Boys...

Matt has been so moody the last few days. The smallest thing sets him off. Thursday night, he got all upset because he didn't want to wear his uniform to a den meeting. Last night, he got upset because he didn't like the duffel bag that I got for his Tae Kwon Do sparring equipment. Of course, he gets all upset and refuses to tell anyone why he's upset. Today he didn't want to turn off the tv and leave the house... You'd think I had a hormonal girl on my hands...

I'm not sure if he's overwhelmed with all the activities that he's got going on, if there's something at school or if it's just another stage. When I ask him if there's anything wrong, he says no. When I ask him why he's so emotional, he says he doesn't know. I wish there was a parenting tool you could buy that would tell you what's going on in your kids' minds. Sure would make parenting easier. ;-p

We're off to play the Dragonology game. It's a game that Matt really enjoys and it's nice to do something together. Adam likes to help by rolling the die and playing with the dragons who have been tamed. He's adapted it to his own level of abilities. Works for me.

Happenings

Life goes on whether you want it to slow down or not. I remember back when I was a kid how slowly things used to go by. Adulthood sure gives you a different perspective, doesn't it? I think our kids' lives are busier than ours used to be, at least my life.

Matt is really enjoying taking his tae kwon do classes. I hope he gets a lot out of them. He was a bit unhappy one night last week when an instructor spent almost half an hour with him correcting his forms. These are movements and poses that they get tested on when they progress in the belts. He didn't think he was doing anything wrong and to find out that he was really didn't sit well with the perfectionist in him. I'm glad that he's learning, though. He also learned a new kick last week. I think he'll need to know this for his next belt test in a few weeks.

We went hiking at Graham Cave state park on Saturday. It's not a very deep cave, but the park itself is pretty nice. Matt tried to go across some monkey bars at a playground they had there and slipped. He landed really hard and his wrist and tail bone are still sore today. There's no apparent swelling, but I think I'm going to call his doctor tomorrow anyway to see if we need an xray of his wrist... I feel bad, because I encouraged him to try it. I didn't realize how sweaty his hands were...

Lee and I are having a tough time convincing Matt that he wants to go camping with cub scouts. His pack overnighter is coming up in a few weeks and he says that he doesn't want to go. I know that he's afraid that he'll get stung by a bee - it's happened to him a couple of times and it's not something he wants to repeat. I think he's also afraid that he'll run into a wild animal. How do you explain to a seven year old that those animals are much more afraid of a crazy bunch of boys? I suspect that all those boys will be making so much noise that any wild animal within a few miles will be running in the other direction. I've got another week to convince him to go. I know Lee wants to go. I think it would be a really fun experience for them both. Matt's half convinced that he wants to go. I just need one or two more things to encourage him...

How cute is this!

I took a pic last night of Matt in his uniform before he went to class.

We ended up not going to the balloon glow last night. Lee was late at work and there were too many things going on with the in-laws here visiting and my sister-in-law coming in as well. I hope we get to the balloon race this afternoon, but my sister-in-law just went to lie down since she wasn't feeling very well. It's an absolutely beautiful day outside today - perfect for spending the afternoon at Forest Park and watching the balloons.

Clothes...

So, I went shopping for clothes today. It's been a long time since I really bought any clothes for myself... Unfortunately, I seem to be firmly between two sizes in pants. Oh, well. I did find some great bargains at Kohl's though. I found a fun pair of shorts for $5 and a pair of capris for not much more. I love a good bargain. I found myself really drawn to all the new fall clothes, though. Fall has my favorite color palette - the browns, greens, oranges, rich reds... It also helps that it's finally cooled off here a bit and the mornings are actually chilly. My favorite type of weather!

My father-in-law and his wife are visiting. They've got the RV parked in the driveway. It is so wonderful to have them here - it's been two years since I've seen them. They live on the New Mexico side of El Paso. My father-in-law's health has been steadily getting worse over the last few years, but he seems to be a bit better this year. His biggest drawback is that he needs to have his oxygen all the time now, rather than some of the time.

