Tea Party

I'm a little slow at posting about this...since it happened around Easter time. You may remember that a while ago, Meagan and Lucas had a pretend tea party in her Tinkerbell tent. Well, when Grandma & Grandpa H. came up to visit for Easter, Grandma brought some real tea party goodies with her - iced tea and mini cookies (chocolate chip & sugar). Meagan was the tea party princess. She served tea to everyone with her own little tea pot, and she gave everyone cookies on her tea party plates. She was quite the little hostess, and she had the time of her life!

Journaling: You are cordially invited to my very girly princess tea party. Teeny tiny cookies and real tea will be served (in cups that have holes in the sides of them). I will serve everyone all by myself using my pretty princess tea set that Big Grandma & Grandpa Hoying gave me.

New Form of Cat Torture

The boys have invented a new and creative way to torture and torment poor Lilly (as if she didn't already go through enough living in our house!). Last weekend, you might remember that I mentioned that Sebastian bought some stretchy sticky bugs at the dollar store. Well, today, Isaac sling-shot the bugs up to the living room ceiling, where they stuck indefinitely. Two of the bugs are stuck together and are dangling down from the ceiling. For about 2 hours or so now, Lilly has been pacing the floor, climbing the furniture, and meowing incessantly, trying to figure out a way to get to the bugs and get them down. A little bit ago, I found her sitting directly under them, staring straight up at them, willing them to fall (apparently she still needs to sharpen her Jedi mind trick skills, because they didn't budge).

Time for a change

I realized the other day that my blog picture is about a year & a half old. I thought it was time to update. LOL! I'm torturing poor Lilly by making her sit on my lap like she's a person. Poor baby girl...she puts up with a lot from us!

Schedule me this, and Schedule me that

Today was a very schedule-driven day. I knew from the start it was going to be busy, and I would have to keep on top of things to stay on schedule. Even still, the day threw me a few curve balls. All in all, it went off without a hitch...(with the exception of a mad house-wide search for Sebastian's shin guards for soccer...we found them in the bottom of a toy basket in the living room...???).

First library story hour. We got there on time, but I ended up having to drop Isaac off, leaving a friend in charge to cover for me (just in case) while Meagan and I ran to Meijer to buy her a new bathing suit. Why a bathing suit during story hour? Because after story hour was the first day of swimming lessons...for both Meagan and Isaac. Why didn't we use a bathing suit she already had? Because she only has one that fits, and we could only find one piece of it!! LOL!

As we were leaving Meijer, I overheard someone say that gas was going to jump 30 cents today to $3.73. So, although we were on a time crunch, and Lucas had just put a few gallons in the van yesterday, I decided to put a few gallons in to finish out the week. (I paid $3.44. This afternoon it was up to $3.72. I'm glad I sidetracked.)

After library, before swimming, we had to make a pit stop at Sebastian's school. He had forgotten his lunch at home, and was in a panic at the thought of having to eat a school hamburger. Poor guy, I don't blame him. He's never been one for burgers anyway, let alone school food burgers. So, I took him his lunch.

Swimming was a BIG HIT! Meagan LOVED it! She swam with her teacher, because I was unaware that I was supposed to bring my suit and get in with her. Next week...
The only thing she wasn't happy about was that Isaac couldn't get into the pool with her. His class was after hers, so he sat with me and watched. He did great in his class...much better than the last attempt at swimming class we did with him a few years ago. Back then, I had to basically bribe him to put a toe in the water. This time, he hopped right in, and was just about the last to get out at the end. Both are looking forward to next week when they get to go back

The rest of the day was spent running as well. After swimming, the computer repair guy came to fix the laptop (long story short, it stopped working Sunday because it wasn't getting power...the guy replaced the motherboard...now it's working). Then we left to go get Sebastian from school so that we would have time to eat before we had to leave for the chiropractor. We had to be on time for that appointment so we could leave in time to get back for soccer and t-ball. Needless to say, it was a bit of a relief when we got home and were done with our scheduled events for the day.

Nothing planned for tomorrow until 7:30, when a friend of mine and I have plans to hang out and have girl-time for a while. At this point, an unscheduled day sounds very inviting!

"This was a very fun day, indeed"

What a day! After Sebastian's soccer game, we all (including Keylee, who also went to the soccer game with us this morning) went to Great Clips so Meagan and I could get hair cuts. My hair was getting way too long and out of control. I just had the very ends of Meagan's hair trimmed to clean it up a bit. (BAD MOM! FORGOT THE CAMERA!) She did a pretty good job, although I wouldn't describe her as 'still' in the chair. She was enjoying watching herself in the mirror way too much to sit still! LOL! She kept making her cape float, and thought that was just the greatest thing ever! She's funny stuff!

At some point later in the afternoon, we had to make a Wal-Mart run. While we were over there, we made a stop at the dollar store. The boys wanted to spend some of their dollars they've earned from the whole penny deal. Well, besides some glittery bugs (Isaac's), some stretchy wall-sticking bugs (Sebastian's), and a pink plastic piggy bank (Meagan's), we each got a can of silly string! We headed home, and went straight out into the back yard for a good old-fashioned silly string fight! It was a ton of fun, although we were all bummed to run out of string faster than we had expected. The only one who, quite surprisingly, wasn't thrilled with the whole idea was Meagan. The first spray of string that landed on her, she flipped! "You're making me all messy!! Stop it!!" And she ran away. Keylee was able to get her back into it a little bit later on, but she wasn't nearly as excited about it as the boys were! The smiles on their faces were enormous! I love it!


Tonight, as we were winding down our day, we were all looking at the silly string pictures on the computer. Sebastian stood beside me, and in his very Sebastian style, he said, "Today was a good day. This was a very fun day, indeed."

I couldn't agree more.

Are you serious!!!???

Okay, it has been BEAUTIFUL weather all week. So what's up with freezing our fingers and toes off this morning for Sebastian's first soccer game?! Brrr! I think it took us a solid 45 minutes to thaw.

Can I just tell you how very funny the whole soccer coaching experience is? Ignore for a moment the fact that I know NOTHING about the sport - as in, Tuesday was our first practice, so Tuesday afternoon I looked up 'how to play soccer' online...LOL. This game was a bit of a train wreck today! In a cute way, that is! The boys all did their best, but clearly there are some fundamentals to be established still. For example, the defensive players, who aren't supposed to cross center field were all over in front of the net at the other end of the field trying to score, while the offensive players seemed afraid to leave center field...??? Some of the wreckage was my own fault, I will very readily admit. I thought I was prepared for the line-up rotations, but I had only planned on switching players at the change of each period. Since it was so cold, though, I switched them twice a period to keep everyone from getting too cold. It seemed to keep their attention and keep them moving pretty well, but it threw in a whole element of chaos that I was NOT ready for. Oh well. We had the typical game-stoppage for untied shoes, and one kid totally disappeared for a potty break for a few minutes. Two or three times when we changed the line-up, we ended up with either six or four players on the field rather than five. LOL. It was definitely good for a laugh! And still, somehow, at the end of it all, several of the parents told me they thought I did a great job, and they liked the rotations. Hmmm...okay. (We lost 2-1, in case you were wondering).

Divide and Conquer

Yesterday was the first night of soccer for Sebastian & tee-ball for Isaac. Of course, since I'm 'coaching' I went with Sebastian to his practice. Lucas took Isaac to tee-ball.

The parents' meeting went fairly well for soccer - all of the dates are covered (meaning at least one adult has agreed to supervise the practices/games), so we should be able to continue on with our season. We talked for the first half-hour, though, so practice itself was pretty short.

The best part of this whole day was the fact that Lucas - quiet, blend into the crowd, observe and don't say anything, Lucas - ended up helping to coach the tee-ball practice - a co-ed team of four & five-year-olds! LOL! He said it was a lot like herding cattle (has he ever herded cattle? I don't know?) But it seems that, although it was way outside his comfort zone, he seems to have rather enjoyed himself. I'm quite proud of him (shh, don't tell him I said that, though!)

Whatever happens, it seems this sporting season is, without doubt, going to require a divide and conquer mind-set. (I'm really hoping to make it to at least one of Isaac's practices and games without soccer interfering...we'll see how that goes).

BLUE and GOLD

For us, this day started around 6:45, when I rolled out of bed and jumped in the shower. Trust me, I'm not usually up and getting ready any time before 7:00 on a Saturday (and not before 8:00 if I can help it), but today we were on a mission...leave by 8:30. Why? Because today was the Blue and Gold festival at Notre Dame, and we had tickets. We had plans to meet Shane and Tina on campus as soon as we got there and spend the afternoon hanging out and watching a little football.

