The Wheels Are Rolling

Big Changes

2012-02-15T04:38:00.001-08:00

We're about a month and a half into 2012 and changes are running rampant.

It started out with the car mess right at the beginning that worked itself with a new car.

Then came basketball games for Noah. The first extra curricular we have found in which he has stayed happy and positive in throughout the entire course of the activity, even when he's not particularly talented in the sport. He has two more weeks and then his "Celebration Night" and he is actually worried about what he will do on Wednesday nights when he doesn't have basketball anymore. Little does he know that momma and daddy have something else planned for them that I think they will enjoy as well. Though I'm not big on overs scheduling kids, I do think they need to have some sort of extracurricular outside of school.

Now, the most recent change has been in the works for awhile and has finally come to fruition. Hubby has been very unhappy with his job for a very long time and has secured a new job. He will actually be doing the same job for a more secure company. Less money and more hassle for me trying to figure out both the budget changes associated with this company's payroll process and possible babysitting needs due to different work hours, but he is very happy about it so I must be too. It means cancelling our spring break trip, which makes everyone sad but I know it's the right thing to do. Hopefully in the long run, it will prove better for our family.

One thing that I thought was going to be settled by now seems to be less so. I knew it was too early to be excited about good things happening. It is my own fault for letting myself feel contented. I should know better by now. I really needed some closure that doesn't seem to be coming which is very frustrating.

The kids had a fun Valentine's Day at school. It is so much different than when we were in school. For us, we exchanged CARDS and then went home. For these kids, they came home with bags FILLED TO THE BRIM with candy, stickers, tattoos, pencils, erasers, and even other little trinkets as well. Noah's little non-girlfriend even gave home a box of chocolates, which made him sad since he hadn't brought her anything. For our part, we made homemade candy that Noah donated to the church bake sale this past Sunday. I didn't get to spend any time with my valentines since I worked both jobs and then had rehearsal until 10 for this weekend's performance but that's okay since the boys are going to the in-laws this weekend and Steve and I will have a chance to go out before the big performance on Saturday. We will count it as our late anniversary (which was in December) and late Valentine's meals all in one. I wonder if we will even find anything to talk about when it's just the two of us:)

2012 has been eventful so far. Almost scared to see what will happen in another month. Hubby will turn 40 so I guess that's a pretty big one, huh? I will enjoy teasing him that he's two years older than me...at last for two months until my birthday in May :)

Off to work. Then pick up kids and off to work again. And then....Full rehearsal with the symphony for Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King tonight. Tomorrow we rehearse the entire score with the movie going and then opening night Friday, followed by Saturday performance with both parents and Hubby in attendance. Goose Bumps already.

It is so good to be a Music Geek!

Have a great day.

To be a Pre-Teen...A Gross Post and Rant

2012-02-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, oldest is turning ten in a few months and seems that we are SLAMMING into our pre-teens with him. I have a feeling that although some of these traits are part of most pre-teens, I am thinking others may be distinctly "boy" issues.

For example....what is it about hygiene that becomes non-existent all of a sudden. As I was doing laundry a couple of weeks ago, I was sorting out my hot water items first. You know...undergarments. Because of my schedule, I generally only get to the laundry on weekends and then spend every Saturday and Sunday doing a marathon. By that point, everybody in the house is out of undergarments. So I usually expect at least two (sometimes three if there are a lot of towels) loads of this type. But I was sorting and found that the entire "hot" pile fit into ONE load. Hmmmmmmmmm..... Upon further inspection, there was an obvious size missing in the pile. There was NOT ONE pair of size medium fruit of the looms in the mix. NOT ONE! A certain nine year old has been wearing the same tighty whities for a week! So after questioning, he does admit to this, but is not even phased by the disgust factor in this. Now, I am not home at night during bedtime procedures, so a new plan was devised to try to remind ALL THREE males in the house that underwear really should be changed EVERY DAY and the eldest male may need to help remind his sons of this fact.

I wish I could say that is the only hygiene issue in the Wheelz Family. But, as I stated before, the boy:girl ration is quite uneven.

Case in point....the toilet seat. Why in the world do boys have such a difficult time with the idea that after you go to the bathroom, you PUT THE SEAT DOWN! Nobody wants to go into the bathroom and be treated to someone else's remnants. I even tried to give an allowance JUST for putting the toilet seat down. I tried to tie a weekly monetary reward to the procedure of putting it down, in order to train them, and the boys actually failed to earn the reward for two weeks in a row. Okay moms of boys...suggestions?

Oh, and while we're lingering on bathroom issues....washing hands. Running hands under water is RINSING, using SOAP is WASHING. And you gotta love walking into the bathroom while child is "washing his hands" to find that he is standing there with the water running so that mom thinks he's washing his hands, but he's not really doing it. And this is the same kid whose cuticles are bitten to shreds and hasn't had fingernails in four years due to all of the biting. He's almost ten and his fingers are ALWAYS in his mouth. How gross is that?

And hygiene is not the only issue. The other morning, strictly as an experiment, I decided to NOT nag the boys about getting ready for school. When I was in fourth grade, my mom worked nights and my siblings were gone by the time my alarm went off in the morning. So, at nine years old, I was waking up alone to the alarm, getting myself fed, dressed, lunch made and out the door to the school bus on time with no one else in the house at the time.

Now, I have severe issues with my past in regards to that issue, but the point to me is, if I could do ALL of that at his age, why is it that MY nine year old can say without any hesitation, "Mom, why didn't you tell me to get dressed when it is already 7:20?" Ummmm...Honey...if you are clearly able to tell time and KNOW that you need to be ready, then why not JUST DO IT!!! I am seriously thinking about actually staying in bed some morning and setting an alarm just to see if he can manage to get himself out the door in time some morning.

Now, I don't mean to say that this child is bad. He's really not. But it seems to me that if we don't get a handle on a few things around here, the teenage years are going to be VERY rough in the Wheelz Home.

And we might as well get a start on little brother as well, who will be bringing up the rear before we know it.

I know I am probably to blame for some of this. But as I am not home with the kids at night, I have NO control over their hygiene in the afternoons and evenings, as well as no control while they're at school. How the heck are these kids supposed to learn anything when I am NEVER home to help them? As not working nights is not an option, I am apparently in for many years of boys becoming more and more disgusting and mom having less and less influence.

Yuck!

It's a good thing they're cute. That just MAY be their saving grace.

Summing Up January

2012-01-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

It seems as if I am not able to get on here as much as I'd like. The year is now 1/12 of the way over and it seems like I am so overwhelmed already.

January has been pretty tumultuous.

The whole car ordeal swallowed up the first week of the month. But at least I am finally allowing myself to love my new car. I do smile as I walk out to it each day, as conceited as it is.

January has been interesting at work as well. I am very frustrated at the moment. February will mark one year since I was hired and I have to remember that even when I am frustrated, it is a good place for me to be and I need to accept whatever challenge is handed to me and keep doing my best. At least my window painting for this month turned out cute. I do like trying to develop my lack of artistic ability on the front window of Gymboree.

Noah is having a good month. Basketball has taken over our lives a little. He has a practice every Wednesday night and games every Saturday. Upward Basketball just may be the BEST sports program out there for kids. While learning the basics of the game, they are also being taught spirituality along the way. Each game begins with a prayer and each half time is spent doing a devotional on the court. It is just such a cool program. Noah is learning, paying attention, staying active, and ENJOYING IT. No, he is not a good player, but the cool thing is that it doesn't bother him, nor does he get treated unkindly by the other kids because of his lack of skill. They get stars at the end of each game to sew on their shirt sleeve to encourage...the color depending on each child's strength that game. It is an amazing program and the best extracurricular in which we have participated in thus far.

Oh, and he also brought home another report card filled with straight A's...yay!

Aaron is having a great month too. He has been meeting with the speech pathologist twice a week and loves her and I am already seeing a huge difference in his speech. His handwriting is getting better by the week and his math has improved so much that I actually don't even have to check his homework at night other than making sure it is done. I can't believe that he has succeeded so well in second grade.

This month was also the boys' first attempt at snowboarding. While they are still working at it, they are having fun and I find that they are going so fast down those hills that I can't even get a great picture :)

Steve and I are working through some things together between us but it will continue to grow. I am a hormonal mess that I hope will get taken care of soon and Steve is struggling with some demons of his own that need to be battled. But we'll make it through...we always do.

So that's January. On to February and its new challenges to overcome...

Happy New Year 2012!!!!

2012-01-21T15:34:00.000-08:00

The new year is in full gear with almost a month behind us. And what a month it has been. Lots of firsts for us and a bit of a whirlwind. So I figure that before I start posting pictures from 2012, I should probably post about our little "celebration" to ring it in.

We decided that it was finally the year to let the boys try to stay up until midnight on new Year's Eve. I wondered if they would make it and I know Hubby was not thrilled with the idea (because of the aftermath the next day).

The afternoon of New Year's Eve we got together to roller skate with a friend from Noah's class and her mom and sister. Noah and this particular friend "claimed" each other in Kindergarten and despite typical playground stuff, have remained close for the last five years. (His favorite part about his birthday last year was that she came to fireworks with him.)

I loved that he put his arm on her shoulder...cracked us up :)

I really enjoy taking the boys skating. It is a simple activity that keeps us active and is very reasonably priced. For the first time ever, Aaron worked his way off the wall and managed to get himself around the rink without holding on to the wall (or me) quite a few times, and he was SO proud. He is even asking to have his birthday next year at the skating rink. We'll see about that.

When we got home, we decided to go easy for dinner and order pizza since I had bought plenty of snacks for later in the evening as well. Then we settled in for a movie marathon. And MARATHON it was. I actually couldn't even tell you all of the movies we watched, but it seemed like a million while we were trying to wait out midnight. The kids were too tired to play games so we brought our futon mattress up from the basement and the boys settled in on the floor.

Around 9 or so, I brought out what I THOUGHT were fireworks. After doing all the little poppers, we headed outside for Steve to light the other fireworks. What we didn't know (yes, we are THAT clueless) was that they were all various kind of poppers. As soon as we realized that, the kids had a BLAST popping them outside and making a big mess of streamers and smoke :)

Coming back in, it was time for snacks and a toast. I had forgotten to get sparkling juice so we settled on sprite in champagne glasses. Noah was overwhelmed in joy just because I had bought dip to have with chips an Aaron chowed on the cheese I had cut up for crackers. It was a fun little nighttime picnic.

The last three hours definitely seemed to drag on forever. More movies and FINALLY the countdown on TV. By the time it was midnight, Aaron was awake with his eyes but not in spirit and actually got mad at us when we shouted "Happy New Year". I think we were all in bed by 12:05 and asleep by 12:06, but at least we made it :)

New Year's Day brought the first significant snow for the year. It didn't come early enough for us to head out sledding, but I made good on a promise I had made to Noah before his tonsil surgery two weeks week before. He had wanted IHOP pancakes as soon as his throat was healed so that is how we celebrated the new year...with chocolate chip smile pancakes from IHOP.

And 2012 was oficially welcomed in!

We Took A Road Trip

2012-01-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Title isn't too newsworthy, huh?

What about if I add in our own car?

Still no big deal?

Then I have to add first time in over two years in our own car.

Okay, maybe now it's a little bit interesting. At least it is to us.

I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

After five years of driving a vehicle that we bought under duress that was a lemon from the day we drive it off the lot, we finally got rid of it.

It took a lot to get to this point and so many stories in my mind that I want to remember. This experience this time was such a different one from our last car purchasing experience.

And I am truly grateful to the people who helped me get my act together last week, put my ducks in a row, and I am thankful that I had done research ahead of time so that I could be informed of what I was doing. Without those people, this experience may have been just as awful as the previous one.
And now we have a car. Actually, it was the one I wanted all along and had been talking about for six months now. We toyed with another van but with so much driving I do I couldn't find one with low enough mileage to suit our needs. And honestly, I was ready to scale down. We couldn't scale down TOO much mind you. I have a six foot four inch hubby and two boys who seem to be quickly shooting up as well. And I drive car pool and needed three little bodies to fit comfortably in the back seat.

New pretty gold next to yucky old blue

I can't believe just how stressed I had become every time I got into the old van. It broke down numerous times on the way home from car pool this fall so it wasn't even reliable for that. I missed a half dozen days of work due to its failures and this past Christmas break was spent with only our backup truck as the van kept going back in for repairs every other day that were never the root of the problem, using up all of our expendable money for the break.

The final straw came last Tuesday when I went out to head to work and the back up truck wouldn't start either. And that day was the we spent searching for the new Wheelz Family Vehicle.

But I find myself not believing it. I am afraid to allow myself to be happy. Every little smell, bump, or noise I hear in the car is making me panic. I am having a very hard time letting go and believing that we did the right thing. I'm just so afraid of being stuck again. I am afraid to be relieved or to put my guard down. It is pathetic that a vehicle can cause this much anxiety. Maybe after a little while and the nightmare of the old van has passed for awhile I will let myself relax.

But I do smile each time I head to the driveway to go somewhere. I really like the car, even though it has no bells or whistles that I used to have. I love coming out of a store and reminding myself that the pretty gold car is mine. I loved taking an overnight to my brother's house this weekend in our own car. And Steve had a great time calculating the gas mileage on the trip, which is almost double the old van.

And the boys were hilarious. In the last two years, every time we did manage to get to my brother's for a visit, it was for a day only and we borrowed my mom's van. So when we told the boys we were going this weekend to sleep over, they were incredulous. Neither of them actually believed me. Aaron must have asked at least twenty times, "Are we really doing a sleepover?". When I was packing he kept asking me why, still not believing it was happening. And my SIL said that he even mentioned something to her about the amazement of sleeping over:)

We had a fun weekend. The boys got to watch the original Star Wars for the first time and we played lots of fun games. But the best was just having some time away to relax with family. I imagine more trips will be in the works in the near future.

Why?

Because we FINALLY can!

Traditions Lost and Found

2011-12-31T06:10:00.000-08:00

I haven't done a Christmas post yet. Most likely, I probably won't. Yes, we had the usual opening presents on Christmas morning and I took a fine amount of pictures.

But Christmas this year felt non-exciting. Noah's surgery kind of brought things down a few levels and so did the fact that it never quite felt like Christmas since it rained the whole month of December instead of snowed. When one lives in Michigan, they really need snow on the ground for the holidays.

So looking back on the holiday season, I realized that there were a lot of "traditions" that we usually do as a family that we just kind of missed this year. I wonder if that's where we went wrong.

1. Sledding
We always go sledding as a family during Christmas Break. We were counting on this even more so this year since Aaron got a new "souped up" sled for Christmas and Noah got his first snow board. At this moment, they are both sitting on the floor of the garage, gathering dust.

2. Christmas lights
Every year, we usually take at least two trips in the car to go look at Christmas lights as a family. My parents took Aaron to a really neat display by them, but the fact that our van has now been broken for over two weeks, even after $200 of repairs, kind of brought a damper to trying to go out and see the lights.

3. Santa
We stopped the sitting on Santa's lap last year so actually this is the second year that that tradition is gone. But one still feels it's loss.

4. Trees in the bedroom
A couple of years ago I got the boys each their own mini tree for their bedrooms. This year, Noah never wanted to bother setting his up and Aaron knocked his over twelve times in the first day and decided it was in his way and we packed it back up. So Christmas never really came to their rooms.

5. Christmas Morning Excitement Low
The morning just felt like any other day, but with presents to open. There was no big screaming happy excitement this year. It was the first day of Noah's difficult stage of recovery, where Noah cried MANY times from pain that day, which kind of brought everybody down. Poor kid.

6. School parties
Every year but this one, I was able to attend the class parties, take pictures, and join in the merriment. This year I was working and missed it all. I definitely feel like something was lost and both boys asked why I couldn't have been there for them. It made me sad

7. No Christmas Break Fun
Usually I do all kinds of fun things with the boys over Christmas Break. Due to Noah's recuperation and money that would have been used for that purpose going into a piece of crap car that is still not repaired, we did NOTHING the entire two week period. Big waste of time off with the kids.

8. Non Existent Anniversary
Our 15th Wedding Anniversary came. And went. I think we may have actually smiled at each other in passing. That's about it. Not sure if we even kissed that day.

9. Black Friday
I used to go with my friend. That didn't happen and I did my only shopping online. I wonder if that set everything off to a bad start from the beginning.

10. Hormones
I'm off them for now. Enough said...

I know...major Downer Post. We did keep some of our usual traditions though. And we did enjoy those ones.

1. Christmas Eve Service
It was a really nice service at Cornerstone Church this year. Noah was definitely not in the mood to sing, but the service was nice and everyone got little mini flashlights to keep after using them during the service.

2. Christmas Eve Dinner Out
We very rarely go out to real restaurants any more so we kept our tradition and went to restaurant that the boys have been begging to go to. We took them to Logan's so they could throw peanuts on the floor. What seems like nothing to a grown up is pretty exciting to two little boys. Noah was bummed because he couldn't eat any of the peanuts (Day 5 after surgery) so he wants to go back again. Maybe NEXT Christmas.

3. Christmas Eve "procedure"
All stayed the same...watching Santa on NORAD, new PJ's before bed, family movie (Grinch) and Twas the Night Before Christmas story read.

And we even added a couple of new ones that I hope will become traditions

1. Movie Time
We decided to join the masses and go to a movie on Christmas Day (instead of the sledding that was planned). We took the boys to the Muppet Movie and enjoyed our trip down memory lane. We all enjoyed the movie and the break from the present opening. By the time we got home, there were a few presents left to open and I think we all enjoyed the new plan. Both boys have asked if we can do it again next Christmas.

2. Winterberry Pfaltzgraff
I found a 16 piece set of Christmas China that my MIL had given me over ten years ago that we had never gotten out, because we first lived in apartments and then had little boys who couldn't be trusted with good dishes. But I found them Christmas morning and decided it was time. I was so excited to set a pretty table for both of our big meals and I loved stacking them in the china cabinet to bring out next year. I think all three of the males in the house thought I was crazy by how excited I was but it was something that actually made me feel like a real person rather than a loser who couldn't make a nice Christmas for my family, so I reveled in this little joy.

3. New Year's Eve
We are going to try another new one this year. At age 7 and 9, the boys have never stayed up until midnight so we're going to let them try it tonight. I got some small fireworks to do in the driveway and then we will put them to bed. I have no idea if they're going to make it until midnight or not. I guess I'll have to let you know later.

So Christmas is done. I am having a hard time taking down the tree. I definitely want my living room back, but the tree we got this year is so incredibly healthy that I don't have the heart. We stopped watering it a week ago and the needles are still completely soft and it hasn't dropped a single needle yet. Crazy!

2012...who knows? If I don't expect good things then I can't be disappointed. Not the most positive outlook at the moment, but definitely the most honest one at this time.

Happy New Year!

'Twas The Week Before Christmas

2011-12-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

"Twas the week before Christmas and what did we do
Spent it recovering but NOT from the flu

Little Boy Noah has had sickness galore
So surgery was scheduled so he'd be sick no more

Little bro Aaron went off for a stay
with Grandma and Grandpa not too far away

A quick dinner out for his last solid meal
before it is time to begin the ordeal

The day started early before the sun came out
a gown and slippers but never a pout

Bundled up snuggly with his new blanket and monkey
a few sips of medicine and now he feels "funky"

Sitting and waiting for two hours to pass
Angry Birds and TV shows make the time go quite fast

The time came to go and there were a few tears
A reasonable reaction when one has some fears

So quickly it's over and he's back in the room
Slushies and Popsicles and Disney movies too

The nurses exclaim over and over again
what a wonderful patient our Noah has been

Three hours later it's time to go home
A ride in a wheelchair and we're ready to go

Home on the couch it's time to heal
and constantly get asked "How do you feel?"

Throat pain continues but it's controllable now
Especially since we finally know how

Four days have passed and life is returning
To normal except for some minor stomach churning

So the week before Christmas has passed in a blur
In the long run will be worth it, we are all quite sure

The stockings are hung and Noah's returning to his bed
So that tomorrow night it's Santa's living room instead

We're Ready!

2011-12-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

It's December 13th. 12 days until Christmas. 7 days until Noah's tonsillectomy. 1 day before Holiday Pops concerts start and I spend every evening performing. 4 days before kids are home from school for two weeks. Lots to do as we come down to the final stretch of the holidays.

Believe it or not, I think we're ready. I really have no way to anticipate recovery time for Noah so I finished shopping and wrapping presents last week so I won't have to deal with that next week. The tree is up and beautiful. We had a wonderful family gathering last weekend where we actually got a picture for the first time ever of our large blended family, including 13 grandkids all looking forward and smiling at the camera. Christmas performances at church and school are done and class party supplies are purchased and sent to school.

Aaron is excited about his solo sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house while Noah goes in for his surgery. I have a few little gifties for Noah to help him stay quiet during recovery. I have heard various suggestions about what soft foods to have on hand so I will pick those up this weekend. Aaron got his tonsils out when he was two and doesn't remember so it was a very different experience than it will be this time around.

I know it will go well. I really like this ENT...the same one that did all three of Aaron's procedures when he was a baby. I am glad that we are getting this done since I know it will bring better health to our entire household. Noah is a little nervous, but right now he is more excited that he gets a new video game for his recovery.

So I think we're ready for the surgery....and for Christmas.

Now all we need is some snow. Michigan needs a White Christmas!

Weekend Top Five 12/5/11

2011-12-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

Whew...the start to December came in with a blast this weekend. I have to say we have had a memorable start to the holiday season.

