Playgrounds and Playdates

There are two things I can tell my boys that get their 'hyper kid mode' activated.  1: We're going to the playground, and 2: We're having a playdate.  When either of these statements reach their tiny ears, it's as if I just pumped them with a gallon of sugar on top of 2 liters of caffeine while letting them eat all their halloween and easter candy at the same time.  I really should invest in some noise canceling headphones to wear when I tell them this.

Playgrounds really are an ingenious invention.  There's so much to climb on, slide down, swing around to keep the little ones interested while at the same time they're getting more than a daily does of exercise to tire them out enough to go to sleep that night without a fight! They can yell and scream at the top of their lungs without puncturing my ear drums and climb to their hearts content without getting into trouble.

We have a really nice playground less than five minutes from our house.  Instead of those annoying little rocks that get in shoes and flip flops, they put in this foamy stuff that's sturdy enough to handle the most destructive toddlers but soft enough to cut injuries down.  The play equipment includes three big slides for the big kids or daring toddlers, several small slides for the scared big kids or more timid toddlers, one twisty slide, an arched bridge, a hanging bridge, ladders, swings, monkey bars, and a few little interactive pieces to engage all types of kids.  There's also a walking trail, a frisbee golf course, a soccer field and an outdoor amphitheater, plus three pavilions with picnic tables and grills.

The only time I try to avoid going is right after school.  That's when a lot of parents go and after going there a few times as soon as school lets out I see why.  The playground is right beside the school.  In fact you can access the playground from the carpool line.  When I get there and let loose the children, I notice that sitting under the pavilion are several moms who look like I feel.  "I really don't want to take these kids home yet." Because the kids have been in school all day, building up energy, and noise.  As I sit down to watch my kids zoom around the playground with all the other little kids like so many energizer bunnies on batteries that never run out, it is inevitable to hear one of those poor looking parents say "I wish I had their energy." I reluctantly join the sitting moms wondering if I look as tired as they do.  Sometimes, just to escape the feeling of being old, I'll get out there and push the boys on the swings, or chase them around, or help them on the monkey bars.  But it doesn't last long, I just can't keep up with them for long.

Once I see the kids start slowing down some, I decide it's time to go home.  Of course I'm met with pleas of "I don't want to go!" "Just ten more minutes! Five more minutes? Two more minutes?" But I drag them to the car, get them in and get them home.  And as predicted, they usually pass out earlier than normal at bedtime.

Playdates, I believe, are more for the parents than the kids.  At least for me and my best friend they are.  See, my husband is usually the only one to help me with the kids here at home, and he's great with them, playing with them, helping them, and giving me time to myself.  And because he works during the day and I'm a stay at home mom, I'm usually all alone with them during the day.  So playdates are nice break for me.

Me and Katie have known each other since high school, but having kids at the same time really brought us closer together.  You know how you see those sayings "You need that one person you can be childish and stupid with"? Well, that's what we are when we get together.  Her two kids and my two kids are the same age, and have enjoyed playing together since they were babies.  We've gone through the pregnancies, the newborn stages, the toddler years and now kindergarten together, keeping each other sane by one upping each other on the craziness the kids can bring to our lives.

We frequently enjoy playdates, swapping out turns at each others houses.  The excitement level is maxed out by both me and the boys as we prepare for playdate day.  The past few playdates have taken place at my house and from the time the kids get up until Lily and Keefer get here, I hear "Are they on their way? When will they be here? Are they here yet?" while I'm texting Katie, "Are you on your way? When will you be here? Why aren't you here yet?" Once I get the confirmation text that they are in the car on the way, my kids can be found at the back door with their faces pressed against the glass, watching.  I try to refrain myself from pressing my face against the glass, I mean, I am almost 30, and that's just one more smudge to clean when it's all over.

So after about fifteen minutes from her text, the drive up.  All four kids go nuts.  Connor and Kenny start jumping up and down, "THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE!" while Lily and Keefer bolt from the car and run to the back door.  Shoes and socks barely get off feet before the kids are running back to the bedroom to start work on playing with all the toys while me and Katie look at each other with that crazed look in our eye, "It's playdate day! I'm not by myself with the kids!"

The entire day is spent in hysterical laughter, snack food overload, and stupid, childish, arguments.  The kids usually just play.  By the end of the day, the kids are well worn out and Katie is loading them up in the car.  We'll stand there for ten minutes talking, cause neither of us are ready for the playdate to be over.

Summer time is always great because then we get to combine both worlds.  Playdates at the playground! We're just waiting for the weather to get warmer.

So between playgrounds and playdates, I can usually give my kids a good day at least once in a while.  Now that it's warming up again, I usually get asked everyday after school if we can go to the park.  And with summer break coming, playdates will become a little more frequent and longer.

Three Generation of Godzilla

When I was fourteen, Godzilla premiered in theaters.  You know the one, with Matthew Broderick and Hank Azaria.  It was an awesome creature feature in its day, in my opinion.  After it came out on DVD my dad bought it.  I remember that night because it was the first movie we watched on our brand new surround sound system.  Of course it was epic! We felt like we were back in the theater.  The rain was pouring all around us, and at the end, when Godzilla's heart was slowing down, our whole house shook with every thump.

Well, after that, my dad thought it would be just as awesome to introduce my sister and I to the Godzilla he grew up with.  You know the one, from the 50's and I think he had one from the 70's too.  He found them on VHS and brought them home.  He was so excited.  So we sat down, pressed play and started attaching.  Needless to say, after watching the new movie, the old ones looked a little......different.  Being teenagers, my sister and I started laughing at them.  After all, we had just watched a very realistic Godzilla terrorize New York.  I think we hurt my dad's feelings, whenever we talk about it now, his bottom lip pokes out.

So, flash forward almost twenty years and now my generations Godzilla is outdated.  Some of the graphics are laughable compared to the newest special effects Hollywood is rolling out.  So when Connor came bringing Godzilla to me asking to watch it, I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe, because I suddenly found myself in my Daddy's place. (I had to stop the movie, having forgotten how much bad language was in it.  I didn't want Connor hearing it or repeating it.  He'll have to wait until he's a little older.)

But just having my child watch Godzilla made me think about when I watched my Dad's Godzilla.  There is a new version of Godzilla about to premier in theaters.  I'm sure it will make the 1998 Godzilla look about as silly as the 50's Godzilla looked to us.

Bedtime or How I Torture My Children

Every parent will agree with me, bedtime for children is one of the highlights of the day.  Or if you've had a rough day, or the kids have been terrors all day, it is THE highlight of the day.  But somehow bedtime becomes the hardest part of the day.

Children believe this is a conspiracy by parents to make them miss out on all the best stuff.  They must think that once they're asleep, Mom and Dad are going to pull out these cool things to play with, all the candy and junk food to eat, and have a blast without the kids.  At least, that's what I used to think when my parents put me to bed.  Truth is, we're just so exhausted from the day, once the kids are asleep, we pass out too.

Bedtime at our house can turn into a circus.  It usually starts around the time it starts getting dark.  The oldest one starts,  "I want to stay up." "Hey momma, let's have a movie night." "I'm not sleepy yet." "Since I don't have school in the morning, how about I stay up tonight and sleep late in the morning." (By the way all you new parents or people thinking about having kids, the term "sleep in" no longer applies, you might get to sleep until 7:30, if you're very lucky.)

