Yay Saints!

I got a call from hubby last night. The Special Olympics softball team he and Angel #1 coach took a gold medal in the state games on Oahu this weekend. I guess they kicked some major butt. They worked hard and I'm glad they medaled. But, the cool thing about Special Olympics is that even if they hadn't won, they really wouldn't have cared. I've even seen them cheer for the opposing team when they make a good play.

Though I love the Special Olympics and it serves a very important purpose for those who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunities to play games like that in their lives, I'm not a big fan of sports and hate the atmosphere most kids teams seem to have lately. The parents get much too involved in their kids games and many seem to be out for blood. I remember playing little league when I was a kid, we didn't have uniforms, the coach (who happened to be my dad) provided a lot of the equipment for the team and the only practices I can remember are when we got together an hour or so before the game and tossed the ball around. The game didn't take over our lives. I also remember once when the star hitter was up to bat for an opposing team. While at the plate getting ready to bat, he mouthed off to his coach. The coach immediately pulled him from the game and made him sit the bench for the remainder. Know what, I don't recall a single parent complaining about this kid getting punished, everyone knew he deserved it, even if it did affect the teams chance of winning. I don't remember who won that game or anything else, but I do remember that coach trying to teach the kids the principles of playing together on a team and having respect for others. From what I've read about youth sports no days, that coach probably would have been confronted by irate parents and been thrown out of the league. Things just aren't like they used to be. My kids never belonged to organized sports, but I remember sitting with hubby on the front porch on many warm summer nights watching our kids play with the neighbors in our front yard. We called what they were playing Calvinball, after the infamous game Calvin and Hobbes would play in the comic strip. There didn't seem to be any rules and the game didn't make any sense to us adults, but the kids all knew what they were doing and were having a blast doing it. It's too bad more kids don't have the freedom to play just for the sake of playing anymore. People seem to think they need to supervise their kids 24/7 or they're bad parents. I think kids are more like a garden, keep them watered and fertilized, pull out the weeds once in a while and let'em go.

singing my life away

It was incredibly busy today at work, I came in around 10am and barely had time to take a breath until I left at 5. Everyone was in working today, which is unusual because the past month or so has been slow and all the guys haven't been coming in. So, it was kind of nice to have a shop full of people (if you count 4 people in a shop full) and lots of work to keep us all busy. Once the other guys left, Ryan, a friend of my boss Tony's, came in to work on his own stuff. By that time were were all getting a bit punchy and we were all singing along to the radio while working, mainly The Grass Roots Live for Today. We're not very good singers. I also gave one of our vendors a sample of my sexy phone voice and told him I usually only use it when I'm giving someone bad news and gave him an example by saying "hi James, we can't pay our bill", very sexily (or as sexily as I can). I don't know if it worked or not, so I guess it's a good thing that we CAN pay our bill.

Hubby and Angel #1 left early this morning for Oahu. It's Special Olympics state games this weekend and they're coaching the Kona Saints softball team on to victory. Hubs called tonight and told me they won today and are playing in the finals tomorrow. Go Saints! The Tee-Ball team won a silver so they're done for the weekend already. Most of the athletes are playing two different sports so they've still got swimming, power lifting and/or track and field to compete in yet. I tell ya, those athletes have a whole lot more ambition than I do.

Angel #4 and her buddy are making cookies and I just had to rescue a batch of peanut butter fingers. Just a note, there's a HUGE difference between a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon.

time to take a breath

Wow, what a busy couple weeks I've had. We had a great time with Rent-a-Grandma and Angel #1 was so happy to have some family besides us at his graduation. Here are all my little Angels. Yes, that's a curtain rod WE's holding in his arms, you may remember it, it's the one that I bought along with some curtains waaay back in January, I still haven't hung them. WE decided it looked like a scepter and crowned himself king.

On Monday, hubby and I took Rent-a-Grandma on the around the island tour. We left around 6am, headed to the volcanoes, a few waterfalls and various other Big Island sites. We skipped the northern part of the island since she and hubby had gone there last week and cut through the middle of the island on the infamous saddle road that goes between the mountains - that road is carsickness looking for a place to happen.

Angel #4 had 5th grade graduation yesterday. After 13 years of kids in school, I'm finally no longer an elementary school mom - I love those milestones of life.

Things are looking a bit more peaceful on the animal front. We decided that goats were a pain in the patootie and sold them this week. We also decided to cut down on the chicken population and sold 10 of those this morning. Our 4 roosters are all on death row and will be getting their assigned spots in the freezer early next week hopefully. Hubs and 3 of the 4 kids are going to be on the Mainland for most of the summer and the fewer animals Angel #2 and I have to take care of while the rest of them are gone, the better.

the end is near

I can tell it's getting to be the end of the school year as my social calendar is starting to fill. Yesterday was the Spring Festival at Angel #4's elementary school. The entertainment ran the gamut of the kindergarteners doing the hula to the 5th graders dressing like zombies and dancing to Thriller. Since my Angel was one of the zombies, it dawned on me that it was going to be the last elementary school concert I was ever going to attend for my kids. 5th grade graduation is on the 26th, then, after 13 years, my career as an elementary school mom is over.

