New Year's Greetings

Happy New Year to all three of my blog readers! For my New Year's Resolution, I really will try to keep up with this thing. I don't know if I can promise once-a-week updates, but I will at least strive for once-a-month. (Hey, I never said that I was much of a writer...)

May the new year bring you happiness, health, and humor.

Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek...and back...and leg...and hair...

I imagine you've all seen the clip of that soccer player who apparently thought she was in a WWE match rather than a soccer game. If not, check it out here.

Well I happened to be reading a post on a Yahoo sports blog about this charming woman, and the writer made some very good points. He also asked a couple of interesting questions:

How did she keep getting away with it? Why didn't her teammates tell her to cool it? Why didn't somebody on BYU give it right back to her?

Yeah, hey...why didn't any of those BYU players fight back in kind? Hmmmmm...I wonder...

What comes down, must go up

Some of you are well-acquainted with the drama of our garage (which I promised to blog about but never did). Well, despite additional drama at the last minute, we are now well on our way to having a brand-spanking new garage. Here's a taste of the excitement around our house:

November 3rd--Laying out the forms for the foundation


November 9th--Pouring the concrete


November 10th--cement-block footers installed


November 11th--WALLS!! (Sort of)


November 12th--It looks like...a garage!!


The kids are very excited about all this construction going on. They had fun yesterday running in circles now that there is an "inside" again.


The goal for today was to get the plywood on the roof and put the shingles on. More pictures to come! (And a full blog post about the demo and construct later...when it's all done. I know, promises promises.)

You'll thank me later...

Thanks to Abbi, I had inspiration for a new (and long overdue) Multimedia Friday. Just TRY to get this song out of your head for the rest for the weekend!

At least he's honest

Jonathan had a "typical kid" moment last night as we were leaving the Open House at his school:

Me: So Jon, your teacher seems really nice.
Jon: Yeah, she is to parents.

My son, the celebrity

We got a nice surprise today: Jonathan's picture appeared on the front page (above the fold!) of our town's newspaper, the Irondequoit Post. I took both boys to the district bus parade and orientation last week, and we knew his picture would probably end up in the paper because I saw a reporter from the Post taking pictures, and she came up and asked Jon his name, age, and where he went to school. But I figured it would be part of a collage of pictures from the event, buried somewhere inside the paper. Who knew he'd be front-page news?? He was one thrilled little (big) boy. To check it out, go here:

http://www.mpnnow.com/news/x939032823/Q-A-East-Irondequoit-School-District-back-to-school-preview

Still Alive

Okay, so I've noticed on the sidebars of several of my friends' blogs
that my most recent blog post is now 3 weeks old. DOH!! I blame it on
a very busy summer, both at home and work. (One consolation is that
several of these friends' most recent blog posts are also getting
rather...stale, shall we say...)

So I just wanted to throw a little something up here to prove that we're
still alive and kicking. We've had lots of visitors and events and
things keeping us busy since, oh, around Grace's birthday (April 25th,
if you didn't have that at the forefront of your mind), but our last big
commitment, Matt's soccer program, ends tomorrow, and then we have a
nice 3 week break before school starts and things kick into gear again.
But even with soccer, August has been relatively peaceful and relaxing
compared to the previous 3 months. I still intend to blog about the
items that I teased about a post or two back. I just need to find the
right blog-friendly time.

Maybe that can be my New [School] Year's resolution.

Pillow Talk

While chatting with Matthew at bedtime last night, he came out with
this:

"Mom, I'm starting think..."

"I'm starting to think that all the food that you eat goes into your
tummy and turns into poop. And everything you drink goes into your
tummy and turns into pee. "

Whoda thunk?

Too Busy to Blog

We've had tons of stuff going on for, oh, the past two months or so, and I really want to blog about it. Unfortunately, I can't find the time!! But here's a little laundry list of things I would blog about if I could, and may blog about when I can.

1. Garage Demolition--such drama!!

2. Painting the living room--it's finally the color I want it to be!!

3. 4th of July weekend in Ohio--a fun time was had by all!!

4. AISA Day at Seabreeze--Jonathan goes on the Screamin' Eagle!!

5. Jonathan's baptism--he's EXTRA clean now!!

6. Matthew in soccer--too stinkin' cute!!

Okay, have you gotten your fill of double exclamation points? That's supposed to make the list sound like a monster truck rally commercial. Bear with me--now that I have this list, I really WILL make a point of blogging about each item (complete with pictures).

