Will It Stop...Ever?

**Update** According to my weatherman, as of 7AM, we've gotten 4.39 inches of rain (since Sunday morning, so that's a little better than 24 hours). Lee's Summit (to the north) has gotten a whopping 5.51 inches of rain in the same time frame. And it's still raining here!

It rained all day yesterday and it's set to rain most of today, and tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after (do you see a pattern forming here?). We got about 3 inches of rain yesterday and have gotten almost an inch already today and our backyard has become a pond again. I wonder how long it will take for it to dry out.

Dad called last night for a check-in and while we were talking, the weather radio went off. The display said "tornado warning" but the guy talking said that it was a "thunderstorm warning." The display eventually changed to say thunderstorm but it freaked me out a little. Mike casually asks, "Do we need to head to the basement?" No, not yet anyway. The weather radio was going off every 20 minutes or so, prompting Mike to make the comment, "It puts a level of stress on things that doesn't need to be there, doesn't it?" Yeah, but I like to have it if we need it. I got so tired of hearing the thing go off (for severe thunderstorm warnings) that I finally put the thing on display only around 10pm (it still beeps a little when you get an alert).

Jacob kept asking about the guy who delivers the warnings and such. Who is he? Does he know how wierd his voice is? Where is he coming from? Hannah loves to sit and listen to it. She gets angry when a girl comes on because she thinks that it should just be the guy. I think that this poor radio is going to get a workout in this area of the country.

Severe Weather

I'm sure you have all heard about the massive tornado that hit about 300 miles from here. It's crazy to think that a tornado can completely wipe out an entire town, but it did. Someone on the weather blog posted a link to the Wichita station and I was able to watch the storms roll through Western Kansas for most of the night. When I finally went to bed around 2am, there were still 3 active tornado warnings posted and about 5 towns had been hit. Wow. Welcome to Kansas.

They say that we have severe weather threats for this evening into tomorrow. Hopefully, it'll all miss us.

Say a little prayer for those hit by last night's tornado.

Promo

Here's next week's promo...



And here's a sneak peek at next week...

Another Grey's Post

First, let me say I'm a little upset with the way they did this. I was hoping for an hour of Grey's and then an hour of the Addison Show but they intermingled it all and there was too much going on with GA to spend so much time on Addison. However, I did like the spin-off. Plus, with Taye Diggs, you just can't go wrong.

That said...they really glossed over the Burktina wedding, Mer/Der issues, Gizzie and the whole Susan thing.

The wedding planning...I would have loved to have seen more at the bridal store. Seriously. That could have been really funny. Glossed over.

Mer/Der. Shonda's screwing up my favorite couple. The promo next week has me really scared. That girl Derek's talking to at the bar had better be another sister...if he hooks up with someone else, I may be done with this show.

Gizzie...okay, so there was tension between Izzy and Callie. So George and Izzy kissed in the elevator. Again, glossed over.

Then there's Susan. Can Meredith catch a break? She almost dies. Her mother dies and then her stepmother (as Sue would say) goes to kick it with Jesus? Ummm...okay.

I'm beginning to wonder about the mental stability of her highness, Shonda Rhimes. Two episodes left in the season, girl. Time to really kick it into high gear here!

Pile It On

So I just got off of the phone with Mrs. P, the school psychologist. They've had to tweak Daniel's behavior plan to work better for him. Apparently, Mrs. T, Daniel's teacher, is upset because the plan works for other kids in the class, but not for Daniel. Whatever. All I know is that they are now bribing Daniel to be good. He gets a good report for the day and he gets a Yu-Gi-Oh card. According to Mrs. P, Daniel wants to be good and is desperately trying but needs something tangible.

You wanna know what I think? I think it's all crap! I think they are expecting too much from these 5 and 6 year olds and are doing whatever they can to get these kids to act a year or two older than they are. Amazingly, more than 1/4 of the boys in his class have "behavior plans" and apparently are lacking social skills (something Daniel has NEVER lacked...I'm sorry, but it's BS). We didn't have any of these "problems" in Virginia...not in preschool or in his kindergarten.

In A Funk

I don't know if it's just because we haven't seen the sun in a while or what but I can't seem to shake this funk I'm in. I feel like I can't do anything right and the kids are driving me nuts. Hannah's been the worst offender. She seems to think that the more she nags and complains, the more she'll get. I think Daniel senses something and has been all lovey with me.

I'm tired of the moms at gymnastics. The only person I really talk to is one of the girls' nanny. The other moms are considerably older than me (we're talking pushing 50 here...their young kids are adopted and most have teenage/adult children) and I'm tired of feeling incompetent and inferior. You send your children to public school? You couldn't pay me to live in the area you do. They're just so snobby there. I would never live south of 95th Street. I'm just tired of it. Their kids are monsters...they don't listen to a thing anyone tells them, and half of the time don't even participate at all. Their mothers don't want to discipline them because "they had such a rough first 7 months of life back in China/Guatamala." Whatever. You are not doing your child any favors ladies.

Ugh!!!

For Dad

Saw a license plate holder that said

I'm not speeding...I'm QUALIFYING!

Seen Today...

I was driving past the Shell station on my way to get Daniel from school this morning and I had to laugh when I saw the gas prices:

87 Octane: $2.99/gallon

Plus Fuel: Both Arms

Premium Fuel: Both Legs

Hey...What Is That Thing?

The other night, I was out checking out the flowers in the garden when I spotted something. I thought Jacob might like to see it, so I ran in to get him. Luckily, it was still there when we came back.

We both stood back and watched as what I thought was a hummingbird, went from flower to flower, sucking nectar with it's long tongue. Jacob looked closer and told me that it couldn't be a hummingbird because it had antenna. Hmmm. But it's the right size and hovers and acts just like one. After it had buzzed Jacob and completely scared the daylights out of him, we went it to see if we could find out what it was.

We looked up hummingbirds but couldn't find anything that looked like what we saw. We looked up moths but couldn't find anything that looked like what we saw. After a while, we gave up for the night and decided we'd give it another try later.

Jacob had mentioned to his teacher that we had seen something in the backyard that looked like a hummingbird but had antenna. She quickly said that it was probably a hummingbird moth. Hmmm. Never heard of one. As soon as Jacob got home from school, he quickly Googled it and, just like that, was a picture of what was buzzing around in the garden. You can take a peek right here. (if you click the top picture of the white-lined sphinx moth after going to the page, you'll see more photos of it.)

It was pretty cool to see and I hope that he comes back.

Can You Say Overprotective?

I took Daniel to the dentist this morning to have his cavities filled. Hannah was having a great time playing with the Duplos in the little play area they have. It's a nice sized area that has a little bitty opening for an entrance. She'd come out every now and then to show me the car that she was making for me. I had just finished my 4th magazine when a lady and her 7 year old daughter (I know because I heard her tell the receptionist) walked in. (I'm so happy I had pen and paper available to write all of this down! LOL!)

The mother was handed a clipboard to fill out paperwork for her daughter. The daughter was looking at the fish in the tank (they have a cool tank that has a lot of the same types of fish as in Finding Nemo) and was causing no problems to anyone. This mother was following her kid around the tank with the clipboard, trying to fill out the paperwork. She followed this kid everywhere. The girl went into the little play area and the mom followed, with the clipboard. She kept telling the girl to, "stay with mommy." But she wanted to play with the toys and the other kids. Seriously, where's the kid going to go, anyway? One of the hygenists came out to do a quick look at her teeth before actually doing the cleaning and the mother insisted on going (they had asked her to stay behind). I really thought that this was the end of the story, but they came back out a minute later, the mother still trying to fill out the paperwork.

