Toothbrush Dirt

I have come to the conclusion that here exists a particular stain of dirt that is only cleanable using a toothbrush. Think about it. I am sure most people have had something in their life that they have tried and tried to clean but nothing worked except the toothbrush.

My experience was with the grout on the kitchen floor. I believe the original color of the grout was white. Over time it turned into this brownish-gray color. I have tried EVERYTHING to clean the grout since we bought the house. Mopping, steam cleaners, Tilex, wash cloth scrubbing, etc. Finally, I decided to try bleach and a toothbrush. At last! I found the magic combination! I am truly grateful for finding some way of cleaning the grout. I do wish toothbrushes came in a bigger size. The kitchen and dining room are quite large compared to a toothbrush.

The Great Binky Caper

Last night I had to put Nathan to bed without a Binky. I searched everywhere! I even moved the dresser. My search was in vain. We had just bought some new ones at the store, so I was baffled. There was not a single pacifier in the entire house. Bedtime was a little rough, but eventually Nathan's exhaustion got the better of him and he fell asleep.

This afternoon my husband came in carrying 7 binkies that had been in his car.

New rule...no binkies in the cars.

New Antics

Saturday was a great day. We did nothing. Spent the entire day at home as a family. It was fantastic. We had a lot of eggs. Ken made German oven pancake for breakfast and I made popovers for dinner.

For memory sake, the first time Ken made German Oven Pancake for me was about the time we got engaged. He came over to my apartment to make my roommates and I breakfast. He pulled out the blender and did his thing. When the timer went off, I remember feeling so excited to show off my fiance's cooking. The concoction that he pulled out of the oven was quite frankly not the beautiful masterpiece I was expecting. It looked like it had been burned. But, he assured me that it was supposed to look that way. We cut it up, put a little cinnamon and sugar on top, and had one of the best breakfasts I can ever remember. Next to Eggs Benedict, German Oven pancake is my favorite morning food.

Kenny was really good at church on Sunday. He said he learned about Joseph Smith and he was the line leader. At Eppie's house today, she and some friends were working on scrapbooking Valentine's Day cards for servicemen overseas. Kenny had a delightful time using the markers to color and write his letters. Then he got a hold of an ink pad. Pink, of course. He stamped the paper, his shirt, pants, hands, and finally...his face. Now this is not ordinary ink. This is extra permanent archivable ink. Luckily, due to some quick thinking his face was spared from sporting a pink beard. His hands were not so lucky. I have tried everything. He is just going to have to stay pink until his skin falls off.

Nathan has a new trick. He doesn't eat anything. Wait, I take that back. He eats it, but fails to swallow. He had a little corn dog bites for lunch one day. After taking a bite, he pushed away from the table and climbed down. Off he went on about his business. An hour later, I noticed he is holding his mouth really tight. I force his mouth open and sweep it clean only to find several bites of hot dog stuffed in his cheeks. He does this with every meal. He stuffs food in his cheeks. After every meal I have to hold my hand under his mouth and say, "Nathan. Open up." in my stern Mommy voice. And every time I end up with a hand full of half chewed whatever. Gross...but what can you do.

Nathan also has caught the puzzle bug. Kenny is AMAZING at puzzles and putting things together. He was working on puzzle after puzzle on Sunday night and Nathan wanted to join in. It was so sweet to see them together. Nathan would line up the pieces so that the pointy ball part would be next to a hole part (I hope you know what I mean.) Kenny was actually putting together a 46 pieces puzzle without a picture.

PS- Check out my dear friend Sue's blog. She is linked on the right. Read her post about slinkies. Her pearls of wisdom have had me laughing all night!

Thank Heaven for Little Boys

I sure love my house full of boys!

I am truly blessed.

Date Night

Guess where I am. Sitting in the office of Ken's flight school. Tonight is date night. It's the first time we have been out without children since Dec.2. It is also the first clear night in 12 days. Ken needed some night flying time so here we are. He is off flying around and I am sitting here writing this. He'll be done soon and we are going to have dinner and maybe catch a movie. I just find it funny that we are spending our date separated. What can you do.

