End of the school year

I have to say that I am glad that school has ended so I don't have the nightly struggles with homework.  On the other hand I do not like when they come home with their entire desk in their backpack.  That is just a bunch of junk that needs to be sorted thru.  Yuck!

Groups of three

You know the old wives tale, "All things come in groups  of three?"  It may actually be all deaths come in groups of three, but I am modifying it to suit my purpose.  I had three not-so-good things happen today, that if they all happened days apart, it wouldn't be so bad.  However, all three things happened in the space of 12 hours. 

First off, I had just gotten out of the shower and was in my room in my bra and underwear with my towel turban when the doorbell rang at 5:30.  Bruce and I go investigate and we are alerted by a lady who was taking an early morning walk that our trash can was on fire.  Luckily we were able to put the fire out, but apparently a passerby saw the flames and called it in.  So within 10 minutes we had a dozen volunteer firemen in our driveway.  There was the grass truck, about six personal vehicles and people walking/running to our house on foot.

At lunch time I opened up my personal e-mail and see a e-mail from a girl that I had briefly talked with about babysitting for the boys for the summer.  She sent me a note asking when I wanted her to start.  Apparently she never received my e-mail stating that I did not need her.  I explain that I already have someone, and I apologize all over myself.  She was planning on this job for the summer, and now she doesn't have it.  I feel soooo bad about that.

Lastly (or at least so far), as I was getting ready to leave work tonight, my part-time parts runner came in to tell me that he was quitting.  Apparently he got another part-time job opportunity that was to good to pass up.  I can't say I blame him.  Now we have to look for someone that can be very flexible with his hours and can run parts & compressors at a moments notice.  Any one know of anyone that can fit the bill?

Individually, none of these three events are anything that would overly concern me.  Put them all together, and my spirits are kind of low tonight.

First Communion

Nathan made his First Communion this past Sunday.  Everything went really well, and we had a party at our house afterwards with the godparents & grandparents.  I should post some pictures, but I am lucky that I even remembered to take pictures!

I did disappoint me oldest niece though.  Her Mom asked if she thought that we would have a homemade cake or store bought.  My niece insisted that we would have homemade as "Lisa always makes her cakes!"  I did decide to just buy one for two reasons.  I didn't think that I would have time, and I wasn't sure how to decorate the cake.  Is a tractor shaped cake appropriate for a sacrament like this? 

Nathan had received a necklace with a cross on it from his godfather & family and has already misplaced it.  We went to my niece and nephew's t-ball game last night, and had taken the necklace off and had it hanging off his arm.  I told him that he has to quit taking it off, so I held it for the remainder of the game and then hung it on my gear shifter when we got back to the van.  He brought it into the house and now it has disappeared.  If I find it first, it may stay gone for a while just to teach him a lesson.

Basketball hoop

Nathan must be playing basketball during recess at school, because he has taken to asking us for a basketball hoop.  Because our driveway is so narrow, we were not sure where we could put one.  Luckily for us, a former neighbor of ours had a stand-alone basketball hoop that they were no longer using.  He delivered it to us this past Saturday. 

Of course Bruce and I argued about where to put it, but the important thing is that Nathan got his basketball hoop.  He has been out there shooting hoops everyday - and using the incorrect form.  I tried to show him the correct way to shoot, but apparently I know nothing since I am his Mom. 

I expect his little brothers will get some use out of it some day when they develop a little more upper body strength. 

Tooth Fairy

Sunday morning while I was trying to sleep in, Darren comes running into my bedroom and has to show me that he lost his first tooth.  I told him that was great and that I would look later.

After I got up, and before I woke Justin up, I looked at his tooth and the gap in his mouth.  I asked Darren to show me the tooth again.  I looked in his mouth again.  I pulled him over to Bruce and asked Bruce if it looked like he was missing two teeth. 

Apparently he did lose two teeth, and either lost one or swallowed it.  He lost the two teeth that most babies get first - the bottom front.  He is pretty cute with those missing teeth.

My birthday

This past Sunday was my birthday, and it was filled with highs and lows.  It started off with a high when the boys let me sleep in.  Yeah!  Once I was up, I realized that Justin was not awake yet and had some concern.  It is not like him to sleep in that long, so I went to wake him up about 9:45.  As soon as I got to his room, I started to notice a smell .  Apparently during the night he was sick and there was vomit on the floor next to his bed.  He also must have passed gas sometime during the night, as he has a very loose stool in his pants and stuck to his legs.  Into the tub he went.

Later that evening my Mom texts me and said that Dad thought I was 28 that day.  He knew what year I was born in, but apparently could not perform the math correctly.  It made me feel good that Dad thought that I could be 28, even if was because of a math error!

