The River Dogs win, The River Dogs win!!!

My youngest son’s Rookie league Baseball team made it to the Kinnelon Recreation league championships. After several games had to be moved due to the rainy season here that we are experiencing, it was finally the day of the championship. The uniforms are all washed, the matching pair for the lucky socks hunted down and the cleats donned. Entire families complete with proud grandparents are all assembled at the field. Thankfully the rain decides to take a break and give us a few good hours of dry weather to squeeze in the rain.
The 2 teams playing in the championship today are the River Dogs and the Mud Cats. My DH joked that it was raining Cats and Dogs.

Usually when the rookie teams play there are no umpires, the coaches just kind of agree on the call. On this final championship game, 5 minutes prior to the game I see “Blue” walking towards the field and it reinforces that this game means serious business. You can feel the excitement in the air.

Both teams are hitting well, fielding well and making plays like never before. All the effort they have put in over the 8 weeks of practices and games is paying off. Cameras are clicking and everyone is cheering. The score goes back and forth until 6 innings are played and the final outcome is the River Dogs are the Kinnelon Rec Baseball Rookie champions for 2009

After the game there was a nice awards presentation ceremony out on the field and the kids were received their trophies and celebrated their great baseball season. The River Dogs coach graciously invited the team for a post game pool party complete with hot dogs and chips.

It was such a pleasure to see these first and second grade kids progress and learn so much more as the weeks went on. Not only were they learning baseball, the kids pick up so many valuable life lessons on how to interact with other players, how to deal with losses and strike outs and how to be gracious winners.
Thanks to the volunteer parent coaches who take timeout from their busy schedules to help teach the kids the skills of baseball and help them gain invaluable life lessons. Our town has really made a great effort this year in making the baseball season a truly well organized and well run baseball program. I am looking forward to bringing the boys back next year for another fun filled season.

Tags by Technorati: Kinnelon Rec,Rookie League Baseball

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

Five Word Fridays

Last Day of School Today !

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

I am

I am – half way thru painting my guest room a soft shade of sky blue.

I am - looking outside my window – and I see partly sunny skies and some sun shinning.

I am thinking – its nice to the Sun finally. Is the monsoon over ?

I am wearing - a pink top and Trina Turk pink and brown flower pants as I going to attend my nephews graduation from High school.

I am hoping – my son has a great time at his baseball championship game tonight.

I am listening to – Don't Stop The Music by Rihanna

Tags by Technorati: Trina Turk,Rihanna

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

How to talk to your kids about sex.

Here is what can happen if you use too many big words and vague descriptions when talking to your kids about sex. LOL

If you have a tween or a pre-teen you know you need to have “THE TALK”. I wont get into a debate of when is too early or too late to have the talk. Suffice to say at some point you will need to do it. Gone are the days of when your parents either had an awkward or worse no conversation with you that basically explained nothing. In the end you gathered all your misinformation in whispers from your friends. Since mine are all boys I don’t have to deal with all the complexities of talking to girls. Also much of the burden of the “Birds and the Bees” conversation was thankfully carried by Dad in our case, however I did not want it to be a “Ask your Dad” exclusively relationship between myself and my boys.

So I gathered myself and went into the bookstore ready to research “THE BOOK” for my son I was pretty shocked at the level of information and detail there was in these books. Granted here are some tame versions out there, some of which are no clearer than the stork explanation and one that had a little cartoon on the bottom of the chapter on Masturbation that said the words “Yippee”. Check out Amazon at the link below and search for “puberty books for boys” and you will be able to browse inside some of them and see what works best for you.

I was conflicted on how much information should the book have and which one made the most sense. It is not an easy choice there’s a lot of books out there. The one I eventually settled on was SCARY at first in that it has a lot of information and pictures in there, not to mention the “Yippee” cartoon. It took me 3 months or so before I could bring myself to hand it over to my son. This was partly because I was reading and absorbing it myself and partly because I was not ready to discuss the information with him. There was a whole lot of information that I am embarrassed to admit that was NEW to me.

