Row, Row, Row Your Boat

We all work for the same company. So why does it seem we are trying to row in opposite directions? The saga of TV vs INET continues...

Sunday is Football and Family Day

I can not believe that I haven't written about game day since I started my blog. We are Vikings fans--100% (okay, I can not attest what team(s) Carl and Clair follow, but they don't live in Minnesota anyway). I don't know if we would allow a marriage in our family to a Packers fan--it would be just too incompatible and downright ugly on those two match-ups each season. It would be worse than a Catholic marrying a Lutheran--uff da (truly this is a joke--my Dad was Lutheran before he married my Mom, Kyle was Methodist when I married him)!

Gosh, about 12 years ago, eldest sister Jeanine started the tradition of building the season calendar and everyone would bring one appetizer or sweet treat to the Bassett home and watch the game together as a family. Back then, 3:00 and later games were pizza games. Each family would chip in $5 per head.

The weekly pot-luck eventually got cumbersome, so we moved to each household "owning" a noon game and bringing the entire food spread. Pizza games were still at 3:00 and evening games were preceded with a full dinner typically made by Jeanine or Mom.

Unless otherwise specified, all games are still at the Bassett home. When the Bassetts were in Switzerland for three years, we all took turns hosting at our homes. That carried on into the first season the Bassetts returned, but I'm pretty sure we have now settled in on the Bassett home or Mom and Dad's home for family celebrations, such as today.

Tuesday is Jeanine's birthday, so the family got together for game day in the parents' basement. There were 17 of us, 9 adults, 8 kids. Mom got a little carried away with the food, making sure she had some of Jeanine's favorites: taco dip and chips, corned beef cheese ball with crackers, cheese, sausage, apples, grapes, m&ms, peanuts, puffcorn, bacon wrapped 'lil smokies, veggies and dip, I'm sure I've forgotten something... At least we were able to stop Mom from making chicken nuggets because there was plenty of food and the kids were already done eating before she wouldn't even gotten them in the oven.

Baby Howie, Brooke, Steve, Jeanine

Jolene, Nick, Papa, Eric

What's left of the food

Even though this is our weekly get together and there is some chatter catching up with what everyone has been up to, we actually watch the game. And what about the kids? They are left to their own devices, and for the most part, they know the drill and don't walk in front of the TV during an active play.

Millie, Cate, Henry, Jack and Max playing legos

The Vikes are off to a good start being 2-0. The first half has been challenging to watch as they don't break out until the second half. I am sure hoping the Favre deal is worth it. I am thrilled he's here, despite how odd it is seeing him in a Vikings uniform. We have a better shot with him than without him to go pretty deep into the post-season. And how awesome is Adrian Peterson?

We are ready for some football!

Mass in the Park and All Parish Picnic

I recently became a Ministry Leader for Parish Life at The Church of the Visitation in Minneapolis. My first big gig was to chair the planning committee for the Mass in the Park and All Parish picnic, a parish gathering we hope will become an annual event. Because we are in the Midwest, the weather can get questionable in September (the avg high is in the mid-60s), but we chose this particular weekend because our parish played host to two delegates from the Kitui Diocese in Kenya. We felt what better way to introduce our new friends to summer life in America than to enjoy a good old-fashioned picnic.

Fortunately, God blessed us with the perfect day. It was mostly sunny with a slight breeze and the bugs weren't too bad. About 75 people attended the outdoor Mass and another 20 parishioners showed up for the picnic after Mass.

Father O'Brien (r) presenting Father Mitui (l) the stole hand-painted with Visitation Icons, the State bird and State flower

Jolene presenting the Readings

The congregation

Kenyan friends singing "We Come to the Table" in Kiswahili

The picnic dinner was catered in by Picnics Plus and there was an abundance of delicious food--hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, baked beans, potato salad, watermelon, three varieties of cookies and fudge brownies; coffee, lemonade and water.

The abundant food

Four out of five in this photo are enjoying the picnic

We decorated the pavilion with strings of lights, raised halogen lights up in the middle pillar and set the picnic tables with candles and provided mini flashlights to use as needed after the sun set. We also lit the way back up the hill to the vehicles with solar lights and more candles. It was a beautiful sight that I couldn't capture in pictures.For entertainment, there was face painting, temporary tattoos and glow sticks for the kids (and adults alike!) and a sing-along after dinner led by our choir director.
There were so many positive remarks, I am confident the event was a success and that people will be looking forward to next year's event. It should be another good time...

First Grade Homework

Cate is settling into the school schedule. A good deal of her closer friends are in the same classroom. She goes to school happy and she comes home happy, but with not much more commentary other than, "good." when asked how her day was. Her teacher seems to be a woman who isn't going to take any crap and intends to run a tight ship. She's the right teacher for Cate, spunky as she is. Cate's after-school schedule is mixed-up, just like last year. Depending on the day she is in the after-school program, taking the bus to Grandma and Papa's house or being picked up by Grandpa and Grandma.

New this year is homework. From the first couple of weeks, it appears at least in the early months, the homework will be to practice spelling words. I sat with her for the first time last Sunday working on her five spelling words: at, cat, bat, sat, mat. Pretty simple instructions: write each word three times, then write a total of five sentences using one word per sentence. An example was also sent home so parents could review and correct the child's work as necessary. One would think that since the child was given very clear instructions, it would be a relatively simple project. Uhm, no. Almost an hour and several temper tantrums later, she finished the project. I vowed never to wait until Sunday evening again to have Cate complete her homework.