Once I actually announce "Bedtime" to the kiddos, they run in different directions.  The oldest runs to his room and picks out a stack of books that would take two hours to read while the youngest runs to our room yelling "Daddy's bed! Daddy's bed! Daddy's bed!" I firmly tell Connor to pick ONE book while grabbing Kenny off our bed.  That's when the tears begin.  "But I want to read two!"  "NO! DADDY'S BED!"

Here lately I've been able to bribe Kenny back to his and Connor's room by saying we're reading a book.  Then Kenny wants to read One Foot, Two Feet, while Connor wants to read How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  We literally have hundreds of books for the kids as we've signed them both up for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library when they were born, so the fact that they pick out the same book night after night can get frustrating.  But I read them, over...and over...and over.  

So after finally settling on a book, we sit down on Kenny's bed and I read to them, doing all the voices, playing up the dramatic parts, and having Kenny point out different things from the pages.  After this Connor hops up into his bed yelling "Cover me up! I want a super kiss and super hug!"

Let me just pause here and explain the super kiss and super hug.  When Connor was about 3, I would kiss him good night and before I could leave the room, he'd wipe his kiss off and say I had to kiss him again.  After a couple of nights of kissing him over and over (which I never get tired of doing, unless it's 8pm and I've spent all day chasing him around) I told him I was going to give him the super duper mommy kiss that could never ever be wiped off no matter how much he wiped his face.  I then grabbed his face with both hands and planted a kiss on his cheek that lasted a good minute, with me making all kinds of kissy sounds.  Then I had to do the same thing with the hugs.  After that, I could give him one big kiss and the leave the room.  So now every night, both boys want the super kiss and super hug.

Ok, back to our bedtime routine.  So Connor is in his bed asking for the super kiss and super hug.  I'm still at Kenny's bed, trying to get him to be still long enough for me to cover him up, because it's this time that he realizes the whole reading a book thing was a rouse to get him into his bed.  Now he starts hollering for Daddy's bed again.  After a few tries of tucking him in, I give up on covering him up right then and I order him to stay in that bed.

I turn to Connor, pull the covers up around him, give him his super kiss and super hug and tell him I love him.  I then turn back around just in time to catch Kenny and put him back in his bed.  It's usually at this time Daddy comes in and gives hims a big hug and tells him he has to stay in his bed.  Kenny will calm down some as Daddy lays him down and covers him up then gives Connor night-night hugs and kisses.

Alls good until we turn out the light and leave the room.  Kenny starts crying again.  And not just "I'm mad" cry, this is a full on "You've broken my heart into teeny tiny pieces, I'll never be the same, I can't believe you'd leave me like this" heart wrenching cry.  Even after almost three years of hearing this cry, it still gets to me.  I don't know how he can sound like this every time he cries, but he has definitely perfected the heart wrenching cry.  I poke my head around the door and tell him to be quiet.

Usually after this he settles down and we don't hear any more out of either of them until around 6:30am.  That's our normal bedtime routine.

There are the occasional nights that Connor is crying just as hard as Kenny while tucking them in because he can't find one of his three animals that he sleeps with.  He has Puppy, a small, tan blanket that has the head, tail, and feet of a puppy, Scary Bear, a black bear my parents brought him home from Gatlinburg, he's wearing a green Smokey Mountain hoodie and scares away any monsters that try to get in the room at night (hence his name Scary Bear) and Blue Bear, a blue, furry teddy bear.  If even one of these characters is missing when it's bedtime, Connor hits meltdown mode.  No substitutions will do, it has to be Puppy, Scary Bear and Blue Bear.  I have scoured the house before looking for one or the other, even checking behind the couch and in closets and bathrooms.  Once located, Connor is fine and goes right to sleep.

And then there's the nights we have a little visitor come crawl in the bed with us.  At any time of night, I'll hear Daddy wake up with a start and Kenny will be standing there, staring, wanting in the bed with us.  Brad will pick him up and put him between us.  I usually give Kenny a little bit to go back to sleep and then I'll pick him up and take him back to his bed.  Sometimes I don't hear him come in and I'll just wake up to him kicking me in the back or I'll roll over to see his face right there in mine.

I miss the days when Brad and I got ready to go to bed, we just got in the bed.  We didn't have to put up with screaming fits, or little ones climbing in the bed between us, or being made to feel like I'm a horrible person just by laying them down and telling them to go to sleep.  No doubt my kids think I'm just being mean, just torturing them, by making them go to bed every night.  And I know that once they get older, all this will go away and there'll be days I won't be able to get them out of the bed.  But I will always tuck them in and give them goodnight kisses for as long as I can get away with it.  Even if they are crying cause they don't want to go to sleep.

The Creep Factor

Yes, I know, it's been a few since my last entry.  I've been one busy momma! Adjusting to a schedule since Connor started school has been more than interesting, Kenny getting used to Connor not being here has taken up more than a few days of constantly peeling him off my legs, and this exciting new hobby/business as a photographer has kept a lot of weekends and extra time consumed with taking pictures, viewing pictures and editing pictures!

But that's not what I wanted to talk about today.

You know, a lot of people have a lot of advice when you become pregnant, when you have a newborn, pretty much any new stage of childhood, you get all kinds of either unwanted or sought after advice.  I've read all these lists people post about "things they never tell you about being a mom", or "Ten things I wish I had known when I had a baby".  I've read hundreds of these lists before.  I've laughed at some of the things like, "You will never sleep again." True. I've teared up at things like "you will never know love until your son gives you a kiss and says 'I love you' all on his own." Which my two year old has recently taken to doing, and every kiss I get I squeal and tell him how much I love his kisses and his face just lights up.

But there is one thing I have never seen on any of these lists that I'm going to share with you now. No one tells you how creepy your kids will be! Seriously, they can scare the ever living daylights out of you.  I'm not easily scared, okay, I like the jolt of adrenaline I feel with a good scare.  But these toddlers are like combining all the horror movies and horror stories together into one small package.  Stephen King has nothing on my two year old!

Why does he feel the need to come into our bedroom at 2am and just stand there, right beside our faces, for ten minutes without saying a word? Why can't he just crawl in bed with us? That's just what I need in the middle of the night, to roll over and have these huge eyes just starting at me two inches from my face! Once we wake up...with a shout of fear...and ask him what he wants, then he crawls in the bed and covers up, smiling at us.  I heard him one night come into our room and go over to his daddy's side of the bed.  I didn't move, I wanted to see just how long he stood there.  I know I laid there at least five minutes before I felt my husband stir, then he jumped and I heard him ask Kenny what he wanted, which Kenny answered by crawling up into the bed.

Then there's the 'waking up after nap' scare he likes to do.  He'll get up, silently, walk down the hall just a little way, and stand just out of sight.  He'll stand there until I see him and tell him it's okay to be up.  I've been walking through the house and just all of a sudden be aware that I'm being watched from the hallway or catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye.  I have actually started down the hall and he just be there and it makes me give a little shout every time!

He also has a habit of standing right outside the bathroom door, still and quiet, just waiting to scare the crud out of me when I come walking out.  Oh, and when he does this while I'm expecting him to still be asleep is especially scary! One day here recently I had put him down for his nap and gone to take a shower.  I left the bathroom door open so I could hear him if he called.  I got out of the shower, walked past the bathroom door and there was nothing there, I turned around for a second and when I turned back, there he was, just standing there, like he'd been there for a while! It took ten minutes for my heart to beat normally after that one.