We managed to leave our house at 8:35 (only 5 minutes off target...phenominal...slightly less impressive when you take into consideration the fact that we got down the road and around the corner, only to realize that we forgot something...so we re-left our house at about 8:40. Still, 10 minutes is GREAT when the plans involve 3 kids on Saturday morning before 9:00. We didn't actually get out of town until closer to 9:00, since we had to stop at the bank and then stop to get gas.)


For the early part of the day, it spit a little rain, and we wondered how the weather would hold for the football game. I am pleased to say, though, that the weather was perfect while we were in the stadium, and it didn't start raining until we got in our car to leave campus.


As far as campus events, we had lunch at the Student Union (pizza), then we walked around the main courtyard area. We went in the Basilica - Isaac was worried we were going to church, and we would miss the game (LOL). We saw the golden dome, and 'Touchdown Jesus.' We went through the rec center, and I took a pit stop at the Varsity Shop to get a couple ND shirts for myself (since everyone was decked out in ND jerseys, and I no longer have any ND clothes that aren't stained or torn...or way stretched out from wearing them while I was pregnant!!).


The kids did pretty well during the game - they got a bit antsy at times, but they did okay. They definitely provided a few moments of comedy throughout the day...like when Meagan took her jersey off and then put it pack on upside down - head through the head hole, head hole down around her waist, arms through the arm hole, and head sticking out of the bottom opening of the shirt...what a goofball!) It was a long day for them, and they were pretty tired by the time we got back in the van to head home. The boys watched a movie the whole way home. Meagan fell asleep before we ever got back to the turnpike.


We had an interesting little incident on the turnpike on the way home. We were buzzing along, cruise set on 70 - which is the speed limit - and we just were talking. The radio station was fuzzy, so I was messing with the radio, trying to find a better station. The next thing I knew, Lucas was slowing down, and we were driving over the rumble strips. I looked up, then I looked in the mirror...state trooper lights were flashing right on our tail. My first question was, 'Were you speeding?' He said that he had cruise set at 70 the whole time, which I remember noticing (because I was feeling like we were going kind of slow...I'm used to Michigan driving, I guess...no comments, all you Ohio people!!) So, the trooper walks over to my side of the van, asks for license & registration. Asks me if I'm Rebecca. I said yes. Asks me if I've had my seat belt on the whole time. I said yes. He said, 'Oh, okay. When you were leaning forward earlier (I guess when I was changing the radio station), it didn't look like you were wearing it. I just wanted to check. Have a nice day.' And he walked off. Okay. That was different. Not sure what that was about really, but I'm thankful it was that easy!


Anyway, I put together a collage of some of the pictures we took today, so I could use it as my background on the laptop. I thought I'd share it with you. I must say, after being away from campus for so long, it felt really nice to be back there, even for just a short time. I would love to go back maybe once more this summer and take it easy, at a little slower pace. We stayed at the stadium end of campus today, and we missed out on a lot of my favorite things I remember about being on campus...the lakes; the most beautiful tree God ever created; the grotto; the main bookstore; my old dorms; the open courtyard area...lots of stuff!



Okay, it's late. I'm thinking I might go soak in the tub and unwind for a bit. Have a wonderful evening! I'll check back with you soon!

The Big Green Machine

Just want to take a second and share my excitement...I GOT MY LAPTOP YESTERDAY! I didn't have to wait nearly as long as I had expected! It came around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. It's so pretty and GREEN! And it's gigantic...I guess that's what happens when you get a 17" screen! I LOVE IT! I've been working on getting my files moved over and my contacts, favorites, etc. set up. Pretty soon it should have everything on it that I need, and I'll be up and running!

Okay, that's that for now. I'm off to pick up the house a bit. It really needs to be cleaned - you know, scrubbed with lots of disinfecting stuff - but all I really have time for at the moment is picking up the stuff that's out of place. (Maybe if I hadn't been on the laptop all afternoon I could have gotten more accomplished...although nap time boot camp with Meagan sort of put a kink in things anyway...I won, in case you're wondering, and she's sound asleep at the moment). Maybe Friday afternoon I'll get around to actually cleaning. ??? Maybe.

Have a great afternoon!

Bummer of a Break

My first day of not working, so I was hoping to do something fun with the kids for spring break. However, they are all barking like dogs and have goop oozing from all the holes in their faces, so we passed on anything too exciting. Instead we went to the bank (which is about an hour and ten minutes round-trip), then picked Lucas up for lunch and went to the Pizza Hut buffet. After that, the boys played wii while Meagan took a (non-sleeping) nap.

I was hoping that today would be a more exciting day, but still no one is feeling very well. So, we've passed on anything adventurous for today as well. The boys, however, earned another five pennies by helping me and having good behavior, so they're playing wii again for nap time today. I am really hoping Meagan actually sleeps at nap today. After she gets up, I think we'll head outside for some fresh air.

Tomorrow we're gonna try to hit up the free family movie nearby. They're showing The Bee Movie tomorrow. Friends of ours (Hayden and Julia and their mom to be exact) are going to meet us there. Hopefully it won't be sold out this time. Other than seeing that movie, we've not done much of anything for Sebastian's spring break. It's been a bit of a bummer!

I heart my Laptop...I mean, Husband!

Have I ever told you how much I love my husband?! If not, let me tell you...He's the BEST! I love that he does way over the top stuff for me sometimes just because. (That's not the only reason I love him, of course, LOL!) Last week he got online and 'built' a laptop that would work for my scrapbooking so that I can be a little more mobile with it. He told me if I wanted it, to go ahead and get it.

WHAT! I was severely tempted to jump at the offer, but I felt held back - kind of like a gut check in the pit of my stomach. So I sat down and figured out all of the stuff we would have to cover (monetarily speaking) from now until the beginning of next year, and compared that to what we have available to cover it. We were about $600 short of getting the laptop without cutting it too close or having to dip into savings. So I decided to wait and start saving a little each week until I could make up the $600.

Well, this week, we received a check in the mail that more than covered the amount I was short for the laptop. GOD IS GOOD! So, Wednesday, Lucas rebuilt the computer for me, and we ordered it! I'm so excited I'm almost giddy!!! It's a green one even! (Actually the green was probably the majority of the reason I picked the one I picked...yes, I'm a silly girl who cares about color over performance! The fact that it's green, along with the fact that it came with Adobe Premier for home videos was what swayed my decision!)

It is 'in production' as of right now. It's scheduled to ship next Thursday I think. So now I just have to hang on and exercise a bit of patience until it gets here! I CAN HARDLY WAIT!!!

Tuesday

Tuesday morning I went into work for the sole purpose of figuring out some issues I've been having with financial statements. For weeks, I've been trying to figure out why things weren't working right. I kept thinking I must have done something wrong, classified something wrong, whatever. Tuesday morning I was able to narrow my problems down to one particular thing - checks that we'd written weren't decreasing cash on the balance sheet. So it looked like we had way more cash than we do, plus the balance sheets weren't balancing.

At least now I knew what the issue was, I just didn't know how to fix it. So I called the manufacturer of our accounting software. I was on the phone for an hour and a half. At first, I tried to explain what I was having trouble with, but the guy just couldn't comprehend what I was talking about. So then we went a step further, and I gave him access to view my screen as I was working. That helped. But I could tell he was in no way familiar with accounting, because he was just simply CONFUSED. Finally, after nearly an hour on the phone, we had a break through, and HE GOT IT! So for the next half hour, we tried troubleshooting. At one point he actually said to me, 'Um, okay, I think I need a break to go take some headache medicine. I'll be back' and he put me on hold. That was a first! A funny one at that! Poor guy! Ultimately, it was determined that the program is just not designed to do what I want it to do, and I will have to find a way to work around it. Okay. Well, that sort of felt like a lot of time wasted. At least I know that it's not something I've done horribly wrong, and I can stop trying to fix it! That's something, I suppose.

Tuesday night, the kids and I went to small group and let Lucas have the house to himself after his rough day with very little sleep. Hayden and Julia (some of the boys' friends, and Isaac's girlfriend *LOL*) were there, so they all got to play together. However, Sebastian had made up a game of house / work, and Julia had decided she was going to play that game. Isaac, on the other hand, wouldn't play it for who-knows-what reason. The bulk of the night, Isaac sat and watched the girl of his dreams (lol) give all of her attention to his brother. At the end of the night, he said to me in the saddest Isaac voice, 'Mom, I think Julia likes Sebastian more than she likes me now.' My first thought was, 'Oh my goodness! Is this really starting already?!' I explained to him that Julia is his friend and Sebastian's, and that everyone can be friends together. Blah blah blah, standard Mommy talk. But he felt better and picked his chin up a bit, so I guess it worked. That's what moms are for!

