Even More Proof

Hannah and I were waiting for Daniel and Jacob to get out of school this afternoon when another mom and daughter walk in to wait. The kindergartners walk past, followed by the first graders. Just as Daniel walked up to me, the mom comes up to introduce herself as Josh's mom. I look over at Daniel, who is now arm in arm with Josh. It is very clear that these two are good friends. Apparently, Josh has been begging for a playdate with Daniel and was really upset when we casually chatted the other day but didn't introduce ourselves. So, Josh and Daniel are "best buddies," and they even have the same shirt (and have once worn it on the same day). We're going to try to get them together this weekend...but wait...I thought that Daniel was unable to make friends. Hmmm...

Premiere Week

I was actually excited for this year's TV Premiere Week. It helps a lot that I have the Tivo and can watch shows that I would have otherwise missed. Actually, I don't know if it's necessarily a good thing, but it's been fun to have new stuff to watch. The only problem with new stuff is getting through the first few episodes. The pilots and the few episodes that follow are usually annoying in the way they try to get you to know the characters. It's also hard because you don't know which ones are going to be cancelled mid season. However...

Last night was the big night for me. I had Private Practice, Life and Dirty Sexy Money recorded. After the kids went to bed, I holed myself up in the basement and hit "play."

Private Practice was up first. I just don't know about this one. Because of the way they began this show last season on Grey's, I already knew the characters. I just don't know if I like them. I've never been a huge Addison fan and that may be my hang up with it. I was happy to see that they got rid of the talking elevator lady.

Life. I will fully admit that the only reason I watched this show is because of Damian Lewis (love him!). I liked this one but they made his character very strange. Of course, it's understandable but he's a little crazy. I have a feeling that he'll get less crazy as the season goes on but I don't know. I did laugh every time they showed him in his car saying, "I am not attached to this car. I am not attached to this car." It was also funny to see him trying to deal with technology that wasn't around 12 years ago. I hope they don't play on that for too long, though. It could get really old, really fast. I have a feeling I'm going to get all into this show and it'll be cancelled.

Dirty Sexy Money. I recorded this one on a whim. It turned out to be my favorite of the night. I love Donald Sutherland and William Baldwin. And, you know I'm going to be partial to any show with a former cast member (okay, guest star) of Grey's. If you watched it last night, you would have seen Dr. Hahn playing the mother of Brian Darling's illegitimate son. It took me a minute to place her without the scrub cap. LOL! Of the three, I really think that this one may be the only one left standing come May. I may have just jinxed it by writing it, but it was absolutely the most fun show of the night...even though it's a drama.

Tonight...

Of course it's the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy. Episode 401 A Change Is Gonna Come. I will admit that I'm really nervous since there was so much change at the end of the season. I'm also not very happy about Lexi Grey becoming a permanent cast member. Anyway, I'm going to wait until the kids are good and asleep before attempting to watch. Thank goodness for Tivo!

Yes, I've Become That Mom

As of today, my van is sporting this bumper sticker...
Exactly which one of my Cub Scouts I'm proud of is up in the air. LOL! Sorry, Dad, they didn't have one that said, "My Kid Beat Up Your Cub Scout."

Random/Rant Post

Just a lot of little things...

The pack meeting last night was cute. As Mike says, the Cubmaster is really into this. He explained the wooden Arrow of Light that he makes each Webelo when they graduate. Jacob's Den Leader announced that Jacob earned his Bobcat badge and can now work on his Bear requirements. He was pretty proud of that. Jacob's den also did a skit for the pack. It was really cute but I don't think that many people could understand what they were saying. It's hard to understand a bunch of 8 year olds trying to say "sitting on an invisible bench" while not quite in unison. They had fun doing it, and that's what matters.

Daniel's den hasn't even met considering we couldn't settle on a meeting date. We will be meeting twice a month...once for a meeting and once for a field trip. That should be interesting. We've got a lot to do to earn the Tiger badge before Blue and Gold in February. I have no doubt that we'll get it done, though.

I was going to get photos of the boys in their uniforms but I forgot my camera. Can you believe that? LOL!

