MOM! look at NICK's Thumb!

I arrived home from work on Thursday afternoon, and I was greeted my daughter and the following "MOM! check out Nick's thumb."  followed by Nick "Yeah Mom look at my thumb, but don't touch it, 'cause it hurts when you touch it".  I looked at his right thumb and NO joke it was more than twice the size of his left thumb.   Now son 3 is very good at getting these types of thumb injuries, we usually wrap it, give him some advil and within a couple of days he is as good as new.  When I looked at his thumb this time, I just had that sinking pit in my stomach...they have never looked that big or had that pretty of a blueish purpleish color.On a positive note at least it was still semi straight, and no bone was sticking out.  I was also pretty sure I didn't want to know the answer to the question "How did that happen?" and I was right, a hackey sack, a jump rope and his sister.  Really that was all I needed and wanted to hear about it.   He didn't seem too upset or whiney about it, so I told him if it still looks like that in the morning I will take you in to see the doctor.  About an hour later the dad got home and I advised son3 "Hey go show your dad your thumb"  I looked at it again too, and the blueish purpleish color had gotten a lot brighter, "hmmm I am sure tht can't be good."  The Dad's response "OOO I think that looks broken" and then he said to me "should we take him in?"  I figure since we have Friday off, we can run him down to the docs in the morning, they do x-rays right at the office, shouldn't be a big deal right?.  Luckily, I called the doctor's office and  the voicemail said "We will be closed Friday December 31st"  Of course, because I have that kind of luck!!  I have this great neighbor who has 7 kids so I trust her "mom" judgement.  "Hey son3 get shoes and a coat and go show Marci your thumb"  He gets back and says "Yup her and Heidi (the teenage daughter) both say it looks broken, and I didn't even get to give them all the details".  Now the parental debate begins.  Do we take him to urgent care tonight or wait until tomorrow when URGENT care will be overflowing with all the people who can't get into see their doctor's because of the impending holiday.  So the kind and wonderful dad put him in the car and off they went to urgent care.  After filling out 10 forms, I am sure in duplicate maybe even triplicate, and then sitting around waiting they finally got the X-ray and sure enough it was broken.  Next comes the splint, I did mention he is right handed and this was his right thumb.  He told the doctor, "Well I did on Wednesday night and when I went to tell my mom she gave me a job to do and then my dad told me to go to bed, so I didn't tell them"  In my defense when he did come to tell me he and Ben both came in screaming at each other about the gum on the floor, not a single mention of hurting himself........Oh won't school be fun!  

When they got home I looked at son3 and had the following conversation:
"I think you get the prize"

"What Prize?"

"The prize for being the first kid in 15 years and 11 months to break a bone"

I think he is still waiting for his prize!

So next week we will be visiting a hand/orthopedic doc to see what if anything else needs to be done.  Never a dull moment when you have kids! 

Happy New Year All!!

The other night I asked son1 to start a fire, of course as usual I was the only one who though it was cold--I always think it is cold-- anyway the topic of conversation changed quickly and Son 1 asked me how I had ever survived Vermont in the winter.  When I told him, I used to where shorts in the house during the winter, I thought he was going to fall over.  I still don't think he believes me...

You have to understand that I have never worked at a place where people have blankets on the backs of there chairs, or are wrapped up in them in the middle of the day, but now that I understand the vicious battle that is raging on at work, it makes a little more sense, I think!...The heat and the air conditioner just can't figure which one is in charge..They each want to be in charge, but they just haven't learned which one needs to be in charge during which season....The heat comes on at 70 degrees and warms things up nicely and when the building temp reaches 73 the air conditioner comes on and cools it down.  This goes on all day. Kind of like that saying if you don't like the weather wait a few minutes.  YUP if you don't like the building temp just wait a few minutes...

Traditions or Things we do??

Our Christmas Traditions:

1. Around Thanksgiving time we put the number 1-4 in a hat and each child draws a number beginning December 1, that is the advent calender opening order.  The order is written on the calender so if there is a question/argument it can be easily solved.

