School's Out

My music lover has been singing this song for a week. She even gets a cool rock star voice for the chorus.

Favorite Spot

This is where the kids spent most of their rainy Friday.

I don't get it. 3 rooms full of toys. Many places to "hang out" around the house. Why the stairs?

Weirdos! That's all I can figure.
The look from Jonas is because I am interrupting their "important conversation"

EW EW EW and EW!

You remember this from a couple weeks ago: Spider found in grapes

Now I bring you: Scorpion in watermelons

All I can say is "Holy Moly, Batman!"

I have the chills and am getting all jittery. Go, watch the video then come back and tell me if you get all heebie jeebie.

tattling vs tattling

You tell me which you prefer

Adylynn, age 4. She likes to tattle old school style. High pitched screaming, running to adult, doing a yell cry "JADEN IS TURNING ON HERMIE'S LIGHT AND IT IS ALL HIS FAULT AND AND AND I AM NOT TATTLING JADEN IS JUST A CHEATER" she points a finger toward Jaden and sniffles back a tear.

Jonas, age 6. He likes to explore different ways to tattle. In this particular instance he crosses his arms over his chest says "FINE JADEN KILL MY FISH SEE IF I CARE" stomps over to the adult and sits with a heavy sigh with arms crossed. Where he will stay until said adult either asks him what's wrong(as if I don't know) or takes the bait and removes Jaden.

Knowing me personally you would probably think I prefer the pouty tattling of the 6 year old. You're wrong! Why? Well, I guess I feel like when you know tattling is wrong you shouldn't try to "work the system" just walk away. Walk away QUIETLY! Not with four thousand, under your breath, comments. Just suck it up and walk away! Now you are thinking I am evil. Poor Jonas thought Jaden was going to kill his fish...boohoo....well what you aren't considering is my 6 year old is exceptionally smart he knows that turning the light on and off on the fish isn't' going to kill it. He also knows that when he stomps off, comments, pouts, and does it RIGHT IN YOUR LINE OF SIGHT that he will win.

Now Adylynn's tattling usually results in more lecture to her and less punishing of Jaden. She knows it is wrong to tattle. She knows she was tattling.

So you see I prefer the more black and white version. The one where the lines are clearly drawn. Lectures are short and sweet. No complications of how there was no difference in what the 4 year old did versus the 6 year old.


~If you are worried about poor Jaden, he is fine. He was removed from the fish tank and then promptly picked up some scissors and cut my table ...and no... that isn't tattling, it immediately hurts someone/thing.

Preschool Graduate

Here she is! Getting her cap and necklace. She is a preschool graduate .



















I didn't get pictures of this preschool graduate during the ceremony

New obsession

I found this cool blog about waste-free lunches via a friend's blog. After reading several posts I started thinking this is a pretty cool idea.
We have been doing several small things this year to make our happy home a little greener. We have stopped using paper plates and paper coffee filters. Not a huge impact on the world, but definitely changing how we look at things.
Just as I am getting into this blog she posts that blogging will be more sporadic over the summer. OH NO! Well at least I can go through archives, and her blog roll. It turns out her blog roll led me to some other waste-free blogs and some great waste-free lunch sites. I have been exploring waste-free lunches and the EPA's pack a waste-free lunch along with the blogs I have found. I think this is something we can do that will have little impact on our finances and a big impact on the family. This is nice. We have looked into several opportunities to be more earth friendly and unfortunately some of them would just have too much of an impact on the family budget and the environment. Living in a small community means we would have drive to larger cities in order to buy better, support our local farmers, and other such avenues. We had to really think about the impact that buying local would have on the environment and our budget.

I might not always pack the most nutritional items in lunchboxes but my goal is to reduce waste, know what is going into my kids' bodies, and save money from school lunches that they wouldn't eat anyway. Just exploring this option has already had a trickle down effect on Steve. He has decided to stop using the plastic utensils they provide at work and start taking his own. I already pack a semi waste-free lunch for him. He takes leftovers for most lunches, in a reusable bowl. He reuses his plastic 20 oz bottles for water. Takes a coffee cup and thermos in the morning, and his breakfast is eaten on real dishes.
Things I will change for Steve's lunches:
-peanut butter crackers, pineapple cups, and other snack items he takes will now be bought in non prepackaged material. Instead I will use containers to send these snacks with him.
-silverware instead of using the provided plastic version
-He does drink 3 cans of soda a day but work has a recycle bin. The Awesome Hubby is an avid recycle-er!
I have all summer to prepare for Adylynn's waste-free lunches. I do plan to practice with picnics and day long outings. Plus I need to find some small reusable containers to send her food in. I haven't decided on cloth napkins as of yet. It will come, eventually, I'm sure.

Any other suggestions I haven't considered or ideas welcome!

