O-V-E-R IT!

This precious little golf game WILL be the demise of my almost perfect relationship.

Hallowoo-hoo!

I dislike Halloween SO much that I would do just about anything to avoid the whole thing altogether. As much fun as it seeing my little punkins all dressed up and eager to candy-hunt in the neighborhood, I could literally forget the whole day completely and not feel an ounce of remorse. The holiday is satanic, dark, scary, and well, just plain dumb. Even my kids weren't that into it. We hadn't even made it across the street before the complaining started. "It's so cold." "My feet hurt." "My hair is falling off!" Thirty minutes and a half block later, we found our way back to our house where we handed out candy to the happy trick-or-treaters for the rest of the night!

Lilly, my future little _____.

Yesterday was my first parent-teacher conference with Lilly's teacher. I was a little nervous because poor Lills had had some behavior issues during the first nine weeks, and I was worried the teacher would call me out on my poor parenting. I imagined it much like a firing range-- that the teacher, principal, and a guidance counselor would put me in front of the black board and just point fingers at my lack of follow-through, my poor song-selection in the car (seriously, Ke$ha? Britney?), my awful food habits at my family's dining table, etc. You get my point. Truth is, the classroom didn't even have a black board, the principal and the guidance counselor were no where in sight (LOL!), and Lilly's teacher and I found that we actually have a lot of the same parenting guidelines. Shew!

Lilly tested above average in both reading and writing. She scored a little below the national average for math. When I was telling JM about the "results" of her beginning-of-the-year testing, he simply replied "eh, so she won't be an accountant, big deal!" Which got us laughing and wondering if our parents said the same thing after our first parent-teacher conferences! Does what we learn about our child's educational abilities really set the tone for the rest of their life? Did I really want to be a teacher when I was growing up? Or did my mom just think I was comfortable with and good at bossing people around (which I did a lot of!)? Regardless, we have high hopes for our little lady! I'm sure she'll make a great career path...in twenty years from now!

My little Hopper!

I'm one proud mama! Yesterday I got a letter from Anderson's teachers saying he had been selected as Hopper of the Month for his class! In November, Anderson will have a bulletin board in his classroom that's ALL about him! He gets to pick out some pictures to take in and share with his friends, he has to write about his favorite food, movie, color, and toy. Needless to say, I'm very proud of my little man and am excited for him! About a month ago, Anderson was home sick from school. He was just vegging on the couch, watching a movie, while I used my afternoon at home cleaning and catching up on laundry. I kept shouting out "I love you!" and he'd reply "love" in his adorable little sickly voice! Since then, everytime I say "I love you" from a different room, I hear "love" from my little boy! We'll do it six or seven times! "I love you!" "Love!" "I love you!" "Love!" I love you!" "Love!" And then finally he gets annoyed with it and says "I said LOVE!" LOL! I've written before about how funny and entertaining Andy is. The other night JM got home late from work. The kids had been in bed for well over an hour. JM came back downstairs and asked if I knew what my little boy was wearing to bed. "Ummm, yeah I put him to bed in his jammies, der!" "Ummm, you might want to go take a look at him!" There was my boy, sleeping soundly....in a pillowcase. He was using the pillowcase as a sleeping bag. He is just so random! He's such a good little man! He's always happy, always smiling, and always ready to help Mama, with just about anything! He puts up with A LOT from his always-moody big sister, and is a trooper about being the "man of the house"!!!! He's such a delight and I am so lucky to have such great, amazing, gorgeous little babies!

Ziggy's Privates!?

