Adjectives

Rachel and I were eating yogurt for dessert. I asked her, "how is it?"
"Great!"
"no, cool!"
"no, good!"
"no, GREAT!"
Was her answer.

Nothing is for free

Michael had a friend coming over on Saturday. He decided to make the friend and himself matching Ben 10 watches.

They played well together all afternoon.

When his friend's mother was picking him up, the friend showed his mom the watch, saying that Michael had made it for him. She said that is was very nice. She extended an invitation to Michael to come over and play some day.

To my horror, Michael said, "ok, make something for me before I come over!"

Money

For some reason, my 2-year-old cares a lot about money. She will hold a coin tightly in her little fist for HOURS. She once held a coin through a bath, though toweling dry and until I noticed that she was having trouble putting on pj's. She's taken money to bed with her and looking for it is the first thing she does when she wakes up.

This might not seem so strange if money was a regular topic of conversation in our home. Or if my husband and I actually carried cash and paid for things with it (debit cards). Or if she had a piggy bank and we were encouraging her to save.

Could it be that Mr. Crabs, Sponge Bob's stingy boss, has taught her this?!

TOOTH!

Yes, it happened, THE tooth came out! It was on Monday, November 3rd. We'd been working on it for a good week. Occassionally Michael would bite down on something and it would jab into his gums. He would shreek how awful having a wiggly tooth was and how unfair life was that he had to have one. "There should be no such thing as a wiggly tooth!"

"To give away..."

This was the title of an e-mail I received from a great friend. The first line said, "I have a friend who would like to give away an organ that he has." And, for some reason I thought she was talking about a body part. That would be strange, right?

My favorite Tuna Vision

Go to Tunavision.com and watch "Cooking with Hickory" It's my favorite.

Videos on YouTube

I don't have anything worthy of Funniest Home Videos, but there are some cute ones of the kids.

http://www.youtube.com/yocat12

Pumpkin patch

I took the kids to a road side stand to pick out pumpkins. Michael picked out the biggest one (weighs more than Rachel) to bring to Sunday School for a contest. We bought a few little ones too. Rachel has been carrying one around calling it her "pumpkin patch."

Chicken Pox

I didn't think it was possible to get them after having the vaccine. Apparently I was wrong. I took Michael to the after hours care clinic last Sunday with a bad rash. It turned out that part of what I showed her was the chicken pox.

So, he couldn't go to school, but didn't itch and only had about a dozen very small marks. He stayed home with Dad and played Leggo Batman two days and went to Rachel's babysitter the third day.

At one point he turned to Chris and said, "I can't believe I have a runny nose and the chicken pox at the same time."

However, when Mrs. Eldridge sent home a book about chicken pox, he was really glad that he didn't have them very badly like the kid in the book.

You can tell by the scream...

whether the kids are playing, fighting or severly injured. Each scream has a distinct sound that mothers pick up on when their kids are very little.

So, I'm sitting at the computer earlier and I hear a scream. It wasn't a normal playing scream, then it got more frantic and it became obvious in milliseconds that someone was injured.

I ran to the back door and couldn't see Michael, Rachel or the neighbor boy. I yelled, "MICHAEL, COME HERE, WHAT'S WRONG!?" He came running and screaming from the woods. Thoughts of sticks puncturing flesh crossed my mind. Awful thoughts of what injury could cause this tribal scream to come from my son.

Then, he yelled, "BEES!!!" I worked frantically to get his clothing off of him when I realized that the bees were on his shorts, his sandals and they were being very persistent. While doing this I was looking for the neighbor and seeing Rachel had not been affected, I brought poor naked Michael into the house. He was able to tell me that the neighbor had run home.

I got Michael into the tub and let him run cool water over the stings while trying to calm him and assess his condition. He was terrified. Rachel was so concerned for him. She stuck right by us. We could find 10 stings from his buttocks to his ankles. I gave him a Benedryl and put Calidryl lotion on them. He was calm enough to sit on the couch with ice packs by this time. I called the neighbors who were going through the same thing with their son.

I can bet that Michael will never go into those woods again. We aren't sure where the bees came from since Chris couldn't find a hive. They could have been in the ground or in a dead tree.

He seems to be fine now. The boys are back together and playing Star Wars Leggos on the Playstation.

