I made it

I made it to my big conference. The professor I was going with had a last minute health issue and so I get to man the poster by myself tomorrow. Hopefully I understand the research since I have only read about it.
I am having a good time and learning interesting things. I do miss my family though.

Andragogy

In one of my courses I had to research some learning and teaching theories. One of the theories I learned about was called Andragogy (andra=man, gogy=leading). It is a theory about adult learning and one of the things that it talks about is how adults have other responsibilities that can take precedence over class work...younger learnes just have the primary task of learning so they don't have these responsibilities to consider.

I have really been feeling this during the past week. Monday I took Doug to the doctor because his cold had been lingering on, we had coughing so hard he was throwing up occassionally, and his nose started up again which made me think that he was getting worse instead of better.
We were sent home with a cold medicine and an antibiotic due to the duration of the cold. So that is basically what I did during the time that I would normally have been working on graduate school related stuff.
Tuesday I worked on something for Jim...which then turned out that the formating and some of the text didn't make it through the email attachment and so basically the 2.5 hours that I had spent on that was down the tubes.
Tuesday night Doug displayed an interesting rash so Wednesday morning we were back at the doctor's. Apparently he is allergic to zythromicin (which doesn't surprise me because even though I am not allergic, my sister is). So now we have a different antibiotic and are supposed to hold off on restarting the cold medicine.
So, in light of everything I need to do...I think holding off sleeping until December sounds like a reasonable plan.

I wants

Doug and Andy have the "I wants" really bad.
I want a super hero cake
I want a dog
I want a dog for outside and a fish for inside
I want to buy a boat
etc.
Usually the "I want" is related to whatever commercial is showing on TV.
This makes sense to me if the commercial is for a toy...however, this morning a commercial for make-up came on:
Andy: Mommy, I want that!
Mommy: That is something for adult women
Andy: I want it for you mommy.

Ack!

It's one of those days...nothing is imminently due, I have a ton on my plate, my morning sort of spiraled out of control from my original plans (not bad things...just not what I originally thought I would be doing), I can hardly focus because I have so many things swimming through my head, and I just feel sort of "fuzzy" about things because I can't seem to focus. I meet with my professor about the paper we have been working on so now it is back in my court. I have loose ends all over the place. I leave on Thursday to go to the an NAGC Conference (all about Gifted Education) so while I know it will be good for me...just trying to wrap my brain around what I should do, what needs to be done, what I want to do....I have partial to-do lists all over the place.

Leading by example

Today I tried to convince the boys to have some quiet time in their room. They were less than thrilled with the idea so I gave them the option of quiet time in their room or sitting in the recliner with mommy and mommy got to choose the TV show. Of course they picked being in the recliner with me. We started watching a show and then I did what my sister and her husband term "leading by example"....I fell asleep.

However, it must have worked because about half and hour later I woke up and Doug & Andy were both asleep.

Pumpkin Carving

I realized today that it had been a little while since I had actually carved a pumpkin. In fact, I don't think that I have carved one since my pre-children era. So today we carved the pumpkins that the kids got at the pumpkin patch when they went as part of the church's children's activities.
At first I wasn't sure that Andy was actually going to let me carve the thing. He seemed more in favor of just drawing on it. But I am a traditionalist in this sense and I kept lobbying for actual carving.
In the end I think what helped convince Andy to let me cut into the thing is that we had done Doug's pumpkin first. Andy fell asleep (i.e., he stopped moving long enough to pass out)and while Andy (and Jo) were asleep Doug and I carved his pumpkin. I did all of the knife work and I did all of the scrapping out of the insides. I couldn't convince Doug to stick his hand down in the goop. He decided which side to put the face on and then also what shape to make the eyes (oval), nose (square), and how many teeth (lots mommy...we ended up with 8). He also specified that he wanted a happy pumpkin...not a scary one. Oh, and Doug thinks that it takes a long time to clean out the pumpkin because he probably asked me if I was done yet about a million times before I actually finished.
Andy liked the looks of Doug's pumpkin so we got to make a face (or as the boys said...a head) out of that one too. I couldn't convince Andy to deal with any of the goop either, but Josie was up to both elbows (and a little smeared on her forehead) in it. Andy choose circle eyes, a skinny triangle nose, and ten teeth (he held up both hands with all of the fingers out). He also specified that he wanted a smiling pumpkin.
Both boys were pleased with the results and we did put candles down in them and light them. I am pleased because I am the type that, starting about the first of October, had doodles all over the margins of my notebooks when I was younger because I was trying to decide what face to put on my jack-o-lantern. While I have seen a few other pumpkin carvings that I thought were neat, I really just like to put a face on them. I also dealt with the seeds after the boys had gone to bed, so I will be interested to see if they like toasted pumpkin seeds. Hopefully we didn't carve them too soon for our climate and they will last until Halloween.

