Backyard Landscaping

Spring is here, and most people are busy landscaping the yard, planting flowers, digging up dead bushes, throwing down some new rock, etc. Bryan and Cam have a different idea as to what makes a backyard appealing. It should be obvious by now that skateboarding is a serious shared passion. I think Bryan likes to relive his skating days (when he used to skate for Vans) through Cameron but every once in a while does an ollie or kick flip of his own. (I'm slowly catching on to the lingo). This weekend proved to be the icing on the cake. Bryan comes back from Home Depot on Saturday with a truck full wood. Now let me preface this by saying we had "talked" about this, but I honestly never thought it would be done. Duh. You would think I'd know by now. The passion has now carried over into our backyard with the addition of a half pipe. Yes, a half pipe. Please refer to the picture below:

THE half pipe

Now it's ironic (or funny/scary, it depends on how you look at it) because before Bryan got home, I was talking to my girlfriend Heather on the phone, and commented on how well Cameron was doing with his skateboarding. He told me I should take a picture of his battle wounds to show her. So I did:



Nothing major. These I can handle. The strawberry on his leg was actually from the grip tape (the sandpaper-like stuff on the surface of his skateboard) on his board and not from a fall. I thought the timing was pretty good on the phone call and the arrival of Bob Villa. I'm actually okay with it. I did get a mom of the year nomination from Cameron for allowing it to be built. And the biggest freakin' smile I have ever seen on his face was enough for me. It can be torn down - we do have a fire pit - so there is nothing permanent about it. This works for me. Our next door neighbor and one of Cam's skateboarding friends' dad helped Bryan out. If there is such a thing as a "nice" half pipe, well this would certainly be it. I was off school this week, so I spent yesterday sitting my but in a chaise lounge, consuming a few coronas, supervising the project and documenting the various stages of the build. Here they are:

Cameron and his friend Trey out front - trying to "stay out of the way" :)

And so it begins ...


We teased him for a little while ... he didn't get sunburned so I suppose there was a bonus to the strawberry pickin' hat.

Waiting patiently ...

This is out of the way, right?




Helmets are on and they are ready to go!


These next few aren't great - it wasn't until after downloading that I realized I need to clean off the lens a bit. But you get the idea ... Cam and Trey trying it out for the first time!!


Cam "dropping in" ...



Evidence of (3) thirsty carpenters and (1) thirsty photographer.




While it may have been in the high 80's today, you couldn't PAY me to jump in that pool. Apparently skateboarding was tough today, and a dip in the pool was necessary. Cam said it was about 70. If that's what you need to tell yourself to get through it, so be it. However I looked at the thermometer a couple of days ago and it was about 64. Hell no!!!


So that about wraps up our weekend. For those of you interested who come to visit, you are more than welcome to utilize the half pipe, but helmets are required. You can borrow Bryan's.

It's only been 4 days...

are any of you going through Peterson withdrawls? Sorry, I know how important it is for you to get your fix. Funny, I get a week off from school and I can't seem to find the time to blog! How does that work? So let's see, Easter was the last post. Honestly, not a whole heckuva lot has happened this week. I finished my class on Monday - only 2 more to go! Yahoo! Cannot wait. This next one is a profiling/forensic course, so I'm excited. It's busy at work right now, so that has also kicked my butt. I tell you what, I think this is the latest I've been up all week. Kind of nice to hit the hay before midnight! So I haven't posted much about Cam's Little League. Probably because his 2008 season has ended. In fact, it ended after his 2nd practice. Wasn't into it, and as much as it killed me to not go with the "you wanted to play, you made a commitment, you need to play, etc." speech, we just kind of let it go. I made it to his 2nd (and last) practice last week and can relate to some of the frustration he was having. The team was very unorganized, the league is brand new, the coach was new, and the kids LOOKED like they were forced to play. There were only a couple that had ever played. Granted, Cam has never played ball before, but knows the basics and was pretty good for what its worth. One of the assistants would tell him one thing, another would tell him the opposite, and they just didn't have it quite together. Not Cam's cup of tea. He wanted to get out there and "do work" and it wasn't happening. Figured why waste his time, and ours with it, so we'll see what happens. Who knows, maybe next year...

