Ides of July

I just was instructed to smell my 4 year old's bum to make sure I did a good job of wiping him. How did that become my life? If I was telling this story to my mom she would shake her head, roll her eyes and say "Oh brother" like I was gross and who would admit to that kind of thing. Only thing is, she had nine kids, I KNOW she didn't get through that experience without at least one weirdo child like Danyo. It wasn't me though.

We got back this week from our great little, first time ever, family vacation. I'm not one to brag...yes I am. My kids were AMAZING travelers. There was no whining about being in the car, and only minimal questioning about how much longer from Bo. In fact, the only real complaining that happened, was me, wishing I didn't have to listen to Weird Al, yet again. We have a dvd of 25 of his videos and the kids watched that dvd probably 5-6 times. Our first day back, Danyo spent most of the morning begging to watch "Weird Owl, just one time again." I pretended to be deaf. Although, it is kind of funny to hear him playing with his toys and muttering, "I lost on Jep-odee".

We spent 5 days in the SLC area, and that went by fast. We got to have lunch with Jay's two younger cousins who are BYU students, and my niece Hannah, who just started there. We went to J's all time favorite Thai restaurant in Provo. I handed my menu to him and said, "order for me". And he did. Like a fat man on no budget, that boy ordered. It was tons of food, and surprisingly, there was very little left over. That's so interesting Nobody. I know.

We went to J's reunion. There was an amazingly good turn out. I was mostly interested in seeing J's best friend and his wife, but managed to meet some other cool people who's names I've been hearing for 10 years. I still made fun of the reunion though. It couldn't be helped.

Oh yeah, I meant to write a little about our trip to Utah, but now that we're back, those details seem boring and inconsequential. We made it to Laramie just in time for me to take my final. I had until 10 pm to finish it and started it a little after 9 (Iowa time). It made J really nervous, which I thought was really cute. I got an A. AND I had to take the test in the lobby of the hotel because they didn't have wi-fi in the room. We found a Pho place for Avee, I got a cake for J's birthday at Safeway. It said, "Party Laramie style". The people of the Laramie Safeway Bakery did not think I was as funny as I thought I was. Oh well.

I just yelled at Avee and Danyo for fighting and now they are hugging to console each other about their mean, yelling, mom. Whatever works.

Our time in SLC was packed with visiting family and some friends. That is one thing I love about Utah. So many cool people to visit there. This was probably one of the first times I've gone there and didn't kind of wish I lived there. I felt like an outsider, and I was okay with that.

J took the two older kids to see his grandmother in a nursing home. She will be 95 in September. She didn't really know who any of them were, but apparently her dining mate at lunch was more than happy to pretend they were there to see her. Great-Grandma told them she was 64 years old and Bo thought that was pretty funny. I can't wait to get away with that kind of math...

I got to hang out with Mrs. Organic for an afternoon. My kids lost themselves in her pool the entire time and it was a great little visit. Danyo was thrilled because there were no height or weight regulations for him to go down the slide, so he probably did that 562 times.

I met Mrs. Organic a little over a year ago, in person. I got to chat with her for a bit, and I'll be darned if she was so fun to talk to, I've been waiting and waiting for a chance to do it again. I was not disappointed. :)

We had a fantastic three days in Cedar where three of my very good friends live. I think the traveling or something caught up with me because I was completely wiped out a couple of the days there. Oh yeah, I'm pregnant, in case you didn't know. I'm 4 months along, so it's not my first thought when I jump in a car and drive a bajillion miles in a week---but I've learned, it should be considered a little more. I laid around a lot in Cedar, and it was nice to be able to. One time I got up and started emptying the dishwasher of an almost always immaculate house and my friend yelled from the other room for me to knock it off. I don't get that. First of all, immaculate doesn't happen in my house. Ever. And second of all, when people come visit me, all I can think the entire time they are here is, "Why don't you get up and make yourself useful, like, do my dishes or scrub my floors?" so I don't know who or why JJMac operates the way she does. Weirdo.

We spent a day at the lake and it was probably one of the most perfectly gorgeous days I have ever experienced. It was sunny and warm and a breeze that just kept me from getting too hot. At one point I came out from under the shelter and sat in the sun. I kept telling myself to get up because Southern Utah, early July, pasty white skin...you know. Even 50 spf is no match for that. I could not get myself to get up---the sun felt sooooooooo good. I'm not sure I've ever experienced that before. A week later, I still have a very very odd sunburn on my legs. I missed some spots.