2. On Christmas Eve we have an open house.  We invite all of our friends, family, people who would rather be with us than with there family, Our "homeless" friends (they are not truly "homeless" there family just lives far away and they can't be with them at Christmas).  We eat snacks and visit, people leave, more people come it is a very relaxing and fun time!  Sometimes we give out little bags of treasures to the kids, sometimes Santa has been known to show up.  We have had guests from as far away as Japan and as close as next door.
3.  We don't shower, get dressed or leave the house on Christmas Day, we nap, watch movies, read books play with new toys and eat leftovers. It is one of the quietest laziest days of the year.
4.  Our Christmas Dinner happens the weekend before Christmas, sometimes it is just us and my parents, and my brother sometimes it includes close friends.  It all just depends on how it falls together.
5.  The kids stay up late on Christmas Eve and that means they sleep in on Christmas morning, I think there has only been one year that we have been up at some ridiculous hour of the morning.
6.  Jim and I always watch "It's a Wonderful Life" together at least once.  Last year we watched it Christmas Eve after all the children had gone to bed.  It is one of those movies that we should watch once a month all year long to remind us that it is a Wonderful Life!
7.  Since we have 2 birthdays right out of the blocks in January the tree usually comes down within a day or two of Christmas being over.
8.  We celebrate Grandma's Birthday on January 1st, So she can have a roast beef meal and then on her real birthday (which she shares with Ben) Ben picks the meal and dessert.
     I have never thought of these things as "Traditions" they are just "things we do" but now that I  have had time to think about it, a tradition really is something that you do.  I can only hope that some of the "things we do" will be carried on by my children when they are older.

Today's Post brought to by.....Abraham Lincoln??

"Mom can I play baseball this summer?"
"Well that depends on when you go to Gabriel and Ethans"
"What does Abraham Lincoln have to do with it??"

I think someone needs to get his hearing checked!

The "ToothFairy" hasn't come yet..

Last week all of my children had a break from school.  We had orthodontist appointments on Monday so I decided why not follow that up on Tuesday with appointments at the dentist.  They all needed a good cleaning.  Note to self:  8:30am dentist appointments for 4 children on school break...not one of my better ideas!  We got a lovely ice storm on Monday night so our 15 minute drive took a weeeeee bit longer, as I let the teenager drive...again not one of my more banner plans!!   Anyway, Son3 had to have a tooth pulled.  Apparently the 2nd tooth was in enough to loosen up the baby tooth just enough that food was getting stuck in it and creating an abscess.  The dentist let me know he was going to "help" it a little bit.  Now Son3 has a mark on his lip because his siblings wanted to see if he could feel them pinching his lip.  Anyway, with Thanksgiving and the ice storm the tooth fairy missed our house.  Last night in the kitchen the conversation went something like this..
Son3  "Mom, the "toothfairy" hasn't come yet"  (making little quotation marks each time he said toothfairy)
Mom "Well if you don't believe you don't receive"
Son3 "You said it was because of the weather"
Mom "Well, last week that was the case, now I think it is because you don't believe"
When did they get so smart??

Rub a Dub Get Rid of the chub!  The Weightloss Challenge began today, with weighs from 9am to Noon...now mind you it wasn't as exciting as Biggest Loser their were no competitions for a place on the ranch and the only crying was from those of us who didn't want to face the reality of the scales.  Our team team the "CHUBS AWAY" is made up of 2 men, myself, 1 woman, and Jim.  Their are 20 teams of 5 participating in this wellness campaign.  I am hoping it is the motivation I need to get back on track. (Both the walking track and the healthy eating track!).  Stay Tuned....

Football season is over so our Monday nights from 530-700 will now actually be used for dinner at the table as a family.  It seems that in the past several weeks some of us have forgotten how to sit at the table and use manners and polite dinner conversation...

Soccer has a few more weeks.  We played in McCall this weekend, it was a quick family get a way.  I enjoyed listening to the kids play there DS games in the car.  I guess we need to leave town more often to get them to be civil to each other! 

I have started back to work, at least temporarily.  I was offered a 6 week temp position at the company  Jim works for.  It is also the test to see how working at 30 hour week will affect our home and family.  At the end of last week I was seriously questioning whether it was the right decision.  This week so far seems a little calmer, but then again it is only Monday.

