jellybeans+donuts+twizzlers=.....

A very hyper Greggy!

We went to the Oriole's game last night...the four older kids were content watching the game...

Greg on the other hand was unable to stop the sugar rush well into the 2nd inning....

still going in the 5th inning....



8th inning and still going....

Eventually the sugar wore off in the car on the ride home and he fell asleep! (except for one little burst when he woke up to tell me that Santa had forgotten some of the stuff that he had asked him for...then promptly back to sleep!)

The O's played against Detroit and won this game 5-1 ! Great job O's!...look forward to seeing the hyped up Matt Wieters play with them tonight!

two posts in one: "human experiments" and "Melissa's party"

My mother in law was the science coordinator at a school for several years. One of her responsibilities was to run the annual science fair for the school. She would recruit people as judges for the science fair each year. I did this several times and I learned a few things about elementary school science projects.


*they need to include Hypothesis, procedure, materials, data, conclusion, research and acknowledgements

* they should not be a survey(i.e. "the most popular soda in 6th grade")

*they should not be a display (i.e. "an erupting volcano")

*and they definately should NOT be experiments performed on humans



When Alex decided he wanted to do his science fair project on "Which drink is best before physical activity" , the science fair judge in me saw all sorts of issues with it.

"How can you prove this without testing humans?"

"How would you measure the data?"

"There are to many variables"

etc etc



He and I went round and round about this, I highly recommended he select another project, he highly recommended I let him do what he wanted to do for HIS project. After getting exasperated from not being able to change his mind, I did what every good mom would do, I told him to ask his teacher..(surely SHE would shoot the idea down and THEN I would help him come up with a better idea)


He asked his teacher, she allowed the project. I backed off and began my duties as "Alex's goffer for science fair project". I checked the list "milk, gatorade, soda, display board"...his plan went as follows: he would consume 8 ounces of one of the liquids(water also) and run as far as he could. He would measure not only the distance he ran after consuming the liquid, but how many cramps he would get! Thats right...he was inducing cramping as part of his experiment! He would have to repeat this 4 times for each drink and 4 times for no drink. He ran over 2 laps( 600 feet) after drink number one, and he had to repeat this 19 more times! All I could think was, "I tried to tell him that this experiment wasn't such a good idea", but I had lost the battle and now I just had to sit back and watch this crazy kid tortue his own body for science.



I was chuckling inside as I said "ok, so you are going to drink 8 ounces of milk in this heat, and then run as far as you can?" His reply was a very proud and cheerful "yup!"



he enlisted his siblings for support and they all chased him as he ran, but even they got tired after a few laps. In the end his findings were as follows..


After graphing all the data he discovered that drinking soda before physical exercise induced cramps. Drinking milk before physical exercise induced cramps. Drinking nothing was ok, but then you would be really thirsty afterwards. Drinking water worked the best with no cramping.


I was reminded of an important lesson with this science fair project. The mom in me did not want Alex to do this project for a few reasons:



*I didn't want him to get a bad grade

*I didn't want him to have to subject himself to physical hardships in order to do this project

*Having judged a lot of projects, I just didn't think it was that good when he mentioned it to me and I wanted him to do something that he could be proud of




What I Learned from this project;


*He is more proud of it if he does the whole thing himself

*just because I wouldn't want to subject myself to drinking milk and running on a hot day doesn't mean I should prevent my kid from doing it (he loved it!)

*As much as I try to keep my little ones under my wings they need room to make decisions.

*Even though we can say a hundred times "soda isn't good for you...blah blah blah" , sometimes it's ok for kid's to figure stuff out themselves

*I really enjoyed taking a backseat and watching his creativity come to life with his project

*He took full credit for his grade, a 95%!

Melissa's Birthday

Melissa wanted her birthday "party" to be in the tree house. (I know, I know enough with the tree house already!!) but she was so excited and it was actually kinda cute to do her party out there! Shawn brought out the kiddie table and we had pizza and salad. The kids did a pinata and Melissa opened gifts. We came back inside for cake and ice cream.

Little lady opening her gifts

Grandma Holder, Shawn, Alex and David

Dale (thrilled that I snapped a picture of him with the Hannah Montana pinata)

Melissa with her "take"

Melissa out of breath after trying to blow out the trick candles. (mean mommy!)

A whole buncha busy!

We started Memorial Day weekend by celebrating Dale's birthday. We went to a golf driving range. Dale has golfed a handful of times in his life, so I thought it would be fun for him to hit some balls. He did really well! I think he is a natural golfer! He is wearing his swimsuit because we went to the lake at Cunnigham Falls State park afterward.