Bo got to go knee boarding and I think he pretty much died and went to heaven doing that. He loved being on the boat and in the water. All the kids got to be pulled around on a 3-seater raft and had a blast. I even tried it with Avee and Danyo. Avee totally freaked out on our ride though, and I couldn't figure it out because I KNOW she went faster other times when I wasn't sitting right next to her. It took a couple of days but I finally got the truth out of her---she was certain Danyo was going to go flying out, and that had her all worked up. In the meantime, I was laughing maniacally at my little tiny kids bouncing 2 feet up into the air... Poor Avee.

We took the scenic route home and went through KC to visit our families briefly. My kids loooooooooooove visiting there, so it was a perfect end to a perfect little trip.

Well, I started this yesterday but nobody was respecting my needs, so I stopped. :) Now it's 6 am and I've been up since 2. I don't know if I've ever had insomnia this bad. I only get it when I'm pregnant. It's the weirdest thing because I don't really know what it is about pregnancy that makes me unable to turn my brain off. I mean, I have plenty of issues that consume me when I'm not pregnant and I have no problem ignoring them for 7-8 hours every night then. It's stupid and annoying, but at least I know it'll go away.

Today would be my cousin Josie's 32nd birthday. Hap' Birthday Joze.

Stuff In My Head

A few times in the last couple of days I've thought, "That's something I want to put on the blog" but now I'm here and none of them are coming to mind.

When I have to get up at a certain time in the morning, sleep is always a little more stressful during the night. I went to Scout Day Camp with Bo yesterday and by bedtime, I was pretty wiped out (boys are obnoxious by the way---I've never seen such handsy, annoying, pestering little creatures in all my days). I wanted to sleep my life away, but I had two other kids who hadn't been with me all day who were all up in my grill and knew I had to be up early to get him off to his last day. I think that's why I had weird dreams. I want to tell you about one.

I woke up (in real life) at 5:30am and was thrilled to realize I could go back to sleep. So I did. But then in my dream, I decided to actually go for a walk. My dream self is totally fit and active. In my walk, I was suddenly in my hometown, walking around the "historic square" that is about a mile from my childhood home, and when I was younger the only thing there that I utilized was the post office and a cheap movie theater, so I didn't spend a lot of time there. I was walking around checking out the little shops when suddenly I was made aware that it wasn't 5:45, it was actually 8:15, which is 15 minutes past the time Bo was supposed to be at camp. And then I realized J had a test, so he wasn't at home with the kids, and I was suddenly frantic to get home---a, I left my children home unattended, and b, we were now late. I started running--and I was awesome at running, by the way, and suddenly the ground was flooded with rainwater and there were lower points of water I could get through, but I really had to navigate kind of carefully and in advance. There were other "dream-like" obstacles that popped out but I don't remember them and they were probably weird, since they were dream-like.

I was really happy when I woke up at 6:45, in my bed, totally unfit and a bad runner still.

Probably the dream was getting out some of my feelings of being overwhelmed and out of time--all the time. Either that or it was a sign from God that the end is near and I better get my act together. We'll see.

This morning I was making apples and peanut butter for Danyo for breakfast. He's kind of demanding and insistent at times. It totally gets on my nerves. He was bouncing around the kitchen barking orders at me and said, "Is the peanut butter on my plate yet!? Get it on my plate!" I said, "Wow Danyo, I'm not really interested in making breakfast for a little boy who's speaking so rudely to me. I think you might want to try that again." He lowers his tone a bit and says, "I don't think this is any of your business." That = awesome. I love bossypants kids who repeat your bossypants phrases, inappropriately.

I wrote on Facebook yesterday how I shivered my tail off at day camp and STILL managed to get a sunburn. I think we saw the sun a total of 8 minutes yesterday, and that's not an exaggeration. How did I get burned!? It wasn't like cold and sunny, it was bleary and rainy and windy and cold. Anyway. One of my friends wrote, " But you are not a jedi yet..." and it made me laugh out loud. Mostly because I doubt she's a Star Wars nerd junkie fan as the comment might indicate. I read it to J and he replied bitterly, "You aren't allowed to laugh at that." Which totally made me laugh. He's really given it a valiant effort to get me to watch and enjoy those movies and it just hasn't happened. Some days he's just incredulous about that. To make our marriage work, we just have to agree to disagree. I know them's fightin' words for some. I'm sorry.

