And the princess came to visit.

Princess Petunia plays with the toys for about two-tenths of a nanosecond, and then goes for her favorite plaything

They just like to hang out

I make faces at her and she imitates them

Then we move to the couch and make more faces because we have diverse interests

And we have chocolate Teddy Grahams, but they get taken away because we feed them to Pete. We get pouty when Pete goes outside with Man-boy, and we go look for Mommy

We pout just like big brother.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Wordless Wednesday: Bean's opinion of vacation.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Man-boy is a hard worker. He's been doing some yard work for the guy who used to live next door, and who has since moved to a 55+ community. Today Man-boy got paid for some of the work. He came home with $125. In one-dollar bills. I'm sure there's a reason for that.

So what do you think a 17-year-old does with 125 one-dollar bills? He plays.

And what does his mother do? She takes pictures. Any subject is fair game these days. Pete was completely bored with it all. Can you tell? This is his "I'm bored with you people" face.

He's especially annoyed with me lately, since I keep taking his picture while he's trying to be bored. He might have a little smirk going in this one.

When I go in the kitchen, however, Pete stops being bored and gets interested. He knows he's not allowed to walk around while I'm cooking, so he takes his place at the end of the bar with his big nose stretched into the kitchen as far as he can get it.

And I take another picture just to annoy him.

Be thankful ~

Karen

PS. Are we the only ones who are being driven crazy by gnats in the house this year? I don't remember them ever being this bad.

The game in which I sink to new lows of photography.

It began with a field that looked like this:

This is what happens when you have no rain all summer and then a bunch the day of the game. But no biggie, we can handle a little mud.

Then the refs showed up. And Ben (the church deacon) got there. It wouldn't be long before there was a very loud meeting of the minds.

When it became clear that the officials were only going to call pushing on our guys, Ben shared his opinion (in the spirit of Christian love, of course) that perhaps the guy in yellow wanted to call that foul both ways. The ref immediately walked over to our coach and told him his fan had to go. As in, leave the game. Go home. Our coach asked to be carded and said he'd make the guy shut up (Coach and Ben are kindred spirits and have equally big mouths.), but no, the ref said he had to go. So Ben left. And our guys got mad. Donnie took it upon himself to score three goals in the next 5 minutes, then Ashton scored, then Donnie scored two more. It was beautiful. The ref gave them a penalty kick about 12 yards in front of our goal when their guy ran into our guy's leg and fell down writhing in pain. They scored on a corner kick. During the second half, Ref just about hyperventilated blowing his whistle on pushing calls (always on our guys) every fifteen seconds (I'm not even kidding). Ref tried valiantly to give the game to the other team, but we held firm. What a great game!

I always try to take a few pictures before the action starts, because once the whistle blows, I have to keep up the family tradition of ref abuse. Today I wanted to get some action shots of Man-boy and his fellow strikers taking shots on goal during warm-up.  Here's one of Man-boy kicking:

Yeah, I missed that one. Try again:

Dang. Missed again. Okay, this time I'll get it:

Good thing they play better than I take pictures.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Just so I remember.

Abbie had a birthday party for a friend tonight. They had a mess-o-rama complete with shaving cream, cheese balls, chocolate pudding, and spam. Here's proof:

And I got this cell phone camera photo from the daughter who was at the wedding I missed:

Yes, Audrey is about 6 inches taller than Jacob. It doesn't bother either of them. Happy life, Audrey and Jacob!

Be thankful ~

Karen

Bean's travels.

Bean and his family are at a wedding that I would love to be at this weekend, but it's just too far away. Here he is waiting with his daddy.

Deb says Bean has never been interested in television, but in the hotel they found The Donut Man on cable TV, and he was mesmerized.

I love that pose! If you've never seen The Donut Man, you don't know what your little kids are missing. Go call them and let them watch the video here. You'll be hooked.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Playing with the new toy.

 Taken after Friday's thrashing at Heritage Christian School. Man-boy scored the only goal.

