Mommy is so proud! LOL
*sigh*
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Adam's latest talent...
He smiled, he rolled over, he sat up, then he started crawling, getting teeth, walking, running, jumping, and all the other typical milestones. And now at 18-months-old, his latest talent is...
Friday, April 28, 2006
Kindergarten Night
Well, okay, so Kindergarten Meet the Teacher Night last night was not as "fun" as I had hoped it would be! lol First problem- it didn't even start until 7pm which is my 18-month-old's bedtime. I told Joe way ahead of time we should get someone to watch Adam while we take Brendan to Kindergarten Night, but he said "no, let's just take him too, it's a family thing, it'll be fine". *sigh* Second problem- Brendan had for whatever reason been unable to fall asleep until midnight the night before so he was very tired. So we had those 2 problems working against us before we ever even arrived.
We got there to find about 25 other little kids that will be in Brendan's class (and their families of course). We didn't know a single soul in there, and of course Brendan didn't either. Then, after signing in, the first thing they did when they started was say "Okay, all the kids come follow us to the bus and all the parents stay in here". Um, okay. This did not fly with Brendan. He wasn't about to go with 25 kids he's never seen before and 2 adults he's never seen before in a place he's never been before, and leave mom & dad behind. He got really nervous and scared and wanted me to go with him. I told him I'd walk him out there. They had a bus and they wanted the kids to get on so they could see what it's like to sit on the bus. I thought this would be Brendan's favorite part, but he started crying! "I don't want to go on the bus, I want to stay with you, I miss you, I don't want to go on the bus! I want to go home!" This continued and the crying got louder. Meanwhile Adam is wanting to walk all over the parking lot, and I chase after him and he does NOT want to picked up. He starts kicking and screaming and crying. Ugh! So here we are, both our kids crying and throwing a fit, and of course, EVERY other little kid there is behaving perfectly. It was quite embarrassing! Finally they get off the bus and go inside to see their classroom, etc. Adam is still fussing, trying to get down and run all over creation.
The teacher looked at us as we were coming back in and asked with a surprised tone in her voice, "Does Brendan not know any of the other kids?" Um, no. (how would he?) I guess the other kids and parents already knew each other somehow. Wow did I feel like we were out of place. Then the bus driver pulls me aside and says something about us needing to nip this in the bud before school starts, and she said she could come pick us up on the bus some day after she drops other kids off and she will take Brendan and me on a bus ride so he can see what it will be like and get used to it. Very nice of her to offer, problem is I work full-time and am not at home at the time she drops kids off in the afternoons. Also, I imagine her offer was more for her sake since she doesn't want to deal with that the first day of school. LOL And again, embarrassing that she felt the need to offer. And now my child has already been pegged as the "problem child" of next year's Kindergarten class! lol
Meanwhile, this whole time the parents were supposed to be in the cafeteria hearing all the important things we need to know about Kindergarten and the school and such, and we've been missing it. So, finally Brendan stops crying and is letting the teacher hold his hand for the tour of the school, and Joe stayed out in the hall with Adam while I went in to listen. Although I missed at least half of the info, so I still don't know what I need to know. Then it's over and they tell us to go get our kids off the playground. Luckily, by the time I get out there, Brendan and Adam have been playing on the playground happily and the fits are over. I ask Brendan if he can show me his room, and he proudly shows me where it is and where they will hang their coats, etc, etc. Time to go. Crying begins again "But I don't want to go home! I want to stay here!"
Go figure.
We got there to find about 25 other little kids that will be in Brendan's class (and their families of course). We didn't know a single soul in there, and of course Brendan didn't either. Then, after signing in, the first thing they did when they started was say "Okay, all the kids come follow us to the bus and all the parents stay in here". Um, okay. This did not fly with Brendan. He wasn't about to go with 25 kids he's never seen before and 2 adults he's never seen before in a place he's never been before, and leave mom & dad behind. He got really nervous and scared and wanted me to go with him. I told him I'd walk him out there. They had a bus and they wanted the kids to get on so they could see what it's like to sit on the bus. I thought this would be Brendan's favorite part, but he started crying! "I don't want to go on the bus, I want to stay with you, I miss you, I don't want to go on the bus! I want to go home!" This continued and the crying got louder. Meanwhile Adam is wanting to walk all over the parking lot, and I chase after him and he does NOT want to picked up. He starts kicking and screaming and crying. Ugh! So here we are, both our kids crying and throwing a fit, and of course, EVERY other little kid there is behaving perfectly. It was quite embarrassing! Finally they get off the bus and go inside to see their classroom, etc. Adam is still fussing, trying to get down and run all over creation.