Mommy manipluation

I have about decided that I need to write a book about tools for the manipulative mother. Jim and I had a discussion about manipulation one day and now I am uber aware of it when I use manipulation with the kids. Tonight I knew that if I got them to put the magnetic letters back on the fridge that it was going to take a lot of effort to get it done and since I am currently operating on less than 4 hours of sleep (through which I did find out that I can type some pretty freaky things when tired) I didn't want to put much effort into the project. So I assigned Andy the front of the fridge and Doug the side and we decided to see who could put the most letters on his side. Andy won with 24 to Doug's 19.

Can you hold please

Just so we are clear..."Can you hold please" is actually a question and not a statement. Usually when you ask a question, especially in a one-on-one situation, you actually wait for an answer instead of putting the person on hold within two seconds of you answering the phone. This is the second time in a week that a business has done that to me, and this one the hold was so long that I actually hung up and did not call back.

*Edit- so this business did actually redeem itself somewhat...they let me use an already expired coupon when I called back the next day. Woohoo!*

Sorta Pictures

I finally downloaded pictures from the kids' camera that they got for their birthday. There were several pictures that I couldn't tell what they were of and of course lots of pictures of butts and knee-caps. However, there were also some pictures with interesting composition and some that were quite good. The biggest limitation is that the resolution on the camera is not that great at it's lowest setting...which of course is the default setting. The playground pictures were taken by mommy, but the other two were the kids. I might post some of the "artistic" ones tomorrow.

New Game

Doug discovered a new game today. We are almost at the top of a pretty steep hill so the street in front of our house goes down the steep hill. Doug discovered that he can stand in the front yard and throw hickory nuts from our big tree into the street. The nuts bounce and roll down the street. He was cheering them on to see which one would go the farthest.

Potty Training

Where are we at?
That is a good question and I don't rightly know the answer to it.
I often think if I could mush Andy and Doug into one person (and hopefully end up with the positive things) then we would be a lot further along then we are now. There have been times when it is almost like they have "shared" an illness because one will be puking and tired and runny nose but no fever, and the other will have a fever but no other symptoms.
Anyway, on to potty training. If we were doing potty timing and not worried about them knowing when they need to go, then we would mostly have it made. Doug can pee on command but he has no clue when he is wet. If I have him in cloth underwear he doesn't know when he needs to go and by the third pair of wet underwear he even stops telling me that he has had an accident. He has yet to poop in the potty...though a couple times letting them run naked in the backyard he produced poop (once squatting at the top of the slide...but that is a whole other story) but essentially he doesn't know when he needs to go.
Andy, on the other hand, still mostly freezes up when urinating and likes to fall back on the "hot water" method of making him go. He can poop in the potty and actually has asked to go to the bathroom a few times. Last night he begged for a nighttime pull-up instead of a diaper and I told him that if he woke up in the night and needed to go that he could. I also told him that if he needed help it was ok to wake up mommy. Apparently after about an hour of sleep he came running out to Jim (I was downstairs at the time) and insisted that he needed to go. He apparently squeezed out an extremely small poop and went back to bed (I worry a bit about hemorrhoids with that child). Sure enough in the morning he had a wet pull-up. Doug on the other hand had apparently had a dry night (which happens every so often with each of them) and I had to insist that he go to the bathroom prior to getting dressed.
So...I am encouraged by Andy asking to go to the bathroom...I don't know what to think about Doug. I also realize this would be a lot easier if we didn't leave the house, I didn't have other things I had to work on, and I had done potty training before. I know we will get there eventually.