Onto his REAL passion ... skateboarding. He is doing SO awesome. I finally got to see him at his lesson on Wednesday. Wow. So there's some skateboarding lingo here, but him and his instructor were in the "bowl" and he "dropped" in. It's probably an 8 foot drop, and the first couple of feet or so are straight down, so he practiced a couple of times. The look on his face when he hit it was absolutely priceless. I have to admit that I had tears in my eyes. Not because I was scared that he was going to hurt himself, but because he was pumped that he hit it. I was so proud of him!! I'll have to practice with the video part of my camera and see if I can post a clip or two on here. It's amazing. He's amazing. He's the littlest one in his class! But he loves it and would do it ALL day if he could. He ususally has his group lesson and individual lessons both on Wednesdays. So two hours are at the indoor skatepark. Sometimes after school on his "off" days, he and Bryan will hit a skatepark around here for a while. He made a new friend at the Queen Creek park, his dad signed him up also at the indoor park, and they have a great time together. They'll both be in the same summer camp so he's excited. At any rate, he knows that if he's got a lesson on Wednesdya, that he's got to plan his homework for the week. He's doing awesome at time management. He's 7, and probably has better skills than some of the people I've been in class with. He knows that if he doesn't have that homework done - he doesn't skate.

Nothing planned for the weekend. Glad for that. No homework to finish up, so I'll be able to relax a bit. (IE: I'll probably be bored without a due date hanging over my head.) I'm sure we'll be at the skate park for a while. Cam's got homework before his next skateboarding lesson! I could use some sun anyway - for an Arizonan I'm pretty pasty. Okay - that's it for now. Headed off to bed.

Happy Easter! (Updated w/ pics)

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter! We've had a great day ... Easter Bunny paid a visit this morning ... Shelby had to help Cam find his Easter Basket. Not sure what was so difficult with the hiding place. Who wouldn't check the dryer first? (On a side note, I accidentally found a cheap method of botox for my lips. While squatting in front of the dryer, I lost my balanced, missed grabbing on to the edge of the dryer for support, and smacked my mouth on the top part of the dryer. Hurt like a you know what. I had to keep checking in the mirror because I was SURE there was blood or a split or something. Nothing, but Bryan did continue to call me Angelina ... I'm just going to take that one as a compliment ... ! :) Met Mike and Denise for a GREAT breakfast at the Good Egg and then hit the skate park to work off that food. What kind of Holiday is it without skateboarding involved somehow? Then we headed back home and over to Theresa's for Easter dinner with the kids and Mom and Dad. More food! BBQ'd ham was great, asparagus, Uncle Steve's Mashed Potatoes, and then of course dessert! Strawberry shortcake and cheesecake. Grandma Eileen's recipe, of course, and it came out fantastic (if I do say so myself!) Even though we weren't with the rest of the family today, we were sure thinking about you all through your recipes! :) Have a few pics to post, but that will have to wait. Cam goes back to school tomorrow and I need to work on my final paper that is due tomorrow (our instructor was nice enough to extend the deadline until tomorrow due to Easter). Last week of class - thank the man upstairs - and then I have a week break. Guess that means I should tackle our taxes ... maybe. Anyway, Happy Easter!

Here are the pics I promised. Okay, they're not that great. In fact, they pretty much suck. I am either GREAT at taking pictures and will take a million, or I'll remember the camera but forget to take it out of my purse. Honestly, I think Cameron actually took most of the ones at Theresa's. Way to go Cam! I knew I could count on you. So pic #1 is at the skatepark. It would not be a holiday without getting a little boarding in. #2 was me looking for someting, probably a glass for my wine. #3 is mom, obviously hiding from the camera. #4 is Alex and Bryan all tuckered out. And #5 is Kailee, I'm assuming (since I didn't take this pic) that she was more than willing to smile for Cam!

Early Easter Humor

BEST LAWYER STORY OF THE YEAR ...

... DECADE, AND PROBABLY THE CENTURY.

Charlotte, North Carolina

A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against, among other things, fire.

Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company.

In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost 'in a series of small fires.'

The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason, that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.

The lawyer sued and WON!

(Stay with me.)

Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the company, which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable 'fire' and was obligated to pay the claim.

Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for his loss of the cigars lost in the 'fires'.

NOW FOR THE BEST PART...

