Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy New Year. We stayed in tonight, and the boys had popcorn and hot chocolate. (Or, as Nathan calls it, warm chocolate.)

Yes, they are sitting a little too close to the TV, but I figured it would be easier to wipe hot chocolate off of the floor rather than the rug. They got to watch a movie and stay up late. (9:00 is late at our house!) Jeremy and I are watching Georgia Tech get smacked around here by LSU, and then we'll probably watch the ball drop and go to bed. I live such an exciting life. We are going to have my cousin and his wife over tomorrow to watch football. I'm looking forward to that especially since I have to go back to work on Friday. Don't even get me started on the wacky schedule the county came up with for us!

Prayer Request

We're back with the job search again. Jeremy was let go from his job on Monday. He does have some vacation time he'll get paid for, and we've looked into a couple of options for jobs including a work at home opportunity, so we're hopeful. Just pray that something works out for him.

I am the suburban mom

I have become something I never thought I would be. A suburban mom. Yes, it's true. I drive a mini-van, belong to a mommies group (online, no less), and sit in drafty gyms on a Tuesday night watching my kids play basketball. I even signed up for a day to bring the snack when I was there. I signed Matthew and Nathan up for Impact Basketball for the winter. It's their 5/6 instructional league which means they aren't really on a team. Right now at practice, they are rotating through stations working on their dribbling, shooting, and defense. Once the games start in January, they'll have a short practice, then play a pick-up game. They seem really excited about it right now. This runs through the middle of February, and then it's time for baseball to start up. Then, I really do look like the little mom from the suburbs with their bat bags sticking out of my stroller. Oh boy, I can't wait.

Ear Infection!

Make that a double, in fact. Andrew finally convinced me to take him to the doctor. How, you ask? Simply by staying awake most of Sunday night crying. So, about 4 or so in the morning, I made the decision to stay home from school today and call the doctor. It turns out I probably should have taken him in about a week ago as both ears are pretty badly infected. Hopefully he'll be feeling better by tomorrow. The Nurse Practitioner warned me we may have a repeat of last night tonight, but so far he's been pretty quiet. I dosed him up with Motrin, so I'm hoping that continues. I can't do two nights of waking up every few hours. (Reason number 534 why I'm glad I'm a Babywise mom!)

However, we were able to create harmony long enough to get pictures taken on Saturday! They should be in this Saturday. I finally have updated pictures of all three boys.

I am just that lame. . .

to take a picture of the gas I bought for less than $1.50!

Beautiful, isn't it?

My Son is Very Special

It is not very often that a person gets to celebrate their first birthday, and then four days later celebrates their first Thanksgiving. However, my son is not your average child. Since Thanksgiving was so early last year and later this year, Andrew's 1st birthday came before the holiday this year. And, yes, I will have pictures of his birthday party up before the weekend is over!

I'm Just Going to Vent

Here are the things that are going on in our school right now:

1. We have conferences next week that I STILL need to prepare for

2. We are being retrofitted which means that various items are being taken out of my room, and new things are being brought in. Friday, I have to turn in my laptop, and Monday I'll get a new one, so sometime between now and then, I have to move everything off of this one and onto the server. Plus, we have new printers and desktops coming too. While this is all nice, it's a huge upheaval in our rooms.

3. My room is being painted as I type. What does that mean? Friday, instead of having a fun Halloween party with my kids, I had to take everything off of the walls. That afternoon consisted of me climbing up and down on stuff interspersed with my frustration with my children as they kept wrestling on the floor. Plus, much of the stuff I had up on the wall was what I had made. When I took it down, it ripped, so I have to make it new. My word wall alone took me a week to get up. I have to cut out all new letters and glue them back up and make new words to put up as well. Then, today, instead of math, I had to move all of the furniture four feet away from the wall. If you've ever been in an elementary classroom, you can only imagine how much stuff that was. Plus, there wasn't really a math lesson. And tomorrow, I'll have to be in before 7 am to move everything back before my kids come. It could be worse. The people who are having their rooms painted Friday or Saturday were pretty much told they needed to come in on Sunday to move their stuff back. Also, I won't be able to put anything up for two weeks, so my room is going to look like a dungeon for conferences. That should make a great impression.

It's just so frustrating since it seems like every time I turn around, it's something else we have to do. I realize much of it is coming from the county, and my principal really has no say, but that doesn't make it any easier.

I've Made My Selection

Well, I've finally made my selection. I did the research, pondered the choice, and decided today what I wanted. And the choice I made. . .Cigna Healthcare.

Oh, you thought I was talking about the election? I voted for Obama there. (Apparently, it's not going to matter too much since NBC just gave Georgia to McCain.)

The big decision I had to make was health insurance. Every year, we have open enrollment where we have to literally sign up for our insurance again. Last year was easy. I logged onto the website. Confirmed my choices, and was done in the space of about 5 minutes. This year was a little harder. I got a letter last July telling me that the State Health Benefit Plan was no longer offering Blue Cross Blue Shield. Since I was very happy with my insurance, I was a little peeved. The only companies that were available were United Healthcare or Cigna. The premiums were the same for both, so normally, I wouldn't stress about it since if I have to switch doctors, I just do. I don't have too much loyalty to a doctor since I got so rarely, but this time I had to make sure that I chose an insurance company that had Andrew's neurosurgeon as a provider. It took me a little while on both of their websites, but finally, I was able to find his doctor on the Cigna website. He wasn't on the United Healthcare site, so my decision was easy. I logged on and made my choice. I'm glad that's over for another year. Now, I just need to decide if I want a Flexible Savings Account for daycare expenses. Fun.

Thoughts on the Election

This is the best comment I've read on this election in a long time. I'm not really going to comment or add to it, just encourage you to read it with an open mind.

Matthew's View of the Election

On the way back from the Mall of Georgia tonight (where we went trick or treating, yes, pictures are coming soon), Matthew and Nathan started talking about the election. This last week, each grade level has been going to the library to vote for the President. So, Matthew announces to Nathan (and me) that he voted for Barack Obama. He then proceeds to tell us that he voted for Barack Obama because he likes all kinds of people, and the other guy doesn't. I asked him how he knew so much about the election, and he told me that his teacher has been teaching them about the election. (I think she's been a little more non-partisan than that. I think he's picking up the rest of his info on the playground.) So, he made sure to tell both Nathan and I that we have to vote for Barack Obama so that he can become the next president.

My dad will be so proud! :-)

There's a Reason They're Called Bird Brains

As a working mom, I can do it all! After making dinner this evening, cleaning it up, cleaning the kitchen, and bathing two boys, I also had the energy to chase a bird out of my house. Yes, that's right, my adventures with nature continues with a bird. I opened the back door to close the garage door, and in flew a bird. Of course, I had the typical calm reaction of shrieking. Matthew yelled, "There's a bird in the house!" and since Nathan was in the tub, he immediately began freaking out. The only one who was excited by the event was the cat. This was the most perky I'd seen her in ages. I tried to leave the back door open, thinking that the bird would smell the fresh air of nature, and fly out, but no luck. After chasing it around the house for a while, I decided to get a broom. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it, but I figured having something was going to help.