5. Cutting Down the Tree
This is our third year of cutting down our own Christmas tree. Rather than a cold snowy day for tree hunting, it dawned with rain...and a lot of it. After some discussion, we realized there would really be no other time to go so we decided to head out in the rain. Crazily enough, the rain stopped as we arrived at the tiny family farm we tried out this year. We drove out, picked out our tree, loaded it up and just as they were bundling it up for us, the skies opened and it started pouring. It worked out just right for us. Steve told me on the way home that he had never cut down a real tree before we started this tradition two years ago. I love this "newish" tradition and can't imagine it stopping anytime soon.

4. Christmas Cards
Yes, this seems pretty silly as a bullet. But considering the last two years it was something I never quite got around to, I am quite pleased with myself. Since the boys had to be to church early Sunday morning before their performances, I ordered some cards from Walgreens with this picture from the tree farm, brought them along and got them all done while waiting for church to start. Let's hear it multi-tasking! :)

3. Angel Alert!
The musical went really well.. The first service was WAY better than the second, given that the kids were all tired and had been been there for hours by the time the second performance was over. Aaron got to be a Wise Man's helper and carry a huge banner. Noah was a Shepherd and provided the slapstick comedy to the performance. Right up his alley, right? So they had a great time and I was very proud. I am hoping that they both are willing to try out for bigger parts during the next performance but as long as they have fun and are positive about it, I won't push very hard.

2. Decorating the Tree
Steve had to go sing Sunday afternoon so I decided to pull out the ornaments and decorate the tree. In past years, the kids have usually complained about helping so this year I didn't even offer. The funny thing was, since I didn't offer, the boys were extremely interested and we had such a fun time. Noah took his job of making the colors spread out very seriously and Aaron had fun with all of the "special" ornaments asking stories about them. We put it in a different place this year and I love our living room this way. If only I could put presents underneath without a cat of dog tearing them open. Oh well!

1. FIRE!
So having gotten everybody calm and in bed ready for the school/work week, I was just finishing singing to Noah when there was a constant loud banging on our side door. Our neighbor had a fire in his house and we had to get our children out and the cars out of our shared driveway. The kids went to our neighbors while firefighters handled the fire and it was over in about two hours. But having had a very strong fear of fire my entire life, I am still a bit freaked about it. Way too close for comfort. I am praying for my neighbors as they decide whether they are going to fully rebuild or not. Aaron was a bit nervous so as I was bringing them back home, I had the fire chief talk to the boys and he felt better. I did too.

So the weekend was definitely memorable. Noah starts basketball this week and the kids have their school Christmas concert as well. Still no snow. Michigan Christmas without snow just doesn't work so the atmosphere better start churning soon.

Have a great week!

It's December Thursday Thirteen

2011-12-01T17:38:00.000-08:00

December already? Yup!

Wow, what a year!

This month always seems like such a whirlwind that I always need to remind myself to slow down and take it a day at a time. I sat down with the December calendar to plot it out since there is always so much going on.

There's a lot coming up in the next couple of weeks leading up to the "Big Day". Christmas shopping is done for the most part, including wrapping, which usually isn't even touched until the week before Christmas. Tree isn't up and I no longer have a day off from work during the week, due to teacher problems at work. Yeah, I got a total of two weeks with a day off before I had to go back to every day again. So getting things done is even more difficult than I anticipated. The funny thing is, I'm really not too stressed about it all. I'm not sure why, but instead I am actually feeling pretty calm heading into the busiest time of year.

13 Things coming up:

13. Kids' Church musical practice Saturday. It will be fun to see it all put together for the first time.

12. Chopping down the Christmas tree Saturday afternoon. It will be weird doing it with no snow on the ground but at least we'll be able to get a good look at all of them before freezing our fingers off this year.

11. Angel Alert! Musical performance at church on Sunday. This will be the first time either of the boys have been part of a production like this. I hope they have fun and want to do it again.

10. Noah's first basketball practice is next Wednesday. I really hope the enthusiasm he has at this moment continues.

9. Aaron's speech assessment will come back before Christmas Break and we'll be forced to make a decision on what we will do regarding him being "labeled" as a special education child

8. School Concert next Thursday...one kid playing the recorder, the other the kazoo. My ears are ringing already.

7. Scholastic Warehouse sale...final Christmas shopping items will then be complete

6. Family Christmas celebration...I love this big family of mine!

5. Only two more weeks of work until I get a break...woo hoo!

4. Symphony Holiday Pops...4 nights in a row of concerts. I love the music this year...it's all carols and two songs from the movie Home Alone. And it looks like I'll be healthy enough to actually enjoy performing for them this year. Icing on the cake...my parents coming to the performance on Sunday afternoon.

3. Noah's tonsillectomy 5 days before Christmas...a little pain will pay off in a lifetime of better health than his mommy has had. We're all hoping he will be feeling better by Christmas

2. Our 15th Wedding anniversary..are we really that old????

1. Christmas Eve Church Service...going at 2PM this year so we have the entire evening to enjoy as a family...provided Noah is feeling okay.

Such a fun time of year. I should totally be stressed. Maybe I will be tomorrow.

But not tonight.

(Not Very) Wordless Wednesday: Bathroom Overhaul

2011-11-29T18:18:00.003-08:00

Nine and a half years...one very very old house...nasty bathroom with chipped paint, rotting wood, moldy walls, and falling apart surround. No money for redo but a woman fed up with being grossed out every time a visitor uses her "facilities".

Thus...

A trip to Home Depot, a quick lesson in scraping, mudding, priming and painting a bathroom and the woman goes to work...

There required an additional trip to Menards for goggles after dried putty invades her eyes during the sanding process, but having forgotten a mask, a kitchen towel and clothespin suffice quite nicely for protection against the "elements".

Results:
After four days of stealing time between working two jobs and running a household of men and beasts (and the same number of days taking baths instead of showers)...

Above the window before and after

The divider between shower and sink area before and after

Two holes over the toilet left over from a falling cabinet before and after

It is by all means NOT a great looking job. It's really not even a fair looking job.

But it's fresh, clean, probably much safer (I'm sure one of the exposed layers had contained based paint) and it is no longer a room that makes me cringe any time someone (including myself) needs to do some business.

Someday I hope to do the room correctly. But for now, I have to admit that I am quite pleased with myself.

Noah's Poem of Remorse

2011-11-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the nine year old in our house just makes me smile, no matter how angry I can feel at him at times.

I am feeling quite horrible today, cough, headache, sore throat...you know the drill. So I went to take a bath while the boys were happily trying out a new Wii game I had rented for them for the day. I was so impressed at how well they were sharing.

About ten minutes after I get in the bath, I hear screaming, crying, and banging around. Hubby and two boys were in an all out battle about the Wii game. Of course, I got out of the bath a few minutes later and sent everyone to cool off in their own respective rooms.

I sat down to the computer to try to cool down myself when Noah came out to present his note of remorse, as he does very often when something isn't right. It is on a TINY piece of paper, as all of his drawings are minuscule in size. I had to read it twice before I realized it was a poem:

I hate to admit it
I yelled quite a lot
And I did get punished
But mad I am not

If you are reading this
It might seem tart
But your sons love you
With all of their hearts

Where did he learn the word "tart" ?

Yup, gonna keep this little scrap of paper forever.

Concert High Post

2011-11-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

Hopefully others who have experienced "concert highs" will understand this :)

I just got home from my first performance with the symphony chorus for this concert season. We performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (the Ode to Joy one) and it was by far the best the chorus has ever sounded. It is just SO much fun to do be part of this ensemble. It is one thing that I do for myself and I love being part of a large singing ensemble performing wonderful music. Since I'm not on facebook anymore, I will probably post the review here just so I have for future reference.

So because of my concert high, I am feeling pretty happy so I was reflecting on this past week and thinking about the many good things that transpired. It is always good to think on the positive when I can...

A. Symphony performance-already stated above...went well and another one tomorrow night

B. Conferences- also went great.
No surprise with Noah, still holding straight A's at this time, although he has made it clear to both his teacher and myself that 4th grade is hard. It's about time the little stinker was challenged :) The best thing that came out of it was seeing that for the second year in a row, he has a teacher who recognizes his amazing creative talents and she is actually nurturing him by letting him doodle his comics on his papers. As she put it, "I know he's listening so I am okay with his doodles and besides they make me smile." She is even entering some of his comics into a scholastic contest. It is amazing that a first year teacher can be so in touch with kids like Noah. We are so lucky to have found the right place for him.
Aaron's conference was CRAZY. His teacher started out by stating, "You know, this kid should technically not even be here and he has the highest reading scores in the entire class, which consists of kids almost two years older than him!" She went on to discuss him in great length about how special he is and how I need to stop worrying anymore about having made the wrong decision to go ahead and put him right in first grade last year. She said that even though his writing is indeed at the first grade level, which matches his age, his reading and math scores are at second (or third in the case of reading) grade level and he talks, acts, and looks like a second grader in every way. He fits in well with his peers and as she put it, "Aaron is really discovering who Aaron is this year". It was so amazing how she talked about him. So I need to FINALLY stop worrying about whether we made the right decision last year and just continue to focus on the special little guy that he is. He will be working with the speech therapist once a week to help with his stuttering.

C. Work- went well this week. It is partly knowing that this is my last week of working all five days and it feels good to know I will get a little breather next week. I even spent some time painting a turkey on our front window which was hilarious because as talented as my son is artistically is how UNTALENTED his mother is. I will post a picture soon just for laughs.

D. Health- Got Aaron on antibiotics for bronchitis and had his well child visit as well. Got Noah scheduled for tonsillectomy five days before Christmas so it should be a interesting Christmas break. I am sick yet again like I get every symphony performance so I'll just keep pushing through knowing I will have Monday to relax and rest (in between loads of laundry).

E. Christmas Preparations- Almost finished shopping for one of the boys. Thank goodness since my income is about to drop drastically. All Christmas music has started on one of our local radio stations and it makes me smile to listen to both boys singing "O Holy Night" out loud in the car as we drive from place to place. Noah is asking for decorations, which may start appearing next week some time.

F. It snowed! I know in a month from no I'll be complaining but there is nothing like the first snowfall of the year to make a true Michigander smile.

G. Noah's Basketball Placement-Went well. He tried to say the night before that he didn't want to do it but that is the way he is with trying anything new. He gets nervous and works himself right out of trying. The Upward Program is a church league for children. It will have around 600 kids playing this season and there are devotionals before games and during half time. The kids are also expected to memorize scripture as part of the program as well as learning all of the skills of the game. I hope it will be a good experience for him. As of now, he is excited about it, which makes me happy.

So my concert high is starting to wind down. I wrote about my "joys" from this week and now that I am coming down it is time to take a bath and head off to bed. Tomorrow afternoon I have three piano students performing downtown and two of the three are not ready so it may be a shaky afternoon but we'll get through.

Have a great weekend!

Let the Crazies Begin!

2011-10-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

Phew! Halloween is over. Yay! Now for the real stuff.

As much as I love the hullabaloo of the holidays, I do have to remind myself on a regular basis to take things one day at a time. And the next 2 weeks, there are going to many moments of one HOUR at a time. Why is it that we have weeks where we have absolutely NOTHING to do, and then weeks where there are four things that need to get done every day?

Thankfully, my boss informed me this morning that she may have finally come up with a solution to me getting a day off each week. And boy do I need a day off.

Our craziness goes into full force beginning on Saturday. In the next week we have:

10. Noah's basketball trials and placement on Saturday
9. MIL and FIL performing in a play that we are expected to take the boys to and pray that they actually sit quietly and pay attention the entire time on Sunday
8. Symphony week all week next week, meaning mommy will be gone every single night until after 10:00 with performances both Friday and Saturday night-Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (The one you all know as Ode To Joy)
7. Conferences for both boys
6. ENT appointment to schedule Noah's tonsillectomy
5. 7 year well child visit for Aaron
4. Daylight savings time-always throws the boys for a loop for a few days
3. Sonatina Festival next Saturday where three of my students are performing
2. Day off of school Friday meaning boys will have to come to Gymboree with me all day
1. Speech assessment for Aaron
I know I am missing a couple of things but I seem to be drawing a blank at the moment.

All of these are in addition to the regular work five days, four evenings, homework, housecleaning, carpooling, etc.

I am sitting here thinking about the approaching week with less stress than I would have figured. I think it's because I am thinking about where we were a year ago. Last year at this time I was starting an overnight stocking job, which turned out to be miserable and made me sicker than I've ever been for the entire holiday season. On top of that, we were facing foreclosure during the entire holiday season last year. And I was desperately applying for any job I could think of...with no success and the resulting despondency that accompanied unemployment.

So as I think of last year's approaching holidays, I can't help but be thankful that this year should feel a little more smooth. No, we really aren't really any better financially than we were last year, but I do have a couple of things to put under the tree for the boys, our extended family celebrations are planned and on the calendar, I have a job, and for the moment at least, our house is securely our own. I'd say that is definitely a better place to be than a year ago.

So the next week is going to be crazy. But it's okay. One day at a time...one hour at a time...one minute at a time...we'll get through it.

Whatever it takes, I am going to enjoy the season this year. I am going to try very hard to NOT let it go by in blur.

I am going to smile and wish goodwill upon others.

Here we go...

Halloween Scrooge

2011-10-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

I have become a Halloween equivalent of the Scrooge.

I don't know. I use to like it when I was little so I'm not sure what changed. But really, I could take it or leave it. Thankfully, the kids go to a school that doesn't celebrate it so I don't have to deal with a sugar filled party during the day followed by door to door begging on a school night. I have no creative skills to make costumes and just can't bring myself to spend $20 for a thin veil of fabric that will be worn once so my kids can go begging at houses of people whom we don't know.

See, I told you...Halloween Scrooge. It's not for any big personal beliefs reason. I don't have any opinion on the "holiday" itself. I just really don't care about it either way.

So Monday night we will probably be handing out candy to the other neighborhood beggars and heading to bed on time.

But I have to give in to the kids' participation in the festivities at least a little. So tonight, there is a safe trick or treat Halloween alternative that I we will bring the boys to. It looks like fun and the boys are fine with re-wearing costumes from previous years in order to participate. So we will head to a local college, trick or treat from dorm room to dorm room, play fun games in each of the building lobbies, and come home for bed with our annual sugar high accomplished.

We'll get through Halloween and then finally be ready to start the preparations for the real holidays.

That's when I go overboard in the other direction. I imagine I will start playing Christmas music once November arrives. Yes, I'm one of THOSE people.

Wordless Wednesday: Children of the Corn

2011-10-26T05:19:00.003-07:00

Oh How The Years Go By...

2011-10-25T05:50:00.000-07:00

The song in the title of this post by Amy Grant from quite a long time ago is running through my head this morning. As are tears of sadness as well as joy.

My baby boy is seven today.

He has made it very clear that he is finally a big kid.

And he really did look older this morning.

Okay, you may be a big boy now.

But let me tell you something...

You'll ALWAYS be my baby.

Happy 7th Birthday Aaronator!

Weekend Fun

2011-10-24T11:05:00.001-07:00

Another weekend over and a new week begins. It is a beautiful sunny afternoon outside and it makes me grateful for how gorgeous the weather was all weekend long. Thankfully...since we had outdoor activities planned the entire weekend, which is daring in October in Michigan.

Saturday was our annual cousin family trip to the pumpkin patch. We had smaller numbers this year than in past years, but we had a very fun time. Aaron has been talking about the zip line at this orchard since he went last time two years ago and was so excited to slide down it again. Noah was pretty much all over the place, as he was the entire weekend, but he had a good time. He has been wacky ever since he started a new medication that FINALLY worked (he was diagnosed with walking pneumonia last Thursday) so I am counting on him finally acting normal again after his last dose tonight. But I know he had fun running around being crazy so I won't deny him the happy memories. We came home with four cute little pumpkins that I am hoping that we get carved/painted some time before Halloween.

Saturday afternoon was spent getting ready for Aaron's birthday party with the cousins on Sunday. We managed to get the yard raked, mowed and cleaned up and ready for the festivities. I actually enjoy raking leaves and the clean look the yard has after it's finished.

Sunday dawned another beautiful day. Aaron asked for a pinata for his birthday party and we were so lucky that it was sunny and warm for the pinata activity outside. He picked out a cute spotted dinosaur and Steve hung it up and was ready for action. Aaron took three swings (although I think he could see from under the blindfold) and cleanly knocked the head right off the thing. Since the candy didn't come out, each child that wanted to took a shot at destroying the thing and kids wasted no time digging right into their candy loads. Aaron had a blast opening a pile of wonderful gifts, eating cake, and playing with his cousins. Although we stayed pretty low key this year, Noah told me later that night that it was the "perfect kind of party" that he wanted the same thing next year. Aaron went to bed smiling with his arms wrapped tightly around his two new Angry Birds stuffed animals.

The week ahead is a busy one. Aaron's actual birthday is tomorrow and I managed to find a teacher to cover some of my classes tomorrow morning so I can take treats up to Aaron's class. It will be the first time this school year that I have actually been able to be involved with anything at school so I am happy to have it. My BABY will be seven years old. I think that makes ME old too...

Heading out to enjoy one more beautiful afternoon:)

Thoughts on a Cold Wednesday Night

2011-10-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

It's cold outside...and wet. The perfect night to curl up in bed with a book. And that is exactly what I intend to do as soon as the boys get home from choir practice and I put them to bed.

It's been a rough week around the Wheelz Home. Noah has been sick for a week and doesn't seem to be wanting to break it any time soon. I've been sending him to school most days anyway just because I have to go to work...the guilt which is tearing me apart. My boss is gone and the new people we hired just quit so there is no one to take my place if I don't go. Talk about pressure :( I do think he's on the mend but it has been hard to see him under the weather for so long.

Meanwhile, little brother has luckily stayed healthy considering we are heading into his birthday weekend. I had a crazy run around for 48 hours trying to track down his birthday present since it has now been officially discontinued and it was hard to find a store still carrying them. We are also experiencing some Big Brother jealousy this time around which we have never had before.

Waiting to hear about job applications that were put out last week. That is kind of keeping the Wheelz Family on pins and needles a little as well.

And believe it or not...I started making a dent in Christmas shopping already. And kind of having fun with it. Knowing that funds are going to start dwindling soon when I drop hours (hopefully soon) is driving me to get started every time I see sales one the things that I want to get the boys for Christmas. You know what I think my dream job would be? Christmas shopping for rich people (with their money of course) who don't have the time to do it for themselves. It is so much fun to get things for people that you will make them happy and then I love the anticipation of their smiles when they open them. That job would be so much fun.

Big time on my mind...I got an email from Aaron's teacher today saying she referred him to the speech therapist in the school for further evaluation. I should be happy about this since I spent the years from when he was 2 until 5 trying desperately to get a referral and everyone kept telling me he was fine when I knew something wasn't right. Now, when I have finally let my guard down and believed that he really was the same as everyone else, I get this email about special services he may need. I should be happy. I know I should be happy that they want to give him some help, But actually, I am upset. And sad. And even a little angry. I think I need to sleep on this one and get a fresh perspective on it in the morning. And then be patient to wait to hear from the woman who is supposed to be calling. I wish I had known he was going to be referred BEFORE he got evaluated so it didn't seem like such a blind side.

SO those are my thoughts on this cold fall evening. Aaron's birthday and our annual extended family trip to the pumpkin patch will bring some much needed cheer and celebration this coming weekend. I hope that after we get through these next two days, we can truly just relax and enjoy the time this weekend letting go of all this stuff.

As a matter of fact, I'm counting on it.

A Wonderful Nothing Weekend

2011-10-10T05:14:00.001-07:00

The title pretty much sums up our weekend. Fall is always such a busy time for us that we were surprised when we headed into last weekend without a single plan.

The boys were wonderful enough to let me sleep in a little on Saturday morning so I was in a pretty happy mood when I got up around 8:30. After some reminders that rooms had to be cleaned on Saturday, we headed out to run some Saturday morning errands.

First stop was the craft tables at Lowe's. They have crafts approximately twice a month and the boys enjoy them because they get to do all of the construction themselves. It was pretty funny because during the one last month Noah decided to forgo the directions and ended up having to take it apart and start over. This time, he read the directions thoroughly before he started and stuck to the directions completely. I love it when he learns things that way and actually follows through on them.

Afterward, we headed over to the party store to see if we could find an inexpensive costume for that evening's pumpkin path sponsored by our city. It's kind of like a trick or treat through the park deal. We didn't find anything reasonable and left without a purchase. And strangely enough, the boys were absolutely fine with it.

As the day rolled along, it was beautiful, hot, and sunny all day, unusual for an October afternoon and we stayed outside playing most of the day. The boys discovered treasures that had been left untouched most of the summer (roller blades, scooters, etc) and they decided to continue to play instead of even going to the pumpkin walk, which brought relief to Steve and me. (We really don't need all that candy in the house anyway)

Sunday was yet another GORGEOUS day out and after we came home from church, we again settled in for a day of outside nothingness. Thanks to our neighbor selling her very large picnic table in her garage sale last week, we had a blast sitting out on the table, reading, coloring, and even doing Aaron's math review and Noah's spelling review for the week outside.

Steve and I also spent sometime working on resumes and other career related stuff. We are working to figure out a way to make our lives better for the future. A couple of quick prayers sent our way on that front would be awesome if you are so inclined.

At dinner Sunday night, Noah and Aaron both declared it a "GREAT WEEKEND". I asked them why and nobody could answer.

It was just a great weekend of being together doing nothing.

Guess What They Want Now?

2011-10-04T18:30:00.001-07:00

We made a quick trip to our favorite apple orchard a couple of weekends ago to pick some apples. We enjoy the slide that comes out of a barn that goes quite fast, petting the goats and seeing the cute tiny brand new baby goats, and in the past Noah's favorite part was the "kitty barn". The kitty barn is just that...a barn FULL of new born kittens that Noah has loved each time we've gone.

But this year...no kitty barn.

To which Noah was disappointed.

Until...

Yes, the pen filled with bunnies was an immediate hit!

