Monday, April 30, 2007

Golden Oldies

I was picking up a pizza for supper at a local establishment and overheard a conversation between two teenage employees that made me laugh.

girl: Oh, this is a good song. (referring to song being played over store audio system)
boy: Yeah, it's pretty good.
boy: Yesterday I heard a really good one by Billy Joel called "We Didn't Start the Fire." I heard that one like three times.
boy: Have you ever heard it?

The male employee stated that question in way that could have been prefaced with this statement, "I know it's really old but....". While waiting for our family pizza I couldn't help but think children who weren't even born when the song was on the radio are now earning paychecks. I not only remember almost all the lyrics but can remember the video on MTV as well. I won't say I felt old, I'm really not, but I did feel a bit aged. Much like a good piece of cheddar.

Rock and Rollar cola wars.....I can't take it anymore.
We didn't start the fire it was always burnin' since the worlds been turnin

Swim Lessons

Wow! Did I ever learn a valuable lesson Saturday morning. This is all first time mom stuff that you only mess up on once and then you remember for next time. Saturday was swim lesson registration day for the whole school district. These are the American Red Cross lessons I took as a little person and wanted for Isaiah to learn as well. I think they're a good quality lesson and you can't beat the $10 price.

Registration was to be from 8:30 -10:30 Saturday am. I thought, being it's district wide, I'd get there early at 8am and enjoy the solitude of the truck with my yummy coffee and nicely toasted bagel with cream cheese. I was just going to have a moment to myself until I noticed other vehicles in the parking lot then I'd go into the middle school, hand in my already filled-out registration slip, pay my $10 and know my little person would be all set for swimming lessons. Boy, was I WRONG!

I did get my coffee, however, when I pulled into the parking lot at 8:05 and noticed the mass of vehicles spilling out of the parking lot and onto the side roads I figured a moment to myself was not going to be possible. I said out loud to myself, "No way!". I refused to believe all these cars were here for swim lesson registration, there had to be something else going on today at the middle school. Nope, pretty much every single stinkin' vehicle was there for exactly the same reason I was only they were there MUCH earlier than 8:05. I went into the building and spotted a couple friends with kindergarten children with older siblings i.e. friends who've witnessed this unbelievable site previously, and I asked them if there was a line. They pointed to what I thought was just a group of people milling around waiting for 8:30 when in fact it only appeared to be a milling group because the line circled around and around and around the outside of the gym and the center of the gym as well. There were two lines of people! This was nothing I've seen before, WOW! I told them I thought 8am was early enough and they smiled at me with pity in their eyes and said that some people were there at 5:30am. What???!!!!

Well, I stood in line for half of an hour and not surprisingly you could tell when the newbies walked in as their jaws also dropped to the floor when they realized the spectacle before them was in fact all swim registration parents just like themselves. Thankfully the line moved rather quickly once 8:30 came about. I only had one session that worked for our summer schedule and Isaiah is only going to be in level 1/2 which had about four time slots available in that session, I thought I should be okay, hopefully? Again, I'm amazed that after getting to the middle school almost 30minutes early two of the time slots were filled when it was my turn and Isaiah got the LAST available space for the 8:30 lesson time! Wow!

I walked into the middle school with my jaw dragging on the ground and left the same way! I'm still shaking my head over the whole situation. I guess I know for next year.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Brotherly Love

READER BEWARE: I'm just going to post about what a great boy I have. Isaiah came home from kindergarten today and said he had a surprise for his little sister Anna. Anna and I gathered around his backpack to see what it could be. Isaiah pulled out the most beautiful sparkly-green purse I've ever seen and said it was for Anna. Where did it come from? Isaiah's hard work at school earned him ten little blue tickets that he's been saving and saving to purchase an item from his teacher's store. His teacher has different items that "cost" different amounts of tickets. Isaiah had his choice of books, bouncy balls and even dinosaurs. He decided he wanted to use his tickets to get Anna a gift that she would love. I asked what his friends said about the purse and he said there was some commotion but that he just explained it was for his little sister and then they didn't say anything. I asked what his teacher said and Isaiah said she just hoped that Anna would enjoy it.

As I was preparing supper I heard Isaiah tell Anna that he wants her to love it and that when she gets bigger she can put money in there or anything else that will fit. I pray they will always be such good friends. I'm really proud of my little boy for being the best big brother ever and for being so generous. Thank you God for my boy.