Saturday

We had a busy Saturday. I got up bright and early and headed to community wide sales in a town 50 minutes from home. I spent the grand total of $5.50, sales were a complete waste of time, but it was nice to be out laughing and enjoying the weather. At home Steve managed to get all 3 kids up, fed, and dressed by 8:30am, pretty impressive! They had t-ball practice at 11am. When we all made it home Adylynn left and then the fun began. Not because she left, in fact it sort of sucks that she wasn't here. ANYWAY after Jaden and Steve napped we decided to take the boys up to the annual festivities in our town.

Jonas and Steve rode the Tilt-a-whirl. Shoot, I still need to download that video. When I do I will have to share it. The ride starts out fun for both of them but as it progresses and progresses Steve starts looking sickly. After the ride, Jonas played the Win-a-Fish game. He got 8 balls to try with and on ball 5 he had won! Enter "Hermie" the amazingly spastic anorexic goldfish.
I am very happy with Hermie's name. SO much better than what I was expecting Jonas to name him. He said Hermie within 2 minutes of winning him but then on the walk home had talked about "Wiggles" and some other equally non creative names. Very glad he decided to stay with Hermie.

We had to go grocery shopping Saturday night. We ran(literally) through Aldi then went to Walmart. Jonas and I were standing in the pet food section looking for fish food when I noticed the rabbit food. Jonas has a guinea pig at his mom's and I hadn't heard anything about him. When I asked Jonas how Tickles was doing he said "good, but his butt is really big. It's like this(insert his hand reach toward me) big (squeezing my boob)" Yep my 6 year old just molested me in WalMart. It all happened so fast.
I was shocked. Hopefully since I didn't make a huge deal about it he won't do it again. Or feel like he did something wrong. We had a 2 sentence conversation about remembering privates are for private and I left it at that. I think he was just trying to get a good comparison for me. There is also the possibility that he thought I had a guinea pig stuffed up my shirt since I am usually the queen of the UNA BOOB!


Back to Hermie, he is eating, finally! Still acts spastic but, I am beginning to think he might live more than a few days. When I was in high school I had a fish I won and named him "Flush" since I expected him to die. He lived for several months.
Aunt Shel has looked at him now. She thinks he might have a parasite, but it is treatable. Oh and she is also fairly certain that he is actually a she!

Hermie can be a girl name too, right?

YIKES!

Spider found in grapes after 2 days in the fridge.
OMG! I have nightmares about these exact things!

I love the quote from the man at the reptile center

"We get about half a dozen calls a year from various supermarkets and grocers about the area to come and pick them (creatures) up.

Holy crap! At least 6 times a year in England this happens.
How often does it happen in the US? What's next? One day we will be walking through the produce section of our local store and see the Chicken Eating Spider wander out from behind the banana stand. EEK!

I get the chills just thinking about it. We watched the chicken eating spider show on PBS and even Steve got all heebie jeebie

For Daddy

Little Boys

I walked into the bathroom, after hearing some suspicious noises that needed investigating. You know how on scary movies you are yelling at the screen "don't go in there, dumbass! Jeez why do they always go in there" Yep. Well if I was on TV you totally would have tossed it out the window. I went in there! I did. Guess what I found. Jaden sitting on the potty, spitting on himself! We both did the stare in disbelief at the other then I did the 2nd stupidest thing "Jaden, What are you doing?" he smiled and proudly declared "Spitting on my penis. See!" and then showed me.

Happy Anniversary

I guess I forgot to publish this yesterday. Weird. I must have gotten distracted. Oh well.


Today marks 2 years since we got married on that FREEZING Saturday in May. The Awesome Hubby is gone. Training all week in Chicago. I am spending this anniversary running the kids to swim classes, and school while Steve is having to sit through a class that so far has been boring for him. It sucks but I am handling it well.
In sticking with tradition of anniversary meanings, this year is cotton, I got Steve a shirt.
I am still awaiting my gift BUT it isn't cotton. I will be showing off my new pink Flip Video as soon as I get it.

I found this quote looking for something mushy this morning. Screw the mushy crap...this is us!

I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. ~Rita Rudner

I love and miss you bunches! Happy Anniversary!

Future Jerry Springer Guests

Adylynn and Jaden are playing house. See if you can follow this.

Jaden is the daddy. He has 16 kids. The blue bunny's mom never came home one time so he had to get a new wife and have new kids. The 5 "kids" he had with his next wife were all different and didn't get along so the wife took 2 and left the other 3 with blue bunny. Adylynn is the other 10 kids "we all look the same but we are very different" Adylynn's mom is on an adventure with her monkey friend Boots. Boots' mom is the blue bunny's aunt but not Jaden's sister or the mom's sister. The grandpa is Diego but Jaden calls him Diego not dad because he has no respect for his father EVEN THOUGH Jaden's daddy worked very hard to take care of Jaden's 16 kids.

