Thank God it's Friday

I haven't done a thankfulness post in a while, so here goes:

1) I'm very thankful my boss is gone until Monday, November 26. I hope to get quite a bit done, if the other boss doesn't decide to give me a major project.

2) I'm very thankful for our health. I'm thankful that so far any cold we've gotten hasn't been this bad.

3) I'm thankful Oceanus made the playoffs, even if it is inconvenient.

4) I'm thankful MIL and FIL decided to put off their visit for the holiday - from getting here today to getting her Wednesday (more time to clean which is desperately needed).

Gratitude Post!

1) It's Wednesday, I'm halfway through the week and it's a long weekend.

2) My kids made straight As for the last 9 weeks.

3) I'm almost done pulling johnsongrass (the last area to go is in amongst some oleander that needs to be removed before I can really get it) just in time, because my back is about to give out.

4) I've been able to pick up more mystery shops so I should meet my goal by June 15 (of course, I won't actually get the money until July).

5) Due to the arrival of some checks, we shouldn't have to dip into savings for this month's bills.

6) Hyperion's "ugly" tooth is about to fall out.

7) My mom and dad are going to be able to come visit us next week and take my boys back with them for their month on the farm (saves us a LOT of gas and gives us a chance to visit).

Good week

So, yesterday I got a surprise check in the mail. It was only $5, but it was $5 I hadn't expected to get. One of my survey sites does screening surveys. If your answers on the screening survey indicates that you fit the demographic the customer wants, then you get the longer survey which pays. But if your demographics don't match, you get entered into a drawing. I always just figured it was one of those things where no one ever wins. Surprise, surprise, I wound up having my name drawn.

Then, I signed up for a bzzcampaign (BzzAgent) and got a huge bottle of Eucerin lotion and 10 samples size tubes each with a coupon for $1 off a full size bottle. The samples are to give out when I talk about the product. And I also got a chance to sign up for coppertone sunscreen (which we use) and al fresco chicken sausages (this one is interesting, I hope I can find it locally).

I tried the Eucerin tonight. I put it on one leg, but not the other (no real reason, really, mainly because I was cooking and needed to go check on the food and then because I thought it would be interesting to see the difference in my skin). When I went out to garden, it seemed like the mosquitoes paid a lot less attention to the lotioned leg - at least at first. I don't know if it was a texture issue, a smell issue or maybe even just my imagination, but I plan to check it out further.

Gratitude Post

It's been a while since I did a gratitude post, so here goes.

I am grateful for:

1) Mr. Gaia who did paint the front of the house while I slept in. I love it. It's a bit lighter than I really wanted, but I still love it.

2) Hyperion who is turning into a great little helper. He helped scrub the house and paint.

3) Oceanus who knows how to have fun and rope everyone else in with him. He got us all involved in playing mini-soccer (I have no idea if that's an actual game, but we use a mini soccer ball and a very small goal).

4) Beautiful weather that has enabled us to paint and to use the clothesline almost exclusively (Mr. Gaia feels he has to use the dryer for his work clothes).

5) Strong arms and legs to pull out the weeds (not done and not even close, but you can see the difference).

New Purchase

After abusing my poor kitchenaid mixer by making 2 large loaves of whole wheat bread every other week, we finally splurged and bought the monster shown here. It's a KitchenAid Professional 600 series.

I haven't tried it out yet. I made bread yesterday, which, as Mr. Gaia pointed out, was a little sad, but Sunday really is my best bread making opportunity. Soccer practice is Monday and Tuesday nights, so they're out. By Wednesday, I'm too exhausted to even think about making bread, that carries over to Thursday and Friday. Saturday is for soccer games and naps. But we needed bread for this week.

I let Mr. Gaia pick out the color. I really didn't care. Our old one is white because that's what was available at Sam's (it came with attachments!). He liked the steel gray color, so that was fine with me.

I joked with him that what he really wanted was a commercial kitchen one - the floor stand model. Truth be told, that would actually be nice. I have enough pans to make several more loaves, but not the horsepower in a mixer or the upper arm strength.

Best Soccer Game EVER!!!

Oceanus' team played the "entitled team" yesterday.

I call them the entitled team because they think they have the right to take over a whole practice field (we're supposed to share) and to send their kids to run laps around and through other practice fields. The coach throws frequent tantrums and they require their kids to take private lessons and hire private coaches to come in. They have 3 different uniforms (most teams have just the one provided by the league).

There were only 4 players from our team there at 11:25 (game starts at 11:30) and the other coach started pushing to start the game. So they started a few minutes early. One of our players showed up at 11:29, after the game was started, but that's no big deal.

We only had 5 of 8 players show up total. The other team had all 8.

The final score? 4-2, our team won. I've never seen our team play so well. Oceanus played goalie most of the time because he's really good at it. The other players have a little bit of trouble getting the timing down to meet an incoming ball (but damn, turn them loose with a ball and can they score!). But the ball rarely even came to that end of the field. Our boys were stealing the ball, putting pressure on the other players, etc. And they played a clean game. No elbows, no shoulders, no tripping. We can't say the same for the other team.

Oh they hated losing. The league rules requiring equal time for all kids present? Totally ignored so that they could keep subbing in their best players.It was a marvelous win.

Poor Oceanus, though. He didn't enjoy the win very much. He heard the other team's coach tell the team that the ball always gets past Oceanus (not true, but he is the weaker member of that group of 5). I told him that when teams start losing they often start trash talk to try to psych out the other team and he did a good job of not letting it effect his performance.

Gratitude Wednesday

I haven't had a gratitude post in a while.

1) The TAKS scores. I know it's silly, but if we have to devote so much time to them, thank goodness they were good scores.

2) Clean laundry.

3) Having a husband who is good at cooking and cleaning.

4) Family who are willing to travel for hours and hours to come visit us and spend time with our kids.

5) A good soccer coach and good soccer families.

6) A husband who is willing to step up and help coach the team.

7) Healthy kids.

8) Good jobs