Yesterday one of the classes the scouts went to was building little birdhouse-bird feeder things. It was simple enough that the kids could navigate it on their own and they loved it. The leader-dude who presented this class was kind of...I don't know the word. He too was an order barker, to small children and grown adults alike. It was rubbing the other den walkers the wrong way and might have me too, if I cared enough. Anyway, Bo and his buddy finished their houses and this guy kept walking around hoping, almost insisting that there was more we needed to do. All nailed, screws in, wire on, colored, etc. After passing by a good 5 or 6 times he stops and says, "Do you have a 7th nail in?" He flips the house over and points to a spot at the bottom of the board. He grabs a nail and slams it into the back of the house while informing us, "This is BANG just a little BANG trick BANG to make it extra secure BANG BANG!" I'm thinking, yes, for those obese birds that fly around our house...

Turns out he just slammed the nail straight through the back of the house. It didn't secure anything. And it wasn't like, really close and he just missed by a hair, it was a good two inches away from any other board he may have been trying to "secure" it to. And he didn't even check his work--he banged it in and walked away.

Now, there's something you might not know about me. I have been told since I was a little girl that I have a very expressive face. I really think I'm being discreet or not showing much, but I've been told over and over, it's all over my face. So--I'm pretty sure that how dumb I thought what this guy did was all over my face. Only, I remain certain in my head, that I'm discreet. This time though, the 8 year old busted me. Bo looked across the table at me, mimicked my expression, and burst out laughing. His expression made me laugh because I didn't initially realize he was imitating me. He looked down at the table, looked up at me, and his face said, "Did I really just get to witness that stupidity first hand?"

It took us like 5 minutes to get the nail out too. We were laughing the whole time. I felt bad that it was at the expense of someone else, but it was kind of fun to have this little "inside joke" with my 8 year old. I also probably better watch myself a little more closely. He's a sharp one, that boy.

I have one more full day class of school, one more regular class and a final and I am home free. I'm technically home free because aside from the final (which I'm certain I will ace) I have nothing else required of me but my time. Yeehaw! I'm so excited about a school-free July and all the fun stuff we have in store. I hope we run into a gravy train in all our travels because that's really the only hitch to all the plans I have. :) That and laundry.

In my ethics class we have to do role plays of unethical or poorly handled counseling sessions. Since there's only 15 in my class, we are all kind of forced to participate on a "voluntary" basis. This last week, it was kind of falling on me. Only this time, instead of having the counselor go out and be "surprised" by the dilemma, he sent me, the client out. I thought I had been safe volunteering to be the client.

Well, the dilemma was the counselor hitting on me and basically he had to handle whatever my response was. I tried to really experience it, so I expressed my concerns and how creepy I thought it was, etc, etc. Well, this guy was really good at being the creepy counselor and was persistent, and kept putting it back on me. "Do you think it's wrong? Do you see any reason we couldn't make it work?" I finally kind of ran out of things to say and there was a long pause. I had hoped the professor would intervene and say, "okay, that's good" but he didn't. So I said, "Well...you are kind of cute..." The whole class roared and I saw the professor throw up his hands, laughing, "No no! Stop! You aren't supposed to do that!" I figured it effectively ended the role play, so it was the right move. I kind of love being old in college. :)

Well now I have to go face my day. Au revoir.

Middle O' June

I gots some catching up to do! I'm probably going to be back dating some posts, for the boys' birthdays, Bo's baptism, etc---so if you see random stuff popping up, pay no mind to my beautiful procrastination/cram session. It's how I do.

Last night we were at some friend's house watching a movie in their backyard with their new projector. It was really fun. As I was sitting there snuggled up with J, Avee, and Danyo every other minute, I was thinking what a wonderful weekend we'd had. I love to get things accomplished, but I REALLY love to relax and unwind, and this weekend was a perfect combination of both. Another friend threw an amazing pirate party for two of her kids at our house. Probably one of the most creative and fun parties I've ever been to. Heh, I didn't even have to go to it, she brought it to me. So, out of that party we got a delish lunch, I got a cleaned up yard, and the house was in great shape. Yeehaw! All our work was done by 10am. Beautiful.

