New Installment from the Kindergarten Diaries

C's done a few funny things this past week, here are a few on them.

Tuesday was a rough morning at our house. J had to pick c out of bed while he was crying and put him in the shower. The whole time he was in the shower he cried and cried because he didn't want to go to school. He was in our bathroom which is so small and his wailing was so loud. He was saying over and over how boring school is and that the problems are too hard. J kept having to step out of the bathroom and laugh. Once he got dressed it was like someone flipped a switch and he was fine with going to school. Sometimes I wonder if he isn't fully awake yet when he cries about not wanting to go to school.

Yesterday J saw DeeAnn, one of the helpers in C's class who he lets baby him. DeeAnn told J that they were getting ready to do circle time yesterday and she was sitting down on the floor. Another little boy was sitting beside her. C walked up to him and said "You know you're not supposed to sit there, I get to sit by Miss DeeAnn". What's bad is that C did end up sitting by her. DeeAnn told Jay that Mrs L just diverted everyone's attention from the situation so C didn't get in any trouble. I'm afraid because J is a teacher(and C can be pretty funny) he may get away with a little too much. Then DeeAnn said that the kids were working on writing something when she got to the room yesterday. C was having a little trouble so she went to help him and he said "I just knew that you'd come over and help me, I just knew it" Do you think he's a little spoiled?

This morning he told me he is the only kid in his class who can't tie his own shoes (how embarrassing for us, his dad is a teacher for goodness sakes) Out of all the kids in his class he's the only one who is an only child. You would think that we would have more time to spend with him than the other parents so he should know how to do that. I think him being the only one is the problem. We haven't needed to make him dress himself or tie his own shoes because we only have to worry about getting him ready. This morning J left early so I took him to school. I undressed him, put him in the shower, washed him, took him out of the shower, put lotion on him, completely dressed him from his underwear to buttoning his jeans, put his shoes on him, tied them, put his coat on him, gave him his backpack, and fastened his seatbelt. Sometimes I think I'll still be doing this the day he graduates from High School. I called J and told him that we really need to work on the shoe tying - his reaction was the same as mine...I DON'T WANNA!!!! We want someone else to do it. Are the any volunteers out there who would teach C to tie his own shoes?

To Ask or Not To Ask

I can contact our Social Worker at anytime to see if our profile has been shown. I've toyed with sending Ivy and e-mail for the last week. It's hard to decide. On one hand I can live in my little bubble and not know for sure if we aren't been looked at. On the other hand it would be nice to know if we are being shown. I finally broke down today and e-mailed her. It sometimes takes her a couple of days to get back with me, so I thought I might hear something on Monday. Ivy e-mailed me right back and said we've been shown twice this month but in both instances the mother decided to parent. Am I glad that I asked?.....I still haven't decided yet. I'll probably have to think about it for a few days before I know how I feel. It can be so touchy...you don't want to "steal" anyones baby who can clearly parent but at the same time you hope they made the best decision for themselves and their child. Why does this have to be so difficult and cause so many conflicting emotions?

Optimus Prime

Here are some pictures from Saturday when LeeAnn and her family gave C his Christmas gift.






I've had my suspicions that C is a lot like his Pampa George - a little germaphobic, but after Saturday I know he is. After he got his new toy all the other "kids" wanted to try it on. First Terry had it, then J and then LeeAnn's daughter Lauren tried it on. Kimmy, LeeAnn's other daughter, got it after Lauren. While Lauren was handing it to Kimmy I heard C tell them he wanted it back so he could wipe it out. The girls didn't hear him and Kimmy went ahead and put it on. As soon as C got it back he started wiping it out because "everyone had their breath on it". C is named after his Pampa George so I guess he's carrying on the E---- tradition!!!

Thanksgiving Pictures

C kept asking us when everyone was going to get there so we had to let him play his Cars computer game


My garbage disposal that's been broken for almost a year finally got fixed on Thursday - right in the middle of trying to clean up the dinner dishes


From left to right - J with an enormous yawn, Sharon, Mattyle, Jim, Justin and Charity


C showing off his latest creation on his Magna Doodle


J and Corey

We forgot to take pictures of C and CJ until right before they left Saturday morning. That's why C is wearing a worn out pair of jammies that are two sizes too small, which he wore almost every night last week. He does have jammies that fit, I just kept doing laundry last week and putting the same pair back in his drawer and he kept putting them on again.

Thanksgiving Update

It's been awhile since I had time to post. I've been on Vacation since the Tuesday before Thanksgiving so it was a little hard coming back to work today. We had a good Thanksgiving. Jay's Cousin Corey and his 18 month old son CJ came to visit last Tuesday and we all had a great time. CJ is one of the best little boys I've ever been around. He slept good and didn't get into many things, which is amazing since he was in a strange environment. C would've terrorized everything and Avery got into more on Thanksgiving day than CJ did the whole time he was there. On Thanksgiving Day we had 16 people at our house, from both sides of our family. It was a busy day for me, but it was all worth it. I hit the big sales on Friday, not that I needed anything, but I had a good time. I couldn't sleep Thursday night so I ended up leaving our house at 4:00 a.m. Friday morning. I was back home by 10:30 and had to take a nap. I think I needed a day of "retail therapy" so it worked out pretty well. Friday afternoon our house became the spot to watch the Razorback/LSU game, which had to be the longest game in the history of Football. At least it seemed that way to someone who finds watching paint dry about as exciting as football. For those of you wondering Arkansas did beat LSU in overtime. On Saturday we went to Fayetteville to see J's grandparents and his Aunt's family from Chicago. LeeAnn always gives C good presents and this year she didn't let him down. We now are the proud owners of an Optimus Prime TransFormer helmet. It changes C's voice into Optimus' voice. Thanks LeeAnn, we love it! On Sunday we were pretty much worn out so we rested most of the day. I did get all of my Christmas decorating done. I've got a few pictures from Thanksgiving day and of CJ and C together that I'll post tomorrow.