Frogger

I'm so grossed out at two times of year when the weather is raining and the frogs are on the move. It's usually in the spring (May ish and then now, Sept ish). The weather is muggy, there's been a little rain, and the frogs are just all over the road at night. Big ones, small ones, frogs of all sizes, jumping in all directions as my headlights pick up there light green bodies. I cringe as the jump toward my tires' path. I yell, "JUMP!" There was one that was jumping like 12 inches off the road. I was coming up behind him thinking I could probably straddle him, but if he jumped, he was sure to hit my van. I swerved a bit, he jumped the wrong way! BLEHCH! Then, the grossed one, this HUGE frog jumped toward me from the left. He made it passed my driver's side tire, but then jumped his last jump as I heard a loud THUD and he hit my bummer. ICK!!!!!

Impatient

God has really shown me that I have an impatient heart. I try to be patient, and always fail in the end, because he puts me in circumstances that bring me to that end. Like in the Dr. office where I waited with a 2-year-old for 1 hour and 45 minutes to be seen for a 10-minute check-up. And trips to Wal-mart with the two of them. Yesterday I told Michael emphatically, "THE GOAL IS TO NOT MAKE YOUR SISTER SCREAM!" after she'd screamed a couple of times. (didn't she do that in church Sunday, too?! when he grabbed her foot?)

So, I've given up on pretending that I'm patient. I'm NOT! The only patience I get is the grace of God and I'm so thankful for it. I just have to keep remembering to ask for it.

Swinging

Rachel talked her daddy into taking her down to the swing set and pushing her after dinner. He pushed her for a very long time. She noticed the moon, which she always announces, "THERE'S THE MOON, I SEE IT RIGHT THERE!" Then she said, "Watch out moon, I'm swinging high in the sky!"

No choice but to clean...

God has his ways of getting me to clean my house.

Generally, I'm not very good at it; I don't care for the real cleaning. I tighty up. I move stuff around. I Swiffer.

Well, I had no choice tonight. Rachel pooped in the tub. That is pretty much a sign that it's time to CLEAN IT! While I was doing the tub, I might as well clean the whole bathroom. Come over to visit soon.

And, then, as I'm fuming and trying to accept that this had to be and I'd better just get over it, Michael skipped into the kitchen with just enough milk in his cup that he didn't notice and it splashed ALL OVER. So, now the kitchen floor has been mopped.

I started apologizing to God for grumbling about his ways. And, then Michael spilled more milk over where I'd just mopped. I GET IT! I mopped the second time very apologetic and trying to see the irony in the whole cleaning the house thing.

Fashion

I doubt, based on Rachel's selection of clothing on this particular day, that she will have a job in high fashion.

by the end of the day...

We were ready to head home. What a great way to end the summer.

...and Rachel slept.

The Condor

Michael and Chris are up there somewhere.

The Boomerang

The bald guy in the third row is Chris. The speck of blond next to him is Michael. They both LOVED it.

Bumper Cars

Michael loved it. Chris is just TOO BIG for these rides. His knee was jammed into the dash when they crashed.

On the way to Great Escape

Here are the kids on the way to Great Escape. You may think that Michael looks a little green. He ended up getting car sick just after Sevey's Corners. Good thing there were extra clothes in the car to change into. From now on, I guess we need to pack barf bags.

so small

I love to watch Rachel run in our yard. She looks so small against the broad green sea of lawn. I wonder if she feels as small in the yard as she looks?

(great, now I'm misting up about the thought of her growing up)

Loves Jewelry

Thank you Aunt Michele, Uncle Jeff, Michaela, Jordon, Zander and Keziah! Rachel loves jewelry!

Very Hungry Catepiller likes doughnuts

Rachel's new favorite book is Eric Carle's Very Hungry Catepiller. However, she thinks all of the fruits with the holes in them are doughnuts.

On Monday he ate one? "Doughnut!"
On Tuesday he ate two? "Doughnuts!"

Dr. Office

What is the point of putting someone in the examining room if the Dr. will not get to exam the patient for over AN HOUR! Do you know what that does to a 2-year-old?! I was a human jungle gym and had sung every Banana Fana fo fanna song posible.

Pike

Michael saw some true story TV show about this pike that sucked off a guys foot. He won't swim in the lake anymore.

Dinner Time Miracle

So after the amusement park (11 am to 6 pm pretty much non-stop in the blazing sun), we were starving for good food. We stopped at the first restaurant we came to. The kids were SO well behaved that it had to be the hand of God after such a long day. They sat in their chairs, used their "restaurant voices," ate in silence, and ATE EVERYTHING! Rachel (let me remind you that she's only 2) didn't drop a single piece of food and sat in a regular chair. Not only that, but the service was quick, the food was great and the bill was very reasonable!

