They Died for Our Freedom

29 May

Right? And the freedom of others? Protection? Safety? Honor. Country. NOT store savings.

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Makes me sad.

I have a huge amount of respect for stores that do not advertise Memorial Day sales. I’m interested to know when it all began. I’d like to think it started as a tribute to our troops. Good intentions, maybe? It still seems wrong to me though. I suppose we as a society fuel the discount days. We take advantage of it. I suppose some troops do too?

As long as we remember why we are getting those great deals.

Because so many died for our freedom.

I am forever grateful and broken-hearted for our military families and hope that Nia and Nate will always remember the true meaning of our “day off.”

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Winning Spirits

28 May

Fact: They really wanted to play baseball.

Fact: They had the tiniest, youngest players on their team – quite a few experiencing t-ball for the first time.

Fact: They looked ADORABLE in their uniforms.

Fact: They loved the snacks at the end of the games.

Fact: They played a whole season and never won a game once. That tie felt really good to our boys.

Fact: They learned a lot about baseball and showed fans some great plays.

Fact: They all said, “Whoa!” when the player from the other team hit the ball over the fence.

Fact: They all yelled “yes” in unison in the huddle after each game when Andrew asked them, “Did you have fun today?!”

Fact: We are proud of our boys.


Must Disregard Proper Social Behavior to Enter

27 May

I mean, the carnival wasn’t all that bad. It’s just, ew. When did I become such a proper adult? I really am not all that proper. In fact, sometimes, my manners are lost behind my belches, holy jeans and loud talking. But:

Why aren’t you wearing a shirt, sir? We are not at the pool, lake or beach. And what ever happened to hygiene? The whiffs of body odor mixed with cigarette smoke made my stomach turn more than the spinning rides. And what about just a little decency for other people? Crowding and foul language are pretty much typical at any event like this but we saw one woman move her child to another seat because she didn’t like her daughter sitting in the same car as another child. (Andrew and I believe it involved a race issue. So disgustingly sad.)

Whee!

I suppose these are all adult things to witness and let influence our experience. Nia and Nate didn’t have a clue about any of it. All they knew was that the rides were AWESOME (especially the pirate ship one that Nia wanted to ride over and over again and the spinning tea cups that cracked us up watching them get dizzier than they’ve ever dizzied themselves before) and that the $5 cotton candy and the $5 funnel cake were AWESOME.

I often try to look at situations through their eyes, so I won’t be such a proper adult. It’s hard though when our children act more proper than so many adults. Even when they are out-of-their minds with excitement because they are having, “the best night ever,” as Nia described it. I’m so glad they did. That makes it all worth it for me.

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Summer Camp – First Week

27 May

Happy Campers

The first week of summer camp held a lot of emotions for us. I was nervous about having Nate in a new place and in a place that I knew he wouldn’t be able to get that mood-changing nap that he still needs. The first day brought tears from Nate – and me. He cried because he learned he wouldn’t be in Nia’s group. I cried because he was so sad and I was worried about him. By the end of the day, as it usually is, smiles replaced his tears and he couldn’t wait to go back. Nia was fine through it all. She’s pretty adaptable which is awesome. Now, they are both enjoying all that camp has to offer.

Each day they have Bible time, sing camp songs, play sports and swim. Each week offers a different theme to teach them about new things. Their first week was “Western Week.” I love the crafts/art they brought home:

Cowgirl Vest and Bandana Crafts

Cactus Art

I love her captions on her "western" picture.

I think I may be as excited as they are to learn what theme is next and hear some new camp songs. “Hermie the Worm” is cute but I’m ready to have another one sung to me on repeat.

See ya next week!

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Grosser than gross …

26 May

but real and kind of humorous.

That’s how I would describe the accidental discovery I recently spotted in a ladies’ room stall.

I walked in and saw that the can labeled “not a trash receptacle” was open. In this particular ladies’ room, this receptacle (such a smart word) is meant to hold clean bags to allow for proper disposal of, you know, girl stuff. I went to close it (because things such as this tend to bother me) and upon doing so, noticed the contents. Don’t worry, I’ll spare you the unsightly details but this is what struck me as appropriately funny.

There, obviously, was trash in the non-trash can. That trash included:

  • A used girl thing that shall not be named
  • A piece of chewed gum
  • An empty pain pill packet
  • And – an empty Heath chocolate bar wrapper

Yes, I was grossed out. But also entertained. I mean, it all makes sense. All of those things are often necessary during that time. Even flipping off the not-a-trash-can sign. “You’re not gonna tell me what to do!”

I actually think the grossest part of it all is that it’s likely that candy bar was eaten in that stall.

Whoa. Must have been a BAD day.

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Board Gamers

21 May

Wanna play checkers? How ’bout Apples to Apples? Monopoly? Life? Any trivia game? No?

