Today was the BHS wresting tournament, that I’ve been helping out with for the last 19 years. Hard to believe it’s been that long. So I am one of the “computer girls” that input all the matches and it’s fun to come each year and hang out with the crew. Levi came and spent the morning with me, then Dee brought all the boys back up for the finals. Kim brought Jefferson up in the end as well and the boys ran and wrestled and looked so stinkin cute up on the winners blocks.
The trophies were wrapped up in bubblewrap and that was a huge hit with them all. We even have a few pieces left over to play with tomorrow!

Like I would open my home to someone else’s naughty teen????? Why would I lay down the law to someone else’s kid who hasn’t been told no their whole life? No thank you.

Here it is, people…the chance to be on reality tv!

Casting for a new TV show

Casting Great Parents for New TV Show
The makers of “Supernanny” are seeking great parents! — Do other parents come to you for advice? Do you have the most well behaved teens on the block? If the answer is yes, we want you! We’re looking for parents with a firm hand, a big heart and an open home, for a brand new TV show. You’ll get the chance to mentor a teen heading down the wrong path.

ALSO looking for adventurous unruly teens, ages 15 -18! — Ever wonder what it’s like to live with another family? If so, here’s your chance to spend a week away from home and try something new!

For more information, please call Kim or Scott at 1-888-41-TEENS or email teens@ricochettelevision.com — please include your name, phone number and email address.

We were thinking back the other day about when Levi first started at the developmental preschool and how we would ask him what he did that day and it was like pulling teeth to get an answer. Here’s yesterday’s answer….boy how times have changed. Levi is doing AWESOME at school and we couldn’t be more proud of him.

Tonight we got to hang out with Holly, Maddy and Gabe, woo hoo! It was fun..did the pizza and a movie thing and it was nice just being mellow and catching up on things. I sure do miss seeing them. Levi, Carlos and Trey just ADORE Maddy, she has such a great way with kids and she lets them climb on her like a jungle gym, always a plus with our boys.

These are the times when you can really see the love running deep…when the boys are sitting watching a movie, and one brother is rubbing the other’s hair.

I’ve spent a lot of time organizing family pictures the last week…in hopes of making dvds for each year. It’ll be great once it gets done, just a pain to do it. Anyhow…here’s Carlos and Levi’s first trip to the ocean!

The snow has melted, the power (and heat) are back on and hallelujah to that! We’re getting dumped on by the rain at this point but so far no repeat of the basement flood of last year. The past week we’ve had about 1 1/2 inches of water in the basement at all times so we’ve had the septic guys back out to try to figure that one out and tonight our septic pump alarm started going off. We’ll see what tomorrow brings, we’re just one of the lucky ones in our area who aren’t dealing with loads of flooding and for that we are thankful.
I do have one boy who couldn’t be happier that it’s raining and that’s Levi. He is finally getting a chance to use the Spiderman umbrella that Santa brought him! The wind has made it tricky, though and it reminds me of my time up at Western Wash U. If you’ve spent any time in Bellingham you know that it’s basically a wind tunnel and you can walk across the campus on any given rainy day and spot the freshman in 2 seconds, they are the ones with the umbrellas, most often turned inside out. The rest of us would just chuckle, as they try to close up their now mangled umbrellas. Too funny! Now I’ve just got to teach my boy that if he’s going to use an umbrella he’s gotta be smart about it.

So we’ve been without power (and heat) for the last 24 hours. Wasn’t a big deal when it went out, it was bedtime so I just threw on a sweatshirt and snuggled into bed. This morning it was CHILLY so we were up reading our books with Carlos and Trey assisting with their headlamp flashlights. School was 2 hours delayed, which meant no preschool for Levi. I also had Alice, Kristian and Jefferson so all the kids bundled up and played with no complaints. We ate lunch and I promised to go buy them some fries to warm them up, took Carlos to preschool and naps went as normal. We played outside awhile, it was quite warm outside so all was good, then met up with Mary for family dinner at the Chinese restaurant. We checked back in at home, disappointed to drive by and see it still pitch black. Headed to Nana and Papa’s warm house to get the boys through the bath and possibly spend the night. Called our place around 9pm and hooray, our answering machine clicked on, we had power! Amazing how long 24 hours can seem without heat (the light, tv, etc weren’t all that big a deal….but it was cold!)

I’m not happy….I was out runnning errands this afternoon and saw what I thought was a flake. No, it couldn’t be. Really? Snow? OH YES. It’s been snowing now for a couple of hours, it’s sticking and I’m livid. Praying to the rain gods to come in and take care of the issue because school starts up again tomorrow and we NEED it to start tomorrow.

So Dee and I had haircuts scheduled in Poulsbo today, which meant the kids and I were going to stop in at the Evil Empire to do a little Christmas clearance shopping. Dee was so bummed out to miss our outing since she had to work (ha ha ha ha, not really). We met up with Carolyn and her foster kids and got some major shopping done. All the Christmas items were 75% off, which meant there were great deals. Problem was that some of the items didn’t ring up at the sale price and I had some dumb-a$$ middle age male checker with attitude.
At this point in the shopping trip, Levi was crying…let me back up a minute. When we left the haircuts all of the boys got a lollipop and Levi was still eating his when we went into Walmart. He was bugging Carlos and Trey and got a warning about not doing it again, then proceeded to bug them more and I took his lollipop away. He was screaming and sobbing in the store, but I didn’t give in (we don’t reward tantrums) but I did tell him that if he pulled it together and didn’t pester his brothers for the rest of the trip that I would buy another lollipop. He was great (yeah!) for the whole trip, I reached down at the checkout to grab a ring pop and he saw me do that and felt confident that he had earned his treat and no longer needed to behave. WRONG, the minute I put the ring pop in the cart he blew it and started bugging Trey again, the exact same way he did before. I took the ring pop, put it back on the shelf and he was lost in a sobbing tantrum yet again.
Needless to say, I was flustered and wanted to just be done so when Christmas items weren’t ringing up at the clearance price, and I brought it to the checkers attention he said “guess they aren’t on sale” Dude, for real? I know my sales and ALL the holiday stuff was 75%, so sheets that said “Holiday Traditions” should ring up not $18, but $4.5o a set. I was ticked, both at Levi and at the checker’s brain dead state so I said forget it and didn’t get the items.
Levi pulled it together finally and we got a sandwich at Subway and I looked over my receipt…he’s charged me for one of the items I didn’t even get. Lame, now I had to take the crew back to customer service and get my money back. They were awesome, thank God, and I also asked them about the other holiday stuff and they said to bring it to them and they would ring it up at the discount. WHEW, what a trip!