Right after they came back out, the mother said something about not being able to get anything done. Umm, well, if you'd sit down and let your kid play, you'd get it done just fine.

So, the following begins again. The other kids were looking at this mother like she was nuts and no one wanted to play with the little girl because the mom kept interferring. At some point, the mom finished the paperwork and while she was handing it to the receptionist, the little girl went into the play area. The mom freaked out! When she saw that she was in the play area, she looked at the girl, picked her up and said, "you were lost! You can't just wander off like that! I was scared!" WTF? She had walked 7 feet away.

Anyway, the mom proceeds to sit down at the entrance of the play area and would comment and correct everything the girl was doing. Since no one would play with her, she got bored pretty quickly. She wanders out of the playroom and over to a thing they have set up for toddlers. She starts playing with some of the beads (the mother's right on top of her again) and just when she looks like she's starting to have a little fun, the mother tells her, "Okay, it's someone else's turn." Number one, there were no other kids around and two, it was big enough for 4 kids to play with.

She goes back into the play area (her mom sits down at the entrance again) and the girl starts to play with the wooden trains they have. At one point, she pushes a train down the track and it flies off the table. No big deal, right? This mother actually freaked out. "It's okay! It's okay! We'll fix it! We can put it back!" She yelled so loudly that the other kids jumped. You could tell the girl was so annoyed with her mom, she kept rolling her eyes and sighing. I've never quite seen anything like it.

On another note, they said that Daniel did a great job at the dentist. They also told me that Daniel will go really far in life because he's so persistent, smart and funny. All are completely true. I do have to laugh because he got so tired of waiting for the dentist that he walked out to the lobby because he was bored. The dentist saw him pretty quickly after that! LOL!

More On Tae Kwon Do

Today was the last day of the boys' orientation class. We decided to go ahead and enroll them in the kids' beginner class, which they start tomorrow. This school only has two types of memberships: individual and family (which would cover all of us). Since we have two, it made sense to get the family membership. Shock of all shocks, Mike signed up for the adult beginner class. He also starts tomorrow. The kids were excited to get their outfits and white belts (Mike got one to and is now referring to himself as Rocky V...long story). I hope they stick with it.

Oh Daniel

Yesterday evening, we were outside playing. Okay, so the kids were playing and I was cleaning out the car...anyway, the kids heard the ding-ding of the ice cream truck and asked if they could have some. Why not? It's hot and ice cream sounds nice. So, we wait for the truck to pull around the cul-du-sac and the kids start yelling out what they want. I told them not to get too attached to a particular kind because he may be out. They tell me okay.

So, the truck pulls up. Hannah had wanted Pink Panther ice cream, but he was out. The guy starts telling the kids what he does have and Daniel chimes in, "I can't understand what you are saying. Where are your teeth?" I quickly diverted his attention elsewhere and I don't think he heard but I was still really embarrassed. Nice one, Daniel!

For Debbie

Here's our photo from MOPS and POPS night. I hadn't posted it because I think I look horrible. Whatever. Here you go...

A Nice Evening Out

After all of the tornado stuff last night, we headed over to the church for MOPS and POPS night. The kids were all dressed in their pj's since they were having a pajama party. We dropped the kids off in their rooms and Mike and I went over to have a nice dinner with other parents.

The theme was Survivor: Parenthood and each table was seperated into different tribes. We were the Baby Booger Nose tribe. LOL! They took our picture (much like at prom) and gave it to us before we left. After dinner, there were four games. Each tribe had to send a member up to compete. Mike competed in the Parenting 101 Q and A challenge and came up with a very funny answer to the question (something about accidentially leaving a child at home alone). There was also Snugli Limbo (limbo with a doll attached to your chest) and an eating competition. That one was hysterical! They had to eat a jar of baby food peas, meat sticks, a piece of melba toast and wash it down with a sippy cup of milk. Three of the guys were sucking so hard on the sippy cups, the lids came off and they were splashed with their cupful of milk. Too funny. I competed in the Parent Multi-tasking and Agility contest. I had to stand on a block, pick up a doll, a burp rag, a binkie, a diaper bag, car keys, cell phone, and stand on one foot. I was out of the competition before they were squirted with water guns and then had to hold an infant car seat. My leg still hurts today.

We had so much fun mingling with other people (I already knew most of the moms from MOPS) and the kids had a great time too. They were still talking about it this morning.

Oh What Fun

So, I'm sitting at the computer this afternoon when my weather radio goes off. I figured that it was just some sort of test or maybe something with a thunderstorm. I did not expect to hear...

"The National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Warning, effective until 5:30"

Then, the phone rang. The Weather Channel telling me to get into the basement. WTF? I took a peek outside and heard the sirens going off and told the kids to head to the basement. I grabbed the weather radio and a flashlight and followed. We turned the TV on and started to watch the weather when Hannah starts freaking out that Guillermo's outside. So, yes, stupid me went outside to find Guillermo. He wasn't hard to find since he was panicking at the door. I don't know if he thought something was up but I was going to trust his instincts and head back into the basement. We stayed there until the radar said everything had passed.

So, we've survived our first tornado warning here in Kansas. Yay us!

Okay...I'm Not A Happy Camper Right Now

WTF?!? I almost broke the TV tonight. After more than a year of waiting for Meredith and Derek to get back together, THEY BREAK UP????? Ummm...Shonda Rhimes is so NOT my favorite person right now. I'm so mad right now that I am seriously thinking of jumping ships. I may just have to get behind Meredith and Mark. Okay. Maybe I'm just really upset but someone really needs to kick the crap out of Derek!

And we all know that George is not transferring to Mercy West. Callie's going to divorce him and he's going to end up with Izzy. Seriously.

What are these people doing to me!!!!????!!!!

Oh...and I may just have to hate Thatcher even more after seeing the promo for next week (yeah, he slaps Meredith right across the face. Bastard)...

The Longest Day

I swear this has been the longest day of my life. I went to Jacob's conference this morning...all three kids in tow. We talked nothing of Jacob's achievements or deficiencies in school...just went over a family project he completed. While the project was nice, it's not really conference worthy in my opinion. And we got up early for it. Oh well.

Mike called at 7:15 asking if I'd seen his wallet. After a bit of looking without finding it, he said that maybe it fell out of his coat and was in the garage. Sure enough, it was on the floor. After the conference, Hannah and I headed over to Mike's office to deliver it to him.

Because it was already 9:15 when we left his office, I had only time to run home to get Hannah's leotard for gymnastics, not change her into it. We arrived at gymnastics with five minutes to spare and she was able to change and didn't miss any of her class.

For whatever stupid reason, I decided to not take the Interstate home from gymnastics, but took surface streets. Big mistake. What normally takes 20 minutes, took 40. Luckily, we weren't late picking up Daniel.

So, we finally arrive home and I get the kids lunch. Out of nowhere, I get a huge migraine. It's finally knocked down to a manageable level but it still hurts.

Grey's Anatomy had better be really good tonight.

I Just Realized It's Only Tuesday

All evening I've been thinking it's Wednesday. Ugh. And I was looking forward to Grey's tomorrow!

I was woken up around 4:30am to the sound of Jacob screaming. Full on screaming. He feels like he's going to throw up. Great (of course I didn't say that). I give him a Pepto and stay with him for a few minutes before telling him that if he needs me again to come get me. 5:00am, more screaming. He acts as though it might happen, but doesn't. He says that he's going to try to go back to sleep. I stumble back to bed muttering something about the kids always being sick on MOPS days. 7:30am, I decide to be the kind of mom I hated when I was teaching. I'm pumping him full of Motrin and sending him to school (and he was full of energy when I picked him up from school at 3:35).

