It should have been Taylor's last game....

Well here we are...on the day of Taylor's last soccer game for the season and he didn't even get to play. Really crappy, right? Well, let me just fill you in on all of the lovely details.
First, our game last Saturday was supposed to be at 8AM, or so we were told. I stayed home with Austyn and Ryleigh because they weren't feeling well, so Mark and Taylor went to the game. Well, they were home about 10 minutes later. Oops! Coach had the wrong time. The game was at 9, not 8! So, the entire team had to go back home, only to go right back an hour later! That's just the beginning....it gets better.
They usually practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5PM, which is a ridiculous time to practice considering the sun goes down at like 5:15. So, for weeks the kids have been practicing in almost complete darkness. That isn't good for their little eyes, let alone ours. The coach finally got off of his big fat behind and moved practice to a field with lights for the last two practices. It's about dang time! We missed our Tuesday practice because the kids were still not feeling well. Then on Thursday, the coach's wife called us at home and said that practice had been canceled because of the rain. That was fine with me. So, I asked her what time the game was on Saturday. She said, oh, it's at 9:15, so just show up at 9. Of course if the game time changes, we'll call you.
So, what do we do? We show up today at 9AM. You'll never guess what happened next. THE GAME WAS OVER! Yes, let me repeat myself. TAYLOR'S GAME THAT WAS AT 9:15 WAS OVER!!
Oh, was I pissed! So, I walked up to coach when he was done with his pathetic excuse of a speech to 5 and 6 year old kids who could care less, and I asked him what time the game was scheduled. He said the game was at 8, he told me that last practice. Hmm, that's funny that he told me that at practice because, HA I wasn't even there! So, I said, no, we weren't there, nice try. Then he says, well, I sent out an email to everyone saying when game time was. This really irritated me. This sorry excuse for a coach has had our email address since the very first practice. I have never, not once, received an email or anything resembling an email from him or his wife. So, I said, no, I have never received an email from you, although you have had it for the entire season. So, he sticks to his story and insists that he sent one out. He says, well maybe you wrote it down wrong. HAHAHA! I'm sorry, was that a low attempt at questioning my intellect? I think it was. I said, I'm sorry, but uh, I'm about 100% positive that I know how to spell my own email address, considering I use it EVERYDAY! So, I said, well when your wife called me on Thursday to cancel practice, SHE told me that the game was at 9:15, so now here we are at 9AM expecting to play our last game of the season. Thanks to you and your wife who obviously have poor communication skills, my son has now missed his last game of the season. Thanks A LOT! I guess once you make up your story, you have to stick to it, because the man insisted that he sent out an email.
Then I said, well do you have Taylor's pictures? He said, ask my wife. So, I ask his wife and she says, Yeah, I have them...and then she just stood there! YOOHOO! Earth to dumb overweight wife, when someone asks you if you have something and you do, don't you give them what they asked for? I mean, did she think I was just asking for shits and giggles? So, I said, Yeah, uh, you think I could have those pictures? She says, Oh, yeah, I guess just follow me out to my car. Sorry, it's just REALLY early in the morning. I am thinking, WOW, 9AM is really early? I want to move into your house if 9AM is too early to start thinking!
On our way out to her car, a mom stopped us and said that she didn't receive any communication either. She said she wouldn't have showed up at 8 if she hadn't seen another parent the night before. Then another set of parents stopped us to see if Taylor was okay. They felt very badly for him. Taylor was very very hurt by it all. He was so upset that he was crying. This was his last soccer game, and he was really looking forward to it. I apologized to him that we missed his game, and explained the mix-up in communication. The part that really upsets me about the entire situation is that neither the coach nor his wife offered sympathy, sorrow or an apology. Is that too much to ask after you just crushed a 6 year old boy's hopes? I don't think so, but what do I know? I'm just a crazy mom!