The "Y"

We joined the Y over spring break because the registration fee was being waived and I found out that we get a discount with our medical insurance, if one of the adults goes at least 8 times per month. Yeah! I need the 8 requirements to actually motivate myself, not for the reasons one would think. I personally think an hour to myself, even if it is exercising, sounds so exciting and I'd go every day if I could. I do, however, have an Anna-girl who generally isn't as excited. She starts out excited about going to the Y and she even says, "Y now!". When we get to the childcare gate she changes her mind and thinks the idea stinks. Well, I have to get my $20 discount so I had to figure something out.

Anna now thinks our sole purpose for going to the Y is water. I drop her off and tell her that Mama is going to get her some water and I return, an hour later, with her pink sports drink. She finishes my last couple sips and we're good for another trip to the Y. Now she says, "Peenk watoh Y now." I'm hoping this scheme holds out until summer. Isaiah can hang out with Anna in childcare at that point and I don't have to worry about her tears as there aren't any when Isaiah's with her. I don't know that I have any other creative reasons for her to be spending time at the the YMCA's childcare?

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Sweet Dreams

Anna woke from her nap yesterday and said, "Nana wake up. Hoppy now." She must really feel crummy right before her nap because she's said that a couple times now. I'm glad her naps make her feel refreshed, however, her attitude is still that of an almost two-year-old and no amount of sleep seems to fix that.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Energy Efficient

After supper it's bath time at our house. After the bath Isaiah heads up stairs all bundled-up in his towel and then gets on his undies and jams and proceeds with the rest of the bedtime routine. Isaiah has a captain's bed and so has drawers under his bed and that's where his sleepin' clothes are located. I just noticed under his pillow he neatly placed about three days worth of underwear and pj's. I was wondering what in the world that was all about when I vaguely remembered a conversation Isaiah and I had this morning where he told me how he got everything all set-up so bedtime would be easier and how he set-up his jammies so they'd be all ready. I guess I was under the impression he meant just for today. Apparently Isaiah was preparing for the rest of the week. I'm wondering two things... 1. What is going to happen to his three neat little piles located under his pillow tomorrow morning after a night of sleeping on them? 2. How is moving the clothes from his drawer, located at the foot of his bed, to under his pillow making bedtime easier? I guess I'll just have to wait and see how tonight's routine goes.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Snack Time

Anna awoke from her nap ready for a snack. I asked if she had a taste for anything in particular..she kept saying "pee-ull". Now the girl's got a big vocabulary and sometimes it takes me awhile to remember what her words mean. For the life of me I couldn't remember what pee-ull meant. I don't think I ever knew actually? So I showed her all the usual choices like; bananas, goldfish, chocolate bunny crackers, elmo crackers, elmo cereal bars, apples, cheese, strawberries anything I could think of really. Nothing worked and she just got more frustrated with me. I finally realized she was saying pickle. Makes perfect sense now doesn't it? Good grief Mama, don't you know all baby girls like pickles for a snack.

Animal Adoption

We have been adopted...by cats! A couple summers ago we noticed three cute kittens hanging around the house. Matthew decided we needed to feed them as they looked a little too little to be fending for themselves just yet. Well, that's all it took. The kittens hung around, surprisingly, because we live on a busy highway and the past owners of this house explained how they'd lost a number of pets to the traffic despite an invisible fence. These are smart cats...they cross the highway using those corrugated metal drainage tubes that run under Hwy.12. Good thinking!

Last summer one of the cats had a litter, just three. Now we are up to four cats as some of them have traveled on or they forgot about the drainage tube lesson. Don't know which? These cats and I have an understanding. (I wasn't big on encouraging the cats to stick around in the first place) I'll feed them leftovers or cat food, if I've bought some, and they promise to keep the mice/shrews out of my house. It's working splendidly. I was reminded this week, twice actually, as I watched Lightsaber (named by Isaiah) happily carry a dead mouse through the yard in his mouth. Yeah 2points for me and a big Zip for the rodents on Highway 12. I noticed something else one of the cats is expecting and soon by the looks of her tummy. I was so happy about the possibility of more mousers that I ran right out and bought some generic Target cat food especially for her. Nothing but the best.

Can't wait to meet the newest additions to the feline family that will strike fear into all rodents who dare to enter the Rolli household.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Thanks Anna!