I cried my way through the MOPS meeting. It didn't help that the first person I ran into (other than the mentor moms at the door) was Shana. She asked me how I was and I told her that for whatever reason, this week's been hard. She said that it had been for her too. That was when we both lost it. Lots of talk about Mother's Day and that sort of thing. I really don't think I heard a word of what the speaker said. One of the girls announced that her son was just diagnosed with autism last Wednesday. This poor group has been hit hard this semester. Three of us have lost someone close to us (two parents and one sibling), one autism diagnosis, two miscarriages and one member's baby boy died 30 minutes after birth (they were expecting him to be stillborn so they were thankful for the 30 minutes). What kind of group did I join? Seriously, though, it's been nice to connect with people going through similar things.

Shana convinced me to join the summer Bible study at the church. She's so excited and already has it all planned that she's going to pick me up since I'm on her way. LOL! I've never done a Bible study before, so I'm really curious about it. Should be interesting.

I had a make up conference with Daniel's teacher today. And the two reading specialists. And the school psychologist. Because "we're a team," don't ya know. I felt like an idiot because I cried three times during the conference as well. Once because I was so proud of something Daniel did in class and twice because I really thought that they were going to suggest medication for Daniel. I have to give it to them...they never used the phrases "ADHD" or "medication" at all. The lead reading specialist informed me that she felt that Daniel is incredibly smart but just wants to do what he wants to do. She also feels that he is within all "normal" levels for reading but could still use the small group instruction. She said that academically, he's on target for reading and is above average in math. His teacher told me that he is the best artist in the class and uses detail that none (yes, I said none) of the other kids are using. Now, if we could just get him on task and keep him there.

We were going to try a new system that breaks his day up into 15 minute sections. He gets two "grades" (happy face/sad face) for being on task and following directions for each 15 minutes. I asked his teacher if this was too much work for her and her response to me was, "oh, no. We already do this for 3 other boys in the class." Hmmm. Do I see a pattern here? Oh well. Daniel and I went over the new system this evening and he says he gets it. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. So, my 30 minute conference turned into 60 and the only reason it broke up was because school was over.

We went outside to wait at the benches for Jacob. My mind was swimming (you would think that I'd be used to this kind of thing but it's different when it's your kid) and I didn't notice Jacob's teacher come and sit next to me. I don't know how long she'd been there but she scared me when she said my name. She wanted to set up a make up conference with Jacob. I was so disoriented that I actually agreed to meet her at 8am on Thursday. What was I thinking?

The World According To Hannah

Last night, we were watching Planet Earth. They ran an episode on caves and we were watching water running through one. Jacob says that he'd like to drink that water because it looks like tea and it's probably really fresh and clean. Hannah begins telling Jacob that he can't drink that water. Jacob asks why.
Hannah says, "because that's water for animals. It's animal water. If you drink it, you will turn into an animal."
I'm curious so I ask her, "what kind of animal do you become?"
She says, "you turn into a monkey."
I then ask, "so, if you drink animal water and become a monkey and then you drink people water, will you turn into a person again?"
She says, "no! You'll become a coin. Really. You will."
Jacob starts laughing. I'm just sitting there with a question mark above my head. Jacob says that he knows what she's talking about. "Enlighten me," I say.
Jacob says, "on an episode of Bo-Bo-Bo, he turned into animals and then he turned into a coin." Hannah then begins telling me about the entire episode.

I think the kids watch too much TV. LOL!

Working In The Yard

Yesterday, the kids and I headed up to Wal Mart...the original purpose was to get drinks because we were completely out of juice. I had told Dad that I was leery to plant much more than what I already had because my weather guy said that we should expect one more freeze before the end of the month but I couldn't help myself. I got two rose plants (Jacob picked out a purply-pink one and I picked out a yellow one) and we got some assorted annuals. Hannah picked out some light purple wave petunias and Jacob picked out a New Guinea Impatien. Daniel picked out a big yellowish flower that I had as an inside plant in Virginia but we planted it outside. They had some really pretty orangish-peach begonias that I think I may plant in the back if they still have them when I go back there. I completely forgot about the side of the house and need to figure out what I'm going to do there. Of course, it's going to take a little while to clean it out but I may just plant more petunias there.

For Sue: I went out to get the paper this morning and the headline I saw through the plastic wrapper on the paper was Sofa For Life. I thought of Sophia. I know, I'm a dork. LOL!

It's A Good Day

Seriously! It is because Sanjaya was finally voted off American Idol. It's about time. I do have to say that it'll be sad to not have his hair in the competition, though. I was really worried because the bottom three had Blake in it. So not cool. My guess is that so many people were voting for Chris that they didn't vote for Blake. I did tell Mike that if Blake had been voted off instead of Sanjaya (or Lakisha for that matter) I was done with AI. As soon as they sent Blake back to safety, I told Mike that I was glad that I could continue enjoying the show.

We caught the end of another good show, Thank God You're Here, since we went to a good Mexican restaurant after Tae Kwon Do last night. This has become Mike's favorite show. During one of the warm up rounds, they had the contestants pretending to be chefs promoting their new restaurant, The Buddha Baby. Ordinarily, that wouldn't have been funny, but we used to call Daniel 'Buddha Baby' when he was an infant. We all had a really good laugh about that.

I got the rest of the backyard done yesterday and got a few things planted. Some hydrangeas, daisies, pink coneflowers and black-eyed susans. It looks so sparse right now and I have to resist the urge to plant much more in there because I know that once they are full size, they'll be huge and will fill up most of the area. The hydrangeas alone are 4-5 feet across and high and there are two of them in there. I can't wait until midsummer when everything should be blooming...that is if I don't manage to kill everything off.

An Awesome Phone Call

I dropped Jacob off at his party and the rest of us headed home. We hadn't been home but a few minutes when the phone rang. On the other end was my MOPS coordinator and table mate, Shana, who called to ask if she could bring me a meal tomorrow. Shana is a very sweet and thoughtful person. After we talked about the meal delivery, we talked for a little while about how I'm doing. Now, this is someone who lost her sister two months ago, also very suddenly, calling to ask if I'm okay. She and I prayed together for a little while and then cried for each other.

She told me that she was so happy that I felt comfortable enough to let them know what was going on and I told her that I worried that I was burdening her by telling her about it. Especially so close to her loss. She said to me, "God works in amazing ways. He put the two of us at the same table for a reason. We can work to heal together." Wow.

Note To Self

Do not use a hoe on a huge garden area while wearing rings on your hands. You get blood blisters on one hand and big old swelly puss filled ones on the other. Nice.

Another Random Post

Hannah pulled out her dress-up box last night and has been making herself a princess ever since. I swear this is the most she's played with these clothes since she got it at Christmas. She's having a lot of fun with it.

I got one more area in the backyard done yesterday. This pretty much just leaves the big back rectangle to tackle. That's going to take some time. I'm a little concerned for any plants I put in because of the rabbits outside. Babs, Buster and Topper. Hannah got all excited this morning because she saw Babs and Buster in the neighbor's backyard. I went to look with her and quickly realized that Hannah was getting a pretty graphic sex ed lesson. Just what I needed to see at 9AM. The whole thing was broken up by Topper, who chased Babs and Buster all around the backyard. I suppose that it is indeed Spring.

The boys have early release again today. Why? I don't get why they have so many early release days. Seriously. It's so annoying.