Dear Fred Meyer,
     THANK YOU for the grant money you awarded to Kuna Life Church!!  With this money KLC was able to re-open "The Zone" an after school outreach program.  Now that "The Zone" is open I have something to use as a reward for good behavior and a consequence for bad behavior!  Amazing how quickly the behavior changes!!

Amy

....and I laughed!!

We are down to 1 chicken.  She roosts at night on a chair near the cat's bed, she climbs through the cat door into the garage and eats the cat's food and a few different times I have found eggs in the cat's bed though I have never actually seen her in the cat's bed but....today when I got home from my walk I found this.....and I laughed all the way into the house to get the camera.

 

and then a little while later I found this......

 

Officially 8!!

 

Son3 is now officially 8!! 

Pronunciation and Busing

The routine goes something like this...Middle School is released at 2:50pm, they load onto the buses and drive to the high school getting to the high school around 3:15-3:30, they load the high school kids and are off.  Son2 complained yesterday about being on the bus for an hour and  could I please pick him up.  The pick-up zone at the Middle School makes me absolutely insane!!  So today I went to the high school to pick up Son1 and decided to pull Son2 off the bus when it arrived at the high school.  A fair compromise to having to battle the middle school pick up zone.  Anyway he sees me approaching the bus and waves excitedly, I approach the bus and he leans out the door and says can you pick me up?  "no son, I walked all the way over here to say hello to you so hi how is it going, now I will see you at home" I got the pre-teen eyeroll and he got off the bus.  Son1 drove us home and son2 was extremely chatty.  "hey mom, I was elected as assistant Librarian of the band" "I wanted to be VP but 5 people were running for that and they only pick one person so my odds weren't very good I decided to run for librarian because there were only 4 people running and they elect 2 so my odds were better of getting elected"  This is another one of those moments in my life where I sit in awe of Son2's ability to analyze a situation and quickly adjust his plan to get the best possible outcome for himself.  I may not have the title of his position exactly correct because when I asked him about it, I got the "it is my life and I don't want you blogging about it.
     In other news Son3 is a human bean with eyebulbs who is not afraid of eartwigs.  Obviously he has some pronunciation issues, since he is really a human being with eyeballs who is not afraid of earwigs.

THE LAST THING I WANT TO DO IS HURT YOU. BUT IT IS STILL ON THE LIST!!

Pretty much sums up the most ridiculous part of my day!

Today was payday, not that that means much it comes in, it goes out..anyway the children were starting to get these possessed by the devil looks around breakfast everyday for the past several days, since we have been without cereal and they have had to eat things like waffles and oatmeal. Really we had cereal just nothing that they liked. Deciding to get an early start to the day I laid out my mental plan of where I had to go, what time each place opened and what I needed to get. First stop was a place called Food 2 Store, they sell containers for storing food and already packaged food to put in your storage area. Apparently they don't open until 10am--seriously..oh well there loss on to Kohls...new shoes for me. The arches on my feet have been really sore after my daily 6 mile jaunts around the track. Success! In and out--love that kind of shopping--I also scored the Deceptively Delicious Cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld for $5.00. Onto my next stop-Costco, always a stressful adventure so many choices, -- I called a friend to meet me there it is always fun to shop in pairs. Another successful mission. Now here is where things start to go downhill...as I am loading my groceries into the car I notice I have a flat tire. My first thought cannot actually be published in good conscience so onto the 2nd thought "this couldn't have happened at a better place, service bay diagonal from car. I re-enter Costco and approach the counter.
"Hi I have a flat tire out in the parking lot can you fix it?"
"Are they COSTCO Tires?"
"ummm NO.."
"Then all we can do is put on your spare so you can drive somewhere else to get it fixed. We don't work on any tires but the ones we sell, it is company policy"
"okay so you want me to wait in your first come first serve que (which I am okay with I don't expect special treatment-today anyway) to put on the spare and then drive somewhere else to wait in there first come first serve que to have them actually fix it?"
"Sorry that is all we can do"
"Never mind I will figure it out on my own."
I return to my car and called my wonderful husband. I need to point out at this point my husband puts up with so much crap from me I am surprised he even answers his cell phone when he sees it is me calling. So without so much as raising my voice-no seriously I didn't rant, rave or even yell--I said "I am at COSTCO, I have a flat tire, COSTCO won't fix it because I don't own COSTCO tires, you need to fix this for me now or I am going to have a breakdown in the parking lot" I am pretty sure I heard him choke back a laugh, but I ignored it because I didn't really want to know if he was laughing at me or the situation because I am pretty sure that knowing would have started me ranting and raving like a lunatic, I know this surprises you!. "I think we have towing on our car insurance (technically called roadside assistance) I will call you back" Now I am absolutely NOT a patient person, I know hard to believe right!? What seemed like hours, which was really more like less than 10 minutes, he called me back and said "tow truck is on the way I gave him your cell phone he will call you to find you in the parking lot" This incredibly nice man put my car on the flat bed trailer and I climbed into the cab of the tow truck, it was at this point that every crime show I have ever seen came flooding to the forefront of my mind, pushing those thoughts aside I managed to ride and converse with this man the 5ish miles to the tire place. I made it to Bruneel's tire Factory alive, I wasn't chopped to bits, kidnapped or any of the other horrible thoughts racing through my head, what a great day!! They fixed my tire for free even though I had not purchased my tires there.
After all that, I walked out of the house tonight and lo and behold my tire is flat..I suspect I have a bigger problem than just a nail in my tire.. So if I have to buy a new tire, it WON'T be from COSTCO and wherever I end up buying it from, I will ask them to send COSTCO a thank-you for sending us your business card!!

