Hapes hilarity - of the Tatum kind

We're on day 2 of being home, and Tatum is still running a slight fever.  Nothing too bad, but elevated enough to let us know that her body is trying to fight something.  Well, she certainly still has her spunk, and I'll demonstrate by listing things that she's done to, shall we say, keep me on my toes.

• I've realized that she can't totally be left on her own to use to potty, and wipe.  Wanna' know how I realized it?  I went in to check on her just in the nick of time, as she was looking down at a toilet FULL of wipes.  She had pulled out wipes from the container and managed to pull about 1/8 of the container, empying it, and deposit said wipes into the toilet. Luckily, I caught her before she flushed.

• We were exchanging kisses and she arranged my head so that she could kiss me on the hair.  "Mommy, your hair is messy. You didn't fix your hair."  Me, "Yes I did, Tatum.  I fixed it this morning."  Her, "Let me see," moving my head around for closer inspection, "No it's not."  Apparently, my hair is not fixed to her standards.  What a shame, considering that I actually got a shower today, unlike yesterday. (Don't judge).

• We had finished watching The Jungle Book shortly before she was scheduled to lay down for a nap.  I needed to vacuum, but hadn't dared to so while she was in the midst of any movie, lest I anger the child, 'cause you're princess when you're sick.  Or in her case, even when you aren't.  She was finishing her snack of Cheerios and water, sitting in the recliner, listening to the music that plays during the menu options while I was vacuuming, and I see her lips moving.  I stopped the vacuum and asked what she needed.  "I can't hear the MUSIC!  Are you DONE?"  No darling, but for both your sake and mine, I sure wish I was.

• In our one hour attempt to get her to lay down and actually go to sleep for her nap, during one of the times she came to the gate by her door she looked at me and said, "I laid down and closed my eyes.  That was a good nap, right?"

To be continued.....

So what is it THIS time?

Tatum has diarrhea and was running a fever yesterday afternoon/evening, yet the mere mention of the fact that she's "sick" makes her insane.  So here I am again, at home, working to clear my schedule and disinfect the house.  At least I don't have to go to the store and stock up on supplies again, right?  On the other hand, I feel like I just did this, didn't I, only it was with Kellen?  Oh, the joys of parenting and the cycles of neverending chores that must be completed.  Including dealing with sick kiddos.

The poor thing.

We have begun our movie marathon, and it's starting with Bolt, one of her all-time favorites.  I'm guessing Cinderella and Enchanted are in the cards for us today as well, and possibly multiple times for each.

I have my temperature and "symptom" sheet started, and so far she's only had one 'bout' this morning.  We'll see how the rest of the day progresses, but I may be going to the store not for cleaning supplies but for additional pull-ups instead.  I'm not going with her undies with this type of symptom going on here...Can you blame me?

Well, she's saying she's hungry, so I'm off to make her some toast.  Whatever it takes to make her feel better!

Success!

Yesterday I successfully completed my first triathlon sprint.  Probably my first and only, but that's beside the point.  In case you're wondering, "success" was defined by me for the purposes of this event as completing without injury, and a sunburn didn't count as an injury.  Neither did a jolt to my pride.  More on that later.

Matt and I took the kids to Conroe Saturday and dropped them off with Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Aunt Boo for their weekend retreat.  (Sidenote: I'm sure fun was had by ALL during this retreat, which included a trip to a pumpkin patch and a birthday party at a skating rink).  He and I then made our way to the race packet pick-up and I proceeded to go through the check-in.  I looked over my packet and tried to verify that all numbers for all equipment pieces were in order and that I had everything else I needed for the race.  We headed out, left the mall, stopped at another store, and during this time I had been reading the packet material and realized I had a white swim cap, which designated me in the women 30-39 age group.  While that in and of itself is correct, I had signed up to race as a newbie, which meant that I was planning to swim the shorter distance, and not the full swim, which the age bracket I was designated in was supposed to be swimming.  I should have had a green swim cap.

Houston, we had a problem!

I quickly called one of the girls I had been training with, who had picked her packet up a couple hours earlier.  She had the correct color swim cap - green.

