Grizzlies games & Nazi Ice Cream OR Someone Organize My Organization

Our bosses always get season tickets for Grizzlies' games (not sure if they buy them or are given them since Sonic is a sponser??).  They use them for themselves sometimes, but sometimes they offer them out to managers.  This season it seemed like they offered them out more often than in the past (not sure why??), and that really worked out for us since it just so happened to be an awesome season, and Jacob is old enough to want to go to a game.  Jon scored 4 tickets a couple times, so Abby & a date came to one with them, and Abby and another date (not really-it was really one of Jacob's friends who thinks she's "hot") came to another one. 

 How close the seats are.

 

 Jacob's friend Julian just happened to sit between Jacob and Abby...

 He might be a little happy about the seating arrangement...

Jon and Jacob got to go to the last playoff game of the season.  We only got 2 tickets this time, so it was a father/son bonding time :)

Why yes that is a $3 Michael's t-shirt that I ironed on a printed-out-from-my-computer-iron-on-image.  He had no idea. 

So, I may have a problem. It's true.  I like to organize.  And I have a bad memory.  Put these 2 things together and you have the need to write EVERYTHING down.  IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS because writing them all down on one spot causes you to only see one reminder and gloss over the others.  

First we have this little baby:  it only has room for a week's worth of reminders.  I use it to write down places I have to be on each day.  Notice it is on the fridge, a place I visit often, so I will be more likely to see it.

Here we have what used to be the "school bulletin board."  That stopped working out because it is in an area where I never look during the period of time when thinking about school.  Rather, when I am near  this one, I am at the computer.  So this has become the bulletin board to hold business related things, like important receipts, coupons, gift cards, and fantasy football information. 

This one is now the school/summer bulletin board.  It is on the pantry door, near the kitchen table-which is where Jacob does homework.  During the school year, I keep the academic calendar and other important announcements here.  And of course his homework/extra practice star sheet.  During the summer, I have June and July calendars with Jacob's, Jon's, and my summer events in different colors.  Also, I have flyers for fun things to do.  And still the homework/extra practice star sheet because I am making the boy read for 30 minutes each day, AND do a worksheet printed off from websites to keep his brain active.  They really do lose it all during the summer.  Also, it serves as a condition for XBox playtime: he can't turn on the XBox unless he does the work first.  

Finally, this is the birthday/doctor appointment calendar.  As you can see, I tried putting every event on here, but like I said, I would see one thing, but not see the others.  So now I have trained my brain to look only for the blue spots, which are bdays and appointments.   This one is on the fridge, facing the stove, so that when I cook, I will see it. Then I can go and address a bday card or add an appointment time to the weekly calendar while something is burning cooking. 

Yes, I need help. 

Here we have our annual trip to Joe's Crab Shack.  Why only once a year you ask? Well, the food isn't all that outstanding and it isn't close to me at all.  But about 3 years ago I took Jacob, Morgan, Abby & friend here on the first day of summer break, and somehow we have repeated it 2 more times.  It's nice because the kids have something to do.  I actually have our own beach shovel/bucket set that I keep in the garage especially for this event.

Joe's actually offers vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on top for $1.  Which used to be good enough.  Now they want Baskin Robbins.  The funny thing about Morgan is that being a girl, she is usually the clean and neat one.  Apparently that goes out the window while eating ice cream.  Jacob, on the other hand was completely clean.  

For some reason I thought she looked like Hitler.  But Hitler didn't have a goatee....so I'm not sure what I was thinking...

Catch Up

Playing catch up with this one, so it is a big mix up of pics.

I can't remember if I ever included this in a post, and I am too lazy to look back...

Jacob always has a hard time his first week or so of school.  When he started Kindergarten, I gave him a pick of us to keep with him so he could look at it when he was sad.  Thus a tradition was started.  He specifically asks for it now.  This year I taped it to the inside of his agenda book :)

 As we all know, Jacob is obsessed with Legos & Star Wars.  Correction:  he WAS obsessed with Legos and Star Wars.  Sniff sniff, he has passed through yet another phase in his childhood.  Deep sadness for me.  

This was his Lego Bible.  Seriously.  He referred to this book whenever he was building free hand, when he was making a birthday/Christmas list, or just wanted to stare at it.  He would memorize facts (it has pertinent trivia such as when the first Millennium Falcon Lego set was released), and he would sit next to us and point out things he liked.  It was loved (notice my attempts at keeping it together with black electrical tape and packing tape)  and I will cherish it forever. Sigh.  

 

The newest obsession of this almost 9 year old?  Football trading cards.  It all started because Grammy likes to take them to the dollar store and let them pick a couple things out.  In the past Michael and I have begged both of our children to just take the dollars because the cheap junk they come home with always ends up in the trash.  But they never do.  Well, it finally paid off for Jacob because it gave birth to this latest craze.  Apparently another boy in his class already had a few cards, which prompted Jacob to buy a couple packs that first day.  Well, almost 600 cards later, here we are...

