Meet Alice: Our Newest Member of the Family

Mommy's minivan mobile, was not doing so well. He made loud noises when you turned him on, he did not like going up hills, his brakes grinded to the floor, the Minnesota winters showed it's wear and tear so much that you could actually see the outside through the rust. When E-man or I kicked it, metal came crashing to the ground. Plus it smelled like old soccer cleats.
Last Thursday Scott went on the search for a new minivan that would be fitting for a soccer mom. He found one and appropriately after soccer practice all five us headed to the dealership.
He let me drive it there but as we got to the dealership he informed me, "I don't think you are allowed to drive it yet so you'll have to take it on a pretend test drive." OK Scott, you might have told me that before I turned all the stations to country music. But this is minor in the whole process. Close your eyes and imagine Emmanuel in a car show room.
"Mommy, look at that truck, look at the jeep, look at that car, you see those tires?"
The manager is trying to make it quick, "we have a deal?"
But Emmanuel will not let this deal be done, "Mommy ask him how much the pick-up truck is?" It was bright, shiny red, a beautiful pick-up truck if I don't say so myself.
The manager is trying to tell us how great Alice is how much she will retain her value even with 67-thousand miles....but...MOMMY, ASK THE MAN HOW MUCH THE PICK-UP TRUCK IS??
Excuse me, I bring E-man over to the pick-up. "E-man, it's $45,528." E-man tells me he has six dollars. "Do I have enough?" he asks. "Uh, almost I say, you just need $45,522 more dollars. "Is that a lot?" he asks. "Yes and then you'll have to save up for taxes, title, and licensing fees. You do have insurance right?" E-man wants to climb in the truck, maybe if the salesman sees how good he looks in it... just keep playing soccer and some day you can buy the red pick-up truck.
We continue to negotiate with the manager. I say, "will you give us something for our van?" He says, "how many miles are on it?" I said, "167,000." "Does the air conditioner work?" "Yes." That's all he asked. He says, "Cosco closes in eight minutes so we have a deal but I'm taking a gamble on your van."
"Uh, yes you are," I say.
Then comes the finance part. It takes a long time these days and wherever we go we are not quiet. A sales lady walks by and I say, "I bet you know what car we're buying, a convertible!" She looks at me sadly, "or a minivan," I say.The finance guy takes twice as long because Emmanuel is asking if he can drive the guy's computer. We were in there so long we finally decided to take a picture. What an endearing (translation: obnoxious) family we must be.
Finally we are able to leave with Alice. Abegail has named Alice, after her mom. She says then her mom will be with us wherever we go. I told her so will Daddy's grandmother. That was her name too.
Alice has such a sweet disposition. She plays movies and the kids don't talk when we go places. Her doors close with a push of the button. And when you step on her brakes she stops.
As we are leaving the sweet sales guy goes to turn on my van. The gas light and check engine light had come on as I pulled into the dealership. There were leftover granola bars and Halloween candy around it not to mention dirt from most of the soccer fields in Fairfax County. I yelled out, "I'm sorry." He started laughing, "that's OK, just enjoy that new van. Oh we will!" C'mon Alice, take us home.
Quotes from Annie:
A: Mommy, how old is Alice?
M: She is four, she was born in 2005
A: Hi car, I'm five.

Bobbing for Apples, The Pirates Wife, and More

Mom standing in the rain with no umbrella

E-man was Batman, I could not get a picture of him standing still. Abegail was Gabriel from High School Musical, and Annie was Thumbelina. My Mom and Dad came down for the occasion and suprised everyone with costumes. They went as pirates. It's the first time I've ever seen my Mom without her real hair. No one knew who she was. People kept saying to her "we haven't met before. " No worries all is back to normal today. Trick or Treating was exceptional. With every house, parts of costumes landed in my paws. E-man made new friends and allowed himself inside most houses. I hate to always rag on him, but I do have to laugh at some of the things he does, call it poor coping skills.

Abegail's Soccer Banquet

Abegail had her soccer banquet last night. Her last game is tomorrow. I have grown to love her team and their families. There is even a family on her team who are originally from Minnesota. The girls are adorable and the families supportive and wonderful. We are sad to see it end. Thankfully Abegail will be with her awesome coaches for three more weeks because SHE MADE THE ALL STAR TEAM!

