For sale

It's been a couple of years, so it's time for a rummage sale. It's amazing how much a person can accumulate in a short period of time. When Fred and I moved back to Bismarck our whole life fit inside a small trailer. Six years later, I can't even imagine trying to move all the stuff we have. We have filled this house up real good. The boys were still really young when we had our last rummage sale. Except for some baby toys there wasn't any toys that they had outgrown yet. This time however, this rummage sale is going to be stocked with toys. I spent two days going through the boys' room and their play area downstairs. I put so much stuff in the rummage sale pile. It feels so good to get rid of it too. While I was cleaning their room I also organized it better and it looks great. The boys also found some toys they haven't seen in awhile and have had some fun playing with them again. In addition to the rummage sale pile I also filled a garbage bag full of broken toys and junk. I don't think the boys understand that I am going to sell all the toys I pulled out. It will be interesting to see what they do when they see it all at the actual rummage sale. But that's another blog for another time.

Soccer. Day One.

Rion had his first soccer practice this evening. I think they should reconsider where they have the fields for the five and six years olds. Right next to the playground is not the best place. Rion spent half of the practice staring at the playground. About half way through the practice Fred gave Rion a drink of Gatorade. He asked Rion if he was having fun. "I want to play on the playground," he said. Fred told him after soccer he could. "I played soccer," he said. It didn't look like he was really into the soccer but towards the end he really started to warm up to it. There was about 15 kids in his group and I would not want to be a coach. The kids weren't that great at listening. "If you're not going to listen," the coach said, "we're going to run." That wasn't much of threat because the kids loved running. In fact that was the happiest I saw Rion the whole time.

Torii on the other hand wanted to be out there with Rion. We brought a soccer ball with for him to kick around. He was really good. He was even dribbling it. Then Tanner came over and Torii played soccer with him.

Rion did say he liked soccer. I hope he does like it. We'll see how it goes. It is fun to see all the little kids out there kicking the ball around. I think they have two weeks of practice and then they start games.

Get out of my head!

Don't you hate it when you have a really annoying song in your head? It's a hundred times worse when the song is from one of your child's shows. I can't get the Higglytown Hereos song out of my head. Over and over and over. I can't even remember the last time I saw that show and there it is in my head on repeat play. Please make it stop!

Checkers

Rion likes to play games on the Internet, but when he finds a new game he sometimes needs help reading the instructions. Usually he just figures it out on his own, but sometimes he calls me for help. A few days ago he came across a checkers game and he didn't understand it so I helped him out. It was a lot of fun so I kept playing it. The next day I was checking email and since he wasn't bugging me to get off the computer I decided to play a little checkers as well. Then Rion wanted on the computer and got mad when I wouldn't stop playing. "I'm not showing you anything ever again," he told me as he stomped off.

Here's the link:
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/games/fosters/bigshotcheckers/index.html

It's not like regular checkers, there's a little twist to it. I like to play the hardest level and get beat all the time.

Let's pretend

Fred has Torii hooked on video games. It's actually amazing how well Torii does on the Playstation. But the kid has gotten addicted to it. He plays one game where he fights aliens. He knows how to get his player to missions, add people to his team, switch weapons, and all kinds of other things. When he's not actually playing he likes to pretend he is in the game.
"Who do you want to be in my game mommy," he asks.
"I'll be Karen," I say. I only know two of the people in the game and Karen is one.
"No," Torii whines, "I'm playing story mode. Karen is in character mode."
I have no idea what he is talking about. "Then you pick for me," I say. He picks a character for me and now we are pretending we are in his video game.
"You have to kill the monster," he says. So I swing my pretend sword and tell him I got it.
"No. You have a gun." So I aim my gun and unload a couple of rounds on the monster.
"That was an Ageeta," Torii informs me. Once again I am lost.
Torii continues to tell me about his game and what we're pretending to do, but I do everything wrong as I have no idea what he is talking about. What ever happened to Matchbox cars and Thomas the train?

A good read

Last weekend I went to some rummage sales, which I really love to do. I found some clothes for the kids and a good book. I picked up "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. I had read his book "Into Thin Air" which was really good so I had to pick this one up as well. I had no intentions of starting a book right now, I just don't have the time, but I started to read the first couple of pages and now I can't put it down. It is so good. I'm already about half way through, but at the expense of my family and chores. I should have been catching up on chores on Sunday, but could not put the book down. The boys got to play video games and watch TV just so I could finish one more chapter. Which of course became one more chapter. And then one more chapter. I love to read, but when I've got a really good book, I don't want to do anything else but continue reading. Maybe it's not so bad. You're suppose to read in front of your children so maybe they will also pick up on the love of reading. That's what I keep telling myself. "Torii, mommy can't play right now because I want to show you how fun reading is." He's not buying it.

Summer rules

The weather was beautiful this weekend. We spent much of yesterday outside and Cordelia got to enjoy her first campfire. It wasn't until Friday that I got my summer clothes out. I was pregnant last summer so I didn't even take them out last year. When I opened up the box it was like Christmas. I had forgotten about some of the things I had. And some things were brand new that I bought on clearance in the fall before I got pregnant. Of course some things no longer fit. A third pregnancy will do that. At first I was a little depressed, but then I was ok with it because that means I just get to buy new clothes. So the old clothes went into the rummage sale pile and I went to Target.

I also have not bought any sandals for the boys yet which I need to do. I was folding laundry today, which is another chore I absolutely hate. Especially doing socks. Once the boys have sandals I won't have to worry about socks for a few months. It will be so nice. I love summer.