No Fear

We took the kids to an amusement park nearby. Michael, with his sneakers and in bad need of a hair cut, was 48". He went on ALL of the rides and sometimes even twice (because one of us adults needed to stay with Rachel, they discourage babies in strollers unattended). What a trooper!

Had to read up on puncture wounds...

I was awakened from my afternoon nap by the neighbor coming to tell me that Michael had stepped on a screw. I wasn't surprized by the incident. I don't know why, but I consider that sort of injury common to childhood experiences. I stepped on more than one nail and had my mom freak out about the posibility of lock jaw.

So, I calmly walk down through the yard and find him being treated on the couch with perioxide and triple anti-biotic. It was a screw that had held part of a ladder leading up the tree to the neighbors' tree house. One of the rungs had come out of the tree. Michael slipped while attempting to climb up without that rung and landed directly on the screw. It went through his sandal and into the ball of his foot. OUCH!

He was calm and collected when I arrived. The neighbor called the school nurse to ask about tetnus shots. He had to have had it before entering school. I don't keep that information at the forefront of my memory. She suggested getting another shot. Bleh, Michael started to get nervous at that thought. And, it's Saturday, which means time spent WAITING at any treatment facility we go to.

So then the neighbor calls the after hours care center near by. They don't have the pediatric tetnus shot, so don't bother going there. GREAT!

I pack up Michael, figuring that we are off to the ER. He insists he can't walk on it, so I give him a piggy-back ride up the hill through the yard to our house.

I call the ER and explain the incident. She says to go to the after hours care center. "I called there, they don't have the shot," I inform her. She says, "you have 72 hours, go to your family physician on Monday." "It's Labor Day on Monday," I say flatly. She cheerfully (or facetiously) says, "well then we are your last option, hold on."

When she comes back on the line, she tells me that once a child has completed their series of tetnus shots (which they need to do by the start of public school), they are set until the booster at 11 or 12. Phew.

The neighbor called to say that the object that caused the puncture was a galvinzed screw, so there would be no rust. Now, I always thought that tetnus was caused by rust (and apparently so did my neighbor), as in a rusty nail. But, after reading the WebMD version of the tetnus bacteria, that is NOT the case. It is a bacteria in dirt, apparently, that enters the body through a wound, in this case a puncture. It can be carried on dirty objects like a rusty nail.

So, now we are just praying that it doesn't get an infection.

Endless do-loop

Wow, did I ever just waste a bunch of time. I was trying to get points for some facebook application and clicked on a "take a survey" thingy. I ended up in an endless do-loop of offers. Click "yes" or "no" to these offers. So I do. Then they pop into more offers, and they pop into more offers. Pretty soon I have 8 Windows open and it's 10 minutes later and I have no idea if I've completed enough of the original offer to get my darn point!

Don't ask me "why?"

http://facebook.frozenbear.com/r/?app=my_home&source=591413607_user

Singing

Rachel likes me to sing to her on the way to work (about 30 minutes). However, I'm not really up on all my nursery songs, so I have to make them up. She seems to like that and throws out a multitude of topics for me to sing about. Her favorite is for me to "sing the diaper."

It goes like this:
Diaper, diaper, bo-biaper, banana fana fo-fiaper, ee I O iaper, Diaper.

I will not be quiting my day job to be a song writer.

Morning Grouch

On Rachel's birthday, I went in and in a cheerful, sing-song Mommy voice I said, "Good morning, Rachel. It's your birthday. Happy Birthday!"

She responded, "No Happy My Birthday!"

Today Chris and I went in to wake her up. Chris said, "You're two years and two days old."

She responded, "DON'T TELL ME!"

A little grouchy in the morning.

She's 2

Confusion about Shaving

Hubby told me that Michael said, "Dad, I need to use your razor. I'm getting hair on my legs."

TOOTH STILL LOOSE!!!

I'm serious! Is this a record? I don't remember ever having a loose tooth for this long. He's really not concerned at all about wiggling it. Even Rachel is anxiously wiggling hers and telling me, "Mom, this one WIGGLEY"

Tooth STILL Loose

Michael and I went to the dentist for our regular 6-month cleaning and check up. The hygenist confirmed, his tooth is STILL loose. I remember being relentless with my wiggling of loose teeth until they finally broke free. He is really not interested in making it come out any faster than it's own sweet time.

Tooth Loose!