Let's not forget the creepy things they can say that makes you just stop cold.  When my five year old was about three, he kept telling me at night he was scared in his room, he didn't want to go to sleep.  I asked him what he was scared of.  He pointed to the corner and said, "the little girl." ......uh...... And there was the time during potty training that, while Connor was sitting on his training toilet and I was sitting on the side of the tub waiting, he suddenly looked up over my head, followed something back and forth with his eyes (me thinking there was a bug or something I looked up ready to swat but saw nothing in the room with us), waved his hand and then said "ok, he's gone."
There have been other creepy things he's said over the years that would make me pause.  And I'm sure once Kenny gets to talking really good he'll have his fair share of creepy statements.


So the next time someone is telling you all about what to expect when having kids, or you're reading all these posts by people who have those cute lists on things they never knew, just remember, kids are also creepy!

Oh April, You Crazy Month

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've wrote anything on here.  April has just been the craziest month for me! I'm exhausted and ready for a little calm.  I was hoping May would be nicer, but it's shaping up to be nearly as busy.  And the year is only going to get more interesting as it progresses......yay me?

First of all, the weather has me all messed up.  This is spring right? April and May are spring months? I live in Tennessee, where April and May are supposed to be nice.  Somebody forgot to tell them that.  April couldn't make up it's mind if it wanted to be spring or winter.  One day we'd have sunny, warm weather, we could wear shorts and flip flops.  The next day it would be in the thirties, threatening snow.  And the next it would be pouring down rain and thunder storms rolling in.  We never knew how to dress going out because it might start out in the 70's, but drop to the 50's in a single afternoon.   Now May is here and it's just wet.  Today is the second day of rain.  Where's spring? When do I get to say "Spring has sprung"? When can I safely go out in my shorts and flip flops and not have to worry about freezing or getting drenched?

This April I turned 29.  I can remember when I was younger, maybe around ten years ago or so, thinking I wasn't going to get weird when I got to 29 and 30 like a lot of women do.  I was going to be proud to be 30, I was going to embrace it.  After all, it's just a number right?  Weeeeellllllll.  Now that I'm here....I'm not going to say I'm getting weird, but 29 will be my last birthday.  Why does 30 sound so different from any other age I've turned? I know I won't reach 30 until next April, but it's closer now than it has ever been.  I don't feel 29.  I still feel like a kid.  I was talking with my cousin, who's five days older than me, and we agree that we still feel like we're just playing house and playing mom.  We don't feel like adults.

Also this April I registered my oldest son for Kindergarten.  Talk about a kick in the gut.  I look at him and still see my baby boy.  He's not big enough to start school.  He's not ready for this.  It doesn't seem like he's been here for almost five years and is now about to go to school.  It doesn't seem fair that I get my babies every day all day for five years of their life, then at five years old, they start school and will be in school 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 10 months out of the year for the rest of their young life.  What about me? But then again, both my sons together have been amping up the crazy in the house here lately.  When they're together, they seem to be able to find every one of my stress buttons and the push them like a gamer fighting off the bad guys in one of those video games.  My oldest spent most of the day with his grandma the other day and having just my youngest son was a breeze.  It was so much calmer.  And I realized, "this is what it'll be like when the oldest goes to school".  It was like a light turned on at the end of a tunnel.  How soon does August get here?  Although I'm still nervous, and I wish I had more time with him before he starts his school career, I'm excited for him too.  He's going to be okay.....I hope.

And last but not least, the biggest surprise we got towards the end of April.  I'm going to be an Aunt.  My little sister and her husband have been trying for a few months now to get pregnant.  She called me the day before my birthday and told me the exciting news.  Come December, they're having a baby! So now when I'm on the phone with her, all we talk about is baby.  I'm trying not be one of those, "Well when I was pregnant" and "What I did was"  kind of people.  This will be an interesting 7 more months.  My sister is.....well, it's hard to describe her, she's a lot like me in the hard headed and stubborn department.  She's persistent when she sets her mind to something, and she can question you to death as well as any four year old.  I've already been drilled on everything from early pregnancy symptoms (Thank goodness she's not had any morning sickness) to what the epidural felt like and if she should get one.  (Which, based on my last experience with one, I will probably never get another epidural if I should have another baby)  But my sister is also kindhearted, loves kids, and I have no doubt she'll be a loving mother.   If we can all get through her pregnancy with our sanity intact! And I can't wait to meet little Wilson or Wendy!

So April was all over the place for me.  May is looking somewhat better, but I have my first real photo-shoot scheduled, so I'm studying up on what I need to know.  There's a big mud bog event scheduled just down the road from us, it was fun last year and I got some great pictures, so hoping this year will be even better.  There's a couple of movies coming out I have to see in the theater, including the new Star Trek.  Yes.  I am a Trekkie.  Judge me if you want, I don't care.  I take my oldest for his Kindergarten screening and I get to meet with the principle to try and get him in Mrs. Angie's class.  She's not only our cousin, but she was my Kindergarten teacher, and I think that would be awesome! And then we get to prepare for June, which holds our 9th wedding anniversary and our youngest's second birthday.

Wish me luck in this fun filled year!

My Weight-loss Journey

I have finally started to seriously start losing weight and getting healthy.  As a little kid I was what they called a skinny minnie.  I was a picky eater who never sat still.  I can remember so many times my parents trying, begging, threatening, bargaining to try and get me to eat.  When I reached middle school I finally decided to start trying new foods and I liked it.  I started gaining weight and I got a little hefty.  I was never over weight, but I was a little bigger than I probably should've been.  I was not athletic at all, I didn't have an athletic bone in my body.  I hated any kind of physical activity because I wasn't any good at it.  When I reached high school I knew I was heavier than some of the girls, but I wasn't really worried about it.  I had my friends who liked me for me and I didn't try to change myself for anyone.  Until Prom came up.  I started trying to lose a little weight cause I wanted to look good in my prom dress.  I succeeded too! I lost a little and had a sort of flat stomach.  I kept the weight off for two years and then I got married.  In the first four years of my marriage I gained just a little weight, enough that it was starting to show.  In the fourth year I got pregnant with our first son and after that I had that "mom pooch" around my waist that never went away.  After our second son was born it got worse and I weighed the most I've ever weighed in my life.  I'm about 5'4 and I weighed 147lbs.  I was not happy with that.  For two years I would stare at my body in the mirror wishing I looked better.  I didn't like the way clothes looked on me, I didn't like how I felt about my body, and I knew there was only one way to fix it.  But for two years I kept telling myself that I didn't have time for a workout routine, that I wasn't really fat, it would go away on its own, that I couldn't do a workout, I wasn't strong enough or coordinated enough.  Then I started seeing other women my age on Facebook telling about their weightloss.  I wanted that.  I wanted to be able to post before and after pictures and say how many pounds I had lost.

I finally started one day after two years of putting it off.  I started slow.  I own Zumba Fitness 2 for Wii, and I started with that every other day.  Zumba is so much fun and burns so many calories.  After about a month of Zumba every other day I had lost two pounds.  That was good, but I wanted more.  So I borrowed the X-Factor ST workout from my sister in law, I printed out the workout calendar it provided, I stuck the Week 1 DVD in and I began.  I am in Week 6 and have lost five more pounds.  I'm down to 140 and I feel great.

It's been hard.  I've changed some of eating habits, given up a few things and replaced them with healthier choices.  I admit to that I slacked off my workout once one week and once the next week, then my mother took me to Applebees and I stuffed myself.  With the slack off and the extra food, I gained two pounds back.  But I'm working them off extra hard.