Wii Play (and other odds & ends)

I know I haven't been posting much, but things have been relatively quiet around here lately. No funny stories to share. No embarrassing moments to recount. Just life as usual. This weekend was beautiful, so we spent the better part of Saturday & Sunday outside playing. That was nice! And the kids have been sleeping GREAT from all the fresh air and exercise!

It's so funny to me, though...yesterday I asked the boys what they had been playing outside all day. They said 'Super-Smash Brothers' (which is a wii game that they're obsessed with). I asked again, thinking they had misunderstood me, but I got the same answer again. It seems that even when they're not playing wii, they're still playing it by acting it out. I overheard a portion of their play time later in the evening, and it was pretty funny. They were having a Pokemon training camp for all of the Pokemon characters to learn to battle against other characters who have a different fighting style. Wow! They were very detailed in their roll-play. I mean, they were getting in-depth, strategizing on how to deal with juggling characters (characters who can pick you up and keep hitting you back up into the air so you can't do anything against them...LOL...I would NEVER know this if I didn't have boys!) and so on. I was actually pretty impressed with how well they were communicating with each other, taking turns making decisions in the game (which is HUGE for Sebastian to not be the only one calling the shots), and playing off of each other. It was pretty cool. It's just funny to me that it was about wii. Oh well, boys will be boys!

Another thing about this weekend...Sunday our pastor asked me to tell a story for the introduction to the service. He taught on knowing God's voice, and wanted me to share a funny thing that had happened between he and I with a phone conversation a while back. You can listen to it here if you want (knowing it's Him). He had called me one day, and I didn't recognize his voice. Because I thought it was someone else, I got the conversation all turned around and confused. It ended up being pretty funny, and apparently made for a funny story to tell so that everyone could get a chuckle at my expense (just kidding - I really don't mind at all. It takes a lot more than that to embarrass me!). But it was pretty fun to be able to share that. I'm coming to realize that I really enjoy public speaking (I know, I'm kind of on my own on that one!), and I really do like it when I get a chance to do it. Something about it is very satisfying to me.

Anyway...

Oh! Another thing I wanted to share with you...Last weekend Sebastian had a story published in our weekly news publication. It was a story he had written in kindergarten - not really sure why they're just now getting around to publishing it??? Anyway, his response was, 'Mom, now I'm famous! I've been in the newspaper!' Too cute! His story was about a frog who eats bugs with his long sticky tongue. I was so proud of him, he's such a smart little guy!

One last note for now...Lucas found my camera power cord...right where it belongs, of all the places! I swear I looked there - more than once - but I clearly overlooked it? I'm not sure how, though, because I even swept my arm across the shelf, thinking I just couldn't see it because of shadows. I would have sworn there was nothing there, but that's where he ended up finding it anyway. (Kinda like Isaac's movie wasn't under the tree, but we found it there? Who knows!) Anyhow, I'm glad it's not missing anymore, and I can take pictures again! I'm lost without my camera!

I'm going to go take it easy this evening. I am looking forward to some quiet time. It's been a hectic day. Poor Lucas has to go back into work tonight because a transformer blew up today & took down all of their compressors. So it's just me and the sleeping critters here tonight. Sounds like a good night for some reading.

Colorful Easter

Getting caught up on posts...I figured I'd start by sharing my other Easter layout I've gotten done (besides the one I just posted). This layout was for a challenge, and it proved to be much more time-consuming and difficult than I expected. I extracted the Easter baskets from a picture I had taken, and set them against a 'paper' backdrop. The shadows were t.r.i.c.k.y.!!! Took me quite a while, and truthfully, they still don't look quite right to me. But I'm leaving it alone for now. Probably for good. It's way too involved to try to make any more changes to it. Anyway...here it is.

Coloring Eggs '08

I have always struggled to scrap holidays, mostly because the pictures look the same every year. But when I really think about it, although the nature of the events don't change from one year to the next, there are little details about each year that are unique to that year. That's what I focused on for this layout - the little details of '08 that made our egg-coloring special.

Journaling: This year.......Grandma & Grandpa H. came up for Easter; Grandma helped us color eggs; Isaac didn't suck his dye-stained thumb; Meagan was old enough to color eggs with the boys; Sebastian mixed every one of his eggs in at least three colors; We left a mini basket of salad for the Easter Bunny to snack on.

You might have noticed that the style isn't as busy as I normally do. I bought an 'Simple Scrapbooks' last week at the grocery, and I was feeling inspired to try to simplify a bit. It still seemed like it took just as long as when I make it messy. ??? Go figure!

Spring Break

Today was the 1st day of Spring Break for Sebastian. It's funny how the dynamics change around the house by just having three kids home instead of two. Very interesting.

This morning we were invited to go to McDonald's with Nicole and Keylee and Cam (Nicole's nephew). We met there at 11:00 and let the kids play for a while before we got lunch. My friend Kim also met us there with her granddaughter, who is Meagan's age. We ended up hanging out and letting them play until about 1:00.

Tonight we had a family date. We went out to eat at Chili's. I was going to make something here at home, but Lucas seemed like he needed a night out. So that's what we did.

Tonight the kids are watching movies for bedtime - the boys in their room watching Transformers; Meagan in the living room watching Cinderella (for the 2nd time in a row...back to back). She's had a bit of a cough for a couple of days, since the weather can't make up its mind what it's going to do (Today it was cool and rainy. Tomorrow it's supposed to be around 70. ??? Anyway...) Tonight, about 20 minutes ago, I noticed she was also actually running a bit of a fever - between 101.5 and 102, depending on which reading in which ear you look at. So, Motrin and Triamenic for bedtime tonight. Hopefully she'll get some good restorative sleep and will feel better in the morning. We'll see how it goes.

As for the rest of Spring Break, I'm not sure what we'll do. I'm working Monday & Wednesday, and maybe a bit on Tuesday. Maybe not. I guess it depends on the weather. If it's going to be rainy and yucky, we may have to head to the dinosaur museum or something indoors. If it's going to be warm, maybe we can find something fun outside to do. We may have to start breaking out the bikes and soccer balls and tee balls and such. Maybe a trip to one of the parks...I could use some outdoorsy spring pictures (although I still haven't found my camera charger?). Whatever it is, we'll think of something to do to enjoy Sebastian's week off of school. I just hope everyone is feeling better soon so we can ALL enjoy it.

Bit of a Bummer

We tried something new this morning, but it didn't work out quite as we had hoped. I found out that a movie theater about 15 minutes from us shows free family shows every Saturday morning. Free - kids and adults! This morning they were showing the Waterhorse. We all wanted to see it, so we got up early (although apparently not early enough), loaded into the van, and headed to the theater. But when we got there, it was already sold out. So that was a bit of a bummer. I guess we'll have to rent it in a few weeks instead.

So, we got back in the van, drove home, had lunch. Not quite what we had planned for the morning. The kids did get to play outside for a little while while Lucas grilled burgers for us. And we're going to have our own movie date tonight instead. We got Enchanted for Easter, so we'll pop our own popcorn and hang out at home for a family movie night. A very good alternative for a movie attempt gone bad.

Happy Meagan

Here's a layout I did last night after the kids went to bed. This is really funny, but you'll never guess what my inspiration was for this...a new pair of underwear! LOL! Last weekend, we came across a sale at Old Navy - tons of really cheap stuff marked down to $2 and $3 in some cases. Well, I found a few pj's and a new pair of pants. I also found a really cute pair of undies for $2. They're green, trimmed in a really cute ribbon - off-white with little pink flowers. Very cute. Well, as I was folding my laundry the other day, I took another look at them and thought, 'Hmmm. That color combination would make a great scrapbook page.' (Yes, I actually have thoughts like that...shh, don't tell anyone or they'll think I'm nuts!) So, last night was my first opportunity to do any scrapping. I put the layout together based on the color scheme I wanted to work with, and then went in search of a picture to use...a little backward, but it worked. I found this picture of Meagan from last Easter. (Obviously, it was much warmer last Easter than it was this year, seeing as she's sitting outside with no coat on!)



Journaling: Yes, that's a black eye. And yes, you still have a huge grin on your face. Not a care, you're just happy to be out in the fresh spring air. Happy to be at Grandma & Grandpa's. You're loving life.

Sports coming out my ears!