Anytime he goes Anywhere with Anyone, he will look for cards and ask for a pack.  And because the individual packs only cost a dollar or so, Everyone does.  And then a certain Daddy and a Certain Grammy will buy the occasional 32 card pack, or 80 card pack...you get the idea. And, well, maybe Momma has once (or twice) as well.  

As with the Lego Star Wars book, he will spend time just looking at them, reading the stats (most of which he has memorized), and thrust this knowledge upon us.  Looking for a way to bond with the boy?  Just ask him to bring his card books over and look at them with you.

 He has so many we had to divide them into divisions (AFC & NFC) because the binder was too heavy.

 I bought the little stick on tabs to label and alphabetized them for easier viewing.  One day he went to a friend's house after school and of course had to bring these.  When I picked him up, there were other boys/moms there also, and all the boys ran up to me asking, "Can you do my cards like you did Jacob's?"  One mom said, "Yea, thanks. Conner is driving me crazy wanting me to organize his cards for him."  Um, excuse me?  How do you function knowing there is something to be organized and not doing it?????  I told them I didn't do this for Jacob, I did it for me.  Sheesh.  You non-OCD woman/alien.

Basically this is his American Express card:  He never leaves home without it.

This was the "Dragon Dash" that his school did this year to raise money.  The classes all have color themed t-shirts, and yes, Jacob's class was pink this year.  He hated it.  But he came in 2nd place for the 2nd grade!! He was pretty pumped, even if he was wearing pink...

Took Bob and my Morgie Porgie to the drive in.  I have been wanting to for the last couple of years but it has never worked out because they are not always showing kid-friendly movies, and when they do it is usually in the dead of the summer/100 degree weather.  And of course the glory of the Drive In is to sit outside, not in your car! You might as well go to the theater in my opinion.  We managed to do it Mother's Day weekend, so it was actually kind of perfect.  

 Do you see her hair? I randomly did that one day to her as a joke, and now she does it all the time.  Goob.

Field day for Jake.  And the dreaded pink shirt again.  It rained that day so they had to do it inside.

Playing twister with a friend.  Classic.

Jacob's track banquet.  

 Friends JP and Miles.  We recruited 3 friends this year. You are welcome SYS.

First, the coach is holding a giant poster of the boys and a gift card that ANOTHER MOM COLLECTED MONEY FOR/ORGANIZED.  It was wonderful, I have to say.  She is a friend of mine and I think used to me doing it.  But for some reason the last month of school/work (which is also the end of track season) I was crazy overwhelmed. Anyway, she sent me an email one day letting me know that she was going to take over this.  Bless her. 

 Second, notice how none of the boys are holding trophies.  Would you like to know why? Because the director (who I can not stand because he plays favorites and is the most unorganized, self centered person I have met to date) has a teenage daughter whose last year to run with this organization was this season.  He also is stepping down as the director (thank goodness).  But before he did, he made one last self-centered decision to listen to his daughter when she said that kids don't like trophies.  What?  I guess teenagers might not, but little kids???  The ones we are trying to encourage to keep doing this, stay active, do something other than stare at the tv all day? Yea, they love them.  So they all got t-shirts in a brown paper bag (see how they are all holding them up proudly? No, you don't).  That didn't necessarily fit.  Yea-that's right.  Jacob's was a size smaller than his uniform size.  Dude didn't even coordinate with the uniform order. Oh yea, and our group has to pay $12 per person to attend this banquet held in the auditorium of a church even though Morgan's group is going to Incredible Pizza for free because our director is the most unorganized/self centered person I have met to date and her's isn't.  So basically I paid $24 for a too-small tshirt.  Why yes, that shirt did get sent to the SYS office with a lovely little letter that my mom wrote (brought in the big guns).  Most of the coaches have young kids, and he didn't even take a vote amongst them. Oh, I could go on and on...

Well, to end on a happy note, here is a pic of two spoiled little dogs.  They are funny because they don't get on my lap hardly ever.  Always his.  My theory is because when he sits, he SITS.  You know, he's a man, he doesn't have to keep getting up to put the clothes in the dryer, or put a band aid on a cut, etc... Anyway, they are just cute.

Morgan=Awesomeness

Michael just shared this awesome story with me. I can't understand why he didn't post it all over FB (haha). 

A couple weeks ago he and Morgan were walking through the mall.  He asked if she wanted to see the Easter Bunny.  She said, "No.  He doesn't blink.  I don't trust things that don't blink."  Well said.