I've also started Zumba at my church once a week.  I carry my Wii and my Zumba game and I boogie with a few of my church members! That's a sight, older people doing cha-cha's and salsa!! Even my pastor, his wife and my own parents have joined in.  Everyone who has tried it has loved it.

When I get through with X-Factor in two weeks, I'm starting Les Mills Body Combat that I have ordered and is on it's way.  My husbands cousin who lives in Wisconsin is a coach for BeachBody and she convinced me to get Body Combat and we're going to go through it together.

So if you're like me, thinking you'd like to do a workout and lose weight, but you don't think you can, take it from me.  You can.  I really did not believe I had it in me to do the moves: pushups, squats, lunges, planks.  They seemed so hard and I knew I was not strong.  But I did it.  Some I have to modify so that I can get through them but that's okay.  As long as you're doing as much as you can do, you're getting a good workout.  Even though I'm doing assisted pushups on my knees, it's still a lot better than sitting on the couch watching tv, which is how I used to spend my mornings.  Sometimes during the workout I have to stop and rest, sometimes I'm going slower than the trainer.  But that's better than walking around with a box of Cheez-Its in my hand.

I wanted to share my journey with you.  It's been a little over two months so far, and I plan on it going for a very long time.  My overall goal is to lose the 'pooch' around my stomach and tone up my muscles.  I'm not concerned too much over the number I weigh.  As long as I'm fit and healthy.  I'm not looking for a body like those Hollywood skeletons, I don't want my bones showing through.  I hope my story has encouraged you to consider where you want to be and what you have to do to get there.

Boys are......Different

As most of you know, I am mom to two boys.  If you count my husband, three boys! Cause we all know grown men are just boys in big bodies! Sometimes I watch the three of them doing something together I wonder what in the world is going through their heads?! Unfortunately , (so far) I don't have a little girl.  So I really have nothing to measure the difference between little boys and little girls, but I have to think, (maybe hope) that little girls aren't like little boys.  I'm still hoping to have a little girl someday, but that's in God's hands.  God, in His all knowing wisdom, and to my befuddlement, has seen fit to give me two.....boys.  I say that hesitantly because I think my boys aren't all boy.
They're a mixed breed.  I have seen:
1) Monkey: their feet hardly stay on the ground.  They are always climbing on something.  Every time I turn around I'm having to pull my almost two year old off of something.  A chair, the back of the couch, the kitchen table, his table, the breakfast bar, the front of his high chair, etc.  I'm surprised I haven't caught him dangling from the light fixtures yet.

2) Howler Monkey: My ears ring all the time because they think it's so much fun to scream out at the top of their lungs for no reason.  When one starts, the other starts copying.  You know, monkey see, monkey do! I don't know if they're trying to see who can scream the loudest, or the highest pitch, or what, but I'm surprised I can still hear.

3) Octopus:  These boys can have more arms and hands than I do.  It seems no matter how far out of reach I put something, they can still reach it.  If I had a dime for the number of times I've taken things away from them they're not supposed to have, I'd be a billionaire.  I can set down here at my computer to do things and here comes the two year old.  He starts grabbing.  I move things from one end of the table I'm sitting at to the other three or four times.  You'd think all those toys they have would be enough, but no, they only want the things they can't have.

4) Monsters: Some of the sounds that come out of these boys are not human.  They growl and groan and sometimes I think there has to be something other worldly in the house with me.  Then I realize it's just them. The two year old does the most growling, but his older brother holds his own.

I've also noticed several things they have become proficient in.  And I'm afraid that they'll only get better at these things as they get older.  So here's a list of occupations they could be gainfully employed in when they reach adulthood:

1) Demolition Crew: If they go into business together in this, they'll make an absolute fortune and take care of me and their Daddy for the rest of our lives.  I can't count on both hands the number of things I've had to super glue back together, or the things that just wouldn't go back together.  I have a waiting list of my things that are waiting to be glued back together.  There's a little hole in their wall behind their door that mysteriously appeared.  You cannot leave them alone with a roll of toilet paper if you want any toilet paper left on the roll.  And if they can't break it, they'll lose it.

2) Police/Soldier: They're scared of nothing.  They'll try anything.  Even after be threatened with a spanking, they'll go ahead and do what they were just told not to do.  Even if they just got hurt doing something, they'll turn right back around and do it again.  They have bravery just oozing out of them.  Not to mention everything they pick up suddenly becomes a weapon.  Nothing turns on my mom radar more than hearing my oldest say, "Come on, let's fight!"

3) Comedians: They could be a team! The oldest has a witty sense of humor and can say the funniest things at the perfect time.  The youngest has a more physical sense of humor.  Faces and body language is his specialty.

4) Nude Models: Not a profession I will allow them to do, but trying to keep clothes on these kids is near 'bout impossible! I can put pants and a shirt on the oldest and ten minutes later he'll come through the room in his undies! For no reason at all.  And if I don't keep pants on the youngest, then before I know it, he'll come through without a diaper on.

5) Ninjas: For someone who is always making noise they can be sneaky when they want to be.  I've always heard that when the kids get quiet, you better start worrying.  When my kids get quiet I get down right scared! It doesn't take but a blink of an eye for them to get into something they're not supposed to.

You know the saying that boys are just noise with dirt on them.  It's true, just in case you were wondering.  My boys are always making noise, even when they're sleeping.  And they're always covered in some kind of dirt, and usually it's sticky.  The oldest has this one spot on his cheek that always has a black streak.  I can wash it off and five minutes later it's back.  The youngest usually has his dirt around his mouth.  I sometimes wonder if dirt and stickiness grows from the boys, like instead of sweating, they just ooze dirt.

But you know, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love my boys, all three of them, more than anything on this earth.  It's amazing to me that my husband and I could create something so wondrous and perfect as these two little boys.  They can do something and I think, that is their Daddy in them, then they can do something and I see myself.  My babies are healthy, happy, they have a good nature, smart, funny, and imaginative.  I couldn't ask for anything more.  I know all the things they do right now that annoy me, make me mad or frustrated, will pass.  They'll grow out of it.  I'm so proud of my howler monkey octopus monster comedian, demolition nudist ninjas!

My Bluebird of Happiness

Most of what makes Christmas so special to everyone is the traditions we have all grown up with or have created for our own families.  Everyone's traditions are different.  It might be singing a certain song on Christmas eve.  It could be a certain order you open gifts.  It might be something common among lots of families, like leaving milk and cookies out for Santa.  Or it might be something personal and unique.  There are lots of different ways to have a tradition.

I have grown up with a few traditions in my family.  One that I really like is how my grandmother would buy each of her grandkids an ornament to attach to our gifts.  She has given me twenty eight ornaments over the years.  Each one hangs on my tree every year.  My mother has carried on the tradition by giving my sons an ornament with their gifts.  Connor has four, Kenny has one.  I started a small tradition after Connor was born of buying him a book each Christmas.  He gets books all through the year and has a bookshelf full of books. But I love to read and I hope that he will too and I liked the idea of giving him a book every year.

I have a special little tradition I do every year that's just for me.  When I was little, I don't remember what age, but I do remember this happening, I would stand and stare at my grandparents Christmas tree, looking at all the ornaments.  There was one ornament that I fell in love with.  It was a little bluebird.  It was wood, painted blue and white with little colored dots.  Every year my Pawpaw would take it down and let me play with it.  Then one year, he told me, my sister, and my cousin we could all pick out an ornament off their tree.  I picked the little bluebird.  Now, every year since I've had my own tree to decorate, it has always been the very first ornament to go on and the very last ornament to come off.  I don't remember how or why that started, but I always do it that way.  It's tradition.

