A Rather Blustery Day/Weekend

This is a picture of all the dirt and wind blowing around the soccer field yesterday. I found myself thinking of the song from Winnie the Pooh this weekend:

Hum, dum, dum, dee, dee, dum
Hum, dum, dum
Oh the wind is lashing lusterly
And the trees are thrashing thrusterly
And the leaves are rustling gusterly
So it's rather safe to say
That it seems that it may turn out to be
It feels that it will undoubteadly
Looks like a rather blustery day today
It seems that it may turn out to be
Feels that it will undoubteadly
Looks like a rather blustery day today

I don't know if you can see DS#1 under this blanket. He and some of his teammates are huddled underneath it on the sidelines. At first when I saw this photo on the computer, I thought my lens was dirty. On closer inspection, it was dirt and grass being blown around. On the up side, DS#1's team was undefeated this weekend. They won all four of their games and took first place in the tournament. They didn't win any games during the Fall season, so this is a very new and welcome feeling to win games.

DS#2 isn't even in this cluster of boys huddled on the sideline, but these are his teammates. I guess they weren't lucky enough to have a blanket, but they were trying to protect themselves from all of the blowing stuff by pulling their shirts over their faces. DS#2's team also did very well yesterday. They won 9-0 and 8-1. Today the scores were 4-3 and 0-0. That sounds like a decent record, but their last game was played against a team that was one point ahead of them in the tournament because they had two "shutout" games and our team only had the one. So, even though they tied the last game, they lost the tournament by one point.

What was more upsetting, however, was the fact that DS#2 didn't get to play AT ALL during that last game. There was one other boy that also did not play at all and his Dad was very upset as well. At this level, they're supposed to be more focused on getting the kids to all play as much as possible, for the experience. DH and I have some issues over their team manager wanting to win games, even if it means that the kids don't all get to play, or some play much more than others. We're trying not to talk about it too much with DS#2 around, however, because we don't need him getting mad about it. He's a smart kid, though, and he knows he didn't get to play and he's wondering why. He is already very sensitive and like many kids at this age, he has very little self-confidence. We do not want this to knock him down even farther. Hopefully I'll be reporting more on this issue this week.

I don't want to make this a downer post, so I'm going to post this photo also. Yesterday I went upstairs to the gameroom to change DS#3's diaper. I found this. I thought at first that DS#2 had set this up for his baby brother, but he later denied it. DD was with me and she denied it as well, so DS#3 must have done this himself! This is taking the lining up business he was doing before to a whole new level!

Yesterday evening, I was trying to change DS#3 into his pajamas. He got upset and wouldn't let me put his pants on. He kept trying to say something and it wasn't until I realized he was saying, "Choo Choo" that I understood. He wanted to wear his train pajamas instead! This totally cracked me up (and DH too), but I worried about what would happen when this one set of pajamas goes into the laundry!

My parents left today for home. They were such a big help, especially yesterday. We left the younger two kids with them while we were out on those dusty, windy soccer fields. Here, DS#3 is upset because he had finished eating a peach and Lola wouldn't give him any more. She couldn't give him anymore because she didn't have anymore. That was NOT an answer he wanted to hear! Luckily, a short while later, he settled for some pear instead.

Since Mom and Dad left this morning, we had all the kids with us. Luckily, although it was still windy, the wind was not quite as bad as yesterday. It was, however, down to the 30s this morning, so the two youngest kids and I watched DS#1's game from the car. DH was on the other side of the fields watching DS#2's game since both games were at the same time. I put DS#3 in the front seat with me and he just loved it. Can you tell? :)

Lucky

DS#3 was so excited to see Lola walking up to the house yesterday! They brought all sorts of goodies for him and for the rest of the family. This is the first time we've seen them since New Year's. My mom seems to be doing okay after my uncle's death. They just got back two weeks ago from a visit to the Philippines. I guess my maternal aunt now owns a salon and my aunt gave my mom a nice new haircut, a manicure, and pedicure. She needed a little spoiling. :)

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, so even DS#3 got ashes on his forehead. He apparently was so distracted by the ashes on DH's forehead that he didn't mind getting them himself. Here he is smiling because Lola just appeared with some rice soup for him and he is hungry! When she delayed giving it to him because I was taking pictures, he started tapping his high chair tray as if to say, "Go ahead and put it right here, Lola!" He is such a lucky boy!

DH took some video and photos of DS#3 playing outside today. I'm sure DH will describe it in more detail on his blog. The high was in the 80s the last couple of days. It's supposed to cool down this weekend, so that should make our EIGHT soccer games more bearable. At least the games are all on the same fields, but we'll still have to do some driving back and forth.

For my next story, I need to provide a little background. When DS#1 was about four years old, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt in the small town that we used to live in. We hadn't been to a public Egg Hunt like this one before. We were just expecting plastic eggs filled with candy. DS#1 got one egg with a piece of paper in it with the number "1" written on it. We saw others claiming their prizes like stuffed animals and little toys like that. When we saw the lady that we had given our piece of paper to, coming back with a big red 20-inch bicycle, we were in disbelief. DS#1 had won a bicycle! He couldn't even reach the pedals! There were some other instances of DS#1's luck in the intervening years.

