Some of Everything

Mom is staying up late to get this blog written tonight so it may be short.  But good I'm sure.

I had my second softball game of the season on Monday and got to play third base and catcher.  I had an actual, real live play at third with a throw to first base and everything.  It was pretty awesome.  I had one at bat and struck out, which made me cry but coach Tricia was good about pepping me up.

On Friday, mom had a night out with some friends from work.  There is a little local candle shop that makes all their own candles and they also allow groups to come in after hours and make their own candles (and bring wine!).  About 10 of them got together and got creative.

First step is to stuff your cylinder full of yummy smelling wax bits in pretty colors....

Then you pour hot wax over the whole thing....

(Apparently, mom was a little concerned about this whole process)

Then you wait 24 hours and go pick up your amazing smelling candle.  It was quick and fun.

Saturday was another softball game for me.  We have to get to the field an hour early to warm up so it gave mom and dad a good, long look at our competition.  It was pretty obvious from the get-go that we were completely and totally outmatched.  These girls were serious.  They led their own warm stretches- without coaches intervening and there was no "grab assing" as dad likes to call it.  Then they could throw hard and straight.  From their knees.  And then they actually caught the balls that were thrown to them.  They hit the balls.  Really hard.  Meanwhile, over at the Ballerina Bombers (sigh) dugout, we were prancing around, swinging from the rafters in the dugout, wearing ourselves out chasing down missed balls, picking daisies.
The game itself was not quite the blow out mom and dad expected.  I think because they could not hit our super slow pitchers and sometimes, they threw so hard at each other that they couldn't handle the ball.  We didn't help our cause any though.  We had one or two girls hit the ball and then just stand at home plate, not sure what to do.  Of course they were out.  We did make some plays, me included and I even got a hit AND remembered to run.  The final score was 8-0 (thank goodness for the mercy rule) and I think it exposed a few of weak areas that we might a teensy bit of work on.

After my game, mom took me to get my hair cut.  She finally bit the bullet and took me to her salon.  She was so tired of bad haircuts.  I got the full treatment with a shampoo, head massage (to which I replied "Jordan likey!"), cut and blow dry.  Unfortunately for mom, I loved it and I look good so it looks like I'll be back.

We made it home from that and dad has started his annual pool prep and clean up.  I'm not one to waste a good pool cleaning so I jumped right in, softball uniform and all and enjoyed the 78 degree water.  I finally got out when my teeth wouldn't stop chattering.  Good times!

On Sunday, we made a trip up to Phoenix to go to Dave and Busters for lunch and a few games.  I managed to win yet another huge stuffed animal.  Not sure where this one is going to go but we'll worry about that later.

 Dave and Busters is located in a big out door mall so while dad and I were winning stuffies, mom was out shopping so it was a "win-win" kind of day for everyone.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Enjoying Spring

Aaaaahhhh- we love spring.  Now, if only mom were healthy and able to enjoy it.....  She was on the right path and feeling almost OK when she was hit again with a new sickness.  This one was bad enough to keep her home from work on Friday (which was also dad's day off, so that was extra fun for him).  After copious amounts of drugs, she is finally feeling good.  Yeah!  

Enough about her, now onto me!

I had a fun week- St. Patrick's day and a school field trip on Monday and then on Thursday evening, Grandpa Vern picked me up and took me out to dinner, just the two of us.  I put on my sparkly headband and a squirt of perfume and I was ready.   It was so super, duper fun!  He took me to my favorite steak place and then to the candy store after and we had good grandpa/grand daughter talks.  I can't wait to go again!

Saturday rolled around and with it came my first softball game as a Ballerina Bomber.  The parents let out a collective groan when our team name was revealed.  You can't blame me though because my suggestion was the Purple Panthers.  Our coach is very good- she played college ball at Regis University up in Denver.  She is very fun, motivating and makes us work hard.

I'm playing in a U8 league here and we pitch to each other which is definitely fun.  The pitcher pitches until the batter strikes out or the pitcher throws four balls.  Once 4 balls are thrown, the coach steps in and pitches until we strike out or get a hit.  The innings went fast which is always nice.  We even had a real, live umpire wearing the blue shirt, grey pants and protective gear.  Mom and dad figured he drew the short straw- having to ump U8 girls softball.
Here I am at bat.  I didn't get a hit but my form is pretty dang good so when I do make contact, it's a usually a  hard hit.

 I got to play catcher this game and that was fun too but I have been working on my pitching and can't wait to try that in a game.

  After our game, dad, mom, grandpa and I stuck around to practice some more.  I'm really kind of liking softball this time around so maybe I'll stick with it long enough to actually get decent!