Matthew and I proceeded to chase this crazy bird around the house for at least 20 minutes. I got a couple of good swats to the bird. I wasn't trying to kill it, but I figured if I could stun it a little bit, I'd be able to push it along the floor back out into the garage. All I suceeded in doing was knocking a few feathers off of it. Of course, poor Andrew's trying to drink his bottle through all this, and I think all of our running around and yelling was beginning to freak him out, so he started crying. Since he was done with his bottle, the poor child just got dumped unceremoniously in his bed. Unfortunately, by the time I got back into the living room, the bird had vanished. Now, I can't find this bird, and Nathan's still flipping out in the bathroom. I quickly got Nathan out of the tub, and went back to look for God's beautiful creature. I finally found it underneath our hutch. Once again, the chase ensued. My goal was to get a bucket over it, then I planned to get it out the door. But the bird didn't exactly follow the directions. Now, Nathan's in the family room and shrieking every time the bird flies by him, I'm getting hot and sweaty chasing after this darn thing, and I think Matthew's beginning to think we have a new pet. And the cat? Well, she knew she was too old and slow to catch it, so she decided that spectating was her best bet. Unbelievably, the bird got behind the back door, and scooted between the door and the wall to go back out into the garage. I don't think Nathan truly believed me that the bird was finally gone, but thankfully it was. All that was left for me was to clean up the feathers it left behind. At least Matthew and Nathan have something to write about during Writer's Workshop tomorrow.

So far, I've faced a frog, a giant roach, and a bird as well as all of the various insects and spiders I've killed since we've moved. I love nature.

I Have a Great Church

It's 11:30, and I am watching our church service live over the internet. How awesome is that?

By the way, the website is http://www.gracefellowshipchurch.com/GraceVideo_live.aspx .

Staying Home with a Sick Baby

It's a Sunday morning, and for the first time in about six months I'm staying home. Andrew has caught the cold that I've been fighting the whole week, and now he has green goop coming out of his nose. Plus, he's very fussy. I put him down for a nap about a half hour ago, and he has fussed off and on the whole time. It looks like he's starting to quiet down, so I hope he can get a good nap in. I hate that there's nothing I can give him to help his stuffy nose. I've never been one who gave my kids a lot of medicine, but when they did have colds, I would give them some cold medicine before bed to help them sleep. Unfortunately, since there are people in the world who don't know how to read dosage instructions, there is no more cold medicine for babies. Isn't that lovely?

Don't you like that I made the text color the same color as what's coming out of Andrew's nose? Hey, if I have to suffer, everyone else in cyberspace does too! :-)

Six Months Ago

I was watching Andrew drink his bottle today, and I realized that it's been six months since his surgery. It's hard to believe that six months ago, we were here:

And now we are here:

It's truly amazing. Looking at him now, you would not even know that he had major surgery on his skull.

Here are some other pictures of my crazy, wonderful children. Enjoy!

Can You Believe It?

Driving home from school today, I saw gas for sale for $2.99 a gallon. I thought I'd never live to see the day. Two weeks ago, I paid $4.29 a gallon when we were still in the middle of our "gas shortage". I've heard it could be below $2.00 by Thanksgiving, but I'll believe that when I see it.

Amazing.

(BTW, I did not actually stop and take a picture, though I might if it gets below $2! This is from photobucket.)

There are Days. . .

when I'm so glad that my friend, Shelley, introduced me to Babywise seven years ago. For those of you who don't know, Babywise was written by Gary Ezzo, who, I've discovered, is one of the most hated men on the internet. Whatever. All I know is that it has made our lives with babies wonderful. While none of my kids have ever acted exactly the way it was written in the book, it always gave me a plan and a goal that I wanted to get to. Both Matthew and Andrew struggled with naps, and Nathan fought falling asleep at night, but by the time each of them were four months old, we were cruising along pretty good with all of them sleeping through the night and napping well.

Which brings me to this week. Andrew was up last Saturday night for about an hour and a half in the middle of the night. I still don't have any idea what his problem was. All I know was that he was wailing. So, guess who got to stay up with him? That's right, yours truly. Needless to say, I was exhausted last week at church. After we got home and ate lunch, it was wonderful to be able to put him down and have him fall asleep quickly. (Then I could take a nap too!) Then, yesterday, I was working on cleaning some stuff up in our bedroom when I discovered that he had crawled away and was sitting in his room playing with his toys. (And pulling stuff blankets out of the bottom of his changing table too, but oh well.) I just love that while he loves to cuddle and be held, he also is able to entertain himself for a period of time. I don't worry when I leave him with a babysitter or at the nursery at church, because, while he may fuss when I leave him off, he is able to separate himself from me, and then when we reunite, he knows I'm always coming back. Plus, I get compliments every week on what a happy baby I have. (And that makes me feel good. Yes, I am a shallow person. :-) )

Frustration

There are days when I truly wonder if I'm getting through to my kids at school. This week was a collection of those days. This group has been a challenge from the first day, but this week showed me just how far I have to go. Gwinnett County has instituted an instructional calendar that we all have to follow. While it's been a pain to stick to the calendar, especially in math where we have to move on sometimes even when I don't want to, it helps me stay focused on my instruction. In addition, we are giving Benchmark tests this year. We gave a pretest at the beginning of the year, and this week, we gave a test that covered the skills that I taught the first nine weeks in Language Arts and Math. While I would love to say that all of my kids did wonderfully, I can't. Actually, many of them scored very poorly, some even below 50%. It was extremely frustrating to see that. I feel like everyday is a fight with these kids. I have so many who struggle with school, plus I have ones who don't struggle, but also don't care, so their only goal is to fool around. So I'm spending most of my time with behavior correction and not very much of my time teaching. Plus, I get the feeling that no one has ever asked these kids to think beyond the obvious. Whenever I ask them a question where the answer is not so obvious, they struggle. They also have a very bad habit of raising their hands to answer without even thinking. I've even had kids raise their hands to answer a question that I haven't even asked! They also have a hard time retaining knowledge. We spent one day in math this past week working on rounding numbers. We used number lines, we talked about the tens that "sandwich" a number, we did numerous examples together and independently. So, the next day, I gave them 5 numbers and asked them to round them. There were only about 5 kids out of 20 who even had the smallest idea of how to get started. Most of them just sat there and waited for someone to give them the answer. They've had so much given to them, they just expect it. If they need to work to get something, there's just no reason for them to try. I've also had times where we will do a worksheet together, and I will give them the answers as we are working through the sheet. Unfortunately, when it comes time to grade it, I'll have kids getting 60 or 70 percent because they weren't even paying attention. I've tried really hard to plan lessons that get them engaged and interested, and they struggle with that as well. I've just got to keep plugging away. Hopefully, for the ones that are behind, their parents will see that it can't all be done at school, and they need to work at home as well. I sent home the Benchmark scores today, and I'm expecting alot of notes when we get back to school on Tuesday. (Monday is a work day to get report cards done.)

On a happier note, Matthew took the Benchmark tests this week in first grade, and I got his scores today. While I may not have succeeded as a teacher this grading period, I did as a parent. He got 100% on both the Language Arts and the Math. My kid rocks!

An Open Letter to the Candidates

Dear Senators Obama and McCain,

My name is Carrie, and I'm a typical mom in suburban Atlanta. I have three little boys, and I am a public school teacher. While I am a social conservative, I haven't yet decided who I will be voting for this November. Right now, the person who can solve this problem may be the person I vote for.

You see, here in Atlanta, we have no gas. That's right. Two weeks after a hurricane that did only minimal damage to refineries in Texas, and our gas shortage gets worse every day. Worse! What is going on?? I have been trying to conserve gas, but I do have to drive to work everyday, and there is no mass transit between my home and work. The only places I go right now are work on Monday through Friday and church on Sunday and Wednesday. How else can I conserve? It seems ridiculous that in a major metropolitan area, there are people who have to take vacation days because they can't find a gas station with gas. Then, if we do find gas, it's over $4.00 a gallon. So not only are we suffering a gas shortage, we are also being gouged in price.