This morning Bo started a "Kids University". He's going to a magnets class and an H2o class. He was so cute this morning. He was so tired from our late movie night, but so excited to start his program, there was a very long pause between anything I said and any response he gave. At one point he even said, "Hang on, I need to let those words go through my head a little longer before I can answer." I had noticed that all of his thrusters weren't firing yet, but to hear him describe it was particularly enjoyable for me.

I am halfway through a really hectic month. I'm taking a 3 credit class and three 1 credit classes, all in the month of June. The one credit classes I don't have to buy texts or take any tests, but they are all day, for two full days. I think school has abolished my social life. Sometimes that makes me sad. Mostly I just want to hunker down and get through this. I'm learning so much great stuff, I don't want to miss the experience for too much hunkering down. :)

Lately, just in the past week I've felt disenchanted with the "counseling industry". I always do stuff like this, and then I get over it. In one of my classes there are two students who are doing continuing ed credits, they've already graduated the program and are counselors in nearby schools. And they are totally rude and condescending to other students and disrespectful to the teacher (she's a bit of a flibberty-gibbit, I'll admit), and all in all, just really embarrassing representatives of the profession. In my humble opinion.

Yesterday in my ethics class I, and another girl who started the program with me in January, had to do some role-playing scenarios. Everyone else in the class is either done with the program or quite close to done. Pretending to be a counselor, facing an ethical issue doesn't phase them a bit. It terrified us. My classmate did a really good job with a fake scenario of a client asking to borrow money. In my opinion, a client that isn't clear on that boundary would actually need to be spoken to pretty directly, which she did. She was kind and direct. I thought she did an excellent job. And truly, neither of us know a thing about how to conduct a session, what approaches should be taken, how to word things "properly", etc. I watched two girls in front of me basically ripping her up one side and down the other for her not saying, "oh sweetie, I'm sorry money is tight, I understand things are hard, I empathize with you, but..." She simply said, "I'm sorry, I'm not able to help you, I have a code of ethics as a counselor that I have to adhere to and...." First of all, IT'S FAKE and second of all---how is being all judgmental and catty to a peer any more professional or educated? It made me sad. I made a very deliberate comment about how I felt a more direct response was necessary with a client that unclear on client/counselor boundaries. I hope they burned in shame at my indirect condemnation.

Heh. Just kidding.

I shouldn't be surprised though. The one making all the faces of horror during my friend's scenario, was the same girl who thought a 13 year old boy engaging in random sexual acts with older men had a right to privacy and his parents didn't need to know. Another classmate referred to his behavior as Russian roulette and she told him that was "a little overly-dramatic". Um, remind me never to send my child to you, crazy-every-body-is-equal girl! Whoops? Am I being judgmental? My bad....

June 29th is my final, J's birthday, our anniversary, and the day we head out of town for our family vacation. It's really the first one we've ever taken, in 9 years. Two years ago I drove to Utah with the kids, without J. We were gone for over two weeks and during that time, J got 1 of 2 reactions from people when they heard I'd taken the kids and gone to Utah without him. One was, "Oh wow, are things okay?" and the other was, "Dude! How did you score THAT!?" Mostly other men asked the latter.

Maybe I'll go work on my backdated posts now. It's now 6 am Tuesday morning and I suspect I have the house and solitude all to myself for at least another hour.

The Story of My Life

I think I've mentioned before, I do a preschool co-op with 5 other mothers and their cute little preschoolers. It has turned out to be an AWESOME little venture. I thought it would be a great little social outing for Danyo and a good little break for each of the moms. Danyo has learned so much, and remarkably, all 6 kids get along really well. I have loved being a part of it.

The last time I taught, I did the letter L and we did some ladybug crafts.

I found this great little craft idea online that would take more time, but fairly simply steps, and a really cute end result. I had the kids paint little flower pots red, then I modge podged black spots and a very feminine little ladybug face onto the pot.
They would ultimately be cute little wind chimes, like this.

I had the kids paint the pots red, we let it dry, and then while they had snack, I quickly put the faces on six little pots. As those were drying on the table, I gathered the children onto the carpet and we did stories and singing. During one of our songs, I glanced over at the table and spotted this:
It took me a second and my heart just sank. I was sick, realizing I had just ruined six little flower pots that six little 3 year olds had just painted, with great effort and patience. I had looked all over town for pots those sizes, there was red paint all over my table and most of the kids, I had cut out dozens of eyes and dots...I was just so sad.

