Random Monday

We had a very busy weekend. So busy, I'm not convinced we actually had a weekend.

Friday afternoon, our pediatrician called and said that they've set up an appointment for Daniel's EEG on November 13. She said that was the first available but that we can get on a list to be called in case of a cancellation. She thought we'd absolutely be in before November. I hope so.

Rosh Hashannah snuck up on me this year. I did my best to get the apples and honey and whatnot but I really think there was something off about the soup. Hmmm. Oh well. My challah turned out beautifully. I let it go in the Kitchen Aid for about 20 minutes and let it rise forever. I think I've just been in such a hurry to get it in the oven that I'm not giving it full time to rise. I guess I'll just be making them in round form for now on instead of braided. My braids always turn out lop-sided.

Mike took the kids to services on Saturday afternoon and they really enjoyed washing away their sins in the creek behind the synagogue. Next week is Yom Kippur.

Hannah had two soccer games again this weekend. I cannot believe the skills these little first graders have. They're really good at dribbling, turning and controlling the ball. You can already see these girls falling into different roles on the field. The forwards are obvious. They're the ones running and running and running. Then there's the defenders. They hang back and watch for when the other team breaks away with the ball. My Hannah's a defender. And that's more than okay. At this age, they don't have goalies so these defenders are even more important. Hannah had 4 saves in her game yesterday. She stood in front of that goal and kicked that ball almost to midfield, away from their goal. It was so fun to watch her beam as the other parents cheered for her like she had just scored a goal of her own. I'm so glad she enjoys soccer. I finally got her a pair of cleats (we've wasted WAY too much money on equipment for the kids when they only play one season and fight us the whole time). They're really cute and pink. She loves them.

Alice is fitting in with the family. A couple of times a day, she'll bounce on Oriana and the stampede begins. It sounds like a herd of elephants running through the house when they run and chase eachother but I'm really happy that Oriana's getting attention and having fun as well. I just wish Alice would quit pooping on the floor. I hate the housebreaking stage.

I took the kids up to the Deanna Rose Farmstead on Saturday for their Apple Fest. I'm not sure what made it an Apple Fest since I didn't see any apples but that's okay. I love Deanna Rose because it's free and there's so much to do. The kids panned for stones (Hannah's favorite since she wants to be a rock finder...LOL!) and got to make a corn cob doll in the old schoolhouse. They also got to bring home a wooden top that some men were making for the kids.

So, that's about it from here...I'm going to enjoy the thunderstorm that just rolled in.

Random and Junk

So, last night, Alice cried. I knew she would. Oriana did too when we first brought her home. I put her in her little crate before heading to bed myself, turned out the lights, snuggled my head in my pillow, said a little prayer (please, please don't let her cry!), closed my eyes...*whine, whine, WHINE* We decided to bring her crate into the bedroom, which helped, but she still whimpered off and on throughout the night. At least Bella wasn't crying too.

I knew that we should expect crying and that we'd have to work on housebreaking (oh, the joy) but I forgot that you have to teach puppies things like walking on a leash. She started getting the hang of it last night but we still have a long way to go. The kids have been enjoying running up and down the street with her. Oh, and I was looking at her papers last night and it says that she was born in Berryville, Arkansas. LOL!!!

Later this morning, we're ditching Comcast in favor of AT&T. I'm pretty excited about it since we'll be getting a new DVR and can finally watch all of our channels on both TVs. We only get the very basic cable on our upstairs TV because it doesn't have a box.

The kids had their first day of Sunday School for the year yesterday. It was cute to see the kids in their new classes. I have to say that I'm happy that Hannah didn't get the same teacher Daniel had...it wasn't that she was bad but she just wasn't very energetic. I really think she should be teaching older kids. I'm not sure why but they combined the third grade this year so there are two teachers. That should be very interesting.

After dropping off Hannah, I ran into one of the rabbis, who was also walking out of the first grade room (one of her daughters is in Hannah's class...as an aside, the rabbi also had a baby about a month ago). Rabbi H came up to me, threw an arm around my neck and let out a huge sigh. "We made it!" She told me, obviously very relieved. I laughed and said, "yes, we did! At least you didn't try dropping your girls off in the wrong room!" Rabbi H looks at me quizzically. "I walked over to the 4th grade room and tried to drop Daniel off there. The teacher asked me if Daniel was in 4th grade and I said yes while he was saying no! I don't have the same baby excuse you can use!" She laughed and said, "well, in all fairness, that's always been the third grade room." That probably is why I was so confused. Too funny.

