Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Sneaky Courtney

Today I caught Courtney deliberately disobeying me. Usually I would think this is funny, but today it made me kind of mad. :)

It was about 2:30 and for the 50th time, Courtney was asking me for a snack. She does this often and I think it's for attention because I am usually working with Megan at the kitchen table. Snack time is at 3:00 pm everyday, not before. I had to set down this rule with Megan because she would ask me all the time too.

Today I kind of snapped at her and said, "Courtney, if you ask me one more time, you are not going to have a snack until 3:05!"

Next thing I know, I saw her run the opposite way out of the kitchen. I thought I had made her mad and she was going upstairs to pout, so I let her be.

I had a gut feeling that something wasn't right, so I went upstairs to find her. Well, I looked in my bedroom and I saw the bathroom door shut. This is never shut, so I opened it. I looked in my bathroom and saw that the door to the "toilet room" was shut. This is never shut either, so I opened that too. Here stands Courtney, in this room, with a bunch of snacks in her hand!!! She had snuck them out of the kitchen and was going to eat them upstairs.

I said, "Courtney Grace, you get to the steps right now! You deliberately disobeyed me!" (The steps are "time out") She spent 5 minutes there and she apologized, so we were fine again.

Now,I know she is sneaky like this. She sneaks candy or snacks upstairs or sneaks things downstairs to dad (I have caught her before), but I was mad because right before this, I had told her no snacks until 3 pm.

Sneaky Courtney!!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Sewing

Awhile ago, Megan had bought some fabric at Wal-mart, she said wanted to learn to sew.

I have no idea how to sew, so I was hoping a grandma or somebody would teach her the basics.

Well, never fear, Megan taught herself! She decided this week that she was going to sew, so I gave her my little sewing kit and her and Courtney spent at least two hours the first day sewing. They probably had 8-10 little square of fabric and they just sewed lines across them. Megan figured out how to thread the needle and tie knots where they needed them. I didn't help her at all! (Not like I would know anyway. :) They thought it was great! (Plus it gave them something to do while I read to her for school).

Today they have moved on to pillows. We went back to Wal-mart yesterday and they each bought some more fabric and some more thread. Today they are making little pillows ( about 1" by 3") and stuffing them with kleenexes. When they get enough money, they can buy themselves some cotton. :) I am definitely putting a limit on kleenexes!

Just now Courtney came up to me and said, "Mom, come sew a pillow." Really Courtney, do you have to ask? I really don't want to, but I will because she wants me to. Earlier Megan said, "Mom, do you know how many things we can make now that we know how to sew?" Yes, I do Megan.

We'll see how far they take this little project. Now only if I can get them to clean up their mess while they are at it!

We are done for the week!

I think this is the first time in many weeks that I have been completely done with school for Megan by 2 pm on a Friday. Usually we have something that is still to be done over the weekend or some reading to do, but not today. We worked hard this week and got it all done!

What a relief!

I even got a reading lesson in for Courtney this afternoon. Slowly but surely, she is getting it! I told her yesterday that if she can read by next fall, then I would get her 1st grade readers, her eyes lit up! Hopefully that will motivate her a little bit. If not, then we do kindergarten level, which is learning to read (I really don't want to go backwards). She knows all her letters by sight (lowercase and uppercase) and she knows all the sounds. We have even learned short and long vowel sounds. Since she can also write all her letters, she has been asking me to spell words out lately or she has been copying words out of books. It's so much fun to watch her take the initiative. Right now, her and Megan are laying on the floor working out out of educational books. Way to go! Keep on learning!

Japanese Spider Crab

Who is excited that they are bringing a Japanese Spider Crab to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo?

I am, of course! Along with Megan and Courtney.

Have you ever googled the Japanese Spider Crab? It's the biggest crab in the world and can grow legs up to 12 feet long. EWWWWWWWWWW!

I'm sure the one they bring to Omaha will not be that big, but still!

Did you happen to see on the news that someone caught a 26 pound lobster? What a huge animal!

