U2 Concert

In a word: AMAZING!

Truly the best concert I have ever been to.

11 things I learned at the U2 concert:

1. U2's music will stand on its own regardless of time and place.
2. 5 dollar Aquafina tastes the same as regular Aquafina.
3. Standing on your feet for over 5 hours will render your feet very painful.
4. You can text during the entire opening act and no one will care.
5. Women over 50 should not wear tube tops.
6. Texting to someone standing next to you really IS the best way to communicate!
7. Larry Mullen Jr. is not only a good muscian, but lets be honest, He's HOT
8. Bono will never go out of style.
9. I am old .
10. It takes about 2.5 days to get my hearing back.
11. Sweating out 5 lbs durin a concert...well worth the effort.

It was hot and loud and crowded and sweaty and tiring and amazing and incredible and I would do it again this weekend! I loved it.

Claire's First Birthday

Love Story

Snuggly time at the end of the day!

Pardon my lack of blogging.

Truth be told, I am still trying to settle into the school year. Zero-to Four-in-Five-Years tells me constantly that its okay that Im struggling with the demands of life right now...that ive never had a baby and an 11 year old and worked and that my carefully ordered world becomes chaotic often. Most days at the end of it, when the Girl is tucked in bed at 9, I crash either on the bed and read or on the sofa and watch television...no time or inclination to blog.

Im delighted to report though that I am finding the whole "work three days and not at home" sitaution to be very freeing. Last year when I worked one day and made up the other 12 hours at home I felt like I needed to work every day I was home in order to get my hours in. Now, I dont even turn on the computer (well, okay, i do) when I am on my days of not working. Very freeing. The Baby Girl and I are able to spend some good time together and we usually have therapy on those days too so that makes it good to be home as well so I can watch the therapist and learn from her directly.

The Girl is playing volleyball right now too and that takes a big chunk of time for our family. Not a that its a bad thing...quite the contrary, its a good thing, but just takes juggling, Games every Monday, sometimes two that night, puts us downtown at about 4 30 and returning home at 7 30 or 8 30. Practice the rest of the week is from 5 30 to 7 30, which means driving back up to OCS and then home again two more times during the day and often in traffic. Sadly our Jamie is on the fifth grade team so carpooling is out at least for this year. We miss her and her carpooling mom! I was amazed at how good the girls have gotten since this summer. Its quite amazing. Some of them have killer serves for girls their age and I LOVED watching the Girl hit the floor with total abandon to get a dig and popped that ball right back up! It was SWEET!

Today, we headed to Sea World in the morning. I love Sea World. Its such a family park with its exhibits and all. IT WAS SMOKING hot so we only stayed until about 12 30, but saw some great sea life. And of course took in my favorite show...BLUE HORIZONS. I cried. Always do.
Enjoy the pics.

Forget the cool dolphins, I want the MAP!

Blue Horizons

I love this girl so much!! Look at how hot it is, and humid, our hair is crazy!

Dolphin nursery

Petting a Sting Ray

Life is good when you are almost ONE!

My sweet girlies!

SWAGBUCKS!

Who knew you could get stuff for simply searching online?

Well you can with SWAGBUCKS.

Its a search engine that kicks back to you.

It utilizes Google and Ask but when you use this you earn points which are good for "stuff". Cool stuff too like AMAZON gift cards, various store gift cards, and even larger prizes like phones etc.

Go here and check it out: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/pattishivers

Its worth your while...I set mine as my default and get bucks every day. Try it for a few days and see what you get!

First Day of 6th Grade

First day of 6th grade!

New aqua green shirt....check

Matching headbanc...check

Blue Converse shoes...check

Shirt untucked as allowed in only 6th grade...check

Backpack ready...check

Scarf accessory...check

She didnt even blink an eye so ready was she!

Summer's end

The week prior to school beginning is truly one of grueling proportions for those in the arena of education. Its never as much fun as it seems. For me it comes at the end of a long summer and a longing for order, routine, and predictability. Unfortunately the week previous to school is no one of those. Between juggling kids and work and home its overwhelming to say the least and everything tends to have the tag of URGENT on it. It makes my head swim.

I was surmising why this has seemed so hard for me this year and Zero-to-Four-in-Four-Years reminded me that I did not work when the Girl was a baby and I did not have an 11 year old when I had the Girl, which is the situation now with the Baby Girl. Ahhhh...well, that makes sense!

I could use this space to be whiny but I believe I covered that earlier this summer so Im choosing to turn to more positive things! Like Baby's first swim. (actually second but it really couldn't qualify as a swim but more of a screaming fest) She went in with Eric this afternoon in her itsy bitsy teeny weenie bikini and actually didnt scream the entire time! Thanks to M. and her sweet gift of the Mr. Turtle float. The pictures say it all.