More crazy

We worked on our landscaping all day Saturday and then gave John Sunday off. It only seemed fair as it was Father's Day.

We've been working at it ever since a little bit at a time.

During that time, a few thighs have become clear.

1. We filled our original area and didn't seem to make a dent in the huge pile of rock.

2. There is a huge pile of rock in the driveway, which means John can't park his car in the driveway now.

3. The rock needs to go somewhere as it is killing the grass and annoying to play musical chairs with the cars to go anywhere.

4. Rocks are heavy.

5. Kids are helpful for the first 15 minutes of a project and then extremely detrimental to project completion.

6. The rocks are a different color when they are dry. I probably wouldn't have picked this color if they had been dry. Thankfully, I like the look, even if it wasn't what I originally had in mind.

7. Rocks are heavy to move.

8. We need more projects to use up these rocks. We now have covered the initial area, extended the landscaping to the front porch on the right side of the house, installed tree rings and plotted out another retaining wall section on the side of the garage. The pile of rocks on our driveway is still giant.

9. Perhaps I AM the better estimator despite my inaccuracies?

I love crazy, round 1

This happened the day before Father's Day. For some time now, we have been talking about replacing the mulch in front of our house with some rock. The challenge has been finding a time when both John and I are home AND the landscaping place is open (not to worry, I did go and look at the home improvement store. I tried to like the rock available there without success.)


On Saturday, we didn't have plans and the rock place was open. We poked around and found a few options that would work. It was a gorgeous day- it was only 80 degrees with a great breeze.

We went inside to price out a few options and were surprised by the estimates. It was going to cost less than we expected! That never happens! As we were finishing up, the sales clerk asked if we wanted rock delivered today. She told us they were having a slow day and had room for another delivery in the early afternoon.

I looked at John, fully anticipating an emphatic "no!" From him.

Instead, John said, "weeeeeelllll, it is a nice day to work outside..."

To which I promptly told them where to deliver a giant pile of rock before he could change his mind.

Luckily (or not, depending on your point of view), John likes to be very accurate, even when he is estimating. Suddenly, he was no longer satisfied with my rough estimate of how big our area to fill was. I had estimated the area to be about 12 feet by 12 feet (these were biggish numbers I picked out on the spot because they sounded good. Not because I measured or anything). According to the landscaping experts, I would need 2.5-3 tons of stone.

John preferred to go home, measure and recalculate on his own how much stone was needed.

This was a good thing, because I was WAY off in my estimation. WAY OFF. This isn't surprising because I am not a great estimator. According to John's calculations, we would need 4-4.5 tons of stones to get the job done.

I called it in and we were set for a delivery time of 2pm. It was now 11:30 and we had done nothing to prepare.

We hadn't moved the mulch.
We hadn't trimmed the landscaping or checked the condition of the landscaping fabric. We didn't have lunch made for the 3 kids who would surely be hungry any minute now.

Which is when John looked at me and said, "I love crazy."

I replied as I always do, "you knew that going in and you married me anyway!"

And then we got down to work.

Everyone helped scoop and move mulch from all the landscaping in the front yard. Halfway through, we enjoyed a lovely picnic in the front yard. At 2pm, our rocks were delivered and we worked until 6pm.

And we weren't done. Not even close!

Gemma sings

Here is Gemma singing here favorite "frozen" song, 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman?' It is tricky to catch her at this. Usually she belts it out, but when she sees the camera, she quits. She would much rather look at herself!

Ha ha tonka state park

On our way out of town ( well, it wasn't on the way. It was the wrong direction, but we were leaving town), we stopped by Ha Ha Tonka state park in southern Missouri. This one has been on my list since shortly after we moved to Missouri, but I just haven't been able to make it happen until now.

Among other near things, this park has a partial castle that was built here in the 1900's. Shortly after it was built, it sadly burnt down, but the remains are still amazing with some gorgeous views. We are our picnic lunch and did 2 short hikes before hitting the road. The kids were big troopers as it was super hot outside and everyone was feeling pretty tired from all their fun!

William's pizza kitchen

William cooks it up and Mama and Gemma eat it up! (Father's Day)

The way home

We came back on Friday and everyone fell asleep on the way home! It cracks me up that their heads are all facing the same direction.

Tantara: the room

This was exciting!