Noah has always been fascinated about the stories of the pet bunny Steve and I had before the busy were born. We have a picture of our dutch rabbit sniffing a Newborn Noah right before we had to find a new home for her.

So the entire time we were at the orchard, Noah continued to return to the bunny pen. And pick up the same bunny over and over again.

He named it "Nibbles" since it was the one that kept eating his jacket. And Steve's jacket.

They were so sweet and soft that it did remind us that it was probably the best pet we've ever had.

But alas, Minnie Cat and Lily Pup are part of the Wheelz Family at this time.

But boy were those bunnies sweet!

An Apple's Journey

2011-10-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

A. Noah checks out the selection and picks the very best apples he can find. Schwallier's Country Basket is the best apple picking orchard in Grand Rapids. They are sooooooo good!

B. Aaron is ready to take his bag home

C. Both boys help to peel the caramels and only eat a small few :)

D. As the caramel melts, it's time to insert the popsicle sticks

E. Aaron helps drip the caramel onto the apples

F. Picture Perfect

G. Noah declares them "Sticky but Delicious!"

I'm Back...

2011-10-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

...and really happy to be!

I made a dramatic decision this week to stop facebook for the time being. I already miss seeing what's up with my family members and I KNOW I am going to miss the pictures of them all, including pictures of a new baby niece who was born last week.

But I also know that the changes will be for the better. Some of my hopes in this change are:

A. I plan to stay in better contact with family members and friends through email or phone calls. Less stalking...more talking. That's my goal. I just made that up myself..see how returning to blogging brings back the creative juices :)

B. The time that I previously spent finding out what was going on with my family and friends in the cyber world will now be spent finding out what's happening with my family in my very own house.

C. I missed writing. Real writing, not just one liners about random things that happen. That is why I started this blog originally. Although it went through several stages, it started out as a way to chronicle our lives and write funny stories that I would want to remember. That is what I want to return to. BVelieve it or not, I used to love writing when I was a little girl and wanted to be an author at one time. (Actually, I secretly still do).

So yup, I'm back. I will still not be sharing the knowledge of this blog with my in-law family. This is mine. And I am so excited. I have so many stories and pictures that I haven't put on here that I will want to record for future memories. Since I am unable to write when kids are around, I will be able to only blog after kids go to bed, which should make it not interfere with our family time...the biggest reason for shutting down my facebook obsession.

I'm back. It feels so good to be writing again :)

Happy School Year 2011!

2011-09-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

So usually I do a post about the first day of school and the pictures of each of them as they head out the door. But as I was uploading the pictures from the first day today, I started going back through some old pictures (I always get nostalgic on the first day of school) and got a little stunned. I found a picture of Noah on his first day of second grade and compared it to the picture of Aaron this morning on his first day of second grade. It was crazy.

Check this out:

They both had a great first day. They were so excited to be back that they RAN into school without even saying goodbye. I could be sad...but instead I am happy that they have a place to learn where they are happy to be and feel safe.

Happy School Year 2011!

Tuesday Tackle: Aaron's Room

2011-08-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

So I did a "venting" post nearly a month ago and then not another word. So I can be fairly sure that no one is reading this anymore but I needed to document the next in my ongoing series of room re-dos.

Aaron has been in his current bedroom for about a year and a half. Before that, it was our bedroom and I had painted it mint green with a "flower" border just so that I had one room in our house that wasn't ALL boy. Aaron has been in that room without complaint. He has a spiderman comforter and blue curtains on his windows, however it still didn't speak BOY with mint green walls.

So as happens EVERY summer end/fall, I got in the mood to paint about a week ago. Aaron's room and the living room are on tap. Because we have been in limbo for a year now over whether we were going to lose the house, I haven't spent much time making any kind of improvements in the house. Happy to say, about twenty four hours after this posts, we will be OFFICIALLY out of foreclosure and our house will be our own again. Yay!!! So it seemed a perfect time to make up for lost time and masculinize AA's room.

I can't believe the difference a coat of paint makes. All of a sudden the green room with various colored toys and accessories now seems to all match and definitely looks like a boy's room. Aaron is so happy with the change too.

Noah is asking for a room improvement now as well but he's not on tap for a paint job. I've got some other ideas in store for him, maybe some time after school starts. And the living room desperately needs a new paint job ever since we pulled up the carpet.

Now if I could just convince my boss to give a day off once in awhile this fall so I can work on my house and we'll be all set.

Six days until school starts so we're off to go bowling.

This Kid Needs A Pool!

2011-07-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

Aaron is our Water Boy!

He loves to be all engulfed in anything wet.

He has a bit of an obsession with dunk tanks and begs every day to be in one.

I found a small sprinkler for him this year but rather than playing with it the correct way, he took the spinning top off and created a "fountain".

Then it became clear to this creative little boy that he could indeed create his own "dunk tank" by sitting on the chair and pretending to fall in.

This activity has continued to evolve over the last few weeks but he spends more time out with his creation than anywhere else these days.

Most kids play in kiddie pools.

Apparently all mine needs is a Rubbermaid bucket from the garage :)

Boys Exploring the Dunes

2011-07-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

One reason we are lucky for living where we do in Michigan is our close proximity to Lake Michigan. In less than an hour's drive, we can get to the "Big Lake" to play whenever the fancy strikes us. In the past couple of years, we have frequented the beach in Grand Haven, particularly because it had the scenery of the lighthouse and because it contained fond memories of our college years. But it was missing the one element that I remember so well from my childhood...sand dunes. So a couple of weeks ago, we decided to drive a little further north and try out the other nearby state park beach, complete with sand dunes.

We are loving it!

We had so much fun that we returned again this past Sunday, this time with my sister and her three kids. After lots of swimming in the bigg-ish waves, the four boys set off to explore the dunes. With varying degrees of success in the "stay together" instruction, they had a great time. They found a couple of tepee type structures in which to play "warriors" and also a big branch that extended over a two foot or so drop. I remember climbing on sand dunes when I was a little girl and I am happy that the boys are going to makes these memories as well.

After several rounds of back and forth between lake and dunes, we decided it was time to head home. As we were leaving, my sister and I started noticing "battle wounds" on the happy little boys' bodies from branches, but I chocked it up to "boys will be boys" and after a good shower and antibiotic cream on the scratches, my boys are already asking if we'll be back this week for a third Sunday in a row.

I may not be able to provide a big summer vacation for my boys. But I know that this memory will be one that will last, as it has for me for well over 30 years.

So, in response to the boys' plea if we're going back this week...given the forecast of highs in the 90's and humid, muggy air, I'd say that the chances are good :)

How to Enjoy A Splashpad

2011-07-11T06:20:00.000-07:00

In our area, ever the last few years, splash pads have been springing up all over the place. They're safer, easier, and less expensive to maintain than city pools and do a great job keeping the kids cool in the hot summer weather.

Aaron is a water MANIAC. He is one who from day one has always wanted to be engulfed in water and will do anything to be wet, no matter what the weather outside or what he happens to be wearing at any given time. So therefore, the boy begs every day to go to the newest splash pad that was recently installed right around the corner from us. And true to hos personality, he has a blast every single time, with a bucket and a smile :)

Noah hasn't been so enthusiastic this year about splash pads this year. Each time we go, I bring his bathing suit but he's not interested. He finally told me why the other day and so now I understand his thought process. The last time we went with some friends though after we were there for well over and hour, just as we were getting ready to leave, he asked to put on his suit and join in the fun. Unfortunately, I had to tell him no. I felt so bad. But I am hoping that means that he is ready to join in the fun next time.

Which I'm sure will come very soon.

WordlessWednesday: My First Baby's Nine!

2011-07-06T05:16:00.001-07:00

Weekend Top Five: Father's Day Edition

2011-06-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a top five in ages but it has been awhile since I came off of a weekend feeling that we made the most of it and actually enjoyed it. This was a good one though.

5. First Boating Trip
We decided that since we had gone mini golfing for Mother's Day (our usual Father's Day activity) that we would do something different for Father's Day this year. We discovered that the little beach by our house has now added boat rentals to their offerings. So after church, we headed out for our first family boat adventure. It took us awhile to get the hang of it and the boys both had a turn at the oars. It was a fun adventure that we followed with swimming and playing in the adjacent a splash pad. Noah has asked if we can do kayaks next time and I think it's a great idea.

4. Aaron's First Tooth Fairy Visit
Aaron has watched two of his younger cousins and countless younger friends lose teeth all year and now he finally got his chance. His tooth had been loose for ages and with a little help from his brother (accidentally, I think) it became super loose while we were getting ready for our boating adventure. That night when we got home, we were teasing Aaron about pulling it out with a string and he vacillated between excitement of pulling it out with a string and whining about being scared to lose a tooth. However, while I was gone for the dog's walk, apparently they worked it out because as I was walking in the door I was greeted by a very excited six year old who had a hole in his mouth and tooth in his hand. For some reason, Aaron with a tooth hole looks very strange to me. Maybe it's because he's my baby and it's the last piece of babyhood left in the Wheelz Home :(

3. Harry Potter Round Three
I started reading the Harry Potter books right when they first came out and bought each one as they came out. Steve started sometime following. Noah has been asking for quite awhile now to read them and has been told all about them from the kids at school. I had been fighting it thinking that the plots are too mature and that they would scare him. But he has been reading the American Chillers and Michigan Chillers books for awhile and really enjoying them so this weekend I finally gave in and decided to get him the first one (our old copies have long since fallen apart due to over reading). Just like his father and me and millions of other readers, he was hooked. He actually forgot to play his allotted half hour of DS one day this weekend because he was so wrapped up in the story. When I took the boys to the park on Friday, the book went with us and while Aaron was doing his usual craziness at the splash pad, Noah settled himself at the end of some play equipment on the playground and read. Yes, he did stop to play on the equipment a little too.
2. Tree Climbing

Steve usually comes home from work Saturday around noon in a pretty grumpy mood and needed a break from us all. So I packed the kids up and we headed out to yet another park. This one has a large wooden castle structure and the kids had been asking all week to go. They played for a very long time while I settled at a table to read and then the next thing I heard was, "Mom, look at me". Noah had found some great climbing trees and scaled very high into one. A little piece of me was tempted to call him out of it, but I figured that this is what boys are meant to do during summer vacations and let him climb to his heart's content. I still can't believe how high he went. We followed the tree climbing with a quick walk through the woods (which I will be posting on later because I need plant identification help) but we turned around when I realized we were getting deep and didn't have bug spray. We have plans to return when we are better prepared.

1. Father's Day Gift Prep

We have made a tee shirt for Steve for Father's Day most years. This year was no different. The boys and I headed out for supplies and later to paint a shirt for Daddy. Of course, Aaron has always been a terrible secret keeper so luckily Daddy was good sport among Aaron's hourly comments of "Daddy, don't go downstairs" where the shirt was drying. He was very happy to put on his newest addition to his wardrobe this morning though.

Notice the smile on Aaron's face since it was taken about five minutes after the tooth came out :)

So it was a nice weekend and we all needed it. We're so very tired with the new summer routine and this week will prove to be a test in all of our patience and stamina. In addition to the regular tiring weekly schedule, the boys will be attending our church's HUGE VBS every night this week and not getting into bed until after 9 every night. Combine that with getting up early since I have to work and an additional activity since I will be teaching two hours of piano lessons an extra morning and we're going to desperately need next weekend to recuperate.

Let the Crazy Week Begin :)

Memorial Weekend 2011

2011-06-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

Memorial Weekend was several weeks ago now but I never posted on it and I wanted to have a record for the future. As silly as it seems, I find myself often looking back through this blog to find out what we did at different times through the years and I like having the record to refer to.

My birthday always falls right around the holiday weekend and it fell exactly on Memorial Day this year, which meant we had the whole day together as a family. Not that we did anything much, but that really didn't matter. Any day that the four of us have to just be together feels like a holiday, and to have temps in the mid 80's just added to the fun.

About a week before my birthday the birthday emails started pouring in for restaurant freebies, which we took full advantage during the holiday weekend. The funniest was Old Country Buffet. Because that restaurant has gotten quite expensive (or maybe it always was and we just didn't pinch pennies enough way back when), we had not been since Noah was in baby food. But when the coupon for a free dinner came in, we decided that it was time to go. The boys were HILARIOUS! They had never been to a buffet of any kind before and their heads were spinning from the time we walked in. They could not believe that they could actually take anything they saw to eat. Especially when it came time for dessert! They are still talking about the buffet :)

Saturday morning my parents came for our traditional birthday breakfast at Arnie's, followed by a birthday trip to the flower store. These trips are the reason that I have any landscaping in our yard whatsoever. I spent some time that afternoon planting and loved the look. Unfortunately in the two weeks since, several big wind storms have come through and the look hasn't survived as well as I would have liked :(

Memorial Day dawned sunny and warm from the beginning and Aaron, our water obsessed boy begged to set up the little pool we had last year. I had remembered that it was popped on the bottom ring but figured the other two would at least bring a little entertainment. Steve was not so thrilled when he took it out of the garage to find it was filthy and need to be cleaned. When I mentioned to Aaron that we couldn't have it going unless they helped clean it, they hemmed and hawed at first, but when I told them to don their bathing suits and gave them sponges for their feet, they went to work without too much delay. Using a ton of dish soap made suds at least a few inches deep and they boys had just as much fun with the soap as they did later with the actual pool.

It is amazing how boys don't notice FREEZING cold water as long as they can play and be crazy in it. Which they did all afternoon. Aaron even devised a Wipeout (based on the TV show) course complete with Steve throwing balls and other obstacles at them while they ran through into the pool. Silly boy!

Later that afternoon, we broke into the yummy birthday cake that my parents had gotten me from Arnie's on Saturday. It was yummy but huge so we took it over to the neighbor's to share and we had a nice time vi sting while indulging.

It was a nice holiday weekend. Now that school is out, we are settling into a summer routine.

And looking ahead to the next holiday weekend...Fourth Of July which is also a birthday for a member of the Wheelz Home.

Last Day of School

2011-06-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

I sit here with a second and fourth grader in the house. When did THAT happen?

It was such a great year for both boys. I usually always take a picture of each of them on the front step on the first and last day of school and compare. While I was looking at pictures last night, I discovered that through the big mess on the first day of school this year, I cannot find the pictures I took of each individual boy that day. I do have the one of them together though on the first day.

As I sent them off to school, Noah in particular was pretty sad. He misses his friends in summer, but I think he misses the structure of school as well, even though I know he'd never admit it.

As I was getting ready to go into work this morning, I realized that I wouldn't have a chance to talk to their teachers after school in the rush of things so I sat down and wrote them each a very heartfelt email about how amazing I think they are. I found myself crying each time as I am overwhelmed by the excellent year that both boys had, completely due to their two incredible teachers.

I ran to the mall to get each of the teachers a gift card to put in their cards and then headed up to school for the end of year assembly. It is always a very long event but it is fun to be there and see which award each of the kids in the classes gets since we have come to know all of the kids in all the grades well, being such a small school.

For class awards, there were certainly no surprises. The boys got exactly what I thought they would. Aaron got the Best Reader award in academics and Most Enthusiastic in character. Noah got Author/ Illustrator award. His teacher said the sweetest thing when she presented it. She said that all year while she was reading his stories she had to keep reminding herself that they were written by a third grader. So sweet.

Aaron also received a special award from the Art Teacher as Most Improved. This was special I think because he was SO far behind in fine motor at the beginning of the year that we weren't sure if he would even be able to catch up. To have been recognized for that hard work was something very special.

The boys also both got awards for participating in the presidential fitness program and charms for mileage club. Noah ended up with 11 charms on his necklace this year. But then the PE teachers kept going for Noah. He received several Best in Class awards for different PE activities, which he receives every year. But this year he got another one. School records start in 3rd grade and he got the SCHOOL record for 3/4th grade pushups. 33! He said he could have done more but he was bored :) I guess he'll just have to break it next year.

I then sat down after the boys were in bed to some light reading, perusing some of the writing that Noah did this year in school, wondering why his teacher was so amazed by it. It was the most wonderful hour! Weaved in among his many writings about Mario for Ds were some amazing pieces of writing. It definitely gave me even more insight into that little boy's mind and Steve and I sat there stunned at some of these writings. So cool.

So begins summer vacation. I will be working a couple of days a week at Gymboree and teaching piano one morning a week. That still leaves us two days a week to just play, which is what I intend to do. We've all worked hard and earned it.

So let the fun begin!

Wordless Wednesday: New Use for an Old Swing Set

2011-05-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

3 Weeks Of School Left

2011-05-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that there are only three weeks of school left. This year has flown so fast. I was driving to pick them up the other day and realized how calm this school year has seemed compared to years past and I was trying to figure out why. Here are some of my thoughts:

A. The first day was such a tumultuous start, with trying out a different school and after only three hours there realizing that no school would meet our needs as well as BCCS. Returning to BCCS on the second day of school was like coming home and we all knew it was the place for us.

B. After such a struggle trying to figure out which grade to put Aaron into, and realizing it was against my September first cut off beliefs, Aaron flourished in first grade. It took a few weeks to settle into the fact that we were going to have to work with him on math and penmanship at home, but after finding a routine that worked, things have been smooth sailing. We will have to work some this summer to insure that he doesn't fall behind as things get harder next year, but I think we can get him ready. And he definitely showed that he could rise to expectations this year.

C. Both teachers we had this year are the best ever! The only thing that makes me sad is not having them again next year. Especially Aaron's whom we have had for both boys and I admire more than words can say. Both of the teachers this year have shown so much love for the boys and have made them feel special each and every day they were at school. Noah's teacher recognized his gift for writing and creativity and has encouraged him very enthusiastically. There can be no better school experience than that. I will miss these teachers SO MUCH next year.

D. Noah made straight A's this year. It was fun watching him realize toward the end that he was actually going to have to start WORKING, rather than everything comping completely easy for him. This will be a big adjustment to him next year when the work gets even harder.

E. In the past, behavioral problems seemed to have plagued the schooling. This year was not the case. Due to both things we've implemented at home and the very strong classroom management skills of both teachers, this year has been quite easy. Instead of past "daily reports" that were worrisome, this year it was things like, "I forgot to raise my hand". I'll take those any day of the week :)

F. Car pooling definitely made the year easier. I was so grateful when a mom from Noah's class called early in the year to split driving. Having her drive them to school every day opened up the opportunity to finally find a job and be working every day. And with gas prices skyrocketing this year, it definitely made going to a school out of our district and further away more justifiable.

We have discovered some strengths and weaknesses for both boys this year and we are working to learn how best to help each of them. There have definitely been some surprises, and also moments of sheer pride as they try to grow up and become more independent. At the same time, I am finding it harder to face the fact that I have to let go more and let them "sink or swim". That is going to be an ongoing struggle with this momma.

Yup, three weeks to go until summer vacation. Usually I am saying, "I can't wait" at this point, but I still can't believe this year is over. I probably won't believe it until that final day when I am hugging their teachers good bye for the summer and heading off to Chuck E Cheese for our celebratory dinner :)

Then it will be time for summer fun!

Not JUST for hoops...

2011-05-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

I made a momma bird unhappy this weekend.

And on Mother's Day weekend to boot.

As I was setting up to have a small garage sale on Friday just to try to make enough money to get a small video camera that was on an amazing sale at Target last week, I heard a strange noise behind me. I looked up and saw this:

I started to worry. As you know, we got creative to figure out a way to get the boys a basketball hoop for our driveway and they use it every afternoon. So I started worrying. I figured I should knock it down before anything got more involved. Then, I saw this:

Now I really started worrying. What if Momma Bird has already laid eggs in her nest? If I move the nest, Momma will abandon her "babies" and I will feel horrible. I spent the entire morning and into the afternoon watching Momma Bird fly away and return to sit in her nest.

My dad is is a wonderful photographer of nature and also a bit of a bird enthusiast so I spent the entire day wondering what he would think I was if I destroyed the nest. Luckily, that afternoon while I was having an unrelated breakdown, my step mom called. Within the conversation, I mentioned Momma Bird and the predicament. My parents gave me their blessing to pull the nest, declaring that happiness of boys trumps Momma Bird's nest location." So with a remaining small amount of guilt, I did indeed climb up and bring down her nest. I was SOOO happy when I saw it empty and that Momma Bird hadn't deposited her precious cargo yet.

I also paused in amazement for a moment. First of all, the nest was quite heavy, which surprised me. I actually found myself really studying the construction. It is amazing how such a small animal can create such a perfect home. Taking awkward shaped twigs of all sizes and bending them into perfect circles, soft and ready to make a cozy home for new life.

I've never thought about a bird's nest before. I kept the nest for the boys, who were planning to bring it in for show and tell this week.

I was relieved to have the next dilemma solved and the hoop was empty ready for action when the boys arrived home from work that afternoon.

But I have to admit, the next Saturday morning, when I noticed not one, but TWO birds in action rebuilding, I didn't hesitate this time around. I knocked it down right away before construction took shape. And surprisingly enough, they seem to have found a new place to rebuild for now.

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

We stayed home for Mother's Day this year.

We decided to enjoy the absolutely beautiful afternoon and take a trip to the local mini golf place. This has traditionally been our Father's Day outing but Steve is the one who actually suggested it. Every year the boys get better and and better at staying focused on the game and we had a really fun time. Aaron even got a hole in one, thus the celebration in this picture :)

We had many coupons that we took advantage of during this outing and managed to get a quick visit to the bumper boats as well. Aaron was so excited when they let him have a boat to himself and after some rather funny finagling, it was decided that Steve and the boys would all go out and I would stay on land and take pictures. The boys (yes, all THREE of them) had a blast. I was amazed at how well Aaron maneuvered his boat. I thought he would get stuck and start yelling but he worked through it quite well and even got some great water shots in on his father and brother. And yes, he did manage to get mom on shore wet a few times as well. When they came off, they were all three soaked and smiling from ear to ear.