When I did eventually have to hand the book over to him, I said a little prayer under my breath as I passed it along to my son and hope that he uses the information in it to help him along his path of life. My baby boys are growing up and some day I am going to have to see them as the Men they will become. As a mom that’s a hard transition because the way I see it the information transfer signals an end to the “innocent child” phase that my boy was so far living in. At the same time I am also glad that he has the tools he needs to arm himself with what will be coming his way and hopefully he is more prepared than I was at his age.

I know first hand that its not an easy conversation to start but with the help of PICTURE books it makes it a lot easier to get the information exchange started. I am glad I took the plunge and survived .One down, two to go!!

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

Five Word Fridays

Corduroy pillows are making headlines.

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

Quote this

- TO PLANT A GARDEN IS TO BELIEVE IN TOMORROW.

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

I am

I am – in love with my Hubby.

I am thinking – about doing some gardening and cleaning up the landscape around me.

I am wearing - work out clothes as I am headed to yoga.

I am looking outside my window – and I see partly sunny skies with a glimmer of sunshine.

I am cooking – a fillet of Salmon and pasta with shrimp and veggies for dinner.

I am listening to – Don’t let the Sun go Down on Me by Elton John & George Michael.

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

Car control clinic

My DH loves racing and in fact he’s into cars in general. I on the other hand see them as a means of getting from point A to point B. Several times he has tried to get me enthused about the idea of riding with him when he races. I was a passenger once on the track with him at the Pocono raceway and it was fast and scary. First of all you need a helmet that’s where my brain elevates the danger level.
Anyway one of my girlfriends finally took the plunge and has her Porsche and so I figured it might be a nice way to spend her birthday afternoon at hubby’s Porsche club NNJR car control clinic at the Englishtown Raceway Park. So I signed her up and my DH convinced me to try it out as well.
Well beautiful sunny day day, top down in my mini and everything was great until I got there and then, PANIC.
What am I doing here!!!!!
I am in over my head I drive like a crazy woman anyway and now I am supposed to do that on purpose!!
A complicated setup of cones to maneuver around, a sea of fast driving, gear shifting Porsche’s and little me in my little automatic mini that barely can make it uphill in the U turn by my street.
I wanted to run or more appropriately drive like hell out of there LOL.
Once more another dose of boosting and calming by DH and I decided to stick around and give it go, considering I drove 70 miles from home to be there it was not that tough a choice.

On the menu today was

A) Skid pad
B) Panic braking
C) Slalom

Appetizer was the skid pad :

Picture 50 cones in giant circle and the object is to drive around the outside of the circle as fast as you possibly can until the car almost spins out on control so you can learn how to regain control. Can anyone say Dizzy! Every instructor who hopped into my car (Oh did I mention at each lap a different instructor jumped into the passenger seat to guide you, DH being one of them) kept repeating step on the gas, step on the gas, but brain would not allow it. Lord knows I have a lead foot and yet for some reason my brain did not allow me to go past 30 mph in the spin cycle. So never really skid out of control and never need to regain it so I guess from an instructional point of view it was a bust from a sanity point of view score one for me.

Next the main course the Panic Breaking :

This was a blast. Picture a large U shaped set up with cones where you drove until the last second and the slammed the brakes just inches shy of the wall of cones at the end. Think Bambi and how if she darts into the road you don’t want to be the reason her mom did not make it home that night. If the ABS does not kick in you are not doing it right. It was a great way to learn about how to react when the ABS do kick-in in real life.

Now onto Desert Slalom :

If you are like me this is the first time I had even heard the word. Here is the definition from Wikipedia for Slalom in case you need to know more.
A long straight line of alternating yellow and orange cones designed to give a feel for real life scenario of having to change and maneuver around obstacles in the road.
Here comes the roller coaster, left then right, then left then right all the while with your foot on the gas. It was a success in that I did not knock down any cones. Yeah! Am I winning a prize?

Happy birthday to my girlfriend B and from the smiles on her face she will probably be back for seconds.