Fast forward to tonight. We went to DS#1's high school for next year for an orientation and also so he could submit his schedule of classes for next year. They were giving out door prizes at the end of the orientation. There were about ten little gift bags out on the front table. They drew names from the list of all of the incoming freshmen. You had to be present to win, so there were a few kids that weren't there to claim a prize. The final two prizes were big ones, certificates to redeem a graphing calculator worth $125 and for the Summer PE Camp worth $225. DS#1 won the grand prize!!! DH and I still can't believe it!!! The Summer PE Camp is like a summer school where they can take care of their PE and Health requirements so they can take other electives during the regular school year. It's also like an orientation because it's for incoming freshmen, so they can get to know each other and have friends already when they start school in the fall. DS#1 was already very interested in doing it just because of the social aspect. Now he can go for free! He is SUCH a lucky boy! :) Now, DH and I are hoping he'll be just as lucky when it comes to college scholarships... :)

Random Thoughts At The Gym

Yesterday morning, I went to the gym for the first time this year. That's pretty sad, I know, since I worked out so much more when I was pregnant with DS#3 than I do now. I went to the "Dance Jam" class which is an aerobics class filled with dance moves instead of the "traditional" aerobics moves. When I was there, a few somewhat random things popped into my head:

--Why do people put makeup on when they're about to sweat?
--Only women with small boobs wear halter tops to aerobics classes. Women with big boobs need to wear good support bras.
--If you're still cold enough to wear a little jacket after the first part of the class, then you're not working hard enough.
--I need to wear a bigger shirt for exercising so I'm less likely to see my muffin top over my shorts.
--I look funny when I "dance". I'm doing the same thing as the instructor but I don't look nearly as good.
--My instructor looks good even when she has makeup on and she is sweating.
--I'm glad I'm not the only one in here that isn't wearing any makeup.
--My knees hurt.
--I can't keep from tensing my neck when I do abdominal exercises so I have to put a hand back there.
--My back is what hurts when I do abdominal exercises, until today, that is. Today it's my abdomen, my arms and my legs.

I'm sure I had more thoughts yesterday, but that's all I remember today.

I didn't get to take too many photos, but I always feel like taking photos at DS#3's Gymboree class, even if I have like a million of them already. In the photo on the left, he's in this big hollow barrel and I'm turning it as he's in it. He absolutely loved that! In the photo on the right, he's hitting himself on the head with a maraca. Those maracas were the only thing that drew him to participate in the group activity. Before that, he was just playing on the equipment. DH and DS#3 just got back from his Gymboree class today. I guess he didn't make it through the whole class today.

My parents should be here in the next half hour for a visit. We haven't seen them in almost three months. That's a long time for them. Mom's been through a whole lot since we saw them over New Year's weekend. I'll be going to church at noon and the rest of the family minus DD and I will be going at 5PM. We'll be at DD's dance class. I'll probably take a photo of the ashes on someone's forehead as my photo for today.

The Other Part of the Story

Oops! Yesterday, I uploaded the photos below, but then I totally forgot to write the rest of the post. Instead, I worked on my Project 365 album while watching the Academy Awards. Before I go into those photos below, I'll talk about my photo for today.

I usually give DD and DS#3 their baths together in the bathtub in my bathroom. Tonight, DD "styled" her brother's hair after I put shampoo in it. He, in return, started dousing her with water from the big thing that I use to pour water. The two of them were having so much fun together that it was fun for me to just watch!

This weekend, DS#2 kept asking to go to Target so he could get new Legos. Of course, while we were there, we visited the Dollar Spot. They had these bunny ears and I asked DS#2 to get behind DS#3 and put the bunny ears on him while I got the camera ready to take a photo (see left). Of course, for the first couple of tries our timing was off and DS#3 whipped those bunny ears off immediately. He saw DS#2 and I laughing, so in the end, DS#3 was actually laughing too, which gave me just enough time to snap a photo before he whipped those bunny ears off (see right).

The other part of the story took place before we left home. DS#2 brought $50 in cash and said that he was bringing money just in case I wanted him to pay for a part of a Lego set. Well, I thought he was the one buying the Legos! His first choice was a Star Wars set that cost almost $120! Wow, I told him that was too much and that he should just ask for the set for his birthday. He finally settled on a set that cost $60 and he gave me his $50. We spoil these kids so much! He's been busy building that thing since then. He might finish it in the next day or so. I'll post a photo when he's done.

Later in the afternoon, we had yet another soccer game. I took a few photos, and this was one of my favorites. You can really see DS#2 working for that ball. The other part of the story is why he's wearing pants. Apparently, he thinks his uniform shorts from the Fall season is too short. *SIGH* This kid really dislikes showing too much skin, which can be a good thing, I guess!

What's a soccer game without the youngest two playing with each other. I took this with my telephoto lens, so I had to stand quite a distance away. DS#3 is touching DD's nose. He sometimes does that and goes "Bee! Bee!" (translated to "beep beep"). The other part of the story is that not too long before this, we made DD move away from DS#3 because she kept annoying him and he kept screaming at her. Well, right after she moved, he moved right over there where she was. I guess he wanted to play with her. :)

I'm working tomorrow night, so I won't be posting until Wednesday. Wish me luck!