Hidden in front of my face

We made some progress on the boxes in the workroom this afternoon. Through the miracle of financing and 12 months same as cash we are getting a new heating and air system. It should pay for itself, because while our previous one was working it was REALLY REALLY old. This one should be miles more efficient and comes with a much more modern thermostat.
A side effect of all of this was that we actually had to clear the space in front of the furnace so that they will be able to get at it tomorrow. I didn't want to just shift boxes, so we actually organized some things. We got all of the potential garage sale items in one spot. I moved all of the empty boxes and packing material to the appropriate places. We cleaned and Jim got a lot of trash out. While there are still a significant number of boxes in there it is much better and maybe about a third of the room is completely box free.
Another side effect of this was that I actually found a few things that I had been looking for. It turned out that pretty much every item that I had thought "hmmm...I wonder where that is because I haven't seen it yet" was actually one layer down in an open box right next to the door into the rest of the house.

Ear Tubes 2

I took Doug to the ENT today for his hearing check now that the ear tubes are both out. First off he was very upset about going because of course the last doctor's office that he was in he moved his leg and the flu shot needle scratched him. He mellowed out once we got there and after he had had much reassurance that this was a completely different doctor who would not have needles and shots for him.
He was very good about sitting for the lady to do his hearing check, however he passed everything in the left ear but failed half of the test in the right ear. It could just be from the fact that he is getting over a cold (and mysteriously was running a low grade fever tonight) so we go back again in three months.

Fall Festival Pictures

I am going to admit that I am blatantly stealing these pictures from my sister-in-law. If you have wondered why there have been even fewer pictures than normal on the blog, it is because my camera got stepped on at the beginning of the school year and it is not responding at all. Jim and I are going to buy a camera as soon as we can agree on a camera.
So, thank you Jenni for the pictures! If more people send me pictures I will post them. If you are wondering...Jo is Tinkerbell and Doug & Andy are knights (though they only wore their "helmets" in the car and then ditched them as soon as we got to the party).

The Big Brother

At Nana and Pop’s house usually Doug & Andy sleep in one room and then Jim and I sleep in another room with Josie in a pack’n play in the closet. Saturday night we decided to try something different. We put Josie in the pack’n play and then put Doug & Andy in the same room with her.
I could hear Josie crying a little bit and I considered going in to check on her, but then she stopped so I assumed all was well.
Later, Jim went into the room for something and discovered the reason that Jo had stopped crying. Doug and Josie were both in the pack’n play together and Andy had the entire queen sized-bed to himself.

My Little Problem Solver

We had a great time at the Fall Festival at Jim’s brother’s house. The kids played games, including jumping in one of the big bouncy blow-up things, and there was good food to eat. They even had a piñata with candy. This was the first time Doug & Andy have experienced a piñata and I am happy to say everyone followed the guidelines and no one got hurt. My sister-in-law had bags for the kids to decorate and then collect candy in. Doug and Andy worked together to put their candy in one bag. Then Andy took the bag from me and walked over to the broken piñata and started ripping off the big sticker where the opening was for putting in the candy. I was standing there trying to figure out what he was going to do. I’m thinking…souvenir? Does he want a sticker to put on his shirt?
I couldn’t figure it out.
When he finally got the whole sticker off he tried to use the sticker to close the top of his bag. I guess he didn’t want any of the candy to fall out.

Packing Initiative

As I think I mentioned in the cake decorating post, we are headed to Jim's parent's house and also for his brother and sister-in-law's fall festival. The kids are excited (Josie walks around saying "Bop, Bop" every time we mention it) and yesterday I did the "oh yeah, I might want to pack some clothes for us" realizing how close it was to time to actually go (we're driving down today). Andy was having some problem with one of his siblings and being the manipulative mom that I am I used distraction to deal with it. I said "Andy, how would you like to help me pack for Nana and Pop's?"
Of course he wanted to help.
Before my butt had even left the chair Andy came back with a big bag he wanted to pack in. I had to explain that we really needed a bag that would zip closed at the top (it was a big handled bag that he had emptied something out of in the laundry room).
Then he came back with another bag that did zip closed....but rather than getting an empty bag he had emptied our swim bag from the summer. Ok, I can deal with that and I am not going to discourage helping behaviors.
I finally get up and headed for his room and discovered that the child had already pulled clothes out of the drawer that he wanted to pack. He did remarkably well for a three year old.
For the two to three outfits per boy that I needed he had:

• 7 shirts
  
• 2 pairs of jeans and 3 shorts
• 2 pairs of socks
• 1 complete pj set and a half of a pj set
• about a bazillion pairs of underwear
  

I didn' t think to ask him if that was just for him or if it was for both Doug and himself, but still not bad for a first attempt at packing. I did ask him if he intended to wear underwear at Nana and Pop's because right now the boys are still in pull-ups and only semi-willing to sit on the potty.

Child Labor Laws!

I think Sam's Club owes Doug at least an hours worth of pay. We had to go by there after church this evening so that we could get important staples in our house like diapers and pull-ups and mac & cheese.
Andy fell asleep in the car on the way there and managed to sleep in the cart for most of the time we were in the store (until he woke up and his hands were asleep from being pushed up against the sides of the cart so that he had waffle weave imprints on them....I carried him after that and he went back to sleep). Josie was contained in the cart.
Then there was Doug. Happy-go-lucky Doug dancing down the aisles in a good mood and noticing things. In particular Doug noticed when items weren't straight on the shelves... or when there was an odd number of things... or when the products were not right up at the edge of the shelves... or when there was an empty display box that needed to be removed.
So, Doug being Doug and his little anal retentive self (yes you can say this about a three year old) he had to "front" all of the products as we walked along. And since the child can't read yet he wasn't put off by moving around boxes of tampons, or re-stacking boxes of hemorrhoid cream, or rearranging stool softeners.

Decorating with Andy

The kids and I made cakes today. We are taking them to a Fall Festival we are going to this weekend. Andy was my main help. Doug really just wants to lick the beater after the frosting has been made.
So I had this disposable heart shaped pan that was the second one in the package left over from some other time I had made a heart shaped cake. I decided that we could make it into a pumpkin by making the heart be upside-down and then frosting the whole thing orange, putting a little bit of green frosting at the point to be a stem, and then using yellow (black is a hard frosting to make really well) to make a jack-o-lantern face on it. The boys thought it was cool and since the pan doesn't hold an entire cake mix we also got some cupcakes out of the batter.
Andy helped me decorate the cupcakes. I frosted them and he put candy corn on top of them...or perhaps the more appropriate term is "in" them.
I was thinking that he could place candy corn on top to make it look seasonally appropriate. Andy decided that he was going to make faces with them (we had thought about this for the big cake but I thought the candy corn wouldn't be big enough). So of course he placed the candy corn point side down in the frosting. After placing a few pieces he discovered that if he pushed them a little the whole darn thing would push down into the soft cupcake. So every single one of the cupcakes Andy got a hold of has candy corn pushed into it and I know he licked the frosting off his fingers after each piece was placed.
I think I am glad that we are not sharing these cupcakes with anyone.

OMG!

I was just at the store with Josie and I happened to walk down the Halloween candy aisle for the first time since they put out all of the candy. I just saw a 3 lbs all chocolate tombstone.
.
.
I can't decide if I am horrified at the further commercialization of the holiday or if I am excited about the thought of that much chocolate!

Wonders of the World

Perhaps it is because Josie was plastered to me most of the day (fever, runny nose, drool that covers half the shirt). Perhaps it is because most of the things I worked on today are only half done and not because of the parts that I did but because I am waiting on other people. Perhaps it is because Josie went through two outfits, I went through three shirts, and I ended up letting our baby-sitter come for an hour not because I was going to go workout but because I needed an hour where I was childless (a few children in this house should be saying thank you God in their prayers for living another day...)

Anyway, I still wonder ....

1. Last year how did I manage to get all of the dishes and everything done and cleaned up and then also work on my coursework?
2. Last year how did I manage to get most of the house unpacked and still get everything else done?
3. How am I managing to get over my cold when I have had a huge sleep deficit the last two nights due to being up with children?
4. Last year how did I manage to work in the yard so much with the kids and still get everything else done?

I wonder however, if it is just that I can look back on the big picture of "Last Year" and see the accomplishments and whether this year I am still too close to all of the goings on to see what I have done. I guess I won't know until next year.

