Abby-isms

Abby makes me laugh. ALL THE TIME. Between her normal spunky personality and her innate ability to completely mix up words, she says funny things all the time. A few examples....

Instead of saying Taco Del Mar, she calls that restaurant Taco Bell Mar and will correct you if you say Del. As she says with a waggle of her sassy head, "Mommy, why would they name it Taco Del Mar??" Duh.

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Today when we dropped the boys off at camp (more on this later), there were (as usual) a million people that we know there. As we left, Teresa and Pam, who had been talking about some school district news, said goodbye. Pam said, "Teresa, thanks for giving me the scoop!" Fifteen minutes later as we pulled into town....

Abby: Is Nana Pam sick?
Me: No. Why? We just saw her, and you saw she isn't sick.
Abby: Oh. Well, does she really like soup?
Me: No..... Um, I don't know, maybe. Wait. Why?
Abby: Well, then why did Teresa make her soup??

The ensuing conversation about the meaning of "the scoop" did not go well and is more annoying than cute, so just use your imagination.

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We saw some little kittens today, which some teenage girls were trying to give away in front of a pet store. There were two black kitties and two orange kitties, very tiny and very cute.

Abby: Those kitties were cute.
Me: They were cute! But we don't need another cat.
Abby: We don't need the one we have!
Me: ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Abby: They were twins too.
Me: I guess they were more like quadruplets.
Abby: What's quadoopulet???
Me: When a mommy has four babies in her tummy.
Abby: (gasp) What? That's not even possible!!

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Last week, my mom had a huge bunch of stuff to take to the food pantry. This particular food pantry is a really neat one. The lady who runs it gives food to anyone who comes in (no need to prove that you have need) and has some special extra touches to make people smile. She sent my dad over with the truck and the kids went along for the ride. It seemed like a good opportunity for them to see a food pantry in action, and my dad must have explained it pretty well because all three kids have mentioned it several times since. Today in the car:

Abby: Hey Mommy? On my birthday, we should go to the food pantry.
Me: Oh yeah? Why is that?
Abby: Well, on your birthday, they give you a birthday bag full of presents and they have cupcakes and balloons. And it's all free.
Me: Well, we wouldn't take them from the food pantry because we have the money to buy you presents and cupcakes. Those are for kids who don't have any money.
Abby: Sigh. (long pause) Hey, Mommy!! I can go get a birthday bag...I don't have any money!

We may need to work on her spirit of charity.

Lion King

My mom got the kids and I tickets to the Lion King for Christmas, and last Thursday was the big day. We got all dressed up (well, the boys wore pants and a button up shirt--the most dressed up any male in my family ever gets!) and headed downtown. Josh actually saw it on his fifth birthday, so he was excited to see it again. The little kids had never seen anything on stage before, so they had no idea what to expect. He loved seeing it a second time and is dying to get the soundtrack. James was mesmerized. I enjoyed watching his face as he took it all in. Sometimes his forehead would wrinkle a little as he tried to puzzle something out and sometimes his face was just full of wonder. So sweet.

I was a little worried about how Abby would do. The big musical numbers are really amazing, but it is long, and if you've ever met Abby, you know that she NEVER stops moving. Never. Ever. I didn't need to worry though. Our seats were perfect. We had the front row of one of the boxes, so she could move around quite a bit, and she was able to switch position six million (not at all an exaggeration!) times without bothering anyone. And luckily, the music is loud so that no one could hear her running commentary and questions. She was having a tough time with the idea of a live action play. A few excerpts of the evening....

Re: Giraffes...Are those people in there or are those REAL giraffes???

(If you haven't seen the Lion King--you MUST go! The giraffes are amazing: They are people manning a sort of costume contraption that looks just like a giraffe walking along!)

Re: Hyenas....In real life, those are nice mans, right Momma? Right? Right? Momma?

Re: Mufasa after he died.....That's a man in there right? And in real life, he isn't really dead? Right? Cause this is pretend??

Re: Scar...How come that uncle is mean? My uncles aren't mean!!

Re: Animal/Human characters....Are they lions or people? But in real life are they lions or people?

AT INTERMISSION: Hey! Are those people on the stage???