I got a call yesterday afternoon from a girl in my MOPS group. She wanted to know if she could drop by a lasagna for us for dinner. I immediately thought about the pot roast I had in the crock pot and thought that I could just freeze the lasagna for another time. I was outside talking with my neighbor, Beth, when she dropped by. Beth immediately started laughing because this lady just handed me a bag with a frozen Stoffer's lasagna in it. Beth says, "she could have at least heated it up!" We're laughing about it when Amy ATS comes up to talk to me about Daniel (like her kids are complete angels, but that's another story) and tells me that she buys those lasagnas all of the time and they are really tasty. Beth (who actually seemed annoyed that someone would just hand me a frozen lasagna) takes another look in the bag proclaims that it's a regifted food item. I say "what?" She says that someone has written the word "congratulations" on the box in a big black sharpie. LOL! They most certainly did! Oh well. She didn't have to bring me anything at all.

Another Monday

The sky is a cloudless blue and it's in the upper 60's today. I was able to go out and work on some of the garden areas in the yard. I've pretty much gotten the front done. I'm going to wait a little longer to plant the petunias and whatnot but everything's all ready for it. The backyard is a completely different story. I haven't done a thing to prepare it and you can tell. Maybe tomorrow.

I miss Mom a lot today. It doesn't help that Daniel finally got it. The first thing he said to me when he got in the car after school was, "I want to die." I asked him why. He said that was the only way he could get to see Mee Maw again. It broke my heart. We ended up talking a lot about her and looking at some pictures because he told me that he can't remember what she looks like. He's doing better now, but I just can't get her off of my mind today.

Home

This is a fairly new song by Chris Daughtry and I've loved it since I first heard it. However, in the past couple of weeks, when it comes on the radio, I almost have to pull over because I can't see through the tears. I'm not sure why this song gets me so much, but it does. The link will play the song and I've got the words below.



Home by Chris Daughtry

I'm staring out into the night,
Trying to hide the pain.
I'm going to the place where love
And feeling good don't ever cost a thing.
And the pain you feel's a different kind of pain.

I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old
So I'm going home.
Well I'm going home.

The miles are getting longer, it seems,
The closer I get to you.
I've not always been the best man or friend for you.
But your love, remains true.
And I don't know why.
You always seem to give me another try.

So I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old.

Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all,
And then some you don't want.
Be careful what you wish for,
'Cause you just might get it all.
You just might get it all, yeah.

Oh, well I'm going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I'm not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don't regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old.
I said these places and these faces are getting old.
So I'm going home.
I'm going home.

It Is Spring, Right?

It rained off and on (mostly on) all day and changed over to snow around 7 tonight. How strange. We've got about 1/2 inch on the ground right now and it's just supposed to keep snowing through the night. Apparently, we broke a record on this day last year at 92 degrees. Huh. I hope it warms up soon.

Hannah had ice skating again today. She's off the walker and is able to slowly meander her way around the ice on her own. The only problem is that she can't get up by herself yet, so when she falls, she needs help. But she does get right back up and keeps going.

There was a new kid in her class today. I guess the dad had signed the little boy up, wanting him to learn to skate so that he could play hockey, because the mom was pissed about her boy being in a "figure skating" class. The dad had also picked the kid up some hockey skates that were way too big for him and the mom was upset about that too. She complained the whole class about how it would be okay if she had a little girl because it's "graceful and flowing...kind of like ballet" but her kid's a boy and he shouldn't be taking this class. The other two moms and I were annoyed with this lady for the whole class.

The kids all got haircuts this afternoon. Jacob and Daniel got the standard cut and Hannah got a little more than a trim. She was mad that I didn't have the girl cut more off. Yeah, I'm keeping it short because she won't let me put it up (most days, she won't even let me brush it) but there's only so far I'll let it be cut.

For whatever reason, I got the cleaning bug tonight. I had really only intended to just pick up the stuff off of the floor but it became a full on clean. The only thing I still need to do is mop but with the yuck outside, I don't want to bring the dog in on my clean floors just to have dog prints. So, the mopping waits. I still need to put away laundry and wash towels and sheets but it looks really nice.

dkjfal;kdjfdoisujLWKRNIJLKMSALKJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say that I'm not having the day that Sue is but it still feels pretty sucky. I went downstairs to check on the Tivo and add some stuff when I made the realization that the Tivo hadn't recorded anything for the whole week. Huh. I did some checking and discovered that it hadn't recorded because it couldn't connect with the Tivo service center. I tried to do it manually but kept getting the error message that the line was busy for each attempt. (our Tivo uses our phone line to dial in) Considering no one was up at 3 AM to even make phone calls, I thought something might be up. I checked out our modem and saw that both phone lines were on. Hmmm. I called Comcast (I'm beginning to believe that they aren't as Comcastic as they say they are) and they can't get anyone out here until Sunday. I'm just so tired of them. We've had nothing but problems with Comcast since we've moved here and I'm sick of it. Luckily, we can use our phone but I'm pretty mad that we can't record anything from the Tivo.

I'm Tired

And I really shouldn't be. I got enough sleep last night. I don't know.

The boys had Tae Kwon Do again last night. Jacob was loving it until there was a step-punch combo that he couldn't get and then he cried in the corner for the rest of the class. The instructor talked to him after class but he still came out saying that he wanted to quit. Sorry. You have to at least finish it out. My guess is he'll forget about what made him so mad next week. Daniel certainly enjoyed the heck out of himself, so I guess it wasn't all bad.

Hannah had gymnastics today. Her favorite part is the balance beam and jumping off of the vault. She loves that. All afternoon, she would touch her hands on her toes, put her nose to her belly and roll. Just like her teacher taught her. It makes me sick just how flexible she is...she can do that butterfly thing perfectly. You know, where you sit on the floor and touch the bottoms of your feet together and pull your heels in as close as you can to your body. Her little knees lay completely flat on the floor when she does it. She can also put her nose on her knees while reaching past her toes, and her legs are flat on the floor. I can't ever remember being that flexible. Tomorrow, she has ice skating. That's her favorite activity.

I got a postcard today from the police department property division telling me that they had something of mine and I could come pick it up. I was doing the happy dance from the mailbox into the house...then I read that the item was a red diaper bag. That wasn't mine. They found that in the street. Grrr. Thanks so much for getting my hopes up.

It's supposed to snow tomorrow. 1-3 inches. This just isn't right. I want to get out and plant and work in the yard! Middle Kansas has winter storm watches and warnings out. Isn't this April? WTF?

Hey...Good Luck...We're Over Here!

Last night, both Hannah and Jacob were up sick. Jacob crying because his ear hurt and Hannah because she was coughing and her stomach hurt. Jacob said he felt okay this morning so I went ahead and sent him to school. Five minutes after we got home, I got a call from the nurse saying that she thought Jacob had an ear infection and probably needed to see the doctor. I went ahead and scheduled an appointment for Hannah as well since she has run out of both her Singulair and her albuterol. We went in and Jacob has a double ear infection...so bad in his right ear that it's compromising his hearing. Hannah seems to just have a cold but the doctor gave her another prescription for Singulair and one for a nebulizer medicine similar to albuterol (called Xopenex). In the past two weeks, Jacob has now missed 5 days of school. I was able to get his teacher to send homework so that we could try to catch up. Because of all of this, I missed my MOPS meeting. Can we just get a little bit of normalcy around here?

Tae Kwon Do

The boys had their first lesson tonight and they loved it. There are a whopping 3 kids (including my 2 boys) in the class. That's okay, though. I swear the girl teaching the class was all of 14, but she did a great job. She came to talk to us after the class and said that she felt that Daniel did well...she was older than him on her first lesson and she wouldn't kick, so he was doing well. She also said that she felt Jacob had great potential and could go really far if he stuck with it.

After the class, we went over to Applebee's since Mike's team had graciously given us a gift card. They also gave us a gift card for Chili's which will come in handy later. So wonderfully sweet of them.

