First Day of School

I've been a neglectful blogger. Sorry about that.

Jack started "big kid" school yesterday. He goes for about 2 1/2 hours in the mornings. Our daycare buses him over and then goes and picks him up before lunch. I was excited that I got the chance to experience taking him in for his first day. I was there with all the other proud mothers, cameras and hands and nervous as can be.

Jack did really great until I came to pick him up and I informed him that I would then be taking him back to his old school. "No! You take me home!" he said. The next 1/2 hour went from bad to worse. He did NOT want to go back into his "old school." He cried and screamed and made a big scene. At some point, he even whacked his head on the door because he was trying to keep me from leaving. Looking back, I now realize that I never should have gone to pick him up myself. I should have just let the bus go and pick him up. Oh well, I'll know for next time.

Today, Steve took him into school, and Jack was very excited to tell me about riding the bus to and from school. I think it was the best part of his day. "I get to ride the bus every day, right Mommy?" he asked. I assured him he would, and this made him very happy.

Here are a couple of pictures of Jack on his first day. I had to take one from behind to show how big his backpack is. They insisted on the kids having full-size backpacks to hold library books and folders and such. (Watch out Am; that cute backpack will eventually need to be replaced!)

And just so I'm not leaving Anna out, here's a picture of her in a princess dress-up outfit we found at Goodwill. We were there looking for craft supplies, as I'm on this big kick to make our Christmas gifts this year. When we found this dress and then a leotard with a tutu attached, we just couldn't resist. She love, love, loves them.

Online charity auction

I'm giving a shameless plug to the online charity auction we are holding for my former teacher, who is near and dear to my family. She is facing Stage 4 cancer.

100% of the proceeds will go to benefit her family. There are some awesome jewelry, art prints and more available through this auction. Please take a moment to check it out through our Ebay store. We have over 100 items listed and only about 9 days to raise money. To learn more about our efforts, go to www.helpsolveforx.com.

Here's the link to the auction. You can navigate through the store easily by using the categories listed on the left.

Who Says Girls Can't Pee Standing Up?

Anna is potty training right now. It's going pretty good, considering. She's a very stubborn girl, and she frankly doesn't see the need to suddenly stop what she's doing and conform to someone's demands. But we're making some progress.

HOWEVER, I'm not sure what happened today can be classified as progress. We were at the zoo with a friend of mine. The kids were on the playground when I look up and see a little girl's white butt shinning across the way. Uh-huh. It was my little girl. Her pull-up was at her knees and she was waddling through the crowd. I ran to her and quickly got her decent and ask her WHAT she was doing.

"I'm going to go pee on a tree," she told me.

I was horrified at this response. "No you're not!" I told her firmly.

I offered to take her to the potty, but she just shook her head, and we moved on to the carousel. (We do actually see the animals at the zoo, but this was the end of the trip.) So we go on the carousel and then get ready to leave when my friend, Emily, asks, "Where's Anna?"

If you guessed that my little girl had gone to find a tree behind the carousel, then you'd be exactly right. She found a secluded little area that conveniently had a tree and she leaned her little belly forward and let it rip.

"Wow!" Emily said. "I don't think she got a single drop on herself."

Part of me was proud that she had good technique, but a bigger part of me was mortified. Come to find out, when my mom was here a couple of weeks ago with my nephew, she LET Anna pee on a tree like the two boys.

I made my mom talk to Anna and tell her that it's NOT okay for girls to pee on trees. When Anna got on the phone, she said, "I peed on a tree just like the boys Grandma!"

Oh the joys. :)

Fair Weekend

We had a lot going on this weekend. The State Fair was Saturday, and we had free admission tickets that Steve got.

We got there bright and early and made our way through all of the animal areas within an hour. Then we hit the kiddie rides and invested big bucks in the $20 wristbands that allowed the kids to have unlimited rides. (We figured we'd use it since riding the carousel would have been $8 for 2 kids by itself.)