Ah the smell of a fresh blog!

It was time for a change, don't you think?

I've been putting off changing my blog template because I kept seeing comments about people losing their page elements (mostly comments saying "Don't worry! You won't lose your page elements with MY templates," but still...). But today, it was time. Out with the old, in with the new! Hope you like it.

A real post about something will be coming soon. Maybe even several posts about several somethings.

Preschool "Graduation"

Matthew's preschool "graduation" was Friday, and it was too adorable. The kids walked in to "Pomp and Circumstance," sat down on the steps of the stage, and then regaled the audience with 4 cute songs (my favorite was "Bumblebee" by Laurie Berkner). Then each class (there were 3 of them) went up on the stage in turn and the kids' names were read off as they walked across, were handed a rolled up certificate and walked through a balloon arch, where they had been instructed to stop and wave at everyone. It was too stinkin' cute.

After all the classes were done, they played a slideshow of pictures taken of the kids throughout the year. That was pretty darn cute too. Afterwards, they had refreshments and an opportunity for the kids to get pictures with their teachers or classmates. Would have been nice to do some of those shots outside, but the event itself was held in the basement of the church adjacent to the school building (the school was formerly a Catholic middle school), so going outside for pictures would have been way too chaotic.

Despite the ceremonies on Friday, the kids still have 3 days of school this week, Matt won't really be done until Wednesday. Then it's off to KINDERGARTEN!

Go here for pictures (I don't feel like futzing with Blogger's photo uploader today!)

On this date in...

1621 The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands, present-day New York City.

1808 Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy, was born in Christian County, Ky.

1888 The poem "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published, in the San Francisco Daily Examiner.

1937 The Duke of Windsor married American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson, for whom he had abdicated the British throne.

1968 Pop artist Andy Warhol was shot and critically wounded in his New York film studio, The Factory, by actress Valerie Solanas.

1989 Chinese army troops began a sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.

1989 Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died.

2001 Mel Brooks' musical comedy "The Producers" won a record 12 Tony Awards.

2001 Jonathan Michael Foster was born, proving to his parents that prayers really are answered

2003 Matthew Adam Foster was born, giving his big brother a unique birthday gift and his parents a whole new reason to smile

In addition to each other, Jonathan and Matthew share their birthday with:
Jefferson Davis, Ransom Eli Olds, Josephine Baker, Colleen Dewhurst, Tony Curtis, Chuck Barris, Larry McMurtry, Emmitt Thomas, Deniece Williams, Scott Valentine, and Travis Hafner

Happy 8th birthday to my JonaBuggy!

Happy 5th birthday to my Matty Hoo Hoo!

(Having a ball on their birthday)

Play Ball!!

Saturday was Opening Day for the boys' Little League. It's a day long festival of baseball playing, with all the teams from tee-ball on up to majors playing on the fields at Eastridge High School.

Jonathan's game was scheduled for 11:30 and Matt's for 1:30. I was sure Matt's would be rained out, based on the forecast, but thankfully the rain held off. Unfortunately, Jon's game started an hour and 10 minutes late thanks to the high school's girls modified softball team, which had a 9am game that lasted until 12:15. I was able to catch the first inning and a half before I had to take Matt to his game, which was at the other end of the athletic fields. I did get to see his first at-bat and I'm told he made an awesome catch of a foul ball while he was playing catcher.


Matthew's game was everything you'd expect from the very first game of tee-ball with a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. I can't say I see any future All-Stars out there yet, but the kids had a great time playing, and that's the whole point for us. It was fun to watch them try out what they've been learning in practice for the last month. They only played 2 innings, but that was plenty!

More pictures of the day can be found here. I should mention that Jonathan is on the Yankees (for the 3rd year in a row) and Matthew is on the Red Sox. Insert favorite rivalry joke here.

A Mother's Day Tribute from Jonathan

My moms name is Jen foster
Oh my mom is pretty
Teaches me about me
Hold me mom hold me
Each mom is cool
Rock on mom rock

~JON

On this date in…

1507 America got its name from German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller, who first used the term on a world map to refer to the huge mass of land in the Western Hemisphere, in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

1859 Ground was broken for the Suez Canal.

1898 The United States declared war on Spain.

1901 New York became the first state to require automobile license plates.

1945 U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, in central Europe, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany.