I'm feeling much better, but I'm at the point where everything's trying to come out. You wanted to hear about that, didn't you? LOL! Hannah's also doing well. I saw a thing on the news about how this past weekend, all of the area hospitals saw record numbers of kids with asthma problems. Not surprising since the pollen and mold counts are so high. It rained for a good deal of the day yesterday and it hardly put a dent in the counts. I'd love to open up the windows and get some air running through here, but I don't dare. Ugh.

I've avoided talking about it (because I think it's a crock), but I guess I can't avoid it. No big surprise that Daniel's getting reading help. He qualified last year and qualified again this year. I may have already posted that Daniel qualified for math help. Whatever. I'm not going to turn away free tutoring. About a day after the letter came home, I got a voice mail from Mrs. H, Daniel's teacher, requesting a conference. Umm...okay. We set it up for Monday. I was happy when Mike said that he'd come too.

Mike and I sit in the conference room and across the table are Mrs. H and Mrs. P, the school psychologist. He's having a great year, but he has some social issues. What? They're concerned that his love of Pokemon is hurting his personal relationships with his peers. He's 6. Does he really have personal relationships with his peers yet? Apparently, it's all he wants to talk about and he acts out scenes with his hands (they think it may be a coping mechanism for frustration). They're concerned because they feel that they really don't know anything about him. At one point, Mike mentioned that the kids were in the pool over the weekend and they both exclaimed that they didn't know we had a pool. How is that really relevant to learning at school? So he doesn't want to talk about what he did over the weekend. Is that really an issue? I guess it's also a problem that he has no "filter." He says what he's feeling, when he's feeling it. (Is this seriously a concern?) Oh, and the whole math thing was apparently because Mrs. H couldn't remind Daniel to stay on task. Ummm...right. I guess that behavior hasn't been an issue this year because of the introduction of a "paraprofessional" (teacher's aide). Someone in his class has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan...and no, it's not Daniel since it's a huge deal to get an IEP and I would certainly know about it.) that requires one and Daniel's reaping the benefits. Whatever. I did find it funny that as we were walking out, (I can't remember what this was in response to but...) the school psychologist says something like, "don't worry. We've got lots of time. After all, he's only 6!" EXACTLY!!!!!!

Okay, so that was Monday. Remember, they said that he was having problems socially because of his "obsession" with Pokemon. He comes out of school and is talking and hugging a classmate. Yesterday, he was chatting with a couple of boys while we were waiting for Jacob. A little boy made a point of coming over to say goodbye to Daniel and another came over to give a high five. Last night, I saw him laughing with friends at the pack meeting. Is this seriously a boy who is socially stunted? I with they'd just leave him alone and let him be a little boy. I wasn't really angry about it when we walked out of the meeting, but I certainly didn't feel like we accomplished much. The more I think about it, the angrier I get. And, you know what...I'm not even angry with his teacher. I'm angry with the psychologist. Not every child needs to be fixed.

What? Huh?

Today has been a total blur. I took the boys to school this morning and remembered that there's a MOPS meeting. Not only that, but they're doing photos for the directory. I look at Hannah, who has massive bedhead and is still in pj's, and then look at myself and sigh. Luckily, the church is right across the street from the house and we should have just enough time to fix ourselves up and get there on time.

We get home and I throw some clothes at Hannah and tell her to get dressed (she was more than happy to since she loves MOPS) and I race upstairs to make myself look a little more presentable. Brush my teeth, wash my face and attempt to curl my hair...forget that...into a ponytail it goes. A quick dab of makeup and at least I don't look like the walking dead...even though I sound like it. I run back downstairs and run a brush through Hannah's hair...she's all ready to go since she had already put her shoes on. She's screaming at me to come on but I know that I've forgotten something. We start to head to the van when I remember my MOPS binder and I forgot to take my medicine. I run back in to get it all...and we're off.

We pull into the parking lot just as the sky opens up. Hannah thought it was funny that we were getting "soaping wet." I was more annoyed than anything. I get her squared away in her room and head over to the meeting.

I'm always so glad that I go to these meetings. My table is so awesome and we chat it up the whole time. After the meeting, Shana (our MOPS coordinator) reminds me about her princess party she's holding on Friday (and, yay...my whole table is coming!) and I walk out smiling that I finally am getting to know people here.