What I want to know, is what will you do to prevent this? I don't want to hear about renewable fuels, because I have a car that runs on gas right now, and that car is going to stay my primary source of transportation for a while. What will you do the next time there is a hurricane (and we all know there will be a next time) to ensure that there are parts of the country that are not out of gas? What is your plan for this crisis that is affecting a large part of the population that you want to lead? We can all talk about wonderful pie in the sky theories about becoming energy independent, but the problem I'm facing right now has nothing to do with oil supplies and everything to do with domestic distribution. What can you do to fix that?

Thanks.

Our New Addition

This has been a very long 12 days. Let me catch you up. Jeremy's accident was on the 8th. We dropped the Escort off at the collision repair place on the 12th, and heard on the 16th that State Farm was declaring the car totaled. (On an aside, I started to spell State like Satan, and I don't think that was a Freudian slip. You'll see why.) So, I called someone from State Farm, because my original intent was to use the money and fix the car on our own. (It's paid for, so I really wanted to keep it.) Well, I was informed that since it was a salvage total, it was going to take at least six months to get it back on the road. So, I asked her about at least getting reimbursement for a rental car. What I pretty much got was that since the person who hit Jeremy claimed someone had hit him, it was considered an Uninsured Motorist, so his company wasn't going to pay for a rental car, and we didn't have rental car reimbursement on our policy. As you can imagine, I was pretty depressed about it Wednesday morning. I think it was the combination of knowing we had to try and find a car on top of the fact that I had essentially been without any transportation for over a week, plus it was Wednesday, and we weren't going to be able to go to Awana since I had no way to get us there. (I wasn't going to ask to borrow my uncle's car for another week.) On top of everything else, I really felt like the service that State Farm markets (you know, "Like a Good Neighbor. . .") was really no service at all. All our agent had done for us was put the claim in the computer. We were the ones making all of the phone calls to the claims adjuster and the total loss adjuster and everyone else. So, Wednesday night, I just prayed for a miracle to happen because I was pretty much done with the whole situation. Thursday morning, I sent an e-mail out to the staff at school just saying that we were looking for a reliable used car in the $3000 range. An hour later I got an e-mail back from one of the fourth grade teachers telling me about a car that had belonged to her in-laws who passed away last year. She brought it to school on Thursday, and Jeremy came over to look at it. After driving it, he decided we'd take it. We went over today and picked it up, and here it is. . .It's a 1993 Eagle Summit, but it only has 78,000 miles. It is in immaculate condition, and it looks almost brand-new. It really is the miracle I prayed for!

Unfortunately, we had to deal with State Farm one more time. Thursday evening, I talked to the total loss adjuster to work out a time when we could sign the title over to State Farm and get the check. Even that was hard. Since we are on opposite schedules, it's really hard for the two of us to be together during the week. I offered Saturday, she said they don't work on Saturdays. I said someone could come to school where I could sign it and then take it to the house where Jeremy could sign it. She said that there are two different reps for Snellville and Lilburn, and apparently it's like gang territories where you can't cross into someone else's territories. Plus, she was taking Friday off. So Friday at school, I just kept getting transferred around until I got to the transfer rep who was the one who would actually come bring the check to us. He was the only State Farm employee who actually went out of his way to help us. He offered to come over today (Saturday) and get the title from us. He stopped by this morning, and it took all of about 5 minutes to sign the title and get the check. As you can imagine, I don't think we'll be insuring this new car with State Farm. I spent yesterday evening doing some research online to see what it would cost us to insure the cars with someone else. I'm done with State Farm and their "personal" service.

We Finally Got Excitement!

I was thinking this weekend that I should post, but I thought what should I post about? We haven't had anything interesting or exciting happen, and I doubt anyone really cares what my opinion of John McCain or Barack Obama is. I do have some thoughts about Sarah Palin that I'd like to share, but I want to get them organized in my head before I put them on paper (screen?).


Anyway, we did have some excitement yesterday! Here's a glimpse:

Yes, the Escort met a Jeep up close and personal last night. Jeremy was on his way to work, and he was the last link in a chain reaction crash. He was sideswiped by a car that was swerving to avoid a car that turned out in front of it. So, thankfully he wasn't at fault. He did get really wet, though, since his window was shattered, and it was in the middle of a driving rainstorm. He wasn't hurt, either, but he will be picking glass out of his shoes for the next year! :) Right now, we're making due with one car, but thankfully my uncle Dan is coming through with a car for us to borrow tomorrow evening so I can get to church. Unfortunately, we don't have a car rental clause on our insurance, and the agent said we could rent a car and then try to get the money back from the other insurance company, but I'm not too confident about that. Apparently, the woman who caused the whole chain took off.

There is one good thing! We had to take both cars in to get them worked on because the "Service Engine" light was on, and we have to get that fixed before we can get the emissions tested, and we have to get the emissions tested before we can get new plates. But since the Escort needs some serious body work before we can get the plates renewed. So, now I just have to pay for the van to get fixed. I'm going to call whatever governement agency handles plates to get a temporary tag so we can work on the Escort next month.

I Love Holiday Weekends

I love having a holiday weekend. I have three days to get all of my errands run, and I can sleep in late since I don't have more days to squeeze in my errands! I got up at 9:00 this morning. Yes, I am lazy, but I'm going to grade papers now, so I'm not that lazy!

The Lighter Side of Life

Yesterday's post was DEEP, man, so I thought today, I'd share a couple of my adventures with Mother Nature over the last week. First, it was the frog, then the spider, and finally the cockroach.

It started last Wednesday. It was about 10:30 pm, and I was getting ready to go to bed. But, like any other average person, I decided to go to the bathroom before bed. Well, I lifted up the toilet lid and noticed something high up on the side of the bowl. Inspecting further, I discovered it was a frog that was about two inches long. Being the lover of God's creation that I am, I tried to flush him down the toilet. He stuck tight to the side of the bowl. So, I used the toilet brush to try and push him into the water so I could flush him again. That failed miserably, and he was able to get between the seat and the bowl and get outside the toilet. Being the calm, cool, collected person that I am, I immediately screeched. That must have scared him because he jumped off the bowl and onto the floor. I jumped the same time he did! Once he was on the floor, he didn't really move, so I went to the kitchen for a cup. After a couple of tries, I was able to get the cup over top of him. So now I have this frog in a cup on my bathroom floor. I thought about just leaving him that way, but then in the morning, I'd have a shriveled up dead frog on my bathroom floor. Not a good thought. So, I searched through the house and finally found a piece of thin cardboard to slide under the cup. (Sorry, Nathan, you're not getting that free ice cream at Chik-fil-A.) I was able to slide the cardboard under the cup and pick it up. Now, I'm holding this thing like the frog is going to fight its way out. (See why I hate nature?) I first planned to let him go out the front door, but I had left the light on outside, and there were a number of moths. Not wanting to fight the moths, I decided to use the back door. I opened the door, and I was just ready to open the glass door when I looked up and realized a HUGE spider had made a web across the door. Weighing my options, I figured I could handle the moths better than the spider, so I headed back to the front door. By now, the light had been off for a while, so most of the bugs had left. I was able to stand on the front porch and fling the frog across the yard. Hopefully, he found his kind and will not return to our house. I still check the toilet now every time before I sit down!

