*Here's what I learned from Luke today. Apparently, according to his friend Carson, you should NOT stare at a girl or else you will feel in love. Duly noted Luke, thanks for the heads up.

*The It's Not Fair jar. Need I say more? You cannot see it, but there's already been one quarter deposited by the eldest child. Do other households need this besides mine?

*The eldest is also sporting big toe hair.

That's right.

I was having my weekly nail cutting session when I gasped to see several manly big toe hairs on him. Naturally, I panicked and asked him, "Do your armpits stink?" and sadly, this was also true. It all hit me at once. Small boys grow up into large, stinky boys and there's nothing you can do about it. We have some "starter" deodorant on the way. Sigh.

*Thanks to the nice weather, Josie was able to take her first stroller walk last week:

 She hung out for both a walk and washing the van! What a trooper.

And a couple more pictures just because...who doesn't love a sleeping baby and brotherly love.

St. Paddy's party fun

We had a blast at our St. Paddy's party. We had about 40 people come, and king of organized fun as Rob is, he even printed out lyrics to a few Irish songs so we could have a good ol' fashioned sing-a-long. The most fun part of that was then making fun of Rob for printing out the lyrics so small to fit on one page that we all ended up feeling really old.

Josie helping Daddy prepare for the party

Having a friend who sings and plays guitar makes us seem so much more authentic!

Sooo sleepy. So, so sleepy.

Now I'm awake again.

The morning after. Our basement smelled like a college frat house.

Yikes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

A story from college

I recently had an experience at my local Walgreens I thought I should share.

Luke and I popped in to Walgreens to print out some pictures for his posterboard he was taking to class since it was his turn to be the star of the week.

As we sat waiting for the 736 pictures from my memory card to load up, I noticed that there was a typo in one of the signs the store had posted, referring to themselves as a 'preffered pharmacy'. And this sign was plastered everywhere. On the front doors, next to the pharmacy, and here, next to the photo machines. Now, you must know this about me. I can't let a typo go by unmentioned. I never seem to miss seeing a typo, and once I've seen it, I feel it must be shared. It's just something in me that I truly believe stems from a good intention of wanting a store to know about it because if it were my store, I would want to know so I could correct it. And for some reason, some of us were born good spellers and some of us weren't, so let's just look at it as sharing our God given talent.

So, as the cashier, a 25-30ish male, strolls past, I decide now is the time to let him know. It goes something like this:

"Hi, hey, I just wanted to let you know that you have a typo in this sign here. See, where is says preffered? That should actually have two 'r's' instead of two 'f''s'. Sorry, I just can't help but notice typos whenever I see them. It's sort of like a sickness I have, where I just can't help but notice typos."

At this point, he is still standing there blankly staring at me, so in true Rachel style, I continue talking to fill in the gap.

"You know, back in college, I always remembered how to spell that word this way: prefer red. Like I prefer red. They you can remember there are two r's instead of f's. And since you have that sign all over your store, I just thought you should know."

Here was his response:

Blank stare.

He said absolutely nothing. First he gave me a blank stare, and then he walked away.

I said ALL of that above and he said nothing. And then he walked away.

Rob says that I lost him with the phrase, "Back in college..."

I sort of think I lost him at 'hello'.

Editor's Note:
On a return visit, I was truly shocked and amazed to see the signs had not changed.

I was not really shocked or amazed.

But I told the pharmacist about it. We'll see what happens now.

Groovin'

We went to a 70's party on Saturday and grooved it out as best as we could wearing nonbreathable polyester. I was really trying to channel Farrah Fawcett hair but I just don't have enough layers to effectively capture the look. Or maybe I could just say I was trying to tone down the look a bit since I was clearly headed for the office. And Rob? Well, I'm not sure where he was headed. Why don't you send me a comment and take a stab at that one.

The party hosts

Oh so many good looks to choose from in the '70's

My mom's friend Pam actually WORE this outfit and gave it to me about 10 years ago just in case I wanted it. I am so glad.

I love how the two in the background are having a serious conversation. Somehow the elastic waisted jumpsuit with the ascot makes it difficult for me to take him seriously.

Modified Rant

We baby our kids too much in today's society and I am annoyed with it. Case in point:

Our town only offers baseball through our park and rec system. Due to the small size of our town, I am truly grateful to have an active park and rec system. Preschoolers and kindergarteners are on the same team, which is Tee-Ball. Luke, however, is 6 1/2 and can hit the ball when it's pitched to him fairly well. We would love for him to have the option of being on a team that hits the ball instead of just putting it off of the tee. They also all run one base when they hit, regardless of any other factors. While this is adorable for your 4 year old, this can get a little boring to watch week after week. So, I sent an email to the park and rec coordinator, wondering if Luke might be able to move into the 1st and 2nd grade pitching machine group, OR, might she consider the alternative, IF the coaches all agreed, to offer a pitch to THOSE THAT WANTED A PITCH instead of hitting off of the tee, while still giving them the option of hitting off of the tee if they prefer. Here's most of her response:

I know that there are many kids who are in t-ball that can get pitched to, but we have all of our programs run by grade. It is parks and rec policy to have all kids treated the same as they are for-fun sports and recreational. Your son, since he is in kindergarten, is eligible for the tee-ball program only and will have to wait until first grade to enter into the machine pitch arena.


