Maria's Interim Report

Here's what Mrs. Pearsen wrote on Maria's interim that she brought home today.

"Maria is so honest, responsible, respectful, and sweet! I love being her teacher!"

We really can't ask for more than that, can we?

Maria's New Room

It's done! Ben stayed home today and dealt with the carpet installers, then put all the furniture back into the kids' rooms. That included putting Sam's bed back together and assembling Maria's new loft too. When the kids and I got home, we helped to put stuff back - we all (except Sam) pretty much worked right up until dinner. Maria did a lot of the work on her room, with my help. I did have to redirect her some, though, when she kept getting distracted looking at stuff instead of putting it away.

The thing I was most worried about was Sam's reaction. Even though he was with us when we bought the loft I don't think he really understood that Maria was getting a loft and he was not. But we emphasized that he could get a new room when he's eight too. And we did let him get a bed tent which he picked out - it just has not come in yet. Hopefully we'll have it the beginning of next week.

Anyway, he was pretty good. I could tell he was disappointed, and quickly went from being in her room to playing Wii where he could forget about it. We keep telling him that his tent will be here soon. He was a little weepy right before dinner and asked me to cuddle with him (I'm not sure that has ever happened - Maria does, but not Sam). But I think he's OK with it. We'll see if he fusses at bedtime. It's a life lesson that he can't always get something new when Maria does (and vice versa), but its not an easy lesson.

Both kids went to Sam's T-ball practice with Ben. As soon as I am done here I am relaxing. It was worth working all afternoon to get the house put back together, but I am exhausted!

Four Pairs of Slippers!

We emptied out both kids' rooms this afternoon so the new carpet can be installed tomorrow. Ben also tore up all the old carpet and padding. So the rooms are completely empty.

I had encouraged Maria to get rid of some things during this process. She threw away 4 containers of Play-Doh, but only because they were hard. That's it. She put some stuff in the basement, but didn't really get rid of anything.

When I was clearing out her closet, I found 4 pairs of slippers. All are within the correct size range, but I never see her wear any of them. Rita and I have tried to get her ones that she will like (per her requests), but she never actually wears them, except for the one "Pajama Day" at school each year.

So when I found these four pairs, I asked her why she needed 4 pairs when she doesn't wear any, and asked her which pairs we could get rid of today. Her answer - one pair. The other ones, she claims, she likes and will wear. Even though it almost summer, and she's never worn them much before.

I see now I have two choices. Either let her keep all the stuff I would like her to get rid of and deal with her room being full of crap until she goes to college. Or do what I used to when she was younger - wait until she has a sleepover and Grandma and Grandpa's and clean out her room myself.

Ballerina

Yesterday was the first dress rehearsal for Maria's ballet recital coming up in a few weeks. The dance studio rents time at Marysville High School, where the recital is performed in their auditorium, a few times before the actual recital. The stage they perform on is much bigger than their practice studio, so at the first rehearsal here there's always a lot of figuring things out and working with spacing, etc.

Maria's ballet and gymnastics class were scheduled for yesterday, so we were there between 5:00 and 8:00. We did have a 45 minutes break to meet Sam and Ben for dinner. Anyway, I had been dreading this for a while - thought I would be bored to tears the entire time.

And guess what? I actually enjoyed myself. I brought along my book, but didn't even read it. It was fun to see how everything goes together, and Maria has really gotten so much better at both dancing and gymnastics. This is her fourth year dancing, and she has really come a long way.

I also noticed that Maria was placed as a line leader for the large group number, which shows me she's one of the most dependable ones in the group. And Miss Patty (teacher of older ballet students and studio owner) spoke with me for a minute about Maria. She doesn't know Maria very well since Miss Krista (Patty's daughter) has always been Maria's teacher. But Miss Patty took over for Krista when she took a whole 3 weeks off after having her first baby recently, so Patty has worked with Maria some. Anyway, last night she told me that Maria has such good posture and is a great girl - "a true ballerina." So that was nice to hear too.

I don't think I will enjoy the rest of the rehearsals as much since I've seen all the dances now. But soon it will all be over and we'll have a nice relaxing summer break.

Except for T-ball, golf camp, 4-H (we REALLY need to start on that project!), vacations, etc.

Let's all join the 21st Century!

I try to keep this blog to only amusing stories from home, since amusing/annoying (can you tell the school year is almost over?) stories from work would make this blog A LOT longer than it already is. But today I'm really annoyed by something at work and I'm going to vent.

We are wrapping up teacher/school board negotiations for a new contract covering the next three years. I'm not directly involved, thank goodness, but yesterday we received a notice about the contract changes we will be voting on. As expected, salary increase was not great since the school district has spent all year saying they're broke. Regardless, I have confidence in our negotiations committee and believe its the best we're going to get. What I could not believe was what many of my fellow teachers that I eat lunch with were upset about. Are you ready for this injustice?