I pick up Hannah and we head over to the Scout Shop to get Mike's uniform (he's Daniel's Den Leader) and the people that work there aren't quite as helpful as the last time. In fact, they seemed annoyed with the mass of people browsing through their store. Oh well, I got what we needed and left.

I've been putting off putting the patches on Daniel's uniform, so I had to do that when we got home as well as putting them on Mike's. A run through the washer and dryer and everyone's uniforms are ready to go.

Soon, I have to pick up the boys from school, feed everyone dinner and then head to Tae Kwon Do. Then, there's the pack meeting afterward tonight. Luckily, I don't think that Hannah and I need to be there for that since Mike's going. I'm really hoping they don't have much homework tonight!

Blah...Just Blah

After a miserable weekend, I'm still not feeling well. I am pumped full of medications (amoxicillin, Mucinex and Claritin) but it's just knocking it down a notch. I would have expected to feel a lot better by now but it's just not happening. I absolutely hate being sick. Luckily, Hannah is doing better. I guess being pumped full of prednisone, Xopenex and Singluair will do that to you. She's breathing and acting normally, so that's a good thing. Only 3 more days of the prednisone and then we're done and we can also go to the Xopenex on an as needed basis.

There was a mom at gymnastics this morning who was talking about how her daughter has to have breathing treatments but she's fed up with how wired they make her daughter so she's not giving them to her anymore. How stupid. Her other complaint was how long it takes to give the treatments. Get over it. Yes, they take forever, but if your child is having a hard time breathing, you do what you have to do to make them more comfortable. I got so annoyed listening to this woman go on and on about how inconvenient it is for her that I had to walk away. So obnoxious.

Not Really My Idea of a Fun Saturday

Hannah's had a bit of allergies...or a cold...for the past couple of days but it hasn't been anything that we've really worried about. This morning, we woke up to Hannah screaming that she couldn't breathe. I gave her a nebulizer treatment and we hung out for a little bit but I just couldn't get it under control, so we went off to the ER.

We get there and they immediately take her into triage. A quick work up and they tell me that it will just be a minute...she's sorry but can I take Hannah out to the waiting room? Okay. We're out there just long enough to watch as a very pregnant lady walks in with her overloaded husband (pillows, blankets, suitcase, cameras, etc). She looked nervous, he looked downright terrified. At that point, we were called back.

They put one of those glowy things on Hannah's thumb and the monitor immediately lights up. The alarm goes off because she's under 90% for her oxygen level. The nurse quickly turns the sound down so that I don't freak out every time it goes off. They also gave her a purple gown, which she loved. The respiratory therapist comes in and sets her up for a treatment. The doctor comes in and assesses Hannah (her blood oxygen levels were low and she's very wheezy) and says that we'll have to see how she does with a couple of doses of albuterol and tells the respiratory therapist that she'll need another treatment in 20 minutes. He then asks when the last time she had prednisone was (November). Then she needs some.

A few minutes later, the nurse comes in with the prednisone and she tries (unsuccessfully) to tell her that it tastes like grape juice. She took it anyway.

Long story short...after a dose of prednisone and 4 breathing treatments, she was borderline. After having Hannah run around the room a couple of times to determine her lowest oxygen level, he cautiously agreed to let her go home (but if there's any wheezing stronger than when we left, we need to bring her back in to be admitted).

Hannah couldn't wait to get out of the hospital...she hardly waited to get dressed before making her way out of the room. When we got home, the boys greeted her with this card.

I thought it was sweet. Anyway, so far, so good. I'm hoping that we don't have to make that second ER run today.

Sicky McSickmeister

I've been feeling pretty wonky this week. It started Monday and has gotten progressively worse as the week has continued. I learned my lesson from last fall's sinus infection that I let go for too long and hauled my behind into the doctor this afternoon. Actually, it wasn't exactly the doctor, but the nurse practitioner at the Walgreen's Clinic.

I arrived around 12:20 (after dropping Hannah off at preschool) and there was no wait. They immediately called me in and she started looking me over. She gets to my nose and immediately says that my nose is desperately sick. She types up a prescription and tells me to also pick up some Mucinex-D from the pharmacist and I'll be good to go. I walk out and over to the pharmacy section. They tell me 15 minutes (it was more like 5). I walked out of Walgreen's with a diagnosis and prescription in hand at 12:50. Too sweet.

