Life is a Pitch: April 2014

4/30/14

2009

ok, trying to find my old "The Sharks lost in the Playoff" blog posts.....and back in 2009 I wrote this-

playoff thoughts from 2009

Hahahahaaaa it says something like "maybe I'll start watching the Sharks".....interesting. I dont even watch basketball anymore and I now watch every Sharks game. I've changed in 5 years.

Sad Sharks

I could probably go back and link you to or copy/paste the past few years posts on this day....the day the Sharks lost in the playoffs....and what I wrote then was probably the same as what I am going to write now....

I AM SAD!

I could just push send and publish this post with those 3 words, because everything I'm going to write now will just be a long way of stating that I AM SAD.

But, I guess there are some positives to all of this-

The Bruins won the Stanley Cup the year after they blew a 3 game series lead.
I will have more free time now.
ummm, that's it....nothing good came from the Sharks loss!

I still love them. I still like them. I would never boo them. I know they feel worse than me (or any other fan).

Well, now I guess it is GO PENGUINS.

I will not, I can not root for the Kings....so GO DUCKS, also.

Too sad to write any more. Maybe it's good that Scott turned off the post game show. Bed time??? I think so!

Sharks Fan

I brought Bradley's old Sharks jersey to school, hoping to convince my Kings fan 2nd grade friend to wear it....the DID NOT happen....she's a pretty fierce and loyal fan....(I tried to convince her that the Sharks are nice and the Kings are dirty, but she really liked it when her team slammed mine into the walls and her goalie jumped our captain).....so, Adam willingly wore the lucky jersey all day....hope it works. GO SHARKS!!!!

4/29/14

okayyyyyyyyyy

I have been feeling a little down or mad lately.....last time I wrote that on here or Facebook or somewhere my husband used it against me/tried to solve all my problems. Don't want or need those things to happen, but do like "typing it out"...so here goes.

Bradley's back hurts....so I'm concerned....but he wont stop skateboarding....so I don't think he is very concerned. Scott took his skateboard away last night. Big fight will begin around here until he gets it back, I'm sure.

I don't really like the people at church or the things that happen there like disorganization and boring lessons. But I do know that the gospel is true, I need to go, and people aren't perfect....but church has been driving me insane lately.

I need to get a new job.....but where....and I need one that allows me to be off when the kids are off, so I guess I need a job at the school. Oh wait, that's what I already have!

I guess it's good to have two hockey teams to like because one just advanced in the playoffs while the other is fizzling. It doesn't make me sound like I am a very dedicated fan when I say I have a second favorite team, but it does help on days like yesterday because at least one of "my teams" won. The Sharks lost. The Sharks disappointed me....but I still love them....I still think and hope they can win on Wednesday. I don't know why I care so much about sports, hockey, the Sharks, but I really do. I want them to win because I like watching them play, but also because I know that the players want to win, it would be so awesome for them to hold the Stanley Cup. I don't think they "didn't show up", I don't think they are a bunch of chokers, and I don't think they are losing to hurt their fans. I know the players want to win.

There is a 2nd grade girl at school who walked up to me a few days ago and said, "Go Kings". I couldn't believe it, but I actually really enjoyed it. I've talked to her about the Sharks/Kings every day since. Her last name is the same last name as the Kings worst player, but he's her favorite player. She said she would NOT wear a Sharks shirt if I bought her one. I don't like the Kings and find it hard to see how people actually do like them. (Although I USED to like Dustin Brown and did root for them a few years ago after the Sharks were out of the playoffs......but to see how Brown goes around the ice with intent to injure....and he DID injure the Sharks young rookie star earlier this season....I just cant like him or the Kings anymore...AT ALL). (they are pretty good, though). Sharks have home ice advantage but the Kings have momentum. Wednesday's game should be GOOD....hopefully I will be happy with the outcome. A Sharks win always makes me happy, washes away all the world's problems (I mean my stresses.) GO SHARKS!

A couple other funny kids at school stories----one kindergartner saw my Sharks shirt yesterday and asked, "Is that a Clippers shirt"? um, NO! Clippers are red, white, and blue/Sharks are teal and black. Clippers play basketball/Sharks hockey. Clippers logo is NOT a shark munching on a stick. Cute that he asked, though!