So I mentioned that I volunteered in Lilly's classroom yesterday. It was quite entertaining and it was nice to be able to put a face to the friends that Lilly always talks about. I have to admit though, that it made me want to dictate who Lilly hangs out with at school. Wow, I just admitted that, huh? I'm sorry, but when I see her little friend "A" act out in class, it helps me see why Lilly sometimes acts silly crazy too. *I'm in no way blaming friend A for the actions Lilly takes. Lilly is aware (now) that she is responsible for her actions, no matter how her friends are acting.* I know it's wrong for me to encourage strongly encourage her to spend her time with certain friends (friend H and friend R please!), but I just can't help it. Sometimes our little tots need that little push to make better decisions in the friend department, right? It's never too early to start, right? So this morning when Lilly and I were talking about her classmates, she told me about her friend C who talks about privates all the time. SHOCKED, I asked her WHAT she was talking about. She said that friend C was talking about his dog Ziggy's private parts and that Mrs.Summers said "Now *friend C* is that appropriate conversation for the classroom? I know that people potty and animals potty, but we do not need to talk about it." Wowza. It's CRRRRRAZY the things my little five year old is already exposed to. I know that this is all bound to happen eventually, but REALLY? In kindergarten? My daughter knows how to spell "kissing" because of the lovely "sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g" song. Ugh. Already? LOL! Oh, it's always something. Thanks Lilly for the entertainment, but could you PLEASE slow down please? You're FIVE!

For My Children

There's no easy or pretty way to say what I'm thinking. There's no simple way to explain the thoughts that are flooding my mind. And although you may not understand why I'm writing this, there is a purpose in writing it.
Recently I starting following a complete stranger's blog. One of my other blogger friends follows her and I got hooked on her "story" and starting following her too. You can read Amy's story here. Anyway, at the risk of sounding like a complete blog-stalker, I started reading some of the blogs that this girl follows, and came across this one. OH. MY. GOSH. I sat at my computer for over an hour yesterday just engrossed in Jessica's blog. For those who aren't interested in reading it, or don't become completely obsessed with her story like I did, let me explain her story. Jessica and her husband had a beautiful little girl, Elizabeth. Elizabeth passed away from cancer at the age of five. Jessica writes about the many different emotions that she goes through after the death of her daughter. As a mother of a five year old daughter, it made me literally sick to think of losing her, and of having to ever experience the things that these parents experienced (or are experiencing). Yes, I know many of you are probably thinking that it's incredibly morbid for me to even be thinking these things, but after reading her blog, I couldn't help but go "there".
I realized that I have used my blog as a way to talk about myself and not so much about my kids. I want this blog be a journal of my thoughts for the kids to eventually go back and read one day and see the silly things that they were doing, the things they said,the things we went through as a family. Sure, I love writing about my love story, and I want the kids to be able to look back and see how this relationship started and played out in the beginning (and hopefully they'll witness it throughout their life because JM and I will still be together!). But, even more so, if anything ever happened to me or to one of them, I want to be able to have this blog as a catalog of our lives. I want these memories to last a lifetime, no matter how long or short that may be.
Again, not to take it to the "dark side" but I have to be realistic that life on earth is a gift, and that it can end at anytime. As much as the kids drive me bonkers at times, I never want to live life without them. I cannot imagine not seeing their face every single day or not hearing their precious voices every single day. I can't imagine seeing piles of toys go unused or closets of clothes go unworn.
As cliche as it is, it's true that life is too short. My mom once sent me a quote that said "Enjoy the little things in life for one day they will become the big things." This is so true and I pray that I can live everyday with this in mind.

Kindergarten Helper

This morning I had the opportunity to volunteer in Lilly's classroom. Although at first I was dreading the thought of spending an hour with 20 five year olds, it ended up being an awesome experience. I got to the classroom before Lilly and her friends arrived from the bus. I made a few copies for her teacher and by the time I got back to the room, there was my precious baby, sitting perfectly at her desk, working on her morning exercises. (I have no doubt my daughter is always this perfect and that it had nothing to do with me being there! RRRIGHT!) She blushed when she saw me and ran to give me a giant hug! She was so excited to "show me off" to all her little friends! It was precious! What was supposed to be an hour long volunteer stunt, turned into two hours with the little tots. It was so much fun and I really do plan to do it again soon next month!