We went home shortly after and after a few errands I needed to run, we ended the day with Steve throwing burgers and hot dogs on the grill, followed by homework and early bedtime.

It wasn't a hugely eventful day. But it was one with the four of us just being together, which is the best blessing this mama can have these days.

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day weekend as well.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-05T16:54:00.001-07:00

WHY GOD MADE MOMS

Answers given by 2nd grade school children

to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?

1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.

2. Mostly to clean the house.

3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?

1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.

2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.

3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?

1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.

2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?

1. We're related.

2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's mom like me.

What kind of a little girl was your mom?

1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.

2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?

1. His last name.

2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?

3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?

1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.

2. She got too old to do anything else with him.

3. My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?

1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.

2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.

3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms and dads?

1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.

2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.

3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.

4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine..

What does your mom do in her spare time?

1. Mothers don't do spare time.

2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?

1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.

2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?

1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.

2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.

3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

WHEN YOU STOP LAUGHING -- SEND IT ON TO OTHER MOTHERS,GRANDMOTHERS, AND AUNTS.... and anyone else who has anything to do with kids or just needs a good laugh!!!

How We Got Them A Hoop

2011-04-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

Noah asked the other day if he could have a basketball for his birthday. I told him that it would be silly to have one since we don't have a hoop. He said he wanted one so he could play with it at recess. We have been debating the best way to get the boys a basketball hoop for ages, including going round and round about where we would put it if we got one. Between the cost of between $150 and $200, it just wasn't going to happen any time soon.

But when I was going through the things we were going to put into their Easter baskets last week, I decided to use the refund I got at Toys R Us for a recalled product we had to get them a basketball to share at school. Since they have separate recess times and their lockers are pretty much right by each other, I figured it would work out fine.

So I went and got the ball and wrapped it up and hid it downstairs.

Then came Friday night when I had a huge epiphany. Why not check Craig's List for someone who no longer used their hoop. I found a couple of ads but nothing that seemed like it work. So I decided to post a wanted item post of my own. In less than an hour, I got a response from someone who lives about 40 minutes away willing to give us theirs for $25. I immediately called Steve at work to see if he could get his work truck to pick it up and we could surprise the boys Easter morning.

He called me back soon after telling me that when he was asking his co worker about borrowing the truck, the co-worked responded saying that we could have their old hoop for free as long as we wanted to come pick it up.

WOW!

So Steve showed up at home Saturday morning after work with his work truck and a "new" basketball hoop. The boys were so excited but distressed that the net looked so awful (it was ripped, nasty, and hanging there by a string). They also were bummed that we didn't have a basketball. Apparently, none of the other 20 balls in our garage would cut it. So I packed them up and headed them to Target for a new net.

And the inevitable question came..."Mom, don't you think we need a ball?"

So I got one ball and they were both incredibly puzzled as to why we were only getting one ball. I wasn't sure if I should tell them that there was already another ball in the basement wrapped in pretty Easter wrapping paper.

But, soon after we got home, it became clear that Easter was going to come a day early and I brought out basketball number two for them.

The rim has one broken hook...but hubby the "cable guy" solved that problem very quickly with a cable tie. The dilemma then arose about location for the hoop. We have a very narrow driveway on a busy street very close to the neighbor's fenced in yard that is covered in dog poop from their three dogs. The hoop moved several times before finding a place that might work for awhile.

The day was spent playing ball off and on all day. MANY balls passed over the fence and needed to be retrieved. Another issue arose when the the balls strayed into our own backyard, that has temporary fencing up to keep Lily in. So in order to play, we have to keep the garage door down, but each time the ball strays into our backyard, Noah has to lift the garage door for retrieval. Not the most ideal situation, but the benefits definitely outweigh the obstacles.

The last four days have been rainy yucky outside, but each time there has been a clearing, one or both of the boys have been out the door to play ball.

This was an awesome little blessing that came our way and we certainly couldn't beat the price!

How Aaron Eats a Chocolate Bunny

2011-04-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

"Is Mommy really going to sit there and take pictures while I eat this entire bunny?

"Mommy, I'm eating the ears off. Are you gonna stop me???"

"Whoa...there's a big hole in the middle of this rabbit!"

"Can't waste a single crumb. Better pour it out so I can eat those pieces next.

"I'll use this lid so I don't miss any more pieces"

"Mom, look...the entire back is gone. I REALLY get to keep going?"

"This is SERIOUS work. Not so sure this was such a good idea....but I'm still goin"

"This was bigger than it looked!"

"I'm SOOOO exhausted"

"Yum!!!!!!!!!!"

"Can have another one?"

Note: one of the funny thing sis that during this entire ten to fifteen minute adventure, neither Aaron nor I said a word. It was complete silence during the entire time.

Photo Shots

2011-04-25T18:38:00.001-07:00

Easter weekend has passed. We had some time together as a family which is always cherished. I wanted to share some great shots I captured over the weekend. We haven't done professional pictures of the family in so many years that I can't even count. It seems like they never quite capture the personalities when we try. The family picture we have on our wall in the living room is one that a friend took of us at our old church two years ago on Easter day. It was really an amazing picture that stayed clear even when I enlarged it to an 8X1o and to date one of the best we've ever gotten of the four of us together. We kind of joked throughout the week that it has been two years and we really should get a new picture. It seems as if Easter will always manage to be "our" weekend for good family shots. Out neighbor took one of us outside as we were getting ready to head out to church. I thought it was pretty good until I noticed Aaron's eyes closed but it was still so cute that I thought it would be our winner. But then I had my MIL take one of us while we were up there in their back yard. I think it will be the new family portrait for awhile.

I got a good one of the boys too. As we were attempting pictures outside, I zoomed in closer I love the result. Yes, Noah's glasses are halfway down his nose, but the picture is just so sweet and it may just go on the wall too :)

Just wanted to share. Have a great day.

Easter Is Coming

2011-04-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

It's Easter weekend. I really haven't made much of a thing at all about Easter with the kids this year. Of course we've talked about the real purpose of Easter, but we haven't done any of the "traditions", such as coloring eggs, planting flowers, making Easter crafts, etc. It just never seemed to fit into our plans this year. And the kids never mentioned it either.

So when Noah reminded me this morning that this weekend was Easter, it made me think that maybe I was taking something away from them from not making too big of a deal about the "traditional" side of the holiday.
Noah First Easter, 2003

Actually, this was quite intentional. After Christmas two years ago and then again this past year, events that I never shared to the blog world made me really think that we need to tone down some of the build up to these holidays, which is making the boys only care about what they get. In the past we have usually given them their Summer toys for Easter (including the year Noah needed a new bike) since no one has spring birthdays. But it has risen Easter in the boys' minds as a "present" holiday. So I had planned to tone things down this year. But then I realized that I can't just magically take away what they know to be Easter to suit my own needs. And I am excited to have found a few inexpensive but fun gifties that I know they will love. The only difference will be that I am not making a basket for Steve and me this year. I am working on weight loss and I did get a few sweets for Steve that I can just slip to him :)

Aaron's First Easter, 2005

But in all reality, quite a lot will be different this year. It will be our first Easter in our new church, since last year we were still in "search mode" on Easter. Also, we are spending Easter with my in-laws for the first time. And then this afternoon I was informed that my MIL has made baskets for them as well and she has filled eggs and is planning to hide them. Now, I do appreciate that she wants to have a fun Easter day with the kids, but then I was left to wonder, how do we carry on any of our family Easter morning"traditions" (such as our own backyard egg hunt and them opening their baskets from us) without it seeming like just doubling up? And as awkward as it will be to spend the holiday with the in-laws (as all holidays with them are) I need to stay positive and excited for the children's' sake.

So Steve and I spent some time talking about the weekend ahead, trying to figure out how to work it all in without feeling rushed. And believe it or not, I am actually starting to get really excited about our "plan"

Our church has been holding Saturday night services for the last nine months now and they have asked as many of the regular attenders on Sunday morning to go to Saturday night Easter in order to open seats up for visitors on Sunday morning. Now, saying "He Is Risen" Saturday night may feel very strange, but when we started talking about we decided to do "our" Easter here at home on Saturday and then have a second Easter with the in-laws Sunday afternoon. It really isn't any different than going to church Christmas eve and then doing presents Christmas morning. I will be hiding eggs in the backyard tomorrow afternoon and we will do a night search when we get home from church, let the boys open their baskets from us Sunday morning, and then head up for an afternoon of in-law "pleasantries". A full Easter weekend.

Not the same, but still hopefully special in everyone's eyes.

Now let's just hope the weather holds for us.

Weekend Thoughts

2011-04-17T17:02:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted here. Trying to figure out how to get everything done during the week is still a work in progress. There are a few things on my mind tonight as I get ready for the week.

Aaron has a field trip this week. One that I volunteered to drive for before I got the Gymboree job. His teacher emailed me about a week ago to see if I could still drive for it. I went ahead and got the afternoon off and then saw that the teacher had sent out another note thanking the moms who were driving and I was left off the list. Between this and not being able to do lunch anymore, I feel like I'm losing touch with school and the kids. I thought that I had a pretty good relationship with the teachers but it seems like since I can't be as involved anymore, I don't matter as much. Kind of feeling sad about that.

Aaron is in the middle with the red sweater with white stripes during his song in church this morning.

In happier news, we realized that we have now been at our "new" church for a year. The boys joined the entire Sunday School and sang in front of church this morning. It was very cute and I was very proud of them. They are learning so much, just as we are and it is such a wonderful place. I am really looking forward to the Easter service next week. If it's anything near as powerful as the Christmas Eve one was then it should be a morning to remember. They are adding an extra early morning service which is the only one with an egg hunt for the kids so we will try to get up for that.

Noah (the one in green) during the song this morning. Look how tall he is!

I was sick this weekend with a monster cold which should make singing all morning tomorrow to little kids interesting. I am usually not this sick with a simple head cold so this is pretty miserable. Steve even took the boys to a Dove family movie (free) this afternoon (Alpha and Omega) so I could sleep for awhile and my head is still pounding. But at least this week I am finally out of "training" mode and allowed to teach on my own without someone watching over me taking notes. It will definitely be a much improved week.

Got lots of things running through my mind. I'm heading to bed now in hopes that my puffy eyes may magically return to normal by 8 AM tomorrow morning.

Have a good week.

Legoland...Finally

2011-04-08T05:49:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I posted about all of the adventures leading up to out main point of going to Chicago for Spring Break, but never got to the main event.

Back in December on Christmas vacation was when Steve and I had realized that we hadn't gone anywhere as a family during the entire year and that no matter what we had to do something for Spring Break. Because of finances, we were of course limited so we figured a trip to Legoland Discovery Center in Chicago would be fun since we'd never been there and legos had been a big request that year. I had talked to my SIL since she had been there and she said it was a fun place. And then, a short time before we went, I found out that my sister was also planning to take my two nephews there the same week as well. Since my other nephew wasn't on spring break but had a half day on that Wednesday, plans were made and we all decided to meet at Legoland and have fun together. We were laughing because it all just happened to come together rather than a big planning session, which is probably why it all worked out so well. I got a lot of great pictures of groups of cousins that I can't share here, but they were awesome. I even posted a couple of them on the Legoland site :)

The first section was Miniland, which was a huge rendition of the entire Chicago lakeshore. It was so detailed. Noah thought it was pretty cool on one end where they could actually touch controls and move some of the pieces in a construction area. It was also neat because every five minutes or so, the lights went out and it turned into "night".

Moving on, we went through a path and then landed at Dragon Quest, a little ride similar to the Winne the Pooh ride at Disney World where you rode around in a little car and saw the different lego creations in a cave like setting. The kids really enjoyed this ride and at the end of the day went through over and over again, mixing up the combinations of which kids rode in groups of four. Unfortunately we let them ride one time too many and had some drama, but it was short lived and not something we're not going to dwell on.

After the ride we headed upstairs to lego mania. We headed to the "factory" . It was a model of the factory where legos were made. The lady who described the process was very silly and the boys loved her. Each of the kids got a chance to push a big red button making one of the processes begin. Did you know that yellow legos were the first ones made? Anyway, the only disappointment here was that we thought that the kids were going to receive a lego souvenir from the factory since I had read it somewhere and they didn't, which made Noah sad for about a millisecond.

After the factory, we finally met up with my sister in the main building area. There were several areas where kids could build vehicles of different sorts and try to run them down two different test tracks. All of the kids took their turns at making cars and trying to run them. It was a challenge to find wheels to use but I don't think anyone was sad from it. I was actually impressed that Aaron sat down to make a car, since he is usually a little less interested in following through on things like that.

Right near there was the other ride. It was a simple kiddie ride with planes that flew around in a circle. Aaron rode it over and over again, again with different groupings of people each time. He even rode it once with Daddy, which was very cute. I think we went on a good day since they never had to wait for too long before it was their turn to ride and I think all of the kids were able to ride it as many times as they wanted.

We then headed to the 4D movie. I got an adorable picture of the cousins with their 3D glasses on. The movie was about 20 minutes and the kids loved it. I think they would have stayed and watched it again if we'd let them. It was funny watching Aaron because every time something came at us, he held out his hands as if to block it. So cute.

At the end of our adventure, it was finally time to stop in the gift shop and spend the souvenir money that Grandma had given them. Noah was so excited to finally get a Ninjago set and Aaron built his own lego clown guy and got a little car to race him around in. I know this was a good trip because it was the first time that we visited anywhere that Noah didn't spend the entire time we were there asking when we would go to the gift shop.

On our way out, we decided to go back to my SIL's for dinner before heading out for home. The kids had a good time just relaxing and eating yummy pasta and chicken cacciatore. Finally after ice cream sundaes, it was time to say goodbye to our 36 hour adventure away. As we headed out to the car for the three hour drive home, we snuggled the boys into their seats under their blankets with their buddies and looked up. The sunset was beautiful, bringing a nice close to a memorable family day.

I keep seeing all of the status updates of all of the in laws and their annual exotic trips to warm places for their wonderful spring break adventures. Yes, that would be nice someday to take a real vacation again like everyone else. But for now, I can remember that we gave the boys a fun day away at someplace new and they will have memories of us being together, whether we travel three hours away or thirteen.

Spring Break Trip 2011

2011-04-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

Spring Break 2011 is almost over. We are recuperating from our whirlwind overnight adventure to the Chicago suburbs and our trip to Legoland Discovery Center. I am sure if you have boys (yes, I know some girls too) then you have experienced the euphoria that can overcome them when they start building with legos. Since we haven't done a vacation in a couple of years and we're looking at a few more before we can even think about it again, we thought we could at least take an overnight and have a small family getaway.

The first thing that made this trip possible was my parents offering to not only allow us to borrow their van, but also dog-sit for us so we didn't have to worry about Lily being left behind. The second was a generous offer from a blog friend to get us a hotel room at a family rate since her family member worked for the hotel chain. We were so thrilled at the offer and were lucky to take her up on it. The first snafu happened when we got to the hotel and they had our reservation, but absolutely NO RECORD of it having been paid for. There was no way we were going to tell the boys that we had to turn around and go home and we took the cash that we had brought for food for the trip and paid for the room again. I am still praying that she will be able to get her money back from this disaster :( I feel so guilty about it.

But at least we did finally get settled in our room and the boys were itching to hit the pool. The pool was very small and shallow and we had it to ourselves all three times that we swam which was fun. After about an hour or so everyone seemed to be slowing down and we decided it was time to dry off and find something to eat. We visited the pool twice more over the course of the eighteen hours at the hotel. The second of the three was the most eventful, being that Noah was swimming along the bottom and while trying to do the butterfly, scraped his nose and banged his head on the bottom of the pool. He came up crying and holding his nose and for a short time I feared we were going to visit an ER during this family trip. Luckily a goose egg between his eyes and some nose scrapes were the only damage incurred.

We headed out to the nearby mall, a very large and fun place that I hadn't visited in a long time. We wandered a bit trying to figure out what we were going to do about dinner. We decided that we were going to be able to do one meal at a restaurant and settled on Red Robin in the mall. After dinner, we wandered a little more on the way back. We stopped near the Rainforest Cafe so the kids could see all of the animatronics there and Aaron loved to lay in the pretend "rain" that was coming down. We also stopped at the lego store in the mall so the boys could scope out what souvenirs they might want to get the following day.

We finally settled into our room for the night. I had brought snacks, which included microwave popcorn and sugar free pudding so the boys thought it was pretty cool to be lying in bed eating snacks. Given that the TV had 20 sports channels and basically nothing else, we turned all lights off by 8:30. Unfortunately, we're not used to all of us in one room and between rustling of blankets and Daddy's snoring, it took several hours for anyone to find sleep. So going to bed that night, I was thinking about our trip so far...messed up reservation that now left us with no money, major face smack for Noah, and kids deciding not to fall asleep until after 10:00. This was looking to be a wonderful trip!

Luckily, the morning dawned and we all woke in good moods. I had brought the makings for PB&J sandwiches and bagels and cream cheese along with OJ bottles for breakfast in our room so that we could have food before we headed out to swim one more time, rather than having to spend money on going out for breakfast. This was the start of a better day. Everyone ate great and we spent the longest time at the pool that morning. Noah was a little more pool-shy this time around and spent most of the time poolside or in the hot tub. Aaron the Fish Boy was of course going strong long after I took Noah back up to the room to get ready for our big day.

By the time we checked out, we were ready for lunch. Knowing we needed to stick with low budget, we decided to try to find our favorite chain restaurant, Noodles and Company. After looking it up in the GPS, it said the nearest one was 20 miles away, including two toll roads. But since we had almost two hours before we had to meet our other family members at our main destination for the day, we figured we might as well go with it. Long story short...sometimes GPS guidance isn't the best way to go. When we got there, it was a run down old building that looked like it was boarded up about ten years ago. Not exactly what we thought. So we re-set the GPS to take us aback to exactly where we had come from and find SOMETHING there. We settled at Chipotle, another favorite, even though the boys don't love it much. Once again, we broke out the PB&J and another successful meal was achieved.

FINALLY, we were ready to head to the main vacation destination...Leogoland Discovery Center. This was the whole point of the trip. But now that I wrote about all the other stuff leading up to now, this post is WAY too long. So I will save Legoland for next time. In short though, all of the crazy ins and outs of getting to the apex of our trip were all worth it. We had a very fun time at Legoland. It was awesome that we ended up there with my two sisters and our kids together, who all adore each other. I can't wait to share more about that part of our trip, since it was great. But alas...next time.

Thanks again to Melissa for helping us get this trip together. I really really really hope we can figure it all out so you get your money back :( We really do appreciate all you did to make this happen for us.

Stay tuned...

Behold.....The Sea....Itself

2011-03-31T18:34:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was the final performance for the symphony chorus for this season. We performed Vaughn Williams' Sea Symphony. It was a huge exhausting but remarkable and moving piece of music. Rehearsals were quite shaky all week and we wondered how the performances would go.

Surprisingly, it all came together. It is always interesting to see the review that we get the next day in the paper after a Friday night performance. The reviewer is usually quite harsh and so I wasn't expecting miracles.

The article was a fun surprise in TWO ways. One...it was a different reviewer and we actually got 3 and a half out four stars. The second fun surprise was the picture that was printed. Take a good look at the chorus along the top. Find the one female singer smack dab in the middle with obnoxiously open mouth:)

That would Yours Truly.

I just wish I knew what part of the piece we were singing at the time. At first I was quite embarrassed but then after I looked at the picture a little more I decided that I could be proud at how involved, energetic and enthusiastic I was.

I even went and bought a copy to send to my Grandma.

I can't wait until next season.

Star Wars Night at the Griffins

2011-03-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

So I finally got around to loading (I just can't seem to grasp when I'm up and when I'm down loading) pictures form my camera. I found pictures from several weeks ago that I never shared. It has definitely been a very busy few weeks with starting the new job, finishing up symphony for the season, and also continued school and scout activities.

One of the activities we enjoyed as a family a few weeks ago was the boys' first professional (minor league...but still) hockey game. It was supposed to be a promotional event for the symphony whose chorus I perform for, but that part of the evening turned into a bit of a bust. We prepared and performed, but the media coverage that was supposed scheduled did not show.

But the game itself was fun. The night was a special Family Night...Star Wars night. It was a fundraiser and the crowd was huge. I don't think either of the kids was hugely excited about the game when I talked about it the entire preceding week before. But that was fine. We got there early since I had to rehearse so when we came out of rehearsal, the very large number of Star Wars characters that were gearing up for their night were roaming the halls. Noah got excited when he saw a "Royal Guard" come out and I pulled out my camera for a picture. It was all fine and good until a voice came from the character, "Hi Kristi!". I completely freaked out. He then clarified that it was a guy I who works at the music store with me who does this as a side activity. We have been laughing about it since.

So having missed dinner because of the rehearsal and because we had been downtown all day for various activities (it was a very filled day), I decided to face the crowd to find some hot dogs to chow on. The crowd was crazy with kids everywhere trying to get pictures with the many many many storm troopers wandering around the arena so I stopped at the first food vendor I found and we all had...pizza. Everyone got their own little pizza and for some reason Noah finally decided that night that he likes pizza now :)

After a bite to eat, the boys were finally ready to explore some of the characters. Neither one of them was terribly gung ho about meeting the characters, which actually surprised me, but they (especially Noah) were happy to stop at the table where they could make signs for the game. Noah worked so hard on his and it turned out so cute. Aaron decided to make his "interactive" having one side say "yes' for when the griffins got a goal and "no" for when the other team did.

