Sweets for School

I decided at the last minute to make some treats for the boys to take to school for their friends. Usually they come home from every holiday celebration at school with bags of goodies. There have been cellophane bags filled with miniature puzzles, themed pencils, candy, and even a stuffed animal one year. I never make these goodie bags because I kind of thought they were a waste of money and unnecessary. But I thought…new schools…new traditions.

Since I thought this would be a wonderful project to take on at 9:00 the night before the parties, I went to the pantry a little doubtful. I looked up into our dessert box and found marshmallows and chocolate chips – perfect!

I had seen something in blog world about using marshmallows as ghost  poop during Halloween so I thought I would do something along those lines.

I scooped little handfuls of marshmallows and chocolate chips into plastic bags and tied them off. I attached a note that said,”Enjoy your Texas snow and snowman buttons.”

marshmellows and chocolatesAlex wanted to put “Enjoy your Texas snow and reindeer poop.”

Clever, but I was afraid that wouldn’t go over so well at Andrew’s religious school so we went with the other version.

school giftsNow I say I implemented this plan at 9:00 at night but the thought about doing a treat had occurred earlier in the day. When driving through the car pool line I asked Andrew’s teacher if he could bring something for all of the kids in his classroom. She said sure, “As long as it doesn’t have too many sweets.”

Could she possibly be referring to the large box of Christmas candy I gave her the day before? I choose to think not. But I’m not too sure.

Listening Around the House

“Poopy face”

“Go poop in a bucket, pooper”

“Why did the chicken cross the road?…to get poop”

What? You are not laughing hysterically?

You must not be an 8 and under boy.

The above is what life at my house is like right now.

Wait till I introduce them to: defecation, excrement, stool, and dung.

Then we’ll really be having good times.

Just Like her Brothers

Caroline loves Alex and Andrew more than anything in this world.

She also has a love for clothes.

She is always trying to take things off the rack and try them on in stores.

Folding laundry at home with her is difficult because she’s always trying to put things on.

Today she insisted on combining her 2 loves.

caroline in alex's underwearI drew the line when it was time to leave the house.

The Best Made Plans

Derek and I have had today scheduled for weeks as a designated “Santa Works Around the House & Helps Mrs. Claus finish Christmas shopping and wrapping day”. He was planning on taking the day off from work and help with the above. Boy oh boy I have had plenty of plans for projects just brewing in my head.

And then Friday Alex gets sick.

Why do they always get sick on a Friday afternoon?

Is it their way of avoiding the doctor but still ruining your weekend? Perhaps a little harsh.

So the whole weekend Alex was sick. He was mopey, tired, lethargic, running a high fever.

Out the window went Angel shopping, seeing Santa ice skate & do back flips, going out to eat, and visiting Santa.

Monday when he woke up he immediately started to complain that his throat hurt. It looked red to me but the fact that he was literally wrestling with Andrew made me question the seriousness of the problem.

So Derek and I pondered and pondered, “Should he go to school?”

I decided to take him to the doctor. I immediately started second guessing my decision since he was singing, laughing, and hopping around in the parking lot.

Turns out he has strep throat. With lots of energy.

Doctor said he can’t go back to school until Wednesday.

Now what are Santa & Mrs. Claus going to do about their day? Mrs. Claus is pretty sure she is going to ban Alex to his bedroom from 1-3 so that serious Santaring can get done.

Two days home. These are the only days Alex has been absent from school all year.

I think he knew the plan and wanted to be an elf.

Tree Update

Well, I thought since it’s been a week since I posed the real vs. fake question I’d give you our decision. But first I must say this was definitely a hot button issue with you guys. I promise we took all arguments into consideration and weighed the pros and cons.  It appeared to be almost a split argument between Northerners and Southerners. Of course those demographics are a bit different than what you might think. I put our Canadian readers in the Northern catergory while Chicagoans were the majority of southerners.

