Weekend Top Five 12/1/08

I posted about our Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping experiences already. Go read them if you want to be jealous of the easiest Black friday experience ever.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much non event-ful so this is when it is fun to try to think of five things. here it goes


5. A Staple Free Head

Although it bled when the 4th one came out, and Aaron cried in pain when he didn't when they went in, it is a relief to everyone that the healing can finally progress, including washing the nasty hair.















4. Noah's First Library Card

While I put Aaron down for a nap on Saturday (he needed one desperately), Steve took Noah to the library. He came home SO proud with his VERY OWN library card.

3. Christmas Wrapping

I don't like waiting until Christmas Eve to wrap presents so I locked myself into the bedroom after bedtime Saturday night and wrapped all of the presents. It made me realize that things are a little uneven leaning toward Noah so I need to get Aaron caught up on stocking gifts. Aaron is always harder to shop for.

2. Children's Museum

Yes, again we headed over since Deb was there for Hannah's birthday. The kids had fun jumping into a new penguin exhibit they have there. We realized after Noah's third mental breakdown that we hadn't fed him before we left, and ended up leaving less than an hour later with him in tears. Not the best time at the museum.













1. Sick Boy and Playworld

Noah woke up Sunday morning complaining about "hurting all over" but seemed okay. So off we headed to church, since our quartet had to sing in both services. After church, Noah was still going in and out of perfectly normal and zombieville, so we decided that we would go home, rest for awhile, and then go to Playworld. We are thankful that our former babysitter works there and slides us through to play.

We got home from church and the whole house smelled like natural gas so I herded the very tired and not so healthy boys back to the car while Steve stayed home to call the gas company. At Playworld, Noah laid on my lap for the first 45 minutes while Aaron went off to play. He did go play for a short while later, when I got the okay from Steve to bring the boys back home. The culprit was related to the dryer problem we have had for awhile.


Told you it was the most boring weekend ever after the two fun filled days of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. We're under a Winter Storm Warningl. We're hoping for a snow day tomorrow, but I guess I'll just keep you posted. Noah continues to lie around on the couch, claiming his stomach hurts. I never know if he's sick or not, so I will also have to play that by ear in the morning too. Did you have a more exciting weekend than I? If you posted about it, please feel free to join Mr. Linky below.

Our Thanksgiving in Good News, Bad News Style

Bad news: My brother and his family were at my parents with my sister's family and this year was our year to be with Steve's family

Good News: Only half of Steve's family were there, so it wasn't nearly as crowded of a house.


Good News: We got on the road early so there would many hours of play opportunity for the kids

Bad news: Dinner wasn't put on the table until 5:30

Worse News: FROZEN pumpkin pie didn't go into the oven until 6:30, hour before we had to leave

Worst Of All: I never got my Pumpkin Pie(Remember this post?)

A Little better (but not really) News: At least we had a little bit of yummy fudge that Aaron and I made






Good News: Steve's brother has a trampoline with enclosure for the kids to play on

Bad News: Mean Mommy wouldn't let the kid with the stapled head jump

Good news: Two six year olds and two four year olds LOVED sitting together at their own special "kids table" while the adults were eating in the dining room.

Bad news: One adult in particular had to keep leaving to keep the crazy kids table from becoming a full body contact event

Good News: Noah was the first one done, and actually ate everything on his plate, including four bites of turkey (thanks to the pool of ranch dressing Aunt Mia put on their plates)



Good News: My sister in law's mother was able to be with her for Thanksgiving

Bad News: She has become pretty sick and mean through her aging disease

Worse News: She screamed "Shut Up!" in Aaron's face scaring him half to death, bringing him to tears, and then called him a terrible baby for crying

Worst Of All: He spent the rest of the day running from the room every time she came near, getting away from the "Mean Grandma"


Good news: The kids bonded all day, including snuggles for a viewing of WALL-E

Bad News: Do we need to worry about "Kissing Cousins" in a few years?
Noah hugging Cousin Olivia through the entire movie












Yeah, a few quirks throughout the day, and I got to have some pumpkin pie at my dad's the next day, so all around not too painful. We really are lucky that the kids have cousins their age on both side s of our family so they look at any visit as an adventure.

As we were leaving Thanksgiving night, Noah's asked "Mommy, can we come here for Valentines Day?"

Anyone Got A Good Black Friday Story?

If you stood in like for hours on Black Friday, I suggest you stop reading now.