The teacher looked at us as we were coming back in and asked with a surprised tone in her voice, "Does Brendan not know any of the other kids?" Um, no. (how would he?) I guess the other kids and parents already knew each other somehow. Wow did I feel like we were out of place. Then the bus driver pulls me aside and says something about us needing to nip this in the bud before school starts, and she said she could come pick us up on the bus some day after she drops other kids off and she will take Brendan and me on a bus ride so he can see what it will be like and get used to it. Very nice of her to offer, problem is I work full-time and am not at home at the time she drops kids off in the afternoons. Also, I imagine her offer was more for her sake since she doesn't want to deal with that the first day of school. LOL And again, embarrassing that she felt the need to offer. And now my child has already been pegged as the "problem child" of next year's Kindergarten class! lol
Meanwhile, this whole time the parents were supposed to be in the cafeteria hearing all the important things we need to know about Kindergarten and the school and such, and we've been missing it. So, finally Brendan stops crying and is letting the teacher hold his hand for the tour of the school, and Joe stayed out in the hall with Adam while I went in to listen. Although I missed at least half of the info, so I still don't know what I need to know. Then it's over and they tell us to go get our kids off the playground. Luckily, by the time I get out there, Brendan and Adam have been playing on the playground happily and the fits are over. I ask Brendan if he can show me his room, and he proudly shows me where it is and where they will hang their coats, etc, etc. Time to go. Crying begins again "But I don't want to go home! I want to stay here!"
Go figure.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Thursday Thirteen
Thirteen things Courtney wishes she could do better...1. Sing (Cannot sing to save my life)
2. Cook (I can cook the basics, and I can follow a recipe, but I'd like to be better at knowing what to cook and how to use foods I'm not familiar with)
3. Have more patience (I used to be the most patient person I knew...until I had kids!)
4. Know how to fix my hair in a variety of stylish ways (I don't know what looks good on me or how to find out! lol)
5. Getting and staying organized (I always have the best intentions)
6. Less procrastination (I can be bad about putting things off)
7. Have an interest in gardening (sadly, I don't know much and don't have much desire to learn)
8. Knowing what to wear (I don't know how to find what looks good/stylish on me and I don't like shopping and don't have enough time! Any fashion experts out there want to tell me what to wear? lol)
9. Being married with children (yes I think I do a fine job, but sometimes I wonder if I was meant to live alone instead. Don't get me wrong, I love my hubby and kids very much, I just sometimes feel like I wasn't cut out to be a wife and mom)
10. Showing affection (I'm not a kissy-touchy person. Yes, I *do* like making love, I'm not talking about that kind of affection, I just am not good at the casual daily non-sexual affection stuff. I hate to have my face touched, and it is annoying to me to have someone too close or touching me all the time. I need my space. Hubby is a very affectionate person and is constantly kissing, touching, grabbing, every time I walk by or turn around and while I'm trying to get things done and it is terribly annoying.)
11. Expressing my needs (I tend to bottle things up and then explode)
12. Not playing the martyr (yes I do almost everything around the house and clean up after everyone, but that doesn't mean I need to act like a martyr. I'm working on this).
13. Being content with who I am (I used to be happy with myself, but now I keep beating myself up for not being who I used to be.)
If you are participating in Thursday Thirteen this week, please add yourself to the auto-link thing and leave a comment. Thanks to Uisce for the linky and ChaoticHome for the TT banner at the top.
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Tidbits
I tried to post yesterday, but blogger wouldn't let me.
We had a pretty good weekend. Saturday we went to a Vet School Open House and they had all sorts of animals and things. The boys seemed to enjoy that. Joe stuck his hand in the cow stomach, but Brendan decided he did not want to do it. I took a picture, but I need to get it developed. We actually missed a lot of the activities and such because we went closer to closing time. But, it was still nice to get out. After that we ate dinner at a local pizza place.
Sunday I had to work at the local Earth Day event all day. Luckily it was beautiful weather. However my arms and shoulders are sore from lifting kids onto the huge Earth Ball all day! Good exercise though, I suppose.
This Thursday is the Kindergarten Meet the Teacher Night at the elementary school Brendan will go to in August. I'm looking forward to seeing the school and teacher and finding out more about what things will be like for Brendan. I hope he enjoys it. We have never even seen the outside of the school. It is down a (rural) road that we never go by, so I don't even really know exactly where it is! Guess we'll find out! lol
Then on Saturday I'm going to "Memoranza", which is a 12-hour scrapbooking event! Woohoo! 12 hours of kid-free scrapping time! Yea!
Oh, and notice the new ticker at the top? Carolyn's idea to do a ticker for the countdown to our Gatlinburg trip! A group of us that have been on an online scrapbooking group together for several years (since before either of my boys were born!) are getting together in Gatlinburg this summer! Woohoo! Let the countdown begin!