The school district is forcing everyone to have their checks direct deposited. That's right, no more paper checks that you have to go to the bank to cash/deposit.

This was an outrage to many of the people I eat lunch with. Several of them are women who are about 15-20 years older than me and still have to teach even though they are above usual retirement age since they took time off the stay at home with their kids. And they are bitter about this and make certain to get in their "I don't know how you leave your kids in Day Care all day" comments to make themselves feel better. But their bitterness is a whole other topic. This post is about them living in the stone age.

Anyway, these people do not trust that new "Internet" at all. Anyone will be able to see all of their personal information if their money goes directly to the bank. Why would they need to have their checks direct deposited if they have to go to the bank to get cash anyway?

Cash? Who needs cash anymore? Honestly, if it wasn't for the kids' school lunches and allowances we would probably never have cash.

But if they need cash to feel secure, I pointed out that we get cash using the cash back feature at just about any store you visit.

That's not safe, I was told. Okayyy...

I also pointed out that Ben and I have been taking advantage of direct deposit since we started teaching 15 years ago when it was a pretty new idea. And no one has ever "taken" our 2-week salary. Ben and I even now get out direct deposit receipts online and can store them in our e-mail archives. No paperwork and more easily accessible.

And when I mentioned I do all my banking online, they acted as though I might as well be posting my SSN and bank account information on a billboard for anyone to see. I told them I helped my Mom get set up with her online banking and she loves it now (You do love it, right Mom?).

These people don't even shop on the internet.

I know that I married a bit of a technology geek and we may be more dependent on technology than most people. But fighting direct deposit? And voting down a decent contract because of it? Come on.

Random Updates

Here's what's been going on the last few days:

Maria's room is finally painted. It's white with one accent wall that is blue. Ben put the final touches on last night, and tonight she will sleep in there, with the mattress on the floor and the rest of her furniture scattered about. It's not worth it to put the whole room back together because...

Wednesday the carpet will be installed. Both kids are getting new carpet (their current carpet is from when the house as built in 1989!). That means Tuesday after school Ben will move every piece of furniture out of their rooms and take up the old carpet and padding. We didn't want to pay extra to have them do it - depending on how this goes, it may be the last time we do it this way. Ben took Wednesday off to be here when it's installed - then he'll be able to put things back. Maria's loft (which is in pieces in the basement and garage) will also be out up then.

This means that everything will be done before Ben takes his band trip to Chicago Friday through Sunday, thank goodness.

Sam's third soccer game was today - I took some video which we'll post later. IF they were allowed to keep score, Sam's team would have won. They also would have won last week. Sam has yet to score any goals. He does get in there with the ball most of the time, he's just not as aggressive as some of his teammates. Grandma and Grandpa Keller came to watch today. It was cold and windy, but at least it didn't rain!

Ben will golf for the first time this season tomorrow. Looks like he'll have a nice morning before the wet and cold weather moves in tomorrow afternoon.

Maria is over halfway through the book I picked out for her at the library and says she loves it. I will believe it for certain when she actually finishes it. I have yet to start "Women in Flight." I'm trying to finish "Atonement" for book club first but it looks like that may not happen. I have to keep up my part of the bargain!

Victory!...maybe

Maria will never read anything that I suggest. When she finally picked up the Harry Potter books almost two years ago, it was only because the really smart boy in her class was readiing it and she wanted to prove that she could too. Forget the fact that I had suggested it many times. But once she got into it, she loved those books.

But she finished the 7th Harry Potter in the early fall. And she hasn't really been into any books for at home reading since. Many times, I've gotten her things at the library that she has rejected. I've taken her to the library to pick out her own books, which she never finishes. At parent/teacher conferences , her teacher and I spent most of the time discussing this problem. Mrs. Pearsen gave me many lists with suggestions, and we both stressed to her that these were not my ideas, because that meant she wouldn't even give them a chance. She tried some of those, but none of them really interested her. She does her 15 minutes of reading each night for homework, and writes about it, but still hardly ever finishes the book. And the whole "Nothing is as good as Harry Potter" excuse is getting old after 9 months! My main concern is that over the summer, when she is not in school, she won't be interested in anything enough to read on her own without my forcing her.

Tonight I had time to kill at the library while she was a t gymnastics. I picked out two books for her and two for Sam. I tried to get something different for Maria - a break from the fantasy books she keeps trying to replace Harry Potter with. One was "The Cricket in Times Square," which I read when I was her age. And the other was by an author that also writes adult chick-lit type books that I like, but this book was for little girls. I told her about the books on the way home from gymnastics, and asked her to give them a chance. When we got home, she picks up an old book off her shelf to read for her 15 minutes of homework.

