Random Ramblings

Only my mind works this way....
- I can figure out a puzzle on Wheel of Fortune with only 4 letters in place
- I can answer the Final Jeopardy! question about a sci-fi movie when I'm not even a sci-fi fan (unlike the other 75% of our household)
- And then this....  While starting a load of jeans, I decide to wash the pair I'm wearing.  So I take them off in front of the washer (this part is important).  When moving the load to the dryer, I realize that my jeans are not in the load.  What?!?  That's right, I took them off standing in the laundry room yet did not put them in the washer.  Yep, that's me - the easily-distracted one. 

"I Can't Believe She Said That" moment of the day - #1
While playing a video game with her brother - one in which the car you control shoots exhaust/fire at other cars: "Taste my hotness!" 
I suppose it's the fire version of 'eat my dust'?

"I Can't Believe She Said That" moment of the day #2
To her brother - "You know, you really make me mad a lot!" 
So glad she's expressing herself, but it still makes me giggle because I know that she loves him a lot!

M has always been a little dramatic, but lately the drama/attitude has been increasing.  Although it's challenging, I sometimes find it hard to keep a straight face.  She's only five, but sometimes she sounds soo much older!

Made Me Smile Moment:
After J went to bed, I sat down to finalize some of the plans for his birthday and send out a few email invites.  When I realized - due to some scheduling details - that our plans would have to be adjusted a bit, I was worried about J being disappointed.  I scooted back upstairs to do a quick check-in with him before he fell asleep (really needed to get emails out tonight!).  I explained that part of the plan might have to change, and suggested an alternative.  The darkness of his room could not hide his excitement.  Even better - the thank-you that I got when I told J that I have an email address for someone new to his class this year.  He was so worried he would not be able to invite his new friend (since we aren't supposed to hand out invites at school).  For as often as I have to be the homework/rule/schedule enforcer, it sure was nice to spend a few moments talking about something really exciting!

I'm in an exercise slump lately.  Even though I'm volunteer coaching with the same program I used to train with, I'm just not loving running right now.  I enjoy bike riding, but seriously need to get some appropriate gear (read: shorts with the appropriate cushioning for trail riding...) before I do much more of that.  I'm also hoping to purchase a new-to-us bike trailer for M, who is a reluctant rider.  I hear they can be challenging to tow, but it's either that or no family rides until she's more confident.  With days like today (high near 70!), I don't want to waste the opportunity to get outside and get moving.  We won't have many more days like this for a while!

I love Thanksgiving.  I don't like that so many stores and homes have their Christmas decorations up already.  It seems we practically ignore this holiday.  I know - it's just not a retail-heavy holiday, so stores are looking ahead to the next money-maker.   Perhaps I'm also a little sensitive since there's a December birthday in this family, so I want to give that celebration the attention it deserves, too (though J did ask last year why we were so late decorating for Christmas). 

If you're still reading - wow.  And thanks!  And Happy Thanksgiving!

Sibling competition

Oh, my goodness!  Our two kids are provoking each other tonight.  One tells a joke and messes up the punch line, and the other - in a very sassy tone - lets the other one know, "That's not funny."  And, just a few moments ago, Miss M revived the "One, One Hundred" argument.  It's been going on for well over a week now.  Miss M will ask, "What's one plus zero plus zero?"  Mister J, interpreting her question as a math problem, will say, "One."  And then she says, "No, it's one hundred."  (Get it? 1 and 0 and 0 is 100, as she's at the leaning-to-write stage, not the arithmetic stage.  So, a one followed by two zeros is 100.)  And they argue back and forth, and eventually come to one of us to referee.  Daily.  {bangs head on desk}

Also, on the way into Best Buy this evening, Mister J was proud that he could walk and do jumping jacks at the same time.  Which he proceeded to do across the parking lot.  And this was before we ate our Krispy Kreme doughnuts for dessert.  (Actually, it was about that time that we decided to save them until tomorrow...)

Have I mentioned that Christmas Break started this afternoon?  Come January, I'm gonna need a vacation to recover from their vacation....

My boys

On a Friday night...

You're right - it's not a local campground.  It's a local ball field.  It's also a great place for Mister J's first camping experience.  Level ground, no rocks/twigs, and plenty of food and entertainment.  He stayed up late and got up early.  He was tired when he got home - but he's managed to keep going all day long without a nap! 