That’s ok, when I was little, I would play them by myself because I loved them so much and wanted to play all the time. Now though, it seems I have produced spawns who love them as much as I do. There wasn’t even any DNA altering to ensure we would create a board game lovers. They just want to play (a lot) and as long as I’m around them, they will never have to be the only player for a multi-player game.

Even if they beat me like Nia did – over and over again – during a recent Connect Four challenge. Good games, Bean. Until we meet again…

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Nate – The Grad

19 May

A school year’s worth of art, including self-portraits of himself as Spiderman and marker-colored baseball fields depicting him and his daddy playing ball.

A school year’s worth of milestones like his first “girlfriend” and learning to write his full name, and many of his classmates’ names as well.

A school year’s worth of field trips to cool places, friends he cherishes, lessons about caring, sharing, ABCs and 123s, playground woodchips in shoes, stories, show-n-share fun and memories like playing catch with one of his wonderful teachers, Ms. Amanda.

Nate’s year of Pre-Kindergarten. We are thankful for all that it held and offered for him and we are hopeful his first year at “big kid school” ends with smiles and moments like these:

Color Coded Moods

18 May

With one week left of school, Nate seems to be going out with more than a bang – it’s more like a behavior blow up.

Each day, he and his Pre-K classmates start with a blue day, which basically means great behavior. If they have behavior troubles, like not listening to the teachers or being mean to friends, their color turns to green, yellow or red, depending on how many issues they’ve had that day. (We tell Nate to think of blue like a home run, green as a base hit, yellow as a foul ball and red as a strike out.)

For the school year, Nate has actually earned more blue and green days than yellow and red days combined so these past few days have been tough on all of us. (Even Nia told me today that she was wearing blue so Nate will get a blue day.)

For the most part, he gets yellow or red due to listening issues like not being quiet when he’s supposed to or playing while he should be resting/learning. But one of his recent not listening days went further because it involved him losing a friend’s football on the school’s roof because he didn’t stop throwing it up there when the teacher asked him to.

His punishments for his actions include no video games, no baseball playing (we’ve actually removed all baseball gear/toys/cards from his room), he wrote an I’m sorry card to the football friend and will be using his piggy bank money to buy him a new ball, and today he was not allowed to wear pajamas to his class’ pj day. He is always so saddened at his punishments but today’s was especially hard. He saw all of his friends in their pajamas, even a few who had yellow or red days yesterday like he did, but he was not in his.

I feel so bad about it. I just don’t know what else to do since we’ve used all the other typical punishments (that usually turn his behavior immediately around because he wants to earn his privileges back). I’m worried we are being too strict but I’m also worried about his behavior when he gets to Kindergarten. Right now, his color coded days of Pre-K influence my moods so heavily. What in the world am I going to do when he’s called into the principal’s office? That will be a red (fire-red) day all around for sure.

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Hope to see blue (or even green!) today.

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Mama Said X You Out

16 May

You better watch. Being X’ed is just one of two funny technology encounters I had with my mom during her recent visit.

  • We were discussing how convenient it is that facebook allows you to hide people or activities that you don’t particularly enjoy. Instead of her verbalizing it in that way though, she said, “Oh yeah. I just X them out if they get annoying.” I told her I’m going to start using the phrase for all my annoyances now. Someone just cut in front of you in line, “X you, man!” Need a great threat to intimidate someone? “I’m so gonna X you out.”
  • Andrew has his phone’s notifications set to make the Angry Bird sound, “Whee!” My mom heard it and asked what it was. I told her that it’s the sound an Angry Bird makes. She gave me a puzzled look and responded, “Huh?! How do you know what sound an angry bird makes? They are way up there in the sky.” We laughed and laughed and then gave her an entertaining look at the silly sounding birds.

Thanks for the laughs, Lady! And for being such a good sport about it.

Dragon Collector

16 May

Knights armed with swords and shields. Horse-riding heroes on a dangerous quest to save thee fair maiden. Or heck, even ogres or zany donkeys. They all have battled fierce, flying and fire-breathing dragons. I know of one little girl though who can also claim to be a dragon tamer. She doesn’t use weapons like those characters did and the dragons she conquers are not dangerous but her story should still be revered.

To defeat her dragons, she uses the magically polite powers of being Ready, Respectful and Responsible – her school’s motto and pledge. For that, she earns the praise of her teachers and principal and a Dragon, her school mascot.

Her school gives these Dragon Awards out every nine weeks to the boy and girl in each class who possess those powers. For Nia, she’s captured three Dragon Awards in three years. Quite the collector.

So proud of her! (And somewhat fearful of her powers too.)

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Be Afraid Ye Dragons!

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Dragon Collection

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