We had a pretty good weekend. Saturday we went to a Vet School Open House and they had all sorts of animals and things. The boys seemed to enjoy that. Joe stuck his hand in the cow stomach, but Brendan decided he did not want to do it. I took a picture, but I need to get it developed. We actually missed a lot of the activities and such because we went closer to closing time. But, it was still nice to get out. After that we ate dinner at a local pizza place.
Sunday I had to work at the local Earth Day event all day. Luckily it was beautiful weather. However my arms and shoulders are sore from lifting kids onto the huge Earth Ball all day! Good exercise though, I suppose.
This Thursday is the Kindergarten Meet the Teacher Night at the elementary school Brendan will go to in August. I'm looking forward to seeing the school and teacher and finding out more about what things will be like for Brendan. I hope he enjoys it. We have never even seen the outside of the school. It is down a (rural) road that we never go by, so I don't even really know exactly where it is! Guess we'll find out! lol
Then on Saturday I'm going to "Memoranza", which is a 12-hour scrapbooking event! Woohoo! 12 hours of kid-free scrapping time! Yea!
Oh, and notice the new ticker at the top? Carolyn's idea to do a ticker for the countdown to our Gatlinburg trip! A group of us that have been on an online scrapbooking group together for several years (since before either of my boys were born!) are getting together in Gatlinburg this summer! Woohoo! Let the countdown begin!
Friday, April 21, 2006
Catching up to Where I Was Yesterday...Every Day!
Do you ever feel like you're living the same day over and over? I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything new lately. Every evening I'm just catching back up to where I was the day before...it is ridiculous! This thought hit me hard last night. After working all day I went to pick up Brendan at preschool, and then had to drive to pick up Adam at his babysitter's too since Joe was working. Come home, listen to fussy/tired/hungry kiddos while I try to figure out what to give them for dinner, make dinner, eat, change diaper, wash up boys, get Adam changed into his jammies, bottle and bed. Then empty dishwasher, reload, change over laundry, pick up after everyone, fold laundry, get Brendan washed up, in jammies, ready for bed, Joe gets home and plops on couch to watch tv. Then I put Brendan to bed, and go back to reloading dishwasher that I got interrupted doing earlier, fold more laundry. By now it is after 10pm and I finally have enough done that I can work on scrapbook pages for the Scrapping Survivor Challenge, go downstairs, stare at blank scrapbook page, have no clue what I can scrap using the current challenge, I'm so tired I can't think or see straight, so I go back upstairs with a huge headache. It's too late to start anything, have to get up early for work. Go to bed.
This has been my evening over and over again for weeks now. I can't seem to get ahead on anything...I'm constantly just redoing and catching back up to where I was the day before. *sigh* Tonight I HAVE to do some pages, I hope I can stay awake! I think that every night, and so far it hasn't happened. (Melissa and Carolyn you did not just hear me say that I haven't done any pages yet the day before the deadline! LOL)
Seriously though, I have to figure something out (not just for scrapbooking but in general). Life cannot just always be at a standstill doing nothing but getting back to where I was yesterday.
This has been my evening over and over again for weeks now. I can't seem to get ahead on anything...I'm constantly just redoing and catching back up to where I was the day before. *sigh* Tonight I HAVE to do some pages, I hope I can stay awake! I think that every night, and so far it hasn't happened. (Melissa and Carolyn you did not just hear me say that I haven't done any pages yet the day before the deadline! LOL)
Seriously though, I have to figure something out (not just for scrapbooking but in general). Life cannot just always be at a standstill doing nothing but getting back to where I was yesterday.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Thursday Thirteen
Thirteen things that Courtney enjoys doing.1. Sitting around a campfire, talking and drinking with hubby and our friends.
2. Camping and canoeing trips.
3. Going on spontaneous day and/or weekend trips with the boys and hubby.
4. Scrapbooking, and of course taking lots of pictures.
5. Blogging/email/internet.
6. Being alone with peace and quiet.
7. Going to the movies.
8. Cave tours, and not just the walking ones (although I do like to take the boys on those too), but also ones like the Wild Cave Tour in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky that hubby and I did before the kids came along. Wanted to go with my dad when I turned 16 (you have to be at least 16) but he couldn't go because no part of your body can be more than 42" or you won't fit through some of the crevices, and my dad's chest was too big (muscular not fat). So, I ended up waiting until several years later and went with hubby instead. I'd love to go back and do it again sometime.
9. Mountains! I love mountains! Don't live near any, but I love going places that do! I feel such a sense of peace and awe around mountains.
10. Playing cards and games.
11. Bowling (I'm not very good, but it's still fun)
12. Going to comedy shows. Love to do this. We haven't gone to one in awhile, we need to do that soon!
13. Going on any kind of vacation, big or small, by myself or with family or friends or whoever. I just like to go. lol
If you are participating in Thursday Thirteen, please add yourself to the auto-linky below and leave a comment.