I love watching Ken fly. It is such a neat thing. How many women can say her husband is a pilot? And he is so good at it. I get warm fuzzies inside just thinking about how happy and content he is with this career choice.

He has a story to tell about his flight yesterday. But I have told him to write about it himself, so look for that to come. Also, Ken changed the settings on this blog so anyone can post comments- not just gmail account holders. I had no idea you could change the settings, but he is the computer genius!

"Oh Mr. Sun, Sun...

Mr. Golden Sun. Thanks for shining down on me!"

After several long weeks of wet, rainy weather the sun has finally come out of hibernation. The forecast calls for the rain to return, but one day of change is very welcome.

My district committee meeting was over by 12:20. I was able to pick Nathan up early and we went to get Kenny from school. Since it was such a perfect day outside we went over to a friend's house to play. Kenny rode his bike and Nathan and I walked. Clear skies, cool enough for a jacket but not cold, and a gentle breeze. We had a great time. My friends has two little girls about the same age as my boys. There were two little kittens running around outside that the kids were playing with. Nathan is such a cat person. He loved throwing a ball and having one of the little kitty's chase it. Kenny and Hannah chased the cats in and out of the bushes. After about 45 minutes, we decided to go to a local sporting goods store. We loaded up the kids and car seats and took off.

We got to the store and saw a HUGE line outside. It looked like there was a fire or something going on. I asked one of the guys in line and he said a few members of the MLB team were coming. We weren't interested in that so we went into the store to do our shopping. We are looking at cots and this group of five guys come right at us. We are watching them walk by and I'm thinking, "Is that who I think it is?" It was! We saw all the baseball players those people were waiting in line for a foot away from us. I bought a camping chair and a pedometer. Except for Kenny acting like he was possessed, it was a fun outing.

Marshmallow Man

Kenny was really good at school today for the second day in a row. After Eppie picked him up, she took both boys to the store to get a special good job treat. Kenny picked out colored mini-marshmallows. Naturally, Nathan needed his own bag as well. When I picked the boys up, Nathan had marshmallow all over his face. He also had it in his hair. There was a chunk, about the size of half a mini-marshmallow, stuck in his hair right about the ear. He kept whimpering and tugging at the chunk to get it out. But the more he tugged with his wet, sticky fingers, the more it stuck. He was really frustrated. It was really adorable to watch. We finally had to cut the chunk out of his hair.

Nathan also said the prayer at dinner. All I got out was, "Time for prayer. Would Kenny..." before Nathan folded his arms and started praying. I could sorta make out "please bless the food." He mumbled on for a few seconds and then said, "Amen!" So cute!!!

Today was the Hundredth Day of School. One of the many reason I prefer to teach young elementary grades is that special days are a blast! With Kenny's help, I decorated a t-shirt with 100 foam sticky letters and arranged them to make words. My class was so excited when they came in this morning! They each made paper glasses with the middle of the zeros on 100 cut out for the eyes. We made fruit loop necklaces, hats (pictured), trail mix with 100 bites (10 pieces of 10 different items), and watched 101 Dalmatians. We did a lot of other things, but the ones I mentioned were the most fun. The kindergarten put on the 100 Day parade with one of our gym teachers at the lead dressed up in a Zero the Hero super costume. They were so cute and my class cheered and yelled for them. I had a good day. And tomorrow I have a meeting at the district so I have a sub for the day. What makes this really great is the meeting will probably be over between noon and one, including the catered lunch!

Midnight Scare

11:45 last night. I am asleep and hear a very strange crashing sound that wakes me up. A few minutes later, Ken comes upstairs and tells me to look outside. I see several cop cars, ambulances, fire trucks, and a neighborhood block party on my front lawn.