It was also bottle opener night and the boys were all happy because they were giving away free bottle openers that made noise like a goal score. Steve and I thought it was funny that EVERYONE was given these, including six year kids who have no business opening bottles, but it worked out well since we had a family gathering the next day and I was able to give the extras away. The boys had fun pushing the inside though and making the noise with it.

As a rule, these are my thoughts about sports spectating. I really enjoy watching football, I will watch baseball if it's a game I'm interested in, basketball is fun in real life but not very exciting on TV, and I'm not a real fan of hockey. But I still wanted to take advantage of discounted tickets so that the boys could actually go to a game. And I have to admit, we had a really fun time. All chorus members and their families were seated together right behind the goal so we could see everything and the Griffins scored three goals right in front of us, which the kids loved. They especially liked the fun activities between the periods, as well as watching Darth Vader let out the first puck.

So Star Wars Night at the Griffins was a fun family night. I am so glad that we went through with it and I couldn't possibly end this post without being a little corny, so...

Family Game Night

2011-03-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

This week has been just as I expected it to be..hectic. Add in a few unexpected "surprises" like a speeding ticket I can't pay and family sized strep throat and it got even more so.

Because of it being symphony week, I had to change around my piano teaching schedule and had lined up make ups all night last night, which was supposed to last until way past the boys' bedtimes, meaning I would miss bedtime EVERY SINGLE night this week. I cherish bedtime with my boys. It's the time of day when all the social stresses of being a child fitting in at school fall away and they are my little boys again, asking for hugs, kisses and songs to be sung to them. It is always hard to miss bedtime for a string of nights in a row.

So last night when I got a cancellation for the last few lessons of the night, I was quite happy to be going home to my boys before bedtime. And they were equally excited when Mommy came in the door. Noah shared some silly joke he had heard (he's turning into quite the comedian) and then asked if we could play Scrabble, of all things. It was almost bedtime already but I was happy with the suggestion and went and dusted off the old board (yes, it had been in the closet for a LONG time). It was even more fun when Aaron and Daddy both decided to join us. We teamed up, Mommy and Aaron against Noah and Daddy, and after a few gentle nudges reminding Steve to let Noah take the lead in word formation, the game began.

We had such a fun time. We had words such as piglet, goofy, and axles. We had Noah total every single score all the way through, including special tiles. I think it was the first time he actually saw the purpose of all of the multiplication facts he's been forced to learn against his will :)

I'm not sure if this spontaneous game night was the result of TV turn off week last week. Or because of the game show on the HUB network called Family Game Night (which is very fun if you ever get a chance to see it) but the boys were still talking about the game this morning and Noah asked to take the card game version of Scrabble to school today to play during recess.

The boys are growing up so fast. I know our times are limited for when they want to sit and play games with us. Most of the time, Noah says NO when I invite him to play a game with me. Perhaps that is why this was so fun. Or perhaps it was because instead of pushing "It's your bedtime", we actually went with the flow and said "yes" in response to a child's request. As we were playing, I smiled thinking that these are the kind of memories that last. Among my somewhat challenging childhood, I still remember the day that my Dad was sitting at the kitchen table teaching my brother how to play chess. Somehow I grasped it too and we played a game together afterward (Of course I lost, as I always did when playing games with my brother). I don't know how old I was or what year it was, but nevertheless the memory of sitting at the kitchen table with a parent playing a game is firmly planted in my mind.

Family game night. I'll hold on to this happy memory for the rest of the week, especially if the week continues to be rocky.

If you have not done this in awhile, I encourage you to dust off the old board games and bring them out. You won't be sorry :)

BTW, the final score was tied at 277 each

Have a good Wednesday

Forget Alexander

2011-03-21T17:14:00.001-07:00

You know...that kid who had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

He's got nothing on me.

It started out this weekend when I was starting to put together the plan for this week. I actually had to make a word document of this week's schedule, hour by hour in order to sort it out. I have/had training as well as teaching classes at gymboree and regular evening piano lessons. In addition, it is symphony week, meaning extra rehearsals every night this week and performances Friday and Saturday night. Add to that playing piano for state solo and ensemble Saturday morning and having to fit in rehearsals with each of those four kids both at their school and in the evening. And then finding out that the event is going to be held in Holland rather than locally. As if that's not enough, my car pool mom left this morning fr Israel for ten days so I'm driving both directions for the next week and a half.

So this week was going to be a busy one. And it really needed everything to run like clockwork.

Isn't that always when things fall apart?

I was nursing a sore throat of varying degrees all last week but since I couldn't bear the thought of ANOTHER $40 co-pay, I blew it off, knowing that it was most likely strep. Then, Saturday afternoon on the way to my in-laws for the day, Noah started complaining about a headache, followed by fever, followed by chills and then Sunday morning he added a stiff neck. So this morning, amidst many protests that he didn't want to miss pajama day at school, I canceled the three classes in my brand new job that I was supposed to teach today, canceled solo ensemble rehearsal that I needed to see the music again, and took him to the doctor. The poor kid actually has such a swollen lymph node on his left side that it's protruding out and painful to touch. They ran a culture and came back with a positive strep result. No big surprise there but since I knew I had symphony this week, I had them run a culture on me too. Again, positive for strep.

So now I had to email my section leader to say I couldn't come to the final piano rehearsal tonight before orchestra on Wednesday, risking not being allowed to perform this weekend.

If that were the only bad for the day, then it would just be an annoying day.

But wait...it gets better.

I decided to take Noah out for lunch for pasta since I had a coupon and we both wanted something warm and soft for our throats. On the way home, I see lights. The blue and red kind that strike fear in any law abiding citizen.

I got stopped for going 40 in a 35, destroying a 21 year perfect driving record. Even worse, a $100 ticket. My house in foreclosure, my car is being repossessed and I'm supposed to come up with a fricking $100 out of my butt for a speeding ticket for FIVE MILES OVER THE LIMIT?!

So I headed off to work, still incredibly angry about the days' events. Coming in the door after teaching I hear Aaron whining. Now, Aaron whining is an all day every day occurrence, so I didn't think much of it. Until I come in and see Steve holding a frozen bag of peas and a HUGE goose egg on Aaron's forehead. Seriously? Apparently he was spinning on the hardwood floor and slipped, banging his head on the floor. Way to go Kristi for pulling up the carpeting in here, huh?

Looking toward tomorrow, I can only pray that Aaron doesn't wake up with spots on his face, which is how he gets strep. I can't cancel another day of obligations, considering I don't even know the full consequences of today's yet.

So I am thinking about the children's book Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. We don't know if Alexander had a better the next day.

I really hope that I do.

The New Normal

2011-03-15T17:27:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here looking around the kitchen. The sink is piled with dishes that I feel too sick to wash yet I don't think it's fair for Steve to wash them since it's his birthday in just under three hours. And I think the pile of laundry downstairs has sprouted a life of its own.

Yep, the new normal is going to take some getting used to.

I am in my third week of working at Gymboree Play and Learn. It is my first week of teaching on my own and it's going fine. But the adjustments around the house and to the family are going to take some work.

First of all, I need to start downing the Vitamin C again. I'm not sure if it's using my voice all day every day again (including singing in much higher ranges than I've done in a LONG time) or being around little kids all day but I am sick...AGAIN. I know I will build up resistance and feel better soon, but for now my throat feels it has knives in it and I have to teach two classes tomorrow morning. Even my piano students were telling me tonight that I sounded funny to them. As a matter of fact, the minute this post is done, I'm heading to bed.

Another change in the new normal is that I had to tell the boys' teachers today that I cannot do lunch duty anymore. The boys are bummed, but I am even more so. I love being in the classrooms periodically. It allows me to watch the boys in their school environments and also to get to know the other kids that they spend most of the hours in their day with. I have cherished the time. But I also know that it is definitely time for me to be working and trying to get us on our feet, hopefully saving the house along the way.

The morning routine has also become affected. Especially with the time change, which seems to have caused much difficulty for My Aaron. He is SOOOOO tired. It doesn't help that their scout pack meeting went an hour and a half past bedtime tonight. Poor Mrs. T tomorrow in having to deal with a tired boy. And even more so...Poor Daddy who will have to spend his birthday alone with the boys while I am teaching, dealing with a crabby Aaron and no TV to help with the down time.

And school pick up threw the boys and the girls I carpool home for a loop yesterday too when, rather than seeing me there first thing when they came out from school, they were among the last picked up since I worked until 3 and it is a twenty minute drive from my work place to their school.

Even Lily Pup is definitely feeling the change. It used to be that after the boys left for school she had me to herself for a little while and we snuggled on the couch, periodically casually going outside for a quick moment to do her business. On nice days, we would take several walks around the block. Now, it has become, "Lily, you had better do your business in the next half hour or you'll be spending the morning in your crate until Steve gets home to let you at lunchtime." Whether in her crate or penned up in the kitchen (I refuse to let her have full run of the house for seven hours straight...her bladder is just too small), she is itching to run and play and INSISTS on hours of Fetch when we get home to help her let off her steam. She will not let us out of her sight (not that she ever did before anyway). Her plumbing seems to be all messed up too:(

The house is a mess, there's dirty laundry piled up, and I haven't even checked Noah's reading log for school his week. So this is what's it's like to be a working mom. I know we will all be fine when the new normal becomes just plain normal. I know the kids will not suffer from this at all and in the long run might even benefit... if we can indeed convince the LBPS blood suckers to let us keep our house. I will learn to manage my time better and get everything done around the house and keep order with everything the kids need for school.

Not to sound complaining too much, I have to say that the boys just got home and had an awesome night at scouts, scoring lots of belt loops and patches. Also, Steve and I are really excited about taking the third and final joining class at church this coming Sunday toward becoming members at the new church. That difficult chapter from a year and half ago sure did find itself a happy ending :)

The new normal will take some getting used to. But it will be worth it and I am glad that we are all on board to work together to work toward a smooth transition.

Pinewood Derby 2011

2011-03-08T17:37:00.000-08:00

It's Wednesday and we're finally starting to recuperate from our busy weekend of last. We knew it was going to be a crazy one, but it's been so long since we had something fun to do that we cherished the thoughts of finally having some fun.

Friday night we were supposed to go to a scout gathering where the derby cars would be weighed and measured to be ready for the pinewood derby on Saturday morning. By the time we got home from school on Friday afternoon, I was ready for the week to be done so we decided to stay home. As you will read in a few minutes, this decision cost Aaron in a bug way but I will elaborate in a moment.

Saturday morning started bright an dearly with Aaron's derby race set for 9 AM. We were told to come a half hour early to register our car if we didn't go Friday night. We got there very early. The judge looked at Aaron's car and said, "uh oh" which one never wants to hear. We had lost one of the official wheels from the kit so I had gone out to the scout store to get a new set of "official" wheels. I decided to get him blue, which turned out to NOT be official after all and we had to switch them then and there for black ones. The judge then suggested that I put a dab of glue on each axle to ensure that the wheels stay on. The races then began. Aaron's car led each race down the slope but fell behind each time it went flat, which I thought was strange. After the races, where he placed 6 out of 9, he came to me saying, "Mom, the wheel is stuck!" Sure enough, glue had seeped into the wheel and it didn't roll AT ALL. I figured that if he placed sixth with one stuck wheel, he for sure would have gotten at least the third place trophy if all four wheels had worked. After Steve got there from work, we decided to put the functional yet blue wheels back on so Aaron could play with his car on the practice track with the other scouts while we were waiting for Noah's race to start. On a whim, we asked if we could run the car down the official track just to get a sense of how well it would have done if I had bought the right color wheels. We should have never asked. Turns out that it would have not only won, but blown the other cars out of the water by eight seconds. VERY frustrating. I have to say that Aaron has handled this information way better than either Steve or I have.

Noah's race went off without a hitch and he was so incredibly excited when he won second place and got his first ever real trophy. He was higher than a kite! The smile on his face couldn't be beat. I was proud of him then because he went around to other kids and told them each that they did a goo job in the races too. The boys didn't want to leave when the races were over. They wanted to run their cars over and over on the practice track. Even though Noah left with a trophy and Aaron didn't, it was fun to watch the boys race their cars on the practice track because Aaron's beat EVERY other car, including Noah's, over and over again and Noah really couldn't brag since he knew in his heart that Aaron's car really was the award winner. The whole thing worked out really well.

Steve and I spent the day trying very hard to not think about the "should haves" surrounding the circumstances of Aaron's race. There are so many. We really had to take a lesson from Aaron, who did not spend the day being upset about not getting a trophy. He spent the day smiling big smiles because he had so much fun being a scout, playing with his new car, and sporting his award..."Coolest Car with Stars"

But look out next year...we're gonna take it all :)

A Day of Singing

2011-03-08T04:52:00.001-08:00

I spent the whole day yesterday singing. Not just silly little singing in the shower like we all do. But actually USING my singing voice. It has been a long time since I have done that. I stopped teaching six years ago and stopped directing children's choirs and singing in small groups at church almost a year and a half ago. I had joined symphony chorus to help fill that void, which it has done excellently. But I was shocked at how different it was getting back into using my voice to teach again.

Let me explain. Yesterday was my first day teaching music at Gymboree Play and Music. I heard a comment recently suggesting that this job was maybe not good enough and it really bothered me. But then I got there yesterday, after several hours of studying the lesson plans and practicing the songs, ready to go. And for a few hours, I was focused on being the best teacher I could be, even if it was for children who cannot yet talk.

There were many things that I had forgotten about music teaching that came back pretty quickly.

The first was that I had forgotten how HIGH one has to sing to match the singing range of young children. I am a natural born alto (even though a prof in college told me to sing soprano) so while I was learning and singing the songs, it was a stretch for me. I hadn't sung in that range in a long time. Also, even though I used to be really good and making and following lesson plans, it felt so foreign yesterday. I had forgotten which information I used to write down to help me and which information I would just remember. It was good to team teach yesterday while it was all coming back to me.

The classes went fine and I think this job will go well for me. How could using music to teach little ones in their most important formative years be not good enough? One look at these little one's faces and watching them soak in everything they are seeing and hearing and one can see just how much good programs like these does.

By the time the four hours were done, I was heading out to my car still singing the songs from those lessons. That was something I used to do back when I was teaching in the schools. I found myself singing the songs throughout the entire day.

Then a few hours later, I was teaching a piano lesson and I realized how often I sing the rhythms along with my students' playing. It is not a big deal and all of my students are used to it, and they often do it along with me. What a great way to internalize what notes sound like.

Then, last night on the way to chorus rehearsal, it hit me that I had been singing ALL DAY. And yet I was still excited about going to rehearsal. Not only that, but I was so incredibly warmed up that I could have pulled off first soprano in a heartbeat.

It struck me that this was where I should be. I don't have many talents in this world. Music is pretty much the only thing I've ever done well. So it just felt really good that I seemed to be using it again.

It did kind of feel like I was coming full circle. I don't have to be in charge of 400 kids putting on big productions anymore. I can sit in front of a group of 5-10 toddlers and their caregivers and watch the amazing connections that they are making with their little ones.

That's not just good enough for me.

It's wonderful.

Finally...A Weekend With Something To Do

2011-03-04T04:41:00.000-08:00

Actually, make that about a half dozen somethings to do.

We have spent so many weekends lately at home telling the boys..."No we can't go anywhere this week" that it feels nice that we have a weekend full of activities. I guess it would have been nice for some of them to spread among more than one weekend, but there will definitely be no time to sit around wondering what to do.

Tonight we have "derby trials" which we thought sounded so formal when really all it entails is taking the cars to the derby site, trying them out on the track, getting tips on how to make them faster and also getting them weighed in so we don't have to do it tomorrow. I am glad that we're going though because Steve has been hemming and hawing about this process for the entire month. The wheels are still not on the cars, nor are the weights. I am told that there are people there to help us with that stuff as well.

Then, tomorrow morning, Aaron's race is at 9AM and Noah's is at 11. I have to admit that if either boy actually wins their race it will completely mess up our entire day since the finals aren't until 1 PM. I don't think we have to worry about it though :) I let the boys pick out whatever they wanted to decorate their cars with at Michael's yesterday and they picked "jewels" so now we no longer have derby cars, we have ones that are BEDAZZLED.

Last week I won tickets on a FB contest to the Home and Garden Show. So we are going to try to do that tomorrow afternoon. I would be more excited if I was motivated to do any home improvements. But right now, facing foreclosure (Stupid Fannie Mae), it seems silly to fix up the house if the bank is going to turn around and sell it for less than half what we owe on it anyway. But the Home show is still fun to go to and walk around.

Then, the group of us that are singing an excerpt from Beethoven's Ninth at the Griffins game have a sound check at 5 Pm and the game starts at 7. It is Star Wars night at the Griffins which looks like a lot of fun and I think the boys will get a kick out of it. I looked at pictures from last year on the web page. Yes, it is going to be strange singing to such an unlikey crowd, but the symphony is hoping to create "a buzz" before their season launch on Sunday. Should be very interesting.

Then on Sunday, we will visit my parents whom have been down south for several weeks. I wish they had brought warm weather home with them, but alas, we'll just have to wait for that. Then we will be heading to my sister's for my nephew's birthday party.

By Monday morning, we will all be exhausted but we will hopefully have made a memory or two of family time. Also next week, I will be working at my new job. I am teaching music classes at Gymboree Play and Music. After I get trained on those, I will also be cross training for all of their other classes as well. It is exciting but I am getting nervous too. The girl who has been teaching these classes for the last seven years is very good and the families love her. I don't know how I can possible fill her shoes. I know it's going to take some time for the families to adjust to a new person. I just hope they all have patience with me as we go through the process.

Have a great weekend!

Retraction????

2011-03-02T04:08:00.001-08:00

I love it when I'm humbled :)

Remember a few weeks ago when I got on my soap dish about Mama always knows best? Well, I was just asking for trouble for being a know-it-all.

I shall explain...

Three years ago, when Noah was in kindergarten, he closed the van door in an awkward way, slipped, and jammed his wrist on a metal piece on the door. He cried but I didn't think much of it, sending him into the babysitters house and driving off to work. A few hours later, my husband called saying that Noah was still complaining and I told him to put him to bed and I would see how he was in the morning. There was no swelling or bruising at the time. I still took him the next day and it was indeed broken.

So yesterday, when Noah came home from school with quite the swollen and bruised pinkie from getting it jammed on a basketball in gym class, I decided that I would still wait a few hours before taking him to the med center. THEN, I got a call from my new boss inviting me to start work today. Now I couldn't wait until the next day to take him to the med center because it was my first day of a new job. So I decided that we should probably go get it checked out. We tried several med centers who ALL had two to three hour waits. Finally, two hours after normal bedtime, we got in, saw a provided, had an x-ray, and had a diagnosis...sprain. I took a picture of the swollen pinkie next to his normal one before they "buddy wrapped" his pinkie with the ring finger. He was pitching quite the fit about wearing tape on his finger to school so we stopped at CVS on the way to school and picked up a "buddy wrap" made from soft material and he was much more relaxed about the whole thing.

So indeed...mama doesn't know best. Or maybe she does but doesn't listen to herself. My instinct was to just buddy wrap the finger and wait until the following afternoon. But instead, we spent hours in a med center waiting room. I did give him a little extra sleep this morning and took them to school a little late, still giving me a chance to get to my new job to observe a 10:0 class.

I am excited about starting the job. In the next five weeks, they are planning to train me to teach all of their classes, including music, play, sports, and school readiness. This manager actually told me that they were excited to find me and I was a God send to them. I hope I can live up to that expectation. I just wish I had found this six months ago...

Have a good Wednesday :)

Monday Morning Follow Ups

2011-02-28T04:55:00.000-08:00

Boy was it hard to get everyone (myself included) up and going this morning after four days off. We had a calm weekend. Spent most of it finishing up the derby cars for next weekend. The boys had a lot more hands on with the cars this year. I let them watch TV Saturday morning as long as they were sanding at the same time. Saturday and Sunday afternoons were spent painting them off and on all day.

I spent some time researching the nasty mortgage company that we are dealing with Satruday morning. Come to find out, they don't even OWN our loan, they are a collector for Fannie Mae and Fannie Mae actually owns our house. At first I was kind of mad for the deception, then I realized that there might be hope. I am going to contact Fannie Mae directly to see if there is a way that we can get around the blood suckers at LBPS and get a modification anyway. Doesn't there have to be someone somwhere in the world within the company that believes in actually HELPING people?

Conferences last week went really well. Noah still has all A's and I was also able to talk with his teacher a little about the weird things that have been happening in the classroom. It was very enlightening. Aaron's conference went well also. He is at or above grade level in everything and his teacher sees no reason to repeat first grade. The things he has to work on, such as independence and maturity, are not things that a repeated year of first grade would solve, especially since he has no academic issues at all. We talked a little about the possibilities of some of his struggles with the second grade teacher, but that is still seven months away. If he shows nearly the amount of growth in the next six months as he has in the past six months, he will absolutely be ready. It was so nice of his teacher to reassure me that I did the right thing in putting him in her class this year. Both of the boys have wonderful women for teachers this year.

I didn't hear from the Gymboree owner this weekend like I was supposed to. I am trying not to panic. She said, "I want to hire you. I will email or call you Friday or Saturday and get you started next week" which actually means this week. Why do I keep making great impressions and then not hear anything? Am I getting blown off again???

Gotta go get the dog out. She's whining for attention. She might as well get used to it though because she's gonna be a lot more lonely if I ever do start the job.

Have a good day!

I'm Employed...Finallly

2011-02-25T14:37:00.000-08:00

I am officially employed. It's not a full time job, a school job, or anything with perks whatsoever. But I will be using my teaching and music skills, parenting experience, and also working flexible yet steady hours that can be altered come summer to fit my schedule. I am cautiously optimistic. This is exactly what we needed. So problem solved...right?