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Random tidbits
We had a pretty good Easter weekend. Saturday morning we colored Easter eggs. Saturday night I went out with a couple other ladies for our monthly "Mom's Night Out". This month we went to see a movie. We saw Failure to Launch, which was actually pretty good. I liked it more than I thought I would. Then we grabbed a bite to eat.
Sunday morning we did a egg/candy hunt for the boys outside. Brendan had fun. Adam didn't quite grasp the concept, but he had fun playing with one of the plastic candy-filled eggs while Brendan found everything else. After that it was pretty much just like any weekend day- cleaning, laundry, etc. Joe fixed a lawn mower that the previous owners had left. They thought it was just a dead mower and it had been sitting outside in a little shed thing for probably 10 years un-used. Joe got it running in one afternoon! He's so good at stuff like that. When we first moved in about 3 years ago, he fixed the riding mower that the previous owners had tried to fix, had taken somewhere to get fixed, and never had any luck. They were going to get rid of it, but didn't want to haul it off, so Joe told them to just leave it and we'd take care of it. He had it running in time for us to mow the first spring we lived there. Those are just 2 of many similar examples.
Totally changing subjects here, but on our local freecycle group someone posted a link to this article about a guy who is trying to barter/trade his way from a red paperclip to a house! I found it kinda interesting and amusing. He has a blog about it too. HERE is the article about it, and HERE is his blog. Kinda neat!
Again, totally changing the subject, but this keeps popping into my mind and bugging me. At our recent meeting with the Parents as Teachers lady, she gave Brendan an alphabet writing chart. She explained that when he starts Kindergarten that the teacher teaches them to write their letters a certain way... now I understand the lines and that they want the top of the letters to the top line, etc. But what I don't see a purpose for is that each line of each letter was numbered with 1, 2, 3 instructions kinda like this. She said that the Kindergarten teacher will stress doing it just like that with them following those 1, 2, 3 instructions/arrows, blah, blah, blah. My question is...why does it matter if he does his lines of the letters in that order or direction? As long as it looks like an A when he writes it, I don't see the problem. Seems like a petty and insignificant thing to me. I mean, if he didn't already know how to write letters at all I understand using that as a teaching device on how to write an A, but he has been writing his letters for at least 2 years now, and it seems like now he's going to go to school and be told that he is writing "wrong", even though it looks just exactly the same? I know this is not a big deal, it just struck me as strange that they would be a stickler for it being done a certain "right" way in "right" order when an A is an A. lol (I don't even write my A in that order, I start at the bottom. I guess I would flunk out of Kindergarten! heehee)
Sunday morning we did a egg/candy hunt for the boys outside. Brendan had fun. Adam didn't quite grasp the concept, but he had fun playing with one of the plastic candy-filled eggs while Brendan found everything else. After that it was pretty much just like any weekend day- cleaning, laundry, etc. Joe fixed a lawn mower that the previous owners had left. They thought it was just a dead mower and it had been sitting outside in a little shed thing for probably 10 years un-used. Joe got it running in one afternoon! He's so good at stuff like that. When we first moved in about 3 years ago, he fixed the riding mower that the previous owners had tried to fix, had taken somewhere to get fixed, and never had any luck. They were going to get rid of it, but didn't want to haul it off, so Joe told them to just leave it and we'd take care of it. He had it running in time for us to mow the first spring we lived there. Those are just 2 of many similar examples.
Totally changing subjects here, but on our local freecycle group someone posted a link to this article about a guy who is trying to barter/trade his way from a red paperclip to a house! I found it kinda interesting and amusing. He has a blog about it too. HERE is the article about it, and HERE is his blog. Kinda neat!
Again, totally changing the subject, but this keeps popping into my mind and bugging me. At our recent meeting with the Parents as Teachers lady, she gave Brendan an alphabet writing chart. She explained that when he starts Kindergarten that the teacher teaches them to write their letters a certain way... now I understand the lines and that they want the top of the letters to the top line, etc. But what I don't see a purpose for is that each line of each letter was numbered with 1, 2, 3 instructions kinda like this. She said that the Kindergarten teacher will stress doing it just like that with them following those 1, 2, 3 instructions/arrows, blah, blah, blah. My question is...why does it matter if he does his lines of the letters in that order or direction? As long as it looks like an A when he writes it, I don't see the problem. Seems like a petty and insignificant thing to me. I mean, if he didn't already know how to write letters at all I understand using that as a teaching device on how to write an A, but he has been writing his letters for at least 2 years now, and it seems like now he's going to go to school and be told that he is writing "wrong", even though it looks just exactly the same? I know this is not a big deal, it just struck me as strange that they would be a stickler for it being done a certain "right" way in "right" order when an A is an A. lol (I don't even write my A in that order, I start at the bottom. I guess I would flunk out of Kindergarten! heehee)
Friday, April 14, 2006
A Cute Mess!