When we got home, I noticed that there was a package of some sort on the front porch. I walked up and saw that it was a pan of carrot cake and a card. Our neighbors Beth and Craig had baked it for us. There has also been a steady stream of sympathy cards coming in the mail. It's so nice to know that I have such wonderful friends who are thinking of us.

Monday

Two of my three boys are sick with colds. I don't know how Mike's feeling today but Jacob is home sick. He sounds like he's going to cough his insides out. When I went up to the school to drop off Daniel, Mr. L, the principal, opened up the door and said, "welcome back to school, Jacob." I said, "I'm keeping him home today, he's not feeling well." He looked at Daniel and said, "Ok, well, welcome back to school, Daniel." I like that he knows their names...their old principals couldn't pick half of the kids out of a lineup.

The boys start Tae Kwon Do tonight. It'll be interesting to see how they do. Yes, I'm going to let Jacob go...he's already missed the first two classes.

Thanks to the grief diet, I've managed to lose 10 pounds in the past week. Unhealthy? You betcha. However, if I eat more than a few bites of anything, I get really sick to my stomach. I figure that eating a few bites and being able to keep it down is better than eating a normal portion and having it come up. So, I've been doing a lot of slow grazing.

Saturday afternoon, my neighbor's son, Paul (he's about 13), knocked on the door. In a little voice (and with Larry, his Dad, looking on from the street) he says, "I'm starting a lawn mowing service and was wondering if you'd like me to mow your lawn." Yes! Yes, I do! It was getting to the point where we'd lose small children in it. Of course, there are areas that are just dirt, but a good deal of the bare spots have filled in quite nicely. At this point, I'm going to see how much it all spreads this summer and try again in the fall.

Trying to figure out where to put a redbud tree. Jacob said he wants to plant one in the front yard so that everyone can see it. There just doesn't seem to be a good place for it. I'd like to cut down that little bitty pine in the front yard and put it there. That might be nice.

Easter

The kids have had a pretty good Easter. We filled and hid eggs for them and they enjoyed their Easter baskets. Unfortunately, it'll be a while before I can look at ham (I know that's true for many of us) so we're having Easter Macaroni and Cheese for dinner tonight.

It Just Gets Better and Better

Last night, I left the garage door open and didn't realize that purses and wallets and computers were in the cars. Someone came in and took my purse and wallet, Mike's laptop, my cell phone and camera. 3AM and we've got an officer in our house, trying to get things cancelled. The officer said that if they are caught, they will be charged with felony (because the cars were technically inside the house and they came in) aggravated (because we were home) burglary. He was able to lift some prints from the cars so with any luck that'll lead to something.

I just want to strangle the little buggars.

Life Goes On

We returned home to Kansas today...as we pulled in, the evidence of our lives put on hold is more than obvious. Five days worth of mail packed into our mailbox. Five days worth of newspapers stacked neatly on our front porch by our neighbor. The "Sorry I missed you" sign on the door from the Schwan's guy. The lawnmower pulled out slightly in the garage because we were going to mow. Inside the house, 55 degrees because it was in the 70's when we left and I had turned off the heater. The Sunday newspaper in a pile on the kitchen table, half read because I hadn't finished it when I got the call. How to move on...

Even though we had called Dad and Deb to let them know we had pretty much made it home, there was an overwhelming sense that I needed to call my Mom to let her know we were here. After we had gotten dinner and had the kids in the tub, I crawled into my bed for the first time since Sunday morning. I closed my eyes and desperately wished we could all go back to the way it was. I managed a nap on the couch this evening and around 11, Mike nudged me upstairs to bed. I can't sleep. This overwhelming sadness is crushing me...but I will move on.

Update

For anyone interested, here is a link to my mom's obituary page. I know it would mean a lot to my Dad if everyone signed the guest book on the page. Thanks for your sympathies and prayers...they mean a lot. I'll post more later.


Peoria Journal Star

I will not be blogging for a while. I got a phone call from my sister this morning that said my mother had died. I am completely heartbroken.

Dinner and a Show

Mike and I were able to get out last night without the kids. The girl we met at the pottery store agreed to babysit for us and Mike and I went to see Blue Man Group.

I've heard many people talk about Blue Man Group and how awesome it is but I really had no idea what to expect. Now I understand why no one could really give a description because I don't know if you can really describe what we saw last night.

Part comedy show, part art performance, part rock concert, part social statement...so much going on and nothing like what I had expected. They had this one drum that every time they hit it, my sternum shook. If you ever get the chance to see them, definately go!

Coming home was really interesting. We had followed some people down to the arena (aka the Death Ride) and were pretty much on our own getting home. We knew that there were two interstates nearby but weren't sure how to get to either one. We wound up following the Kansas plates (everyone seems to be turning here kind of thing) and got on the right interstate. It wasn't as hard as we thought it was going to be.

It was just so nice to be able to get out of the house. I know I say this every time we get out, but it seems like we don't get out that often, so I really appreciate it when we do. Maci (our sitter last night) isn't quite as good as Anna, but the kids liked her and she did leave a very nice note for the kids saying how much fun she had.

Ice Skating

Hannah had her first ice skating lesson today. It was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. There are two other little girls in her class...one on the same level she is and one is far more advanced. We had to walk down a long hallway to get to the rink ...it's a little one just for young kids. Hannah's teacher and I had to hold her up as she walked down the hall with her skates on. I figured that if the walk was any indication, after 5 minutes on the ice, Hannah would be crying that she wanted to go home.

We weren't allowed in the ice area since it's so small but they had windows we could watch through. Her teacher gave Hannah a walker and put her on the ice. To my surprise, she loved it! Every time she fell (which really wasn't often) she'd get right back up and keep going. By the end of the 30 minutes, she was able to let go of the walker, pick up a toy and stand back up. I was highly impressed. When it was over, I asked Hannah if she wanted to take off her skates right then and she told me no. So, we walked the long hallway back to the skate rental. She didn't want a hand to hold and insisted on doing it herself...and she did. Just like she'd always been doing it.

She's so excited for next week. I wonder how long she'll have to use the walker.

I didn't get great pictures since I was taking them through a window, but I thought these were cute. She's the one wearing the stiped pants.

This Freaked Me Out For A Minute...

I could see the storm rolling in when we got up this morning. The sky was completely black to our south and west and I was just hoping to get the kids to school before the rain started. It was almost over the house when we were walking out the door and still no rain. As we were driving, a huge bolt of lightening hit somewhere close and I told Jacob and Daniel that once I pulled up in front of the school they were to run into the school. Apparently, a lot of parents told their kids that because I saw tons of kids running full speed into the school.



I pull out of the lot and Hannah asks me if it's storming. I tell her not yet. I turn my head to make sure I'm not going to hit anything as I pull out onto the road and I see this (yeah, I usually carry a camera with me)...


I don't think I have to say outloud what I thought it was at first. Luckily, it was just a really heavy band of rain that looks to be right over my house (it wasn't, though). Cool, isn't it?

Happy Thursday

Lots of activity at the neighbor's house today. They had at least two showings and those there tonight were there for at least an hour. Of course, everyone (myself included...I know, I know) was standing in their driveway trying to get a peek at any potential new neighbors. LOL!

Hannah had her first gymnastics class today. She was so excited to get into her new leotard...she wore it all day! The park district has a nice big gymnastics facility and has a competitive gymnastics team (I know I'm thinking a little far into the future). I'm not sure yet how I feel about this program but I figure that no matter what I'll stick it out. I just don't see them learning a whole lot. She has them doing somersaults without showing them how to do it. Granted, most of the kids in the class have taken classes with this teacher before but there were two (Hannah and another girl) who didn't really know what to do. Eventually, she did help...I guess I'm just thankful that at this age they are mostly learning balance and flexibility. She loved it and I suppose that's all that really matters.