I was not happy and confronted her about it. I told her if she would give my book choices a chance, she could pick any book of hers for me to read and I would read it. She cried and I had to leave her to give Sam his bath, but I really felt like I had gotten nowhere. But after her bath, she brought me a "Women in Flight" book and told me she would read my book choice for one week if I would read that for one week. After that week, she wants the right to give up the book if she doesn't like it. I told her we had a deal.

I can't say I'm looking forward to reading "Women in Flight, " but I may learn something. And reading the same book will give us an opportunity to discuss them.

So I feel like I may have won. I was reminded tonight how Sam is considered the stubborn child in this family, but Maria can be just as bad. She just expresses it differently.

What a Week!

Not only are things getting busier with Sam's soccer and T-Ball seasons overlapping, and Maria getting ready for her recitals (our first dress rehearsal is next Monday for 3 hours!), but we (O.K., Ben really) are painting Maria's room this week as well. She turns 9 next month, and is growing out of her pink flowers and butterfly theme that I picked for her when she turned two. So she's been looking in catalogs since the beginning of the year, and decided on a polka dot/stripe theme in mostly blue and green with a little bit of pink.

Then we had to decide when to paint. Ben didn't want to do it over spring break, and I kind of wanted it done before summer vacation so it would be like a birthday present. So we chose this week, mostly because we didn't have anything out of the ordinary and this weekend is free too.

Monday after school Ben stripped the wallpaper. Only some of it took some wall with it. That meant he had to do a bunch of patching yesterday, sanding, taping, and priming today, and he will actually get some paint on the walls tomorrow. In the meantime, I am taking both kids to all of their stuff and cooking and doing dishes so that he is free to work in the room. Usually, this time of year when Ben is less busy, he helps out quite a bit. So we both are exhausted (although I do think I have the easier job).

We are hoping the room can go back together over the weekend. Maria has been sleeping on her mattress on the floor of the front room all week. But the carpet isn't here yet, and so there's no sense in putting her room completely back together until the new carpet is installed. So it looks like things could be torn up up for a couple more weeks! And it's already driving me crazy, even though I haven't even been here all that much. I just can't wait until its all done.

Earth Day

In celebration of Earth Day, or maybe just a coincidence, our re-usable shopping bags arrived today. We ordered them last week, after a dinner conversation sparked by a new Science World magazine that I had been using with my classes. I knew that both paper and plastic bags were bad for the environment, but this article pointed out some alarming details that I hadn't heard about. We have discussed in the past how we should just buy some canvas bags, keep them in the trunk of the van, and use them on every visit. But we never actually looked into buying them and convinced ourselves that recycling the plastic ones was good enough.

Anyway, that same night Ben started looking on the internet for shopping bags and found some that were reasonably priced and made from recycled materials themselves. We were amazed at the selection and price range of these bags. Starting with his usual Sunday grocery shopping this weekend Ben will use those bags. And he may be the only person in Marysville - we've never seen anyone else use them.

Over the past two years, we have changed almost all of our light bulbs to the super efficient fluorescent type, stepped up our recycling efforts for aluminum, plastic, and paper, and quit buying/drinking bottled water (when we got our new softener at the beginning of the year). Still don't have a Hybrid yet, but every little bit helps!

P.S. Sam's Kinderpaws group have been recycling there and talking about Earth Day a lot. They "recycled" old T-shirts (Tye-dyed them) and all wore them to the Earth Day celebration today. He takes aluminum cans out of our recycle bin, puts them in a bag, and takes them to Kinderpaws to recycle. So cute!

Huh?

Ben: Sam, do you want to go with Mommy to take Maria to her piano lesson, or stay here with me while I strip wallpaper off the walls?

Sam: I want to go ice skating.

Dead MacBook

My work laptop (August 20, 2007 - April 21, 2008) died this morning. Read all about it here.

The 4H Meeting/Ice Skating Party

So Maria's 4H club had a meeting and ice skating event today at the Chiller in Dublin. It sounded all official...they would have the meeting first and then the ice skating portion would begin. Miss Jenny, however, is the most efficient meeting-runner I have ever seen. Maria, Sam and I all got there at exactly 2PM when the meeting was supposed to start. Jenny had us get our skates first and then had everyone put their skates on WHILE the meeting was going on. Everyone stood up for the pledge of allegience, but most people only had one skate on so we were kind of lopsided. The business part of the meeting took all of 2 minutes. By then, everyone had their skates on and we took a group picture, and then the meeting was adjourned. The kids were skating by 2:10 PM. Wow.