Apparently, some teenagers were joy riding and speeding. They failed to stop at the crossroad of a busy street and plowed into a truck traveling on that road. We live on this crossroad. Both cars went careening onto our street. The teenagers car went through the fence of the house across the street, across the yard, onto the porch and up to the kitchen. Both cars were really beat up. A life flight helicopter landed in the street about 200 feet from our front door. It was unreal. Because of how our houses face each other, if the truck had been traveling the other direction, it would have been our living room that had a car in it. That is scary because Ken was in the living room at the time of the accident.

Ken was excited to see the helicopter. He hopes to one day to fly life flight or some other service based helicopters. He wants to use his skills to give back to others. I really admire him for that goal. I know that someday, after he's "paid his dues" and built his hours, he will do something to help our community and/or country.

Redhead

I can't believe I am letting anyone actually see this picture with my pudgy cheeks.
I'm not keen on the haircut, but I love the color. I only said to clean up the layers and take off about half and inch. They took off 2-5 inches depending on the place.

Nathan is such a cute little boy. He has no hips and cannot keep his pants on no matter what the size. This bodes well for him because he hates pants. As soon as they start to sag, he starts crawling or walking around until they slip completely over his diaper. then he sits down and pull them off. He has only a shirt and diaper on everyday when I pick him up. Putting his pants back on is fairly useless. He'll just take them off again. He's starting to try guilting you as well. Yesterday he wanted a fruit snack and I said no. He stood in the kitchen, lowered his head, and started pouting. Of course he never took his eyes off me. He had to keep a lookout to see if his effort was working. After about a minute, he gave up and moved onto other things.

Kenny had a hard day. He peed (on purpose) on the carpet at Eppie's house, shut his brother in the attic, and just now I watched him punching the dog repeatedly for no reason. He started out being angel today. Daddy said he was really helpful this morning. Poor kid is all pent up inside and he needs to release his energy. But it's been raining and cold every single day for a week and a half. It's too muddy to go out and play. I'm just praying for some sun to come our way soon.

My Sweet Hubby

He told me yesterday morning that he was going to make me dinner. He is a great cook. I can cook to feed a family, but he can cook a truly gourmet meal. We had herb roasted pork, roasted potatoes, and salad. For dessert we had strawberries. It was a FANTASTIC meal.

We all went to the grocery store in the morning. We gave the boys each a circus box of animal cracker cookies to keep them happy. I remember as a child my mother always got us a box of those cookies if we were good at the store. The boxes are still the same today as when I was a child.

After the store, Ken taught me how to put air in the tires. Nerdy, I know. But I have never put air in tires before and had no idea how to use a tire gauge.

Then, after we put the boys to bed, he dyed my hair for me. I have been wanting a change for awhile. Just before New Year I used a semi-permanent red dye. I loved it so much that I decided to make a permanent switch. I am a now redhead. I used to have a lot of red in my hair before I had kids. In my wedding photos I look really red. Now my hair color is yet another feature pregnancy changed. However, unlike my waistline and stretch marks, I can get my hair color back. I have the redhead complexion as well. My cheeks are covered in freckles and I have green eyes. Overall, I am happy with the color.

Birthday Suits

I woke up this morning to the sound of happy squeals. I got up, brushed my teeth, and lazily walked to the boys room. I saw Nathan sitting on his bed. He didn't have a shirt on. When I walked in he yelled, "yeah" and stood up. I noticed he was also missing his pants and diaper. I said, "Kenny, why is Nathan naked? Kenny, where are you? Kenny?" That's when he popped out of the closet naked as a jay bird and said, "Ta-Duh!"

Oh heaven help us!

Crashing Cars

Last night the boys were playing in the toy room and I was sitting in the hall. I saw one of the boys cars- the kind that you pull back and let go. I pulled it back as far as I could and sent it sailing down the stair. It flew off the top step, ran into the wall, bounced across the landing, and went down the next set of steps.