Michael came to me after brushing his teeth and said that he thought his teeth were starting to fall out because he noticed a gap between the bottom two middle ones. I'd noticed it too over the last couple of days and thought that it must have always been there. So, I tried to wiggle some of them, AND... one moved!!! His first wiggley tooth! It's so newly loose that he can't feel it move, but I definitely saw it move when I pushed a little on it. He's excited that about the tooth fairly and said, "maybe she'll bring me a hundred bucks!"

I don't think she will.

Staying up Late

Ryan stayed at our house the night before his wedding. Michael was very excited and wanted to stay up with them. I was the mean mom and made him go to bed. But, he wouldn't fall asleep. At some point after 9 pm, he was standing in his doorway looking sad. I asked him why he wasn't in bed. He asked me, "are you EVER going to bed?" I answered with, "why, did someone say you could get up if I do?" There was a sheepish, quiet, "yes." Because it was such a special occassion, I told him I was ready for bed and to have a good night.

Sunday, after the rehersal night and wedding stuff was all over, he slept in until 11:30 am.

Kissing

Michael was the ring bearer in our friends' wedding. He and Chris stopped by their apartment a couple of days before. That night, Michael said, "Ryan and Sarah kissed." I replied, "oh, they did?" He said, "yes, and they are going to kiss again when the man says, 'you may now kiss the bride." and he giggled.

¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!

Michael and I were reading in bed and something struck him as familiar to that cartoon character. "You know, Mom, Speedy Josh Olish."

Hewey Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Hewey Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free family websites - Family photos

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

Trempilize

I finally let Michael open the Nerf 6-shooters he got for Christmas, with the intent that they would be used outside. Well, I caved, of course, and he was shooting from Rachel's jumpy horse at the wall. He kept saying, "I trempilized your wall" and "yup, your wall is trempilized" I couldn't for the life of me figure out what he meant. Then he said, "...just like a trempilizer gun."

Ah, tranquilize. Good thing, because that wall was getting way out of control!

Demands

Rachel has started to ask for this or that; shoes, pizza, binky, blanky, the usual stuff. Sometimes I'll reply, "you don't need it." I think she's had enough of that and she'll come back very emphatically, "I NEED IT SHOES!" (or whatever she asked for)

New cars and sticks

What is it about new vehicles that attracts sticks and kids on bikes? Chris said he caught Michael with a stick touching the new vehicle. When he asked (and not so calmly) WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Michael replied, I'm trying to get the dirt off of it.

Then later, after I told him not to try to ride his bike between the cars, he did it anyway and crashed right into the bumper of the new Jeep.

New Boots

I couldn't resist! I went to Cowen's Country Store to get Dad some wool socks for his birthday (HE ASKED FOR THEM!). They had these and a pair of light blue with dragonflies, lily pads and frogs. She tried them all on and we went with the pink plaid with tulips on the side. She LOVES them and struts around the house in them.

changing vehicles

again.

We always think going into a vehicle deal that we are going to pay it off and own it for a while. It just NEVER works that way. In the past 15 years, the two of us have had a combined total of 11 vehicles. This will be our 12th. Chris is really happy with his decision, after he got over the fact that we had to trade. It's new, with good warranties, and we didn't take it out for more than 5 years, so
THIS IS GOING TO BE THE ONE THAT WE PAY OFF AND OWN FOR A WHILE!

don't have any, don't need any

especially if there are 6 rules when you do have some...
http://www.lifescript.com/channels/healthy_living/Life_Tips/the_6_rules_of_cleavage.asp?page=1

Roles

Michael and I were discussing options for lunch while we were running errands Saturday morning. He suggested Ramen noodles. Thinking out loud, I asked, "do we have any of those at home?"

Michael answered my thought with, "I do NOT know. You and Dad keep track of the food."

Shopping

On the ride to Rachel's babysitter in the mornings, we've occassionally had to stop at Wal-mart for something.

So, Monday we were riding along and Rachel asked, "go Shopping?"
"No, Rachel, we don't have to go shopping this morning," I replied.
"I NEED go SHOPPING!" She insisted.

What have I done?

Favorite Breakfast

Every Saturday and Sunday morning, Michael asks me to make his favorite breakfast... Chocolate chip pancakes. I'm usually not in the mood to cook and would prefer him to have cereal, or something less involved, but I usually concede and cook them. The only thing really special about them is the chocolate. and it doesn't take very many to make it a good pancake. The chocolate gets all melted and then when I cut them up, it spreads to the other pieces. So, we're having chocolate chip pancakes today. he's on his 5th and 6th one right now.

Got a cold...