Lunch with Darren

Yesterday was kindergarten parent lunch.  Bruce and I meet Darren at school at 11:00 am for lunch.  Our meal consisted of spaghetti, garlic toast, green beans and applesauce.  The food was pretty decent, but Darren got a 'Grab-n-Go' lunch instead of the hot meal. 

I don't know if Darren is always that much of a talker at school, or if it was because we were sitting with our neighbors and he knows them very well, but he never shut up!  I am used to that at home, so maybe he talks like that all the time??  He had to point out things that were quite obvious, but you could tell that he was proud to have us there.

Since Michelle Obama implemented the fight against obesity, she declared that the calorie intake of school lunches has to be restricted.  I understand what she is trying to accomplish, but it is killing the local school's cafeteria program and leaving kids hungry.  About two months ago the school started offering "Grab-n-Go' lunches.  They consist of milk, a cheese stick, a cup of applesauce, baby carrots, teddy grahams and either a ham sandwich or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  When I look at some of the menu offerings, I would be choosing the 'Grab-n-Go' lunches too!

I tattled on my own son

This week at school is Right to Read Week.  One of their goals, is if the school reads for 100,000 minutes, the principal will dye his hair pink.  This will obviously be something that all the kids can witness him doing; only if they reach their goal though.

Last night Nathan said that his teacher said he had to read for 55 minutes.  He did not (that is a whole other story that I will not get into now) have to read for that long.  Nathan kept stalling, and finding reasons that he could not read to me, knowing that he had to read for 55 minutes.  Finally I told him that he had to read or go to bed.  He asked if I would just sign his slip saying he read for 55 minutes.  I told him no.  We argued about it, and I finally said yes.  Even though I had no intention of signing his slip.  I just wanted the argument to be done.  I e-mailed his teacher this morning and told her that Nathan did not read, and to please punish him however she sees fit for not completing his homework.  He needs to learn the consequences of his actions.

She e-mailed me back and said that Nathan did turn in a reading slip this morning, and after reading my e-mail, she pulled it out and looked at it again.  He had turned in 55 minutes and signed my name.  She said she should have paid more attention because it is clear that I did not sign it.  In fact the "L" for Lisa was backwards! 

She asked me if it was okay that Nathan stays in at recess to read.  She had already turned in the classroom total, and Nathan's 55 minutes were part of that total.  To keep it honest, she said she would have him read at recess and makeup for some of the time he claimed to have read.  I told her to absolutely keep him in, and that I do not think that the punishment was severe enough.  Why couldn't he have been a reader like me?  He inherited a majority of my traits, but not that one for some reason.

Chapter books

On Monday evening Nathan brought home the book Charlotte's Web, and was supposed to read chapter 2 that night.  Before he starting reading the book, I grabbed it and flipped thru the pages as it had been years since I read it.  As I was flipping thru it, I remember thinking that I am pretty sure I did not read this book until fourth grade.  I also noticed the length of chapter 5, which was going to be Tuesday nights assignment.  I saw how lengthy it was, and knew that it would take Nathan well over two hours to read that to me.

Yesterday I e-mailed his teacher and asked if he had to read the entire chapter to me or could we take turns reading.  She replied back that we could take turns.  Thanks goodness!  She also said that it was a 4.4 level book.  Nathan is only reading at a 2.6-2.8 level.  He is reading 'double' the level he should be.  I am sure that there are kids in his class reading at that level, but it is hard to see Nathan struggling.  I wonder how well some of the other kids in Nathan's class are doing with the assignment?  As it was, I ended up reading the majority of the chapter and it still took us 35 minutes!

Poem needed

I have to get the boys ready by myself in the morning as Bruce is already working by the time I usually get the kids up.  When I climb the stairs I call out, "Wake-y, Wake-y.  Eggs and Bake-y" as in bacon.  Most mornings it will slowly get the boys awake and get a smile out of them.

Last night before Nathan's bedtime, and after the other two were in bed, Bruce, Nathan and I were trying to create an evening poem/saying.  We just couldn't think of anything to go with "Sleep-y, Sleep-y" that we liked.  We also came up with, "Night-y, Night-y.  Sleep tight-y," but Nathan said the saying has to start with "Sleep-y, Sleep-y."  Any suggestions?  I was never good with creating rhyming poems in school, as evidenced by our attempt last night.

Growing up

Sometimes I think you are with your kids to much to see how grown up or mature they are becoming.  Then when you experience it, it gives you a feeling of accomplishment knowing you are doing an okay job at raising your kid.