Anyway, this is the stuff we learn for the science class that Megan is taking at the Homeschool Learning Center. It's from a science textbook called "Apologia: Exploring Creation with Zoology: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day." It's a very interesting book and we are learning a lot! And when we see things in the news, we know what they are talking about!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Our dog, the escapee

We had a little trouble with Dell today.

To start off, we don't have a fence in our backyard and our underground invisible fence doesn't work right now.

Dell goes outside about four times a day and we haven't had much problem with her going outside the yard. We've caught her in the front or in the neighbor's yard a couple of times, but she has never wondered far from home.

Until today.

I let her out at 9 am and about 9:30, I began to wonder where she was. She's usually back at the door within 5-10 minutes to come in, but today, she was nowhere in sight. I put my shoes on to go outside to look for her. I thought maybe she was in the neighbor's yard or in the front yard, but she wasn't. I came back inside and checked in all her usual spots in the house. Still nothing.

I went back outside and walked one way down the sidewalk, looking between the houses and in the bushes. Still, no Dell. Where in the world could she be?? I looked through the house again and then decided to call Matt.

He answered and I told him that Dell had disappeared. I told him that she was nowhere in the yard and nowhere in the house. We were both stumped, so as I was talking to him, I decided to go outside again and walk the other way down the sidewalk.

As I turned the corner, I saw her. She was down about a block and across the street. Courtney was with me and we both yelled "Dell, get over here!!" She ran across the street and all the way home. I took her right into the house and yelled "Bad dog, bad dog!!" She just put her head down.

I have no idea what possessed her to get so far away from home. I was almost afraid where I was going to find her (hit by a car in the middle of the street). I'm glad she hadn't wondered too far from home, I wasn't looking forward to packing up three kids and wondering around the neighborhood looking for our dog. I'm really glad it all worked out today!

Do you hear it?

Do you hear the silence in my house at 8:30 in the morning?

It's golden!!! How long will they sleep????

Monday, February 20, 2012

My big helper, in more ways than one. :)

Christian has been helping me a lot lately around the house.

1. He put almost all the dishes away this morning out of the dishwasher. I even videotaped him, he put all the silverware, plastic containers, his sippy cups, the girls' straw cups, and bowls away. Tonight he puts some pots and pans away for me, I don't even tell him where they go, he just puts them where they belong and he is right 90% of the time!

I had to laugh because for a couple of weeks now, we have been using real bowls. We ran out of paper bowls and I haven't been able to get to Sam's to get some more. Christian pulled the real bowls out of the dishwasher today and headed to the hutch in the dining room. It took me a little bit to figure out why he was taking our glass bowls in there when they belong in the kitchen. Then I thought- this is where we store our real dishes now that paper dishes have taken over our cupboards. Poor Christian, this is where he thinks the real dishes go- in the hutch! I laughed out loud!

When we were all done unloading the dishwasher, he said, "bye,bye" and shut it all up for me! Thanks Little Man! What a good helper! (The bad thing is that if I have the dishwasher open and am filling it with dirty dishes, he starts taking those out too so he can put them away.)

2. He always helps me in the laundry room when I do laundry. I was folding towels tonight and he was very nice and was giving me towels out of the dryer.

3. Speaking of laundry rooom, the door has been closed a lot lately. The baskets have been moved and the door has been shut. I always leave it open. Well tonight, I caught the little person red-handed! I asked Christian to take some dirty kitchen towels to the laundry room, so he did and when I went to see what he was doing, he was in the process of moving a basket so he could get the door shut! Little Stinker!

He has a little OCD in him. Whenever I am doing dishes and have the garbage can out to throw things away, he will come along and shut it. He is always shutting doors and cupboards when I don't want him to.

He is a very good cleaner and will pick up his toys without any trouble! He needs things in place and in order. Last night, his box where we keep his blocks was on its side, he kept saying "uh-oh" over and over and over. He wouldn't even settle down to read books until I put this box right side up. He also needs to have his shoes taken off at the same time that you take his coat off, or he will follow you around saying, "shoes, shoes." He has a variety of little quirks like these, I just have to laugh at him! I think they're cute, except when they get in my way (the laundry room door!)