Mister J and Big J had a fun "just the boys" outing last night, and I have to admit that while I was happy for them to have that time together, I was sad that I wasn't there.  You see, this was Mister J's first time camping.  And I'm a mostly-stay-at-home mom, so I'm used to being there for all of the firsts.  Instead, Big J got to enjoy this milestone.  And I'm glad.  He works hard so that I can be at home, and he doesn't always get to do the 'firsts.'  I think it's important for them to have some time together and to do some special things.

To be honest, Miss M was a little bummed, too.  She wants to do everything her big brother does!  And have I mentioned that the tent is new?  So she and I were both a little, teeny bit envious that the boys got to use it first.  We hadn't been able to work out a time to give it a test run in the backyard before the boys used it!  That's ok, though.  It was damp when they brought it home, so the kids and I set it up this morning to let it dry.  And, of course, we all crawled through it a couple of times for fun.

So what did Miss M and I do to occupy our time?  Dinner out (Chick-Fil-A, of course), followed by a trip to Target to pick out some new nail polish, and mini-cures when we got home!  She also wanted to buy her brother a book since he didn't get to come shopping with us - so sweet!  I have to add that she really missed him like crazy last night.  While she wasn't very talkative (tired from the first week of school!), when she did talk to me, it was often about Mister J.

So how did this missing-her-boy's-first-camping-experience Mama do?  Well, I did get a few phonophotos and text messages to let me know how things were going, so I did fine.  And all of those came after Miss M was in bed, when I was really missing my guys (perfect timing, Big J!).  But next time, I want to go, too!

Sweet Kiddos

Usually when mom mom (Grandma RL) comes to visit, she takes turns sleeping in the kids' rooms - and whoever has her as a guest sleeps on the floor in the same room.  If I get it wrong, they let me know whose rooms she's supposed to be staying in.  (I know that wasn't proper grammar - so just ignore it.  It's late.)  There have been tears over it - so thank goodness my mom usually remembers whose turn it is.

A few weekends back, there weren't tears, but there was some poutiness - which was resolved by having both kids sleep on the floor in the same room with Grandma.  When she came back last weekend, she swapped rooms as usual - and both kids stayed on the floor in there.  And they even went to sleep relatively quickly and quietly!

And since she left on Sunday?  The kids are still in the same room.  They are taking turns with who sleeps in the bed and who sleeps on the floor - without argument.  They were disappointed that they couldn't both sleep on the floor - but I did draw the line there.  It's been much easier to get them to go to sleep without (much) silliness when they are separated at least a little bit.  Mister J has been reading the bedtime story to Miss M, then turning off the light and getting into bed.  They still like a bit of a tuck and a kiss from Mom - and I'm not complaining.   

I know this won't last forever, but have to admit that I think it's sweet.  I am so happy that they love each other so much!  And sure, they may just like it because it's different and I let some things slide during the summer - but I also know that this is the stuff of memories.  And I hope that they'll treasure this memory as much as I will.

School Night

Mister J is working on a project about Woodrow Wilson while Miss M alternately poses for the camera and does her own "homework."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

ETA: Seriously? Another upside down photo? I think I've figured out the problem, but only just now.... Will fix this shortly...

Christmas Round Up 2009

These first few photos have already shown up on the blog header or Facebook, but I just wanted to showcase them again as part of an actual post.

Sunday before Christmas - the sanctuary was decorated with poinsettias in front of the altar, in the windows... it was beautiful. There was still snow on the ground (from the Friday before) so I bundled up Mister J and Miss M in layers before we headed off to church.






The same day, in front of the Chrismon tree. For photos made with my cell phone, they turned out pretty good!












Christmas Eve after two back-to-back church services (in front of the Chrismon tree again). We went to the Children's Service, and then stayed to hear Big J sing with the choirs for the Lessons and Carols Candlelight service. Beautiful (the service and my kids!)







Picking out our Christmas Tree. Mister J loves this part of the holidays - he's always super-excited to go walk (um, run) among the trees, darting in and out, looking for the right one.