E-man made a Halloween box for us to pass out candy. Obviously since he can fit in it, its a bit big but "Mommy I made holes so you can see out of it."

You'll Be Missed

Despite the pending federal charges, I must say the balloon boy's Dad has got me thinking. Wouldn't it be great if I could just send E-man up in a helium balloon when he had a big mad? I have actually been day dreaming about it since it happened. It would be at least a six hour break depending on how far he traveled. I probably wouldn't even mind the helicopters buzzing above or the ransacking of my house as authorities searched for my poor six year old boy that took off in a balloon.

E-man too is fascinated with the story. From the day it happened we came home and he said, "did the boy fall out of the balloon?" I said, "no he wasn't in the balloon." E-man asked, "where was he?" "He was in a box in the attic," I said. "So he didn't get to go up in the balloon?" E-man asks. "No," I said. E-man was absolutely awestruck thinking about the possibility.

Today we went to the grocery store and E-man would not leave the balloon aisle. He was there so long the manager finally came over and tried to give him a cookie. E-man did not want a cookie, he wanted a helium balloon. So she let him pick out what balloon he wanted in exchange for the promise that he would listen to me until he was 18 years old. E-man appropriately picked the balloon with the right travel logo, "you'll be missed." Annie also got a balloon. (Abegail was at school) About 18 seconds later the manager caught E-man under the shopping cart with his balloon and I was pleading with him to get out. The manager then reiterated, "I thought you made me a promise, you must listen to mom until you are 18. " I really think its so cute how people try to help, if it was just a balloon that would make the world right for E-man, but I play along, people try to be so nice.

So we got home and E-man had me take pictures of him and his balloon. I told him, if he let it go it would be gone. Inevitably, he let it go about 18 minutes after we got home. This entire time we had not talked about balloon boy, but when the balloon took off E-man yelled, "it's going to be on TV!" To which I responded, "it's not going to be on TV, and we don't need a reality show. Everywhere we go, you make us a living reality show." At which point he tried to steal Annie's balloon and promise that RIGHT NOW I would go get him another one.

I was going to send this picture out as my Christmas card saying something to the effect of "Peace, Joy, Love...blah blah blah ...and the magic of grading on a curve. When my sister came up with a better caption. She said this is the VISA commercial:

"Three clearly annoyed children."

"Priceless."

Quotes From E-man:
E: Mommy, do you have grandparents?
M: Yes, but they all died.
E: They all died? Where are they?
M: They are in heaven.
E: What are they doing there?
M: They are playing bridge.
E: What's bridge?
M: It's a card game grandparents used to play. They liked to play cards just like you.

My Little Lawn Mower

He might not be the boy to take to a restaurant but he can mow a mean lawn. E-man loves to push things and without the grocery store full of old and disabled people to run into, the lawnmower is the next best thing. I have decided 6 is the perfect age to start manual labor.

He mowed our lawn
He mowed our neighbors lawn

Our other neighbors lawn

And our back lawn, then he was done.

Pumpkin Patch Weekend

It's Columbus day weekend so that means no soccer games, no religion class and a full weekend to prepare for Halloween. For my sister, holidays are full celebrations, not a beat is missed. She is always prepared for the kids to enjoy every activity that comes with the season.
For me, holidays are another thing to try and survive, but I'm trying to have a more positive attitude.
Saturday was rainy and cold. When I say cold I mean 60's, not the 30's and snow Minnesota was experiencing (no homesickness on this day). So we postponed our trip to the pumpkin patch and just picked out a few near my sister's house. The kids and their cousins got busy carving and painting.
Sunday was beautiful and we carried out our fall tradition of heading to one of the pumpkin farms, actually more like a pumpkin amusement park. There were slides, rope swinging, baby pigs, a corn maze and stuff we didn't make it to. It was a gorgeous day so all of Virginia stopped by making it extremely crowded. Although one man we were waiting in line with said, "I've seen it much worse." I wanted to ask him if he was from Minnesota. You know when it's 20 below and true Minnesotans say, "it could be worse." But I had lost Abegail so the conversation was quickly cut off.
In a first for me, I tried to stop a Big Mad (not mine, someone else's) in a corn maze. Not so much fun. But everyone came home alive and for the most part had a great time!
Then it was back to Auntie Caroline's to make carmel apples.Quotes from our neighbor Louisa, age 6:
Louisa: Sue, do you have enough money to buy this house yet?
Sue: No, not yet.
Louisa: Well I thought of a way for you to stay in this house and get money.
Sue: Oh yea, what's that?
Louisa: We could have a bake sale and sell brownies. Annie thought we could sell juice. That would make a lot of money.