I can think of very few people who have been freed from suffering a bad cold. As I talk to people about it, I can almost trace it's path. Chris had it last weekend. It knocked him out of commission for the whole weekend. I haven't been hit as badly. I have the general stuffed nose, sneezying, coughing stuff. I can't hear as well, which makes me ask, "What?" frequently. I sound like I'm talking with my nose plugged (duh, it's totally plugged). It's funny to watch people come into a meeting and sit down, then when I cough (and I cough into my elbow like Michael taught me from Kindergarten), they get up and move, or at least move their chair a few inches away.

she's much cooler

My sister, always trying stuff that I was too chicken to try:

• pierced her ears like in 3rd grade with a safety pin and some ice from her juice,


• snowboards,


• went on a mission trip to Haiti,


• gauged her ears (I'm not even sure if I'm using the right verbage),

and now, she got an AWESOME tattoo.

Too much TV

Michael went to get the pizza out of the freezer for dinner. As he was decending the stairs, he was singing, "Free credit report dot com, free credit report dot com"

Too good to last...

Things were kind of quiet and I was able to catch this great picture of them snuggling and watching TV.

Less than a minute after this peaceful picture, the familiar sound of arguing and picking on each other returned.

Cold Walk

I took the kids for a walk up the road this morning.
It was pretty chilly.
They had fun walking on the snow bank along the side of the road. Then they broke up the ice on the potholes.

There was some evidence of spring: buds on one tree and turkey foot prints. I CAN'T WAIT FOR SPRING

Exercised again

I did it! I got back on the treadmill today. After a 2 hour nap (I know a little lavish), I jumped on for a full 30 minutes. I sweat quite a bit more than the other day. Then I did a Fitness on Demand exercise of squats and leg lifts (OUCH!).

You might be thinking, WHY?! Well here it is... my scale says I'm 144. And, my scale is close to 10 pounds lighter than the Dr.'s scale. So, that's a little bulgey and jiggley for me to wear a swim suit, a dress without some slimming spandex, and maybe even shorts depending on length.

We have a wedding to go to at the end of May. That's my deadline. (thanks for the motivation Sarah and Ryan)

opposites

So I found out today that the opposite of a genius is a "don't knower." For example, when SpongeBob said to his cousin Stanley Squarepants that Patrick was a genius, Michael said, "He's lying, Patrick is a don't knower."

Pearl of Wisdom

My sorority has a thing we do for seniors when they are inducted as alumnae. We gather pearls of wisdom from alumnae, read and present them to the new inductees. Here's mine:

Laugh a lot,
Give and don't expect to get,
Love unconditionally,
Forgive and really mean it,
Cry at goodbyes,
Remember your sisters and keep in touch.

Bare feet

Rachel LOVES having bare feet. Within the first few miles after leaving the babysitter's house, she has boots and socks off and has her feet all curled up in her blanky sitting in her carseat. She announces when the boots come off, "boots, off." Then, I hear, "SOCKS!" And they are off. Occassionally I'll hear, "HELP! SOCKS off!" when one gets stuck. And then, "toes! Ah, toes"

Exercise, bleh

bleh.

Why do I have such an aversion (is that a word?) to exercise? I really NEED it! So, tonight, after the kids were asleep, I got on the treadmill. Then, I got some hand weights and actually used them, while on the treadmill. I was feeling pretty good, I went for 25+ minutes at a brisk walk with weights. I sweated, a little. Then, I turned on the Exercise in Demand channel and did a 10 minute ab routine. WOW! that has to be like a 5-year record for me! (TOOT TOOT, own horn)

Ok, so start bets on when I'll have my next burst of exercise.

Bubba and Sissy

They get along pretty well most of the time.

And more CHOCOLATE!

Both Gramma and Aunt Rudy brought more chocolate.

Gotta perm...

Michael met me at the back door, then ran to Chris in the living room and said,
"Mom's hair is wicked funny."

Easter

The Easter bunny is so practical! Character garbage cans worked out great. They had a small egg hunt. Rachel divoured her M&M's.

Hats and Shoes

So my husband has a fetish with hats. He has bags full of old hats in the basement, a closet shelf full of them in the bedroom and a closet shelf full of them in the kitchen. Each new style that comes out for his teams needs to be evaluated and most likely bought. They are usually retired to a shelf at the end of the season to be replaced by the new season.

So, again, we were at the major sporting goods store. As we pass a clothing section I hear, "Wait I want to look at this rack." It's a Mets section of hats. Ugh. I couldn't resist and gave a sign and rolled my eyes, which did NOT go over well. They volley of snide comments went back and forth and ended with my comment "then I don't want to hear anything about my shoe collection."