By the way....do you remember the Turkey Talk post from earlier in the month? It was about my turkey...I mean our Turkey that C decorated for school. C was sick Tuesday and Wednesday so J stopped by to get his work. Mrs L sent the Turkey home and said it "was the best Turkey" Oh the satisfaction of a 30 year old being able to decorate a turkey better than 14 five year olds. Now we have a tree to get decorated by Dec 3, I'm already forming a plan!

Don't You Need a License to Drive a Motorized Cart?

if not, you should!

Things have been a little slow in our lives for things to blog about since we are waiting. Here is some filler from my Wednesday....

I had a meeting yesterday in the large town to our East. We had a plumber come yesterday morning for our leaky toilet in C's bathroom so I took C to school. He wanted me to walk him in and sit and watch him eat breakfast and then walk him back to his room. By the time I did all that it wouldn't have been worthwhile to go back home so I headed to town. My meeting didn't start until 10:00 so I had some time to kill. I had several errands to run after the meeting so I thought maybe I could get a head start. I decided to go to Kohl's. Just FYI for those of you starting your holiday shopping, Wednesday's are Senior Citizens days at Kohl's. I thought surely at 9:00 a.m. I would be able to shop without too much of a crowd, that didn't happen. Everywhere I turned there was, as J says it, bluehairs in my way. It got worse when I went to check out. The lines were full of Senior Citizens checking out, wanting to get their discount. I got in line behind one and she said she had picked the wrong line. I told her I usually did also, but I didn't take it as my clue to get in another line. The lady running the cash register was the slowest checker I have ever seen. Do you ever want to run up and help them? I had that urge yesterday. I finally decided to try a different line after the checker had to call customer service and another one raced me to it. She actually won, but I begged her to let me go first because I had a meeting. My quick trip to Kohl's ended up almost making me late to my meeting.

After my meeting I went to Hobby Lobby and spent quite a bit of time there. I am making a new Christmas Wreath for our church so I had to pick out all of the things to put on it. One thing I bought was a bunch of flower picks that were little gold balls. I didn't know how many I needed so I picked up 10. Those carts are so tiny that by the time I got the wreath in it, it was full. I laid my bunch of gold balls on top of that and continued shopping. I don't understand how Hobby Lobby can always be so busy. It was a Wednesday afternoon about 2:30 and the place was full. When I went to check out all of the lines were packed. I picked the one that looked the best and got in line. I looked at the gold balls and realized I only had 9 so I turned around and saw one had fallen out of the cart in the aisle right behind me. Before I could get to it a lady on a bright red motorized cart ran right over my gold balls. She completely demolished them, I could hear the balls smashing underneath her tires. If she knew what she had done she didn't show any remorse. Her husband followed along behind her and just kicked the mangled mess out of the way. I don't know if anyone but me saw the incident, it was all I could do to keep from laughing. Then she did a U turn and went flying down the aisle right beside me. I was standing at the side of my cart and I had to quickly get out of her way. I'm thankful I didn't have a small child with me yesterday. It might have been more than the gold balls getting smashed because this lady obviously had no intention of using her brakes.

Since I've already told you about my highlights yesterday day, I'll tell you about the incident at Wood You. It's not a big deal, but it did irritate me. J is trying to refinish our antique oak kitchen table along with the 4 chairs we bought at Grammy and Granddad's sale. The problem is that we don't have anything to take to the store to match the stain. We want it the same color as the table already is, but we can't tote the whole table to Wood You. The leaf for it is darker than the table so that won't work. The chairs aren't the same shade as the table so those won't work either. The table sits on a large base so that also won't work. I went in to Wood You yesterday to see if they have stain samples that they can check out. I was looking at the stain choices and I had two in mind that would probably work when the Wood Guy came up to me. Here's how our conversation went....
Me: Do you have samples you can check out?
Wood Guy: No, your best option is to bring something in and match it (really, I hadn't thought of that)
Me: That's the problem, I don't have anything to match, it's our table (at this point I was still thinking about buying the stain and trying it)
Wood Guy: How about the leaf
Me: No, it doesn't match (he's answered my initial question so I want him to leave me alone so I can concentrate on the stain)
Wood Guy: How about a chair
Me: No (does he not realize I've already thought of everything?)
Wood Guy: What about a table leg
Me: No (starting to get irritated)
Wood Guy: Well I don't know what to tell you then (very snotty)
Me: Goodbye
I didn't buy any stain. We will probably go back and buy it, but the Wood Guy got on my nerves yesterday. I didn't need him to solve my matching problem for me yesterday...I only wanted to know if they had samples to take home.

After a couple of other stops and a huge trip to Wal Mart I finally made it home, totally exhausted. Did I mention this was all done in a pair of uncomfortable dress shoes?

As for the leaky toilet that started our whole day it has been repaired. It had a slow leak so the linoleum is now discolored around the toilet. I was afraid it was mold but the plumber said it was where the water had separated the glue from the linoleum. We have a guy coming tomorrow to measure our bathrooms for tile. Thanks to a leaky toilet our 8th Anniversary present will be new tile in the bathrooms. I actually am getting a little excited!

Fall Fun

J and C had some fun this weekend in the leaves. Notice how we have several trees that make a ton of leaves, but of course none of them are the pretty kind. Our leaves are so thick that you have to wade through them to get to the front door. Time for J to get out the leaf blower so you won't have to swim to the front door on Thanksgiving!