Category: Life as I Know It

My everyday life as a woman, wife and mother.

Snow Day, Snow Night

Snow Day, Snow Night

Yesterday was the first snow day of the season, so along with completely nixing my regularly scheduled plans, I was able to spend the entire day at home with my son, get the fall decorations shuffled into storage and catch several birds flocking to our feeders. I love to see the deep red cardinals against a beautiful new snow.

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After our son’s very first preschool Christmas program, it was time for some evening fun building snowmen and making snow angels in the front yard. The snow wasn’t so deep, but it sure was sticky. Of course I was in charge of locating a face for our snowman and found myself without a carrot to my name, so I improvised and used a cheddar cheese stick instead. Hey, it was orange. The eyes were two little Halloween lollipop rejects, one red and one blue (how very exotic). A simple little striped candy cane served as a pipe. With the addition of stick arms, a black cap and red scarf, our unique snowman was complete. . . and then took a header sometime during the night.

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You Say It’s Your Birthday

You Say It’s Your Birthday

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I celebrated my birthday at Dave & Buster’s last night with my favorite two boys.

Today is another birthday for me and I must admit that I still get excited for the celebration and all the fun that comes with it. Sometimes when I take a hard look at the numeral associated with the day lately, it makes me wonder how I ever thought my age was “so old.”

Each year is a new adventure, I mean I’ve never been this age before, and sometimes I look for some kind of  reference for how I should be spending my days, especially since we were late bloomers in the child department.  Sometimes I like to think back to what my parents were doing at this particular age — Dad would have had a great job at American Airlines but with one daughter in and out of the hospital very sick, another a senior in high school (that was me) and a brand new grandson under the roof, I’m sure it was a very stressful time for him. Mom at my age would have had a daughter mid-way through college at the University of Arkansas (me again), a daughter on the mend and a lively little grandson thriving and growing close to home.

Well I can’t say that my life has turned out much like my parents, but as I ponder the need for reading glasses and wonder why I went to the next room I do take a bit of comfort in remembering my Dad sitting in his chair with his newspaper pushed out in front of him as far as his arms would go, claiming he had “short arm disease” and my Mom forgetting what she wrapped for Christmas until the last present was opened and she went hunting for the rest.

I guess it’s true what they say — life happens. But I want to always be an active participant in my life instead of a not-so-innocent bystander. So I do a little reflecting, count my many blessings and celebrate each birthday as it comes (for at least a good part of the month.) I tell you, I can milk a birthday for all it’s worth, but that is a completely different post. . .

10 Reasons Women Shouldn’t Play Fantasy Football

10 Reasons Women Shouldn’t Play Fantasy Football

footballWell, regular season football officially began last night and while my fantasy team is still waiting to get out of the gates, I’m super stoked that the season is finally underway. We hosted the Labor Day draft party again this year and I’m playing commissioner to our league for the second season straight. Since I was runner-up last year, I picked ninth out of a ten-team league but came up with a roster I think is strong in some spots and disappointing in others (Ya, who didn’t, right?).

Sometimes when I fess to my fellow moms that I run a league with my husband and have my own fantasy football team, they are completely shocked or perplexed. I’ll admit that I only played a couple of years of flag-style intramurals of the sport, I don’t know all the ends and outs of the game, I don’t know what it’s like to get mashed by a 300 pound linebacker and can’t call out a coming play just by the formation of an offense; but I love a little competition and managing a winning fantasy team is just plain fun. It’s kind of like being an evil genius moving life-sized pawns around a huge football-shaped chess board. Now if my players would just perform the way I want each week, I’d be happy and my pockets would be full. . . but I guess that’s where the “fantasy” part enters the picture.

In the several years I’ve been playing this game, with mostly men, I have noticed that there are some real differences in the way the genders seem to pick and manage teams. Our reasons for choosing players are different, our free-agent practices differ a little and emotional choices can play a big factor in who starts and who rides the bench each week.  So as a tribute to all you fabulous female fantasy owners out there, here is a tongue-and-cheek list for everyone to consider before jumping into the game.

10 Reasons Women Shouldn’t Play Fantasy Football (But We Do Anyway)

  1. Draft day doesn’t happen without cute little fingers foods, decorated cupcakes, matching plates and napkins and the latest hand-crafted football banner project found on Pinterest.
  2. Bio pictures weigh too heavily into our draft choices –” Oh, doesn’t he look nice. Great Smile. Wow, what a cutie!” Yes, they have all been heard (and said, by me).
  3. We get too attached to our previous teams and have to go through a 12-step grieving process when someone else drafts them.
  4. We spend too much time begging to wash, cut and style that scraggly mess hanging out of certain helmets. (You know who you are.)
  5. We get all “Momma Bear” when someone tackles our players too hard.
  6. All that football watching food really packs on the pounds.
  7. We’re prone to start a player just because we feel sorry for him — “Oh, you missed the game-winning field goal last week? You poor thing; I’ll give you another chance.”
  8. Two words — “Uniform choices.”
  9. We routinely wonder, “Oh, you pulled a hammy? It’s not like you just gave birth — now get back in there and play, you big baby.”
  10. There’s nobody left to make sure the kids eat, bathe and go to bed on Monday nights.

 

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