Then, the next morning, I had my adventure with the cockroach. We get these huge roaches down here. I was told they were called tree roaches, but I've also heard them called palmetto bugs. Here is what one looks like. I was sitting on the bed drinking my coffee when Matthew came in and said "Mommy, why is there a big bug on your carpet?" He flipped the light on, and we watch this huge bug run across the rug to underneath the dresser. We pulled the dresser out, but he was gone. I figured he had squeezed into a crack by the floor and taken off. We weren't sure, though, because the cat still seemed pretty interested in what was going on. I sat back on the bed to finish my coffee, and Jeremy says, "There he is behind you!" I jumped off of the bed, because I thought the bug was on the bed. He was actually on the wall, but he could move!! We grabbed one of my old flip flops to smack him, and we discovered he can also fly! He flew off the wall and onto the back of Jeremy's shirt. He was able to shake him off, and then hit him a couple of times on the floor. So, unlike the frog, this poor guy went to roach heaven rather than back to his friends. Of course, if he had stayed outside rather than inside, he would have had a long and happy life.

Food for Thought

This is an e-mail my parents sent me. My dad always has the most thoughtful responses! Someday, I'll grow up to be as smart as him. (I always have a tendency to shoot off a smart-aleck response.)

Here's is an email we received yesterday: As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride. . .'we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, . . . As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a
presidential candidate in this nation. To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian nation--and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that. How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be. I hope that each of you will do what I'm doing now--send your concerns, written simply and sincerely, to the Christians on your email list. With God's help, and He is still in control of this nation and all else, we can show this man and the world in November that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation! Please pray for our nation!

Here is Dad's response:Perhaps the writer of the original e-mail never read how Jefferson excised from his Bible all of the passages he did not like, or how Jefferson's
concern about the "wall of separation" between church and state was based more
upon the concern that the church not dictate to the state as it was upon the concern that the state would run the church. I would exercise caution in attempting to place on any nation the label of "Christian nation." If we are going to place that label on ourselves, perhaps we need to go back to Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy to see how a nation bearing God's name is to treat its citizens and
the foreigners in its midst. May I suggest that we remember that the early church experienced explosive growth in the midst of an empire, Rome, that attempted to exterminate the church. In fact, after Constantine made Christianity the "in" thing, the empire and the church became increasingly weaker and the western world eventually entered a period we now call the "dark ages," a period in which the established church became indistinguishable from the state, a period from which the reformation, thankfully, delivered us. May I also point out that the areas of the world today where the church is rxperiencing exponential growth are areas where the governments are not all that friendly toward the church. Perhaps it is because the church in those nations operates in the realization that it's future growth is based not upon the favor of Caesar, but rather on the grace and favor of the King of kings. My concern is not so much that my nation be known as a "Christian nation," rather that my nation be one in which the Christians are living out the kingdom of God in the midst of all, whether they be the nominal Christians, or Muslims, or Buddhists, or Hindus, or atheists. My concern is that the Christians in my nation be the living embodiment of Micah 6:8, "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." History has shown us that the church has been most powerful and effective when it has not been busy trying to control how people live, but rather has been totally focused on HUMBLY being the Body of Christ. While this will certainly lead us to support laws that reflect
kingdom values, let's make sure we are not selective about which kingdom
values we wish to support.While we will always live in a nation that at times will support kingdom values and will at times not support kingdom values, the church is free, unfettered by any political alliances with the government, to FULLY live out the values of the kingdom in the midst of every generation.

Mike

I guess I've always been one who said, "We should be a Christian Nation." But after reading what my dad wrote, I have to say that I agree with him. Maybe we should worry less about being a "Christian Nation" and more about being a "Christian Church".

By the way, Dad, I hope you hit "Reply All" when you sent your response.

Well, let's see. . .

26 - 14 equals 12. Twelve days it's been since I found the time to get here. Yeah, sorry about that. The last few weeks have been crazy, and that's on the good days. Things at school haven't really seemed to slow down yet. We're in the middle of all of our beginning of the year assessments, and that means I have to find time during the day to sit down with each of my lovely children individually and listen to them read while I try to juggle a clipboard, a stopwatch, and a pencil. Plus, I have to be able to send out the silent death glare to any of my other children who aren't sitting there reading quietly like the county thinks they should be able to one week into school. So, teaching? I'm getting a little bit done since we have to keep up with the county calendars, but I feel like I'm just rushing through things. Plus, we have benchmarks. Don't get me started on benchmarks, or the steam will begin to rise. I'm sure they will be very helpful throughout the year, but trying to give a math pretest that takes about two hours and a language arts pretest that also takes two hours during the second week of school does not add up to fun. We're surviving, though. And that's usually the goal for the first month of school. Survive and advance. (Sounds like the NCAA tournament.)

Right now we're attempting to keep our selves from going underwater. I know, it sounds weird for someone in a drought, but Tropical Storm Fay has decided to stop by Atlanta! We've got to be the only people in the southeast who are thrilled to see a tropical storm! I'm sure Florida was more than happy to see her go. Fay has been generous with us. In some places, like the Lake Lanier watershed, she's dropped close to eight inches of rain! Yesterday, the lake had already risen about 3 inches which means an increase of 1.4 billion gallons. As I type, it's continuing to rain. Hopefully, we'll get another inch or two before Fay heads off somewhere else. And, there's another hurricane in the Carribbean which could bring us more rain in the next couple of days. I don't feel quite as guilty taking a bath now. :)

So that's about it for our lives right now. Jeremy's hours were cut back a little at work. He's going in at 5 pm now, so Andrew doesn't need to go to daycare. Hopefully, the money that he's losing in his paycheck will be offset by the money we don't have to pay for daycare. We'll see. They've also cut back on their Saturday schedule, so for right now he's not scheduled to work any weekends. While I'm not happy about the cut in hours, I can't complain about the Saturdays. I don't know how long this will last. Hopefully only for a few months at least.

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering. My student who had his adventure in the bathroom was back to school a week ago Monday. His arm is bandaged up still, but it seems to be doing OK. I think I've had enough blood for the year, although with this group, I have a feeling more accidents are in my future. They have a tendency to act before they think. I'll just make sure my insurance premiums are paid up!

Things You Never Want to Have Happen

There are some things I have never wanted to have happen as a teacher. One, a child puking in a classroom. I understand it's something they can't control, but I have a very quick gag reflex, and I would puke right after them. I can't even handle my own kids' vomit. Two, one child hurting another seriously. I just don't want to have to try and explain it to a parent (or to the news media for that matter!). Three, having to call an ambulance for one of my students. That's never a good thing.

Unfortunately, number three happened today. Here's how it happened. I had my entire class in the hall for a bathroom break, and there were about three boys and two girls still in the bathroom. As I'm standing next to the line of students who are done, I hear this tremendous crash come from the boys bathroom. I knew immediately that the sink had fallen off of the wall, and I headed toward the bathroom ready to lay into someone. Suddenly, one of the boys comes running out saying, "Somebody did something!" As I'm trying to get more information from him, I look up to see another one of my students rounding the corner of the bathroom with blood pouring out of his arm. Immediately, I tell the first student to RUN and get the nurse. Thankfully, we have an RN in the building at all times. My assistant principal was coming across one of the hallways at the same time, and she must have heard me tell the child to RUN. She comes running, as I'm trying to make sure the bleeding child doesn't come out in the hallway where all of my students can see him. His arm looked really bad. The nurse comes and without even putting on gloves grabs a paper towel and puts pressure on the arm. (Something I guess I should have done, but I was in too much shock. One reason I'm not a nurse.) They take the child off to the clinic, while I try to get the rest of my kids settled down and in the cafeteria for lunch. After I had them at their table, I find out that the ambulance has been called for my student. I went quickly to check on him, and by the time I got back to the cafeteria, most of my class had convinced themselves that he had died. I got them settled down, and after recess when the tears had dried up, I gave them the "This is Why We Have Rules" lecture. I don't know what exactly he was doing in the bathroom, but I don't think he'll do it again. I also think seeing him with a huge bandage on his arm will speak louder than any words I could ever say to my class. They were pretty subdued this afternoon. The update I got from the nurse at the end of the day was that he had cut it all the way down to the bone. (What I had thought was a piece of sink stuck in his arm was actually his muscle hanging out! Another reason I'm not a nurse.) I have no idea how long he'll be at the hospital, or what kind of treatment he'll need, but it was certainly a memorable start to the year. Tomorrow's Friday, and hopefully we can make it through the day without the ambulance showing up!