I tell you what, that Mucinex is some awesome stuff. I came home to take a short nap and I could just hear the popping in my nose as it began to open up. Gross? Yes. But it feels so much better. So, I guess that sinus infections are my new fall thing. That sucks.

I Can't Get This Out Of My Head

It's got a good beat and you can dance to it. The sad part is, I'm not 100% sure about the name of the song. Possibly Dance Floor Anthem. I do know that the band is Good Charlotte. Enjoy!

Wednesday Rambling

*Update* I got a voice mail from Daniel's teacher wanting to have a conference on Monday. Crap.


Jacob came home from school on Monday and was all upset because he had to miss recess to finish some work for the librarian. Tuesday, he came home and told me that he missed 10 minutes of recess but that it wasn't his teacher's fault...he still couldn't find one word in the dictionary and that's what is keeping him from finishing his work. I asked him what word he couldn't find and he told me it was the word, "wagon." I told him that we'd look it up when we got home and he said that he needs the page number in the dictionary in the library. I told him that at least he'd know what words are around it. He liked that idea.

About 15 minutes after we came home from school, the phone rings. It's Ms. P, Jacob's teacher. She explains to me that Jacob had a total meltdown and she couldn't figure out how to help him. Has he exhibited this behavior before? Oh, yes. We chatted for a while and she told me that she'd help him look for the word, "wagon," in the dictionary today. I tell her that he told me nothing of the meltdown but she must have handled it well because he was completely understanding of why he had to miss recess. Unfortunately, we're still working on just how to deal with frustration and how to ask for help when he needs it. Her words, "having an over-achiever is nice most of the time, as they are typically the leaders of the class, but they are notorious for being too hard on themselves." Huh.

Daniel brought a letter home from the principal saying that he'll be getting math intervention. What? Umm...okay. Math is Daniel's strongest subject but if you think he needs help...more power to ya. So, he's now in reading and math intervention. Reading I can see...math, not so much. Personally, I think Daniel just likes all of the extra attention and that's fine with me. If they want to give him personalized tutoring, go for it.

Last night, we had a conference with Master Johnson, the boys' TKD instructor. We weren't surprised about what he said about Jacob (good memory, good strength, need to build his confidence level) but we were shocked about what he said about Daniel: good attitude, good focus...but we need to work on speed, balance and flexibility (the last part wasn't much of a shock). He wants both boys to do their form for the TKD championships in three weeks. He sees it as a good confidence builder for Jacob and good practice for Daniel. Since the boys are competing, Mike decided to compete in the sparring competition (we're not putting the boys in sparring). It should be an interesting day. Probably a lot like testing...only with trophies.

Monarchs have officially arrived. I saw (no kidding) 20 on the way to and from dropping the boys off at school and there have been 3-4 in the garden at any given point in time. It's pretty cool.

Monarchs Do Visit!

I was finally able to get a picture of a monarch in our yard! They let you walk right up to them and don't really care. He hung out in the flowers for a little while after I took these. He's a beauty! You can tell it's a male by the two black dots on his wings (see second picture). The black dots are on the bottom portion of his wings. Also, the lines on his wings are thin which also is indicative of males.

What The (Insert Your Favorite Expletive Here)?!?

I've seen a lot of things in the front yard...bunnies, squirrels, dogs, cats, cats chasing bunnies, deer, grasshoppers as big as your head...but I've never before seen what I saw last night. I went to take Oriana out, opened the front door, and there, just standing in our front yard, were two (yes two) coyotes. Luckily, Oriana didn't see them, and they didn't see her, but I just stood there, frozen. It was a mixture of awe and fear that came over me...I couldn't shut the door and just stared. They looked up at me, looked at each other and then walked off between my neighbors' houses across the street. And, before you ask, yes. They were coyotes. Not dogs. I've been to enough wildlife parks and whatnot to know what they look like. I also know that they are not necessarily uncommon around here. They were beautiful, but I don't know if I really want to see them in the front (or back) yard again!

It's A Girl!

Congrats to my sister, Sue, and her husband, Glenn, on the birth of their daughter Sarah Grace! Everyone is doing just fine. I can't wait to see pictures of my newest niece!