If you're still with me, you may wish to join me for Black Friday shopping next year. Deb claims that I just had "good karma" this year.

As I have stated many times, this year has looked quite bleak for Christmas. So when Steve couldn't get the day off for Black Friday, I was relieved to tell Deb that I wouldn't be joining her for our annual early morning shopping marathon. I went ahead and got the boys' three presents and after looking at the ads, still decided that there really wasn't any reason to go out early this morning.

Then I looked at the ads again Thanksgiving morning. Several caught my eyes, especially a door buster at ToysRUs. It was for that Eye Clops magnifying eye that is normally $50. It would be the first thing I would have picked for Noah but there was no way he could get it because I just couldn't spend that much on a toy for him this year. It was listed as a door buster for $19.99. I begged Steve all day in Thanksgiving to see if we could get that for Noah. If you know my little science boy, it is PERFECT for him.

Tackle It Tuesday: The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

(Note: If you haven't entered my giveaway for FREE laundry detergent yet, click here...you've only got until Wednesday.)

As I have mentioned several times over the last month, I have been dreading decorating the Christmas tree because of a certain kitten that has graced our home.

When Minnie was a baby two years ago, she got stuck in the tree about a half hour before we had to leave for Christmas Eve church, had to be CUT OUT, peed all over the floor, and the tree went into the garbage before Christmas morning.

Wonderful memory, huh?

I was determined to not have a repeat performance.

So I decided to try a spray that I read about online. This one was Boundary Cat Repellent.




(FYI... this was not a review product and I received nothing to write this...I just discovered what works)











I was curious to see the difference so first I brought the Christmas tree upstairs and left it in the box in the middle of the living room floor. Within a minute, this is what I found...



One cat IN the box, the other observing as if deciding whether to join the adventure.















What would happen if I sprayed the tree before I took it out of the box?




Both cats ran away and hid on the other side of the room to observe at a safe distance.














So I figured it was safe to go ahead and put it up.

Putting lights on the Christmas tree is OFFICIALLY the worst job in an entire year that one needs to battle. Steve and I would get in shouting matches every year while we did it.

I decided this year to try to put them on a little at a time, one branch at a time. It worked very well, until...




Oops, Big Sister has ventured to try a nibble...










Grab the spray...cats gone!

I had two of the three sections up with lights by the time we had to go get Noah from school so the tree was missing it's top for the rest of the evening.

After the kids went to bed, I put the top on and finished "poofing"

Aaron woke up in the morning and exclaimed

"WHOA...IT GROWED!!!!!!"


So, finally it was time to allow the boys to start decorating. In years past, I would have followed behind, directing then where to put the ornaments.

I am proud to say that I resisted the urge.









Because I was so restrained, this is how the tree looked when they were done...
















So as they started playing with the nativities (see next week's T13), I rearranged the ornaments, putting their cheesy character ones further to the back and our nicer ones in the front. I also added some bows to bring more color.

We used to have BEAUTIFUL colored glass and really nice ornaments. Then two little boys graced our home, followed by two cats, and I have opted for safety over beauty. Maybe in a few years, we'll get out the pretty balls again.

I also used to have a really pretty tree skirt, but I read an idea in a magazine last week that I am going to try, even though it looks a little silly at the moment.

I got a simple red tree skirt and the boys each put a hand print on it. Then, I outline it with glitter glue and label it.

Every year we will add their hand print. I imagine my the time they are older, it will be fun to look at all of the hands through the years.

This picture was taken before we got Aaron's print on the skirt.






So it needs a few more ornaments and it's not exactly the prettiest tree, but while were watching a movie Friday night as a family, I turned and saw Aaron just gazing at the tree with this sweetest dreamy look



I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture. If I could bottle that look of contentment and sell it, I would be a millionaire.











and I decided that I now understand haw Charlie Brown felt.

(P.S. If you're wondering how the spray is working, each time the cats start trying to get near, I spray the bottom and the cats stay away for hours. I think it was WELL worth the $12.99 I paid.)

Weekend Top Five 11/24/08

The weekend top five has to start earlier in the weekend than usual, thanks to Aaron's little collision with the wall Friday morning.


(Note: If you haven't entered my giveaway for FREE laundry detergent yet, click here...you've only got until Wednesday.)