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Things I've learned this week during school...

I am just amazed at how much I am learning along with Megan as we travel through our homeschool curriculum this year.

I am a history major, but still I didn't know...

1. Marco Polo travelled to China and stayed there for 20 years. He was the man who inspired men to start travelling and discovering other parts of the world.

2. Gothic Cathedrals- I could tell you about 10 characteristics of them- even Megan could!

3. Magna Carta-Now we all know that this was an historical document, but do you really know why? Because the king of England was being too powerful and it was a contract between him and his people that said he would honor their rights and not be so powerful. He was forced to sign it! It was the first "constitution". Interesting..

4. The Christian Crusades of the 1200's....and we are still fighting over Jerusalem to this day!

I could go on, but I won't....I really enjoy teaching Megan! And Courtney!

Love this!!

I had to read this through a couple of times to really understand what it was saying, but once I got it, I loved it!! (I stole this from somebody else's blog).

"Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all."
Julie Beck

As Americans, we think we need to be so busy all the time! We don't!! This is one reason why we homeschool, we want to give our kids time to be kids! These young kids sit in school 8 hours a day and then have a few hours left in the day to do what they want to do. I know some kids who come home and watch tv or play computer all evening. Where is the family time? We're not always the best at this either, but I think we all get the point. Sometimes I feel we are even too busy with life!

Ever since I had Megan, we really try to keep the TV off (this may drive some people nuts), but I don't turn it on during the day. I want the kids to go entertain themselves. We want our kids to be creative. I think it's funny that if the TV is on during the day and nobody is watching it, Megan will go turn it off! If they want to play games on the computer, I usually let them play for about a half an hour. The computer is in the kitchen where I can see them at all times too.

On the other hand, this quote doesn't mean that you need to spend time with your kids 24/7. Really, I know! I need a break too! We all do, but I think the point is that you need to cherish your home life and you will get out of it what you put into it.

Friday, February 17, 2012

My Mistake

I took Courtney to preschool today and realized that it was "Clifford Day." All the kids had red on, the teachers were painting puppy faces on the kids, and the teachers had painted faces and puppy ears on.

I didn't know it was "Clifford Day." I somehow missed the note that came home. Oops!

Courtney wasn't the only one not wearing red today though, but I still felt bad!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

New Strategies

After having a rough start to the week, Matt and I implemented some new "strategies" today to help with school.

I have been having a hard time keeping Megan in her chair, from dancing, from getting up at random times, rolling eyes, being disrespectful, etc. I felt that we were wasting a lot of time and I was getting frustrated with it all. School should not take us all day!

After talking with a fellow mom about what was going on, she mentioned some consequences for Megan. The one she mentioned was that Megan should go to bed earlier. I loved it!

So after discussing this with Matt, these are our new rules. 1. When you do something you are not supposed to do (the above mentioned activities), you will get one check. One check means that you are going to go to bed 5 minutes earlier than usual. You can get up to 6 checks (go to bed 1/2 hour earlier). 2. If you get a 7th check, you will lose time to read chapter books before you go to sleep. 3. If you get 8 checks, you lose storytime with mom and dad at bedtime. 5. If you get 9 or more checks, you will continue to lose 5 minutes off of bedtime.

Today Megan ended up with 4 checks, so she started to get ready for bed at 8:10.

But besides this, school went great today. I just think I need to be a little bit harder on her and not let her by with so much. We started school at 9:15 this morning and we started with our Bible lesson. Courtney joined us and Christian colored, so everything went well. I told the girls the new rules and they were very well behaved. I didn't have any trouble with Megan until about 11 am. We got all of our lessons done except for reading. (Courtney even told me tonight that she wants us to wait to do our Bible lesson until she gets home from preschool tomorrow, so she can join us again!)

Reading is another whole other story! I love our curriculum we are using, but the amount of reading is hard to keep up on. I may just be having a hard time this week. Every day as part of the curriculum, I read her a chapter out of a chapter book and she reads me a chapter out of another book. The problem is that this usually takes 30-45 minutes just to read and we still have 6 other subjects to do.

