I have a teenage lawn

The best way to describe it - is like the beard on a teenage boy- Some places are coming in great and others are still kind of bare but it is coming along. The outside edges which were fine are now tall like a jungle as we don't want to cross the new baby grass with a lawn mover. It is a mess but soon it will be a beauty.
We have moved Olivia's birthday party to Gramma's house as her lawn is strong enough to hold our party and games. As soon as it is a little older we will have a tiki torch party and dance the night away in bare feet-I can't wait!!
I too will have a Facebook photo album of my Summer fun!

Girls day at Savers

Today is Memorial Day and the girls in our family decided to spend it shopping. Isn't that pretty much what has happened to all the Holidays?? I heard somewhere they are trying to get stores open on Thanksgiving because the Black Friday sales aren't enough? Like if they open that 1 day that you should be with your family someone might make an extra buck from you. Enough of me on my soap box.
We took 2 cars because there are so many of us and we even ran into the rest of the girls in our family at the store when we got there.
A bit of Foose History-I lived in Worcester for like 8 years and we didn't have a lot of money so we learned the fine art of Thrift Shops. Now as an adult I still use Thrift store to extend by buck. Well today we took a road trip to the new Savers in Plymouth as they were having a 50% off everything in the store. I needed some clothes for my ever growing butt and Olivia is basically naked for Summer clothes. The store was packed!!! I have never seen anything like it, except maybe Christmas. I am definitely not the only one trying to save a buck.
My cart cost about $44 and I left with 6 shirts, 6 shorts and 2 skirts for Olivia- a shirt and shorts for Dad-4 pairs of Capri pants, 1 pair of shorts and 2 shirts for myself, Oh and don't forget 3 puzzles for Ava. This is unheard of in a regular store. I know it is not every ones cup of tea to purchase used clothes but you need to spend some time and look things over well. I did get a couple of things with tags still attached and a lot of name brand-Most items I got were Gap, Children's Place or Limited Too.
After all that shopping we were famished and Ava was getting cranked up so we retired to Bugaboo Creek and had some lunch and looked at all the road kill on the walls. The kids loved it but were completely restless. I dream of the day when meals in restaurants aren't like a wrestling match.
We sent tired Ava home with Nana and Olivia and I did some shopping for her birthday party. Pinata and accessories-WOOT! She will be 6 on the 6th!!

Date night

Friday I dropped Ava Flava off with Gramma and I was off to get the mop trimmed. When you have short hair you go from a nice haircut to a homeless person look in a short time. I was cruising towards the homeless woman look so off to see Ariel.
Ava and I walked over to school as the day was perfect and again spent some good time at the playground. Tire them out- That is my new motto!!
After we got home and started a quick dinner for the girls Dad and I slipped out for a date at The Burrito Place. It was pretty good. We took our burritos down to the beach and had a conversation. Can you believe it?!?!
We drove around for a while until we found dessert at Pie A La Mode. I have gushed about this place before. All I will say is Snickerdoodle. If you don't know it, find a recipe and made them-Yummo.
We hooked up with Bonnie and Henri and had more grown up talk-Amazing. Well the girls chatted and the boys drooled over motorcycles on TV.
After re-reading my posts it seems like the children where raised by the village these last few days but they are loved by many so we have to spread them around. Today I am working a double shift but all in an effort to get more time off over the Summer. Pay now to play later.
Back to work.

Mama's Free Time and a Dump Run

Thursday was a great day. I made arrangements for a babysitter for the little one and I was going plant shopping with my friend. It started out a bit hairy with a small monkey wrench thrown in but it ended up OK because I was on the road (and free) even earlier. We headed to Wareham and did Walmart and Home Depot. I was not grabbed by much but a new toilet seat-oh well. We also had a decent meal without chicken nuggets and chocolate milk and I didn't even have to cut Bonnie's food for her. It was delightful. Exactly what this woman needed.
Another big part of the day was our trip to the Bourne Dump. Bonnie told me it would be an adventure but I had no idea. When you enter you roll onto the scale and they weight you. Thanks!! Blame it on the truck and trash please.
Then we had to drive over a freaking mountain which was scary to say the least. As we crested the top there were these machines pushing the trash into a heap and around the edges where piles. One pile was actually boats-yes a pile of boats. Crazy!!
The ground was actually ground up tires and trash. The whole place smelled like rubber to me. The man driving the huge earth mover thing told us to back up to a pile and dump it out. While we were doing that I was amazed at all the mail including bank statements blowing about. The first one I picked up thinking it was from us and worried it would get away until I realized they were everywhere. Again I say-CRAZY!!
Listen people-Buy a shredder. You life it blowing around the dump.After I had my crew back in the car we picked up my nephews after school so that got us an hour or so at the playground so everyone had a good day I think.That night we did Teaticket School night at Papa Gino's with Dad so I did ZERO cooking all day-WOOT!
So all in all the day was amazing even with the trip to the dump thrown in for excitement. I was in bed in my jammies by 8:30-Surprised??

