Yo Mama

Monday, September 8, 2008

The Cruze's Very Special Olympics

The Summer 2008 Cruze Family Olympics were held in Knoxville, Tennessee at the exciting Cruze Compound. Though many locations lobbied for the privilege of such a prestigious event, the grand matriarch and patriarch (Shane and Kay) prevailed. At this lovely venue world-class, er, I mean, family-class athletes competed in the following challenging areas:

Tug of War

Girls

Vs. Boys

(They never had a chance.)

As you can guess from the trash talking face here, the girls won. Repeatedly.

Triathlon

I can't even pretend that we did anything remotely close to a real triathlon. Competing in teams of three, we ran about .10 of a mile, biked about 1/2 mile, and shot 10 hoops.

Don't underestimate this guy. He whooped up on all of us with his bike.

Conan claimed that these shoes, actually designed to wear in ping pong tournaments, gave him the extra edge he needed to win the running leg of the race. Uh-huh, right.

Here are the twin runners still gloating in their victories hours later.

Wyatt with the hoops champ. Dude took us to school. That's why we call him the bus driver.

100 meter (or however long the field is) Dash
Run, Emma, Run!!!

Eldon posing beside Mandy, who is Emma's Slovakian running coach. You can tell from her face that this is a serious matter.

Water Fight
Go see Calico for better pics. Calvin just wanted to drink the water, but hey, it was a little hot outside.

Guitar Hero

No real winner here, unless you count having fun and then we were all winners.

Photography

Just kidding. We didn't really compete in this area, but Cally certainly looks like she is, eh?

Sunday, September 7, 2008

We Shafers Can't Do Without . .

Eating Popsicles on our porch. We usually eat the cheapie ones from the grocery store. However, for the first time ever, I got the boys some treats from the ice cream man. Mostly I haven't because the ice cream guy in our old neighborhood was a little sketchy. Okay, the WHOLE neighborhood was sketchy, but we indulged this week because this truck seemed a little cleaner. I'm not exactly sure how you rate the cleanliness of the ice cream man, but I think that should be addressed. I'm thinking a scale of 1 to 10 based on the following attributes:

1. condition of the truck (i.e. no rust, no crazy engine noises, no chipping paint)

2. friendliness of the ice cream man (nice, but not creepy nice, smiley, but with most teeth, etc.)

3. loudness and quality of music (no run down, dragging lackluster melodies)

4. availability of your favorite flavor (don't give me vanilla on a chocolate day. seriously.)

Enough of the lecture, enjoy the photo share as much as we enjoyed our treats.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Bye Summer. We'll Miss You!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

High School Friends & Their Blogs

First Day of Preschool

Shalom. That's how we say hello at Calvin's new preschool. He just had his first day at the Jewish Community Center. Despite his shyness, I think he is enjoying himself. Noah and I both went to drop him off for his first day. Like his Dad, he was a boy of few words. When I picked him up, he said,
"I think I went to preschool or sunthing (something)."

Me: "Did you make any friends?"

Calvin: "I don't know."

Too cute.

In honor of starting his journey into learning, I will share some things I have learned about him. Calvin is very smart. He studies things out and defines how he feels about them clearly. He loves very deeply and because he does, he doesn't love just anyone. You've got to work for his affection. He loves to play with my hair. He loves trains. He doesn't like to lose. He always wants to win. If I can't get him to do what I ask, I just challenge him to a race, talk a little sass, and then he jumps right in to beat me. Calvin is determined, energetic, and happy. When he plays he likes to organize and classify objects, putting alike things together in a straight line. Along those same lines, he likes to see a project from start to finish. If he feels like his plan is becoming disrupted for whatever reason, he gets upset (Wyatt has really thrown in a wrench into a few of his projects). Calvin likes to sing and humm. Sometimes in the car I like to listen to instead of the radio. One of the things I love most about Calvin is just how much he is like Noah. I have learned a lot about Noah from watching Calvin and vice versa. Calvin is a blessing to our family, and I love him so much.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Postcard from Tennessee

Dear Readers (of which I am sure there are about a ba-ga-zillion-million of you),

I wish that I could show you some pictures from my trip here, but I can't upload my pics on this computer. I barely know how to transfer them to my computer at home and doing so on a foreign pc would require knowledge that is far beyond my understanding. For now you will have to make due with this random picture I found on my parent's desktop. It appears to be some girl who is IN LOVE with the disc she just burned. She'll do for now. She'll do.

Because most of my readers are here and aware of what I am doing, I won't go into a lot of detail, but I will give you a list of what I have been enjoying and/or doing:

1. Laughing - a lot. For example, I couldn't help but laugh when Cally played Guitar Hero as if she had, in fact, been rocking for years, Eldon recited an early 90's Clearasil zit commercial (the same one that made me laugh in the early 90s), and my Mom used an 18 month old grandchild as a human shield.

2. Running - the 3 mile loop around my parent's house. It's a doozie. The first day, up the big hill, I really thought I might die.

3. Riding a horse for the first time (see pics later) - and with a great Equestrian teacher, none the less. I never knew that my friend, Emile, was so accomplished. Go ahead. Google her. You'll be impressed. Okay, don't google her because I don't know if she wants her name googled, but you can take my word for it.

4. Seeing my Mom ride a horse - She rode like a pro! She made that horse gallop! Yowza! You think you know someone . . . .

5. Seeing my sister-in-law ride a horse - Another undercover shock! She acted like it was no big deal.

6. Watching my kids have the best time ever. There's no way they are going to want to come home after this trip. Just today they squeezed out 2 trains, 1 movie, and a Lightening McQueen from their Grandparents. I won't recite the other list of treasures heaped at their little feet. But the toys are nothing compared to the fun they have been having just running around and enjoying the outdoors. At the end of the day their feet and bodies are so dirty, and they are exhausted. I love it!

7. Participating in The Olympics (pics to follow), if you want to call it that. Basically the Cruzes got together and goofed off in family coordinated colors. I will have to say that we all had a good time. We ran, rode bikes, shot hoops, and had a water fight. One day I beat those blasted twins at something.

8. Watching The Hills - Hey, I like it. I'm always interested to see who Lauren is going to chew out, or if Audrina and Lo will EVER be friends.

9. Refinishing a piece of furniture (an antique from Noah's Grandma) - I enjoy working on furniture, though I'm not very good at it. It's nice to have some practice and space to actually do it. The Shafer's garage is roomy enough for lots of wood projects.

10. Relaxing - Ahhhhh. Days full of kicking back while my boys play with their cousins, and I eat Oreo Cakesters. Yum.