The rest of Saturday was low keyed, mom was still catching up on her rest and hacking up lungs.
Sunday was good day.  Dad got in a bike ride and then we headed to Agua Caliente Park to wander around.  Agua Caliente used to be a big cattle ranch and it has a natural lake on it with ducks, tadpoles and turtles.  It's been so dry for so many years though that the lake is drying up.  It's still a nice oasis in the desert though so we enjoyed it.

We spent the rest of the day lounging around listening to the sound track from Frozen.  It is my absolute favorite thing to listen to now.  Yes, me.  The dragon loving, dinosaur digging, monster truck rally going, princess hating girl loves Frozen.  I love to blast it out of my room and sing at the top of my lungs.  Occasionally, mom will join me and that is especially pretty sounding.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

We're Baaaaack- I Think

Well, apparently, mom takes a little longer to get out of vacation mode than others- thus the missing blog last week and the late one this week.  We'll try to catch every one up on our super, duper exciting lives.

Last weekend was a kind of "everyone doing their own thing" weekend.  Each of us had a spectacular time at too.  We love, love, love being together as a family but sometimes branching out and actually engaging with other people is a good thing!

Dad left to go on a boys only camping trip on Friday.  He went 4 wheeling and camping for one night with the old gang.  He said the 4 wheeling was really rough and a couple of the guys lost some internal organs.  I think it sounds like a perfect trip for boys only....

While dad was out camping, mom was thoroughly enjoying a girl's night at her friend Janet's house.  Janet did all the cooking and had the beer cold when the ladies arrived.  They even got to enjoy desert out on the patio with the firepit burning and beautiful views of the city.  It was perfect.

While mom and dad were off doing their thing, I was home doing laundry and mopping the floors.

Ha!  Just kidding!  I was having a blast spending the night at my friend Madeline's house!  Madeline's mom was at Janet's house too so Madeline and I got to hang out with her dad all night.  So. Much. Fun.  We got to eat pizza, make ice cream sundaes, slide down her stairs into a pile of pillows and the best part for Mr. Mike was that we were crashed out by 9 o'clock.  Woo-hoo!  When mom was driving me over to drop me off, I pointed out that it had been waaaay to long since I've had a sleep over with any friends- since Colorado.  Mom had to agree with me- we need to do stuff like that more often.

Saturday was a recoup day for all of us since we were a little tired.  It's exhausting being out of our routine but we were back it on Sunday.  Mom's good friend Shari was in town from Wisconsin so they headed out for a nice, long hike up Phone Line trail in Sabino Canyon and then to another friend's house for brunch.  I had a play date with my friends Max and Claire all afternoon.  While mom and I were enjoying friends and good food, dad was having good times of his own, doing our taxes.  Don't think that wasn't loads of fun!

This past week went by kind of slow.  Mom was sick all week and she is never fun when she's sick but  we survived and so far dad and I have avoided her cooties.

We were certainly ready for the weekend!  Dad was in a 3 day bike race with the first race being a time trial on Friday afternoon.  Everything was looking good for him when a freak wind/rain squall started just has he took off.  Cleared up as soon as finished riding.  That's his excuse anyway.  But really, he didn't do too bad.

I got to bring our class hamster, Fluffernutter, home for the weekend, so I spent Friday afternoon chasing her around the house.

On Saturday, dad had stage two of his race.  No rain, just wind this time but he managed to finish with the leaders.  When he got home, we headed out to do some shopping and pizza eating.  (We love pizza here and it's been MONTHS since we've had any.  It was good.....)

Sunday was another really fun day.  Dad had stage three of his race and again he finished with the lead pack and ended up 27th overall.  He is however, paying for it with complete exhaustion.  He's taken the last two days off from riding so you know it was bad.  He and mom decided on a new categorization system for cyclists.  Instead of Categories 1-5 or age groupings, it should be "people with jobs and kids", "retired people" and "young people with no obligations other than riding".  That would be more fair.

Mom and I spent our Sunday in a more cerebral way, enjoying the Tucson Festival of Books.  This is an enormous, fun event put on every year.  This year, we didn't see too many books but spent most our time in Science City, enjoying all the fun things there.  We learned about comets and I'm going to have my name put on the space capsule that is going to the astroid Bennu then I made a bracelet out of test tubes from the microbiology department at the UofA, I rode on a hover craft thingy, ate pretzels and just generally had a fun time with my old mom.  

Now that spring has sprung, mom had resumed her daily patrols of our yard looking at all the stuff in bloom.  We put in a bunch of pictures in honor of our friend Heidi who is in Stockholm, Sweden with a case of cabin fever.  These are for you!

Our blood orange tree blossoms.  If you've never smelled orange blossoms, oh, you are missing something!  Almost as good as roasting green chile!