After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on …24 counts of ARSON!!!

With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

This is a true story and was the First Place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

We're Back!

Sorry - the blogger was on vacation for a few days. :)

Well I left on Friday afternoon for Vegas and had a great weekend! I was so excited to see Cam! And contrary to my thinking that I was invading on his time with Grandma & Papa, he was glad to see me. I don't know if it was because he was gone for a week and I just missed it, or what, but he was absolutely hilarious this weekend and full of the most intelligent/misguided comments you've ever heard. We were playing the Wii, but conviced Cam it would be great to listen to the stereo instead of the game. The song Mexican Radio came on, and Cam says "I have this on my iPod. Authority Zero sings it - it's in a different "genue" then this one, though. The one I have is more Rock." It took us a minute to figure out that Cam was trying to say "genre". Amazing that he knew the song, and even more amazing that he understood what genre meant. He also wanted to know why Easter was always on Sunday. Well he knows the reason for Easter, and many of the details surrounding the day. Dad says, "It's the day that Jesus came out from behind the rock" ... and Cameron responds, "It was a tomb, Papa." We had to smile at that one! I'm pretty sure I'll post more later as they come to me, or as I think of them and have to relay them to Bryan. Cameron had an absolute blast with mom and dad. He and Papa Rick certainly did their share of bonding! Adventuredome for roller coaster rides was one of the first treats. Mom and dad looked on the website for height requirements and decided to have some fun with Cam. They said he might need a few more inches, suggested wearing his hat so that it rested on the top of his head, and maybe some higher soled shoes. Cam puts his hat on the very top of his head and says "Maybe we can just run over to Ross really quick and pick up some dress shoes; they always have kind of a heel on them." Well he was totally serious, and said he'd just "take them off once they were on the roller coaster." I thought mom was going to wet her pants when she was telling me that one. They also hit the skate park, played some baseball, Wii - A LOT of Wii!, excursions out "just" to look at cars and they got to meet the cast of American Chopper! Orange County Choppers built a bike for the Silverton Casino and unveiled the Bass Pro Shop bike last week. Dad bought him a model of the bike, and then they waited in line to have the box autographed. He got to meet Paul Sr., Paul Jr., and Mikey! He was so excited and could not wait to show me that bike when I got there!

Holding his autographed American Chopper Bass Pro Shop Bike

We went out to dinner Friday night at Sunset Station for the Buffet .. had some excellent shrimp and crab - all you can eat. Hard to believe this was Cam's first official buffet, but he could not get over the whole buffet "concept" - that you could just get up and get more, whenever you want, and get whatever you want! He had quirt the assortment of quesadillas & guacamole, pizza, fried shrimp, a clam (that's right - just one - but he liked it!), french fries, a breadstick, and an M & M brownie for dessert. Sitting there with all of that that crab and shrimp in front of us, I had to say, "Wonder what the poor people are doing tonight?" Mom told me a while back that was something Grandpa Kenny would always say to them. Love it.

Saturday mom and I had pedicures and Sunday we went and played miniature golf - something else Cam had never experienced. I know, I know. He truly leads a sheltered life. He LOVED it. Papa Rick won, and ... (sorry Mom) ... but he actually beat Grandma. (Good think they had that 6 stroke limit in place!)

Cam at "King Putt"

Had some burgers for dinner afterwards then headed back to mom and dads' for Wii. (Played a LOT of Wii - in fact when we got home, Cam told Bryan that I am AWESOME at Super Smash Brothers!) Sunday we hit the skate park to watch Cam show off his moves, then mom and I headed over to Sunset Station in hopes of some Luck O' the Irish. Nothing extraordinary to report, but we certainly did see our share of people in their St. Paddy's Day "costumes". Unbelievable. It was such a good weekend, and really nice to get away. Cam was a bit quiet on the plane coming home. He was definitely excited to see Daddy, but he did say that he didn't want to leave Grandma & Papa's.

Cam was a bit chilly one night, so here he is modeling one of Grandma's robes:




Showing off a few moves at the Skate Park

Our personal Hallmark greeting ...