3 year ago and NOT much has changed!

except maybe his hair and his height and his teeth.....When son1 started 7th grade we were asked to "Tell us about your child in a million words or less"....Here goes...

Zach is a very intelligent young man, with a voracious appetite for reading and learning. While this is usually his greatest asset, at times it works against him. He is the oldest of four children and has many admirable achievements in his 13 years. However, many of these achievements came with little effort. This has causes Zach to continue testing the boundaries to find out how little effort he can put in and still receive accolades.

Zach’s story begins in the winter of 1995. His mother’s due date was on Super Bowl Sunday. Fortunately for his Dad, he did not arrive until the following weekend (Perhaps this was the beginning of Zach’s desire to procrastinate). He was the first child born to a young couple that had married only 15 months earlier. He was the center of their lives and received a great deal of undivided attention. That only lasted until the winter of 1998. Just one month before his third birthday a second son was born. Life would never be the same for Zach. Then, in the summer of 1999, his sister arrived. Life would REALLY never be the same. In the fall of 2002 another son was born. At the age of seven Zach became the oldest of four siblings and the expectation of setting a good example for the others began to be set.

At the age of three Zach started his school career in Colorado at a private Lutheran school. He remained there through first grade. During that time, his family built a house in a new neighborhood and moved in. He spent second through fourth grade in the public school just two blocks from their new house. By fifth grade, he needed more of an academic challenge and transferred to a charter school. The following year he attended the Connect charter school. During that year a change in employment required the family to relocate to Idaho. He attended Kuna Middle School for seventh grade and is back for eighth. To continue his academic challenge he has also decided to attend TVMS for part of the day. At each of these schools, Zach has made friends that he continues to keep in touch with today. The experience of changing environments should benefit him well in today’s work environment where people are expected to have several job changes during their careers. His success is a testimony to his ability to observe new situations and excel in them.

The downside to Zach’s ease of adapting is that it has taught him that with a little bit of observation he can identify the minimum required to be successful. He has also learned that homework which takes most of his peers two hours will only take him half an hour. That leaves him with an hour and a half to read or play video games before he has to focus. While most children are encouraged to read, Zach must be told to stop reading. He will stay up half the night if he is not monitored. His favorite book series is Harry Potter, but is also not afraid to pick up classics such as Animal Farm. Reading comes easily and provides new ideas of ways to be successful without trying too hard.

His high comprehension of what he reads is what allowed him to be successful at academics. In sixth grade he participated in the Science Olympiad genetics competition going up against seventh and eighth grade students. After taking second in the Southern Colorado competition, he took third place in the State level competition. Zach also has a passion for football. He played on junior teams, and is now playing is second year for the KMS team. His strength is in understanding the strategy of the game. Zach has also started to become more involved in the community. Last year he joined the Jr. Honor Society. This required him to think about what volunteer and leadership opportunities he has had. One leadership experience he had this summer was at an overnight camping event put on by his dad’s employer, AmeriBen. The camp is designed to give the employee’s children an opportunity to organize a company event. Zach was named president and was then responsible for assigning the other kids’ teams and schedule what the teams were responsible for. Additionally, he had to lead the campfire as if it were an employee meeting. He spoke in front of about 100 people and introduced each item on the agenda with confidence.

