Midnight

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits.Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle.Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it.You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

I think this probably fits. Thanks to Hillary for providing the link.

Unusual Habits, hmmm. Wonder what those could be I've always thought they were pretty normal. That might take several blogs to sort out.

Wild Blue Yonder

Yesterday we had a family get together with my aunt and cousins from Nebraska. One of them is a Navy fighter pilot. He flies an F-18 SuperHornet and instructs at Top Gun . He flew the SuperHornet and landed at Forbes for some flight quals and made it for the weekend. After lunch we went out to Forbes and watched him take off for his two hour flight back to Nevada where he and his family live. We laughed because he would make it home before his mother and sisters would because it is a four hour drive to Nebraska.
It was so cool to go out on the tarmac and walk right up to the plane. We stood twenty yards away as he revved up the engines and felt the hot exhaust blow over us as he turned to taxi down the run way to prepare to take off. He circled over us on his way west and wagged the wings in farewell. Way Cool.

Last summer we toured my brother-in-laws P-3 at the Jax Naval Air Station in Fl and that was pretty cool too, but we didn't get to see him fly it.

I didn't take a camera but my uncle did so hopefully we will get a lot of good pictures out of the day.

I was driving today and the girls were chatting in the back and Je noticed something out the window. She said, "That green and black jeep is like yours Mama." (It was a Jeep Wrangler not a Grand Cherokee but it was a jeep and it was green) It started me thinking about something my sister said to me a few weeks ago when I was holding my new nephew. She asked me if holding a brand new baby made me want another one. And it didn't. I want more children but I don't miss the infant stage. My girls cuddle and want to be comforted when things go wrong, but they are walking and talking. They tell me in words what is on their minds and while there are days that I want some peace and quiet for the most part I like to listen to their thoughts and I just enjoy spending time with them. I don't miss the months of sleepless nights, bottles, diapers and guessing at what is wrong with this small person. I definitely don't miss hauling that baby car seat everywhere. Now don't get me wrong, I love babies and if God overrode the vasectomy and we had another baby I would weep with joy. I would have two or three more if it weren't for the difficulties with my health during pregnancy. But I enjoy each new stage my kids go through and it wouldn't be a disappointment to adopt older children rather than infants. When my sister asked me if I was longing for an infant I felt good that I could say not really. The first year of my girls lives was the hardest so far. A friend once made some comment about the girls and I responded offhandedly that we were having fun with them. She replied with one of the nicest things I've ever been told, "You always look like you are enjoying your children" I have thought a lot about that and often have thanked God for her encouragement that day. We were at church camp when Jo was 11 months and Je was not quite three. I was stressed out with the logistics of waiting in line to eat, disrupted nap times, keeping the girls quiet in meetings and a long car ride to the camp etc. Mom's don't get vacations, we take our jobs with us. So that comment stands out as a great example of someone whose been there saying a word of encouragement to someone new to the role. But I honestly believe that if you don't enjoy your children that is a sad thing. They teach me something new all the time and though I am tired, busy, and occasionally wish for a stage to pass, I am never bored with my life. A woman I worked with said she could never be a stay-at-home mom because she would be bored inside a week. I am sure there are people like that out there but I don't know a single stay-at-home mom who actually stays at home all that much, nor are they bored. Children are too much fun. Each stage is something new and wonderful to experience with them and the littlest things are a big deal. My girls were jumping for joy just to go to this Mexican restaurant for lunch. You would have thought it was Christmas that's how excited they were to go out to lunch with Nana. The love rice. That is what makes my life interesting, seeing them grow and change.

Yes

That is the answer to the previous question. Je was out like a light before 7:20 this evening. Jo took a little longer, but I think by 8 I stopped hearing her up there. We had a big day and no naps so I am sure Je was exhausted. It was the first day of Eager Readers for this session. Our Parents As Teachers group holds a session of storytimes a few times a year. The girls love it. It is seriously the best one we've ever been to and we've gone to several. Each week has a theme and the stories and activities, crafts and snacks all fit the theme. The kids sing and play and make their own snack and really have a good time. Today we sang about cookies in the cookie jar, painted a picture of cookies in a jar, decorated a real cookie and a paper plate to look like a cookie with foam stickers. It lasts about an hour and is great. Our friend K and her mom were there for the first time and that was big fun. Then after a short rest we went to play at K's house and so I bet the girls were dragging. K's family is in our co-op and I left the girls with them and went to help my mom with a project for a few hours. Daddy picked them up and brought them home to work on their flower bed. I guess they pulled weeds and got it ready. Daddy found some poison ivy and quickly washed his hands and use a poison ivy wash to help but I hope the kids didn't find it. That would be bad. Why is the two year old crying, she's supposed to be sleeping. Off I go to restore order.

Will they ever sleep?

