Someone Isn't Tired.

Game 6

Nothing new under the sun here.
Just chillin' and listening to the ballgame, trying to figure out why I care so much. 
Trying not to envision some sort of Johnny Pesky holding the ball/Bucky Dent/Bill Buckner/Aaron Boone ending...we'll see if the ghosts still inhabit Fenway. 

Big Boy

His first Big Boy haircut.
Took it like a champ, too.  Just sat and smiled through the whole thing. 
Sniff, sniff...

Stress

Just listening to Game 4.
Ugh.
I hope the Sox can pull this one out.  I try to act like I'm okay if they don't...but I cry every year at the end of the Series simply because there is a void in my life from November -March. 
Sigh. 
96 more days until pitchers and catchers report.  

We did have a lovely weekend.
Nina and Pops came to visit and accompanied us to Trunk or Treat.  We had soccer on Saturday and the Youngers ended up not feeling well, so they hung with N & P while we took the Olders to a Halloween Party last night.
Today we carved pumpkins, took a walk and chilled.
Hopefully now that soccer and t-ball are over, life will slow down considerably.

 More from the soccer game: 

 Nate loves his "beautiful friend Paige'. 

 And everybody loves Ghillie.

 Caroline getting her medal. 

 More from pumpkin carving today.
Here are Dada and Mama's pumpkins. 

 Can you guess who is who? 

Soccer

Caroline has her second season of soccer under her belt.
She is still enjoying it immensely, even if she appears to be more socially motivated than anything. 
We are proud of her. 
Go CJ!

Regrouping

So the Sox are down 2-1.
So the game ended in the most anti-climatic fashion with a judgement call. 
So Saltalamacchia shouldn't have been in the game and Napoli shouldn't have been on the bench. 
So I got trash talked the other night by the most sickeningly polite gentleman from St Louis.
So?

We're still in it to win it.
Red Sox Nation - Walkersville.

Pre-Gaming @ Breakfast

Yup.
We're the parents that tell the kids that, because the Sox won last night - they have to wear their Sox stuff to school *again* today. 

The Series

It's here.  The Series. 
There aren't enough TUMS on the planet. 
Thanks to Fox, we can't watch a single game live.  Thinking on in, this may not be a bad thing...McCarver makes my ears bleed... 
Bunch of jerks that black out the game nationally so those of us that use the MLB package (the biggest fans out there) can't watch.  

I'm homesick for Autumn in New England. 
Of course, if I'm there and it's less than 40 degrees, I will have had enough...but for right now, I'd rather be in Boston. 
I promised Caroline that *if* there is a parade in Boston (for a certain reason that I can't mention for fear of jinx)...we will be there. 
I can only hope. 

Uncle Patrick was here this weekend for the Tough Mudder Race. 
After running, swimming, crawling and trudging though 12 miles of the WV wilderness, *this* is what he came home to in his room...

He was thrilled.  Wouldn't you be? 

The next day we had a Saints Party at Family Faith Formation.  The kids had to pick a saint or a character out of the Bible to dress as. 
Caroline was Judith.  Sam was St Paul.  Nate was Daniel.  Benjamin was a plague frog. 

The other day I caught Nate sleeping like this with his BabyNate.  Sometimes, when he is not being so insane that my head aches, he is so cute it makes my heart ache. 

And here is Benjamin, who is developing quite the personality.  He is in on almost all the action now.  He is also figuring out how he can position himself to get away with as much as possible. 
He is upstairs, downstairs, standing on the couch, climbing the shelves in the pantry/refrigerator, attempting to scale the ladder into Sam's bunk, trying to ride Nate's scooter and everywhere in between. 
It's exhausting to even think about. 
Sleeping has been difficult for him again recently.  We are still doing nebs and any time he gets any sort of virus, it just ends up making him wheezy and coughy.  Poor kid.  
But he's so stinking cute. 

The Tooth Fairy will be making another stop here tonight.  Her 7th stop.  Braces, here we come...

Sleepy Time.

I am so tired, I could cry.
Life should just be scheduled as slower during the playoffs. 
I don't want to go to be for fear that I will miss something, yet...I.  Need.  Sleep. 
Badly.

Took the kids to Harpers Ferry this morning. 
Finally. 
It's nice now that everyone is back to work after the shutdown.
We missed our Parks.
I was informed by the kids today that John Brown is like Obi Wan Kenobi because he became more powerful in death than in life.

Who says they're not listening?!?!

Self Restraint.

Lest I ever wonder *just* how far I have come in the self restraint department, I will only have to remember yesterday and that Nate did not get thrown out a window or put up on Craig's List. 