Already an improvement!

After yesterday, I was a little worried about how this year would be for me. My class had a very hard time listening and following directions, and they were trying to pull things that you usually see in May (like throwing food in the cafeteria). I told Jeremy last night, that I was going to have to really crack down, which I didn't want to do. I'm more strict at the beginning of the year, but I don't really like to hand out consequences the first week of school, since the kids and I are still trying to feel each other out. But I knew I was going to have to be tough with this group. However, they were a little better today. We still had some problems, and I know I'm going to have some that will test me the entire year, but there are others that are seeming to catch on to the idea that summer is over and school has started. I was happy to see it, because this year is going to be tough enough academically for some of my students. They certainly don't need the distraction of others acting up.

First Day of School

Today started bright and early (5:30 for me, 6:30 for the boys) at our house since it was the first day of school! This year, I get to take both Matthew and Nathan to school with me since Nathan is now in kindergarten. Nathan was very nervous and excited this morning, and I was a little worried too, since he didn't have a very good experience last year in Pre-K. But I shouldn't have worried, since he had a great day! I think his teacher will be very good for him. She has a very sweet personality, and I think she will be great for him. Here are a couple of pictures of him in his new kindergarten room.

I wasn't able to get any pictures of Matthew, cause he's in first grade now, and he's too cool for that. :-) I do have one of him at home plus one of Nathan.

Now, on to my class. I have a number of at risk students, so there will definitely be some challenges this year. Right now, I only have 17 students, and hopefully my class will stay fairly consistent. The last two years I've had what I call "my revolving door". Each year, I've had three or four leave, and three or four move in. Sometimes, I've had students stay for only a month. It's very hard to get to know a child and teach them when they are only in your room for a short time. Hopefully, this year will be more consistent, and I can really help those at-risk kids.

And, I just had to post this.

Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen? :-)

Back to Work!

Today was my first day back to work for the new school year. We have five days of pre-planning before the kids come next Monday. This morning was spent mostly in a large faculty meeting. We have to go over all of the faculty info for the new year, talk about any changes that have occurred, meet the new staff, have people announce pregnancies (not me!), and then we reach the most exciting part. The county has a power point presentation about Title IX, professional ethics, and sexual harrassment!! (I know you all wish you could be there.) By the end, my butt was totally numb, and I was ready for a nap. Thankfully, we got the rest of the day to work in our room. I've been in a couple of times over the last few weeks, so my furniture was all arranged, but now it's a matter of getting everything where I want it to be, plan for next week, put up bulletin boards (which I hate!), and get ready for Meet the Teacher on Thursday morning. Right now, I have 19 in my class, but that will probably change after Thursday when we have kids who don't show up and ones who register on that day.

Off to bed! It's another fun day tomorrow!

Returning from Vacation

So, as I posted yesterday, we got back yesterday morning from vacation. While we had a great time, it was good to be home. One thing I've discovered is that vacation is brutal with an eight month old child's routine. Andrew was doing really well, but with being gone, he's struggling a little bit to fall back into his routine. Plus, he caught a cold while we were gone, so he's had that to deal with as well.

We got home yesterday a little before 7. We fed Andrew, then the other two needed food as well. Of course, since we had been gone for a week, there wasn't a whole lot in the house. We had a couple of boxes of cereal, but we needed milk. So, Jeremy headed off to get milk while I tried to keep Nathan from wandering the house moaning "Hungry, hungry." (It's really fun to listen to, so if anyone knows how to get him to stop, I may fall on my knees to thank you.) Of course, I had been up for much of the night, so I was really hungry too! (I did refrain from moaning like Nathan, however.) After we had some breakfast, I fell asleep for about an hour. Then it was off to the grocery store to replenish our kitchen.

Then, last night, I had promised the boys I would take them to McDonald's last night for supper. We went up to the drive thru, and I ordered for all of us. Then, when I got up to the window, I handed the kid my debit card. He got ready to swipe it, then said "He didn't tell you cash only, didn't he?" Umm, no, because if he had, I wouldn't be handing you my card! So, he asked me if I had the cash to pay for it. Again, no, all I had was about two dollars. So I asked him if I could write a check. He told me that they didn't take checks. So you're telling me that it's impossible for you to take a check for $10?? Instead, you're willing to throw away three meals. I should have asked for the manager, but I was so irritated, I just pulled away. Now, I had two boys who had been counting on McDonald's, and I couldn't figure out where there was a closer one. I offered Chik-fil-A, but that was shot down since "they don't have toys." (You can see what my kids find important in fast food.) I was going to drive down 78 to find a McDonald's, but they are doing construction on 78 and three lanes of traffic coming from Atlanta have to squeeze down to two, and it was 6:30 in the evening, so I'll let you guess what traffic looked like. Finally, I decided on Wendy's and told Matthew if he didn't want it there was always peanut butter and jelly waiting for him. He chose the food, but he spent most of the rest of the evening grumping about it. (He was able to choke down all of the food, though)

Ahh, the joy of returning from vacation. Plus, I got a letter from the state telling me that I have to change my insurance next year since they've decided not to offer Blue Cross Blue Shield next year. Lovely. I'm breaking my resolution about not complaining about insurance.

Home From Vacation!

We got back home from Indiana this morning. Driving all night is good for us because the boys sleep most of the way, but it does make for a really long day after since taking a nap in the afternoon is a really bad idea if all of the boys are awake.

I'll post some pictures soon! We had a lot of fun!

Why Is It . . .

that when strangers see me at the pool they feel the need to warn me that my baby is going to get a sunburn??? Let's look at the facts. First of all, he looks like he hasn't been out in the sun at all, and yet I have a fairly decent tan. Obviously, I have been out in the sun. In addition, my other two boys are also fair-skinned redheads, and neither of them are burned. Am I just walking around with a "Yes, I'm an idiot" stamp on my forehead? Yes, I do know they sell stuff called sunscreen, and I do know how to use it.

My Biggest Pet Peeve

When people ask me what my biggest pet peeve is, I usually give some off the cuff remark like people who don't use turn signals, or people who go through the express line at Kroger with 50 items. But that's not really truly what bugs me most. My biggest pet peeve is when people make comments without really thinking about their listener's situation. Let me explain.

We were married for almost seven years before Matthew was born. During that time, I got more cute questions about when we were going to have a baby than anybody should ever have to bear. Part of it was where we were living and going to church. Our Sunday School class was filled with couples that were our age, and many of them were starting their families. (OK, almost all of them.) So, of course, every time a couple would bring a new baby to church, and I would congratulate them, I'd always get the question about when we were going to have one. Well, after the seventh or eighth time, I ran out of cute responses. See, the problem wasn't that we didn't want kids. The problem was that we couldn't have a baby. I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and undergoing treatment for it. It's not that the other people were cruel. Many of them had no idea. We hadn't shared what was going on. My best friend knew, and ironically, she felt guilty since she and her husband couldn't seem to stop from getting pregnant! (You know I love you, Shelley!) I just wish that sometimes people had looked at the situation and realized that maybe the continual questions were making me very uncomfortable. So, I've made it a policy of mine to never ask a married couple when they are going to have kids. I don't know what they are going through, and what their problems are or aren't. I wish I'd spoken up when I was being asked those questions. Of course, I could have been brutally honest and put them in a very uncomfortable situation. Darn, I wish I'd thought of that sooner. ;-)

Why am I posting this? I think as a reminder to myself to make sure that I think before I speak. Sometimes, my mouth gets ahead of my brain, and I say things I shouldn't. So, if you're reading this, and I've put my foot in my mouth regarding something I said to you, I'm sorry. And I'm sure I'll need to apologize in the future as well.

