Tuesday, June 19, 2007

HELP!!!!

I don't know what to do! My kids fight all the damn time! Jayden purposely takes toys, books, food, anything away from Ellie just to make her mad and make her cry. Eliana climbs into Jayden's chair and sits right on top of him and takes his toys and books just to make him mad and steal them back. The two of them goad eachother and tease eachother and it's driving me CUCKOO! Separately they are both little angels, but together! YIKES!! Wasn't it Ghostbusters where the demon had to have the key master and the other person together to wreak havoc? Not sure how the movie went, but I feel like I am about to get beaten by the enormous Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man!

In the meantime, I started teaching summer school yesterday. My class is BORING!!! They sit like lumps and don't talk and I am not sure I have enough enthusiasm to carry all of us through the course! I hope they start carrying their own weight in the next couple of days. I have to keep reminding myself that I am there for the money and the experience will be over in just a few weeks! But, who knows, maybe I will enjoy it in the end.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Jayden is doing great with spelling!

Saturday we were driving up to the boat. It's a long drive. We talked about many things including the cows on the side of the road. Jayden pointed out to Eliana that cows say, "Moo". When we reached the lake, we pointed out the water to the kids and they got apporpriately excited. I asked Eliana if she wanted to get on a boat. She replied with a resounding, "NO! NO GET WET!" A sentiment that she stuck to all weekend. So after that remark, we got quiet. We were quiet for a good ten minutes while we paid for parking at the ranger station and found a spot for the car. As we pulled into the space, Jayden decided to show off his spelling skills.

"K starts with FUCK," he announced.

Dave and I were shocked, of course. But when we got done laughing our asses off, Dave pointed out, "Not exactly, Jayden. FUCK has a K at the end, but it starts with F." I guess it's as good a spelling lesson as any, right? :)

Monday, June 11, 2007

Houseboat weekend!

We had a great family weekend on the boat this Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We were all actually very sad to leave for home this morning. Unfortunately, Dave has to work for a living and make lots of money for us to spend on the houseboat and other things....like building our house! :)

Here's some pics of our fun:

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Money well spent!

When Jayden was about 4 months old, we bought him an Exersaucer for about $40. This lovely little jumpy toy was his favorite place to be when he wasn't curled up in my arms or sitting with Dave. He would jump and jump for minutes on end! When Jayden started crawling, I would put him in the Exersaucer to keep him from roaming too far when I needed some down time. He still loved it. We watched baseball games together while he was in it, we watched football; we watched Wheel of Fortune...ok...so we watched a lot of TV. I was working an awful lot of hours for someone who was only part-time and by the end of the day, I was darned tired! Unfortunately, there came the day when Jayden discovered that he could crawl out of the Exersaucer and regain his freedom. That was the day we had to put it away.

But, when Eliana was old enough to hold her head up, we pulled it out again. This was a joyous day for everyone...except Eliana. She HATED it. I could put her in there for about 5 minutes before she would start WAILING. Jayden, of course, didn't mind that, because once she was out, he could get in again and play. He still loved it. Despite Ellie's lack of interest in this toy, we continued to use it. She was ok in there if we fed her Goldfish or other little finger foods...until either Jayden or Shayna came along and stole her snacks. She really liked being in the toy when we took her outside, though. This was usually the only way she was allowed out back with the pool.

Well, the time came that Eliana was too big for the Exersaucer too and I put it away until a friend had a baby. Then, I dug it out and loaned it. We visited this friend many times in the last year and neither one of my darlings paid it the slightest notice at her house. Last night, I brought it back home. Before I could put it away today, it caught Ellie's attention. Check it out:
Eliana spent a good half hour playing by herself in there and then when she was done, Jayden just had to have his turn. LOL...as I am telling this very story, Eliana is back in it!!! :)

Sunday, June 03, 2007

HAPPY POST THIS TIME!!

Really, not depressing like the last post. Marcy's impending move was only part of the inspiration for the last post. Mostly, though, it came from all the time I log hanging out with no adult interaction! This weekend, however, I had a completely unreal experience! I went to a reunion.

Not the "LIVE OAK HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1990" kind of reunion, but a much better one. Every year for about 20 years, my high school drama teacher would host a Drama Club Alumni camp out. The idea is that all the alumni (who wanted to) would meet up with Mr. K and and current students who dared venture out to camp and there would be a weekend of camaraderie and reminiscing. This was the second time I ventured to one of these camp outs..the last being 15 (or so) years ago. Mr. K is retiring at long last from a 32 year career of teaching drama. This camp out was billed as his last official camp out and much effort was put into gathering as many alum as possible for this trip. Thus, there were several people from my years at LOHS that I got to visit with, share stories, and catch-up with. It was a good weekend, albeit LONG! Between dinner and the beginning of the traditional "Capture the Flag" game, was a mind-blowingly slow couple of hours where the die-hards spent time planning our "winning strategy" (no one has ever won this game) while the dramatic ones were seen planning our campfire skits. Once the game began, the time seemed to drag on because our "strategy" was to sit and wait for them to come to us and we would capture most of their team and then rush in and get the flag. Thing was...they had the side of camp with the fire. They didn't come to us, they sat and chatted while we hid in the bushes and waited. An old friend and I were on the same team and "stationed" next to eachother. So, we decided (an hour into the game) to move out into the field and look at the stars. It was a GORGEOUS night out there before the moon came up (and after also). Perfect for star-gazing...and not the Hollywood kind. Gave us a chance to catch up and talk too. That was the best part of the game!

The fun began after the game when we gathered around the campfire. We started out with introducing ourselves (name, grad year, plays, roles, etc.) and well over an hour later (there were a lot of us and some people dragged on), the skits began. We had some of the funniest, well put-together skits I have ever seen around a campfire. I laughed out loud for all of them. Didn't hit the hay until way after 1 and up at 6 to get my butt home! Good LORD and I tired! But, it was a great weekend and I missed my hubby and the kids very much! Glad to be home! :)