On Tuesday Nathan had another doctor's appointment in Troy and so we spent some time alone together in the car.  We talked about things and Nathan started asking some questions that make me realize that he is pretty smart.  It is rare that we can have these one-on-one discussions with his two brothers and his Dad in the house, so it was pretty nice.

He asked me, "Why don't we have a windmill in our yard?  We could make our own electric and then you wouldn't have to pay an electric bill."  I told him that I don't think they are allowed in town & they were probably pretty expensive to set up.  Of course he asked why we were not allowed to have them in town.  I told him that there are probably rules against it.  He asked why there are rules and I explained that you have to have rules so that one person cannot do something that the entire town dislikes.  Then he asked for an example and I can't remember what I told him.  He asks how much a windmill costs?  I told him that I did not know, but heard they were expensive.  He then asked if I didn't have to pay an electric bill, wouldn't that save me enough money to pay for a windmill?

Then he asks, "What would happen if we ran out of water?"  I asked what he meant and he clarified that what if all the water towers, wells, lakes and rivers run dry.  I told him that if there was still water in the ocean that we might be able to filter it somehow to remove the salt and make it drinkable.  That would mean wars would be fought over control of the water.  He asked why we can't drink salt water so I had to tell him that I wasn't sure of the scientific reason, but salt water will just make you more thirsty.  Then has asks why we just can't drink pop, Gatorade or milk.  I told him that pop and Gatorade are all made with water and that if the water is gone, the milk would be too.  He asked why.  I told him that if we don't have water we will die and so will the cows that give us milk.  He started to ask why, when you could almost see it click for him.  He said that cows would have to have water to make milk.

He had several other good questions, but those were the two subjects that stuck in my head the most.  I was proud of him for asking all these deep questions.  Maybe I am not screwing up this parenting thing as much as I think I am sometimes.

D's birthday gift

For Darren's birthday, we got him a Kurio tablet.  I was actually wanting to get another Kindle or, even better, an i pad.  However, I knew that Bruce would choke if I got an i pad.

Nathan has kind of taken over on the tablet.  I happened to overhear Darren asking Nathan once if he could play on the tablet now.  Then Nathan tells him to wait.  What?  I am all for the boys taking their turn on toys, but Nathan telling Darren that he is not allowed to play with his birthday present in the first few days he has it?  Nope, not going to fly.  I told Nathan that in a couple of weeks, he is allowed to tell Darren to wait his turn, but not right now.

Clothes mishap

I have often said that Darren & Justin could wear the same clothes - the length is just to short.  This past Saturday afternoon Justin asked me if he could take a bath.  I told him sure, and so him and Darren hopped into the tub.  The like to fill it up and just splash around in the tub.  After they got out, they ran upstairs, got their clothes, threw them in a pile and started to dress. 

It was some time later when I actually looked at the jeans that Justin had on and I realized that they were Darren's.  I called Justin over to me and looked at the tag.  Sure enough, they were Darren's.  I told him that Daddy must have put the jeans in the wrong pile and that is how they got into Justin's drawer.  A few hours after that, I look at Darren and realize that his jeans were hitting him in the middle of the calf practically.  When I told Darren that he had on Justin's jeans he told me that I put them away wrong.  No sir!  I told him that when they threw their jeans in a pile and got dressed, that they grabbed the wrong jeans.  He looked like such a dork walking around in flood pants.

Acting sick

On Tuesday, Justin got picked up at daycare by Grandma Deb.  He got picked up early because it was grandparents day at school, and she was already taking the older two boys home with her.  Then Justin came down with a 101.4 fever.  On Wednesday, he went to Grandma's because he still had a slight fever and you could tell by looking at his eyes that he did not feel good.  However, by the time he got home last night, he was back to his normal self. 

This morning as we were getting ready to leave the house, Justin claimed he was sick and needed to go to Grandma's.  I told him that he was not sick and that he was going to daycare.  He continued to argue with me so I told him that Grandma was helping great-grandma today and would not be home to watch him.  Justin then tells me that Bill could watch him since it is to cold for Bill to work.  That boy can be to smart for his britches!  He was still throwing a temper tantrum when we got to daycare because I would not let him go to Grandma's.  He even laid on the floor and bucked for a while.  By the time I left, he was fine and eating his cereal.

Six years old!

My middle, baby boy Darren is six today!  Six years ago it was about 70 degrees and not the 30 degrees with snow flurries like it is today.  He is such a joker.  With a little more practice he will be able to tell a joke with a straight face and we will never be able to tell if he is serious or not.  Right now he manages to keep a serious face for the most part, but his eyes just sparkle with pure mischief when he tells you one of his jokes or is trying to pull the wool over your eyes.  My sister Carla remarked over the weekend that he is able to keep a straight face very well.