We had such a great Anniversary! Dinner was fantastic, as always. We got to the Salt Cellar about a half hour before our reservation and just planned on having a drink in the bar until our table was ready. We've gone to this restaurant for the last several years on our anniversary and love it. The food is amazing, and it was a former "Speak-Easy" so the ambiance is pretty cool. Anyway, I let the hostess know that we were early, but we had a reservation for Peterson. She looks up and says "Oh! Just a minute." She hands an envelope to another hostess, whispers something in her ear, and then she goes ahead and seats us. As we sit down, she hands me an envelope that says "3/11/08 - For Peterson Party (2) - 7:30". So I open up the envelope and the tears start flowing. Surprise #1: Cameron had made an Anniversary card/picture for us (note the beautiful artwork above) and mom faxed it to the restaurant so we'd have it when we got there! So sweet. I kept looking at it and wanted to call him so bad at dinner, but I didn't have service on my phone being underground and all. Had a couple of drinks with dinner, shrimp appetizers, I had the Alaskan King Crab, and Bryan had the King Crab and filet. It was so delicious. Our waiter offers us dessert which we had NO room for, but then lets us know that we can pick one out to go and that it's on him. He then comes back and asks which one of our parents are Rick and Julie, and then says Happy Anniversary dinner is on them! Surprise #2 was just as great as Surprise #1! Thanks Mom & Dad! After our two-hour dinner, we stopped for coffee and headed home. Such a great night!!

8 Years Ago Today ...

I am so blessed to have a husband who is kind-hearted, sensitive, thoughtful, and perceptive in ways that contradict the man some people see on the outside. He is an amazing father and an even more amazing husband. The list of things I truly love about him is much longer than this, but here are a few... Happy Anniversary Honey!

THE TOP 50 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY HUSBAND:

1. He tells me when he hears a song he knows I would like on my iPod.
2. His pants ALWAYS fall down, and show his boxers, even with a belt on.
3. He gets emotional during a TV show or movie, and doesn't try to hide it.
4. The wonderful relationship he has with my family.
5. He calls me Princess.
6. He loves to sing made-up songs to Cameron and I.
7. He cooks AND cleans ... all the time.
8. He makes me laugh - gut laughter.
9. He tells me how proud he is of me being a full-time wife, mother, employee and student.
10. He doesn't complain when I ask him to cook up some mushrooms for me, even though it is a "disgusting fungus."
11. He always has coffee made Sunday mornings before I get up.
12. He tells me how beautiful I am no matter what condition I'’m in.
13. He’'s romantic.
14. He devotes so much of his time and effort to Cameron.
15. He's a little boy at heart.
16. His love of cars and buying cars.
17. He listens to me when I tell him not to follow through on his love of cars and buying cars.
18. He's hardworking - he gets up before the crack of dawn for work and never gets the luxury of a sick day.
19. He gets up before the crack of dawn for work and still musters up enough energy to keep up with Cam until I get home.
20. He'll pull our neighbors weeds because he doesn't want our yard to look bad.
21. He sympathizes with my bunions and doesn't make fun of them ... anymore.
    
22. Everything he BBQ'’s turns out great.
23. He’'s seen several of my family members in their underwear - by accident -– and is still here.
24. He brings me latex gloves when I make meatloaf, and doesn’'t make fun of me for wearing them.
25. He always makes me laugh or smile - even at times when I don’'t want to.
26. The way he proposed to me.
    
27. He will argue against something that I want or ask (half the time I think because he likes to push my buttons) and five minutes later, I see that he went ahead and did it anyway.
28. He understands that I can spend two hours at Barnes and Noble and come home with nothing
29. He hates watching football, but will watch a Beaver game with me.
30. He remembers our first dance at our wedding was by George Strait.
31. He always comes up with the perfect gifts for people.
32. It takes him 20 minutes to swallow a tiny pill, but he has no problems with Jagermeister.
33. He knows that I hate onions on just about everything.
34. He's a fantastic Uncle.
35. The way he kisses me and touches me.
36. He accepts that when I drink too much wine, I talk too much.
37. He went along with being called "Kyle". :)
    
38. He understands why I won’'t give him a foot massage.
39. He knows and is prepared for the reminiscing that occurs when we're with my girlfriends.
40. He knows and is prepared for the reminiscing that occurs when we're with the Bales'.
41. He showers in one bathroom, gets dressed in another, and brushes his teeth in the third.
42. His midnight sweet tooth.
43. The first night he met my parents.
44. How cute he looks when he's wakeboarding.
45. He agrees 100% that no one makes a cheesecake like my Grandma Eileen.
46. The way he and Cam look forward to game releases.
47. He drinks mimosas with me on random Sunday mornings.
48. Cameron is a spitting image of him.
49. He knows that I always want to eat at the Salt Cellar on our Anniversary.
    
