Noah's paragraph (punctuation an spelling left as originally written)

Noah came home from school today and said that his teacher has 12 notebooks filled with writing so that's what he wants to do too. Throughout the evening, he was busy writing away in one of the many notebooks I have gotten for him over time. He wanted to share with me what he had written and I couldn't help but share it with the world. I love my deep little guy.

Here it is:

in my mind

In my mind I think I can
do anything. I can climb 100 feet,
Jump 100 miles high, and swing from
ropes over the city. In my mind
I am in the time of the dinosaurs.
I have a pet t-rex. When it
grows up I will be able to train
and ride it. in my mind I
am rideing a horse. My horse
can jump canyons and
climb cliffs. I can see, make, ride,
Do anything in my mind.

He wants to take it to school to show his teacher tomorrow. I hope she praises him for it a much as I did tonight. I would love to encourage this side of him. I wanted to write it down because if it gets lost, I want to always remember it.

Have a restful Memorial Day weekend. I will be celebrating my birthday on Sunday at my brother's house on Sunday and then we will be back for Noah's last week of school.

A Mother's Dedication (Not What You Think)

Aaron found this Mama Duck quietly and calmly sitting on her eggs on her nest at the park on Sunday. It is always so peaceful to watch. That Mama wasn't going to move for anything...




She had found a nice "quiet" spot that was nicely shaded and didn't even budge when Noah crept to get a closer look.














And that mama wasn't moving for anything, even though there were dozens of kids running up and down the play structure under which she was "hidden"












That's some Mama Dedication.

A Scout's Duty

As I have mentioned many times, Noah has been very active with his Cub Scout Pack since he joined in January. I know many people have issues with scouting, as I actually do in a way too. But I have to admit, that the program has been very good for Noah. I like that he works toward achievements and that he receives recognition for his work at each monthly pack meeting.

Tomorrow is the last pack meeting of this school year, where he will officially be promoted to a Bear Scout. He will receive not only his wolf badge, but three arrow pins for all of the electives he did.

I have learned a few things along the way too. I have learned that a seven year old can do a lot more things than I expected him to do. And also that some things that I he had previously learned may not have been as ingrained as I thought.

This weekend, his scout pack, along with a ton of others, both boy and girl scouts, went to place flags at all of the graves of the veterans at our local cemetery. I did not know that all of the flags across the country that are placed for Memorial Day are placed by scouts. It was a VERY wet and soggy morning and the boys were pretty miserable about getting their feet SOPPING wet. They also needed a LOT of reminding about not letting the American flag drag on the ground, especially after an hour and a half of carrying them around.

Both boys got to take a try at using the hole digger as well, although it really wasn't necessary since the ground was so wet.

There was quite a it of belly aching about walking there and back, especially with the wet fee.t But after a small discussion about wet feet being a small price to pay for the people who died for our country, the complaining ceased for the most part.

I was surprised though when we were sitting down to lunch and I had the boys tell Steve about the morning activity. Noah was able to tell him all of the branches of the armed services. So I guess he did learn something from the experience and when we passed a different cemetery later, Noah was the first one to speak up and say, "Mom, look at those flags. Those were placed by scouts just like me."

I'm Outta Control

No, not really in a bad way.

When I was growing up, it was like torture for my mom to drag me along when she was buying flowers for our yard, and even worse when she actually made me HELP. Oh, the tragedy!

But now that I have my own home, I have gotten more and more into it each year. For some reason, I LOVE getting dirty and working on the yard. It is probably one of my favorite pastimes. The majority of the weeds in our yard have been pulled by hand over the years, no matter how tedious just because I enjoy the satisfaction of seeing it so much better. I'm not good at being creative in flower placement what so ever. I have a small house and yard, so no need for a professional landscaper. I don't know the first thing about what grows well in what kind of soil or what should be planted where. It has been eight years of guess work. Actually EXACTLY eight years. We moved into our house eight years ago this week.

When we moved in the yard had nothing. Since my birthday always falls right around the Memorial Day holiday, my parents have always mixed my birthday breakfast with a trip to the local flower store for more plants for our yard. Some things have taken, others have not.