So we turned around and headed back to the mall, determined to correct the registration issue.  I felt comfortable that I could handle the newbie swim, but NOT the full swim.  Luckily, when I went back, they didn't give me any problems.  One gentleman asked if I wanted a green cap and I quickly corrected him, laughingly saying "Oh no, I NEED a green cap."  He thought that was pretty funny, too.  A chat with the laptop lady - AKA the registration lady - took care of officially correcting me as well.  A few minutes in there and I was fully corrected as a newbie for registration purposes. 

Whew!

Back on the road and Matt and I were enjoying each others company so much that we missed the turn to my friends house via the directions he provided, so we took the long route there.  I'm trying to remember the last time he and I had some quality and quantity time together and I'm coming up blank, so it was obviously much needed.  We finally got to the Murdock Manor much later than we had originally anticipated, and then there were some slight grill-lighting, propane issues that had to be addressed and resolved.  Once those issues were taken care of, dinner was finished and was fabulous!  Sam and Krissy went all out...bread with dipping sauce, cheese and pepperoni for appetizers, steak, and pasta with two kinds of homemade sauces.  Oh my goodness...it was delicious!  And then Sam topped it off with homemade canoli's, although I was so stuffed with everything else that I couldn't even finish it off!  We watched the triathlon episode of Scrubs while eating our dessert, feeling full as ticks, then went to bed.  I certainly carbo-loaded adequately!

We tried to leave their house by 5 AM the next morning, and had plans to meet the girls by 5:30...we didn't quite make it.  I'm not sure if we left later than we wanted to, or if it simply took longer than we thought to get from their house to the race, but we finally got there at about 6 AM.  We unloaded the bike, gear and got my body markings - race number on my forearms and my age on my calf, then headed to the transition area to set up.  We found the girls fairly easily, then just hung out until racetime.

Since we were the newbies, our wave was the last to go, so we made it in the water shortly after 8:15AM.  The water was cool, but not as cold as I was anticipating.  What I had been told about, but couldn't really plan for, were the people kicking me...so I treaded water and held out in the back of the pack.  In retrospect, since I'm not the greatest of swimmers anyway, that probably wasn't the best of plans.  I never did make that time back up.  I was one of the last people to get out of the water and pretty much brought up the rear for the rest of the race. 

Which leads me to that jolt to my pride statement....

So I'm out of the water, get to the transition area, and I pretty much have it all to myself.  I look up and see Matt filming and wonder to myself why on earth he's trying to film me in the horror that is me attempting to change clothes without the world seeing anything.  He must have read my mind, because I think at that precise moment he quit filming.  Me actually trying to change clothes was a rookie mistake...I should have just pulled the dry clothes on OVER my swimsuit and ridden my bike in that, but oh well.  I get my clothes on - WITHOUT anyone seeing anything, mind you, and head out of the transition area. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, that wasn't the jolt to the pride story)  Then on my bike I go...then I realize I didn't have my sunglasses, that they're still in my purse, in the car.

Great.

Anyway, on the bike, here I go, heading out for a 15 mile bike ride.  A little bit into it an older gentleman passes me, then a motorcycle comes up behind me, comes beside me, and then says to me, "You know you're the last one, right?"  Inside my head I'm thinking, 'Gee thanks, buddy...I needed THAT right now.'  I just looked at him.  He continues, "You aren't going to let that 72 year old guy beat you, are you?  You know, the one that just passed you?"  Did you feel that hit?  Because I certainly did.  Let me just note that it wasn't coming across as nice, these comments he was making.  If he was going for motivating, he was certainly missing his mark.

So I looked at him and said, "I'm not worried about BEATING anyone.  My goal is simply to finish."  And then I smiled at him and kept right on cycling.  I was determined to NOT let that comment persuade me to quit.  And you know what, a few more miles into the cycle I wasn't the last one anymore...and he rode by me and told me so.  And he also made a point of telling me every so often how good I was doing, too.