 Taken Saturday morning. Such a good man, doing the dishes! And it's scriptural even (2 Kings 21:13)! This was the second photo I took. He made me delete the first one because he hadn't sucked in his gut. :)

 Learning about focal lengths by changing the aperture (I think).

And more focal lengths.

Someone took a picture of Moron-mutt.

More tomorrow. Be thankful ~

Karen

Another step.

Taken through the French doors next to my desk.

I've figured out how to transfer  photos from the camera to the computer. I'm making progress! Good start to a Friday.

Be thankful~

Karen

The POD.

If you were in the Navy, you'd know that stands for Plan of the Day. I'm not sure why it's not POTD, but in the Navy you learn not to question the stupid acronyms.

Anyway, here's the POD:

Work, school, laundry, learn how to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer (I actually learned how to take pictures in several different modes yesterday. Unfortunately, I will need to take my 200-page user's manual to the game with me today so I can remember it all.), Man-boy's soccer game, fight DC traffic after the game, eat peanut butter on Ritz crackers for dinner, fall into bed.

I'll let you know how it works out.

In the meantime, I have been meditating on God's wonderful mercy here lately:

"O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." (Psalm 118:29) Aren't you glad his mercy endures forever?

Be thankful ~

Karen

I've finally got it.

My camera, that is. I've been saving and waiting for a good deal on a Nikon D5000, and this week it came to pass.

For months I planned my first post with wonderful, bright photos. I was going to be a professional in mere moments and regale you daily with my mad picture-taking skills.

Ha!

It took me an hour this morning to figure out how to take a picture, and I'm not even kidding. I've been sitting on the couch with the camera in one hand and the instruction manual in the other, and I'm not getting very far. Abbie's coming home to write papers this weekend, and I'm hoping she can help me progress from rock bottom.

So instead, I went to the gym and bought some groceries. Now I'm going to work and oversee Man-boy's studies. Back to the instructions tonight.

Be thankful ~

Karen

He's all boy.

Put him behind the wheel of a car and look at that face:

We're pretty busy this week with school, work, and revival services every evening, but I managed to  order my camera. I've been waiting to find a good deal, and I finally did. Now to figure out how to use it.

Be thankful ~

Karen

It's really free. Honest.

We're having special services (some people call it "having revival") at our church this week with evangelist Tom Farrell, so we've been trying to get the word out. The church made up thousands of cards with the dates and times, and we've been handing them out for weeks.

So today, our Sunday school class decided to have a free car wash (the church is on a major road with tons of traffic) so we could tell people about the revival. We weren't going to accept donations or anything, just wash their car and invite people to the services.

It was a beautiful day for it . . . sunny and breezy, about 85°. We got set up and had our people with signs out on the highway at 10 am.  Saturday traffic was heavy as usual. By 1 pm we had washed 7 cars.

Seven. Siete. Seben. Sette.

People just don't believe something will really be free. We even wrote "no donations accepted" on the posters. And it wasn't like we were preaching hell-fire at them. We just invited them to the revival. One woman was so overwhelmed when we refused to take money, she started crying. Over a free car wash!

Can you imagine how she'll feel when she finds out eternal life is free? It can't be earned or bought. There's nothing you can do to deserve it. It's as free as the car wash.

Be thankful ~

Karen

PhotoHunt: School

Going-back-to-school packing by Abbie:

She packed light this year.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Another day, another $241 spent on cars.

For people with no car payments, we sure do spend a lot of money on cars. This week it was getting Man-boy's car through inspection. One brake caliper, a parking light, a battery tie-down (rolling my eyes), two tires, and a front-end alignment later, and we have a sticker for another year.

For the record, we spend a lot because we currently have five vehicles on the road. They all have well over 200,000 miles (except the Taurus, which, bless it's heart, is on its third transmission and only has 175,000 . . . don't buy a Taurus unless you want to help your transmission guy put his kids through college.) but they're paid for, so we feel like we're still ahead of the game.