This was our first attempt the first year. They died and we pulled them out the next year when we got out first two lilac bushes.

We have an apple blossom tree that my mom gave us when Noah was a baby that has grown wonderfully and a cherry tree that she gave us when Aaron was little that has died a slow and painful death but I don't have the heart to pull it out of the ground.

I have attempted a large number of things around the tree out front but two years ago decided that maybe hostas would be the best. During my tour around the yard yesterday, I confirmed that it was indeed the right route to go. They look great and next spring I will be able to split each of them and start out eight more hostas in the back somewhere.

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL warm day and it is he beginning of a long stretch of warm weather coming our way. The first thing I did was open the windows and notice that the larger of my lilac bushes are FINALLY starting to blossom, complete with very strong aroma.

This is when I went crazy. I grabbed the scissors and headed outside. Let me just say, my favorite thing about these lilac bushes is cutting off branches and giving them to people. They smell SO GOOD and it feels good to be able to share them with others.

I started out by just putting some on the kitchen table. Par for the course, Minnie the Cat was right there ready to pounce, which drives me crazy. I think my cat has OCD when it comes to the flowers. She just CAN'T leave them alone when I bring them in.


After a little while, I needed MORE aroma and cut some for the living room. I put them right next to some roses that I received from a piano student at the recital last week. Now the living room too was filled with a wonderful scent.

But Lurking Minnie was soon to follow, trying everything she could to get to those lilacs.


















Now, I told you I was out of control. After getting ready to go take my shower, I needed MORE! So I headed out once again and got some for my bedroom dresser. At this point, I opened the bedroom window and Minnie finally settled down in the window sill and I was hoping that would solve the problem.


Since I re-configured the bricks in the front, I have been waiting to fill them in with other flora. For my birthday trip next week, I want to get a couple more small bushes to match the little ones that Aaron picked out, as well as a couple more stepping stones leading up to the faucet. But I just always want MORE COLOR in my front. So when Aaron and I ran to the store for a couple of groceries, we strolled through the flowers and Aaron picked out a couple of "value flats" for the front. Since orange is his favorite color, I was thrilled that he picked out marigolds as one of his choices. We brought them home and I set right to work. Aaron was excited that there was a pattern and even Noah, who is oblivious to anything pretty in the world, noticed right away.

Yes, I really am out of control. But it is always so exciting to see the fruits of one's labor when it comes to the yard. My neighbor on one side is completely obsessive about her yard and the neighbor on the other side mows his lawn maybe three times a season, and has no flora of worth at all. I guess it's good that we sit right in the middle, doing the best we can to make it pretty with limited budget and faring pretty well.

BTW, I came home from my rehearsal at Aaron's school yesterday afternoon to find ONE of the arrangements tipped and water everywhere. I could have been annoyed, but instead I was impressed that Super Minnie only dumped one, and that it was the one that was NOT in a breakable glass. We'll see how she does today:)

WW: The Doll With the Evil Eye

My SIL noticed this doll while we were at the museum a few months ago. Definitely a little creepy...

Creative Eating

After we went to the Whitecaps game a few weeks ago, I have been craving pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches like we had at the game. I found some at the store the other day and was waiting all week until Friday when we could finally make them for dinner.

We usually always make the boys try anything we make when it's something new, but between only having a small tub of it, and not really being in the mood to have our yummy dinner destroyed by complaints, we gave in and made grilled fajita chicken strips for them to have, rather than the pulled chicken. (More for us). In order to further make sure they actually ate, we also made up some steak fries.

As I pulled out the hamburger buns and cheese for Steve and me, Noah asked why he couldn't have a sandwich too. I figured it was only fair that he got a bun to and he set to work.

First he buttered his bun, inserted a slice of cheese, followed by his chicken.

I figured he was done.

But no...


Next came the fries. A complete meal on his bun. I CHALLENGED him to eat it, figuring after one bite he'd give up.




I was wrong. He ate the sandwich, including stopping and refilling it with meat several times.





Not to be outdone, little brother had to follow suit, of course.









Creativity while eating...not too bad.