What do you get when you have a tired toddler in the backseat with his Easter basket from the babysitter within his reach while Mommy is driving the 25 minute commute home?...
Even with a chocolate mess all over him, he's still a cutie pie!
Been busy (Updated w/ pics)
Wow, I can't believe I didn't get a chance to blog all week this week! I even missed Wordless Wednesday and Thursday Thirteen! Things suddenly got so busy at work and stayed busy all week.
I did have Tuesday off to spend time with my 5-yr-old, like I had mentioned before. We had a great day! Joe brought home 2 huge boxes from work the night before for the boys to play with, so after watching a couple cartoons Tuesday morning, Brendan and I painted pictures on the boxes! I was going to post a couple pics of that, but blogger is not letting me upload them right now. The whole time we were painting Brendan kept saying "this is so much fun, Mommy". That made me feel good.
*Update: It appears blogger is letting me upload the photos now:
Then I took him to lunch at Burger King. We sat at one of the tables in the Play Place area. After eating, he had fun playing on that. They also have a couple arcade games there, so he and I played 2 rounds of The Simpsons arcade game together.
Then at 1:00 we went to see Ice Age 2 The Meltdown. We were the only 2 in the entire theater! Brendan thought that was really cool. We split a popcorn, of which he ate at least half of! He loves popcorn. When he was younger, he used to call the movie theater "the popcorn house". lol
Then we made it back home barely in time to meet with the Parents as Teachers lady.
That was our day in a nutshell.
This weekend we will be coloring Easter eggs on Saturday. Saturday evening I have my monthly Mom's Night Out with some ladies in the moms group. This month is a movie night, and it sounds like we are seeing Failure to Launch. On Sunday we will do a little Easter egg/candy hunt for the boys. Then back to work on Monday!
Hope everyone has a very happy EASTER weekend!!!
(Did I mention it is in the 90's here today?! That's July & August weather, not April!)
I did have Tuesday off to spend time with my 5-yr-old, like I had mentioned before. We had a great day! Joe brought home 2 huge boxes from work the night before for the boys to play with, so after watching a couple cartoons Tuesday morning, Brendan and I painted pictures on the boxes! I was going to post a couple pics of that, but blogger is not letting me upload them right now. The whole time we were painting Brendan kept saying "this is so much fun, Mommy". That made me feel good.
*Update: It appears blogger is letting me upload the photos now:
Then I took him to lunch at Burger King. We sat at one of the tables in the Play Place area. After eating, he had fun playing on that. They also have a couple arcade games there, so he and I played 2 rounds of The Simpsons arcade game together.
Then at 1:00 we went to see Ice Age 2 The Meltdown. We were the only 2 in the entire theater! Brendan thought that was really cool. We split a popcorn, of which he ate at least half of! He loves popcorn. When he was younger, he used to call the movie theater "the popcorn house". lol
Then we made it back home barely in time to meet with the Parents as Teachers lady.
That was our day in a nutshell.
This weekend we will be coloring Easter eggs on Saturday. Saturday evening I have my monthly Mom's Night Out with some ladies in the moms group. This month is a movie night, and it sounds like we are seeing Failure to Launch. On Sunday we will do a little Easter egg/candy hunt for the boys. Then back to work on Monday!
Hope everyone has a very happy EASTER weekend!!!
(Did I mention it is in the 90's here today?! That's July & August weather, not April!)
Monday, April 10, 2006
Slammed (and not in a good way! lol)
Wow, I'm suddenly slammed at work, so no blogging for me today!
Friday, April 07, 2006
A little quirky?
Not as quirky as Melissa ;)
| Your Quirk Factor: 45% |
 You're a pretty quirky person, but you're just normal enough to hide it. Congratulations - you've fooled other people into thinking you're just like them! |
Not much to write about
Okay, so I'm sitting here in my office eating my lunch and wondering what the heck I can blog about today! LOL Not much to write about.
Tomorrow we're going to my mom's house to install a new screen door for her. Then Sunday I'm going to a crop (scrapbooking). And of course the usual cleaning and laundry. Then back to another work week again. Not too exciting, huh? lol
However, on Tuesday I am taking a vacation day and keeping Brendan with me while Joe goes to work and Adam goes to the sitter. I've been feeling like I haven't been spending enough time with Brendan lately. Adam is somewhat high-maintenance and usually fussy in the evenings until he goes to bed, so my attention is demanded from Adam. Poor Brendan usually ends up either (a) playing in his room by himself or (b) annoying the heck out of me trying to get attention. So, I'm taking a day with him. We have a Parents as Teachers meeting at 3:30 anyway, so I decided to just take the whole day since I had to leave work early anyway that day. I've been wanting to take Brendan to Ice Age 2, so I think we will do that on Tuesday before the P.A.T. lady gets to our house. Haven't decided what else we will do yet in the morning. The movie doesn't start til 1:00. And then we'll have to go get Adam before the PAT meeting too. So, we won't have a lot of time, but I think he will enjoy it anyway. And I'm looking forward to it too!
