New Best Friend

I have two new best friends.................

We were friends for a long time but sadly, I pushed them aside and got what I thought were newer and better friends. They sat quietly biding their time because they knew one day I would need them again. And then the day came. I wasn't getting what I needed from those "new" friends so I returned to my good old friends who have never once let me down. You ask what made me have a change of heart? Well, it was this.....

 

and this

because it seems that when you put them together they create a rather undesirable result. 

So thank you my old new best friends for coming to my rescue because the thought of wearing clothes with red and green crayon marks all over them makes me shudder. 

Our winner

Haley participated in her first sprint triathlon this morning and took first place for her age group. And to think she didn't even want to stay for the awards! It makes getting up at 6:30 on the last day of spring break well worth it.

Easter pictures

Easter Day was beautiful this year despite the thick layer of pollen that coated every possible outdoor surface. The kids woke up to find that their baskets had been filled with sweets.

Haley and her loot. She is always the child who takes her time looking through the basket and enjoying all of the things that she has gotten.

Harrison and his loot. He is the child who loves sweets, can't you tell? I asked him what was his favorite and he grabbed everything he could hold in his arms.

Holden and his loot. He is the child who counts his things (I think so he'll know if someone takes it) and organizes them into piles and then decides which item will be eaten first. 

Here are the kids dressed in their Easter outfits after church.

After lunch at the river with our family, the kids had their traditional egg hunt. The person who found the silver egg got the prize so that's the one all the kids looked for. This year we let each of them have a chance to win. Here is Harrison searching for the silver egg. The cousins take a break from the egg hunt to have their picture taken.

Square Dance

Holden has been studying pioneer times at school. The class read one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books which just happened to be my favorite book series when I was growing up. I tried to get Haley to read the books when she was younger but she just never showed much interest in them. So I was thrilled that at least one of my children had read one of the books that I loved so dearly as a child even if it was a class assignment.

As the finale to the unit, the entire 4th grade participated in Prairie Day. The kids dressed in their interpretation of prairie clothing. They had a lot of fun activities such as making butter. For lunch, the entire fourth grade had a huge picnic and then each class did a little bit of square dancing.

Holden's class was short on girls so he ended up being partner's with his friend Cody. The kids all seemed a bit nervous until the music started and they started dancing and having a lot of fun.

 Waiting to square dance

Swing Your Partner

The Cutest Pioneer

Holden and his buddy Zion

A visit to the dentist

Harrison went to the dentist Thursday. It was a visit that I looked forward to about as much as having my eyelashes plucked out one by one. I hate taking my kids to the dentist almost as much as they hate going. I'm not terribly concerned about the slight discomfort they might feel while having some hygentist scrap the layers of plaque off their teeth. No, I am more concerned about the discomfort I feel when the hygentist looks at me and says "I see a bit of decay here on the XX molar" all the while smiling and most likely thinking to herself what a horrible mother I must be.

I wish I had the guts to act shocked and say "I don't believe it. We eat foods low in sugar and I make him brush his teeth after every meal and at night and in the morning and after snacks. And seriously we have stock in dental floss we use so much. I just can't believe that he would have a cavity." But in reality I know exactly why there is decay. It's from all the times he fell asleep without brushing his teeth. It's from the cotton candy and fruit punch he begs for at each baseball game. And the Skittles and Sourpatch Kids he got as a "treat" for being good. 

So instead when the comment is made, I sit and silently repeat to myself "I am a good mother" over and over. I mean in the whole scheme of things is a little decay such a horrible thing? And surely it doesn't make me a bad mother. Does it?

Tell me the boy isn't smart...

Saturday afternoon I promised to take the kids to the Outlet Mall to look for some spring clothes and shoes. As we were getting ready to go, one of Harrison's friends called and invited him to come over and play. Harrison decided that sounded like more fun than shopping but he made me promise to buy him some new shoes even if he wasn't with us.

On the way to the mall, we dropped Harrison off for his playdate. He and the little boy have been friends since the beginning of kindergarten but this was Harrison's first time going to their house. When I left, he was fine and hugged and kissed me three times before I got out the door.