As you can see, Zach has had more experiences in his short 13 years than some people get until they are adults. The sky is the limit for how much more he can accomplish. His only limitation is to learn that eventually someone will challenge him beyond his abilities and the time to prepare is now.

NOTE: I thought about rambling on more just to see how close I could come to a million words, but I think I will stop here just short of a thousand (also because it is due tomorrow). If you wouldn’t mind reading this a thousand times, it will be close the million words asked for (I really don’t know where Zach gets his study habits – it must be from his mom). – Jim Negom

Tell me about your kid--in a million words or less

Our assignment for the first day of 7th grade was to describe our 7th grader in a million words or less.....So here is a description or our absolutely incredible child!!

Ben is a very special child. He was born in Colorado just after Christmas and on the same day as his grandmother on his mother’s side. She is a strong willed New Englander with true English heritage. His middle name was chosen to honor his great-grandfather, also a New Englander with a quiescent personality that was always quick with a joke. He is the second child of four. Preceded by a brother three years older, he feels obligated to constantly show his precocious side as he tries to do everything his older brother does. His closest sibling is a sister that is only 17 months younger. This caused him to be moved out of the crib sooner than most and we think he still holds that against her. The youngest sibling is four and half years younger and, if you ask Ben, is really just an annoyance in his life. When Ben was just a toddler he began to show his desire to be helpful. For example when his sister was learning to walk he wanted to help keep her safe so he would push her down saying “no baby!” As Ben’s personality began to show, we realized he was just like his dad, who is very much like his dad. Grandpa Negomir relates very well to him, and apologizes in private for passing on the genes that make Ben so special.

Ben passed through pre-school without much fanfare. Once in public school the fun started. One day while checking with his first grade teacher about missing homework assignments, dad decided to check his desk. Lo and behold, there were all the assignments. He had done them, just didn’t see the point in turning them in. After all, he had learned the lessons and that was the real point – right? First grade was also where mom and dad got to meet with the counseling team at the school and get educated about Love and Logic and choices and consequences and above all follow through. They were great about helping us think outside the box and provide consistent messages to him between home and school. By third grade he passed the test for Gifted and Talented and really started absorbing knowledge. Of course behavior was still a challenge and he spent a weekend morning picking weeds around the school with the fourth grade teacher (we totally appreciate creative discipline). Ben has always enjoyed time by himself, so we also realized about this time that grounding had absolutely no effect. Instead, his punishment is to have to take a shower and get out of the house on weekends and run errands with us (you can’t imagine the errands we could come up with). Mom finds great humor on Monday mornings reminding him that if he doesn’t behave at school he will be out on Saturday shopping in the women’s underwear section at Dillards, or attending a craft fair where they sell things like jewelry and candles and other girly stuff. Which, as it turns out is highly repulsive to Ben and quite a motivator keep his behavior in check.

After third grade, Ben relocated from Colorado to Idaho when his dad changed jobs. He spent fourth and fifth grade at the charter school, but then wanted to transfer to Crimson Point to blend in more with a larger class, and in his words “be in a more relaxed environment.” He has thrived there by having a somewhat flexible curriculum. In sixth grade with the help of some wonderful KSD employees he was able to participate in the STEM program where he was bussed to the middle school for Math and Science. Ben does very well with Math as he is a conceptual thinker who can usually see patterns in the numbers. He has even read a book about zero that he would love to discuss anytime you would like. His other passions are video games and technology. When he plays video games he observes quietly watching for patterns. He then plays the path of least resistance until he is satisfied that he understands the game. He has to make a conscious effort to not apply this technique to his school work. More recently, to extend his understanding of video games he has decided to teach himself how to create them. He has downloaded software development applications and spends much of his free time researching how to program games and is starting to create basic games.