This year my husband said he wanted to start the tradition of getting a live tree every year.  So we got one this year.  We'll see about next year.  My husband is kind of the forgetful type.  We might get to next year and he might rather go back to our old faithful fake tree.  But this year we have a live tree, which is wonderful.  It smells so good, it's a great shape.  I finished putting the ornaments on today, and just like always, the little bluebird was the first one on it.  That tree had no idea what it was destined for as it was sitting outside of Wal-mart in the gardening section.  It didn't know that when we walked up, it would be going home with us, that it would be lucky enough to carry on a special tradition of mine.

Give Thanks....Now Grab What You Can

I know Thanksgiving was a week ago today, so Happy late Thanksgiving.  I hope everyone got to spend the day with the ones they loved and stuffed themselves full of turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings and desserts.  I know I did!

So we spend all of Thanksgiving day giving thanks for everything we have.  At least, we're supposed to.  I give thanks to God every day for all that I have and on Thanksgiving I just repeat that.  I'm thankful for my husband, my children, my family, God's salvation, my church and church family, my music, my love for reading, and everything we have, like my husbands job, enough money to get by on, a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, and a few extra personal possessions that make me happy.  I'm very happy with all that I have and don't ask for much more than what I do have.  My husband and I were talking about Christmas and how we just want to get the boys Christmas presents.  He agreed with me when I said I couldn't really think of anything that I wanted.

Which brings me to the point of this blog.  This crazy tradition the retail world has started known as Black Friday sales.  Let me get this straight: We spend all day on Thursday being thankful for all we have, eating a good meal with our family and friends, being these nice, sweet, even Christianly people.  Then we leave our houses, go stand in line outside a store for hours in the freezing cold and when the stores open, we run in, trampling other people, to grab as much as we can, usually away from other people, because these things are on sale?

Now, I have participated in this madness twice in my life, and never again! One year, I went to Walmart with my husband, mother in law and sister in law.  We got there sometime close to midnight I believe and didn't get back home until somewhere around 4 in the morning.  I had never seen Walmart so packed! It was insane.  I didn't really do much shopping.  My husband wanted a GPS, my sister in law was getting a popular game system for her son, and mother in law was picking up different things for the grandkids.  I found a movie I wanted.  We pushed and shoved our way up front, stood in line for a while, paid for our things and went home to collapse in bed.

Last year though, I actually dived in with the other people trying to grab things myself.  Never in my life have I ever experienced such greed.  So here's the story: My husband and I had already made a list of the toys we wanted to get our boys for Christmas.  It wasn't alot, just a few things for each boy.  But most of what we had picked out was going to be on sale at Walmart during Black Friday.  So Thursday night I talk my mom into going to Walmart with me to get their things.  I was thinking of the money I could save.  My husband didn't want to go, so he stayed home and took care of the kids.

My mom and I got to Walmart around 11.  It was already packed.  We had parked way out and walked to the store.  Everything that was on sale was wrapped up in plastic on these wooden crates out in the middle of the aisles.  Whatever you wanted, you stood by that crate and waited for midnight when they would be opened.  One of the hottest items was the Just Dance 3 game.  My mom offered to stay there while I went over to the crate that had the Tag Readers.  My oldest son loved the first two Just Dance games and I wanted him to have the Tag Reader.  So I'm standing there, chatting with these other ladies.  They seemed nice, it was only about four of us standing at the Tag Reader crate so we were all confident we would get the ones we wanted.  At ten til midnight, from the front of the store, comes this scream.  We all look down the aisle, and there comes this roar up the aisle like a tornado.  People had started ripping into the crates, as each group saw the one in front of them tearing into a crate, they would tear into their own, and it caught like wild fire.  The woman standing beside me said, "oh well," and tore into the tag reader crate.  She reached in, got the one she wanted then handed me one.  As I was walking away, Walmart employees were running and shouting, "Put it back! Put it back!"  Of course no one was listening.  They had their hands on what they wanted and there was no way they were letting go.  I paused, wondering if I should.  But I looked back and there were still plenty of Tag Readers left, so I kept walking too, feeling a little guilty.  Like I cheated.  We found out later that a fight had broke out up front, and in the middle of that chaos, people took advantage and started tearing open the crates.

I get over to the Wii game crate to see my mom, squished between two people and a buggy.  Some woman had wedged her buggy up against the crate so no one else could get close.  My poor mother looked so uncomfortable and so out of her comfort zone.  See, we are not pushy people, we are not confrontational.  This was not the place for us.  When she saw me coming she said, "You stand here, I'm getting out of here, I'm scared!" So I hand her the Tag Reader and tell her I'll wait.  When midnight actually came, the people at the game crate got downright ugly.  The Just Dance games were gone before I could even stretch my hand out to grab one.  The woman with the buggy grabbed one at the same time as a man did and they tugged over it, yelling at each other, and calling each other very ugly words.  I got out of there as quickly as I could.  We walk over to the glass doors, where all the games are normally kept, and there are a bunch of Just Dance games in there.  So I stand there while my mother goes to ask if we can get one of those.  While she's gone to find an employee, more and more people are gathering around me as they too realize there are Just Dance games.  I hold my position.  I was there first.  But if fists started swinging, I would let the game go.

So an employee came over, shoved her way through the crowd to the door to unlock it.  By this time, I look like a bug on a wind shield.  The crowd had me pressed up against the glass.  The employee unlocked the door, the crowd surged, she grabbed a game and held it up.  Never mind that I was there first, she just held it up for whoever could get there first.  I have a very strong sense of fairness, and that just really made me mad.  But I was able to grab it first since I was the closest.  I clutched the game close to my chest because I thought it might be possible to actually lose a hand or an arm if someone spotted me with the game and tried to jerk it away from me.

After that, my mom and I went around to the toy aisles and found the last few items that we wanted.  We kept the Just Dance game hidden under the other toys because everyone was looking for one.  So we battle our way up front and get in line.  And we wait.  And we wait.  We inch forward.  And we wait.  We stood there for an hour and a half.  Finally, with sore legs and numb feet, we reach the cashier, pay for our things, and get the heck out of Walmart.  My Mom swore if she never saw the inside of a Walmart again it would be too soon!! We hurry out to my car, keeping an eye out for any crazy person that might try to grab our bags and make it back home in tact.

Jokingly, I asked my mom this year if she wanted to go with me again and I got a very emphatic "NO".

I told my husband about our experience and I described it as just pure greed.  Watching all those people fighting over THINGS, calling each other horrible names over THINGS.  I never fought over one thing in that store, I was not going to compromise who I was for a THING.  I'm not saying everyone who goes shopping on Black Friday are greedy, horrible, people.  There are a lot of people that are nice about it, who can shop Black Friday and still be civil.  Alot of people shop Black Friday simple because the savings will allow them to buy Christmas for the kids and family.  That was my reason.  I didn't buy anything that Black Friday that was for me or simply because it was on sale.  I had a list of toys for the kids and that's the only things I bought.

Just remember, you've spent the day being thankful for all that God has given you.  Don't turn into a monster the next day just for a few more things you probably don't even need.  And be careful if you do shop Black Friday, because there are monsters out there that will do whatever they have to for that one item they can't live without.