1959 The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.

1990 The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery.

2003 Georgia lawmakers voted to scrap the Dixie cross from the state's flag.

2007 Graceanne Michelle Foster was born, to the delight of her parents and two big brothers, and the world became a brighter place.

Graceanne shares her birthday with:
Edward R. Murrow, Meadowlark Lemon, Al Pacino, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Renee Zellweger, Talia Shire, Hank Azaria, Jane Clayson, Oliver Cromwell, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Guglielmo Marconi, and Ella Fitzgerald

Happy 2nd birthday my sweet baby girl!!

The Medium is the Message

I asked Matthew this morning if he would like to go to the zoo on
Saturday (we're planning to do this for Grace's birthday). He said no,
let's do something else. When I asked him why he didn't want to go to
the zoo, he said "because I can see the animals on TV."

A post

Argh...I got nuthin'.

Chocolate Cake!

I meant to post this last Friday, since I've been lax in coming up with Multimedia Fridays and because that's when we were talking about it at work, but I had a hard time finding a clip. Strangely, this bit is not on YouTube.

Anyway, in honor of a conversation had over bagels last Friday, here is a classic Bill Cosby routine from the 80s.

Bill Cosby Chocolate cake
Uploaded by Spookytime

And so it was done

This Saturday, this:



Becomes this:



Our dishes can't wait.

Oh, and because at least one faithful blog reader felt it could be misconstrued, I feel I should point out that the challenge issued in my previous dishwasher-related post was meant to illustrate that the dishwasher was doing a lousy job of washing the dishes, not that Mike is incapable of discerning between clean and dirty glasses!

L-M-N-O...Q?

We had French toast for dinner tonight, and one of the accompaniments was chocolate Cool Whip, which spurred the following dialogue:

Matthew: Ooooh, I love whiffed cream.
Mommy: It's whipped, Matthew, with Ps, not Fs.
Matthew: Oh, I hate peas.

He was relieved to find there were no peas in his whipped cream.

It's time.

I emptied the dishwasher yesterday and put two identical glasses that had just come out of it on the counter. I then grabbed a third glass that matched the other two from the pile of dirty dishes in the sink (it had been used for chocolate instant breakfast in the morning) and set it next to its mates. Then I challenged Mike to determine which glass had just come out of the sink.

He guessed wrong.

As seen on TV

Did you ever buy your kids stuff at their request, knowing full well it was money down the drain? This was the case with the Bendaroos. Jonathan asked for them for Christmas, and because it was an honest answer to the question "What do you want for Christmas?" and not a spur of the moment "Buy me that!" statement while viewing the TV commercial, I acquiesced. Of course, I knew what I was in for, but that didn't stop me.

See the problem with these things that are advertised on TV, like Bendaroos, Moon Sand, Pixos, etc., etc., is that kids have no concept of their own limitations. To whit, here's an example of what you can do with Bendaroos, according to the commercial:



Do you think my child produced a fantastical Wizards and Toadstools chess set with his Bendaroos? Of course not. He produced this:



Which has lived on my dining room wall for 3 months now, because I have an amazing ability to ignore such things until the absurdity overwhelms me. I must point out that this objet d'art used to be somewhat more detailed, but every so often one of the Bendaroos falls off and I find it in my bedroom, where it has been dragged by the cat.

The kicker is, said child has not touched the Bendaroos since the Christmas tree came down.

But that hasn't stopped him from asking me to buy him Moon Sand.

Enough already!

We've just come off over a week of pestilence in our house. Well okay,
just two-fifths of us were sick, but since they were the youngest two,
it was no fun. Grace started off the fun with the sniffles and the goop
back on February 21st. Matt joined the party 2 nights later with a
wonderful bout of the "barky cough" in the middle of the night. He was
fine by morning though, so we sent him off to school. By the next day,
though, he had a fever and was in no mood to go anywhere. Then came the
throwing up. The fever would go away and come back, go away and come
back. And the goop put out by both him and Grace...ick. By Friday, we
thought everyone was on the mend, but then Matt spiked another fever,
and it was off to the doctor with him. Ear infection. We got him good
and drugged with amoxicillan, wiped our brows, and looked forward to the
end of the illness. And then Grace's eyes turned red. And goopy. So
back to the doctor with her on Tuesday. Pinkeye. Antibiotic drops in
her eyes. Three times a day. Oh joy.