What I really hate about this gym class, though, is the distance. It takes between 20 and 25 minutes to get there, depending on traffic. It would be nice to find a gym closer, and I know that there are plenty.

15 minutes into Hannah's 55 minute class, my cell rings. The caller ID tells me that it's the school nurse. I sigh and answer the phone. She tells me that Jacob's in her office and doesn't feel well. He also looks really pale and she thinks it would be best if he just went home. She was not happy with me when I told her that it would be about an hour before I could get to the school (I was not pulling Hannah out of her class). She finally told me that Jacob could relax in on one of the beds until I could get there. I managed to get there an hour later and took everyone home. (BTW, Jacob looked fine to me)

I popped in Happy Feet for the kids to watch and Hannah was so exhausted she fell asleep. A little later, everyone went out to blow bubbles and play with chalk. Amazingly, Jacob's been fine all afternoon. I'm so shocked! LOL! Oh well. I guess everyone needs an afternoon off every now and then.

Tonight, we've had some great thunderstorms. I love thunderstorms. There's been some awesome lightening and thunder, as well as plenty of rain. In the few months we've been here, I think there've been more storms than what we had the entire time we were in VA. It's not nearly as pretty here, though.

Gossip Brings Out The Neighborhood

The kids and I went out into the yard this afternoon for the 2pm grass check and to play. As I begin to put out the sprinkler, I notice a car has pulled into my neighbor's driveway. I have it italicized because no one has lived in the house since we've been here. The house is completely empty. A few weeks ago, a big dumpster was loaded into the driveway and someone filled it with junk from inside but then it was gone. So, after the brief flurry of activity, the house sits empty again.

Today, Amy-Across-The-Street (I've since learned there's a third Amy on the street, although I'm not sure which house she's in...this brings my "Amy" total to 5) was also outside with her three girls and also sees the car pull in. We both look at each other and shrug. The stranger gets out, opens her trunk and pulls out a For Sale sign. This act brings Amy-A-T-S running, three girls in tow.

I'll admit that I was incredibly curious what was going on, especially after they began talking and Amy-A-T-S followed, what I now assume to be a realtor, inside the house. She comes out a few minutes later and the oldest girl, Sydney (AKA The Tattler, so called because she always informs me of Daniel's behavior in class) comes over to tell me that the house is clean. Ummm...okay. Thank goodness Amy-A-T-S saw my curiosity and came over to tell me what had happened.

Apparently, the house has been sitting vacant for about a year. The previous owners were very private people as they would pull into the garage and immediately close the door and never talked to anyone. A few times, the police were called to the house, leading to domestic violence speculation. No one knows for sure what was going on but one day, the house was empty. Everyone said that the house had been completely trashed before they left but it could never be confirmed and Amy-A-T-S was wanting to know if this was true, which is why she wanted to go in.

So, the house is now in foreclosure. The agent wouldn't give any specifics and there were no fliers left (although there is a box for fliers). Jackie (neighbor on the other side of the empty house) has decided that she has to know just how much that house is going for. She calls the number listed on the sign and acts like a person interested in the house. They give her all of the information she was looking for, gives us the bare minimum and runs inside her house (apparently, she and her husband are considering buying it for a flip). At this point, I realize it's time to get Jacob from school and head out.

When I come back, everyone is outside talking. Of course everyone's talking about "the house" and who they think will buy it. Will it be a neighbor or will someone we don't know come in and buy it? LOL! What's nice is I really got to know several of the neighbors that I hadn't met before. Hopefully now that the weather's getting warmer, I'll be able to get to know even more!

What's scary is everyone knows everyone's business. Hmmm...

Wednesday Already?

Wow. Where has the week gone?

It's been hard for everyone to get back into the routine. It shouldn't be that hard after a little better than a week. I mean, it's not like it was summer vacation but it has been difficult.

The boys got their report cards yesterday. No big shock that Jacob is doing well in Reading. We were a little surprised that he got 2's (they are on a 1-2-3 scale...1=A, 2=B/C, 3=D/F...confusing because it's the opposite for Daniel!) in science and math but got +'s in most of the other subcategories. Daniel is doing better. His strong suit is math and managed to get several 3's (remember their scale is backwards) in some of the math areas. We got a report from the Reading Specialist but I'm having trouble reading it. We have conferences with everyone next week.

The grass is beginning to grow! I know that I've been completely obsessing about it...what sane person goes out with a flashlight at 11pm to see if anything's coming up?!? LOL! Seriously, though. I did that. And it may have actually been closer to midnight. Anyhoo...I was out watering the other day when Amy from the cul-du-sac (as opposed to Amy across the street) came over to tell me how much better the yard looks this year. I looked at her, looked at the yard, looked back at her and said, "really?" She then told me that the previous owners had pretty much killed off every blade of grass last spring. She said that for most of the summer, it was all mud. I don't know if they tried reseeding last spring or fall but I'm thinking that they did a fairly good job if there was nothing here last year. It's just so cool to look out and finally see little blades of baby grass growing where there was nothing two weeks ago.

I've been trying to divert my attention from the grass by working on the little garden areas around the yard. I've gotten two completely done and one has a few pansies planted (Jacob begged to plant a few) I've still got a lot of work to do on the flower beds before I can plant anything. Good thing nothing's set to go into the ground for a while because I really think it's going to take about 2 weeks, if not longer, to get everything ready.

Here is a picture of the Dora cake I made for Hannah's birthday today.
I'm pretty proud of it. I'm always amazed at myself when I make these and they actually look like what they are supposed to! LOL!

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Can you believe that Hannah is 4 years old today?!? She's so excited and can't wait for her Dora cake (I actually got around to making her one!).

Planting Seeds

Jacob needed something to fill his "guess jar" for school on Monday, and after a week of thinking, we decided on seed packets. Jacob asked if we could get some seeds to plant ourselves and I said yes. Jacob planted some moonflowers and foxgloves while I got "kid sized" sunflowers (they only get about 32" tall) and snapdragons for Daniel and Hannah to plant. They loved it. They were good at filling up the cups, putting a hole in, putting in the seeds and then covering them up. The only thing I did was water. I can't wait to see what pops up!

Spring Break Fun

Yesterday, I took the kids bowling and today we went miniature golfing. Hannah called the bowling, "bowling balling" which was really funny.

Daniel gets ready to bowl...

Hannah insisted on picking up her own bowling ball every time.

Jacob had pretty good form!

Hannah would put the ball down and almost push the ball behind her to push it forward. Way too cute!

While Daniel preferred to pretty much throw the ball. I'm sure the bowling alley loves kids like this! LOL!

All three trying to get their balls into the hole at the same time.

Jacob and Daniel watch as Jacob's ball heads right into the water.

Hannah preferred to push the ball down to the hole with her club...that is, when she wasn't just putting the ball next to the hole and knocking it in!

Random Post

The people who used to live here receive an insane amount of catalogs. Most of them are dumb and they go right into the trash. But, every now and then, a good one comes and I take the time to look through it. This was the case yesterday.

It was some sort of organic gardening catalog. It had a lot of cool things in it...even though most of it was stuff I would never have (not saying I wouldn't love to have it)...containers to grow tomatoes upside down, raised beds (would love to have these) and that sort of thing. But, they had a 4-5 page spread on composting. I had a friend or two in VA that had these and I always wanted one. I think the boys would love to watch stuff turn into soil. Does anyone out there compost? If so, how do you start?

