So MJ has passed away

If you have been anywhere near a phone, newspaper, or any other people over the past week you know that it was a rough week for the entertainment industry. For the older generation, we lost Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett. She was just before my time really, but she was definitely an icon I grew up with. I guess after Charlie's Angels she fell off my radar, but apparently she stayed on Tom's as he was a bit more concerned about her than the other death of the week - Michael Jackson. I wrote a piece for DC Metro Moms a few minutes after I heard about his death - the feelings were weird considering I don't' listen actively to his music, nor do I don the "Glove" that I coveted all those years ago. And it has been years. But I was sad at the loss - I really do consider him a genius. Anyway, take a peek HERE at my response to hearing that he had passed away.

What a week.

How to sneak up on a bunny

Tap tap everywhere!

Ian is our tap master, but this session his brothers and some friends are both joining him for tap class:



Not only are the boys excited, but the instructor is excited to have so many boys in her class. There are five boys and two girls. And Ian is the veteran in the class - he's been tapping for 10 weeks!

Bright Eyes

This is why Tom thinks he's in trouble:

I mean, who can say "No" to her.

Ponies? Sure! Cars? Absolutely!

Yeah, he's sunk.

Math worksheets anyone?

My kids, in the midst of summer break, have asked for some math worksheets. They have spent their days playing Pokemon, Bakugon, getting muddy, and inhaling various books (they are already halfway done with their summer reading lists for the library challenge!), yet they want more. About this time every year they have asked for some math workbooks, and up until last year I went out and hunted down the appropriate workbooks for each of them - at a great cost. Those cool workbooks don't come cheap. So I went online last summer and found a glorious, glorious site where you can print your own worksheets - and TONS of them. They break it out by grade, then by skill. It is certainly something to look into if you have kids of any age - it goes all the way up through elementary school, but then also has generate your own pages, equation editors, fraction calculators as well as separate sections for learning rounding and factoring. Simply the coolest math site that you'll see for elementary school aged kids. And best of all - it's FREE! So, when your kids holler that they are bored or want something quiet to sit down and do, check out: http://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/

(And no - I'm not getting any kickbacks for this - I just wanted to share a very cool site with you! If it were a trip to the Bahamas, then maybe kickbacks would be good, but I'm not so much into doing product reviews for anything other than sharing with my friends!)

All summer, yep, all summer.

So somehow here I've signed up to hang around with four FOUR kids all summer. So far we've had fighting, yelling, stealing from each other, pouting, and loads of fun. Yes, absolute fun. The kids will eventually settle into the routine of summer and will get past all of the fighting and bickering, but for these first few weeks it's all about them getting into the swing of the summer routine. First off we need them to sleep in a bit. Staying up late doesn't help - that just makes them more cranky - and we don't want that. They are still getting up at about 6:30, and since we don't have to be anywhere at any particular time, that's way too early in my book. Also, they need to change up their diet a bit. They've been eating packaged lunch items for the duration of the school year because they take their lunches every day, and I'm hoping that we don't have to buy as much of those during the summer. (and heaven forbid they eat something healthy for once!) They also need to chill out and quiet down a bit as they are freaking their sister out at times. She's not used to having them home all the time, and they are definitely LOUD. So, if we can tackle those three things we're set for the summer. Until then it's a lot of me moderating, shushing, and sending them outside to get out their energy. But hey, it's the summer and I can sleep in...sort of.

OUCH! Awww...crap.

A few months ago I mentioned to my dentist that one of my molars ached a bit, but just occasionally. Nothing serious that was really bothering me, but since I mentioned it she took an x-ray and saw that a tiny edge of my crown (one of many crowns that I have) was a teeny bit loose. She said that it probably needed to be replaced. I took this as advice to keep tabs on it, but not that it needed to be taken care of immediately. That was four months ago. Well, this past weekend it not only acted up a bit, but it was really throbbing and aching a lot. I waited until Monday morning (this morning) to call and schedule an appointment, and I assumed that I would go in and she'd tell me that the crown needs to be replaced. Well, she not only said that, but she also said that the root was in bad shape and I needed a root canal. The only good news is that she said that this procedure would alleviate the pain, and at this point that's all I care about. So, about 10:30am tomorrow, think of me, smiling (happy gas), pain free (root canal), and relaxed (as much as one can be sitting in a dental chair). Hopefully this will be the last, but with as much dental work as I've had done over the years, I'm not holding my breath.

Blogcation

You've heard of vacations, even staycations, but have you ever heard of a blogcation? Well, I've been on one, so if you read my blog regularly you know that I've been MIA for a few (well, 10 actually) days. Anyway, those days weren't filled with naps and bons bons, but school activities, trips into DC, and family fun (Loads of family fun!). We also started tap classes, had a gymnastics show, participated in field day, finished up soccer, graduated into new grades, lost a cat, found a cat, and had eye exams (threw that one in more for the flow of the paragraph - but our eyes are in good shape if you really want to know!). So, I'll leave you with a few last day of school pictures, and will share more in the upcoming days!

Sam and Sra. Cordero

Max and Ms. Hall


Max and Sra. Wedekind

Ian and Sra. Wydeven

No more smack talking about the school phone calls - I promise

So here I was, a mere two days ago, bragging on the fact that the call I got from school, from the school clinic no less, was NOT that my kid was throwing up. Well, today I got that call. And it was so much worse than just throwing up. It was scrapes, throwing up, fainting, head bonks, and a low grade fever. Yikes. The caller said fainting, so I grabbed the girl and my lunch and motored in to school. Yeah, hadn't quite finished lunch before the call, and who knows when I would eat again. I got to school and Sam was still in the clinic, looking not so Sam colored. Sam was all scraped up after hitting the blacktop, and he was almost completely conked out after vomiting, then passing out in the clinic. And no, there was no clinic aide there today. Anyway, after a quick trip home, a brief nap, and a trip to the doctor, we learned that Sam has the same affliction that plagues his daddy - he passes out at inopportune times. For Tom it's when he's getting a shot or getting blood drawn. For Sam, apparently, it's when he's injured and there's blood. It's a sympathetic response - meaning he has no control over it and can't predict when it wills trike next (or in his case exactly what triggered it). So Sam is heading back to school tomorrow armed with a note saying he's not contagious so he can participate in field day, an I'm keeping my mouth shut as far as calls from the school go. If the school wants to call me, or not, feel free. I'll take whatever you have to send my way. I've learned my lesson on smack talking the school phone calls, and I'm so over it for the week. Yeah, done.

The dreaded phone call

Anyone who has school aged kids knows that when the school phone number pops up on caller ID that either A) your kid is in trouble, or B) your kid is sick. My calls all tend to be either sick kids, plus the occasional call from the administration about school/PTA stuff. Well, my call today was so off base that even the clinic aide was laughing when she called. Poor little Ian slept funny on his pillow last night and his back is sore today. I guess at some point he told his teacher and they sent him to the clinic. He then told the aide that he's been in there a lot so that she should know who he is (he's in kindergarten, folks), but in reality he's only been in there three or four times this year. Anyway, after hearing his story about his two pillows, she told him that he probably slept funny and that he would be O.K. He wanted to call me for reassurance, and I told him the same thing (after she told me what he said). So, in the end I get a phone call from school that one of my kids has a sore back. I told him to take it easy the rest of the day and he would be fine. Truth is, he also had gymnastics yesterday, so he might have pulled something there as well, but at least it wasn't a call about a kid throwing up at school...again.

I love goldfish

Well, not really love them, but LOVE them. And I don't mean the $.25 variety that you get at the church fair. I love the swimming around in a box with a big smiles kind of goldfish Goldfish. I pour big bowls of the stuff when I sit down for a snack. I demand that Tom get his own bowl when we are watching a movie (yes, I eat them instead of popcorn). I even request, respectfully of course, that he not come home until he has reloaded our stash.

There are several varieties of Goldfish, however, but I like just the one - Flavor Blasted. I like to suck the seasoning off the outside then crunch them down. And there's just something extra special about opening that new box of Goldfish (we get the biggest box that we can) - it's a fresher, crunchier, somehow more covered with seasonings goldfish that comes out of a newly opened box. Sigh...there must really be something wrong with me. No one should like Goldfish this much.

Someone at Boise State must be colorblind

Football season is a mere two months away and things like uniforms are starting to peak my interest. You see, those with the best uniforms win. Well, at least in those games that I either don't care about, or don't know anything about. Anyway, Boise State has really crossed the line this time - they are taking their crazy blue field thing on step too far:
The have introduced BLUE uniforms for the upcoming season - and it isn't their away uniforms that are blue - it's their HOME uniforms. You read that correctly - blue tops, blue bottoms, all on a blue field. And where the heck is their school name anyway?

Guess they are expecting some kind of advantage here...but geez folks. What colorblind person made this choice???!!!

SCREEEEEEEECHING!

I don't know if the boys never hit this stage, or if I have completely erased it from my memory, but Lucy screeches. And she's been screeching a lot lately. Every time she opens her sweet little mouth over the past few days, depending on the proximity to my ears, of course, out comes one of a variety of special noises - all of which are deafening. You know that feeling after a rock concert when everything sounds muted? That's a temporary threshold shift (Sounds fancy right? That's what you learn when you are married to someone who studies this stuff!). Lucy creates that exact feeling in my head about 20 times a day. It seems that the closer to my head she is, the louder the screech. I guess the good part is that she's starting to understand what the word NOOOOOOOOOO means. And I'm starting to understand that my daughter is going to be a lot more like me than I ever expected - I'm a loud talker and somehow this is probably all my fault.

Hurricane Cousins

Ever wonder what would happen if you stuffed eight kids into a small tube? Well, ever wonder what would happen if you stuffed eight kids into a small tube and turned on some hurricane force winds? Well, our kids and our nieces and nephews did, so they all piled into that small tube at the Orlando Science Center and well, stood there, danced, smiled, goofed, and enjoyed the fact that they were all there with their cousins.

Sleep disrupted

Max did it, so did Ian and Sam. And Lucy isn't going to be left behind. As she takes those first steps toward mobility, her sleep is disrupted. Often at night we hear her crying out then settling back in, and for several nights over the past week Tom and I have seen 3 or 4am. We thought we were in the clear with this kiddo since she was sleeping through the night from the get go, but no. Those developmental changes really are throwing her for a loop. Hopefully they will come and the sleep disruptions will go quickly - she's recovering fine but as we get older it's that much tougher to keep the eyes open mid-day after an all nighter!