Matt went to his first Tae Kwon Do class last night. He got interested in it over the summer when he went to a camp. The class is a lot of fun. He got to spar with an opponent for the first time ever last night. It was almost comical at first, but he quickly got a better idea of where his kicks would land. He also got his uniform last night as well. He went to put it on while I was finishing up paperwork and payments. He came back and he just looked soooo ADORABLE!!! Now, I know he doesn't want to look adorable, but he did. I'll have to take a pic of him next week when he goes to class again. It was really fun to watch him go through his forms and then practice other moves as well.

Adam is well on his way to finishing potty training, FINALLY!! It's taken me saying that he can't have pull-ups to poop in anymore and letting him get really uncomfortable, but we're almost there. Matt never had these issues, but he was in daycare and all the kids in his class were doing the same thing, so I guess it wasn't such a big deal...

Curriculum Night

It was curriculum night at school tonight. I got a chance to chat with Matt's teacher for a few minutes. Matt has the same teacher this year that he had for kindergarten and he's really thrilled with it. I had my reservations, but after this evening and the last few weeks, I'm feeling much better. She seems much more relaxed this year and it's very obvious that all the second grade teachers are working as a team. She's got more volunteer opportunities open for parents to come and help in class as well, which I'm thrilled with. I'm really looking forward to being in the classroom to see how things are going for Matt. It may be that second grade is a better match for this teacher, too. Maybe all that really matters is that Matt loves his teacher and is willing to do what is required of him. Last year, he just didn't want to do certain assignments so he would let them sit and sit and sit... I'm not seeing any behavior like that so far this year. It's going to be a great school year for Matt!

Ouch!!

Today has not been my day... I had cookies stick to my baking stone this afternoon. I let them cool too long and they had caramel in them. I couldn't get them to unstick using the spatula, so I decided to try something thinner. You guessed it, not my best or brightest moment. I used a knife, and a sharp one to boot! It's a good thing that I don't have super short finger nails. I did manage to cut my left thumb and it would have been a much deeper cut had it not been for my nail stopping the knife. It bled a bit and it sure hurts, but not very serious.

As I was getting the boys ready for bed, I somehow managed to throw my shoulder out. Now, it's not out of joint, but I seriously tweaked it. I can't move my arm in certain directions without some serious pain and I've got point tenderness on one spot. I've taken some ibuprofen, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to move my arm in the morning. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Then, I'm sitting at the computer playing around and the cat decides that she wants to sit in my lap. This is not really unusual, so I let her up and she settles down for a nap. Then, all of a sudden, she decides that she would like to play with her tail. Cat in lap, cat with sharp claws on all paws, me in shorts, cat deciding she wants to play - not a good combination. I got her off before it got too bad, but my legs look like a pin cushion in spots...

Tomorrow will be better. If not, I'm going to the doctor for my shoulder...

Yet more toy recalls

You know, I'm getting really tired of all these toy recalls. How in the world can any manufacturer, whether it's in the US or in China, even contemplate using lead in the paint that goes on toys? It's gross negligence as far as I'm concerned. Either that, or there's some sort of conspiracy to hurt our children and I find that hard to believe since I'm not really into conspiracy theories.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for Christmas this year. We've been extremely lucky in that we haven't owned any of the recalled toys. Most of the toys that Adam plays with are old toys that we had gotten for Matt. The toys that Adam really likes are the little model planes and they make me a bit uneasy. They're painted metal and made in china. Unfortunately, they're not made by a major manufacturer, so I don't think that they'll be recalled, even if they're unsafe. I've read that the home lead testing kits can be unreliable. Maybe I'll just take the boys to the doctor and have them tested for lead...

What's a parent supposed to do? I guess I'll be searching the shelves for toys not made in China for starters. I'm just totally disgusted that this could happen.

Amazing!!

The Blue Angels are simply amazing!! We went to the St. Louis County Fair and Air Show today and the highlight of the air show was the Blue Angels. We saw them practicing on Friday afternoon when we had lunch, but the full show was great. We also got to see a Harrier jet demonstration. It's amazing to see a jet hover and fly sideways and land without a runway.

I'm always awed by airplanes - the engineering to develop them just leaves me humbled. Air travel is something we just take for granted, but a century ago, that just wasn't the case. Then the progression from the original airplanes to the fighter jets of today...

