Valentine's Day??

As I write this it is getting late on Valentine's Day. Why am I still up late on Valentine's night? A romantic dinner? NO. A fun, wonderfully relaxing day? NO. Actually, I am waiting for the laundry to be done. Great....I know. Exactly what I wanted to be doing today. Along with all the other stuff I had to do today... Why? (because the world is conspiring against me?? might be....)
What I want to know is.... Who are the freakin' geniuses who decided to plan a bunch of stuff that I had to go to on Valentine's Day? Or maybe it has something to do with my inability to say no.... That may be it, too. At any rate... It wasn't the fun romantic, pampering day that society has made it out to be.
I started out my day with kick-boxing...that was my choice...and I was glad to go. Nothing like getting all sweaty and stinky to get the day going! From there I had exactly an hour to get cleaned up and shuffle my tired body to a baby shower (on Valentine's Day?? Come on!!) I probably would have bailed, but my sweet friend Nancy was putting it on and I would hate to disappoint...plus she puts on pretty good parties. (thank you again Carl for getting my truck up your snowy driveway!)
I had to leave early to make it to Tadhg's Council Court of Honor for Boy Scouts. (Again....must it really be on Valentine's Day??? Really?) Thankfully, this particular Court of Honor took a fraction of the time that our own troop does, so maybe that was a good thing? Hmmm... I thought we had done fairly well getting there on time, and we had managed (well Curtis mostly, as I was at a baby shower...) to get Tadhg there in uniform. Scout shirt..buttoned....check. Hideous green pants....check. New blue neckerchief....check. New sash with merit badges sewn on... check. Nasty green scout socks.... .... uh.... nope....and they did check! Really!! They made him pull up his pant leg to see if he was wearing the green socks! Needless to say, our troop did not "pass" inspection and therefore did not get the totem pole. The boys were really torn up about that one.....*still crying now* He did get two rank advancements and 6 merit badges...so I guess we are still on the right track.


You can tell he was thrilled to be there!

Home again...and we are trying to determine if we (Curtis and I) want to risk mutiny by suggesting that we all go down to Fresno for dinner and a few errands. Babysitters at this point in time are fairly difficult to find. Not only because it is now Valentine's afternoon... but our boys are at that age... Tadhg is kind of too old for a babysitter, but not responsible enough to be left home alone. Especially in charge of his younger brothers.... Can you say unrighteous dominion? We had been using some of the teenage boys in our ward...but alas they have all turned 16 and now want to drive and date and all those other things, besides ride herd on our lot... :(
We tried to separate ranks, wheedle them one by one... but they weren't falling for it. A no go on dinner in town. I, alone, went down, ran my few errands and brought back pizza and ice creams and we spent the night watching "Prince Caspian". You are all jealous...I know.
Friday nights, at least from January to March, are church ball nights. This last Friday was no exception. As I might have mentioned we did get snow...well not at our house, exactly...but because our ward is so spread out most of the boys did get snow at their houses and as a result only 5 showed up for the game...or I should say, games. Our little guys had two games, back to back, again. The first game was against the other Yosemite team, the big guys. It was brother against brother, literally, and I think that the big guys showed some serious class by not going too hard on the little guys...but they did not roll over, by any means. It was really fun to watch. But kind of hard because you are cheering for both teams... The B team (little guys) played awesome. Maybe it was because they weren't intimidated by their friends, or because they knew that it was, in fact, a "friendly" game...??? They all lit it up. Tadhg (you knew this was coming...right?) was on fire! He had 4....yes 4!... three point shots that were just beautiful to behold. All the boys scored multiple times.
You know I have documented proof of all 4 shots... go to Tadhg's facebook for the rest. :)
After the first game....remember that there were only 5 of them there.... they had to play Sierra. (Dun...Dun... Duh! their arch nemesis!) These little guys had played their hearts out in the previous game... had all of 5 minutes rest and then had to hit the boards again with the same 5 guys...no substitutions, for another whole game. Once again, I will not elaborate on the absolutely appalling unfairness or lack of class exhibited by the ........ (maybe that bit of self-restraint there < < will make up for some words spoken in passion last night...)
LOST... final score 80 something to 20 something. Couldn't see straight. The boys never gave up... Good for them. They'll get their day.
Last, but not least... funny boy Brock. He knows how to entertain himself. He has a hard time sitting still during the games and can't wait for half time or the break between games. He jumps off the stage and skate/slides across the floor til they tell him to get off the court. What is a guy to do? for 2 long hours?

This last pic is of his new "tat". He came home from school Friday after his class Valentine party with a new secret. He had gotten a special valentine and bashfully told me where he had put his new tattoo...so no one could see!








Gotta love the fact that he's not too cool for Cinderella!