A love note I found in her backpack

The Check Cleared!!!

PHEW!!!!

Well first good thing is the checked cleared or I would have been ousted! Last year I thought it took some time-weeks I want to say. Anyway Falmouth Road Race here I come. The runners list should be up in a month or so.

Jack O'Lantern

We are very excited!!! She will soon be a Jack O'Lantern. 2 wiggly teeth on the bottom and you can already see the 2 grown up teeth pushing thru behind them. I took these to document their last days and we are eating apples like crazy.
I am not sure why I am so excited, I guess it is the fact that she is growing up. She keeps telling me she is 5 and 3/4 so she can do a lot of things. She will be 6 in 2 weeks. She is an old lady now.

Trailer park special

This was stolen from Facebook.
Looks F'ed up but my crazy ass kids just might like it.
Before: Impale hot dogs with spaghetti. Cook according to instructions.After: Wa-La!! Dogs and Worms- no she called it worm dogs. With or without sauce?

Pampered Chef Total $125

I wanted to say Thank You to all the people that ordered from Team Mac.
We were able to raise $125 towards our Relay for Life Team!!!!!
We still could use donations or team members to help us. June 12-June 13th are you up for it? We must have a team member walking on the track from 6pm Friday until noon the next day. We are setting us camp Friday afternoon for rest and food between walking. I expect it to be big fun and a fantastic way to raise money and awareness for Cancer!
SO JOIN US, DONATE OR BUY A LUMINARIA FOR A FAMILY MEMBER OR FRIEND.
Luminaria will be lit and will circle our walking track as we walk thru the night.

Yarmouth Run for a Reason-2009

Dragged my ass there-No excuses allowed. I decided I had sat on my ass all week and now I would put it on the books.
Not too bad for me 36:41 in the rain no less. It started to rain pretty hard just before the 1 mile marker and continued almost until I finished. I was a wet rat so I just took a bottled water and headed back to my car. I had things to do and didn't want to hang around as none of my family or friends were there. Mr. and Mrs. Merry came with Logan and they bailed out too. Logan was not happy to be so wet I guess.
It is a great race and I was looking forward to it. Before the race started they had some people to help with stretching. They also had a moment of silence for fallen officers, a blessing from a Marine Sgt and an officer from Barnstable sang the National Anthem. It is a well run event with great food and music after. This was the 2nd year and the turnout was noticeably bigger. The final total looks like 416 runners-last year was 285.

On a side note the grass seed went down today so we hope this weeks sun will get us some green peach fuzz by next week. Can't Wait!!

Missed a party but gained a yard

Today we were supposed to go to a double birthday party which was sure to be fun until my oldest decided to barf ALL OVER THE PLACE last night. As I disinfect the entire bathroom with Bleach she says "I never threw up before-It came out my nose and that is gross!" You got that right baby. After I finished cleaning her carpet on round 2 I think, she is really never sick. We are pretty lucky. Strange time to be thinking that!

This morning she announces she is better. I am not so willing to spread her swine flu around so we decide to stay home.

It worked out well. We got a huge amount of work done.

First we finished our 2 day project of edging the play area and filling it with sand.

So you can see the NO GRASS around our new fangled play space. Well now....

Nothing like a sunny day and a giant rototiller to take you from dirt to future grass. If you look back to Mother's Day 2008 we did this same thing and it failed terribly so we are trying again. We did all the leg work today and we plan on seeding tomorrow. Our mistake last time was letting the weeds take over before we got the seed down. If this doesn't work - Wood Chips!!!Finally-Another big job.

We loaded up all the grass/weeds and brought them to the leave dump, cleaned out a ton of crap to the dump, picked up a load of bird fertilizer and headed back home to till the garden area. Before:

After poop delivery:

Crap I forgot to take a final picture of the garden all turned over. Well tomorrow.

So now we just need to do a small/medium job out front. Watch for more photos to come.

Crap again, I forgot the YPD race tomorrow-90% chance of rain+haven't run all week = $!^*

Just 1 more hour to go

One more hour and I will be getting some much needed shut eye.
I am sorry no one will be able to take your call so please leave a message after the beep.
Tonight- Some Secret Squirrel plans with Bonnie. Stay Tuned!!!