As I was finishing the bike portion, it was ever-so-obvious that the "non-newbies", oh heck, who am I kidding, and many of the "newbies" had been done for quite some time, as the race and surrounding area was clearing out, but folks were very gracious to the steady gal on the bike, number 444, and certainly cheered her on!  It was quite nice.  There were a few of us hitting the run at the same time ('cause remember, I said I wasn't last anymore), and we wound around the lake that really tempted me to jump back in it and around the neighborhood for a "quick 3 miles".  HA! I think the exact words out of my mouth were 'smooth like butter' as I started that run and I don't exactly know where those came from...

All-in-all, I finished the race in about 2 hours 15 minutes.  Whoop!

Kids say...cont.

Kellen to me, after Tatum was being particularly...herself, or shall we say challenging, "It must be difficult to be the Mommy somedays." {Buddy, you have NO idea}

After taking Tatum's booster seat off of the table, since she no longer wants to sit in it, Kellen informed me that we needed to keep it in case he has a baby brother someday.  Because, he's ..."wanted a baby brother since forever."  Really?  'Cause I'm fairly certain that your FIRST request was for a sister.  And that request was granted buddy.

So Tatum is now ill...running a fever that disqualifies her from attending school for at least tomorrow and had a few bouts of diarrhea today.  As I was getting her ready for bed, she was desperate to give her Kellen a night-night hug and kiss.  Unfortunately, I had to tell her I couldn't let her do that because she was sick.  "I'm not sick!" she screamed repeatedly.  "I'm not supposed to be sick! I need to give Kellen a night night hug and kiss!"  Me, "But you can't, because you're running a fever and you're sick."  Her, "No I'm NOT!  I'm not sick!"

Quotable quotes

'Cause I think my kids are that funny, interesting and sometimes say the darndest things....

"Life is good." - Kellen, as said to me on our way to church this morning.  This was after detailing the beautiful day outside, the fact that we hadn't been outside playing in our backyard on our swingset much lately because of all of the rain.  Why did it have to rain so much Mommy, 'cause it had been raining for like a thousand years or something.

"Darn-it [emphasized by slamming both fists on the table], I am NOT naughty!" - Tatum, at lunchtime today while not sitting as she was supposed to be.  Sidenote:  Mommy had not actually called her naughty. 

And I'm not sure why I can't think of additional ones, because they consistently crack me up at every turn.  I MUST find ways to document them better, because they're pricess, and my memory does not remember everything it hears....it simply remembers something funny was said, and if you're lucky, it might remember the topic of the funny comment.

Shout it out...

Well, we're trying to do something of the sort with the recent illnesses in the house.  Kellen is home today and he doesn't feel well.  Perhaps I should say that he didn't feel well.  He seems to be feeling much better, which is GREAT!  He was running a low-grade fever this morning and had a variety of symptoms that assured me he wasn't faking, so I spent some time clearing my calendar, made arrangements for a conference call on the item that couldn't be put off, then got the Tatum-tot ready for school.  I apparently had too many irons in the fire, as I made it to school with Tatum but no lunch for her.  Ug.  I corrected that small oversight, then Kellen and I made a quick trip to the store to stock up on a variety of antibacterial cleaning supplies so that I could attempt to clean EVERYTHING possible in the house today.  Unfortunately, I didn't expect my conference call(s) to last as long as they did.  But you have to do what you have to do, right?

Anyway, with the assistance of some caffeine, delivered by an incredibly thoughtful friend, I feel like I have been fairly productive today...I have kept the laundry going, cleaned the kitchen (counters, including moving items and cleaning backboards); swept and mopped the floors; cleaned the trashcan exterior; and ran the dishwasher twice; cleaned the stove; and dishwasher exterior.  I disinfected the kids bathroom, including a VERY thorough cleaning of the toilet - ALL of the toilet, including behind it.  Sidenote: Daddy needs to chat with Kellen about aiming.  'Nough said.  I changed the linens in both of the kids rooms and disinfected the mattress and bed frame in Kellen's room.  In case you're wondering, I lysol'ed the loveseat, then put a clean sheet on it and he's been camped out there for the day...his own little "set-up" and he loves it.