You see, we had a wonderful morning at the Pumpkin Patch with Nate's pre-school class. 
A hayride, pumpkins, goats, bunnies, pigs, slides and bikes.  It doesn't get much better than that, right?

I figured after all that morning action, an afternoon nap would be an order. 
I was certainly ready for one. 
So I got Nate all situated and in bed.  Benjamin had already fallen asleep and was down for the count.
I was downstairs and hadn't heard a peep out of Nate in a while.  I was able to get cleaned up, get dinner made, sweep, pick up and mop the  kitchen floor.  And then I smelled something weird.  Kind of like nail polish.  I didn't think much of it at the time...I figured it was the stuff I used to mop.
Until I realized the smell kept getting stronger.  
And then I see a round, cherubic face peeking out from around the bannister at me. 
"You paint my nails, Mama?"
And then it clicked.  "Oh,no.  No, no, no, no, no.  Good Heavens,  Nate.  What have you done?  Show me what you did.  What did you do?!?!?!"
I could hear my voice getting higher and higher. 
Then I saw the rest of Nate.  His hands were painted all colors of the rainbow and his jeans were covered with blue sparkles. 
"WHAT DID YOU DO, NATE?  You need to show me what you did.  NOW."
He slowly led me upstairs to my bathroom where I found every.  single.  bottle.  of nailpolish I own lined up, open and poured onto the vinyl floor/bathroom throw rug. 
"I paint my nails, Mama!" 

After standing with mouth agape for a good thirty seconds, I slowly regained my faculties and very sternly reminded Nate that he did the absolute wrong thing and he would have to clean up AND hand his allowance over to me for as long as it takes to buy a new bath rug. 
I got some good tears out of him and then put him to work cleaning up. 
*let me add it could have been so much worse...but we're still trying to get the stink out of the floor...

Pre-Gaming.

I'm taking five minutes to sit. 
It feels marvelous. 

I showed Nate the end to Game 2 of the ALCS yesterday morning.  All he could do was run around yelling, "Big Puppy hit a Swam Dunk!  I wuv Big Puppy!  YAYAYAYAYAY!"
Today he wore his David Ortiz shirt to school and insisted that his teacher call him Big Papi.  She looked at his shirt and said, "David Ortiz?  I don't follow football." 
Ugh.  She is an amazing teacher - so we forgive her. 
Nate also reminds us that will be Awesome O'clock this afternoon. 
I am hoping for a wonderful outcome for Red Sox Nation - I just love this picture - with all credit to SB Nation.com. 

And with all due credit to Jim and me in the wee hours this morning - after I was done running, Heat Miser Benjamin was brought downstairs. 
How could you not love this face? 

Saturday Night

8:40.
Kids are in bed.
Sox game is on. 
TUMS are easily accessible.

We've been accused of being "SupahFans" by our Maryland friends.  When we counter that in, New England terms, we're on the saner end of normal, nobody believes us.
Today we were talking about the stuff we miss from Worcester.  Besides our friends and family, what came to mind was the quintessentially New England feature of being able to carry on a conversation with anyone about the Sox/Bruins/Pats/Celts.  In line at Dunkin's , you can say, "You see the game last night?" and *boom*  - instant conversation.   Man, woman, child, *irregardless* of race, color or creed - everyone can talk sports. 
Not so much here. 
But we're educating people. 

I DO realize that most people aren't here to be entertained by my witty banter and that it has been the whole month of October that I haven't posted a picture.  So here. 

We're not quite rednecks yet if it's wine out of a Mason Jar...right? 

We unpacked our old VHS copies of "The Muppet Show'.  The kids are enamored. 

The kid has total Barry Gibb hair. 

Because it was 86 degrees in October and the lawn desperately needed to be watered...we got to run in the sprinkler last weekend. 

No sprinkler experience for Caroline is complete with out a picture of her with jazz hands. 

His sunglasses almost hide the big scab on his nose he got from falling down and smashing his nose on the gym floor playing t-ball.  It really hurt, but I think he was more mad that he didn't get the ball. 

He wants so desperately to be like his older siblings.  He didn't do anything on the can, he just sat smiling and reading his book for five minutes. 

Somehow Sam left and open water baottle in his backpack, destroying his folder and almost destroying his homework journal.  Thankfully the 17 year old hair dryer that has been used many times (though only a handful of those for drying hair) came to the rescue. 

We also found the VHS tapes of "Star Wars".  The movies are too intense for the kids, but the can do some of the parts.  Nate was pretending he was Yoda here.   Don't ask. 

Naked Buns!!!!