Saturday, August 30, 2008

What a mess

When I start creating stuff, I try hard to pick up as I go along. My scrapbook room isn't very big so every little thing that is out of place makes it seem cluttered.

Yesterday, I was making a gift (which I will post tomorrow)for my grandmother and I had out all of the things for my project. I decided what it really needed was a brad (for those of you non-crafter types, it's like a small colored nail). So I pulled out the box of brads, each color occupying it's own space, and found the perfect one.

Unfortunately, I did not close the top to the box and when I moved something on my desk, the whole box flew into the air and all of the brads fell onto the floor.



This mess took me hours to clean up because each piece had to be picked up and put back into the correct compartment. I am thankful that my children found this to be a fun job because they helped me, at least until they lost interest. I am glad that all the brads are sorted out again. Next time, I will close the lid between uses because this is certainly not how I like to spend the better part of an evening.
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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Future Rock Star?

My kids have been wanting the Wii Rock Band since they first learned that it was being released this summer. They talked about how they could come up with a big chunk of money in just a few short months. Unfortunately the small amount of money they earn for allowance wasn't going to quite cover the steep $170 price tag unless of course they saved for a very long time.

So this year as Harrison's birthday approached, he came to me and said he wanted to get the Wii Rock Band for his gift. I explained that if he chose to get that gift it would have to come from his us and his grandparents and that would be his only gift. He seemed okay with it but not 100 percent sure that he wanted to give up other gifts.

After talking to him some more, I suggested that he and Holden (whose birthday is a month after Harrison's) combine their birthday money from their great grandmother and purchase the Wii Rock Band. Harrison, who still has no real understanding of how money works, thought that was a fine idea. Holden who seems to better understand money, decided that wasn't fair since Haley wouldn't be contributing anything but still getting to play.

So what to do? I suggested that they talk to Haley and see if she was willing to fork over one third of the cost and if she wasn't then to come up with a solution that would work. Haley said she didn't mind helping out but had spent all of her money and didn't have enough up front. Holden wanted to charge Haley $3 every time she played the Wii Rock Band. Haley wasn't so happy about that. Haley suggested that she pay the boys back. Holden still wasn't hearing it.

So in a weak moment, I came to the rescue. I agreed to pay Haley's third in exchange for babysitting and extra chores.

Now the problem was the waiting. Holden's birthday isn't for another two weeks and Harrison already had his money in hand. At Wal-mart the other day I just happened to walk buy the electronics department and saw that they only had one Wii Rock Band left. So I bought it and planned to hold it until Holden got his money. David had other ideas. He said I should give it to them now and Holden could pay me back (I really think he wanted to play it but wouldn't admit it).

So the kids now have their Wii Rock Band. Haley loves the guitar, Holden loves the drums and Harrison loves to sing but since he can't read yet, it's often not the right words at the right time, but he tries. Who knows maybe we have a future rock star in the making.



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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post. Time just flies by I tell you. We have been busy getting adjusted to the school schedule. Morning comes awfully early here. Being that I have NEVER been a morning person, I have a grudge against the powers that be who felt compelled to make the little ones start school at 7:40 a.m. Seems that some study or another showed that little ones learn better earlier in the day. I don't buy into that mess. My little ones don't even get fully awake until about 9:00 a.m. And when I was young I went to half day kindergarten and I think I turned out just fine thank you. Now those poor kids have to be up at the crack of dawn, at school and raring to go by 7:40 and they don't get home until 3:00 p.m. That's a long day. Haley is lucky she gets to "sleep in" and doesn't have to leave for school until 8 a.m. Course she isn't getting home until 4:15 so I guess her day is as long as the boys.

This is Harrison's first full week at kindergarten and it's been a tough one. Being home this weekend made it harder for him to go back. Monday, Holden took him in school and dropped him off at his class. When Harrison got home Monday afternoon he announced he had enough of school and he thought he just might stay at home with me on Tuesday. When we got up Tuesday, Harrison was teary eyed and wanted me to walk him to his class. Once we got into the school things were fine and he waved goodbye and went to put his stuff in his cubby. I thought things would be better today but it was the same thing. Only this morning he had a stomachache. After some breakfast and a little cuddling he seemed better but I still had to walk him in.

