Ten Things Tuesday

To see more thankful lists for the week or to participate, click here
My list for the week includes.....

10. I'm thankful that play-doh, in small quantities, is not toxic.
9. The same goes for crayons
8. Really, what I'm saying is that, I'm thankful that Ewan hasn't yet injested anything that is toxic.
7. Moments of great thinking: We were looking for a babysitter for and I told Andy to go to the library and ask the librarians. He did, and the daughter of on the librarians is going to watch our kids Friday night while I work and Andy has a football game. She's really nice and we've already met her.
6. I love how Marcus runs to the door to greet me after getting off the bus from school.
5. (why am I counting backwards? I just realized that) The sand box site is dug out and Andy is working on leveling out the soil. This is tougher than it might be, b/c the soil is very clay-y and there are many little and not-so-little rocks mixed in.
4. Don't worry though, we have 3 little helpers that I'm quite thankful are willing to help break up the soil.
3. Marcus likes to sing and sang for me tonight. It's a song from his music class and he sang it over and over and over :-)
2. I love that Andy has a schedule currently that lets me sleep when I get home from work!
1. I'm thankful that Andy was trying to surprise me tonight by bringing home the 3rd season of Monk. It's one of our favorite shows and for some reason we have the other seasons on DVD, but not #3. He also has promised the first season of Burn Notice for me.....I'm so-o lucky :-)

2 more photos

2 more photos from Andy's trip


A picture of the Heritage Christian football team.

Andy's trip to Lucas Oil Stadium

Heritage Christian is playing at the new Colts' stadium this weekend. Andy went with the team for their practice and took these photos. Andy said it was really nice, of course. Thought everyone would like a sneak peak.

pics of the cousins

Chris, Kim and the girls came for a quick visit last weekend. Of course, I do like to try to get the kids together for a group photo...

Marie, Savannah holding Ewan, Cale, Cassie and Marcus (I was holding up my hand to catch the kids' attention-apparently Cale and Cassie took it to mean hold up their hands too.)

Slightly different order. Of course, we can't have everyone cooperating :-)

The "m" cousins-Marie and Marcus

The "c" cousins-Cale and Cassie (it's just funny how the cousins next to each other in age have names that start with the same letter-Kim and I did not plan this!)

And, one picture of Savannah :-)

Ten Things Tuesday

Ha! It's Tuesday and I have time for my thankful list today!

1. I'm thankful for a different schedule @ work this week. I get to go to daytime classes for 3 days-no nights :-)
2. The classes are covering useful material and I actually feel like I'm learning something.
3. I Rug Doctored my carpets last week. And, while the carpets don't look new-they look tons better than what they had looked like.
4. The boys had an awesome time seeing their cousins last weekend.
5. We got a new DVD player for downstairs. This is huge, since our old one kept freezing up on all our DVDs-even new ones.
6. I'm thankful that I live in a town that's not too big that has things we need locally. But, if we need to, we just drive 10 minutes to Noblesville or just a little farther to Indy.
7. Andy's schedule has stabilized and is "normal" for him. This means he doesn't go into work until 130pm and works until the end of the atheletic day.
8. I'm thankful for my babysitter. She's awesome and this is her last week before she heads back to school. We're going to miss her!
9. Finding friends on facebook. It's nice to stay connected.
10. per Cale (who is standing next to me, and I'm pretty sure did not take a nap) "I'm thankful for sharing my toys" I asked "who do you share your toys with?" he said "I share my toys with Becca" ( a little friend of his whom he has not seen in probably 2 weeks)

There are other lists to read by clicking here!

figuring out facebook

I'm trying something new-I signed up for a facebook account. I've been messing around with it and realized 1) it's going to take some time to figure out the layout of my page and 2) I need someone who is techincally-facebook-with-it to show me where all the cool stuff for facebook is. We'll see what happens. It's kind of neat to see old classmates pages, and some of the nurses in the picu have them too. I'm not to sure how dedicated I'll be to it, and I definitely like my blogging more :-)

Ten Things Tuesday

Well, it's Thursday, which means that I'm right on time with my thankful list. One day, maybe, I'll be first in line....but for now, I'm content to be @ the end of the list of contributers.

I'm thankful for.....

1. Marcus LOVES school!
2. He also loves riding the bus!
3. He was able to get in the house yesterday after school (see previous post)
4. We have family coming to visit on Friday.
5. And, I have an extra day to clean before they get here
6. The weather has been awesome. Our air has been off for a week (except for a 6 hour stretch during a thunderstorm).
7. The Olympics. I just like having something to watch @ 2am when things are slow @ work.
8. I sold another book on Amazon.com. It's one of my sister's old ones and I thought no one would want an older edition of a textbook.
9. A generous, and helpful Grammy Pammy!
and
10. Free time to do things like blog, scrapbook, read-anything but housework!

just a note to add...

Marcus rode the bus home from school the first day. I was super-tired, having worked the past 3 nights and took an afternoon nap. I set my alarm clock (aka cell phone) to get up in plenty of time.....and when the alarm went off, I hit turned the alarm off instead of hitting snooze. Then next thing I know MARCUS is waking me up. He got off the bus and came in through the patio door (the front door was locked). Smart kid, bad mom.

1st day of school for Marcus

So, Marcus started school on Wednesday. This kind of came up on us fast. I didn't realize school started so soon until I looked at the calender on Friday and actually comprehended that Wednesday was less than a week away. Are all his forms filled out?-no Shots?-not yet, and no physical yet either Did either of his parents go to the information meeting?-nope We didn't even know if Marcus would be in full or half-day kindergarten until we went to the meet-your-teacher time on Tuesday. We had verbally committed to full day, have yet to fill out any forms or turn in any money. Sending Marcus to kindergarten was a spur of the moment decision. He was enrolled at Heritage Christian for another round of pre-K (because his bday was after the cut-off for that school). But, after thinking and thinking, we decided that Marcus would be fine going to kindergarten. So, that's why we're kind of rushing to get stuff done.