*Just a side note. Please disregard my obvious dialogue errors. I didn't feel like putting it in the proper format. Sue me. I'm working on accepting imperfection. :)

Officially a First Class Petty Officer

The day has finally come where they frocked Mark. It only took them a good two weeks! Can you believe it? I never thought they took so long to frock the sailors. I always heard of it being done within a week at most.
Mark was officially named a First Class Petty Officer! YAY!!! I am so excited and proud of him and for him. He has worked so hard to get to where he is today. I think he feels a sense of relief that he has finally made it. Now he can sort of take a breather and relax for a minute. I only took a couple of pictures at the frocking because we were on the wrong side....OF COURSE! We got there with about 5 minutes to spare, which was cutting it a little too close for me. I hate running late and just barely making it somewhere. I couldn't find my ID, and if I hadn't found it, we wouldn't have been able to attend the frocking that I insisted and threw a fit about. I'm such a brat, I know. Mark just seemed to make excuses about us going until I said...fine we just won't go. You don't want us there, so we won't go. Again...I'm such a brat. If I hadn't found my ID it would have been karma coming back around to kick my ass for being such a big brat about it all. But what matters is that we made it just in the nick of time and Mark did want us there after all. I guess he's just a man and doesn't know how to say exactly what it is he wants or needs or thinks or feels. Ah, but I love him anyway, and he loves the big brat I am too. So, here are the 2 pictures I took. Take a look at that nice clean, pressed uniform with all the stripes on it! lol. (BTW, I didn't clean it or press it, the cleaners did! I can't take credit for that. haha) I even brought the big hot shot first class some dinner tonight. I'm so nice. :D

Home Again

The Thanksgiving vacation is now over. *Big sigh of relief* It was a long weekend. Good, but long. We spent Wednesday-Friday in Carlsbad, CA. It was a different experience. We are used to staying with Laura anytime we are in the area, but this time we stayed in a condo. Mark's Grandma Sharon very graciously offered us the timeshare condo that she had reserved for that weekend. It was a nice little place and would be a great vacation spot for small families who don't know anyone in the area. Anyway. Thanksgiving at Laura's was good, as usual. I made the broccoli casserole that I usually do. Although this time around it seemed like I was doing so much more work. Its funny how our memories of things aren't always so clear. lol. The casserole turned out great, as usual. It is delicious, that's for sure. We spent all of Thursday at Laura's just hanging out.

Friday we spent a large portion of the day at Legoland. The boys had a blast and we (the adults) had fun as well. I didn't think that it would have been very busy considering it was Black Friday and all. Apparently massive sales don't stop people from taking their kids out to have a good time. haha. The lines for the rides were incredibly long. Austyn could barely make it through the first line that was about 45 minutes long or so. We didn't do a whole lot, unfortunately. The wait times for the lines were about an hour long or more. The boys (Mark included) had a great time on the firetruck show or whatever you want to call it. They were the first to arrive at the "burning" building, the first to put the fire out in their window and the first to get back to the finish line. Taylor was really excited about that. I told Mark it was a good thing that they won because if they hadn't we might have had a grumpy kid on our hands for the rest of the day. lol.

Friday evening we spent with our best friends in San Diego. I haven't seen them in about 4 months or so and Mark hasn't seen them since April! It was so good to see them and catch up on everything. The kids had a blast, because they are all such great friends.

Saturday we spent the entire day driving. There was SO much traffic. The only drawback from visiting with family during the holidays is the long drive along with the traffic. It's great and all to see the family, but it sucks that we have to sit in the car for hours on end with cramped legs. Not to mention gas prices are outrageous as usual!

Well, the holiday is over, so now we prepare for Christmas! It'll be nice to have Mark home for it, but it really stinks because he is leaving for ten days soon. He has to go back out to the ship. Can you believe that? They just came home and here they go, right back out again. BLAH!