Tuesday night was the high school Jazz and Concert band Spring Concert for Angel #2. This is the final concert for the Seniors and the band teacher always has a little ceremony, sharing a memory of each of the outgoing Seniors before presenting them with a candy lei. Next year, my angel will be on the receiving end of the lei. After going to the band concerts for the last couple years, I always wonder how the band is going to recover from the loss of 1/4 of their number every spring, but they always manage to land on their feet. The high school band is relatively small, only about 40 kids, and they're all a pretty close-knit group. The band teacher even had a hard time remembering some of the Senior's names during the ceremony because most of the band kids go by nicknames. Angel #2 has been Cheez for the last 3 years, I'm not sure if he knows what her real name is.

Saturday, our family is doing the United Way Charity Walk to help Special Olympics. The walk starts at 7am, which means we're going to have be to out the door and on our way at around 6am to get there in time for the sign-in. Waking up before six on a Saturday morning just seems so wrong, but it's for a good cause, so I guess I can do it this once. That evening, Rent-a-Grandma is flying in for a 10 day visit. We haven't seen her since our trip to WI last summer and it'll be great to spend some time with her. She's coming down for Angel #1's graduation on the 22nd.

Looks like I've got a busy couple weeks ahead of me.

rain, rain, go away already!

Yesterday, I replanted most of the garden. Between stupid chickens and annoying bugs, I think all the previously planted seeds got eaten. We haven't had diddley squat for sun lately either, which I'm sure doesn't help. I'm getting a little tired of hazy, rainy days.

Some kind of stomach virus made its way through our house this week. Hubby and Angels #1 & 4 all were flat on their backs for over a day. Angel #1 NEVER gets sick, ever, and he even spent the day lying on the couch moaning. Fortunately, the rest of us haven't gotten it yet and I hope we don't, because it really didn't look like the other three were enjoying it all that much.

For his birthday, WE wanted to go see Ironman 2, so yesterday, opening day of the movie, hubby took him and a friend to go see it. Apparently, he enjoyed it, then spent the rest of the day running around the house with a garbage bag tied around his neck like a cape and an empty ice cream bucket on his head as a helmet and shooting, what I guess were laser beams from his hand. He was always flashing a plastic Samurai sword around. Angel #1 took a look at him, then looked at me and said: makes you glad he's on our side, huh?

For some bizarre reason, WE's cat, AK-47 is losing her fur. She doesn't seem sick or hurting or anything and it doesn't seem to bother her, she's just wandering around with naked back legs. She's starting to look like Dr. Evil's cat on Austin Powers, which is rather appropriate since WE is a 14 year old version of that particular villain. Next, he'll be designing laser beams to attach to sharks. Why have trillions, when you can have billions?!?

the drought is definitely over

It just keeps on raining here. After months of dry dust, it certainly is welcome, but a little sunshine would be nice too. We've got solar heated water, and when the sun doesn't shine, the water doesn't get hot. We've got a water heater that we can manually turn on, but really hate to use it unless it's absolutely necessary. On the plus side, all our radishes came up in the garden - minus side, I don't actually like radishes.

Sunday was WE's birthday. My little worm eating monster was 14 years old. He's past the age of eating worms, but he's still the same kind of kid. Today, he came home from school with both hands swelled up. He was playing a game where they slap the back of each other's hands until someone gives in. WE NEVER gives in - he hangs on beyond the point of stupidity, so his hands were all puffed up and beaten, but he didn't give in. I'm so proud *insert eye roll here*

Last but not least, this is a bit late, but happy Star Wars Day. May the 4th be with you! :)

got wet again, but can't blame the dunk tank this time

It was a yucky rainy day today for Cop on Top, which is unusual since it very seldom rains where the event takes place. But at least it wasn't horribly hot like it was last year. Made the dunk tank not quite as attractive though. Both the girl angels spent time in the tank today and got dunked a few times. I dropped them off at around 10 am on my way to work. Angel #2 left around 2, but #4 was having so much fun that it's almost 7:30 pm and she's STILL down there. We had lots of victims for the tank today - our biggest money draw was when one of the cops who'd just gotten off-duty sat in the tank in full uniform, minus shoes and weapons. Because he was in complete uniform we charged $20 for 3 throws instead of the usual $5. He managed to stay dry for quite a while, which was to our benefit because it just made people more determined to dunk him. He made over $100 for us in less than half an hour. Tonight, editors and reporters from the local paper took turns in the tank as well. The dunk tank is turning into a major money maker as well as being a lot of fun. Let's hope for some sun for tomorrow - a person can only take so many cloudy days. Here's the article the paper had about us in today's paper: http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/articles/2010/04/30/local/local01.txt