It was worth it. The kids had a blast going from one kiddie ride to the next. Most of them required you to be 36 inches, so Anna just squeezed in. I never thought we'd have so much fun on the kiddie rides, but I'm starting to think it's better than going to Disney World (at least for rides, that is). When you go to a big theme park, there's usually only 3-4 little kids can do, and of course, they are all packed. But here, there were probably over 20 rides they could do, and there were no lines. Of course, you can do the math and our "free" State Fair tickets ended up costing us plenty with $10 on parking, $40 on wristbands and a little more on food. It was fun, though.

On another note, our friends are in from Singapore and we went to their little girl's b-day party at McDonalds. The kids had a blast...it was their first birthday party that wasn't family, and there were kids EVERYWHERE. Jack kept asking when HE got to have his birthday at Old McDonalds. He was disappointed to find out that Anna, Dad and me all have birthdays before him. Here are a couple of pictures from the fair...

Girl Who Knows What She Wants

Anna definitely knows what she wants. Today, she wanted to float on her raft in our little tiny pool. She sure had fun. This picture just cracked me up.

Girls' Weekend

I feel very lucky that I'm still able to keep in touch with three of my best friends from high school. To say that we were silly growing up would be a major understatement. For the most part, we were very "good kids," and our mischievous behavior consisted of taking weird pictures at Wal-Mart or driving through Taco Bell and ordering hamburgers. Oh yes, we actually thought we were funny.

Anyway, the four of us came together last weekend after 9 years of high school. We met at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, and we had a blast. (I've never shopped so much in my life.) It's funny to realize how much (and how little) we've changed. We still know each others little quirks, and unfortunately, we still think we are WAY funnier than we actually are. :)

Overall, I must say that I really enjoyed myself with the girls. We're all very different and have various views on politics, religion, etc. But on that same note, we've grown together, too.

We have the news producer who has her life completely organized and shines at everything she does.

We have the stay-at-home mom who is a lot smarter and talented than she'll give herself credit for (even if she lacks the motivation).

We have the dreamer who has yet to fully discover her passion in life, but we all know she'll find a way.

And then there's me. I analyze things too much and can be a little rough around the edges, but the best thing is that these girls take me for who I am. We all do. It's great to have a good group of girlfriends...even if they do live hundreds of miles away.

Stick it to the man

I just posted an article to my sorely-neglected personal blog about credit monitoring services, and how it's really not necessary to pay for those services, given your rights under FACTA. Just trying to save people $10-$50 per month, and maybe interfere with the ability of credit bureaus to profit from their shoddy data handling practices.

4th of July Fun

Here's a quick late posting of the fun we had on the 4th. I was waiting to get some pictures from the weekend before I posted. Otherwise, it would have been too difficult to describe Jack's pimp hat.


All the kids loved the fireworks.


Anna recently discovered face painting, and she loves it.



And finally, here's Jack in his pimp hat at the parade. It's all furry and feathery. He had a little flag sticking out of it earlier in the day, but once they started throwing candy, he had to get down to business.

Evil Thought

I just had an evil thought. I find it quite hilarious, though I'm not sure everyone else will.

First of all, I should tell you that I'm totally against abstinence. I realize this might upset Amber's mom, so please Amber, do not show this to her. So anyway, I was looking at volunteer opportunities and I saw this one as a facilitator for the Abstinence Coalition. Then I had this thought...wouldn't it be hilarious if I went through the facilitator training and then went to my first class with a bunch of scared kids whose parents forced them there. Then I could start handing out condoms and bananas. Oh man...just the thought cracks me up again.

Oooo, I have an evil mind.

The Things You Don't Brag About

Instead of posting how wonderful our weekend was at Steve's dad's house in Minneapolis (which it was), I will instead post on a few things you usually don't brag about. This will be fun. Here we go...

Anna helped pack her suitcase on Thursday night and when we opened it on Friday, we discovered that she threw in an ice cream sandwich. Thankfully, it only made a few spots on her nightgown.