We had a great time. The boys got to climb through several different airplanes and sit in several helicopters. Great photo ops. And where's my camera? sitting at home right next to my computer where I had cleaned off all the old pictures so that I'd have plenty of room for today's pics. **Sigh** I'm sure I can find some good Blue Angels and Harrier pics online, but it would have been nice to have some of us by the planes. Hopefully, we'll get some great pictures next year.

School matters

Matt is really enjoying school this year. He seems to be able to sit and do his work, too. He's really matured a lot over the summer and I'm so proud of him. He's come a long way from the little boy who couldn't control his temper. He's also grown a lot over the summer - I'm going to have to get him new clothes soon. Last years jeans are a bit on the short side. He's going to outgrow me awfully soon if he keeps this up!

Adam is doing really well in school. He loves his class and his teacher. He's even getting pretty good about getting dropped off. I am making a point of enjoying time with him while he's in preschool, though. We went to the zoo yesterday. It was an absolute beautiful day and we spent it outside having fun. We didn't get to see everything, but we'll be able to go back soon. I'm so glad that the heat broke for a bit.

I never truly realized when Matt was in preschool how little time I would have with him once he started elementary school. Of course, Adam was a little baby when Matt was 4, so we were a bit more limited in the things we could do...

I'm really enjoying the boys getting older. Matt and I enjoy reading the same book and then discussing things and he really enjoys his time at CCL (center for creative learning). He comes home with all sorts of new information. This semester, he's learning about space, rockets and the moon as well as kaleidoscopes and how they work. As Adam gets older, we also play different games that are more complex. The boys were adorable when they were babies, but not exactly intellectually stimulating. As they get older, we get to do more fun things and I'm really enjoying it.

Scrap Happy

I had such a great time with Lori, Laurie, Tammy and Trina last weekend. We scrapped Friday night and all day and evening Saturday. Lee was wonderful all weekend as well keeping the boys occupied and happy. He even took them out of the house on Sunday afternoon so I could take a nap since I had stayed up way too late the night before. I "heart" my hubby!! He's great.

I started scrapping our trip to Arizona from June of this year. I've got them posted in my gallery at All American Scrapbook Company. I think this link will take you to my gallery. If not, just look for my name in the user galleries and click on it. http://www.allamericanscrapbookco.com/gallery/index.php?cat=10017 It was fun to spend the weekend with friends and not worry about keeping the boys fed and entertained.

Company's coming!!

I'm really excited about this weekend. My friends Lori and Laurie are coming to town and staying with us. We'll be scrapbooking all weekend with Tammy and Trina. It's going to be a really fun weekend.

We're settling in with the new school schedule. Adam's first day was yesterday. In his classroom, each child has a name on a shape in a specific color. Adam's name is on a blue circle. These shapes are also repeated on the carpet in the form of a circle. This gives the kids an idea of where to sit during circle time. Adam was all unhappy because a girl was sitting on the blue circle. He has it in his head that the blue circle is his spot and his spot only. The little girl was happy to move so Adam could sit in "his" spot. He wasn't very happy when I left, but he had a great day anyway. When I picked him up, he told me that he had a great day and that he really likes school. Then he proceeded to tell me all about his day. It was so great to hear about everything and see that huge smile on his face.

Now all I have to do is finish planning what I'll be scrapbooking this weekend, get it packed and finish cleaning the house. Sure looks like a short list. Looks is the key word here...

My neighbor asked me...

So, who's the cute guy riding the bus? This is a neighbor who has a 4 year old daughter. It turns out that the school's principal rode the bus with the kids today (and he's the cute guy). They've had staff riding the buses this week because of the heat to make sure the kids are ok. It's really nice to have school staff that care that much.

Matt's excitement was that he lost a loose tooth while riding the bus home today. And he had a great day at school. Adam got to meet his preschool teachers and explore the classroom today. He liked that they had cars to play with, made some artwork for me, but he liked that they have toilets just his size the most, lol! Ah, the life of a three year old.

Woo Hoo!!!

It's the first day of school!! Matt had a great morning and was looking forward to his day. He's got his kindergarden teacher for second grade this year. He really liked her, so I'm happy for him. I hope the excitement doesn't wear off.