5. Aaron's staples

Yup, as I was on the computer doing bills (not blogging), Aaron came running into the hallway, slipped and I heard a VERY loud bang and saw he had hit his head. Because he doesn't cry when he gets hurt, I just went to him, gave him a hug, and returned to bills. About a minute later, he came in and begged to snuggle. I figured his head probably hurt from that big of a bang so we went and sat for about five minutes on the couch. Then he crawled away and wanted to sit by himself. I figured that meant he was feeling better and went to go grab a shower. He got up too and then I noticed A LOT of red in his hair.

CRAP!!!!!!

So I took a quick look, saw quite a lot of blood, noticed how VERY wide the gap was , and decided it would be better to get it checked out. So off to the ER we went.

Two and a half hours later, we were on our way home, with four staples in his head. They need to stay in for a week and instead of shopping on Black Friday, we will be in the doctor's office making sure my son's head has grown back together.

The kid never cried or whimpered a single time during the entire ordeal.

His big brother, on the other hand, freaked out and keeps hiding from him.



4. Christmas Decorating

This will get an entire post on Tuesday, but it was definitely a huge part of the weekend. I wanted to get most of it done Friday night since we were going to be gone all day Saturday. It still is not done, but we're getting there. It's not like Thanksgiving has even passed. Full details Tuesday...

I just noticed how prominent Aaron's stapled head is at the bottom of this picture. You can't really miss the big black blotch, can ya?



3. The Birthday Party That Wasn't

My nephew, Odin celebrated his 5th birthday party on Saturday, but due to the split open head, we opted to stay home and try to keep Aaron calm. We will celebrate a belated one with him this Friday.

Here is Cousin Odin with Aaron on one side of him and Noah on the other in St. Louis on vacation last April.






2. The Mall to Climb and Visit a Jolly Old Elf

Because we were hurting for something to get the kids out of the house, but still limiting Aaron's activity level, we headed to the mall to visit Santa.










I loved Noah's letter he wrote for Santa before we left.

He had a little trouble spelling "Bakugan" and "Transformers"









Afterward Noah asked to climb the climbing wall in Dick's Sporting Goods. We decided to go ahead and let him and he did better than I expected him to. As a matter of fact, he would have kept climbing except that he looked down, and then it was over.















1. Roller Skate Day at Church

Not really, but I love this reference from my sister to refer to the all music Sunday every year.

In the past years, I have been running around CRAZY for this service. This year, I got out of singing with the ensembles and only had to direct my three groups, as well as sing in one quartet.

My cherub choir is for ages 5-8 but I have been letting Aaron (he's newly 4) sit in rehearsals and he has been singing the songs really clearly, so I decided to let him sing today as well. The cherubs sang one song alone, and another with all of the other choirs and were awesome.

Which boys are mine, you ask? Well, that would be the two that are "shout"ing when they are singing that word within the song.





A fun, busy weekend.

It is a little easier starting out this week knowing I only have to deal with the rat race of school for two mornings this week before Thanksgiving break.

I love breaks, don't you?

As always, please leave your link below if you are joining me in the top five weekend event meme. (or you just want to share your weekend post)

Happy Monday.

Monday Night Thoughts about Silliness and It's Impact

Both of our boys are somewhat silly, but in very different ways.

Noah's is more of a show-offy kind of way that often drives us insane. He is smart beyond all measure, but sometimes resorts to inappropriate humor to try to get attention. This is something we are working with him on daily and hopefully can get a handle on it before it becomes detrimental to him in the friend making process. As of now, he has lots of friends and is known as the "second funniest in the class" and he is quite proud of this label.

Aaron is just plain silly. He has an infectious smile that you can't help but notice from a million miles away. It stands out in a crowd.

The fact that he has such a vibrant joyfulness about him is a trait that I hope will always serve him well, even if he has other struggles (which are just starting to try to surface).

Last week at Aaron's preschool conference, I was not surprised by anything the teacher said. We had spoken the week before on what she deems are "concerns" about Aaron. Nothing that I think are a big deal right now because he is indeed young and I plan to hold him another full year and not send him to kindergarten until he is almost six.

But something really bothered me afterward and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I thought about it more the next day and it has been on my mind ever since.

As I stated above, Aaron exudes an extremely cheerful personality. Anyone who meets him for 30 seconds can notice it. He is excited about pretty much anything. But at this conference, the teacher mentioned NOTHING about this trait. As a matter of fact, she stated nothing in regards to positive traits he displays in the classroom at all.