At that point, I think she finally got it all figured out. Or she just got so sleepy that she didn't have the energy for the never ending questions! She slept through the last three numbers, but got to experience the curtain call. As you may have guessed if you remember this post, I practically sobbed through the curtain call. I love that the cast worked together to create something so amazing!

I also love that my kids got to experience live theater. I know that not all kids get to do things like that, and I am so thankful that going to to see shows will be something that is just part of their childhood. James now has his eye on How I Became A Pirate: A Musical which he spied in the program--it will be playing at the Children's Theater next spring, and Josh and I are dying to see Wicked! It comes to a city not too far away next spring as well, so I am thinking about getting us tickets. I asked Abby if she'd like to see another show, and she said she would. I started to tell her about some things at the Children's Theater, but she interrupted me: "I'll see the Lion show again. OK?" It may be a few years, but I think that we'll do just that!

Hitting the Oregon Trail (from MAY!)

There are great things about being a teacher. The job itself is really rewarding and fun. And although you work hard and many extra hours a week during the school year, you get to have summers off with your kids. But one thing that isn't so great is that going on a field trip with your own kids means leaving your class. I don't know if all teachers feel this way, but I H-A-T-E having a sub. The kids aren't that crazy about it either. So, when Josh was in kindergarten, our family decided that John would go on the field trips. And so he has gone on nearly every field trip that the kids have taken. He's been to the zoo (twice), the beach, the aquarium, plays (several), Enchanted Forest (twice), and I've been....nowhere. It is by my own choice, and it's great that he gets to go, blah, blah, blah, but I've always been a little sad about it. (The time when the girl threw up on the bus? Not so sad I missed that one.)

This year, the boys' field trips were only days apart, and we got the paper about James's first. John couldn't take off both days, so it looked like Josh would not have a parent on his field trip. Not the end of the world, but he was pretty disappointed. So when I realized that I could, in fact, go for at least the morning half of it, we were both excited! Since this one was in town, and I have a flexible morning schedule, I was able to go.

The field trip was really cool. I wish that I could have gone as a student. They'd been studying the Oregon Trail for months, and the day was a reenactment of the Trail. They wound through the neighborhoods from their school to the city park, stopping every little bit at a "famous spot" on the Oregon Trail. There was an activity (my personal favorite was the dancing!) a challenge and a chance for the teams to earn or lose points based on their fates. The kids dressed up and had "real" covered wagons (made each year by a retired teacher using Red Flyers, fabric and tubing.) It was a long walk and it really gave the kids an idea of what the trail was like. Josh's wagon train (a group of six students who had worked together the entire unit) planned pretty well and didn't have too many bad things happen to them, so they made it to Oregon pretty much intact.

Since I am a social studies teacher, it really drives me crazy that social studies often gets pushed out of the elementary schools to make room for more reading, writing and math. I was thrilled that the teachers at Josh's school used such a fascinating social studies topic to teach those all important subjects. (OK, I'm off my soap box for the moment.)

The Oregon Trail has taken the coveted title of "Favorite Subject Ever Studied" away from penguins. You had a good run, Penguins.

Future CFO

The kids are selling pop and lemonade at the garage sale, and they are taking it REALLY seriously. They have scheduled "shifts" (which resulted in Abby crying herself to sleep last night because she doesn't want to go last!!) and have set up a little stand on a kids' picnic table. I haven't even been able to convince them to come and have breakfast so far!

Before they started, John was making sure that James could make change. He definitely can, and he proved so over and over as John gave him different scenarios. But, he proved his business sense when given the following scenario.....

John: OK, James. If someone comes up with a dollar and they want to buy a pop, what would you do?
James (with a big smile): I'd tell them that they could buy TWO pops!

Marathon 2.0: The Lazy Version

When John decided to run the Newport Marathon, visions of a beach trip began dancing in my head. We decided to spend the night to avoid a)having to take two cars or b) having to wake up three kids and a very grouchy mom at 4 am. Unfortunately, as much as I am a planner, I have never planned for a marathon before. I didn't realize that the hotels would fill up as fast as they did, and by the time I made reservations, the pickings were slim. Our choices were to get a hotel far from the start line, which would mean getting the kids up early enough to drive him there (see option b above) or a more expensive hotel right near the start line. So, I took a deep breath and clicked confirm at the expensive hotel. (I come from a Motel 6 kind of family, so anything more than a hundred a night gives me hives. This one was quite a bit over a hundred.)