Luckily, I like the citrus smell of the cleaner I bought, and I have really put a dent in it so far!  Hopefully I'll knock out whatever germs are floating around in this house...and hopefully they haven't already spread.

I'm not through yet, so wish me luck!  And stay healthy yourself!

Progress Report

We've made it through the first six weeks for Kellen, and Daddy and I had the parent-teacher conference today. Considering that he had come home with a few "Needs Improvement" on his weekly progress charts, we weren't surprised that he had some of those on his report card for behavior-related issues. Shocked, we were not.

It was; however, nice to know that when tested, he was at a 2nd grade reading level. And he is performing at an Excellent (Note: 95-100) level for mathematics for what is expected right now. And for the remainder of his Academics, he scored nothing below a "S" on his report card. In addition, he's getting some additional challenge practice for reading because he's reading at such a high level (teacher's aide pulling him and one other kid from his class and another from one other class out and working with them in a small group at their level) three times a week for about 45 minutes each time. In addition, he's getting "Enrichment" activities, which was explained to us as activities for students early-identified as those who most likely would be testing into GT.

All-in-all, I'm thrilled with how he's doing academically! Now, if we can simply try and pinpoint and improve on some of his behavioral issues, we'll be in better shape. Which is not to say we aren't in good shape now, it's simply to say that there is room for improvement.

So, our action plan is that for the next couple of weeks is that we'll be receiving a daily email letting us know if Kellen started the day with a positive or negative attitude. We're going to try and see if we can identify the "why" on his beginning-of-the-day attitude to see if 1) I need to change the morning routine; 2) he needs to get more sleep; 3) Daddy needs to commute more; 4) we need to scale back on some of the extracurricular activities; or 5) some combination of all of the above. If we can make progress in one area, that will be good enough for me!

Moving on....
Sparks.
Kellen is doing wonderfully at Sparks. He is FABULOUS at memorizing scripture. We went through a lesson tonight and the scripture was the first part of one, and he already knew the entire thing. It's amazing what he's learning from listening to the Sparks CD at night! So, just to see what he knew, I asked him the scriptures through the remainder of the book, and he knew all of them with the exception of 2, but knew those 2 with the one or two word reminder to start things off. His goal is to finish the book out this week - I suggested that we shoot for the end of the month.

I have gone through the book and made index cards with all of the scriptures on them in flash card style so that we can continue to go over them even after he finishes the book. Plus, it's helpful for me, even though I have no problem saying that Kellen has these verses down much better than I do!

Growing pains

In case you were wondering, growing pains are very real....and poor Kellen certainly had his share of them tonight. He's going through yet another growth spurt (I feel like he JUST did this!) and was in terrible pain tonight, complaining about his knee joints hurting. He was almost inconsolable before bedtime. Poor guy!

I think Tatum is going through one as well, although her growth spurt doesn't seem quite as painful as Kellen's. It will be interesting to see how much he's grown since his last growth spurt, which I believe was mid-summer...we'll measure him the next time he goes to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's to see....

Kids say the darndest things

And mine are no exception.

Today when I picked Tatum up and we were leaving her school, she stopped at the front desk to say, 'Bye' to her director, Ms. Nazneen.  After talking with her for a moment, Tatum asks, 'Are you brown?'

I laughed, put my hand over my mouth, and just looked at Tatum and Nazneen, who is, in fact Indian.

Nazneen just laughed, looked at me, and remarked, "You're going to have to get earmuffs, because that's just the type of child she is!"

My response was a very articulate, "Well...." 

Nazneed turned and answered Tatum laughing, "Yes, Tatum.  I AM brown!"

Everyone in earshot of that particular conversation probably got an ab workout as well.

At least we know she speaks the truth!

Lost a Tooth!

Now, while a picture IS worth a thousand words, I feel that I need to describe my tough-as-nails little boy, determined to lose his first tooth. I have had a slight delay in posting the pictures, because he wanted the experience to be a surprise for Daddy, and the losing of the tooth occured last Thursday night. The tooth started becoming earlier in the week - we noticed the permanent tooth coming in the weekend prior. Yup. You read all of that correctly, as in weekend before last.