Hmmm..

What an interesting week. Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays all in one week. Crazy. While I'm really tired of all the Michael Jackson coverage, I'm all over the music. A good portion of my childhood revolved around Thriller. I showed Jacob the Thriller video on YouTube this afternoon. He'd never seen it before. He loved it. We also went through Billy Jean and Smooth Criminal. The videos are so long, though, that he lost interest after those three. Oh well.

The kids have been outside all day, everyday, all summer long. They come in every now and then to eat or get a drink or to tattle but otherwise they're gone. I love it. Of course, all the SPF 50 sunscreen hasn't kept Hannah from looking like the Coppertone girl. LOL! Her little butt is so white and the rest of her so isn't. I like to think they're having a good summer.

Really, that's about it from here. Not a whole lot going on and that's the way I like it. Just thinking about the upcoming school year stresses me out.

Random Friday

It has been beautiful for the past two days. It seems like each day is better than the last. Today we have total sunshine and 80's. Nice. The kids have been living outside, which is awesome. Just another reason we don't have a lot of gaming stuff. They need to be outside playing and getting exercise.

My exercise plan in the evenings is going well. Last night, I managed 30 minutes on the elliptical. Yay me. Anyway, I saw this new piece of equipment that looked kind of like an elliptical and kind of like an arc trainer so I thought I'd give it a try. Yeah, that lasted 5 minutes (on the level 1). That thing was nuts. I don't even know how to describe it. It felt like running in really deep sand. If you don't make your stride as long, it's like a stair stepper. I don't think I'll be going back to this one. I'll keep the elliptical and arc trainer thanks. Anyway, I've also been doing Weight Watchers for the past three weeks along with the exercise. I've lost 7 pounds so far and am feeling good. 7 pounds feels like a lot but I haven't noticed any difference. That sucks. Oh well. I've only got about 33 more pounds to lose...hahahaha, only. I've done it before so I know I can do it again.

Mike starts testing for his recommended black belt tonight. We're very excited for him! I know he'll do well.

Stressssssss!!!

As much as I'm looking forward to the end of the school year, I hate these last weeks before the end. It's like the school waits to have everything in a two week period of time. Today, I have a parent volunteer luncheon to go to. That's not bad because it's just sitting and eating lunch (with Daniel's teacher...Ack!!). Next week will be insane...actually, mostly next Tuesday and Friday. Tuesday is my last MOPS ever. :( So, that's in the morning and then I run to the school to help with the 4th grade Colonial Day. I'm actually happy it's in the afternoon because I thought I wouldn't be able to help. There was no way I was missing my last ever MOPS meeting. Wednesday, Jacob has his last strings concert and his last Hebrew School for the year. Friday is Field Day and what was I thinking when I volunteered for that!?! Luckily, we don't have to do the OWLS site training (we volunteered to take care of the garden for a week again this summer) since we did it last year. The following week, we have Hannah's class picnic at Deanna Rose that I have to attend. Ugh!!!

In the middle of all of this is tae kwon do and gymnastics. I know I'm forgetting something, I just don't know what. I just have to get through these next few weeks and then we can relax for the summer. We're not doing Day Camp this year (yay!) but the boys are doing overnight camp. I just can't wait to get to summer!!!!

Random Junk

I woke up to thunder this morning and was really excited. Unfortunately, that's about all we got. It rained for about 10 minutes and the storm blew past. Ugh. I was looking forward to a good thunderstorm this morning. Oh well. At least it's supposed to be warm again today.

I guess Hannah thought that flower fairies came and planted yesterday because when she overheard Jacob and me talking about them this morning, she said, "Oh! I wondered where those flowers came from!" LOL! Jacob told me that he'd be willing to try the tomatoes that come off of our plants because, "I know where they've been." Ha!

I'm going to be taking the boys up to visit Mike at work this morning since it's Take Your Child to Work Day. They're just going to go have lunch with him, which they're crazy excited about. It's such a treat to get out of school and have lunch with Dad.

For the past many, many years, my favorite local radio station, Mix 93.3, holds a huge outdoor (family friendly) concert called Red, White and Boom. Usually, they have one big artist and a lot of up and coming bands that have one or two hits, plus a local band. The kids really wanted to go last year but I wasn't sure if they'd like it. They began ticket sales for this year's concert on Monday and Jacob's been on his hands and knees, begging to go. I've been apprehensive about getting tickets because they hadn't posted the lineup. They finally did today and Jacob will be happy to know that I got tickets for this year's concert. David Cook (from American Idol) will be headlining. It's going to be fun!