Something Pretty, Something Yummy

Another twofer! Just in case you didn't read the last post that had a twofer in it, here's the definition of a twofer: Two for the price of one! Today's twofer features Something Pretty, a game holder that can help decorate your house (hey, another twofer! I'm full of 'em today!) and Something Yummy, a snack, to go with the game!!



Something Pretty
So here's the story. Cause I'm one of those people that has to explain everything, I can't just give you this without you knowing the whole story! My niece went with a friend to Florida and discovered a game called Bananagrams.  (It's a game that's sort of like scrabble, but you work on your own instead of together and whoever uses all their tiles first wins.  It's very addicting ) She came home, ordered it from Amazon and introduced me to it.  FUN! My mother in law loved it so much, she bought her a set.  But the bag it came in broke, so she put it in a zip lock baggy.  Well, I kept borrowing the game from her so much, and having the broke bag, she decided to buy her another set with a new bag and let me have the set in the zip lock baggy. Then the zip lock baggy ripped open and I had to find something to do with them.  Being the pack rat, scrapbooky person I am, I save glass jars like a squirrel puts away nuts for the winter!! That's when the lightbulb went off over my head.

 I took an empty, (washed) ragu sauce bottle and put the game inside

 Picked out some paper, orange is my favorite color.  I then ran some Tim Holtz ink pads over it I, waded it up some and straightened it back out and then ran some brown color over.  The crinkles were the only part that picked up the color.  Then wrapped the paper around the far and glued it.

 I made a tag to label the game.  I not sure I like this tag, I'm thinking about running it through the printer or something to make the letters a little neater 

 The lid had writing all over the top that would ruin the whole look of the pretty jar.  So I took the gold colored paint dabber and covered the lid.

 Lastly I picked out some ribbon, wrapped it around the jar a couple of time and tied the tag to it.  Viola! A pretty jar that I can set out to look pretty while holding one of my new favorite games!

Something Yummy

Now while you're playing this really fun game, you're going to need snacks to enjoy! I found this snack in a Four Ingredient Cookbook one of my former piano students gave me for Christmas one year.  I've been making these for years and my husband loves them.  These are called pizza crackers.  They're quick, easy, and yummy.

What you'll need:

Round Ritz Crackers

1 Package of Pepperoni

1 Package Mozzarella Cheese

Ketchup

How to prepare:

Lay your Ritz crackers out on a pan, I put the salty side down cause I like tasting the salty part as I eat the snacks.

Next, squirt a little ketchup on each cracker

Then, lay a pepperoni on top of the ketchup 

After the ketchup and pepperoni add cheese on top.  You can put as much or as little as you want.  I'm a little obsessed with Mozzarella cheese, so I use a lot.

After the cheese it's ready to pop them in the oven.

 Bake them at 400 degrees for around 5 minutes or until the cheese gets good and melted.

 Give them a minute to cool off and....

..you're ready to enjoy these yummy little snacks!

So there you are.  My twofer just for you! Now, go out and buy Bananagrams (Cause you'll love this game) buy some Ragu sauce (so you'll have the jar to put them in), scrapbook supplies (to do make the Ragu jar pretty), and all the things you'll need for the snacks, (to enjoy while you play Banangrams!)

Enjoy!

I'm a Musician.....with kids

When I was six years old, my mom decided I should learn to play the piano.  I got no say in this at all.  For the first five years I was hauled and dragged back and forth to piano, and forced to practice everyday.  I even remember this one time when my mother, the queen of guilt trips, guilted me into practicing.  Yes she did.  And there was the time the she threatened to glue my hiney to the bench until I practiced.  At that point I was ready to quit.  I begged my mom and dad to let me quit! They admitted later on that they came very close to letting me, but they stuck it out and made me stick it out.  After that, I started getting into songs I liked, and I started enjoying it more. (Yep, that's me in the picture! My first real piano sat in the kitchen for a long time, then it got moved to my bedroom)

Getting ready for my recital in 2002

When I reached my senior year of high school, music started meaning more to me.  I started appreciating my ability to play piano, and even though it was still hard to make myself practice, I didn't have to have my mom making me sit down and practice.  I wanted to share my knowledge and my love of music, so I decided to try my hand at teaching.  My very first student was my grandmother.  I fell in love with teaching music.

In 2008 I decided I wanted to try going to college and getting a Bachelor's in Music Education.  You know, college is hard! Not only did I have to take all the music courses, but I had to take General Education courses too.  Things like history, english, math and even speech! It's even harder when you have a spouse and a child at home.  It was hard to find time to do the wife and mother thing while trying to get homework done, papers wrote and squeeze in a enough practice time so that your professor doesn't give you that look that means 'you could do better.'!  I got two semesters down and stopped.  We wanted to have another baby (Kenny) and I refused to do college pregnant and then with a newborn.  It probably would've ended with me in an insane asylum for the protection of those around me.  But while I was there, I learned even more about music.  I learned a new appreciation for it.  I learned a lot of the technical stuff and the artistry stuff.  I learned that you have to learn rules of music so you can break them.

Today, I see my music as my gift from God.  He's given me so many things.  My wonderful parents, my adorable husband, the sweetest boys in the world.  But the music He gave me is all mine.  It will never leave me, it will never judge me, it will never get mad and give me the silent treatment.  It is mine to mold and shape, to use, to enjoy, to escape to.  Today, I am so thankful to my parents for making stick it out.  Today, I love to sit down an practice.

My Mother and me at one of my yearly recitals, we played a duet

The only problem with loving to practice today is that I don't ever really get to! My four year old and one year old make about impossible to practice.  As soon as they hear that piano room door open, here they come.  Like dogs when the snack bag shakes.  My college piano teacher gave us all a list of practice techniques we can use to help our practice time. One of the techniques says to create your own distractions and get used to playing with them.  His suggestion for a distraction was put a banana on one end of the keys and an orange on the other.  If only those were my distractions! He obviously never had children in the same room with him while he practiced.

 The first thing I have to do is pull Kenny down off the piano bench so that I can sit down.  Well this just upsets him something awful and he starts pitching a fit.  So while he's sitting by the piano leg crying, I sit down and get my music ready.  Now Kenny has realized I'm about to play, so he starts trying to climb up on the bench beside me, by grabbing my shirt sleeve and pulling.  I'm trying to ignore all this while continuing with my playing but now that he's up beside me he must play with me! He starts banging on the keys.  Most of the time he's in the higher keys, away from where I need so I have learned to tune out what he's playing and focus on my music.

Connor likes to sing.  He'll sing along with anything, even the songs I'm practicing.  Whatever I'm playing, whether he's heard it or not, he's singing along with it.  At the top of his lungs.  Again, I've learned to tune it out for a while.

If I can get them to stop banging on the keys and singing along, they do one of two things.  Start messing with the books on the bookshelves, usually making me stop playing and get up to put the books back, or the run out of the room and go deadly quiet.  That usually means some sort of disaster for me.  One day I realized they were quiet, came looking for them and Kenny, who can apparently reach the middle shelf of the pantry, had the cheeseball bag open, his face was completely orange.

One time I put them both in their room and told them to play in there until I was finished practicing.  I shut their door so Kenny couldn't get out.  I practiced for almost an hour, listening to them on and off.  I could hear them playing and laughing so I knew they weren't being traumatized by being shut up in their room alone.  When I was finished and opened the door to their room I thought for a minute that maybe a bomb had actually gone off in their room and I had just missed the boom, I mean some of those songs I practice are fortissimo (loud as possible).  So I didn't do that anymore.