Tomorrow we're going to my mom's house to install a new screen door for her. Then Sunday I'm going to a crop (scrapbooking). And of course the usual cleaning and laundry. Then back to another work week again. Not too exciting, huh? lol
However, on Tuesday I am taking a vacation day and keeping Brendan with me while Joe goes to work and Adam goes to the sitter. I've been feeling like I haven't been spending enough time with Brendan lately. Adam is somewhat high-maintenance and usually fussy in the evenings until he goes to bed, so my attention is demanded from Adam. Poor Brendan usually ends up either (a) playing in his room by himself or (b) annoying the heck out of me trying to get attention. So, I'm taking a day with him. We have a Parents as Teachers meeting at 3:30 anyway, so I decided to just take the whole day since I had to leave work early anyway that day. I've been wanting to take Brendan to Ice Age 2, so I think we will do that on Tuesday before the P.A.T. lady gets to our house. Haven't decided what else we will do yet in the morning. The movie doesn't start til 1:00. And then we'll have to go get Adam before the PAT meeting too. So, we won't have a lot of time, but I think he will enjoy it anyway. And I'm looking forward to it too!
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Thursday Thirteen
Thirteen random things from Courtney's childhood that
stand out in her memory to this day.
1. In preschool, (yes I actually remember this!), I was frequently slightly late. One day, I found a picture of my dad laying in bed in our family album, and I took it with me to preschool and showed it to my teacher and said, "this is why I'm always late". LOL (which is actually funny to me because for most of my life to this day my dad is never late anywhere anymore, so it's strange to think he was back then).
2. My sister (who is 6 years older than me) and I use to put on shows for our parents (and other people's parents if we were over at someone else's house). We'd do songs, skits, etc. The song I remember most went like this "We are the Portsmouth girls, we wear our hair in curls, we wear our father's shirts, we don't believe in skirts, we wear dungarees way below our knees, and when it comes to men we do the best we can!" LOL (Portsmouth was where we lived at the time, in case you're wondering what that was). I also remember the skit "The Ugliest Person in the World". Anyone remember that one? I think it was a well-known one.
3. Long car rides! We use to drive from New Hampshire to Missouri every year. (We lived in NH and we had family in MO). That's a lot of time in the car. And we also went on vacations every year, driving not flying. My sister (Jill) and I would sing songs in the backseat of the van and mom would get all flustered and yell "would you two pipe down back there!"
4. When we were younger than that, I remember my dad would make up stories to tell us in the car. It would be an on-going saga with the same characters, Betty and Bobby- the were bears. It was actually very creative. I won't elaborate on the storyline in case my dad wants to publish them sometime...wouldn't want anyone to steal his storyline, ya know! LOL
5. I don't remember exactly where we were or why, but I remember one year I got very sick when we were driving somewhere. I had bronchitis, tonsilitis, and strep throat. I remember being in a hotel room and my mom and I played "imaginary UNO". We loved to play UNO, but we didn't have any Uno cards with us, so we pretended. Mom still occassionally jokes about how she got beat by a 6-year-old at imaginary Uno! lol
6. I remember 2 toys I had that I was scared of. lol There was a Ronald McDonald clown doll that I was a little leary of. It didn't look like a happy friendly doll. But even more than that, there was this Mickey Mouse head pillow thing...one of those that was a pajama bag too. I think it must have been a homemade one. I don't know why, but that thing just looked freaky to me. Just a strange felt MM head looking at me. lol
7. I had a loft bed that my dad built. It was awesome! And every few years he would re-design it and remake it to fit my needs at the time as I got older. It started as bunk beds, then was a loft bed with lots of room for toys underneath. Then he turned the bottom part into a desk area. Then when I was older and didn't want to sleep up top anymore, we put a twin bed underneath, and a nice desk area, and the top was now a place to keep my stuff, and sometimes I would go up there and read or whatever.
8. Birthday parties were always a blast. As I mentioned in a previous post, my mom always went way overboard on parties for us. Everything had a theme and lots to go with it. And every year was different. I remember loving so many of them- especially a horseback riding one and a bowling one. The bowling one was actually a surprise slumber party! We went bowling, and while we were at the bowling alley, everyone's parents dropped off their kids stuff at my house. The whole time I thought everyone was leaving after the bowling part. It was a great surprise that all of my friends were staying the night! It was so much fun.