The mystery of Parenting

Josie had a fever yesterday afternoon. She has a slightly runny nose but no other apparent symptoms. She was chewing on her fingers after church yesterday.
Is she teething?
Does she have a virus?
I don't know. I just know that I was up a fair portion of the night with her. This morning, about an hour after the medicine had worn off she seemed mostly fine but then she felt slightly warm and had a low grade fever so time for more medicine. I don't know. I do know, however, my children are very willing to take medicine when they don't need it and fight me the strongest when they most need it.
Part of the problem is that she can't really talk yet...and even when they can talk it only gets slightly better. If you ask Andy and Doug about aches and pains it is hard to tell sometimes if they are merely agreeing with you or if there is actual discomfort.
The other answers you get might include this conversation:
Mommy: Andy are you hurt?
Andy: I hurt mommy (accompanied by dramatic slightly fake crying designed to inspire sympathy from all but the most hardened parent)
Mommy: Where did you get hurt?
Andy: Downstairs

Grr...child. I know that downstairs you either
A) fell down hurt yourself or in some way was doing something you probably shouldn't have been doing
OR
B) your brother/sister inflicted pain upon you that was probably motivated by something you were doing since these acts rarely occur in isolation

Small Surprises

The kids were running around in the playroom today. Doug runs up to me and goes "Here mommy" and hands me something he has pinched between his fingers. I look down and there is his ear tube.
This tube was one of two that he got when he was about 14 months old. They are designed to fall out usually after about 6 months. This one had been in his ear for just over two years and we knew it was loose and if it hadn't fallen out then it was going to get pulled out at the next wellness check-up. The only reason I knew what it was was because my previous pediatrician had pulled out the first one because it had fallen out and was just in the ear canal. At least it did it's job because only once did he have an ear infection in his ears while he had ear tubes in.

Flu Shots

We took the boys in yesterday for their flu shots. Josie will get hers when we go to her 18 month wellness appointment in November.
I did tell the boys that morning that we would be going. I don't know if it would have helped to have Andy go first (he didn't cry at all for his shot), but poor Douglas. I think we had a slightly less experienced nurse and I don't know whether she had a hold of his leg or not. I had his upper portion and unfortunately he moved when she tried to give the shot. It bent the needle and scratched his leg enough that it was bleeding. She seemed embarrassed and had to go get another syringe.
Then she asked if we still wanted to give the shot. All I could think is "YES! I have drug my child in here on a Saturday morning and do you think after this that he is going to want to come back!" So we got the shots and we survived and all Doug can say is "I not get a shot" and fortunately I can answer him that he will not need a shot for a long time.

Not Much

Not much happened today because I didn't do much. The boys didn't have preschool today because it was a teacher inservice day. So we sort of hung around the house and probably watched way too much TV. Doug and Andy were better than I expected. Sometimes they get in a disagreement over a toy and get into physical fighting about it but today they were pretty good. In the evening all three of them started playing in Jo's crib with Andy's comforter over the top so I guess one of the benefits of having a bunch of kids is that they can entertain each other.

The ewwwww of Parenting

***If you are easily grossed out you might want to skip this post.***
Ok, we survived our party and had a good time and it was nice to have people over at the house even if it was a lot of work to get ready. However, I am beginning to wonder about my children. About an hour and half before the party the kids spotted the candy corn in the cupboard. I didn't buy it for the party, but it seemed like a good thing to put out.

The kids had a few pieces and then a little while later while I am running around trying to pick-up and trying to get the brownies out of the oven and Andy starts saying "something hurting me."
So the information that I can get out of him is that he has put something (not his finger) up his nose. I can't see anything and I try to get him to blow out of one side. I'm trying to decide if we need to hope in the car to go to a doctor, but Jim isn't home and Josie is asleep and Andy says he does not want to go to the doctor. All I am getting is orange snot...yes you guessed it...he put a tiny piece of candy corn up his nose according to him. I never got an actual piece out but I couldn't see anything using a flashlight, orange snot stopped coming out, and he said it stopped hurting so hopefully I made the right call. From a comparison test where I progressively tore off smaller and smaller pieces of tissue I think the piece was rather small (Mommy: "was it smaller than this?", Andy: "yes", Mommy: "was it smaller than this?", Andy"yes" etc.) We did have a talk about not putting anything up your nose and I am hoping that the sugary candy dissolved.