Well, not exactly. It may be a case of too little too late. We are back to being two months behind in mortgage and receiving foreclosure notices again. Now that I'm employed, I can FINALLY make the payments, but we got yet another denial for modification today so I don't know how to make up the difference and convince the LBPS blood suckers to give us a break now that I'm finally employed. It makes me SO mad. After working so hard to find a job and after six months finally getting one, if we STILL lose the house I will be ...sorry for the bad language coming up...PISSED. (Sorry if I offended anyone. I have NEVER said a swear word in my blogs before but this is so raw right now that I couldn't hold back)

So I want to be excited. I really do. But I really don't know if this will save us or not.

I really just don't know...

Noah's Question About Body Science

2011-02-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

So I started up my computer planning to write a follow up on conferences today, mainly because I want a record of what happened today.

But instead, a funny story came to my mind from a conversation with my sons today. Note the word "sons".

Please be aware...if you are uncomfortable with discussion of body stuff, please pass this one on by. But, there may be other people out there that will get a giggle from this...

Somehow I started a tradition with Noah that every conference day he gets to pick out a new book. So I took then boys to Barnes and Noble before conferences today. Noah picked out a book that had a "secret decoder" that was all about body functions. The kid loves science and this was right up his alley so I said fine. As we were on the way to school, Noah started reading different facts aloud. It was really quite fascinating. Then he comes to a page about the functions of all of the body's important organs.

He gets to two in particular...
"Mommy, the small intestine makes pee and the large intestine makes poop"
"Thanks for the info, Noah"
"Mommy, Noah said 'poop' "
"Thanks Aaron for the update"
"Mommy" Noah continues, "that means that girls don't need small intestines."
"How do you figure that Noah?
"Because they don't have a penis."

Now it is at this moment that I had a huge decision to make. Do I continue this very scientific discussion because it is fact based or do I stop it so this doesn't turn into a gross discussion among his friends on the playground?

I decided that I had to go at least a little further...

"Noah, just becasue girls don't have a penis, doesn't mean that they don't go pee"
"But how, mom"
"Mommy said pee" (Aaron)
"Noah, you have one place for pee to come out and one place for poop. So do girls."
"HOW MOM?

THAT is where I stopped the conversation.

"That's just the way our bodies are made"

This was then followed by a very clear disclaimer that this conversation will not be repeated in school and that we only talk about our bodies at home and if he has questions, to only come to his parents or other trusted adults.

Gone are the days of simple kid innocence. Inside this silly little anecdote is a bigger thought of how children seek to find out facts. I figured if I cut off his questions now, then he will only seek out other, possibly less appropriate sources for info so I want him to be comfortable to ask me things. At the same time, it will be up to me to decide how much information is too much and how much is just enough. I am so lucky that at eight and a half, he is still talking to me about things for now. I know our moments of open communication are numbered as we barrel our way toward puberty. I'm hoping that the information I gave him doesn't spark curiosity in a bad way.

I guess only time will tell. Maybe, he'll become a brilliant doctor because of the interest that was sparked today and someday he'll cure some terrible disease.

It could happen...

It's Conference Time

2011-02-23T08:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, here we are, the school year is on the downhill and we have the second round of conferences tomorrow afternoon. I can't believe how quickly his year is going.

Since I am in the school every Tuesday for lunch duty, I have a chance to chat with each of their teachers on a regular basis and also a small chat with Aaron's teacher when I pick him up in the afternoons. So I hope there aren't any huge surprises.

It has been such a great year for both boys. I worried about Noah's class since he had a sub for the entire first part of the year. His "real" teacher came around Thanksgiving and I love her. She is so loving to all of the kids and you can tell that she genuinely likes them. I know that seems like a given but sometimes you wonder... Noah has gotten a couple of B's the last couple of weeks so I am not sure if he still has all A's but he is still doing fine and am so proud of him.

Aaron's conference will be interesting. I put him into first grade thinking he would most likely have two years of first grade. I'll spare you the details but it was just a thought process we went through. As of now, I am baffled. Although he is still younger than the rest of his class, he has progressed so much this year that now I'm not so sure. His teacher is absolutely AWESOME so I completely trust whatever she tells me tomorrow. I am trying to make a list of the things I want to ask since I always seem to forget everything I want to ask the teachers when I walk in the door. The interesting thing here is that up until now, I've usually had an idea of what I want for my boys. This time, I am more interested in the teacher's point of view. She is so smart and loving and always wants the best for all of her students so I am eager to hear her opinions tomorrow.

These kids are getting older.
Time has gone so fast.
I am so proud of them but it is clear...my babies are gone.

No News...yet

2011-02-21T07:37:00.000-08:00

Good Morning,
A week ago I was anxiously sitting by this very computer awaiting word from the school district which I interviewed for the previous Friday. They had said they wanted to fill a dozen positions with quick turn around and answers either way by Tuesday (last week).
As the week went on and no email came in, my spirits continued to sink. WAY down. Bad thoughts went through my head about my own self worth and my abilities as not only a teacher, but as a person at all. And to a certain extent, those thoughts are definitely still swimming in my head.
As a result, Hubby and I were irrationally mean to each other all weekend long. Completely uncool. And I indeed questioned my faith. "In all things God works for the good of those who love Him who are called according to His purpose". Romans 8:28 has been a very active verse in my head for fifteen years, ever since I sang an anthem of it in my campus ministry choir. Yet I spent the weekend wondering what the good is when God would let us save our house, only to lose it a few months later because apparently I an unworthy of a simple para pro job. Steve said something jokingly about winning the lottery and I said that I don't want to win the lottery, I want a JOB. I don't want a hand out. I want to PROVIDE. And I want Hubby to not be resentful of me anymore because I am not pulling my share of the weight.
So, as distraught as I am, I broke the rules that were listed on the K12 jobs website and called the human resources office a few minutes ago. They told me that they were having budget problems and were delayed and I should hear by next week. Good news...there's still hope. Bad news...did I kill that hope by nagging? It doesn't really matter now. What's done is done.
Unlike last time, I actually didn't take my panic out on the kids this weekend. We actually had an okay weekend.

Friday night I volunteered Steve and myself to make popcorn and serve pizza for the school movie night. They showed Bedtime Stories.

Saturday I was determined to do SOMETHING with the kids since we spend so many weekends sitting round wishing we could do something. I decided to take the boys roller skating at a rink near their school instead of the one we've gone to several times before. I figured we were more likely for them to see friends from school or scouts if we went to the city where they attended both of those activities. Not only did we SEE people they knew, we ran in to a birthday party from scouts that we had been invited to but completely forgotten about. The parents invited both boys to join the party. Noah also saw a girl from his class last year and they skated a few laps together as well. After much arguing over the derby cars needing to get built, Steve spent time outside with a hand saw cutting out the design for the cars while we were gone.

Steve had to work Sunday morning and we were supposed to meet him at church. Lazy and sullen Mommy didn't get her big booty out of bed in time and we missed the service. About mid afternoon, it started snowing...hard. It was clear that we were looking at another storm and we truly got dumped on, not surprised to wake up this morning to a snow day. Since the boys have conferences Thursday and Friday, it will be a two day week for them. Sunday afternoon I sat down to work on number tables with Aaron and Noah went downstairs to investigate a noise he heard. He found Daddy downstairs with the neighbor's dremmel trying to smooth out some of the edges of their cars and I was really proud of my hubby for handing the dremmel over to Noah to let him work on his car. Noah is more proud of his car this year since he got to have a bigger part in the cutting. Later this afternoon when the roads are a little more clear, we will be heading out to buy sandpaper and I imagine they will be sanding their cars the rest of the afternoon. Then next weekend will be painting time and ready for the derby in two weeks.

So, amid a little despondency on my part, I am managing to keep a good face on for the kids for now. Who knows? Maybe the prayers really WILL be answered next week.

I really feel like it's our turn to have things work out for us. We've put in our time.

Valentines Day 2011

2011-02-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

I had small Valentines bags waiting for the boys when they got up Monday morning. Each bag was filled with a Lil Kinz, small candy, and a lego mini figure.

The boys were pleased with their new "buddies" and Noah was excited to take his to school with him.

Noah even came up with a creative way to carry his new friend to school while still leaving his hands free for his backpack :)

As I headed up to school with treats for the boys' parties, I had a strange thought. As I had spent the day waiting (and still am waiting at this moment) for the email that was promised whether I got the job I interviewed for last week or not, I wondered at a funny thought. I was actually hoping that this will be the last class party I will be attending. NOT because I no longer want to be involved in my kids' school activities. Quite the contrary. But if I no longer attend class parties, then the reason would be because I was employed, which is the much desired position for me to be in at the moment. So as I was taking pictures, I was praying and praying and praying some more that these would be the last class parties that I would attend for quite a long time. Pretty strange, huh?

Both parties were the typical Valentines parties., complete with little cards, lots of candy and treats. In December for Aaron's Christmas party, I had brought cut up cheese and crackers rather than sweets and they had been so popular that Mrs. T asked me to bring them again. As I was setting them out, one of the kids called me the "cheese mom". I giggled at that.

For Noah's party, I helped prepare frosting for their cookies. I had ordered a carnation from the PTO for each of the boys to be delivered during lunch that day. Aaron had already lost his by the time I got there at 2:oo, but Noah was guarding his and was happy to tell me how excited he was when his name go called and he got a flower. His class was happy because their teacher brought in her seven month old son.

As the parties started winding down, I collected my boys, the two girls I drive home from school, and an additional girl, the one whom Noah has called his "girlfriend" since kindergarten. The car ride was VERY loud, with five sugar hyped kids. Actually, the noise mostly stemmed from the two third grade girls and Aaron. Noah actually asked them to quiet down at one point, which cracked me up.

Aaron was definitely higher than a kite the rest of the afternoon, and I was actually happy to head out the door to teach for the evening, followed by rehearsal, leaving Daddy to put the kid to bed.

No Valentines exchanged between me and my honey. We have never spent money on cards for each other. A quick hug and brief kiss did the trick.

Scout Winterfest 2011

2011-02-12T18:17:00.000-08:00

As we were preparing for a day (or at least six hours of it) outside for a scout activity, I was skeptical. How much time would I be spending telling the boys to stop complaining about being wet or cold? But we paid money for it and we do live in Michigan, so we decided to go for it.

We got up Saturday morning and immediately put on our cold weather gear, ready for the elements. Thank goodness we have started a "heat wave" of sorts. The air temp was forecast to reach a whopping 31 degrees rather than the 12 that we'd had all week.

As we got there for registration, I got my first glance at the activity schedule for the day. Huge question marks flew through my brain as I read the list of activities for the day...dog sled team, egg drop, winter rescue, human Foosball, snowball launch, and HUMAN CURLING. Some of them were self explanatory but others sparked major curiosity.

Our first stop for the day was the egg drop. After a trek through the 12 inches of snow to a clearing, the kids found a big tractor and picnic tables full of packing. They were to wrap an egg as tightly as they could and put it in a plastic bag. Then all bags were placed in the trailer and dropped from various heights to see which eggs would survive the highest drop. Aaron and Noah's eggs made through a couple of drops, and then it was just fun to watch the truck go higher and higher.

Next stop...winter rescue. It started with a small educational session about how to handle it if a friend falls through the ice, followed by a "game" of sorts to practice. I was pretty impressed with the creativity here. The kids took turns being the "victim" sitting in a sled while the "rescuer" had to go through all the steps of rescue including reassuring the victim, calling for help, and then tossing a rope or other item to the victim and pulling them to safety. It was during this session that a local television station was filming for the evening news.

One more stop before lunch was the first one that I wondered about...human Foosball. The kids were lined up on big poles and were supposed to move back a forth and kick a soccer ball into goals at either end. The kids enjoyed it but we adults had to laugh because it was clear that not too many of today's kids know much about Foosball because they didn't move sideways back and forth at all. They stayed where they were and kicked the ball if it came to them :) This was also a nice stop because there were some boy scouts manning a camp fire at this station and the kids (and parents) could sit near it and try to thaw out our toes.

Lunch time followed with a nice half hour break to warm up before the afternoon activities.

The first stop after lunch was a visiting dog sled team. Those Siberian huskies were absolutely beautiful and were of course accompanied by many comments from Noah about "that's the kind of dog I wanted". They reminded me of my parent's old wonderful Alaskan that was the first and only dog that I adored until our own little Lilly came along. The driver was very nice and I learned quite a bit about the Iditarod from talking to him.

Next was a given. The kids had been itching to throw snow all day and they finally got their chance in three stations of snowball launches. We adults were cracking up at this one because by the end of this station, the scouts were pretty much all laying around in the snow, worn out from hours and hours of outside activity. It was the first time that there were mass comments from boys of various ages about being ready to go home :)

But little did they know that their favorite activity was yet to come...

HUMAN CURLING.
I spent the whole day wondering what this was going to be about. Cracked me up! The kids were first given a tiny lesson about the sport of curling and then came the fun. The boys were split into two groups and sent down the hill on sleds into four HUGE air filled bags and were supposed to land the bags into a big circle in the snow behind them. It was clear that no one could care less about where the bags went, it was just fun to plow into them!

After this final activity it was back for a quick closing ceremony and the day was done.

We came home thinking the boys were going to be dead to the world. Daddy and Mommy certainly were! But after a movie to relax, Aaron was ball of energy and wanted to go find bags to plow through at a local park. Maybe next weekend:)

It was a very fun day. I was surprised at how well it was organized and how they managed to keep 200+ scouts organized into five different groups and the entire day running like clockwork.

No matter what happens with the boys and scouts in the future, we had a fun day and family time together outside with great memories. Sometimes I think about the reasons that people are down on scouting, usually political or religious. I see all of their points and at times have agreed with them. But for right now, scouting means fun activities for the boys with other kids and family outings in which we would not otherwise be participating. So for now, it's all good.

And we're all looking forward to next year's Winterfest 2012.

Wordless Wednesday: Snow Day Silliness

2011-02-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday

2011-02-07T05:50:00.001-08:00

Yup, I'm beginning to think that the Wheelz Home will never be healthy again. Noah got a touch of the stomach bug yesterday afternoon and into the night so I have to once again keep him home today. And of course, he's fine. It is even more frustrating than usual since I got four calls for subbing today and could have started working this morning if he wasn't home. And I really really really need to be working immediately. I have some theories as to why we're having a sicker year than usual, but that's just what they are...theories.

Saturday was a crazy day. We had miscommunication all over the place regarding both the solo and ensemble kids I had to play for as well as the scout program that Noah needed to attend. In the end though it all worked out and everyone got to where they needed to be.

While Noah was inside feeling yucky on Sunday, Aaron and Steve spent quit a bit of time outside playing in the snow before it gets really cold the rest of this week. Steve got an idea, researched it online and went to work in the back yard. More than an hour after Aaron came in to warm up, Steve was still outside building. Here is a picture of his work in progress. He is determined to create a full igloo to play in in the back yard. He's can be such a fun daddy sometimes!

The week ahead could be interesting. I will most likely see my first day in a classroom on Wednesday (I'm the lunch mom at the boys' school on Tuesdays) which is freaking me out but I have to just do it. Other than that, I am awaiting for a prayer to be answered. I have often been told that sometimes God is just waiting for specifics when we pray. I have delivered very specific specifics and really need it to be answered now. So this week I am waiting, hoping, and praying. I am hoping that it will finally be our time.

Have a good week. Congrats to all you Packers fans out there. While I was rooting against your team, it was a good game and the pug dog commercial was my favorite :)

Just a Rash?

2011-02-04T04:55:00.000-08:00

Remember my post a few days ago about a mom's intuition when her kids are sick? I guess this can kind of be considered a follow up.

What does this cheek look like to you? Just a little rash? That's what most people thought. What you don't see is that there are actually little white pimples within it and a few that spread to his lip and nose. And notice on lone bump on his hand.

This rash is not accompanied by a fever, sore throat, or any kind of discomfort whatsoever.

The only clue is that it came three days after big brother had a confirmed case of strep throat. The exact same amount of time that a slightly different type of rash showed up a month ago the last time Noah had a confirmed case of strep throat. That time doctor called it impetigo and sent us away with antibiotics, mostly because the rest of the family was on meds for various ailments at the time.

Hours of research online results in...nothing

Trip to the doctors office where mom is assured without a doubt that it cannot possibly be related to big brother's strep throat. Doctor runs a culture on the rash itself as well as a throat culture, just to appease the annoying mom who keeps saying that it HAS to be related. Even though ALL medical evidence points to the contrary.

Send the annoying mom away from the office declaring again that it is most definitely NOT related. Can't be strep throat because there's no pain, redness, or swelling...can't be scarlet fever since there's no fever and the rash is ONLY on the face. Go home and put antibiotic ointment on it and then send him back to school.

Snow day Wednesday....call from the doctor. Aaron's strep test came back positive. Calling in a prescription and now he has to stay home from school since he's contagious. Mom's not surprised, but doctor certainly is.

Now, I really can't blame the doctor. He has probably never seen a case of skin strep before, especially when it is accompanied with NO other symptoms whatsoever. As a matter of fact, Aaron has had so many strange medical oddities throughout the years that he is pretty much always a quandary...whether it was a freakishly small head as a young toddler that required many trips to the children's hospital before it was just deemed small, a frenulectomy (that little piece of skin between your tongue and bottom of your mouth that was still connected and had to be lasered apart) at three months old, or staples in the head from running into a wall (not the corner mind you, JUST the wall). He is just funny that way.

But I did make sure that it is documented in his chart now that we've had skin strep twice in two months. And even though I hope we are done with illness in the Wheelz home for this winter season, I can't help but wonder what the rash will look like NEXT time.

Have a great weekend.

Price Gouging Should Be Outlawed

2011-02-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

We're all victims of price gouging. And it usually happens when we're the most vulnerable (like right now).

Steve's grocery getter truck has been our saving grace for five years now. It was a generous donation from a family member when we got it and it has saved us so many times through the years that we're amazed. It has been losing it's exhaust system for months and the entire neighborhood has been awakened every morning as he headed out the door for a very long time by it's loud presence. The fun thing was always knowing five minutes before he gets home from work that he was on his way :) Yesterday on his way home from work, it finally gave in and dropped in the middle of the road.

One car survival just doesn't work for us so Steve managed to tie it up with cable zip ties to crawl it down to the Tuffy down the street. We knew about Tuffy's inflated prices but also desperately need the delayed check casing. An hour later, Steve calls me with a $400+ repair cost estimate.

No Way!!!!!!!!!!

So I begged Steve to call someone else, which he did and came back with an estimate for HALF that. But no delayed check cashing. Okay, January mortgage doesn't get paid this week (yes, it's February) but we have to do it, right?

So Steve called Tuffy back and magically they "called their distributor" and got the price dropped by over $100. Imagine that! I still don't want to patronize their business but once again, the desperate get taken advantage of.

Why can't companies just be honest? I don't understand why all business people can't just sell an item for what it's worth, without inflating prices so that the dicker savvy people can get lower prices, but not the normal consumer. Car dealerships, insurance companies, home repair places, appliance sales, gas stations, etc. You name it. I am sick of rich business people taking advantage of hard working but poor people (us) who desperately need breaks but never get them. People who are strong enough to fight for deals get lower prices, but people who just don't have any fight left in them get screwed. It just makes me so mad.

Okay, vent over for now. Enjoy the blizzard everyone. We're praying for a big storm to snow us in, but that the power doesn't go out because this house is cold enough even WITH the heat on.

Happy Snow Day tomorrow!

Gotta Love Michigan Winter

2011-01-30T17:50:00.000-08:00

Nope, no big heavy post this time.

Sunday night. Noah is heading back to school tomorrow morning after five days off due to strep. He was kind enough to share his affliction with me, but thanks to modern medicine, we are both on the mend and tomorrow should be back to normal.

We got all of his homework from three days off school done this weekend. We also finished his God and Me program work and he is ready for the ceremony on Saturday (which we still don't know what time it is or if it will conflict with solo and ensemble that I'm playing for on Saturday as well.

We took the boys ice skating Saturday. It was Aaron's first time skating and after a little bit, he was able to inch his way around without help. By the time one of the little helping stands became available, he didn't even need it anymore. Although timid, he got back up each time he fell, even after a couple of hard falls on the head :( Noah was skating like a pro after a couple of minutes, even though it was only his second time on ice skates.

Steve had been gone on another singing gig on Saturday morning and on his way home spotted an amazing two tiered sledding hill. So Sunday after church and lunch, we bundled up once again to try out the new hill. I gotta say it was the best sledding hill we've gone to as a family. Once again, I left the camera at home, but I wished I had because the smiles on my two little boys' faces were indeed priceless. There were bumps in the hills and after a couple trips down, I had to stop when I was feeling pangs in my back but it was more fun watching all the wipe outs from the bottom anyway. A very fun afternoon.

So this weekend was definitely one of those weekends that make you glad to live in a cold weather climate during half of the year. Especially when forecasters are predicting a major snow storm for this coming Wednesday so it is very likely that we will finally get our first snow day of the year this week.

It's times like this that make Winter in Michigan the best season of all!

All Moms Are Omniscent

2011-01-27T16:37:00.000-08:00

A mom just knows. That's all there is to it.

I didn't know this or believe in it when I was little. Probably because my mother wasn't really very capable of being a mom when I was growing up.

But in my adult life, I've learned it both as a daughter and as a mommy myself.

A mother doesn't have to be biological to be a mom. A MOM is the person who can tell that something isn't quite right, even without the words. I learned this as I finally was allowed to develop a relationship with the woman whom I now think of as my REAL mom; the one to whom my father has been happily married to for a quarter of a century. She is the one who will give a strong word to put me in my place when I need it, but will also be on my side no matter what if I need that too. And sometimes she will even show up without warning with a two year supply of aluminum foil and tampons (among other things) from Sam's Club, just because she loves me :)

And this lesson was again clear to me as I took my own son to the doctor today for a throat swab. As a medical professional, you would see us as a mother with an eight year old who has NO fever, NO aches of any sort, and is acting perfectly normal. And you'd take one look at the mom bringing him in and say she is off her rocker for insisting on a throat swab.