Another Weekend

Wow, I can't believe that my last post was a week ago. I am definitely slacking. Either I am just too busy to spend an hour formulating any kind of organized thoughts for a blog post. May is always so crazy. I have been riding a bit of an emotional roller coaster lately and unfortunately, the boys have been riding the ups and downs with me. Never a good situation. Doctor wants to medicate but I refuse so on top of physical misery from my back, I just need to keep being strong and reminding myself to get over it, stop being a baby, and get my act together for the sake of my family.

It was a busy week last week. Once again, not too many pictures. The ones I did get don't seem to want to post this morning. Apparently Blogger is having sleep issues too. Oh well, maybe I'll come back and add them later.

Thursday night, Noah had his spring "concert" which really wasn't. It's not just because I am a former music teacher who actually designed programs for 400+ elementary school age kids that were pretty awesome that I am frustrated with Noah's programs. Once in awhile, they're actually okay. But this was NOT one of those times. The school has no risers (which is ridiculous given the growth that they are claiming for next year) so once your child reaches 2nd grade or above, you can't see them on the stage anyway because they're behind three rows of kids. The teacher went through the effort to try to teach sign language to a song, but it ended up being was hands in the air randomly moving around since we couldn't see any of the other signs. I behaved myself though and praised Noah for the great job he did playing the bells and he was pleased.

Friday night I spent baking all night. I wish I had taken pictures because the boys were actually helpful. Since I had to make double batches of brownies and cupcakes for my student recital on Saturday, I went through full dozen of eggs. By the time we were done, Noah was fully capable of cracking an egg and pouring it into the bowl with no mess and no egg shells in the bowl. He was very proud.

The recital went well. Most of the kids remembered their pieces without use of book but I did have to flip the book in front of a couple of them. It happens every year and it's fine, since I have always been terrible at memorizing music and I suffer from performance anxiety to the extreme. The boys' favorite part was the piles of treats that came home with me that we spent the rest of the weekend munching on.

There was a"stinky carnival" at the church nearby this weekend too. Since we had taken them to that one a month ago, we were able to tell them no and the boys were fine with it. But each year, during this carnival, the church/school runs their own little quarter carnival at the same time. I figured we'd walk over there and let them spend their allowance money on little games. Luck must have been on their side though, because they both came away with buddies and another toy.

Sunday after church, we spent the day overhauling our basement. It was LONG overdue. The worst part was that Noah's and my allergies have been REALLY bad for a few days now and combining that with the filth of our basement sent me into a tailspin. I finally broke down and took some benadryl. But that combined with the prescription Motrin I'm on for my back just totally knocked me out. I felt like I was in a daze for most of the day. So as I sit here with my throat pounding and my nose dripping, I vow to never take benadryl again. It was just a yucky feeling. But, we made huge strides in getting our basement under control. Steve took the shop vac to our ceiling and got rid of all of the cobwebs and the like. The boys love it when we work down there because they find all kinds of treasures. They kept finding scrapbooks of when Steve and I were younger and it was funny to hear some of their reactions. After my doctor declared me "that age" last week, I am definitely feeling old anyway.

It's Monday. I'll be in Aaron's school all week accompanying for the middle school choir classes and then their concert on Thursday night. I may actually get to see a baseball game this week, which I am excited about. We practiced with the boys for awhile last night and it would be nice if it actually makes a difference in how they play. We have some attitude adjustments to make in the boys this week that have been causing some problems around the house as well. I think we need to nip these in the bud before summer vacation hits. I wish the boys had more friends locally so they didn't have to spend so much time bickering with each other. I know that would solve some of this problem. I had hoped that Noah would make some friends at scouts or baseball, but that has';t seemed to happen. We really need play dates around here.

(On a personal , completely conceited note...I still love my new hair. The only person that really doesn't is my loving hubby. His response is always, "I'm still getting used to it". I hope he'll come around.)

Have a good week everyone:)

Fun at the Meijer Gardens

One of the reasons I love our annual membership to the children's museum (besides being able to take Aaron whenever he asks) is the reciprocal memberships during the spring and summer. the entire month of May is free admission to the local botanical garden and sculpture park. I actually already blagged that we went two weekends ago. But I never shared some of the fun we had. So since this is my own personal digital journal, I think I'll show a few of my favorite sots of the day. We have three more weekends in May and I am still hoping to go back one more time, maybe with my parents and some cousins since they got a membership this year too.

