RTKandM

First Beach Trip of 2009...

2009-06-08T22:09:00.006-04:00

...just for the day, to Isle of Palms.

You know, there are some very well kept secrets in SC. First is the peaches. I am sorry for all of you who have been led to believe that GA peaches are the standard. Probably, SC folks didn't want anyone getting their amazing peaches, so they let everyone think the best ones came from GA. But it's just not true.

Second is the real SC beaches. Myrtle Beach is just not the best SC beach, folks. It's nice enough (hit the north end, if you must), but the prettiest ones are south of Charleston - Seabrook Island, Hilton Head, Edisto, etc. We went to Isle of Palms today because it has a public access. It's nice - a little crowded for my taste, but it's close. If you can afford to rent a big house further down the island, it's much nicer. We were going for cheap today. Worth the drive and $7 to park.
The Babyhawk carrier worked great on the beach! Zzzzzzzz.....

Funny - looks like Micah is about to pounce on this kid!

I've never enjoyed taking a crawling baby to the beach. But this kid was amazing! Not a word of complaint unless I tried to set him in the water! He tolerated mouthfuls of sand, diaper full of sand and crawling on the sand! And did it with a smile!

Every child must try eating sand. I don't know why but that's just the way it is.

Love the ride home! There is not a better way to wear out kids than the beach!

Hopeless Geek

2009-06-07T15:41:00.003-04:00

I have never assumed I was cool. Never really even pretended. I know I'm a geek. And it's getting worse. Now I'm a coupon geek and it's really fun! Most of (the 4 of) you who would be reading this blog have already heard my coupon diatribe. So I'll spare you that. But I just had to share that today I bought $98 worth of stuff at CVS pharmacy and paid only $28! And it was good stuff - Pampers, Dove soap, fancy razor for Rick (that was free), my favorite kind of paper towels and dish soap. I was so excited.

And to further prove my geek-ness, I let Rick take a picture of the stuff but I'm not going to post it. I have a very small amount of dignity (and it was the pharmacy - slightly more personal than groceries!)

Then, instead of taking a Sunday afternoon nap, I went to Rite Aid and spent $11 on $40-some dollars of stuff. No picture, though.

I think one of the reason's that I think this couponing stuff is fun is because it's a bit of a challenge. Also, I get a some free stuff that I don't really need and can donate it to our local foodbank, like the 25 cent toothpaste I got today that is a kind we don't use. But the best reason I like it is because I am taking half of the amount I save (which today is $50 - yeah) and depositing into the "Teresa Discretionary account." I haven't decided what the money will be for yet. Possibly braces for Katie (I love my girl but her teeth are looking a little goofy - don't tell her I said that, by the way). Or maybe first a cruise for our 15th anniversary next year, then braces. Or maybe something else. But watching that little savings account stack up is very exciting so it provides incentive for me to keep clipping like a fool. And telling you about it!

One other thing to share - the 2 big kids had their gymnastics meet (non-competitive, more like a showcase). It was very funny. Here are a couple fun pics. The quality isn't great - I was using the zoom and it was a little dim in the gym.

Random thoughts...

2009-05-21T14:58:00.003-04:00

I originally started this blog to keep far away friends and family updated on us but it quickly became my own (public) journal of things I want to remember, specifically about the kids.

So here are some doozy's from today! At the bank drive-thru, the speaker was turned a little loud so the teller's voice was a little loud. Micah comments after we leave, "Wow. That was one loud-talking lady." That was funny to me.

Last night at gymnastics, he and his buddy Cameron were standing on the top of the back of a folding chair (which amazingly stayed standing up) and looking over a half-wall into the gym. Cam leaned in too far and fell into the gym, which Micah laughed at, so his mom and I quickly nixed standing on the top of the chair. Micah promptly climbed back up there so I pinched the back of his leg. He screamed and turned to Cameron and pinched him, thus initiating a pinching war. Cameron's mom and I were laughing so hard that it took a minute to clear up the fact that I was the one who pinched him. Again, it was funny to me!

Katie is the typical bossy little girl lately. She was very upset at church last week and when I asked her what was wrong, she said, "I'm just so frustrated that my friends won't do what I tell them to do." Not funny, but very typical of Katie these days! However, I must add that she is reading a chapter book right now! I was skeptical of whether or not she actually read each page but she read some to me. I am still in shock that she can actually read. I don't know what I thought they did all day at school!

Riley ate his own kids meal today! Almost all of a cheese sandwich at Schlotzky's. I guess I'm going to have to get even better at this couponing if I'm going to feed all these kids! Speaking of couponing, I totally get a kick out of it! I spent $40 today for $110 worth of groceries and it was good stuff - Tide, Edy's ice cream, Clorox 2, etc. I think I will probably be unable to buy stuff at regular price now that I have been getting it for so cheap. Rick laughed at me for the first few weeks. Now he is getting into it. We got to put sod in part of the yard with all that we've been saving on groceries, so that was cool to see it pay off.

I guess those are all my meandering thoughts for today! 2 more weeks of school and then we can sleep past 6:30. Woohoo!

Riley

2009-05-02T17:06:00.002-04:00

Well, we snuck in 9 month pictures just a week before he turns 10 months! He is currently sporting 2 lovely bottom teeth and the first half of 3 on the top. He's a quick crawler and seems inclined to spelunking, as he has an aptitude for finding (and getting stuck in) tight spots. He migrates towards crawling and climbing challenges and sticks things out for a surprisingly long time before getting frustrated. He is still such a delight to all of us and maintains his easy-going little personality. God knew that we needed and easy-going one!

The other 2 are doing good too. My favorite thing to tell about Micah this week is that on Thursday, he and Rick walked Katie to class at the usual 7:20 am. In the hallway, crowded with students, parents and teachers, Micah asks (loudly, of course) "Daddy, where is your beer? You don't have your beer?" Please note that the night before, Rick had shaved his beard off! The stinky looks he got from a couple teachers was quite funny! Hopefully, everyone also heard Rick say "Beer-duh, Micah. It's called a beard!"

They have both been taking gymnastics this spring and it's quite entertaining to watch. We are absent the gene for grace and coordination. Katie, however, has mastered the splits. It stands to reason that she would most excel in an area of athletics where she could sit! To be fair, she is also pretty good on the balance beam. Micah, on the other hand, had better never be pulled over and asked to walk a straight line because he can't! He is thoroughly incapable of walking for more than one step on the beam! Quite funny to watch.

Well, that's about all I can think of for now! Happy Spring!

What I'm Doing Today

2009-03-11T11:03:00.002-04:00

So, I was laying (lying? laying? whatever.) in bed last night, well really this morning, and having all these brilliant thoughts of things I ought to blog about. Then I must have dozed off because all of a sudden I was dreaming that I was in this really amazing bathroom but the shower didn't have a curtain and that was stressing me out. Body image issues in my dreams. Great.

Anyway, so I can't remember what I was going to blog about. But this morning while I was painting the bathroom( quick, cheap renovation job) I was listening to one of my all-time favorite albums, "All Things New" by Watermark, and so here is my inspiration for the day.

I am not redeemed by corruptible things - not by silver, not by gold, not by aimless tradition - but by the blood of God's sacred son. Jesus.

I love this when I look at the definitions for redeemed :

to buy back : repurchase : to free from what distresses or harms: to free from captivity by payment of ransom : to release from blame or debt : to free from the consequences of sin : to change for the better : to free from a lien by payment of an amount secured thereby : to remove the obligation of by payment

So there you go.

And had to include a pic. Lene, the one on the bottom is my kids last easter in that dress I sent you. I'd send you the matching boy outfit but I just bet Kent isn't quite ready for it!

Still Loving This Baby

2009-02-12T19:08:00.003-05:00

We continue to be amazed at Riley! He is the sweetest and easiest baby! He said his first word this week - 'mama'! It doesn't get any better than that!

Quick Catch-up

2009-01-08T23:01:00.006-05:00

Well, the holiday's were great. We saw most of the family and a few friends over a couple weeks (which is why I say "holidays" instead of Christmas). The kids were all thrilled with what Santa (and mom and dad) brought and it was a fast and fun 2 weeks off.

So now we are trying to get into the 2009 groove. I have been lazy with Micah and he's a little behind in some things, so I have work to do. We moved him out of his crib this week which has gone wonderfully. He is too cute in his big bed and he hasn't gotten out of it. yet. Finishing the almighty potty training is next on the list. Boo. Then onto Riley and his freaky sleeping habits. And then Katie and her finger-sucking habits. And then... Oh well, one thing at a time.

Riley is doing great. He is eating baby food now, and a good deal of table food. I break all of the baby food laws so he has had a bunch of different things and seems quite agreeable with everything, except prunes and bananas. A child after my own heart. I'd let you know how big he was but I'm a little behind on the well child checkups (lost that mother-of-the-year-award again) so I don't really know how big he is. But he turns 6 months next week and I just noticed that the 3-6 month sleepers (which should be called "livers" because he lives in them, not just sleeps) are getting a little small, so that seems about average.

Micah is doing good too. He has mellowed out quite a bit over the last few weeks which is nice for everyone. I've started teaching him to read music and he's picking it up really well so far. He has mastered letters and numbers so I thought this would be a good challenge for him since he seems to have picked up the musical genes.

Katie is reading like a champ these days which isn't nearly as exciting to her as it is to us. She is far more interested in her social calendar which is, sadly, much fuller than my own! Life is pretty sweet for her and she has been making some new and very nice friends this year, so we are glad for her. She continues to be very good with her little brothers and I really count on her help (and she generally comes through.)

Rick made it through the Christmas season and got all of his jewelry jobs done with 2 days to spare, so that was good. He had a busy season but did some amazing pieces. I am glad he has the chance to keep those skills up. It's a good outlet for his unending creativity as well.

Well, as for me, I'm just trucking along. I'm about to start reading "The Shack" which I have been delaying because it seems to be a difficult one to get through, emotionally. But even Rick has read (well, actually listened to) it and I seem to be one of the few left to tackle it, so I guess I'll jump off the cliff like every other lemming! Besides that I don't guess I'm doing anything particularly note-worthy. As long as everyone gets fed and washed and doesn't watch too much TV, I figure I'm doing an okay job! :) Happy new year!

My sweet, smiley baby who is growing way too fast.

This is my nephew Pax and my kids at the childrens museum here in SC. Katie is trying to catch the "snow" (aka bubbles, which is about all the snow they'll likely see here in SC, thank goodness!)

What it means to be a kid...

2008-12-20T17:03:00.005-05:00

Rick made a gigantic leaf pile today in our ongoing battle with the oak trees! You can't see from these pics, but the pile is in a low area in our yard where we are composting, so it is actually about 5 feet deep! I haven't seen Katie smile this much in a while. I think this is one of her favorite things to do each year. And yes, my kids were outside this morning in bathing suits! It was over 70 at 10:00 in the morning! That's what I call winter!

November Pics

2008-12-16T13:58:00.003-05:00

Micah made himself a nest in Uncle Jim's landscaping!

Cousins!

My sweet baby boy with amazing blue eyes.

Going green - phase 2

2008-11-07T13:16:00.002-05:00

So we recently started recycling and I'm loving it. I know the rest of the continent has been recycling for decades but we just got the bin from the trash people and the instructions about what goes in it a few months ago. I'm getting a real kick out of seeing how much I can get in there each week. And Katie has become the recycling police since they talked about it at girl scouts. She got onto Micah the other day for throwing out a raisin box!

So anyway, we are onto phase 2 which is composting the gillion leaves in the yard. I think this is going to be really great since it means we don't have to rake them! We have 5 enormous oak trees and an assortment of other maples, pines and unknowns, and that amounts to HOURS of raking which happens to be my least favorite chore. This year, though, we have created a composting "hole" and have been researching what we can do to expedite the decomposition process. Rick is currently blowing the first wave of leaves into our spot and then is headed to Lowes to buy some of the additives that will help them disappear faster and without getting smelly.

So that's about all the exciting news. By the way, this is not a political statement or a "whoa - the glaciers are melting and the end of the earth as we know it is upon us" kinda thing - just trying to live cheaper and with better decisions for the earth that our kids will inherit!

Off to the compost hill...

Conversations

2008-11-01T11:09:00.002-04:00

Conversation I just had with Micah...

Me: Micah - don't bang on the piano. Riley is sleeping.
Micah: Mom - I NEED to play the piano.
Me: Not now. Riley is sleeping.
Micah: But mom, I NEED to play it. I'm a player!

Conversation I overheard between Katie and Micah this morning.

K: Let me tell you how to handle a horse, Micah. (referring to Gracie the bouncy horse)
M: Ok Gee Gee. (That's what he calls Katie, on a good day!)
K: First you give them a huckleberry. (?) Stick it in their mouth and tell them if they are a good horse then they can have another huckleberry. And if they are good then you stick another one in their mouth.

I wonder where she got that idea? I don't know about huckleberries but M and M's work great!

By the way, what are huckleberries?

Today's Photo Shoot

2008-10-27T15:07:00.003-04:00

I had Riley's picture taken today - he is already 3 months old! Oh my!

Last night, our preacher said some really great things. I was impacted by them, as I too rarely am, being as I'm usually feeding one kid, holding at least one kid, trying to get the other 2 to sit, staving off bathroom requests, etc. You know the drill. Anyway, things he said permeated my immediate concerns. He said that it's time to let God start setting the agenda in our lives and in our communities, not the media. It's also time for God to tell us how we should feel about the state of things, not the media who would have us all in a state of panic. God should be the one telling us how to feel about who we let live in this country and how we feel about what language they speak.

It's a simple concept and one that most Christians would claim as their own, but I know that I am a victim of letting everyone but God influence how I feel about things and the state of peace or panic I feel about what's going on in the world. Just a thought...