I'm still getting ready for Anna's dedication on Sunday, however, Anna planned this week to cut four more teeth all at once, yippee! Anna tends to run fevers when she cuts her teeth and she acts quite similar to the way she acts when she has an ear infection. Dr.Z. assured me her ears were not red and so we'll just let the fever run it's course. I'm now thoroughly exhausted from lack of sleep but the good news... I think she's done with the fever part of the ordeal.

Anna even helped me clean the fridge yesterday. (she makes me laugh with her little words) While I was tossing old stuff and wiping shelves/drawers Anna spilled some of her milk on the floor. She came up behind me and said, "Uh-oh Mama speel." I said, "Oh no, Anna, did you spill your milk?" "Yah", she said. I said, "Ok, can you get a towel and wipe it up? Mama needs to finish the fridge." So, she walked over to the drawer and grabbed a washcloth and walked over to the milk puddle and wiped it up. Guess what? When she was done she walked it over to the laundry room and tossed it in. Isn't that good? I praised her and said, "Good girl Anna, thank you for helping Mama." Well, she was so proud of herself she talked about it all day. At bedtime we usually talk about her day and I asked her if she helped me clean the fridge and she repeated the whole story for me. She said, "Anna speel, wipe up, all-gone meelk."

My favorite part of pre-elementary school is about 18-36mos. and we're just starting with Anna. It's so much fun to hold little conversations together and hear her tell me all about the stuff that makes up her days. Language is good.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Just In Case

The kiddos and I were driving along in the truck when Isaiah asked if I knew the safest spot to be on a T-Rex. I said that I in fact did not. He said, "Well, if you sit on top of his nose that would be good 'cause then he can't bite ya. But then if another T-Rex comes you could just drop and run and don't worry about gettin' dirty 'cause who cares, if a T-Rex is chasin' ya! You could always find a safe cave to brush off in."

In case you were wondering where to sit on a T-Rex, now you know, and for goodness sake don't be concerned about a little prehistoric dust in a life or death situation.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Plan of Attack

Anna will get dedicated to our Lord next Sunday. She's been His all along but we just haven't gotten around to doing it at church yet.

This means I now have to clean the house for our Sunday brunch company. It's obvious that the bathrooms and kitchen floor will not even be looked at until Saturday afternoon at the earliest because they all get dirty about 10minutes after they're cleaned. I figured I could dust and vacuum the upstairs on Tuesday and they should all stay pretty clean. (I doubt anyone will even see them, but just in case they have to get done, too.) Friday will be grocery shopping and dusting and vacuuming the downstairs. Laundry should be okay as long as I don't get behind during the week. I wanted to get curtains and windows washed too as part of spring cleaning and because of the dedication company. I thought windows could be done now and for sure they'd stay clean. So, yesterday afternoon I did windows! There is no way they could get messed up before next Sunday, right? Wrong!!!

Matthew came home yesterday from his business trip and after supper was hanging out in the living room with Anna. They were sitting on the chair by the big picture window looking at the birds eating from the feeder. I was in the kitchen cleaning up from supper when all of sudden I heard Matthew tell Isaiah to go get a wet towel. My mom ears stood at attention and waited to hear what needed to be wiped up. I heard Matthew tell Anna something about the window and thought, no way! I went running to the living room in disbelief and sure enough Anna managed to mess up the window. Now, I'm not a huge neat freak, not even in the least. I just don't really care if the house is spotless or not. I figure the kids are only little once and someday they'll be grown-up and off to college and I'll have a sparkly clean, picked-up house when that time comes. But come on...two hours after I clean the stinkin' windows? Good grief. I should have left the windows for Saturday when I do the bathrooms and kitchen floor. Now I know.

Gold Star

Isaiah is a great big brother. He's really patient, kind and understanding that Anna is still little and hasn't learned all of the social graces as of yet. He may be too nice to a fault actually. Anna tends to bite out of frustration and sometimes I think she bites because it's fun. Unfortunately Isaiah happens to be her victim once in awhile because if she's leaning on him and goes in for the attack he's afraid of moving too quickly as she may fall or trip or whatever. I say ... let the girl fall. Well, it happened again Saturday morning, Isaiah got bit on his forearm. I separated the two and scolded Anna.

Later on Anna and I were coloring and Isaiah walked by and said, "It's so good to see the two of you playing together so nicely. I just can't do that with her because she bites me." Keep in mind he's six not forty-seven? So, Mama received a gold star in the plays well with others column for the day.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Particular Frustration

My Anna is particular!!! She needs things done her way and on her terms--we end up butting heads often. I can only imagine what life will be like when she gets older and is in middle school or high school. I just pray we'll make it through with our relationship in tact, I'm nervous.

