Thursday, January 29, 2009

Way To Go Hubby!!

You know you are in Home Depot too much if you are in Walmart, run into someone who works at Home Depot and he recognizes you from BEHIND and comes up and shakes your hand and asks how you are doing. Granted, the four boys are memorable, but...

Last night we were in Walmart getting some cereal and beans for Bryce's class. Tomorrow is the 100th day and he needed cereal for them to eat and 100 beans for counting projects. This happened to us. It was the guy we bought the shed from and he has helped us several other times we were in the store. He said "My wife called and asked me to stop and get index cards on the way home from work. I am like, 'you have been sitting around the house all day, why didn't you go get them?'"

Before I could respond Paul says "OHHHH, you better watch it!!"

Way to stick up for your wife and ALL stay at home moms that do nothing but "sit" around the house all day.

Andrew Embracing His New Role

Of being big brother.

As I have mentioned before, Mady does not like light shining on my stomach. She kicks whereever the light is. For some reason, Andrew got his flashlight (came with his workbench) and pulled up my shirt and started shining the light on my stomach. Everywhere he shines the light, she kicks. He stops shining the light long enough to blow raspberries on my belly or drive a car over her....she isn't too fond of those activities either.

Already pestering his little sister.

Daddy says he will be surprised when she takes over!

Third Trimester

I am going on 28 weeks, that means I am starting my third trimester (this weekend). I woke up this morning feeling very nauseous. I am hoping that is NOT my welcome to my third trimester, but just merely a down day!! We will see.

I am also still not comfortable taking the ambien every night, and the nights I don't take it - I don't sleep. I just can't get in a spot that I can stay in for very long without going numb or hurting.

I will just keep reminding myself that I have no more than 11 weeks left! I can do it....I can do it...I can do it....

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Isaac's Biography

Isaac asked me Monday to go see him do his biography and I told him parents were not invited. Yesterday he came home with a note saying parents were invited to come. :)

AJ and I went and saw him do his biography. I took a video I will put on later. He did a good job, the only time he messed up was on dates, but he quickly caught and corrected himself. He was asked some questions by his classmates and answered them very well (how did you get to the moon? did you land on pluto - which he actually answered yes to first then looked at me and corrected himself when he saw me shake my head no).

I was impressed with the creativeness of some of the people chosen. I was expecting a lot of presidents. We only saw the kids who had parents there, so we did not even see half the class, but there was Oprah Winfrey, Rosa Parks, Ted Ross, George W Bush, George Washington, Hannah Montana, Neil Armstrong, the first black heart surgeon, Anne Frank and Betsy Ross.

Good job Isaac on your first biography! It only gets worse from here :)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

How Do You Say It?

Caleb is SO smart, but there are times he pronounces things - things that he should know - that just make him sound.....not so smart.

For example: he wanted to help with dinner the other night and said he wanted to be Chef (pronounced Ch like you would if you were saying chip) Caleb. Paul and I looked at each other and I asked what a Chef was. He says "a person with a extensive degree in culinary skills." Both mine and Paul's jaws dropped and then we busted out laughing. How could he give THAT definition and NOT know how to pronounce chef properly?

Isaac's First Biography

Isaac has to do a biography in front of his class of a famous person. Each child has to have someone different, so we went with Neil Armstrong. Daddy and I have kind of forgotten about it and put it off until (we thought) this past weekend. Then we went to the beach this past weekend and forgot about it Sunday.

As if weekday homework for three is not bad enough every night, we had to add on top of that a biography. He has to have five facts, written on index cards and memorized. He cannot read the cards, but can have them to glance at if he needs to while he is in front of the class. He has to dress up and act like he IS Neil Armstrong.

We sat down last night after regular homework for everyone was done and started working on it. He got his cards written and the whole biography almost completely memorized. I am so proud of him! There are a few dates in the presentation, and that is the only time he really needs the cards, but he knows when to move the card to the back without looking at them, so if he needs to glance down he doesn't have to fumble through all the cards.

We partially chose Neil Armstrong because Caleb was an astronaut for Halloween so we have the orange jumpsuit they wear. We will do a "dress-rehearsal" tonight and I will try to take some pictures.

Here is his biography:

I am Neil Armstrong and I was born August 5, 1930 in Ohio.
I got my pilot license at age 16.
I was in the Navy and became an astronaut in 1962.
On July 20, 1969 I became the first man to set foot on the moon.
I am 78 years old and live in Ohio.

Seems short and easy enough, but when you are in first grade, standing in front of your classmates and teacher giving a report on someone you really don't know much about (in fact, as we were doing it last night Isaac says "I thought it had to be about a FAMOUS person"...that leaves like Barak Obama, George Bush and John McCain) for the first time, and you can't read your cards, it is a lot to remember (especially the dates). He did a great job last night learning it.

No - NO

Andrew has started the "no" phase. He either says "no" and turns his head (like he is going to shake his head no, but only turns one direction) or "no-no" and he wags his finger at you.

Yesterday we were playing and I took him blanket and covered myself with it. He grabs it and starts pulling on it and yells "No-no. BAD MAMA"

It is cute, for now. Daddy likes to laugh at it, as do I, but not to where Andrew can see. I finally told Paul that when Andrew was Bryce's age the cuteness would be WAY worn off'

We WILL make it through terrible twos. We have done it twice and might eventually get Bryce out of them too.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Gotta Rant for a Minute

I didn't vote for President Obama. I don't agree with a lot of his ideas. BUT, I do support him BECAUSE he is OUR president. That does not mean I agree with him, that means that I have hope for him. I don't feel that he is tackling things right off the bat that should be tackled, like funding for groups that support abortion or closing Guantanamo Bay. And, seriously, we are going to name a Secretary of Treasury that did not pay his own taxes for over four years and then was not charged ANY penalties.....

I guess that is change of some kind!

With all this said, this bail-out that we are being forced to pay out of our tax dollars is something I am really concerned about. This will have a big effect on my children down the road. I don't think we should be choosing who deserves to be bailed out. Bail out the "reglar" people. This has really irked me since the whole bail out talk started.

Today, my anger for this went to different level. Government was so hard on the car makers having a plan before they got a dime. This was great in my opinion. They were very ridiculed about arriving on their private jets to ask Congress for money. There has been questions about where the money has been going with these banks. Today, I heard that after Citigroup was given a $45 BILLION bailout, they bought a $50 MILLION luxury jet.

WHAT??

I want my tax money back!