She said it...

Thanks, Laura for my current post!  You can read about some of the funny things that our kids have done lately on her livejournal.  www.knives42ljk.livejournal.com

Classes are going well for me, but the best thing about them right now is how much fun Chris and the kids are having together all day on Wednesdays!  He's totally turned into Mr. Mom one day a week--cooking (without the grill), cleaning (multiple rooms), bathing the kids (ALL of them), teaching McKenna to ride her bike (in a STRAIGHT LINE!  If you know McKenna, this is amazing!), picking out clothes, playing (or maybe just watching) with the kids as they all pretend to be cats, the list goes on!  I am SO THANKFUL for him being able to spend one day a week with them in this way!  

I got to go to my first parent meeting for Anna's preschool last night.  Preschool isn't "old" per se, but I'm really grappling with the fact that time moves so quickly and that she's old enough to be in this environment.  I know she'll love it and she's thrilled that some of her friends from Mother's Day Out last year will be in her class again this year.  The kids all start next week--Anna in her 3's preschool class and McKenna and Sam in MDO.  What a blessing these programs have been to our family in the past few years!

Comments from here to there

Today is my first day back in class.  It should be fun because I think Jack Bauer's twin brother (didn't know he had one?) is teaching my anatomy class.  That should be fun.  And who doesn't like an academic pat on the back?  During our first anatomy lab, Mr. Bauer (not his real name, but it sounds better than Yard) observed my work with the microscope and commented that I must have done this before.  Yeah.  About 14 years ago.  It made me feel good, though!  Statistics shouldn't be too bad, either.   Mr. Stat has been a professor of statistics and working with schizophrenic treatments since 1977.  I could tell. :)

Samuel shared his coveted raisins with me today, but only because I left the house with them before he woke up.

Anna told me last night, "I wish for a pink house...with stars and twinkles."  When I told her that her dad probably wouldn't ever let us live in a pink house with stars and twinkles she added that "it could be blue and yellow, too."

Samuel is now the third of three children to be so excited every time we pass the yard where Hamilton Southeastern Schools stores their buses.  "BUS!  BUS!  BUS!"  I love seeing him get so excited about things!

A great thing about the first day of classes...free cookies!  The great thing about the free cookies...coupons for free coffee!  

What a glorious day...I've enjoyed it from the science building of all places.  I feel very Carrie or Lauraish.  Props to you guys for spending SO MUCH time in buildings like this!

We're so accomplished!

Tonight's main accomplishment for the kids, though not the spoken goal of the evening, was that we created the summer's dirtiest bath water!  All three kiddos had a spectacular time outside after dinner playing in the slip-and-slide (using the real slide to get a better slip-and-slide experience) and just getting dirty with the rest of the toys.  

MY biggest accomplishment of the day was keeping Anna, McKenna, and their friend Edwin (the one from the fair) safe while playing at church this morning.  I looked over to see the three of them standing on the roof on the little play house getting ready to jump.  It is by the grace of God that I got there before they took off.  Their explanation?  "We were playing Peter Pan."  Duh.

Caffine headache?

Today McKenna got to be the mommy and Anna was the baby with a tummy ache.  Anna was curled up in a sleeping bag while McKenna sang sweet songs to her, rubbed her forehead, and got "milk" for her in a bottle.  The empty bottle kept getting refilled with "milk."  McKenna would run out of the family room, rummage around somewhere else, and return with the immaginary milk.  I followed her on one of her many trips for a refill.  She was getting the "baby's milk" from her pretend coffee pot.  Does this mean that I drink too much coffee?  

Today was a day I am glad to see end.  I was quite irritable and the kids were tired from the minute they got up this morning.  I am so thankful that God gives me a break every night--not a long one, but a year ago I didn't even get to sleep more than a couple hours at a time!  What a difference!  

Anna was trying to get Chris' attention last night and couldn't be heard above the chatter in the room.  She finally yelled, "Clark!  Mr. Clark!"  to catch his attention.  I guess she caught on that she's not supposed to call him "Chris"...so she didn't.  But she made us laugh!

We are exhausted!  We spent the better part of the day at the Indiana State Fair.  Ahh, you've got to love the fair!  We got to see Hoss, the 993 lb pig (that Anna thought weighed 26 lbs when she recounted the story to Nana and Pops), 10 piglets (Anna's favorite thing at the fair), Edwin (a friend of the girls' from church...McKenna's favorite thing at the fair), and the girls each won an animal on the midway.  

I have to say that going to the midway at the fair is a good example of how a person changes after marriage.  I never liked the midway when I was growing up.  I thought it was just too loud and bright and un-fair like.  I liked good rides, mind you.  A trip to a good, legitimate theme park was a summer perk every year.  The midway at the fair?  Just too dangerous.  Chris came along and after a couple years of convincing, he got me to take my children through that part of the fair without (me) causing a scene.  They even rode the carousel.  How's that for living on the wild side?