50. HE LOVES ME AND WANTS TO BE WITH ME!

Spring Break has begun!

We are officially child-free this week - Cameron hopped on his FIRST unaccompanied flight yesterday! (We were joking about the movie Unaccompanied Minors and had to reiterate to him that he will NOT be left alone, or by himself in any airport. Great movie by the way ...check it out.) So he is spending the week in Vegas with Grandma and Papa and couldn't wait for yesterday to come! We got to the airport and Cam did have about a 5 minute panic session when Bryan realized he didn't have his drivers license. (Rewind two hours: "Honey, do you have your ID?" "Of course I do, it's in my money clip where it always is."). Seems he DIDN'T have it after all, not the time to gloat becauase I thought Cam was going to break down upon realizing Daddy might not be waiting at the gate with him. The agent at the ticket counter was nice, and did give him the pass anyway. He did, however, have to endure a lot more searching and wanding at Security than the rest of us. His flight was about a half hour late leaving, so Cam was getting a little antsy. He did so great and was just really excited to get on the plane. Even the flight attendants FYI announcement that someone on the previous flight threw up in aisle 11, the emergency exit row, in case that changes your mind about sitting in that row. Cam gave us this look but we reassured him that he'd get to sit in the front. I, on the other hand, had a few tears when he walked off with the flight attendant to get seated. That was my baby going off by himself!!! Granted, he's a pro at flying, and it is only about a 45 minute flight, but still! Bryan told me to buck up. It took me a few minutes, but I managed to get it together. Mom said he was smiling when he got off the plane and shrugged it off like it was no big deal. So he's there this week, and I'm headed that way on Friday for the weekend. Cam and I fly back together, so I can put my Tums away. Now that I think about it, I should have taken a picture of his suitcase ... his clothes were in there, somewhere, but all you could see was his baseball glove, three baseballs, his skate helmet, elbow pads and his NEW knee pads - just in case he and Papa go to the skate park. That didn't include what he had in his backpack: iPod, PSP, Nintendo DS, a skateboarding magazine, a couple of car mags, and of course, an extra Wii remote. :) He was set!

Our plans for the week? Nothing too exciting. Did some yard work when we got home, worked on a paper for class, and that was the extent of the night. Have a date for dinner tomorrow with my hubby - eight years since we were hitched! Looking forward to that.

TGIF - And I mean that in EVERY possible way

Well apparently I missed a really awesome skate lesson today (keep reading for the reason on this one). Cam actually had the coach to himself instead of sharing him with the other 4 kids that are usually in the class. And after that hour was up, another coach came in and offered to work with him some more. He got that backwards turn thingy down that I mentioned last time, and is ready to drop in the 8 foot bowl. This is good. :) And, the best part of all of this is his knee pads did some serious work tonight. In fact (see picture) his right knee pad busted apart on one of his harder falls. Can you imagine if he wasn't wearing them? I think a lot of his confidence is due in part to the sense of protection he feels with his helmet and pads. Thank god. I'll spend another 30 bucks for knee pads ... saves us some dough on a new kneecap, right? :) Even better, Cam tells me when I get home that he felt something poking his head under his helmet, but couldn't figure out what it was. So after his lesson, he took off his helmet and saw the culprit: he had thrown one of his Gameboy games in his helmet earlier, and it was still there when he put it on. The ironic part of all this? It was his Tony Hawk game. Maybe this was a sign ...