I knew that eventually we may be faced with scheduling issues with kids' sports as the kids got older, but I didn't realize it could start so soon. We had the boys' t-ball meeting last night, and basically what I learned is that I'm going to have sports coming out of my ears. Isaac will practice every Tuesday evening, and Sebastian will practice every Wednesday evening. Both will have games on Saturdays - one at 9:30, the other at 10:30. Plus, Sebastian has soccer on either Tuesdays or Thursdays (I'm REALLY hoping for Thursdays) with games on Saturdays. Seems I'm going to have to find a double - for myself and Sebastian. I'm not sure how else to be in 2 places at once.

Oh, and did I mention that the 'coaches' for soccer have bailed and left us coach-less. That means, unless someone steps up as the 'coach' for the team, the kids won't be able to play, even though they paid and registered and did the first half of the season last fall. As I was the team coordinator in the first part of the season, the task of finding a coach has fallen on me. I spoke with all of the parents, and everyone is in the same boat as me. I want to help, and want the kids to be able to play, but can't commit to every practice and every game. That seemed to be the general consensus among all the parents. But one of us has to officially be the volunteer coach. So, guess who that will be...ME! How on earth did I land a soccer coaching gig? I have no idea. But I would rather do that than tell 8 little boys that they can't play because adults chose not to keep their commitments. Anyway...I guess it's time to research a thing or two about soccer! LOL! Actually the league we're working with has lots of resources, practice guidelines, drills, etc for coaches, so I should be able to get a lot of it there. I'll let you know how it goes!

Just think, about 2 more years, and all 3 of them will be going strong! Yikes!

Three days later...

A little delayed in sharing Easter pictures, but that's because I had some technical difficulties with my camera - mainly that I can't find my power cord to plug it in to charge it to take pictures (or to download the ones that are on there already). So, luckily Guy & Jane were up here visiting, and they brought their camera. They took over 100 pictures while they were here, but couldn't transfer them until Monday or Tuesday. So, I now have pictures to share with you. Just one for now because I have to edit the others still (rotate them so you don't have to turn your head 90 degrees to look at them).

We got up Sunday morning and did our egg hunt first thing. Then had a quick breakfast and headed off to church. During church, about 10 minutes into the service, after the singing & announcements and all that were done, the nursery paging system flashed up on the screen, and wouldn't you know, it was Meagan's number. So I got up and left service to go see what the problem was. The nursery leader said Meagan had been whimpering and crying and was acting like her arm was broken. She hadn't seen anything happen. They were playing duck duck goose and Meagan just started crying. It sounded a lot like the way she was acting when her elbow was acting up, which also just came on without warning, so I figured something similar was going on. I thanked the nursery workers, gathered up Meagan's things, and we headed back to the service. As soon as the nursery doors shut behind us, Meagan looked at me and said, 'Are we going to Grandma now?' I told her we were going to go sit with Grandma, but that she had to be quiet and sit still. She laid her head on my shoulder, and for about another 10 minutes, she continued to act hurt. Until, that is, Grandma's lap freed up (when Isaac decided to move). Miraculously (we were in church after all, so why shouldn't miracles happen?) Meagan's arm was fixed! She could move it again just fine, as she climbed from my lap to Grandma's. Nice. All I could think to myself was, 'Man, that girl is good.' I knew I'd been played.

Other than the elbow, we had a hitch-free Easter day. For lunch we went to Logan's. Then, Guy & Jane left after lunch and we hung around and took it easy all afternoon and evening. Meagan played with her new kitchen that she got for Easter (a $40 version of the $100 kitchen sets...$40 very well spent...she LOVES the thing!). The boys played wii, since the Easter Bunny was way awesome and put pennies in their Easter eggs! I think to them that was better than candy!

Battling Sombreros

March has been quite a busy month around work, and there were 2 of us who had birthdays (the 5th & the 6th). Yesterday was the first time we were both available to go out for a group lunch. They left the restaurant choice up to me (since Kim didn't care). Silly me, I did not base my choice on the level of humiliation for birthday celebrations, but rather on the tastiness of the food. I chose Mexican. I should have based it on the first.


I wasn't even giving it any thought, to be quite honest. We were all enjoying our meals; everyone was almost done. I thought we were just waiting for the check. NOPE. First I heard the clapping. Then the singing (all coming from behind me). Then I felt the giant (quite heavy) hat plop on my head. In all the excitement (aka embarrassment), I almost caught my sleeve on fire on my fried ice cream birthday candle! That would have topped it all, don't ya think?

Anyhow, it was fun, although we were both a touch embarrassed. And since we were sitting right next to each other, it felt like a battle of sombreros, as they kept bouncing into each other. Funny stuff!

Artsy Fartsy

Check out this ant that Sebastian drew (not traced - drew!) in school the other day. He said he followed the directions in a how-to-draw book. I don't know about you, but I had three or four how-to-draw books, and my attempts never turned out quite like this. I'm impressed! He's quite the artist.

Front-Yard Football

Another layout I finished today. I started it yesterday, but got stuck for a lack of football *stuff* to put on it. I found a really cute sports kit today though, and downloaded it so I could finish my page. I think my favorite thing about this page is the extraction of the boys' pictures set agains patterned papers and such. I just think it's fun looking, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Journaling:

I want to remember:

• the sound of your laughter coming in through the window
• the mix of determination and joy on your faces
• Isaac's makeshift helmet (bike helmet)
• the feel of a warm breeze and bare feet in the grass
• the comedy of your play-by-play retelling of all of your adventures - not just on this particular day, but as a part of normal every-day life with the 2 of you.
  

Saturday Morning

We had a bit of a busy morning this morning. Besides dropping off recycling, which is a normal Saturday affair, we headed over to the middle school to register the boys - yes, Isaac too! - for t-ball this spring. Then we headed to Wal-Mart in search of a new backpack. Sebastian's 1st grade backpack broke some time ago, so for quite a while (a few months at least) he's been using his Cars backpack from Kindergarten. Well, now that one has COMPLETELY fallen apart! The shoulder straps have both disconnected from the pack, and the back of the pack has detached from the front so that it looks like it has a second zipper that is permanently hanging open. I know there are only a few months of school left, and it's a strange time to be buying a backpack, but we had no choice! Hopefully this one holds up, and he can use it for 2nd grade too (yes, I'm totally intending to send my child off for his 1st day of 2nd grade with a used backpack! It will only be 2 months used, so that's really like almost new!)

When we got back from shopping (we did find a backpack BTW - green and gray and black for only $9.) the kids played outside while we got lunch ready. Lucas grilled burgers for us - I've missed the taste of non-George-Forman grilled burgers! They were tasty!

Meagan was totally MELTING at lunch. I gave each of the kids a choice between a cheese sandwich and a cheeseburger. Meagan chose a burger. So, I put it on a bun, put her tomato & pickle on it like she wanted, and put it on her plate. She went nuts! She was screaming and crying that she wanted a cheeseburger. 'That is a cheeseburger' I explained. 'Where?! I don't see it!! It's goooooonnnnnee!' She was in hysterics! Holy cow. I finally took the cheeseburger off of her plate and gave her bologna. Not sure why that solved her issues, but it did. Clearly, she has a different idea of what a cheeseburger is (just like she insists that tacos are called Taco Bell's). She ate her Sun Chips, her beans, and 2 pieces of bologna. Then, first chance I got, I scooped her up and took her off to bed for a (hopefully) LONG nap! That girl!

So anyway, Lucas and I are hanging out (he's playing some old version of Zelda, and I'm blogging/scrapbooking/whatever else on my computer) for a while while all is quiet. We'll see what adventures post-nap time will bring.

I blogged about this at the beginning of last year, but am just getting around to doing a layout of it. I got this scrapbook kit for my birthday from my men. It's a giant kit from Scrap Artists called In Bloom - love it! I think I bought it mostly for the lace if you want to know the truth.

Snuggle Up & Read

Last night Sebastian's school had an event in their library (aka 'media center' *LOL*) called 'Snuggle Up & Read.' The kids wore PJ's, and brought pillows, blankets, animals, & whatever other bedtime thing they wanted. Then they got to eat popcorn and kick back while several of the teachers read books. It lasted for about an hour, and was really quite enjoyable. They also had a buy-one-get-one-free book fair going on last night. Sebastian picked out 4 books, and they only cost $9 total. Three he picked out for himself - all 3 chapter books - one Junie B. Jones and 2 Jack Sparrow. The fourth book he got to give to his teachers to keep in the classroom. It's funny to me that he is reading chapter books already - he doesn't seem old enough yet. He told us he can read chapter books now because he's six and six-year-old's don't read just picture books anymore. Sheesh!

(By the way, if anyone wants a birthday idea for him, he would like the other 4 or 5 books in the Jack Sparrow collection. Last night he got #1 - The Coming Storm, and Silver (which I think is #6ish?).