We were far off of the main complex, but we had a full kitchen! And 2 screened in porches with ceiling fans! A separate bedroom and 2 bathrooms! The luxury!*

Downside: there was a big flight of stairs with a tile floor below, which wasn't my favorite part. We pushed the glass coffee table up against this part so no one would go tumbling down in the middle of the night.

* we just reserved a smaller suite and then were upgraded when they didn't have any more smaller rooms available. This was nice, nicer than expected!

Amelia jumps

Here is Amelia jumping in!

William cannonballs

William has been very anxious to try out his "cannonball" technique this summer....

Tantara, Lake of the Ozarks

Last week was the annual professional meeting for adult education programs that is held every year at Tantara. This is the third year I have attended and the second year I've brought the whole family. I presented again this year and I felt like it went really well. I had a brief conversation with someone from the state department of adult education after my presentation about some other opportunities in the future. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it.

Our location wasn't as good this year, but we had a nicer room with some exciting features that made up for it.

All three kids were anxious to hit the pool area. William, Amelia and Gemma hopped in without any problem, but Gemma wasn't thrilled. Guess it's been too long! It took her a good hour to unwrap herself from my head and then she finally started to enjoy herself. And boy, then she was a wriggling fish! She was hard to hang on to after that!

More pictures to come!

More Father's Day

This is the first time we've been to the Magic House and really let Gemma participate. She has always been too little. This time she is finally perfect! She had a blast!

She also loved the baby area and enjoyed copying Amelia's every move, although much less carefully with her poor baby. Her favorite part was rocking with her baby in the chair!

William

So, William was having a great time cooking pizzas while Amelia was tending to her babies.

Rewind: back to Father's Day

Life has been non stop lately and I can't keep up. I hate, hate things being out of order. I dislike it so much, I sometimes don't write anything, just so it will be in order. I had to give that up this month!

Here is Amelia at the Magic House on
Father's Day in the hospital nursery room. Amelia has been here before, but this time she was totally captivated. She tenderly held the babies and insisted on doing everything herself, in order, according to the checklist on the walls. She adored the process and in a beautiful moment turned to me and said, "mom? Can I be a baby doctor when I grow up? Do girls do that job?"

Which I then assured her, yes. Yes, she can do that job, she do any job she can imagine. Nothing is off limits.

Apparently, I slipped onto my soapbox with this particular topic because just as I was getting warmed up, Amelia turned back to me and said something like, "sure mom. Is it lunch time?"

Conversations

It's lunch time and I'm running around like crazy trying to get food to the table for 3 kids and fold a basket of clothes before they become unacceptably wrinkly. I was probably not at my most patient, especially as I was super hungry myself.

William: mom! I don't like this fruit! I hate these dried blueberries.

Mom: what? You've never tried them. It's like raisins, but with blueberries. You like raisins, try these.

William: I just know I don't like them! I'm not eating them! I won't!

Mom: how about you just try a few?

William: (yelling loudly) I WILL NOT!! I WON'T EAT THEM!

Mom: William, you need to talk to mom in a different voice - this one isn't very nice.

William: (now in a higher pitch voice) I do not want these blueberries. I don't like them. I won't eat them*.

And then it took everything I had not to laugh out loud.

* he ended up eating them. Because they are a lot like raisins and we love raisins. Also: because I knew he would like them.

Sent from my iPhone

Amelia's last day of prekindergarten

Amelia had her last day of pre-kindergarten in the middle of May. This sweet little project came home that week.

Amelia: bank of mommy

This one makes me laugh out loud every time I see it. Amelia's class studied money and visited a bank in March or April. Apparently, they colored a 100 bill as part of that unit of study.

The picture is the center is a female person and it is labeled "Momy". As in, all money is from the bank of Momy. If only that was true!

Amelia: I love you

Such a sweet girl- we love you too Amelia! She is so proud of herself!

Amelia: my family

I adore this drawing. I would frame it and hang it on the wall if I was a frame it kind of person. I'm more of a buy the frame and spill water on the special paper kind of mom.

Anyway, you can see mom, dad, William and Amelia are labeled. Gemma isn't labeled, but she clearly is the smallest one on the left with the crazy hair,

Gemma draws

Gemma is drawing on the magnetic drawing board while I'm checking my email. After about 15 seconds she wants my attention (have you gotten half of an email from me lately? This could be why).