Even when Noah struggled behaviorally in preschool and kindergarten, his teachers started the conference talking about the positive things they noticed about him in class. Aaron's conference started late and was rushed to end on time since the parent behind me was a teacher and had "limited time" but it was ALL BUSINESS about the things they tested him on and how he was doing according to the printed out report she had filled out.

I understand all business. But like I said, anyone who spends more than a minute around Aaron notices his zest for life. Why wouldn't this teacher have said SOMETHING about his happiness or exuberance, or any kind of positive trait he is showing in the classroom. The few times I have visited, I haven't noticed anything stand out as troublesome, but I am still very uneasy about this.

I don't really have much else to say about it. Just a thought that has been on mind for several days now.

Because of this post being about Aaron's silliness, I think I will lighten it up with a moment that made me laugh hysterically a few days ago.

Aaron found one of Steve's hats and put it on his head and said out of the blue...




"Look, I'm Uncle Matt!"















I guess you wouldn't understand why this so funny if you don't know my brother. So let me clue you in on the joke. Here is a picture of my brother with Noah several years ago donning his usual head wear on a summer's day




















Look familiar. Even though my husband Steve has been wearing this hat ever since Aaron was a baby, the first thing Aaron said when he put it on was that he was just like Uncle Matt.

It made me laugh.

Happy Tuesday.

Weekend Top Five

The weekend was quite uneventful, other than trying to finish figuring out Christmas shopping. I know it seems strange me being so centered around Christmas shopping now, but I need to get it done so I can caught up on our mortgage and other bills. I like to get the sale prices as they come, and I like to be done early. Then I can actually ENJOY the holiday preparations without the worries of shopping.


Especially with our anniversary four days before Christmas, as well as the big music performance in which my bells are playing six pieces.


So yeah, some of the top five is centered around this obsession.

5. Friday- Bakugan Mania

Since I was sick on Thursday, I ended up teaching a few lessons on Friday. It was strange to come home and still have it be dinner time. We ended up doing movie night with the boys with the Pirates Movie again and then I did head back out to the mall with Deb.

Since I am wanting to finally establish the "three presents" rule with the boys for Christmas (which is getting considerably stretched...I'll explain in a different post), I want to be sure that the three are what they want and not just "some present". It is making me work a lot harder to make sure that they are three things that count.

Noah wants everything.

But before he even knew what they were called, his first thing on his list was: "the thing that is a little ball and opens into a creature."

HUH?

So when he started looking through the catalogs when they came, he found what he was talking about and showed it to me. I am quite picky about what the kids watch and play with, and have even outlawed Pokemon just because I don't understand them. We don't have cartoon network and I can't imagine he has even seen the show or knows there is a game centering around this whole thing.

When he showed me these Bakugan things, I figured, okay those little balls to play with, no big deal, right?

Wrong!

Apparently, they are the thing this year for little boys. I still don't intend to let him get all wrapped up in it, but if it's just little balls rolling around at each other, I guess I can live with that.





Meijer, WalMart and Target are officially sold out of them, so when I found a starter package for $10, I scooped it up. I didn't want to spend the money on the $30 "arena" so I saw in the Walmart Exclusive catalog they had a "flip open" one for $15.

Perfect...the price is right and it will thrill him on Christmas morning (even though I still don;t understand how the game is played). I am excited that I can make his dreams come true...

until Deb and I get to WalMart on Friday night.

I asked at the service desk, who called a super WalMart about the ad. Apparently, WalMart can't even keep the things in stock and told me to order it online and they wouldn't charge shipping to the store.

Online, they are all out.

Shouldn't they have figured on this before they put it in the Big Toy Book and had every kid on earth asking for it?

I know Noah will still be thrilled with the little balls (I found a set at Target while there were still three left), and it is weird being part of a "trend" I thought I had a few years, and I thought it was strange since I had never even heard of these things. I probably should still try to figure this whole "arena" thing out though.

Is anyone else facing this on their little boys Christmas lists? If so, start looking now!

4. Lost and Found MP3 Player

Again because of this whole "three presents" thing, I locked myself into the bedroom for a short time on Saturday to go through and make sure I really was done with shopping for the boys. I really have no hiding places in the house so I brought up a separate bin to put each boys' stuff in while I sort and wait.

Last March, my nephew Patrick got an Ipod for his birthday.

Noah wanted one desperately.