Eenie, Meenie and Minee (and no Mo)

2008-10-27T11:21:00.006-04:00

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I stole this idea from Todd W.! I love how different my kids look from each other!

Heck of a way to meet the neighbors

2008-10-22T13:15:00.003-04:00

So last night we spotted a raccoon in the back yard. It was not at all afraid of us - not even of Micah and I'm even afraid of him. The neighbor said he'd thrown a clay pot at it earlier and the pot had smashed on it's head but it didn't bother the coon. So we concluded that it might have rabies. Rick called the DNR and they said, much to his delight, that he could shoot it! Ahhhhhh.... a good excuse to pull out his new pistol!

So, now Micah wants to play "shoot the coon" and Rick wanted me to take a picture for posterity!

Oh yeah. The meet-the-neighbor part - after the second shot, 6 different neighbors came running over. Now. If I hear gun shots, you can be sure that I won't be running TOWARD them! But that's just me.

Enjoy the picture, or whatever!

Katie's First Solo Diaper Change

2008-10-10T09:13:00.004-04:00

Cool! She's finally good for something! :) I say that in jest but I think Rick was truly excited to have 2 sons which he hopes will grow into 2 highly skilled lawn mowers! Between them, we figure they can come up with a mowing/edging system!

Anyway, here is the play-by-play. I think everyone involved was happy with the outcome!

It's all guesswork

2008-09-24T14:15:00.003-04:00

I have really come to the conclusion, after 7 years and 4 days of experience, that most parenting is just guesswork.

Are they really sick if they have a temperature of 100 degrees?

Is it a real problem if they had to "change their color" at school when there are 5 different colors to go through in a day?

Does Riley actually like sitting in the foamy seat or is he just being nice while getting a cramp in his neck?

Does Micah get it when he doesn't get a treat at the end of preschool because he had to go to time out, especially since he's only gotten a treat twice in the last month because he's such a pill?

Will she fit into these clothes you found on the clearance rack next summer?

Is he really ready to potty train or will it be a waste of time right now?

Will he be scarred for life if I let him play in his sisters bathing suit?

Maybe I just need to read more parenting books! I think all they could really do, though, is just make me a slightly better guesser!

Katie's Room

2008-09-19T22:11:00.005-04:00

For Katie's birthday tomorrow, we redecorated her room as a surprise! She has no clue! As I type, she is spending the night with a friend. I CANNOT WAIT to see her reaction when she sees her new room. It is pretty cute. Thank goodness for a couple of my friends, Becky and Trish, and their inspiration and assistance! Here are some of my favorite parts...

From the door... I made the valances. Go me.

I made the 4 pictures on the wall. Fun and cheap! My mother-in-law made the pillows - she's the queen of throw pillows!

My friend Becky painted this K - the flower is exactly like one on the quilt. She's amazing.

These inspired by Trish.

Call me Martha - I decopaged (no clue how to spell that but think 1970's craftiness) this tray (with artistic guidance from Becky) to hold a new tea set I bought her that has butterflies on it. Thanks mom for the cliff-notes on decopaging, or however you spell that!

Those are the highlights! I have more work to do on the shelves and one wall but I think I'll get a good reaction from Katie-bug! Happy birthday, sweet girl!

The Party

2008-09-15T21:28:00.006-04:00

Having Katie and Micah's birthdays so close has been nice. I didn't think I'd get to do another "together" party this year but Katie was cool with it if they got to do something exciting. So we went to a new kid play place and they each took a few friends. It was a lot of fun. My kids both have a need for speed! And I didn't have to clean up! And Rick got to play video games! So it was great for everyone!

One of our friends kid, Matt, is in 3rd grade and he is Micah's hero! Micah refused to ride anything until Matt came to ride with him! We love Matt!

They each got their own cake, mostly because we all love a good excuse for cake!

Yeah! Boy dress-up clothes! Now he can be Captain Hook instead of Tinkerbell!

It's funny - Micah took his gifts off into a corner to open them, like a squirrel. Katie took hers right smack into the middle of everyone. It is characteristic of their little personalities!

Frankly, I'm just glad it's over. I can't tell you why, but birthday parties stress me out - not the execution, just mostly the planning and deciding and hoping everyone is happy with it all.

One more year down! How many more to go???

Micah's 3rd Birthday

2008-09-11T21:15:00.003-04:00

Well, maybe we've crossed a threshold. At least, that's what I am banking on! Maybe we have left the terrible 2's behind and we have some smoother sailing ahead. One can only hope...

We did enjoy Micah's birthday, though. 3 is a fun birthday, where they can really enjoy everything but have no expectations and therefore are surprised and thrilled with everything!

We had been telling Micah that his birthday was on Sunday and that he would be three then. So when he woke up on Sunday morning and I said happy birthday, he was thrilled to show me three fingers.

Since Rick was already gone to church, I just let Micah open some birthday cards at breakfast. You'd have thought I'd set him loose in a candy store! 5 birthday cards were amazing and he's been carrying them around ever since.

We had life group at the lake so I took his cake out there. Blowing candles out and having everyone sing happy birthday WITH him (he couldn't sit idly by and miss a song) was amazing, again. When I pulled the gifts out, I thought he was going to have the big one! He had no clue there would be presents.

In all, a lovely day! I know kids are outrageously expensive but there is no more fun of a way to spend money than buying a kiddo his favorite things! It was a gift for me.

Speaking of gifts, Riley continues to surprise and delight! I was nervous about having #3 but look what I would have missed....

Much better...

2008-09-02T11:25:00.003-04:00

New camera requires new pictures. I guess it is funny that I take pictures of my kids crying but that is part of their little personalities and quite honestly, we have gotten more than a few laughs out of their pitiful little faces when they were fussing!

This is a sweet little boy, despite the sad face. I am continually amazed at how pleasant he is and how willing to roll with the punches. And the smacks to the head. And the fingers to the eyes. Etc. Birth order has to have a lot to do with it!

I like the picture of Riley and Micah together. It's hard to imagine that they will ever be equally matched on the wrestling floor. Rick might have to work with Riley on learning to be a scrapper in order to survive playing with Micah! I need to get on video Micah loving on Riley, though. It is so sweet - Micah tells him "We are going to be best buddies." I sure hope so!

Love the kid, hate the camera

2008-09-01T16:28:00.002-04:00

We have been trying to capture Riley's goofy smile but the camera isn't cooperating. The good news is that we bought a new camera this afternoon, but he's asleep now so we haven't tried it out. But here are some fuzzy shots from this morning. I guess to get a good look, you'll just have to come see him in person!

Micah's First Day of Preschool

2008-08-26T13:20:00.004-04:00

I do love preschool! I'd love to say I send him because it's best for him but honestly, I send him because it's best for me. He loves it, and it is good for him, fortunately!

Random thought - I realized at the parent meeting that this is our 5th year to have kids at this preschool and I have 5 more years to go. By the time Riley graduates from preschool, we will have paid LBC over $10,000! Wow! But worth every penny! I am paying dearly for peace and quiet and not regretting that at all!

I almost caught him smiling...

2008-08-22T22:52:00.000-04:00

First Day of First Grade

2008-08-21T09:46:00.003-04:00

Well, she's a bona fide first grader! This year should be interesting! Her teacher is determined that the kids will be very independent. That has never been a word to describe Katie, especially as it pertains to taking care of her own business! So we will see how all that goes. Her teacher this year is younger than me (like her new pediatrician - I'm starting to see a pattern here!) and doesn't have any kids of her own, which makes a big difference, I think. And I say that without judgment because I figured out after I had Katie that I will be a very different, and better, teacher if I go back, now that I have my own kids. But anyway, I am trying to remain optimistic about the year! It's just hard to have no control over who she spends the day with (short of taking her out and homeschooling, which the whole family agrees would be a bad idea!) I hope her teacher recognizes the treasure that each of her students are to their parents.

Riley - 1 month old

2008-08-12T14:50:00.003-04:00

I got Riley's picture made yesterday. He turns 1 month old on Thursday. This child is such a sweet baby but he is not very good with cameras - we have had a hard time getting very many good pictures of him. This one was the best from our shoot yesterday. My mom made the blanket he is wrapped in. It's one of his favorites.

My only regret is that we didn't get a good full-body shot of him to show how scrawny he is! I am glad to say, though, that he finally appears to be filling out some of his extra leg and arm skin! He is losing the Sharpee (I don't know how to spell that, but I mean the wrinkly breed of dog) look he was born with.

Eavesdropping on Katie...

2008-08-12T11:33:00.002-04:00

This child has few secrets. She just never stops talking to everyone and everything, so all I have to do is listen! This is what she was saying in the car - it was a discussion with her doll Jill. I think Katie was being the mom.

"I want to play soccer, mom" (Jill says, I guess) (Katie replies, to herself!) "You can't play soccer - you are in your new school clothes. Do you know why we get new clothes for school? Because if we just wear our old clothes that don't fit anymore, we will throw-up at school!"

I guess I better go shopping! I don't want to throw-up at the grocery store or anything!

Recent Conversations

2008-08-10T22:19:00.002-04:00

My kids crack me up a lot. Here are a couple conversations from this weekend that were funny...

Mom - So Katie, are you looking forward to 1st grade starting next week?
Katie - no.
Mom - Why not?
Katie - Well, at school, the teacher makes you work so hard. I just don't like working hard.

No kidding!

When Micah woke up from his nap the other day, Rick was messing with him. Rick was banging into his closed bedroom door acting like he couldn't get in...

Dad - Where are you?
Micah - I'm in my room.
Dad - How do I get in there?
Micah - In the door!
Dad - I can't make it work!
Micah - It works Dad.
Dad - I can't figure it out!
Micah - It works Dad. The door works.
Dad - I can't do it
Micah - It works Dad.
Dad - How do I do it?
Micah - GO ASK MOM!

Riley Update

2008-08-05T23:21:00.004-04:00

Well, Riley soared into the 25th percentile for weight at his dr appointment today! He is up to 7lbs 14 oz which is satisfying the dr. Yeah! No more pediatrician visits for a few weeks. I am just a little tired of sitting in dr offices!

Other than that, not too much new. I just wanted to post a new picture. He is already changing so fast! He is still sweet though, and still sleeping quite well, so we aren't complaining!

I'm off to snuggle the babe while Rick plays with his new iPhone! (This has been the situation here for several days! It is a pretty fun toy, I must admit!)

Recent Pics

2008-08-03T21:45:00.003-04:00

Here is the long, scrawny baby!

Micah got a parrot from great-grandmother that repeats what you say! It's great - we may never have to talk to Micah again! He has a new friend!

My extremely cool boys!

Katie looks so grown-up these days!

Siblings...

2008-07-24T11:46:00.001-04:00

We love the cheesy matching shirts!

Riley

2008-07-18T22:18:00.003-04:00

Well, we are officially a family of 5. Riley Lane arrived on Monday around 2:00 pm. He weighed in at 8lbs 3 oz and has the smallest head of all of them, (which made for a quick and easy delivery!) so he seems really tiny compared to the monstrosity on top of Micah's neck! He is a sweet and snuggly baby so far and the kids are enamored with him. Katie has been so good about holding him for me and keeping the pacifier in his mouth, which is very helpful since he doesn't like to be put down. As my friend Heather said, finally her talent for sitting around is paying off! Micah likes his "brudder" alright but is not thrilled to have been displaced as the most needy kid! He is requiring some extra attention and constant supervision if the baby is around since his love is more along the lines of tough love.

Anyway, here are some pics, in case you haven't seen any of the bootleg ones floating around on e-mails!

That's all that is particularly exciting around here. I hope you are having a fun summer so far!

Today's Photo Op

2008-07-08T15:31:00.000-04:00

Genetics at work...

2008-07-04T20:02:00.004-04:00

This is funny...

From the clothes, you can probably guess which one is NOT Micah (since the kid has never owned a coat that heavy.) But the question of the day is, who is it? And why does he look freakishly like Micah?

Something Finished

2008-05-31T15:06:00.002-04:00

I think that one of my biggest frustrations as a parent is that I rarely truly finish anything. My attention gets rerouted so frequently that I leave most things undone. However, today I finished something, and not without a few sniffles. Katie's baby book is complete and I am having a deja vu of looking at it with her in 20 years, maybe as she starts one for her own child! Wow!

Anyway, now I need one of those school memory books that has a couple pages for each grade, where you can put their class picture, report cards and stuff like that. I looked at Booksamillion, Hallmark and Walmart and I can't find one. Anyone seen one like that recently?

Hilton Head, SC

2008-05-21T15:52:00.004-04:00

Well, we continued our tour of the SC beaches this week in Hilton Head. It was beautiful - we'll definately be back sometime. It combines the more natural look of Seabrook Island with some of the less trashy fun of Myrtle Beach! It's off season right now, so it was very uncrowded, but the weather is already beautiful, so we enjoyed the pool and the ocean without getting chilly. We had a great time with our friends Danny and Heather and baby Brie. Here are some of the pics...

We rented bikes one day which was a huge hit with the kids and everyone else who was not pregnant!

Micah the giant squid... (We had to talk him out of being a mermaid like Katie was. Poor kid needs a brother!)

Unfortunately, this will probably be our only beach trip this year, but it was a great few days. We were glad to see that the kids hadn't lost their sense of adventure with the Atlantic and that Micah had gained a little healthy respect for waves and currents! No deep sea rescue measures needed this year! Now off to nurse the sun burns....

2008-05-08T08:00:00.008-04:00

Wow - nearly a month has passed since I was here. We have not been particularly busy or anything. Just up to our usual random life stuff!