The chapter book I am reading to her now is called "The Door in the Wall" and it is about a boy in the 1300's, so there are many new vocabulary words that we need to learn plus it takes place in a castle and a monastary, so we need some background information on the time period and setting. This all takes awhile, but I admit, it's my favorite book so far! We have two more chapters to read in this book (I am behind one lesson because I ran out of time yesterday), but I think that equals about 30 pages. We are supposed to finish this book tomorrow.

The book she is reading me is called "The House on Walenska Street." The problem with this book this week is that we lost it. Somehow it was on the floor and when we picked up books on Tuesday, it got put on Courtney's bookshelf. We finally found it today, but now we are 4 lessons behind. YIKES!! We are supposed to finish the book tomorrow, but we haven't read it all week. I think we have to read about 50 pages to finish it.

When are we going to finish these books?? We will have to this weekend. I am caught up on everything else for the week, I just need to catch up on the reading. On Monday, we will start two new books.

I usually don't mind getting a little behind on Thursday or Friday, but it was really frustrating this week when I was behind already on Monday! Thanks to Christian being sick and having to go back to the doctor, I didn't get any school done on Monday and just got my whole schedule off. During the week, I can usually let things slide a little bit and if I'm behind on anything, I can catch up on Friday. Even though I have 4 day lesson plans, I have never gotten everything done in 4 days! But it's nice to have that 5th day at the END of the week, not the beginning!

As much as I love this curriculum, I don't know if I can do it for two kids next year. I've been looking around at other curriculums and just haven't ran across any that I really like or that I think will work with my kids. I may need to get at least one subject that the girls can do independently, just to save my sanity. I know Megan would not like that, but it may be what needs to happen.

Matt and I keep telling ourselves that this is our experiment year with homeschooling. We know we can always send them back to public school, but we really want to give this a good try! The more horror stories I hear lately of public schools, it almost makes me want to get a job so we can afford private schools (if it comes to that). I have talked to so many frustrated parents lately...but that's another story too.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Homeschooling Article

I saw this article on Facebook tonight and just wanted to post it here so I can go back and read it again sometime. At the end, the author talks about the "real" reasons why he homeschools and Matt and I can related to almost all of them!

http://www.homeeducator.com/familytimes/articles/10-3article1.htm

Ten on Tuesday- Valentine's Day!

1. Christian is doing much better today. He still had a fever yesterday and I took him to see our pediatrician. She said his lungs were sounding pretty bad yet, so she gave me an antibiotic. I didn't go pick it up right away and I thought it was odd that I never got an email telling me it was filled. Well, the pharmacy never got the prescription (everything is done online now) and I didn't call the doctor back to get it filled. We noticed that he was doing a lot better last night, so Matt and I decided not to give it to him.

2. Christian actually ate today and acted like he hadn't seen his toys in days! He kind of didn't. :) I am glad he is feeling better, I am tired of having bad-breath sick baby on my lap all day. I love him at all, but he was not a good sight this weekend.

3. How many episodes of "Thomas the Train" can you tolerate in a weekend? I think we watched 4. Now Christian will bring you the tv remote and say, "Choo-Choo?" AHHHH, no more choo-choo!

4. I felt like a whole new person when I woke up this morning. This was the first night in four nights that I slept all the way through, I didn't hear Christian at all! No coughing, no crying for dada or mama, no talking in his sleep, nothing. It felt refreshing!

5. How much have we spent in doctor bills in the last two weeks? We don't care about our deductible anymore-Matt says to just spend it and get it over with!

6. Valentine's Day was very sweet today. I woke up with a homemade card by Courtney. On the front it said, "Courtney, Mom," and a bunch of hearts. It said the same thing in the middle. Courtney told me she didn't want to write "Cat", so she just wrote Courtney and mom. I laughed because she only knows how to spell a few words from memory and those are mom, cat, courtney, and dad.