As I mentioned before, Noah was into the butterflies BIG time this year. I'm not sure why but it was really fun to watch his interest bloom this time. He waited patiently in different spots trying to get them to land on him (which they never did, unfortunately).
n
Inside the butterfly garden we noticed something that we had never before. They had some different types of bird species walking around on the ground. I don't remember what they were but it was funny to all of a sudden watch these little birds go walking right past us across the path. We sat and watched the birds for quite a long time and it helped to amuse Aaron, who spent much of the time trying hard NOT to swat at the butterflies as they came fluttering by.

We found some new areas in the children's garden that we haven't visited before. The day was kind of sprinkling rain on and off so out visit was cut a little short, but the boys spent quite a bit of time in an imitation beaver dam, complete with building up logs and trying to run on top of them as well. Since it was too small for adults to crawl in, Noah took my flip camera sand shot some video in there, It was very fun to watch later, given his interesting commentary throughout.

It is a given every time we go to the children's garden that Aaron is going to get soaked and this time was no exception. There are two separate places where kids can play in the water. We didn't let him go in his usual one since I hadn't brought an extra outfit this time, but I (mistakenly) thought that it would be fine to let the kids play with boats in the water. Daddy had just as much fun as the boys did playing with boats I think.

But, alas, I was wrong. After a few minutes, my water obsessed child did indeed figure out a way to use that water to get completely soaked. At least I don't get upset about it anymore. It is just the way he is and it is really endearing once you learn to just accept that if water in ANYWHERE in sight, the child WILL become soaked.

To go dry off for a little while, we took the boys over the "sensory" garden which is just another garden area based on the five senses. Noah parked himself at a little table where he could decorate his own butterfly and Aaron gave into our request (after daddy did it first) to dress up as a butterfly. After searching for a "boy butterfly" costume, doesn't he look too adorable for words?


Since the rain started picking up at this point, as was Aaron's unpleasant demeanor, we decided that we needed to cut the trip through the sculptures short, but not until we'd had a chance to finally go see the big horse. I don't have a ton of pictures since I didn't want to get my camera wet, but I thought it was funny that Noah set himself right under the hoof and wanted his picture taken under it. Luckily, the boys didn't notice that the HUGE horse was anatomically correct until we were on our way out, otherwise I am quite sure that wold have brought about quite a bit of colorful discussion.

On our way out, since we had promised Noah one more trip through the butterfly garden, we also gave them a chance to check out the cacti. I have to admit, even I like to feel the different spikes, despite the signs everywhere that say "Don't touh" so I couldn't blame the boys too much for a little experimentation.

It was a nice visit but I am hoping to go back again before the month is out and see some more of the stuff that we missed this time. But I wanted to leave you with this sculpture that I saw for the first time. It was in the "storytelling garden" of a grandpa telling a story to a child, and for some reason I was intrigued. It was just such a sweet scene and I smile each time I look at it.






Have a great Tuesday :)

Mother's Day Weekend 2010

I only have a couple of pictures from this weekend. Not because it wasn't busy, but because I just didn't take any. And the weekend was kind of a strange one in a lot of ways, especially since I spent the majority of it AWAY from my kids.

But the good thing was that for the first time EVER, we managed to visit ALL FOUR of the grandmothers in Mother's Day weekend. Usually, because of the relationship between my mother and myself, or because of Wheelz Family (Steve's family) drama, there always seem to be obstacles. But it actually worked out this time.

My mother who lives in Illinois always comes to visit my grandma about an hour way from here sometime in May. This past Friday, after a doctor appt (more about that later) while Aaron had the day off of school I took him down for a visit for a couple of hours. My grandma, who was a school teacher all of her life, was blown away by Aaron's reading. And he was thrilled to have a new audience to which he could show off to his heart's content. At 94 years old, I am limited to how many mother's days I have left with my grandma (even though she is amazing, walking several miles a day and still driving, living on her own, etc) so I am always glad when I can get down there for a visit. We spent some time talking about hymnals and some of our favorite hymns. It was a neat discussion. The visit with MY mom was interesting as always. My 37th birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and the woman still doesn't know the date. AND, the classy woman that she is, she TOOK OUT HER PARTIAL at the public table where we were having ice cream. Despite the fact that out relationship will never be close, I was glad that she got to see Aaron for a little while.

