last practice...bring on the games!

yesterday was august's very last practice before his little league games start. the sun was out. the dog was tired and hazel was high on motrin:

august took his turn as the catcher...you can't really see him under all the gear:

both these pictures were taken with my phone...they'll have to do until i get a new camera. i think they look alright though. august's games start on saturday. he'll be wearing the whole uniform...including the smallest cup known to man...it's so cute...i won't be posting pictures of that...

you can ring my bell

for the last 24 hours we have been taking Tank to the back door and making him touch a bell before we take him out to go to the bathroom. it has been funny watching him try to figure out what we're asking him to do...he noses it one time, head butts it another and hits it with his paw the next time.
this morning as i was fixing my second cup of coffee (yup, it's a 2 cup kind of day as hazel woke up with a fever) i heard the bells ring. for a second i thought it was an odd sound and wondered which toy hazel was playing with, then it hit me...it's the potty bell! i dropped my spoon and ran to the back door. sure enough there was the dog waiting patiently. i opened the door and he went potty (i'd show you a picture but...my camera is broken...have i mentioned that? birthday). it was a good feeling to see the fruits of our 24 hour labors.

last night we took the kids to the triple door to see Rosie Thomas play. hazel loves her new CD, i think i've mentioned that before. we didn't tell her what we were doing, just told her we were going somewhere special to see something special. when she figured it out she seemed pleasantly surprised. Rosie came over to say hello and gave hazel a teddy bear.
we stayed for the whole show which was good because she sang the last song (which was hazel's favorite) and thanked hazel for coming. hazel lit up and acted as though the very verbalizing of her name from the stage made her famous.
it was a good night.

mybrotherscott

hello?!
my own dear brother has a spot on IMDB!!
trey and i spend WAY too much time looking things up on this site.
congratulations to my very talented brother Scott Reynolds! (now get your picture up there brother...)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2385065/

week one

well, we lasted a week with the puppy. it's like skipping the infant stage of parenthood and jumping right into toddler life. for those of you who have not had kids that means that the puppy can not be left alone...ever...even for a second...cause you just don't know what he'll do...like chew the couch...or...poop on the rug...or...attack one of hazel's limbs...it's been fun.

i took a trip to ikea during spring break. didn't really need anything, just wanted to put the kids in the play area for an hour so i could walk around by myself...well...tank and i walked around together. he was purdy cute in the cart:

i continued working on my coffee making skills to impress my friends and family. i may have gotten the foam issues resolved:
look at that foam would ya! almost as good as uptown! ok...not even close...a girl's gotta dream right? mmmmm, that uptown coffee looks soo good, i might have to go git me some one day this week...anyone wanna join me? during school...no kids...any takers?

guess what? my camera broke (my birthday is coming up) yup, it was in my purse so i could catch all the funny things the kids and dog do during our day (my birthday is coming up) and somehow it done broke. so. no pictures for a while. (my birthday is coming up) i may start to recycle old ones that haven't been used (my birthday is coming up) but i'll let you know if they're old ones so you don't think my children are shrinking. (my birthday is coming up).
that's all for now.
birthday

TANK

please do not send TANK Jamiroquai singles.

this morning as i was checking my favorite websites i left the TV on that THETUBE station...it has very random videos throughout the day. right now it's playing "ain't no mountain high enough", OK, now it's playing "turn/turn/turn". it's great for background noise. anywho- the TV was on. i was sitting on the couch with my computer and TANK was laying down on one of his many beds in front of me when "virtual insanity" by jamiroquai started playing. TANK's head raised to look at the TV. the dog would not stop growling at the TV. i even sent one of his favorite toys across the room, a game both he and the kids never grow tired of, nope. he would not be distracted from that crazy looking guy wearing that crazy big hat.

no jamiroquai for this dog. now what will trey listen to?

picture blog of our day

such great plans

i had such great plans set out for our spring break this year. the kids and i were packing up to visit with my brother and sister-in-law out in sunny california. the night before we were to fly out the phone rang with bad news and we had to re-schedule our trip.
a full week with absolutely nothing to do.

thankfully an old college friend was coming for a visit, one that i would have missed out on had the kids and i gone to california. Matt Hudson, or Hudson as he was called back then, and his wife Sarah have some family in the area and fit us right in with their vacation plans.
Hudson was my brother's room mate for many years back at Eastern Michigan University as well as a band mate with my husband. we go way back.
on their first full day here we spent a few hours knocking back some yummy girly drinks in the back yard. the sun was out, the kids were playing and the adults were chatting about how we've all changed so much since our college days.
there was comfort in talking to Hudson. he knew me a lifetime ago. i would say something and he would laugh and comment that i sounded like my old self. i kinda liked hearing that.

we've all lived such varied lives. i feel like i've been at least four different versions of myself throughout my life. it's very self centered of me but i would love to get some key people from my past together and compare notes. what would my best friend from Chicago say about who i was when i lived there? what about that year i lived in Willowbrook, what would my closest friend say about me? and then there's my South Lyon life. i was fortunate enough to get together with some of my closest friends from there and was amazed at some of the things they remembered of me. life changes us. i have been changed and part of me wishes that i could have held onto the fractures of me that i left behind.