The other slightly gross update is about Doug. If you recall I mentioned that on Tuesday I was called by the preschool because Doug was not acting normal. Well, I didn't mention that on Sunday night he threw up a little bit, but the kids had been very actively goofing around and I thought he had eaten a lot and we assumed that he had just overeaten and then gotten too hot or jumped around too much or something.
Then on Tuesday night he got upset in the shower and didn't want to get out and managed to throw up a little after getting out of the shower while he was crying. It would not have been the first time he made himself physically ill from being upset.
So...
Wednesday morning I am getting them ready for preschool when I notice that Doug has some dried on stuff on the front of his pajamas. I ask him if he threw up this morning. "No." Did he throw up last night. "In the shower." Hmmmm
So I check his bed and there is stuff on his sheets, pillow, covers, etc. all requiring at least three extra loads of laundry (we washed everything). This stuff includes not only some chunky stuff, but a chunk of what looked like hot dog that was probably a quarter inch wide by two to three inches long that all appears to be one piece.
I start thinking about things and realize that he probably hasn't had a corn dog (Doug's "hot dog on a stick) since Saturday and it is now Wednesday.
Well, no wonder the child hasn't been eating much and he wasn't feeling well...he has been gagging on hot dog for four days!

When I was pregnant with the twins I was going to write a book entitled "Pregnancy for the Worrier: All the things the other books don't tell you and practical advice."
I now think the sequel should be "Parenting: Don't Panic."

Opened the last box in the living room

There is nothing like the thought of having people over at your house (especially people you know in sort of a casual way) to inspire you to clean, pick-up, and actually get that last moving box out of the living room.
Oh, and don't be thinking that that means there aren't still a bunch of boxes in the workroom downstairs...there just aren't any more in the main living space. And yes I think the door to the master bedroom will remain shut during the party.

My Roller Coaster Day

It hasn't been a bad day, and I did actually get everything on the to-do list done, but it has definitely been interesting. Highlights include:

• The preschool called me to come get Doug, not because he had a temperature and not because he had thrown up, but because he was laying around was weepy and just plain not acting his normal self. I understand this as a teacher so I went over to pick him up. I was 5 minutes or less away and by the time I got over there he was apparently fine and stayed the rest of the time. When I picked him up he was happy and doing goofy walks out to the car and said that he had a great day. He did get whiney again this evening so I am really hoping he will sleep well tonight and be happy and pleasant tomorrow.
• I completely spaced that a phone guy was going to come today and change all of the old 4 prong phone jacks (yes...we really had those in the house still) for new phone jacks. It was a darn good thing he called to see how many jacks he needed to bring and whether they were the type mounted on the wall or not because I was out running errands. I did beat him home and he turned out to be a nice guy and was amused by Andy "helping". (Any workman visiting the house causes Andy to pull out tools and the hard hat and to call his friends and to fix things.)
• I got to ride on a paddle boat. It is a boat that has been around here for a long time and in all of my many years coming to this town for classes I had never ridden on it before. The best thing was that it was free! The College of Education paid to have faculty and the education freshman learning community (a cohort of students who will take classes together) to go on this cruise up and down the river. Additionally the provided two nonalcoholic beverages and pizza. I actually ended up with leftover pizza because Jim and the kids meet me at the dock and everyone was like "oh, you have kids, take the pizza." I also caught up with at least two professors I had needed to contact and got good face time with the dean and the assistant dean and various other people.
  
• Jim ended up taking the kids to get new shoes today. I had been trying all day to get there and I kept getting interrupted. So hopefully Josie will no longer have blisters on her toes since she now has cute little New Balance pink and white sneakers. Doug and Andy have cool looking shoes and Andy's even have the lights that come on when he walks.
• I got my watch fixed for free. I inadvertently ran it through the washing machine this weekend. It still worked but a pin came out so that the band was broken. I walked into the place that we bought it almost ten years ago when I was graduating from my first set of graduate level classes and they took out one link for me (which I had been thinking about doing anyway) and reconnected the band at no charge. Woohoo!
  