Just Another Saturday

Yup, it was just another Saturday. Today was the Cock-A-Doodle Zoo event for zoo members starting at 8AM. Yes, we got up early on another Saturday. We got to have a "free" Continental breakfast along with some special events. There were lots of people there, but they had plenty of food. This is DD so excited because they had Lucky Charms. Her mean parents don't allow her such sugary stuff, especially when all she ate were the little marshmallows in the cereal. Earlier she had eaten some Fruit Loops and so did DS#3. The boys all ate the little muffins, even DS#3 who was covered in crumbs. DS#2 also ate some Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.

This was one of the animals we saw. Isn't he cute? I don't have any idea what his name is because DD and I caught the tail end of the presentation. We had just finished getting her face painted. She picked a simple flower to be painted on her face. Luckily I got a picture of it because she had rubbed it off within the next half hour or so.

One of these days I'm going to learn exactly how to use my camera to its fullest potential. I think this has the potential to be such a cool photo, but it's blurry. I couldn't figure out how to change my camera settings fast enough to get a good photo, so I just snapped and hoped for the best.

After the zoo, we went home for about an hour before we proceeded to the soccer field. This was our first soccer game of the season. I got to see DS#2's new coach and some of the new players on the team. His new coach has some sort of English accent, so it was a bit weird to hear that accent on the sidelines. Both teams played pretty well, but DS#2's team won 9-1. They put him in as goalie in the second half. He had to borrow a shirt but his old gloves still fit--sort of.

This is why I would be constantly worried if DS#2 were goalie all of the time. Do you see that little bit of light blue on the ground next to the ball? That's DS#2. Even if he weren't my son, I would still be worried that someone would kick him in the head while he was down there. The other team did manage to score one point on him, but he saved this one.

We were home by a little after 2PM after the game and that's when we finally got to eat some lunch. After lunch I attempted to get DS#3 to nap. He cooperated by laying still in bed, but he was looking around and not sleeping and therefore he was keeping me from sleeping, so I told him to leave the bedroom and go play. DH heard the door open and close and thought it was me. When he heard DS#3's voice, he thought that he had pulled what DD used to pull. I used to lay down with her for a nap too, but then I would fall asleep while she didn't and she would leave the room. I did manage to take a little nap.

We went to church tonight because it's supposed to be in the 30s here tomorrow morning and DH and I would rather snuggle in bed and sleep in rather than go out in that. Would you believe that DS#3 fell asleep in church? After church we went to Chili's for dinner. DS#3 barely ate anything today, so we're hoping he's not getting sick again. He's still got this yucky productive cough and runny nose. DH had to pin him down to suck out his boogies tonight and I'm not sure which one of them was more traumatized.

I'll finish out this rather long post with a picture taken at Chili's of DD and her new toy. They offered a 20% discount off zoo merchandise during the special event this morning. She asked for this monkey with magnets in its hands and feet. She wanted it because it was the same color as her shirt and also because she thought the magnets were so cool. She's been sticking it to everything metal. She was so excited about this that I couldn't help but get it for her. I had to admit that it was a rather cool toy. DH just shook his head and smiled. :)

Doing More Than Expected

I walked into work and my office this morning to find this sight. Yesterday (when I was off), they installed this new laptop computer workstation (complete with laptop bag on the right). The laptop can be disconnected and taken elsewhere. A month or two ago, they started forbidding the use of thumb drives, saying that they potentially compromised the security of the network. I guess this was the government solution to how we could get work done at home. I can't believe how my tax dollars are being wasted!

This is an "after" shot of the kids' bathroom. The tile guys came back one more time today to seal the tile and to paint the walls. The tile came up just a little short on the wall, so the painted area had to be extended further. DH was shocked that they didn't charge extra for this. He also remarked on how tedious doing that decorative border was.

This is a closeup of some of the decorative tiles. We have this same tile in our bathroom, but our walls are a greenish pattern (wallpaper installed by the previous owner). Now that the tile is brown in the kids' bathroom, the bright light blue on the walls looks a little too bright. *SIGH* I guess our home improvements keep leading to other "improvements".

Tonight, we finished up DD's monthly homework packet (due next week). Do you ever get the urge to do your child's project for them? I was letting her do this by herself, but at first she used the white handout provided and tried drawing on that directly. Well, she made a mistake and scribbled off her first drawing instead of erasing it. *GASP* I made her erase it (she didn't want to) and I suggested that she draw on another piece of paper first. That's when she drew this "person".

Next I saw her grab some green cardstock from the drawer. I knew then that she didn't like the messed up drawings on the original handout. She told me that some people put it on "another piece of paper that's colored." That's when we started on the green cardstock. Her first attempt was on her own. I wasn't happy with the way she folded it (it wasn't folded straight at all) and she wrote in the "titles" and drew directly on the green cardstock (so they didn't really stand out well against the green background). She has decent writing for a six-year-old, but I knew it could look better. I asked her if she wanted to use letter stickers. Her face lit up and she told me that one of her classmates used letter stickers. I purposely took the photo above with the project tilted a little towards her so y'all could see her name underneath was done in stickers too. Gotta love those old Creative Memories stickers. I think all of the stickers we used are older than she is.