Holiday Chaos

So, I take it that "The Holidays" are now upon us. I ran out into town today to run a few errands and WOW, can you say major traffic jam. Everywhere I went there was no parking and there were cars and people everywhere.
Thanksgiving is just a few days away and we will be braving the dreaded traffic to go down and visit with family. I thought I would be getting out of cooking a Thanksgiving dinner, but boy was I wrong. We have a friend Dave who is a single sailor and he has been eating Thanksgiving dinner with us for as long as we can remember. Well, since we have been here I guess I should say. He was shocked when I said we weren't cooking dinner and he couldn't come over! LOL. So, Mark thought that we couldn't leave him hanging, so he said that I would make him a dinner!!! Can you believe that? Men and the things they say and volunteer their wives to do. haha. Actually I don't mind at all. So, tomorrow I will be cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for his co-workers. How nice of me right? They better be thankful. :)
Tonight I will bake some cookies for them too. He has a friend who is constantly requesting that I bake snicker doodles for her. She mentioned that her birthday is on the 26th, and that's what she wants as a gift. Its funny how people just assume that you will give them a gift. Actually she is a really nice lady and she always appreciates the cookies and goodies I send with Mark. Gosh, I'm such a great wife....right? :D
So amongst all other things Austyn has decided tonight that he no longer wishes to eat pizza. He has a good reason for a 2 1/2 year old. He says that he doesn't want to eat his pizza because there is blood on it! He thinks that the pizza sauce is blood. I explained to him about a million and one times that it is sauce, kind of like ketchup. He still refused. He wiped off most of the sauce and nitpicked around the so-called blood. He's hilarious.
That about sums it up for today.

Acheivements

This last weekend was a great weekend. Mark had his PRT (Physical Readiness Test) on Friday and passed. He also found out that he made First Class Petty Officer, which is AWESOME! I was very happy when he told me that he made it. It is a very big accomplishment for him. He is also the MWR president for his command, so he runs the functions to keep morale up. Part of his job as the president is to plan the Christmas party. The party was on Friday at the Palace Casino and Hotel. He, of course was freaking out the whole time because he wasn't sure of how it would all turn out. It turned out awesome! There were TONS of prizes, lots of seating, a dance floor, servers, a DJ and photographers. The entire party was free, except for alcoholic beverages, photos and raffle tickets of course. I won a certificate that is good for 72 hours of special liberty for Mark. Which basically means that he can get 3 days off of work and it doesn't go against his leave. I thought that was pretty cool. The photographers were very very nice and insisted that Mark and I have our photo taken for free. We were planning on having our photos taken anyway, but were speechless when they approached us and offered them for free. It was a very nice thing for them to do. Everyone at the party seemed to have a great time and I overheard several people saying that this was the best Christmas party they had ever been too. Of course it wasn't all Mark's doing. He had a lot of help from other people, including myself. He did a great job this weekend and I couldn't be more proud of him for his accomplishments.
Saturday I had a baby shower for my friend Cassidy. It went really well, although it lasted a lot longer than we expected. She likes Color-Me-Mine, and so we rented a party kit and purchased pieces to paint at home. We all helped her paint a tea set for her baby girl she is expecting in February. It came out super cute and makes me want to go in and paint a tea set for Ryleigh. Taylor painted himself a surfboard and I painted a board for Ryleigh. Mark painted most of a board for Austyn. I finished the rest. We just dropped off all of the pieces to be glazed and fired today. I can't wait to see what they look like. The plate that Cassidy painted for Callie didn't go back to the studio today. She is waiting for Callie to be born so that she can put her footprints on the plate. It will be really cute when it is all done.
So, that was our weekend. A weekend of accomplishments and achievements!!!

Our Weekend

The weekend is officially over except that its Veteran's Day. Bonnie, Mark's mom came into town to visit for the weekend. It was a very pleasant visit and we were happy to have her. Its not often that she makes it our way, so it was nice. The boys were especially excited to see her. Austyn had to sit with Gammy and kept asking where she was and what she was doing. He didn't leave her alone. He really enjoyed having her here. Ryleigh did really well with her. She wasn't as shy or as reluctant to smile, or even let Bonnie touch her. She's beginning to open up, which is nice. Leaving her with a babysitter is always a hard thing to do. Taylor also liked having Bonnie here for the weekend. He is a little more independent and thinks he is "so" grown up so he wasn't as clingy as Austyn was. lol.