Friday and Saturday evening, the symphony chorus in which I have been singing had our final performance of the year. We performed Verdi's Requiem which is a HUGE piece of of music, loud, beautiful and tiring. It took up the majority of last week in rehearsals but I loved performing it. I am kind of bummed that chorus is done for the year, but I really look forward to starting up again in the fall and being part of the group for the entire season next year. Our review in the paper wasn't perfect and the picture of the chorus cut me off, but the memories I will have of the performance will stay with and I have been singing the melodies constantly ever since.

On Saturday, Steve's family (after A LOT of drama) had a big extended family get together at his brother's house about an hour and a half away from here. There was no way I would be able to go and still be able to make to to my concert that night so the boys headed off without me. I was pretty stressed about being the whole day away from the kids, but from what I understood, they had a good time and Steve's mom could have her little brag that she had all of her grandkids with her to worship the ground she walks on (okay, a little sarcasm, but it's allowed once in awhile, right?).

While the boys were going to be gone all day, I felt the need to use my time wisely...or selfishly. I chose selfish and took myself to a salon for some pampering. I have been growing my bangs out for a little over a month now and they are starting to actually look longer. But I still needed a major pick me up. It came. In the form of getting my eyebrows waxed, followed by my first time ever getting my hair highlighted. I know it is awfully conceited to write an entire paragraph on my hair, but it really was a big pick me up. I can't believe the difference it makes to me. The stylist also trimmed the heaviness out of the bangs growing out so that they lie flatter, and I even topped it off with throwing out my old liquid foundation, and trying out some new powder makeup. In all, I think I love my new look, even if no one else actually notices. So, for Mother's Day (and my birthday present) I treated myself to s a little piece of glamour. I never got a "before" picture since I didn't know it was coming and the "after" doesn't really show that it turned out looking pretty nice, but you ll just have to trust me on it.

So Sunday, Steve was all tuckered out from the new duties he's taken on at work and decided he needed to sleep in instead of going to church. I was a little disappointed since I really like this new church, but I understood and we had a leisurely morning at home. After an early lunch, we packed into the car to visit my parents, the fourth grandma. My step mom is actually the mother figure in my life so I was glad that we were able to get up there too. The boys had painted a vase for her earlier this week and I put some more of my lilacs in the vase and we headed up there. My sister and her family stopped by a little while after we got there and the boys got to play with their cousins for a few hours and we all had a really nice visit.

By the time we got home, it was time for baths, some board game s(Noah is really starting to make some good chess moves) and then off for an early bedtime.

It's a busy week ahead, with school "special days" galore, an ultrasound for me (not for a baby), baseball games starting, double scout activities, and my student recital on Saturday. The recital prep will take a large portion of my free hours while Aaron is at school and I also signed on with Aaron's school to accompany for the middle school choir concert again, so I will be in the classroom numerous times this week and next week practicing with the kids. Noah also has a school concert this week and Aaron has grandparents day (which may be grandparent-less for him). I agree with my friend Deb when she posted her FB status last week "You know it's the end of the year when every day is a "special" day. But with 19 days of school left, these "special" days really are special and it will just be a few short weeks until we're all saying "What are we going to do with these kids all summer?"

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day weekend too.

Happy Mother's Day!

The day I became a mommy...July 4, 2002

My Mother's Day Card

The boys both came home with wrapped Mother's Day presents yesterday. They were BEGGING me to open them, but I want to have something to open on Sunday so, much to their dismay, I told them I wanted to wait. They were both pretty upset, but I appeased Noah by at least looking at the card. Although his penmanship for a second grader isn't really what it should be, the sentiment was certainly there.

I am going translate complete with his spelling...just because it's sweet.