All the boys wanted to go too school. They each had a backpack and jumped in the car when I pulled up.

A new shirt for red day. Very excited about Spiderman. Good work picking that out Daddy!

A photo op with Mommy. I got off work that morning and picked everyone up to run Marcus to school. I got to take him in while everyone else waited in the car.

I think Cale was the most sad that day that he couldn't go to school with Marcus. He cried and cried. Today was better. And Marcus rode the bus today.

some more bike photos

Just a few pictures of the boys on their bikes. Marcuse is doing great on 2 wheels and loves to go the the cul-de-sac and just ride around in circle. These were taken the Sunday before school for Marcus started and I was feeling a little guilty that we were sending him to kindergarten. I told Andy, "It's the start of his formal education. There won't be another time for many years when he doesn't have to go to school." Andy goes, "And? He has to go, he'll love it." Of course, Andy was right.

While Daddy's away

Football 2-a-days started this week, along with other high school sports. Consequently, Andy has been extremely busy and is pretty much working all day, every day. Quite the change from the rest of the summer, where he didn't have to go into work too much. This is familiar territory for me, because this happens every year in August.

So, on Wednesday, the boys and I went to Chuck E Cheese's for a birthday party. I have never taken them here before. Mostly, because I remember CEC being dark, crowded, and loud. But, this CEC was very well lit and had lots of room. The party was at 4 in the afternoon, so I'm sure that helped too. They had a blast, and it took them forever to use their tokens up. I started handing them out to other kids to run through them faster.

This afternoon, I was on the phone with Andy's mom. As soon as I got off the phone, Cale comes up to me and says "I have something in my nose".
I said " Go get a kleenex and blow your nose".
Then, I said, (this must have been intuition) "Cale, what's in your nose?"
"Popcorn"
A peek into his nostril showed me a popcorn kernal. All I could think was, I hope it doesn't get sucked into his lungs and he aspirates on it. I ran to get the tweezers, but I couldn't really get behind the kernel to get it out. So, I had Cale blow "bubbles" like they're taught in swim lessons. That moved the kernal far enough forward that I could push it out of his nose from the outside. Lucky for us, no trip to the doctor. I said, "Cale, how did the kernel get your nose? Did you put it in your mouth?"
"uh-huh"
"Did you put it in your nose?"
"uh-huh"
So much for a straightforward answer.

For some reason, Cale is the one these kind of "adventures" happen to. He was the first one to get stiches (at 2 1/2 years old). I am predicting that he will be the first one with a broken bone. Not because he's reckless, but just because he's Cale. I can't explain it better than that.

Ten Things Tuesday (on Thursday)

I wasn't going to write a list this week-I was running late and I'm feeling kind of down. Then, I get to reading everyone else's lists and I started to think-I am thankful for lots of things....

1. Choices. Choices freak me I and get me all worried that I'm making the right one, but it's nice to have options. We're deciding whether or not to put Marcus in all day kindergarten or half-day, Andy's figuring out what future career path he may take, and I got to give input regarding when I can be finished with orientation at work.
2. Our new swingset! The boys love it and play on it every day-weather permitting.
3. Ewan calls me "momma"-love it!
4. I'm thankful for times when we don't have to go anywhere. It's nice to be able to stay at home.
5. Marcus still plays with my hair.
6. Chances. I get to help lead a small group related to a Sunday morning class reveloving around the book "Bad Girls of the Bible". Should be interesting.
7. I sold all the textbooks that I posted on amazon.com.
8. our "under construction" sandbox. This was Marcus's birthday present from Grammy Pammy. Andy has started to dig out the area where we are putting this backyard addition.
9. Imagination. Cale just asked me how do we get to where our reflections are.
10. per Marcus "I'm thankful for you"-I'm sure he is, or, he really wants me to finish typing so he can play on the computer

Playset construction

We were lucky enough to find a wooden playset for sale by a family who is moving. And, we were the first ones to offer cash and pick up the playset ourselves. Marcus was excited when he saw the pieces in the back of our borrowed truck. Cale was excited b/c it was something new. Ewan didn't get it-not until the set was rebuilt. Marcus woke us up early on Saturday to go downstairs (I'm guessing just to look at the pieces). Andy was kind enough to go outside at 730am and start reassembling the playset. It didn't take too long and the boys have enjoyed playing on it since then.

VBS: the last day!

Thanks for posing for this picture Andy.

Eating ice cream Thursday night.

Ewan with a bag from the potato sack race. He ran around with it and said "ready, set, go!" and would take off running with the sack wrapped around his legs.

Thursday was the last day for VBS. We talked about the fruits of the spirit and how we can serve people using our "fruits". Then, in the evening, we came back for a mini-carnival and open class time for parents to come in with their kids and do a make-and-take craft. This was instead of a full blown VBS program with each class singing songs and taking a painfully long time. The kids were great yesterday (mine and my class). We had several tired cryers that eventually calmed down and one incident of almost overflowing the toilet again-paper towels do not go in the toilet! We also had one football-style takedown when one of my class kids gave another one an over-enthusiatic hug and took him down to the floor. Of course this happens when I have left my helpers in charge for 2 minutes while I run and get an extra certificate for another student. And, of course, everyone hears the kids hit the floor. And, the kid that hit first hit with his head. Luckily, a hug and an ice pack took care of everything. I have to say, I'm glad the week is over, but I'm glad to have had the chance to teach the 2-3 year olds again.