We were in Chicago last week. Didn't do much. I was planning on going to the Field Museum, but Adam got sick and was on antibiotics that upset his tummy, so a day downtown was a little daunting for me. We visited with two of my brothers and my parents. The boys had a great time spending time with their cousins. When we were in Gurnee, we did drive up to Kenosha, Wisconsin where they had two small museums that we took the boys to. We went swimming one day, too, but got rained out.

I got to go to Ikea while visiting my other brother. I love that store! I'm going to order a desk from there for my scrap room, I think. Their prices can't be beat and they have fun stuff. I got both boys new comforters. I got two different patterns and it just figures that they both want the same one. I also got some really cool organizers for my scrap room, too. I put one together with Adam and have yet to do the other one. I want to sand them a little - the finish isn't as smooth as I would like. Then I'm going to either stain or paint them. I've heard rumors that they're going to open one in the St. Louis area, but so far, nothing concrete. It would really be nice. Of course, I'm sure the novelty would wear off eventually, but they have such cool stuff!

Baby, it's HOT!

Oh, I'm ready for fall in more ways than one. It's been a pretty mild summer, all told, but we're at the beginning of a monster heat wave. The boys refuse to even go outside to play because it's too hot. We were planning on heading to the pool yesterday, but the little guy fell asleep in the car on the way home from lunch with dad. School starts in less than two weeks! Both boys are pretty excited about going back to school, which is a wonderful thing. Matt's going to start practicing getting up early this coming week, so he's ready for school.

Matt has finally mastered riding a bike! He really hasn't been motivated to try, but suddenly he wanted to try again. It didn't take long - only a couple of runs up and down the street and he was cruising. He still needs some help getting going, but once he's moving, he's great.

It is possible

To burn mac and cheese - the microwave kind. It's been a busy weekend and we had a huge lunch, so I was making mac and cheese for the boys for dinner. I got Matt's made and put Adam's into the microwave to get the pasta to cook. I went out on the deck to see if the cat would come in and I came back about a minute later (really, no joke, only a minute) to smell something burning. I stood there thinking that it can't be the microwave, but being the cautious person that I am, I checked anyway. It was the microwave. In my hurry to get something made for the boys and the various other distractions, I had forgotten to pour the water into the bowl with the pasta and I was nuking dry pasta. There was smoke, but thankfully, no flames. Now the house smells and it's hot outside and I don't want to open the windows, but it smells...

So went my day. We had pancakes for breakfast, though. The boys' favorite is with mini chocolate chips, but I like mine plain. Yum!

Not a vacation post

I thought I'd take a break from the vacation posts, although there's only one day of activities left, really. I've been busy with the boys - running myself ragged while trying to tire them out, lol! Actually, I'm doing pretty good, but I'm tired of dh being on the road. I miss him and the boys miss him, too. DH will get back to town and he'll have about a week to prepare for the family visit.

My niece is being baptized in a few weeks and the family will be making the trip down - parents, two other brothers with their families... Now we have to figure out where to put everyone. We'll be able to house two groups pretty comfortably. Not sure where the third group is going to go.

I took the boys to Bounce U (http://www.bounceu.com/) last week for an open bounce session. There was only one other child there with his mother. We practically had the place to ourselves. It was a lot of fun. I had to get in and play around with the boys as well and let me tell you, after 75 minutes of bounce time, I was ready to quite. The boys were just as exhausted. It was well worth the admission. I'm going to try to organize a session for some school friends to come out and play sometime next week, too.

Adam fell asleep at 5 pm yesterday and wouldn't get up for dinner. He promptly woke up at 10:30, just as I was getting into bed for the night. **Sigh** I finally got him to sleep and at 2:30, Matt comes into my room in tears. He's got an ear ache, poor baby. We got some analgesic ear drops today and we're going to see the doctor tomorrow. He was fine a good portion of the day, but as the day wore on, his ear started hurting more. I hope he can make it through the night without too much pain. I'm pretty sure it's an ear infection and not swimmer's ear. He described it as starting as pressure building into pain...

