There once was a....

Well, it appears Melanie has ditched the blog for Facebook... Look at that, over a month has gone by and no updating. You guys better get on her case, otherwise you're going to have to tolerate *my* posts on the blog all the live-long-day. 8-)

It's been quite the weekend. You all know Mel went on the cruise with Shannon and Elaine. They must be having the time of their lives because no one has heard a peep from any of them. Maybe they were kidnapped by Mexicans (they were going to Mexico after all...) and held hostage for ransom. Boy are they in for a surprise!

I really could not have asked for a better group of kids this weekend. Friday night went great with everyone going to sleep without incident. I could tell that Luke and Gavin were a little sad... that, and Maggie has started calling *me* "Mama". Oh, how quickly Melanie was replaced!

Saturday morning I was kicking butt getting everyone ready for soccer's 8:45am game. It was 8am and we were all strapped into the van, everything (stroller, water, soccer team banner, ball, everyone dressed, etc.) loaded up and ready to go. The automatic doors on the van weren't working again (third day in a row of that)... I turned the key and "silence". Nothing, nada, jilch, zippo... you get the idea... "DAMMMNNNIT......" I look through my garage for the jumper cables, and could not find them for the life of me. I immediately start to transfer everyone over to the Tacoma! We all fit! I took out the sub speaker box. Luke had his new booster seat in the back jumpseat. Gavin sat in a grey carseat that stays in my truck in the other jumpseat... and I transfered Maggie's carseat into the front seat of the truck (backwards, even). My truck doesn't have a passenger-side airbag, so I was legal.

We arrived at the field @ 8:45am exactly. We go running over to the field and I send Luke over to the side where it was 4 of the other team's kids vs our 3 (they split the teams in 2, and play 2 games simultaneously). I said "screw it" to the banner (I humped it over to the field just in case any unruly soccer parents demanded it be displayed), and sat there with Maggie and Gavin to watch Luke's soccer game. Gavin was great, and he didn't even have his "garbage truck" that he usually brings to the games (it was still in the van).

I thought that since the battery was charged up I was good-to-go... (I wanted to take it to the dealer but those goons wouldn't see me without an appointment, note: time to find a new dealer) but alas this morning after my drunken tirade at the Bieger's house last night I went out to start it up and it *barely* got started.. it took a few secs of cranking. So I took all the kids to Sams club today (I had to sweeten the pot with getting the boys some drinks from the drink bar.... I shared my cherry coke with Mags who yells when I don't put the straw back in her mouth fast enough) and got an Energizer battery replacement for the Quest. I got the last one in my size (group 24)!

We all took a nice walk to the park (racetrack) today where Luke and Gavin raise Hell on their tricycles. Luke insisted on bringing his R2-D2 along (he's way into star wars now) against my warnings... and what do you know, when we get to the racetrack, poor R2 is no where to be found. We do a few laps around the racetrack, start heading back looking for it all along the way with no luke. As we get back to the entrace to the greenbelt I saw a family of 5 enjoying themselves.... I said to them, "hey, you guys didn't happen to see an R2-D2 lying around here anywhere did you????". The mom looked at the little 4-year old who had indeed found an R2 lying on the trail. He looked like he wanted to keep it, and I almost let him.. until he kindly offered it back up to Luke. I thanked them very much and assured them it made the rest of my day much much better (Lukey loves his R2 unit!). I thanked the little guy too.

We got the team pictures in! I think they look great. I don't think Luke could be any cuter. Melanie was home recovering from surgery that day, so I stood in for the team manager. At least her picture is on the banner. 8-) Enough of my rambings: