Peace Interrupted

The peace has left the house. A once quiet and peaceful brotherly morning has now been interrupted by an all out Nerf Gun war between 5 boys. There are two teams of two and one referee. There are bases, bombs, darts, and bullets. The ref calls the shots. Although the peaceful morning has gone, this is an alternative form of cooperative play. Bring it on boys!

Happy Birthday Roo!

So today was Roo's birthday. He's been anxiously awaiting it's arrival. This is a day we've been marking as a big deal for almost a year now. It seems that when someone reaches age six, they are no longer a little guy but working up to something bigger. With this in mind, we created a goal for Roo.

Stop sucking his thumb.

This seemed like reasonable goal for a six year old to obtain but his thumb is his prized possession, along with "Stuffy" his pillowcase. They go together, Stuffy and Thumb. They've been together since he was about one. Over the years we have tried, with great failure to curb this habit and to his credit, he has, on a few occasions, attempted to stop on his own. For about a day. So last year I succumbed to a trick my friend used to toilet train her son. "Roo, what would it take to get you to stop? If you could have or do anything what would it be. Because Roo, if you stop by the time you are six, we will do it/get it for you!"

Over the past year he has vacillated between an electric guitar and a drum set (the house is already loud so whatever). He even picked the color. So last night he went to bed, informed us that tomorrow he would stop sucking his thumb and went to sleep, right. At 1:30 am Roo crawled into our bed (I should mention that he was born at 1:20 am) and said, "Okay, I'm six is it time to open presents?" Then immediately grabbed Stuffy and started to suck his thumb. The deal is off and I have a suspicion that we have some large orthodontist bills coming our way.

Happy Birthday Roo!

Happy Mother's Day!

G-man brought home a sweet Mothrer's Day surprise from school on Friday. It was the top 10 things about his mom...me! It was very thoughtful and sweet and though I cannot likely match his youthful honesty, I thought doing the same for my mom would be a nice tribute.

The Top 10 Things About My Mom

10. She can answer all my baking quesitons.

9. She lets me change the station on her car radio.

8. She shares her stash of Swiss chocolate.

7. She gives me the clothes from her closet that don't fit her anymore.

6. She will still buy me things when we are shopping, even though she shouldn't.

5. She wants all the details, even if I don't want to tell them.

4. She checks in with us almost daily.

3. She was always around for my brother and I growing up.

2. She will babysit my boys (just the two), anytime she can.

1. SHE'S MOVING TO MONTANA!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM, I LOVE YOU!

While You Were Waiting

Well, when I said I wouldn't update my blog on a regular basis, I guess that meant I would consider actually blogging about once a month. How do monthly updates sound? No, but seriously, any of you who know me on a daily and personal level likely know that I am not generally a happy-go-lucky kind of gal in April and much of May. The profession I have chosen requires an insane and mind numbing amount of craziness during these times. The level to which this effects my life can best be put by telling you that G-man's birthday was quite a while ago and he has yet to effectively cash in his promised birthday party (on that same note, presents he has received thus far are not adequatley "thanked" for...if you are an "unthanked" soul, it's coming, probably after summer break starts...as is the birthday party). I'm sure some of you are wondering what a special education preschool teacher could possibly need to do that would send her to the dark side for six weeks. Well, allow me to enlighten you. TRANSITIONS and ESY. Got it? No? Okay, allow me to explain since you are all feeling deprived of my negligent blogging behavior. (If you really don't care, skip down to the photo section).

TRANSITIONS...any of the students in my classroom who are of kindergarten age in the fall are required to have a transition meeting. This starts with organizing a time for every receiving special education teacher (and sometimes counselors, psychologists, principals, coordinators, or general ed teachers) to come observe their incoming students. Next comes planning a time to meet. This involves coordinating a meeting with the incoming school, the parents, and sometimes additional schools (the reason for additional schools is really not worth explaining). Then comes preparing information and paperwork about the child to share at the meeting. Then I actually have to go to the meeting. I only mention this small detail because since many of these meetings are at unusual times in order to fit them all in, I actually almost forgot to go to one last year. Now, when I say "almost forgot" I don't mean that I remembered at the last minute and got there. Nooooo, this meeting was scheduled from 8-8:30 in the morning on a day that I teach but the meeting was not at my school. So off I went to work and started about my day when one of my paraeducators arrived and said, "Aren't you supposed to be at a meeting?" (My paras truly keep me in line on a daily basis! I would not survive without them!) So off I went, 15 minutes late for a 30 minute meeting that they could not have without me. Luckily this has not occurred this year but my last meeting is a similarly scheduled meeting so I'll keep you posted, unless I forget.

ESY...also known in the special ed world as Extended School Year and to the general public as summer school (but this is more specialized). The kids we teach often show a loss of skills after a break and if we can document and prove that summer break will cause a loss of certain skills that they will take a significant amount of time to recoup, then we nominate them for ESY. (Don't we all regress over summer break?) Guess what nomination involves...lots of documentation, photocopying, and filling out paperwork. Oh yeah, and trying to track down parents to see if they actually want it. It's all great fun and after leaving work at 6:15 on Thursday, since it was all due on Friday, I actually made it in time to see half of G-man's baseball game. And on that note, I'll fill you in on our happenings on the range.

BASEBALL SEASON

G-man has been waiting so anxiously for baseball to start and is loving every minute. He is doing great and getting a chance to try different positions as well as making some great plays. We love watching his enthusiasm but EJ (it's been a while but remember that's Endorphin Junkie) is pinning for the fast pace, one-hour games of soccer.

