A Week in Review (January 21-27)

A Week in Review (January 21-27)

Watched: Hidden Figures with Jack.  I was very disappointed in the movie. The really altered the time line of events and lessened, I thought, the struggle that these women had to endure.  I did like that they chose to focus only on the three main characters.  While there could have been such a good showing of the way that the women pushed forward past the gender and race stereotypes, it ended up just being a rather boring movie.  Jack couldn't make it awake for the entire thing and I found myself longing for the end.  While it received high ratings on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, I would not recommend it.

Read:  I finished up Hidden Figures. Overall, I would say that this book was interesting, but a bit repetitive. I felt the book could have been condensed down and made a bit more straightforward. She often got off on side tangents which didn’t do much for the story. If you enjoyed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, you would probably enjoy this story as well.  I  started reading A Wrinkle in Time with Jack. Since we are doing a read-aloud it will take several days to complete it and I wouldn’t be looking for a review anytime soon.  That being said, I think we are both really enjoying and I am glad that I chose do it as a read-aloud with him.  The next book I started was another non-fiction, My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward.  Luckily, it's a pretty engrossing read because I had another book come off my holds list and I still have to read my book club book for the month of February, so I need to get through it quickly. 

Listened: Myself tell Nick to stay in KC.  When I called him on Wednesday to discuss the options Jack and I had for flying out for our cruise, we got talking about what his travel schedule would look like.  He mentioned he wasn't going to be able to get out of there until after 10am on Friday and would need to leave Sunday afternoon to get back.  I couldn't see him driving all that way to be home and awake for about as many hours as it took him to drive here and back.  He didn't want to admit it, but he knew that I was right.  Jack didn't want to wrestle without Nick in his corner, so we chose basketball instead.  I watched some of it from behind the iPhone lens so that Nick could see it too.  You can watch it HERE.

Made: Referee circles for our upcoming tournament. It drives me nuts how a ref puts their fingers behind their back and then asks the kids to guess and no one is quite clear on who is choosing. Have a red/green coin is much easier. We looked at purchasing them but for a professional quality, the cheapest we could find was $4 each. So I found that I could buy plain coasters on Amazon for $6 for 50 of them. I then bought some red and green acrylic paint and cheap foam brushes and was in for $8 total. They turned out pretty good. There are a couple that have the edges blurred with the other paint color, but for $8, I’m calling it a win. 

Felt: Loved by good snuggling girl. I laid down on the floor to watch some football in front of the fireplace and Nora just snuggled up on me. She kept trying to laying her head on my head. On about the third time, I took a picture to show to Nick. She’s quite the character and always follows me around to lay near me. She is really a good dog and quite the mama’s girl.

Planned: On Nick being home this weekend, but when we were talking about plane flights for our cruise, we got discussing what the next few weeks looked like. It didn’t really make a ton of sense for him to drive home as he was really only going to be here and awake for as many hours as he spent driving. Jack’s basketball game conflicted with wrestling, so he chose basketball instead so that Nick wouldn’t have to miss out again.  While he hates missing basketball, it isn’t quite as painful. We are hoping that this means he will be able to get home earlier next week and he’ll be home the following week because they have a board of directors meeting here in the Springs that he will be presenting at. It’s pretty exciting to think we will have him home for a whole 7 days!

Loved: Sharing games with our friends.  On Friday night, we hosted Mindy, Landon, and Braydon.  We played Bounce Off, Catan, Ping Pong, and Tripoley.  We stayed pretty busy for all 3.5 hours that they were over here.  I think we might host again this Friday since our schedule keeps us otherwise engaged for two Friday's after that.  On Saturday night, we invited over Jack's friend Luke so that we could have a third player for Catan.  Luke wasn't sure what to think of it in the beginning, but by the end he just loved it!  I love that Jack loves playing games and has the competitive streak that runs so strongly between Nick and I.

Here are the pics for the week:

Side 1 of the coasters

A great quote that Mindy shared with me.  I liked it so much I published it to our Warriors Facebook page.