No Helmet!!!!

We saw the neurosurgeon today for a follow-up, and he says that Andrew does not need a helmet. YAY!!!!!!!! He says there is still some "frontal bossing" which means that his forehead is still bulging forward a little bit, but he believes that it will correct itself as he grows. He will probably always have a forhead that bulges some, but not to the point that it will look like a defect. He is very happy with how Andrew's head looks. He told me that it's harder for me to see the difference because I see him everyday, but to the doctor who hasn't seen him since the end of April, there is a lot of difference. Andrew was so cute during the visit. Usually, when someone walks in who he's not familiar with, he'll get very quiet and just watch them, but as soon as the doctor walked in, he just started cooing and chattering. It's like he knew that this was the person who had fixed his head, and he was trying to say thank-you!

I'm just glad we don't have to try and fit in fittings for a helmet along with our upcoming vacation and school starting in just a few weeks.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. Since I've moved FAR away from home to Georgia, I appreciate my mom much more, and I miss her very much. (Especially when Jeremy and I want to go out for the evening. I'm kidding, Mom!) Happy birthday!

(I also want to wish a happy birthday to my best friend's daughter who was wonderful enough to be born on my mom's birthday. Happy birthday, Nicole!)

Math Institute is Finally Over!

All this week, I've been at Math Institute. It's a program the county runs where you work with a mentor teaching teaching math during a week at summer school. This week, I've spent every morning helping my mentor teach math to kids who have just finished 2nd grade. The idea is you see some of the best practices in teaching math, plus you get a chance to work with a small group helping them. While I really enjoyed working with the kids, I feel like I didn't learn a whole lot. I've got some more resources, but my mentor teacher teaches upper grade gifted kids mostly, and there were some times when I thought that she talked over the kids' heads too much. I know the big thing now is letting kids talk their way through problems even when they don't understand, but I found that it really confused some of the other kids. I had one student I was working with who was understanding the concepts, but when the teacher let the other kids give the wrong answer and try to justify it (hoping that they would see their error), she got really confused and frustrated because she knew her answer was right, and she couldn't see why the teacher was letting someone give a wrong answer. I can see how that would be frustrating to a student.

It was nice because it helped me begin to ease into a regular teaching schedule again. The kids come a month from today!

Dieting

I hate dieting. I've been trying to lose some weight lately, and so this week I decided to go back to doing Weight Watchers. And I hate it. The worst meal is lunch. I hate making lunch as it is, because I'm not a big sandwich eater, and I can only eat salads for so long. When it gets cooler, I'm going to make more soup that will last me the whole week, but for right now, finding stuff for lunch stinks. Suppers are a little better, but they still want me to eat salad with every meal. Yuk.

Hopefully, I'll get more creative with the meals, and I'll appreciate it when my clothes get looser. I'll just keep repeating that to myself. Over and over.

My Clean House

Last night when I went to bed, my house could not have been cleaner. I spent almost all day yesterday cleaning. Almost every floor surface was either mopped or swept. Both bathrooms were cleaned, and the boys helped me dust. At least they waved a dust cloth at the furniture. I gave my kitchen those once every couple of months cleaning where I pulled everything off of the counter and cleaned behind it, plus I wiped down all of the cupboard doors. Then, I used my very nifty non-chlorine bleach to clean my dish drainer, and some baking soda to clean the sink. Finally, I used the bleach to clean the mat that is in the boys' bathtub. It has suction cups to hold it to the tub, and it grows mildew pretty easily. I love the bleach. It's got hydrogen peroxide in it, so it's not as caustic as regular bleach. Plus, when I'm done, my hands don't stink, and I don't have to worry about pollution. It degrades into oxygen and water. (I once knew the chemical equation, but it's been a long time since I was in Mr. Roth's chemistry class!)

When all that was done, I did the laundry for all of us. So at the end of last night, the whole house was clean, and all of the clothes had been washed. By tonight? We could probably do at least one load of laundry, and the family room and kitchen need to be swept. My work is never done. But I'm going to bed now, since I have Math Institute tomorrow. Can't wait!

Our Fourth of July

We decided to head out today to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield today. It's a Civil War Battlefield north of Atlanta where the Army of Tennesee tried to hold off General Sherman's troops (I think native Atlantans still spit after they say Sherman's name). You can go up to the top of the mountain, and there a miles of trails to walk. Not that we did. My stroller does not go off-road. Here's what it looks like from the top of the mountain. The sign said on a clear day you could see all the way to Stone Mountain (28 miles away). It was too smoggy today. I want to come back in the fall. Can you imagine this view with the fall colors?

Here are Matthew and Nathan in front of one of the cannons. Nathan was a little afraid that the cannon might actually shoot at him. We told him that he was pretty safe since that cannon probably hadn't shot off anything in over 100 years.

After coming back down from Kennesaw mountain, we took a driving tour through the National Park to see a couple of other sites from the battle. The best one was Cheatham Hill where you could actually see some of the earthworks the Confederate soldiers built during the battle. Here's a marker showing where one Union soldier was buried. Don't worry, he's not there anymore. Most of the soldiers buried on the battlefield were later re-buried in Marietta National Cemetary.

There are also monuments set up by various states around the battlefield commerating their soldiers service to the war. Here is the one from Illinois, the most famous one in the park.

I looked for one from Indiana, but I didn't find one. However, knowing my state, it was probably placed somewhere very flat!

We did have to buy something at the gift shop, but since we didn't have to pay an entrance fee and the shuttle bus up the mountain cost us a total of $5, I figured we could afford it. Here's Nathan with his own little Civil War battle.

And to finish off, just some random pictures including one of Nathan looking at a map (big surprise) and Andrew hanging out in the stroller. He was such a good traveler. He didn't really get to nap at all while we were at the park, and even on the way home he was playing with his toys and singing.

We decided that fireworks would be a little much after our busy day, so we just stayed home. I hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Pictures from Nathan's Birthday

As promised many days ago, here are some pictures from Nathan's birthday.

Am I Really This Cheap?

We went to the pool again today, and I spent some time observing the other families there. During the break time they have each hour, everyone heads back to their towels or chairs and pulls out snacks. Hey, swimming does make you hungry! So while they are pulling bags of potato chips and sodas out of their coolers and picnic baskets, my kids are getting peanut butter crackers and drinking water out of the water bottles that I get out of my bag. I take so little to the pool. Last year, I fit everything we needed, including towels, into one, large, bag. This year, I'm taking the stroller in. I didn't really want to, but after the first time taking Andrew and having no place to put him, made me realize I really needed the stroller. I guess I just don't feel the need to drag all of that stuff to the pool. Or maybe I'm just too cheap to buy all that. Although, my kids do think it's a very special day when I let them share a Twix candy bar out of the vending machine! (Yeah, we've done that once.)

It's July 1st in Atlanta, Georgia. . .

and I just turned the air conditioner on today. It was so nice we were able to have the windows open today.