So, on to the story. On Wednesday night he asked for some string to tie around his tooth so that he could put the string on a doorknob and slam the door shut to try and get the tooth out. I said, "No." Instead, I suggested that he simply wiggle his tooth using his fingers. So he did.

On Thursday night he again asked for some string. So I relented and gave him special tooth string, AKA dental floss. He asked me to help him wrap it around the tooth so he could pull. I did. He kept pulling up, and the string kept sliding off of the tooth. I reminded him that if he continued to pull up, that the string was going to keep sliding off of the tooth. He had an epiphany, and asked me to put the string UNDER the sides of the tooth, so that he could pull down and pop the tooth out. I did, and he started pulling down in a very determined, controlled fashion.

Sure enough, he popped that tooth right outta' his mouth!

The look of amazement on his face, then horror as he realized he was bleeding was priceless. Had I actually thought he was going to go through with it I would have been capturing the experience on video, but I really thought the pain would be too much for him! Silly mom, he sure proved me wrong!

We cleaned up the gums, rinsed his mouth out repeatedly, cleaned the tooth, then discussed the tooth fairy. He let me know that the tooth fairy brought small toys in exchange for teeth. Who knew? I told him that I thought he had to stay in bed so that the tooth fairy could use her fairy vision to double check that the tooth under the pillow matched the hole in his mouth.

At any rate, Kellen has lost his first tooth, and he did it in a Herculean way! Way to go, Kellen!

Reminder

I don't know about you guys, but I considering that I've been out of commission for almost three weeks now, I certainly need a reminder that I cannot do it all. So, I went through my old posts and am linking this Pursuit of Perfection post as a reminder to myself. I haven't been able to do much lately because of the bronchitis and getting over that...and it's showing, but I have to recognize my limitations, and realize what is REALLY important in life. And it's certainly not whether or not my kids can eat directly off of the floor.

Great ending

I picked Tatum up from school on Friday and headed home. As I pulled into the driveway and hit the garage door opener, Kellen ran out to inform me that I had to stay in the car. After persuading he and Daddy to let Tatum and I come inside to put an end to her screaming to get OUT of the car, and after promising to stay away from whatever surprise they were working on, they acquiesced and let us come inside.

A few moments later, I was shown the surprise.....a print out of a picture Daddy had taken on his phone, indicating that...

Kellen was chosen as the Junior Klub Kid of the Week!!!!

So, we scrapped any ideas we had about making dinner (it was going to be a somewhat 'fend-for-yourself night anyway), and decided to use some coupons we had and treat Kellen to CiCi's as a reward - but as a surprise!

He was thrilled, and even moreso when he was able to 'pay' for the entire family himself!

I'm so over-the-moon proud of him!!!

The best cure for a rough morning

So how sweet is it that when I'm having a rough morning that included a variety of kiddo mishaps and poor choices (although all normal in nature, the combination of them all in one morning makes for one "rough" morning) that as I stop, put my head in my hands and take a deep breath, Kellen remarks, "Mommy, are you having a rough morning?"

To this inquiry I reply, "Yes, Kellen, I just need a minute."

His response, "Mommy, do you want me to pray for you?"

You can melt now. I sure did.

My response, "That would be wonderful Kellen. Why don't you say a prayer."

And he did. It went something along these lines...(and I'll have to paraphrase, but I'll get it pretty close), 'Lord, help Mommy to not have such a rough morning and help me and Tatum not to frustrate her. In Jesus name, Amen.'

And you know what, our morning went much smoother after that prayer was uttered.

Diagnosis: Bronchitis

Well, I'm on Day 8 on my illness, and "IT" was officially diagnosed as bronchitis yesterday morning by the doctor. He also commented that I'm 'very sick'. It was so nice of him to confirm that for me, and I'm truly not being sarcastic at all. You know it's bad when the doctor winces as he's palpating your glands. That's all I'm saying.