We spent Saturday at John's Incredible Pizza which is a lot like a bigger and better Chuck E. Cheese. The boys had a blast as usual. This was our 3rd visit there. This was Mark's first. Mark, Taylor and I played Laser Tag. Mark got the highest score of the 3 of us, of course. Austyn played lots of games and so did Taylor. We almost thought we lost Austyn for a couple of minutes. My heart was pounding and I was on the verge of tears when Bonnie said that Mark had found him. He was only about 10 feet away from where we had been standing, but he was sort of hiding in a little corner where no one could see him. It was a very scary experience and I'm VERY thankful that we did not lose him. That is the first time that we have ever lost one of the kids for even a moment. I'm usually really anal and on top of where the kids are at and making sure they are leeched onto an adult.

I think one of my greatest fears is that one of our kids will either get lost or someone will take them. There are so many sick people out there in this world. I am constantly explaining to them why they can't go to the park or in the next aisle by themselves and why it is important to hold hands. I don't want them to think that I am just a "mean" mom because I make them hold hands with someone when we are in a crowded place. Taylor is beginning to understand the importance of all of it. Austyn however is still learning and I'm sure he will still be learning for a long while.

All in all, our weekend was great. The kids had fun, Bonnie was able to get in some much needed rest and relaxation and Mark and I were happy to have her visit with us. Here is a family picture of us that we had Bonnie take for us. I'll post them both so you can see what lovely children we have! HAHA

3 GOALS!

Okay, okay, so I'll admit that I may have fallen off the wagon. It's been 6 days since my last post. I feel like I'm at an AA meeting or something...haha. We have been keeping busy and I haven't really been online much this last week except to check e-mail, so I apologize.
We spent our Saturday at softball. Yep. Mark has been home for a whopping month and already we have made our way to an all-day softball tournament. It actually wasn't that bad. The weather was nice and the kids were surprisingly good for most of the day. Mark's team, "Total Chaos" lost the tournament in the championship game. That's usually the way it works. lol. We went out to the outlet malls after that, and it wasn't anything spectacular. The prices didn't seem any lower than what the mall had. Then after about an hour and a half of boring shopping we went to dinner at a pizza parlor. Mark saw a mouse scurry across the floor and I swear I have been sick since!
Now for the point of this blog...Taylor scored 3 goals in his soccer game tonight!! This was their first night game and their first weekday game. Mark couldn't make it since he is working nights. It sucks, let me tell you! Anyway. This was Taylor's third game and we have been telling him to get in there and get the ball and take it from the other team, be aggressive, and score for heaven's sake! LOL Well, tonight he finally took our advice! Their team had 4 points, 3 of which were scored by the superstar. HAHA! He did awesome tonight. He kept taking the ball from the other team and he almost scored a couple of other times. I kept Mark in the loop via text messaging. You gotta love technology!
Now for the sore highlights of the game. The assistant coach was yelling at the kids on the other team. They were sitting next to a fence and he took it upon himself to run across the field in the middle of the game to yell at these kids and tell them to get down. I thought that was pretty crappy considering their parents were in plain view of them. If their parents wanted to scold them, they were perfectly capable of doing so. The coach said something about earrings again. I told him at the last practice that it's not rules or regulations that earrings must be removed. I then told him that Taylor will continue to wear his. He was pissed. An ignorant parent looked at Taylor and said, "Don't the boys need to take our their earrings too? It shouldn't matter boys or girls, studs or hoops, take them out, right?" That's when the coach had to tell the parents that it is his "personal preference" that the earrings be removed. I hate his coach more and more with each game and practice that they have. He's a crappy teacher, he's rude and he has no patience!! I hope Taylor gets a better coach next year.
All in all, Taylor did superb and I couldn't be more proud of him tonight!

Halloween 2007

As you all are VERY well aware, yesterday was Halloween. Ryleigh had her twelve month well-baby appointment. She measured 28 inches long and weighed about 18 1/2 pounds. She is a little thing, but she's growing. We have been referred to a dermatologist for her hemangioma on her forehead, also known as a birthmark or as my family called mine, a strawberry. Her new Dr. says that between 12-18 months it will most likely grow a lot before it actually starts to "sink in." I didn't like that news. It's already big. Of course, they will continue to monitor it during this time frame. They said they will monitor it by taking photographs and measuring it. It has grown 2 millimeters since her last appointment. The Dr. said that she will very quickly learn the word 'hemangioma' as she gets older. This dr. says that hers seems to be a combination of 2 types of hemangiomas. These two types are: strawberry hemangiomas, which are slightly raised, red birthmarks and can appear anywhere on the body; or cavernous hemangiomas, which are a deeper birthmark characterized by a bluish color. Ryleigh's is both red and ever so slightly blue. We'll keep you all updated with what dermatology has to say about it all.