The boys went nuts with excitement. We spent the next half hour crashing cars down the stairs. Kenny would dance and put his hands up yelling "Yeah" every time the cars hit tumbled down the stairs. Of course Nathan would copy him. When Nathan tries to jump he only manages to stomp one of his feet. And when he raises his hands up his hands barely clear the top of his head. It was so cute to see them having such a great time.My parents invited us to dinner tonight. We went to Chili's. Daddy had to work tonight, so I had to get him something to go. The boys were so well behaved at the restaurant. We were able to have a lovely meal. When we got home, I spent an hour getting the house all clean so that tomorrow we can have a nice, relaxing day. Ken doesn't have to work and we don't have anything to do except grocery shopping. I am really looking forward to this weekend.

Preschool Tales

Funny story from preschool today. Kenny dressed himself this morning and went off to school. The following conversation took place when Daddy dropped him off.

Teacher: So, Kenny must have dressed himself this morning.
Daddy: Yes. How did you know?
Teacher: Well, look at him.
Daddy: What's wrong?
Teacher: His shirt is on backwards.
Daddy: Oh your right. I totally missed that!
Teacher: Don't worry. Women tend to notice these kinds of things.

So Daddy took him aside and showed Kenny how to turn his shirt around without taking it off. Upon returning to class, the teacher said, "I'm sure one to talk. Look." On her feet were two identically styled shoes...one brown and the other black!

Of course Kenny was so excited about his new trick he wanted to show his whole class how to turn their shirts around.

(The picture is from Halloween. It's the only one I have from his school.)

The Birds

You know the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds. I fully understand the uneasy feeling portrayed in that movie. I drove past the mall and there had to be at least 10,000 birds on the power lines, the roofs of the mall and restaurants, the ground of the parking lots, and every single tree. To make the sight even more unnerving, all the birds were facing north. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

Kenny had a really good day at preschool today. He even got a certificate and a roll of Smarties from his teacher. We have had such a great time this week. He's been a real joy to be around (knock on wood).

Nathan been a real sweetheart as well. We discovered that he is very fond of flavored rice cakes. He ate an entire bag of rice cakes in a day and a half. When he wants a snack, he opens up the cupboard, gets out what he wants, and brings it to you while saying "blees".

It is REALLY Cold!

I was raised in snow and ice and even by my standards, it is cold outside. For these parts, freezing weather is very unusual. If the current forecast holds, we could see freezing rain and sleet that will virtually shut the county down because we are not equipped to handle ice and snow situations (with good reason...it only happens once every few years).

The boys and I have had a fun afternoon. We got out the paints and had a great time. It was Nathan's first time to use paints. He always ate them before. He painted with both a paint brush and his fingers. Kenny painted a trains and a blue airplane. Afterwards, we sat together and read books and played trains. Later, we all got together as a family, played an intense round of Hide-and-go-seek, had some hot chocolate and played tic-tac-toe. It has been so wonderful to spend some quality time together as a family.

Kenny just called me into the kitchen to read me some words he wrote. I asked him to bring the paper to me to read it and he said, "I can't. The words are on something that does not come." I went into the kitchen and sure enough, he had written on the wall. At least it was in pencil. I told him I was proud of his words but to please put them on paper next time.

Here's a few more pictures from the last few days.

Playing Kitchen (Thanks Grandad!)

Baking Cookies

The Arctic Blast is Here!

I LOVE winter! And since we see so little of it here, I am truly grateful for each and every cold blustery day. We haven't had ice or snow yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. Of course if it snows even a handful of snowflakes, school will be canceled and I'll get another day off! Since Nathan is refusing to nap and my hubby is heading off to work I think I will embrace this lovely weather and head out to run a few errands. It's hard to imagine it was in the mid-70s just yesterday.

(This is a picture from the last time it snowed...Christmas Eve 2004.)

Random Thoughts

I had a great day yesterday. I spent the day cleaning house, cooking, and caring for little boys. I am definitely cut out to be a housewife. I am perfectly happy at home. Now, when I am off during the summer, I look forward to the trips to the store without kids and the other little breaks you get. Housekeeping and kid duty 24/7 is overwhelming. But overall, I would always chose a day of dishes and diapers over anything else.