I went directly from there to the shoe store and bought a fabulous pair of Madden Girl. http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/34580852/c/2084.html

Exercise

We were at a major sporting goods store. Michael was admiring a long line of treadmills. "MOM, you should get this one!"

I said smartly, "because it will be better and getting me on it than the one I already have?"

"No, Look, it has water bottles!"

Ah, yes, that's why I don't use my treadmill, because it doesn't have water bottles.

Nick names

I don't know why, but we started calling Rachel "Sister" early on. It's sort of transitioned to Sissy. Rachel said this morning as we were getting ready, "Sissy's Coat" when it was time to go.

Michael we started calling "Brother." It has shortened to "Bubba."

Since we are so used to using "Daddy" and "Mommy" when we talk to the kids, we've started calling each other by those names.

So, We are a family, Bubba, Sissy, Daddy and Mommy Hewey.

Glove Power

Michael was distraught Friday at the thought of having to wear his gloves to school again since they were ripped. "People will laugh."

It's no use explanning to him that we don't care what people think, and they won't laugh because of a little rip and all that stuff. Besides, his gloves REEK! I don't know if it is the material, or that they've been wet and sweaty, but they are down right gross.

So we dig through the end of winter sale gloves and find a pair. After a couple of errand stops, he was getting into the van and said, "these glove give me the POWER! Did you see how I opened that door? You should get a pair like these so you can have the Power, too."

If only gloves really did that.

Pink/Blue

I had to get windshield washer fluid for my car. I tend to like the more expensive type because it doesn't freeze and washes really well. We were at the auto parts store getting a new rear wiper blade. The expensive type was pink.

Michael asked, "Pink instead of blue?"

"Yes, because it's a girl car instead of a boy car," was my explanation. I know, not politically correct, but he totally understood and we received some snickers from the men shopping for manly auto parts.

Yum

Had to take a picture... you know, in case we all got sick.

LOL

Good thing he was wearing his safety glasses...

"Mom, there is a frizbee and a ball stuck up in the pipes in the basement."

We don't have a ceiling in the basement. Apparently, while throwing the frizbee, it landed up in the pipes. To get it down, he threw a ball at it. The ball landed in the frizbee.

"Show me your muscles"

It's a mealtime game we play.

Laundry day

So I'm enjoying my dinner with my husband, finally. Michael and Rachel have finished their's and are cleaned up and off playing. Michael comes running into the livingroom yelling, "MOM, you have to get washing some clothes because the underware I had on were my last pair."

I look up, half snickering, to find Michael looking very serious and... naked. So, I ask, "why are you naked?"

"I'm not naked, I have one sock!" ... and he did.

Graduated

I think we've graduated Rachel to sitting at the big table. I converted the booster high chair seat to just a booster seat and pushed her up to the table. She LOVED it!!!

PTSA & BOE, cont...

So, there were more attendees at the PTSA meeting. I roped one of Michael's classmate's mom into coming and she said she will remain active. YEAH!

I went to the BOE meeting last night. The teachers were there in force and were excited to see community members. The meeting room was very under utilized. The board was around a bunch of tables in the form of a square taking up about 66% of the room (wide open hole in the middle of the square). They had about 30 chairs for visitors. There had to be close to 100 visitors, so people stood for close to 2 hours during the meeting.

Is it odd that the board goes into closed executive session as the first agenda item? It might be standard for BOE to do that in all schools. I just think it is rude to publish the meeting time then kick everyone out for 30 minutes. And make them wait.

The room was HOT! No air flow. And the one window that was open about 5 inches was closed about 1-hour into the meeting by a frail guy on the board. I almost yelled out to make him open it again.

So, they did cut the 5-1/2 positions saying that it was due to a declining enrollment (didn't really see a compelling case from the chart), extremely high tax levy increase if they didn't (16.8% vs. 5%), and having to balance due to 5/8 of the last year running in the red.

Sentimental

for those of you who pledged with me, you know how I can get *sniff, sniff*

So the newest new member class drove out to interview me today. They ask the usual stuff, nothing that they will remember, nothing that matters to college pledges: my major (14 years ago), my pledge sisters and pledge mom (even longer ago), birthday, blah blah blah...

At the end of the questions, I asked them why they chose AST (for those that don't know me, that is my sorority). I got some really great answers and felt really good about our recruiting (nice job actives!).