Poor Hannah has a mild cold. At first, I thought that it might be her asthma acting up but after talking to her, she has a tickle in her throat and her nose is running. She was hacking away around midnight last night and I went in to check on her. I hadn't been there for too long when she began throwing up. Everywhere. After settling her down, I ran the bath. At midnight. I have to say that I think this is the first time I've ever had to give a child a bath like this in the middle of the night, but I just couldn't let her go back to sleep with it in her hair. I changed her bedding and put her back to bed. She must have just been exhausted because she didn't get out of bed this morning until after 10. She's in good spirits, so I'm hoping that this blows over soon.

I've enrolled the kids in various activities through the park district. The boys wanted to take a break from baseball and will be starting Tae Kwon Do at the beginning of April. Two days a week. The nice thing is that they are in the same class, so I don't have to ferry them to several different classes a week. That's nice. I hope that they learn something from it. Daniel's excited to learn "ninja." LOL! Mike thinks they will get bored and will hate it...I think they'll like it. We'll see.

Hannah starts gymnastics and ice skating (yes, I said ice skating) at the end of the month. Both are once a week. She's really excited about ice skating and told the boys that she'd teach them too. We'll see how she feels after the first few classes. Ordinarily, I only let them do one activity per season, but since the boys were doing theirs twice a week, I figured it would be okay for Hannah to do two.

Southern Illinois plays KU (Kansas) tonight in their Sweet 16 game. I really want SIU to kick KU's ass, mostly because I'm tired of hearing our NBC affiliate sports guy talk about how KU is going to be really up against a wall with UCLA (neither has won their game yet). And, this guy is an SIU alum!!! He keeps going on about how SIU is a mid-major and don't have a chance against Kansas (umm...hello...remember Bradley in the FIRST round last year?!? We knocked KU off easily!) I'm actually looking forward to watching the game since they are televising it locally. 6:10, baby. I really hope Southern kicks some Jayhawk ass!!!! GO SALUKIES!!!!!! (that's for you, honey!!!)

After going back and forth for the past week, ABC decided to run a new episode of Grey's tonight. My Favorite Mistake is on at 8pm Central. I'm curious to see what happens in the aftermath of George/Izzy.

Stupid Weather

The wind is seriously thwarting my lawn watering efforts today. It rained yesterday so I didn't need to water, but since there is no rain in the forecast today, (you wouldn't know it by looking outside) the sprinkler came out.

I put it in the same place I did on Monday - the same place that let the sprinkler cover the entire front lawn. Today, it was watering the left side of the yard and the neighbor's driveway. Thank you 21 mph winds and 31 mph wind gusts! Grrr! So, I ended up putting the sprinkler in our driveway. Amazingly, the driveway is barely wet and the whole yard is being watered. LOL!

Obviously, it's too early to tell if my re-seeding efforts are working, but at least the areas that already had grass are becoming a lovely shade of emerald green. I hope the bare spots fill in!

The Seed Is In!!!

Yay! I got all of the grass seed in and it is currently watering. I wanted to get it down today because it's supposed to rain off and on this week. So, I thought it would be perfect. This yard is seriously a mess. I'm a little concerned because Mike told me last night that the previous owners reseeded last fall and it didn't take. Hopefully, this'll work. I also did a light overseeding on the areas that currently have grass. Why is it that when you want grass to grow, it won't and when you don't (in flower beds and such) it grows like wildfire? LOL! If half of it takes, I think we'll be in good shape.

I don't know why the lawn bothers me so much. Maybe it's because we had the nicest lawn in the neighborhood (minus the ivy patch) in Virginia...ours was green when everyone else's was icky and brown. I just want a beautiful lawn!

Zoo Day

We took the kids up to the zoo this morning. It was a lot of fun. The weather was a little cool but after we'd been walking around for a while, it warmed up.

We got really close to the tigers...although they were too busy sleeping to be concerned.

Daniel wanted to feed the deer but he was pretty scared.

I don't know why I love this picture of the meerkat looking out of the window so much.

I hope you can see the lemur with his arms stretched out sunning himself.

There was a huge play tree outside the Discovery Barn that had a slide. Hannah had fun.

The kangaroos were running unenclosed around the zoo. We could have walked up to them if we'd wanted to. It was really crazy!

Jacob feeds the deer.

Photo Post 2

Yesterday, Jacob was complaining that he was bored and wanted to do something. I decided that it might be fun to go and paint pottery. We went up to Walls of Clay to do just that. When we got there, there was just one other family so, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Jacob picked an octopus, Daniel picked an alien and Hannah picked a ladybug. They had such a good time. Daniel was trying to be so careful painting his. I don't know that I've ever seen him concentrate so hard. After they were done, the girl who works there started handing them other pieces to paint (and didn't charge us for them). I decided to make a handprint plate and, once again, the girl helped me out. When it came time to paint the background, she offered to watch the kids for me so that I could paint in peace. Nice. What was funny, though, is she actually closed the store (locked the doors too!) and took the kids for a walk around the complex. The plate turned out really cute and we pick everything up next week.

Today, the kids thought it would be fun to dig in the backyard for dinosaur bones. Too funny. They've been out there for hours. Every now and then, they come in and tell us about a discovery they've made (Jacob came in a few minutes ago to tell us about the dinosaur poop he'd found...actually bunny poop...go wash your hands). We're going to try to go to the zoo tomorrow.

Hmmm...

For some reason, I don't think that this is yard waste!

Cleaning Day

I know it sounds weird but with the kids home, I can actually get a lot of cleaning done. Normally, I'll get started and then I have to stop and pick someone up. When I get back, I'm usually not in the mood to clean or pick up where I've left off. It's annoying. With them home, I only have to stop to make meals, which doesn't take long and I can get right back into it.

100% of the time, I start in the kitchen. I just get so inspired when the kitchen is clean. The floor in there hasn't been mopped since before Mom and Dad came (I know it's only been a week, but I try to mop a few times a week) so it was in desperate need. It doesn't help that Oriana has been digging through the garbage a couple of times this week, either. I had been using the Swiffer mop but was never happy with the way the floor looked after. It always has a dull sheen (and yes, I use the Swiffer for wood). I don't know if there was a sheen on the floors in VA (the wood was darker) or if I just ignored it but here, it's annoying. So yesterday, I found this stuff at Target.

I've loved the Method brand of bathroom cleaner for years. Not only does it work really well, but it smells like peppermint (I actually think it's eucalyptus, but whatever). It also doesn't ruin my hands. (that's the point of the Method stuff, good for skin and lungs) Anyway, they now have a mop for wood floors. It's called the OMop. It looks like a Swiffer, but the mop head is bigger and you rinse and reuse the pad. Love that! It also came with some samples of their dust cloths. Haven't used those yet, but I will be soon.

So, I start to mop. You squirt the stuff on the floor and mop. I get half of the floor mopped and Hannah walks in to ask what that smell is. I said that I didn't know...was it a good smell? She says yes. I stop and smell. Holy cow! My kitchen smells like almond! I finish the floor and step back to see if there's a film in the areas where it's drying. No film. Looks pretty shiny to me. At this point, Jacob says, "what smells so good?" I told him that it's the floor. So, not only is my floor nice and shiny, but my first floor smells like almonds. Awesome!

I just had to share!

Is It Really Wednesday?!?

Today is the boys' last day of school before Spring Break. They get tomorrow, Friday and all of next week off. The kids have been nightmares in the morning (I literally had to drag Daniel out of bed yesterday) so I'm looking forward to letting them sleep in for the next week and a half. With my luck, they'll be up at 7:30 every morning (the time they're supposed to get up in the morning). Oh well.