Unfortunately, with our packed weekend, she didn't sit down until Sunday evening again, but the same exercise with five new words took about half the time.I am impressed with some of the more complex sentences she wants to construct and / or the sentences she can write by herself. Last week, she could've written, "I have a hat." Rather, she wanted to write, "My hat is green and red and purple." This evening she wrote two complete sentences without any help from me, which I thought was pretty cool.It does concern me that, in first grade, she already doesn't like doing homework. I don't think I started to dislike doing homework until fifth grade.This is going to be a long year.

Suzanne Somers is in the House!

As many of you are aware, I work at ShopNBC, a multi-channel retailing primarily recognized as a home shopping network. This weekend we are welcoming Suzanne Somers, a legend in the home shopping industry, to ShopNBC. Regardless of anyone's opinion of Suzanne Somers, this is a HUGE win for ShopNBC. Suzanne was at HSN for 17 years and was a significant contributor to the success they have realized in recent years. Obviously, we hope the same bodes well for ShopNBC.

Today I attended a Suzanne Somers Meet and Greet session, where she spoke to a group of fifty or so team members about her life experiences, why she does what she does and why she is so excited to be working with ShopNBC. Clearly given her entertainment background, she is a wonderful speaker, yet at the same time seems to be very approachable. So much so that, when the Meet and Greet was over, the "entourage" were in front of us walking the same direction out of the studio I decided to catch up to her and asked her if she would be open to having her picture taken with me.

And voila!

It was a nice little highlight to the day especially given the entire site is intermittently down and we're working toward the eleventh hour making sure we have flawless execution for the Premiere of Suzanne's shows launching tomorrow night.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Taking a rest from the fundraising stomp

Cate and I went to the Callaghans' this evening to solicit her gift-wrap / candy / frozen cookie dough offerings for her school fall fundraiser. After our visit, we made a stop at Liberty for a little custard. She likes vanilla with sprinkles. I ordered chocolate chocolate chip. Yum!

We got to chat about school and her anxiety about having her first loose tooth and other cool stuff. It sure is nice to bum around one and one. We'll have to do that more often.

I am ready for some football!

The Vikes have win #1 in the books. The kids are in bed after a dramatic end to the day surrounding me and Mini-Me working on her first spelling words assignment. Reward for keeping my cool? Sunday Night Football and wine from a local vineyard.

Hope your weekend was slightly less dramatic than ours was.

Cheers!

Sleepless in the Midwest

I don't do well when I can't fall asleep. It so rarely happens that I don't know how to function the next day. I really hope tonight is not going to be one of those nights.

Max fell asleep on the way home from Grandma and Grandpa's. He didn't stir when we tried to wake him up for supper. I hope he makes it all the way through the night.

Cate will jump out of bed right away when her alarm goes off. We hit our snooze two, three four times. I can be really efficient getting some hard shut-eye during those 7-minute intervals.

I took two advil. Hope it helps. Morning will come soon. Tomorrow will be a busy day.

Comparisons to Kirstie Alley

Hearken to the days when "Cheers" was not syndicated yet. People who first met me told me I resembled Kirstie Alley. Tall, skinny Kirstie Alley mind you; with no neck, beautiful lips, long, gorgeous hair, the over-the-top hand gestures, the whiny voice, and stomp-stomp-stomping out of scenes because Sam Malone has irritated her to no end. Back then, I didn't mind being called out as resembling Kirstie Alley.

These days I mind.

But like her, and like millions of people, I struggle with my weight. I worked hard to lose almost 50 pounds in 7 months. It's almost all back. Just short of two years later. I just knew when I started Weight Watchers that I could lose all the weight. I was never confident I would embrace the entire lifestyle change necessary to make it stick. Same song and dance as everyone else, so no need to feel sorry for me or give me a pep talk. I get it.

So here I am, back to square 1.2. And not sure if I'm going to do anything about it.

But, just so you know, I'm back to big. In case you see me.

Cate's First Day of First Grade

Is summer as we know it already over? It feels like last month I was taking Cate's first day of kindergarten picture in front of the house. Oh well, one can't stop time, I guess.

So here we are, on the other side of summer.And here's Cate's standing very tall and proud to be in first grade. She is no more the newbie of the school. She is already excited to be a mentor to those wide-eyed 5-year-olds that looked scared out of their wits coming just short of crying for their mommas.

She has reunited with many of her friends from last year that will be in her classroom this year as well. Last Thursday, she met her new teacher and is terribly impressed that Mrs. Livermore's first name is....wait for it....Hermione. Yep. Hermione Livermore. This is real life, baby. You couldn't make it up any better than that.

I'm rather forgetful. Those of you who know me won't be surprised to learn that I thought I had registered Cate for her after school program, but I didn't. So now she's on the waiting list. And the district's transportation did not do me any favors by not assigning Cate a bus stop for her one afternoon a week drop-off at Grandma and Papa's house. That onus is on the district. But how could they possibly take note of only one afternoon a week bus stop request among thousands of grade school students.

So, Cate will have an extra special first day of school today. She will be coming back to work with me when I pick her up at the end of the school day. She couldn't be more excited. And so am I.

I'm looking forward to hearing all about her first day of first grade. It should be fun!