Take one down, Pass it around

I feel like we're singing '99 cases of sickness on the wall,' and truthfully, I hope we've just passed around our last one! After I got it the other day, Meagan picked it up where I left off. Tuesday morning, we were going to go to story hour, and then I was going to just stay home with the kids to take it easy and finish recovering. We, however, never made it to story hour, because Meagan got sick at breakfast. Poor thing was NOT feeling well. She had slept until 8:00 that morning (which is about an hour later than her normal wake-up time), then fell back asleep on the recliner until I woke her up again at 8:30 to eat. Well, as I said, breakfast didn't go so well. After that, it was back to the recliner for more dozing in and out of sleep while watching PBS Kids. She then fell asleep again in the van on the way to my chiropractor appointment (which, who knew that a chiropractor would be able to make my stomach feel better, but she did!!). Then she (Meagan, not the chiropractor) took a 2 1/2 hour nap when we got home.

Other than all that sleeping and laziness, she didn't get sick anymore, and seemed to be doing okay. So Wednesday, I took the kids to Nicole's and headed back to work. At about 11:30 I got a call - lunch didn't stay down. Poor baby! So, I packed up and headed home to get her. That afternoon was more sleeping and laying around. By evenign, she seemed to be okay, so Thursday we tried again, and made it through the day incident-free!

Now, we've all started on a fun sinus / head cold / chest congestion combo...but this is it! I refuse to accept any more illness after this! Surely this has to be our 99th case of sickness! NO MORE!

A Case of the Yucks

Let's just say today has not been my best day ever. I woke up last night starting around 1:00 in the morning, and intermittently after that, fighting the urge to get sick. I don't know why I fought it - Lucas says just get it over with and you'll feel better. But I have a thing about that...you know, toilets and all...yuck. Besides, other than the stomach issues, I was quite comfortable, and really didn't want to get out of bed. Finally, around 5:00 this morning, I lost my battle. Shortly after, I fell back asleep and slept until almost 8:00 (which made Sebastian nearly late for school...but we managed to pull it off!).

I was feeling okay when I got up, so I decided to carry on with my day as normal. Sometime around 11:00, I realized that was a mistake. But I made my way through our staff meeting before heading home for a break. I got home around 1:15, and laid down on the couch - just for a minute - to relax. I woke up at 2:45. Oops. I got up and went back to work to take the deposit to the bank and tie up some loose ends. I was quite thankful for the end of the day to come rolling around.

Tonight I ordered pizza because the thought of cooking was just too much. I did what I could to help Lucas do bills, but mostly I'm just laying around trying (again) not to get sick again, and feeling a bit pathetic. I'm hoping for a good night of sleep and a better day tomorrow. Mostly, though, I'm hoping no one else catches this case of the yucks.

21 Again!

Well, it's official...I am no longer 20-something. Yesterday was my 30th birthday! I had an absolutely wonderful day, getting phone calls and cards and emails from so many of my favorite people. I can't tell you how loved I feel, and how blessed I am to have so many great people in my life!


As for my most favorite people - Lucas, Sebastian, Isaac and Meagan - we all hung out and spent the evening together. They all took me out to eat - my choice. Since we have been saying for months now that we wanted to go try a new restaurant near one of our good-ol' standby restaurants, I decided we should go there. Only thing is, it looks like we waited a bit too long to try it, because when we got there, it was boarded up and closed! Hmmm...plan B....Red Robin is always good. So, we took a turn around the block and headed to Red Robin.


Other than Isaac getting a black eye on the door as we were walking into the restaurant, we had a great dinner! We (well, I) was laying low, flying under the birthday radar, and I was loving my husband for not saying anything to anyone (although the attention drawn to our table would embarrass him as much as it would me, even if it's not his birthday). When our food came out, it wasn't our waiter that brought it; it was another waitress. As she's passing out the food, Sebastian looks straight at her and says, 'Today is my mom's birthday.' Ooooo, that hurt. So she asked me about it, and told me there was someone else there that was celebrating her 21st birthday. We talked for a second, and she left. Nothing else came of it.


When we had finished, our waiter brought us the bill, and says, 'Oh, were you the one who's having a birthday?' I couldn't lie to the man, although I really wanted to, so I said 'yes.' Very nonchalantly, he says, 'Well, can I bring you a free ice cream?' The kids heard ice cream and all went nuts. So he says no problem, he'll go grab it... he left out that he was also going to grab balloons and 10 other people to sing.


So, here comes the noisy procession all the way to the back corner of the restaurant where we were sitting. The waitress who had brought our food out to us was in the singing group. She looked at me and winked and said, '21 right?' I just laughed & nodded a little, not thinking anything of it - because earlier I had actually told her it was my 30th. The next thing I know another girl is yelling at the top of her lungs that I'm celebrating my 21st birthday! I wanted to crawl under the table and hide! I think that was more embarrassing than the clapping and singing. I mean, clearly I am NOT 21, and all those people sitting around must have thought I was desperate to lie about my age like that...not to mention I'm sitting at the table with my husband and 3 kids - who I would have had to start giving birth to when I was 15!! Sheesh! Oh well, it was still fun. And it made for a funny memory.


When we got home, the boys and Lucas straightened up the house for me - the boys did the living room, and Lucas did the kitchen. I had taken a vow to not cook or clean at all on my birthday, and it was very nice to not have to break that vow. What sweet men I have! It was a great evening (except, like I said, for Isaac's black eye - poor guy - but at least it's someone else's turn besides Meagan's), and a great birthday! And honestly, I am loving where I am right now, and I am so grateful that I am not 21 again!

A twist on PJ Day

This morning was story hour at the library, and it was PJ day. Isaac got to wear his pajamas, and take a pillow and blanket and stuffed animal. He took Baby Cutie with him, which is his rescue pet from Suzie from Christmas. He loves Baby Cutie! Although he is generally a stuffed animal lover, and to ask him to pick a favorite would probably put him in quite the predicament. I was like that when I was little, too. I remember once in nursery school we had a stuffed animal circus day. We all got to bring one animal with us to school, and we each got a turn making our animals do tricks. I can remember laying in bed the night before, crying because I was torn over the decision. I wanted so badly to take them all, but I had narrowed it down to Rocky the Squirrel and Mr. Tiger. From there, I just couldn't bear to choose (which is funny because when I think back on it, neither was really one of my favorites as far as sleeping with them or taking them around with me and all. Who knows why I was so hung up on those 2 animals???). I finally ended up choosing Mr. Tiger at the last minute...you know....Tigers are more circus-y than squirrels and all. I remember apologizing to Rocky and feeling so bad because I had to leave him home. How funny, the mind of a child.


Anyway, Isaac didn't seem quite as torn as I was in deciding who to take with him today. Meagan, although she's not technically in Isaac's story hour class, decided she needed to take Jolly Tall (or Mommy Giraffe, as she calls her). So, we marched off to the library with 2 kids, 2 animals, one pillow and one blanket in hand. For their project they glued squares of construction paper together to make a patch-work quilt. And their stories were about bedtime-ish things. It was quite the themed morning. He had a blast.


The rest of the afternoon I worked - to get a head-start on AP's this week...maybe freeing up the last 2 days of the work week for projects instead of day-to-day stuff. I'm feeling like I'm so close, but so far away. I'm definitely going to have to put my head down and keep plowing forward. I'm almost there! Keep praying for me, please!


Other than that, not lots to report tonight. We had kind of a late night last night, so I'm thinking we're going to crash early tonight. I do have one layout I can share with you before I head to bed. I did this one last night while Lucas was gaming. It sort of reminds me of the tattoo layout I did not too long ago - maybe because I used papers from the same kit, so it's got the same feel to it. More Cedar Point pictures.

'Kinda makes me wonder...was this ride more for the little boys or the big boys?'

Journaling on the pictures: 1) It was fun at first until the crashing started. 2) The look on poor Isaac's face says it all. 3) I know this is a bad picture, but the look on his face is classic!

To my Birthday Buddies...

It's BIRTHDAY WEEK!!! And I share it with 2 of my favorite people - Lori and Leroy! So, here's my birthday card for my 2 birthday buddies! Wish we could be together for birthday hangin' out! Miss you! Happy birthday!!

Little Green Wagon

I finished another layout of Cedar Point last night. It seems like a silly thing to do a layout about, but you have no idea how thankful I was that we had our wagon with us!

Journaling: This thing was a life-saver! Sure, it was over 100 pounds of weight for Lucas to pull around all day, but we would have been in trouble without it. It kept the kids from having to do such heavy-duty walking. It gave them a place to sit and rest when needed, and it made it super easy to keep everyone together all day. Thank goodness for the little GREEN wagon!