Well, there was no way that was in the budget, but about six months ago, I found a user friendly MP3 in metallic blue on sale for $20. It was back ordered for at least another month or two, so when it finally came, I was thrilled to have the one thing he really seemed to want all summer long.

When I went to go sort through the stuff, I couldn't find it ANYWHERE.

Slight panic, fight with Steve, and a broken dresser later, I resigned to give up for awhile and stressed over trying to find the money to get him another one and wondered if I would ever find that kind of deal.

Later Saturday night, I had an epiphany...

Sure enough, I walked straight up to one of the bags that had a different toy hiding within and pulled it right out.

Huge relief and NOW I can say, that I am done and can start saving for the mortgage.




3. Leaves

We had absolutely NO plans for Saturday, so we were pretty much sitting around the house all day. About 2:30, I looked outside and noticed that the six bags from two weeks ago that the boys and I raked were no longer sitting in our front yard.

When I asked Steve about them, he said that while Noah and I were at the library that morning, a guy drove up and offered to take them away for his compost pile. And then Steve said that he offered to take anymore if we wanted to finish the yard.

BAM!

No more words needed.

"Boys, let's get outside and get the yard done.

This time, we actually let the boys PLAY in the leaves before bagging them up, and a good time was had by all.

Steve and I were amazed that we finally have boys who are at the age that the help they have to offer is wonderful and we got the yard done in less than half the time than any other year, thanks to giving the boys jobs, and rewarding them with "teamwork treats" when it was over.





2. Noah's Watch and Children's Time at Church

This was quite an adventure all weekend as well.

I am he lunch mom on Fridays at Noah's school. This Friday when I left, Noah kind of flipped out a little about wanting to come home then instead of waiting. So I took off my watch and gave it to him and said I will be back in three hours. He was thrilled to have the watch all day and when I picked him up, he begged for a watch just like mine. Not one with characters or digital, but with a real face like mine.

While Deb and I were at WalMart, she was also looking for one for Abby so when we found these perfect watches for $6 we were both quite happy.

She is saving Abby's for Christmas, but Noah has now had THREE PERFECT WEEKS at school so I decided Saturday morning to present his to him as a reward for such great work at school.

He was SOOOOOO happy. All day long, he was reading time, showing everyone he saw all day, and kind of making me wish I had saved it as his only present for Christmas, he was so happy.

So I let him wear it to church Sunday morning, which turned out to be a BIG mistake.

During children' message, something apparently burst inside of him, and when our youth director told the kids about the food parade that they will be doing next week to collect food for local food pantries, Noah launched into a HUGE soliloquy in front of the entire congregation about "we're going to be in the Christmas parade at school and I'm going to wear a Christmas hat and mommy's going to wear antlers, and I can tell you when we'll line up because I have a new watch...etc" at the top of his lungs.

I haven't been that embarrassed in church in ages. No less than six people came up to me after church, "Noah sure isn't shy" and comments like that.

I know he was excited, but I am quite ashamed and he will not be going up for children's message for quite a long time.

1. Bells

No big story for this one, but it was fun having my sister and niece come to bell practice after church today. They are filling in for a service in December and it was fun having them there.



For a boring weekend, it actually came away with some silly stories. This week looks pretty boring other than STILL trying to find the money to pay the mortgage.

But if anyone sees a Bakugan flip open travel arena anywhere in the blosogphere, please throw an email my way.

Otherwise, have a great week.

Photo Story Friday;Two Boys and a Camera

A couple of weeks ago, a friend at Steve's work brought in a meal of Jambalaya for the office staff. Steve came home ranting and raving about how good it was and that he wanted to make it. So he went grocery shopping.

It was VERY spicy and all that sodium made us all quite sick within a half hour of eating. It was dark and cold outside so we didn't want to go for a walk, but we desperately needed to move some, so we broke out the American Idol dance mat that I got for Christmas last year.

I decided to take a few pictures, INTENDING to do a quick post about the jambalaya and it after effects (that lasted for about three days).

The boys took a turn first. They really don't "get it" about watching the arrows, but they like to pretend.











Then it was mommy and daddy's turn. I gave the camera to Noah to try to get some shots.


Not quite attractive of the mommy.












At least I'm smiling in THIS one.













But apparently the boys got bored, and decided that it would be fun to create some photos of their own, with Noah as photographer and Aaron the Ham as the "star".