Trial and Error

So the boy is OBSESSED with playing video games, specifically Minecraft.  In an attempt to keep his brain from disintegrating completely, my initial plan of attack was to only allow 1 hour a night during the week, and then unlimited on the weekends.  Unlimited on the weekends sounds like a lot, but we usually have at least 2 things going on (playdate, grammy's, grocery shopping, etc) so it gets broken up.  And that worked for a while.  Until XBox Live came along.  XBox Live is a service you PAY for ($5 a month, not a big deal) that allows you to talk to other people playing games.  That really didn't interest me that much for my 8 year old, cheap or not.  But then all the craze happened over Minecraft, which can ONLY be played if you have XBox Live.  Yeah, ridiculous.  So, we gave in.  And I have to admit, it is completely adorable listening to him and his friends just act like goofy little boys-giggling over farts, coming up with silly names for the "maps" they create, etc.  While most people/kids talk through headphones, I learned that there is an option in the settings where you can turn the sound on so that it can be heard through tv.  So I can hear EVERYTHING.  This I like.  For the obvious reasons. 

 
We also had to establish certain "predator rules" because other random people that you don't know can ask to join your "XBox Live Party."  If you look back at the first pic, you will notice this list posted on the entertainment system so there will be no "Oh, I forgot..."  (interesting how kids totally take over decorating...)  I'm pretty sure that Jacob is probably one of the few kids on Live that has to have his settings turned on for the whole family to hear, plus it is on the living room tv so, again, I hear IT ALL.  Call me overprotective.  But he doesn't care.  Now, here in lies the problem:  obviously he wants to spend his precious hour playing with his friends, but he can't know exactly when they are getting on.  So if he gets on at 6, plays for an hour, and just as he is getting off, other kids get on...well, you can imagine the pitifulness.  And how can I say no to him wanting to socialize??? So I had to devise another plan.  After a couple more trial and error strategies, here is the final one for weekdays:  he is allowed to get on at 7:00.  At that point he can play until bedtime, which is 9:00.  This gives us time for homework, track practice, dinner, etc.  AND, because he is a typical boy who can't sit still, he kills time by going outside and playing basketball, etc.  The other boys usually get on around this time as well and have to get off about the same time for bed.  So it's working. So far. 

**I decided to make this post because I think it will be interesting to look back on my "good parenting" attempts in the future....I'm sure I will laugh hysterically...

What's Been Goin On So Far

Not a lot. We have been pretty lazy in 2013 so far. 

   A lot of time has been spent on the iPads.  They "join" together to play a game called Minecraft (see Christmas post where he got this game for Xbox.)  Why are they playing on the floor in the bathroom?? I don't know.

Jon got some free Grizzlies basketball tickets and took Jake.  Jon caught a tshirt and a ball that they threw into the stands.  I got to stay home and be ALONE.  

We went to some friends' house and watched the Super Bowl.  Jacob was rooting for the Ravens and wanted a shirt.  Since the team was in the Super Bowl, of course the shirts were OUTRAGEOUS.  So I went to Michael's, bought a $3 tshirt, printed out a Ravens image that Jacob picked out, and ironed it on.  Ta-da.

As I have mentioned before, his school does several fund raisers, but my fave is the one where all the classes have are given a theme and they have to draw a picture.  The first year the theme was winter, and last school year the theme was fall.  Then the "proofs" are sent home and we can order things made from the artwork, just like you would do from Snapfish, etc.  Jacob drew the 2 cats sitting on the fence, the 3rd pic on the top row, from the left.  What do cats have to do with fall you ask? Well, duh, "they sit on the fence at Halloween time."  Sheesh. Anyway, many a gift is given from the fundraiser.  This past Christmas, my Dirty Santa gift was a hot pad/oven mitt with the artwork on it.  A couple people actually fought over it.  Hallie, Grammy, Grandmother (Jon's mom) and I also got one for Christmas.  They were a hot item indeed. 

And just when you think kids these days don't know how to write a thank you note, Jacob proves you wrong.  One of our employees at work really likes Jacob (I mean, who doesn't???)  and she gave him $20 for Christmas.  I told him he should draw her a picture telling her thanks.  Well, here it is.  Needless to say, she loved it. 

Again, video games are quite popular with the 8 year old crowd. Here Jacob and Jon are playing Madden Football...

Jacob and next door neighbor playing Minecraft...

 Morgan and Jacob playing Minecraft...

Jacob and next door neighbor figuring out to join together even when they are at their own homes.  Yep, just call me mother of the year...

 Sometime before Christmas Jacob decided he wanted to put the HUGE air hockey table we got from Aunt Debbie in his room.  At the time, we had it in the attic, saving it for when he was older (we bought it about 3 years ago).  When we moved into this house, the options for Jacob's room were 1. put him in the room closest to us, but it was the smallest, or 2. put him in the bigger room, but it was furthest away from us.  So we gave Abby the bigger room and put him closest to us.  Well, with the addition of the air hockey table, YOU COULD NOT MOVE IN JACOB'S ROOM.  But Abby kindly allowed us to switch rooms.  IT IS SO MUCH NICER TO HAVE SPACE.