Lets see... Katie had her first field trip for school this week. I have to put a plug in for my husband here. I was feeling lazy and didn't want to go on the field trip so I told Katie I needed to be home with Micah (which was not a lie) but when she asked Rick to go, he agreed immediately and with an enthusiasm I could not have mustered. He has done more field-tripping with her than I have, despite his fully justified fear of large groups of children! I am so proud of him. He even rode the school bus for 30 minutes each way to the pond. Now that is a real man!

In other Katie news, she is definately growing up as evidenced by a recent purchase. One of her great grandmothers gave her $10 a while back so last week when she had a day off from school, we took a lovely mother-daughter trip to the mall. She took her "hand bag" to carry her $10 (which she almost lost about 50 times). I figured Claires was about the most exciting place I could think of to spend $10, so there we went.

She went straight for the shoes. Straight. Bee line. Blinders on to the shoes.

I know this is typical for most women, but I have to say, I'm not really a shoe person. I usually have 3 or 4 pairs of flip flops this time of year and those are picked for comfort. But anyway, in the spirit of letting her get WHATEVER she wanted, she picked these flip flops. I can't quite describe how hard it was not to wet my pants upon exiting this store. She had the clerk cut the tags off so she could wear them out. She paused at the exit of the store and, with as much dignity as could be mustered considering she couldn't quite walk in the shoes, she hiked her pants up to her armpits, threw her hand bag over her arm and strutted/shuffled into the teaming masses of the mall with more attitude than I thought possible in a 6 year old! Again I ask myself, who is this child?

Of course, as distracting as the shiny red shoes are, we do happen to notice the other kid every now and then. Micah has mastered the art of garnering everyone's, and I do mean everyone's, attention. Here are some random pictures of this clown.

And I'll leave you with a typical day-in-the-life kinda picture of Micah...

Yard Work Buffoon...

2008-04-10T11:24:00.003-04:00

...is one of my new titles. It's not that I HATE working in the yard - I admit, it ranks below a number of other things on the scale of "things I like to do". But there are a number of things lower on that list. However, I just don't have a clue what is going on out there and why things happen the way they do so I live is a state of perplexia (new word) about what to anticipate.

Case in point, (or is that supposed to say "case and point"? Katrina, help?) reference this blog entry about the surplus of acorns falling in the yard last fall. Fast forward to last week and this conversation.

me - Hey Rick - there is some kind of funky weed taking over the front yard. Think we should do anything about that?
Rick - Oh yeah? Where?
me - Uhh.. in the front yard. Look at all those weird plants growing up all over with the wide leaves.
Rick - Those are oak trees.
me - How can you tell?
Rick - Because they have oak leaves and that's where the kids dumped a bucket of acorns.

I was totally shocked. I know that theoretically, acorns grow oak trees, but I had no idea that they EACH grew one tree. Now there are about 50 baby oak trees in the front yard. What am I supposed to do now?

Random Musings...

2008-04-03T14:33:00.006-04:00

...So today I am driving through town after dropping Micah off at preschool and I pass a utility crew working on a light pole. (By the way, I mean "hydro pole", if you are from Canada. Rick cracks up when I call it that. I guess it is called that since most of our power in Ontario came from Niagara Falls, making it hydro power, that we called the power bill the hydro bill, etc.) I digress. So they are working on that, well actually one guy is working on that, while 2 guys dig a shallow hole on the edge of the school parking lot they are working in and proceed to clean the trash out of the cab of their truck and throw it in the hole.

I guess they plan to bury their trash.

In a school yard.

Like a cat buries it's poop.

Huh. Call me a democrat, but aren't there better options for trash disposal in America than this?

...So this is the cover of the April edition of our community magazine. Cute kid in yellow on the back row, eh? Micah was there too. If you could see the ceiling light fixtures in the studio in this picture, you'd see him too. Or this might have been taken while he was riding on the wheeled base of the camera. Hard to know. By the way, we know the adults in the picture - they are our chiropractors. We don't usually let our kids pose with random people off the street. Not usually.

...So Rick has taught Micah to play air guitar. It's really cute. He likes to do the bass guitar parts. Even at church during praise and worship. (FYI - our church doesn't have a band!) Micah has also learned how to make himself burp. He will be the coolest kid in the elementary school lunch room. Til then, the only use for that skill is to crack his sister up. Ahhh... life skills.

...There are a billion, well almost, caterpillars in our back yard, not counting the 2 dead ones that Micah caught and zoomed along the deck like Matchbox cars. Does that mean something? They kinda freak me out, especially when I saw Katie letting 9 of them crawl over her arm and neck.

...And we got another look at Baby Aardvark today, who is coming dangerously close to actually being named that since we can't come up with anything we like better. Anyway, he looks great. Just has short legs like his dad and brother. But oh well. He'll make up for that with his superior air guitar skills, I'm sure!

And now you know what's been on my mind today!

Easter Pics

2008-03-27T10:40:00.004-04:00

Easter was fun. Here is the requisite family picture.

The easter bunny brought sunglasses in the easter baskets. Look at these stunners...

The Tennessee Mountains

2008-03-27T10:23:00.003-04:00

We had a great few days in TN this week in the Blue Ridge mountains, just across the NC border. We went with Rick's childhood buddy, Jason, and his family and it was great to reconnect with them and let the kids get to know each other. It snowed while we were there so Rick and the kids went sledding for their first time. Here are some pics...

Micah kept asking to "get in the boat". Poor southern kid!

If you knew Jason and Rick as kids, you might swear this was a picture of them! Jason and Rick are 4 days apart in age and Micah and their youngest, Luka, are 9 days apart in age. They are both little stinkers, probably much the same as their dads were!

We went ahead and betrothed these two! They were immediate kindred spirits!

Baby Aardvark

2008-03-13T09:25:00.003-04:00

Well, baby Aardvark has been spotted and the good news is that he has feet! (The arrow is pointing to his toes.)

Yes. He! Another stinky boy! Katie was okay with it, after I reminded her that she now won't have to share anything and can retain her "queen-of-the-house" crown. She also relishes the fact that she will not be solely responsible for the wrestling of Micah, here in a few months! I am happy that the sleeping logistics will work out (I wasn't sure how much a 9 year old was going to like sharing a room with a 2 year old) and Rick is glad that there will be yet another son to mow the lawn for him and support us in our old age! Ha!

So there you have the news!

Meemaw and Peepaw are here and so is a big kid haircut!

2008-03-11T08:40:00.003-04:00

My kids, defined!

2008-03-04T07:37:00.003-05:00

Bo·he·mi·an /boʊˈhimiən/ Pronunciation[boh-hee-mee-uhn]

1. a native or inhabitant of Bohemia.
2. (usually lowercase) a person, as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free of regard for conventional rules and practices.

Well, obviously my kids are not natives of Bohemia, but I am much encouraged by definition #2 - I think I have finally figured them out!

Seriously, several times a day I think, "I need to put this on my blog", really for my own recollection purposes, as I intend to print this blog out one day. But also because I know my mom and dad get a chuckle out of/feel sympathy for me for some of these things. But I rarely do it. Where does time go? Well, this week it has gone out into the yard with about 40 bags of leaves and 5 truckloads of crepe myrtle limbs.

But here are a few things I don't want to forget about my bohemians, this week!

...the way Micah runs everywhere, especially when he has no pants on and his short, chubby little legs have to move at hummingbird speed to get him moving as fast as he wants to go. It's especially funny (in a sad, tragic way) when he runs at this pace down the hall to his bedroom - he hasn't mastered the 'coming in for a landing' slow-down and has to bounce off of his door frame to make the turn. Is it any wonder he is constantly surprising us with new bruises?

...when Katie led an entire restaurant in prayer! This actually happened last fall, but I had forgotten about it until I was telling someone about it recently. Her Daisy girl scout troop was meeting at Moe's for chips and queso and the TV was on showing coverage of a fire in a warehouse somewhere. She saw it and hushed the group and told them "There is a fire on the TV and we need to pray for those people RIGHT NOW. Sarah, (her faithful sidekick) you pray." And so sweetly, 15 little 6 year old heads bow for Sarah to pray. The chuckle came directly after when Katie lifted her head up and said, "Ok girls - let's play cheers." and they commenced toasting themselves! So I learned 3 things about my child that day - she has a soft and sensitive heart for people hurting, she is a delegator and she needs to stay away from adult beverages!

...how Micah is genetically predisposed to be musical, as evidenced by the fact that he sings in his sleep! The other night, all was silent and well and I hear softly through the baby monitor "sad-hananooyah, sad-hananooooooyah, sad-hananooyah unto da lor." Locals know that this is Micah's new favorite praise song (having replaced "Your Name" as the one he hollers out in church (as if dad was taking requests). Translated, it is "Shout Hallelujah" but most of our friends now sing, "Shout Hananooyah"! Micah is so loved!

...the speed at which Micah's taste in music changes. His is currently all about Five for Fighting, which is great with me. The past months have been full of Billy Currington (there is something so endearing about a 2 year old singing "Thank God for good directions...and turnip greens."), Phillips, Craig and Dean, the Rippingtons and Zoe Girl. He is quite a diverse little man!

...how protective Katie is for her little brother, and most any littler person around her. She recently scolded one of her friends for swinging too high when Micah was around since he likes to walk right in front of swings. One night a while back, she was sad that some friends at school wouldn't play with her that day. But she said, "At least I'll always have Micah. He will always be my best friend." And that is probably what got me into my current pregnant state! They love each other! Today, anyway!

I guess I could go on and on. I'll save it for another day. I just pray I remember these little monkeys in all their silliness. I'm trying to treasure it all up in my heart.....

My Sweet Kiddos This Morning...

2008-03-02T20:21:00.000-05:00

Middle Name Meme

2008-02-25T18:13:00.002-05:00

Lene tagged me for this Middle Name Meme:

Here are the Rules: Post the rules on your blog, and then give your answers. List one fact about yourself for each letter in your middle name. Each fact must begin with a letter from your middle name. If you do not have a middle name, use your maiden name(or create a middle name).Once you are tagged, update your blog with your middle name and your answers. At the end of your post, tag one person for each letter of your middle name.

This isn't very hard. My middle name is Jo. (My mom was born in Tennessee! Oh, and that's her best friend's name!)

J - justice-oriented. While I'm not always a fan of the rules, I try to follow them and it bugs me (in ways that it probably should not) when other people don't, or think the rules don't apply to them. Not a great character trait (can be perceived as "judgmental") but I'm working on this....
O - outgoing - I try to play the quiet, laid-back type, but I can't keep that up for long. I connect pretty quickly and love juggling lots of friends at different levels of closeness.

I've always wished I had a more exciting middle name, but if you knew "Auntie Jo", you'd know it was a privilege to share her name! Did I spell privilege correctly? It looks funny...

Okay. I tag my Heathers.... You know who you are!

You Should Have Seen the Other Guy!

2008-02-09T16:33:00.000-05:00

Micah vs. Ping Pong Table!

Isn't this a pitiful looking boy? You can hardly believe how long he DIDN'T cry over this!

Micah

2008-01-31T20:48:00.000-05:00

So today we had a great discussion, me and Micah, on the way to preschool.

"Mama - I hot." (It is about 40 degrees outside and the car isn't warmed up yet. I'm shivering.)

"Micah - don't you mean you are cold?"

"No mama - I hot."

"Well, mommy is cold."

"Yeah. I hot too."

Reason #879 for not trying to reason with a 2 year old! They can't tell the difference between hot and cold.

I was impressed with our little back-and-forth! Normally, I say something and he says, "No - don't want it." We are making progress...

Slowly!

$20

2008-01-31T20:40:00.001-05:00

So today, I learned something new again. Go figure. I learned that you can't trust a 6 year old with $20. Last night, Katie told me that they had a book fair at school and that her class was going to get to go to it today and she wanted to buy a book. Well, you hate for your kid to be the only one without a book, so I go to the ATM. I only can get a $20 bill so Katie and I work out a deal - she gets ONE book and brings the rest of the money back to me.

Right. Who's the idiot? I showed up at school later in the day and her teacher meets me first - "Oh Katie is so sweet - you should see the book she chose for her brother!" (I am just knowing that her ONE book was not chosen for her brother.)

She sees me and comes running. "Mom - you should see all the stuff I got at the book fair and I STILL got money back." She has 2 books for herself and one for her brother.

It was sweet of her to think of her brother so it's not like I can scold her for that. And one of the books she picked is a board book so that "brother can share it". It was about Barbie the fairy, but none the less...

Anyway, I finally get around to asking for the rest of the money. Not much point in that.

I got a whopping $0.77.

Rick laughed. He said she comes by her money management skills honestly! That's the truth!

Penguins, by Katie

2008-01-30T09:10:00.001-05:00

We just got a new printer that has a scanner so I had to scan and post this picture that Katie drew at school. They are studying winter animals and the number 4 so this is how she chose to illustrate it! Cute cute cute! This one made it onto the fridge!

Epiphanies

2008-01-29T08:07:00.000-05:00

It seems like every year for the past few, I have had a major epiphany about myself. Maybe it's a sign of aging (!) or perhaps I'm in a slower phase of life right now and have a little more time (while folding the endless laundry or building lego towers) to contemplate things. Whatever the reason, my first resounding thought for 2008 occurred last week.

I think one of the first times I felt one of these "themes for the year" or "major lessons" occurring was in 2005, our first full year here in SC. I can vividly recall it - it was revealed to me, by God I have decided, that my first impressions (of which I had a lot, that year) cannot be trusted and are usually wrong. I was just so amazed after we had been here several months to discover that the initial conclusions I had so quickly drawn during our visit here and during the first few months we lived here, were shattered with time, and things were not as I had assumed they would be. It wasn't that things were worse, actually they were probably better than I had thought, but largely they were just different. I remember this specifically being true with regards to relationships, both the new ones and the surviving long-distance ones. So anyway, throughout the year, that epiphany resounded within me and has become part of who I am. Maybe I am less likely to jump to quick assumptions about how things will be, or maybe I've become a bit more patient with myself and more open to see how things develop. Either way, it was good to learn that about myself.