Then I told them why I pledged AST... (Mimi, step in any time) *sniff, sniff* Love you guys

PTSA & BOE

I'm getting myself all in a lather about the lack of involvement in PTSA (parent teacher student association). I couldn't make any of the fall meetings and when I did go to the first one of this semester, I was the 5th person there. THAT'S IT! 5 people at a PTSA meeting. Our district has about 1200 students K-12. 5 people!!!

On top of that, our teachers have worked without a contract for 4 years! 4 YEARS!

I keep hearing rumors about the BOE meetings where they are making all these decisions and no one is attending to question them. So a bunch of us mothers are headed to the PTSA meeting and the BOE meeting this week. The agenda that the BOE posted online is recommending eliminating 5 teaching positions and dropping a 6th to part time! 5-1/2 teaching positions in one meeting!!!

So, wish me luck, and I'm open to any and all advice if you've been PTSA or BOE active attendees.

(man, I'm so wound up right now I don't think I'll be able to go to sleep... time for a glass of

more SNOW...

This picture was taken before our big snow storm. Notice how much of the lawnmower and barrels are showing.

This picture is taken after having the plow guy come 3 times in the last 24 hours and $60 later. Notice: no more barrels, and the lawnmower is almost buried.

This is off the back porch. There are supposed to be 3 steps total before reaching the upper plateform.

Snow

This was the amount of snow that we had before this weekend.
Today, I had the friendly plow guy move snow at 8 am. We ran some errands, went to a birthday party and when we returned home at 5 pm, I could not get back into the driveway. I instead when to the plow guy's house and asked if he could please remove the snow that had arrived since his morning visit.

I'll add new pictures in the morning of the new snow.

Fries

My son asked to dump out his milk from BK. Thinking that was odd, I looked into the bottle.
"There's a fry in there," I said inquisitively.
"Not A fry, FRIES," Was his reply.

Really Super Heros!

My son said out of the blue, "I know two superheros; Super God and Super Jesus!"
I asked, "What are their powers?"
"Super LOVE!" was his response.

Fast Food

The idea of fast food gets thrown out the window when you have to drive through twice to get what you ordered, then find out when you bite in that it still isn't right! I've been a fast food employee, IT'S NOT THAT HARD!!!

Dinner

I'd written a very nice and somewhat humorous event, then there was an error posting it and it's lost. I don't have enough energy to write it again tonight.

A Sign

So I'm chatting to my process engineer on the cell phone while I'm driving. Don't worry, both hands were on the steering wheel. I have speaker phone. I'm babbling on and on about 5 minutes when I look back to check on Rachel...

She is sitting quietly in her carseat, with her fingers in her ears.

Pumps

In high school... I wore pumps. Not often, but I had a black pair and a white pair. Never wore the white pair before Easter or after Labor Day.

After my babies... I used a pump. I invested some money in a good double-breasted electric. I got a lot of use out of it. It traveled back and forth to work with me. I hate the thought of parting with it... someday.

At work I have to know about pitch pumps... Have to know that the relief valve is not supposed to be used to regulate the pump speed. The relief valve is a safety device to let out pressure build up. I have to know that pump parts are not easy to come by, for some reason. Our pump life is relatively short compared to what it should be. Downtime associated with a pump failure is bad. This is probably the most emotional situation of all the pumps I've ever had to deal with.

Lightened my Day

After the 100th day project saga and Michael's terrible Sunday, I called my sister for support. She didn't disappoint. Her 3rd child fessed up to eating the oldest child's Sea Monkey eggs. Yup, 1ooth day project didn't seem so bad after that.

Love you Sissy.

100th Day of School Project

So the note home from school said to brainstorm things that you could collect 100 of, then pick one and find a unique way to display it. Don't ask why, we chose straws. So for the last two weeks, we've raided ever dollar store in the area buying unique straws.

Saturday was our day to put the project together. I started by having Michael arrange the straws on a poster board, thinking I would punch holes through and attach them with rubber bands or something. He arranged 50 and ran out of reasonable space. Then I looked at how I would punch holes through and bagged that idea.

The next plan was to string them together. The string worked great through the straight ones but I couldn't push them through the twisted ones. Yes, I bought sculped bunny ears and twisted straws.

The third plan was to use fishing line... It didn't make the curves and now it was Saturday night. Michael was completely not into doing the project. Can you blame him? I was pretty frustrated and irritated by this time, thinking that I was going to cause him to fail Kindergarten.

The fourth plan was to just use straight straws and loop the fishing line from both sides so it was more like a mat than a long string... IT DIDN'T WORK EITHER.