"I love you more than the moon and back"
(This is from a book that we've read together since he was a baby)

Moms are truly amazeing

There are 6 resons why

(He gives a specific number of reasons for everything he does these days...it cracks Steve up)

1. they keep great supizes ( I wonder what surprise he thinks he's getting)

2. they give you stuff

3. they love you

4. they can do stuff that you don't know they can do (I wonder what I've done)

5. they are verrrrrrrrrrry smart (Thank you, Noah)

6. moms protect their kids

and that why moms are amazeing!

Happy Mother's Day Everyone. Have a great weekend.

Wordless Wednesday: 80 Degrees in April

Weekend Top Five

Yeah, I know it's Tuesday already, but I had so many things spinning in my head yesterday that I had to get them out in words so I could look at them rationally. Now that it's Tuesday, I do want to share a few things from the weekend. It was a pretty good one.




5. Friday Was Warm
Although it was the last day of April, we had an unusually warm day and Aaron was so excited when I FINALLY agreed to set up the sprinkler for him to run through. Aaron is water-obsessed. He prefers to be all-engulfed in it at any moment he can. Every year we get him one of those larger inflatable pools in which to jump to his heart's content. We used to worry about him breaking it, but now we know that they won't last more than a summer anyway but he has so much fun getting wet that it's worth it.




4. Friday night was baseball again. The only reason it's really noteworthy is because baseball is so incredibly unorganized this year. It wouldn't be that big of a deal except that between this new job Steve is doing at work and the craziness of other activities, a schedule would be very helpful right now. But, as far as the playing itself, it's going okay. Noah is working hard to try to catch the ball instead of running away from it and doing well when he stays focused. Aaron is loving being part of the team but often needs to remember to just follow the rules rather than clarifying them ten times before doing them.

3. Meijer Gardens
Our children's museum membership allows us to go to the local botanical garden and sculpture park for the entire month of May for free. The rest of the Saturdays in May are filled so we decided to go this pat Saturday. Usually we have the same agenda and go to see the same things. But this time, I wanted to try something different. Noah didn't really want to go for the walk along the river that we usually do and we have never spent much time looking at the sculptures, including the big huge DaVinci horse that is the garden's claim to fame. So that was our goal for this visit.


The butterfly gardens exhibit had OFFICIALLY closed the day before but we remembered from last year that there were tons of butterflies into the month of May so we headed there first. Usually the butterfly garden is a place we just waltz through on the way to other things, due to two little boys who really didn't care that much. But this time was different. Noah was VERY interested in the butterflies this time. He would stay in one place for a long time, just watching them and holding out his arm for one to land (it never did). I wish I could have stayed in there longer with Noah because he was so enthralled but Aaron was very UNinterested in the butterflies and spent the time begging to go so we had to cut it short. But we did humor Noah by going back in briefly on our way out.

2. Sunday Church
I know I haven't posted much about our church search lately. The reason is because we think we may have found IT. We have been at our most recent possibility for a month now and it has exactly what we want. All of us. After reading back through my T13 awhile back about what we liked about the last mega-church, this new one has all of those characteristics, but on a a quite smaller scale, although still huge by some standards. I will write an entire post soon when we begin the joining process, which is several Sundays long. But we're excited that we think the search is done. We really look forward to every Sunday and I have taken away something each Sunday that has carried with me through the week.

1. A Tackle
I figure this can count as a Tackle It Tuesday too if I share our other Sunday activity. Our bedroom has had a carpet remnant in it for a few years now that only covered half of the floor. The other half was still exposed wood floor that was covered in paint droppings from one of the many times I have painted that room.

Awhile back, my parents re-did the carpeting in their home and had given us two huge rolls of their old carpet. I posted a little while ago how I used the first roll for Noah's bedroom. And it has been driving me nuts that we still hadn't gotten to our bedroom yet. I managed to cut the remnant for our room weeks ago but it has lied in a heap in the basement ever since, making it impossible for the kids to play down there as well.