Anyway, I suggested that we cut out the drawing she made earlier and glue that on. She drew something else for the other side and she cut that out, too. In the end the project looked like she actually spent time doing it instead of her usual haphazard work. It's not exactly what I would have done (used clip art, more pictures, etc.) and that "white space" is killing me. Still, it was all DD's work. I have to be proud of that! :) She makes me laugh with her little pose in this picture, too. :)

Making Things Difficult

I feel like the last three days have been a whirlwind. I guess that happens a lot, but taking a 24-hour call makes that more likely. So, I was on call on Monday, President's Day. It wasn't very busy for most of the day, but still I was bummed because DH wasn't able to come visit with the kids. He had to deal with buying the tile for the bathroom. He had to get DD to her gymnastics class plus DS#2 to soccer practice. Luckily, he was able to leave the other kids with DS#1 in the evening so he didn't have to deal with that. DS#1 had DS#3 all washed up and ready for bed when DH and DS#2 got home.

DS#2 was one of the reasons why they didn't come to visit me at work. He is very focused right now on playing with his neighborhood friends, and he gets very upset when anything comes in the way of that. I guess he kept himself busy part of the time making this paper arm and "claws". I remember when DS#1 went through some phase when he was making these "claws" all of the time. Apparently, the big arm used up 28 pieces of paper. He told me all about it yesterday. He was impressed by the arm that some kid at school made, because it was bigger.

This is DS#3 watching some Sesame Street podcasts on DH's Mac. I remember DS#1 watching some Sesame Street when he was younger, but the other two never really did. In any case, I was trying to keep him busy because the tile guys were in the house. They had lined the front hallway and up the stairs with plastic to avoid tracking too much stuff in the house. DS#3 was fascinated by all that plastic. I don't know why I didn't think to take a photo of him just walking on it. He seemed to really enjoy the sound that it made. At least he was being social. when one of the tile guys would come in or come down the stairs, he would say, "Hi!" Too cute!


This is what the tile guys were doing. They were taking out all of the old time in sheets--still messy but not as messy as the last tile job we had done where they just broke it all up and took it out in pieces. The guys worked pretty hard all day yesterday, and then they came back today to finish the job. I'll take a photo tomorrow because I neglected to take a photo before DS#3 went in his crib in the gameroom. It looks really good. It's the same tile that we used for the floor in the kids' bathroom already and for the floor and shower in our bathroom.

I was off today, and as with all of my days off, it seems, I fill it with lots of activities. DH let me "sleep in". I didn't wake up until around 6AM when his alarm rang and I stayed in bed with DS#3 (who was awake and who kept ME awake) until after 7:30AM when DS#1 left for the bus. At around 10AM DS#3 and I went to his Gymboree class. DH stayed at home with the tile guys. The water softener guy was coming too. Yes, we've been spending a lot of money lately on house maintenance, but I digress. DS#3 is always too cute at Gymboree. One of the activities was jumping off a short play structure and landing inside this big inner tube. He would curl up in the inner tube then get himself underneath it and lift it up and off himself. He didn't participate too much in the class itself, but he sure had fun playing.

After Gymboree, we went to Pei Wei and I got some Pad Thai for us. DS#3 loves noodles, and I wasn't able to order the Pad Thai I had wanted when I was working. He ate quite a bit, but he might have eaten more, but we had to rush to DD's school for her lunch period starting at 12:50PM. She wanted me to bring her some McDonald's for lunch. As before, I wondered if she really wanted to have lunch with me or if she just wanted to be able to get McDonald's. She was so excited when I brought it though, that it was all worth it. I kept DS#3 busy during DD's lunch with a fortune cookie, and this is a picture of him as we were leaving. He was in a great mood!

That great mood was short-lived as we drove to the "new" Joann's craft store so I could look for a border punch I've been interested in. He got very fussy in the car and when we got there, I realized that was because he was sleepy. He had fallen asleep for probably less than five minutes, but that seemed enough to pep him up a little. He was singing with me while walking around the store. After our short visit, we went home and took a nap. I got up in time to take DD to dance class at 4PM. It's a good thing I was able to take that nap, because this day off was exhausting!

Facebook

I recently joined Facebook. A lot of people I know were on it and I was curious. I couldn't see what it was all about unless I joined, so I joined. I spend some time already on a couple of message boards, so that's where I usually do my chatting, and here on my blog, too. Still, I'm able to stay in better contact with some of my cousins that I see only every couple of years, so Facebook may yet be of some use. I really have no desire to contact anyone from high school, and I'm not sure who from college I would want to hear from. If they contact me first, then I might change my mind. I can totally see where DH might have some fun on Facebook, though, since he's home with the little guy most of the day. He might find it fun to chat with people who can actually form sentences. I'm trying to convince him to join now too. Anyway, my cousin S tagged me on Facebook, so since my blog goes there, I thought I might as well put it here. :)

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag 10 people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real. . .nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.
Have Fun!!