I'll spare you such a lengthy explanation of other year's thoughts. This year, though, I am still in the exploratory phase of this new insight. I have decided that this year I will be allowing other people to tell me no! Sounds arrogant, I know! It's not really as simple as that sounds. All I can say to explain is that in the past, I have tried to be pursuasive with someone when I felt like their reasons for saying no were unfounded, like they didn't know what they were missing or how things would really be if they went along with my plan! This assumption is based on some pretty arrogant thoughts - such as, I know what is better for someone than they know themselves and that others are incapable of making a good decision, so I need to badger them into making a better one which invariably agrees with me! What has made me like this, I wonder.

Anyway, the real question is what this will look like in the "new me". One big difference I notice in mature, Godly women is that they tend to talk a lot less than me. I think that will have something to do with this new insight. I think that there is still a place for encouraging others, but I think I will have to be analyzing my motives much more closely before determining if what I am "encouraging" someone towards is at all self-motivated. I don't think I have been mean-hearted in the past with what I have tried to convince folks to do or not to do. But arrogant, perhaps, in thinking I knew better what they ought to do. It is somewhat painful to put that word on myself!

However, if the shoe fits... Transformation is a necessary part of "the walk" and it could be a lot more painful than just having to admit to something like arrogance, so at this point I will just be thankful for a gentle lesson this year and try to keep this thought at the front of my mind until it becomes part of me! May God bless you with new revelations about what he wants to transform within you in this new year!

Good Book

2008-01-17T07:55:00.000-05:00

Okay - so I'm getting why women should have their children while they are still young! Pregnancy in my 30's is more difficult than in my 20's. But I guess a good byproduct of feeling like such a slug right now is that I've had a good excuse to read more (like I really needed that!)

I found another gem - "We Are All The Same" by Jim Wooten. It's no Saturday afternoon read - it's actually quite intense, but very moving in a way we all need to be moved. It's biographical, though retold in a great story, about an AIDS orphan in South Africa and the white woman who changed his life and those of countless others by deciding that there had to be more to her life than what she had found thus far. Unfortunately, she doesn't reach any spiritual epiphanies in this period of her life but she does reach some very God-like conclusions and develops a passion for compassion towards those on the margins of society.

Having grown up in the 80's and 90's, I heard words like 'apartheid' and names like 'Mandela' and 'Desmond Tutu', but not until this book have they all come together to make real the suffering and desperation of millions of people that were created in the image of God and that are loved by him as fully and completely as my own children are. I recommend this book for the shear reality of it - the day to day, face by face reality of life for millions in Africa.

You might need to chew on this one a bit!

New Year, New Kiddo

2008-01-01T15:31:00.000-05:00

So in case you haven't heard, there is yet another Castleman on the way. #3 is due in July and Katie said that the Lord spoke to her and told her that this one will be a baby sister. We'll just go with that. My only prayer (besides that it's healthy) is that it will be laid back and quiet! This house is rowdy enough, which of course begs the question, why we are doing this again. We'll let you know if we figure that out.

Anyway, I just wanted everyone to be in the loop since it seems like there is always someone that doesn't hear until late. We have known for a couple months but we wanted to wait to tell the kids until Christmas, so we've been trying to keep it on the down-low. Micah announced to everyone at church this week - "I a big brudder", which was cute.

I guess that's all for today! Happy New Year!

Tonight's Bedtime Conversation

2007-12-22T21:35:00.001-05:00

K - I think I know what Santa is getting me for Christmas.

M (mom) - What's that?

K - A scooter.

M - But that's what he got you last year and I don't think he'll bring you the same thing 2 years in a row.

K - Then he might bring me a bike.

M - You got a bike for your birthday.

K - Yeah but he doesn't know that.

M - Well I think if he keeps track of who is naughty and who is nice he probably also knows who has a bike and who needs one.

K - If Micah is on that naughty list I sure won't be surprised. You know, mom, if you are on the naughty list, you get gunk and tar in your stocking.

M - Or lumps of coal?

K - Yeah. I'll check his stocking and if he gets that, I'll trade stockings with him so that he has some Christmas joy.

Sweet sister! Note that there is no concern on her part as to whether or not she is on the naughty list!

Best of luck to us all, that we all make the nice list and don't get gunk in our stockings!

12 Christmas Facts

2007-12-18T21:01:00.000-05:00

Okay - I got tagged. So here are some Christmas facts about me...

1. I have a funky nativity scene that my friend Susan gave me about 8 years ago. It is pretty strange-looking - I don't know if I actually like it but I always put it up each year and it has become a family tradition, so I guess I like it just for that reason. It is a bit miraculous since it has actually survived this long - it's made by Mikasa and is fine china. Not a good construction for life in this house!

2. I buy Katie a nutcracker every year. When we had our first Christmas as married folks, we had nothing to decorate with. I thought it would be cool for her to have a collection to take with her when she gets a home. I try to find one that defines her for that year. This year's is a fairy, but don't tell her because she hasn't gotten it yet!

3. Rick buys me a Hallmark ornament every year but my favorite (of all 12 - he hasn't missed a year) is the first one he gave me. It has 2 squirrels roasting acorns over a flickering fire. The boy squirrel is burning his acorn because he's not paying attention to it - he's too busy mooning over the girl squirrel!

4. Last year I set up the tree in the kitchen to protect it from Micah. This year, it's back in the living room but there are only about 25 ornaments on it to save my sanity! So far, it's still standing. Knock on wood!

5. My mother in law (who is wonderful in every other way) makes a strawberry jello frozen salad-type-thing every year at Thanksgiving and Christmas that the whole family loves. I finally got the courage this year to tell her I don't like it. We had a good laugh about that. It was just too hard to keep up the act! 12 years is a long time! One great thing, though - my mother in law gave me a Christmas journal the first year we were married. It has a place for a family picture and lines to write in what we did that year, who we spent time with and what special gifts we got. I love it and have updated it every single year.

6. My mom makes some things I don't like either, but my favorite cookie that she made when I was younger and that I make now is the little oatmeal balls rolled in powdered sugar. They always taste a bit better when mom makes them, though. My favorite Christmas gift from my dad was a stuffed raccoon, named Racky, which he gave me when I was only 6 or 7 or 8. He said he picked it out and it had a place of honor in my bed for a long time. Wait, that's 2 facts. Sorry. Just had to get that one in.

7. When we were littler, my mom had a funny igloo with penguins that went with it. She always set it in the bay window at Christmas time. Unfortunately, the igloo was made of styrofoam and the penguins had sharp beaks and we pecked the igloo to death. It was too iresistable to jab those beaks into the styrofoam. I still miss that igloo.

8. We also had a great advent calendar that my bratty little brother asked for when mom and dad moved a few years ago. I started making one in about 1998 - it's not moving too quickly. When I'm at my brother's house this Christmas, I will probably steal that advent calendar if I see it out.

9. I do love my family and Rick's family. Being with all of them at the same time is fun but it gives me a stomachache most years. I think it's the rowdiness, combined with close quarters, sitting too long and too much to eat. I wouldn't trade the time but I am prepared for the cramps. Does that happen to anyone else?

10. I don't pretend that all the gifts come from Santa. Maybe I'm just selfish, but I want my kids to think Mom is cool too.

11. Rick is slowly recovering from his Grinch-er-osity. This condition resulted after working in retail jewelry for 9 consecutive Christmases. He doesn't ever Christmas shop with me but I really don't mind. I actually prefer shopping alone (or with kids if I have lots of snacks.) I think that makes me a bit of a freak!

12. I don't really care about having a white Christmas. It would be fun to see my kids play in snow but I don't care when that happens. I live in the south for a good reason and I am not envious of you snow-covered, freezing-in-your-beds, wearing-puffy-coats-just-to-check-the-mail northerners. Ya'll hear that? But merry Christmas all the same!

Fact #7 really made me laugh as I typed it out. I bet my brothers remember that igloo.

You might not have wanted to know about #9. But it's a fact!

Okay. Now I tag Brenda, Philip (since you don't have anything else to do this week!) and Heather M (not Heather Jo - like you are going to update your blog any time soon! You might have gotten this done by next Christmas!)

2007-12-07T21:04:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from Katie, Micah and their cousins...

(hint - click on the words "merry Christmas".... there you go!)

Funny Things...

2007-12-02T16:29:00.000-05:00

Kids are a lot of work and headache (let's just be honest) but they can be so entertaining.

One of our biggest laughs of the month was yesterday - Katie watched the movie "Pocohontas", which she has seen before. I was reading a book, with my amazing ability to block out noise (Rick is so impressed by that) so I was unaware that the movie had just ended with John Smith sailing away from Pocohontas, back to England. All I knew was that Katie flew onto my lap weeping. I look at Rick for some clue and he is laughing his head off, silently, which was sweet. Turns out, she's crying for Pocohontas. Weeping, actually. And not just for a minute. This went on and on and got funnier and funnier. She has such a tender heart. Unfortunately, this doesn't always extend to REAL people, such as those which live with her!

Micah's funny new thing is to come in for a kiss but just bump into me, then back off and sadly say, "It's broken, mama!"

Let's play a little game - one popular at our house. It's called "What the heck is Micah saying?"

The sound of the word is 'keem-peter'. This one we actually know but I wonder if anyone else has a clue.

Well, that's about all I got! It's been a slow week!

Last Night's Bedtime Conversation...

2007-11-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

Mom: Katie - time to say your prayer.

Katie: Dear God, Thank you for this day. Please help the pilgrims get home on the Mayflower safely. Amen.... Mom, did they get home safely?

Mom: Baby, that all happened a long time ago.

Katie: Was that in 1982?

2 Thoughts...

2007-11-18T20:53:00.000-05:00

A couple years ago, one of the middle schoolers at church asked me, "When your baby (Micah was a baby at the time) poops in his diaper and you have to change him, does it still stink to you, since he's your baby?"

Bless her heart.

Dear R.K. - Yes. It stinks. Badly. (And I hear a resounding AMEN from Rick.)

I thought about this yesterday because I was struck by something that is different in my experience with my kids than my experience with other kids. When I was teaching I developed a massive gross-out phobia with loose/losing teeth. It seriously made me nauseas to see kids wiggle and pull out their teeth.

Well, Katie lost her second tooth yesterday and it was ugly. I can't explain exactly how this happened. All I really understood from her hysterical crying was that a blanket snagged this not-very-loose tooth and when she rolled over in bed, it jerked the tooth out. It was bloody and seemed to hurt quite a bit. But I realized later that day that I hadn't been particularly grossed out. I felt bad for Katie and somewhat perplexed as to how that all happened, but not grossed out. Score one for the mom. 2 teeth down, many more to go. My favorite part of the whole tooth-losing event was listening to Katie this morning, reenact how she woke up and discovered that the tooth box was empty of the tooth and full of a dollar!

Speaking of favorite times, I think that our assembly at church yesterday was one of my all time favorites - at least in the top 10. During the singing time, Micah (who was dressed exactly like Rick in a blue dress shirt and khaki pants) led his own little worship time in the aisle beside me with a yellow crayon as his microphone. He has his little hands in the air and he was singing at the top of his lungs! It was beautiful. I think Rick had a hard time keeping everyone together because there weren't too many eyes on him - they were all watching Micah and laughing their heads off. I know that he isn't supposed to be providing the entertainment - in fact, I know he didn't even see anyone watching him because he'd have stopped if he did. He was just all into the praise music. But I just can't stifle that enthusiasm! It is so cool to see him praising God and trying to be like his dad! I can't think of a more beautiful thing that could happen in our assembly, so I let him sing on! The dancing got a little crazy, but sometimes you just can't help yourself!

Scarmbled Eggs, Chicken Nuggets and Micah's Nose

2007-11-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

Parenting is such a learning experience. Yesterday, I learned that scrambled eggs are much the same consistency as, well, there's not a very nice way to say this...well, as snot. I know this now because Micah stuck them up his nose but fortunately, due to their unique consistency, they blew right out into a tissue! Breakfast, anyone?

They tell you during your parenting crash course that you shouldn't leave young children unattended while they are eating. I heard this. What they didn't tell you is that while a child is eating, safely secured in his highchair, you can get a surprising amount of work done. (This, along with many other things, is why I always lose my mother-of-the-year award in early January!) With Katie, this unattended eating issue only came up once, when she stuck a straight pretzel in her ear and broke it off. (Thanks to Shari and her suction machine, we were spared an ER visit.) However, with Micah this is becoming a bigger issue.

The funniest occurrence was on our mega-trip a couple months ago. We were eating Chick-fil-a in the car. As he finished his nuggets, Micah started calmly saying "Mama. Chicken. Nose." Micah says strange stuff, so I don't get too worked up. He might have thought he saw me put chicken in my nose, which I was pretty sure I hadn't. He might have been wondering if chicken's had noses. Or, it was possible that he was saying something that had nothing to do with chickens or noses. I did look in his nose and of course I couldn't see anything, so along we went.

We stayed in a hotel that night and the next morning, Rick took him down to the continental breakfast. A crowded hotel breakfast is hairy enough - add a fast and determined 2 year old and Rick's patience was put to the test. But the best part, which I laughed heartily about upon hearing it, was when Micah did a gi-normous sneeze in the middle of it all and out flew a rather large piece of chicken. We now know that Micah's nasal cavity must be quite large to have accommodated such a chunk of chicken! Honey mustard, anyone?

Ahhh... the glamorous life! And it's only getting better!

A Plain Old Sunday

2007-11-11T16:12:00.000-05:00

Well, it's just another day around here. Let's see what I can tell you...