Grandma Ginny took us to Dairy Queen Friday night, and I dropped Anna's popsicle on the ground. Ginny wanted to buy her a new one, but I swiftly wiped off the dirt and gave it to her. Steve had a good argument that she would probably drop it a few more times anyway.

Jack threw a fit at Dairy Queen, so I had to put him in the van to sit quietly. He was sooo mad at me and as I was buckling his seatbelt, he screamed, "damn! damn! damn!" It's like I didn't realize he was mad, so he had to curse the situation. And by the way, I have NO idea where he hears that stuff.

And finally, I can't let all the things be negative, so here's one positive thing thrown in there. On our drive over there, Jack said, "Mommy, when I grow up, could I marry you?" Awwww. What a sweetie!

Going Solo

I finally got to see Sex in the City this weekend. And it was a big step for me. For the first time in my life, I went to see a movie by myself! All my other Sex friends had already seen it. Steve's mom was going to go with me, but I couldn't wait anymore. With so many summer movies out, it might be out of theatres soon.

It was a great, great movie. Love a good girl movie, and this one was especially good because it was funny, too!

So score one for me...first movie going solo. And the best part is that I didn't have to share the popcorn bucket with anyone!

And here's a quick kid story. We love bell pepper slices at our house. But Jack doesn't know them as peppers. He calls them Js because if you cut a bell pepper in half and then cut the slices, you can get perfect little Js. He thinks it's awesome when we have Js.

Happy Father's Day

Just a quick post to say that we had a very good Father's Day. Steve's family came down, and we all went to the Brewers game. And not only did we go to the game, but we thought it would be fun if we did some tailgating, too. We weren't sure how it would go with the four little ones. Though honestly, Ian and Jack aren't so little anymore at 6 and 4.

It went great. The big hit of the tailgating was this chair game that someone invented. They put two lawn chairs 15 to 20 feet apart and then put little chairs in front of that. They then threw the football to aim for the little chairs. It was a blast for Ian and Jack. Here's a picture from the event with Jack and Grandpa Jeff. (By the way...you see Anna in that Sponge Bob outfit? Yeah, she had a cute Brewers skirt and matching shirt on, but she got it soaked by something. So she had to wear these Sponge Bob pajamas for a short bit while her other stuff dried in the sun.)

Game was good (they won), and we even made it through the whole thing!

Thanks to the Dad of our house who is truly a hands-on father. You're a keeper, and we love you.

Oklahoma Top 10

We just returned from our Oklahoma trip. It was a blast. On the way down there, we narrowly missed a tornado (it hit about 30 minutes behind us). Then on the way back, we narrowly missed another one. And then today, we spend the late afternoon in the basement because of tornado warnings around here. All is well, though. Here's a "Top 10" from our trip...

10. Nails. My sweet mother took me to get a pedicure and manicure. I got French tips on my toes, and darn it if I didn’t chip one already because I was swimming at the hotel pool with Jack and Anna. The bottom of the pool will do it every time. I’m planning to hit the store tomorrow to get some white polish to tidy it up.

9. Sleeping. Thanks to my mom wearing out the kids every night, Steve and I got to sleep in every single day. Sure, it wasn’t like we slept until 10 (though Steve did make it until 9 one day). But I don’t think I got up before 7 a single time. Even when the kids got up early, my lovely mother was there with them, making breakfast or doing something else to entertain them.



8. Day in OKC. We went up to OKC because my mom got 2nd place in a “Made in Oklahoma” recipe contest. (Wooohooo Mom!) She was accepting her award, so the kids and I tagged along, went to the zoo (that's Jack and Anna below with cousin, Lockin) and Build-a-Bear. The highlight of this trip is that when we stopped to get lunch, I was handing a $20 to the drive through worker. He didn’t grab it in time and it went blowing away in the wind. I was cursing slightly, but that didn’t stop me from jumping out of the car and running after my money. The wind was blowing like crazy, and it blew the money into the road of a busy intersection. I kept my eye on it and kept running, though. Finally, it blew out of the road into some grass, and I grabbed it. It was quite a hike, though.