Another kindergartner told me that he's a Sharks fan and that he tried to get his dad to buy a Sharks shirt on Sunday at TJ MAXX. I haven't seen Sharks shirts there in YEARS, but I asked and asked and made sure that was the right store and then drove over there and I bought ALL the Sharks shirts they had for $6.99, regularly $19.99....so I LOVE that kid! So glad he told me about TJ MAXX's Shark shirts! I made Andrew wear one today.

4/28/14

living with boys

I live with two boys and a man, or really, just 3 boys.....no other girls, just me and them....I'm outnumbered!

Life with all these boys is fun, but there are just some things that bug me.....here are a few that I noticed today while in the bathroom.....1.) an ice cream cone wrapper in the bathroom garbage can. Now I ask...WHO eats ice cream in the bathroom??? Oh well, no biggy....gross, but I didn't do it, so I guess it's no skin off my chin. 2.) Then, I heat up my curling iron and smell syrup, burning syrup...how did syrup get on my curling iron??? Who was eating pancakes in the bathroom??? People, we have a kitchen. Eat there!

other "boy" observations---

I actually don't really mind the toilet seat left up......more people than not use it up....but I DO NOT like to sit on it when it is WET! I'd rather have it left in an upright position than down and wet.

Burping and farting. I'd rather have them burp! Scott yells at them when they burp. A burp saves us from an eventual fart....so just burp, get it over with. Scott thinks farts are uncontrollable, I think burps are too. A burp has never bothered me.....farts ALWAYS do.

If collecting laundry around the house, if you think it's dirty, just wash it....DO NOT smell it to see if it's dirty....just wash it if you have ANY doubts.

Buy groceries they can make and serve themselves....they eat constantly. I don't want to have to cook constantly. Easy to prepare foods. Fruit, easy. Cereal, easy. Can of soup, frozen microwavable things, leftovers! Boys eat A LOT. Groceries are NOT cheap. Groceries ARE cheaper than fast foods. Stock up the fridge.

Boys are lazy (not Scott on this one). Boys are hungry. Boys are messy. Boys do not care! Wonder what life right now would be like if Andrew would have been a girl?????

4/26/14

Camporee

The scout Camporee is this weekend. It rained HARD for most of yesterday afternoon, so they didn't go camping last night. They are only going today for the activities. All the food they bought for breakfast, they cooked and ate at the church this morning. I didn't know they were going to do this, so I made my boys breakfast here. I hope that's why Bradley is looking grumpy!!! I hope he has a good time and more importantly---a GOOD ATTITUDE!!!!

4/20/14

Other Pics from Trip

Industrial trampoline....not the average kind you can pick up at Wal Mart, this one had WAY more spring! The funniest thing I saw on the trampoline was a wrestling match between Andrew and Haley, with the big boys egging them on....Andrew was wrestling, Haley was BOXING!

They weren't playing Ping Pong, they were playing Sting Pong....whoever messed up, instead of the other person scoring a point, they got to hit the ball at the other person who was turned around with his shirt pulled up....when the ball hit their bare back, it would leave a "sting"....most of the time they missed each other!

can you see he is COVERED in paint splatter?!?!!!?!

Dying Easter Eggs. Easter morning, they had an Easter Egg Hunt with Wyatt and Haley, Justin had left for work before Haley woke up, so he didn't get to find any eggs!

We found some "treasures" at the rental house...a box of Goldfish crackers, some plastic champagne cups, a broken guitar amp, some dumbbell weights, things like that.....ANDDDDDDDDDDDD the kids found a couple hundred bottle rocket fire works....according to all the kids (and Kim) the bottle rockets were THE BEST TREASURE of all! They shot a bunch of them off that night. The egg dying had to wait a bit.

Scott put all the paint in a huge garbage can and we had to scoop it out with a little coffee can to put it into the 10 gallon bucket that goes with the sprayer....at the end we wanted to get the last parts out but didn't have any kind of scraper, so I stuck my hands down in there, but couldn't reach the bottom so I pretty much went in there as Andrew held the garbage can and reached in scooping all the paint out. My hair touched the wet paint on the sides of the can. If I ever paint ever again (hope not)....I WILL put my hair in a pony tail!!! And, for future reference, dried paint does NOT come out of hair with shampoo! It needs to be picked out piece by piece! NOT FUN!