Yesterday, after her nap, she woke up and decided she didn't want to be up. She cried and was in a horrible mood for a good 15-20 minutes. Anna was frustrated that she was awake and wasn't falling back asleep. I tried to make her feel better and wiped a couple tears off her cheek. She stopped crying looked right at me and wound up her little face for another round of crying and yelled, "Nooooo, on!" Apparently I was supposed to leave her tears on her face. I pretended to place them back on her cheek and then she wanted them, the pretend tears, moved to a different spot on her cheek. Grrrr! I obliged the first two times and then I told Anna to put the tears back where she wanted them. Keep in mind she's not even two and her cheeks aren't that big. How can ya mess up where you replace accidentally wiped off tears?

Anyway, we are in for quite a ride with Miss Anna. My mom and dad sort of laugh and talk about paybacks? I have no idea what they're talking about?

Thursday, April 12, 2007

AWANA

Last night Isaiah was able to stay home from AWANA to have a boy night with Papa because Matthew is going out of town for a few days. Isaiah's done with his book and since it was leader night at council time, I thought he'd be okay with the idea. He was, until this morning, when he found out that not only did the red team but it was an all-team win. Oh maaaan! He wanted to know if I brought anything back for him until I looked at him with The Look. I told him it was no big deal because next week would be even more fun. Isaiah said he knew all about the AWANA car-vi-nal.

I think it's great that he gets all the letters right, he just puts them in the wrong place. I'm wondering if this is a preface to wrong answers on spelling tests or if the letters just get mixed-up during speech?

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Good to Know

I went grocery shopping today and read something strange on a big display box of Idaho Potatoes. The box said in bold print Environmentally Grown. I'm wondering how else potatoes would be grown? Aren't potatoes always grown in the environment? I would understand if it stated they were grown in an environmentally friendly way, but it didn't. So, I'm not quite sure what the potato growers of Idaho meant by that.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Seriously?

I don't watch much TV and when I do I'm usually disappointed and wonder why I bothered watching what I just watched in the first place, such was the case this weekend. I was flipping through channels this weekend and saw a promo for a new show called "Thank god you're here", my understanding is that it's an unwritten and impromptu show with skits featuring different comedic actors and the skit starts with one actor saying the title of said TV show. My question is what's up with the title? Can they do that? What if you took out the word God and inserted Allah or any other recognized name for the creator of the universe? Wouldn't that cause a problem? I don't know if they capitalized the "G" or not, frankly I don't think that matters, because nobody would pay attention to that and it would still have the same meaning. I suppose it would be capitalized as it's a word in a title. I'm a bit offended and don't plan on watching the show even if it would be funny once in awhile. I just was taken aback when I heard the title and thought somebody in charge of monitoring what's offensive on TV had to have ok'd the wording. I suppose all the other commandments are regularly broken on television shows why not add another one and stick it right in the title this time.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Nice Plan

Isaiah's home today and he's doing his best to play with Anna. He wants to play 6yr.old boy things and Anna doesn't really play anything as she's 21mos. and pretty much runs from toy to toy. I give him credit for trying to get her into an imaginary dinosaur scenario. He's said things like this:

"Anna, let's say you do (something) and I'll be/do (something)."

She completely ignores him and continues running from one thing to another in her own little world. She'll have a hard time not doing the most recent suggestion of the following:

"Anna, let's say you're a human and I'll be a baby dinosaur."

Isaiah keeps asking why I'm laughing.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

It All Works Out...usually

Well, the school incident in the last post worked out okay. The principal and guidance counselor spoke with the other little boy and made sure he understood the severity of the words he said to Isaiah. I feel bad because I knew the other kindergartner didn't mean anything seriously and I guess he was a bit confused as to why he was bombarded by both adults as he exited the bus. Nonetheless, I suppose in this day and age those words have to be taken seriously and had the boys been in middle school or high school there would have been serious actions taken probably even with police involvement. Sadly, this is how life is right now. I appreciate all your comments and prayers. Pray for the other little boy though, I don't want his parents to flip out.