There are the rare occasions when they're at their grandma's, or with their daddy outside.  I snatch those few and far between moments for some uninterrupted practice time.  I never would've thought that practicing all by myself could feel so good.  If you had told me when I was six that one day I would love practicing as much as I do, I would not have believed it.


I love my music and my piano.  I love my boys dearly.  But right now, with them little, trying to mix the two is hard.  But just so you know, I never discourage them from playing on the piano.  I only ask they play it while I'm in there with them.  I would never want to discourage my kids from expressing themselves musically.  I do hope one day they will both learn to play the piano and love it as much as I do.  

My Approach to Preschool

Yesterday I posted about starting preschool with Connor, all about my freaking out at having to do this.  After my big freak out I started thinking on what all I would need to do this and the different tools that are available to the home schooling mom.  Don't get me wrong, I am not home schooling, as soon as it's time I'm sending him up the road to the elementary school for kindergarten.

 I knew I would need a workbook for him.  I started looking online and found a few that I liked, but being me I didn't want to wait on the shipping.  So one shopping day while I was out with my mom we went into Barnes and Nobles and I found the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills.  It says for kindergarten, but it had all the colors, shapes, numbers and letters.  Plus concepts like taller, shorter, longer, over, under, top, bottom, left, right, full, empty, etc.  So far it has been great.

But then I got to thinking, that once Connor did these pages, that would be it.  It would be impossible to erase each page if he had to work it again.  How could I make sure he got the most out of this book as he could. My first thought was scanning each page as he did it and printing it out. But that was going to be a lot of work, a lot of ink, and a lot of paper.  That would end up being more expensive than the book.  As I pondered this I found myself in Kroger one day looking at something I had never seen before.

Dry Erase Crayons, I did not know they made these! Then my brain started that whirring and clicking it does when it gets an idea.  Page protector sheets, a notebook, and these crayons! Each page could become a dry erase page.  This way Connor could work each page as many times as he needed to.  This would be perfect for learning the letters, if he had to trace over them more than twice, which is how many times the book had each letter to trace, he could erase it and do it again.  Not only could he work them several times, but I could save the entire book for Kenny.  He'll be ready for this stuff in a few years.

So I started tearing out a few pages each day and putting them in the page protectors.  I only used the amount the came in the pack I got so that we only do so many pages a day.  This lets me time our preschool without having to watch the clock.  The pages that he masters right off I can take out and put in a new page, the pages that he needs more work on I can just leave in.
















As we got into using this on a regular basis, I started thinking about other things I could use to help keep his attention, make each lesson interesting and diversified.  My sister in law was cleaning out her shed one day and ran across some things she had used when she taught her children.  I remember using these in school, and apparently they're still used in school.  They were called Versa tiles when I used them, the ones Connor has is called Think it Through tiles.  Each book has two parts, Connor has to match the tiles, letters to numbers.  If the number one box matches the letter C box, then he puts the 1 tile in the C slot.  On the back of each number tile is part of a pattern.  When he's done, you flip the case over and if your pattern made by the numbers matches the pattern in the corner of the page, you got it right.  Connor loves it and is starting to get the hang of how to do it without my help.

Pinterest has been a great help in preschool ideas.  One idea I've found that I love is the Play Dough mats.  They're pictures you can slip inside page protectors (yay for page protectors!) and put play dough in the patterns, or follow directions like "Put five petals on the flower", "Put carrots in the ground for the rabbit", or "Put a face on the little boy".  Some of these pages were free printables.  But some of them looked kind of boring even for kids.  So I got to thinking how I could make it really fun and unique for Connor.  Those whirrings and clickings started up again and I thought, Spongebob, Connor loves Spongebob.  So I drew out a picture of Spongebob standing beside his stove at the Krusty Krab.  Connor has to help Spongebob make Krabby Patties! I tell him how many patties Spongebob needs and he makes the patties out play dough and puts them on the stove.

Connor had a lot of fun with this! I'm already thinking up more things we can do with things like Cars and Toy Story.






I wanted to do more play dough things today so I took some paper and wrote out some numbers for us to play with.  I'm planning on printing some out to look better with the number word on it so he can start associating the numeral with it's word.

And of course he has his writing tablet that we practice all out letters and numbers in that he learns.  I usually have him write what he learned the previous day while I'm getting the rest of his things ready so he can get used to writing them with a pencil.

So that's what we're using so far, I'm always looking for other tools and ideas, pinterest is a great place to find different things.  Sometimes Connor gives me ideas, and I try never to miss an opportunity for a learning experience.  He loves using different things to learn with.

Preschool with my Preschooler

My four year old son has reached the preschooler age.  Yay me. (Did you hear the sarcasm in that? Did you? It was there.) I checked into getting him into preschool at our elementary school, but they were full.  So instead of going through the hassle of filling out paperwork to see if we qualified financially and having him screened only to wait until kindergarten started, I made the decision to just do preschool at home.  How hard could it be right? It's not like I'm teaching him rocket science, it's just numbers, letters, colors, shapes, and a few concepts such as opposites and directions.  These are things I've been doing very well with since I was a preschooler.  As always, how wrong was I?

My first hurdle was getting past me.  I panicked! What if I didn't teach him good enough and they said he wasn't ready for kindergarten? What if the kids enrolled in preschool learned different stuff from him? What if they all passed him and he got left behind? I called my mom, freaking out that Connor was going to miss all this and be way behind everyone when he started kindergarten next year! She laughed at me! Yes, laughed, didn't try to hide it or nothing, just out and out laughed. Gee thanks, mom! But then she told me to calm down.  She reassured me that Connor was smart, he can learn this stuff as well as all the other kids, she told me I could teach him, I just had to calm down and take it slow.  Okay, so I breathed and finally convinced myself she was right.  Connor was smart.  He had been going around the house for a week spelling his name.

I went to my local Barnes and Nobles and found a workbook for him.  I brought it home and started looking through it.  All the normal preschool stuff was in there, no algebra or rocket science.  So that Monday I sat down with him to start.  I had envisioned us sitting down together, me explaining to him what to do, him doing it with a big smile on his face and then looking at me with wonderment that he was learning! Again, I was wrong.  We worked for five minutes and he started, "I don't want to do this, it's hard!" and "I want to go play".  I would try to tell him what to do and he would just sit there, sometimes telling me no.  So we stopped for the time being and I thought, "It's just the first day, he can't learn to sit still and do this in the first day".  The second day came, and the third, by the fourth day I panicked again.  I was about in tears with frustration because he kept refusing to do the work.  I called my mom again, freaking out.  "he's refusing to work, I beg, I plead, I bribe, I sweet talk, I yell, I threaten, I coerce, nothing is working, he'll never learn it, he'll be in preschool the rest of his life!" What did she do? Yep, she laughed again.  She again told me to calm down.  He's four, it's going to take a while for him to realize what it means to sit down and do school work.  If I can just be patient, he'll learn and then it'll be easy and he'll enjoy it.  At the time, I didn't believe her.

But you know, she was right.  (As usual)  After about a week of doing a little more each day he finally likes it.  He asks me after his nap if we're doing school today.  He lights up when I say we are.  He's picking up on everything so quick and is loving that he's learning.  He can write his first name, his letters A-J, capital and small, his numbers 1-8, he's learning to count and associate the written number with counting.  He's learned all the simple shapes and colors, and I think we're going to start on time soon.  He even surprised me the other day. We had just mastered writing the letter G and I asked him what letter was next.  He said, "I know, H, H is easy, I can write it, watch" and he wrote the capital H.  We had not even gone over H, but he wrote all by himself.  I was stunned.