Maria took a few laps and hardly ever falls down anymore. After about half an hour, she retreated to the inner-rink area where the figure skaters work. She hung out with Lydia and Joni and worked on spinning and skating backwards. She spun around three times on her skates and it was pretty impressive. She was also able to do the thing where you skate on one leg and put the other leg up in the air behind you. I wish I knew what it was called. I think a "camel" might be part of it. She got a pretty good bruise on her knee from one really big fall she took near the mid-point of the session, but it didn't dampen her spirits.

Sam held my hand for a bout all of three minutes. After that he wanted to be totally independent. I just checked in on him from time to time. I'm not going to kid you...he fell down a lot, especially at the beginning when he was refreshing his memory, and at the end when his legs were so tired he could barely stand up. He's near the ground though, and he always bounced right back up. I'm pretty sure his butt will be a little sore tonight, though. He's a speed demon, and was keeping up with me at my regular "adult" pace of skating. By the end he was exhausted and ready to go. Maria would have stayed all night if I had let her.

We watched the Zamboni for a few minutes after our session and headed home. Lisa enjoyed her afternoon off, though in my opinion, she worked too much and relaxed too little.

Video below of both Maria and Sam in action.

Conversation with Sam

Sam got home from his friend Weston's birthday party a little while ago and he's been telling me about it. Here is some of our conversation.

Me: Did you play any games there?

Sam (big pout): Weston got 5 V-Smiles games and I didn't get to play any!

Me: I meant birthday party games - like Pin the Tail on the Transformer? Did you play anything like that?

Sam: No. But do you know why Shawn left early?

Me: Why?

Sam: He was bored. That's why he left early. And I wasn't even afraid of their dog.

Me: Really?

Sam: Yeah. When he got near me I got up on the chair and it didn't even break!

Me: Was it a big dog?

Sam: Not too big - not a St. Bernard.

If you can tell, I'm not really going to get any of the information I'm interested in.

Ben dropped him off and picked him up - I had to take Maria to two pictures for her recital - one at 1:45, one at 4:00. Which means I had to make the dreaded bun in her hair, although I did a pretty good job today. And it poured rain, but we kept her pretty dry.

No More Little Girl

I took Maria shopping tonight for a few new spring/summer things. She doesn't need much, but everyone likes a few new things - especially when you're a kid/almost pre-teen, and the styles keep changing.

She wanted to go to Limited Too and I told her she could get two outfits. We all had a few stops to make so Ben took Sam shopping for his clothes. Before they left, Ben asked me what he needed. I said nothing really but summer socks right now, but I'm letting Maria get two new outfits. He told Sam "We're getting you a shirt and new socks." And off they went to Gap Kids.

Maria walked around the store, picked out what she liked, and charmed a salesgirl into helping her put together outfits. When I let the salesgirl know we were only getting two outfits, she respected that and helped Maria pick out a shirt to match her plaid capris pants she had picked out.

While we were looking, Maria was singing to the songs they played over the speakers, and telling me things like "This one is from iCarly," and "Ooh, I love this one - it's by the Naked Brothers Band." When she had her two outfits and we went to the try on area, I asked her if she wanted me to wait outside and she said "Yes." Meanwhile, Ben called. He and Sam had finished in 10 minutes and would be waiting for us at the playground. He spent 10 minutes and less than $30.

In the meantime, Maria has put on her first outfit - the top was too small. The top also had a little built in bra and Maria said it "felt more like dress-up clothes - you know, not as comfortable as at-home clothes." I didn't have the heart to tell her it's all downhill from here.

So the sales girl set her up with a new shirt in a bigger size, and this time Maria did ask for help getting dressed (that "bra" was giving her problems). Everything fit fine and we left. She chose two outfits that are cute but look older (one is a mini-dress with leggings). In a way I'm so sad that my Gymboree days of shopping for her on my own are over. But this was fun too.

We spent 30 minutes and much more than $30!

Date Update for Grandparents

I just received notice that Sam's preschool class is having a "Singing Program" on the evening of Friday May 16. The same night and time as Maria's recital. So it looks like the Grandpas and Ben and Sam will have to go there before the driving range. And the go-carts my be out. I can't imagine it will take very long, and the preschool teacher insists Sam hates music and singing, so it could be interesting.

By the way, he likes music and singing just fine at home. But Ms. Jan says he hates it there.

This schedule mess happened last year too with Sam's end of year program. Doesn't seem like it should be this difficult with only two kids!

Also, we have a T-ball schedule for Sam - I will e-mail it tomorrow. I can tell you his first game is Memorial Day at 11:00 a.m., and then he has about 2 per week through June. The rest of the games are on weeknights after that first game- 6:00 or 7:00.