Gemma: mom!! Mom!!
Mama: what? Did you draw something?
Gemma: yeah! Nice!
Mama: (looks) it IS nice!
Gemma: no. No nice. Nice.
Mama: hmmm. It is a nice picture Gemma!
Gemma: no. No nice. Nice. (With exaggerated expression). Thsssssssssss. Snice.
Mama: aahhh...a snake! You made a snake!
Gemma: yeah! Big snice!
Mama: wow!
Gemma; bye snice (erases board).

Then she drew me a new picture which I tried to record.

Sometimes it is a combination of a few crazy board games around here. Pictionary and charades and a few others just to try and have a conversation with the 2 year old. It is a totally different game entirely if you'd like to have a conversation that does NOT include her in it.

Amelia: I love momy

Isn't she sweet?

Amelia: planet writing

"If I were an astronaut, I would go to Jupiter planet because see a ust the red spot."

I love crazy!

You can't have kids the ages we do and not be at least aware of the Frozen movie and all the hype surrounding it.  We waited until the movie came out (not purposefully, just happened to work out that way) and Amelia got it for her birthday.  We've all seen it twice now, which seems like a reasonable number.

John's favorite part of the movie is the song above, in particular, the first 10 seconds.

Girl: Can I say something crazy?

Boy: I love crazy.

Recently, this has turned into kind of a running joke between us.  I'm not sure how to sum this up quickly or concisely, but I'm going to try.  Many people are aware that John is very analytical and rule oriented.  He follows the directions every time an changes his oil every 3,000  miles.  His gas light in his car never turns on because he always fills up before that happens.  He is early to everything. He plans ahead and does things the same way every single time.

I'm almost the exact opposite in every way.  I like to know the rules, but I don't always follow them.  When I cook, it never turns out the same way because I never follow the directions - even when I mean to follow the directions, something always happens where the directions don't quite work out.  I'm chronically late, although I work really hard to make sure I'm not late.  It is absolutely shocking that I haven't ever ran out of gas while driving, because my low gas light is usually on and I'm always running late.  I don't plan ahead and never do things the same way.

John knew all this when we got married, although perhaps not the extent.  None of this was a surprise to him.  I am not crazy in a clinical sense (at least I don't think that is what he is saying), but most of the times my gut reaction is polar opposite to his and it feels a little crazy to him.  Almost on a daily basis, we laugh (or argue, if I'm being honest) about how differently we are built.

 For example:

John: What should we do tonight.
Me: I was thinking we should clean up the kitchen and then go to Dairy Queen for dessert.
John: That sounds good, but it is getting late, isn't it?
Me: I think we can just ride fast.  It isn't that far.
John: Ride? Ride in the car.
Me: Yes.  We should ride our bikes.  It isn't that far.
John: Are you sure?
Me: Yes.
John: I love crazy.

Amelia's work

At the end of the school year, I got
So overwhelmed by the processing of the papers that were coming home from school each day, I just started stacking them up. William's is an astonishingly high tower and Amelia's is much more manageable. I went through Amelia's and discarded a few things (ack! The guilt! I promise I kept every thing that was authentically her own work or words.). Here are some of the highlights over the next few posts including the progression of her ability to write her name this year.

Happy dance.

What does your happy dance look like?

Amelia

Amelia is a hoot. The things she comes up with are so...deep and thoughtful sometimes. This is not an example of this.

Conversation 1:
Amelia: I have lots of talents. I am good at singing, ballet, tap dancing (funny as she doesn't actually start tap instruction until next year.), and eating. Yes, I have 4 super talents!

William: how are you good at tap dancing? You haven't even started.

Amelia: oh! I just know I'll be super!

(Honestly, the eating one cracks me up to no end!)


Conversation #2

Mama: so! What was you favorite part of our trip to Lake of the Ozarks? (We were there for 2 days this last week for a work conference).

Amelia: I know! The dead skunk on the road!

Mama: (big sigh). Really? Your favorite part was the skunk?

Amelia: yeah! It was so smelly!

Mama: okay then....

Sent from my iPhone

Father's Day at the magic house

It was supposed to rain on Sunday, so John chose to spend the day inside at the Magic House. (Sadly, the predicted rain didn't happen. Happily, we still had a great day.)

We got to the magic house early before they were open (completely by accident. We thought it opened at 10, they opened at 11.)

As we were there early, we had time to walk around and enjoy some of the outside features. William found this sculpture of kids playing and joined them. Then, he convinced Amelia to join the circle so he could dance in the middle.