When I woke him up this morning, I sung happy birthday to him.  I asked him how it felt to be six, he looked at me and said that he felt bigger.  Looking at him I couldn't decide if he was being serious or if he was pulling my leg.  It is very hard to tell with him....

Hot water

Nathan, like me, loves hot showers - hot enough that your skin is pink when you get out.  Since all the males in my house take a shower/bath in the evening, they have to be careful so they do not use all the hot water.  Last night Nathan took a short shower (for him anyway) and then Bruce hops in immediately with Darren and runs out of hot water about two minutes into the shower.

When Bruce got out and starting yelling at Nathan for using all the hot water, I suggested turning the thermostat up on the water heater.  We had turned the temperature down when we had kids like all the safety experts recommend.  My theory was that if Nathan had to turn the temperature up in the shower, that was making the water heater work twice as hard.  If the thermostat got turned up, maybe the water heater would not have to work so hard and we would have hot water for a longer amount of time.

As an added bonus, I have been wanting to get Bruce to turn the water heater up.  When I would do dishes, I would have the water as hot as it could get, and sometimes that just never felt hot enough to get the dishes clean. 

Terrible Two's? No, Terrible Three's!

You always hear the expression Terrible Two's, but I honestly never thought that age two was that bad.  It is when they are three, or more specifically, about three and a half that they can claim the title 'Terrible.'  Justin, who is 3 1/2, has been horrible lately.  Openly defying everything we say, talking back, sticking his tongue out, hitting people and acting like the rules do not apply to him. 

We catch him throwing his trash on the ground and when we make him pick it up, he throws a major tantrum or runs into the other room to hide.  Despite us telling him three-four times a day not to climb up on the bar, he does it anyway.  When I tell him to do something, I get an angry 'No' yelled at me.  When I punish him for something, he sticks his tongue out at me.  And he does it in the dumbest way possible.  I will already have my back turned away from him and I hear him making a humming sound and so I turn around and see him sticking his tongue out.  Really?  Don't make the humming noise and you will never get caught!

I know for the most part this is just a phase as he tests how far he can push us, but I really want my sweet Justin back. 

Sleep study

Justin had a sleep study done Monday evening because I beleive that he is suffering from sleep apena.  To confirm my diagnosis, the ENT doctor ordered a sleep study.  I stayed overnight with Justin at Children's hospital, and did not get much sleep.  When I came to work the next day, I felt like I was up all night with a newborn again. 

Since there were no clocks in our room, and I was not allowed to have my cell phone on, I had no concept of time.  If I had to guess, I would think that we had a nurse in our room once an hour adjusting something.  Below is the picture of most of his leads with the exception of the two on his chest.

Here is a close up of his adorable face so you can see the piece in his nose that I know she had to come in and adjust several times in the evening.  In addition to the nose piece, they were constantly adjusting the sensor on his finger that measures the oxygen in your blood .

Neck hurts

My boys have complained in the past that their neck hurts.  I always assumed that meant that they slept wrong and so they were suffering from a stiff neck.  Or they turned their head, and something stretched to far and they had a sore muscle in their neck.

I have recently figured out that when they claim their neck hurts, they are actually talking about their throat.  I always tell them to take a drink of water, and that solves the problem 9 out of 10 times.

Kisses

Nathan is getting to the age where he does not want to show affection to me in front of his friends from daycare.  I always give the boys a hug and kiss when I drop them off and lately when I try to give Nathan a kiss, he pulls out of my embrace.  I usually then grab him and forcibly give him a kiss, which he takes very good-natured.  Even when his friends are laughing and he is 'wiping' the kiss off. 

At night though, he has to have a kiss when I am tucking him in.  I wonder how long he will let me continue to tuck him in???

Eating me out of house & home

I am glad that my boys like fruit, but holy cow.  We all went to the grocery store Saturday and the boys had asked for a lot of fresh fruit.  We picked up two quarts of strawberries, grapes, 1/4 of a watermelon, clementine oranges, apples & bananas.  I hesitated on buying the watermelon because the price they had on a 1/4 cut of watermelon is the same price I usually pay in the summer.  The grapes were a little more expensive then I like to pay, and the strawberries were $2 a quart.  Then I figured that paying more for fruit than I like was better than them eating junk food.

I took an inventory last night of the fruit and saw that the strawberries, grapes, watermelon and bananas are all gone.  Apparently they are saving the oranges and apples until after everything else is gone.  To bad I didn't live in a tropical climate where I could grow this stuff year round!

Who is next?

