The Schmidt House

We have made an executive decision in the Schmidt House. Little man cannot watch any more NHL hockey. Why? Well for starters one word - Boogaard. Because he has become a little hockey goon taking all kinds of cheap, sneaky shots at his opponents. Near as we can tell it may stem from a little cheering session dad and son had on Friday evening during a full on brawl during the Wild game. JG was cheering, "Fight, fight, fight." No good. During Saturday's game, JG hooked a kid and laid on "Jacob" until the coach pulled him off. Jacob had knocked JG down earlier and little man obviously made note of #5 and retaliated. Jacob's mother and one of JG's friends mom were sitting behind me complaining quite loudly, "That kid is being mean to Jacob, can't someone get him off my son????" I turned around and informed her, "That would be JG." They then were quiet. Nothing like calling out the elephant in the room. On Sunday it got even worse. JG

I have called my iPhone - My Precious (inspired by Golum aka Sméagol from Lord of the Rings). This evening I wanted to throw My Precious against the wall - oh technology. I went to the AT&T store to pick up a new case for Precious and pay my bill while I was there. I was already crabby by the time the slower than molasses, texting, chit-chatting with colleagues while I stood there waiting sales-girl got to me. "I'd like to pay my bill while I am here." "Um, o.k." she replied. Then brought up my account, "Your balance is $380.34" I almost choked, "My account isn't past due, how can that be my plan is $79.00/month?" "Um, let me see." It seriously took her over 5 minutes to maneuver through my account. "Well it looks like you had like a ton of charges for data transfers. Like over $250 worth." I went around the counter and looked at my account - Yep it was true. No good. Evidently when I went to Winnipeg I "accep

So I am 39 minutes into my first official day of working from home and I have read two emails, made breakfast, made kool -aid, cleaned up spilled yogurt, fed the dog, found batteries for dead Wii remote, fixed the Wii and was most recently asked if I would like to play Mario baseball... AE is still sleeping can't wait for her to get up and antagonize the pterodactyl - am anticipating I may be able to get through one email then. Thank God no one has called yet...

Nothing like a little Easter with snow, snow and more snow. The kids couldn't for the life of them figure out why we weren't going to do a little Easter egg hunt, so we did an indoor hunt at Dan's cousin's house. We had a nice time catching up with Dan's family, as always his Aunt Diane entertained withh crazy stories. We laughed about the time the family went out of town and left their parakeet in the hands of great-grandma Showalter . Guess she felt bad for the bird and let it fly around the house for a little exercise - the bird got tired, fell into the toilet and died. Wonder if that was the real story? In the words of Michael Scott, Dunder Mifflin Scranton, "That's what she said."

I feel kinda bad cause I am actually looking forward to going back to work on Monday. I had yesterday off and hung out with two screaming, fighting, hair pulling, hitting with hockey sticks, pterodactyl sounding, mom-yelling, dog chasing under a table, listening ears gone deaf, not wanting to eat anything in the entire cupboard, sitting in the wrong seat to antagonize sibling, locking out of the bathroom, sibling insulting angels we call our children. After a couple glasses of wine (at 4 p.m. - just kidding) and a hot bath - it didn't seem so bad - until we got up this morning and started all over again. It is going to be a long Spring Break week.

Our niece ZP is on a competitive cheerleading team, or maybe they call it a squad. Anywho, the girls have had a really good year and made it to Nationals in Orlando this past weekend. So, I called my sister to see how everything was going. When I spoke to her she sounded like she was in a train station or something (actually she was trying to get on a bus with 3,980 other cheerleading parents to get back to the hotel). I asked how it went and was told, "Not so good." Guess during the routine two of the girls were dropped and then during the finale the little girl on the top of the pyramid, or maybe it is a tower, got a little nervous and vomited on the rest of the girls on the bottom. On a positive note, it had to of been a memorable performance one that the folks will remember for years... "Hey, remember that time we were in Orlando and that girl from somewhere up North puked all over everyone????"

Maple Grove Mustangs got 2nd at the Girls' State Tourney this weekend. AE played awesome, had 46 points in 3 games. She had a blast with her bestest buddies KB and AP, we are so proud of them. The girls had a great time, now they get a long awaited break... did I mention the parents get a break too?

Don't know what part of having 11 girls over for a slumber party, starting a new job, hosting book club (oh, and finish book I must lead group in discussion), going to two basketball tournaments and hosting bunco all in 8 days or less seemed like a good idea... We are here surviving one day at a time. Will post more this week, so many little stories to tell. Quick little one. This evening the 10 year old told the almost 6 year old. "You're about as deep as a turkey sandwich." The almost 6 year old's retort? "I don't like turkey."

to call my own. Mine all mine. And You know what? I'm lonely. (kinda like a Postscript huh Karen?)