Thanks Paypal

After going through all of the red tape and many forms, Paypal has decided to give us our money back from the Skybus mess. The refund includes all $251 for our unused tickets and a fee we paid to change our first tickets. Ben did all the paperwork (Thanks!) and we received notice today.

It's so nice when something like this actually goes our way. (Even though we did have to buy more expensive tickets from another airline!)

Tball Is Under Way

You really never know what you might get when it's time to start a new season with a new coach and new kids on a team, but I was pleasantly surprised tonight at Sam's first t-ball practice. Coach Tony is big guy who talks softly but means business and makes sure the kids are doing things the right way. The other dads that are helping out seem very genuine as well and very helpful. Coach Will helped Sam remember how to throw the ball correctly and had him in great shape during the "playing catch" portion of the practice. Sam is getting better at getting in front of his grounders and even caught a few fly balls during fielding practice (thrown by the coach, not off the bat, mind you). Everyone on the team got to bat both from the pitcher and with the tee and rotated at every position. Practice lasted 75 minutes, which is way longer than all of these kids' attention spans, but only a few sand castles were built in the infield tonight. All of the boys and one girl on Sam's team seem very good natured and they all really had fun, even when they were wrestling over infield grounders during batting practice. It started out warm, but as the sun set it got really cold...the kids didn't seem to notice though. It looks like it might be quite an enjoyable baseball season.

"It's Time for the Challenge Games"

A couple of weeks ago Sam started to imitate a Food Network show that Maria likes to watch.  It's called Challenge and the contestants have a certain amount of time to make something - usually cakes, at least on the episodes she watches.  The entire show is narrated by a man walking around with a microphone.

So Sam holds a pencil up to his mouth and then talks very loudly so it's like he's talking into a microphone.  And he makes us play games that he comments on, like hiding a pillow and then someone else finding it.  Or racing across the room.  He says things like "only 40 more games to go."  "This won't take a very long time."  "This game WILL NOT be boring!"  And our favorite, "This is going to be adorable and awesome!" 

You really have to watch it in action to get the full effect.  The first time he did it Ben and I were laughing so hard I was crying.  But we didn't let him know we were laughing at him, of course.  We tried to get some on video but he's not as funny when he knows he's being watched.

To make it more interesting, Sam bought "Mario and Sonic at the Olympics" for the Wii with his allowance over the weekend.  Tonight he started to narrate games and I thought he might make us throw javelins or something, but luckily Maria was able to distract him with the real Wii before we had to play his games.

Wedding

Random observations from Brad and Katie's wedding:

Ben played solos both before the ceremony and during the lighting of the Unity candle and did a great job.

Sam spent almost the entire ceremony studying the Bible - no joke. It was much easier than I thought it might be - I didn't have to remind him to be quiet once. But he was thrilled when everyone applauded the couple - cheered when he asked if it was over and I said yes.

The minister did not cut his sermon short, even when the bride, several months pregnant, had to sit down. Nothing was going to stop him from telling his bad jokes.

I was very relieved when Maria had no questions about why the bride was pregnant already - even though I knew it might be coming, I still didn't have worked out exactly what I was going to tell her.

At the reception, we sat near some recent graduates - most have been out of high school almost 3 years. And I was disappointed in most of them - so many didn't finish college and seem to be drifting and partying. One boy is joining the army and leaving this week - after finishing only two years at OSU. I just wish these young adults saw the value in a college education.

It was great, though, to see and talk with both the Chandler and Bowman families - they were band families when we first got here and welcomed us 15 years ago. And their kids (although all adults now) still remain some of our favorite students of all time.

Maria loved the chocolate fountain and went back several times. Unfortunately, all that chocolate gave her a stomach ache later.

Sam made friends at the reception, the way he always does. He was playing farm animals with the flower girl and made friends with Luke (a former student who we ended up sitting near, and another good kid), bringing him a pretzel from the buffet every time he went to get more food. Which was very often, since it gave him a chance to get up and walk around.

All in all, a good time and we wish Brad and Katie the best.

First Soccer Game

It was cold. Very cold and windy at 9:00 this morning. But at least it wasn't raining.

They don't really keep score in the soccer games at this level. Which was good for us today, because if they had, we would have lost by about 9-1. I'm certain about the 1 - may have lost count on the number of goals for the green team.

We played a team that was bigger, better, and faster. So they should have won. But they were also mean - elbowing our kids a lot. And rubbing it in when they scored. Their coach did nothing to stop this, so at one point our coach (Coach Keith) called over all the kids and told them they shouldn't play rough like that, we're all friends playing a game, etc. The result of this talk was that the green team kept playing exactly the same way, but our kids wouldn't even go after the ball - they knew if they got into a fight for the ball they would get elbowed and weren't allowed to elbow back. So it wasn't a great first game.