7. Megan didn't have a valentine's party today because she doesn't go to public school anymore, but we had our own celebration here. Grandma came and the girls decorated sugar cookies. We then boxed them up for people and delivered them. It was a great time! We made many surprise stops and I looked at it as a service project. It is better to give than to receive, right?

8. I think we should go serve people for every holiday, it was a great lesson and I think the girls enjoyed it very much! I know I did!

9. How do you get an 8 year old to stay attentive for two hours so I can teach her? How can I get her bottom to stay in her chair and not stand up to A. dance like a ballerina B. refill her glass with ice chips C. Get a cup of water to drink D. irritate her siblings. She gets up half the time and I don't even notice it. She is very distractable and we're not getting school done like I like. Matt thinks I need to do something drastic, I'm not quite sure yet.

10. How do you get an 8 year old to do her homework?? She's had this essay she's had assigned to her since last Friday. It was due yesterday, but since Christian was sick, I kind of let her by because she PROMISED she would do it today. Well, today came and went and the essay is still not done. Now it is 10:30 at night and we start school as soon as I take Courtney to preschool tomorrow. Now I am going to have to stall school for about a half an hour so she can finish her essay and do her math assignment. That will leave me less than two hours to work with her in the morning. Plus we have our homeschool learning class tomorrow afternoon, so I can't teach her tomorrow afternoon either. Oh and don't forget AWANAS tomorrow night.

We haven't finished our lessons from Day 1 of the week and it is already Wednesday. I'm so frustrated, I don't see how we are going to finish this week's lessons by the end of the week. I don't mind getting behind on Thursday or Friday, but I really despise getting behind on Monday. It just hangs over my head and drives me nuts. Maybe I should just relax and try to get as much done as I can and then maybe finish over the weekend. I really don't want to drag this week's lessons into next week. I need to come up with a better solution. Any thoughts?

Oh, we can't forget that today was Courtney's half birthday too, that called for a trip to CiCi's Pizza tonight!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Already Today

1. Christian is eating and drinking again! Apple juice and cheeries for breakfast- he seems like he can't get enough. Isn't this a good sign??

2. He is playing with toys as I help get the girls ready. He hasn't touched any toys in 2 days!

3. I came downstairs and asked the girls where Matt was. Courtney replied, "He went to lawn-blow the driveway." What?? Oh, you mean snow-blow the driveway.

4. Back to reality. Monday mornings are crazy. Megan has art class and Courtney has preschool (Valentine's Day Party), so I am on taxi duty. Plus I have to take the sick baby along with two inches of snow on the street. I will really try not to hit anything this morning!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Still Sick and Parties

Christian was still sick today. We gave him ibuprofen every 4 hours, so his fever didn't get so high like it did yesterday. He was really crabby today and didn't want to do anything he was supposed to. It was a huge fight to give him his medicine and even tonight, he didn't think he had to brush his teeth! We are figuring out how strong this little boy is, even Matt couldn't hold him down! His nose is still running pretty bad and he still sounds terrible. Matt and I think he has strep, even though the test last night was negative. If he's not better tomorrow or Tuesday, I am going to call up our pediatrician and see what is going on.

On a side note, tomorrow is Courtney's Valentine's Day party at preschool. Since I was busy with a sick baby all day, I didn't have time to sit down with her to finish writing out her valentines. We sat down at 8:30 tonight and finished them (we did half the other day). I am so proud that Courtney can write all her teachers' names and her own name (25 times!). She's really catching on!

Then I got to thinking, if we homeschool both girls next year, neither one will have a Valentine's Day party. Megan always had one at Aldrich, but this year, she doesn't have one at all. Could this be my last year (already) for buying valentines and attaching candy to them? It's kind of sad and I admit, this is one thing that I miss about my kids not going to school.

There is a homeschool group that is having a party tomorrow, it is from 12-5 at Skatedaze. Problem 1 is that it is right during nap time. Problem 2 is that Christian is sick. Problem 3 is how I would keep keep track of all 3 kids in that place! We even had the option of going skating, I had no idea how I was going to manage that! If we went, we would've just paid to play in the playdazium. Matt said I should've signed up and went. Maybe I should have but now I can't go with Christian being so sick. Maybe next year.

