The New Guy

I'd like to welcome the latest little guy on the team roster--our new cousin Brendan!

His name is Brendan Kirby and he made his arrival late yesterday afternoon in all his 9 lb, 4 oz glory--two weeks early, mind you--earning an instant nickname from his mommy...the BK Whopper!!! Too funny!

Welcome to the world Brendan!

How Wii Hibernate

Today's weather was pretty nice and the boys got to be outside and play Better Batter Baseball! but it gets dark a little after 6:00 and the temps started dropping even before that, so we were still driven inside early. Spring cannot come fast enough. The boys decided to play Luke's Wii to pass the time after dinner.

Luke took on a little tennis and then switched to boxing. He KO'd the opponent (who was quite a thug) in the first round. Not too shabby.

Now I pretty much hate the Wii (and every other gaming system for that matter). But I will play some tennis every once in a while, 'cause I've got mad skills in tennis. Tonight I took on a doubles team comprised of a look-alike of that dude Gordon from Sesame Street and one of those cavemen from the Geico commercials. Weird combo, I know...but I smeared them all over the court. My avatar is a sassy lil' thang with pigtails and some rockin' eye makeup. She's hot. And she averages two aces a game. My serve is killing my rotator cuff, though...I may actually have to ice it tomorrow.

Patrick is pretty good himself. He plays more than any of us, since whenever we get the Wii out, he demands a frequent turn in the rotation. Therefore his rankings are the highest at this point. I may have to make an effort to play more, just so I can secure my spot in family tennis domination.

Ben used to hook himself up to the remote and swing it around aimlessly, but I think he decided there wasn't much of a point, because he prefers to watch now. If Patrick puts on baseball, he'll play that...but for all other games, he's our #1 spectator. And he cheers for me when I win a point. Sweet kid.

So it was fun and all, but I look forward to warmer (longer) days when we can go outside and physically play all these sports (okay, maybe not boxing) instead of gaming them. In the meantime, Gordon and Caveman better be ready, cause I'm bringing my A-game.

Just Like Daddy

Pure Comic Genius

It's really my grandparents that caused me to love "Peanuts". They held on to my dad's and uncles' old comic books from the 1950's and whenever we'd go visit them--for lack of anything better to do--I'd read them over and over again. I absolutely love those books. Thank goodness my dad made sure to hang onto them after both my grandparents passed away a few years back. Now they're in his basement and someday they'll be mine.

I have a later reproduction of some of the strips, published in the late 70's. I don't even know where I got it, but I know it must've been kind of recent since it's stamped from a secondhand book store here in town. Anyway, Patrick's really into comic books lately. He suckered Luke's parents into buying him a Pokemon book. At first I resented his attraction to Pokemon, and then I realized that kids that are into Pokemon are usually also into computers and Dungeons and Dragons and techy stuff and less into Nascar and killing hapless woodland creatures for sport in their spare time. So now I see that Pokemon is the lesser of two evils and I am in support of it. But the point is, Patrick is digging comic books, and so I pulled out my one "Peanuts" book for him to look at and have been thumbing through it myself whenever he leaves it lying around for me to pick up. I came across this one and it struck me as too funny not to share, especially in light of the book I'm reading. Lucy would've made a great 21st century chick.

Update

So I'm coming out of my blogging coma--which I was in because I was having a really hard time believing that anyone truly cared what I had to say--to do a survey that Katie put on her blog. Because I love these surveys. And for some reason, I honestly do believe that you all need (and want) to know this stuff about me. But just in case you don't, I'll put pictures of the boys at the end of the post. Here we go...this is riveting stuff...

1. Do you like blue cheese? Cheese practically rules my life, but I don't like this one. Gorgonzola is okay on some occasions...feta and goat cheese rock my world.

2. Have you ever smoked crack? No, but I do bake it into my chocolate chip cookies, which is why certain people have developed a severe dependency on them after just one bite...complete with withdrawal symptoms.

3. Do you own a gun? Luke owns about a half dozen of them. Patrick has one too. He won it in a raffle. I was not present.

4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? I can't say that even the allure of adding things to my drink makes me want to go eat at Sonic.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Why should I? If I was worried about very bad news, then you'd think I'd be worried about it for quite a while before the appointment. The only thing you could possibly be worried about is the doc telling you you're not feeling well because you're pregnant, and you'd have to be a complete bonehead not to know you're pregnant.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? I think I better stay away from them. But I appreciate them because my kids eat them for lunch sometimes.

7. Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? I do not get thirsty until lunch time. It's weird. I have to make myself drink a glass of water in the morning. Patrick is the same way.

9. Can you do push-ups? Sure, how many?

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My big silver hoop earrings.

11. Someone living or dead you would like to meet? That's a toughie. I can't think of anyone right off the bat. I know I could stand to learn a few things from Mother Theresa. Or maybe Stacy London, just to see if she thinks I act as much like her as everyone else says.