I don't get it. Each afternoon I go through the same ritual of naptime. I put each girl in her bed, check for lovies, and tuck the covers up. I kiss their foreheads and tell them night night. Usually, this meets with success. I can go back downstairs and sit with my lunch and book or puzzle and have 15 minutes of quiet to regroup. Somedays, this procedure doesn't lead to a nap however. For instance today, Jo has been out of bed three times to go potty and wash her hands. Each time she calls down the stairs and says "Mama, I have to go potty!" I can't believe that a small person can need to go that much. She has had two glasses of milk all day and that is it for beverages. I don't think I went to the bathroom that often when I was 9 months pregnant and a baby rested on my bladder. The last time I checked on her she wasn't in the bathroom or her room. On her last return from the potty she detoured to her sister's room to read books with Je. What!????? They were calmly lying there on the twin bed looking at the grasshopper book with the clickers that make noise. It is days like these that I am sure I don't want to take my blood pressure and that my head will explode. When I put Jo in bed and explained (again) the procedure outlining consequences for not staying in bed, (namely a moratorium on TV for the next day) she cried "I want Daddy!" Of course, Daddy won't make her take a nap. Not.

EBay

Now I like eBay. I buy and sell and their book site, Half.com is great. I discovered eBay when I was shopping for maternity clothes. I hated what was in the store and wanted plain cotton shirts and simple shorts and pants with pockets in cotton, denim etc. I wanted my pregnancy clothes to look like my regular clothes, not like some weirdo. That was five years ago. If I didn't remember that eBay helped me out this week with a card. I received possibly the stupidest piece of mail of my life. I got a happy anniversary card from eBay on my fifth anniversary as an eBay user. Give me a break. (I realize that phrase is passe but really what else works? I suppose I could parrot Grey's Anatomy and say Seriously?!) BTW I love Grey's Anatomy. At some point I probably will do an entry about my favorite TV shows and with West Wing coming down to the wire I will have to mourn but I digress.

An ANNIVERSARY card for eBay!!!! No special code for discounts on selling or buying, free shipping or anything just a glad your an eBayer kind of message. What a waste of money, my money collected for listings and purchases. I do not get it.

Oh Well

She's Gonna Shoot You

The last time my sister-in-law visited we took the kids to the place known to be great birth control, Chuckie Cheese. We left with this toy that will skip a foam disc across the room. Jo brought it down tonight and told her father "I'm gonna kill her. I'm the bad guy." Now before y'all get worried about the girls picture a two year old with wild blonde curly hair holding a toy that could never look like a weapon and saying that with a characteristic big cheerful grin. It is impossible to take someone seriously when they look like a pixie. She is so tiny and girl like.

I remember once after church one of my friends was torturing me, (We were both in high school) I was a really easy target for that stuff. I told him I was going to kill him. I was laughing at the time so I doubt anyone could have seriously thought I was going to hurt him beside the fact that he was bigger and stronger than I so get a grip. Some busybody, who shall remain nameless, told my parents thinking that I was being very inappropriate at church. This is the same person who still to this day tells stories on people from twenty or thirty years ago as if we are incapable of growth. When I was two I played with this same friend in the nursery and this person continued to tell us about it and remind us that he predicted we would marry even after we both were married to other people.

Anyway the point of that story was that while I don't want my children to be violent, and I would say that threatening to kill someone even in jest is wrong, I am not going to overreact. I think they are simply pretending in much the same way as when one of them pretends to be the other's momma. I will keep an eye on it but they rarely even hit each other.

A bigger concern is the ancient cheerio Jo found under a chair and, started to take to the trash but thought better of it and put it in her mouth despite a telling her father that it was yucky and should be thrown away! It was food and far be it for her to turn it down unless of course it is the dinner her mother prepared!!!!!!

Easter Exhaustion

I need a week to recover from holidays. Maybe it is just hot and the ac in the car didn't work on the 45 minute car ride home from dinner and I spent most of the afternoon standing in the bright sun. My sister has claimed Easter as her holiday so we loaded up the kids, the eggs, the card tables and chairs and our contributions to the meal and headed to her house. My children insisted on wearing their Easter clothes to dinner. I made skirts for the three of us to match following the direction posted in Randi's blog http://cheekymama2005.blogspot.com/2006/04/twirly-skirt-how-to.html

They turned out great but the girls wore long sleeve shirts with them and thus were understandably hot when they searched for Easter eggs in the treeless backyard.

it was a successful hunt however, 82 eggs were hidden and 82 eggs were found, if we counted right. My mother did the math and I don't doubt her calculations but she adds half in her head and half out loud so I have trouble getting to the solution listening to her. She groups numbers and I can usually get the same answer just not nearly as fast.

Now the kids are on a sugar high from all the candy in the eggs that Shan diligently filled and hid for them. Thanks honey!