A Week in Review (January 14-20)

A Week in Review (January 14-20)

Watched: Jack wrestle without Nick as his coach.  He wasn't thrilled to be missing his dad on his side.  Luckily, both Coach Sean and Coach Ryan were there for him almost every match.  We have amazing coaches who realize how important that it is a kid has a bond with this coach and just doesn't take instruction from him.  You can see at the beginning of his last match that neither coach was able to be there and he was very upset about it.  When Coach Sean sat beside me, I told him to make sure that Jack knew he was there.  It might sound harsh, but it was Jack needed to turn that match around.  He had a very physical day of wrestling and you can watch his five matches HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Read: I finished up Glass Sword on Sunday morning. I’m just not sure what I think of this book. I’m positive that I don’t like line “Anyone can betray anyone”. I’m glad that I have a decent waitlist until the third book because I almost think of through my Kindle in frustration if I read that line again too soon. I’m thinking the next book could be pretty good. I’m committed now so I guess I’ll have to see what the rest of the story holds.  Next I read Twist since it had came off my hold list.  This was a pretty good follow up to the first work in the series, Dirty. You are introduced to a new main character and one of the side characters from the first book took main stage with her. It was a sweet romance with plenty of hot and heavy scenes thrown air. I’ll be looking for the third book soon.  Next I started Hidden Figures since the audiobook came off my hold list as well. I’m barely started but it’s an interesting look in on a part of a history that I’m not familiar with. 

Listened: To one three-year-old question my outfit on PJ Day at work.  Two out of the four classes decided to move their PJ day which did make my outfit seem a bit out of place for those classes. One of the fashion forward girls looked at me and asked if I really wore my pajamas to school.  When I explained that it was pajama day, but her teacher had changed it, she informed that class before them wasn't wearing pajamas either.  I couldn't disagree but I told her when she left she should see if that class had their PJs on.  She just smiled like she was appeasing a crazy old lady and I just laughed.  Luckily the next class was wearing their pajamas so maybe I regained some of my street cred with her.  Haha

Made: Cakes for Jack's birthday.  I am not sure what happened but they didn't turn out in my usual style.  I think I might need to get a over thermometer because they cooked way to fast.  It also felt like the pan I used was bigger than normal.  They came out dry, but the kids enjoyed them.  The decorating them was harder this year, but I am still proud-ish of my job.  Jack liked the way that they looked and that's really all that matters.  Next year, I will try to do things different so that I can give him a nice moist cake again.

Felt:  Glad that we have such awesome friends.  When we were leaving basketball practice on Friday, Landon and Jack were trying to get to spend more time together.  Since they already had family game night planned, it didn't work for what the boys were thinking.  However, Mindy invited us over and we all had a blast.  She even cooked a yummy dinner of steak sandwiches and we had s'mores for dessert.  We then had a long game on Monopoly.  It came down to Landon and I and we could have went for a long time more, so I suggested just doing a roll off to see one.  I think we will try to keep this going by inviting them to our house in two weeks.

Planned: Not getting stranded in Manitou when we went there so that Jack could show his Kyle and Jess the mineral springs, the candied popcorn, and do the Incline with them.  After we walked around enjoying the first two, we left the kids so they could head for their assent and we went down to enjoy some brunch.  When we got the call that they were headed down, we went up to the top of the lot to pick them up again.  The length of the decent was blurred in Nick's mind and so we sat waiting.  As we did, he turned on the car to set up his bluetooth device that I got him.  Both of us forgot the moment at my mom's where I turned the car on and off quickly and needed a jump.  Well the same thing happened again.  We called a guy to come out and jump us.  He apparently drove to the area and some other couple in a white vehicle was having a hard time and shooed him away and he thought it was us.  So he came back out and finally got us jumped.  Nick said the battery was awfully low, so we had to head to the auto part store before enjoying our HuHot dinner on Jack's last day being nine.

Loved: Celebrating Jack’s birthday with him.  After getting to sleep in, he was able to open all of his presents from the family.  I think he was most excited about his 5lb gummy bear.  It was pretty ridiculous but Nick says that what birthdays are for and so we went for it.  He got a lot of other enjoys too, but I think that one hit the spot.  His party guest began to arrive about 12 and they spent the first half hour waiting for everyone to arrive and just having fun with each other.  The first game on the party docket was the Gross Soda challenge.  You can see how awful the butter one tasted by looking at Kyle's face in the picture featured underneath.  After the game was over Two and Aunt Jess had to head back to Alliance as Jess was leaving for a conference in Dallas the next day.   We then enjoyed pizza and presents.  He got 3 balls, 2 nerf guns, and 1 game from his friends.  I'd say that they know hime pretty well.  Next they went into Nerf Hide and Seek.  That game was wildly popular and resulted in what I am sure will be me finding darts for ages.  Next the played Giant Cup Pong.  It was a lot longer game than I thought it would be, but all the kids enjoyed it.  They realized they could get their booties stuck in them.  It was all fun and games until Jack rolled over his thumb while stuck in it.  He was pretty upset and I was kind of worried it might be broken with the swelling.   (It was just a deep cut with some swelling!)  To give him time to recover, we tried the Top Ramen tasting challenge.  That one was quite hard for them.  They ended the party with a game of Water War.  It is played like neighbor except the high card gets to pour water on the head of the low card.  All the kids seemed to really enjoy it.  After the party was over, Nick to Rylan home and then headed out to KC for the next two weeks.  We let Landon stay over until 5:30.  I thought we were going to the Melting Pot for dinner, but Jack looked like he was about to zone out on the drive down there.  I didn't want to spend Melting Pot money for him to not fully enjoy it so I offered him an out.  He took it and we went and got Chick-fil-a and a movie instead.  We watched both Underdog and Spider-Man: Homecoming.  He got to stay up late since it was his birthday.  I think he had a great day and I am lucky that we got to celebrate it with so many people.