Gemma is hilarious

She loves making faces and looking at herself. And we love it. Here she found some Easter bunny ears and requested them in her hair. Then she proceeded to entertain us with her faces. Who needs TV with entertainment like this?

The dilemma with the table

This is from this winter sometime. I'd guess February-ish. Gemma spread her special purple blanket on our coffee table. Then she straightened it out and lined up the edges with the smaller end of the table. As she smoothed it out, she noticed it didn't quite reach the other end. She slid it over so it lined up with the other end. She looked at the other side. It wasn't covered now. She carefully slid the blanket over so that end was covered. It seemed like it should cover the whole table. But no matter how many times she slid it back and forth, it always left several inches bare on the other side.

I'll admit, I enjoyed watching her try to figure out how to solve this problem. I even laughed out loud when she started getting a little frustrated. I have to hand it to her, she didn't give up, even when she was totally frustrated. She just kept trying. However, it quickly became clear that she wasn't going to give up. She was going to make that blanket fit. She got up on the table and used her toes to hold the Blanket in place while stretching it to the maximum with her hands. Still not long enough.

At this point, it was time to call it quits. We were on the verge of a meltdown (it was bedtime anyway, one does not take deep disappointment well when one is tired), so mama intervened. I was impressed that she was not easily distracted - not book or toy would pull her from her task. Finally, I physically took the blanket and whisked her off to bed.

Luckily, for me, this wasn't something that carried over to the following day. By the next day, she was on to something else entirely.

Summer fun

We had a picnic outside today for lunch as we are working on a landscaping project (more on that later). The kids are loving this unseasonably cooler weather. We've had temperatures in the 70's and 80's, which is at least 10 degrees cooler than usual. William and Amelia climbed in this canvas chair on their own. Miraculously, there wasn't any fighting! They wrapped their arms around each other and requested I take a picture of them together.

Splash pad, video #2

Kids at the splash park #1

This is a splash park I dragged the kids to today. As you can see, they had a terrible time despite their complaints on the way in to the park. They were totally bored and didn't enjoy themselves one bit.

Notice anything?

Do you notice anything?

It's exciting!

Gemma is finally forward facing as she is over the age of 2 and is very, very close the upper weight limit of her car seat in the rear facing position. As you can she, she is totally thrilled! She has been excitedly pointing out all the things she can see now!

FYI- it is now advisable that kids ride rear facing until they are 2 years old, although it isn't a law. More information about this topic here:

http://extendedrearfacing.org

GED Graduation Speaker

This year's graduation speaker is a student I worked with briefly last year.  She wasn't assigned to my regular class, but had signed up for an extra session I was teaching last year about getting and keeping jobs.  I'm so happy she finished her testing and so excited about what will come next for her!

http://youtu.be/IGxSxeDWFQI#sthash.1ilK8F1b.dpuf

GED graduation

GED graduation was last night. It is always an inspirational evening to celebrate all the hard work students have put into earning their credentials. I had only 6 students participating in the ceremony, but many more who completed the program this year. I am so proud of my students and I am so proud to have the job I do. The work I do is important. It is critically important. It opens to door to new options and new opportunities for my students.

When I was in college, I remember vaguely feeling like elementary education wasn't the exact fit I was looking for. It wasn't quite right and I wasn't sure why. Seeing as I didn't know what WAS right, I went ahead and finished my elementary education degree. And now? Now I know that I belong where I am at. THIS is what I wanted to do, even if I didn't know it back then.

A trip to the zoo for Gemma's birthday

This week was going to be another super busy one. Gemma's birthday was on Monday and we could see it was going to be difficult to find time to properly celebrate her day. (Not that she cared one bit).

On Sunday, we ended up going to the zoo as a family, which turned out perfectly. The weather was great and everyone enjoyed themselves. We caught the sea lion show and saw everyone's favorite animals.

The birthday girl especially enjoyed herself. At almost every animal she would point and exclaim "wow!"

Gemma waters the plants

I was watering our plants and Gemma came along to help me. She screams when I wash her hair or if the water touches her face while in the tub. Somehow, this doesn't bother her.

How to clean your kitchen floor

Gemma loves to help clean up in the kitchen. Her help does not speed up the cleaning process.

Boy Scout Day Camp

William is signed up and enjoying Boy Scout day camp this week. Here he is sling shoting dog food pellets at pie plates strung up between trees.