1. What is your name: Melanie
2. A four Letter Word: Mint (We just bought three more boxes of Thin Mints this morning!)
3. A boy's Name: Michael
4. A girl's Name: Melissa
5. An occupation: Marine Biologist
6. A color: Mauve
7. Something you wear: Moccasin
8. A food: Mushrooms
9. Something found in the bathroom: Mouthwash
10. A place: Montana
11. A reason for being late: Made a wrong turn
12. Something you shout: Man!
13. A movie title: The Matrix
14. Something you drink: Mocha Frappucino (Yum!)
15. A musical group: Matchbox Twenty
16. An animal: Mockingbird
17. A street name: Main Street
18. A type of car: Mercedes Benz
19. A song title: Miss Independent
20. A verb: Make

Today, DD was invited to a birthday party of one of her classmates. She told me that she liked him because his name started with the same letter as hers. She just cracks me up with reasoning like that! :) She had the most fun on the bumper cars. The birthday boy's mom said that DD and the birthday boy played so well together. I told her that was probably because DD has three brothers and she spends most of her time playing with boys. One other note--I felt rather old because both of the boy's grandmothers didn't look much older than me. *GASP*

This is my second picture of the day. I couldn't choose because this one is just so typical of what DS#3 is like right now. Have you guessed what this is yet? Well, these are two half-eaten Thin Mints. For some reason, DS#3 likes to take bites out of things but he doesn't finish the whole thing, except for things like raisins. He did this with the dried pineapple he ate yesterday. He does this with chips and crackers. I think I've actually seen him do it with apple slices. I have no idea what he does this for, because sometimes he'll do this and still ask for more.

Happy Valentine's Day!

In college, I used to meet a couple of friends at IHOP on some Friday mornings. I always got the short stack of blueberry pancakes. That is a fond memory, so even now, I love going to IHOP once in a while, and I still get the same thing every time. DH says that he prefers my pancakes, so almost every Saturday morning, I make pancakes and turkey bacon for the family. Yesterday, I begged DH if we could go to IHOP today, and he agreed. Oh happy day!

I got my usual. DH, DS#1, and his friend A all got chocolate chip pancakes. DD got the Funny Face chocolate chip kids' pancake. DS#2 got the strawberry banana pancakes. He had the option to order two or four. DH and I really wanted him to get the two, but he insisted on getting the four. When we asked him if he was really going to be able to eat all four, he said that he could, although he did mention possibly needing help. Still, he insisted that he should get four. Well, in the end, he really only ate the equivalent of a little more than two and said that he was "tired of the taste of strawberry banana pancake". *SIGH* It's too hard to argue with him. Instead I decided that I had to take a picture of him to remember this time.

DS#3 was pretty mellow this morning. He slept until around 8AM, which is late for him. He didn't fuss although we didn't actually get to eat until closer to 10AM. I gave him some of DD's chocolate chip pancake since she never finishes the whole thing. That was okay for a little while until he insisted on having some of my beloved blueberry pancake. I don't know how he could get so messy even with me feeding him, but he did. He also ate a little of DS#2's strawberry banana pancakes since I was sure he wasn't going to finish either. I was trying to hold him off of eating all of mine. ;-)

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. DS#1's friend stayed until DH took him home around 2PM. I got to nap for a bit in the morning after we got back from IHOP. DD and DS#2 played with a succession of their friends. DS#3 actually climbed into bed with me around 1PM. He didn't sleep right away--it took about 20 minutes, but he willingly accepted his "babas". DH grilled steaks for dinner. In all, it was a very nice Valentine's Day for all of us. Happy Valentine's Day for all of you! :)

Boys and Video Games

Today, I was thinking about how I'm always running to catch the bus at work. I usually run in the morning because one time, I ran to the bus but when I got to the door, I was told that the bus was full and so I wasn't allowed to get on. I was really bummed about this even though there was another bus that drove up just as the one that shut me out was leaving. The difference was probably only about five minutes, because that next bus filled up pretty quickly so we were then on our way to the hospital, but I was still bummed.

In the afternoon, I usually run to catch the bus back out to the parking lot because I'm afraid of being left behind once again. A difference of five minutes at the end of the day sometimes means waiting a bit longer in traffic, and frankly, I'm tired at the end of the day and I just want to get home. I don't even stop off anywhere on the way home from work anymore because I just want to get home.

This afternoon, I managed to get home from work just as the kids were getting home from the bus stop. We had almost twice the usual number of kids at our house today, because the older ones each had a friend come over to play. DS#1's friend A was dropped off by his mom because he goes to a different school, the school the kids all went to last year. He gets to stay here overnight.

I saw this sight in the gameroom this evening. I think it's hilarious how all four boys are looking so intently at the TV and DS#3 even has his hand resting on DS#1's knee. I remember when, after spending the night with us and especially with DS#3, A went home and told his parents that he wanted a baby brother. His dad joked with DH about the ideas that we were putting into his son's head!