Miss M fell asleep on the way to the tree 'farm' this year. It had been quite a long day for her, and with no nap. She stayed asleep as I got her out of the mommy-van, walked around in the cold, and picked out the tree. She woke up when we were getting loaded up and ready to leave.





Our Christmas tree, after all of the lights and decorations were up, most of the gifts were wrapped, and before Santa came to visit. nb - Yes, that's a broken slat on the blinds. I've decided not to fix any more until a) the kids are old enough to stop breaking them or b) we decide it's time to buy new blinds.




The kids' Christmas tree, with Big J's favorite - blue lights. They enjoyed having a smaller tree this year. I'd originally planned to put small trees in each of their rooms, but decided this wasn't the year to put up my ceramic tree, so I didn't have a tree for each bedroom. Instead, we hung a strand of lights in each of their bedroom windows. They are the perfect amount of light for bedtime, and I love them so much that we may just leave them up!

My maternal grandmother on the day after Christmas during the big family celebration at my aunt's house. Out of respect, I won't publish her age, but I will tell you she is mother to six children. She sent her husband off to war when she had one small child and was pregnant with twins (children number two and three). Oh, and she mothered them all without the aid of all of the time-saving gadgets we have today. She was also a teacher, artist, and taxi-driver to two grandchildren. After that, she traveled the US with my grandfather - they drove to Alaska and many other far-flung (at least from our home state) parts of the country. She's really had a very rich and full life. And on this day, she got to sit back and relax in what she called "the Queen's chair" - there was only one better seat in the house, and it was mine. Right across from her.

Best job of giftwrapping a truly hard-to-wrap item. EV.ER. Big J said it looked like andupside down flower. I considered turning it over and camouflaging it among a big bunch of balloons. At least the gobs of colorful tissue paper distract you from the golf club handle sticking out of the top. (And I must say, "Thank You, Bargain-Shopping Husband!!!"


We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa R for a few days, and took some of Mister J's science experiments along (he'd received them as birthday gifts). This is the Mentos/diet soda geyser - and it was FUN!

Setting it up.... Secure geyser tube to diet soda, count our seven Mentos, pull the string/stopper to drop the Mentos into the drink and.... RUN!

We all bundled up to go outside and watch this, and even did it twice! So glad we planned ahead and picked up two bottles of soda from the grocery store. This one was so much fun that we'll definitely be buying more soda and Mentos!

Wii wish you...

...a day full of fun with family and friends!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Can you tell what Wii got for Christmas?!? (And how do I get that photo to rotate before I upload it?!?)

Rock, Paper, Scissors... Shoe?

We took a quick trip to the beach over the weekend to celebrate my dad's birthday, and this is a snap from our drive home. Mister J was teaching Miss M his 'updated' version of "Rock, Paper, Scissors." We have no idea how the shoe came into the mix.

Some other funnies from the trip -

"Ice Cream Sunday" - or was it "Sundae" - I let the kids finish up some ice cream for 'brunch' before we left the condo this morning. It would never have survived the trip home, so why let it go to waste? They thought getting to eat it out of the carton was very cool - I think I scored some major points!

"Shh... I can hear it... It's the sound of the ocean!" - Miss M as she sat at breakfast on Saturday morning with two coffee cups covering her ears. (Really, I need to post the photo - the kids were so funny!)

First Day 2009 - Photo Edition

They're finally posted! Photos from the first week of school! Thanks for being so patient - everyone in this house is worn out from such a full week. We will hit our stride soon - which is actually a requirement, since Mister J's much-requested soccer practice begins next week, and Miss M's dance lessons begin the following week.

You might remember that Mister J wanted me to set his alarm clock to help him get up in the mornings. While it didn't quite work the first day, he's gotten up without my help each day since. Here are a few snapshots of our first day.

The kids got to take the last links down from their "how long is summer?" paper chain. Mister J wants another one to show him how long school will last. I think we are going to start using a month-at-a-time calendar instead!

Getting ready to get in the mommy-van and drive to school! The arms around each other was their idea - so sweet! Those smiles lasted all day long! I was mostly smiling, but milestones like this always get to me a little...

Walking from the parking lot to the front door. I'm amazed that this 'action shot' turned out - many of my photos from the morning are blurry :(

After a brief pause at the door to get his bearings, Mister J headed straight to his class. Today, he didn't even look back! Clearly, he's comfortable in his surroundings and happy to be there each day.