As you can tell, Ben is an intelligent young man who needs to be challenged. He has a sharp wit and is not afraid to use it. He is always thinking outside of the box and has his toe on the line every single day. He is also very literal, for example Mom: “Ben, I thought I told you no television?” Ben: “I am not watching television, I am watching a movie.” He is also true to himself, most always marching to the beat of his own drummer (although as a twelve year old we are not always sure what that drummer is playing). I believe that when he is an adult he will be the friend you can call in the middle of the night to come help you, and he will - without question.

NOTE: I thought about rambling on just to see how close I could come to a million words, but I think I will stop here just short of a thousand (also because it is due tomorrow). If you wouldn’t mind reading this a thousand times, it will be close the million words asked for (I really don’t know where Ben gets his literal interpretations – it must be from his mom). – Jim Negomir

MOM! I ate cat food all for a starburst and a soda...

I read too much news, murders, kidnappings, car accidents but I think the articles that make me the saddest are the ones where someone has harmed an innocent child, or lost there child due to unsafe or unsanitary living conditions. Son1 and Son 3 wore pull-ups to bed until they were 6 because they wet the bed. I am a particularly lazy at 2 in the morning and getting up to change sheets was not on my agenda and believe it or not my "mostly agreeable husband" didn't want to do it either... so pull-ups it was. My feeling on the issue was if the kid wasn't going to wake up when he fell out of bed and hit the floor his little tiny bladder screaming "I have to pee" most certainly wasn't going to wake him either!! Anyway, many mornings the pull-ups would have leaked which would require all the bedding and pajamas to be washed and the room aired out. It always upset me to think about the kids out there who had the same issues, but would go home that night and get into those same stinky pee soaked jammies and climbed into the same icky smelly bed. I still have these thoughts but now they are more along the lines of my kids don't know how lucky they are to not have to know such things from experience...

So Johnny, who lives across the street and is Nick's partner in crime, called tonight to see if Nick wanted to have a movie night at his house, the plan was set. Of course the plan changed when both Johnny and Nick decided before the movie the must play Wii outdoor adventure at our house. We finally shove them out the door, movie in hand ahhh silence.... They were gone a good 1/2 hour and the phone rings....
"Mom"
"Yes, Nick"
"Mom I made this bet with Dennis that if I ate cat food with beef and gravy he would give me a candy bar and a soda"
"Oh Nick No are you doing it?"
"Yes, it is pretty good"
"AAUGH Nick seriously that is so gross! EWWWW I can't believe you are doing that" and then the kid starts reading me the label "but mom it's good for me, it makes my coat shiney"....All I can say is "THAT KID!" so I hung up the phone and told Jim "Nick and Dennis can't play together anymore, they get into more trouble..(Have you seen the shave me bald pictures from this summer? yeah you guessed it Dennis and Nick--and did I mention that Dennis is the adult supervision??))
So after a bit I called the house to see what really happened...Apparently Nick couldn't decide if he was a monkey or a cat...so Dennis told him to eat a banana and that would probably tell...he said "no I like bananas that wouldn't be a good test" "well then maybe you should try cat food" and yup it was game on... So when it was all over...Nick says to Johnny "aren't I brave?" Uh-yeah I am sure that was the first word that came to my mind!!

A village of Thank you's!

Today's post is brought to you by all the random thoughts swirling around in my head the last 24 hours. Son1 began his sophmore year of high school today--He was only 2nd grade when son3 was born--son3 started 2nd grade a couple of weeks ago, and in a few very short weeks Son3 will be the same age our daughter was when we packed up and moved to Idaho 3 years ago. I don't know why I thought of all of this last night, but I did and it has made me feel kind of funny.
Son2 is starting 7th grade today, and I would like to Thank Mrs. Crowley, Mrs. Hoots (even though she ditched us and moved to Las Vegas), Mrs. Torres, who saw what she had to work with and encouraged his outside of the box thinking, Mr. Miklich for designing an Individualized Learning Plan for each 3rd grader in his class and helping us get Son2 tested for GT, Mr Rogers for goat head picking at 7am on a Sunday, for tolerating the 1 student in 4th grade who had to spend the day at school in his pj's (people still get a look of horror when I tell that story) thank you Love and Logic, Mr. Yates, Mrs. Vincent, the school counsellors, the office secretary's who more than once had son2 in the office conference room giving his opinion on things he overheard, Ms. Sterling (or Mr. Ling as son2 thought) for identifying a speech problem, Ms. Moore for being more strong willed and stubborn than the student. KSD for busing him to and from the middle school for math, Mrs. S for being patient, and for Mr. Hopkins for telling me "he thinks so far out of the box he is going to make millions" I am holding you to that! They say it takes a village to raise a child, well he is only 12 and I already feel like our village is pretty big--I wonder how big it will be when I post Son2 has graduated from High school??