So, armed with a myriad of Rx, all of which were of the much stronger variety than the OTC things I had been taking, I went to Kroger to get them filled. It was there I was told that many of them required lots of fluids and water. People, do you not realize that the sole act of swallowing has actually been waking me up for the past week? As in, fall asleep...NOT swallowing for 30-45 minutes, swallow in my sleep, which then would actually wake me up from the act of sleeping. At that point, I would coat my throat with throat spray and repeat this process. It has NOT been a fun week.

And I'll also mention that I just love getting sick at the beginning of an insurance plan year...for those of you who have to meet a prescription plan deductible, you'll know what I'm talking about. I no longer have to worry about meeting mine for the year after this illness. It's just too bad that it's an individual and not a family deductible, you know what I'm saying?

At any rate, with a wide array of new and improved drugs coursing through my veins yesterday, I DID feel much better yesterday afternoon and evening. So much better, in fact, that I put in a few loads of laundry and had the energy burst to make dinner last night and actually ate with the kids! Yay for me, more than one meal in a day, which has been what I've managed to swallow this past week, if that. This morning; however, I woke to the realization that the evenings energy burst and feel-good sensation was, in fact, drug induced. The drugs had worn off throughout the night and this morning I opted to take it easy, continue to stay home and rest, let the drugs kick into my system a little longer, and try to recover today and through the weekend before heading back to work. Luckily, because I haven't run a fever through any of this, the doctor indicated that I haven't been contagious, so the two attempts I've made to go into the office haven't been detrimental to anyone's health.

I will say that the kids have been really sweet through this...Kellen has said quite a few prayers asking for Mommy to get better. Tatum has gotten the doctors kit out and used it on me and has given me lots of hugs and pats to try and make me feel better as well. And I have no idea how many cups of hot tea Matt made for me when he was home with me on Monday. They're just so precious!

Scheduled

Kellen is sufficiently scheduled for the semester.

He's participating in Awana's again through the church, and has been reading his Spark's book and listening to the CD every night. We had the family night Sunday before last and it officially starts up this coming week. He's SO EXCITED!! I'm just amazed at how well he can memorize scripture. It blows my mind and melts my heart.

He'll also be continuing with Tae Kwon Do once a week during Kids Club. He's already moved up two belts, and really enjoys that...it's a little later than it was in previous years, if I remember correctly, finishing up at 5:30 this year. I just have to be sure and not arrive earlier than 5:30 to pick him up on those days.

We'll do Flag Football again this season, and we requested a different night from Tae Kwon Do. We did the same last year, but apparently there weren't enough folks to run those nights, so we got bumped to different days last year. I'm hoping that doesn't happen again this year, because going from Tae Kwon Do to football made for one VERY tired Kellen. We should hear about that sometime next week, I believe...there is a coach's meeting next week.

He wanted to play soccer, but apparently the soccer league runs year-round here, so we'll look at getting him into soccer once football is over and before T-Ball begins. I asked him why he wanted to play soccer this year and he replied something to the effect of, 'I've never played it and I want to try it out.' I couldn't have asked for a better answer than that, now could I?

He's of the age for Cub Scouts now, and we went to the introductory meeting tonight. We're all signed up for that as well, but I'm not sure what the time commitment is on that one...Pack meetings once a month, and there is another meeting next week where they're going to split up the den's and go over that stuff.

Whew. Quite honestly, I'm tired just thinking about all of the stuff that he's into! But he's excited, and we talked about making sure that he got enough rest so that he would be able to make good choices at school and Kids Club and listen to his teachers and counselors, etc...

As for Tatum, we're also looking at Kindertots, a dance and gym program through her daycare. She's already taught herself a front somersault and dances to ANY music that she hears - either for real or in her own mind. I need to call and find out which day it is held, because I don't want it to interfere with her being able to visit Maw Maw and Paw Paw during the week for story time at the library. Considering that she sings when she runs out of things to actually say, it might not be a bad idea to consider some musical things as well, but let's start small, shall we?

A little slice of heaven...

In case you're wondering, a little slice of heaven today includes snuggles with my sweet little girl, who is celebrating her 2 1/2 year birthday today, as I was rocking her and putting her to sleep. It also includes listening to my 6 year old read to himself from down the hallway in the meantime.