I have tomorrow off and we were going to have a fun family day. I just found out that Ken now has to work all afternoon and evening. I miss him. We've hardly seen each other in over a week. I work all day and he's been flying, working, or at scouts every night. He spent Saturday at scout training. He spent today at church and home teaching. Tomorrow he'll be working. Ho-hum. Maybe next weekend.

The boys have the best Primary teachers this year. Nathan's nursery teachers just love him. When I dropped Nathan off today, his teacher reached out and said, "Here's my Nathan. Now we are going to have a wonderful day." He smiled and went right to her. For his little coloring page they traced his little feet and let him color. It is so sweet. Kenny's teacher is also great. Each kid in his class has their own 8 count box of crayons with his or her name on it. It really gives each child a sense of belonging. She plays games with them and sings songs. Kenny just loves her.

Drawing on the Kitchen Floor

I believe this picture speaks for itself.

Gotta love 'em!

They Woke Up At 5:30 AM...

For anyone who has children, you already know the tale that is about to follow.

You see, adults, when tired, act lethargic and lifeless. It is the logical course of action to follow when your body is running out of energy.

Children do not follow this logic.
The more tired children are, the more hyper and uncontrolled their behavior becomes.

I do not believe that Kenny has spoken a single word since I picked him up today. He has cried or screamed hundreds of words. I also firmly believe that he has gone selectively deaf. He seems to be desperately annoyed by the mere sound of his brother's breathing, but cannot hear anything that comes out of my mouth. I thought making cookies together would be good distraction. In hindsight, that was probably one of the least intelligent ideas I have ever had. The floor has to be mopped because of the sugar and flour spilled. The cookies may have a crunch to them from the egg shells. And we can't forget fighting over the spoons (yes, there were two, but each of them wanted the other spoon and so on). After the cookie fiasco, I realized I was completely out of diapers and had to change a stinky Nathan...again. Luckily, my mom came to the rescue and brought diapers so I did not have to take them to the store (can you imagine doing that!) I am also doing laundry right now that contains poopy undies and a puked on shirt. Of course, being the amazing mom that I am, I was able to tough it out until 8:00 PM with most of the capillaries in my face still intact.

I can only hope today's early rising and late bedtime will be the magic key to a long night's sleep and a blissful Saturday.

And because my life is chaos, my hubby is at work tonight and Nathan has croup. Fortunately, he does not have a bad case. He makes a horrific sound, but once he has a breathing treatment, he does fine.

Helicopter "Pirates"

The future of aviation is in good hands.

We have two future helicopter "pirates" (as Kenny says it) in training.
They both spoke into the microphone to the control tower.

Kenny said, "Contection...helicopter to fly."

Nathan said, "Hiiii."

Just One Of Those Days

Every once in a while, you have one of those days that makes you want to charter a jet and take off to Jamaica- without telling anyone else where you are going. Today, I had one of those days...

It started out okay. I am getting sick and my joints are achy, but I felt alright. The boys woke up really early (this is an important detail because it will come back to bite me later) and I got to see them before I left.

My class was VERY talkative and restless today. I had to fight them tooth and nail to get them to progress scholastically. All of that came undone, however, when one of my students –just back from being suspended, decided that he needed to choke one of his classmates –again. He was totally unprovoked. It was like he just looked at one of his classmates and thought to himself, “You need to be choked right now,” and he proceeded to do it. Afterwards, he was completely content –not angry in the slightest. He was suspended previously for the same behavior. It's disconcerting to me that he's angelic one minute and then randomly and spontaneously, physically attacking his classmates the next. Fortunately he hasn’t seriously hurt any of his classmates yet. But, like I said, he hadn’t even been back one day from suspension when he decided to do this. I sent him to the office and fifteen minutes later I got a call from the AP who told me that we need to fast-track an intervention on him. Usually an intervention is a month-long process of filling out paperwork and documenting behavior, and filling out paperwork, and forms, and paperwork, so that the child of concern can get the help that he or she needs. Fast-tracking the process means that a months-worth of paperwork needs to be completed in one day. My boss told me to do whatever I needed to in order to get the paperwork done. So, I stopped teaching at about 12:30 and my class played in centers and watched the Magic School Bus.