Micah started going happily into his preschool last week, for the first time. Previously, he would start, from the moment he saw me put his backpack in the car, saying "No no Miss Debbie does bubbles." (Miss Debbie is his teacher and she usually ends the day with a massive bubble-blowing event, earning her the name from Micah "Miss-Debbie-does-bubbles".) He has gone from throwing a raging fit when we leave him to now throwing a fit when we pick him up. I think that kid has a quota of fits he must throw each day because it seems pretty arbitrary when he throws them. He wants music on. He doesn't want music on. He wants certain music on. He wants it louder, softer, etc.... But fortunately for him, he's a lover and my frustration is diminished when he (frequently) showers his love on me. One of my friends said her 3 year old asked her, at a rather tense parent-child moment, "Mama, are you trying not to kill us?" I guess Micah might sense that at times, so he pours on the charm!

I am daily astounded at what Katie is learning at school. It's been mostly good stuff so far! I'm sure the bad stuff will astound me too, whenever we get around to that! The other night we were laying in her bed thinking of everything that starts with the letter "M". I said "marshmallow" and she said, "Hey mom, did you know that is a compound word?" Wow! She's in kindergarten, for Pete's sake! Anyway, I'll quit there to avoid the "look-my-kids-a-genius" obnoxiousness that irritates me with other people! I'll save the listing of her amazing accomplishments for my parents. Isn't that the great thing about grandparents? They never tire of hearing how wonderful your kid is!

Anyway, Rick is doing good too. He launched a website for his jewelry stuff - you can see it here . The business has been just enough for him and we are blessed by the chance to keep his skills up and supplement our income.

I wrapped 6 Christmas gifts last night. I was pretty proud of myself. Not that they look exceptional or anything, but that is just 6 gifts that I won't have to buy the week before Christmas! I know, it's a glamorous life. You don't have to remind me.

Well, unfortunately, that's about all I got. I'll sign off with one of my new favorite quotes...

"Some people are like slinkies - not really good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs."

PS - By the way, in the picture above, Katie is not squatting down - Micah is really that tall! Yikes!

Tools

2007-11-04T14:47:00.000-05:00

Here are my deep thoughts for the week!

I think that we are born with certain innate tools. I think this is different than talents or skills.

I'll use myself as an example. And Rick of course!

I was born with an internal clock (set to the right time!). Here is why I think this.

I always know what time it is, within about 15 minutes. Time never gets away from me (like some people say happens to them when they are late.) I am rarely late - usually I am annoyingly early. I can estimate how long something will take me to do and I am usually right.

I know that this is innate because Rick doesn't have it. He has learned a lot of habits from me, so he is not usually late nowadays, but it's not in his blood. He is frequently shocked at what time it is and he is bad at estimating how long something will take. We joke about it - he'll say, "It'll just take a minute." and I'll say, "Great - see you in a few hours!"

On the flip side, however, he has an innate compass. He knows where we are, which direction is out and when to turn. I can look at the sun and, since I always know what time it is, can tell where north is but that doesn't mean I can get anywhere. We live next to a huge neighborhood with winding streets. It is faster to get to the east side of town if we cut through that neighborhood. Rick has been taking that shortcut several times a week for 3 years but I still can't find my way through it. I have a hard time figuring out interstates - I-26 near my house runs north and south but is labelled east and west and I can't remember which direction I need to take to go one exit north of where I am. And the corn-field maze. Don't get me started. Talk about panic attack!

In addition to a clock, I have an internal calculator. Don't take this to mean I'm good at math. I can honestly say I am terrible at math - I don't know calculus from geometry. But I can do math in my head and usually pretty quick. This annoys people too. I think it is a challenge. But this tool goes defunct if I don't have enough sleep.

Rick has an internal tape measure. I'm at a little disadvantage here because I learned metric growing up and now I have to use the other. But I still don't think I have the measurement tool.

Rick can usually know what size blinds we need for the window we didn't measure before going to Lowe's. I would be estimating between 45 and 70 inches! He gets a little closer. I will, however, know that if it costs $29.99 and we have a 15% off coupon, we'll only pay about $158 for it (after he buys a new drill to install it) and it will take approximately 3 months to do the job (after we put it off in favor of anything else)! We are quite a team!

That's all I got!

Halloween Scrooge

2007-11-01T15:31:00.000-04:00

If there was a character that felt about Halloween like Scrooge felt about Christmas, that would be like me. I don't have any spiritual issues about it. I just don't like it. I am annoyed by the persistent knocking on the door, stressed by finding the cutest costume, frustrated by the deluge of sugar on my family, etc. Pretty Scroog-ish, eh? But I grudgingly went along with things again this year, although I refused to pay for costumes. Here was what we came up with - Roman citizens...

It was kinda funny because everyone called Micah "Little Ceasar" (like the pizza guy) and some of the teenagers kept saying that my kids were dressed for a frat party, not a halloween party. That made me laugh and overall, we had a good time at a Halloween party with folks from church and I only spent $6 on the costumes, so life is good!

7 Years of Plenty?

2007-10-30T22:13:00.000-04:00

Totally random thought here. Has anyone noticed a larger than usual crop of acorns this year? Pulling out of the driveway each morning sounds like we are driving over bubble wrap, there are so many acorns that have accumulated overnight. What is so funny to me is the squirrels climb up to the top of our oak trees, which would be about 60 or more feet up, and shake the branches to make them fall. Have they not noticed that there are about 7,000,000 of them already on the ground? Let's work a little smarter, little squirrels. That could explain why you are not on the top of your food chain!

On a more frightening note, has anyone ever been hit with an acorn that has fallen down 60 feet? I can't do the math on that anymore, but I'd estimate the velocity of an acorn could reach a force similar to the force Micah uses tackling Katie when he wants to take her down! In either situation, it's going to hurt. We are about to start using helmets outside.

I just wonder if I should be concerned about the plethora of acorns. I may have to consult the farmer's almanac and see what that bodes for the winter. Maybe I should be squirreling something away too. Mac and cheese was on sale at Publix this week - buy one get one free. Hmmmm...

2007-10-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

This truly is a glamorous life I lead.

For example, I had 2 major victories today in the domestic goddess department. First, I figured out how to get the straps off of Micah's high chair so that I could wash 2 years worth of crust out of them. You might think this is minor. If so, then you have never witnessed the magnitude of crust that can accumulate on anything a toddler routinely touches. Especially one that eats like Micah!

Secondly, I actually finished all of the laundry today. Finished. As in all washed, all dryed, all folded and all put away. Even the hang up stuff! Every article of clothing except for what we were wearing! I even washed tennis shoes and a jacket, all of the detached high chair paraphernalia and every one of the towels in this house. In fact, I didn't know we had that many towels. (Does anyone else feel like they are always scrounging for a towel in the morning? Many a day, I have settled for a damp pink one that Katie had used the night before.) Problem was, there was some serious jamming going on to get all of the towels in the cabinet. Maybe I should have left some in the dirty clothes hamper, but that would have made this only a minor laundry victory.

The trade-off for these feats of domestic splendor was in the loss of some drywall. Let me explain. Micah is a little Houdini. He has mastered almost every baby-type lock, including the door knob covers. So in order to let him out of my sight, he has to be either strapped in his high chair (via the formerly crusty straps) or thoroughly gated in. I have a tension mounted gate that stretches across the hallway to keep him out of the bedrooms and I was determined to do that today. I had to tighten the tension rods repeatedly because he kept busting through them. I finally got them so tight that I had to leave the thing up all day, leaping over it even while he was asleep, because I couldn't get it off. Rick finally managed to get it off, along with a chunk of drywall on each side of my newly painted hallway. Bummer.

BUT, refer back to my 2 major domestic victories. Don't "they" say something like 'victory demands sacrifice'?

On a totally separate note, I have to jot down a very happy mom moment for the sake of posterity. Katie has not been the most fun kid these days. She has a pretty sassy mouth on her (shocker, huh) and she is extremely moody (another big shock). But yesterday, we were at a Daisy Scout meeting at Moe's (southwest restaurant). Moe's was voted as the troop's favorite restaurant and they graciously agreed to let us come eat as much chips and queso as we could pack down them. Anyway, the TV was on and there was coverage of a fire and explosion somewhere. Katie (my TV junkie - no surprise there) spotted it and drew the attention of all the girls to the TV. Then she said, "We need to pray for the people in that fire. Everyone hold hands." She then proceeded to tell the girl next to her to offer the prayer, which she did. Incidentally, it was a rather lengthy prayer, although very sweet, and Katie couldn't make it all the way through without dipping a chip - the sneaky dipping of the chip was rather comical. But I was just so proud of her tender heart! If only all of us had such an immediate inclination to pray in the face of tragedy!

It is a glamorous life! All I am lacking is an extremely large pair of dark sunglasses and then everyone would know how glamorous it is!

51 hours in the car and 2,947 miles later...

2007-10-14T22:41:00.001-04:00

...we survived the marathon trip and have recovered nicely! We hit 15 states plus one province and lived to tell about it! We had a great visit with my mom and dad, Rick's mom and dad, all of my brothers and friends in Arkansas. Rick also had a GREAT reunion show with the Christian group he sang with for 10 years and we had a lot of fun catching up with those guys.

There is much more to tell but I'm sleepy tonight, so I'll leave you with some glimpses of our incredible journey...

Micah's first taste of hockey (outside of my parents church in Canada on a Sunday!) They don't normally play hockey at church, by the way! It only seems that way!

We actually got to wear winter clothes in Canada!

My parents are still finishing building their house. My dad and brothers let him "help"! I guess this is what "training up a child in the way he should go" means in my family!

Ahhh... cousins! This is Jolene and she is tougher than she looks, fortunately for her!

2007-09-17T13:37:00.000-04:00

Last night, we had a praise gathering at church and Rick had sent out an e-mail earlier in the week asking for song requests. It was cool because one of our members is currently deployed to Afghanistan and he sent Rick a request via e-mail. Rick records the assemblies onto DVD and sends them to Jeff, so he knew Jeff would get to hear his request.

I was so moved when we sang the song he requested. The first line says, "Over all the earth, You reign on high." I started to wonder if this brother is able to see God reigning in Afghanistan right now.

I've been to a lot of places in this country, and in the world, where you could look out over the creation and know that God reigns. You'd be blind not to see that at Niagara Falls, or looking over the Swiss Alps, in the sun setting over the Black Sea or in the waves crashing onto some of the beautiful, undisturbed beaches of South Carolina. I've known God reigned when I watched medical professionals serve the underserved at free medical clinics in Arkansas and here in South Carolina and I've known God reigned when I've seen men sweating over building homes for people who've lost theirs in a storm. I have felt like I've almost seen the very face of God in my newborn babies and in watching some amazing women of God showing comfort to each other. Creation and the work of God-loving people testify to the reign of God.

I believe the words of Psalm 48 and I know in faith that God reigns over all of the earth. But I can imagine it is really hard for people to see that in some areas of the world right now.

Psalm 48:7 "God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne."

A day in the life...

2007-09-13T18:41:00.000-04:00

So, Katie has been partnered up with a 4th grader (a "real, live 4th grader", she calls him) who's name is Ben (or so we thought) for these first few weeks of school who reads to her when they have "book buddy" time. This has happened 3 or 4 times already and she has talked at length about Ben.

So tonight we were going over her day as I was tucking her in, she mentions that they had book buddies today. So I say, "Oh, how is Ben?"

She says, "By the way mom, his name is not Ben."

I say, "Oh. Okay. What is his name."

"I don't really know. But it sure isn't Ben." (I'd have liked to see how she figured that out, since she's been calling him Ben for a month. She gets that from Rick.)

I say, "Are you sure it is the same guy you have been reading with all along?"

She says, "Yeah. It's okay. He never remembers my name either. I keep telling him, 'I'm Katie. Katie. Katie.' But he never remembers. So I started telling him my name is Lindsay!"

Maybe Ben, or whoever he is, could pick up a few tips from Katie, or whoever she is!

What are they teaching them these days...

2007-09-12T13:38:00.000-04:00

So, Rick took a birthday snack to Katie's class this week. It was our first glimpse into her little world since she started school. He said it was pretty crazy - a lot of little bodies in a little room - but that she was having a great time and the other kids seemed pretty nice (with a couple exceptions.) Since he had to take the snack at 1:00 (yeah, they eat lunch at 9:50 am!) and pickup line starts forming around 2:00, I suggested he stay for the rest of the afternoon and ask the teachers if they had anything he could do...

...which is how he ended up in the teacher work room stapling number books together! Go little Ricky!

Anyway, he said the most entertaining/unusual part of his adventures in kindergarten was when Mrs. Pearson announced that everyone needed to finish their snack because it was time to go out for recess. Rick said that "recess" was barely out of her mouth when 5 (no exaggeration) kids asked Katie if they could be her cat! And 1 asked to be her dog?

What is up with that?

We still have no clue why her classmates are campaigning to be her pet. She was tired to the point of tears last night so I forgot to ask. I think we will be needing to have a little chat tonight.

2

2007-09-07T12:24:00.000-04:00

It's official, though I've known it for a while now! His favorite word is "no", he wants to do everything himself and he follows me around like a shadow! But I love him! I almost can't remember life without him, back when we got enough sleep and didn't have any baby gates or baby locks in the house and when no one threw fits and everyone ate neatly. But really, I can barely remember that!

Random Memory

2007-09-06T13:24:00.000-04:00

I was thinking back the other day to something that happened 13 years ago! I can't remember what triggered that memory. I must be getting old since I have significant memory of something that far back. Anyway, Rick and I were dating and were at the mall. In that foggy, lovey phase, we stepped into a jewelry store in the mall to look at engagement rings. We weren't really ready to buy anything (meaning, our student loan money hadn't come in so we were still broke) but we wanted to look (and I wanted to be able to tell my girlfriends that I'd been engagement-ring shopping!)