A Woman Who Needs to Get Off TV

You know how when you're driving, and you see a car accident, you can't look away. Well that's how I am with Jon and Kate + 8. This show is a total train wreck, yet I can't stop watching. For the uninitiated, J&K is about a couple and their 8 children, a set of twins and a set of sextuplets. I first saw them on a special TLC had about them a couple of years ago, and they seemed to be a very sweet couple who wanted to give their children a happy life. They showed Jon going off to work, and Kate bargain shopping and using coupons to make their dollars stretch as far as they could while working as a nurse on the weekends. Well, TLC gave them their own show, and they are now acting like "big reality stars". They now take skiing trips to Utah and stay in private cabins, the kids dress in identical GAP and Gymboree clothes, and both Kate and Jon have had cosmetic surgery. But yet, they still promote themselves as this humble family who struggles to make ends meet. Really? Jon doesn't even go to work anymore. Instead he "works from home". Sure he does. In the episode I watched last night, Kate took the girls to a pottery place to paint pottery. But instead of actually interacting with her children, she sits at a table painting her own pottery and making snide comments about how the little girls are painting. You know, those little girls who just turned 4. I thought what they painted was adorable. Plus, Kate freaked out about how they might get dirty. Did I mention she's a germophobe, and her kids don't play in the grass? Just on the driveway of their house. What a wonderful life. I think Kate loves the "idea" of being a mom, but when it actually comes down to the nitty-gritty of motherhood, she doesn't want to be bothered. There was one episode where all of the kids were sick, and all Kate could do is complain about how much extra laundry it made for her. Well, her and her helpers. She has someone come in once a week to fold the laundry, someone else to put it away, and a third person to do all of her ironing. Yet, she talks about how she always needs all of this help. Whatever. I'm not sure what she'll do when the kids stop being cute for TV, and they have to live a life like normal people.

And why do I keep watching? Well, like I said before, it's a total train wreck. But the kids are also very cute. One of the boys wears glasses, and I'm a sucker for a pre-schooler in glasses. I think they are too adorable!

Our Anniversary Dinner

So we found someone wonderful (crazy) enough to stay with the boys last night so we could go out for our anniversary. We drove up to Perimeter Mall to go eat at Maggiano's. Now, it was a Sunday night, and the place was packed! I couldn't believe how busy it was. Thankfully, we had reservations, so we didn't have to wait at all. We also had a gift card, so we decided to go all out. We ordered appetizers, the stuffed mushrooms, an entree and dessert. All of the food was fabulous! I could have had a meal just on the stuffed mushrooms alone. They were stuffed with spinach and Parmesan cheese, and they had Parmesan and breadcrumbs on top. YUM. I got the chicken cacciatore, and it was phenomenal. It was also a huge portion. Here's a picture of what was left. This was after I had eaten it at the restaurant. While it was expensive, I guess getting two full meals out of it makes it worth it! :-)

We also got dessert, which was this huge piece of cake. Jeremy and I were able to each have some, plus I brought some home for the boys, and there was still a piece left for me to enjoy this evening. (I think I'm going to go have some now!)

My Husband Thinks I've Gone Off the Deep End

I've gotten rid of 90% of the commercial cleaners in our house. Now, before you think I've decided to stop cleaning forever, I haven't (I wish!). Instead, I've replaced the commercial cleaners filled with bleach and other chemicals that can kill you with all natural ones. I've been reading the book called Healthy Child, Healthy World, and it has really made me think. If natural cleaners are cheaper and safer, why wouldn't I use them? So yesterday, I went to Publix and bought a gallon of vinegar, a big box of baking soda, a box of washing soda, and a bottle of liquid castile soap. Total cost? around $15.00. Then, I went to the dollar store and bought two spray bottles. Now, I can make an all-purpose cleaner with the washing soda and castile soap and a window cleaner with vinegar and water. Plus, my supplies will make numerous bottles. Right now, the only thing under my sink that says "Fatal if swallowed" is my dishwasher detergent. But, when that's gone, I'm going to try and make my own of that as well. If not, I'm going to buy a brand that contains no bleach or phosphates.

Now, Jeremy is laughing at me since he thinks I've turned into a health nut. I haven't, by the way, even though I have started buying more organic foods. I've just decided that there are some changes that we can make that will both save us money and be healthier for us. Trust me, we are by no means eating healthy all the time. (The boys just had some chocolate cake for dessert.) But I'm am being more conscious of what is on the ingredient list of the foods we're eating. The biggest thing I'm trying to cut out is high fructose corn syrup. It is in so much stuff, including bread! My grocery trips are taking longer now since I'm stopping and reading every label before I buy anything.

In case you're interested, here's the recipe for making your own all-purpose cleaner:

1 tsp washing soda
1 tsp liquid castile soap (I found mine at Publix, but Target carries it too)
4 cups hot water

Mix in 32 oz spray bottle and shake gently to dissolve. You can add essential oils or tea tree oil if you'd like. I didn't, since the only place that I know of that carries tea tree oil is Whole Foods, and there's not one near us.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Today was Nathan's 5th birthday. I told him I would take him to the pool today, and we had a good time. Unfortunately, we were only there for about 45 minutes. About 2:00 there were a couple of rumbles of thunder, so everyone had to leave the pool deck. Since I didn't want to wait inside with three tired and cranky kids, we decided to come home. I promised them I would take them again tomorrow. Only this time, we're going to the indoor pool at Bethesda park. No weather worries there!

I'll get pictures from his birthday up tomorrow!

(Andrew update: I talked to our doctor's PA on Tuesday and got some clarification about the helmet. She said the reason they want us to come in a month early is helmets don't really work once kids are past a year, so they want us in sooner rather than later. If he does get a helmet, it will only be for 2 or 3 months.)

It's Backyard Bible Week!

Our church does not do a traditional VBS program. The church's "motto" (for lack of a better word) is "Neighborhoods, Nations, Next Generation". So, we have Backyard Bible Clubs where people open up their backyards to kids in the neighborhood. So instead of one VBS, we have over 20 all over the county. Since we don't live in a neighborhood, and my backyard resembles a jungle on a bad day, I volunteered to be a Bible teacher. The church has written their own curriculum based on The Lamb which is a kid's version of Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. Can you tell that my church does not do things the ordinary way, and we are blessed with some incredibly talented and creative people? BTW, they write their own curriculum for the kids on Sundays as well complete with activities and Power Point (www.biblelessons4kidz.com ). Anyway, I took my prop box today to a home in Snellville that was actually very close to where I work. Our lesson today was the attributes of God and creation. The club I was at started at 10 am, and at 10, we didn't have any kids. The host said she had gotten some "Oh, that sounds like fun" but no firm RSVP's. Shortly after 10, though, a mom came down with a group of five kids. It looks like some of them were hers and others were cousins or friends. She was Hispanic and spoke very little English. The kids didn't speak a lot of English, but they understood a lot more than they spoke. It took them a little bit of time to warm up, but after about 10 minutes of playing parachute games, they were into it! I scaled the lesson back a little bit for them since there was ALOT to process through in this lesson. We talked about all of the different days of creation, and I had props for each one. Then, they used modeling clay to make their own creation. We talked a little bit about how we need something to make a creation, but God created the world out of nothing! (I don't know if they really caught on.) Then, we played some more games, which they really got into. All in all, it was a lot of fun. It was also really tiring for only an hour and a half.