OKAY. So, Halloween. The kids had so much fun trick or treating. Austyn learned to say "Trick or treat. Smell my feet. Give me something." That's as far as he got with it. lol. It was very cute. He did surprisingly well, and was only scared a couple of times by scary masks. When he would see something scary, he would just keep backing up. One kid was really sweet about it, and took off his mask, and said, see, its just me. I'm a kid. I'm not scary. And he apologized. One of the guys handing out candy also took his mask off so Austyn wouldn't be scared. Taylor on the other hand was surprisingly brave. He went into two haunted houses alone and nothing seemed to scare him! And then there was Ryleigh. She got two pieces of candy! LOL. She just laid back in the stroller and played with her glow stick. We didn't go very far from home and only stayed out for an hour. About 45 minutes into trick or treating Austyn was tired of walking. Taylor sat in the driveway and passed out candy to the other trick or treaters. Austyn was super excited to have seen 3 spidermen! It doesn't take much to excite a 2 year old! Anyway. We all had a good time. And like Mark and I always say every single year....We should really dress up next year! So, we'll see. Maybe we will, and then again, we might not.

Taylor as the Grim Reaper, Austyn as a skeleton and Ryleigh as an Angel. (By the way...she HATED her costume! Maybe a little devil would have been more fitting? LOL)

Ryleigh's Special Day

Today is a very special day. This is the day that my youngest baby turns ONE. We will never again celebrate this special occasion for our own children. It is a bittersweet day in that the first year of milestones and celebrations are over. But at the same time, our family is growing older together. The first birthday will be replaced by all of the other birthdays that are yet to come. I'd say the most relieving part of this day is knowing that there are no more heartburn infested nights or morning sickness ahead. No more 2, 4 and 6 AM feedings in our future! We move forward. ONWARD MARCH!

So, Little Miss Ryleigh officially turned one at 7:31 this morning. She's no different today than yesterday, except now she is twelve months old.

She still isn't walking, but for some insane reason, I keep encouraging the walking!!! LOL She will step away from the table or sofa and take a few steps on her own. She'll also walk about six or seven steps towards me before she totally loses her balance from excitement. Its so wonderful to see her try so hard and the look on her face is priceless. I love it.

She has lots of little curls that are so adorable. Her curls are only at the base of her neck and on the back of her head. When I wash her hair it straightens out and her hair goes all the way to her shoulders!

She has four teeth, but they aren't the four teeth that the average one year old has. She has her two teeth on the bottom. That's normal. And then she has her two front teeth on the left. Her two front teeth on the right are beginning to come in. Needless to say, she looks a little goofy when she smiles. lol

Ryleigh is the sweetest girl ever. She absolutely adores and loves her big brothers and they of course feel the same for her. She is very quiet and doesn't take to strangers very well, but once she opens up she is such a lovable baby. She loves on Mark and often gives him kisses now that she has adjusted to him.

Well, that's our little girl in a nutshell for you. She is the angel that has made our family complete and today she turned one. Where has the last year gone! Time flies, that's for sure.

Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Yeah, yeah, so I seem to be slacking on this blog thing, but hey, I try! lol. Saturday we also went to the Pumpkin Patch at Cobb's Ranch in Fresno. I took Taylor last year with a friend of mine, Heather. Taylor had so much fun, and there were so many pumpkins to choose from. This year, it was a family event.

The kids had a blast. We thought we would go through the corn maze first. It was pretty interesting and kind of cool to be surrounded by corn. It was also really creepy. (The next day Children of the Corn was on TV..haha) The boys had fun, running (even though they weren't supposed to) everywhere. They kept finding corn on the ground, and they thought that was the coolest thing. We were told that it would take approximately thirty minutes to find our way through the maze. Mark says we are obviously smarter than the average bear because we were out of that sucker in fifteen minutes, tops! We were kind of bummed that we made it through so fast, but it was still a lot of fun!