12. Favorite hobby? I wish I knew...I would do it more often. Perhaps sunbathing?

13. Favorite Author?

14. Do you have A.D.D.? Don't we all have a touch of it...?

15. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? I don't really *hate* anything about my personality. I wish I had longer legs, but I'm coping.

16. Middle name? Leigh

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment. I can't think of my favorite author/Why are my kids acting like this way today/I ate too many pancakes at dinner

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday. I only bought one thing yesterday--a fried chicken salad in the school lunchroom. It was good.

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink. Water, skim milk and more water.

20. Current worry right now? How the next four days will go since Luke is out of town until Tuesday evening.

19. Current hate right now? The fact that it's 7:00 and not 8:00 (bedtime).

22. Favorite place to be? Beach. Fo sho.

23. How did you bring in the New Years? Listening to my neighbor shoot off fireworks wishing he'd get it over with and hoping it wouldn't wake my kids. Luke was at work.

24. Where's # 24???

25. Name three people who will complete this? No.

26. What you would do if you didn't have to work to make money? I'd probably do the same things I do now, but I'd do them better and at at slower pace. Maybe when the kids got a little older, I'd find a good volunteer position that would benefit both me and the organization. But I do have to work, so we won't worry about that.

27. What shirt are you wearing? A white tank top and a turquoise hoodie.

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Ew. No. I like cotton sheets that have been worn thin.

30. Favorite color? Brown.

31. Would you be a pirate? Only if I got to be Captain Jack's first mate.

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't sing in the shower. I try to be quiet so nobody realizes I'm in there, which gives me a better chance of actually being left alone.

33. Favorite girl's name? Summer

34. Favorite boys' name? Benjamin

35. What's in your pocket right now? No pockets on me at the moment. And all the ones off of me are empty, I'm sure. I don't ever find a random fiver.

37. Best bed sheets as a child? I did not have cool sheets. I remember that Strawberry Shortcake was a theme in my room, but I think she was on the curtains maybe.

38. Worst injury you've ever had? Either when my boyfriend's grandfather's dog attacked me and tried to rip me limb from limb (age 17) or the time I was riding on my dad's handlebars at the beach and he told me not to put my feet in the spokes and so of course I did (age 4?? 5??). The bike incident left a much bigger scar than the dog.

39. Do you love where you live? NO WAY.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 3

41. Who is your loudest friend? Katie is my loudest friend. By far. And she's that much better for it.

42. How many dogs do you have? We have one dog (Wilson) and one prima donna who we treat like a dog (Savannah).

43. Does someone have a crush on you? Jeez, I hope so.

44. What do you miss most? I miss the beach for the 51 weeks a year that I'm not there.

45. What is your favorite book? My favorite kids' book is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Totally awesome read, even for a grown up. As far as adult books, not many have had the impact that To Kill a Mockingbird had on me.

46. What is your favorite candy? Plain M&Ms. They've tried all sorts of variations (mini, huge, w/ peanuts, w/ crisp, dark chocolate, etc.), but you just can't beat the original. It's perfection.

47. What is your favorite sports team? I'll defer that question to someone who actually cares.

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? Huh? I don't want a song played at my funeral. I want a hymn played at my funeral. It's tacky to play songs in church.

49. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Sleeping. A lot of nights I am watching Scrubs at that hour.

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning? "Where's Luke?"

And now for the kiddies...

As you may know, we had a few snow showers here a couple weeks back. They were not much. I was very embarrassed for the reporters on TV who were trying to make it sound like a big deal. What a humiliating job. One girl actually said "When we get hit, we get hit hard." Yeah, lady. One time...like 15 years ago. Then once before that in 1983. So zip it and get back to my regularly scheduled rerun.

The first one started at about 6:00 p.m. one evening and it was melted by midnight. It was too dark to go out and play for more than 10 minutes, but we did what we could. Ben had never actually seen snow before, but he knew what it was.

A few days later another system came along and gave us a repeat of the first, but this time it was during the day. As you can see, it gave us a fine dusting and then melted. So we made do and made a very small snowman, then Luke and Patrick made snowballs and played baseball with them.

I actually hate snow--have ever since that time 15 years ago--so I'm hoping that will be all we see. The boys were content to come back in the warm house and watch their monster truck DVD, so maybe they got it out of their systems as well. We're definitely ready for spring. I was pleasantly surprised to see my crocuses blooming down by the mailbox today. I think I may add a What's Growing in My Yard feature to my sidebar.

Speaking of my sidebar, I'm updating it today as well, so have a look. I'll try not to wait another month before I blog, but what can I say? I blog as the spirit moves me. Patrick's birthday is in a few weeks, so I'll definitely post about that. Catch you later!