And our decision was…..

christmas treeCan you tell?

We went with fake.

We got a good price at Dillard’s for our 9 ft tree and I have a little more piece of mind when I sleep now. I always worried our real tree would catch on fire in the middle of the night. I have taken more than my fair share of trips to check on trees at 3 am. (I’m very aware that I am neurotic so no need to comment on that.) I’m also excited to deal with less tree needles. Of course, we managed to bring some of our previous tree needles into our new house. This is due to the fact that last year I just threw the tree skirt full of needles into the Christmas bucket.

Surprisingly the boys didn’t care one way or the other about the tree. They were just excited to put up the tree and decorate it.

For my family who may not be in favor of my decision I will have this waiting for you when you get here.

Swimming on Empty?

Here’s another story from my swim practice the other day:

I swam all practice next to a 20 something guy who I’ve seen for the past couple of months. After practice we were talking with the coach about some health issues and the supplements both men take.

Our coach said he takes 1200mg. of fish oil a day. Sounded like a lot to me until the young guy said, “Oh, I take 5000mg a day.” I said “Wow, now that seems like a lot.”

Frankly I don’t know what constitutes a large consumption of fish oil but when our 65 year old coach is taking a quarter of the dosage this young guy is I don’t think I’m too far off base.

The young guy said, “Yes, well I take 3 fish oil in the morning, 3 fiber in the morning, and then at night I again take 3 fish oil pills and 3 fiber pills.”

6 fiber pills a day.

Just take a moment and think about that.

One of the first thoughts that came to my mind is that he must work at home. alone. on a laptop. with a long cord. with only his cats. and his toilet paper.

Self-Sufficient?

Yesterday morning Caroline woke up early.

As she was cruising around the house I was doing some laundry.

I suddenly became aware that I hadn’t seen her for awhile.

Worse yet. It was quiet.

Quiet = Trouble

So I went looking for her.

As I rounded the corner of my bedroom I noticed the fridge door was open.

This is what I saw.

caroline eating out of fridgeShe was helping herself to left over doughnuts in the fridge.

caroline doughnutSelf-sufficient:

1. Able to provide for oneself without the help of others; independent

2. Having undue confidence; smug

3. Caroline

Influences from the Past

I only ever remember lacking two things when growing up. Other than those two things I had an amazing childhood.

We had a house of 6 people – 4 girls, 2 boys. We were constantly going through supplies and my mom made runs to Sam’s or Schwegmann’s all the time. But…we were always out of toilet paper.  I have used thousands of napkins in a way not intended by their manufacturers. When we would get to the point of using napkins, my dad would always go out for toilet paper.

For some reason he would always come back with one roll!  I never could understand it. We had two working bathrooms and he would still just come home with 1 roll of toilet paper. So before the night was over we were back to napkins.

Besides toilet paper we always ran low on toothpaste. A countless number of times we would have cut open the tube and would scrap our toothbrushes in there..for days. It didn’t always happen but it happened enough to make an impression on me.

As a result of these memories, I currently have no less than 24 rolls of toilet paper and probably 5 tubes of toothpaste in my house. You never know when you might run out.

Well fear not, I too am making my children obsessive about something.

I don’t know what it is but I hate buying socks. The thought of spending money on socks drives me crazy. I would rather wash and rewash two good pairs of socks then buy another pack.

But recently this is what I heard, “Mom I need new socks.” “Mom, there are holes in all of my socks.” “Moooooommmmm, I can’t find any socks.”

I don’t know what they are talking about.

sock feetIn fairness, I would like to say that not all socks find the laundry bucket. In the last day I have found socks in random places – under the TV table, under a bed, 3 on the playroom floor, 2 in the car, 1 on the stairs, and 1 on our entry way ledge which is at least 15 feet off the ground. Why would a sock possibly be up there you ask? Alex: “But Mom, I needed a football and couldn’t find my football so I used my sock.” So you see, I only accept 50% off the blame.