Sometimes the boys let DS#3 hold one of the controllers that isn't attached so he can press the buttons as if he is "playing" too. He just looks natural with that controller, doesn't he? ;-) After I took this picture, DS#1 must have scored really well or something, because he said "Yeah!" and held up his hand for DS#3 to give him a "high five" which DS#3 did. DS#3 then turned towards A, held up HIS hand and said "Hi Fi" so that A would give HIM a "high five"! Too cute!

Later, DH was going to give the boys a 5-minute warning before they had to stop playing. I went to the gameroom and found DH himself playing with DS#1. I said, "I thought you were giving them a "5-minute warning"? He replied, "I did, only I'm not wearing a watch." Okay, so I guess I have a big boy that loves to play video games, too!

Decisions, Decisions

I'm trying to catch up on my daily photos.

February 10

HAIL! We had hail on Tuesday. I got a few photos but this is the one that best shows the hail on our backyard deck. It's mixed in with some leaves from our live oak trees that drop leaves year round. This is the first precipitation we've had in months and I'm so glad it happened at night. It made a loud racket against our windows and roof, but luckily, the kids were already in bed. I can't imagine having to drive in this stuff, but it was certainly cool to look at.

February 11

As usual I had trouble choosing one photo for my "photo of the day". I don't know why I always procrastinate when it comes to preparing for these "events" at the kids' school, but I do. Tuesday night I bought these bags and candy. Last night I stamped these tags and tied them to the bags. I stayed up way too late, but at least I was done with DD's valentines.
These are DS#2's valentines. He didn't want to do the boxed valentine's cards this year, and the decorated bags with the hearts and the pink and red on them were not suited for this 9-year-old boy's personality, so I made these bags instead. I stuffed the bags with candy last night, and tonight I stamped the toppers. They look rather plain to me, but he seemed to be really appreciative. He even gave me some hugs without me asking him to when he saw them after he got home from soccer practice tonight. I had the hardest time deciding how to do these valentines for the two kids, but I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out. Still, I should have gotten these done this past weekend instead!

February 12

This is my photo for today. DD asked for popcorn for dessert, so I popped some and she shared it with DS#3 who also loves popcorn. He was so cute; as soon as he saw the popcorn, he came right over and plopped himself down on the chair. DD cracks me up, too. When I took this photo, I noticed that she had kept her mouth open while holding the popcorn in front of her mouth. After I took the photo she told me that she made sure to look like she was about to eat the popcorn. I was laughing to myself and wondering why she thought I would want a photo of her "looking" like she was in the act of eating the popcorn. Silly girl!

Remember last Friday when I posted about how DS#1 getting accepted at one of the prominent Catholic high schools in town as well as one of the two magnet schools he was interested in (which were both chosen by lottery)? Well, someone must have backed out after being picked by the lottery, because the other one called tonight to say that he'd been accepted there, too. It's great because that's the one he was more interested in. It's more about using computers combined with elements of design applied to architecture, engineering, game design, visual arts, etc. The drawback, though, was that this led to a very in-depth discussion between the three of us about which school he wanted to go to next year. DH and I explained that we didn't want to "stress him out" in making him make this decision. After all, he's only 13. These schools are very challenging academically, however, and we feel like he'll work harder if he participates in the decision. In any case, after our discussion, he says he wants to go to this school. I guess we'll be making some phone calls tomorrow to turn down the other offers. I still can't believe he'll be in high school in the fall.

Three Babas

One night a month or so ago, DS#3 woke up in the middle of the night screaming. He does this more often than we'd like, but on that particular night, he couldn't find his burp cloth (which he calls "baba"). We've always used the prefolded double thickness cloth diapers as burp cloths, so we have plenty of them. The solution that night was to give him back his burp cloth. Since then, we've made sure he had a least a couple of them in his crib so that if he "lost" one in the middle of the night, he would easily find another one nearby. Now, he seems to have gone overboard as he pretty much demands no less than three burp cloths when he goes to sleep--one for his face and one for each side of his head.

By the way, when he asks for a "baba", that's our signal that he's ready to go to bed. He started crying for a "baba" when I was changing his poopy diaper tonight. He ended up with four of them at one point because of the three that were already in our bed from this morning plus the extra one. He could barely carry all of them! If he looks happy and not tired in the photo on the right, it's because I was about to sing to DD and him in her bed and he saw the camera--of course.

In other news, DS#2 started soccer practice tonight. He has a new coach and some new players on his team. One of the new players is the brother of one of the kids on DS#1's soccer team. He's supposed to be a pretty good player, so DS#2 seemed excited to be getting the new coach (who he seemed to like) and the new players.

Livestock Show

We began today like any other Sunday. DH went out and got donuts for us, then after breakfast we got ready for church. We ran a few errands after church then returned home for lunch. One of those errands was picking up some barbecue. I guess that got us in the mood, because we decided to head out to the Livestock Show and Rodeo that's in town right now. We skipped the rodeo and just roamed the grounds.

We saw some sheep and goats then discovered the Borden area where we had milkshakes and ice cream. We missed the demonstration on how to milk a cow using some automated equipment because we were interested in seeing the "CSI: Live" show. Don't ask me what that has to do with the rodeo, but it was a show using audience volunteers to "solve" a mystery. DS#2 loves science and mysteries, so we thought this was right up his alley. Earlier DH and I had talked about how in his school group photo, he was the only one in his class that was not smiling. DH had to threaten him in order for him to smile for this photo, but at least he did it.