We arrived the night before the marathon and went to check in at our hotel. I'll just tell you it was the best considerably-more-than-a-hundred dollars I've ever spent. The room was really nice, with a kitchenette and a seating area and a couch for Abby to sleep on (families of five either need two rooms or a nice sleeping bag, usually,) AND we were pleasantly surprised to find that the room had sliding glass doors with a full ocean view that led directly to the play structure, volleyball courts and beach access. The hotel had a salt water pool (a new experience for me) and a hot tub and best of all, very reasonably priced room service.

The pool. I made the kids stay out of the water long enough for me to get a pretty picture of it!

We did have a short lived battle of who would get to sleep on the couch. We flipped a coin. It didn't go great. Then James (the coin flip winner) decided it wasn't comfortable, and the sobbing diva crumpled in the corner immediately perked back up. Grrrr. You can't see Abby in the picture because she is literally crumpled into a quietly sobbing ball in the corner.

We went to the pre-race pasta dinner (where I ate enough carbs to run a marathon), walked on the beach, swam in the pool, got snacks (again with the extra calories) and watched the sunset from our room. Did I mention that it was BEAUTIFUL weather? Since on June 5th it had been raining for approximately eight months straight, it was even more amazing.

Abby enjoying the sunshine and warm air. Such a happy heart this girl has. Usually.

I took this picture standing inside our room. GORGEOUS.

The kids and I woke up late, ate a HUGE breakfast (seriously, someone forgot to tell me that I was not going to get even a speck of exercise) in the room overlooking the ocean, swam in the pool some more and made it to the finish line with plenty of time to spare.

Bad morning light, but you can see through the shadows that the kids were THRILLED with room service. The little kids haven't ever had it before, and they were so fascinated by it. I kept hearing "Hey, they even brought us syrup!" or "Look! They brought silverware!" The boys even got us out wine glasses from the kitchen so we could be "fancy."

Even though we didn't get to see much of John, and the trip had a much more important point to it, the kids and I really had the BEST time!

What are we thinking?

There are piles all over my house as I write this. There is the still not completely unpacked suitcase pile. There is the not-folded-but-clean-laundry pile. There is a give-to-Henry-pile (consisting only of 3T sized underwear and Rescue Heroes.) There is a Goodwill pile. There is a hand-me-downs-for-the-piano-teacher's-sons pile. There is not surprisingly, a pile of dishes in the sink waiting to be put in the dishwasher. And then the granddaddy of all piles: the garage sale pile. That's right. We have officially lost our minds: we're having a garage sale tomorrow.

Our style of putting on garage sales is....let's just say relaxed. (Because that sounds ever so much nicer than disasterously disorganized.) We sort of just price stuff at practically free, throw it out on our driveway, and hope it doesn't rain. We typically do pretty well, and we have an unspoken understanding that all items on the driveway will not ever again enter our house. Everything will go straight to Goodwill when we are done.

The kids are really excited. They picked out some things that could be sold and didn't even demand that we keep exact count of what was sold and give them their money at the end (which, ahem, I may have done as a child.) (They are, however, having a lemonade stand at the sale, and that money, they get to keep.) The plan is that we'll see how much money we make and then we'll decide something fun to do as a family. It might be an overnight trip somewhere....or Blizzards at Dairy Queen tomorrow night. We'll just have to see how it goes!

Abby is getting old enough to really get money and its purposes (for buying candy and silly trinkets, of course.) My dad has simultaneously spoiled her silly and taught her about budgeting. (Like only a grandpa can.) Every time they are together, he gives her a small amount of money to spend at the store. And while she does NOT need this, it has really given her an idea of how much things cost and how money works. So she is very excited about the idea that people will come to our house, take away the things she doesn't want anymore and just hand over money. She spent the afternoon "helping" me get ready. (Which was super fun for me, as you can imagine.) (Sidenote: The term "get ready" has been used very loosely here.) At one point, she was driving me C-R-A-Z-Y, so I asked her to make a sign for our garage sale. This is her amazing sign:

She asked me to spell out the words for her. I love the stage when they realize that all those letters they have been writing actually mean something when you put them together! I chose not to point out that according to her sign, we are selling babies (illegal in all fifty states, I believe) and may possibly also be selling lightning, flowers and some clouds.