Here are the pics for the week:

A Week in Review (January 7-13)

A Week in Review (January 7-13)

Watched: The boys rock the day on Sunday completing so many things from my honey-do list. With such a busy Saturday, we had a lot of things we wanted to do. The major one was getting the vanity that the boys bought me for Christmas. I really love the idea of storage in the bathroom. I won’t get to know until next week because Jack asked me to wait so that it would be a good spot for Nerf Hide-n-Seek during his party.  Nick worked pretty non-stop to help me out. I’m thankful

Read:  I continued to work more on the Glass Sword.   I didn't quite get it finished, but should definitely wrap it up early next weeks.  It's not the greatest of books.  I think it may be one of those trilogies where they are read spread out.  I am several down in the holds list for the third book, so I am thinking that's a really good thing

Listened: To a lot of people cheer for Jack during his tournament this weekend.  Our team section was very close to Jack's mat and a lot of people cheered him during his matches.  You will see he was very close during Match 1, but their weight difference was just too much for Jack to be able to roll him.  In Match 2, he kind of threw the poor kid around like a rag doll.  It was fun to watch, but it wasn't much of a challenge. Match 3 was a rematch against a kid who he has had some other matches against and whose coach is always complementary of Jack.  It was hard fought and you can see the poor kid give up right at the end.  In Match 4, Jack was the rag doll.  It was hard to watch, but it's good for him to know that there are still a lot of moves that he can learn.  If you click on the Match number, you can see the videos.

Made: A reading challenge of Banned Books with my online reading group.  I selected the following 10 books and while they are number 1-10, they are in no particular order.

1). Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unread 
2). The Perks of Being a Wallflower
3). And Tango Makes Three 4 stars 
4). Beloved
5). The Giver
6). The Handmaid's Tale 
7). Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
8). A Wrinkle in Time
9). The Things They Carried 
10). Bridge to Terabithia

I also finished my first book for the challenge, And Tango Makes Three.  I didn’t realize it was a children’s book. I just saw that it was consistently in the ALA’s top 10 list so I added it to my challenge list.

I’m trying to picture my reaction if Jack brought home this book from his school library when he was younger. I’m quite certain that I would be shocked, but then I think it would be an awesome opportunity to discuss that all families are different. I am really amazed that it is based on a true story and I think that should call into question a lot of people beliefs. I assume that’s why it is frequently challenged is that adults can’t handle their beliefs being challenged. It’s very clear where the book was going. If you weren’t prepared to handle the subject matter with our children, change the words. The kids will never know. If your child has read it without you and has questions, simply tell them you’ll talk about it later. I can’t imagine asking a library to remove this from their shelves as it could be impactful to a child living in a same sex home. 

Jack's reaction to this book being banned: Why was this book banned? How can people hate this book? It’s based on a true story.

Felt:  Bummed about mom's work schedule.  Due to an increase in their workload, the BNSF has fallen behind on repair of the motors.  This forced them to announce a mandatory 6 day work week with no vacation.  Mom was planning on coming here for Jack's birthday, but she is no longer able too.  She will just have to try to make it down another weekend to play with us!  It's hard to schedule random weekends in the winter though.  On the plus side, the kids were able to drive during the day and made it here in time to take Jack to weigh-ins after basketball.  After I got the three boys to practice, I headed out so that I could help with weigh-ins for our Southern Regional Tournament.  We enjoyed a nice night of tacos and games before turning in early-ish for the tournament.

Planned: On Nick wiping our old Windows computer, but instead he moved it downstairs and hooked it up to the basement TV and taught Jack how to run the emulator on it.  Jack has really enjoyed getting to play the old school games.  Tecmo Super Bowl, Donkey Kong, and Super Mario Brothers are his favorite.  I introduced him to one of my favorites in Bubble Buster Bros and he didn't like it nearly as much as I did.  I was thinking about how amazing it would have been to be able to play the games on such a big clear screen.  You would have been the hit of the neighborhood.