In happier news, I have a few pictures of the Bean to share. First, his serious side:

Look at those cheeks! I want to scoop him up and kiss kiss kiss that fat little face!

He's happy here because he and his mama are going to an epically (I think that's a made-up word) huge yard sale. I'd be smiling too!

Tomorrow we have a car wash, I work 4 hours, Man-boy refs youth-rec soccer and works for the neighbor, and poor neglected Pete gets to go for a walk. Happy Saturday!

Be thankful ~

Karen

The Pumpkin Bread

I've had numerous requests for this recipe. I thought I had posted it already, but I can't find it. If you know I already did, please just shake your head and feel sorry for me and move on. Also, I would post pictures of the process, but I just finished washing all the dishes. Sorry.

Combine in a bowl:

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

In the bowl of a mixer, beat 2 sticks softened butter with 1 3/4 cups sugar until fluffy. Add 2 eggs and beat. Add 2 more eggs and beat well. Now add the dry ingredients alternately with 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (I usually use a whole small can, which is a little more than that, but it works.) At the end, stir in a cup of chocolate chips.

Divide batter between two 9x5 loaf pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for about an hour, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Try not to eat it all in one sitting.

*Thanks to my long-time friend Karen Antonelli for giving me this recipe 27 years ago. It's made me famous.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Duct tape, to the rescue.

Yesterday was another soccer game for Man-boy. The school he plays for is part of ODACS (Old Dominion Association of Christian Schools), so we play other schools that are in ODACS. Each school is responsible for hiring officials for its home games. As you can imagine, that doesn't always work out well.

So yesterday, the host team had arranged the officiating. I'm not sure where they found these three fellows, but it may have been St. Joe's Home of the Blind.

Not to be a complainer or anything, but let me just complain. I believe it was the worst officiating I have ever seen in my life. Having played on a mediocre girls' high school soccer team 35 years ago, I could have done a better job. Pushing didn't get called. Cleating to the ankles (one of our guys got it twice) didn't get called. Handballs didn't get called. One of their guys actually caught the ball with BOTH hands, dropped it at his feet, and continued playing, and THAT didn't get called. (These types of fouls were called freely on our team.)

I'm pretty vocal at soccer games (some would call it obnoxious . . . I blame it on Ben, who taught me well), but I was maintaining my composure in fair measure. But when Man-boy took a direct kick to the ribs (he was standing and the ball was long gone) and NO FOUL WAS CALLED, I lost my mind. While my son was on his face, holding his side and panicking because he couldn't get a breath and thought his ribs were broken, I did the motherly thing and started screaming at the ref. I questioned his visual acuity. I publicly cast doubt on his intelligence level. I may have even asked how much he was paid to favor the other team. It was the worst bias in officiating I've ever witnessed. Or maybe incompetence. No, both.

I've promised I will duct tape my mouth at the next game.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Man-boy goes to court.

I don't know how it is in your state, but in Virginia teenagers get their driver's licenses by going to court. First they get a learner's permit, then they do the written and behind-the-wheel training, they drive at least 40 hours with a parent, and then they get a summons to appear before the judge with a parent. Today was Man-boy's day.

The summons tells you where to go (Juvenile/Domestic Relations Court), what time, and reminds you to dress appropriately and leave your cell phone at home. They make a big deal out of not bringing your cell phone to court.

So this morning Man-boy and I got up and dressed appropriately. He was the only one (including the judge) with a necktie on, so okay, maybe I overdid it. But better safe than sorry, right? We made sure he had all the right papers, and both of us threw our cell phones on the doghouse in the van before we went in.

After a minor mishap getting through security (something about not bringing pocket knives into the courtroom), we went upstairs and sat through the judge's lecture about safe driving, listened to a lot of statistics (16 year olds have 4 times as many fatal accidents as 30 year olds), and looked at a bunch of pictures of wrecked cars, each parent was given his/her child's license. The judge reminded us many times that it was up to us whether our kids drove or not. We have the power to take the license away at any time, and can even get DMV to revoke it if we so choose.