7. Dinner at Grandmas. It wouldn’t be a complete visit without Sunday dinner at my Grandma’s house. The kids had fun. I got to see my grandparents. My cousin, Josh, showed me pictures of his recent muddin’ adventure. And the food was SPECTACULAR. No wonder I gain weight when I go home. It’s so worth it!



6. Riding 4-Wheelers. My dad took us out to “the farm” he has where the kids rode with my mom to the little creek nearby. Anna was scared at first to get on them, but she definitely warmed up. (If you want to see the picture of Anna, e-mail me. Here's Jack fishing at the creek.)



5. Pictures with Tina. Tina always takes great pictures, and this time was no exception. I’ll post some more of this another time, but here’s my favorite one of Jack and Anna. I love that you can see Anna’s bellybutton.



4. Arbuckle Wilderness. “Come feed the animals at Arbuckle Wilderness.” That’s the theme song of this drive-through animal park. It was a blast. I was in the front seat, so I was the one feeding most of the animals. A donkey nipped Anna in the hand, but it didn’t hurt her. It gave her a good story to tell. The best animals to feed were the giraffes. They were so amazing and gentle. There was this horrible slobbery one. You should have seen my car after we left that place. It was splattered with giraffe slobber.




3. Day at OU. Steve and I have nostalgic ties to OU. We went to the bookstore at the Union, just across the street from where Steve’s office used to be. Oh yeah, and we stopped at 4 different Sooner stores and loaded up on a TON of t-shirts, sweats, etc., etc. Such good buys!

2. Feeding Rocky. If you read my earlier post, you know that my mom was helping my brother take care of a baby raccoon. The kids ADORED him, and they especially looked forward to feeding him with his bottle. It was really one of the highlights of the trip.





1. Playing in the Pond. Finally, this is the top event of our trip. We spent all kinds of money riding trains, going to the zoo, going to Build-a-Bear, and everything else. But when it came down to it, the thing the kids liked the most was running around and swimming in the pond behind my parents’ house. It was the perfect pond, too because there was this shallow section that was pure mud along the bottom. So they were running around like crazy without having to worry about stepping on rocks or anything like that. You can’t compete with good ole times of playing in the mud.

Cinemark Sucks

I was bummed when I first found out that Sex in the City would be released the weekend we were leaving to Oklahoma. I really wanted to go on that first night. I love, love, love that series and couldn't wait to see the movie.

I didn't fret for long, though. I soon realized that my good friend Tina in Ada was also a Sex fan. We could go together! My plan seemed so perfect. Now I could go to the movie with a real, bona fide fan.

Tina and I had plans to go to the movie on Wednesday night. So we met at Starbucks beforehand and then sashayed over to the movie promptly at 7. We stand in line, wait our turn and then politely inform the lady that we need two tickets to the hottest show in town. She gives us this scared chuckle and replies, "Oh, I'm sorry. That movie is broken. We should get a new copy in a few days."

At which I reply...."Are you kidding me? Why don't you have a sign up? You should really warn people."

I was soooo mad. How hard would it be to put a nice little sign on the billboard out front that says it's temporarily out of order?!? Well, apparently it is too hard for the Cinemark staff. It looks like someone helped them out later that night, though. I have NO idea who would have printed out that sign and stuck it up there, but we couldn't resist taking a picture. Don't worry. It didn't last long. There was a church group there, and I'm pretty sure one of the chaperons ripped it down. It got some good laughs, though.

My Grandma's raccoon can beat up your Grandma's raccoon

I couldn't resist a quick post while we're in Oklahoma. After all, it's not every day that a kid can brag that their Grandma has a pet raccoon.

His name is Rocky. He's not really a pet, but my mom did know some people who started looking after four baby raccoons after their mom died. He's such a cute little thing right now and wouldn't hurt a thing, though I'm sure he'll get mean later on. They plan to let him go once he's a little older. The kids love, love, love him and check on him every few minutes. They even help Grandma feed him with his bottle.