So Sunday I was feeling the need to be constructive, and I cleared the entire bedroom and got down to business. Needless to say, the kids don't really like these kind of days where mom and dad are tearing apart the house to make some kind of improvement because they are left to fend for themselves. But sometimes, I think we fill too much of their time with activities and they don't spend enough time just finding something to do on their own. I wish they had more friends around here to play with on days like this. After a few hours, we were done and I am very happy with how it turned out. Because it's a small room and the bed takes up most of the space, you can't really get a sense of the final product, but this is as close as I can get.

Honorable Mention
One other thing we did this weekend was help Noah prepare for his report and speech about Galileo. He had to research, write a paragraph, and create a model of a telescope. We made the telescope last weekend, as well as teaching him how to sue Microsoft Word to type his report. I was actually very impressed with how he put so much thought into what he was writing. The funniest part was getting him to let spelling errors happen so I could show him how to use the spell checker. He was determined to fix every word as he went. I guess that's good.

So Sunday we spent some time with him practicing his presentation. I videotaped each practice run so he could get used to nerves and also watch how better he got each time. He kind of complained a little when I made him do it several times, but when he was done, you could tell how much more relaxed he was. Monday morning came and he dressed up (It was also Career Day for Spirit week) and headed off to school excited about his report. I have not seen his grade but he is happy with how he did so I am very proud of him for putting forth his best effort on the project. Did you know that Galileo went to jail for telling people that the sun was the center of the universe? That's what I learned form my second grader's project.

This weekend went better than the previous couple have. Tomorrow when I go to the doctor, we'll be discussing how my issues may be affecting the household demeanor, but for now I can just be glad that we had a good weekend. I am still bummed that after a week of not seeing my kids, they are going away to spend the day with the in-laws on Saturday and I won't be with them, but I really need to just let that go and know that they'll have a fun time with their cousins.

The Week Ahead Is A Doozy

It's concert week for the symphony. We're performing an awesome piece of music that I love. And yet I am a little sad. Concert week means practices every night (except one where I had to put all of the lessons that I had to cancel due to rehearsals) until 10:00. It means I don't get to kiss my boys good night for a week. It means I don't get to lie in bed with them before lights out and hear about how their day went. I'll have to settle for going in after I get home and whispering "I Love You" to their sleeping little heads.

It's also Mother's Day week. We got an email from Steve's SIL last week saying they wanted to have a big Mother's Day to-do on Saturday. When I responded that I had symphony concert and Steve works on Saturdays and we couldn't come, they then started insisting on picking up the boys Friday, keeping them all weekend, and bringing them home on Sunday. Fat Chance! (This paragraph is the reason my in-laws were never informed when I started the new blog). With my in-laws, they seem to have an all or nothing policy. If we say we'll visit for the day, they want them overnight. The time the boys spent the night recently, Steve's parents threw a fit because it was only one night, even telling the boys that it was "mom's fault" that they couldn't stay longer. And, each time the boys HAVE gone overnight, we get a call either the week before or the while they're there asking us to change plans, either coming to meet them half way to pick them up or other changes. And now, I'm the bad guy because I don't want to spend my Mother's Day sitting around waiting for my kids to come home. Steve is going to take the boys there for the day on Saturday (about an hour and a half away) and bring them home that evening. It's a compromise and I wish just once they'd be happy for the extra effort we make, not always wanting more. I will then look forward to finally spending some time with them on Sunday, for the first time all week.

Also this week is my annual. Not such a big deal other than yucky. Except that there seem to be some changes lately that I need to discuss with the doctor, and it will probably result in expensive tests that we can't afford right now, thanks to the crappy insurance changes that Steve's job made. The co-pay alone doubled, making it a major bill rather than a minor one.

Two scout events, two baseball practices, baseball pictures, school carnival, school spirit week (meaning "special" outfits" necessary each day), and preparing for my student recital will round off the week quite nicely. Wonder if the house will get cleaned? Not likely. But that's okay. I have next week to put everything back together again.

I think I'll spend my alone day (since the fam will be gone for a Mother's Day celebration without me) wandering garage sales and possibly going to the local beauty school and getting my hair colored for the very first time ever. Since I've been growing out my bangs I think I need to add a little more pizazz and I have always wanted to mess with the color a little. If it turns out bad, I'll be the only person in the symphony concert that evening with purple hair. At least I'll stand out :)

Have a great week.