Parenting 101

First...I haven't heard word yet about it actually being born, but my sister, Sue, is in the hospital having her baby! I'll let you know once I've heard more.


Okay, so it's come to my attention that some of you believe my children are over scheduled. I would argue that it's me that's over scheduled, whatever. Okay...let's plot this out, shall we?

Jacob: In addition to school, Jacob also attends Tae Kwon Do for one hour twice a week and Cub Scouts 2-3 times a month. He also attends Sunday School weekly.

Daniel: School, Tae Kwon Do twice a week and Cub Scouts 2-3 times per month as well as Sunday School.

Hannah: Preschool 3 times a week, Sunday School every other Sunday, Gymnastics for 50 minutes once a week and Moppets (MOPS for kids) 2 times a month.

Me: Taxi to and from preschool 3 times a week, school 5 times a week, TKD twice a week, Cub Scouts 4-5 times per month (one meeting is a pack meeting that both boys attend together), gymnastics once a week, MOPS twice a month. I also have the occasional PTO meeting and/or room mother meeting.

For the kids, I don't think that's a lot. For me, it's almost criminal. LOL! Seriously, though, the activities the kids are in are the ones they've expressed interest in. There have been school clubs that have come up that we've thought would be fun for them but they didn't want to do, so we haven't (like chess club). So, DAD, I know you have a hatred for all organized sports and whatnot, but that's just how it is these days. Unfortunately, I can't trust that the kids can ride their bikes to den meetings without getting snatched by some whack-job. And there are no pick-up games of baseball in the neighborhood. It is incredibly sad, but true. Okay...I'm done defending my parenting! LOL

Speaking of defending parenting skills, there was a lady at the dentist yesterday who got into an argument with a hygienist about her daughter. What is it with crazy people at the dentist? Anyway, the hygienist comes out with the lady's daughter and says that everything looks good but her daughter (she's probably 5 or 6) needs to stop using a binkie/sucking her thumb. The lady starts screaming that her daughter DOES NOT suck her thumb. The daughter chimes in, with a big proud smile on her face, "but I do take a paci!" The mother looks all flushed and yells, "YOU DO NOT!" The back and forth of "yes I do," "no you don't" begins until the mother finally yells, "WHATEVER!" The hygienist says, "well, it needs to stop because she's beginning to do some serious damage to her mouth." The mother says, "my daughter doesn't suck her thumb so there's nothing to stop." Clearly annoyed, the hygienist walks away and tells the mother not to forget to schedule her next appointment. I just kind of chuckled at the fact that this mother felt it necessary to defend herself so hard. I'm quite sure that had this mother just said that, yes, her daughter still used a bink but she'd work on getting rid of it, I wouldn't be writing about it here in my blog. Heck, I'll admit that I sucked my thumb until high school and that I slept with my blankie until Jacob was born...I think I turned out okay. (That's embarrassing...LOL!) I just find it funny that we feel the need to prove to others that we're good parents in the eyes of strangers.

What Day Is It?

Have you ever had one of those weeks where everything's a blur? That's me this week.

So, you all read about the tire. So, I go up to Sam's after picking up the kids from school and I'm told that they can't get to it until around 7. Can I drop the van off? Ummm...no. So, after making our obligatory Sam's purchase, we head home. I came home and baked my butt off.

Mike's parents came in for a weekend visit on Saturday. We decided to do an early Rosh Hashanah dinner (which is why I was baking my butt off) and that turned out really nice. Daniel somehow suckered Ed into playing Pokemon with him and Hannah felt that he needed to wear her little hat. Here's a picture...


Anyway, Sunday, we all headed up to the synagogue for the boys' first day of Sunday School. It was an all morning thing with breakfast, a service, orientation and mezuzzah dedications. After we were done, Mike took his parents up to the airport and they headed for home.

Monday, I dropped the boys off at school and took Hannah to gymnastics. I was getting really nervous about the spare still being on the van since I don't think you're supposed to drive on them for that long. As always, she had a great time because she loves her class. Right after I dropped Hannah off at school, I headed back over to Sam's to have the tire fixed.