It's a good way to make up for not being able to make it to Ladies Night Out tonight...God sure knew what I needed, huh?

The kids were well behaved, finally agreed on a movie, ate their dinner, and didn't even balk when I had them get ready and go to bed before the movie was over. Now I know Wall-E isn't the most interesting movie in the world, but they both enjoy it and neither wanted to be through watching it, so it means that they were really being behaved and obeying tonight. And after the week I've had, I really needed them to behave so I could have that little slice of heaven tonight.

Thank you, Lord.

Evolution

And we wonder why girls have image issues?

Check out these series of Dove videos online at the link below.

http://www.dove.us/?dl=/features/videos/default.aspx%7Ccp-documentid=7049579&source=shareBlogger

Week in review

Well, this was an incredibly busy week for us!

The week prior to classes beginning for TAMU is always hectic for me, and my Monday began with an all day New Graduate Student Orientation. Yes, the same day as Kellen's first day of school and Tatum's first day in her new daycare. The rest of the week seemed just as crazy, but it was pretty usual, so we'll just ignore it.

As for Kellen, he's LOVING first grade, enjoying his teacher, and having a good time of things so far. Kids Klub has been great, and he's even asked me why I have picked him up before it was over. Um, I thought getting me getting off of work on time to get you was a good thing?

And Tatum, she seems to be adjusting well except for a slight reverting with her potty issues. She started out the week with quite a few more accidents than normal, did progressively better until Thursday when she had ZERO accidents, then had lots of accidents on Friday. She'll get there! Socially, she's doing great...the teachers and other students with whom I see her interacting really seem to enjoy her, and she enjoys them, so I feel comfortable with the transition. I just have to get used to packing her lunch and preparing extra snacks in case they're serving something she can't eat. But from her end, she feels so independent carrying her backpack and lunchbag into that school! I can tell that it brings her such joy and that she feels like such a big girl with just that little bit of responsibility!

Training is still training, and the end of my borrow month is coming to a close. I have had the pleasure of borrowing a wonderful bike to train on for the month of August and I believe I am now spoiled to this bike. I am so grateful for the opportunity and generosity of the loan! We're really pushing ourselves, and it's nice to be working out with other ladies that will push....this has been a really good experience. We all have our "off" days, but luckily they're never on the same day so we all end up encouraging each other!

I pray that the kids have another wonderful week! We have a lot in store this week for various members of the fam...Texans game, Astros game, first Aggies game (anyone catching a theme here?), and Mommy also gets a Ladies night out this week!

1st Day of School

Well, I'm glad that the kids are excited about school.


Kellen, at 4:30 AM this morning, excitedly declared, "This is the BEST DAY EVER! The first day of first grade!"


(I told him it was NOT wake up time and to go back to bed. I know, I know. I'm a kill-joy. I figured Daddy would have not been happy if the two kids would have been awake as I was leaving for my workout.)


Not to be outdone in the quest for independence, Tatum simply blew me a kiss and nonchalantly said, "Bye, bye, Mommy!" when I dropped her off in her room at her new daycare. Amazingly enough, she remembered a girl, by name, from visiting the school last week (she was there for 2 hours on Thursday) and Tatum seemed quite a bit more at ease this morning than the girl she tried to befriend!


I guess it's a good thing that they can adjust easily to new surroundings, right? It just kinda takes me aback when I realize that Mommy and Daddy are doing a good job of teaching them to be independent. The other side to that coin is that they are independent - as in - they didn't really need us all that much today.


And THAT, my friends, means that my kiddos are actually growing up. When did THAT happen?


Here are some pictures of Kellen before leaving for school. Pay special attention to the apple. It was a must-have for the first day of school. Why, you ask? Because as everyone knows, you give apples to teachers. "That's what first graders do."

Officially on vacation....

Yes, you read that correctly. I have taken the week off. The WHOLE week.