Anyway, the sales lady, when she figured out that we weren't planning to buy anything immediately, told us that we shouldn't wait too long to buy a diamond because THE DIAMOND SUPPLY IN THE WORLD WAS ALMOST DEPLETED! She actually told us that in the near future, everyone was going to have "champagne" diamonds (translation - ugly brown diamonds) because they had almost finished mining all of the earth's clear white diamonds. We actually got a little worried about that.

Funny how things end up. Rick is 12 years into a career in jewelry, and still having no trouble buying white diamonds,(and with new diamond mines still being discovered) and we hadn't thought of that trip to the mall in over 10 years. I wonder if the sales lady really believed what she told us or if she flat out lied to us. Our worry over what she said goes to show how easily we can have the wool pulled over our eyes when we are in the vulnerable position of not knowing something. Obviously, no one can know about everything (even people who act like they do!), so we are all in the position at times.

I am not sure why I thought of that, but to set your mind at ease, I don't think that in this century the world will run out of nice diamonds. Although, if you are worried, we can hook you up with a big one today, just in case!

The Theory of Relativity

2007-09-04T13:07:00.000-04:00

I can't remember exactly what the actual, scientific theory of relativity means, but here is what that term means to me today...

Kids and Time - there is a relativity that is not understood by kids. For example, a friend of mine's delightful 5 year old heard someone say "Jesus is coming soon" so she asked her mom how it would be when Jesus came. Her mom explained the trumpets and the thunder and all that. Like 5 minutes later, a truck rumbled by and the child hollers "It's Jesus - I hear him!" There is just no concept of the relativity of time. You can't blame them - we say, "It will be bedtime soon." and "Soon it will be fall and you can wear blue jeans again. " and "Jesus is coming soon." There should be more specific terms.

6 Inches - When you are talking about the distance between earth and the sun, 6 inches is relatively insignificant. When you are trying to see how far it is from here to there on a map, again, relatively insignificant. When you are moving a piano, still not that big of a deal. When you are discussing the difference between a full-size bed and a queen-size bed, it doesn't sound very significant. YET, when 2 of you are trying to sleep in a full-size bed, instead of a queen-size bed, those missing 6 inches will kill ya! So if we seem a little grumpy over the next few weeks, just know that it is all relative to those 6 inches of missing bed (all 6 of which I think were taken off of my side since Rick seems to not be noticing the difference.)

Teeth - since you have 16 or 20 of them in your mouth, you would think that missing one is relatively minor. Yet, Katie can't seem to talk without spitting these days. I guess that having a 3 mm gap in the front is making all the difference in her ability to keep her slobber in while she talks! Here's hoping they don't all fall out at once. We'll have to wear rain slickers just to chat with her!

So those are the theories of relativity in this house!

There is less of Katie to love...

2007-09-03T20:17:00.001-04:00

Yet another milestone! After 3 months of wiggling, it came out in the tub! Now the tooth fairy has to run somewhere to get a dollar? Or should it be $5? A quarter? What is the going tooth-fairy rate these days?

Yet Another Milestone...

2007-08-29T13:40:00.000-04:00

There have just been so many milestones lately, I feel like I am tripping over them. Today, Micah started school - only preschool, but still a big thing for him. Unfortunately, he didn't sleep very well last night and I don't think he felt 100%, but we went anyway. (By my twisted logic, I figure that he'd be grumpy here or there, and they get paid, so I let him go!) He cried when we left, sadly, but just so you know, Micah (in case you read this some day), I stood outside the door and listened for 20 minutes until you got happy, and I was sad too. You can tell the therapist that if you ever decide that me leaving you crying at preschool traumatized you for life!

The good news was that when I picked him up at noon, I stood in the classroom watching him for a good 5 minutes before he even noticed me there. He had a good time, I think, runny nose and all. I enjoyed the morning - I began a new Bible study with some girls and it's nice to not have to rush through it.

So here are some of the captured moments. (I'm sure Rick will create another podcast with the video he took, in case you are dying to see the live action version!)

The backpack is a little large, but so cute! He likes the "pack pack" part of school!

This is when I should have left! But I just had to say good bye, which is when the tears started. (If anyone is ever at church and wonders what exactly "weeping and knashing of teeth" looks like, you can just imagine the first day of preschool with 10 nearly-2-year-olds leaving their mamma's for the first time!)

His class has 7 boys and 3 girls. I would not be volunteering to be in charge of that mess! But Miss Debbie and Miss Elaine are veteraned 2-year-old teachers, so I will happily let them do their thing!

In other Micah news, we are starting to see 3 and 4 word sentences! It is very cute! Today at lunch he kept saying, "mo chikit muck agin pees." I knew exactly what he wanted. If you can't figure it out, you probably need to come for a visit! Anyway, it is so sweet to listen to his little voice, especially when he sings! He definately got more of the music gene than Katie did and it is so cool to see it develop. We'll try to get that on video - it would make a good podcast, I'm sure! (By the way, if you did download his podcasts from iTunes, thanks for indulging my technologically obesessed husband!)

I hope your day was as exciting as ours!

The Other Child

2007-08-24T12:39:00.001-04:00

I have been a little preoccupied with Katie's things this week, but I wanted to let all 4 of my faithful readers know I haven't forgotten the little Mike. Thursday morning, we were all dressed and fed and ready to go and it was only 8:00! What a new scene for us! So we sat on the couch and pondered our new little existance - just him and me. I came to the conclusion that we can finally do what HE wants. He has been packed around to all of his sisters events for 2 years. Now is Micah time. So we sat a little longer with me trying to figure out what he might want to do. I haven't given that much thought!

So we ended up at the park. It was surprisingly cool and there was no one there. An empty park is no fun to Katie but Micah loved it! He had no one to stand in line behind, no one on the swings to kick him when he walked in front, no one to be hit with the rocks he loves to throw. It was great! We stayed 2 hours. He did miss Katie, though. As soon as she got home, she shucked her clothes and he put them on over his own. It was cute.

So here is the little man these days. He is cute beyond words and such a ham. The child plays to the crowd, even wose than Katie did at this age. He has a touch of OCD in that he wants the same song played over and over until he learns it and can sing along. There is nothing more precious than hearing a little child sing "Lord, You're Beautiful".

He has made this week survivable for me. We are both excited for Saturday, though. There is something just-not-right with Katie gone!

2007-08-22T12:24:00.000-04:00

I don't know who's brilliant idea it was to give a sweet, defenseless baby to a couple, expect them to love and protect the little creature for 5 or 6 years, while they grow more and more attached to the thing, and then ask them to just hand it off on some arbitrary day in August to a couple of strangers who have a paper on the wall that says they know what they are doing in a room FULL of little people, just one of which you had trouble handling sometimes, and then expect you to go on about your merry day without another word from them for 6 or 7 hours. To make matters worse, they expect you to jerk that sweet sleeping child out of bed at an hour that man was not meant to walk to earth (since it is still DARK) so that later they can try to get the poor child to sleep on a towel, sardined up against kids they've never met, in the bright light, on a concrete floor and with a belly full of greasy popcorn chicken and fries. Why couldn't we have just let them sleep in the morning and skipped the whole nap farce? And what in the heck is popcorn chicken? Did it start out as a dry kernel of chicken before it hit the grease?

Maybe I'm just a little emotional right now, but I miss my kiddo. We did survive the morning. She did great. She was nervous but brave and it was hard to leave her in her chair, waving goodbye, and not go back for another kiss. But I was heartened to see that as I walked away, she was drawing a happy sunshine on her paper. Here are some of the moments...

The requisite "First-Day-of-School-in-front-of-the-house" picture. I have the one of Darrell and I waiting by the mailbox for the bus on my first day of kindergarten, framed on a shelf.

This one kills me. She didn't even need to hold my hand. She didn't know that I needed to hold hers...

Katie finding her own little piece of real estate - the illustrious cubby - with Mrs. Roberts (who is quickly emerging as the favored of the 2 teachers.)

And the final farewells. I don't think Micah has realized that anything is different today!

So there it is. Now I only have a couple more hours to wait to hear what I missed. And I just can't wait!

The Final Day...

2007-08-21T13:01:00.000-04:00

We had classroom orientation today at Katie's school. Can I just say that I need to rent the saddest movie tonight and just get these tears out! I feel like I have been choking on them for a week - they feel like such a weight! I'm thinking "Stepmom" or "My Life" or something like that is in order for tonight.

So anyway, back to the orientation. Katie flat out refused to enter the classroom! All of you who can't imagine that she is ever shy - you should have been there. So we waited a couple minutes in the hall. I finally told her I was ready so she hid behind me and we went in. It really took her a few minutes to warm up! I am praying she gets a good night sleep tonight because if she is tired tomorrow, she might pull the same stunt and I'm not sure I can leave her there crying.

Here are some pics of the morning.

This is the front of the school. There are 1045 students this year, which includes 9 kindergarten classes! I think there were fewer than 9 classes in the entire elementary school that I went to!

Katie could not be bothered with drawing a picture of her family! She only sat still for a couple minutes!

She did immediately get excited about the books!

This car is in the library. What is up with her reading the paper? I don't even read the paper!

So that is the latest. I'll hopefully get some pictures tomorrow. Thanks for indulging me as I take this agonizing journey back to elementary school! We are really excited for Katie and totally at ease with everything - just mournful of the leaving of a phase of her life and all too aware of how quickly the days are passing us by!

2007-08-20T13:55:00.000-04:00

Wow - the clock is SOOO ticking!

A day and a half until my preschooler enters the world of her next 13 years.

A day and a half until I have to start planning around a school schedule and quit going to theme parks when no one else is there.

A day and a half until I start waiting anxiously to hear how her day spent with other people went, and hope I didn't miss too much.

A day and a half until Katie has to wait until 2:30 to get a hug if she gets hurt or gets her feelings hurt.

A day and a half until I get to start running errands with only one child. Okay - that's a good part!

It'll be a big day and a half!

Shifting gears (and avoiding tears) I have to share the latest funny thing. Today, Katie finally wanted to work on her preschool workbook that she has been against working on all summer. So she was determined to do all of it! Anyway, on one page we were graphing the number of legs each farm animal has. I had to call each animal a "her". She said, "They are all girls mom, unless they poop. If they poop, they are boys!" Hopefully, she'll keep to the theory that boys stink for at least another 13 years.

1.5 days...and no longer counting.

Funny Katie Quote of The Day

2007-08-18T21:22:00.000-04:00

Today, Katie was washing out a pair of panties that she had messed in. She hollered at me, "You know mom, a long time ago, if a kid had an accident, they'd have to wash their panties out down at the river!" That's about right, I guess.

I guess that means she's ready for school! Good thing, because there's 4 days and counting.....

Our new favorite place

2007-08-10T14:52:00.000-04:00

We are getting ready for a renovation on our master bath and have been plotting and planning our method of attack. I have driven by this store several times, called the Restore, run and managed by Habitat for Humanity, and always wanted to stop in. So today, we went to scope it out. It was awesome! There were dozens and dozens of windows and doors, shutters, bathroom fixtures, cabinets, furniture, bricks, light fixtures, etc. The window assortment was the most amazing. There were all sorts of custom shapes and styles, many of them still in their original packaging. The worker folks old us that the stock came from a variety of places - some was recycled and was not new, other stuff was slightly damaged and a lot of it was new overstocked items from home imrprovement stores. There was also some cool old stuff - one door was like the old doors in the middle school I went to, with windows on the top half and made of old, heavy wood. It was $20 - if 'd had a place to keep it, I would've bought it for sentimental value. There were some cool, angled-type windows and some really neat french door ensembles.

We ended up buying a window for the bathroom that matches the other windows in the bedroom - it was brand new - for $40! Then, we got a new marble vanity top with 2 underneath-mounted sinks for $99! (It is still in the truck - we will need some big friends to help us get it out!) We also got a solid cherry kitchen table with the leaf that folds down into the table for $65 - granted, it doesn't have any legs, but Rick is already remedying that in the garage! We cut a lot off our bathroom budget and everything in the store is tax-free too, with the proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity, so it was a winner all around. We will definately be hitting that store again frequently.

Anyway, that was the cool thing for the day! We will have to post some before and after pics of the bathroom whenever we get started. There are some details we are still working out but we hope to get started in the next few weeks. If you have nothing else to do, you are welcome to come demo with us! It should be fun...

It's all fun and games until someone pukes in the playland!

2007-08-08T14:35:00.001-04:00

So it's 480 degrees (roughly) and we are running out of money and things to fill the day! If someone wants me to do their back to school shopping (and foot the bill of course), I'd be glad to because I am bored out of my gourd today. That doesn't mean I don't have anything to do - just nothing that is appealing to do with 2 whiny kids and a car that feels like an oven, on less than $5.00.

So we have been hitting the "fun" (term used loosely) restaurants this week for lunch and a bit of energy exertion (theirs, not mine). Today it was Burger King. Apparently, most of the other moms in town thought it was a good idea too, so it was packed...

...until the worker-man said kindly, "We need to clear the playland for just a few minutes while we clean some vomit out of the little car thingy." Wow. What a way to empty Burger King of about 75 people in less than a minute. I think the lake dropped a couple inches too, shortly after that, as about 30 moms scrubbed their kids from head to toe (Katie is still soaking as we speak). I think the only thing that could make these last, hot, grumpy days of summer any longer is a stomach virus!

But on a lighter note, Micah is becoming a little quirky in his old age. In a stroke of brilliance (I thought at the time), I got him eating his vegetables one night with a toothpick (we said "on a steeek", like the jalepeno on a stick guy). Unfotunately, he has now abandoned all other forms of self feeding and will only eat stuff off of a "steeek". It's a little tedious. We haven't tried rice since this started. Or soup. I'll keep you posted about that.

