Jonathan's Latest Creation

Jonathan made this yesterday. He makes these amazing creations out of his Magnetix toys. This was his biggest "ball holder" ever, as he told me. The Magnetix come with lots of tiny metal balls and he is always making cubes and other shapes to hold them. He had to hold this very carefully because it was completely hollow and would fall apart. An hour later, he came up to me and said, Look I found a way to keep it together! He had put a long rod inside joining the very center, and it did make it much more stable! (See the top picture above, a view from the side, the blue rod in the middle.)

He told me he thinks he could "probably be an engineer." I told him his Mama believes he can be anything he wants to be!

Tonight he made a "dragon that was halfway under the water." He is so creative! It really did look like a dragon partially submerged underwater. I think that was even harder to build because he had to think about not only what something looked like, he had to think about what something did NOT look like. Some parts of it would be underwater, and not exposed. Is anyone else impressed?

School is starting to wind down for the year. They have about another month, but it just feels like summer is flying up on us. The weather has been gorgeous here. Like the most perfect weather imaginable, I think. Except for the lack of rain and looming brush fires, but let's not discuss that! Anna is going to take Ballet, Tap and Tumbling this summer. She has to wear either a black or pink leotard with pink tights. She has to wear her hair in a bun and securely pinned away from her face. She went in her closet and got her tap shoes that a friend gave us out and was doing some little dances. I expect that will be her favorite part of the class, since she likes making noise. Anna keeps saying she is going to ballerina school. So sweet! We will see if she enjoys the classes this summer. I am thinking that she is going to wind up in drama camps and classes in the future. She seems to have a knack for drama (in both a good and a bad way). Jonathan was offered the option of either Music classes, YEAH, YEAH, DO THAT! DO THAT! THAT's WHAT I WANT TO DO!!!... or, um, what was the other class again? Something with a lot of different sports and games.... He was so completely enthused at the mention of the word music that he did not want to discuss the other options.

Anna's Wisdom

"French fries are made out of 'totoes and chicken nuggets are made out of chicken."
"Ice melts into water. And water freezes into ice."
"Germs are so small that we can't see them."

(Just a little sampling of her wisdom, from about a half hour time period this afternoon!)

A Few Pictures

Anna at the beach. April 2009

Anna, April 2009. What does this face mean? You've got to be kidding me, Daddy?

Jonathan sporting my shades at the beach. April 2009

Anna, Trystan, and Jonathan. 3,4 and 5 years old. My Dad and me. April 2009, Brevard Zoo, taken by one of the zookeepers.

Issues

This morning I woke up at 4 AM after only four hours of sleep... I was starving and we have no milk in the house, and we have no good coffee just nasty Maxwell House that I swear smells like skunk when I brew it-- so much for me trying to economize... Dave went and got us donuts and me coffee (not at 4 AM, but at 6 AM, and he was already up; I'm not a that much of a demanding witch). We had to say goodbye to my Dad this morning, he is going back to NY after almost two weeks, and I went inside and cried for about 10 minutes, and the salt from my tears aggravated this rash I have around my eyes, which I guess is from allergies, so now my eyes are all red and swollen with what probably looks like a contagious rash around them. Then my cat who is not supposed to be inside came over and wiped her nasty face all over my LAST clean pair of pants, and smeared this black gunk all over my pant leg. Nasty girl, needs to wash her face. So I came inside and dug my dirty jeans out of the wash since all my other jeans don't currently fit since I am having a fat crisis. I sprayed myself down with some Cherry Blossom mist from Bath and Body Works to get rid of the stale laundry smell and I swear I smell like Charmin toilet paper now. Not used Charmin toilet paper, thankfully, but like the perfume they put in Charmin toilet paper. My Mom would describe it as "snatchy." (I don't think she realizes....) Also, this nasty smell seems to be aggravating my eye rash and triggering one of my headaches. I took some Motrin which is hurting my stomach, which already hurts all the time, but is worse because coffee and donuts always make me sick.
Jonathan and Anna are refusing to wake up and I need to leave in about 10 minutes. My back hurts already, normally it does not freak out like this until the afternoon, so I don't know how I am going to make it all the way through church. My favorite necklace (really, the only one I ever wear) had about 4 knots in it. I worked on it for fifteen minutes, and now it has 10 knots in it.
There was some other stuff, which I can't remember now, but I am going to slap my happy face on and go put my kids in the car in their pajamas and hope my Mom does not judge me too much when I drop them off without proper clothing or breakfast. I am having some issues.

Words from Today

8 AM: Jonathan, to me, while I was helping him get ready for school:
"Hey, do you remember when it was so funny on Christmas when Trystan and I both got those Nerf ball guns, and Nona Donna (my Mom) and Uncle Jason (my brother) started fighting each other with them? I think that means they must be enemies."