It took us about twenty minutes to get across town to the mall. Right after we had walked into the first store, my phone rang. I picked it up and it was the little boy's mom telling me that Harrison was crying and wanting to come home. I talked to Harrison and tried to get him to stop being upset and stay but he didn't want to hear that. The more I talked, the harder he cried. So I promised him that we would finish up at the store and I would come and get him.

We got about halfway there and I got a text that Harrison was feeling better but at that point it wasn't worth turning around and going home so we went on and picked him up. When I got there he was playing but as soon as he saw me he turned his sad face on. The first thing he asked after I got out of the car was "did you get my shoes?" Seriously?

On the drive home I tried to talk to him about his fear and why he had so much anxiety. Then I explained that it had taken me twenty minutes to drive to the mall and twenty  minutes to drive back and that he had "wasted an hour of my time" because I had to turn straight around and come back without getting my shopping done. I asked him if he had anything to say about that, to which he replied "It wasn't an hour, it was just 40 minutes."

Haley

Haley turned fourteen on Saturday. I am amazed that the time has gone by so fast. It seems like only yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. Somedays I wish I could turn back the hands of time and enjoy all of the little moments more. It makes me sad to think of the little blond haired pigtail wearing princess that she will never be again. But each day I get glimpses of the woman she is becoming. She is a kind, caring, amazing person. She makes me proud to be her mom. Even though she is no longer a little girl, in my heart she will always be my little girl.

That's my story....

It's almost never a good thing when you get a call from a teacher. The call I got this week was no exception. This time though it wasn't the usual suspect that was acting up in class.

I received a call from Holden's teacher letting me know he had a bad day. According to her, he was cutting up in small group and then again in the class. Of course Holden says it wasn't his fault. Is it ever?

Harrison overheard the conversation I was having with Holden about the incident. Obviously he was relishing in the fact that he wasn't the one getting in trouble so he rushed off to tell his friends that Holden got in trouble at school. Only here is Harrison's version of the story as retold by our neighbor:

Holden was talking and misbehaving in class and his teacher sent him to the principal. Because Holden was afraid of going to the principal, he took off and hid in the school bathroom. When they realized he was missing, half of the teachers had to go out and search for him.  Once they found him, he was taken to the principal where he got in a whole lot of trouble. And they had to call me to let me know what had happened.

I guess I should be thankful because based on Harrison's tale, it could have been much worse.

Harrison Woods for President

For President's Day, Harrison had to draw a picture of himself as President in the year 2050. We all know that as we get older, many changes occur to our physical appearance. Apparently 40 years from now, Harrison will have grown an afro and gotten his ears pierced.

It's good to know that one of these days, the nation will finally be run by someone so unique.

Snow in the South

The kids finally got their wish when last night around 8:00 it started snowing. They were out playing in it until about 9:30 last night and were back out again this morning before 8. There was just enough snow to build a snowman, take a few sled rides down our tiny little hill and have a snowball fight. By this afternoon, the snow had mostly melted but it sure was fun while it lasted.

Snow tubing

January turned out to be an extremely busy month. As soon as I felt I had recovered from the Christmas holidays, the kids were out of school again for another "winter break".

We took advantage of the break and went to the mountains with some friends. There were 19 of us (9 adults and 10 kids) in one house for 4 days. Despite the close quarters, we had a nice time.

The funniest thing of the weekend was seeing us all get ready and out of the door to go snow tubing. It reminded me of the Home Alone movie where the family was scrambling around trying to get out of the door. Fortunately for us no one got left behind.

The kids all went snow tubing while the parents sat up on the deck and watched. Holden and Haley had a blast and loved every minute of it. Harrison went down a few times with Haley but everytime he got back to the top he would come over and tell me he didn't want to go again. Mean mom that I am, I made him go enough times that I felt I had gotten my money's worth then I let him sit out for a little while.

Although it hadn't snowed in a weeks time, we were able to find a hill that still had quite a bit of snow on it so that we could sled. The kids were having so much fun that the men had to test their sledding skills out. It was very funny to watch them flying down the hill, hitting the all the bumps and finally skidding (or toppling over) to a stop. The men decided to race down the hill and then convinced the women that we needed to try it. I just knew I was going to break my neck but I survived with only a few bruises to the bottom.