My vacation, day 4

Well, we were really tired out by the Desert Museum, but we went ahead and went to the Pima Air and Space Museum (http://pimaair.org/index.php). They've got an actual SR-71 (http://www.pimaair.org/Acftdatapics/Lock%20SR-71.htm) that you can see and I really wanted the boys to be able to take a look at a real spy plane. The fates were against us, though. You could see the plane from a distance, but the hangar it was in was closed to the public. Apparently, they've just built a new hangar and the grand opening was later that week. :-(

We did get to go through the Air Force One that President Kennedy used. It was pretty cool being able to go through the inside and see where a former president flew and worked. The cockpit of the plane was pretty cool to look at as well. The interior pictures didn't turn out, but here are my boys doing the presidential wave.

One of the downsides of this visit was that they were only accepting cash - apparently, their credit card processing equipment or connection was down. Of course, we don't carry much cash, so we didn't have enough cash to go on the trolley tour of all the aircraft. We tried walking part of it, but it was so bright, the surface was faded blacktop and concrete or white gravel. I couldn't look up, I couldn't look down and I didn't have my sunglasses. I just didn't come prepared. That and it hit 108 while we were out there. We did go to the space exploration hangar and that had a lot of really neat stuff. Not just space craft, but information about what the planets are like (and it was dark and air conditioned, lol). I could have spent another 2 or 3 hours in there. The boys seemed to enjoy themselves, which was the main point of the trip, so we accomplished that.

My vacation day 3

On our next day in Tuscon, we drove out to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum (http://www.desertmuseum.org/). This is actually a combination of a zoo and a botanical garden. However, it's limited to animals and plants that grow in the desert for the most part. I've been to the Desert Museum several times in the past, but this was by far the most fun and rewarding visit.

When we arrived, one of the keepers was feeding crickets to the lizards in the lizard enclosure. I'd never seen so many lizards out and about in the enclosure before and Matt actually asked if he could feed them as well. The keeper let him help. It was pretty funny, though, since the crickets "tickled" his hands.

When we went in, there was a docent talking about saguaro cacti and how slowly they grow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saguaro These are the cacti that you tend to see as a standard cactus in cartoons, etc. The tall ones with the arms. It's kind of interesting to know that these cacti only grown in very specific areas and one of those is around Tucson. These cacti grow slower than trees - in order for them to flower, they have to be around 50 years old and they don't grow their "arms" until they're around 75. Anyway, while I was talking to the docent, Lee and Adam went down one of the paths and had a Gila Monster cross right in front of them on the path and climb up the wall on the other side. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gila_monster) Lee spent his school years in Arizona and had never seen a wild Gila Monster in all those years, so he was really excited about it. Of course, I was holding the camera.

There was a booklet that was designed for kids to take through the museum that the boys wanted. It essentially took you through the entire museum (it's all outdoor) looking for stamp stations where you could stamp a footprint into your book of some of the animals that are kept there.

At one point, we were walking along a path that had a wall covered in some sort of ivy. It turns out that there was a little rattlesnake taking a nap in this ivy. We stayed until someone came to get it out. They said that it was a young one - probably from last year's hatching. It was nice and calm the entire time - it didn't even rattle when they took it out of the vines.

After lunch, we saw a presentation about venomous animals of the desert - namely the Gila Monster and the rattlesnake. The boys loved it when the Gila Monster relieved itself on the table in front of everyone. The thing to know about Gila Monsters is that they don't attack people - if you know someone who was bitten by one, they were bugging it and put their hands too close to it. My personal favorite was when they were talking about snake bites. The poison center in Tucson profiled snake bite victims. 75% of bite victims were considered bites that shouldn't have happened - the snakes were not avoided when people knew they were there. The vast majority of these bite victims fit the following profile: 1. male, 2. young, 3. alcohol was involved and 4. the victims had tattoos. For some reason, this profile just really struck me as amusing.

The variety of plants blooming were pretty great, too. I got to see the saguaro's blooming, although it was the end of their bloom season. Of course we were there during the hottest and driest time of year. The temps were hitting 108 just about every day we were there. It wasn't bad in the shade, but once you were in the sun, it felt like you were just baking.