Our pomegranate tree- no real pomegranates though:(

Our bouganvilla

Our roses 

Penstammon

Pretty purple flowers.....

Our basil plant, only because mom likes her pot

The Worst Day(s) Ever!

I was on Spring Break 2 weeks ago and apparently, when I'm on vacation, so is mom.  Both mom and dad are much less motivated when we aren't on a tight schedule, therefor, no blog.  But here we are again back on track.  Whew.  We hate vacations.....

So my spring break was pretty cobbled together but pretty cool anyway.  Since mom has no PTO and dad has his planned out for the year already, I had a somebody different to hang out with everyday and it was cool!  Grandma Sue and Grandpa Vern took the Monday shift and we were going all. day. long. We started with breakfast at the Good Egg (almost as good as Snooze!) then went to see a movie, then went to the plant nursery (several of them in fact).  Grandma Sue gets a little tired of mom's constantly dead/dying plants so she tries to keep things looking lively by bringing us new, pretty, alive plants.  This time I got to help pick out and plant the new stuff.  After all that activity, we decided we needed some gelato so we headed there to finish off the day.  Pretty spectacular if you ask me.

Mom took the Tuesday shift.  We went to our favorite hiking/hanging out spot to enjoy the beautiful weather.  It would have been a fabulous day except mom took an allergy pill and could hardly keep her eyes open.  Put her in the warm sunshine, on a soft spot and she was toast.  We didn't last too long before we headed home so she could sleep things off.

 On Wednesday, I had a sitter come stay with me.  Dad's work has this awesome program where they will subsidize a nanny to come stay with me up to 20 days a year so we took advantage of it for the first time and it was a pretty sweet deal.  Amber and I got along great and had a fun day.

Dad pulled duty on Thursday.  For our adventure, we headed to the remote control car race track and had a blast racing our cars around.  I pulled some wicked jumps until I jumped so high that I broke an axle when I landed.  Good times!

Friday wasn't not so much fun.  Not the worst day ever though- more on that later.  I had to go into work with mom for the day.  She made me finish my book report and work on some spelling words but then I got to play Minecraft all day long!!  That was an awesome day.

When we lived in Denver, one thing mom really kind of missed was yard work.  Yes, it's true.  When we arrived back in Tucson, our house was in pretty good shape but the yard needed some serious work and mom finally got to tackle it on Saturday.  Rose bushes, grass, Birds of Paradise all got hacked, trimmed back, mesquite leaves and other stuff got swept up, the sprinkler system was tested (with help from dad).  All in all a good day with much left to do.

On Sunday, mom and I met our friend Grace, her sister Anna and their mom Amy at the zoo for fun morning.

While we were busy yardworking and zooing, dad entered his first bike race in 3 years.  He finished mid-pack and happy with his return to racing.

This past week was back to business as usual.  I wrapped up my swim team for the time being as softball is starting on Monday.  I had my last meet on Friday night.  I did OK, winning my heat for 50M backstroke and coming in second overall.  I'm still not fabulous on breast stroke or butterfly as I got DQd on both but I'm getting there.

Saturday was a wonderful, rainy day.  We haven't seen real rain since last year so this was a nice treat.  We just spent the day wandering around the house, trying to decide what to do.  It was kind of nice.  Mom and dad had a date night that night and I had a wonderful time with my sitter so everyone was happy.
On Sunday, dad had another bike race.  This is his least favorite race of the season but he did it and is a better man for it.  We think.
Mom and I spent the morning at the Farmer's Market near our house.  We are able to walk there and our way, we spotted this beautiful Monarch butterfly on a Chinaberry bush.  So pretty!

Mom spent Sunday afternoon taking advantage of the rain from last night and pulled a bunch of weeds, dad spent the afternoon upgrading his bike and I built stables in Minecraft.

Now, about the worst days ever.  I seem to be having some hunger induced meltdowns after school these days.  This past week, I came out of class crying because I was given the job of Eagle Express stuffer.  The Eagle Express is the weekly school newsletter that goes home in an envelope.  My job was to stuff the envelopes.  I hate that job and it was the worst day ever when I was given that job.  Until the next day.  The office runners ( a really cool job by the way) came back from the office with nothing for the envelopes.  So not only did I get a sucky job, I didn't even get to do the job.  This was again the worst day ever.  And then the week before that, we were driving by Nimbus restaurant, which we had been to a whole two times but I loved because they gave out plastic monkeys, and I noticed they were out of business!  Between sobs and gnashing teeth I told mom this was the worst day ever because now I would never get another plastic monkey.  "Plastic monkeys are forever, mom!!"  Sob sob cry cry.
Mom is now bringing me a snack for the ride home after school.

Hope everyone has the best week ever!  And we mean that!