Here are a few pictures of our fun weekend.

No snow

What would make two young boys tune out the world and stare at the news as if it was the best show they have ever seen? The chance that they might actually miss school because of snow. Yep, for 30 minutes yesterday my two boys stared at the news hoping and hoping that the weather forecast would call for some snow or at least enough ice to delay schools. Sadly, that was not in the forecast and they had to go to school on time today.

I know not to get my hopes up so when they call for snow or ice I just go about my business as if it won't happen. That isn't the case for two young boys with visions of sleeping in, snowball fights and sledding. The slightest mention of snow sends them into a frenzy.

Today, instead of snow we got a light rain and a cold, cloudy morning. We'll have to wait a little longer for the next winter storm to head out way. For now, the boys will put their news watching on the back burner until they hear mention of snow again and then you will find them glued to the screen in hopes of hearing those two words - school's cancelled.

Don't Axe me.....

Sometime in the last ten years, most likely coinciding with the arrival of children and the tightening of the finances, I started not caring what brand of deoderant I used. Mostly, I buy what's on sale or what I have a coupon for without regard to the brand. The things I want in a deoderant are simple 1) it has to be a solid (I hate the sticky roll-on stuff) 2) it has to smell nice (or at least I have to imagine it smells nice since I can no longer smell) and 3) it has to work. I don't care if it's Secret or Degree just as long as I'm not smelling bad.

Sometime in the past month an odd thing has happened at my house. Holden has started taking interest in personal hygiene. Most specifically the way he smells. Now up until this point, Holden has been a child who had to be reminded to brush his teeth, put on clean underwear and wear deoderant.

Two weeks ago Holden came to me asking for some new deoderant. I offered him several choices from my stash of deoderant but none of them suited. Apparently I am out of the loop when it comes to deoderant choices for boys because no longer will Degree or Dry Idea suffice. It has to be something that smells good. Something that is cool to wear. It has to be Axe.

I am all for good personal hygiene and so I reasoned that if it's Axe that makes him want to wear deoderant than I will buy him some. So on a trip to Walmart, we went to the deoderant aisle to purchase some Axe. I didn't realize the stuff came in so many different scents including a special limited edition. It took him quite sometime to decide on one. He then carried the deoderant around the store with him as if it were his most prized possession.  I can remember when he use to do the same thing with Legos or a Matchbox car.

A few days ago, Target had an ad for Axe value packs. If you purchased two value packs of Axe for $5 each, you got a $5 Target gift card back. Well, since I had a coupon for $1 off  and I can't pass up a bargain, I figured I would make Holden happy again and buy him so more Axe. So we headed over to Target where Holden proceeded to pick out the Dark Temptation body wash value pack and the Dark Temptation deoderant and body spray value pack.

I didn't realize what a bad, bad mistake I had made until we got home. Holden hurried upstairs with his new purchases. Shortly after a hazy cloud of vapors appeared to fill the house and followed by Holden. Can I just say that even though it was 45 degrees outside, we had to open the sliding glass door to air out the downstairs so that we could all breathe.

So I suppose I could be upset that Holden is showing a bit too much interest in smelling good these days but I'm not sure what's worse that or stinky underarms.

Making a gingerbread house

My mom always makes a gingerbread house with the kids. I am glad she enjoys doing it because honestly it's something I don't think I would do well with. First off it's a pain to put the whole thing together. You have to have a lot of patience which doesn't happen to be something I have a lot of. Second, it makes a huge mess. And last the kids generally lose interest right at the end and decide that it's okay for someone else to finish up the project (which includes cleaning up the mess).

This year it actually went pretty well and the boys stuck with the decorating until the house was all but done. Most years the boys just put the candy on until they get bored but this year Harrison even tried to decorate the house with the frosting. I think mostly he just wanted to squeeze out a huge blob so he could eat it but at least he acted like he was trying to help.

Here's the work in progress:

And the finished project:

I resolve every year to take a family picture and design beautiful holiday cards. And every year something happens and time slips up on me. This year was no exception. I did design the card, the picture however was not what I had intended but given the deadline it worked. I even got the cards stamped and mailed today. Finally something I can cross off that list. Now if I could just find those last few presents and get them wrapped....