Bus Driver Appreciation Week

So I finally decided I would volunteer for the room mother position. Politically correct is room parent, but lets be real, only moms do this job, no slight to Dads, its just the way it is.
Yesterday there was a room parent meeting. In Minnesota, I think the room parent planned a couple parties and went to the ice-cream social. I could be wrong, I was not a room parent there but that's the feeling I got. It is VERY different here. They have a room parent coordinator who went over all the responsibilities. They got to teacher appreciation week, support staff appreciation week, and then bus driver appreciation week. At which point I burst out laughing. Now I like our bus driver as much as everyone. The kids have always come home. She always says E-man is good whether or not he is. (one of my favorite types of people, ignorance IS bliss) And at the end of the year I might even buy her a tulip to show my appreciation. But seriously..a whole week for bus driver appreciation???

By the time they got to May in the schedule they were talking about a variety show. One of the moms asked what that involved and I piped up, 'you have to sing.' The heads turned and the looks came, who's the new girl? I thought this was the appropriate time to ask if I got health benefits with this job. I don't remember submitting a resume and if I had I'm sure I would have been deemed unqualified for the job no matter what my EEOC report said.

It all comes down to the fact that the kids and I have decided everyone looks a bit more constipated here. Ten seconds late for school you're written up. There's no "oh, thanks for stopping by." Annie's ballet must have the right color leotard and tights and ballet shoes. DO NOT CALL THEM Slippers. It's kind of karma for me complaining about the other ballet drill sergeant in Minnesota. She looks like Florence Nightingale compared to this group. Everything is harder. Math seems harder, reading more advanced, and the ancient cultures more involved with projects that of course involve the room parent.
I just want to get a bullhorn and yell, "CHILL OUT!" I mean don't you people have days when you aren't sure you are going to make it? I have days I'm not sure I want to make it. I said to Abegail, "I can't really see the principal getting a pie in the face here." (remembering when the principal at her school got one) She responded with a look of horror at the thought and said, "oh no, she's way too neat."

Abegail has also remarked that the staff at school seem "kind of old." Since some of them have been there since before the computer was invented I would agree with that assessment. The parents seem older too. Not so much older than me but older than Washburn parents in Minnesota. Not that there's anything wrong with that, you just have to get used to the smell of Ben Gay at the open house. That all said, everyone is very nice and so far they haven't kicked E-man out of school so I should be glowing about them.

Today as I walked the kids to school (they walk to school, kindergartners take the bus home) I saw the Asst. Principal who we met with for our plan on how to educate E-man. He asked how E-man was doing and I told him it's been a little rough. He said, "anything we can do?" I said yes, "FIX HIM!" "He's been in school a whole month and you haven't fixed him yet." He then got the "who's the new mom" look in his eyes that I saw the day before.

It Takes a Village
When Scott left for DC last spring and I was with the kids in Minnesota I realized how awesome people were helping me with E-man. Scott works a lot here and I am usually the one with the kids at activities. I have found people just as receptive and helpful here with E-man. Especially the soccer teams. Last Saturday, Abegail was starting the second half of her game and E-man was mad at me so he thought he would get me back by planting himself on the field and not moving. The coaches, ref, everyone was yelling GET OFF THE FIELD. I stood frozen on the side lines. The thought of grabbing him had scenes of getting beaten up in front of an audience in my head. That's when one of the other Dads walked on the field picked him up and took him off. Thank you Tim. It helps to have a lot of members of the military around! My neighbor Kathy, who has a first grader, has helped me with the ins and outs of school and I can complain to her about E-man...She's from NYC, between the two of us the sarcasm is overflowing.