Paint Trip Recap

    We went to Alturas this weekend to paint the rental house and get it ready to sell or to rent out again. The past renters left it in pretty good shape, but not perfect. The main thing we had to do was paint the outside, but there was also lots of cleaning, fix it jobs, and inside painting to do. The roof needed repair, the deck needed repair, some of the siding needed repair. We had two days to work, but it was probably a week long job. The boys worked hard, but I'm sure the job was big enough to hire a crew of skilled laborers. We left Chico at 6 am and got to Alturas by 10:30, but our friend Bill had our house keys and he was at work, so we had to wait for him to take his lunch break. The boys hunted ground squirrels, jumped on the Valena's trampoline, played ping pong, and we all ate lunch.
     We went to the rental house at noon and worked there until dark. That day we did all the prep work for painting, mostly scraping old paint. Scraping old paint is not fun or easy. My elbow is killing me from all the scraping. Bradley and Andrew tired of scraping after only about 2 hours. There was more than two hours of scraping to be done. The roof was not repaired right last time (renter said he would do it)....so it leaked and one of the inside cement walls was slightly moldy. So, we cleaned it up and painted over it with mold killing/preventing paint stuff. That is just like painting, which doesnt feel much better on a sore elbow than scraping....a little easier, though. The wall was originally purple in that room, so I had to paint the mold paint stuff completely everywhere so the purple paint wouldnt show through. Luckily there is a cement floor in that room, so it didnt matter how much I dripped. I dripped! We ended up painting that room yellowish.....but it took 2 coats, so basically I painted that room 3 times in two days! I dont like that room anymore.
I cleaned (or started to) clean the kitchen. It is a small kitchen, possibly even smaller than my kitchen, if that's possible. The stove, vent, and everything around them were GREASY. I brought kitchen cleaner, comet, windex, and bathroom cleaner, but no grease cutting soap of any sort. The Comet scratched the stove top, none of the other cleaners would break down the grease. (If I would have had dish soap, that might have worked.) There was a ton of dust on top of the cupboards. The insides of the cupboards were sticky. The cupboards themselves were greasy. I sprayed cleanser EVERYWHERE, but then noticed that didnt work on the finish of the cupboards!!! Oops! So I tried spraying Pledge everywhere, but that didnt help much....cheap, low quality wood! I ended up realizing that we were going to need to make another trip to Alturas in the near future, so I stopped cleaning and went back to scraping.
     Scott went to the store in the middle of the day to get more supplies.....when he came back, we were missing a scraper. We looked EVERYWHERE and never found it. Later, when we were leaving that night, we met the neighbor. He had two kids. One was funny, when Scott said we were from Chico, he said, "Did you say you are from Chicago?" Scott said, "No, Chico" and the kid said, "Is that in South America?"....hahaaaa....but the daughter said, did you lose a scraper, we found one in the middle of the road. Someone must have put it on top of the truck before Scott drove away. The road is dirt and very bumpy, it must have vibrated off!
     We went back the next morning to MORE scraping. More taping. Saturday was EXTREMELY windy....most all the taped up windows plastic blew off. What a waste of time. The wind was also a pain because it dried the buckets of paint out and it blew paint everywhere when Scott was spraying it (we had borrowed our friend Richard's paint sprayer). It was also cold and also messed up my hair....A LOT.
     Scott "estimated" that the actual spraying part of the paint job would take only 2 hours....he was WRONG, Very, Very wrong....it took ALL DAY. ALLLLLLLLL DAY. Hours upon hours. The paint seemed to go on well, it just took a long time. While he was spraying the main color on, he assigned Bradley the trim painting. Bradley is not neat or careful or even steady handed.....he painted dark grey trim paint EVERYWHERE, just slopped it on! It's going to need a lot of retouching. A LOT.
     Bradley is the one, though, who had the good idea of how to paint the large trim board along the roof, he held up a big sheet of metal, to protect the house, while Scott sprayed with the sprayer, WAY faster than hand painting everything!
     The house still needs touch up, more repairs, and more cleaning, but we finished the main painting just as the sun disappeared. Scott is going to go back in 2 weeks. We have a page long "to do" list, then it will be ready for rent/sale.

Alturas Paint Job Day 2 Photos

it was so windy that all the taped window coverings blew off before we even started painting!

LOTS of paint!

I just wiped my hands on my pants and shirt....painting tips----hair in pony tail, don't wear shoes you care about....kinda sad about the Flyers shirt, but good thing I don't like the Flyers. These clothes are now in the trash. Anyone know how to clean the paint off my sun glasses?

4/19/14

Hike

Scott ran to the store (it's pretty far away)....and told us to keep working....instead, we went on a hike to a cool rock formation, up on a hill near the house.