9. Friday night was pizza night! Every Friday night we had pizza. Either we'd go out to a pizza place, or we'd order in. And if we were out of town on the road, we'd stop at a pizza place in whatever town we were in. As we got older, I would even wait to go out with my friends until after I had had my Friday night pizza with my family. This is something I hope to revive with my husband and boys as a family night together tradition.
10. Christmas: we always celebrated Christmas eve at my grandma's (mom's mom) and Christmas day at Granny's (dad's mom). When we were little, Santa would deliver all of our gifts to one of the grandparent's houses (they alternated years which one Santa would come to). When we got a little older and knew what was going on, my parents saved themselves the trouble of packing/hiding/hauling the gifts and we started celebrating Christmas about a week before Christmas at our own house, getting our "Santa" gifts then, and then going to the grandparents on Christmas Eve & Christmas like always. To this day we still go to Grandma's on Christmas eve and we were still going to Granny's on Christmas day until we got married and she decided to change the day anyway.
11. Thanksgiving: we always went to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving. All of us kids would play, the women talked, and the men slept in front of the football game. We still do this every other year (and the other years we celebrate with Joe's family).
12. Easter: We'd do an Easter egg/candy hunt in the morning before church. It was great fun! There was always a ton of candy! Then we'd go to church. Then my sister and I would sit down at the kitchen table, dump out all our candy, and separate it into catagories. All the chocolate footballs in one pile, all the marshmallow candies in another pile, all the peanut butter cups in another pile, and so on and so forth. And the jellybeans, they all got divided out as far as color! All the red jellybeans, all the green, etc, etc. And then we would divide and trade our candy until we both had the EXACT same amount of each and every kind and color of candy! LOL My parents were still doing Easter egg/candy hunts for us until we moved out. Even when Joe and I were dating and we went to my parent's house at Easter, they still did one for us...only instead of eggs, they hid candy, summer sausage, and bottles of beer for us! LOL
13. My parents always supported me in everything I ever did! At least one of them, if not both, always came to see my every dance recital, gymnastics meets, plays, half-time show (I danced on the poms squad at half-time in high school), dance competitions, track meets, award ceremony, sports banquets, you name it, they were there supporting me 100%. It was always such a great feeling when I'd be out there competing or dancing or about to do my event at a track meet, or whatever, and looking up into the stands and seeing them paying full attention with smiles on their faces, and knowing that they would be just as happy and proud of me whether I did great or not.
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Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Time change problems???
(if you're looking for my wordless Wednesday, it is the post below...I could only remain wordless for part of the day. lol)
Are my kids the only ones that are STILL affected by the timechange??? lol Oh my gosh, they are driving us insane at night! Brendan, who usually goes to bed and sleep with no problems ever since birth, has been obnoxious the last 4 nights!!! At 11pm when WE are in bed and trying to sleep we can still hear him down there getting up and playing and such. He is bouncing off the walls wide awake! Yesterday morning I found him asleep on the couch, instead of his bed. This morning he got in bed with us because he thought he heard thunder, and when I went into his room this morning, I found that he had used stickers to hang about 10 pictures he had drawn/colored up on the wall sometime after we went to bed! He usually goes to bed between 8:45-9:00pm and we always read to him and then he goes to sleep. (sometimes he watches a bedtime video in bed after we read to him, but even then he falls asleep during that). But these last several nights, I don't know what to do with him! How do you force a kid to go to sleep?! lol (And on top of that, Adam has been waking up too, which he rarely does anymore). We are exhausted. And of course, since Brendan isn't going to sleep until late, then he is really crabby in the morning while we're trying to get out the door. Anyone else having any problems with this? Any ideas of what to do, short of strapping him down to the bed? lol
Are my kids the only ones that are STILL affected by the timechange??? lol Oh my gosh, they are driving us insane at night! Brendan, who usually goes to bed and sleep with no problems ever since birth, has been obnoxious the last 4 nights!!! At 11pm when WE are in bed and trying to sleep we can still hear him down there getting up and playing and such. He is bouncing off the walls wide awake! Yesterday morning I found him asleep on the couch, instead of his bed. This morning he got in bed with us because he thought he heard thunder, and when I went into his room this morning, I found that he had used stickers to hang about 10 pictures he had drawn/colored up on the wall sometime after we went to bed! He usually goes to bed between 8:45-9:00pm and we always read to him and then he goes to sleep. (sometimes he watches a bedtime video in bed after we read to him, but even then he falls asleep during that). But these last several nights, I don't know what to do with him! How do you force a kid to go to sleep?! lol (And on top of that, Adam has been waking up too, which he rarely does anymore). We are exhausted. And of course, since Brendan isn't going to sleep until late, then he is really crabby in the morning while we're trying to get out the door. Anyone else having any problems with this? Any ideas of what to do, short of strapping him down to the bed? lol
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
The Party, my cousin, and taxes
So, Granny's 90th birthday party went fine. She was sursprised (or if she wasn't, she faked it well). Unfortunately everyone was talking amongst themselves and didn't even notice when she walked in, though, so there was no shouting of "Surprise!" or anything. Everyone just kinda looked up and said oh she's here. LOL The place had 2 connecting rooms, so we went to the back room (as did my sister and my cousin) so that all of our kids could run around without knocking anyone down. It's really interesting that all of us have boys...not a single girl in that generation of the family. I have 2 boys, my sister has 2 boys, my cousin has 3 boys, and my other cousin has 1 boy (he wasn't there though, he is in his 20's and by far the oldest of the great-grandkids). So, we had 7 little boys all age 5 and under there. They had fun running around and playing hide and seek together. We ended up leaving shortly after the meal, because Adam was getting so tired (it was almost 9pm by the time we ate and everything).