Later, Sam said "I wish I was on the green team." Ben talked to him about it being more important to be fair players and nice people and to play by the rules, but I don't know how much of it soaked in. He remembers how much the other team scored and gloated and won and it looked like more fun to be on the green team. Hopefully the rest of the season will go better.

P.S. No pictures - it was too cold to take my gloved hands out from under the blanket. We'll try to get pictures next week.

Collections

I just read in a Parents magazine that when a child likes to collect things, its a sign of creativity and intelligence. So I guess I can tolerate Maria's and Sam's "collections" of rock, erasers, coins, etc. laying all over the house all the time. (My favorite was Maria's "used candy wrapper" collection a couple of years ago). But allowing them to keep these collections and nagging them to put them away all the time is really driving me CRAZY.

Maybe my intelligent and creative children will be nice enough to visit me in the insane asylum.

Never a Dull Moment

Last night all four of us attended a rehearsal dinner for a wedding that Ben is playing in today. A former student is getting married, and Ben was asked to play in the wedding. Brad, the groom, is part of a family that was involved in Fairbanks band when we first came here, and Brad and his twin brother Brent graduated a few years ago. Ben is good friends with Brent too.

Anyway, Ben went to the rehearsal and the kids and I stayed here until it was time for the dinner. I fed them a small dinner here, assuming that by the time we ate at the rehearsal dinner they would be hungry again, plus the chances of them having something Sam will actually eat were slim.

So we got to the dinner between 7:30 and 8:00. Most people were there and it looked like things would get started soon. Then the tornado sirens went off. This is new for us - living in the country we never hear the sirens. But this was the real thing, so we all went down to the basement. The dinner was being held at the OSU extension office which I believe is a fairly new building and so the basement was not nearly as bad as it could have been.

The kids had two very different reactions to our situation. Sam just didn't understand. Didn't know what a tornado was, why we needed to go into the basement, etc. I was with him during the parade into the basement and was looking forward to catching up to Ben and Maria so someone else could have a chance to answer his never ending "why" questions.

Maria was really upset. She was so scared she was crying, and nothing we said really helped. She does tend to get upset about storms during the past few years, and hates thunder storms, is always worried to power will go out, etc. But I have never seen her this upset for this long about a storm. She was worried about the building falling in, about our house being blown away when we got home, about her stuff, etc. I told her that the sirens were great because it gave us a chance to get safe, but that the majority of the time there's not actually a tornado that touches down. And I tried to emphasize that at least the four of us were together and safe. But she just kept crying until we could go upstairs again.

We were in the basement for probably about 20 minutes, during which we were brought bread sticks and had our drinks already. The dinner finally got started about 8:30, and we didn't get home until 9:45. Hopefully Sam won't be too tired for his first soccer game at 9:00 this morning. And hopefully it won't rain - its awfully cloudy right now!

Kindergarten Round-Up

This morning I took Sam to kindergarten round-up. I can't believe my youngest will be in kindergarten. But I am so looking forward to being done with Day Care! Although this year hasn't been bad.

Anyway, I was slightly concerned because I really haven't worked with Sam much on anything related to kindergarten. With Maria, we did things quite often. But as I was feeling really guilty about this last night, I reminded myself that Sam does not like to sit and do those kind of things. And after being rejected time and again last year, I just quit trying. And he has gone to preschool for the past two years, so I felt like he should be prepared.

And he did just as I would have expected him to do. Scored "average" or "slightly above average" in all but one verbal category. He scored in the "significantly above average" in the nonverbal categories - like gross motor skills, visual-motor skills, etc. No big surprise - he's always been very physically coordinated - Ben and I can never figure out how that happened! And maybe all that Guitar Hero has paid off.

Anyway, all of this meant his total was in the high end of "average," definitely ready to start school in the fall. And he passed his speech screening as well - all errors are considered "normal" for his age and they will re-check when he's in 1st grade.

Afterward, we went to Chuck E Cheese since pre-school was canceled due to Kindergarten round up and I took the whole day off. I've never been there with just Sam before. He had fun - but was all business. Played the same game for 50 tokens (the water spraying contest, only there was no one to compete against so he kept winning), got 235 tickets - his all time high. Then he picked out his toys and we were out of there in less than an hour!

It was a fun day with just the two of us. Now I am at parent/teacher conferences until 7:00. Except there are no parents here, so I should be getting a lot of work done. But I am truly a morinng person - have a very hard time motivating in the evening to get anything done. So I'm just counting down the minutes until I can leave.