Overheard

TOUGH CLUB
While I was making dinner, I heard a thump from upstairs, immediately followed by a wailing cry from Isaac. He came rushing down the stairs and into the kitchen, with Sebastian close on his heels. Through sobs he said, "Mom...I...hurt...my...chiiiiiinnn." He had bright red and purple scrapes along the bottom of his chin, which Sebastian was quick to explain, was caused by tripping over Sebastian's foot and falling into the hamper. While I was getting out the Spider Man freezy pack, Lucas asked Isaac if he needed a hug. Isaac said, 'No, I'm being tough.'
"Yeah," said Sebastian. "Me and Isaac made a tough club."
Funny, Lucas and I had the exact same reaction at the same time...'Oh Great!'

DINNER PRAYER
We sat down to the table for dinner. I said, 'Let's pray,' and Meagan quickly chimed in with this prayer.
GOD IS GOOD.
GOD IS GOOD.
LET US TAKE A BITE OF FOOD.
AMEN!

Creepy Crawly Bugs

This afternoon, after nap time, the kids and I made bugs. This is their second time making bugs. My first. For Christmas one of the boys got a bug-making kit. You basically fill bug-shaped trays with gooey paint stuff. Then you stick them in an oven and wait for the gooey stuff to cook. And there you have a bug. A bug that can stick to windows like window-clings, in case you were wondering. Meagan made a 'dragon' and a 'wormy' (a dragonfly and a worm). Isaac made a scorpion and a 'black willow' spider (LOL). And Sebastian made a gigantic fly.


Watching them make their bugs, and peek into the little oven to check the progress reminded me of my sun-catcher kit I had when I was little. I spent hours at Dad and Nancy's making sun catchers - filling little metal frames with little plastic crystals and melting them in an oven. We had sun-catchers EVERYWHERE! Their house had a lot of windows, and I think there might have been at least one sun-catcher on every one of them. Too funny. But that kept me occupied and out of mischief for hours at a time. Anyway, these bugs made me think of my sun-catcher-making days (minus the smell of melting plastic). It's just funny to me when stuff my kids do now mirrors stuff I did 25 years ago.

Tea for Two

This morning after breakfast, Meagan sweet-talked me into setting up her Tinkerbell tent in the living room (which led to setting up Isaac's shark tent as well, so now our living room has been transformed into an indoor campground). She got some books & took them in to read. When she got tired of the books, she went on a search for something else new and exciting to do in her tent. What did she decide on, but her tea set.

I had a meeting this morning, so just as she was inviting me to tea, I was getting ready to leave. Big bummer, because every girl loves a good tea party. But, Lucas had just gotten home from work, and she seemed more than satisfied to invite Daddy in place of Mommy. So, as I was leaving, this was the site in our front room. Meagan in her Tink tent and Lucas on the ground, with his lower half hanging out of a pink and purple doorway, drinking invisible tea out of pink, blue, green and yellow teacups. How I wish I had my camera handy! I'm guessing that was Lucas's first tea party. I'm also guessing it won't be his last!

Better or Worse?

Okay, I messed with this layout again this afternoon. The lack of stuff on it was bothering me, so I added more. You know me & my messy scrapping. I just can't seem to leave simple things simple. ??? Anyway, is this one better or worse?

Round & Round

Here's another Cedar Point layout I did last night. I thought I'd wait to post it since I went a little post-crazy last night. I'm still not totally sold on this layout, so I may end up messing with it or adding some stuff or moving things around a bit, but this is the basic idea.

Journaling: you can't seem to get enough of going 'round and 'round in circles. from jeeps to cars to planes, every ride in kiddy land does the same as the last. still you're sure to ride them all.

Pennies from Heaven

I've been praying for a creative way to address some 'issues' with the kids - not the least of which is their massive quantity of time playing, or thinking about, or talking about PlayStation or Wii or computer. My kids - at least my boys - are electronic junkies. I don't mind the electronics. What I mind is the significance they seem to be playing in the lives of my kids. I mean, they can't seem to think of much else, and if given a choice, they would almost certainly choose a screen-driven activity over an imagination-driven one. Very sad. My goal is not to eliminate it entirely. Simply to restrict the amount of time and to establish that it is an earned privilege rather than an entitlement.

My other issue has been the general degradation of their manners and behavior. I know some of it is a pretty normal 'boy' thing, but at times they are crossing the line between normal and obnoxious.

Well, you may remember about a year ago, we did a thing with pennies to encourage better bedtime behavior. It worked wonderfully until it became irrelevant - they established good bedtime habits and the pennies were no longer needed. Well, we have decided to revisit the pennies. Only this time, the deal has changed a bit. Instead of starting with 3 pennies in their jar, they start with zero. Their goal is to earn five pennies. Once they have five, they can trade their pennies in for PlayStation, Wii or computer time. We've also given them the option of trading their 5 pennies in for $1.00 that they can spend or save however they choose. We've laid out pretty clearly for them the things they may do to earn pennies - like being kind to each other, helping each other, helping in the kitchen after dinner, cleaning up when they're done playing, listening the first time they're asked to do something, etc. They can also lose pennies for bad behavior - excessive fighting, back talk, having to be told more than once, leaving messes (and thumb sucking...I'm bound & determined to help that boy give up his thumb!).

We talked to them about it tonight at dinner. We listened to their ideas for what could earn or lose pennies. We explained their options and their rewards. They were super excited, and started making plans for what they would play first, and what they would start saving money for and on and on. As soon as dinner was over, they hopped up, cleared the table, and started cleaning the kitchen. Sebastian did some dishwasher duties and some recycling. Isaac cleaned the table and chairs.

At bedtime, I gave the usual 5-minute warning. I didn't even have to ask them to clean up. As soon as I said 5 minutes until bedtime, Sebastian said, "Isaac, we have to clean up what we're done playing with so we can earn a penny." It was done in no time. By the time they went to bed tonight, they had each earned 3 pennies.

As for Meagan, she has sort of caught the helping bug. She helped with the dishes a bit, and she helped some in cleaning up toys in the boys' room. We figured she's a bit too young to really understand what the whole thing is about, but she likes putting pennies into a jar. So, if she's being good, she gets to put a penny in whenever the boys do. She seems to be pretty happy with that.

To Recap....

MONDAY:
Monday was a no-school day, but I still had to work in the morning. I worked quickly, and left by noon. I picked the kids up from Nicole's and then took them over to a friend's for lunch. We had gourmet grilled cheese, cheez-its, pickles and orange slices (which went over quite well with everyone!). Then the kids all hung out and played - all seven of them (if you count the baby, that is). Three boys, three girls, and one baby (boy) - and two mommies who were thrilled to have a chance to sit quietly on the couch and talk and drink tea. What a great afternoon! Around 3:00, the two younger girls were quickly approaching melting point, so we said our goodbye's and parted ways. I'm already looking forward to the next time we have a chance to do that!

TUESDAY:
I didn't work Tuesday. We had story hour in the morning, and from there headed to the chiropractor. After that, not much else happened...until that evening, I guess. Sebastian had wrestling, so I decided to take the other 2 to the grocery with me. Now, I NEVER get the TV carts. I just haven't wanted to start it, so I don't have to fight that fight every time we walk into the store. However, as we walked into the store at 6:45 pm - my full list of groceries, and my 2 kids who were bordering on tired - I decided to give it a shot. I thought maybe I could get done more quickly if their attention was occupied by cartoons rather than by wanting to "help" me with groceries. I envisioned being able to walk at an adult pace through the isles instead of at a distracted-2-year-old pace. I broke down and rented the cart.

Initially I chose Thomas the Train, but the TV wasn't working in that one, so we switched to Dora. I must say, the cart worked like a dream. I FLEW through the grocery. There was no "Meagan put that back" or "Watch out for that display" or "Stay out of other people's way" or "Stop fighting" or "Keep your hands to yourself" or "No running" or any other phrase that has become a typical part of our grocery trips. It was wonderful. My only complaint, if any, would be that the cart space for groceries is smaller, so I had to be creative in loading the cart. Other than that, wonderful.

I ALMOST made it to the end of the trip with no incidents...ALMOST. I pushed the cart back to the 'parking spot' and opened the door to get them out. As I did, I noticed that Meagan had these two bars of some sort - one in each hand. My first thought was, Oh no she broke something. I tried to grab it out of her hand, and complete pandemonium broke out. As she got out of the cart, she threw herself down on the floor in a full-on tantrum. I was dumbfounded, still not knowing what was in her hand. But, it all quickly became very clear to me what the problem was, as a candy wrapper fell out of the cart after her.