When I picked up the boys they were both crying. It was that high pitched "I'm tired and nothing can make me happy" cry. I literally had to drag Kenny to the car when I picked them up from Mom's. We had even more of the same when we got home. The fits continued, Nathan messed his diaper three times, Kenny dropped his dinner on the floor, and they both ran around screaming and throwing toys at each other. Did I mention that I'm getting a cold? When bedtime came, Kenny got really mad. He threw a huge fit about going to bed, so I put him in bed and asked him to lay down so I could tuck him in and give him a kiss. He told me he didn't want a kiss. I asked him if he would like me to blow him a kiss then instead, and he said, "Mommy, I don't love you anymore."

I know he doesn't mean it. He felt angry, and frustrated, and doesn't yet have the vocabulary to express himself completely. Even so, it still stung. I thought I had a few more years before I heard that phrase. And just to make me feel worse, my former little mama's boy sat on the floor of the bedroom crying for his Daddy (who isn't home tonight). Nathan is obsessed with Daddy right now. I know that it's silly, but I had a very bad day and I wanted Nathan to be crying for me.

I need a Dr. Pepper...non-diet.

Letters Make Words

Kenny has caught onto the next big step in reading after learning letter sounds. He understands that letters are put together to make words. This may seem simple to most of us, but trust me, I teach first grade and is not as simple as it seems. Anyway, he was sitting on the floor with his markers, and the next thing I knew, he brought me a paper filled with words. What really surprised me was when he read each word. He wrote cat, hat, mat, pop, stop, and a few other words. His letters were clear and easy to read. I was so proud of him.

Of course, he also colored on himself.

A Sunbeam No More

Being the first Sunday of the new year, all the new classes started. Nathan is not two yet, so he stayed in the junior nursery. When I picked up Nathan, his new teacher gushed about how sweet he was. He also learned to whistle during nursery today.
Kenny had a great time in Primary. He isn't a little Sunbeam anymore. He moved up the CTR 5. I almost cried when I went into the Primary room and saw him sitting up so nicely with his little tie and dress shoes. When we picked him up he was so excited. He got a CTR (Choose The Right) ring. He said he learned all the teacher's rules. He learned a new song. He was giddy with excitement over his day.
I am so grateful to see him excited. He had a hard time in Primary last year. Moving from nursery to Primary was a hard adjustment. I hope this excitement continues.

(As per request) The Muffin Story

So this blog is also our family journal (it is much easier than handwriting it out.) One thing I do not want to forget is a story that will be used to torture the future potential spouse of my son Kenny.

WARNING: This is a potty training story, so do not continue reading if you are going to be offended.

About two week before Christmas, the choir was practicing for the Christmas program. I am the director, so I was up there on the stage of the chapel doing my thing. The boys where playing around with the other children. I turned around and I noticed something on the floor by the front row pew. I asked Kenny, "Sweetie, what is that?" He responded, "A muffin." Okay. I thought...maybe one of the parents brought a snack for their kids. But I looked a little closer and realized what I was looking at. I asked again, "Kenny, what is that?" To which he responded(shrugging his shoulders and talking out the side of his mouth, "Well...it's probably just my poop." Yes, his accident had fallen out onto the chapel floor.

I can laugh about this now, but at the time I was certain that this was the lowest Mommy moment of all time. Maybe it is...but if it gets any lower, don't tell me...I don't want to know.