While we were BBQing lunch at the lake, a military helecopter made a few passes, landed a few times and then left. Cunnigham Falls is a few miles from the Presidential retreat Camp David so we guessed that the helecopter was training.


Our lunch was super quiet and delicious! We had steaks, tomatos, strawberries, chips and macaroni salad. After lunch we hiked to the falls and climbed on them.

In the afternoon the kids were swimming and we had his birthday cake by the pool. then, Friday night we watched Shawn's baseball game. He had a great game and recieved the game ball! I was so proud of him! On Saturday we went to Alex's all-star game. He played well.


Here are the boys during the National Anthem. Alex is 4th in line. After the game Dale played golf and a friend came over to hang with me. We threw the kids in the pool and hung out. Friday night we had ribs! YUM! I have never cooked ribs, so she showed me a simple way to cook them, and they were awesome!!! I am a fan of ribs! We stayed up late with them and watched the UFC fight...(I actually slept some)

Memorial Day we decided to finish the tree house.....


We still need to build steps for it, but it is done!! Today is Melissa's 9th birthday and when I asked her where she wanted to go for dinner, she said "I want to have pizza in the tree house"...she is so cute!

Here is my beautiful little 9 year old with her hair curled for her special day.

Choices....

Greg decided to become noncompliant while we were getting ready for church yesterday, citing his lack of desire to go to church as a reason. I was pressed for time, and had grown increasingly frustrated from going round and round with him, so finally I said

"ok Greg, you have TWO choices, 1.Go to church 2.get a spanking. what will it be?!?"

Greg pondered his choices for a minute, then he inquired, "What happens AFTER the spanking?"

Thats right, my little cherubim was going to take a spanking to avoid church.

"what was that?!?!?!'

Those are the words I woke up saying after hearing an extremely loud blast at 2 am thursday night. My heart was racing out of control and fear swept over me. I wondered if it was some sort of an attack or a shot from a huge weapon that was loud enough to feel like earth quaking. Dale immediately got up and checked on the kids...they were fine..he went outside (which I admit, scared me a bit) He came back in and said from his vast array of bomb experiences while he was on his mission, it sounded like an explosion less than a mile away towards the northwest.

..he continued saying he believed "it was across the railroad tracks up on the hill." He said he expected to hear emergency vehicles any moment. I was comforted by his assesment because it meant that whatever the threat was, it was not actually in my yard, coming after my family, but I grew concerned over what "IT" was...Dale further said he felt the earth shake right before he woke up and was pretty confidant that it was an explosion...which left us guessing exactly what caused the explosion...


After a few minutes we heard the siren from the firehouse...then we heard emergency vehicles...we knew the kids were asleep, so we drove in the direction Dale had determined the explosion had occured...he pinpointed the location exactly and we drove to it. What a sight..the following is a news story from the event....

• TODAY'S TOP STORIES

A deputy state fire marshal says a propane explosion flattened a home.

Officials say a house in the 2200 block of Flag Marsh Road exploded just before 2 a.m.

When crews arrived, they saw debris scattered around the location, and a home that was completely destroyed.

There was no one living in the house and right now, there don't appear to be any injuries - but neighbors heard the explosion up to 15 miles away.

Officials say at least three other houses were damaged by the early morning event.

Here is a map showing the location of the explosion from our house

http://maps.yourgmap.com/v/8_143_House_explosion.html

Queen for ...two days??

Thats right, I am so lucky that my birthday falls around mother's day, (sometimes on mothers day) so I get to be queen for two days, in the same week! My sweet, hard working husband (pictured below in his Capitals red (more on that later)), does a great job smiling through 48 hours of tush kissing very gracefully!



Mother's Day festivities were kicked off last week with "muffin's for mom" in David's classroom. We were treated to breakfast and skits by the kids...it was very cute. David also gave me a flower and things that he had written about me...my favorite was "My mom is as pretty as a paper bag"





So Mothers Day was very sweet, breakfast in bed, gifts of ceramics and sweet kid art work, and lots of sleeping by me!

We went to church and then had a cookout at Dale's mom's house. (I have no pictures because I didn't bring my camera!!) (Dale and his mom got some pictures though)

My birthday was just as eventful, I celebrated by:

*sleeping in...(Greg climbed in bed with me because he had an upset tummy...)

*attending an IEP meeting for Alex

*playing basketball

*going to a very nice lunch with Dale and leaving abruptly when the school called and said Greg had thrown up

*sleeping for 3 hours after lunch with Greg

*being lazy while Dale had to once again take care of everything!