So in yesterday's blog I left off with a recap of the week ... and how utterly crappy Wednesday was. Thinking that since today was Friday, it HAD to be better. Started out fine, but wouldn't you know it? Something had to ruin it. I attempted to leave early today to catch Cam's skateboarding lesson. Didn't quite happen. Get to my car and can't seem to find my keys. Oh wait! There they are ... on the front seat. After I got to work this morning, I opened my door, hit the lock button on my key ring, threw my keys in my purse, and grabbed my bag out of the backseat. Well apparently my keys fell out of my purse when I picked it up. So it's 4:45, and to make a LONG story short, I finally left at 6:00. My usual time of getting out of work. So, kudos to Dodge for making my car REALLY difficult to break into (apparently there is a metal plate at the top of my door that prevents even a slim jim from working, kudos to our Barney Fife security guards for handing me their Rolodex to find a locksmith, and the idiot locksmith for running his finger across my hood and commenting that it's "pretty dusty". Thanks. I suppose the bright side of this is if I wouldn't have left work early, but left at 6:00 like usual, I would have been sitting there until 7:30, in the dark. Okay, so it must get tiring listening to me vent, but now that your suckered into reading it, you'll just have to hear about all the great things that happen, and the not-so-great things. :)

Time to De-Brief (or should I say De-Compress??!)

Well it's been a week since I posted. Not acceptable. Sorry. Let's see if I can recap the last week or so, this will be a true test!!!


Friday - Mom flew in for the weekend! Nice surprise! Uncle Bryan and Auntie "Lecia" babysat Kailee and Alex. Alex was in heaven playing with Cameron's cars, and Kailee might as well have been at Le Peterson Spa ... bath, hair, pedicure. The works. She loved it. :)

Saturday - We live close to Theresa - I think there's less than a half mile between our houses - so Cameron rode his skateboard, and I rode my bike over there for a Saturday morning visit. Kids played, and we had our coffee. Then I called Bryan for a ride home. Just kidding. Saturday night the neighbor's watched Cam while Bryan and I headed out to the WigWam Resort to meet up with my friend Kim. She was here on business for the weekend and cleared her schedule to have dinner and drinks with us. It was great - hadn't seen her in over a year, and we had a lot to catch up on. Dinner was fantastic, the cocktails were even better!

Sunday - Dropped Cam off at Mike & Denise's so he could spend some time with Grandma and Papa! Video games, skateboarding, lunch ... what more could he ask for? Bryan and I ran some errands, went to lunch, did some shopping, and had a nice day hanging out together.

Monday - felt like crap and stayed home from work. Highlight of the day: Bryan and Cameron are at the grocery store, and have to go to the bathroom. So they're standing at the urinal going, when Cameron says to Bryan, "Wow - yours holds a lot more than mine." Classic. When do they start learning about anatomy? Guess I'm gonna have to pull out a picture of the human body here soon ...

Tuesday - Feeling a little better, think I have a cold. Sucks. Cam had another skateboarding lesson - still absolutely LOVING it! He is doing so awesome. Right now he's in the "Rippers" class. He has improved incredibly since the first lesson, and is about ready to move up to the "Shredders". :) He "dropped in the bowl", grinded the 4 ft rail, and has a back turn flip or something before he can move up. He is completely motivated, no fear whatsoever, and really thriving on the improvements and progression he has seen himself. Oh by the way, did I mention I have YET to see him? Yeah, I know. His lessons are usually at 4, so that sucks. Do you think Bryan has taken the camera like I asked? Nope. Guess I'll just have to wait.

Found out that Jim and Becky are having a BOY! So excited for them, and Cameron is super excited knowing he has another "cousin" to add to his list. The Keene's Blogspot will keep you up on all the adventures of little JT Keene and his mommy and daddy. :)

Wednesday - This was a busy day. And to be honest, I'm glad it's over. It really kind of sucked for all of us. The only good thing was that it was Cam's first meeting for baseball! After getting the call from the coach on Monday about the first meeting, we went through the whole "I'm not sure that I still want to do baseball now because I'm in skateboarding ..." Well we knew it was going to come. So we had the "you need to take responsibility/you wanted to sign up for it/give it a shot/you don't have to LOVE them both/etc." chat. Seemed to be okay. Meeting was good - coach seems nice. I would say that for never playing baseball or t-ball, Cameron was in the top half of the kids that had some "skills". He figured he was the "second best hitter because I hit all three balls". Admitted some of the other kids were better at catching, which is good for him. Our conversations with about having fun and trying YOUR best vs. having to BE the best certainly surfaced. He let me know this morning (Friday) that he was going to give it a shot and that it should be fun, but that he was more excited for skateboarding. Nothing wrong with honesty. Just don't want to see him in the outfield, sitting down, pulling dandelions or worse, pulling his Gameboy out of his pocket during the game.