The check is in the mail

Falmouth Road Race

This seems a bit crazy since I rode the couch today and tried to nap while Ava watched Sponge Bob but hey tomorrow is another day.
Road Race is 1 day and I can do it ...right? No only kidding. I am excited and terrified all at the same time. It is a huge event but the feeling of accomplishment at finishing it is like nothing in the world.
The list will be posted around the end of June so I will update you when I find out but I should be guaranteed a number as I am a tax payer in this town. The nervousness that set in once I had my number last year was crazy - Like Crap I can't back out now.
It will be fun, at least if I don't die.

Let's Talk Garden

This is my potential new garden. The cross lying on top is because it used to be my clothes line. I barely ever used it except for sheets and I think I will enjoy a garden so much more. Next to it where you see the wood up in the right corner will be filled in with sand soon as a play area for the kids. So what to do with this bush thing?? It is growing kind of out from the fence. Can I dig it out by hand? What do you think? I hate to lose it as we have so little vegetation in our yard.

Mr.Fooseberry says it is a pain in the a$$ as when the flowers shed the petals they go everywhere. I love it-A true sign of Spring for me.

We have a friend who can give us some chicken poop to liven up the soil and Grampa has a mother of a rototiller to turn it all up.

My friend so graciously shared a YouTube video about how to make a rain barrel which I would also love to have but I don't think that is going to happen this year. As I always say-More projects than time.

Check out Ebay-Rain Barrel

Today was a Roller Coaster

The day started out a bit on the rocky side with Ava being awake when I got home at 12:30am. Next her sister was up and we were in full awake mode by 1am. After we all settled in Olivia's bed O was out like a light but Ava continued to think it was party time until approx 3:30 when I finally passed out and I think she did too.

So needless to say my Mother's Day started again at an unknown time as I threw my alarm clock on the floor at about 3:20am as it was mocking me.

You can't stay mad when 2 faces are stuck in yours saying Happy Mother's Day Mama-come open your presents a few hours later. My oldest has been wanting to open her presents for days. I got some beautiful and very fitting cards. One with a monkey and girl in a tutu on the front. Inside it says-Happy Mother's Day from me and my sister. Love Olivia and Ava- Fitting on a day like today.I always ask for plants, indoor or out, now because I just shouldn't have food/candy type gifts. I used to have a ton of plants but now I have the beast so the plants are mostly gone or in high places. Dear Mr Fooseberry did well this time giving me a Gardenia topiary. It smells awesome. Now to keep it alive and flowering!?!?!

I also was surprised with a drive by gifting from Carlie my sweet God daughter. She gave me a beautiful hand made card and a Fuchsia plant ( which I love BTW) It will be the perfect accessory from my deck. See the blooms above.

After a breakfast cooked by Dad we all went to the playground and played some Soccer in this beautiful weather. It may rain for 10 more days so we had to get out. We are also hoping to tire out Ava so she sleeps-How can they survive on 3-4 hrs of sleep? I am hanging on by the rim of my Click container.

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day with your Moms and babies.

Last Call for Pampered Chef

We had our Relay for Life Pampered Chef party tonight and we still need $80 in sales to meet our goal.

Did you order??

Go to the Pampered Chef link on the right and be sure to use the Team Mac name as the host so the proceeds will go to our Relay for Life fundraiser. We are still accepting orders until Wednesday May 13th. Book your own party and we get $5.

To those of you who came or ordered-Thanks so much for helping out!!!

Enough Rain???

I am not complaining as I know rain will bring out the Nature that I have been missing so much.

But.....I do not live near a body of water and it is about a 1/4 mile to the closest cranberry bog and this morning this young lady waddled onto our lawn.

We went out and fed her some cinnamon bread which was left over from breakfast. She appeared to be quite thankful.

And then....Miss Ava decided to go out the garage door with a huge bungee cord telling Chelsea and I she was going to catch her. She began whipping it around like a lasso. She is the man!

Daisy's Tea Party

Tuesday night I took the night off for Olivia's Daisy Tea party. I was told we had to both wear a dress. I mean it is a tea party. So I actually wore a dress and so did Olivia. She wore a Cinderella Christmas dress with fur on her wrists but she thinks she is Cinderella so if was fitting.

When I arrived I was told to wait outside for all the Mom's to show up and we were allowed to come in together.

It was a beautiful. They decorated and made gifts for us. As you can see the meeting is in a science classroom at the Middle school so it was really cute to have all the frill in a place full of sinks and bunsen burners.

They had tea sandwiches (peanut butter and fluff was our favorite) cut into butterflies, flowers, hearts and circles. Also tea with cookies and strawberries dipped in chocolate.