Hopefully, we'll make enough money to do something fun!

Marathon!!

Well, he did it. (Weeks ago, but as we all know, I am VERY BEHIND in blogging.) He ran 26.2 miles. To be honest, last July when he ran his first race, I was skeptical. He hadn't been running for very long, and as a non-runner, an 8K race just seemed impossibly long to me. (Pssst: it still does.) But then, not only did he do it, he did it so much faster than he had planned that we totally missed him crossing the finish line. As he continued to run races, I quickly learned that nothing is impossibly long for him. Which brought us to June 5th. The Newport Marathon. This time he was the one who was skeptical. When he got back from driving the route, he was a little pale. It turns out that 26.2 miles is a REALLY LONG WAY. And when it took him more than a half an hour to drive it, he started to get a little nervous. No need. He set a goal time and easily (if that word even belongs in a post titled Marathon) beat it.

It still amazes me. I knew he could and would do it, but once he had actually done it, I couldn't stop myself from comparing the distance to other things. A lot. (As in, "Hey! Did you know that we have been driving for twenty minutes and it STILL hasn't been 26.2 miles?" or "Hey! Did you know that it is almost exactly 26.2 miles to my parents house?") The kids still do it. We were on vacation this past few days (more on that later) and our gas light came on. We were over ten miles from the nearest town, and when John said that out loud, James said, "Oh, well that's OK. Dad can run WAY farther than that."

Someone my mom knows compared running a marathon to travelling to another country; she said that it changed the way she looked at the world. I asked John if he felt that way, and he said that he didn't but that it had changed the way he looked at himself and what he was capable of. We are crazy proud of him, but even more importantly, he is really proud of himself.

When he finished, he wasn't feeling great (Huh. who would have thought that running 26.2 miles in the heat would make you feel crummy?) and someone (who knows who it was since there were no less than 15 people there to witness the big event) asked if he ever thought he'd do it again. He answered with an emphatic NO! I said that I predicted that by the next night, he decide to do another one. I was wrong.....he had decided by noon the next day. After walking pretty much continuously to keep from cramping up (I am not at all exaggerating here--he walked another 16 miles during the 24 hours after finishing the race) for a day, he was ready to go again. In our Inbox as I type this, there is a confirmation of registration for the Portland Marathon.

Ready to go. His sister and brother-in-law drove in early enough to accompany him to the start line. The kids and I got up approximately two hours later....when he had already run half the race.

The last 100 yards (or something--I have no idea how far 100 yards even is?) is a downhill push to the finish. The boys had planned to run across the finish with him. Henry wanted to join in the fun, so you can see my dad and Henry there too!

Love this picure!

Crossing the finish--more than eleven minutes faster than his goal time of 5 hours.

Finisher shirt and Medal!!

A group of people from John's work came to cheer him on! And I'm really glad they did because I forgot my camera in the car (which was a half mile uphill from the finish, so I figured rather than drag the kids up the hill, I'd just have my mom's pictures. But then she forgot her camera too. Thanks to Rosa, third from the left, who remembered and took some great shots, and to John's sister for saving the day!)

The fam. If you'd like a reminder of the neckline of my T-shirt, just check out my neck shoulders, STILL today. I got a terrible sunburn because the sunscreen? You guessed it. In the car.

Finally.

We made it! It's officially summer vacation, even though the weather doesn't seem to have realized it yet. I can't wait to get back to blogging (I have missed so many things and really need to get caught up!) but I'll have to wait a bit longer. Today we have a baseball game, three dress rehearsal/picture sessions, a graduation party and the big dance recital tonight, so we have a full plate! Then tomorrow, we are getting up early and heading out on vacation for a few days. We're staying at a resort that has multiple swimming pools. a spray park, soccer fields, tennis courts, and miles of biking and hiking trails, so I imagine we'll be really busy with all of the "relaxing" we'll be doing.

Hooray for summer!!

A Fun Weekend. Until it Wasn't.