While I was paying for the groceries, she had snatched a Spree Rope Candy off of the candy rack and started chowing down. This was even after they both had asked for candy and I specifically told them no. Isaac, although he didn't take it from the shelf, was guilty as well, because his mouth was shoved full. He couldn't even talk because his teeth were sticking together from all the chewy gunk in his mouth.

We marched straight back to the isle we had just been in. I took the candy from each of them and threw it in the trash can (which DID NOT go over well with Meagan - she actually tried to go in after it until I pulled her back). Then, we waited in the line to pay for the candy that had been taken. They each were made to apologize, and they each got an age-appropriate lesson in respecting boundaries. Let's say, I doubt Isaac ever does that again...I wouldn't put anything past Meagan, but I'm hoping for the best.

WEDNESDAY:
Church night. In the 5th & 6th grade youth group, we've been doing crazy nights throughout February. Wednesday was backwards night. Let's just say that I had a tough time finding pants that would zip up backwards...LOL!

The night was going really well. We got there on time. The kids were all well behaved on the bus. They were listening well during service. We even had time to play an extra game before we left. But when we got out to the bus, it wouldn't start. Something in the fuel system wen bad - it was just a tiny little piece, but I have no idea what it was. Anyway...they pulled up a different bus; we transferred all the kids over and headed off.

A little something about this replacement bus. We don't usually drive it because it's a little, shall we say, Quirky. We have lovingly dubbed it the beeping bus because, you guessed it, it beeps...non-stop. Something related to the power steering sensor or something or other. It just beeps. And it's a loud beep. And it causes all the kids to act like lunatics and scream and yell about how the beeping is so loud. So we try not to drive it if we can help it, but this time it couldn't be avoided.

So. We set off. We got to the first stop, slowed down, stopped, let kids off. Then the bus started rolling. While the driver still had the brake applied. Bad. By the time she had gone through the next stop, it was clear that the brakes were failing. Clearly, we couldn't finish the route like that. She was able to make a few more stops as she went around the block to head back to church, so we did get about half of the bus delivered safely home. The remaining 15-ish kids, we hauled back to the church...at a snails pace. It took us about 35 minutes to go down the street, around one block and back to church. By the time we got back, the kids that were remaining on the bus were tempted to panic. While the driver and the other captain were concentrating on the brakes and driving through traffic, I was left to tend to the kids and keep them calm. Man, you should have seen how fast cell phones were flying out of pockets the minute they figured out something was wrong with the bus. I had to ban cell phones just to keep them from passing along incorrect information to parents. Sheesh!

Anyhow, we made it safely back (I've never prayed so hard in my life I think...it's quite a scary thing to be approaching cross-traffic with a bus full of kids and no brakes...we prayed for clearings in traffic...and got them every time...very cool). Between the adults that were present, we were able to fit everyone into cars and vans and deliver them all safely home. It was about 20 minutes later than normal, but at least we were all safe.

THURSDAY:
The most uneventful of nights. Sebastian had wrestling. We left early because a cut on the bottom of his foot had ripped open and was bothering him too bad to practice. End of story. We went to bed early.

FRIDAY:
Friday nap time was a NIGHTMARE! Meagan pitched a fit for 2 straight hours before finally crashing hard in the floor in the hallway outside of my bedroom (where I had put her to prevent her from further trashing her room and playing the second I walked away). She only slept for about 45 minutes, even after all that. Grrr.

After nap time was over, my friend Kim brought her granddaughter over to play. She's two, and it was the first time she and Meagan had met each other. They played quite well together after they got used to each other. So that was kind of nice. Meagan has a new friend.

While she was over, Kim offered to watch the kids for us that night so Lucas and I could go out to dinner together, kid-free. We took her up on her very generous offer. That was awesome. So, we ended up at Bennigan's. It was SLOW service to put it mildly, but it gave us plenty of time to sit and enjoy our free hands and our uninterrupted adult conversation. Nice.

SATURDAY:
Today we slept in until about 9:00. That was heaven! I got up and made breakfast pizza for a late breakfast. After we cleaned up breakfast, I got in the shower, leaving Lucas to tend to the kids. To his credit, he got off the computer, and came up into the living room so he could see and hear what was happening. Even still, Meagan slipped under the radar and found a way to make a mess. She went upstairs to play dollhouse...innocent enough. Then she decided her dolls needed water in their bathtub. So, she took the tub into the bathroom (the one I wasn't in) and filled it with water and took it back to her room (leaving the water running when she left the bathroom). At least once, she must have spilled the water (because the dollhouse was flooded) and gone back for more. At some point, a tube of Goldbond cream (not even sure where she found it) and a bottle of lotion (from their bathroom) got into the mix.

Just as I finished getting dressed, Sebastian came running in "Mom, come and see what Meagan did." Never my favorite thing to hear. I followed him into the bathroom to find the water running, sink near overflowing, bathroom floor flooded, squished Goldbond tube on the counter (cap missing), a trail of water and lotion from the bathroom to her bedroom, a flooded dollhouse, a saturated bedroom floor, and lotion smeared all over the carpet as well as in the dollhouse sink and toilet. Lovely.

I called for Lucas. He came up and manned Meagan's clean-up while I took care of the floor clean-up. My hand-held spray carpet cleaner wouldn't spray, so I had to bust out the big ol' carpet shampooer. When that girl gets into stuff, she does it up right.

Outside Looking In

My first layout in weeks! And my first Cedar Point layout! I have TONS of Cedar Point pictures to scrap. I'm thinking an album is in order. So here's the first layout of it.

Journaling: all the boys - big and little - hopped on the bumper cars for the first real ride. meg, you just weren't big enough yet, and were sentenced to stand on the sidelines and watch. grandma and i staid with you, but it was little consolation as you watched the boys - and grandpa and daddy - crash, spin and laugh. i know it doesn't mean much now, but your day is coming little girl. you're only 2, but before you know it you'll be big just like your brothers. you'll be tall enough to ride the bumper cars. in no time, you will have grown. until then, you'll have to watch and wait, on the outside looking in.

A Day out with Grandma

This morning was the Valentine's party at motor development. Since there was no school, Sebastian got to go with us. Every time he goes, I realize more and more how grown up he is. I feel kind of bad for him because the programming is really geared toward 3 & 4 year olds, and he is basically bored. He was getting a little rough - climbing walls, turning the lights out on everyone, and just being rambunctious, but we had a talk and he settled down. From that point on, he did really well.

When we first got there, they made Valentine holders and got to decorate them with fancy hearts and stickers and such. Meagan the glue queen was in heaven! Then we did our normal playing and stations (like balancing and jumping on trampoline, and ladder walking and so on). But the best part was that after the stations time, we did a Veggie Tales - The Pirates Who Didn't Do Anything carnival. They got to 'walk the plank' on a balance beam, fish for prizes, read a message in a bottle, and play lots of games and get lots of prizes. Very cool. Even Sebastian liked that part.

Grandma B. is up visiting for the day, so after motor development, we, of course, headed straight to McDonald's for lunch and play-land time. Just before 1:00 we headed home to lay Meagan down for nap. Currently, the boys are 'teaching' Grandma how to play Play Station. I think next on the agenda is how to play Wii.

I've been nominated!!

I'm so excited! I've been nominated for Mother-of-the-Year!!! And I owe it all to my wonderful children! Close on the heels of Sebastian's mooning excursion, his sister steps in to drive home the fact that I am worthy of such a nomination.

Yesterday at Nicole's the kids were playing together in the floor, watching TV and just chillin'. In the midst of action, a little boy named Brandon rolled over and smashed Meagan's already-purple thumb - you know, the one she's still not using since she had it shut in the door by her big brother. So she yells at this little boy with all her might, "You stupid idiot! Get off my thumb!" Nicole said she had to turn away to keep from laughing. When she regained composure, she turned back to Meagan and said, "Meagan, that's not a nice thing to say." Meagan's response to that, "Well, Cole, he shouldn't have got on my thumb!"

Nice. I'm fully expecting to win this award. I'll keep you posted if I hear anything.

I See a Pale Moon Risin'

Let me set the scene for you. It's 12:00 Tuesday. Isaac, Meagan and I had just walked in the door from a busy morning out on the town - Library story hour, then to work to write a check and print a report, then to our treasurer's house to get a second signature on the check, then to my friends house to pick her up for lunch and afternoon shopping. We had literally followed Lucas down the road on our way home, so we all had just basically walked in and dumped our coats off. We were in the process of determining what to eat for lunch when the phone rang.

As I'm in the habit of doing, I checked caller ID before I answered the phone. The Public School? Oh no, Sebastian must be sick or hurt again. I answered.