The show started with a "magic show" where the assistant gets injured. Two "CSIs" show up with their mobile unit and solve the case. There was even a video with "Gil Grissom" (played by William Petersen) from the TV show "CSI" giving them instructions. It was entertaining and in the end they did an actual magic trick where the assistant goes into a box disappears and then reappears. This will be my photo of the day for today.

One of the other things we did was this "game" where DD had to throw the rope onto the "steer". She didn't make it with any of them, but she seemed to enjoy herself anyway. She also wanted to do the petting zoo. The petting zoo was free but you had to buy food if you wanted to feed them. I refused to buy the food and I'm glad I did. As soon as we got in the pen with the animals (there were a LOT of people in there) every time an animal (mostly goats and sheep) came near us, she would back away. She said she wanted to pet a "small" animal, but really all of them, if they were standing, were bigger than her. She wouldn't even pet the ones that were lying down. If she had brought food with her, they most certainly would have been more aggressive towards her. After a few minutes I had enough and I pulled her out of there. I suppose that she liked the idea of the petting zoo, but she really seemed too afraid to touch any of the animals.

DD was the only one that wanted to put her head through one of these thingies for a photo op. In fact, she was the only one interested in doing anything. The boys really seemed a bit uninterested in the whole livestock show/rodeo thing. DH and I were a little miffed at them because they pretty much started asking to go home after the Borden area and the CSI show. DS#3 might have enjoyed it a bit more but we went during nap time and he was intermittently very unhappy. Oh well, it was something fun and different to do, anyway!

Genome: The Secret of How Life Works

Today was the opening of a new exhibit at the Witte Museum called "Genome: The Secret of How Life Works". The museum opened at 8:30AM for members. That meant getting up earlier on a Saturday than I would have hoped for. On the "up" side, we got a free breakfast and free entrance to the new exhibit (usually the exhibit would be an extra $3 even for members). DS#1, DD, and I all got two bean and cheese tacos each. They decided they didn't like theirs after a few bites, however. DH and I really hate wasting food, but what could we do? DS#2 loaded up on bananas and yogurt, and DS#3 had the same.

There were a ton of people at the exhibit, so I didn't really enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. Much of it was way over DD's head, even though DH and I tried to simplify it as much as we could. Still, she had some fun at some of the interactive exhibits--watching videos, pairing nucleotides, etc. DS#3 just enjoyed pressing buttons whenever he could. I was surprised that DS#2 didn't act very interested. I thought for sure he would want to read everything and try to learn everything. I told DH that I can totally see engineering in his future and not Biology like his parents. DS#1 did seem to enjoy it and spent quite a bit of time looking at all of the information.

We went to some of the other permanent exhibits there that the kids always enjoy, then we headed home for lunch. DD and DS#2 played outside, then DS#1 and DS#2 got to play some PS3 video games. DH and I didn't try to put DS#3 down for a nap until we saw this. The poor boy had fallen asleep clutching his "James" train. He probably didn't even want to admit that he was tired--that's why he is only partly lying down. When DH tried to move him to his crib, he was burning up, so he was medicated first. DH thought he himself was feeling better today too, until tonight. I hope they both feel better tomorrow. For now, DD and I still haven't gotten "it"...

By the way, I'm going to use all three of the above photos as my "photos of the day" because I have space in my Project 365 album. I realized that I take quite a few portrait photos and that allows me more room in the album. This way I don't have to spend extra time trying to narrow down the field. :)

One By One

After keeping up with my blogging pretty frequently in December and January, I've slowed down quite a bit. I think I'm just tired from making myself keep up with all of those blog posts. I haven't even scrapped since last month or kept up with my Project 365 album. I have kept up with the photos, more or less, at least. I'll try to post those tomorrow. In the meantime I'm posting a short update today.

DS#1 started having fevers and vomiting last Saturday (1/31). He stayed home from school on Monday (2/2). DS#2 started having fevers and some nausea on Sunday (2/1) and stayed home from school on Monday through Wednesday (2/2-2/4). DH started having fevers on Wednesday, and DS#3 had fevers on Thursday (2/5). So far DD and I have only had a little dry cough that we've all had for about a month or so. I'm really crossing my fingers that DD and I don't succumb to this illness too. Apparently there are a bunch of kids that are out sick at their school, so I guess it's just that time of year.

I have an update on our ceiling leak that I posted about a few days ago. In order to pinpoint the location of the leak and repair it, the plumbers had to cut a big hole in that ceiling as well as a hole around the faucet in the kids' bathtub upstairs. They were able to fix it last Saturday when I was on call at the hospital, so we didn't have to leave the water off for too long. On Monday, DH called some guys that those plumbers recommended, to fix the hole in the ceiling and in the bathroom. He actually called three people, but only one called back. Even in a tough economy nowadays, we still have a problem getting repair people to call us back--I just believe that sometimes. Anyway, the estimate was reasonable, so DH okayed it, and they fixed the ceiling this past Thursday. We're waiting on the bathroom because we'd like to go ahead and replace that tile around the bathtub to match the floor. The kids didn't really use that bathtub a lot anyway.