Quotes from E-man:
Yesterday I asked E-man about 10 times to get in the car and go to soccer. He heard me but ignored me. Finally I honked the horn and he looked over at me....
E-man: what?? (hands in the air)
Mommy: yea, I'm getting ready to go to the spa and I was wondering if you'd come with me. What do you think???? I've TOLD YOU TEN TIMES WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SOCCER. Oh Hi Andy, how was your day?
(don't you hate when the neighbors pull up at the exact time you have lost it with your kids)

Yoga

Emmanuel has been a bit of a challenge lately. OK that is one of the biggest understatements I've ever made. Let me start over, in the past week E-man has peed on the church lawn in front of two priests, punched, scratched, and pushed numerous kids, spit on me, and given me cleat marks all over my shins. And that's just what I'm capable of remembering.

After coming home from CCD last Sunday and telling Scott about the latest incident he commented, "maybe you let this one be Methodist, they'd take him." To which I quickly said they can have him. But now I will relive my kindergarten CCD days and go with E-man to religion class to keep him in it. This is only until I rationalize that Emmanuel will never feel the guilt a good catholic should and decide its more trouble than its worth.

Anyway, I decided God helps those who help themselves and I would do yoga at Scott's gym to maintain some of my sanity. I asked my sister to go to last night's class with me. She was asked to go to happy hour with some of the girls at work but said no. She said this was the first form of exercise I had ever asked her to do that wouldn't give her a heart attack and she didn't want to turn me down (I'm so honored). Just to give you some background, the line I remember most about my sister's toast at my wedding was, "Every Christmas I do an extra round at the mall so Susan doesn't have to shop and every morning Susan runs an extra mile for me so I don't have to exercise."

When we entered yoga, I felt like I had gone back to my childhood days at church. Everyone was whispering like they were at church and Caroline and I immediately got the giggles. It wasn't long before the teacher brought her mat over in between the two of us (apparently trying to play the role of Mom) saying it would be a better angle for the rest of the class.

I don't know if you've ever done yoga, but it's not as easy as it sounds and some of the moves require incredible balance. It did occur to me that some of the moves are the same ones you see on TV during the Olympics ON ICE SKATES...but never mind that. One move was called the frog, I wanted to turn to my sister and say, "ribbit" but she had a look on her face like she had just bought something for full price so I decided not to disturb her. All in all Auntie Caroline did extremely well in the yoga class, even better than me. She says she will go with me again which makes me happy, then I can remember to bring my camera and make sure we get it in the family video this year.

Speaking of the camera, we finally got ours fixed!!! Below is the infamous Coach Kephern at practice with Emmanuel yesterday along with Coach Tim and the other players.
Quotes from the Kids:
Annie: Mommy, I know where were going.... To aannoootttherr sssoccceeerrr practice.
Emmanuel: Mommy, did you sign me up for professional soccer?

The Big Mad That Got A Big Break

Last Thursday Abegail's soccer team was having a special coach come and work with them. He allowed Emmanuel and the coach's son to participate at the very beginning in the drills section. But then he needed to work with the girls and Emmanuel was encouraged to go kick the ball with a little boy his age.
E-man would not hear of it. He immediately started to have a BIG MAD. I tried everything, "E-man if you don't settle down you won't get to play at all." "OK, I'm going to count to ten and if you haven't stopped crying then we are going to the car." I tried to get him to the car but it was down two flights of stairs and he held onto the railing so tight I couldn't get him off. He was kicking and screaming. I finally wrestled him to the ground but he only hit me and ran away toward Abegail's coaches and stood there crying. I ran after him. He was pulling on my shirt so hard it was stretching and giving people a view no one wanted to see. The original coaches asked if he wanted to play a game with them and his son. No E-man wanted nothing to do with any of these people except the special coach.

The special coach reminded me of a 24 year old E-man. Incredibly athletic with head full of hair and skin so dark I first thought he might be from Africa. His drills were done to fast paced music, the kind E-man always wants me to play in the car. He was so coordinated it looked like he was performing with the Globetrotters. He obviously heard E-man's episode. Everyone heard it, people in neighboring towns heard it. I apologized over and over again. I tried to say, he has issues, he'll be fine. Finally the coach who we now know as Kephern said, "E-man you want to play?" Eman immediately stopped crying. "C'mon, get out here." E-man ran and got to scrimmage with the girls. Kephern looked back at me. "Did he come with you?" "Yes, I'm his mother." "OK, I'll talk to you afterward." Oh, jeez, I can just hear it, his skin is too dry, his hair is not oiled, and obviously I'm not disciplining him correctly.