The kids and I have been heading over to the park after school for the past couple of days. They love it. We walked about a mile on one of the trails on Monday and my legs are still sore! It's just been so nice outside the past few days (they're calling for 80's today) and I'm trying to get the kids as much outside time as possible before it goes back to seasonal temps tomorrow. Okay, so our seasonal temps are in the 50's but you know what I mean. I'm looking forward to it getting nicer so that I can get out and work on the yard. Mike was talking to neighbors behind us and they said that the previous owners over-fertilized and killed a good chunk of the grass. So, I plan to go out, turn up the bare spots a little and re-seed. Hopefully it'll work. I've got big plans for this yard and it's going to take some time (I can already see the fear coming from Mike's computer). I promise I'll make a plan before beginning any projects!

You Know You Want Some...But You Can't Have Some

Here it is...yummy, crispy...a heart attack waiting to happen. I have been dreaming about Lumpia for months. Don't ask me why. So, Mom and Dad brought me three packages of Lumpia wrappers when they visited and I couldn't wait to fry some up. I could have been nice and made these while they were here but that would have meant less for me! And I'm not kidding! Okay, I am kidding...but not really! :) Of course, I made the call to Mom tonight...thanks for saving me from putting the egg in with the filling. That would not have been tasty.

Mike jokingly asked the question, "these are low fat, right?" Ummm...do you SEE the grease on the paper towels?!? LOL!

Photos From The Visit

Mom and Dad got here Friday for a weekend visit. We decided to go into the city to check some stuff out. We had a nice time. We went to an Irish Pub for lunch...Hannah ate a lot of my shepherd's pie. LOL! Anyway, here are some photos...

Me, Mom and Hannah waiting for lunch to arrive.

Dad and Mike at the table.

There were some penguins outside on the sidewalk and Jacob and Daniel decided to pose like them.
Hannah just wanted to hug one.

I thought this was just interesting.

Here is the location where Dad was born! It was a lot easier to find than we thought it would be. Unfortunately, it's a Residence Inn now.

Dude This Sucks

I was reading a local parent magazine when I came across an ad for our local JCC (Jewish Community Center) Child Development Center. We've been wanting to get Hannah into a Jewish preschool if we can and I thought that this might be perfect. They're NAEYC accredited and close. I figured that I'd probably forget to call today, so I decided to leave a message last night. I get a call today and talk for a while with the lady.

She describes the program to me...5 days a week (I really wanted 3) and you cannot do less. The program runs from 9am to 1pm, unless I need full time care (which I don't) and then they run from 7am to 6pm. They do all of the requisite reading, writing, etc as well as Shabbat services on Friday and I think she said a Havdalah (is that right?) service on Monday. And they still have spots open for Hannah's age.

Okay, so what I really want to know is how much does it cost? Are you ready? $490 PER MONTH!!!! Oh, and you have to be a member of the JCC at a cost of $95 PER MONTH. SERIOUSLY?!? Seriously. $585 a month to send Hannah to preschool. That's $5265 for the nine month school year. Umm...I think I need to check out some other schools.

Going To The Dentist

I'm getting the kids ready for school this morning when the phone rings. 7:30am and the phone is ringing. The only person who calls that early in the morning is Mike to tell me he's left his cell phone at home, can I bring it after I drop the boys off at school? I answer the phone and a female voice greets me...
Her: Barbara?
Me: Yes?
Her: This is so and so from Dr. F's office. Sorry to call so early.
Me: That's okay (I'm thinking it's really early for them to be making a confirmation call - Jacob has a dentist appointment tomorrow)
Her: I have a couple of cancellations this afternoon and was wondering if you'd like to bring Daniel and Hannah in for their checkups today instead of next month.
Me: Absolutely!

So, those two had their first check ups at their new dentist. This place is A LOT like their old dentist. Fish everywhere...lots of great toys...friendly staff. Poor Daniel was freaked out. He didn't want to let the hygenist even count his teeth. How they got x-rays out of him, I'll never know. Hannah did awesome. She was loving every minute of it and even came home and I was her patient. "Open mouth...what kind of paste you want? I got bubble gum or strawberry." LOL!

Anyhoo...Hannah's teeth look good. No problems. Daniel, on the other hand, has five cavities. They're small, but there. They're going to fill them up and seal up the teeth. Since Jacob's had his sealants, his teeth have been good, so hopefully we'll have the same luck with Daniel.

They also did this thing called Toothprints. They had them bite on a warmed piece of clay and placed it in a special bag for me. It left an upper and lower toothprint for me to take home. Basically, it's a way for us to have dental records and DNA if ever needed. Apparently, it also leaves a smell that tracking dogs can trace. Hopefully, we never need it but it's kind of cool to have.

New Enhanced Fujita Scale

I don't know if everyone knows but they've redone the Fujita scale that's used to rate tornadoes. You can click here to check out the new Enhanced Fujita ratings that went into effect on February 1st. On the left side of the chart, is the old scale and on the right is the new. Tornadoes will now be rated on an "EF" scale instead of simply "F". You can read more at the NWS Storm Prediction Center Website. There's also some good tornado safety information here.

A county to the south of us had the first EF4 tornado in the country (previous tornadoes under this scale were EF3 or less) on February 28th. The same storm that gave us the golfball sized hail. To put the new scale into perspective, this EF4 tornado would probably have been the same as an F3 on the old Fujita Scale...still a very impressive and destructive tornado to say the least. They're saying it's going to be a pretty wicked season.

Oops!

I just made the realization that it's been several days since I last posted! What's wrong with me? LOL!

I started knitting again. I don't know why. I'm not very good at it but I really want to do something productive. Today, I made a blanket for Hannah's "baby George." (her favorite stuffed monkey. She was so cute. She'd come up to check my progress and squeal, "good job Mommy!" Too cute.

I guess it was a sort of craft day because the pipe cleaners and beads came out. I'm always amazed at how entertaining a bag of pipe cleaners is. Add the beads and they start making you stuff. Daniel made me a spider, a heart shaped bracelet and a tiara. He told me that I was a princess. I told him that he must be my prince if he's giving me a tiara. He then said that he can't be a prince because he's just a boy and I told him that was silly. He's definately my prince. He must have come up to me three other times later to ask if he was really a prince! LOL!

And now...I must figure out how to knit Daniel a monster alien.

Answers

Okay...here are the answers to Are You Smarter Than a Second Grader...

1. China is the (c)third largest country in the world.

2. Most of the people in China live (a)on the eastern coast.

3. The capital of China is (b)Beijing.

4. China has (b) 1.2 billion people living there.

5. There are (b) five stars on the Chinese flag.

Are You Smarter Than A Second Grader?

We've all seen the new show out there...it's time to play my version!

Today, Jacob brought home a test he took on China. I don't know that I would have passed. I was curious to see how many of you would. I'm going to post 5 multiple choice questions that came from Jacob's test. Answer the questions (no cheating!) and I'll post the answers tomorrow.

LET'S PLAY!

1. China is the _____ largest country in the world.
a. second
b. fourth
c. third

2. Most of the people in China live ______.
a. on the eastern coast
b. in the mountains
c. in the desert

3. The capital of China is _____.
a. Shanghai
b. Beijing
c. Hong Kong

4. China has _____ people living there.
a. 1.5 million
b. 1.2 billion
c. 2 thousand

5. There are _____ stars on the Chinese flag.
a. two
b. five
c. fifty

I Was On The News!!!

Okay, I wasn't, but my hand and name was! And they even pronounced it right!! LOL! I sent in a couple of hail pictures to one of our news channels and they used the one of me holding the big pieces of hail 4 times this morning between 5 and 7 am! The weatherman said that they looked just smaller than golf ball sized. I just had to share!