Turns out I only messed up one. And I know myself well, so I had purchased 8 pots total.

This really is the story of my life. Anything crafty, creative, or requiring step by step following of instructions, the only thing I do consistently, is mess it up. It's funny to me that I can be that consistent at not doing something right. I don't know what it is. Maybe I think it should be easier than it is, and I just rush.

It reminds me of a time my mom was visiting me and I dragged her to an all day craft party at church. I had signed up to decorate a cute little shelf, presumably for Bo's little nursery. I sat down and started chatting with my mom as I worked. I painted and wiped and painted, and cleaned up, and painted. It was a tiny little shelf with two little knobs to hang things on and I could NOT get it painted for the life of me. I kept trying and kept chatting.

Finally I sighed and threw the shelf down on the table and said, "I don't even know why I try---this stuff never works out for me!"

I half anticipated my mom's usual supportive, "Oh, you've done much better than I ever could have" or something along those lines. She started laughing almost uncontrollably and said, "I can't believe how long you kept trying---it was so obviously not working for you from the beginning. I've just been sitting here wondering when you'd realize that!"

I love her honesty. Really.

Bo's Baptism

This past weekend Bo turned 8 and was baptized. My mom and J's parents came up for the festivities, and it was a wonderful, whirlwind weekend. Bo really wanted to get baptized on his birthday, and it was a little bit of fancy footwork to make it happen, but we did. By the way, in our church, kids get baptized when they are 8. I didn't really think about that until my dentist said something about having my hands full with 3 kids and a newborn and I couldn't figure out why he assumed I had a newborn. I said, "Are you calling me fat?"

No I didn't.

Bo had one friend over to play on the Saturday before his birthday. I think his friend had four bowls of ice cream. At one point I found him on the porch with the carton of ice cream and a spoon. I'm glad he felt comfortable... He is a really good kid, actually. His obsession with strawberry ice cream was a little surprising.

So, I'm not sure if I can document it properly, but it really made me laugh when it happened, so I want to try. Bo's friend Isaac brought a card, in lieu of a present. Bo eyed that card from the moment Isaac got there, dying to open it up and see what wonders it held for him. Well, my mom also gave Bo a card, but he had eyes only for Isaac's card, and didn't notice Grandma's card. When he was opening presents, he eagerly grabbed the big white envelope he'd been eying all afternoon. He opened it up and read, "Today is your birthday, you are an amazing and delightful GRANDSON." J and I smiled proudly at his reading skills, Grandma smiled proudly at the perfect card she'd selected, Avee snatched at the money that was slipping from the card, Danyo was shaking presents trying to entice Bo to move past the boring cards faster.... Bo looked pointedly at Isaac, furrowed his brow and said, "What on earth?" Isaac immediately knew Bo's mistake, while the rest of us were still figuring it out. Isaac was laughing, shaking his head, and waving his hands defensively, "That's not from ME!"

I wish I could have gotten Bo's expression on camera, it was priceless. It was like all of his wonderful memories of awesome Isaac flashed through his head and he was going to have to let them go, because an 8 year that calls another 8 year old "Grandson" is just too crazy.

We had Bo's baptism immediately after church, which is not how it's usually done, but in order for it to be on his birthday, that was our only option. I felt like it was very gracious of the people who stayed, to stay. Our church is 3 hours long already. That's a LONG day of being holy, and whatnot. Anyway, we kept saying to Bo, "look at all these people who love and care about you, isn't this awesome?" I miss the days when I got to put the spin on his reality. He responded every time with, "It's because they were already here!" This cracked me up because, well, mostly he was right. :) We have good friends who would have been there no matter what, but he wasn't going to let me call it anything different than it was.

My mom gave a talk and she did an awesome job. At one point she pulled out "treasures" from a bag to make the point about what matters in this life (or rather, what we take with us when we die. Her message was much more eloquent than my synopsis there) She pulled a little cream colored vase with gold trimming out and set it up. She said it was very expensive, and very important. She pulled out a little silver spoon with engraving on it and said she'd had it forever, her initials were on it, etc. I sat there looking at those two things and just couldn't believe my mom had them! I thought, "wow, I never took my mom for a fine china kind of collector---and how have I never seen that little spoon---that's amazing!" I thought of all the twists and turns her life has taken--the moves, the losses, the 9 kids who kept her from ever having anything nice...