Miss M was also excited to get to class (once we pointed her in the right direction!). I think with a few more tries she'll be able to find the way on her own. I'll try not to cry when that happens....
I think she looks so tiny in this picture! She's in a (pea- and tree) nut-free classroom, and I'm packing her lunch each day to be sure I know exactly what she's eating. The safety measures the school has in place are great, but I feel more comfortable packing a lunch. Mister J has expressed an interest in purchasing his lunch, which we will be discussing over the weekend.

Mrs. G shared this photo of Miss M and her friend, K. It sure is nice to have a peek into what the day is like, since M's not at the age where she tells me a whole lot. She and K seem to be fast friends - there are a few photos of them playing together. Miss M also knows another little girl in the class, H, whose family goes to our church.

I was behind the camera on the first day of school, but finally made it in front of the camera on Day 3 (many thanks to the mom who snapped this photo!). As you can see, our school is in a very metropolitan area - and I think we are going to love it!

Also yesterday, the Farmer's Market was open. It's in an area adjacent to the school, and open twice a week from late spring through early fall . A few students (upper grades) were walking through the market at the same time I was walking through.

One of my favorite things from this week - besides the art the kids brought home, which will have to be another post - is the lunch plan that Mister J has been helping me with (I found the planning diagram on the Laptop Lunch Box website). Each evening, I give the kids a few choices for what their lunch on the following day. They pick from a variety of fruit, vegetable & dip, and sandwich options. Jonah has been recording their choices, and then I pack the lunches after the kids are in bed.
I helped out a bit with spelling, but most of that writing is Mister J's. I am so proud of him for being such a great helper! I hope to continue this through the school year - I think it's a great way to teach them about choosing healthy foods and about making/sticking to a plan. The spelling and handwriting practice are just a bonus! By the way, we ignored the days of the week on this plan. The left column was used for J's lunches, the right for M's lunches, and each row was for one day. Maybe I'll match up actual photos to the diagram in another post over the weekend....

Miss M turned THREE!

We had a small family celebration at home on Miss M's actual birthday - a small cake, a few gifts, and a decent bedtime in preparation for the big party the following day. While you'll find my favorite photo here, there were many that I loved. Here is the birthday story, told in photos.

After dinner and the cake, it was time to open birthday gifts!

Cooking up something yummy with her new stove and cookware!
Only a few moments later she said, "We need some plates!" Of course, we quickly gathered some plates so she could serve up her creations!

A birthday hug!

Waiting for guests to arrive at the Tinkerbell-themed pool party!

After some swimming, and a lunch of pizza and watermelon, it was time for some (more) cake!

Scratch carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I think she likes it!

There are lots of other photos of the swimming and eating and gift opening that I would love to share - but for the sake of privacy for our family and friends, I will not be posting any more. Know that we had an absolutely lovely day, and we appreciate all of the birthday wishes Miss M received. Also, I highly recommend a pool party for any child with a summer birthday!

A Rockin' Fun Day!

We started out the week with a bang! Big Bang Boom, that is! This children's band (that is, adults that play music for kids) held a free concert in a local park. Some friends joined us and, although this photo doesn't show it, the kids had a great time! I posted this one simply because it is my favorite - for obvious reasons.
J and M spent the entire concert jumping, hopping, spinning around, sitting down, standing up, and screaming - at the request of the band's lead singer, of course! (They must have been covering Jack Johnson when I snapped that particular photo!)

The music was great, the lyrics were imaginative and funny, and we all laughed and had fun. I think we need their CD!

Busy Thursday!

It was a busy day, but we also had a lot of fun! After dropping Miss M off at preschool...

Painting with her teacher, S

we headed downtown to the kids' new school for Mister J's kindergarten assessment. He had a great time, and we saw some familiar faces - something we weren't sure would happen since it's a magnet school (admission is by district-wide lottery). Once we finished there, it was back to the preschool for a special event - an ice cream social and guitar music to help celebrate Week of the Young Child. The kids enjoyed the ice cream, and we all enjoyed trying to dance and keep up with the motions to the new songs we were learning!