Officially, my last day of work before the vacation was a long one...beginning at 6:45 AM and lasting until 6:30 PM...and I only ended the day because my co-worker stayed and helped me, despite me trying to make him leave. It would have been a much longer day without him. We began with graduation breakfast, then lining students up for graduation, then ran to get something to eat ('cause I had more attend the breakfast than had RSVP'ed, and the food was perfect for the students and their guests, it just didn't cover faculty/staff very well), then it was a mad scramble to finish everything on my list that needed to be done before I left and prepared for me for when I get back...back to a full-day new graduate orientation.

I'm so kind to myself, aren't I?

Anywhoo....I finished working, made it home, packed up, and headed back out....to a Ladies Slumber Party!!! The ladies from our Sunday School class have decided to really try and work on some fellowship opportunities lately, and this was just an "extra" thing that was scheduled. It was a lot of fun, and I am so glad to be getting to know so many more ladies around here!

Saturday was pretty relaxing...headed back home, hung out with the kids, tried to keep the laundry going and clean up the house, you know....normal Saturday activities. I think there might have even been a nap in there, too.

Sunday I had a nice combo bike/run workout (~6 miles bike/15 min run) with my ladies at 6AM, then after church and naps, we loaded up all of the swim accessories, headed to a friends house for a cook-out, set up the pool and slip n slide, and let the kids have at it while the adults chatted. After the kids were through playing, we then exposed them (and me!!) to their Wii...and played bowling. I just WISH I could bowl that well in real life! Kellen was doing great, Tatum liked it, but wasn't grasping the letting-go-of-the-button aspect, and Matt, well....watching Kellen and Daddy play was quite entertaining.

Monday morning, my first "official" day of vacation, began quite nicely...4:30 AM to get up and meet some ladies for a long bike ride (~9 miles). It was a good ride, despite having some equipment issues and falling off of the bike when I stopped (not even a cool story!). Honestly, it was good for me to fall off, considering I'm terrified of doing so. I did it and it wasn't that big of a deal. Not to say I want to do it again, but hey... We also learned that we'll have to evaluate our bike routes for our 5 AM rides...it was fairly dark for a ride that early, and many of the street lights weren't actually on.

Anyway, we got ready and headed out to Waco - destination: Cameron Park Zoo. Our plan was to meet up with Jules & her kiddos. We left about 45 minutes later than I had intended, but considering that there was no real schedule anyway, I guess it wasn't that big of a deal (Jules may disagree). The kids were SO well behaved in the car on the way there...there were no random outbursts from Tatum, Kellen played his Leapster with his headphones in, and everyone just chilled out. When we FINALLY got there. The directions on their site are slightly misleading...it's difficult to get there from University Parks Dr unless you know where to turn. I didn't know where to turn. I knew I was close, and was driving around looking for 4th street or an entrance from University Parks, had the kids singing, "Zoo, zoo, where are you?" I finally found an entrance, from neither of the streets the website had indicated...5th Street!! They had a GREAT time at the zoo, and we finished up in there shortly after 1:30 PM, and headed to Cameron Park for our picnic lunch and playing. We were on the road headed back to the motherland by about 2:45, and the kids were O-U-T by the time I got onto Hwy 6, and slept the entire trip back.

Last night we watched Underdog, then ate dinner, and everyone was in bed fairly early, including Mommy!

Today, my second day of vacation, began slightly different than yesterday. Other than the normal Kellen-in-bed and Tatum-crying-at-5:30-and-needs-to-go-back-to-sleep, I was truly awoken this morning by Tatum handing me her pullup (we tried it yesterday and last night...worked great! Stay tuned for how her skin reacts.) with a "present" in it - "present" side up and pullup completely off of her body....It was like she was handing me something on a silver platter, and it's quite a bit different than breakfast in bed. Needless to say, I was up in a flash!

My plans for today are a little more laid back than yesterday...perhaps some playing in the backyard, the pool, a walk to the park to feed the ducks, and throw in the laundry now and then to keep it going. The dishwasher is running, and I might get energized and sweep, mop, vacuum, but who knows? I told Daddy that I was on vacation, meaning that I wasn't going to houseclean, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make good on that one (not that Daddy will mind). They both wanted to play with cars this morning, and then asked to watch Cars, so that's what they're doing right now.

When the software decides to cooperate, I'll upload some pictures from yesterday...