Some of the other animals that we saw were: wolves, mountain lions, beavers, deer, bears, rams, river otters, coyotes, javelinas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peccary). I think we saw every animal that they have on display at some point or other. It was really great. The boys had a great time, too. Those stamp books really motivated them to want to see everything.

My Vacation - day one and two

I had spent the week before we went on this trip trying to clean up the house - I hate coming home to a mess. When we got home, I was so glad that I did! It was refreshing to come home and not feel the weight of all the chores that were left undone descend upon my shoulders.

I got up before it was light out - which is really early during the summer! I got the boys up about 5:45. My friend, Tara, offered to drive us to the airport so we wouldn't have to park there. She's a great friend. We got to the airport a little before 7 am. Our flight was leaving a little after 8 am. The boys were very good through the airport, checking baggage and through security. Matt was really responsible and a huge help with Adam. I took a folding stroller for Adam, so he just enjoyed the ride. Once we got on the plane, Adam got nervous and a little scared. I managed to distract him with some books and he did fine. Matt did really well too. We flew to Dallas where we had to change terminals. I was a bit worried about that, but if you have to change terminals, Dallas is the place to do it. They have a little train system that will take you around without having to leave the secure areas of the airport. It took is only about 15 minutes. We had time to grab some lunch and then headed to our next flight. This time, Adam wasn't afraid at all. We got to Tucson and dh was there to pick us up. We were a bit tired, but in good shape. We took a detour to the rehab facility where mil's been staying to say hello. Adam fell asleep in the car and slept through the whole visit. Since the boys and I were still on St. Louis time, we grabbed an early dinner (late lunch for dh) and headed back to mil's house to get settled.

The next day, I woke up early, Tucson time. I got up and went for a run. The altitude just about killed me! When I mentioned this to one of the many walkers that I saw that morning, she said that they weren't that high - between 3,000 and 3,500 feet. I think St. Louis elevation is about 500 feet, so it made a big difference to me. It was beautiful out that morning, though - it was in the mid 60's and no humidity. I didn't even break a sweat. Well, I probably did, but it evaporated so quickly that I didn't feel like I was sweating.

After everyone was up and ready, we drove out to Tombstone. DH went there all the time as a child and I'd been there once before, around 10 years ago or so. I was shocked by how much everything had changed. I was disappointed by how commercialized everything was. You couldn't even go into the OK Corral without having to pay an admission fee. It was all really expensive, too. We paid the admission to go into the Bird Cage Theater - dh wanted to go in there since it had been highlighted in one of the Ghost Hunters episodes and he wanted to see it again. It was kinda cool to be standing where they had seen a ghost. The highlight of the trip was a mine tour that Matt convinced us that we needed to take. I'm really glad that we went on it. They took us down to the Good Enough mine. I believe that it was the first mine that was opened in Tombstone. The silver mines were the reason that the town was there. Our guide was very knowledgeable and a wealth of information, as well as a good sense of humor. It was amazing that the whole mine was cut by hand. Both boys were exhausted by the end of the day. We drove back and went to visit mil, but both boys were asleep, so dh just went in and dropped some things off for her and we went "home".

Some recent layouts

I've been scrapping off and on a bit lately. Sometimes it takes me a while to get something finished, since I get interrupted a lot.

This one was a quick one. Sandylion patterned paper and stickers, Hambly Studios overlay and Lil Davis clay tiles.

Adam was such a cute pirate! The overlay reflected a lot of light and this was the best pic I could get - sorry about the poor quality.

This next one is of Matt when he was 4. DH threw a frisbee at him and Matt didn't duck. He came in, carried by Dad, bleeding from the eyebrow. It was a pretty deep cut, but didn't need stitches, thank goodness. The circle pp is Paper Studio (I think). I used my Just Rite Stampers monogram stamp on this. I made the round stamps that say OUCH in the middle. The outer ring of text says "killer frisbee". I really love this stamp - it's incredibly versatile. I really liked using the circles on this layout. The arrow was something cut out by my friend Tammy for me - she sent me a huge set of all kinds of arrows.

This last one was of Matt holding Adam when he first came home from the hospital. He was such a protective big brother. The insipiration for this layout came from an idea book called Layout Blueprints. I really enjoyed using the ovals. The paper is from Piggy Tales - love those patterns!