But Mama knows! Mama knows that when her child runs a tiny fever for even a short time with bunches of other symptoms the previous day, he has strep. How? Because mama knows the circumstances leading up to the symptomatic day, and Mama knows her baby, even when her "baby" is no longer an infant. So when the strep test came back positive today, the doctor was in shock. But I wasn't. Mamas know when something's just not right.

I was so relieved that I went with my instincts to take him in, even though he was acting fine. I would have run the risk re-infecting the third grade classroom that has had one or two kids out with strep EVERY SINGLE DAY since Christmas vacation ended (and actually even before).

I went in to let Noah's teacher know that he would be out with strep and to also get his homework for the rest of the week. It was kind of cute because his teacher is a brand new mama, with a six month old baby, and I could see in her eyes that she too, already knows her own precious one.

Yup, a mom always knows.

Weekend Top Five (a day late)

2011-01-25T04:25:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's Tuesday and the Weekend was over more than 24 hours ago. But hopefully at this time next week my employment registration will have gone through and Tuesdays will be my only day off so it is more than likely that Weekend Reports will come on Tuesday from here on.

It was a very COLD weekend here in Western Michigan. The boys were so excited that they had to have indoor recess on Friday because of sub-zero wind chills. I had hoped to take them ice skating on Saturday but it was so cold that I changed my mind. This IS what we ended up doing.

5. Daddy On A Mission
Saturday morning after Steve got home from work he headed right out again with the van. Our brakes had been metal on metal for weeks because the pads and rotors were completely run down. Steve found a guy at work that said he would do the labor for us if we got the parts. But we still couldn't find the money for the parts. Well, last weekend when we were pulling up the carpet, I began my wife nagging about not wanting the carpet to sit in the driveway for six months so to appease me, Steve was willing to put the carpet in the truck and take it to work to dump. WHILE he was cleaning out his truck, lo and behold, he found brand new unopened brake pads that he bought WHO KNOWS WHEN for the van. So we figured it was a sign and instead of paying a bill that was long overdue, he got the rotors for the van and spent ALL DAY on Saturday at his friends' doing the work. So there will be no trash collection this morning, but I will be safe driving four kids home from school everyday.

4. Scout Home Work
Those of you who have boy (or cub) scouts will relate to this. Cub Scouts is WORK. It's not just going to meetings and having fun with friends. With the boys, you have a book of achievements that have to be met. And in order. We love this new pack, but joining in the middle of the year has put us at a small disadvantage. We found out rather quickly that the old pack was supposed to be handing out achievements a lot more readily than they were and that the boys were a little behind. One of the tenants of scouts is religion. And there is a God And Me program that all scouts should get at some point in their scouting experience, be it cubs or boys. We found out that the "ceremony" for this year's program is going to be the first Saturday on February. Noah really needed to get this before he moves into the new level next year so we had to get going on it. It is a booklet in four sections, with lots of hands on work, bible stories and at the end of each section, Noah is expected to make a game for his gamebox. We spent Friday afternoon, most of the day Saturday, and a little bit on Sunday night working on his program. It was actually really fun and I think both of us learned a few things. I was amazed at some of Noah's insightful answers to some of the questions and actually surprised at how much he already knew.

Little Brother had some problems with jealousy during this. It always amazes me that BOTH boys sometimes complain when I am working with them on homework. But at the same time, whenever I am working with one of the them, the other one ALWAYS is by my side trying to get my attention on something else. And that was indeed the case with Aaron, especially since Steve was gone with the car. So I went and got HIS scout book to see of there were any achievements we could knock off while Noah and I were working. We found one about primary and secondary colors. He was supposed to do some kind of experiment to make secondary colors. I pulled out the playdough and got out red, yellow, and blue. I had him make predictions of the new colors and gave him two colors at a time to mix. Neither he NOR Noah thought that they would blend completely. It was not only really good for Aaron's fine motor skills which are still a little delayed, but also it was fun listening to him exclaim each time a new color emerged.

3. Saturday playing
Even though it was freezing (literally) outside, we did bundle up and get out for a short time. I started clearing our driveway when Noah begged for a slide. So we piled up snow on the front steps and crated a slide for them to sled down. It was small, but very much appreciated and the boys had fun. Then we ventured into the back yard and I brought Lily out to romp in the snow. It was way over her head but she had so much fun and was so cute. Even though she was shivering, she didn't want to come in. But I think a six pound short haired dog should only endure so much before her little body can't handle any more. Maybe we'll do more again soon. Noah kept telling em to take pictures but I was having fun and decided that we would just experience the fun this time.

3. Game Night
Related to Noah's God and Me work, we used Saturday night game night to play the games that Noah had made so far. There was a memory game that he made of twelve things that God created. Some of the pictures he drew were so cute. I think I will do a post about this program after his final event in February. The other game was kind of a guessing game based on the characters of the Christmas story. We altered it and turned it into a game of Charades. We were ALL cracking up when I gave Steve the characters such as "camel", "sheep", and "shepherd". Props were flying and we all had a good laugh.

2. Sunday Church
Have I mentioned how happy we ware at this new church? Well, I'm going to again. As much as I didn't want to get up when the weather person declared a -16 wind chill out, we did it anyway. The service was all about Cultivating Joy and it was a good message when we are finding ourselves so frustrated about finances. I am hoping to start subbing next week but the month of January made every single thing fall back behind and even when we did taxes discovered that our refund will not even make a dent in it all. So when we had a message about Cultivating Joy in the stress of our lives, it spoke to me. That is what I am focusing on this week.

1. Visit to my Parents
My parents are leaving to go down south soon and I wanted to make sure we got a visit in before they left. Usually we would have packed winter clothes and sleds, but with the it being SO bitter out, we opted against it this time. My step mom surprised me with a trip to Younkers for a few teaching outfits since I only owned "mommy clothes" and it was not only nice to get a few things that made me feel pretty, but just being out shopping together brought me a lot of joy. I keep smiling thinking about it.

Monday and Subbing registration
So Monday morning I had an enrollment meeting for subbing and it was a test run of sorts as to how things will go when I am working every morning. It wasn't terrible but it is clear that we need to work on procedures a little bit. The funny thing was that I ran into a teacher that I taught with seven years ago at my last full time teaching job. She is just getting back into it again too and it was fun to be the only certified (expired) teachers in the room. It gave me some reassurance that I am definitely ready for this. Now I am just frustrated that I have to wait another week or two until I'm in the system. It's killing me that I didn't do this before. We could avoided all of this nightmare and been secure a long time ago if I had just done this earlier. This waiting two more weeks is causing stress in the marriage as well as the household. I just want to start NOW.

So that was our weekend. Time to go clean the house. Have a good day.

2 Days Left

2011-01-20T06:25:00.000-08:00

Stay At Home Mom
What a Dream Job!

I kind of sort of had that job for the last five years. Only sort of though. Ever since Aaron's first birthday when my teaching license expired and I had failed to find the money or motivation to take the required college credits to renew it, I became a mom. I never got to FULLY embrace the role since the minute Steve got home from work every day I've had to rush out the door to go spend my evenings teaching piano lessons. Unfortunately economy doesn't allow one to make a full income teaching piano and so as a result for the last five years we have struggled constantly to make ends meet.

I always said that after my kids were finally in school, it would be time to go back into the work place. That time arrived this past fall and it was not so easy to just "hop" back into working. I tried EVERYTHING to find a day job and nothing worked. I, who used to get called for an interview for EVERY job I applied for before kids, never got called for a single one since I started job hunting in September.

Then came building up to Christmas and panic set in, not only because we came so stinking close to losing the house, but also the reality of having NOTHING for the kids for Christmas. So in desperation one day, I found myself trolling the mall in a major depressed state. And wandering into Kohl's and applying for a job night stocking.

After several weeks of waiting I did indeed get hired. And as you all know, I worked like crazy, got sicker than I ever thought I could be, and did indeed provide a nice Christmas for the boys.

Then a week after Christmas, when I found out that I was no longer going to be working as a seasonal employee, it became clear that that money I had made during that six weeks was absolutely necessary. So began the struggle again.

But it also seemed pretty stupid that I was looking at minimum wage jobs when I had a college degree. So, after putting up with my mother in law's endless nagging and scolding as well as some loving nudges from my own parents, I finally faced the fact that it was finally time to head down the road to substitute teaching. So I filled out the paperwork, paid the ridiculously high cost of fingerprinting, did all of the online training and unburied my expired teaching license.

And as of Monday morning after an introductory two hour meeting, I will be an employee of the company that provides subs to the majority of schools in the area.

And I'm terrified!!!!!!!

What if I can't control a classroom anymore? How do I handle a class that I have no connection with? What if they play all the stupid tricks on me that kids do to subs? Will I be able to control my temper enough when I get frustrated?

OR.......

What if I find that I love being back in a classroom again? What if I find that I want to renew my license and be a teacher again?

I sit here on my second to last day of being a "stay at home mom". I could work on my subbing "bag of tricks" to get ready. I could go to goodwill to find some"teacher clothes" since I literally have nothing to wear in a classroom right now since I've had a mommy wardrobe for the last five years.

But right now, I'm kind of emotionally stuck. Did five years really go by that quickly? Wow.

I really hope that this becomes a good thing for me personally as well as us financially. It needs to. It really is our last hope.

I hope I can do it. How can everyone else be so certain that I'll do a great job when I have no confidence in it whatsoever?

I'm so scared...

More House Tear Ups

2011-01-19T04:52:00.000-08:00

I should have known that 2011 was going to be the year of house repairs when we spent New Year's Day drilling a big hold in the floor (for a laundry chute). It's now been three weeks into the year and we have already attacked another room.

When we bought the house 8 and a half years ago, we had hard wood floors throughout. I was largely pregnant so I was unable to do a lot but Steve and his dad rented a big sander and sanded all of the floors and also re covered them with polyurethane. The floors looked pretty nice but we then had a baby who was going to be learning to walk and I worried about the hard wood floors. Plus, the floor was loud from old wood boards and sound vibrations. For these reasons, that first tax refund in this house was spent on putting carpet in our living room. Being a clueless new home owner, I picked a light tan color for the floor.

Eight years, two potty trained kids and a potty trained, flea ridden puppy later, our carpet is disgusting. I was a proponent of the "let your kid run naked to potty train" method, which I still believe was the very best route to go. It was so easy. But it did bring some unexpected surprises once in awhile. And of course, the puppy was just a plain nightmare when she was training, not to mention that every time she got fleas (which is more often than I think is normal), we had to treat the carpet and furniture and I was never quite sure that I got every inch, which may have been why the stupid little bugs keep coming back.

And then add to that the fact that we use the front door for entry during the winter. We started that since our side door has a very small landing on the top of a stairwell and I always had the fear of someone falling down the stairs while taking off various winter weather in that small area. When we started using the front entry, the inevitable boot stains resulted. There was a strip of nasty dirt, mud and another stains that made a streak directly across the floor from the front entry to the hallway.

So while we were sitting on the floor playing a game a few weeks ago, I got grossed out. We vacuum every week but it was still just plain gross. So I pondered aloud what it would look like of we pulled up the carpet. Steve started into his typical list of twenty problems that could arise if we pulled it up. I had pulled up carpet in a house when I was a teenager and remember it not being too much work. We talked about needing to repaint the living room anyway and maybe someday replacing the carpet too.

But last Sunday, we were sitting around doing pretty much nothing and I once again found a flea on the dog. I thought we were finally rid of them and I had had it. So I started crawling on the floor, looking for a place that the carpet might be peeling. Steve caught me and actually agreed to just do it. So, we put a movie on for the kids (Pippi Longstocking) and went to work.

It took a few minutes to figure out our strategy. Once we got going, it was kind of fun. Steve worked on cutting up pieces of carpeting to get it out of the room while I attacked the board strips along the edges. The kids were a little taken aback because we had to keep moving them to different chairs while we were moving things around. But they took it pretty well.

I couldn't help snapping a few pictures of how gross the back of the carpet was. I knew it was going to be necessary when I started having some regret over what we were doing (which I have).

There were a few moments when we did think it was important to get the boys involved. We have a hutch full of breakable glass items that needed to be moved. I had a small injury in my arm left over from the job at Kohls that still causes me pain every day so we asked the boys to help with the moving of all of the items and after a small amount of hemming and hawing, we had a nice assembly line going. The nice thing was that Noah then asked if he could do something else. Steve immediately told him no but then I didn't see ant reason why he couldn't. So I set him to work pulling up the staples in the floor from the pad. Noah usually avoids doing any work more than what he has to, yet he set into this full force and even asked if there was more when he was done with that first strip of staples. He went slower than we would have, but he did such a great job and he loves to say that he helped with the carpet.

As we were pulling it up, I did notice not only how much louder the room is, but also that it is a little colder in our already drafty old (uninsulated) house. But the floor looks really nice. Instead of the somersaults and cartwheels that Aaron did in our carpeted living room, it is now a full fledged skating rink for them. I guess boys will be boys, no matter what the environment.

I am not so sure about it. I will probably want carpet back in here again if we can afford it at some point. But the boys love the room. I like being able to come into the room to take off my boots and not worry about the carpet. I liked giving Lily her latest flea treatment with hopes that the war we've waged on the bugs possibly being successful this time. Hopefully we will have a few dollars left of our tax refund this year to get at least a rug for the middle of the room.

There are so many "real" improvements that this house needs. But they all take money. This was a small thing we could do to the house to make a huge difference and it is a nice change for now.

I'm not sure if this trend will continue this year. I'm hopefully going to be subbing next week and finally bringing in money to try to get this household where a household with children should be. And who knows? Maybe 2011 will be the year to add a second toilet to this house of ours. I know THAT improvement would make this house a much happier place :)

Wordless Wednesday: My 3rd Baby

2011-01-19T04:48:00.001-08:00

On Contentment

2011-01-18T05:34:00.000-08:00

About two hours ago I sent my boys out the door to school and then sat down to write a post about our morning discussion (for lack of a more grumpy word) about contentment. About 45 minutes later, I had a very detailed post about all of the events leading up to this morning's discussion. It was well written and hit on the head all of the points I wanted to make, but for some reason I didn't hit the "post" button.

Instead, I walked away and ate breakfast. As I was eating breakfast, I pondered the post that I had just written. I wondered if it really said what I wanted to say, or if it was part whining, part defending, and part describing.

So I sat back down to the computer, I deleted the entire thing. And started again.

What do I want my boys to learn about contentment? I think of contentment as not only being happy with what you have, but BEING happy that you have what you NEED. Contentment comes from knowing that you will have what you need when you need it, not wanting what everyone else already has. Not believing that "if I just have this one more thing THEN I will be happy."

NEEDS vs. WANTS

It can be a difficult concept.

When Steve and I were first married, we heard something once (I don't remember where now but I bet Steve does) that before you buy anything, you should ask yourself three questions...
Do I need it?
Do I want it?
Can I live without it?

The answers to these three questions help you to determine if the purchase is a wise one. And through the years we have used these three questions with different answers depending on the purchase.

Does this mean that they are not allowed to want things? I guess that depends on how you handle that desire. The kids often see other kids who have bigger something or more of something or something that we will not allow them to have. And both of them speak up about it. I know that they don't have a lot of things because of less than wise financial decisions that I made for our family. But the question also comes, would I get all of the things they want, even if I financially could? I'm not sure. We all want our kids to be happy and the modern world tries to convince us that kids need STUFF to be happy.

What I learned over the last six months was that our needs really are very few. We need food to eat. This has been in varying degrees met but the boys have never gone hungry, even if they do eat way too many processed foods since they're less expensive. They need clothing that fits. It doesn't mean they need the newest trends. When Noah recently grew out of pretty much every piece of clothing he had, his needs were met by a trip to the clearance racks at the mall. It may not have been the shirts he wanted, but he has the clothes he needs. We need a home. We came so incredibly close a few months ago to NOT having that shelter anymore that my wants and needs are now the same. I want to keep the house that we need. They are one in the same. I really don't want anything else. I want to meet my children's needs. I want a job in order to meet my family's needs.

I am working so hard to meet my children's needs right now that when the morning started with a wanting tantrum, I became very disheartened. We sat down with our devotional to discuss contentment and by the time the car pool mom pulled into the driveway, there were apologies, tears, and extra hugs before the boys headed out the door.

But now I sit here reading through my second version of my contentment post this morning and I wonder if I am displaying contentment enough to my kids. If I am, why would my kids still feel discontent? Am I showing enough appreciation that our needs are met or am I displaying unnecessary wants in front of them?

Is it normal for kids to want what other kids have? I suppose so. But I want to help them to be content with their needs being met. And as they get older I can encourage them to make smarter choices as they enter adulthood than I did. Then they won't have to go through this with their own children. They'll be able to make their own decisions about what they feel are wants vs. needs for their own families.

Chicago Math and Mulitplication

2011-01-13T06:27:00.000-08:00

I was first introduced to Chicago Math (Everyday Mathmatics) in 1996 when I was student teaching in a first grade classroom. I thought it was a great program and was fun. I didn't understand why so many kids struggled with it. But at the same time, I am a true GEEK who has always loved math. But I just saw how it encouraged higher order thinking rather than straight regurgitation of facts and always loved that.

Fast forward a few years (okay, more than a few) to Noah starting school. His school uses Chicago Math and I was amazed at some of the things he was bringing home in kindergarten that they were doing. And I was even MORE amazed that he was understanding them. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a math program that uses lots of manipulatives, but also out of the box thinking. Where most math programs are pretty much straight "Learn the facts, memorize them and repeat them back", Chicago Math makes you apply the facts to problems in different contexts and encourages thinking beyond fact recollection.

As the years went on, he came home in first grade learning fractions and second grade doing geometry. As amazed as I was, he was able to do it and I figured that it was better that they learn it now before they realize it is hard.

Now that he is in third grade, I am finding my first "concern" about Chicago Math. It is in the form of multiplication. I completely understand the reason that they are teaching it this way. They are teaching math families of multiplication and division together. Completely reasonable and totally makes sense. The only problem is, it doesn't seem that Noah is learning multiplication tables. He stops to "figure out' the answer when I ask him a problem, rather than memorizing the facts.

The child does not seem to believe me that EVERY adult he knows had to spend time at his age memorizing these facts. When I say, "let's work on memorizing your times tables", I am met with full fledged temper tantrums.

I must pause here to say that the child has straight A's in every subject this year and with the semester ending next week, it looks as if he will have a straight A semester. So in all actuality, I have no basis for complaint whatsoever. The teachers are doing a remarkable job and he is learning at a very fast pace.

But still...

He brings home these "Mad Minutes" which are the equivalent of the timed multiplication tests that we had as kids. And he has pretty much the same 3 or 4 problems wrong every week.

So I decided that I would wage war on multiplication and figure out ways to have him learn his multiplication tables. I bought flashcards and told him that we were going to spend a meager five minutes every night practicing a few. He still threw a fit.

So then I decided to try another idea. Each day he has a perfect behavior day at school, we will NOT do multiplication. I figured since he generally flips his card at least two or three days a week, it was a simple way to MAKE him practice.

Instead, the stinker is in his second perfect week of behavior at school. I am not sure if it's because he is determined to NOT practice multiplication or because he's growing up (or a combination of the two) but I found it was time for drastic measures.

So this morning as I was making breakfast I had an idea. I know everyone else probably has nice kids who get along in the morning but not here in the Wheelz home. I am not sure why but the breakfast table is a battle between the boys every morning. So I have started putting boxes of cereal between them in the morning. It stops the "Mommy, he's making a face at me" fights. Yes, I know it is sad that I have to do that, but anything for a peaceful morning. And I have lots of memories of my brother and me doing the same thing as we were growing up. We even played alphabet games while we were eating. (Of course, he ALWAYS won, but that's a different story)

So today I got another idea. I went to the computer and typed up several problems that he seems to consistently get wrong. I printed them out and taped them to one of his boxes. Am I really dense enough to think that he's actually learning them? No, of course not. But you never know.

As for Aaron, Chicago Math will be a challenge. But that is a story for another day. But I do have to say, that the few problems that I HAVE managed to teach Noah, little brother has learned them too and is shouting the answers right along with him. Memorizing is Aaron's strength.

Does anyone else have fun ideas for memorizing multiplication tables? I'd love to hear them.

Wordless Wednesday: Trying Out A New Sledding Hill

2011-01-12T06:18:00.000-08:00

First Week and Weekend of 2011

2011-01-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

Monday morning again. We've had one week back into life again after Christmas vacation. Christmas vacation brought illness galore, weariness beyond belief, and bickering amongst the entire Wheelz Crew. I wondered how things would go this first week back to school. And life. For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised.

School last week
It was an interesting week. Noah had lost his DS because of behavior about a month before school got out for Christmas. I told him he could have it back when he had a perfect week of behavior at school. And I continued to remind him that he would probably get DS games for Christmas and not be able to play them if he didn't get his act together. Needless to say, that's exactly what happened. He got a new game he wanted and was unable to play it. So the first week back to school for Noah was a lesson in good behavior. He worked SO hard. He got his act together even with things other than PB&J for breakfast. And he did indeed have a perfect week. Now that he knows he can do it, I hope that means he will continue. I have faith in him. He's been so helpful and cheerful and it is nice to have my nice little boy back for awhile.