Our little family of five (plus Rebekah) had a great day.  We came home sweaty, dirty, and smelling like the cattle barn.  Just like you should after going to the fair.

Que?

Today's search for a new-to-us movie went like this...  We went to the library to return our books--on time!--and see what they had available for checkout.  We returned all of our items and found a couple of movies and lots of books to keep us entertained.  While we were browsing I realized that I'd forgotten to turn the ringer off on my phone.  Everyone got to hear the IU fight song while I scrambled to turn it off.  I was so flustered that I didn't answer the phone.  I steered the kids to the checkout where I promised them that they could watch the new Clifford movie after lunch.  Mind you, it's already way past when they normally eat lunch.  Come to find out, I'd been "banned" from the library.  Seriously!  I found out that while I was in the library, one of the library staff was calling me to let me know that I'd returned a DVD case without its DVD.  So, we can't check out anything until I return the Angelina and the Rose Fairy Princess DVD which was at home in the player.  Grrrr.  So I take three very hungry and (2 at least) very disappointed children out to the hot van without their newly found treasures.  We go home and eat, get the DVD, and head back to the library.  They removed my banned status and we take our goodies home.  After much-needed naps, I finally put in the Clifford movie.  As I'm putting it in I realize that somehow, I picked up the Spanish version of the movie.  Great.  My kids can count to 10 in Spanish and say "no", but that's it.  They say they'll watch it anyway.  Where was Chris when I needed him?  (Working.)  I couldn't get the silly VCR to play the Spanish Clifford movie.  Could the disappointment get any more prolonged?  I guess it was kind of like this post...long and pretty disappointing!

Cats

I like cats.  I think they do funny things.  What's more entertaining, though, than a good cat is a cart full of children acting like cats.  Yes, I took all of my "cats" to Office Depot this evening and they meowed all through the store.  All of them.  The whole time we were there.  Anna and McKenna were very well-behaved cats.  Samuel sounded like a sick cat.  He hasn't quite perfected his "meow".

Biker kids

I've been kindly reminded that it's been a week since my last post.  I can hardly remember what I was doing a week ago!  I suppose I've been entertained by my kids, mainly.  Anna has learned to ride her bicycle (with training wheels)--she just took off the first time she got on!  The bike was supposed to be for her birthday but she found it in the barn Friday night.  Oops.  So then we got out McKenna's bike for the first time as well.  She's still working on the concept of peddling and looking in front of her.  We'll tackle steering later.  It's really fun (and funny) to watch the two of them on their new wheels.  It's a blur of pink and purple and bells and horns and streamers and baskets complete with stuffed animals.  The feminine blur gets a nice dash of masculinity when Samuel speeds through on his red and yellow tricycle.  I think he seriously must clock one of the fastest speeds for a 19 month old on wheels!  He moves those little feet just as fast as anything!

The kids all enjoyed seeing their Aunts Carrie, Laura, and Rebekah this weekend and we got to take Carrie and Laura to the zoo.  The lions roaring at the passing airplane was kind of fun and watching the dolphin show from under the water was fun.  Samuel?  He liked the ducks.

Back to the bikers...while we were driving this week Anna saw a couple of guys with sleeveless shirts, several tatoos, and bandanas riding down the road on some very large and noisy motorcycles.  She was so excited to see "PIRATES!"  Seeing the world through a 3-year old's paradigm is always interesting!

I'm getting geared up for a new semester of classes (anatomy and statistics) starting next week. The biggest obstacle will not be the classes themselves, but getting to them.  I'm still working on this whole manual transmission thing.   Needless to say, it's about the most frustrating thing I've ever done in my life.  It was way easier to share a bathroom with three sisters growing up.

Good night...

Love those words

Tonight Sam was on a mission to give hugs before going to bed.  He hugged Nana and Pops and completely passed me by.  It was OK, I was just enjoying watching him love on people who love him so much.  He headed back to Chris to be escorted to his room when he did an about face and ran to me with arms open.  (Ah, loving this moment...run to me, little guy!)  When he was about two (of his) strides away from me he said "wuv ooh" before completing the hug!  My heart just swells to hear those words from my son for the first time.  I hope I never live long enough to forget that moment.

On a lighter note, McKenna was s-l-o-w-l-y eating her quesa"deeta" tonight.  I gave her an empty bowl to be used for dessert to hopefully serve as a reminder as to why she was given the dreaded task of eating at a normal pace.  When she had finished her dinner I asked her where her bowl was.  She had the most puzzled look on her face.   I could just hear her thoughts.  "It was just here.  Where DID it go?  I'm sure she gave it to me.  It was pink.  Really.  Where is it?"  All the while she was thinking this, she was holding the bowl on her head like a little pink cap.  The moment of recognition was priceless.  Only our McKenna can do these thing day after day and keep us laughing!