And there were other people in the audience who'd never met her that knew this stuff was fake. Alls* I have to say is---that woman is good! She even got me! One of my friend's husband saw her put the vase up on a precarious edge of the podium and got terribly nervous about it falling off. He and I were the two ding-dongs that practically missed the point of her message, getting caught up in the "treasures".

When we got home, as we were all piling out of the car, Bo remarked, "I don't feel any different." I kind of laughed, but my mother-in-law laughed heartily. Perhaps we didn't entirely prepare Bo for the afterward part. Where, you don't really feel much more than wet.

That night was the night the tornadoes ripped through the midwest, tearing up Joplin Missouri. There was something akin to a tornado that came through our town---we had a warning, so a tornado was spotted, but whatever hit here, was mild enough. Monday morning I saw a lot of wind damage up north, by the kids' school, so it was significant enough, but I don't know that it was ever called a tornado.

We went down in the basement and the kids and the grandparents took turns reading from The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. J's mom laughs hysterically at every other page, so it was entirely enjoyable for the kids to read with her. J was being a grouch about having to come to the basement, and I was getting weather updates from my friend in Utah. We don't have tv, so aside from checking the path of the storm on the internet, I didn't know what was going on in Iowa.

It was a late night and a wonderful weekend with the grandparents. We are glad to have Bo in our family. Neither of us can believe he's already 8, but I guess that's just how it goes!

Because I Can

Today's post is brought to you by streams of consciousness. I have nothing specific to write, just my old insatiable desire to write. Lucky you!

Bo's birthday is in 2 days. I love his birthday. I love May. I love him. I love remembering the excitement, anticipation, and nervousness, of his arrival. I look at him now and smile---remembering how I wondered so many nights what he'd look like, how he'd be, and now I've gotten to enjoy him for nearly 8 years and he's more amazing and cute than I ever dreamed of! His freckles, his cowlicks, his big-toothed grin, his scowls, his obnoxious noises, his quirks. I love his birthday.

He's getting baptized on Sunday. He's pretty excited and seems to understand the implications of baptism more than I could have at his age. Yesterday he came out of school and casually mentioned he had gotten a skills referral. He got a dozen of those in Kindergarten from random people for ridiculous reasons so we kind of got used to the forms and not really caring. This one said he'd gotten frustrated with a classmate during a game and hit her. TWICE. I was really shocked and disappointed. He was NOT prepared for that reaction from me. I said to him with dismay, "You hit another child?!" He jovially explained, "Mom, I'm getting baptized on Sunday, I have to get all the bad behavior out of me before then." I'd like to thank whichever adult gave him that idea. I remember hearing someone saying it, I didn't think he'd use it!!!

I sternly told him that maybe he didn't really understand what his baptism was about if he thought being naughty up until then was a good idea. He suddenly realized he wasn't going to be able to joke his way out of it, and that I wasn't going to cast the skills form aside, rolling my eyes at the fascist administration of his school. I told him if another child hit Avee at school, I'd be furious. I didn't add because she's the sweetest little girl on the planet and that anyone who'd want to hurt her would just be a plain monster... ahem... anyway.

On the way home I gave him a choice of writing thirty times "I will not put my hands on other people" (an oft-used and much hated punishment from my childhood, obviously it didn't deter me from loving to write) or write a list of 10 things he could do differently than resorting to hitting. He chose the 30 sentences which I suspected he would because it didn't require thought. He ended up writing 10 things though. It's scan worthy.
I got my first semester grades back. Two A's and B. I'm pretty bummed about the B, but I'm almost 99% certain that no one got an A, if I didn't. His tests were ridiculous and that was basically the only reason I got a B. I got a B on both of tests and they were more than a third of our entire grade. I don't typically believe in grading on a curve (although, I'm not morally opposed or anything) but I think if NO ONE in your class gets an A, there's probably a problem with the assessment and it should be modified. Whatever. I'm probably the lowest grade in the class and trying to make myself feel better.

Well, Bo told his entire class I was bringing the best treat ever to school for his birthday. Then informed me of it last night just before bedtime. I had forgotten if he was going to share something with his class, it would have to be today. And I sure as heck didn't intend to bring the best treat ever. So, now I have to go make some cake pops. Apparently if you do it once for Bo, it becomes tradition that must never die.