If you aren't from the NW, you probably don't know just how starved for sunshine we really are here. We were really in need of some Vitamin D around here, and yesterday and today we got it.

Yesterday, we basked in the sun while Josh played a full two hours of baseball under a clear blue sky. It is amazing how much more fun it is when it is warm and bright! Then, the kids and headed into my parents' house where I was spoiled as an early birthday present. My dad took the kids and my mom took my sister and I out. We had a very late lunch at P.F. Chang's (yum, yum, yum!) went shopping (new jeans, 2 new shirts and a new dress), and had gelato in the sun. We had a really good time--my mom even made us party favor bags. My sister and I each got a cooler style lunch bag full of snacks and summer essentials (sunscreen, antibacterial stuff, first kit.) Very cute.

Today, we started the day with brunch, picked strawberries and bought fresh produce at a local farm, did yard work, and .....drumroll, please......bought and assembled a trampoline for the backyard. The kids have been dying for one for years, and I finally convinced John that they aren't that dangerous and that it would be really great for them to have something they could enjoy together (it can be really hard to please both a 10 1/2 year old boy and a four year old girl.) He was a little leery, and not super pleased at the long installation process, but the kids were so excited! It was hard not be swept up in their glee.

We had a "summer dinner" of rotisserie chicken, corn on the cob, salad made from local veggies, and, of course, a LOT of strawberries, and I got a new TV for the bedroom for my birthday. (People may say you shouldn't have a TV in the bedroom, but I STRONGLY disagree. First of all, it is the only location in our little house for a second TV in case one person (me!) doesn't want to watch seventy hours of World Cup soccer. Second of all, in the summer, I can get at least an extra half hour of sleep by letting Abby crawl in my bed and watch a show while I sleep. Better than diamonds, I tell you.)

John went out to get a new bike (we are going on a vacation where a bike is a must next week) while I sent my three filthy, happy kids out to jump on the trampoline while I cleaned up the kitchen and started the tub. They hadn't been out there two minutes when I heard the most awful scream I have ever heard from the backyard. In the background of the screaming, I could hear a panicked Josh yelling for me and repeatedly saying "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh." I ran around the corner to see James with his hands literally full of blood and Josh as white a ghost and sobbing.

I rushed James inside to try to figure out what we were dealing with. Blood was absolutely everywhere. James, who is normally pretty cool under pressure, was completely wild-eyed and panicked. Abby, on the other hand, may have a career as a nurse. She stayed completely calm and quickly did everything I asked of her. Armed with a big towel (a good towel, unfortunately, but I wasn't going to be too critical of a four year old's choice), a wet washcloth and a cup of water, I finally got him cleaned up enough to determine that it was just a really bad bloody nose. Nothing was broken, no teeth were missing, no head injury to deal with. It took me several minutes to get the bleeding under control and James calmed down, but after a shower (during which I hurriedly wiped down the entire bathroom because all the blood was FREAKING HIM OUT--it seriously looked a scene from CSI in there, complete with bloody handprints and smears and drips of blood everywhere) and some Motrin, he was OK.

Where was Josh this whole time? Curled up in a ball under the basketball hoop out back, sobbing and sobbing and sobbing. He was so scared that he had really hurt James, and once I had things under control with James and could talk to him, he said he was also scared that James would be mad at him. The funny thing was that James, in the midst of an epic freak out, had the presence of mind to tell me over and over and over that Josh had hurt him by accident, that he hadn't done it on purpose, that he didn't mean to. They hugged for a long time and cried together. It was pretty sweet, and I was so glad to see how much they care about each other. They might fight and bicker, but in a pinch, I know they'll be there for each other.

As it turns out, John was right (which I hate to admit) about the trampoline being dangerous. The boys didn't make a good choice and were full on wrestling when it happened, and it was really nice that finally all my threats about wrestling were proved true. I don't think we'll see a lot of wrestling in their future, and I think that the trampoline rules will be followed to the letter for a least a few days. (Hours?) Right now, they are snuggled up in Josh's bed talking, and even through it is way after bedtime, I am letting them do it.

All in all, a good weekend. Only four more days of school and a teacher work day, and we are home free for summer. I can't wait to blog more, sleep more, and just relax with the kids. We have a lot planned, so I'll have a lot to write about! Stay tuned.......