The first week back with Aaron was kind of another story. He is not getting in trouble for behavior. But he is starting to show more signs of the same learning disability type of issues that Steve had when he was growing up in school. I will not go into details here. I need to state again how incredibly wonderful his teacher is. I love her so much and if we have another year with her next year, it will only be to Aaron's benefit. She has been so good about sharing her thoughts and listening to mine. I am confident that Aaron is in the best place for him at this time. Meanwhile, the little smarty pants has been lurking while I have been testing Noah on his multiplication problems and has managed to learn them quicker than his older brother. Therefore, Noah is working harder to memorize him ion order to not be shown up by his six year old brother. Pretty funny.

Scouts Again
We started our new scout pack last week. The boys have different dens in different locations at the same time on Tuesday nights. I managed to get my piano teaching schedule rearranged so that Steve and I can both be with a child every week during den meetings. I think this alone will solve some of the frustration that Noah had from the old pack. Aaron is SO excited to be a scout now that he wears his Tiger hat constantly and wants to do scouts every day. I am not sure how I am going to finance this endeavor yet but I will have to figure it out.

The kids were in a pretty good mood all weekend which was nice. They had a babysitter first thing Saturday morning since I had an audition to play for and Steve was working. My kids LOVE babysitters. It was not the one they had expected since there was an unexpected death in our old church on Friday that kind of threw a lot of people for a loop, including myself. So our planned sitter was busy but her sister came and the kids had a blast. By the time I got home, Aaron was begging me to leave again so M could stay. When Steve got home, we headed out to a new sledding hill and we had a great time. That evening we settled in for movie night. We loved Nanny McPhee.

Sunday was the first time that I made it back to church with the family since I started the evil 3rd shift job in November (other than Christmas Eve). During those weeks, Steve took the boys to church each Sunday morning while I was sleeping after working every single Saturday night. It was so nice to finally get back. I love to see how happy the boys are each week when they come out of class. And Noah got to take his new bible and was thrilled when the teacher picked HIS bible to read the story.

The afternoon was lazy. We had planned to go over to Deb's to go sledding on their hill, but we just never seemed to get our act together and did pretty much nothing. In the hopes of trying to spend less, we dumped our cable and started Netflix so the evening was spent watching yet another family movie. This one was pretty funny because Aaron has been begging for Willie Wonka (the old one) forever even though Steve and I both thought it was one of the weirdest movies we have ever seen. What Steve didn't know though was just how well I knew this movie. I didn't realize it either. Each time a song came on, even though it's been three decades at least since I saw this movie, I found myself singing along each of the songs. It was pretty amusing. Noah enjoyed it because his class just finished reading the book.

It is my second week of not working the second job and financially it is already starting to take its toll. This waiting to start working is so difficult, but at the same time, after having another relaxed morning getting the kids off to school, rather than an over tired, nasty mom trying to push the kids to get ready makes me glad that that my job was not extended. It is definitely a win/lose situation. And as much as I am worried about subbing, I wish I was starting sooner in order to start contributing my share to this household and not panic if I have to go buy cat food on a Sunday night.

The Week Ahead
This week is going to be about squeezing blood from a lemon. I need to find money for scout enrollment for both boys, scout uniform for Aaron, fingerprinting for subbing, and a vet visit for numerous Lily issues. UGH!! At least I have symphony chorus starting back up tonight, which I love. Two hours for myself is very nice.

It's so very cold outside, which makes me want to curl up under a blanket until Spring. But yesterday's message at church was all about Discipline and it spoke to my heart, so I will go take the dog out, do some Wii exercise, take my shower, and then start my "chores" for the day. As a matter of fact, I plan to write a post about this new series at church soon. One of the things Pastor Brad spoke about yesterday was being accountable to someone about your discipline. Even if no one reads this blog, I still feel that I will be more accountable if I put it in writing. At least I'm gonna try. THIS is my year to better myself.

Have a good week :)

Tackle It Tuesday: Laundry Chute

2011-01-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

The kids have a new toy. It's not something that was given to them wrapped in pretty paper Christmas morning.

It's a hole.

In the floor.

Yup, they're favorite entertainment.

We have been in our house for eight and a half years, and struggled with very little space since. We struggle for closet space, floor space, storage space...you name it.

When the boys were babies or toddlers, their clothes were small and took up very little space. Which meant that small laundry hampers in each room worked just fine. But as the bodies grew, so did their clothes. And the heaps of clothes. And the mixture of clean vs. dirty clothes. And in the last six months, the battles have become "What is clean and what is sort of clean and what is almost dirty and what is disgusting."

I put a hamper in Noah's room but the clothes would tower over the hamper and Noah would never take the hamper downstairs to the washer. And when I took the hamper away, he just continued to throw the clothes on the floor where the hamper USED TO be. He claimed that it was MY FAULT for taking the hamper out of his room.

So the solution became, "throw your clothes down the stairs when they're dirty." At least then they would be downstairs and I could wash them as I got a chance.

New problem...Anyone who walks into the house would see gobs and gobs of dirty clothes when they walked into the house. Nice greeting huh? And also, the boys would often miss and their clothes would be scattered across the entire stairwell and hanging on hooks along the wall. Lovely to see underwear hanging next to the coats and snow pants. It's killing me that I didn't take a BEFORE picture of the underwear hanging from the hooks. It was an every day occurrence, I guarantee you.

So I started wishing out loud for a laundry chute in our house. And Steve started plotting.

This discussion had lasted over a year. Steve would keep coming up with strange ideas and want to discuss them. But honestly, I never believed he would actually act on it so I kept just blowing off the discussion.

Then a few weeks ago, he got out his trusty drill (his ONLY power tool until last weekend) and started drilling holes in the floor. After discussions with people he knew, he decided that he was going to drill a hole in the bathroom for the chute. Our very very very very very tiny bathroom. I continued to try to veto the idea but he was convinced. When I tried to negate it again, he started investigating the hallway closet. I pretty much shot that one down too, since we already have virtually NO storage in this house and he finally gave that one up.

Anyone who walks into our house knows that the kitchen in our house is HUGE in proportion to the rest of the house. So I was thrilled when Steve woke up New Year's morning and declared the exact spot in the kitchen where he decided THAT VERY DAY that he was going make a hole.

Problem...no tools. Now, my hubby is an almost 40 something man who desires to do lots of "manly" projects but lacks the tools. He has complained many many times over the years that he should have power tools and doesn't. So I wasn't too surprised when he said he was going to go to the store to "investigate laundry chute costs" and came home with a reciprocating saw that he found on sale. He actually has said that the reason he hasn't done more around the house is lack of tools. I guess I know what every present for the next few years will have to be. Then maybe the room that was sort of re-done upstairs four years ago may get finished at some point.

He had decided that he was going to drill a hole in the floor and then BUILD something up around it. I tried to come up with an alternative. My suggestion was to buy some kind of cheap-ish pre-made cabinet and just cut out the bottom. I was very happy when he came home from his "investigation" trip with a perfect sized cabinet.

Now, New Years Day was supposed to be a fun family day watching Michigan play at the Gator Bowl and eating lots of yummy snacks. As Steve was drilling his first hole, Michigan proceeded to get its first TD very quickly. As I reported this first TD, Steve was fighting with his saw and Noah was parked in the hallway in observance of Daddy drilling into the floor.

As the game progressed, things were looking more and more bleak and by halftime, I gave up and set the boys up with their snack trays in the living room and let them watch a movie. (I guess the only reassurance was that MSU was getting their bottoms kicked on another station at the same time...yeah, just a little bit of rivalry here in Michigan)

By that point, the hole had been achieved and the next step came. How in the world are we going to attach this cabinet to the floor/wall to ensure safety for children and animals? Luckily, by this time, Steve was actually listening to my ideas as well as sharing his own. I felt like we were finally working together to figure this project out.

We came up with the idea of plywood to guide it down. And Steve really did a very good job following through with the ideas we came up with together. I am really glad that he got fed up enough with clothes on the stairs to declare that it was time to do something about it. I'm even glad he got himself another tool to build his collection. Every man needs tools!

I think the actual construction only took around three hours. No question, the investigation and planning was much more lengthy than the actual construction. I still need to stain the inside to ensure waterproof protection from wet laundry and stain the the outside to match the kitchen. But the chute is absolutely functional.

And the boys (all three of them) were thrilled to present the new hole in the floor.

And guess what? There are NO dirty clothes on anyone's floor.

Not even mine.

A tackle well worth it!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

I struggled with whether to share our New Year's Day activities today as a new year's post or tomorrow as a Tackle It Tuesday. Tomorrow wins so stay tuned tomorrow for the adventures of drilling holes in our floor.

But for today, I will just say that it is the third day of the new year. I am feeling hopeful for this year. It's about four hours after I sent two boys back to school, neither of whom was happy to be going unfortunately. I also have a few lingering Christmas decorations lying around. I have laundry piled up (although not at the bottom of the stairs anymore (see tomorrow), and so many other things that have been neglected during my stint as a third shifter.

And I am surprisingly content. Oh, there are plenty of reason to NOT be. I have no job now and no way to pay bills, but that will hopefully change at the end of the month when I start subbing. I have a ton of things that need to purchased with very little money to do so. But I know after last year that I will get by getting what I need when I need to. I am amazed at how much more relaxed I was this weekend knowing that I didn't have to go into work each night. I didn't realize how stressful that had become until it was no longer there.

As for New Year's Eve, we did nothing. It seems as if most of my FB friends allowed their kids to stay up (or try to stay up) until midnight. It makes me look like a pretty big heel that our boys still went to bed at normal time. But unlike past years, Steve and I actually made it to midnight. And we decided that next year will be the year to try it with the boys.

But we still got annoying noisemakers and hats for the kids. We watched Pirates Who Don't Do Anything and the kids rocked it out with the Rock Monster at the end.

And then yesterday, we did our ONLY family activity of the entire Christmas vacation and went to Kalamazoo for a visit to the public museum that the boys like. Afterward, we drove around our alma mater and showed the boys numerous places where Steve and I had lived, where we worked, where we met and "fell in love" and even the church where we got married. We were amazed to see how much the campus has changed and then we realized that it has been 14 years since we were last students there. Afterward, we had dinner at Noodles and came home.

So sending the boys off to school today was interesting, They actually did okay mood-wise and they both have intentions of being well behaved today (I guess we'll see) and I am sitting here, still in pajamas, figuring out which of my list to tackle today.

Or maybe I won't tackle anything. I have three weeks left of nothingness. Maybe I'll start getting things done tomorrow.

Either way, Happy 2011, a year that holds possibilities beyond my imagination.

T13: 2010 and the Year of Change

2010-12-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

2010 was definitely a year for changes around the Wheelz Home. For good and bad, it was a Year of Change for us. I would hope that 2011 will become the Year Of Calm instead, but I guess that remains to be seen. I know that the kids are stressed from all of the change in the house so I can only hope to make part of my new year resolution to make this house more calm and help to the kids to become more grounded and happy.

My T13...some of the changes we saw in 2010

1. New Church
After a tumultuous departure from our old church at the end of 2009, we spent the first half of 2010 searching and attending several different churches. Around May, we settled at one that we really like. The kids love it too and we are hoping to attend the join class in January and becoming full fledged members.

2. New Hair
In March, when I was really still fighting some depression from leaving the old church, I got sick of my look and decided to grow out my bangs. I have had bangs my entire life and decided I needed a change. I spent the entire year figuring out ways to keep them out of my eyes while growing them out. I can say that they are now grown out and I still am not sure about the look. I guess we're always a work in progress. I guess the good thing is that now that you can see more of my face, I've been wearing make up more. I suppose that's a good thing.

3. House
We came closer this year than ever before to losing our house. Economy stinks and Steve's hours have been way cut back, which made making all of bill payments more challenging. After trying for several months to fight with our mortgage company to get a "modification" which turned out to be a joke, we finally secured a loan to pay back with our tax refund in March. It was truly terrible and I hope to never come that close again.

4. School for kids
This was definitely an adjustment this year, having both boys in school full time. At the beginning, I had a hard time trying to keep all of their stuff straight, with lunches, backpack, notes from school, permission slips, field trips, etc. It seems to finally fallen into more of a routine, thankfully. And I have figured out a way to still be the lunch mom once a week, rotating their classrooms each week. It makes it so I can still help, but not have to be at the school more than one day a week. Also part of this was unexpectedly sending Aaron to first grade. Not sure what will come of this going into the next school year, but we will do whatever we deem is right for him when the decision time comes.

9. Noah scouts
Back in December 2009, we took the boys sledding at a hill near our house and somehow struck up a conversation with two ladies next to us. Turns out they were the scout leaders for a Cub Scout pack on our street school. Since Steve is an Eagle Scout, we have always wanted our boys to be in scouting and this seemed like the perfect time. So we got Noah going in scouts. In November, it seemed like it was just getting to be too much and we took a break. We have now found a new pack nearer to the boys' school and BOTH boys will be starting in January. Aaron is so excited and I hope Noah will go into the new pack with an open mind.

5. Back pain
This was the year of pain. Steve and I are both just kind falling apart and we're not even 40 yet. His ankle that he shattered a few years ago is in constant pain and I have now developed back issues. The year was fraught with many visits to doctors about how to fix the pain. It is still a work in progress and when the flare ups are in full force, I feel like I'm about 90 years old.

8. Symphony chorus
This has been my favorite change for this year. After leaving our old church, I was desperate to find a way to use my musical abilities for my own personal enjoyment. I auditioned for the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus in January and started up in February. I have been in five productions so far, the highlight being the Lord Of The Rings performance in October. I really enjoy being part of this and I hope to continue doing it for many years to come.

6. Jobs
This one has just been since November. After coming so close to losing the house, and then realizing that we were going to be unable to get presents for the kids for Christmas, I took a night time job at the mall. The good was that I did indeed provide a nice Christmas for the boys. The bad is that I get sick EVERY SINGLE TIME the day after a night shift, and was sicker through these holidays than I have ever been before. Now that we know we need the income though, I have finally decided that I need to bite the bullet and start subbing. I have put it off long enough. So next week while the kids are back in school, it will be off to get fingerprints and I will attend the required sub class in three weeks and then begin subbing. I am terrified but it IS the right decision for this family so I have to just do it. Who knows... I might end up really enjoying it.

7. Camping
This is the first year since Noah was born that we didn't take a vacation. Oh we had a couple of trips planned, but financial difficulties or car issues prevented each of them. That is, there was no hotel stay at all in the year 2010. What we did though was to take our first family trip camping. Actually it was my first time ever camping. We went to a campground only about a half hour from home, which had shower facilities as well as playground, beach, kids activities, and electric hookup in the bathroom. It went well and we had a lot of fun. I am looking forward to another camping trip or two in 2011, but I would still really like a REAL vacation as well if we can figure out a way to afford it. The memories we make on those trips are priceless.

9. Piano Teaching
After leaving our church, I needed to find a new place for my student recital. That took up a large amount of time in May scrambling for a place large enough, but that wouldn't charge me a fortune. I settled on a church nearby that Deb takes her girls to and the recital went okay. But the venue really wasn't ideal since the piano was too low so I will now spend the beginning of 2011 trying to find a new one for this year's recital in May. I also have more adult students than I ever have before as well as a group of four year olds which I have never had before. It is definitely a different kind of student load than in the past. I lost a student from my old church whom I have been teaching for over seven years and that made me very sad as well.

11. Kid Changes
The boys had many growth opportunities this year but I think the standouts were Aaron learning to ride a two wheeler without training wheels and Noah getting glasses. These were both events that got lots of attention at the time. Unfortunately, we are thinking that Noah needs a stronger prescription at the moment and insurance doesn't cover another exam until 2012. We will be working on that at the start of the new year.

12. Weight Gain
This was an unfortunate result of the stress of the year. I have gained A LOT of weight the second half of this year. I don't want to say more about it, just that I think if I reduce the stress of our lives, the weight problem will hopefully work itself out too. That and getting outside when the weather breaks to take Lily for her two or three walks a a day again like I was before it got cold.

13. Dog
After talking forever about boys needing to grow up with a dog, the opportunity presented itself the week after school got out in June. We brought home Lily, a Pomeranian chihuahua. The stress of training a puppy was much more than I ever thought it would be. It was actually more difficult than potty training the boys and I still go back and forth between loving her and wishing she wasn't around. She has definitely brought joy to the house though and I do remain firm that every boy should have a dog. Just watching the boys play with her is priceless (including my hubby, the biggest boy of all)

These are not all inclusive. There were also many other firsts, such as my first Michigan game (Go Blue!), boys first time golfing, Noah learning to dive, and our first trip to Michigan Adventure (theme park) but I WAS limited to 13 :)

2010 was a big year of change. But it seems that as I wrote this post, 2011 is looking pretty big too. I guess it's good that we don't feel stalled. At this moment, I am feeling hopeful about the future, with a kind of new career for me and hopes that we can figure out issues with the boys that need attention.

So, I am wishing you all a Happy and Safe New Year's Celebration and a very blessed 2011!

Christmas 2010 Recap

2010-12-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

Here we are, Monday hangover from Christmas. Not in the drink sense, but in the merriment sense. Looking back on the weekend, it was pretty good. I am just sitting here, looking at the tree that I really don't want to take down, listening to the boys playing with their toys in separate rooms, and wondering if we're ever going to get enough snow to go sledding before break is over.

There were a few highlights from the weekend.
Christmas Eve
Since we had just had a painful parting from our old church right before Christmas last year, we actually didn't go to church last year. So this year was kind of exciting to go to the CE service at our new church. It definitely didn't disappoint. The kids sat with us during the service and the entire "auditorium" was packed. It started out with more contemporary versions of traditional carols and it was neat to watch and hear Aaron sing out strong. As the service went on, there was more music, a drama skit, two small messages, and my favorite part...as a man came out to sing "O Holy Night" Noah leaned over to me with a smile and said, "I LOVE this song!". As the song was nearing the end, the congregation was invited to stand and as we started singing, SNOW started to fall from the ceiling. Steve and I are still not sure what the "snow" was made of but I think it was actually a snow machine because you could hear the blowers above us. It was really a neat additon and the kids loved it.

After church we went out for dinner. Christmas Eve is the only night of the year that we justify taking the four of us out for a full restaurant dinner out. It had its ups and downs, but the leftovers were helpful Christmas night (keep reading)

We came home to open our traditional Christmas Eve gifts where the boys got snuggies this year instead of pajamas and I presented Noah with his very own engraved Bible. He was pretty excited about it and I hope it will become something he will treasure in years to come.

By 7: 15 the boys were actually begging to go to bed so that Santa could come so we obliged.

Christmas morning didn't start as early as I'm hearing that others' did. The boys were told to wait until 7 to come up, which they did. We started with stockings as always. The big deal from the stockings by far were the mighty beans that Noah wanted. I still don't see why they're such a big deal, but it was one of the things he begged for the most and Santa did his best to oblige.

When stockings were done, we took a break from the action for some breakfast before opening presents from us. The big presents for the day (aside from the mighty beans) were...

Remote Control Helicopter
By the end of the day, rules had been established about how it would be played with and Noah became very good at making it hover. The rest of us were clueless. It made so many crash landings everywhere that we were convinced that the toy wouldn't last the day. Three days later, it is still functional. Quite a hardy little toy. It's not often that we're pleasantly surprised but the quality of toy, rather than the other way around.

Aaron's Keyboard
This story is awesome! We were trying to figure out a fun way to present it to the boys. Steve wanted to do a scavenger hunt. So as were were setting presents out, he hid the HUGE box in the closet. Then he went to the computer and authored a poem to hide in the tree. We weren't sure how we were actually going to "find" the note, but that seemed to fix itself when about 3 O'clock Christmas afternoon I sent Aaron to his room to find something and we heard a shout for his room, "MOM, THERE'S A HUGE PRESENT IN MY CLOSET!!!" Steve and I ran for the video camera and camera while Aaron dragged the very heavy box all the way out of his room into the living room to open it. He was SO excited! After opening it, he proceeded to play the few little songs he knows and play around with all of the settings. It remains on its stand in the living room for now.

Legos legos everywhere
It seems to be a theme among all of my FB friends with sons. Legos all across the board. Noah got several sets, but really what he loves most are the Lego figures. He was so excited about getting so many of those and played with them off and one throughout the day. It also included two of those Lego build it games which turned into Lego playsets instead but I figure if we had bought the playsets they would have been just as expensive anyway so I am pleased that he is enjoying them anyway. He also got a book with all of the Lego figurines which he enjoyed

Pogo Boy
The only downside to Christmas in Michigan is when you get outside toys, it is too cold to play with them right away. But it didn't stop Aaron from loving his pogo stick. He spent the entire day alternating between the pogo and the keyboard, and has every day since as well. It will be interesting to see if he can get the hang of it outside. He also received pads for elbows, knees, and wrists for while he's learning.

Dinner Failure
I swore I wouldn't post this, but I'm doing just for Steve. I had planned to make my first "bird" for Christmas this year. I don't like turkey and the boys don't like ham do I thought I would make a chicken. apparently, I didn't prepare myself enough ahead of time and long story short, my bird was failure. So with all of our sides prepared, Aaron ate leftovers from dinner the night bore with his sides, Noah ate hot dogs with his sides, and Steve and I filled up on side dishes. Next year I'll get it right...I hope.

The rest of the weekend was spent at home, playing with toys. As I sit here Monday evening. my throat hurts due to working last nignd (I am always sick the day after working all night) Noah is lying on the couch with a tummy ache and fever, having thrown up in the car on the way to the toy store a few hours ago. I am desperately searching for day jobs and praying I don't have to go back to Kohls' Wednesday night. There is yet another "squabble" with the Wheelz in-laws due to not sending out Christmas cards so I'm sure we'll have to deal with that sometime this week as well.

I am enjoying looking at every one's Christmas pictures. It is cracking me up how similar other peoples' stories about their boys are so similar to my own. Have a wonderful week heading into the New Year. 20101 was full of lots of changes for us so I can only imagine what 2011 will bring.