Pre-ice cream - notice the lack of chocolate syrup drips on my children

Mister J found a friend to dance with and got away from us in the (small) crowd. Miss M stayed close and I was able to get a few pictures. She was a little slower to warm up to the dancing, but eventually made her way through the crowd to find her big brother.

While Miss M took an afternoon nap, Mister J and I turned these...
into these! With the addition of a soccer ball, we are bowling in the backyard!

I can't take all the credit for the idea, but I do love that we were able to take some 'trash' (which we would have recycled) and reuse it to make something fun without spending a dime! It took a little trial and error to decide just how much sand to use (1/2 cup per bottle, in case you were interested), which was part of the fun.

Lest you think our sandbox will run out of sand, we have plenty left over from the sandbox birthday party of '08.

Spring Break, Day 2

So, what did we do this afternoon? Well, I'm glad you asked! We had the long-awaited-by-Mister J-since-the-snow-closed-everything-for-two-days-and-our-appointment-got-bumped trip to the dentist. The kids had back-to-back appointments, and thankfully Big J was able to get away from work to help out. Here's Mister J wearing his cool, dentist-provided shades to keep the bright light out of his eyes.

(Opening up to say, "Ahh," for the camera was his idea!)

Have you ever seen any better incentive for opening wide for the dentist? My kids are wild about video games (I have no idea where they got that from...), and were very excited that this one is a two-player game that doesn't need money. Woo hoo! Never mind all the rest of the swag they came home with....

Next on our list was the grocery store. I usually love going to the grocery store. I usually go alone, while the kids are in preschool. Today was a reminder of why.... When Mister J asked if he could push a small cart today, I thought he was talking about one like the lady is pushing in the background of the photo below. Nope, he meant the tiny, kid-sized carts - and he pulled out one for Miss M, as well. I forgot they had them at this particular store.... Two small carts + two smallish kids + one nutty mom = lots of comments from other customers, some of them unwelcome. Do I sound like I have a story? You guessed it, I do! Miss M's cart wasn't quite as easy to push as a cart designed for a child should be. I was trying to help her steer when she told me (in a less-than-patient manner) that she didn't want me to help. Lady (not in photo) walking by laughed out loud at the exchange. Then, she wanted to tell me a story about her granddaughter that I wasn't very interested in listening to - aside from the fact that she laughed out loud, I still had another child to keep track of, and he was walking in the opposite direction! To say I was somewhat frazzled at the end of this grocery run would be quite an accurate statement. To say that I missed preschool today would be accurate, as well. Here are my two personal shoppers. Jonah is trying to explain to me how the ice cream scoop he is looking at works, and why we need it. We actually have two ice cream scoops, which I have found to be plenty, so we did not purchase the ice cream scoop in question. Please ignore the frozen french fries and pay more attention to the organic lettuce....

It's been overcast all day today. It's supposed to rain the rest of the week. On our way out of the grocery store I stopped by the redbox for a movie we could enjoy as a family. It's not animated, so I expect it'll be just the adults watching. I'll let you know how it goes.

Loooong Overdue

My, has March been a busy month! And, when Mommy gets busy, the blog suffers :( Here's the quick rundown of our month before I get to the pictures (which I know you will probably scroll down to, then maybe come back and read this part of the post....):

March 1-7 - Major UMW fundraiser at church, only slightly impacted by the weather
March 7 - my birthday :)
March 9 - Miss M's tonsillectomy
March 9-23 - Miss M's recovery from tonsillectomy (yep, it really takes 2 weeks)
March 12-15 - Visit from Mom (we celebrated BOTH of our birthdays with a yummy, baked-from-scratch carrot cake and a girls-only dinner out)
March 20-21 - overnight trip for scrapbooking fun with friends!
March 27-29 - solo trip to my Dad's
March 30-April 3 - kids' Spring Break from preschool

So - you wanted pictures? Here they are - don't say I didn't warn you that there are PLENTY!

Mister J visiting Miss M post-tonsillectomy. When I looked back at these pics, I realized just how miserable she looked. Some interesting tidbits - she refused to wear the hospital gown (or any other PJs, for that matter) the entire time she was in the hospital; she wanted to eat bananas more than anything else post-op, and didn't care for popsicles at all; she got very annoyed by the pulse/ox monitor on her toe, and pulled it off several times; I have never been so thankful for NOGGIN shows available 24/7, as we were up most of the night that we were there.