When we got to the car, I looked at Man-boy and said, "I'm going to say one thing before I give you this license. I don't ever want to be called to the scene of a fatal accident because you did something stupid. Don't ever make me go through that."

Praying for safety for Man-boy.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Zzzzzzzz . . .

Well, wonders never cease. The JMU Dukes beat the Virginia Tech Hokies yesterday, 21–16. If you don't live in Virginia, you probably don't care about that, and I wouldn't either except that between the years of 2004 and 2009, JMU sucked about $90,000 out of my checking account. So I care as much as someone not at all interested in college football can. My level of enthusiasm is directly proportional to the amount of money that comes out of my wallet. The only thing I like about football is the chips and queso.

In case you're wondering what a Hokie is, here's the explanation.

Also, I've discovered that I have hormone-induced hypersomnia, which means I have excessive sleepiness in the middle of the day. Who knew it had a name? This may or may not be related to the fall allergies I seem to have developed at the ripe old age of 49. I've never been allergic to anything in my life, and now all of a sudden I have the scratchy-throat-burning-eyes response to ragweed that can only be cured with a daily Claritin, which in turn may have something to do with the hypersomnia. It's a vicious circle (not a vicious cycle, which would refer to a really awesome Harley Davidson).

And finally, in my work this week I found a great website based on the book Common Errors in English Usage. I could sit and read this stuff all day!

Until I fall asleep.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Pictures from the happy side of this game.

Did I skip a day? I think I skipped a day. I'm so sorry! I know your life is not the same without reading the riveting details of my boring life here every day. I'll try to do better.

Last night Man-boy had another game, and since we're new to this team, we weren't sure what to expect from the school we were playing.

Let's just say we got a thrashing. We won't talk about the score.

Nevertheless, I managed to snap a few pictures before the beating commenced.

Man-boy is number 10, which is Lionel Messi's number. That's very important when you're 17.

Here he is in his Nike T90s—they help you run faster, jump higher, and kick farther. (Raise your hand if you remember the Keds commercials from the late 1960s.) I jest, but he did score from 52 yards out last week, so I wonder . . .

Here he is with Donnie (23) and Andreas (24), whom they refer to as "the little Bolivian." The little Bolivian is like lightning in the midfield. He's fun to watch.

(Insert thrashing here.)

When we get home from a game, Man-boy is ravenous. He can't seem to get the food to his mouth fast enough. Here he is dishing out Mexican dip faster than the spoon can move:

He was yelling at me to hurry up while I took this picture. You'll be happy to know he did not die of hunger.

Now here it is, Friday night, and I'm still 5 1/2 hours short for the week. Looks like I'm working Saturday. The dog hair will have to wait another week.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Linky love.

I don't do this very often, but tonight in honor of my 35th follower (!!! can you tell I'm SO EXCITED??! Because it's a nice, neat number, and we all know how important that is, right?), I'm going to share a little linky love.

I just came home after a long day of work, laundry and ironing, cooking for home, cooking for 25 teenagers, practicing with a singing group, and church, and read this post at The Pioneer Woman. I've got number one. I'm working on number two. Boy, I have a long way to go.

And while you're at PDub's, check out the recipes. This is one of my favorites, and so is this, and I could eat this for breakfast. In fact, I have. Don't hold it against me. And someday I'm going to make these so I can have a proper tea whenever I want. Did you know tea is not just a drink? It's an event of great culinary importance with its own set of rules and food choices. And by law, it must include scones.

Ree also has a lot of photography knowledge, so if you're a novice like me, head on over and learn "What the heck is an aperture?" She even gives away an occasional camera. I'm still waiting for my lucky break.

I also love Melissa's blog. She makes me feel like it's ok to be normal. And she takes great pictures too.

And I love how DeeDee makes me laugh while she's struggling with health issues.