Bloobedy Blah...Part 2

The kids started Spring Break last week. I know it seems early but they always have Spring Break at the end of the third quarter. The teachers take a day for grade card prep and a day for teacher's inservice. I actually don't mind having the kids home...it means I don't have to be shuffling the kids around a whole lot. Our synagogue is also on Spring Break for Hebrew school and for Sunday School, so we really get a break. What'll really be nice is if the 80 degree days they're forecasting for next week pan out. I've got a lot of gardening work to get done.

This is kind of exciting...

I belong to a listserv for non-Jewish mothers raising Jewish children run by the Jewish Outreach Institute. 95% of the time, the things that go on make me want to quit. Not only are these girls way hard core, but they're very judgemental about others. It makes me so mad. Anyway, the leader of the listserv sent out a post about a lady that writes a monthly column for The Jewish Week newspaper. She's writing an article about the term Shiksa and would like to know our opinions/experiences with the word. I had to write her because A) I love the term Shiksa and B) my fantasy football team name was Shiksappeal.

So, I wrote her an e-mail with the information we were told she was looking for and got an e-mail back saying that she'd definitely use my experiences in her article. How cool is that? We'll see if I actually get in or if she uses my name (I said she could). Her article should come out next week.

Fun With Names

I stole this from Sara's Blog because I thought it was pretty funny. So here's mine...

WITNESS PROTECTION NAME:(mother and fathers middle names)
Marie Bruce

YOUR MARRIED NAME: (first 4 letters of your first name, first 4 letters of your spouse's first name)
Barbmich


YOUR SECRET SPY NAME: (your first name backwards)
Arabrab (I actually had some friends in high school that called me this!)

STAR WARS NAME:(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
Ginba

DETECTIVE NAME:(favourite color, favourite animal)
Green Meerkat

SOAP OPERA NAME:(middle name, last four letters of where you were born)
Anne Nard (LOL!!!)

SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)
Purple Dr. Pepper

FLY NAME:(first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
Bagi

STREET NAME:(fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie)
Cake Batter Oatmeal Raisin

ROCK STAR NAME: (1st pet's name, street you grew up on)
JJ Lawndale (that actually sounds pretty cool!)

YOUR GANGSTA NAME:(first 3 letters of last name plus izzle)
Ginizzle

YOUR GOTH NAME:(black, and the name of one of your pets)
Black Oriana

YOUR NEXT CHILD'S NAME: (name of your fav beer, fav candy)
(no favorite beer) Reese's Pieces

It's a Monday

It's been a long and busy week here.

Friday morning, I got up and came downstairs to find that the kids were already up. That's always nice. Jacob tells me that he thinks there's something wrong with Daisy, so I go over to her cage. I see that she's got some goo coming out of her eye and she just looks sad. I pick her up to check her out and she just looks at me. She inhales deeply and dies. WHAT????? We think that she got bunny bloat or an intestinal blockage but this is really starting to piss me off. Bumper lived for years. And why do they have to die in my arms??? The boys were okay with it. Hannah cried for about 5 minutes and then began asking when we were getting another one. This will be the last bunny for a while.

I was pretty sad about it (not nearly as sad as with Ruby but that seemed to drag on forever and I think I was much more attached to Ruby) and Mike said he was happy that I had plans to go out with Val that morning so it would keep my mind off of it. So, Val and I go get our pedicures and as soon as I opened the door to the house, I heard the phone ringing. It was the school nurse telling me that Hannah'd had an asthma attack and that she gave her some of her inhaler but she felt Hannah really needed her nebulizer. So, I head off to school to pick up Hannah. I know that a good part of that was that Hannah had been without her Singulair for a couple of days because I couldn't get the pediatrician and Walgreen's to talk to each other. Each wanted me to have the other fax them something. Ugh. Both said they would but neither did. After picking up Hannah, I called the pediatrician and told them that they had to do something because Hannah's asthma was beginning to act up and she needed that medicine. The nurse told me that she would take care of it. I was thrilled when Walgreen's called and said that her refill was ready.

Saturday, I woke up feeling awful. It lasted all of Saturday and most of Sunday. I'm feeling better now but I still have a cough. I'm tired of getting this same cold over and over again.