Jon found this awesomeness at a garage sale.  Jacob uses it as a dresser. Awesome.

The air hockey table and many posters.

That table was a desk you would find in a library, with all the sides and everything.  The college where mom works is forever having sales where they sell old furniture to employees.  Mom got me 2;  Jon took the sides all off and uses 1 as a work table and the other is here as a bedside table in Jake's room. 

 About 2 years ago Jessica, Morgan, Jacob and I were walking through Garden Ridge looking for something for her new place.  Jacob spotted this stuffed shark with a torn tail.  He had to have it.  It was the only one left, but of course I told him no because it was torn.  He pestered me the entire time we were there.  So finally I told him if they would discount it, and if he wanted to spend his own money, then he could get it.  Well, they sold it to him for $2, he bought it, I sewed it up when we got home, and he is still obsessed with it to this day.  As is every kid who comes over.  It always gets played with. Boys.

Paper clip thingy from Grammy because an ordinary bulletin board is just unacceptable!

I actually did not want him to do this because it messed up my whole zen thing I had going on, but he wanted to print out the 2 logos from his 2 fave NFL teams, and then (gasp) draw that sign above it, and hang them all up.  The sign he drew says, "Yo, they's (these) teams Rule."  OCD mom shudder.

Jacob's teacher's birthday was a couple weeks ago and I got with the room moms to put together a sundae party.  It was a lot of fun and not chaotic at all, which is what I was totally worried about because we set it up buffet style.  In years past, whenever I have brought sundaes, I have the kids order what they want, we pre-make them at the store, and I just bring them. But this really was a lot of fun.  **You see how I manage to swoop in, come up with a fun idea, but don't have to do the work of the official room mom?  Oh yea, that's all part of the master plan...

 Jacob hates Valentine's day.  HATES it.  Has never really liked it.  Doesn't care that he usually gets candy; the whole thing is just not worth it to him.  But, in order to not have him looking like the only grump in the room, I force him to participate.  He had to decorate a bag and I offered to print out a regular colored camo page to make the heart from, but he consented to the pink as well as the red glitter in honor of the day.  He does love some glitter... 

I patted myself on the back for this one.  The card part is the part he hates.  So I used the blank address labels and instead of putting an address, I typed "Happy Vday from Jacob" and got him to stick them to the back of ice cream coupons.  These were his Valentines he passed out.  I got told, "that's a good boy-mom idea," and he high-fived me.  It's those little things that get me these days :)

Last but not least, we have a star chart.  Oh yes, I love a star chart.  It all started with the famous Poo Poo Chart back in the day.  This one here came about because a boy has no interest in doing well in school.  Well, I guess some do, but not mine.  He has never cared much, but this year it is affecting his grades.  I had been noticing that most of the time when he did badly, he had either not completed the work, or not read the directions correctly.  When asked why he didn't finish or didn't follow directions he would say, "I don't know" without any hint of regret.  ***I think this indifferent/rebel attitude should have been foreshadowed to me when he was learning to write his name forever ago and refused to make just the first letter capital.  He would randomly capitalize some letters throughout his name because, "It's my name."  Anyway, obviously I couldn't let this go on so I started punishing him by taking about all technology.  And he would be really upset-a sure sign it will have the desired affect right? But then it didn't...  So I decided to come at it from a different angle-reward him when he does it right.  He gets 1 star for completing ALL his school from the day, and reading and following directions.  So if he comes home with 3 sheets, completes 2 but not the 3rd, he does not get a star.  And now that it has gone on for so long (because I was trying the whole punishment thing at first) I was afraid that he was behind in what he was supposed to be learning.  So with Bethany's help, I found some websites that offer free printable worksheets.  He can earn another star for doing an extra worksheet at home.  Once he fills up the chart, he gets a reward.  For the completion of this first chart, he wants-try to contain your shock-another controller for the Xbox.   So far, fingers crossed, it really seems to be working.  He hasn't come home once with incomplete work since we started it, and it had become an everyday thing.

Unnecessary

I got a message from Blogger telling me that my blog was going to be deleted if I didn't post something soon due to inactivity.  I don't really understand this, it's only been a little over a month.  I don't know if I made up another blog previous to this one and don't remember it??? But just in case they are talking about this one, here is a random, unnecessary, uneventful post.

Mom has a small collection of dolls.  One of them is a baby.  Morgan and Jacob have decided that it is fun to make it throw up.  And to do this they poor water, coke, etc into the hole in the mouth and let it pour back out. Jacob is quick to point out that it was his idea. I'm so proud.

Well, that's about it.  Thanks.