So both sickos are now medicated and seem to be back on the road to good
health. Fortunately, Jonathan seems to have fought off the plague
surrounding him, as did Mike. Me? I'm not so sure. I can't pinpoint
it, but I don't think I'm 100% well. But hey, the power of positive
thinking, right?

Of big brothers and babies

One of Jonathan's favorite things right now is to torment Matthew by calling him a baby. (He's a big brother...this is fully expected.) Friday morning in the car on the way to the sitter, the conversation in the back seat went something like this:

Jonathan: Matt's a baby.
Matthew: I'M. NOT. A BABY!!

Rinse, lather, and repeat a couple dozen times. Finally, a brief silence (taking a breath for air, perhaps), and then, from the middle seat, a small voice:

Graceanne: I a beebee.

1 score years

What were you doing February 3rd, 1989? Me? I had my first date with the man who would become my eternal companion and the father of my children. How is it possible that we've been together for 20 years? I'm not that old!! Heck, I wasn't even that old when I met him! (It was a week before my 19th birthday.) Anyway, I can't think of anyone I'd rather be on this journey through life with, and I'm looking forward to the next 2 or 3 score years ahead of us.

So okay, we have to go back to 1989 for just a minute (I do love me some YouTube). Here's a song I distinctly remember dancing with Mike to at one of the few "dances" that were held in the old Pub at IC. Apparently, this song is notable for being in the Guiness Book for the LONGEST note held by a Power Ballad/Pop song. I haven't actually verified that, but it's not too hard to believe.


(Love love LOVE the stylin' '80s looks on these guys!)

I have to admit it was a tossup between the Sheriff song and "Angel Eyes" by the Jeff Healy Band, which is a song I've heard Mike singing around the house on more than one occasion. But hey, it's my blog, and since the Jeff Healy song is sung from a guy's point of view, I went with Sheriff. If you're interested, here's a link to the other one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYz_LHKrgDY

Oh, and for the record, 3 years later, on this same day, we got engaged. I'll save the songs from 1992 for another time.

Random nuggets

Since Jill informed me that she's stalking me, I figured I'd better post SOMETHING to make it worth her while. =) This post is basically just recent observations about the kids.

I'm very amused by the way Matthew laughs when HE'S amused (which is different than when he laughs because he's being tickled). If he's trying to restrain himself, he sounds like "tee-hee!" Literally, he says "tee-hee." It's too funny. And I've caught Grace doing it too. When he's amused by a cartoon or something and he's letting it all hang out, he says something that sounds sort of like a very loud, nasally "He-yeah!" You have to be there.

Jonathan informed me this weekend that he wants a pet of his very own. The two cats apparently aren't cutting it for him. Every parent gets this request at some point, right? Well, he seems to want a fish, which is a personal pet I can get behind. BUT, I told him he needs to prove he's ready for pet ownership before I'll permit this, so it is now his responsibility to feed the cats every afternoon. I haven't quite decided what measure of success he needs to attain for me to decide he's proven his pet ownership worthiness, but it will definitely have to involve VERY LITTLE reminding on my part. Any advice in this area is welcome!

Since December, I have been trying to make a point of jotting down the new words I hear Grace say on the calendar in her room. Well, it's starting to get a little challenging. Just this past weekend, I think I recorded 3 or 4 new words and 2 or 3 phrases, including "go," "cheese," and "Can I see?" I think it's going to get to the point soon where I can't keep up. I've also heard her singing "Popcorn Popping," although no one else would recognize it as such, because her enunciation still leaves a bit to be desired. But I can tell by the tune, the repeated "p" sound, and the little wagging finger that goes along with the line "It wasn't really so." Dang she's cute.

A-blogging I will go

Okay, yeah, so it's been two weeks since I last posted. Call it the calm AFTER the storm. Essentially, the holidays are over and I'm thankfully not so busy anymore, and there just hasn't been much going on. Mike and I go to work, the kids go to school, and then we come home and veg. That's what January is for, right? Hibernation, as Matthew has been learning about in school. I'm sure things will pick up again in the not-so-distant future, but right now, there's really nothing exciting going on, and I think I'm pretty content with that. And hey, you can't complain about being content, right?