Sunday morning, we had fresh outlooks. The last plan was to cut a cheap bag of 50 neon straws in half and glue them in the shape of 100 on the poster board. The cutting went well, the gluing went well. Phew - off to church. (see previous posts, this was the only thing that went well during the morning)

Chris was preparing the dining room table for dinner. He moved the presentation and as soon as he picked up the poster board, pop pop pop, the straws started popping out of the glue and falling off. NOOOOOO Luckily, he thought to cut a piece of cardboard to stiffen the backing. It worked. I re-glued, and re-glued. And finally, Monday morning, I drizzled "new skin" over them as an added measure to keep the straws on. Chris drove Michael to school and carried it into the classrooom. PHEW!

My Daughter Is MiniMe

Rachel wanted to brush her hair like I was. So, I gave her a brush. She started toward the toilet with it, and because she's known to have toilet fishing tendancies, I started to say, "NO NO." Then I realized she was pulling the stray hair out of the brush and putting it in the toilet... Like I do.

As Michael was throwing a fit about his jeans (see previous post), Rachel started yelling, "WHAT?!" Like I do.

Michael and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Sunday was his Alexander day. He couldn't get his belt bucket to work. As I was brushing my hair in the bathroom, he was yelling, "STOP, GET OUT OF THERE, STOP IT!" Thinking it was Rachel he was yelling at, I looked and found she was right by me. So I asked, "Michael, what are you yelling at?"
"My jeans are doing bad things to my penis!" Hmm, no comment on that one.
Then he went to the van before Rachel and I were ready to leave. When we finally reach the van, he was inside crying. I expected the reason to be that we took too long. Nope, he was upset because he wanted to "scoot over" in his seat, but couldn't because the seatbelt was hurting his hip.

He fell asleep on the way to church.

Question...

Why is it that 95% of the toothpaste that is dispensed onto a 5-year-old's tooth brush ends up on the edge of the sink and counter? I clean so much wasted toothpaste from off the countertop. And it is Shrek toothpaste, so it looks like green snot!

Tonight I let Michael get into the bath tub with Rachel. She LOVED sharing the space with Brubba. He showed her how to blow bubbles and how to put your head into the water. She was so impressed and tried to mimic him. She screamed when I told her it was time to get out. Michael said, "Mom, I'm going to remind Sister when she gets older about this time that we took a bath together and she didn't want you to take her out because she was having so much fun."

You know a kid is sick when you offer him a cookie for dessert and he leaves it on the table untouched. Poor Michael has been fighting a fever off and on for 3 days, terrible runny nose and now goopy eyes. I've called the Dr. and really didn't get much help. "It's probably a virus, which in that case just make him comfortable until it runs it course." If he wakes up with goop again tomorrow, I'm bringing him in! I said, "it might be pink eye." He got all upset and said, "I don't want a black eye or a pink eye."

Missed Photo Op

So Rachel was sitting in a dinning room chair bare footed while I was feeding her macaroni and cheese. She'd taken her binky (Bee-tee) out long enough for the feeding. I happen to notice that she nonchalantly hung it on her big toe and was wiggling her toe. Man, I wish I had that photo. Of course as I tried to get up quickly to grab the camera, she took it off her toe and was more interested in the camera.

GIANTS - it's going to be a good year

The Giants won. It's going to be a good year in the Hewey house.

Time Flies

Rachel is 1-1/2 years old now. She talks pretty well and is starting to combine words: go way dog (from the sitter's house), c'mon Bubba (as she's being buckled into car seat and he is still playing outside), I SIT! (when she wants to side BESIDE me instead of on my lap), wollwit wollwit (from patty cake), come back.

As we're driving to the sitter's in the morning, she'll ask, "where's Dadda?" to which I answer where ever he happens to be, she'll say, "oh. Where's Bubba?"

She's a dancer. Any music makes her move; in the car, in front of the TV, anywhere. When it's the SpongeBob theme song, she drops what she's doing and comes running.






Michael is 5. Sometimes he thinks he knows everything. He's quite stylish. Has finally, after 3 years, started wearing jeans again. I thought he would be stuck in wind pants forever. Not sure what made him change his mind, but I'm glad he's switched up his wardrobe a bit. It's great to see the development through kindergarten. He's recognizing letters, both upper and lower case, and is trying to sound out words. He can count to twenty and usually gets 13 in the right spot.











They both love to color. Rachel will ask "colur?" whenever she sees the crayon tin. Her favorite part of coloring is dumping out the crayons.

Michael is getting good at staying in the lines.













They keep us busy!