Once again, I'm told that they're running about 3 hours behind and I'll need to drop off the van. This time, I just drop off the tire and I'm told that they'll call when the tire's ready to go. Sweet. I head home and wait for the call. In the meantime, I have to pick up Hannah and the boys from school. Still no call from the tire guys at Sam's. Ugh. Between homework and dinner, I completely forgot about it until after they were closed. Crap. I knew that Tuesday would suck. (and I'm still driving on that darn spare)

Tuesday, I drop the boys off at school and head over to my first MOPS meeting of the semester. There was no way I was going to miss that. My table is awesome. We've all got kids around the same age so we're going to start a weekly playgroup. So cool. Anyway, after, Hannah and I headed back to Sam's to have the tire done. I walked in and they can't find my paperwork (which is why there was no call), but they do have the tire and it's fixed. Give them 40 minutes and it'll be ready. Hannah and I decide to grab a hot dog and wait.

50 minutes later, we head back over to the tire area and I'm told that they haven't even been able to start the work yet but they'd get it in ASAP. 15 minutes later, I'm handed the keys and am told that it's ready to go, but not before they asked if I'd like the spare put back. Uhh...yeah. It only took one guy to put the tire back on, but three to put the spare back under the van. LOL! I was going to get really angry about all of the waiting until they told me that it's free. Seriously? Okay Hannah, let's get out of here before they change their minds. We head straight over to the boys' school to pick them up since it was early release day. From there, we head home for homework and then over to Tae Kwon Do. Ugh.

We're getting ready for bed when Jacob reminds me he has a field trip today. Right...I remember. You need to wear jeans and bring a water bottle. "Oh, and I'll need a sack lunch, too," he tells me. What? Are you kidding me? Needless to say, I had nothing acceptable to put in a lunch box (unless you count ice cream sandwiches as acceptable) so I had to go to the store when Mike got home (around 9pm). Give me a break here...the kids always buy lunch at school! :)

This morning, I drop Jacob off at school and take Daniel and Hannah to their Dentist appointments. Jacob originally had one too but I figured that he'd rather go on his field trip so I rescheduled his appointment (for tomorrow...AAAAACCCCCKKKK!!!!). Both are given the thumbs up on their teeth and we head over to the school to drop Daniel off. Apparently, Daniel's teacher didn't get the message about Daniel being late because I had a nasty gram on voicemail from the school..."this is Lisa from the school. We're wondering if Daniel's sick or what because he's not here. Give us a call." Seriously?

We had two hours before Hannah needed to be at school so I decided to head across the border to the Boy Scout Shop to get the boys their uniforms. The guy there was so nice and even walked around the store with me to make sure I got what I needed. That Boy Scout Shop is very cool. They have tons of stuff...even a whole wall full of BS scrapbook stickers and papers. We ended up spending more time there than I had anticipated and walked out at 11:25. Hannah has to be at school by 12:15 and we're over in Missouri...oh, and she hasn't eaten lunch. Nice. We head back across the state line and I find a Burger King. For some stupid reason, I thought we had enough time to go in and eat, so that's what we do. At 11:40, I realize that I can't just drop her off from there because her backpack's at home. We run out of BK and pull onto Antioch. At this point, I'm about 15 minutes from home and it's 11:45. I should make it right on time. We drive about 1/2 mile and my gas light comes on. What? No no no no. Now, the plan is to get a couple of gallons of gas (it takes forever to completely fill up the tank), head home, get the backpack and get Hannah to school. The problem? There are no gas stations on Antioch. None. Okay...so I have no idea how long I have before I completely run out of gas and I have many miles to go. (I'm right around 119th Street and I need to get to 151st...then about 4 miles from there to home and then another 2 miles to Hannah's school. From there, it's about 3 miles to the nearest gas station). Who planned this out? So, I hit 151st and go the 4 miles towards the house. I shoot right past the house and make an illegal left turn into the gas station. I get 4 gallons and head home...grab the backpack and arrive at Hannah's school at 12:21. Phew.

Unfortunately, it's not looking any better for me anytime soon...Tomorrow, Tae Kwon Do, a dentist appointment and Jacob's den meeting. And now, I'm going to watch a little People's Court while putting patches on the boys' uniforms. I should clean because something in the kitchen smells like feet but I don't wanna and you can't make me.

I Could Watch This All Day

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on Saturday Night Live. I love Peyton Manning. This is great even if you don't like football.