Loved:  Creating all Jack's party games.  The one game he was sure everyone had to play was Giant Cup Pong as that was the first Team Edge video he had ever watched.  While they use large trash cans, we went with 5 gallon buckets.  It worked really well and we tested it out several times.  Its much like beer pong, but instead of having to drink, you have to do the punishment that is at the bottom of the bucket that your opponent makes.  He also has several other games planned like Nerf Hide-n-Seek, Nerf Hangman Roulette, a gross soda Challenge, a Top Ramen tasting challenge, What's in the Box challenge, a basketball challenge.  He has so many that I'm sure we won't get to them all, but it will be fun trying!  I'll let you know how it all went down next week.

Here are the pics for the week:

A puzzle we did over Christmas break.  Jack wouldn't let us take it apart until we got a selfie with it.  That was a bit more work than you might think, but we got it done and I was able to finally break apart the puzzle,

A Week in Review (December 31-January 6)

A Week in Review (December 31-January 6)

Watched: Jack wrestle.  It was a big improvement over his last tournament, but he is definitely having hard time adjusting to the higher weight and older age group that 10U brings.  He ended up getting third in a 5-man bracket.  You can see his matches HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Read:  I finished up Running Barefoot.  This was a very fast reading book, but it was a little heavy on the faith aspect for me to enjoy it as a romance. Nice and easy book to end the year with.  I also read Red Queen this week.  I'm not really sure how this book garnered the 2015 Goodreads award or continues to have such overwhelming popularity. It is very much written in the same lines as Hunger Games or Divergent. I will read at least the next book in the series, Glass Sword, because I have already borrowed it from my local library in anticipation of loving this one. Maybe I'm just in a different place than I was when I read Hunger Games and Divergent, but I just didn't love it as much. I think how easily Mare was manipulated was really a sticking point for me.   

Listened: To Nick hammer away in his garage after the Chiefs blew a 21-3 lead in the playoffs.  It was pretty heartbreaking for him.  I can't believe that they managed to let such a large lead slip away. He did have to recover pretty quickly because we had the KU game to watch that night as well.  They, too, got out to a pretty large lead that they let slip away.  Luckily, the managed to pull off an on-the-road victory at a top 25 school to save Nick from double heartbreak.  I am not sure how he would have taken it.

Made: A large honey-do list for Nick when he gets home. He hasn't been home since the 21st of December and several of my Christmas presents were projects that he will have to work on.  For the first time in his work history, we had to miss the company party.  We had plans to go, but with the Chiefs game, KU game, wrestling, and so many projects we just decided to skip it.  Ryan came over after wrestling on Saturday and helped knock out a couple of the things on the list by helping us pull down the lights off the roof and working with Nick to install my fireplace blower.  I am so excited that fireplace blower works so.  It makes it more than just a little decorative piece.  It can actually boost the entire living rooms temps now!  Ryan also helped us bring home a treadmill.  Someone in our neighborhood group was selling it for $40!  Jack loves the one at my mom's so we bought it as an early present for him.

Felt: Happy that was Nora was so excited to see me when we picked her from Mindy's on Monday.  She was pretty jubilant to know that we had returned.  I think she was ready to go back to being in a one-dog household.  Its fun to play with friends and all, but they get exhausting.  She is finally getting the hang of her bed that we got her for Christmas.  She wasn't really sure what to do with it, but seems to have figured it out.

Planned: Jack's party.  He has a lot of big ideas but I think its going to be a lot of fun.  He is doing a party based off two You Tube channels, Battle Universe and Team Edge.  We have several fun games on the line up and a good group of boys coming over to be his team.  Ideally, I will be able to record it and post it to YouTube so he can relive the memories whenever he wants.

Loved: Breaking in the New Year with my boys and Roy and his boys.  We spent a lot of the evening with the boys messing around more in the workout room.  At about 11:30, we went out to play some Monopoly Gamer.  There was a group of people playing spoons, a large number of people going out for a Midnight Run (and it was so, so, so cold!) and one family with a sweet little 2 year old.  When people came back in from their run, we cheered them in and we let the two year old play with us and see her sweet face as we cheered.  Keegan complimented one of the spoons players on her fancy red slippers and she gave them to him (and everyone wanted them) when she left.  After we done with our game, we went back up the room and played some more Wii.  Roy and his boys left about 2:30 and Jack and I stayed up until around 4:00 playing together.  It made for a long drive home the next day.

Here are the pics for the week:

How four boys ages 11-8 sleep on one queen size bed

Jack in the fancy red slippers