Saturday afternoon, I began getting e-mails from every old Minee Subee co-worker in my address book. Apparently, one of the teacher's aides at the school in Lincolnshire got frustrated with a 16 month old and slammed him to the ground. With enough force that it was like he had fallen off a 2 story building. The baby died and she's been charged with 2 counts of first-degree murder. It's incredibly tragic. I just keep thinking that Jacob was in that room once-upon-a-time. So sad.

Today, the kids are all sick. Thank goodness for MLK day because I'm sure I would have kept them all home. In fact, Daniel's currently sleeping on the couch. I hope Hannah's okay for her Daisy's meeting this afternoon!

Anyway, that's about it from here for now. Sorry if it felt that I've dropped off of the face of the earth.

Back to the Grind

The kids went back to school today. I've been cleaning like a mad woman and I've only gotten the kitchen done. Doesn't help when I opened the fridge to get creamer for my coffee (after I was done) and a whole thing of chocolate sprinkles fell down and spilled all over the place. *sigh* Luckily, I hadn't put the broom away.

The house is so quiet without the kids here. Kind of sad, really. I was just thrilled they went to bed on time last night. That made my night. Daniel got an alarm clock/radio for Christmas and made me set it for him. When I came downstairs at 7am, the boys were both sitting on the couch watching Pokemon. It was nice to only have to wake up Hannah. I wonder how long this will last.

Sorry this post is lame...we haven't been up to much this weekend. Now, I'm going to grab a salad and get to cleaning again.

Wild and Crazy Week

Things are finally starting to slow down here. Daniel had his last football game this past Saturday so there are no more practices to go to. I'm done with my AR duty twice a week in the school library and I've gotten through one class party in kindergarten. I'm just so thrilled that things are starting to slow down.

I had some karma bite me in the butt yesterday. At about 5pm last night, Jacob tells me that he needs to work on his book project that's due today. Okay, so what do you have to do? First, he needs to read the book (The Summer of the Swans...he hadn't even started!) and then he needs to do a book report and make a project for it as well. Ugh. Well, we got through it with time to spare and his diorama looked really good. It certainly brought back memories of Mom typing my term paper at 11pm the night before it was due. It does seem that the kids have picked up my procrastination gene. Poor things.

Halloween was fun. The kids got lots of good candy during trick-or-treating and even got to go with some of their friends. Mike took them out and I stayed home to man the door...although the doorbell only rang twice. Oh well.

Mike and Jacob went on a den camping trip this weekend. Jacob finally caught his first fish. His group also won the fire starting contest, which doesn't sound good when it's written out in a blog. LOL!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to going out and voting tomorrow. I'm hoping that everyone voted early (and aren't planning to vote often!) and that the lines will be short. I love election day. Don't forget that you can get free coffee at Starbucks after you vote!

Snippets

Sunday, Daniel comes inside after being out with some friends. He's excited because his friend, Matt, has given him a gift. He brings it over to me. I see that it is a package of rattlesnake eggs. After thoroughly looking over the packaging, Daniel tells me to open it and check out the eggs. I open the envelope and it starts buzzing and shaking. I scream as I throw the envelope across the room. Daniel's laughing hysterically as he shows me a rubber band thing inside the envelope. The boy got me and he got me good.

Jiu Jitsu class has begun 4 nights a week now. After two nights in a row, I'm so sore that I can hardly bend over. And I get to do it all over again tonight!

Mike stayed long enough on Monday night to see Roxanne and me begin our practice. After Roxanne took me down and finished the move, Mike poked his head in and quietly said, "that was hot!" He had enough presence of mind to leave, pretty much, immediately.

Daisy thinks she's a cat. She follows Guillermo around and even tried eating some of Guillermo's food last night. I even caught the two of them all curled up together. After making sure Guillermo was only cleaning Daisy and not eating her, I left them alone. Daisy's a strange bunny, that's for sure.

We got our letter about the first day of school today. Now I really feel like the summer is over.

St. Patrick's Day

I always confuse St. Patrick's Day with the Ides of March. Oh well.

Dad came and spent the weekend with us...I guess he left a little before 3am this morning in an effort to avoid the storm that was heading this way. It started raining at about 6am and really hasn't stopped. For a while, we had some good thunderstorms but now it's straight rain. The weather radio went off around noon telling us that there's a flood warning. I can definitely see why. It's only been raining for a few hours now but I'm already tired of it. It's that nasty, cold rain. I hate that.