At the end of practice, Coach Kephern came over to me and I had my, "I grade on a curve" speech all ready. But he said, "Yea, where's he from?" "Liberia" I said meekly. "Yea, I could tell he was African with his speed and his natural talent. I coach a group of select boys from ages 5-7. We practice throughout the year, maybe you want to come and see if he likes it and wants to play with them."
"Yes, we would love that, the more energy he can get out, the less energy he has for big mads. He has a lot of issues you know."
"Yea, Yea, its OK don't worry about that, we'll get him playing."
We have since learned Coach Kephern played professionally in Europe representing Holland. He also played for George Mason University which is right down the road. He coaches a private academy and a boys team E-man's age. But he trains a handful of boys E-man's age with these teams. We exchanged information and promised to be in touch.

I am A SOCCER MOM (it is all about me you know)
Yesterday I got an e-mail from Kephern. Practice would be Mondays and Fridays from 5 to 7:15 and Sundays from 4 to 5:30. Throw in a practice on Tuesdays for Emmanuel's regular league and a game Saturday and he'll be playing 5 times a week. If that doesn't settle him down then I am going to check and see if he is really human.

But yesterday was also Abegail's soccer practice. OK, I really want E-man to work with this guy, he's good, and he's a great black role model. So I figured it out. I'd take E-man, then take Abegail, then come back and watch E-man. Annie packed up her lip gloss and princess mirror and we were ready. Except getting kids out of the house for anything is like trying to fit a 3 bedroom house in a 24 foot budget truck. (memories..by the way I did see a budget truck pulling a uhaul van on one of my adventures so I'm not the only one who made that mistake)

Finally I get all my stuff in the car and put my keys on the seat to try and find Abegail who's decided to take one last bike ride in her school dress, you aren't ready yet?? In the meantime I lock the door but E-man thought he'd be helpful and put the keys back in the house. Luckily I had left the back door open, but now I have no gas and it's 5:00 traffic and E-man is playing at a field in Fairfax which is several long stop lights away. I get to the field 7 minute late drop him off with Kephern and his junior high team along with 3 other very athletic looking boys all E-man's height and run to take Abegail to practice.
Except as I'm walking back to the car it dawns on me. I really only met Kephern once. I know nothing about him or what he will do with my son for two hours and 15 minutes. I don't have his Epi-pen, what if he gets stung by a bee, has a big mad. etc. and so forth. On the hill is a mom, I asked her if she was going to stay the whole practice. She said yes and I gave her my cell phone number, just in case. She said, "what's your name? " I said Sue. But when she asked that I realized she didn't speak English very well and she wrote down SOL. (yes we all know what it stands for .... out of luck, and I think it's quite fitting) She said, "Is this right?"
"Perfect," I said.
Abegail looks at me, "Why did you tell her your name was SOL?"
"Because I'm really flustered and just have to get you to practice and I don't know."

Back to the field
I arrive back at E-man's practice about 6:50. He is still upright but it's obvious he's been playing hard. Abegail says, "E-man looks tired." Yes but he's still moving. I only remember him ever looking that tired one other time. But they were still going. About 14 six-year-olds all playing, scrimmaging, doing push-ups, then stretching. At 7:15 after two hours and 15 minutes, Eman is done. He comes over to me, "can we stay?" "Stay for what?" "I want to play some more." No honey we have to go..at which point he starts to have a big mad..OK we can stay for a minute.
He plays with Abegail a bit and then comes over to me ready to go but insists I have to carry him off the field.
"Really E-man you want your new coach and all those outstanding players to see your Mommy carrying you off the field?"
"Yes." OK then.
E-man was tired and hungry. Unfortunately he still had the energy to torment Annie and not go to bed on time. And all the while asking, when do I play soccer again with Kephern???
Quotes from Emmanuel
Yesterday I was mowing the lawn. E-man was already in his soccer uniform because there were only five hours until we had to go to practice.
E-man: Mommy, are you going to shower before my soccer so you don't stink?
Mommy: Yes E-man, I will make sure I look like the mother of a Champion

Grandpa Chuck's Half Marathon

We headed to Rochester this weekend. My Dad and I ran the Rochester Half Marathon. My Dad joined a special training group and trained for this for weeks. My training consisted of eating a lot of carbs. My Dad did awesome and even seemed to get stronger as the race progressed. He finished in 2:27:24. There was also a full marathon. The leader of that race finished the same time we did. You can imagine the cheers and the television cameras all around us. Wow, we are awesome and so is the guy who did the half marathon twice.
Not to be outdone by Grandpa Chuck, Grandma Marian participated in a mile walk on Saturday for a group called Heritage Christian who serves people with disabilities. The entire family got in on the action that day, but the kids particularly enjoyed the bouncy houses and using their balloons as swords.