Ugh...Mud!

Spring is here and the kids have had a blast playing outside. But one thing I hate about spring...mud!

It started Saturday when Ben let the kids and neighbor Mason play in the field behind our house. Most of the time there are crops growing back there so having the opportunity to walk around and explore is rare. And Ben figured, "They're kids, they're having fun, and they can clean up when they're done playing." (I was taking a nap since I had a pretty bad cold.) But the ground was REALLY muddy in some places without warning and before they knew it the kids had lost their shoes in the deep mud. Good friend Mason knelt down to rescue the shoes of both Maria and Sam, whose socks and pants were covered since they lost their shoes.

So you can imagine what a mess all three kids were when they came back up to the house. Two loads of laundry later, I thought the worst was behind us. But the kids, Maria especially, cannot get enough of going into the field to play. They are making "clay pots" out of the mud, searching for rocks, etc. This has gone on the last three days, and I'm tired of muddy clothes, shoes and hats. And when the kids wash their hands/arms/whatever else in the bathroom sink, there is a trail of dirt all over the sink, counter and bathroom floor.

So even though they still want to go out there, I have decided to be a mean Mom and say "No," just because it is too much work cleaning up after them. Hopefully, they won't be scarred for life. But they've had three days out there, and they still continue to come in covered in mud. And I've had enough.

Besides, Ellen is watching the kids tonight since Ben and I have tickets to Avenue Q, and I don't think she should have to deal with that mess. And then tomorrow it will get cold and rain, so it may end on its own without me having to get too mean.

Congratulations Dad!

Last night was an important one for my family. My Dad, Chris Larick, was honored by the Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation by being inducted into their Hall of Fame as a Media person. He wrote for the Sports section for the Geneva Free Press and then the Ashtabula Star Beacon for 30 years, and most of those while teaching high school English full time as well. He was very honored to be recognized for his hard work and talent, and Ben and I were fortunate to be able to be there to see it. (Thanks G. & G. K., for taking care of Maria and Sam for most of Sunday and into the evening!)

I was in the first grade when Dad started writing part time at the newspaper, but until now I didn't know that he originally took the job because he was in fear of his school district closing and not being able to provide for his family. I did pick up, even at a fairly young age, that although teaching was his main job, sports writing seemed to be the career he enjoyed most.

In both Dad's acceptance speech and in the feature article in the newspaper about him, he was certain to thank my Mom for her hard work parenting without him on most evenings, as he was off covering local high school games. I knew it was difficult at times for my Mom to always be the one to deal with my sister and I then (especially during those trying teenage years), but have a much greater appreciation for it after I became a parent myself. Ben also has a career that takes him away from home during the weekends and some evenings (depending on the time of year), and I now have a much clearer understanding of how trying it can be.

So Congratulations Dad - its got to be great to be honored for something you love doing.

If interested, check out the feature article here http://www.starbeacon.com/archivesearch/local_story_094025154.html

Stupid Skybus

Ben and I hardly ever get away on our own. And we also hardly ever fly anywhere. It's difficult to get away with the kids and their schedules, Ben and his work schedule, and the desire to want to do some traveling with the kids too.

But we decided to go away with friends to Marathon Key in July. They are all celebrating turning 40. And we are celebrating not turning 40 yet. We finally got around to getting our airline tickets the weekend of the blizzard about a month ago. A combination of the date getting closer, being on the same flight out as David and Suzy, and having time stuck inside with nothing to do motivated Ben to get busy.

Yes, we bought Skybus tickets to Fort Lauderdale for the way down - you just can't beat their price.

And now they're out of business and we may be out our money. We are in the process of trying to contact someone at the credit card company, which is what we've been told to do. But I never buy any of that credit insurance crap so I really doubt we're going to get any of the money back.

Sigh.

Celebration

We went out to dinner tonight to celebrate. Initially, we were celebrating Maria's straight A report card. All A's and A+'s, and a hand written comment from the principal that said "Magnificent! Maria is a really amazing kid - you should be very proud of her." We try to praise her and remind her how her hard work pays off. So we let her pick out where to eat and she picked Jerry's House of Hunan. She loves Chinese - Sam not so much, but he ordered mini corn dogs and actually ate a few of them.

Anyway, here's some other reasons for celebration:

1. Ben WILL NOT have a lunch duty at school next year. We are moving from an 8 period day to a 7 period day, and since he teaches 6 different classes, he does not have room for lunch duty. He just found this out today - no other details on either of our schedules. Spring is in the air when teachers have to start worrying about their individual teaching duties for the next year. No teacher likes lunch duty, but Ben has had 5th graders this year and they are a really dysfunctional group - worse duty he's had in 15 years of teaching. This duty can sometimes cloud his entire day - in some ways I think it's put a black cloud over his entire year.