Last night, the kids were bargaining for new Game Boy/DS games. After some "negotiating," Daniel looks at Dad and says, "do you want a Game Boy? I'll give you this one for $35!" Amazingly, that's about how much a new DS game costs. LOL! We had a good, long laugh over that.

We braved the rain to get some groceries this afternoon. I decided to order Hannah's cake while we were at the store. We were looking through the catalog when the bakery manager asked if she could help. I told her that Hannah was looking for a cake and that she wasn't having any luck (princess cakes? No. Dora? No. This went on and on.). The manager asked what Hannah likes. I told her that she loves Littlest Pet Shop but I'm sure they don't have that. She says they do. When we found the photo of it, Hannah's face lit up and she started screaming, "yes! That's it!" So, we ordered her Littlest Pet Shop cake for Saturday and Hannah couldn't be more happy about it.

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!

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'm Tired

But I think it's a good tired, and I think that it may be because I'm thinking of what I have to do this week.

After I dropped the boys off at school this morning, Hannah and I went inside to go to the room mother meeting. I found the other room mother for Jacob's class, Betsey, and we started talking. It turns out that her son has been really wanting a playdate with Jacob. We think that we're going to do something on Friday, but we wanted to see what the boys wanted to do first.

Unfortunately, we're still known as the "new family." I wonder how long that will last. It is kind of funny, though...introducing myself to people and hearing them say, "oh! You moved in the middle of the year last year, right?" I laughed when I heard them say it to Betsey, too, since she moved here just a couple of weeks before us. I do have to say that it was really nice to be walking out of the school, laughing and talking with other adults. I came out of that meeting feeling pretty good about being here. Maybe it's not so bad after all. Ask me again in another month.

I guess being a room mother also entails being available at Meet-the-teacher Night on Thursday, because we're the "face of Morse, besides the teachers." Whatever that means. Betsey and I decided to break it up a bit, but I'm still going to have to be there later than I had anticipated. Ugh. You should see the packet of stuff I got today. Class sheets, sign-ups, approved snack lists, party info...the list goes on and on. And that's just for co-room mother. The head room mothers got a huge folder full of stuff. If you ask me, it's more work than it's worth, but who am I to say anything?

We came home, I cleaned and set up the crock pot for dinner. I'm actually quite shocked that the house is still pretty clean after 4 days. The laundry's not piled up, the beds are actually made and there's a vase of pretty, pretty sunflowers on the kitchen table. It really is easier to maintain a clean house than it is to get a dirty one clean. I keep telling myself that, anyway. At some point, I'm going to have to tackle the laundry room closet and pantry cabinets. Someday.

We have Tae Kwon Do tonight and the boys should "officially" get their orange belts. Grandmaster Lee gave them to the boys on Saturday, but I didn't get pictures, so I'm hoping that Master Dave will give them again so that I can get some. LOL!

Apparently, I've been yelling at Mike in my sleep. I had no idea. Mike asked me yesterday if he had been snoring and I said that I didn't think so, why? He said that I yelled something about something being "ridiculous" so loudly that he woke up and apologized. I wonder what I was dreaming about.

Sunday Funnies

I checked the weather blog this morning (as I do several times a day) and learned that we just may get hit by a hurricane in the next few days. LOL! Apparently, TD Erin has reorganized itself and is heading our way. Erin even has a redeveloped eye! It's funny to see the maps with this storm...seeing the classic circular cloud shape right over Okalahoma cracks me up. Click the link to the weather blog on the left to see the images.

Apparently yesterday, Jacob was in the bathroom and needed toilet paper. He called out to Mike, who said that he'd get him some. Then, Jacob yells from the bathroom, "It's in the laundry room, on the floor, in the closet." Mike said that it sounded so adult-like, and just like me. Apparently, I talk like that. Okay, so it was funny to me.

Hannah and Daniel were playing with these large building sticks yesterday afternoon. There was only one orange one, and I guess that was the most desired one. Anyway, Daniel and Hannah begin to fight over it. Mike tells Daniel that Hannah had it first so go downstairs and get another. Daniel tells him no that there are no more in the basement, this is the only one. Mike says that he's going downstairs and if he finds and orange one, Daniel's grounded. Mike stomps to the basement and Daniel hangs his head low and says to himself, "Ugh. I'm going to be soo grounded." LOL!