The girls also made cards, candle holders and a poem with their hand print. I had a great time on my date with Olivia and she was so proud of her work.

Thank You Bonnie

I was not going to do this

This man will never stand foot in my house!!

Yeah right, He is my daughter's lover now. I remember a long, long time ago when I was not going to have my children watch so much TV or eat junk food or be rude.

If you know my children, you know I have miserably failed. I now have 2 children and I live in the real world. I am too busy to be baking my own bread or making macaroni necklaces to entertain them. Although the trampoline is turning out to be a great source of entertainment for Ava starting at 7am.

I have to laugh at the ideas we had before the kids came. It was just my husband and I and a couple of cats. We knew what we were going to do......Yeah Right! We couldn't even use what we learned from one kid to the next because that even changed. UGH!

So we do the best we can. They eat McDonald's but we make them drink milk, they eat peanut butter and fluff but on wheat and they even say no Thank You when asked to pick up their room. They are trying to be polite all while telling me No!

On the other hand they are smart and funny and definitely just like their Mom and Dad and that may be the scariest part of all.

5k4CK

I was looking for a race to fill a whole in my calender.
Hahahahahaha!!!! A whole in my calender. I make myself laugh.
Anyway I like to race. It is a love/hate relationship but it keeps me going and I like the competition with myself. I don't have anything planned from the YPD race on May 17th until the Women Running Wild race on June 20th so I found a race in Sandwich on June 7th.
5K4CK benefits Hospice & Palliative Care of Cape Cod.
I attached the route and if my memory isn't to deteriorated I remember hills-lots of hills as you are headed out from the Heritage Museum on Grove Street. It is a beautiful route back there but who will be able to enjoy it when they are laboring thru the Faunces Mountain terrain. Laugh if you want but that mountain is shown on the Google Map and Google never lies.

My head is killing me.

Before I started exercising regularly this would happen when I did too much on on a hot day. I chalked it up to an overworked round girl.

Now it happens when I push myself on a long run or if I try to increase my speed. Yesterday I could feel it coming on towards the end of the race and it wasn't even a hot day. I sometimes pour water over my head at a water stop during a 5K to try to control what I describe as an "overheat". After yesterdays race I drank 2 bottles of water and had a small cup of coffee while I waited for the results to be released and it still didn't help. I ended up taking some Tylenol before work.

Now tonight, a whole day and a half later, I am still feeling the lingering headache. I posted around to some running forums and was told it is from dehydration but it seems like it would be gone by now.

I also closed my leg in my husbands truck door today so I am a bit of a mess right now but I will try my best to get back out on the road tomorrow night after work.

Domino's Pizza Introduces Bread Bowl Pasta

Are you F-ing kidding me??

Carb addicts will be dying in the streets as they jump in front of Domino's delivery drivers.

Now they are offering pasta baked into a bread bowl. I can feel the carb coma slipping over me as I watch the commercial. I might even be drooling a bit.

Is it any wonder why the number of obese Americans is growing more and more each day?

I ate well yesterday and even ran a 5K only to wake up in the middle of the night to eat tootsie rolls. It is an illness!

I think I may just wire my jaw shut. I know my husband and co-workers would be happy with that.

Fooseberry - 117 34:59 11:17 19 30-39 60 F 8

Translation-

Came in #117 at a time of 34:59 that is a 11:17 mile.

19th in my age group and 60th of the women. Bib #8

Today ended up being better than I expected. Being my first race of the year I had no idea what I was going to do. I forgot to look at my previous times, I just knew I wanted to be less than 35 minutes. I snuck in at 34:59. Not too shabby after I was able to see last years results and saw that only once did I beat this time during the Mashpee Fun Run at 34:21. I will get better.

This race was kind of what I needed to see I need to buckle down if I want to improve my time. I have another 5K in 2 weeks which I walked last year. I will be running it this year. It is a nice flat course along the water and I am hoping for a sunny day like last year.

For the last two days I have worked in and out of the house and I was exhausted. Today I was thinking "This is going to suck". I fell asleep in my clothes at 8:30 last night and that must have been what I needed as sometime during the night I changed my clothes and continued to sleep until 7am. (Sorry Bonnie!!) So maybe a bit more rest is in order for my life.

The photos below show some of the plants grown on the Cape Abilities Farm. Each winner was given a hanging plant as well as a medal. The car is decorated like a bee as you can also adopt a bee as a way of supporting their farm.

As you can see the rain stopped just before we got there and held off through the race and walk. So all in all it didn't suck and I was glad to have spent some time NOT at work with my co-workers. I think we all did great!