1:30 PM: Trystan (my nephew), Jonathan, Anna and my Dad (who is visiting from New York) are in the parking lot at the zoo.
Trystan told Anna, "You don't even have a penis, Anna!"
And she got all huffy and said: "Noooo, T, I don't have a penis! Only BOYS have those. I have a PEE PEE! "
To which he replies: "Anna, you don't have a pee pee! You have a vagina."
I almost choked! For some reason, we taught Jonathan the correct name for his, um, man parts, but Anna, we have just always said pee pee. Because to me, this is a gray area. The vagina is really referring to something specific, and I am not going to get into the terms vulva and urethra with my 3 year old! I told T: "We don't call it that! We call it a pee pee!" At the same time, Anna was saying, What's a re-gina, I don't have a re-gina, Mama, T said I have a re-gina! (She was highly insulted that someone would suggest she has a re-gina!)
But wait, I shouldn't have worried, because it get much, much worse!
3:00 PM: Trystan, Jonathan and Anna were watching the spider monkeys frolic (they were really running around the cage, swinging on the walls, and thumping themselves aggresively on the Plexiglass over our heads and in front of our faces). The kids were laughing at the monkeys because they did not have any underpants on. T says this, giggling hysterically: I can see their p*ckers and their booty butts! He kept loudly referring to their dangling man parts as p*ckers! I was trying to decide if I should just ignore it in the hopes that the other parents around me could not understand him, or if I should say in an equally loud voice, Trystan, Aunt Jamie (denial of responsibility intended) does not think that is a good word for their private parts! But then I started this internal argument with myself over whether or not p*cker is actually a bad word. By the time I decided that it probably was not a widely accepted, socially acceptable substitute for penis, all the other adults had steered their children clear of us anyways. And my little nephew T is so stinkin' cute, I just had to laugh at the situation!
4:00 PM Back in car, trying to exit the zoo, I decide to address the use of the word p*cker with my nephew and two kids.
"Um, T? What does your Mommy and Daddy want you to call your private area?"
"What, my p*cker? They want me to call my p*cker a penis."
Oh, okay. Enough said about that!

7 PM We are all out in the yard picking up branches and other debris from our yard from our freak wind storm yesterday. Dave says, Hey, we could have a bonfire!
I said, What, we should have a lawn choir? (I honestly thought this is what he said. I can't imagine the circumstances in which Dave and I would ever intentionally start a fire, so that word made a lot less sense to me than lawn choir. We have lived in this house for 6 years and have never even used the fireplace!)
Dave says, what you thought I said a lawn fire?
And I said, no, a lawn choir!
He said, I wonder what a lawn choir would sound like?
Jonathan was saying, A lawn FIRE, Daddy? I thought you said we should start a lawn FIRE!

Easter 2009

I made this cake for my Mom's Easter dinner. I ran out of frosting, so Dave went to get chocolate eggs and Peeps. I wanted to cover around the bottom of the cake because there was no frosting and it looked really unappealing. He came back with bunnies instead of chicks, so the cake wound up not making a lot of sense. I wanted to write Justine, Trystan, Jonathan and Anna on the cake, but again, I ran out of frosting, so I just used a tube of frosting gel to scribble their initials under each bunny. Also, with no frosting, the chocolate eggs had nothing to stick to, so they kept rolling all around the cake carrier and I kept having to prop them back up against the base of the cake. However, the cake tasted okay, and the kids liked it.

4 kids trying to smile at 2 different cameras

Jonathan, 5 years old, Easter Egg Hunt at my Mom's

Anna, 3 years old.

Wednesday

Jonathan made this amazing creation this morning. It is a helicopter that can tote cargo like a rescue helicopter, and he made the rotor blades on top. Then, you can take the cargo off, and he flips the rotor blades under and it becomes a submarine. Also, he converts it to a land vehicle that pulls a trailer. I think this is pretty fine work he has done this morning! (Uncle Chris, these are those toys you bought him for Christmas.)

This is our super awesome bookshelf unit from Ikea. Dave went over and got it and put it together Monday evening! I wish I had taken a before picture of this corner of our dining room. We had a coffee table sitting there and it was heaped with art supplies, play-doh stuff, my binders, office supplies, mail stuff, and just a ton of other junk! Junk that we needed to use but had no other space for! Now it is all streamlined and organized! And the bookshelf unit takes up less space than the coffee table! The kids each have their own bin, then there are two bins that they share. Dave's files are going to go in the two boxes on top. And we can even put the laptop on top and pull a dining room chair over and use the laptop there! We are thinking of going back to get a 2 by 2 of the same unit, and use it for more storage and to put the printer on top, and then we can do away with our filing cabinet that currently sits there! I am very excited! Gotta love Ikea!

My silly Anna Banana!

Reasonably Happy

The Serenity Prayer
God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it;
Trusting that You will make all things right
If I surrender to Your will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr

I am praying this prayer this week, so that I can remember to accept the world as it is, and not as I want or wish it to be, and to accept that things are going to be difficult. I need to stop spinning my wheels and burning myself out trying to change things I have no control over. But if I trust God and surrender to His will and His agenda, and not my own, that I will be able to be "reasonably happy" in my life now. And so that I can remember that I can look forward to being "supremely happy" with God forever in heaven.