Grandma and Grandpa R sent flowers to Miss M while she was in the hospital, but she didn't get a chance to really appreciate them until we got home. Still working on where we will plant the azalea when the weather finally warms up!

I didn't take a picture of the delicious, two-layer, made-from-scratch carrot cake with delicious, made-from-scratch frosting that I baked for mom's and my birthday celebration weekend. I suppose that pat on the back I just gave myself will suffice.

The next weekend, I got away for an overnight trip! Spent the night (and ate Chinese!) with my former student worker-turned-great friend, H, and got to catch up the latest news that I can't get via her blog. The next day was a HUGE, all-day scrapbooking event! We were joined by my friend J and her friend B for the beach-themed day of fun! Don't we look cool? (The answer, in case you aren't sure, is most certainly YES!)

J, B, H, and me

It was back to real life for a few days, then I was off on another solo trip - this time a weekend at my Dad's! (Seems I didn't copy a pic from my camera that I was going to post here.... can you tell I'm wiped out by all the busy-ness of the month?!?). I had a great time, and wished I could have stayed longer - but I sure did miss my kids! It hit me most on Sunday morning when I was sitting on the couch all by myself, watching the news, and nobody interrupted me. Never realized what a treasure those little interruptions are!

The kids are on spring break this week, so today I took the kids to a new-to-us local park for a picnic and some geocaching. Mister J has been asking to go 'treasure hunting' for a couple of weeks now, since Big J told me they wanted to upgrade my membership at geocaching.com for my birthday (yay!).

This first picture is for those of you who asked me to post more photos of the kids' lunches. With the addition of a baggie of crackers and my big, blue bottle of water, all three of us ate from the Laptop Lunch Boxes today.

Mister J was trying not to squint even though he was looking away from the sun. Oh, and how cool is it that I took this pic with my cell phone and emailed it to myself and posted it here?!? Yes, you should be impressed. I have an even cooler trick up my sleeve, but I'm waiting until the next cell phone photo op to share.

Next shot was me trying to get a photo of them together. Well, they are together.... I never said I would be able to get them to look at the camera at the same time! Check out how big they are getting!

Oh, look - here they are again, and they are both looking at the camera! I managed it once - on our only cache find of the day. They sure had fun checking out the treasures inside, but in the end we TNLNSL.

Aren't they just the cutest little geocachers you have ever seen? They were pretty adventurous today, and stuck it out even though we were 1 for 3 today. There was another interesting find at the park today - a 500+ year old poplar tree. It's been struck by lightning, and the remains of the trunk are now hollow - a pretty cool hiding spot for a 5-year-old!

Here are a couple more shots as we were wrapping up our afternoon of geocaching. The kids enjoyed the gravel path (picking up and tossing the rocks) and thought the storm drain under the path was very cool. They wanted to crawl through it, but I exercised my mommy-veto power on that one!



Jonah was a big help today - he carried our caching backpack when Miss M got too tired to keep up with us and 'needed' to be carried (though she had plenty of energy to play when we stopped here!).

On the way home, we got a call from friends who were meeting for a quick playdate at another local park. The kids were excited to see their friends E and C, and I enjoyed a brief visit with my friends AW and AT. I was amazed that the kids still had enough energy to keep their eyes open - nevermind swing, climb, run, and generally just play hard!

I did manage a snap of Miss M and Miss E when they were taking a breather. They are hanging out under the playground equipment playing with - what else? - rocks! Not sure what it is about rocks, but my kids both seem to want to pick every one they see. Is it a stage? Will they outgrow it? Insight, please!

So, what's in store for tomorrow and the rest of Sping Break? Well, tomorrow is the dentist - the kids have back-to-back appointments. Wish me luck! The forecast for the last half of the week is for rain, so perhaps we will do some crafts. Big J's birthday is Thursday, so we also have to do a little shopping. We have to buy a gift, of course, and the ingredients for a(nother) delicious, two-layer, made-from-scratch carrot cake with delicious, made-from-scratch frosting! Yippee! Perhaps I'll remember to take a picture this time!