All the kids will have to use the tee during the games as we must treat all the kids who are out there playing for fun evenly. I am sure you can understand that a child who may not yet have that skill may feel "less important" if they are not getting "pitched" to, and so that is why all it would not be appropriate to deviate for that reason. We are a smaller community, and it would not be fesible to "judge" all the 90 plus kids to see who could be put on a team that can hit and those who cannot.

Well.

Certainly, little 4 year old Johnny or Susy would realize that they have deficits in the talent department and suffer from a very negative self image if they see that Katie is able to hit a pitch and he can only hit off of the tee. They would certainly see this shortcoming in their talent and be muddled down in self loathing, would they not? Well, this wouldn't do. What was I thinking?

Do you ever get the feeling that it's just easier to continue doing things the same way rather than rethinking structures? Even though there are 4 teams, we wouldn't consider breaking preschoolers into two teams and kindergarteners into two teams who have the option of getting pitched to.

I certainly don't want to be responsible for making anyone feel 'less important'.

Aargh!

Musings

I think I am watching too much E! channel lately. I have become a bit obsessed. Remember, this is coming from the girl who rarely watches any TV, but, I'm in the recliner feeding Josie 6 times a day for 30-40 minutes each time, so a girl has to pass the time somehow. It started with the Kardashians, which has now spilled over into Khloe and Lamar. I like those two a lot! And while you are on that channel, they advertise for shows like Ice Loves Coco, so dammit, now I'm watching that too. And, if I get lucky enough I get to see some E! News or E! True Hollywood Story, or even better, The Soup with Joel McHale.

I know I've watched too much of this because I have gained a few new words, like dramz (drama) and cray cray (crazy). I even had a moment of temporary insanity, and forgetting that my husband is a man and not up on things like trendy words, used the word dramz in a conversation we were having.

He thought I'd had a mild stroke and asked me to repeat myself.

Lucky I didn't use cray cray or I would have gotten admitted.

The dramz was related to a seemingly innocent act of taking dinner and a gift to Jack's teacher, who recently  had a baby. They live in a pretty neighborhood not far from ours, where you drive onto a lane which has 3 or 4 houses sprouting off of the lane. It had just snowed that day, and it was a wet snow which was starting to melt, then refreeze. We weren't sure which house it was, so I gunned it up the lane thinking it was the house at the top. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and I couldn't make it up the driveway. But, when I tried to reverse back down the lane, I started to slide sideways. I ended up sideways with my van on this skinny lane, with dropoffs both in front of and behind me. Did I mention I had Jack with me? Oh my. If you know Jack, you will know that these types of situations do not fare well with him. He is a somewhat anxious child who lies in bed at night for 1 1/2 hours before he falls asleep worrying about 'what if's'. Well, I got the point where I sat there with my brakes on and didn't know what to do. I was fairly sure I was going to either go forward or backwards over the edge, so I asked Jack to get out on the upward slant where I could see him, so that if I did go down, at least he wouldn't be with me. Luckily, an inhabitant of one of the houses saw my dramz and came out to instruct me as to the best way to get my van out of the predicament, which we did. Whew. Well, we delivered the meal and gift, and upon leaving her house, and reversing out of her driveway which put me onto a downward slope, I got stuck trying to get back up the lane. You can only imagine. Bring on the hyperventilating. And try as he might, he couldn't hold back the crying either. And all you want them to do is be quiet so you can focus and figure out what you should do? Yeah, one of those times. We tried to shovel ourselves out, but I was only spinning my wheels, so we had to trudge back and take them from the warm meal we had just delivered them to try to help us get out. A bag of sand later and a running start up the hill, and we were saved. Poor Jack had to come home and spend an exhorbitant amount of time in the bathroom relieving himself of all the evening's stress. So, do you see why I used the word dramz in describing how our evening had gone? Oh, and also I was trying to get home by 6:30 for Rob to leave for his bowling league and get there on time (he didn't) and also get back before Josie realized she wanted to eat and started to throw a fit (she did). All in all, not my best showing. Oh, and don't let me forget, I almost backed out of the garage into our garage door which I forgot to open before starting to reverse! So really, the evening was doomed from the get go.

It's enough to make a girl cray cray.