up so I have to go play with her of course. cya.

Apollo's Chariot and the little kid that would if they let her.

We had a great time at Busch Gardens... again. We decided at the last minute to come back to Virginia this week (even though it seems like we just left). It was a last minute decision. This time we decided to ride everything as many times as possible.... and we did. It was great. We spent a lot of time before we came looking for Keri some new shoes and inserts because last time she was about 1/8" too short to ride the Apollo's Chariot roller coaster. That killed her. So she got new shoes and new socks and some new inserts and when we got there this time she was about 1/32" too short to get an arm band. Again, it killed that she couldn't ride. We told her to rip it off and we'd try at the coaster.


Well, we got there and nobody measured her and she got to ride 3 times. And before anyone tells me that the measurements are there for a reason and BLAH BLAH BLAH... save it. I don't care. That ride holds you in so good she was never in any danger and when she's 1/3" taller she not going to be any bigger really. So anyway she rode it 3 times then and one more time at the end and she was, of course, the happiest kid in the world because she finally got to ride a BIG roller coaster! The Loch Ness Monster and Big Bad Wolf just aren't big enough for her anymore I guess.

We met my friends Roy and Amber and their daughter Allyson there early and later Our friends March and Stephanie and there kids Claudia, Trey, and Ross. It was a great time and everyone actually got to go on the same day. Plus there was no one there so there was no line anywhere.

Baby Alex got to get in mom's pool also. The water was a little chilly from it being covered up. She didn't know exactly what to think about it. Keri now can jump in any part of the pool with no floats or anything. She doesn't care anymore and she is swimming pretty good. Stephanie and their kids came over to swim with us. Mahala and Claudia and Trey attacked me most of the time. That was fun. even though they just about killed me.


We spent more money than I wanted to here in VA (I'm still at mom's as I write this). We are putting up a LOT of auctions to have money to go to the beach in a few weeks and we spent some of it here. I guess I need to get on the ball on list some more. I am thinking of listing one of the kids. Can't figure out which on is the most annoying. It's a very close race in that respect. I Can't imagine anyone bidding much for the pleasure of having to put up with their crap either so maybe that's a bad idea....

Fast Forward...

Ok Now it's like 2 weeks later and I haven't posted this yet. We are getting ready for a Myrtle Beach trip which will include going to the former Hard Rock Park. It was re-opened by another company and the tickets, which were $50 each, are now 2 for $20 so that's a plus. The have a really cool coaster I can't wait to ride again.

We also had a yard sale today to get a little extra money for our trip. It went fine but it reminded how much I HATE having yard sales. It amazes me that there are so many every weekend. People are gluttons for punishment I guess. Mahala is really starting to act like a teenager... which means I am THIS CLOSE TO FREAKING KILLNG HER... The next next few years are going to be so much fun. I wish you all could be here to witness the fun...

Here are some pics and stuff...