Opposing Messages

As I was Christmas shopping yesterday in Target, I came across this display in the men's department. The top row is full of  decorative beer glasses. Then there's the next row: cartoon merchandise. 

In the men's department. 

Apparently, for men who, also, drink beer. 

Why?

If you are old enough to drink beer, then put away the cartoon characters.  Be a man. Not a child. 

THAT Mom....

In my circle of friends, we sort of look down on people who go to Wal-Mart in there pajamas.....after all the are meant for the bedroom not the public.  But today I came pretty close to being one of those people.

It all started out innocent enough. Melissa wanted me to drive her to the bus stop as it was raining.  No problem.  I have done this many times.  There is no need for the kids to stand in the rain when they can stay dry in my van.

So, I just grabbed my keys and jumped in the van in my pajamas  - even without my shoes.  The boys had already walked to the bus stopped, but were glad to jump in the van as well as one of their frineds.

Then we waited for the bus.  And waited. And waited.

After awhile, we decided it would be best for me to drive the kids to school, so they would not be late.  We had to drive back home to get my purse - I refuse to drive without my license.

So, there I was....driving the kids to school...in my pajamas....with only my socks and no make-up.

Of course, as I was dropping off the kids I saw several teachers I work with....while I was in my pajamas...no shoes and no socks.  Lovely.

Update

Yesterday I posted about the three teenage boys baking in my kitchen while I sitting in a (boring) church business meeting (I really came to church for the study on Samuel - which is NOT boring!).  When I pulled into my driveway after church, my front door was wide open. 

Not a good sign. 

As I walked into the house, I could smell burnt brownies. Yea...as I suspected, they used a pan that was too small and the brownies spilled over onto the bottom of the oven. Drew was scrubbing the oven while the three teen boys were looking at the brownies trying to decide what happened. 

And the brownies were very greasy - way too much butter (a whole pound!!). I kept asking if they did the math right, but of course, thet claimed they did. 

After about thirty minutes of hemming-and-hawing they finally tasted their product. Not the best....sadly. 

Then they had to finish filming and editing  the video that was required. 

The last boy out of my house left about 9:15. They arrived before 3:30. 

Almost six hours for bad brownies. 

Hopefully, the rest of the grade they get will be better than the taste of the brownies. 

A Learning Curve

When I arrived home from work today, William had a few friends over to work on a school project. They worked on it some Monday, but did not finish. For the project they had to work out math problems to figure out how much of certain ingredients used to make brownies. 

Or at least, I think that's the basic ideas of the project.

Watching three seventeen year boys bake was....interesting.  They really were not prepared....as in they didn't have all the ingredients. There was at least one boy making a trip to his house to raid his mom's pantry. (It would have been so much easier if William had let me know what he needed as I was at the commissary earlier this week.....but they are seventeen and NOT bakers! Or planners!!) 

It was so hard for me not to take over!! I did give a few helpful hints...then left the room. William like all teenagers are a little sensitive to mom being around at times. 

They definetly were taking the long way to bake....like it seem to take them almost an hour to melt the butter and chocolate over the double boiler. (Would have been faster if they had defrosted  that frozen butter in the microwave a bit....but no.) 

As I said I came home at 3:40 and they were gathering the items. I left at 6 for church and they were just putting the brownies in the oven.  

Oh, my. 

Hope they taste good!! 

Another Soccer Game....

No pictures this time. Tonight was the first offical game of he year, but this was not a district game. We tied 1-1. Our goal was beautiful. Their's? A pentality kick that shouldn't have been. 

Oh, well. It's was a good game - even in the very nearly freezing temperatures. 

A Lazy Saturday

After having to get up the early for most of the past few months on Saturdays or just having someplace to be (mainly the soccer field!), today we had nothing planned. So very nice.  All but William slept in late...he had to get up before seven to ref some soccer games.  This was the last day for that, though.

As I was being lazy and just reading in my chair, a friend text saying she was going to Sam's Club and wanted to know if I wanted to go. I had told her a earlier in the week that I would like to tag along on her next trip there.  While we now have a Sam's Club close to us, we have not bought a membership.  And after today I think we still won't....just don't think we'll save money there since we have access to the base's commissary.  But I did buy a few things today that I thought were a good deal....some lotion, chips for the kids' lunches....sugar and salt were a good price.... But not enough deals to want to fork over the money for a membership.

We spent the rest of the day trying to stay warm....reading, watching some football.... Drew was able to plant some azalea bushes and got some other chores done around the house. I made roasted acorn squash curry soup - oh, so good!! (Also, made hamburgers because I know my kids did NOT want that soup!!)

I'm trying to get the kids to write out some things they want for Christmas. Melissa, of course, has a list of things that she would like. The boys?  They have no clue. As usual. Boys are so hard to buy for!!

And So It Begins...

Winter has arrived in the Deep South....just in time for the high school soccer season begins. Tonight was our second scrimmage - we have won both! William played more on Monday night including a beautiful goal. Tonight he only played about a third of the game. I think the coach was trying to see how others played. Tomorrow he announces whom will be on varsity and those on junior varsity. As a senior who has played varsity even as a freshman, we are expecting William to be on varsity again. 

The Back Patio

Expanding our back patio has been a saga. Of course, that seems to be the story of our life. After trying to work with six or seven contractors, we found one that could do the work in our budget. We have been very happy with him! 

It's not done totally done. The contractor needs to fix one light (there's small lights under the flagstone top) and swap out that ugly gas line for one that won't stand out. Also, we will add some nice azealia bushes along the back. We've ordered a nice patio table as well, but soon we'll be able to enjoy eating meals outside (well...when the temperature goes back up!) and roasting s'mores over the fire pit.