And now, since I can't concentrate on two things at once, I'm going to give my full attention to Man vs. Food eating deep dish pizza in Chicago. We have priorities.


Buon appetito!

Be thankful ~

Karen

Nobody told me it would be like this.

Hello, my name is Karen and I'm a soccer mom.

Goodness, this is a hard job! You just can't imagine the stress of watching your kid play a highly competitive game, where the opponent has beaten your team for Y-E-A-R-S on end, and just the mention of their name strikes fear in the hearts of your own players.

Elijah had never played this particular school before, and he was more than a little apprehensive about it. So we were talking on the way there, and I reminded him that they're just guys. They put on their shorts the same way you do. Don't be intimidated by a reputation.

Then when we got there, I set up my chair and prayed, "Lord, show him this is not a given. Let him score the first goal."

AND HE DID!

Man-boy put in a beautiful shot just out of the keeper's reach. God surely blessed him at that moment.

Unfortunately, it was the only goal our team scored. They got 3, and one of our defenders helped them with another. 4-1, them.

I would say it was sad, but it really wasn't. It was the best I've seen our guys play. An exciting game. And I learned a lesson . . .

Next time I won't limit my prayers to one goal.

Be thankful ~

Karen

On this day in history.

Eighteen years ago today, Labor Day 1992, I found out I was expecting Man-boy. Of course, we didn't know he was Man-boy at the time, but the little plus sign was unmistakable. It was the longest of all my pregnancies: 9 months, 3 weeks, 1 day. He was due on April 17; born on May 9. Man-boy was born in our home while the children were supposed to be asleep at 12:20 am on Mother's Day. Ask my older three children, and they can do a pretty good imitation of the hollering coming out of my bedroom as my almost-ten-pounder was born.

Man-boy was not a planned event. In fact, with four small children already, we never even considered having another. But God knew we needed him.

He loves his family.

Loves to be outside. He's one of those guys who should make a fishing show.

See? He's a natural!

Loves soccer.

I'm so glad we were surprised.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Five factoids.

1. Hey! I have 34 followers! That's more than a third of the way to 100! I have no idea why that matters other than the fact that my very left-brained world has a need for nice, neat, even numbers. And if they're not even, I have to come up with some justification to make them seem that way.


2. In our budgeting discussion today, Ben and I calculated our monthly gasoline bill: $650. It's almost as much as our food bill.

3. A bear has been sighted in our neighborhood. It happened a couple of weeks ago, when some guy saw a black bear messing around with his garbage cans when he went out to go to work in the early morning. We've been warned to "be careful in the morning" (apparently bears are not threatening after 12  pm), "carry a flashlight if it's still dark out" (and they're afraid of light), and "don't let the dog out" (I would need a litter box the size of a swimming pool).

I think I'll take my chances.

4. I've eaten three meals today. Why am I hungry? It could be the smell of pizza. I buy frozen pizzas for Man-boy. He likes to eat one ten minutes before dinner to take the edge off. If you buy them, what's your favorite kind?

5. Sticky Bean helping his dad sand the deck:

No child was harmed in the making of this photograph. The sander was not plugged in.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Princess P.

Princess Petunia came for a visit Thursday morning while her mommy went to physical therapy.

Immediately, Pete started playing hard to get.

Acting like he was uninterested in her antics while she showed off, trying to get his attention.

He went to find his Kong. If you know anything about dog toys, Kongs are purported to be indestructible, especially for powerful chewers.

Yes, that would be the Kong he has in his mouth. The one that is shredded. It is his very favorite toy.

Ok, it's his only toy. But he really loves it.

Uh oh. She sees the Kong.

She wants it.

This girl is gutsy, let me tell you. She thinks nothing of reaching right in his mouth full of big teeth and trying to take it away.

Still trying . . .

Finally, Princess P. decides it's big enough for both of them.

Can you hear that screaming? That's Princess P's mommy, who can't believe I let her daughter share a chew toy with my dog.

Be thankful ~

Karen