Harrison and Holden started riding the bus home this week. I still take them in the mornings because they can sleep an extra 20 minutes (meaning so can I). Today as we were driving to school, Harrison asked if I could write his teacher a note tomorrow that he wanted to be a car rider home. Holden said he didn't care how Harrison got home, he was riding the bus. That boy loves the bus. But that's a whole other story.
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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Another day down

Harrison made it through his second full day of kindergarten. This morning he went right in and hung up his book bag and went to his seat without any problems. After I finished delivering kids to school, I went shopping without feeling hurried, which ended up being a good thing since I had to hang out in Walmart for a bit while we had a torrential downpour.

This afternoon when the teachers brought the kindergartner's out to meet the parents, Harrison spied me and got a huge smile on his face. His teacher said he did fine until about lunch and he got a little teary eyed. I asked him why he got upset and he said "I just didn't like school anymore and wanted to stay at home with you". My heart was breaking. But he seems to be recovering fine so we'll see what tomorrow brings.
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

It's eerily quiet here at home today. I hear the humming of my computer, the ticking of the clock and from the other side of the house, the washer. Outside the birds are singing and a dog is barking. The reason I hear these sounds so clearly is that I am home alone.


Today was the first day of school for all three of my children. The older two started school yesterday but in order to help with the kindergartner's adjustment (as well as the teacher) Harrison's class was split - half went yesterday and the other half came today.


I am not sure who was less prepared for this - Harrison or me. We did a trial run yesterday when we took Holden to school just so that Harrison would know the drill. But despite that, it was a difficult time this morning for both of us.


When I took him to his classroom, I tried hard not to let it bother me so that he would be more comfortable. I had been through this two other times but without a doubt, this was the most difficult. It's probably because I no longer have a little one at home.

Leaving him sitting at his table, so grown-up, yet still so little, left me with an empty feeling. In my mind, I know it's the next step to growing up which is why it bothers me so much. School means the end of the lazy mornings snuggling in bed, just the two of us. It's the end to skipping school just because. It's a turning point and the direction he is headed is growing up.


Every now and again, the emptiness deep inside me threatens to swell and push the tears slowly out. I swallow hard and try to busy myself with all those mindless tasks I never seemed to have time for before. Tomorrow it will be better. And the next day, even better. I am sure that after a few days, we will both settle into our routines. But today it's sadness I feel. More for me than for him. He's is going on to learn new and exciting things. His future is wide open and the possibilities are endless. He is starting a new chapter while I am closing an old one.




Here's Harrison in his new class this morning. That looks says "I can't decide whether this is a good thing or not".




Here's Holden on his first day of school (yesterday). I took so many pictures David asked Holden when his autograph session was going to be. Unfortunately this is the only one I got of him sitting down and it didn't turn out very good.



Here's Haley getting ready to leave for school on her first day. I didn't think she would let me follow her to class to take some pictures. I did however get a few snaps of her walking away from the car as David and Harrison were yelling at her. Well, at least her dad didn't yell and ask her did she go potty like he said he was going to.

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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Credit card please

One of Harrison's birthday gifts was a Sonic card. For those of you who are not lucky enough to have one near you, Sonic is a fast food drive-in place reminiscent of the 50's style places with roller-blading waiters. As far as fast food restaurants go, it is a pretty decent place. The kids love to there and get slushes and when it's happy hour (between 2-4 everyday) they are half price.

So yesterday when Harrison opened the Sonic card, he was thrilled that he could get slushes "anytime" he wanted. By about 8 last night he had asked about 20 times if we would take him to get some tater tots. I was beginning to think that the card might have been a curse.

Today we met David for lunch and at the restaurant they had a video golf game. Harrison is enamored with games whether he can actually play them or not. It's all about pushing buttons, I think.