I don't know where she comes up with this stuff.
Watching them play house was great. Jaden is still too little to play like that so she would start crying "daddy" and he would yell "Daddy at work" She would growl and yell "you are the dad we are pretending!"

The kids(and Awesome Hubby) surprised me with this

iPod shuffle


and yes I have Billy Joel on it.

For the Awesome Hubby

Awesome Graphics and Myspace Layouts at pYzam.com

FOR MY MOM

More Free Graphics and Myspace Layouts at pYzam.com

To my kids on Mother's Day

If I sat down to write a letter to the kids this mother's day...

What a truly incredible year the 3 of you had. We had so many twists and turns this year.


Jonas has had many milestones this year. Some we were prepared for and others were more of a "wing it" thing. Many have been very private personal things that I would never dream of blogging. However there have been a few rights of passage that we have shared. We find ourselves talking about big kid rules now. Do you get more computer time? What about outside time? Bike riding? More privacy? And personal belongings...they are your things shouldn't you have some control over what happens to them? Last year I would have never guessed all the things that were ahead for you. The little things seem to be past us now. What happens to you from here on will help shape your view of the people around you, your community, and the world. When I talk to your mom we share our love for you. She is truly a wonderful mother to you. We are all very blessed to have such a warm, compassionate, fun-loving child. Thank you for making everyday a little brighter, even if I can only see you through cyberspace.

Adylynn, oh my, what to say...4 is hard. It is real hard! However you have shown us what a special gift we have with you. You are the perfect blending of every family member. I can spend the afternoon with you and feel close to my entire family. You remind me of Aunt Sissy on days you take care of Jaden like your life depended on it. You show me Num Num when you stomp your feet and tell me how it is. Stubborn! You have the green thumb of Aunt Shel's. Your marigolds for Mother's Day grew more than any other preschooler's this year. Sitting on the couch to watch a movie flashes me back to watching movies with Papa Chocolate. He would get all settled in and I would keep wallowing(his word for snuggling) him until a good kick to the face would ruin all my fun. I was told to sit down and sit still or go play! Sound familiar? Mostly I see me in you. I see all the great things that make me me but I also see the not so great things about me. You make me want to be better. I don't want to watch you struggle with the same things I did as a kid. If there are things I can change now, tweak, to save you from wasting a minute of your childhood on unimportant things I jump at the chance. You are swimming this year. That is a good example of trying to protect you. Not only will you be able to save your life if you fall off a boat BUT you can actually get on to that boat in the first place. We live 7 miles from a beach there will be a million different ways to put those swim lessons to use:) I said before that 4 is hard. It is, I have made no secret of that on this blog, but this will also be the year that your daddy and I discovered what a remarkable little girl you are. It was once said "you have no weaknesses" We couldn't agree more. If only we could figure out to how parent that. If you break it down take it to the nitty gritty, that statement also says "you are going to take us for one hell of a ride" and "Good luck mom and dad, she is going to be fighting you for the rest of your lives" Daddy and I are both honored to be on the ride with you...maybe you can ride in Jonas' car seat you have "never ridden in Jonas' car seat before" Thank you for being...YOU!


Jaden, you get more and more awesome to me everyday. You have the honor of being the baby. Take your title and use it for good. You have discovered puzzles this year. Being the little man you are, you didn't go for the piddly 9-12 piece etched background tray puzzles. Nope, you are all about the 63 piece big boy puzzle(never mind that it has princesses on it-it is a puzzle and you will conquer it) You have also thrown a curve ball at Daddy and I. We thought we were prepared for anything you had for us but your sudden fear of ghosts has shocked us both. There is no monster or ghost living in your closet, Bubby. Oh, and the day you were in the basement and got freaked out so bad it scared the crap out of you(LITERALLY) I am sorry we laughed. There is also no ghost living in our basement. Your sister did speak with a man in the toy room once but I am pretty sure that was just her imagination. So no more fears. You have much more important things to do with your time. You can't get all the "beating your siblings" time if you are fretting about a ghost getting you. I wish you were able to explain this fear to us. Where did it come from and why? I also wish you weren't so damn cute when you yell "I'M TALKIN TO DADDY" at me. I am pretty sure that one is going to come back to bite us. Since we are on the subject could you maybe be a little less cute when you don't listen? Daddy has a hard time controlling his smile. Everyday you have another trick to amazes us with. Thank you for making me smile everyday!


I hope I can be the mom you all deserve. I might make you angry. sad. just plain frustrated at times. Please remember I am human and I will make mistakes. Part of making a mistake is admitting it and asking for forgiveness. I hope we are able to recognize when mistakes have been made and move past it with a lesson learned.
Thank you for making Mother's Day a very special day!