I pulled him out of school for a week so his teacher doesn't really like me anymore. It's hard for me to navigate my way through life when people don't like me. I'm so used to being adored.

Heh.

I just found the usb cord for my camera. I'm suddenly remembering tons of things to blog about. There are 405 pictures. I'm going to post every last one of them.

Word to each of your mothers.

Old Footage

Today I woke Avee up for the day (the only child I have to do that with) and reminded her tonight was our girl's night and sleep over. Her face beamed. All that means is, no brothers, and she gets to sleep with me, and that is pure joy. Tonight is the fathers and sons camp out. J's excited to have willing participants to camp with, Bo is beside himself with excitement, and Danyo just knows "it's not today". He's going to be thrilled when he learns it IS today.

So, Avee is an absolute delight. She's funny, charming, smart, obedient, helpful, and just all around wonderful. I'm a little embarrassed to admit, that for some time now, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe it won't drop for another 8 years. Maybe it won't drop at all. But J and I are in heaven with this darling little, practically perfect, girl.

Then I was looking for an old picture and found some old footage of Avee. And I remembered...

I've paid my dues. That girl was a PIECE OF WORK in her toddler years and even as a baby. I'm earning my reward of surviving those years. It's funny to look back and see her that way. And I know I got a kick out of it at times, but I know it was more hard than anything else. She was always, and I mean ALWAYS--one step ahead of me. I found a video that proved it.

She's probably almost three here:


Obviously I was aware of the showdown that would ensue because I don't typically pull out the camera when my kids are disobeying me. I have always loved, and will continue to love, how kids think they are being sneaky, right in front of your face. Danyo will come steal candy out of my school bag, then hold the candy away from his body, right in front of me, and dash out of the room. As though, the candy made a quicker exit, so I didn't see it. I say, "Danyo, put the candy back" and he responds, "You didn't see the candy!" I love that. Enough that most of the time he gets to keep the candy. Hmmmm, maybe that's why he's such a toot!

I successfully finished my first semester of grad school. It was a lot of work--ahem---for J. That dude worked practically 24/7 without breaking a sweat. He's awesome. April pretty much kicked my butt school wise. Group projects should burn in hell for eternity. I was either the slacker or the anal one, and really, my description shouldn't vary that much in a group. We got perfect scores on all of them though, so I think that means I'm perfect just the way I am.

I love being back in school. I love "redefining" myself in that role. I was a student for so long, I didn't know who I could be when I finished. Now I feel like I've been "Mom" for so long, it's hard not to reach over and work on a stain on my classmate's jacket when the lecture gets boring.

I don't really make very good first impressions. I don't know why either. I always know that eventually people will like me, but that lapse of time between first impression and when they discover I'm awesomer than an ice cream sandwich, can sometimes be painful and excruciatingly long for me. It's nice to be married to someone who says, "Hang in there, they'll get it." He's probably speaking from experience. Dang.

School's out soon. I can't wait. I've reached the stage in life where I'm sick of packing lunches, keeping a strict schedule, driving to school, etc, but in 3 months I'll be sick of my kids and so excited for school to start. This summer we have swim lessons, kids university, two road trips, and visitors to Iowa, ALL planned so far. It's gonna be an awesome summer.

By way of documenting our lives, right now Bo is obsessed with the presidents. His favorites are Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, and Theodore Roosevelt. He hates Woodrow Wilson. He knows all these random facts about them and gets really annoyed that I don't keep up with him. Just to show him who's boss, I ask him to give me three methods of intervention for an identified patient in a family counseling setting.

Avee has gotten into video games with J. It's pretty cute. She still works him like a...like a.... I don't know. I can't think of any thing that has that much power over another---just by existing. Danyo has gotten a little better about his mouthiness and losing his temper. He gets lost in the shuffle a lot. He's so easy-going, it's easily done. He loves his stuffed animals, a dog named Kipper, a dog named Nixon, a nameless elephant and a pink Care Bear. And his blanket, made by my friend Rebecca. They are his soul mates. His best friend is this hysterical little girl named Emma and they can play together nonstop without one single fight. It's my favorite part of the day, listening to them talk. They are also quite naughty together at times. Jumping on beds, opening the garage door over and over, spilling entire cans of cashews and running from the scene of the crime.

I have to go.
Word to your mothers.