A case of a mispelled word

The English language makes it difficult to teach spelling. There doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason in some instances to the way things are spelled. Teaching young children to spell phonetically works often but sometimes it can be tricky. For instance this week Harrison had for and more. How do you explain to a child why one has an e and the other doesn't? He was able to remember the word more has a e because I kept saying more has one more letter than for.

Sometimes spelling can also be confusing because certain letters have a similiar sound if not spoken clearly which was apparently the case when I called out another of Harrison's words - ship. He spelled it S-H-I-T. Haley was in the next room laughing and trying hard not to myself, I said "No spell ship" (making emphasis on the letter p).   I didn't want to explain to him what he just spelled because I knew that he might find it funny and repeat it. We went through the whole list again and when we got to ship he once again spelled it with a t but quickly changed to a p. 

The test is today and I am hoping that he spells ship correctly. I can only imagine the expression on his teachers face if he inserts a T where the P is suppose to be. She might wonder exactly what Harrison is learning at home. 

How we get our turkey

Let's talk turkey. Today Harrison came home from school with his interpretation of how turkeys get to our Thanksgiving table. Here is his storyboard creation.

Step One: The turkey is running around happy and carefree and loving life not knowing of it's impending doom.

Step Two: The turkey becomes scared and bolts when he figures out that someone has come to catch him.

Step Three: The turkey is unable to escape and meets his fate when he is slaughtered with an axe. Am I wrong to be disturbed by the fact that my 7 year old portrays the slaughter of a turkey so descriptively?

Step Three: The turkey has been baked and prepared for us to eat on Thanksgiving.

Happy Turkey Day.

A new kind of Batmobile

The other day as I walked past David's car, I noticed something small and brown protruding from the grill.

I guess that gives new meaning to "batmobile".

Never understanding

Last week someone that I thought a lot of passed away at the age of 48. While our relationship wasn't on a particularly personal level, he was an important part of my life during a very difficult time.

I met him the first time I moved to Charleston when he became my family doctor. From the time I met him, I felt at ease. He treated everyone as a friend and I believe he truly cared about his patients health and well being. I got to know him pretty well over the years and even after having moved away and back again, he knew who I was when we would run into each other somewhere.

Last year, Harrison had the privilege of having this man's wife as his kindergarten teacher. I got to know her and through her got to know her husband even better. If there were matches made in heaven then I truly believe this was one. It was evident that they loved each other and their children.

For days after I heard the news of his passing, I searched my soul for answers as to why such a good man would be taken at such a young age. The harder I searched for an answer the further away from understanding I got. I talked to my dad about it and he suggested that there was no logical reason for these things and that while it was difficult, I should look at the life that he lived while he was here. Some people live more more in a short time than most do in an entire lifetime. And he truly did. So while I don't understand why, I do know that I have faith enough in God to know that he had a plan. I may not understand it now, but one day perhaps after my death, I finally will. And I do know that one day again I will see my friend.

Someone sent this video to me this week and it touched me. I think the words say it all, "I'm going to miss that smile, I'm going to miss you my friend..I'm not cryin for you 'cause I feel so sorry for you, I'm crying for me."

Toby Keith   More CMT Music   More CMT Music Videos

Keep Out

Kids deal with things in different ways when facing something challenging. When Holden gets frustrated, he starts making grunting noises and stomping his feet. If he gets really frustrated he might even start flailing around on the floor. Homework tends to be the time when this happens most often. Some weeks we go with no problems and some weeks it occurs on a regular basis.  This week hasn't been all that bad except for tonight. He and David were reviewing his spelling words. I had already gone over them last night with him and he knew 75% of them with no problem but for some reason he kept getting them tonight. David kept making him repeat them and the more he repeated them the more frustrated he got.

When I left to go pick Haley up from swim team David was trying to get Holden to spell and Holden was arguing with him. When I got back David was downstairs and Holden was no where to be seen. Apparently Holden had gotten so mad at David that he started screaming and went up stairs and slammed the door and got in bed.

When I went up stairs to see if he was okay and to tell him goodnight, this is what I found taped to his door.

Guess Holden got the last word in after all.