Harrison called me over and showed me that the machine had a credit card slot then ever so slyly asked me if I thought it would take a Sonic card. Turns out he hadn't given up the idea of spending his Sonic card after all because he had it tucked in his pocket. I guess he figured if he wasn't getting tater tots or a slush then he might just get a video game out of it.
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

It's a Pirate's Life for Me

Today was Harrison's birthday party. It's not officially his birthday yet but since I will be out of town on his real birthday, we held the party today. I said lots of prayers this morning as I watched the sky get darker and darker. With 13 kids coming to the party, there was no way I wanted to hold the party inside my house.

Thankfully, the rain held off. Our neighbor who loves to decorate his house during the holidays was gracious enough to come and help us decorate our house. We had plastic skeletons hanging from trees and a large pirate boat in our front yard. He even supplied the pirate music.

The kids all got bandannas and foam swords upon arrival. We let them play in the jump castle, slide down the "water" slide and sword fight on the plank above the kiddie pool.

We also had a treasure hunt and after they had solved all the clues, they found the treasure chest full of prizes. One of the clues was:

For clue number three you won’t need a car
Because it isn’t hidden very far
If you were real pirates, you'd sail the seven seas
and for your transportation you'd need one of these

They were having a hard time figuring out this one (I think by this point they weren't listening, they were just wound up) so I prompted them by saying "What does a pirate need to go on a trip?" One of the little boys yelled "Rum".

My mother made the adorable birthday cake. It was a hit because not only did it look good but everyone said it tasted wonderful as well.

The kids all had a good time but by the end of the party all of the adults were wiped out. It's a good thing birthday's only happen once a year. Here are some of the rowdy pirates in training:

Here's Harrison with his Grandma and Grandpa:

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Saturday, August 9, 2008

Cat scratch fever

When is it that your kids stop believing everything you tell them? I remember when my kids were little I could tell them anything and they would take it as fact. Now that they are older I am starting to realize that they don't always believe everything I say.

For instance, today the cat scratched Haley. Now granted I am a huge germaphobe and I do sometimes (rarely) overreact. But the cat is an outdoor cat and is known to quite frequently find his meals flying around or climbing up trees. Need I go into more detail? Anyway, I won't even touch the nasty cat but that's my problem. So when she came into the house and told me that the cat scratched her I told her to go upstairs and clean it with hydrogen peroxide until it stopped foaming. She rolled her eyes and turned around and walked out of the room. I called her back and said "Seriously you could get cat scratch fever". She busted out laughing like it was some joke. I continued telling her I was serious as she walked out the room shaking her head and calling to her brother.

At this point Holden comes into the room and asks if I am serious about the cat scratch fever. So I explain to him what happens and he looks at me and says "Google it". To me, he says that. Like I am making this up. So to prove that there is such a thing as cat scratch fever, I have to Google it.

After I looked it up on the Internet and read to them what could happen, they didn't seem very impressed or anxious or scared or even like they cared the least little bit. Where am I failing these children, I wonder. The least they could have done was acted like the were glad I was concerned for their health and well being.

When my husband came home, the kids both rushed over to him and told him what I had said about cat scratch fever and he looked up at me laughing and said "Seriously?". I get no respect, I tell you.
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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Things I have learned

There are two things I have learned as a parent. The first is that if you hear a loud bang followed by fits of giggles, something has happened that you probably don't want to know about. And Second, if you ask the kids to help you clean, it usually means more work for you.

This morning I told the kids that before we could go do anything, their bathroom had to be cleaned and the trash cans emptied. After I reminded him what needed to be done, Holden grabbed the cleaning stuff and headed up the stairs to clean the bathroom.

From the laundry room I heard a loud noise, like something tumbling down the stairs, followed by laughing and an "Oh my goodness". The whole time I am thinking I really don't want to see this. And I was right. From halfway up the stairs Holden had dropped the can of Comet. The opened can of Comet. The almost full opened can of Comet.

Let me just tell you that Comet is like flour, it gets everywhere when dropped and is hard to sweep up. After I vacuumed the worst of it, I had to use rags to wipe off all the excess. Twenty minutes later, I had clean walls and stairs.

I figure had I just cleaned the bathroom myself, it would have taken me about the same amount of time. And it would be cleaned like I wanted it cleaned.
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