Unfortunately in the back of everyone's mind was worry for my other cousin. He had been admitted to the hospital the night before (and noone told Granny until after the party)- he was bleeding out both ends, and had seizures and was totally out of it. His girlfriend/wife (I can't keep up with his women...can't remember if this is one he married or not) was there, thank goodness, when this happened and she got him to the hospital. The doctors said if she hadn't been there and gotten him to the hospital he would be dead. He is in the ICU with liver failure. His liver is shot. It can potentially regenerate and heal some, but it will take time, and he will have to 100% quit drinking. He is hooked up to all sorts of things, on several meds, etc. He is only in his upper 30's and they (family members) said he looked like a tiny shriveled up old man there in the hospital bed. I wish I had a picture of him to post...he used to be very good looking...like a cross between Brad Pitt and someone else I can't think of right now, only he has dark (almost black) hair, not blonde like Brad. Now, just 10 years later he looks like a shriveled old man, and he could literally be on his death bed. So sad. He is going through withdrawal in there on top of everything else. He (obviously) is an alcoholic, and I know he used to be a drug addict for many years too. He probably was again, I don't know. He has had a hard life, (self induced) I can't even begin to list everything he's done and been through...and I don't even know 1/2 of it, I'm sure. It's sad to see a life go to waste. I feel bad for him, but at the same time he did it to himself, so what can you say. I just hope he makes it through and that this will be a major wake-up call for him to change his life around. Everyone deserves another chance at having a good life.
But anyway, enough about that.
We did not get our taxes finished on Sunday like we'd hoped. We're using Turbo Tax for the first time this year. (yes, I know we are behind the times). We got a good start, but realized we had forgotten to get the amount we paid in daycare from the daycare director, so we had to stop. We do have it now. Gosh daycare is expensive!!! We paid almost $13,000 in daycare in 2005!
Well, my lunch break is almost over and this is getting long, so I'm off!
Unfortunately in the back of everyone's mind was worry for my other cousin. He had been admitted to the hospital the night before (and noone told Granny until after the party)- he was bleeding out both ends, and had seizures and was totally out of it. His girlfriend/wife (I can't keep up with his women...can't remember if this is one he married or not) was there, thank goodness, when this happened and she got him to the hospital. The doctors said if she hadn't been there and gotten him to the hospital he would be dead. He is in the ICU with liver failure. His liver is shot. It can potentially regenerate and heal some, but it will take time, and he will have to 100% quit drinking. He is hooked up to all sorts of things, on several meds, etc. He is only in his upper 30's and they (family members) said he looked like a tiny shriveled up old man there in the hospital bed. I wish I had a picture of him to post...he used to be very good looking...like a cross between Brad Pitt and someone else I can't think of right now, only he has dark (almost black) hair, not blonde like Brad. Now, just 10 years later he looks like a shriveled old man, and he could literally be on his death bed. So sad. He is going through withdrawal in there on top of everything else. He (obviously) is an alcoholic, and I know he used to be a drug addict for many years too. He probably was again, I don't know. He has had a hard life, (self induced) I can't even begin to list everything he's done and been through...and I don't even know 1/2 of it, I'm sure. It's sad to see a life go to waste. I feel bad for him, but at the same time he did it to himself, so what can you say. I just hope he makes it through and that this will be a major wake-up call for him to change his life around. Everyone deserves another chance at having a good life.
But anyway, enough about that.
We did not get our taxes finished on Sunday like we'd hoped. We're using Turbo Tax for the first time this year. (yes, I know we are behind the times). We got a good start, but realized we had forgotten to get the amount we paid in daycare from the daycare director, so we had to stop. We do have it now. Gosh daycare is expensive!!! We paid almost $13,000 in daycare in 2005!
Well, my lunch break is almost over and this is getting long, so I'm off!
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