Anna's Bob

A List of Things that Have Nothing to Do With Each Other

1.) I went to my CPR class today! I accidentally signed up for the wrong class, but it had infant and child CPR in it, so I know that on top of lots of other stuff about operating AEDs and how to make a splint and a sling and all sorts of great stuff. I was the only girl in a roomful of 13 men (one was the instructor) and they were all sort of tough construction guys. Like manly men. At first I was sort of intimidated, but then I realized it was actually a nice situation to be in. They all went out of their way to be nice to me and there was even some chivalary. Like I did not have to lug my fake person back and forth or put it in the "body bag" or anything. (Yes, the instructor referred to the tote bags that hold the creepy fake people as "body bags.") Anyways, I passed the class, and got my cards to put in my portfolio for my early education classes.
2.) Jonathan said to me last night, Do you want to know another word for walk? I did want to know, and he told me: STROLL. We cancelled our fancy cable to cut back financially but it has been a huge blessing not to have Disney, and Nickelodeon, and DVR and all that stuff. The kids learn so much more from PBS and the TV is on a lot less.
3.) Our church went portable this weekend! We moved right across the street to Sherwood Elementary Auditorium for our Sunday AM worship service. It went amazingly well, considering how complicated moving an entire church actually is. (I had NO IDEA!) I was very proud of all of us. Of course, there is lots of ironing and smoothing out to be done, but I think our New Hope family really rocked this weekend!!!
4.) I just put self-tanner on my legs in an effort to conceal their fatness, and I forgot how sensitive to smell my new body is. (Note: I am starting to feel like my original body was taken away from me and I was given a funky, rundown, malfunctioning one.) I am sitting here with a headache that is getting worse and worse, and everything in my body hurts. I have tonsilitis again, had to go to urgent care on Saturday, and feel like crud.The doctor there thought I might have mono. I told him my normal dr. just tested me for a whole bunch of "mono-like viruses" and it came back negative. I just remember her saying that phrase. He said he was not sure if she actually tested me for mono. But what is the point, even if it is mono, they can't do anything different anyways, right? I think with the two days of volunteering at church and then the looooooong Red Cross class I took today (doing CPR is actually very physical! And the instructor was very into hands on practice!) my pain has gotten a little out of control. I think I need to try and take it easy for a few days. OKAY. That was my complaining.... wasn't that fun? Is anyone still reading this? But seriously, the smell of this self-tanner is going to make me vomit! It's NOT Avon, I'll tell you that much.
5.) I am really, really, really exhausted right now, but am too wound up to go to bed. I should at least go get in bed and rest.
6.) Jonathan is still awake right now. He has really bad hiccuups and has had them off and on since about 9 PM. I don't blame him for not being able to sleep!
7.) Jonathan has been picking up lots of sign language from his teacher. He is always showing us how to sign something. This morning he was trying to negotiate a deal with Anna to swap some Littlest Pet Shop toys with her. He wants her pet with the skateboard, and she really does want one of his tiny gerbils, but Anna knows she has some power over him, so she is holding out and not making any deals just yet. While he was trying to convince her, he said slowly and carefully, "Look at me, Anna. Just move your head, up and down like this (shaking his head vigorously). That's sign language for yes. Do you want to tell me yes?"
I guess a sign language yes is binding when you are in preschool.
I thought that was just the funniest thing!
I also learned sign language for choking today at my CPR class. You put both your hands up and clutch at your throat with mad panic in your eyes. And there you go!

God is Everywhere

I asked Jonathan and Anna what they learned at church today. This is Anna's summary of what she learned today at Lil K (our version of Sunday School):
"We learned that God is everywhere. You can't hide from God. He knows where you are and he can always find you! Because he is EVERYWHERE! God is always with everybody all the time. You can hide if you want, but God is everywhere, even where you hide!"
I wonder if this had anything to do with the lesson today? It seems too good to have come from nowhere.

Four Generations

This is the picture I think Anna most resembles me in.

This is her face she makes when she decides not to cooperate and lets her entire body go slack and limp. Like when I am trying to get her into pajamas or something. I know she is cute, but if there is ever a time when I feel like slapping her upside the head, this would be it. (I never do, don't worry!)

Jamie, Anna, Donna, and Ludella (Lu). My little Anna was being a real goofball while we were trying to get a picture of the four of us together. My grandma came in from Kansas to visit my Mom, and it was neat to have four generations together. I think it is interesting how my Mom and I are so different. I am more like my Grandma in a lot of ways, and Anna is more like my Mom, in my opinion. I blame her sassiness and her spunk on my Mom, but also on my sister-in-law, Anna's Aunt Meredith. Blame is a bad word for it. I should say I attribute it to them. I love Anna's little (big) personality, and I am glad that she is not so shy and somber like I was as a little girl.

Also, we seem to be getting a little taller each generation. My Grandma is so petite we kept losing her at the store today because we can't see her when she goes off in the racks to browse. My Mom is 5 foot 1, I am 5 foot 2.

Maybe Anna can hope for 5 foot 4 or something! Although, she is such a little peanut now, it is not looking likely.