So preschool at our house went from, "I can't do this, he's going to be behind", to "He won't work, he won't learn" to "Great job, Connor, now let's move on to this".  I'm so happy he likes doing the work and asks to do it.  He can't wait to start school and keeps reminding me that soon he'll be in real school.  I'm sure that'll be another panicky day and I'll be on the phone with my mom and she'll be laughing at me.  But that's still a little ways away.  Right now, I'm going to enjoy teaching him his preschool.

(When Kenny gets to be four, I'm going to get him enrolled in preschool early!)

My Opinions

Two things in the media have caught my attention lately.  I don't usually follow new stories and these haven't been any different.  Other than the fact that people have been making noise over these issues, I haven't followed them and don't know all the developments or details.  But everybody seems to have an opinion and I wanted to give mine.  So let me take care of something first before getting into it.  Opinion.  By definition an opinion is a belief or judgement that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty, a personal view, attitude, or appraisal.  Everyone has an opinion, but some people are mocked, criticized, or hated for expressing their opinion.  So maybe you already know where I'm going with this.


First of all, this whole thing about Chick-fil-a coming out and saying they believed in the Biblical definition of marriage, one man and one woman.  They do not support gay marriage.  I'm so very glad they did.  They had the courage to state their own beliefs, or opinions.  It's not surprising since the company is a Christian family owned chain of restaurants.  Now they are getting slammed from the gay supporters.  They're being called bigots, close-minded neanderthals, anti-gay, heathens.  For a group of people who are shouting for everyone to be open-minded and tolerant, they sure can throw the hate on.  Chick-fil-a did not say they would no longer serve gay people.  They did not say they would no longer hire gay people, or if they discovered gay people working for them they would be fired.  They simply said they believed in the Biblical definition of marriage.  I whole-heartily agree with them.  Being a Christian, my opinion is the Biblical definition is correct.  That's what an opinion is, when you believe something to be right.  It doesn't mean everyone is going to believe the same way as you and can't force them to.  Non-Christians have made it abundantly clear they don't like Christians shoving the Bible and religion in their faces and I can't say I blame them.  I don't like having different groups shoving their beliefs in my face saying "You have to be tolerant, you have to accept this, and you can't say anything mean or hateful to us." I've seen that trying to force someone to listen to my beliefs only turns them away that much quicker.  Until they have an accepting attitude, they are not going to listen to what I have to say about God.  Yes, I'm a Christian, I believe in God, I believe the things He says in the Bible to be true, I do not support gay marriage.  But will I ever be mean or hateful to a person because they're gay? No.  God teaches us to love our neighbors.  He didn't say only love your neighbors who are like you, or believe the same you do, or act like you, or dress like you.  There are no stipulations on this command.  He teaches to love people, but hate sin.  It's not going to do any good to go up to a gay, an atheist, or someone of a different religion, start wagging my finger in their face saying, "You're wrong, you need God, you need the Bible, you're living in sin, you need to get right." That's going to offend them, and when someone gets offended they're going to shut you out.  A Christian can't beat someone over the head, calling them sinners and then try to convince them that our God is a God of love.  So my approach is to wait.  I'm going to be nice, respectful and I will be your friend.  I'm going to live my Christian life in front of you and hope my actions speak for themselves.  Then if you ever come to me and ask about God or the Bible, whatever your sexual orientation, whatever your beliefs, I will then tell you what I believe because that's the only time a person is going to listen and maybe even accept what I say.  
Seeing all the hateful comments aimed at Chick-fil-a for their beliefs made me wonder why it was okay for the gay supporters to say anything they want in support of their lifestyle, even if it is hateful or close-minded, but Christians can't say what they want about their beliefs without being persecuted.  Tolerance is a two way street. If Christians have to be tolerant of each groups choices, then the same groups should be tolerant of ours.  Calling each other names and saying hateful things about each other is never going to get anyone to listen to the other side.




The other issue that evoked another strong opinion in me is the gun control issue.  What happened in Colorado at the theater was a tragedy and unfortunately has sparked another wave of people wanting gun control laws.  They shout that if we had these laws and we took guns away from the people then there would be less gun related crimes.  I just don't see the logic in that.  I think if the government was to take away all the guns, then the only people who didn't have guns would be the honest people who've never committed a gun related crime in their lives and never plan to.  Criminals don't follow laws, if they did, they wouldn't be criminals.  Criminals will be the only people with guns, except maybe the police.  Gun crimes will sky rocket because the criminals will know that no one will be able to defend themselves.  I always think about this: there's two scenarios.  First, the world where there are gun control laws and no one has any guns to protect themselves.  A man intent on robbing a store gets a gun and runs in, he knows for sure that no one in there has a gun, he has plenty of time to rob the store and everyone in it blind and get away before the police can get there, he's safe.  Second, the world where the people are allowed their concealed weapons and the right to use them judiciously.  The same robber thinks about robbing a store, before he runs in and robs everyone he has to wonder who might be carrying and will he survive this robbery.  He's second guessing and wondering if it's worth it.  Say he does decide to rob it, and more than one person including the store owner has a gun.  Chances are the people and the owner would only have to pull their guns out and the would be robber would probably flee the scene with out any violence.  And if he does go on and try to rob it? He gets shot.  If he's wounded he'll be treated and be arrested for attempted robbery, if he's killed, no one will have to worry about him hurting anyone else.  Criminals are going to target people who can't defend themselves.  If they have a choice they will attack someone or somewhere they know there are no guns, that way they don't have to worry about getting hurt.
I live in the south where most everyone has a gun.  Most of those people have done it the right way.  Both my parents went to the class, went through background checks, bought their guns legally and always have their carry permit with them.  In all the years they've had their permits, and carried their guns, they have never once had to even pull their guns on someone.  No one ever even knows when they have them.  
Criminals commit crimes with guns.  They also commit crimes with cars.  Are we going to ban cars? Criminals commit crimes with ski masks on.  Are we going to ban ski masks? Hollywood makes movies that depict people shooting other people.  Are we going to ban movies?  How far will the gun control people take it? I've seen videos of criminals attempting to rob different places using other things besides guns, there's been swords, knives, baseball bats, crossbows.  Anything can be a deadly weapon, not just a gun.  A gun in the hands of a responsible person only trying to protect his family is not a threat to anyone.
So my opinion: Everyone should get a gun and learn how to use it.  Less people would be victims and criminals would start second guessing before committing crimes.  


So this post may have been long winded and a bit tirade-ish.  But these were strong opinions I had on these issues.  These are my own thoughts and if they don't mesh with yours, that means you have your own thoughts.  I don't expect everyone to believe like me, this world would be pretty dull everyone was exactly alike.  But I do ask you respect my opinion as being my own.  You might be reading this thinking this woman is completely insane.  That's okay with me.  I might think the same about you if I heard your opinions.  But there again, what you think of me is your opinion.  Opinions are what make us different.  It's my opinion that all vegetables are yucky, doesn't make it true.  It's my opinion that I have the cutest, most adorable little boys on this planet.  My mother would say that's not an opinion, that's a fact.  But what mother doesn't think that about her children.  My point to all this is why can't people respect other people's opinions instead of being hateful to them.  If you don't agree with someone, you don't have to say anything, just walk away and leave them alone, unless you're both willing to discuss your opinions civilly.