She's growing up

My daughter came to me a little while a go and quite calmly asked to talk to me about watching Caillou. I had banned the show because the little boy whines and I started hearing my children echo the tone he uses. It was driving me crazy and I told the girls that they couldn't watch the show again until they demonstrated that they could talk nicely to me when they want something. Jessa came to me and said "Mama I would like to talk to you about watching Caillou again. I have tried not to whine and to talk nicely so can I please watch the show? I am growing up." I nearly fell off my chair. She did such a nice job trying to negotiate a privilege that I had to concede the point. She used a good tone and she has been less whinny. I bet its because she hasn't seen Caillou recently but we will see. Now if I could just get Josi to stop crying everytime someone tells her no we would be getting somewhere.

It's Hot

It's hot. I looked at my thermostat as I came by and it reads 81 degrees in my house. It's April!!!!!! If it is this bad now what will I do in August. The answer is Air Conditioning. I have some basic objection to turning it on before June. I did turn it on in May last year a couple days but under protest. I wanted my children to nap. April is just too much. When the sun goes down I am going to take a cool bath, turn on the attic fan to suck in the cool night air and watch the original Parent Trap we checked out of library this week. I love that movie. We taped it off TV when I was growing up and watched it over and over. I saw the remake last weekend on Disney and felt drawn to seeing the original. Alas it was only on a channel we don't get so when I noticed it on the shelf as I ushered my brood out of the library after story time I pounced. I had a couple extra kids with me so brood is appropriate. Some woman told me I had a well dressed and nicely behaved bunch. Since the three older children were high stepping through the library I wasn't sure if she was being sincere or commenting on my supervision. It was only 9:30 so they were still clean so she may have meant it.

So You Thought You'd Won but.....

I was feeling really good about potty training. We were consistently using the potty all the time and even had moved from the little potty to the big potty with the help of the step stool. Our little potty base flips over and becomes a step stool if you take off the seat a remove the bowl. We have been dry at nap and almost dry at night. She even got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom a few times.

Yesterday


Total failure...


I did a load of laundry last night and there were 9 pairs of panties. I did laundry Monday so if you subtract the three days since we are looking at 6 pairs of panties yesterday. SIX!!!!!!!!!!!! Every time I found Josi she was holding her pants up so they weren't touching the floor. Like the legs were too long. I am not sure why she does that when her pants are wet but that seems to be the signal. I took her upstairs to change and she went off to play. I didn't put new pants on over her clean panties I got interupted so I didn't notice a little while later when she came downstairs. She was very unhappy about something with her sister. I don't know. I picked her up and consoled her. It took a few minutes to realize that she had taken off her panties. She had another accident and put the offending garment in the dirty clothes and went on playing. This was a recurring theme. After her naptime accident she even put on dry ones and told me about it later. Let's hope today is a better dry day. Argh!

It's time for Fiesta

I am getting so pumped about Bible School. We chose a fiesta theme and I think it will be so cool. I got the Oriental trading catalog in the mail today and there are some great things to decorate with and dress up with. The kids last year really seemed to like the hats and bandanas so we want to do something similar this year to fit our theme. I found the cutest sombreros so that will be great. There is also a bunch of great stuff for stuffing the pinata. We will put candy in it but I saw little maraca key chains that would be fun and other novelty things to fill it up with. I also saw a great pinata that looked like a sun wearing big sunglasses. There was even a preschool version of pinata where you pull on dangling ribbons to get to the prizes. We hope to make that the fun final activity for Friday. Last year we had pony rides which was a lot of fun so we want something theme related and a little different for Friday.

The girls go to a story time through the school district that is very well put together with story, craft, songs, games and snack that are all related to the main theme of that day and the overall theme of the session. They love it so I want to use that kind of concept with Bible school snack and games. The kit we got has those areas covered in theme related ways so we will just need to follow there suggestions. I think it is an excellent way to emphasize the Bible point each day so kids who learn in different ways get the overall message in a way that speaks to them where they are at. ( I never can quite forget that I am by training a school teacher) If we all are speaking the same message at each station then by the time the kids leave each evening they should at least have the main idea clearly in their mind. One of the other things I am jazzed about is the daily challenge part of the program. Each day kids are urged to go home and use the lesson is their own life right away. We want to convey that you are never to young, small etc to serve God. He has opportunities for each of us to glorify Him with our lives and selves. The book gives several very easy suggestions for kids to apply the lesson immediately so I think it is real doable.


It will be so great!!!!!

Daddy Wrestles

Today I spent the morning and early afternoon sitting on a hard wooden bench watching wrestling. Now I thought wrestling was over but not so. A local high school coach organized an old timers wrestling tournament and Shan and one of the other coaches from school participated. Shan will tell you that he finished third and they awarded medals to 1-4th place. I will qualify his medal by saying that there were only three men in his weight class in the over thirty bracket. But he had fun and boy did he look great in his singlet. (Not) Singlets don't look good on anybody. Sorta like bikini's. I think very few people, even thin people look good in bikini's. Too much skin shows and every figure flaw is on display, and lets face it most of us have them. So now wrestling is officially over until Nov. except for camp this summer. At least I have my Saturdays back.