Tuesday is Courtney's half birthday and she is SUPER excited!! She gets to take treats this week to preschool to celebrate, hopefully we will get those done earlier than at 9 pm the night before.

Another visit to Urgent Care

Last Saturday, I had to miss a night out with my friends because we thought Courtney had a urinary tract infection. I took her to Urgent Care and she was fine, she had another problem, but not an infection.

Last night, round 2. Poor, poor Christian. He had been up the last couple of nights coughing really bad, but I turned on his vaporizer and he went back to sleep. About noon yesterday, he started to get really hot. Throughout the afternoon, he just kept getting worse. He was getting lethargic and by about 5:30, he was really warm and was shaking. He was trying to eat and the poor thing just couldn't get his food in his mouth!

Matt and I then determined that we should take him to see a dr. We were trying to take his temp too, but got four different numbers (two different thermometers tried in each ear.) The thermometers said anywhere from 100.5 to 104.8.

I took him in about 5:45 and waited almost an hour. He was sooo sad looking, he just laid on my lap with his eyes glossed over. We got back and the nurse took his temp, it was 103.6! He was also breathing very quickly, so they checked his oxygen saturation, that was at 95%. The nurse even said he looked terrible! She brought in some motrin, a cool washcloth and a cotton blanket to wrap him up in. He was coughing pretty hard and his throat was really raspy.

The doctor came in and listened to him and right away he said, "Yep, he's wheezing." Upper respiratory infection (bronchiolitis). She had the nurse come in and give him an albuteral treatment (a new way now, no more nebulizer!) and within 10 minutes, the doctor came back in and he had stopped wheezing. In the meantime though, he had fallen asleep on my chest. It was pretty sweet.

By the time we left, his temperature was down to 100.9 and he was perking up a little bit. We got home and he was walking around and doing much better.

3:15 this morning, I hear him screaming from his room. His temp was 103.5 again. I gave him some motrin and another albuteral treatment and about 2 hours later, he was back asleep.

His temp was 100.7 this morning, so I drugged him up yet again. We're not heading to church because of him, but I think we are going to do our own devotions here at home.

Hopefully he gets better soon!

I was joking with the nurses when I left Urgent Care that hopefully I won't see them next week, Megan is the only one left!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

the Lost is found.

Dance leotard and skirt were located....in a ball under a pile of blankets on megan's bed.

good! maybe next time she will put them back in her drawer where they belong!!!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Goal for Wednesday

Must find Megan's ballet leotard and skirt before 4:15 pm tomorrow.

If anybody knows where it is, let me or Megan know!

I'm not sure what we're going to do if we don't find it...I think we will have one upset 8 year old, who should not have lost it in the first place. :)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Goals Achieved

I had a few goals for today.

1. Finish school for Megan from yesterday and work on the next day's lessons
2. Do a reading lesson with Courtney (or her preschool books)
3. Clean out my fridge! We had some strawberry juice that had leaked down the back of the fridge awhile ago and I thought it was time to clean it up!
4. Get laundry done. -Can I just add that Megan ran around in her bathrobe half the day because she absolutely had NOTHING to wear...you know, she can't wear "real" clothes when we are home.(insert sarcasm)
5. Wash dishes and clean up the counters.
6. Take kids to PE class at Prarie Life
7. Get all three kids through the bath/ shower
8. Get some time to my self some where in the day.
9. Have children clean up dining room, piano room, and living room
10. Teach piano lessons tonight

In the end, I got all of these things accomplished. I didn't take the girls to PE class today. They didn't really want to go and I knew I could really use the time to get caught up on housework. I let them have about 3 hours to themselves this afternoon, which in turn, was time for myself. :) I love how this works! They played great together for the longest time and Christian napped, so it was very peaceful.

I also knew that if I went to PE class, Christian would either get a late nap or no nap at all. Tomorrow afternoon, we have Megan's class at the homeschool learning center in the afternoon, so he will just sleep in the car. Last week, when he missed two naps, he was a grouchy bear by Thursday. I am willing to stay home, just so I can have a happy kid!