I commend the parents that do home-school their children. I couldn't do it, I want to, but wouldn't do a good enough job. I used to teach other parent's children and love to teach but, I wouldn't have the same patience to teach my own. Matthew and I do hope Isaiah learns how to deal with the secular world now when it's little stuff as opposed to later on when it's gigantic stuff. I'm not saying home-schooled children are sheltered or any of the other "typical" accusations that home-schooled families have to defend, I'm just saying for Isaiah personally it's better to ease into it now versus later.

We just have to keep trudging through the yuck. I hope we don't have to trudge for long.

He is Risen indeed!

Public School Frustration

This will be where everyone tells me to home school. We thought about it and I even received catalogs to look at curriculum and ideologies when we were expecting Isaiah seven years ago. Matthew and I decided we would have been homeschooling out of fear and not necessarily to only enforce our beliefs. I'm sure that's a fine line anyways but I had definitely crossed onto the side of fear for safety.

That being said Matthew and I are frustrated with obvious things and some surprising things as well. The obvious being holidays like Christmas and Easter. Christmas consists of Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Santa. We are being patient and knowing that Isaiah learns the real Christmas at home and during AWANA and church services. Easter will most definitely consist of bunnies, candy and eggs, Jesus won't even get mentioned on the back page of the classifieds. Again, we can be patient as we know Isaiah knows, HE IS RISEN!

The surprising thing that frustrated us recently is what my little kindergartner told me this morning. This is also the main fear of safety problem I dealt with when we were waiting to meet Isaiah face-to-face and originally contemplated homeschooling. Isaiah said he took a dinosaur sticker off his binder and as a result a little boy, with whom he appears to be friendly with, said he was going to bring a knife to school and kill him. I had to sit down and say, WHAT!!! I asked if Isaiah told his teacher and he said he didn't know he was supposed to. Oh brother! I told Matthew and decided Isaiah will not ride the bus to school this morning and that I will call his teacher and won't bring Isaiah to school until I know what will happen regarding these threats. Matthew asked is there anyone left for him to socialize with at school that won't cause such problems? I answered him in one word, home-school. I'm assuming this is serious as Isaiah was reprimanded for playing with imaginary light-sabers at school during recess last fall.

I'm very excited that Resurrection Sunday is this Sunday, however, I still get homesick for the real thing. This temporary home sure is junky sometimes.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

It's Spring! pt.3 (or not)

I understand last Monday's 81 degrees was just a little extra treat and not meant to be the norm right now. I'm okay with that and even appreciated the 60 degree day last Tuesday. Today, however, I had to start the truck and let it run for a few minutes before going to my appointment. Correct me if I'm wrong but it's April 4th not January 4th wind chills should not be in the negatives at this point. Happy Resurrection weekend to you all and I look forward to seeing all the little girls in their Easter bonnets and dresses after they climb out of their polar fleece snowsuits.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Moving Up

Have you seen that show Moving Up? On this show they showcase three families moving from one place to another, how they fix 'er up and then they tape the old owners doing a walk-through of their old home. I like to watch the last 20minutes of the episode because I enjoy watching the old owners see their old home and how one place can look so different when a new family moves in.

I've always wanted to go through my childhood home and see what it looks like now, so much so that about twice a month I drive by just to look at the outside and reminisce. Well a couple weeks ago I drove by and guess what...it's for sale! Yippeee! I called Matthew and asked if he wanted to move and guess what....he said NO! Oh well. The photos would soon be on the website and I can virtually see the inside and dream about raising my kiddos in the old homestead at 923 Green St. Sure enough a couple days later the pictures were posted and my family and I enjoyed touring the place.

But wait...it gets better! While virtually touring the home I noticed an open house date. Matthew said he'd go as we sort of talked about how it might be feasible for us to sell
our home and get my Green St. house. Sunday rolled around and after a night of no sleep, as Anna was up all night with an ear infection, we forgot about the open house. While at my mom and dad's house Sunday afternoon I briefly remembered and asked Matthew again and he was too tired. I had the brilliant idea that my sister and I could go as she just finished grad. school and will be looking for housing in the area, all of which is true, just not necessarily a 3-bedroom house. So, Sally and I were able to tour the house we grew up in together and we thoroughly enjoyed the changes and the things that were remarkably the same. It was a dream come true, I think for both of us. I think it worked out for the best because Matthew just wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as we did. It brings tears to my eyes to think that I got to see the house in all it's glory due to the work involved in preparing for an open house. What's even more cool we did it the day before my sister's 28th birthday, the house she was born in. Happy Birthday Sally!