2. I saw the eye Dr. today and am seeing 20/20 in each eye - with both eyes I can read the 20/15 line. I knew about Tuesday that I could all of a sudden see much more clearly, so I wasn't surprised but so relieved that my eyes have healed well. I don't go back for a month.

3. I guess we were celebrating that Sam was not in the hospital with a concussion even though he had a fall today (on his head) that was worthy of a phone call to us in the middle of the school day. Apparently he was messing around on a bar stool at Ms. Jenny's when he was supposed to be sitting still eating his lunch, and fell a few seconds after Ms Jenny told him to stop. He fell backward off the stool and the stool fell on top of him and hit him in the head. She iced it and called us, went ahead and sent him to school, and warned them to keep an eye on it at school. By the time I saw him at 3:00 we couldn't even see a mark.

4. Tomorrow is the last Saturday morning we don't have to get up early and go freeze watching Sam play a soccer game - his games start next week and last until the end of May. So we're going to try to stay up late and sleep in tomorrow. But since Ben's watching the Indians at 10:00, I'll probably be asleep by 10:15!

What's Up With Ben's Office?

Hi. My name is Ben. Remember me? *jk* I don't usually post here, but I thought I'd update you on what's happening in my swimming pool...er...office at Fairbanks. I'm kind of a displaced person, but I'm coping. I've got the full account at my blog, and you can check it out here.

The Inquisitor

Every night I read to Sam before bed. I did this with Maria for years too, only now she's old enough that she reads on her own. The last couple of years I couldn't wait for Sam to actually become interested in reading books, and the last several months he's been pretty into it.

Lately we have been reading a series from the library - Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Spider, and Dairy of a Fly. He loves them, and the more we read them the more interested he is in understanding EVERYTHING about the story. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that he is showing such interest and striving to learn more.

But it is REALLY trying my patience at story time.

Part of the problem is that we read right before bed time, when I am focused on getting him into bed so that I can begin to enjoy some adult time. Also, its the end of a very long day during which much of my patience was used up teaching freshmen how to balance chemical equations (today, at least). None of this is Sam's fault, so I try very hard to not let it show how exhausting his questions can be. But I do find myself trying to hurry and turn the page so he can't get another question in. It doesn't matter - if he has a question he will just go back to that page until he is satisfied.

And as usual, I don't always have the answers. The questions range from reading (Why does "thud" start with T if it doesn't sound like T?) to plot lines (Why is fly in time-out?) to things I don't know (Why do spiders have eight legs?) to the totally nit-picky I-don't-know-why-the-picture-looks-like-that questions (Why is worm's mouth so big?).

But I keep reminding myself that this time is important for him, and how hard I have been trying for years to encourage him to love books. So at 8:20 each night I sit down for stories knowing that when we're finished, he will have learned something and I can relax after he's in bed. And sometimes having a glass wine doesn't hurt either.

What's the deal with these erasers?

We are drowning in tiny erasers here. Let me explain.

Starting about a month ago, Sam started bringing home little erasers in the shape of animals. He loved these things and carried them around everywhere. Until he would put them down and not remember where, and then the whole family would have to search the house trying to find a wiener dog eraser about the size of a penny. I just figured he was getting them for good behavior at Kinderpaws - they frequently get to go to a "Treasure Box." But the last morning of school before spring break, he asked both Ben and I for a quarter to take to school. That's when we learned the whole story. Apparently there is an eraser vending type machine at school that takes quarters. Other kids have been putting quarters in this machine at lunch and then giving him one of their erasers. At least he wasn't using his milk money quarters, which is what I thought at first.

Ever since them, Sam is collecting quarters and couldn't wait to go back to school to buy his erasers. Every day of spring break he asked if it was a school night yet so he could take his quarters to school. We gave him 5 quarters for Easter and told him once they were gone he's done buying erasers out of the machine. Each morning before school he gets a quarter from his stash in his room and puts it in his backpack. Every afternoon he gets off the bus and lovingly shows me the erasers he's bought. (Apparently my suggestion about giving some to his friends who shared with him is being ignored.) And Maria assumed she must be missing out, so she started taking a quarter each day as well.

So all these erasers are piling up, and now once the thrill of buying the eraser is gone, they don't really pay much attention to them. But I know if I throw them out, Sam will ask for some eraser he hasn't played with in weeks.

This eraser mania will end next week when their quarters are gone, thank goodness. But I don't think Sam is going to let it go quietly.

And just in case you were wondering, I have yet to see either child actually use one of these things to erase something!