He was so funny today, he saw a picture of Bob Kerrey on television and said, "Dada!!" Once I got looking, I can kind of see how Christian could see this resemblence. Matt and Bob Kerrey both have a long slender faces and a receeding hair line, they do look similiar!

We are getting out tomorrow! Preschool in the morning, class for Megan in the afternoon, and AWANA tomorrow night!

Peter the Kermit?

Today Megan and I were reading history together and we came to the following sentence.

"Now there lived at the same time a monk whom people called Peter the Hermit." (We are studying about the Christian crusades of 1100 AD.)

I looked at Megan and asked, "Do you know what a hermit is?"

She replied, "Like off the Muppet Movie??"

I laughed as I said, "Are you thinking of Kermit (the frog)? Not quite Megan!"

How does Peter the Kermit sound??

On another note, if you are interested in seeing a very unique underwater animal, look up the Japanese Spider Crab, it can have legs up to 12 feet long!!!

Monday, February 6, 2012

My Poor Driving Record

So lately, I have had some trouble behind the steering wheel and it is starting to add up in the old pocketbook.

December 30th- Speeding ticket on the way to a chiropractic appointment (did I forget to mention this??) $99 cost for a stop class. Best chance to sit back and do nothing for 4 hours!

Today, February 6th- Pulled backwards out of my driveway and hit the car that was parked across the street. I hit it in the drivers-side back door with the my left corner bumper. Why did he park there?? Ok, so it was really my fault. And it was with our brand new van. Not even 3 months old.

So here is another $500 in deductible cost plus our insurance will probably go up. Our liability insurance will pay for his damage 100%.

We have a back up camera, but I don't really use it. I was in a hurry this morning and I just pulled out like usual. Well, until I heard "CRUNCH". I pulled forward and just shook my head because I knew what I had done! I knew that car was back there because I had pulled out earlier and had to maneuver around it, but this time, I totally hit it!

In our old van, we had sensors that would beep when you were close to something, I told Matt I want my sensors back! I wouldn't have hit this car if I would've had those!

As Matt says, I should probably be more careful from now on!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Looks like a snow day!

That's all I have to say! No snow all winter and now it's 8-12 inches!

Glad this is happening on a weekend and not when Matt is in Des Moines for 3 days!

Of course, when we all get up, Matt says to Courtney, "What should we do today?"

Courtney replies, "Play video games!!"

No Courtney, I'm sure Matt will play video games at least half the day, but let's do something else too. :)

My job is to stay off of facebook! (but it's so fun to see all the posts and pictures!)

Friday, February 3, 2012

A quote by Megan

Megan is usually so serious and doesn't make me laugh like Courtney does, but today, she did.

We were talking about Palm Sunday during school today and were talking how the people were waving palm branches. We learned from a separate book that the people waved branches from date trees, not coconut trees.

I asked her if she knew what dates or date trees looked like and she said no, so we looked them up on the Internet. I then asked her if she knew what coconuts or coconuts trees looked like and she said, "Of course mom, there are coconuts on Fruit Ninja!" You're right Megan, there are! Thanks X-box and Kinec for teaching my girl about coconuts!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Peace!

It is all quiet here at the Ruwe house.

Megan and Courtney are having "recess" until 1:30 and Christian is already down for a nap.

Today is totally making up for the last two days where I have had NO time to myself.

PS The girls didn't get up until 8:45 this morning, maybe that is why they are being so good. :)

Should I get the kids up?

I always let the kids sleep in Thursday morning. We had church last night and they didn't get to bed until 10 pm. It's 8:10 and Christian is the only one awake.

Is it bad that I let them sleep just to get some time to myself?

Or should I wake them up because we have to get school going and I would like to be done before noon today?

Hmmm.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

No Books?

What do you get when you take an 8 year old's chapter books out of her bed because she is kind of not so nice to her mother during the day?

She has nothing to do at night and therefore goes to sleep before 10:30!

maybe she will be nicer today. :)