I had no idea what they were doing, other than laughing hysterically behind us, until later that night when I looked at the camera. This is what I found:

A very close up of Aaron













A little further away














Many of the shaking your booty variety












And quite a few of the booty itself













Then come the silly show off poses




























And several that were taken looking directly into the light that I had to lighten up to even see Aaron's face.











































I love this one. It is SO Aaron.














Noah has asked numerous times for his own digital camera. I got him one of those toy VTech ones last year, but it is pretty bad quality and he is so good with the real thing that maybe next year we will figure out a way to get him one. Until then, I don't mind allowing him to use mine. He has a great eye.

Have a great weekend.

Tackle It Tuesday: Leaves

We have a HUGE tree in our front yard. It makes it much harder to have a healthy lawn and for some reason, the leaves fall later than every other tree in the neighborhood. While most people are raking leaves in September and October, we have to wait every year until November to start raking. So we knew it was going to get cold last weekend and decided on Friday afternoon to do our first raking of the yard.






We have a small yard, but it is very uneven so it makes it a little challenging for raking.











The boys were not overly enthusiastic about helping. I did all of the raking while they played, but putting all of the leaves into the bags proved a little more challenging, since we only had the small plastic leaf bags. I told them that they had to help me until 10 bags were filled. They were much more agreeable when they had a concrete responsibility.






It only took 6 bags.













Now that the yard is nice and green...














the tree still has plenty more to donate.


















What are you tackling today?

Weekend Top Five 11/10/08

It was a longer weekend, since Noah had Thursday and Friday off for conferences. I didn't realize how stressed I am about school mornings until I have several in a row where I don't have to worry about it. Then , the prospect of Monday seems even more daunting.




5. Thursday Morning With Mom

Thursday morning Noah and I got some time alone while Aaron went to school. We didn't do anything special but had fun playing Go Fish and then Noah found some fleece left over from some blankets I had made a while ago. He was so excited that it was so soft that he was carrying it everywhere calling it his blankie. So while he sat in the kitchen doing those fuse bead crafts (he loves them) I made one of those fleece tie blankets for him out of the material. Four days later, he is still carrying it everywhere with him.










4. Friday Night Out

After an afternoon of raking (see post tomorrow), we needed to get out of the house . So after a dinner of homemade mac n cheese (Steve and I loved it, the boys didn't), we headed out to the local mall to run off some steam. I called Deb to see if she wanted to join us with the girls. She said that the girls weren't interested, but that she would meet me there.

They definitely had steam to burn. So after they got out some of the energy at the play area, we went to the toy store and I found the one thing I was planning to get Aaron for Christmas for only $20 and I hadn't found one for less than $40 or $50 anywhere else. So after awhile, Steve took the boys home and Deb and I got some quality window shopping (other than the present for Aaron) together. It is amazing how therapeutic a few hours out without the kids can be.











3. Saturday afternoon split.

I had several student recitals I needed to attend so I was unable to attend my nephew Jamie's birthday party. But, I was able to convince Steve to take the boys anyway. That part wasn't hard. The challenging part was convincing him to take the camera so I had something to post about. He actually did a pretty good job.

Jamie turned four eight days after Aaron did and he is a big Thomas fan (as was Noah a few years ago) so he had a Thomas party, complete with "Pin the Number on the Engine".


They even brought me home a piece of cake and it was very yummy.

2. Saturday Night Movie Night


I tried SOOOOO hard to win a copy of Pirates Who Don't Do Anything during the blog carnival a couple of weeks ago. We went to it in the theater with my sister and several of her preschool kids over the summer. It still remains the only movie that Aaron has ever sat through, so I rented it to see if they still liked it enough to buy it for him for Christmas.










I don't know if you have seen it yet, but it is a very good move and the music video at the end got my boys dancing CRAZY. We are instilling the "three presents" rule this year for Christmas (same as Jesus) but I might need to figure out a way to put this in Aaron's stocking.








1. Sunday Church

Not so much at church, as on the way to church. My bells were performing so Steve dropped me off early to set up and decided to take the boys for a drive to stall before bringing them in to wreak havoc on the church. About ten minutes later, I hear the church phone ring. I didn't think much of it until a deacon comes into the sanctuary where we were just starting our rehearsal and says, "Kristi, Steve's on the phone." I immediately panicked worrying about a wreck on the side of the road.

He had run over a water pipe and blew the back tire. Of course, the spare was back at home in the garage. So was he was on the side of the road waiting for the tow truck, a church member saw them and stopped by and scooped up the boys to bring them to church while Steve stayed with the van.