Only 2 weeks left until school. We are getting nervous about the morning times. Currently, we are weening Katie off of the 10 am waking schedule. Shooting for 9:30 by the end of the week. We need to get to 6:45. Not sure how that will go. But she is ready - she's been wearing jeans and a SWEATER all week. DId I mention that it's nearly 800 degrees outside? Just checking. She cracked me up again the other night. We were eating chicken soup (I know - bad idea in August but I couldn't come up with anything else) and Rick got a little bone in his. Katie commented, "I wonder why they put bones in the chicken? What good is that?" Maybe I'd be that smart if I could sleep until 10:00 every morning.

The kids are playing together a little more these days. That is usually a good thing, although 2 conniving little minds are truly scarier than one. Yesterday, they played that they were cops and arrested the vaccuum cleaner. The vaccuum has been the source of much delight these past couple weeks. Once again I ask myself why I buy toys when the hard plastic vaccuum attachments are what they play with all day. Describing the arrest of the vaccum on the phone to my friend Holly resulted in a suggestion that they need a little "respect of the household appliances" crash course. I think I probably need the "it's not always good in the long run to let kids do whatever it takes to keep them from whining" crash course instead. But it's a little too hot for that today! Besides, at least I didn't let them eat cookies or doritos for breakfast, like I know some moms are prone to do.

Yet.

13 days and counting...

I think I might miss her...

2007-08-04T13:36:00.001-04:00

It struck me this week as the three of us (me, K and M) were driving through town, and I was watching them in the backseat through my rear-view as they shared a book and Katie "read" to Micah, that - OH MY GOODNESS - SHE IS LEAVING ME! I really thought that kindergarten was going to be great and that I wouldn't miss her a bit, but now I think I will. Granted, she is climbing the walls and making me crazy these days and she is bored and annoying and all that. But she is also sweet and good to her brother (most of the time) and she is so loving and snuggly, and she is helpful (most of the time) and funny. Today, there is a guy pressure washing the house - she asked me if he was done with the bathrooms and could she go potty! If only... And earlier this week, she pulled a hard boiled egg out of the fridge, who's shell had cracked while it was cooking, and she freaked out - "Mom - this one is hatching!" She keeps me in stitches.

Anyway, I just had to share that epiphany. It's not the going that makes me sad - she'll love it and grow up so much at school. It's just the leaving me behind that makes me sad. I guess I better get used to it. Loving and leaving is pretty much what kids do.

In the meantime, I have a lot to do. Micah is so confused - too much female influence. At the shoe store today, he pulled off the cool tennis shoes I had him try on and put on some sparkly pink flip-flops instead. Then he shed his baseball cap to put on a Hello-Kitty hat instead. (At least he can match his accessories.) Katie going to kindergarten will probably be good for him - help him get his blues and pinks straight!

17 days and counting...

Recap of the last few weeks...

2007-07-24T13:51:00.000-04:00

Well, I am sorry not to have posted in a while. We have been busy at times, climbing the walls at others. I took the kids to Arkansas and we had a great trip. Cristy summarized it well on her blog - http://thefarleyfamily.blogspot.com/2007/07/castleman-time-last-tuesday-one-of-anna.html - so you can check hers out - she even got pictures posted. The drive was long but manageable. We only stopped 3 times in the 11 hours going there, if you count the FOUR service stations I went into at the same exit in Atlanta, trying to find a bathroom that wasn't out of order, as one stop. After the first 3 hours, which were the longest, I think the kids resigned themselves to getting old and grey in their seats and quit whining, so the last 8 hours were fine.

I think this was the hardest trip to Searcy that I've taken, not because I did it solo. It is just that the 3 years we have been gone have gone by fast for me, so it doesn't feel like that long. But 3 years is really a long time and although we invested 12 years of our lives there, we are officially now "someone who used to live here", as in "Meet my friend Teresa - she used to live here."

That makes me want to scream. Of course, it is technically correct. We did use to live there and we did move away. But we also left our blood, sweat and tears in that town, and especially at Downtown Church, so it is hard to feel thrown into the same category as everyone else that has passed through Searcy at one point or another. I guess that, because of our investment into the town, part of us still lives there anyway. I know it's just words but for whatever reason, they just bit me a little hard on this trip.

The other hard part was on Sunday. There was a baby dedication at church and Katie asked what was going on. I told her that the elders were praying for the new baby and it's family and I told her that they had prayed for her in just the same way when she was born. She said, "They prayed for me at THIS church?" I told her yes, that we used to go to this church and that dad was the worship minister here. She didn't believe me because she doesn't remember it at all.

Sob.

But this Thursday officially marks our 3 year anniversary here and she was nearly 3 when we moved so I guess she has now lived in SC longer than she lived in AR. Wow.

The trip overall was great - don't mean to dwell on the negative. We are looking forward to all 4 of us going back in September for a reunion concert with the guys Rick sang with.

And we celebrate the 3 years we have been here - they have been good years and we feel so blessed that "The boundary lines have fallen for us in pleasant places." (Psalm 16)

If I can get my act together, I'll post some pics that I took on our trip.

2007-07-01T14:11:00.000-04:00

Just a few pictures from this week. It has been so hot here that we decided to bring the scooters and riding things in and we moved the furntiture to accomodate a riding area on the wood floor. It was fun and hopefully didn't do too much damage to the floor! There were only a few minor wrecks and we only saw blood once!

The sailor outfit on Micah was a fun hand-me-down. Rick wasn't too hip on it until he saw everyone loving it at church. I think I sold him on it a little. The hat was hilarious and Micah kept it on all morning!

Funny kids. Good times!

Brains

2007-06-28T12:52:00.000-04:00

You know, one of my mantra's as a parent is that you don't have to be really smart, just a little smarter than your kids. It's getting to where it's touch and go, here at our house. Today, Katie told me that the words in the book she was "reading" to Micah were spelled wrong. (Under the pink hat was the word `pink' - she thought they spelled `hat' wrong.) Makes sense I guess. (This was the time to interject the "Your happiness in life is all about expectations..." speech, but I refrained.) I did get a little more worried when Micah brought me a wet diaper. I assumed he had busted into a trash can somewhere in the house til I noticed that he was looking a little skinny inside his overalls. Sure enough, somehow he managed to get his diaper off while remaining fully dressed in shorts overalls. I'm a little worried about the ramifications of this new trick.

I think I might need to go back to school.

I do feel a little better, though, that Katie mistook some of Micah's slobber, that had dripped onto the floor, for bug pee. Oh, and the other day, she watched a news clip about 2 dead bodies that were found on the road in downtown Columbia, naked. She reported to all, "The police found a male and a thee-male and they were unclothed in the road." We cracked up a little at that! The reporter said it was an accident and that no foul-play was involved. Sorry, but Katie and I agreed that if you are found naked in the road, it is no accident! (We skipped lightly over the dead part with her.)

I guess that's all I have for today!

Reflections on the beach...

2007-06-24T22:02:00.000-04:00

Katie and cousin Zachary, bearing live crabs! At least, they were alive at some point before this trip down the dunes!

Beware, floating things! She has a net!

Micah, fearlessly taking on the waves! If we'd let go, he'd be in Africa by now.

While not yet an expert, I am beginning to consider myself at least fairly educated about South Carolina Beaches. I have now visited 5 of them (if you count Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle, Surfside and Springmaid as one, which I will for this thought). I have been to 4 different ones this year alone. So, just in case you plan to visit Souh Carolina any time soon, here are my thoughts...

My number one pick is Seabrook Island. It is all privately owned and the entire island is gated, so you have to rent a house there to enjoy the island, but it is worth the time and money. Included in your rental is access to all of the resort amenities, like the pools, golfing, etc. While the sand is whiter and fluffier in more touristy areas, like Myrtle Beach, the island beaches are quiet and natural. At Seabrook, there is a lot of attention paid to preservation and protecting the natural wildlife, especially the sea turtles. There aren't any hotels on the island - only privately owned homes and condos - and no buildings actually on the beaches. Another cool thing about the island is that there are beaches on both the Atlantic side, which have waves, and on the backwater side, which makes for calm water and excellent playground for dolphins, which we saw continually on that beach. The island pace is slow - lots of folks on bikes and golf carts - and there is no commercialization at all - just palms and live oaks trees as far as you can see! When you need anything, it is a short jaunt off the island to a cool little shopping area between Seabrook and Kiawah Islands. Charleston is about 30 minutes down the road. Perfect for a quiet week in the sun! (The first 2 pics are of the Seabrook Island beach on the Atlantic side)

Edisto Island is similar in ecology and pace. You can camp at the state park there, which my parents try to do any time they head down here. Where Seabrook Island is well laid out and the homes are all well kept and "nice", there is more variety in Edisto, so you have to be a little more picky if you rent a house, and it isn't a resort town, so you don't have the club amenities. But it is natural and quiet and there are a lot of shells on the beaches. It is also further from Charleston and "activities".

Isle of Palms is nice if you have the money to rent a big house right on the beach! We have our women's retreat there every year and rent a house that sleeps about 30 people! There are a lot of those type of properties there. I would recommend that for the off season. It is closer to Charleston, on the north side, so it is good if you plan to run in and out of town. The beaches are nice but less preserved than you get further down the coast.

Folly Beach is a lot like Isle of Palms to me but the sand is a little more groomed. It is pretty tight to get around on but it has pretty good waves, especially in the area that Hurricane Hugo washed out a few years ago!

And then, of course, there is the Grand Strand - Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle, Surfside, Springmaid, etc. All of these are about 3 hours from us, which is further than Charleston beaches, which is one strike against them! On the positive side, there are more options for accommodations in Myrtle Beach - hotels, condos, houses, etc. - and you can find places that rent for shorter periods than the standard week long rentals in Charleston. There is plenty of shopping and eating places, as well as mini golfing, water parks, etc. Standard tourist fare. The beaches are groomed daily, so there is lots of fluffy white sand, and you can stay right on the beach, so it's a quick in and out of the ocean. And you only have to go about 2 minutes in any direction to buy a $5 t-shirt or a $3 boogie board. (That's a joke.) But the obvious negative is the crowds. If you want to visit this area, all I can say is "off-season". September is the best time to go, in my opinion. The water is still warm, the shops and restaurants are still open and there are about 60% fewer people there than you find in June - August. Also, we like North Myrtle Beach as opposed to the others. It is a little quieter up there and you are only minutes from some pretty spots up in North Carolina. (The third picture is North Myrtle Beach.)

Anyway, those are my thoughts. We'd love to show you around, so if you crave the beach, come see us!

Men in hats...

2007-06-20T13:49:00.001-04:00

Myrtle Beach 2007

2007-06-04T15:09:00.000-04:00

Some glimpses of the infamous trip to the beach (which we came home early from!)

A Couple Random Thoughts...

2007-06-02T20:11:00.001-04:00

I was living on the edge today. I went to the mall with both kids and only 2 wipes, one of which I had to use to sanitize the table before we could eat. Amazingly, my germophobia beats out the anxiety of wondering if Micah would have a blow-out when I had only one wipe remaining! Talk about risky!

No blowout. All was well.

I saw a really red neck thing. This guy was at the mall with his 2 kids and we were eating in the food court when I saw him. He had his kids in a Sears shopping cart. Some would argue that Sears itself is redneck. My issue was that we were at least half way down the mall from Sears. What in the heck was he doing with his kids in a Sears shopping cart? In the middle of the mall? Rent a stroller already!

That probably shouldn't have bothered me!

Good thing, though. I really love Grandma Miriam. She loves my kids and babysits them even when they are whiny.

Good night!

The Post-Mike Era

2007-06-02T09:21:00.000-04:00

This week, we spent a few days at the beach with my oldest brother and his wife and my nephew. After being there a day or 2, my sister-in-law said that if she had a kid like Micah, she'd have to be medicated! I laughed! I probably do need to be medicated! But it's like I told my friend HJ when she had twins - it's not like you have an option to put up with or not put up with your kids. Besides, you get used to the insanity and it becomes a good friend!

So I was thinking of all the changes to our life since Mike came along, or more specifically since he started moving around. Here is the condensed list.

1. If you happen to fall asleep on the couch during waking hours, you would be well advised to lay with one arm over your face and the other over anything else you want protected, since you will probably awaken to the feeling of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" book (which is surprisingly hard) being slammed on you and Micah saying "Gin" (which does not mean the adult beverage you will be tempted to partake of in large quantities following this awakening, but rather it means "please, dear friend, could you kindly sing the spider song again, for the 4,758th time today, for my enjoyment".)

2. We currently suffer from air circulation problems in our house, where Katie's room is about 50 degrees and the kitchen is about 90 degrees, due to the fact that all of the doors are shut in the house in an effort to minimize the damage that Mike is able to inflict on our belongings. It is also noticable on some of the doors a dent or 2 at the precise level of Micah's head, which he frequently uses to open things, the way that some people use their hands.

3. There is much enthusiastic love to be shared, especially with dad. But there are also many black eyes and bloody noses on the part of those receiving Micah's love. Yes indeed, sometimes love hurts.

4. Our furniture is arranged in an extremely strange way, to the untrained eye. There is a small cabinet in front of the entertainment center (to keep him from sticking things in the VCR and to keep the TV from being reprogrammed in Spanish, which is surprisingly hard to fix if you DON'T SPEAK SPANISH!) ; there is nothing on most of the shelves - I believe in other cultures, those areas are for books. What a strange idea! Similarly, you might assume from our furniture that we bought it from "L-bracket Wonderland" because there is a metal "L" shaped piece attached to everything which is in turn attached to a wall stud. These were added by the master of baby-proofing to each piece as Micah learned to pull each piece over.