As for me, I survived the twists and turns without throwing up (that part came later and is a story for another day. It was fun and educational but not really something I feel the urge to do more than one sunny Sunday in summer. I enjoy that my Hubby is passionate about cars and that brings him happiness. You won’t be seeing me behind the wheel on the track in the Pocono’s any time soon but you will see me in the stands cheering on as my DH does a few fast laps and smiles.

P.S. Best tip of the day from one of my instructors Howard: Hold hands at the wheel at 9 and 3 at all times, so you always know where the wheels are pointing and it keeps your arms out of the way of the airbag.

Tags by Technorati: NNJR-PCA,Car Control Clinic,Englishtown Raceway Park,Pocono Raceway,Porsche

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

I am

I am – Happy.

I am thinking – that I am actually making progress on my 52 goals for the year.

I am wearing - work out clothes as I am headed to the gym.

I am looking outside my window – and I see rain and cloudy skies and puddles of water.

I am listening to – No Air by Jordan Sparks and Bennie and the Jets by Elton John.

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

Five Word Fridays

Girls Night Out Tonight , Yipee !!!!!

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

Kinnelon deals with the spread of H1N1 swine flu.

In Kinnelon NJ where I live the H1N1 flu has been spreading for a few weeks now and shows no sign of wearing out. I have kids in 3 schools here and so far it seemed that one school was affected the most. Now it seems that the community as whole is experiencing it rather than isolated to a single school.

I just saw this article at CNN "WHO to declare Swine Flu a PANDEMIC" and as a parent I am quite concerned. The official policy in Morris county where I live is that there is no more testing going to on to confirm any new cases. So even though the virus keeps spreading there are no new numbers added to the count. The reality is that I am surrounded by families who have kids who are experiencing flu like fever and symptoms and it is spreading fast and furious, even though the official reported numbers do not reflect that.

I am conflicted by the word Pandemic and lack of serious attention towards preventing its spread. Perhaps if it is declared a Pandemic more effort will be put towards preventing its spread. Also the big fear in my mind is its potential for a return in a mutated form in Sept. Is it helpful in that case for Kinnelon / Smoke Rise to have dealt with this supposed milder form of the flu virus so that our bodies may be better prepared to deal with its more powerful relative in the future? Nature has a strange way of working itself out that we don’t always understand. In the meanwhile there are about 2 more weeks of school and I still have to get the kids dressed and out the door to deal with what ever comes their way. Too bad there is no cocoon I can wrap them in and keep them from all they have to deal with.

At the rate it is spreading and the distances it has reached since it began in Mexico so many months ago, there does not seem to be an end in sight in the near future. I hope that we have made enough progress in the medical field so as to be able to prevent catastrophic damage that previous pandemics have caused. We just have to keep doing the basics, washing your hands, taking your vitamins etc and hope that the authorities working on this huge task can work out a way of keeping us all safe and healthy.

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

Conquering all that Clutter.

Q . Do you feel overwhelmed by clutter in your home?

Q. Does it feel like you can never move from your house because you have collected too much stuff over the years?

Q. Did you watch TLC’s Clean sweep and think “Boy do I need that”!?

I was always amazed at the ability of people who were able to get rid of excess things in their life. I have a difficult time throwing anything away. Everything had some value, sentimental, monetary or otherwise. End result is that I accumulated too much “STUFF”. It got to a point where it was a burden and a strain on day to day life and truly began to take a toll on me. I just felt overwhelmed and bogged down with all that weight and burden all the time.

Q. Are you ready to rid yourself of the clutter?

Eventually after having watched endless Clean sweeps and Peter Walsh on Oprah with his de-cluttering crew I had enough. Peter Walsh was not going to show up on my doorstep magically and de-clutter my stuff. It was hard to see all the people cry at the things they were clinging too and really made me take a good hard look at why I had a hard time letting things go. I could see myself in their shoes and I knew it was going to be a difficult process.
If you search the web there are 10,000 tips on how to de clutter and how to stay de-cluttered. I have read many articles, have all the info I need on how to do it and still it’s a difficult process. Here are some of the reasons my mind used to hang on to the things:

I paid XXX dollars for this
Some one can use it.
Some day I might need it & then I will have to go get a new one
I remember when “INSERT KID NAME” made this.
I can sell this for XX dollars.
Its important we cant just throw it in the trash.
There is way too much trash on this planet and now I am adding to it.
I like it, its nice/pretty/”insert adjective”.