Polar Express 3D

Please keep in mind that for Christmas last year Kenny got the Polar Express movie. Combine that with his obsession with trains, and I have seen or listened to this movie at least 200 times throughout the last year. So, when we were invited to go with my brother and his wife's family to see the 3D version I was excited strictly because I liked the company we were with. Seeing this movie yet again was not high on my priority list. But this movie in 3D is completely different than the regular version. I felt like I was watching it for the first time. Kenny was absolutely enthralled. As soon as the movie started he said, "Whoa. These glasses make it big!" He did not move for the rest of the time. When my brother leaned over to ask him if he liked it, Kenny said, "Shhh. Be quiet." And he "shhh'ed" anyone else who spoke during the movie. Nathan didn't like to wear the glasses, but he was very involved watching the slightly blurry version. We all had a great time.

On another note, both Daddy and I are both getting colds. The boys were up to their normal mischievousness this morning (dumping hamster food on the floor and pouring water on the floor). Daddy pulled Kenny aside and explained that he was not feeling well and needed him to be extra good. He was an angel for the rest of the day. He helped with everything. And when I came home from work, he ran up to me, hugged me, and said, "Mommy, I was a good boy today. And I'm going to help you too." He is such a sweet little guy!

Interesting Things Happen When Small Ones Are Afoot

As I was collecting dishes from around the house, I noticed a glass on my husband's night stand. I picked it up and saw that the cup was about 1/2 full of water and contained several handfuls of water logged caramel popcorn. Now, I could ask myself, "Why did the boys put popcorn in the water?" but I already know the answer.

Because they could.

I have come to believe this simple phrase is the answer to all why questions concerning children. Logic does not play any role whatsoever in the decision making process of children. (Sometimes the same rings true for adults.) And once this simple truth is accepted, life becomes a bit easier.

Another example, several weeks ago I opened the fruit drawer in the fridge to find 3 apples, with one bite taken out of each one.

Just tonight, Kenny and Nathan were playing in the shower. I stepped into the hall to grab new towels and heard an odd whooshing noise. I returned to find the walls, shower curtain, and both boys covered in shaving foam. I am talking head to toe foam. (Little Kenny got a fake shaving kit for Christmas that had a can of blueberry scented foam.)

On a side note, Kenny is having issues lately with sibling rivalry. I have come to this conclusion based on several piece of evidence.
1. The other day we were playing with Kenny, tickling and saying we should just eat him for breakfast, when he yelled out, "Kenny's not food. Nathan's food. Eat him."
2. Two days ago, the boys and I were playing in the toy room and Kenny had all the little metal magnetic trains. When Nathan decided he wanted to play trains, I asked Kenny to please share a few with him. Kenny said, "Mama, put Nathan outside. I don't want him anymore."

They sure keep life interesting!

Back to the Grind

I started back to school on Tuesday. It is always hard for me to go back. I enjoy my job, but I hate getting a taste of the stay-at-home mom thing I really want to do, and then going back to teaching. Of course my group of 17 little munchkins returned in fine form...full of stories. I had the hardest time getting them to stop telling each other the stories long enough to get much done. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I started a new workout routine (part of the New Years thing). I got a DVD with 6 different 20 minute yoga routines. I was very skeptical about yoga stuff, but after giving it a try I realized that yoga hurts. And since hurt means gain in workout world, I'll wait a few weeks to unleash my full judgment on yoga.
(This is what I hope to look like post-yoga.)

Ringing In The New Year

So, we stated our New Year with a bout of stomach flu! What a great start. Fortunately, so far only little Kenny and my mother have been affected. However, Kenny seems to have a knack for throwing up everywhere but the toilet and/or bowl. He hit the toy room carpet a few times, his bed, the bathroom rug, and the couch. After he messed up his bedding and while it was being washed, we asked him if he would like to have his Thomas fleece that was on Nathan's bed. He said, "No. Nathan can use my blanket until he gets his own." So sweet.

At church on New Years Day, a friend of mine's baby tugged on my leg while I was holding Nathan. Nathan pointed his finger at her and said, "No! Bad baby!" I was so surprised until later that day when I overheard Kenny say the same thing to Nathan. Now I know where he got that phrase.

So, resolutions...same as every year.
Get skinny
Have rock hard abs
Become independently wealthy without working for it
Have a happy and healthy family

You never know...I think this is my year!