After the maze, it was off to the monstrous pumpkin patch. Taylor took charge of the wheelbarrow and Austyn took charge of the running around like a mad-man. We found a good spot and it didn't take long for the boys to find their pumpkins. Mark and I tried to find a big one that the two of us could share, but they all seemed to be around the same size. We have pumpkins growing in the backyard that are bigger than the ones at the pumpkin patch. Of course, our pumpkins are still green!?!?

After we picked out our pumpkins we visited the farm animals. Austyn loved petting them. Taylor especially loved petting the donkey. lol. The donkey just stood there with his eyes closed and his head was tilted back. He was really enjoying the ear rub. Ryleigh even thought she would pet one of the miniature horses, but he tried to nibble her fingers. I put an end to that right away.

Next was the Pumpkin Corral, where they have hay and pumpkins on the ground. It's a great spot for taking pictures. We had a stranger take our family picture, but Taylor's face was covered by Ryleigh's head and Austyn was looking down. It was a good attempt. All in all, our visit to the pumpkin patch was a lot of fun. Long, but fun. So, here are a few of the pictures from that. We hope you enjoy!

Taylor's 1st soccer game!

I should have written yesterday, but it was such a busy busy day that I didn't have time to. Well, I did, but I was tired. Anyway. Yesterday was Taylor's first soccer game of the season. We don't entirely like his coach, and his coach definitely doesn't like me. The assistant coach has made it clear that earrings are not to be worn, because those are the "rules and regulations." He thought he should address it because Taylor goes to practice with his earrings in. I really feel like he is being a jerk to us because Taylor is a boy and has his ears pierced. It isn't his business. So, I spoke with the director of Youth Sports. Guess what? Taylor can wear his earrings all he wants during practice, and he can wear them during games, so long as he wears band aids over them! So, just to be a brat, we left his earrings in! I know I should be the bigger person, but I just wanted to be like "IN YOUR FACE!" LOL. Anyway, the other team had a little girl with earrings in and no one said a word to her. Hmmm. Odd.

At the end of the game, the coach sort of gave a "lecture" of, "You guys need to get that ball, protect the goal...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. IF you guys were to get with it, we'd be running circles around these guys!" "Oh and by the way, you guys did great!" That really upset me. I was like, okay they are 5 and 6 year old kids. They don't need to be put down and then praised as if to make up for the verbal beating they just got. Any one of Taylor's other coaches would have said, "You guys did great, and now we know what we need to work on for the next game!"

Taylor requested that his coach put his nickname on his jersey "T-Bone" and his coach's response was, "I'm putting your name on it and that's that!"

Okay, okay, so enough complaining. Taylor's game was good. He did really well, although he wasn't as aggressive as he was when he first started. A lot of the kids on his team aren't as advanced as he is. (I'm not saying that he is like a superstar) But, he really is a much better player than most. I think he is hanging back with the other kids because he "thinks" that's what he is supposed to do. He did get in there and get the ball a few times and even almost scored a couple of times. None-the-less he did awesome, and we let him know how great he was!

So here are a couple of pictures from the game! I hope you enjoy. And I apologize for turning this blog into a bitch-fest! LOL

Hello!

First let me say Thanks to Laura and Jenn for getting me on here! If it weren't for the two of you, I probably wouldn't have found the site. So, this will be our first official blog. Yay! Let me explain the title of our blog for you, because I'm sure some of you may be wondering what that is all about. There are 5 members of our family. People refer to Mark as Rum, and sometimes refer to the family as The Rums. So, we are "Five Times the Rum". Aside from that, sometimes at the end of a long chaotic day, Five Times the Rum is the recipe for a peaceful, relaxing night. HAHA! By the way, that was a joke. I haven't made it to 5 times the Rum...yet. LOL. Anyway, I hope that our family blog keeps everyone well updated and in the know. It's hectic getting to the phone to call loved ones and update everyone individually, not that this would replace any phone calls. We will post updated pictures and write as much as possible. I hope you all enjoy hearing about our days!