*eating cake with 37 candles on it...(I am 35) ;) (love you sweetie!)

*having a "Mommy Daughter spa" night with Melissa and the YW

*getting a new camera!!! YEAH!! it's about time!

*getting my favorite painting by Melissa as a gift!
* watching the caps game...I had been so excited to top off my special day as queen by watching the caps in game 7 with Pittsburgh...it turned out to be one of the worst games they had played practically all season...! loosing 6 to 2...I hardly recognized the team...to have the season come to such a sad ending was depressing...but I won't let that ruin my special day...they are still a young team and were amzing to watch up until that point...on the bright side...my nights just got a little less hectic without hockey to watch...

Cake and new camera!

Painting from Melissa



At the spa night the girls selected different hair styles that they wanted done, and then we did them...Melissa wanted "Pretty curls" and one young woman wanted 80's (I am a pro at that!) and another wanted "something different", so I did a 60's beehive on her....doing the 80's/90's doo on Erika brought back so many memories that I posted some pics of myself...these were the year I got married, so my hair wasn't as high as it had been during high school and college...I can't wait for high hair to come back in style...its so much fun and SOOOO gorgeous!

Melissa and her "Pretty curls" (she added the lipgloss herself, she is such a girl!!)

Erika and her 80's/90's DOO...HOTTTT

My hair was a little less high in 94, but check out Dana all the way on the left!!

Two of my three moms, Cindy and Kathy

no segway into this bottom picture, I just think its cool...the art teacher in the school does a charcoal drawing of all the 5th graders every year...how amazing is she!?!?! here is Alex's...

Toby....

It could have been the right timing of comic relief during a serious news program, or just my twisted sense of humor, but for some reason this commercial CRACKED me up! I still chuckle when i see it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOtqw_IEGh0&feature=related

the first step is admitting you have a problem...

My Name is Tammy, and I am a binge Blogger. there. I admit it. I blog a lot, and then, nothing. then, BAM, a blog so long that no one bothers to read it, they scroll through, look at the pictures and get the jist of it to see if there is anything interesting. Which of course there is because I wrote it, but who the heck cares when it takes that long to read!! I want to say I AM SORRY! I really am, I wish I were different, I wish I blogged a little each day on my thoughts and on the little tid bits that make up my life, but I don't, and I should because when I wait for things to pile up, the best I can do is some boring, LONG, lame summary of events that have transpired. For example, this week, I planted the entire garden, fixed the busted pool pipe, got the pool opened, volunteered at the school, went to "muffins" for mom, played basketball, went on a date with Dale, planned a "game of life" for the Young Women, moved some big wood rounds to the wood pile with the bobcat, planted grass seed, helped get the rest of the playground in, laundry, cleaning, cooking, shopping, shuttling, blah blah blah! see, BORING, lame summary of life with no detail, as opposed to taking just ONE of those events and discussing it in more detail, for instance, "moving wood rounds with the bobcat". I love the BOBCAT! that thing has been LOADS of fun! Have you ever driven one? I LOVE it! Dale first took me on a ride last week, he is leveling a campground in the woods, and he drove me on it down there with him. then he showed me how to use it. a BLAST! this week I was using it to dig the garden, and to put the wood rounds on the wood pile, then, noticing how strong and big I was with this machine, my mind started wandering, filled with all the visions of what *I* could do with this awesome toy! My mind turned to a 1/2 acre patch of overgrown woods at the front of our property. It is so overgrown with pricker bushes and poison ivy and trees that I have never even ventured onto that part of our property. But, I was in the bobcat! I took that thing and rode right into the bushes, completely protected by the cage I was in, and with tank like treads I could go anywhere I wanted! I mowed down pricker bushes, drove right over top of felled trees, plowed everything out of my way and I started doing donuts with the bobcat in unchartered territory!! Yeah me! It was a blast, and now that the rain stopped, I may be out there again today!! See? life is so much more interesting when it has a few more details! My life is made up of very boring tasks, but it's in those tasks where I have the most fun! so I will try to not be a binge blogger, but right now I have no more time, and you know that this blog is ALREADY long enough,

Dale giving the kids a ride on the bobcat

Even Stevens......

Me: Melissa, please stop picking on your brothers today...

Melissa: But mom, they were picking on me yesterday!

Me: does that make it right for you to pick on them today?

Melissa: No, it doesn't make it right, but it makes it even.

(end of conversation because mom was rendered speechless)