So the other day during our Christmas shopping we went out to buy socks. Each boy got 6 pairs of socks of their choosing. I’m sure when they are old enough they will each have 63 pairs of socks in their drawer.

No family… you do not need to give my boys socks for Christmas. Nor do I need any toilet paper or toothpaste.

Obsessions anyone?

Kid Art Display

When our kids were in preschool we had a tremendous amount of artwork coming home. Andrew actually still has a ton of artwork coming home. I wanted to display their work since they were so proud but wasn’t sure what to do.
 
In our old house we hung two of these IKEA magnetic boards. This system worked okay but we quickly had 3 layers of artwork on the board. I would surreptitiously remove artwork every couple of weeks.
 
Sometimes the pieces went into scrapbooks while other times we would place them in the recycle bucket. Somehow the day the artwork would go into the recycling bucket was the day the boys insisted on ransacking the pantry where the bucket was kept.
 
Of course, they would come marching out, “Why was this in the recycling bucket?” I always pleaded innocent and said, “Your dad must have put it in there. He has no appreciation for fine art.”
 
So once we moved I had the same predicament. What to do with the artwork? Well we went back to the great Swedish wonderland and found these. They are actually curtain hangers. We bought 3 of them and placed them up on our playroom wall. I love it and I think it gives the artwork it’s proper respect.

Kids Wall Art DisplaySo far Andrew has allowed one piece of artwork to replace another each time a new one comes home. If he ever resists I know what I’m going to do.

I’m going to walk straight to the recycling bucket in the garage all the way to the garage and place the art in there myself. It is 4 ft high and out of his line of sight.

 

He’s no Rico Suave

I swim several times a week on a masters swim team. This is also fondly known as old people trying to reclaim their youth while talking about every ailment they have.

I happen to be the oldest person one night a week at one practice. (I assure you the rest of the time I am one of the youngest but this practice is just an anomaly.) For this practice I am surrounded by 20 somethings trying to flirt with one another constantly. Somehow the fact that I have 3 kids turns some of them off.

I go to practice for the exercise but I also go for the drama. There’s lots of it. It’s like I’m watching a live version of As the World Turns.

Jason and Amy, both swimmers, are dating each other. No I’m not using their real names.

Jason is a young guy who struts around the pool with his gold chain around his neck, attitude galore, and little workout suit. Amy is an adorable, blonde, outgoing teacher. Can you tell who’s side I’m on yet?

The two have been dating for about a year. After 4 months of dating Jason moved in with Amy. After 6 months, Amy posted something to this effect on Facebook, “What do you guys think about a roommate who doesn’t pay for anything.” The message was taken down within hours. Apparently Jason had paid for nothing. No food. No electricity. No rent.

They broke up.

They started dating again.

Eventually he wore her down (in my opinion) and she agreed to let him move back in. He apparently was thrilled but then asked her, “Can you come clean my room at my mom’s house? She wants it clean before I leave.”

No friggin’ joke!

They broke up againn.

They started dating again.

He wore her down once again and she let him move in.

Then the other night.

I could tell something was up in the pool when Amy was on deck for a long time talking to our coach and Jason would stop practically every lap. Once she did get in he tried to grab her hands and pull her toward him. Amy wanted nothing of it.

By the way, in case you are wondering. I was not spying. They were in the lane next to me. I had goggles on. I had to see what was going on. Correct freestyle form requires a person to look forward. Glad we got that cleared up.

After practice a couple of us called the coach over where he gladly spilled the beans.

Apparently before practice Jason had told Amy she was getting fat. AND THEN as if it couldn’t get worse. STARTED MAKING OINKING SOUNDS AT HER….FOR A FULL MINUTE.

Just in case you are wondering, Amy is probably 110 pounds on a 5-7 frame. The girl is not fat. He is a moron and hopefully single soon.

I can’t wait for the next practice to find out what happens.