2nd Day and Ballet

Abegail helps Annie change to tap shoes

By all accounts the second day of school went well. Both Annie and Abegail are making new friends, although Annie is having trouble remembering the name of her new friend and is right now just known as "my new friend." Everybody seems to like their teachers so far.
Annie had her first ballet and tap class last night and loved it.

Things I never thought I'd hear myself say:
E-man, please stop playing with the holy water.
Get down from the Holy Mary statue!
E-man, why are you trying to put a tree branch into the car??
E-man, please stop doing flips on the couch.
E-man please stop climbing up the wall.
E-man please don't water the plants with dish soap...oh OK...please don't clean the cement slab with dish soap..oh never mind, go ahead...I grade on a curve, OK now you are using the dish soap to wash my car...uh ..ok, thanks for your help?
E-man please don't use the picture frame as a step ladder.
E-man for the last time you can not see your stomach through your belly button.

I've heard kids' behavior gets worse at home when they start school because they are on their best behavior at school. I can only hope that is somewhat true for E-man right now, so far I have not heard of any teacher injuries.

A great blog:
One of my fellow reporter friends (who used to intern for me!) is taking three months to spend in Uganda to work for a nonprofit there and help some of the women in the country. She is documenting her experience at http://katerenner.blogspot.com

1st Day of Kindergarten and 3rd Grade!

The Boys (that's the official name for our cousins) go to school too! From left to right, Cameron (2nd grade) Chase (Kindergarten-2022 will be a big year in our family) and Owen (4th grade)

School Open House

Obviously these are bad pictures with our video camera, but you get the idea. The kids had their school open house at Ravensworth Elementary today. Annie and E-man are in the same class (they are going to try E-man in a regular class, best of luck to them) in morning Kindergarten. Their teacher is Mrs. Ramage and she has an assistant Ms. Turner (that should be hard for everyone to remember). Abegail's teacher is Ms. Smith. Funny thing, my third grade teacher's name was also Mrs. Smith. Annie will sit next to Daesha who is in the last picture with her. She lives three houses from us and the kids have played together before so that should be fun.

September Morn

Abegail with Tarry and Maima in NJ

Can you believe it is September? It's a beautiful day here in DC, the humidity has broken, the sun is out, temperature in the mid 70's, a perfect running day.

E-man has soccer practice at 5:30 tonight. But at 8:00 this morning he was up, dressed in his soccer uniform and cleats, looking for his shinguards. He is insisting we can't go anywhere today because we will miss soccer. "E-man it's 6 hours until we have to leave, we are not just going to watch the clock." Abegail does seem to like her soccer team, she is starting to be more social with the girls. Soccer seems bigger here, it doesn't compete with ice hockey. Abegail practices twice a week with Sat. games and E-man once a week with a Sat. game. It's all good, the kids need the practice and instruction time. Last night at Abegail's soccer practice, the girls had just been to our neighbor's birthday party where they received pocket mirrors as gifts. E-man practiced his soccer rigorously while Annie sat in a chair, legs crossed, wearing her Aerial crown, and looking in the mirror almost the entire hour.

E-man has been out of sorts lately. I think he has had a growth spurt again. He had a huge big mad at church Sunday. Some people were handing out fliers and offered him a pin, "Maybe a pin will make him feel better." Yea, lets give him something sharp while he's beating me up and throwing things, great.

Everyone is a little anxious for the start of school. Abegail is nervous and we are missing our old friends. Two nights ago she told me she wanted to go home, but she was not talking about Minnesota. Annie asks everyday how many more days until school. I don't think she realizes she will have a new teacher and new friends in class.

Tarry, Abegail, and Maima on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean in NJ