So Much For a Relaxing Afternoon

I had originally planned to do a little cleaning and then kick back while Hannah was at school. HAH! I did get some cleaning done but then discovered that coming back from dropping Hannah off at school, I ran over a nail and that my back tire was flat. Nice. I start to take the jack out and realize that I don't think I have anything to take the nuts off of the tire with. I call Dad. He says there should be one with the jack. After a little digging, I found it. I can't get the nuts off. I call Dad. Which way do you turn the nuts to get them off? Counter-clockwise. Got it. There I am, in the garage, jumping on this stupid wrench to try to get the nuts loose. They finally loosen. Okay...where do I put the jack? That one took me about 5 minutes. I also managed to tear a hole in my pants with the stupid thing. Okay. The wheel is off of the ground. I take off the nuts and the hubcap and tire. That tire is a heavy son of a bitch. By this point, I'm sweating profusely but I'm in the home stretch. I grab the spare and roll it over. Which way does the thing go on? I call Dad (who I'm sure is getting pretty annoyed) who tells me to look at my other tires to gauge. Ummm. Okay. I finally decide on a side and discover that I have very little arm strength left. It took me forever to get that bastard on. I get the nuts on and tightened and lower the van. I give the nuts one last tighten and put everything in the trunk. 35 minutes from start to finish. And the only injury was when I kicked the spare and lifted my toenail (which by this point is bleeding all over).

I wash my hands and call Dad to let him know that everything's done but there's no answer...I figure he's finally gotten tired of my calls...shrug and go get Hannah from school. While I'm driving there, I remember that I still have the string from the spare hanging from the bottom of the van. Crap. I pull into the pick up line and go around back to open the hatch to pull the string in...the full size tire falls out and lands on my foot. A nice big red mark from the tire, several colorful words from me and the tire and the string are secured in the trunk.

Now, I get to go pick up the boys and then head over to Sam's to have the freaking tire fixed. I'm tired, sore, gimpy from the tire falling on my foot, bloody from kicking the tire and a little queasy from all of this. I need a chauffeur.

Hannah's First Day

Hannah had her first day of preschool today...she was so excited and wouldn't stop asking if it was time to go (she has afternoon preschool). It wasn't a full day for her but more of a meet the teacher kind of thing. She was there without me, though since the parents had an orientation meeting. Hannah was excited to see that Gwen, a girl from two doors down, is in her class and Lisa from up the street is in the class next to her. So far, she's loving preschool. We'll see how she feels at the end of the year. Here are some photos...


Hannah walks (almost runs) several feet ahead to get into school

Hannah and her teacher, Mrs. M

A Proud Mamma...and my 600th Post

Holy Cow. 600 posts. That's nuts!

We're watching the kids do Tae Kwon Do tonight when Master Johnson stops class to give Jacob a patch for his uniform top. He explained that Jacob consistently says "sir" or "ma'am" and always does what he is asked when he is asked without complaining. Because he's shown respect and self-control, he's earned the American Flag patch. He's the only one in his class who has earned one. Master Johnson explained that if they see someone from any of their schools with the American Flag, they should know that it was earned and not just a patch for the sake of having one. We didn't even know that this honorary patch existed. His next goal is the Korean Flag, which would go on the other arm. I can't remember the requirements for getting that one. I thought it was cool.

Fall Baking

Okay...so it's technically still summer, but I've been bitten by the baking bug. I'm all into apple recipes right now, which will soon give way to pumpkin recipes. I've stumbled upon a treasure trove of recipes that I can't wait to try and I'm quite sure Mike will be bringing tasty leftovers to work soon (there's only so many cupcakes you can eat!)

Last Friday, Hannah and I made an apple upside down cake that was awesome. It was probably the first time that I've ever baked anything that looked almost exactly like the photo (the only difference was that they fanned out their apples and I just dumped them in the bottom of the pan).

Today, we've made apple cupcakes with apple cream cheese frosting. So freaking yummy. Jacob said that they were all he wanted to eat today...Daniel proclaimed them the best cupcakes he's ever had. One of the best parts to all of this is the house now smells like a bakery! Love that.

Now, if I could just figure out how to get my challah to rise with raisins in it. Why won't it rise?!? It's really starting to piss me off.