5. We have come to wish that the Wiggles had made more videos, not because we like the Wiggles even slightly, but because listening to a variety of annoying videos is preferable to listening to the same annoying video over and over. (Can any of you veteran parents recognize this request? "uhhMEE uhhhMEEE")

6. We have stopped rolling our eyes when we see kids throwing a fit in stores or running wild in a restauarant and we have stocked up on suckers and other tools of bribery.

7. We have come to understand how you can so powerfully love someone that so powerfully frustrates you as he so pwerfully makes you laugh and then so powerfully gives you a bloody lip with a very well intentioned kiss that you wouldn't trade for anything!

Those are my thoughts for the day. Gotta go - it's time to restart the video!

Oh Where, Oh where are the large orange barrels?

2007-05-26T22:10:00.000-04:00

They are gone! I can hardly believe it! I got lost on the way home today. After 3 years of dodging striped orange barrels, I am now driving straight down Hwy 6 and there are people driving on all sides of me. It is crazy! For my non-South Carolina friends, the construction on the Hwy outside our neighborhood began just before we moved here and finally finished TODAY! I am overwhelmed with lane driving options, yet it is less exciting, not having to avoid certain death by wayward back hoe or asphalt truck! I will miss our friendly construction crew with their lovely orange vests and constant cigarettes (which Katie comments on daily. "Mom - look at that man making a bad decision.")

So, Philip and Jaime, you can move back now but don't freak out if you can't find us. We live just down the nice black road with fresh lines and once again have a sign outside our neighborhood! I'll throw a barrel out there to guide you if you need it!

Does barrel have one "L" or 2?

Good Decisions

2007-05-25T21:14:00.000-04:00

We have been trying to emphasize making good decisions with Katie the last couple years. The thought is that if we always tell her what to do, she will be ill-equipped to make good choices when we aren't around all the time, namely when she starts school this fall. The funny part about this is that she feels compelled to let everyone else know when they are making bad choices! One of my brothers is a casual pipe-smoker. We had talked to Katie about how smoking is a bad choice. When she saw my brother smoking his pipe, she told him, "Uncle Darrell, I think you are making a bad decision!" It was funny!

Tonight I was trying to use the same strategy to get her to brush her teeth. Occasionally she is too sleepy or lazy to want to brush, so tonight I didn't argue with her. I just told her she could go on to bed. I found this picture online and called her back in to look at it. I told her that this person didn't brush their teeth! She decided that she wanted to brush!

It was sweet later, though, because at bedtime, she prayed, "Dear God, please help that person who didn't brush their teeth and help their cavities not hurt!"

So, person pictured above, whoever you are, Katie hopes your teeth aren't hurting too badly! And thanks for posting the pic on yahoo images for my object lesson! Because of you, one little 5 year old brushed her teeth with no fight tonight! :)

2007-05-23T13:44:00.000-04:00

I had a different kind of evening yesterday. My friend Holly (yes, the same one who suggested the Mud-fest – I must be slow for still going with her suggestions!) answered an ad in the paper for us to participate in a survey for folks who listen to country music. We sat in a conference room for 2 hours and listened to clips of 600 country songs and rated them on a scale of never heard the song, hate the song, am tired of the song, have no opinion, like the song and it’s a favorite song. Not a bad way to earn $75! It struck me, as I was filling in very few #6’s (favorite song) that I am a music snob. I had quite a lot of #3’s (tired of the song) and way more #1’s (never heard it) than the guy next to me. (I wasn’t cheating, just doing a little survey of my own!) And amazingly, after 600 songs I was still able to think of a bunch that they didn’t play. That led me to consider what some of my favorite, “even-if-you-don’t-like-country-music-you’ll-like-this-song”, songs are and I compiled this short list. If you haven’t heard these songs, you haven’t really lived. You oughta give just one of them a listen on i-tunes. (If I was as smart as Shane, I’d make you a playlist.)

1. Good Directions – Billy Currington
2. The Good Stuff – Kenny Chesney
3. Red Neck Yacht Club – Craig Morgan
4. Mayberry – Rascal Flatts
5. Somebody’s Hero – Jamie O’Neal
6. My Front Porch Looking In - Lonestar

So that’s my thought for the day. Anyone got one to add to the list?

The Case of the Reappearing Snickerdoodle

2007-05-19T13:57:00.000-04:00

I could really use a Hardy Boy today.

Back in March, our friends parents came to visit from OK. On a previous visit, their mom had made some snickerdoodles and given some to us. They were only the finest snickerdoodles ever and, snickerdoodles being my favorite cookie, I went crazy. So this most recent visit, she made some more for us. I thought we had eaten them all, but a couple weeks later, Micah is playing in the living room and I come into the room and see him crunching on a snickerdoodle. I have no idea where he got it - it was somewhere in the living room. It was pretty hard by then. Of course, I took it away, he screamed, and life continued. A couple more weeks pass and again, I see him crunching on another snickerdoodle. Again - no idea where he got it. This time, I conciously remember putting it in the trash. That cookie never saw the light of day again.

By now, it has been 2 or 3 months since we last had snickdoodles. And wouldn't you know it, I found Micah trying to eat another one TODAY! It was extremely hard and he didn't get more than a few crumbs off it. But I still have no idea where his stash is! I don't keep the most tidy house ever but I know I've cleaned everywhere at least once or twice in the last 3 months, yet I have not uncovered the source of the snickerdoodles. Fortunately, there are no bugs in the house. Or maybe that is unfortunate, since they would inevitably lead me to the cookies! I am a little baffled as to what to do. Micah is pretty smart - he waits until I am not in the room to visit his stash! I wonder what else he has hidden!

Mud Mania 2007

2007-05-19T13:34:00.001-04:00

I don't feel like these pictures need any explanation. They are fairly self explanatory. Kids in mud. I do feel the need to explain what in the world I was doing there, though. It's all Holly's fault. "It's a great, free community event. The kids will love it. There are places to clean them up - just bring some soap and a towel. It'll be fun." blah blah blah

Uhhh... Fun for who? Truly, during the actual mud slinging, Katie had a great time and so did Micah, once he got used to the idea that he was supposed to get dirty (he would have been more comfortable with the idea if he had been in a nice outfit, just before he was supposed to get his picture made!) He walked on tip toes to avoid the mud for the first 15 minutes, but lucky for him, he has a big sister to show him how to have real fun! Unfortunately, it was about 75 degrees and breezy, so it got pretty chilly during the hose off. But 3 baths later, they are only slightly mud-stained.

Note to self - be more suspicious when Holly suggests great, free community events! Just kidding, Holly!

Uckkk is just not the same...

2007-05-18T23:33:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, Rick sold his truck. Actually, it felt like he just left his truck at Carmax and stole some money while he was there! We have loved and appreciated the ole' "uckk", as Micah calls it, but it was dying a slow and expensive death, so we were also happy to let it go!

The saddest part was listing to Micah cry the whole way home from selling it. "Uckk, uckk, uckk.." Katie was so sweet to try to explain that we would get another uckkk! We finally had to drop the whole uckk discussion. (And no wonder the kid can't talk right!)

Anyway, today we replaced old uckk. Unfortunately, this new (to us) one is a 4 door (one of the reasons we needed another truck) and he is sitting in the back again. No more sitting by dad with the wind blowing through his hair - this one actually has a/c! (I propose a toast for the first time that both of our vehicles have a/c at the same time.) Micah is not thrilled with the new arrangements. He sat in the back during the test drive and pointed at me in the front passenger seat, accusingly, since I was apparently in his seat! He was not happy. But then I gave him a sucker and he forgave me! (Too bad that doesn't work for everyone, but that's another blog!)

But that's the new order around here. I posted a pic of a similar truck that I found online. Rick's version doesn't have the running boards or a bed cover, nor is it parked by such a nice green lawn! But hopefully now you will recognize us if we honk when we see you on the road!

It's official...

2007-05-16T08:11:00.000-04:00

...My kids are southerners. Last night, Katie was talking to my mom on the phone. Katie was telling her about some pets she had seen in the pet store. I didn't hear my moms side of the conversation, but then I think she proceeded to tell Katie about some of the wildlife that they have living up where they are. All I heard before I fell out laughing was Katie say,

"You saw a deer? Cool! Did you shoot it?"

Children's Museum

2007-05-15T13:59:00.000-04:00

I wanted to post these pictures from the Columbia children's museum. It was really cool. Micah liked the fact that he could maul and climb on everything. Katie liked dressing up in each exhibit, like a fireman, farmer, construction worker, dentist, etc. Next time you come visit, we'll have to go!

You don't have to be very smart to be a mom...

2007-05-10T10:28:00.001-04:00

...just a little smarter than the kids. This is my new mantra. For example, I have had a real problem since Micah (who Katie is calling "Tyler" today) learned to move around - I can't work in the front yard while he is awake, which would explain why our house frequently looks abandoned, because he loves to run into the street or try to eat the things in the garage. Neither is a good scenario. But today, I solved that problem, at least temporarily. I used a long rope...no, I did not tie him to a concrete block, dad! That was your idea, and a good one. I figure that as strong as he is, that would only buy me a few minutes! Actually, I strung it back and forth between the pillars on the porch to make a fence. Lucky for me, Micah quickly made a broad assumption that it was impassable and contently played on the porch while I got yard work done. I'm sure it won't work for long, but the yard looks okay for now!

The best part was listening to Katie (who is going by the name "Sabrina" today) "read" Micah, I mean Tyler, a story. He had brought an atlas out on the porch with him and she got him to sit by him on the bench and "read him this story out of the atlas. (I think she was on the Asia map page for whatever that is worth.) I actually jotted this story down so that I could remember the details.

"There once was a land called South Carolina where there lived 2 kids and a woman. The woman was not their mother. Their mother had moved to Houston, Texas and left them as orphans. She didn't abandon them - they were just in the bathroom and didn't know she was leaving so she left them on accident..."

She told Micah, I mean Tyler, that she would tell him the rest of the story tomorrow! I can't wait to hear it!

By the way, I've never left the kids because they were in the bathroom, but it might happen! It's happened to folks far greater than me! Stay tuned for the next chapter!

I hate making lunch...

2007-05-08T15:04:00.000-04:00

I know that sounds petty and more than a little short-sighted. I am thankful that I have food to make lunch and recognize that many folks don't.

I just never know what to make. If I could afford it (financially and calorically - is that a word? It is now.) I would go out for lunch every day, just to save myself the trouble of figuring out what I want to eat.

Anyway, that said, here are my latest 2 interesting lunch ideas, and I would love it if any of my 3 faithful readers wanted to share what they have for lunch.

Vegetarian Sandwiches - thanks to my friend Brenda for this. She is the best kind of vegetarian. She has no issue with anyone else eating meat - she just doesn't like it. Never has. For this you use fancy, crusty bread, like marble rye or sliced italian bread from the bakery. You spray that squirty kind of dressing, balsamic vinegrette, on each slice and put on it some sliced plum tomatoes, fresh sliced fresh mozzerella (the kind that you buy in a block - slice it thick) and some fresh basil leaves (which taste to me like the way a Christmas tree smells.) Deeelish. Cool on a hot day.

Black bean salsa - I like this on tortilla chips (the scoop kind work good) or on salad with a little ranch. For this you cook some black beans (I'm starting to use the dry kind that you have to soak and rinse and cook - they are more trouble but they taste better and are SO cheap. You can use the canned kind but you have to rinse them good.) and then let them cool. Also, cook some frozen corn and let it cool. Chop up a bunch of fresh cilantro (I would bathe in cilantro, I love it so much.) and mix it with the beans and corn. Then stir in some taco sauce (not salsa, though you can use that if you want. Taco sauce is thin and not chunky. I like it better.), just enough so that it sticks it all together. Salt and pepper and BAM. It tastes best cold.

So there you have my lunches for the week. I would love to know what you like for lunch, besides turkey sandwiches and pb and j! I got tired of those many years ago!

Just Another Day in Paradise

2007-04-29T13:18:00.000-04:00

For some strange reason, I am feeling a little pressured to blog. A fellow blogging friend of mine who has not updated her own blog since it last snowed here in SC was giving me some flack. Snow in SC, you ask? Yes, there were 137 flakes that fell about 3 MONTHS ago.

But there were a couple funny things that happened yesterday that I thought I would share. Unfortunately I didn't catch either on film for you so you will just have to take my word for them. In the afternoon, katie was coloring in our room while I worked on the computer. It got quiet for a minute, which means that she is either asleep or no longer in the room because Katie is rarely ever quiet. I called out to her and she wanders in from the bathroom, lips first. At least that's what it looked like because she colored on her lips with a very red marker. I couldn't hold back the laughs. After I recovered, I told her to wash it off because marker can hurt your skin/lips. "But it looks good mom", she said. "I don't care if my lips hurt. I like it!" That about sums up my daughter. I think that similar logic explains why some women like wearing extremely high heels, which she is also fond of!

Later that night, a very Micah thing happened. For those of you that haven't seen him lately, he has become an expert at harrassing his sister. He pinches and grabs and pulls and all those great things. He was sitting in his high chair eating a bedtime snack as Katie strolled by with a stick of string cheese, his favorite. He grabbed that cheese and shoved the whole thing in his mouth so fast that she didn't even see it happen. I think she even tried to take another bite before she realized it was gone! Micah, mouth packed to the lips with cheese, had the most satisfied smile on his face! Katie reacted in her own fast (which is not fast at all) way and tried to pry his mouth open to regain her cheese stick (probably because it was the last one in the bag). That boy has jaws of steel. He smiled so big and gritted his teeth so tight, we couldn't contain the guffaws. She eventually gave up and settled for eating some square cheese, in the other room! We figure that she tortured him for over a year - we'll give him at least a year to get her back!

I know - this is nothing that hasn't happened to everyone else but it was new to us! Just another day in paradise!