Thank you Mother Nature--Not!

Dear Mother Nature,
I am not finding humor in the 105 degree temperatures that I am seeing in today's weather forecast. I am not finding humor in the wind that is blowing as my dog and Son2 have wind issues which means they will be trying to sleep with me--not fun! I am not finding any enjoyment in the thunderstorms that are forcasted for later today again, this will bring unwanted bodies to my bed. Though I am looking forward to the cooler temperatures for a few days, a 30 degree temperature drop in 24 hours is a little excessive.
Thank you

Thank You --Allison--

There are several blogs that I read regularly. Allison who writes the following blog http://alysonklein.blogspot.com/ copied the idea of thanking random things from another blogger..so I have decided to copy it from Allison...

Dear Durkee-Mower,
Thank you for putting your products online, so that we who grew up on the East Coast can now order large quantities of Marshmallow Fluff and introduce our children to fluffer-nutters. If it wasn't for Fluff and Jam sandwhiches my 8 year old wouldn't have anything to take for cold lunch. Just in case you were wondering marshmallow creme and marshmallow fluff are not the same thing at all!!
Amy

http://www.marshmallowfluff.com/pages/homepage.html

First Day of 2010-2011 School year

A little sibling weirdness

Nick on his 1st day of 2nd grade (seriously can't believe he is that big!)

Miss Amelia on her 1st day of 6th grade (Almost middle school-where does the time go??)

We survived the first week of school. It was L- O - N - G week, but we did it. Not only did we survive school, but we also survived homework beginning on day 1, 2 nights of soccer, 4 nights of flag football, high school registration, and middle school registration, and the return of Spike the guinea pig to 5th grade!! We always have this delusion of practicing the school routine before school starts, I don't know why we try and kid ourselves we always end up going cold turkey. My wonderful daughter gets so wound up with the anticipation and excitement of a new school year she doesn't fall asleep until very late, though she is in bed at a reasonable hour, and then has to get up early. The boys don't have that problem and could really do without the inconvenience of school in there lives.

We are now 1 week closer to Summer 2011 Vacation!!

Pearls of Wisdom?

Pearls of Wisdom?

As the (technically 8 year old) strolls through the living room with his shorts on carrying his T-shirt and sip cup (that is currently 1/2 full of Strawberry milk) I hear...

"I am a mature adult"

Oh my where do I begin?!?

Food and a Roof

A small glimpse of the roof!

Conversation in the Kitchen between the (the technically 8 year old) and the 11 year old.

(the technically 8 year old) "No Dad is one of my coaches and he was way late today we had to start without him."
(11 year old) "you can tell them he was late because he was putting food on the table and a roof over our head"

Rest In Pieces-Percy PressureTank

Rest In Pieces Percy our faithful Pressure Tank! We replaced him last week with a new and improved model, not by choice, but by necessity...Percy had a small rust hole on his side and was leaking water all over the floor. It wasn't dishwasher flood zone, but it did leave quite a mess.
Son3 saw Percy outside today and he look at his dad and said "What the heck is that?" to which the kindly dad replied "That would be the result of your mother and brother (son2) playing with a black marker!"

Wordy Saturday

I read the following blog, http://pkmeco.com/familyblog/ and the author of this blog has a "Wordless Wednesday" so her is my take on the that "Wordy Saturday"




Retired, Rest, Retired, Resting, Retired, Restful, Retired, Reading, Retired
Retired! Vacation! Vacation! Vacation! Retired
Retired! Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! Retired!
Happy Saturday!

CrAzY dReSs DaY!!

Friday was the last day of Boys and Girls Club, it was CrAzY dress day!! Here is what they came up with!!