After Bible Club, I headed back home to take the boys to the pool. I had promised them earlier that I would take them to the pool, so that's where we went this afternoon. Thankfully, it was not very crowded today, and there were no daycares there. (YAY!) Matthew got to play with one of the boys who had been on his baseball team. Not that he told me. The other boy's mom came over and introduced herself (I'm awful with faces!).

When we got home from the pool, I fed a very angry baby, then made supper. We had to hurry through supper, because I was taking the boys to a Bible Club near our house. Why didn't I take them with me, you ask? Well, Nathan especially has a tendency to cling to me when I'm helping out at church in his class, so I thought it would be easier if I went on my own, and they went on their own. Plus, having an hour or so in the evening with just Andrew is a beautiful thing. This evening, we went to the library, and I actually had time to browse the shelves!! Of course, now I have more books than I could ever read, but it was still fun. Plus, the older two got to hang out without me around. Matthew is definitely the more social one, not that that is always a good thing, but it's good for Nathan to get out as well. I've really been spending the summer working with him about kindergarten behavior and what's expected when he goes to kindergarten. Hopefully, it will work. (However, if you do have ideas for stopping screeching! I'd be very appreciative.)

All together, it was a long and tiring day, but they all fell asleep quickly! :)

Here We Go Again??

So, I took Andrew to the pediatrician today for his six month check-up. While he's growing like a weed, his head is growing faster than a weed. He's over the 99th percentile in head circumference, and his head grew faster from his four month check-up than she was happy with, so she decided to call the neurosurgeon. We weren't scheduled to go back to them for a follow up until the end of August, but they want us to come back now in July. While they aren't too worried about the head size, they are a little concerned about the fact that his forehead is still bulging forward. They said we may have to have him fitted for a helmet. I have no idea what that will look like. I've searched the entire Internet (or all of it that Google can find), and while there are tons of sites and articles about sagittal synostosis and its treatment, and many of them mention helmets, none of them will show me a picture. If I find one, I will post a picture or link here!

Summer Training

Ah, those wonderful, warm summer days, where you play outside, or sit at the side of the pool and listen to the kids splash in the water. Or, if you're me, you spend the last two days at countywide training for math and social studies. This year is a new math adoption, plus the great state of Georgia has completely re-written the social studies curriculum, so we all have to go to three days of training. Of course, with thousands of elementary teachers, there's no way to do the training all at once, so there were a number of sessions. I appear to have chosen the one with NO ONE else from my school. So that's the first problem. The second problem was yesterday. I arrived at 8 in the morning ready to dive into the new math and social studies programs and learn what new materials we were receiving. Did that happen? Of course not! I spent all day sitting on a hard theater seat learning that worksheets don't really help kids learn and retain information. Really? I think I learned that in a freshmen college course about 15 or so years ago. We didn't even look at our new curriculum until 2:00 in the afternoon! Plus, the presenter was not exactly thrilling and scintillating. Needless to say, I was not happy when I got home after eight hours. I had a much longer post/vent ready to write, but I wasn't able to get on the computer last night. It's probably a good thing. Today was much better. We were able to see what technology we'll have both for us and for the kids. Then, we spent the rest of the day looking at the new social studies curriculum. To let you know just how much it has changed, my units in social studies last year were: The Flag and Citizenship, Economics, Eastern Woodlands and Plains Indians, Jamestown and Plymouth Colonists, The Continents, Australia, and Japan. My units this next year are Georgia's geography, Georgia's natives (Creek and Cherokee), Georgia's Settlers, Civil Rights (we'll focus on Martin Luther King and Jackie Robinson), Human Rights (Government), and Personal Finance. So, you can see why I really wanted to see what the county was going to provide us. We have one more day, thank goodness, and I am getting paid $300 to come, so I guess I can't complain too much. Of course, I probably won't see that $300 until the end of July at the earliest, but hey, it'll help pay for school clothes, I guess. :)

We All Love A Deal, Right?

I love BOGO sales. You know, if you buy one thing, you get a second "of equal or lesser value" free. Well, here's a BOGO sale I've never seen before. You can now buy one house, and get one free. Apparently, a developer in California is desperate to clear some inventory, so if you have the 1.6 million it takes to buy one of his houses, he'll throw in a 400K rowhouse for free! Unfortunately, the housing market in San Diego stinks so much that even this offer has so far only sold one house. It's a strange and crazy world.

It's A Zoo!

Days like today are when I begin to understand why people would spend hundreds of dollars to send their kids to summer camp. It's too hot to go outside so the boys are stuck inside for the most part. So they fight, and they fight, and when they're done, they fight some more. It's fun. Really. I should have gone to the pool today, so we were home all day. I should have taken them out, but we've been busy the last couple of days, so I was hoping for a nice quiet day at home. Oh well.

Speaking of that, we finally went to the zoo on Tuesday! While it was hot, there's a lot of shade there, so it wasn't too bad. We got there about 10 am and left around 12:30, so we were out of there before it was too hot. The worst part was heading back to the car. The zoo is in Grant Park, and there are two parking lot, one close to the zoo entrance and one across the park. I parked in the one across the park. It wasn't too bad going to the zoo, since it was downhill to the entrance. Of course, that means that it was uphill to get back to the parking lot. I certainly got my exercise! Anyway, here are some pictures! There's a petting zoo, where you can groom the animals. Matthew went in, but Nathan likes his animals on the other side of a fence.

And no zoo trip would be complete without a picture of Mei Lan, the baby panda!

Wednesday, my parents were here to drop off some things from my grandparents' house. I got the couch that had been in their family room for as long as I can remember. Here it is! Don't worry, I'll be getting a slipcover for it soon, but until then the 80's rule at my house!

One more thing

I forgot I wanted to post one more thing tonight. I want to introduce you to a very cute little boy named Ethan. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ethanbarona I belong to an online mom's group, and Ethan is the nephew of one of the members. Scottish Rite is the same hospital that Andrew was at, and they are wonderful people who I know are doing everything for Ethan. If you think of it, will you pray for this little boy and his family? Please pray as well that they will be able to get Ethan the rehab he will need as their insurance is refusing to pay for any more inpatient rehab after this week.

Our 2nd day of swimming

Observations made while I was at the pool today:

1. If I thought chasing two boys around the pool while pregnant last year was hard, it was nothing compared to chasing two boys around the pool while holding a 16 lb. six month old.
2. Unless you have a body like Miss America, please do not wear a string bikini.
3. Unless you have a body like Michael Phelps, please do not wear a Speedo. (Personally, I don't even think Michael Phelps looks that good in a Speedo.)
4. Covering up your legs does no good when you are wearing a pair of thin, cotton pants that are white. Once you get in the water, the pants are completely see through and do you no good.
5. If your cup size is larger than A, please do not shop for bathing suits in the Junior department. Remember this mantra: "Support is my friend, and no one wants to see my breasts hanging down somewhere near my stomach."
6. If you are at the pool on a date with your main squeeze, please do not do your squeezing on the pool deck.

We still had a great time!

Summer has Officially Arrived!

We went to the pool for the first time today!! The boys were so excited. I think they asked me about 20 times this morning when we were going. Then, when we got there, I had to practically tie Matthew down until I got our towels out. I have to be in the water with him, so he can't take off without me. As soon as I said we could go, though, they were both off like shots. I sat in the shallow water with Andrew and tried to put his feet in the water, but he wasn't a big fan. He got used to it after a while, or else he was just too tired to care. Poor kid, he actually fell asleep while I was holding him. Unfortunately, pool time falls right over his nap time. I think we're going to try and get to the pool earlier so that we can get home closer to his nap time. As soon as we got home, Matthew and Nathan flopped on the couch, and Andrew and I dozed in the bedroom. The pool wears us all out!