Cam also got in trouble at school. He apparently "yelled" at a recess aide. Well he raised his voice, but only after this aide raised her voice, asked him the same question, four times, and after Cameron answered her, four times. I'd be frustrated too. Kind of puts us in a tough spot. Understand where the "respect and kind words" come into play, but also feel that "hassling" is just as inappropriate. To make matters worse, we went through the exact same scenario/situation, with the exact same teacher's aide a couple of months ago. Raising his voice because she kept asking him the same question. Had a meeting with a couple of the teacher's over that one. We'll see what happens with this. Needless to say, he lost two days worth of recess, had to pick out an appropriate scripture for the situation, and write the aid an apology note.

Bryan hit the Urgent Care, his other "PCP" for his knee. Had been having problems with it, can't remember doing anything in particular to cause the swelling and pain, but yesterday was really bad. Didn't sleep the night before, and was limping quite a bit. Doctor said there was a bit of fluid, and he thought his meniscus was irritated, but not torn. Gave him a brace to wear for work, told him to take ibuprofen, keep it straight when he's resting, and use heat packs. Seemed to work pretty good last night, because he wasn't limping today, and there was no swelling. We'll see how THAT goes. In the meantime, we're hunting down an orthopedist just in case.

And the highlight of my day: getting pulled over by a DPS motorcycle cop on my way home, and getting a ticket, for being in the HOV (carpool) lane. I wasn't in the HOV lane. At all. Seriously. I'm still so damn irritated with the whole situation that I cannot talk about it without seething. I left work at 6:00, get on 1-10 from my exit, and proceed to US60. 8 minutes into my drive, I call my hairstylist and let her know that I'm on my way for my appointment. I'm in the far right lane to begin with on the 10, which eventually turns into the middle lane once it merges with the 60. Once on the 60, I move into the left lane, which is the lane closest to the HOV lane. For those of you wondering, the HOV lane in AZ is restricted to 2 or more passengers between the hours of 6-9am and 3-7pm, weekdays. I'm barely on the 60, and notice a piece of crap, older model cabriolet convertible flying in behind me from the HOV lane. One guy in it. I'm thinking he must be paranoid about a cop, or there's one sitting up ahead. Couldn't see anything myself. Then this guy moves over another couple of lanes to "hide out". Then I see the motorcycle cop and am thinking to myself "this is GREAT!" I love it when they get caught. The cop pulls in behind me, with his lights flashing. Okay, maybe he's trying to get someone ahead of me. I change lanes. So does he. Then he's doing his little weaving back and forth to slow traffic down when I realize I'm the one that's getting pulled over! What the french toast? So I pull over. He comes up, asks for all my info and then says "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I answer that I have NO idea. then he says "So you don't think I had a reason?" Okay, did I say that? I don't think so. Does he WANT me to remove the lid from freshly brewed coffee and splatter it all over his too-tight helmet and ugly brown uniform? I answer him "Well I'm sure you had a reason, I just don't know what it is." So then he asks, "You want to tell me how you got on the 60 from the 10?" Then I knew what he was inferring. So I asked him if he thought I was in the carpool lane. He says, "I know you were in the carpool lane. You were the only one with your headlights and fog lights on, so it was easy to pick you out." What the hell is the color of the sky in your world? Seriously.

It's 6:10, sunset was at 6:28 (I looked it up) and you're facing west, looking into the sun, my lights are automatic and already on. I'm going out on a limb here and say that most newer model cars have automatic headlights. But I was the only one on the freeway in rush hour traffic, doing no more than 20 mph, bumper to bumper, with headlights on, that switched from the HOV lane into the left lane. So I then say, "Well I'm not going to argue with you". He comes back with a ticket - $378 - and lets me know that I can pay it, or go to Traffic School, or utilize the Online Traffic School if I want, he's "given me until April 15", or I can contest it in court. Your damn right I am. I sign the ticket, hand it back, and before he gives it to me, he wants to know if I have any questions. Oh, do I. "Nope." Bite your tongue, Alicia. Breathe.

So just to recap ... I WAS NOT IN THE HOV LANE.