Are you ready?

Growing up the only team sport I watched on TV was football. When I think of watching football, I sometimes start singing Hank Williams's song "Are you ready for some football?". Well hopefully we are ready because our family's first foray into flag football started last night. The only downside to Tuesday night flag football practice is that I can't go to Bible study. However considering Paul left for work at 2AM yesterday and got home at 9PM, I wouldn't have been able to attend Bible study last night even if they didn't have flag football practice. Yesterday the boys and I were in the car for almost 4 hours altogether. Although Nadia is enjoying this theatre camp, I highly doubt I'll ever sign her up for it again because it's just too much driving (and costs too much when you factor in the cost of gasoline). The gas was a lot cheaper in Virginia last weekend; we are paying a little over $2.50 per gallon and in Virginia we paid a little less than $2.00 per gallon.

The boys and I were in the van from 8:15-9:45 and then again from 3:00-3:45 and then from 4:00-4:45. We got some pizza on our way to flag football. I dropped Nadia off and then drove the boys to Toys R Us as my sister had given them each a $25 gift card to Toys R Us because she hadn't given us any birthday or Christmas gifts over the past year. Ian picked (no surprise  here) a Star Wars Lego set. Oliver picked a Nexo Knight clock (I truly had zero idea what he would pick). Then I took the boys to their flag football practice and drove Nadia to Toys R Us. She picked out something for herself and also picked out a gift for Claire as she's planning to attend the 2nd half of Claire's birthday party on Saturday. I paid for Claire's gift. She used $1 of her money to cover the tax on the Elena of Avalor toy that she picked for herself. She took the longest to select what she wanted. We explored almost the whole store before she made up her mind. Then I drove back to pick up the boys, and we all finally went home (another 30 minute drive). The boys' team is called the Panthers, and there are only boys on it (K-2). Nadia's team is called the Chargers, and she's the only girl on the team (3rd-5th). Hopefully they'll have a great season!

Today is Wednesday, and that means we are half-way done with Nadia's theater camp. I keep reminding myself of that because I'd like to throw in the towel. It doesn't help that I have a cold and pink eye at the moment. Paul also has a cold, and somehow he is managing to work crazy long hours on a tiny amount of sleep. On Saturday she'll only be there from 9:30-1:45 so we won't make two round trips that day. I have yet to figure out what the boys and I will do to entertain ourselves during those four hours. We could watch her second and third performances, but that would mean buying six more tickets to the show. In light of my exhaustion, I decided last night not to sign her up for the 90 minute theater class on Mondays that I was considering, even though those classes would only be 25 minutes from our house. If she were an only child, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but it gets trickier when you have more than one child and they're not all participating in the same activity.

We're also gearing up for the NFL season. I called the cable company to schedule them to reconnect our cable in September. The good news is that they have a new feature (that doesn't cost any extra) which means we can watch tv on a tablet or other device. The reason this is good news is that sometimes the Giants and Steelers both have games being aired at the same time, and we only have one tv. This means one of us can use the tv and the other can use the iPad. The bad news is that they drastically increased the cost for connecting or disconnecting the tv. There used to be NO charge for disconnecting it. This time around it will cost us over $50 to connect the tv and the same fee to disconnect it in December or January (depending on how our teams do this season). But even though we'll spend over $100 to connect and disconnect, we still save money by not having cable for 7-8 months of the year.

I'm also starting to get ready for the two new classes even though I haven't been officially offered the job yet (which is a bit unnerving). The textbooks for one class arrived on my doorstep today. Thank you SO much, Pearson! I am starting to formulate my lesson plans for my first week of classes even though I have yet to see a syllabus or anything like that. My main focus next week (aside from our trip to Dutch Wonderland on Monday) will be preparing these classes and also hopefully obtaining things like a parking permit, a contract, a key for the computer in the classroom I'll be in, etc. Two different neighbors are going to help me with the four days the babysitter won't be able to help us out. Each one is going to do two days. That is a relief to know I have the childcare arrangements taken care of.

I also did Oliver's birthday interview today - only 9 days late (not bad!). It wasn't the best interview as he was in a rather silly mood and didn't answer some of the questions, but still it gives a little glimpse into his likes and dislikes at this stage of his life!