Q. Is it really possible to de-clutter and stay that way?

YES !

Finally at some point it just sunk in that it was not about the stuff. I really had to stop focusing on the stuff and focus on the Why?
I had to stop allowing my mind to make the excuses and focus on what I really wanted in my life.
Once I started working on the why the letting go came easier. I am not all the way there, but I am leaps and bounds from where I started about 6 months ago. By the end of the year I hope to be living a clutter free lifestyle for good.

I am not going to list all the tips and ways to help you de-clutter, god knows there is plenty of info out there. I just want you to know that can be done. Work on the “Why” and then all the info on “How To” will be useful. If you just jump in there and start using the How you may end up right back where you started. Start slow, pick a small area, make some progress and don’t let clutter enter there. Once you have mastered that area keep expanding your clutter free zone and before you know it you are feeling in control.
Don’t let the amount of de-cluttering overwhelm you. If you need any motivation email me and I will be happy to get you kick started on your de-cluttering journey.

Here’s to conquering all that clutter and enjoying a clutter & stress free living.

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

I am

I am thinking – about painting my guest room a light shade of blue.

I am wearing - a swimsuit and a big floppy hat to keep off the sun.

I am cooking – lamb steaks and vegetable Skewers at the beach on the BBQ.

I am looking outside my window – and I see sunshine and flowers.

I am listening to - Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis .

Flower car lady - Have a happy and colorful day

Five Word Fridays

Swine-Flu reached our school, Yikes !

Flower Car Lady - Have a happy and colorful day :)

Are you Happy?

What would be your response to that question if some one asked you that this moment?

I am learning that happiness is not a constant state of being but rather a temporary state of mind that we are constantly trying to achieve.
Makes me think of what my FIL keeps talking to me about vitamin C. Vitamin C is easily and quickly absorbed by the body and so in order for it to remain in your system its better to take several low doses of it rather than one mega dose for the day. My FIL takes 3 forms of vitamin C through out the day one a quick acting and absorbing high dose , the second a slow release quick absorbing low dose and the third a late release slow absorbing form so that it remains in his system for the entire day.
So it seems to me in order to sustain happiness for any length of time inside our body it needs to follow the same model. As opposed to one large dose of happy you need to scatter your day with a constant drip of activities and events that supply “happiness” to your mind body and soul in different forms.

So far my happy dose today consisted of

1) Working out at the Gym – slow release, slow absorbing type
2) Eating wonderful Indian food for lunch – quick release, quick absorbing type

On days that I get the full required dose my answer to the question would be YES. Today however according to my Happy-O-meter as of this moment I am a little low on Vitamin- Happy so I am off to find a new dose.

Have you taken your happy dose today? While you are at it don't forget to take some Vitamin-C too:)

Flower Car Lady - Have a happy and colorful day :)

Quote This!

Here are a few insiping and thought provoking Quotes from the Dalai Lama. you can check out his official website if you interetsed in reading more of his messages for mankind.

-I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness.

-My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

-There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.

-I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed.

-Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day

-Don´t try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist; use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are.

Flower Car Lady - Have a happy and colorful day :)

I am

I am thinking – of all the chores I have to do today


I am reading – just finished “The Appeal”
by John Grisham and Thumbs down. I am usually a fan but this one is a let down.


I am wearing - work out clothes as I am trying to convince myself to go to the gym.


I am cooking – Mexican beef burritos for dinner


I am looking outside my window – and I see sunshine and lots of green trees.


I am listening to - Big girls don’t cry by Fergie and Love story by Taylor Swift




Flower Car Lady - Have a happy and colorful day :)