Handymen

We have had this nice desk for awhile sitting in our basement. We couldn't use it because Steve's long legs didn't fit under the drawer that was in the middle.

Look at the awesome idea I had...

take the drawer off!

of course, I, myself would not could not knock a drawer out.

Luckily I have 2 dashing men who like to make my ideas a reality.

Freecycle

I am an avid freecycle user. I probably freecycle some random item that is no longer useful to me, once a week. I fell in love with the idea of this easy, no hassle way of keeping still usable stuff out of the trash by offering it to someone else in the community. Over the past couple of years I have freecycled many good quality things. Everything from kids clothes to toys to the wood burning stove that we inherited when we bought the house. Obviously, I use the site frequently. Occasionally there are posts for items that I need or want too. I have used the site so much that I have gotten to know some members as more than just there usernames. I met Sophie's mom on freecycle and became her babysitter all from a bag of boys clothes. Adylynn and I have friends who give us dibs on clothing before freecycling. It is wonderful! We are doing great things for the earth and managing to make a few few friends too!
If you aren't freecycling you really should be.
Just be prepared... nothing is really negative about the process just a little annoying. Once you figure out who wants stuff, who answers emails, who takes EVERYTHING you post, even if it is a half eaten box of crackers from 1940, then it is really a pleasing way to recycle. My biggest annoyance, the reason for this rant, is the people who email me this big long sob story about how my no longer used items are desperately needed by them, their niece, or their cousin's uncle's wife's brother twice removed. They would so greatly appreciate my generosity if I picked them to receive my stuff. So I get suckered in to Betty Sue Bob Jones' desperate need for infant cereal and I send her an email that says where I live and the times I am available for pick up then I wait. and wait. and WAIT. AND WAIT. AND WAIT! Until I finally send an email that says something nice includes my phone numbers, my address, good pick up times and even an offer to leave it on the porch for their convenience but I really want to write "COME GET THIS SHIT" and I wait and wait and wait and check my junk email. Read through 30 enlarge your penis emails only to find that Betty Sue Bob Jones didn't get sent to spam. So I send another still nice but bordering on "GET YOUR SHIT OR I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN" email you can tell the difference because when I am really mad I don't say "I hope everything is alright" nor do I end with "Thank you" Then there is usually an email back that makes me feel like a real ass. The kind of email that I am pretty sure is a lame ass excuse but I still feel bad. Your uncle can only have so many house fires. So then I send an email back telling the person I am so sorry for them. Can you imagine being abducted by aliens! OMG! I even offer to bring it over to them since I feel like the biggest ass for not ending my last email with "Thank you" I hit send and then I wait...wait...wait...wait...wait and WAIT until the item that I was hoping to get out of my house before trash day has now sat in my bedroom for 4 trash days.

SUCKER!

When I finally throw it away and post it as "taken" I get an angry email from Betty Sue Bob Jones stating that was her stuff!

Seriously, even though every group has a Betty Sue Bob Jones, or two, you should find your local freecycle group.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

"she has no weaknesses"

that is a direct quote from her teacher.

Completely out of the blue. Not tooting my horn. Just a simple statement regarding my daughter.

Of course always being on top of it I controlled my proud, shouting to the blogosphere, self and replied with a sarcastic remark "You should see her at home" Inside I am jumping up and down. "She has no weaknesses" Nothing that her future teachers need to know about. She is 100% on top of things and with it.

This is interesting because just the other night Steve was saying how he was still waiting for her "special thing" meaning the thing she excels at. With Jonas it was writing. He was writing his name legibly at 3. Possibly earlier.
Jaden has this unbelievable gift for puzzles. He can put together a 63 piece puzzle in the time it takes his siblings to do a 24 piece tray puzzle.
Adylynn shows she is smart in several ways but doesn't seem to have a gift for anything in particular. She is at the same spot that Jonas was at this time last year. She is starting to read, do addition and subtraction, and is able to be interested in an activity for more than a milisecond. She is going through the same phases he went through at her age. She isn't behind in anything. She is obsessed with her favorite things, throws fits, and can be the sweetest most wonderful child in the world when she wants too. I think her special gift has always been here and we neglected to see it. She has no weaknesses. So what if she doesn't have 1 thing that she is very good at. She is above average at 95% of what she does. The other 5% is average.

This realization brings me to the answer I have been looking for

She has to go to school.
It is time. I am trying to baby her. Hold her back.
The great school debate that has been going on for a year has been nothing more than a mother not wanting to let go.

I feel confident, finally! When I stopped looking at Ady as my baby and looked at her as just another child, I could see it. She has no weaknesses. Simple. Easy. No questions.

This summer will be full of lots of fun and memories. The school year will come before I am ready for it but when it comes at least I can say, with confidence, she is ready!