RUN ON THE RIVERBANK

We all ran in a great community race a few weeks ago. I raced the 5k in preparation for my marathon and the EJ ran with Roo in the jogger to support G-man running the 5k as well. Then the EJ and G-man ran with Roo to support him in the one mile (first photo). I decided to skip the one mile for any of you who wanted to wise crack that they all ran more then me. Besides, someone had to get a picture (at lest of Roo, G-man came by too fast and I missed him...one mile in under 10 minutes after running a 5k...you rock G-man!) We had a great time, all did better than we thought and enjoyed one of the first awesome days of spring!

TOO OLD?

Wilco "I'm Always in Love"

EJ and I went out last week. This wasn't just a regular night out, oh no...we went out with the havurah without any of our children (now, I should mention that 2 members of the havurah...the very ones who gave us this label, couldn't be there due to being in Seattle or something not nearly as fun as the havurah). Nonetheless, it was a great time that involved dinner and a concert. I managed to keep this little date night a secret (until another friend spilled it) almost to the end. The funny part about this being a secret was that this concert was not one either of us had a clue about. Neither of us knew the band or their music. So in preparation, I put a few songs on my iPod, borrowed a CD and strategically played it while EJ was in the car. I came to like these guys but EJ didn't catch on. So as we jammed, tried to avoid the smell of pot occasionally floating around and enjoyed a night with no babysitter curfew, I think EJ wondered if we are just old.

WILD

Today, yes we are finally updated, we went wild! Roo was dressed to the hilt as a ferocious cheetah and we marched our way through downtown with a lot of other fun and furry characters for an annual parade. He had a great time but for once, turned off his showmanship and walked along without his mask while his friends roared, growled, and purred. Maybe he isn't such a clown after all.

So that's where we're at folks. Sorry for the delay and hopefully this will satisfy your appetite for a while.

YES WE CAN!

We were fortunate enough this weekend to attend a rally for Barack Obama. I know I have shared this video with many of you already but if you haven't seen it, it is wonderful. Check it out and imagine us in a room full of 8000 other Montanans with this playing overhead. It gave me chills and filled the room with an excitement that our local paper likened to a rock concert as opposed to a political rally. We had a great time and felt lucky to get in. Tickets were free but required and didn't guarantee you a seat. As you can see from the size of the very small section of the line that I posted, we didn't know that we would get in. We did, after standing in line for over an hour, and it was worth the wait. When it was over, Roo decided he needed to find "Arack Obama" and shake his hand. We weren't successful but another Montanan body surfed their baby girl over the crowd with success! Lucky girl.

If you are interested in seeing more video of Obama in Montana, there are lots of great videos on You Tube.

ALL ABOUT ME PART 3

A number of things are the norm at our house. Busy boys, a dirty dog, running and biking schedules, and clean up. The constant clean up. I hate to admit it, but I can't stand clutter. Dirt is okay, but clutter will make me crazy! I am one of those sorry, sad people that have to clean up the kitchen before I can cook. I can't find anything unless it is in it's place. Now, if I were to try and have 2 (or even 3) busy boys clean as they go, I would pull my hair out. Therefore, we do the traditional end of day clean up. G-man has become a pretty stellar helper for his young age with exception to the banana peels he leaves in his wake. Roo procrastinates, whines and becomes utterly defenseless in his ability to put away the disaster he created (which mostly consists of the 10 changes of clothing he adorned during the day). As for my endorphin junkie (EJ), I really can't complain. Compared to many women I talk to, I am definitely one of the lucky ones. He does his laundry, fixes my bike, takes out the garbage, handles the cars and yard, and is pretty much responsible for the arrival and departure of our boys to and from school. Like I said, he's a great guy. However, even great guys aren't perfect.

The results of our household's combined cleaning efforts are documented below for your enjoyment and/or judgment.

The baskets. Where I suspect clutter, I add a basket. It isn't considered clutter if it's contained, or at least mostly contained right? Just ask EJ how many baskets I have handed him for his piles. In fact, I have him nicely trained to ask for one as needed. I have come to love the phrase, "Do you have an extra basket?" It is now become my adopted decorating style...baskets everywhere.

The fine print...for those of you who are now worried that I'm going to come to your house and freak out about your clutter, I'm immune to other peoples clutter.

Truly.

This picture is for Gramma. I did an experiment the other day after our recent conversations about dishes on the counter vs. in the dishwasher. It was morning, I had cleaned up all the dishes and one member of our family was still eating and nearing completion. I kindly left the dishwasher open for this individual to put his dishes away in (I have three "he" members of my family so the rest of you will have to guess who I'm discussing here). This picture is the result of my effort. Notice the bowl and spoon on the counter. There it stayed. I put it away. I know I'm feeding the pattern here but I was laughing too hard to myself as I took this picture and put it away to request compliance. Besides, now it makes for a funnier story.

After an endless amount of drama and complaint, Roo finally puts his toys and many, many clothes away at the end of the day. As he approaches the end of clean up he makes sure I know that he is done and that the clothes on the floor are "for this next day" (also known as tomorrow to the rest of the English speaking world). This little pile is his security blanket that the exact outfit he needs to look cool this next day is not lost in a drawer or basket somewhere. I can only hope they are clean.

ALL ABOUT ME PART 2

I love where we live. It is beautiful, peaceful (except for the loud boys) and we have great neighbors. I know many of you have been to our house and many of you have not (shame on you). The following picture is for those of you who have not. This is my attempt to lure you out west. This picture is from the deck looking out into the "backyard." How could you resist this?

In the warmer weather, we love to take walks to the creek. This is one of my favorite pictures from the creek. The boys love to catch water skeeters and get wet and muddy. I can't tell you how many poor little water skeeters have been dragged, unwillingly, back to our house in a peanut butter jar only to expire days later.