DH has posted more about this on his blog than I have on mine, but we've been looking into our high school options for DS#1 for next year. There's the public high school that we feed into. There is a prestigious Catholic high school that has turned out many of the prominent local businessmen, politicians, and other professionals, etc. There are two magnet high schools that are more science and technology oriented. Those magnet high schools are chosen by lottery, so DS#1's excellent grades and test scores do not play a role in the selection process. So, today was when they were supposed to notify everyone.

I'm happy to announce that DS#1 was chosen for one of the magnet schools and the Catholic high school. He was even offered a "major" scholarship to the Catholic high school. DH and I hate to have to keep turning down money, but once again, we'll probably be turning down this scholarship. DS#1 really wants to go to the magnet high school. DH and I have to agree that it sounds like a good opportunity for him. They even have a grant from the Gates Foundation, so he'll be getting his own laptop. Of course, when DH told him the news this afternoon, in his typical understated fashion, he just smiled--that's it. :)

Friday, January 23

Sorry I haven't posted in the last couple of days. It takes me a good two days to recover from a call night. I even took my photo of the day while I was at the hospital. I'll post that photo and others in the next few days. Now back to Disney!

On our last full day at Disney, we got up a little earlier again (which was tough after having stayed up a little later the night before going to Downtown Disney) and got to the park a little after it opened at 9AM. We went to Disney's Hollywood Studios, and we had two things we really wanted to do--Toy Story Mania and the "Lights, Motors, Action" show. We knew that we would have to be fast to be able to get to Toy Story Mania. As soon as we got there, we stopped briefly to get a family photo taken in front of Sorcerer Mickey's hat by the Disney Photopass photographer. We then almost ran to the Pixar Studios area to Toy Story Mania. We sent DS#1 to get us some Fast Passes so we could ride again later. The line was so short that we had to let a few people pass in front of us because the Fast Pass line was longer than the actual ride line. The sign said 40 minutes, but really it took only about 30 minutes.

We goofed around in line, taking photos of the kids against the various Toy Story themed decorations. DS#3 was in a great mood and played with my sunglasses and then the 3D glasses for the ride. When we came out of the ride, the line looked even shorter, so we got in line again. Again it took about 30 minutes, so it was only about 10:30 when we came out of the second ride. After riding this second time, my right arm was sore from pulling the "gun" as fast as I could to hit as many targets as I could. DS#2 complained of the same problem, but he was excited because he ended up breaking his personal record. He was all atwitter with excitement as we awaited the rest of the family to finish the ride. He couldn't wait to tell them.

DS#1 really enjoyed the Magic of Disney Animation so we headed over there. During the wait for the next show, we watched a video of different Disney characters being sketched out. The boys enjoyed being able to guess the Disney character after only a few pencil strokes. Only DS#1 and I tried drawing during the show. They showed us step-by-step how to draw Bolt, the new Disney character in the movie also called "Bolt" that is out right now. How do you think our drawings compare? DS#1's drawing is the bigger one on the left and mine is the smaller one on the right.

After that show, it was time for our Fast Passes, so we headed back to Toy Story Mania again. This time DD was so disappointed that once again, she scored the lowest in the family. DS#2 was excited that he scored more than the last time. I was proud of DS#2 trying to comfort his sister (for once) by telling her that he started out with low scores, too. DH and DS#1 always made the highest scores in the family, and DH is amazing because he can score very high even while holding DS#3 with one arm.

We then had lunch and we spent some time at the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" play area again before the 1:20PM showing of "Lights, Motors, Action" stunt show. I got to take some photos this time. Even DS#1 asked me to take this photo of him pretending to hold up a giant cookie. The sun was filtering in, which prevented me from getting a really great photo, but y'all should get the idea.

We all really enjoyed seeing the stunt show. We're big action movie fans. DH is so lucky that I don't make him see chick flicks with me. We saw this show during our last visit, so we knew about some of the gags, but still it was fun to see those cars racing around as if we were watching a real-life movie. We couldn't believe that our big car fanatic, DS#3 actually fell asleep right before the big finale. He had been sitting on DS#1's lap and I noticed his eyes getting really heavy and his head bobbing, so like a dutiful scrapper, I took some photos. He flinched a little when the final explosion made a loud "boom" sound, but he stayed asleep. Amazing show and amazing child!

The kids at this point were more excited about going back to the hotel to play with sand again than they were interested in seeing anything else. We went ahead and shopped a little then headed back. We had snacks in the Concierge Lounge before the kids headed outside. DD even went swimming. It was warm, sunny, and beautiful, so I ended up outside too. I enjoyed just watching them play with each other. DS#3 was so happy playing with his siblings too. DD even found another little girl who wanted to play with her.

We wanted to enjoy the fireworks over Cinderella's castle in the Magic Kingdom one last time. I wanted to get some photos of the fireworks so I went outside. I wasn't as happy with these photos as I was of the photos I was able to take during our last visit, but I at least wanted some reminder of these awesome fireworks that we were able to enjoy. I miss Disney already!