"Hi, Rebecca? This is Deanna from Sebastian's School. We had a message today that Friday in class, Sebastian exposed his bottom - you know, mooned - someone in his class."

Stop there.....WHAT!! That was TOTALLY not what I was expecting to hear. Immediately, my mind got a visual of that, and I just started laughing. I know that's not the 'responsible parent' thing to do, and I'm sure the lady on the other end of the phone was hoping I would react differently. But I couldn't help myself. It was funny! I mean, it's just so out-of-character; so unexpected. I tried. I tried to concentrate on what she was telling me, but I was concentrating harder on not laughing. The only thing that saved me was that I could hear a bit of a chuckle in her voice too, so I don't think she thought I was a totally off-the-charts-crazy mother.

Anyway, she said that, from what she could gather, he was mad at someone and in response, he pulled his pants down. She and the principal had a serious talk with him - her words were, 'We both sorta raked him over the coals' - and she said he hid his face in his shirt the whole time because he was so embarrassed to talk about it. Good - he should be embarrassed. There's a reason they are 'private' parts! Sheesh kid! They explained to him that anything that a bathing suit would cover is inappropriate to share with others.

The whole time I'm having this conversation, Lucas and Kim (my friend who was with us) were watching me with curious looks on their faces. They knew it was the school because I had read it out loud on caller ID. They had heard me start laughing. And they had heard bits and pieces of a rather odd and unexpected conversation. As I hung up the phone, I looked at them to explain, but I was completely overtaken with laughter. I think through my laughing I managed to say, "Sebastian mooned a kid." So they both started laughing hysterically too. OH, CHILD! What were you thinking?!

Well, like good parents are supposed to do, we had a chat with him when he got home from school. When I asked him if he had been in trouble recently at school, he told us about it right away. According to him, it wasn't because he was mad at someone. They were all just playing and having fun. He doesn't know why he did it. No one told him to. He just did. Who did he moon? A little girl, of all people - the little girl he has told us before that he likes and thinks is the prettiest girl in his class (we seriously need to work on his pick-up techniques!) That poor girl is going to have my son's butt as a memory for the rest of her life! That hardly seems fair to her! Again, WHAT were you thinking?!

After we talked for a minute, I asked him if he knew it was wrong. He said, "I do now." I asked him if he understands why it's wrong. He said no, he just knows because he got in trouble for it. So we talked a little about the appropriateness of our bodies. As punishment, he lost the privilege of going to wrestling practice last night. He also lost all forms of electronics for the evening. And he was given a strong warning that if anything of the sort EVER happens again, he will have much more severe consequences.

And I think to myself, Rebecca, welcome to the world of raising boys.

Confessions of a Neurotic Grocery Shopper

Okay, Kelli. You did yours, so here's mine. I kept thinking about your post as I was shopping yesterday. I think it's so funny that I'm not the only one who is so over-the-top about groceries. Here's my confession...

I haven't always cared so much about grocery shopping. I didn't get all worked up about coupons and sales. But now it's bordering on obsession with me. It's hard for me to make an unplanned trip to the grocery, because I can't help thinking that I don't know what the sales are, the best deals, or what I might have coupons for. Before each trip, I cut the coupons, scour the Meijer add, compare the add to the coupons, then create a grocery spreadsheet that calculates the add price minus any coupons I have plus tax to get a total of what I'll spend before I go. I make my list based on a menu I've made, plus any coupons I have to get really good deals with, and I try to limit my list to $150. Print it off, and off to the grocery I go. This can be an all-day process if I'm not careful.

Once the list is done and it's actually time to shop, my OCD ways continue. I have a certain order and a certain way that I have to put things in the cart. And I will often choose a line not by the length of the line, but by the cashier. It drives me crazy when people bag my groceries funky. If I take the time to put all the boxes, cans, frozen food, produce, etc together on the conveyor, then they should make some effort to bag things in a logical order....shouldn't they? If ever anyone offers to 'help' me put things in my cart or in my van, I always thank them but decline the help. Again, my experience has been that they'll throw the smushables on the bottom and dump a bag full of cans on top...what's up with that! Nope, I'm pretty particular about how the groceries go into the cart and into the van.

Well, yesterday was my shopping day. I ended up spending a total of $194, but I had some things besides groceries to buy. Here's what I ended up getting for under $200.

Life as usual

I'm falling behind a bit on my 14-posts-a-month goal for February. But there's still plenty of time to catch up...if I can only get my act together.

I haven't posted much lately because there's just not been much to report on. I worked every day but Friday this week. We did not go to wrestling on Tuesday or Thursday because Sebastian has an ankle injury. Last weekend, they were feeling a little stir-crazy, so they were dancing and spinning in the living room. I'm not exactly sure exactly what happened, but Sebastian dropped like a fly and started crying, saying he heard something crack in his ankle. It didn't swell. It didn't discolor. But for the first few days he had a really hard time walking on it. By Wednesday he seemed to be doing better, but then yesterday in gym, his teacher made him participate, and he slipped and twisted it again. Now he's back to limping and hopping around. So, it looks like maybe no wrestling this week, either. We'll see.

Anyway...no church Wednesday because of the weather. And I already told you about our day yesterday. So far today, we've done recycling, had lunch, and now I'm (supposed to be) making a grocery list. Maybe get some laundry done. Maybe. Pretty normal and uneventful around here, like I said.

One fun thing I can think of though...this weekend is the first drag race of the year! So we'll get to watch races tomorrow! I guess that's something! Until then, life goes on as usual. Sometimes, I am very thankful for uneventful, 'normal' days. I think I'll just enjoy it!

Never a dull moment...

I swear life with Meagan is non-stop! That child can get into things like nobody's business, and this morning was no exception.

Last night she woke up around 1:30, so I got up to check on her. As a result, I was AWAKE...I mean mind going 90 miles an hour, can't fall asleep. I tossed and turned until some time after 4:30, and got about an hour of sleep before Lucas's alarm started going off at 5:30. So, needless to say, I was not up before my children this morning.

Well, usually I try to get showered before Meagan wakes up and gets going. That way, I don't have to wonder what she's getting into or worry she might get hurt while I'm not watching. This morning, since she was awake before me, I couldn't do that. So, I decided it would be best if she got in the shower with me. She loves showers, so she was all for it. Like every other time she has ever showered with me, I got out first and let her stay in the shower and play in the water until I was ready to dry her off. I was talking to her the whole time to make sure she was okay. But while I was putting my contacts in, it got quiet. Just as I was saying, 'Meagan, are you okay?' she opened the shower curtain and had blood all over her mouth.

I grabbed her out of the shower and wrapped her in a towel. I couldn't tell where the blood was coming from, so I gave her a cold wet wash cloth to suck on for a second. While the wash cloth was doing its trick, I hurried and got dressed in the first thing I could grab, and then went back to check on her. She was still bleeding pretty badly, but I could see that she had a cut on her top lip - right at the dip right in the middle of her top lip. I checked the shower to see what the culprit was, and found my razor lying on the ledge - not where it had been a few minutes ago. Whenever she showers with me, I put it up out of reach to avoid just such a thing. But we have the little seat things in our shower, so obviously she climbed and got a hold of it anyhow. It's one of those razors that has the bar of soap-like stuff surrounding the razor, thankfully, so she couldn't push down on it very far at least. The soapy part was covered in blood...it doesn't take a rocket scientist to deduct that she stuck her mouth on the razor and sliced it. I just didn't know how bad the cut was because it was bleeding so badly. And for the life of me, I can't figure out what would possess her to do that in the first place. ???

Finally, about 10 minutes later, the bleeding slowed, and I could see that it was really just a knick - like when you slice the top layer off of your ankle or something - it stings like crazy, and it bleeds a lot, but it's nothing unmanageable. So that was good. I'm praying that it won't scar, but other than that, I think she'll heal fine. For her part, she has been clinging to that wet washcloth all day now. She's even taking it to bed with her for nap. Poor punkin - she needs to learn to stay out of things, for her own good, and for her momma's sanity!

Woohoo! I Finally Undecorated!!

Well, it's official! Christmas has FINALLY left our house! Meagan has given up on her constant Jingle Bell-ing, and today I finally took the tree down!!!! Yes, it's February. Yes, my Christmas tree was still standing until about 5:00 this evening. I started about a week ago to undecorate, but I didn't get finished. So, we've had boxes sitting in the living room for a week now, just waiting to be packed away. It's so nice to have my living room back! Only 10 months until we do it all over again! I love Christmas, but living rooms were not meant to have giant sized pine trees in them on a long-term basis *LOL*. For now, it feels good to say, 'Goodbye Christmas!'