Thursday night about 11:45 pm Justin comes down stairs and tells me that he has 'puked in my bed.'  I settle him on the couch with a 'puke pan' and head upstairs to clean up.  Luckily, he threw up on the bed and there wasn't any on the floor.  I just balled up all his blankets and sheets and threw them in the basement to deal with later.

I had just crawled into bed and just fell asleep when Darren comes downstairs and tells me that he threw up.  I go thru the same routine with Darren as I did for Justin and was grateful to see that everything was contained to his bed, so I rolled up his blankets and threw them in the basement.

My Mom is typically my back-up sitter when my kids are sick, but I knew that she has to watch my sister Carla's kids on Monday while Lydia had her tonsils out.  I didn't want to spread the sick germs to Mom, who would share them with Carla's kids, so I just stayed home with the boys.  Carla didn't need to deal with sick kids and a kid recovering from having her tonsils removed, so I decided to just stay home.  I have only ever used about four sick days for myself in the past 13 years and about that many days to stay home and take care of my sick kids.

Luckily the vomiting and feeling bad only lasted for about 12-14 hours, so they were feeling better by mid-afternoon.  I kept busy by doing laundry.  All.  Day.  My machine is 9-10 years old, so I can only put one blanket in the washer at a time.  (I didn't want to over stuff my washer and not get the puke smell out)  When the boys have two blankets, a comforter, sheets and a mattress pad that needs washed, I really was doing laundry all day.

Sunday morning about 7:00 am I hear Nathan running towards our room, stops in the kitchen and threw up in the kitchen.  He slept most of the afternoon, and was feeling better by about 9:00 pm that night.

Tuesday morning as I am getting ready for work, I hear Bruce come home.  He never made it to work before he had to turn around and come home after throwing up in the side ditch on his way to work.

I am starting to fear tomorrow.  The trend seems to be every other day someone in our house is getting sick so that would mean that I am due tomorrow.  I will have to make sure I clean up my desk tonight before I leave work!

Something in the walls

Because we live in town, I never really thought that we had a critter problem despite the fact that we live in a house that is almost a 100 years old.  Last night however changed that thought. 

I went upstairs to tuck Justin into bed for the night and Darren was still awake.  He tells me, "Mom, we either have a mouse, a bat or a bed bug in the ceiling because I can hear it."  I kind of chuckled because he does not realize the epidemic that bed bugs have become.  He just knows that I tell him a lot of nights to "sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite."  I thought that he was just hearing the wind or the rain hitting the window so I didn't worry about what he said.

Then I went into Nathan's room to make sure he was covered up, and sat and watched him for a minute to see if he was really sleeping or if he was faking it.  As I watched him, I hear sounds in the ceiling above him.  Based on my experience growing up on a farm, it sounds like we have mice.  Yuck!  In the four or five months that they have been upstairs, I have never heard or seen any evidence of mice.  Not sure why last night on a damp, warm, 40F degree night I hear them for the first time.  Needless to say I got the mouse traps out of the garage storage this morning and set them upstairs.   I wonder if we will have any dead bodies when I get home from work?  I actually entertained the thought about getting a kitten/cat from my parents for a house pet to catch the mice.

Sounds like an excuse to go

The second weekend of November, I went on a long, girls weekend trip to Florida. 

Fast forward a few Friday's (the 30th to be exact) and I was getting ready to leave for a Mary Kay party at a friends' house.  I give the boys a hug and kiss before I leave and Darren says, "How long are you going to be in Florida this time Mom?"  It sounds to me like he was more than okay with me taking another trip! 

A compliment??

Bruce and I both had New Years Eve off from work.  We knew that the restaurants would be crazy busy that evening, so I convinced Bruce to go to Olive Garden for lunch.

The older two boys were very well behaved while Justin thought he had to use the restroom every five minutes.  He also forgot how to sit still.  I ask the older two boys how their food was.  Nathan told me that my homemade pizza was better.  Darren then tells me that I make better spaghetti.  Really?  We could have stayed home and I could have cooked?  I almost wanted to slam my head on the table when I realized that I could take what they said as a compliment.  As in I am the better cook compared to a wildly popular franchise restaurant.  However for my spaghetti being better, Darren was practically licking the plate clean!

Smell my......

Recently Justin walked into the living room where I was relaxing and reading the paper.  Bruce was in his chair watching TV when Justin came into the living room whining about his finger.  He was looking at it and I had assumed he had hurt it.  Instead he walks up to me and tells me to smell it!  Bruce and I burst out laughing and I tell Justin I am not going to smell his finger.  Then I told him to ask his Dad if he wanted to smell Justin's finger.  Justin kept insisting I smell his finger.  Not sure what he got into and what it smelled like (because I never did smell it), but it was funny.