Then, of course, the Sears bill hasn't been paid yet so Sears wasn't going to fix the tire until Steve brought that card up to date and Steve had to walk to a nearby ATM a to get the required cash. Apparently, it took Steve several hours and trips back and forth from the mall to the tire place before they would even start the repairs. Four hours later, we could finally get on with our life.

Why are Sunday mornings always an adventure?

At least the bell performance went well. I can't post them anymore because of the whole "church lurkers" issue but I will let you know that it went well.

So it was an interesting and story-full weekend. It looks to be kind of a boring week, other than a well child visit for Aaron and a preschool conference.

Please sign Mr. Linky to share you weekend events with others and have a great week.

My Job

I have used this blog to vent about my church

I have used this blog to vent about my in-laws

I have used this blog to vent about my kids

What I have never used this blog to vent about before is my job.

Or should I say one of my jobs. The one that generally causes me few problems that I have to think about once I walk out the door each evening. This is the job I have teaching piano at a local music store.

Before this I taught privately at my church.
Before that, I was a school music teacher.

I will not go into details about why I am no longer a school teacher and why I no longer teach out at my church. I will say that a year ago last September, I decided that rather than be a self employed teacher, I would become an "employee" again and let the store handle the business practices so I was free to teach.

The pay cut was quite significant, since they take 35 percent of what my students pay for lessons as their cut. But they were providing my students and it is SO much closer to home that I figured it was a pretty good trade off.

The nature of this business is becoming very shaky. I lose students at a much higher rate than I ever did before. And it isn't been due to my negligence as a teacher. It is usually because of money. People who are having trouble paying their regular bills cannot possibly justify the huge cost of private instrument lessons.

When I went in to teach on Monday, I had lost a student for that reason.

When I went in on Tuesday, I had lost another one because the winter sports schedule was becoming too busy to fit in piano lessons.

But tonight was the ICING ON THE CAKE. I lost yet another student.

Not because of money.
Not because of schedules.

Why did I lose this student?

Because the parent apparently called the store asking to have their child walked out to their car at night and the message was not delivered to me. This young lady is 17 years old and my last lesson of the night. I walked out of the building at the same time anyway. If the clerk in the store had simply mentioned to walk out with the student, I would have been happy to do that.

But no such message was given and I lose another chunk.

I can't AFFORD to lose students because of a store clerk's laziness. It would have been very simple for this clerk to put a little note in my mailbox with this simple request. But it doesn't matter to the clerk. He gets an hourly salary. What does it matter to him if each and every student I lose takes another chunk out of my ability to pay my mortgage? Apparently, he told the teacher of the student's sibling, who didn't even come on the same night. Was the message supposed to magically float through the air and reach me? Apparently the manager of the store called the mom to apologize for the clerk and ask for another chance to rectify and the mom was so outraged (I would be too) that she said no way.

I do understand the parent's point of view completely. When I first told my father I was making the switch, even he questioned the location of the store. But I am still upset that my direct income has now suffered because of another person's mishandling of a situation.



Okay, thanks for letting me have my rant.

In better news, Noah's conference went well today and I am thankful. I hope we can keep him on this good path as the year progresses. I am so proud of him.

Have a great weekend.

Thursday Thirteen: Signs That Christmas is Coming

Is is really November 6th? We broke out the warm weather clothes all week after they had been packed away.

And despite the warm weather, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (is the song stuck in your head now?)

Here are 13 ways that Christmas is trying to start already...

1. 95.7 WLHT and STAR 105.7 in Grand Rapids have switched to their all Christmas music format

2. The Toys R US Big Book catalog has already been defaced by two little boys with many different colored sharpies, displaying the countless toys they think they should get for Christmas.

3. The woman in charge of the Angel Tree project at our church made her first plea of the season for help this past Sunday.

4. The discussion has already taken place about what we should do about a curious little kitty and a Christmas tree. When Minnie was a baby, she climbed it, got stuck, strangled, almost died, peed all over the carpet out a of fear, knocked the tree over, needed to be CUT out of the tree, and left us with no Christmas tree for Christmas morning. (It happened about fifteen minutes before we needed to leave for Christmas Eve church services)

5. Deb and I have already started talking about our annual trip out on Black Friday for Christmas shopping. Even though I won't be doing as much shopping this year, it will still be fun to share the experience with my friend. Even being poor can't stop tradition.