The Last Few Days of Summer

I have to start with a funny (to me) story. Yesterday, we decided to grill up some steaks. Yum. I had also made some au gratin potatoes and threw some corn on the cob on the grill for dinner as well. At some point, I went out to check on the grill and had asked Mike to stir the cheese sauce for me. I guess the oven timer went off so Mike turned it off. I come back in and finish the potatoes and get them into the oven. An hour later and I'm getting the corn and steaks off of the grill. I go to get the potatoes out of the oven and notice that it's not very hot in there. I look up at the top of the stove and see that the oven's off. Apparently, Mike had turned off my pre-heating oven instead of the timer. I was really upset at first but then realized that they're just potatoes and they were cooked...for the most part. LOL!

Today was the first day of Hannah's fall gymnastics class. Unless there were a couple of kids absent, there are only 2 other little girls in her class. She enjoys the heck out of this class. At some point, Kristy (Hannah's teacher) asked the girls if they could show her a bridge. Hannah jumps up and says that she can. She gets onto the ground, puts her hands by her sides and picks her tummy off of the ground. Kristy looks at her and tells her that's great...but that's a table. Not a bridge. You have to have your hands behind your head for a bridge (think backbend). I tell you what...Hannah can absolutely explain to you the difference between a bridge and a table. LOL!

We also went over to Hannah's preschool to drop off and pick up some paperwork. She's so excited. She's really excited to find out that Gwen, a little girl down the street, is in her class. Lisa and Morgan may also be in her class, but we're not sure just yet. She starts on September 5th.

The other night, I was walking through Wal-Mart and they had a lot of summer stuff marked down. I picked up two slip and slides for $10 ($5 a piece...just for clarification). They tear the crap out of the lawn that I've worked so hard on this summer, but the kids love it. They've beatten themselves up on the thing but they don't care. LOL!

Tomorrow, we head over to the boys' school to find out their teachers. They're also going to have PTO sign-ups, so I'm going to be all over that. Tomorrow night, they have a big back-to-school carnival that the kids are looking forward to. Should be fun.

Weekend Update

Wow it's been a few days since I've posted. Sorry about that. Mike's been home on vacation this week, so that's thrown things a bit. It has been nice to have him home, though.

When we came back from Nebraska, I went around and checked all of my plants. The ones that are planted in the ground were doing fine, the potted ones were a little wilty but it was nothing that a little water wouldn't fix. I was looking at my tomatoes and my cherry tomato plants were light on leaves. I looked down on the deck and saw all of these little poopies all over the deck. Ugh. Tomato hornworms. I searched and searched, but couldn't find any. Hannah comes out and spots one. Then another, and another. She found four and I managed to find 2. One was huge. Almost 6 inches long. Little bastards.

Hannah's still set on quitting ice skating. That's okay. Not only would it make my life so much easier, but then I wouldn't have to deal with her teacher anymore. I really don't like this lady. I don't think she's very good with kids in general and she never seems to want to be there. Thursday, Hannah fell while walking out and was crying...her teacher walked her to me and says, "she fell. I didn't see it." Then she walked away. Miss Charmin (yes, her name is Charmin), one of Hannah's teachers last spring and one of the heads of the rink, knows how much I hate this lady but there's not much she can do. I think there's only 3 more classes and then we're done. Hooray.

Hannah's really jumped into her new gymnastics and has said that's all she wants to do. She's discovered that she can do front rolls and does them all over the house. On Friday, they were working on hand stands and has been doing those wherever she can find an empty wall (they start out by walking their feet up a wall and holding them there). She's at the point (after only one day) where she can hold herself up really well. She's too cute. I am so glad that she's enjoying it and the bonus is she's learning a lot. I did have to laugh yesterday. We were driving down 151st, heading to class. 151st is a major road (think War Memorial, Knoxville, University...or for those of you in VA, Jubal Early or Pleasant Valley), of course, all of the roads here are major roads like that, unless you're in a subdivision. Anyway, we're driving along and there's a woman walking along the sidewalk. As she's walking, she's waving to every car that passes. I don't know why I found it so funny...I guess I could never imagine myself walking down University, waving at everyone.

Tomorrow is Jacob's birthday. Eight years old. Where has the time gone? We're having his party at the bowling alley and a lot of his friends are coming. He's really excited. Once again, everyone RSVP'd and we only had 2 "no" responses. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Mike and I are going out for dinner tonight. Paige, a girl from Tae Kwon Do, is babysitting for us. It's so funny how much effort we've put into cleaning the house for a 15 year old. LOL! The kids are excited (they love babysitters) and Mike and I are looking forward to getting out for the first time in a while.

So, I guess that's it from here. Boy, this week's been pretty boring.