Hot Stuff

Josie thinks she is pretty hot stuff these days. She has started flirting even more with strangers (if that was even possible). We went to the library story time last week and at the end books in a basket were put out. Other babies picked up books and took them back to their mommies. Josie took one to me, and then one to anyone else she decided needed a book.
She also went up to campus with me twice last week running errands. She walked her little "busy important" walk where her hips wiggle and her little mini-skirt flips all over the place and she walks as quickly as her feet will go.

An update to dressing ourselves

The boys have gotten a bunch more interested in dressing themselves (which they are capable of doing) and actually picking out their own clothes.
Andy wore two shirts to church today....a red Paris shirt under the tie-dye shirt with overalls (not the striped ones). Ummm..yeah

Doug has insisted on a train shirt every day this week and if there were none sorted out of the laundry basket yet (clean but buried...I don't have time to dig) he would settle for a truck/car shirt. He also seems to have a thing for plaid shorts and he has asked to wear pajama pants several times.

Also, we very prematurely purchased some cute little berets for Josie's hair (mommy was hopeful) and the boys have wanted to wear them since Jo doesn't have enough hair yet. Of course I just gave them haircuts so their hair is too short and they have had to settle for wearing them on their shirts. Daddy didn't want to take them out of the house with their colorful flower berets on their sleeves, but the boys settled for letting mommy wear them in her hair instead.

Feeling somewhat accomplished

I am not really an outdoors type person. I really am very happy inside. I don't mind hiking on a well-groomed trail and I have enjoyed the occasional camping trip in a tent (though I prefer a trailer).
However, there is something to be said for some serious yard work. It kind of feels good to see some progress and to do some physical labor and know that you have worked. In some ways it is more satisfying then seeing a paper grow longer when you are writing or a stack of grading grow if you are a teacher.
This weekend Jim and I tackled a small portion of our backyard. Jim trimmed and cut and made huge piles, while I lugged it to the curb. The pile is taller than our children and longer than a minivan. It also has at least three bags of leaves (from last year that were still in the "garden" areas of the lawn). Doug & Andy helped some. So it does feel like we accomplished something and I think our muscles are agreeing.

I also found an old white sheet. So with a permanent marker and some thread we made ghosts so now we have some Halloween decorations hanging from our front porch and in a tree! The kids are very excited.

Multiple Meanings

I have to preface this with the fact that

1. When writing by hand I make an "and" sign that looks like a plus sign
2. We are attending a preschool at a different church than the one we go to (so we have "our church," "the preschool church," and if you ask Andy we also have "Daddy's church to help his school" where we went to services one Sunday) so the kids get a LOT of exposure to "Jesus")
3. The preschool has signs for picking up the children that you either display in your car window or carry with you if you are walking in. Each class is color coded (we are red) and our teacher made a separate sign for each of Doug and Andy. I turned the laminated sign over and wrote Doug +Andy on the back.

Andy and Doug were getting in the car and they saw the sign from the preschool We have been noticing "A's for Andy" and "D's for Doug" all over town because the boys can recognizer their names. So Andy and Doug pick up the sign and look at it:
Andy: There is Andy's name
Doug: There is Doug's name
Andy: There is a cross for Jesus

I wonder what it means....

I wonder what it means when this is the third or fourth time I have walked in (either dropping off the boys or with my sign to pick them up) and had a parent or grandparent say to their child, "Oh, there's Doug and Andy's mommy."
Sometimes this is accompanied by "You talk about them all the time."

Doug & Andy tell me what goes on in class but they don't often name names and most of what they comment on is the activities. It makes me wonder just what my children are doing in class that is so notable. I guess at least I have not had a parent say something negative about them.

Girl of the week

I am beginning to wonder if my little "Ladies' Man" is going to have a new lady every week. The first week we heard about it, it was Olivia with her lots of hair. Then the next week it was Lillian who may (or may not ...it's hard to tell from the commentary) be into super heroes and also has lots of hair. This week it is Kelsey (who I think also has lots of hair). Hmmmm...I am sensing a trend here. Perhaps he gets this from his daddy....who (just for the record) decided to date me rather than my twin sister because at the time my hair was longer.