6. Drawings have been done for the kids on both sides of the family for presents.

7. It's supposed to snow tomorrow

8. My piano students all bought their Christmas music books this week. I am a firm believer of starting them early so they can actually PLAY the songs by Christmas.

9. The neighbor took advantage of the warm weather this week and put her lights on her bushes. I may follow suit before it gets cold tomorrow. The only problem will be holding back from turning them on.

10. Flipping through stations of the television, QVC has more Christmas Gift programs than any others.

11. My cherub choir spent ten minutes singing "Happy Birthday Jesus" at last night's practice to get ready for their December performance

12. I just saw a commercial with Santa Claus in it

13. I need to believe Christmas is coming and to keep my heart focused on the real meaning.

So Merry Christmas and let me know if you have seen any signs around you that it is coming earlier this year than ever before. Please feel free to sign Mr. Linky if you would like to share your T13 with others.

Weekend Top Five 11/3/08

Another busy weekend, but much more relaxing than last week actually. Room cleaning became much less stressful than last week, partly because the toys are now spread among three rooms instead of two (Stay tuned for a Tackle It Tuesday to explain in the future). I am actually quite relieved to have Halloween over and get on with the REAL holidays. Two of our local radio stations have already switched to all Christmas music programming!

Here are the top five for this weekend:

5. NOAH DID IT!

A very excited 6 year old came home from school on Friday. Five perfect days at school for the first time. He keeps asking when he gets to school again so he can get his prize. I don't think it's the prize he wants, just the idea that he actually earned it.



How proud does he look?












4. Halloween

Yup, Friday night was the culminating event of the All Hallows Eve festivities. We fully intended to only go to the mall for a little trick or treating and then be done, which we did. They had a magician and juggler as well as stops outside of every store with people handing out candy.









We were done by 6:30 and still had the whole night ahead of us so we came home and our neighbor's party had just started and our neighbor kids were just starting to go out trick or treating so we joined them.
















3. Bowling (Oops, didn't happen, no lanes available when we got there)
3. Revised. Grand Rapids Children's Museum

When in doubt, Noah wants to go to the children's museum. I do believe that the $60 we paid for the children's museum membership this year has been paid back at least four or five times, between our visits to the museum and the dual memberships we got throughout this past summer. I think the novelty is starting to wear off though. Aaron chose to spend time "putting on a show" on the stage. Noah was more of a wanderer than a player today and at bedtime he said that it didn't seem to be as much fun as it used to be. It kind of made me a little sad.


2. Saturday Night Movie Night...Christmas Time Is Here (sort of)

As everyone who know us is already aware, we are Christmas freaks. We got married four days before Christmas, even though it about sent my in-laws to an early grave. Maybe in spite of the fact that this year we are having to reduce the gift load significantly, we are getting more into the spirit earlier than ever. We just had to get Halloween out of the way. There is one set of garland and lights that never came down last January and the boys have turned it on periodically all year long and "played Christmas", so of course the lights went on tonight when we turned off the lamps and snuggled into our blankets on the floor.

So we watched a classic from my childhood, Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas and a couple of shorts from Mickey Mouse's Twice Upon A Christmas.

BTW, if you watched Emmett Otter when you were little and got mad when they re -released it and took the scene where Ma Otter tells Hattie Muskrat to "fall off the dock", you can see it if you follow the link above. I know we were disappointed when we bought it and it was cut.

If you are starting the Christmas celebrating early like me, feel free to scroll down to the bottom of this site and follow the countdown. It is so neat, but it was too big to put on my sidebar.

1. Family Trip to the Library

The month of November has Sunday afternoon programs at our local library. This week was a mime.

Actually, a REALLY GOOD mime. Often, I sit through these programs thinking, okay, same ole, same ole, but this husband/wife team was very entertaining and kept BOTH boys' attentions for a full hour.















Of course, audience participation always helps. The boys got up on stage to act like monkeys during one of the story songs. Noah got into it big time. The mime said not to come up on stage unless you can "act silly". Not a problem for Noah the Ham.









I am assuming that none of you consider eating half (slight exaggeration)of the boys' Halloween candy as bullet worthy for the top five? I didn't think so :(

Well, next week is looking a little more strange since I will be gone all day Saturday for my students' Sonatina Festival. Who knows what Daddy will cook up to do with the boys?

As always, if you post about your weekend activities, please join into Mr. Linky below.